Peruvian Nights and Jamaican Days

E-RAWK!

Well, I finally did it. I bit the bullet. I'm now doing the 14-day trial of RealRhapsody. 14 days are free, then you pay $9.95/month after that.

I should back up, though. RealRhapsody, for those who haven't yet heard about it, is an online music service. Basically, you download the software, search for artists, songs, or albums you're interested in, and listen to them. I thought, at first, that it would be some stupid ripoff service where you could pick from stupid top 40-type music, but they actually have a very good selection. I mean, so far, I've added to my 'Library,' whole albums from everyone from The Eels to BossaCucaNova to Alien Crime Syndicate to Julie London, Ella Fitzgerald, many of the Ultra-Lounge series albums, William S. Burroughs, Xavier Cugat, Combustible Edison, The Smiths, Beck, David Byrne, Perrey & Kingsley, Modest Mouse, Bad Religion....they have LOTS of stuff. The sound quality seems to be on par with mp3's. You don't actually download the albums. I'm not sure what it's like with dial-up, but it works awesome with 640/DSL.

For 10 bucks a month. Man. I'm a big fan. This will make thesis-writing MUCH more enjoyable, especially the loungy stuff.

Someone needs to tell them about MC Honky, though.

W.Bloggar doesn't work for me for some reason. Think it's something with the way I connect to the interweb superinformationspeedway.

-m

CONFUSED...?

....this won't help..

Don't even try to understand my views on intellectual property. 1) They make no sense and 2) they contradict each other on almost every point....


1) I don't download mp3's, because I think that's the same as going to Hasting's and slipping a CD down your trousers.

1a) The exception to this is if the artist is dead. I don't buy the fact that intellectual property can be transferred from a recording artist to a recording company. I think copyrights should extend only until the end of the artist's life. I think when the artist dies, their works should become public domain.

1b) The other exception is that I would download something if it was for a joke - like 'Cool Water' by Marty Robbins. He's probably also dead, so 1a would apply as well.

1c) Oh, and one other exception is that I would download mp3's from bands that were really, really, gung-ho about smacking down on file sharers. Except that most of those bands suck anyways.

2) I don't like it when other people download mp3's, either

2.1) Same goes for burning CD's for people. Let me make a distinction here. Mixes are OK, in my book, because you're exposing that person to all kinds of new bands, which might lead to them buying albums by several of the bands. However, I don't like it when people burn copies of whole CD's and give them away like party favors. Just because you paid 4 cents for a blank CD-R doesn't mean you own what's on it.

2.1a) I'm guilty of doing this on a couple of occasions, but both of them led to someone actually purchasing a CD by the same artist, so it worked out OK

2a) But, I certainly don't side with the RIAA when they go after 13 year old kids for downloading Britney Spears singles

2b) In summary, I'm against all sides in this particular issue

3) Sometimes I write stuff - poems, short stories, songs, etc - and I don't think I would ever try to sell any of them. Even if they were good enough. More likely, I would give them to an appropriate someone as a gift (albeit a lame one). Maybe I'm kinda like Twain - I feel kinda driven to stay poor, even if I am to become successful.

See...told you it didn't make sense. I can't reconcile it all. I'm fine with that.

Not that anyone asked..

-m

WHOA..

Sorry. I really need to lay off the pictures. Sorry to all my homies out there in dial-up land.

-m

BEARS AGAIN..

Two reasons why I like this story:

1) This bear had a plan. "OK, here's the deal: I'ma float across the moat on this log, see..then I'ma scale that wall. Once I'm on top, I'ma hop on that bike and it's bye-bye bear enclosure." That picture of the bear standing by the bike is AWESOME.

This bear should hook up with that other bear. You know the bear that drank 36 beers and then passed out in a campsite. My favorite part of that story is that the beer opened one Busch Light, drank it, went "Nah.." and then went for the Raineer. Animals are smarter than people.

2) It shows that even though BBC is about the only respectable online news service (excepting the World Socialist Website, (which seems to have a knack for breaking stories months before the major news services)), they still recognize the important stories when they see them.

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Look here, John McCain, we all know the score. You're not fooling anyone. OK, maybe you are, but you're certainly not fooling me. You've offered embarassingly blandish support for W., in exchange for prominent support in the '08 primaries. Boy...won't this be exciting..McCain vs. Powell in the Battle of the Sellouts, '08.

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In other news, has anyone seen my shoes? We're now entering Day 2 of the Great Missing Sneaker Scare of '04 (pronounced 'ought-four).

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I think this post was less stupid sounding the first time I wrote it - when I went to publish, everything just went away. (BTW, this is really my first bad experience with Blogger)

-m

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN.....

..can I have your attention...


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That is all.

-m