Posted on March 18, 2002 at 1:29 pm | No Comments
Something to wrap your brain around:
On an internet message board, someone asks people for stories of how they met their significant others. One man’s response tells the tale of meeting, and comforting, his current love after she witnessed someone throw themself in front of a subway train. He lived. The witness and her savior are in the process of living happily ever after.
As if that wasn’t strange enough…
Someone else on the message board reads the tale, and realizes… “That was my friend Joe trying to kill himself! Oh my gosh!”. Joe is much better now, and might soon find out that his suicide attempt resulted in true love. Further proof that you never truly know the consequences of your actions. Well, maybe you do if your friend reads it years later on the internet. Can you feel the world getting smaller?
Meet the New Boss, Same as the Old Boss:
So, now that Morpheus has followed Napster into the fossilized frozen ground of irrelevant file-swapping technologies, another has risen to take it’s place. Meet Grokster, which seems to have ‘stolen’ it’s interface from Morpheus. It’s the same damn thing, and the selection of shared files seems to rival it’s predecessor. Not like Morpheus can complain about the ‘design tribute’… kinda like a bankrobber going to the police to complain that he’s been pickpocketed.
Speaking of that wacky “file swapping dilemma”:
NYTimes: Where Music Will Be Coming From
A well-written, fairly in-depth look at how music and commerce collided, where things are at, and where they might be going. A great read. You’ll have to register at the New York Times to read it, but that’s free. Free = good.
Calling out, in transit:
3WK Underground Radio
What a discovery… diverse playlists, constant surprises. Somehow this flew completely under my radar, even though Details recently called it the “#1 Internet Radio Station.” Bah, I’ll listen to it anyway.
Have a Laugh:
What Would Jesus Drive?
The gentleman who wrote this letter is too punny for his own good.
Open Mouth, Insert Soap:
George Carlin – 2443 naughty words
That’s right. Two and a half thousand swear words. Wonder if this is the well that South Park goes to?
Oh, it’s not that you’re not good parents…
Let Him Stay
On a much more serious note… Meet the Lofton family, and their struggles with the misguided freaks who are running Florida. These fools want to take away one of the Lofton’s foster kids, a child that these two guys have raised for years, simply because they’re gay… and they don’t even live in Florida any longer. This whole situation makes me want to use a few of Carlin’s choice words.
In My Backyard:
Terrastock 5 is coming to Boston…
…and I couldn’t be more excited. Well, I could if it wasn’t $70. Granted, that’s $70 for three days, but there are only a few bands I really want to see. Oh, who am I kidding? I’ll end up going anyway. Sonic Youth? Lilys? Barbara Manning? Windy & Carl? More to be added? Sold. October 11-13, 2002, at the Middle East. Get tickets here.
An Unfortunate Obituary:
Pitchfork writes: Unwound unwinds
It’s still settling in… Unwound is no more. Yeah, so you’ve never heard them. You should probably fix that.
Posted on March 15, 2002 at 2:15 pm | No Comments
I need to take a moment and sing the praises of Audio Learning Center. This new band just released what has quickly become my favorite album of the last year or two. It’s titled “Friendships Often Fade Away”, and it’s got ahold of me like nothing has for a very long time. I was lamenting my apathy towards new music recently… that I haven’t been really, really blown away by new stuff in the past couple years. Sure, there have been some great albums, but nothing that has really become part of me… like music used to in the late 80s / early 90s. I mean… a list of my ten, even 20, favorite albums doesn’t include anything released in the past five or so years. This album has changed that, and I knew it right away. I’ve connected with it, musically and lyrically… it’s awakened something in me that I thought had faded… an excitement for the new. So thank you, ALC.
their spiffy new website has just gone live, so give it a visit.Let’s take another moment to bid a sudden, shocking farewell to Other Music Cambridge. This cut-above-the-rest NYC-based record store made an attempt at branching out to the Boston area, opening a location in Harvard Square last year. Well, apparantly they gave up the fight against Newbury Comics and the like, which is a damn shame. I can count more than one occasion where they had something Newbury did not, and I always tried to funnel my cash their way when I could. According to Heath, they left a little note on the door that implied they retreated back to NYC because “people buy all their stuff online anyway” or some such thing. Yikes. Admittedly, that’s where a good portion of my new cd cash goes, but certainly not all of it. Looks like the rest is going to Newbury from now on. Back to the status quo.
Link check…
Smart Explorer Browser 6.0
An alternative to Internet Explorer. Multiple browsing windows (taking advantage of today’s larger monitors), and supposed control over those nasty pop-up windows. I’ll have to try it out.