I pity the blog.
Pity them.
Janice Dickinson.
Sandi "Pepa" Denton.
Bronson Pinchot.
Omarosa Manigault-Stallworth.
Caprice.
Carey Hart.
Album fetish?
Andrew Leonard in Salon:
“It's easy to get nostalgic about lost eras. Record albums are cooler than CDs and even the pallid CD jewel-box is an improvement on the physical nonentity that is a digital file. It's easy to imagine that our lives are somehow poorer without these signposts. When, 30 years from now, my son and daughter look for mementos to evoke their childhood, what will they latch on to? A playlist? Is that enough?
I think, actually, that it is. Because the whole fetishization of object as memory aid, much as I like to wallow in it, is still a red herring. It's the music itself that carries the most evocative force, not the delivery mechanism, no matter how cool the holographic art on ‘Their Satanic Majesties Request’ or how massive Bob Marley's spleef is on ‘Catch a Fire.’”
I miss albums. I like them a lot better than CDs and MP3s. I miss the heft of the album, the fact that they were hard to store. I miss the pops and hisses and clicks. I miss the chewed corners of the jacket sleeve. I miss the album covers, blurred by the years.
But, oh well. Things change. I miss insurance and job security and Federico Fellini, and Kurosawa, and Luis Bunuel too. Buster Keaton. I miss him. You whippersnappers. Get out of my cabbage patch!
From Knight-Ridder.
Complaints about tight restrictions at Bush's events have become common. His presidential campaign used tight crowd-control screens last fall, and similar tactics now seem to be employed at official presidential stops, which unlike campaign events are paid for by taxpayers' dollars.
Democrats strike back!
A new commercial asks Doc Hastings, head of that mythical organization, the House Ethics Committee, to "do your job and clean up Congress without delay." Kind of a pun. A play on words.
Justice News.
C-Murder, a rapper seeking to get a murder conviction overturned, hopes that the Louisiana Supreme Court will help him out.
He told the Associated Press, "I'm just trying to bring darkness to light the best way I know how. I'm hoping everything turns out all right."
I’m no legal expert, but maybe a change of name might help a little bit. How about C-Puppy, or C-Kindness?
Speaking of the law….
From Reuters:
“A Shanghai online game player stabbed to death a competitor who sold his cyber-sword, the China Daily said Wednesday, creating a dilemma in China where no law exists for the ownership of virtual weapons.
Qiu Chengwei, 41, stabbed competitor Zhu Caoyuan repeatedly in the chest after he was told Zhu had sold his ‘dragon saber,’ used in the popular online game, ‘Legend of Mir 3,’ the newspaper said a Shanghai court was told Tuesday.”
Qiu Chengwei “owned” the cyber-sword, and it was “stolen” by Zhu Caoyuan. How can you steal a fictitious object? This question will be decided by higher courts sooner rather than later, mark my words.
The same question might apply to a “song.” If it’s on the Web, it’s no longer unique. It’s just another piece of data. But the album, my friends, is mine. Hands off! (Um, anybody got a turntable?)
Janice Dickinson.
Sandi "Pepa" Denton.
Bronson Pinchot.
Omarosa Manigault-Stallworth.
Caprice.
Carey Hart.
Album fetish?
Andrew Leonard in Salon:
“It's easy to get nostalgic about lost eras. Record albums are cooler than CDs and even the pallid CD jewel-box is an improvement on the physical nonentity that is a digital file. It's easy to imagine that our lives are somehow poorer without these signposts. When, 30 years from now, my son and daughter look for mementos to evoke their childhood, what will they latch on to? A playlist? Is that enough?
I think, actually, that it is. Because the whole fetishization of object as memory aid, much as I like to wallow in it, is still a red herring. It's the music itself that carries the most evocative force, not the delivery mechanism, no matter how cool the holographic art on ‘Their Satanic Majesties Request’ or how massive Bob Marley's spleef is on ‘Catch a Fire.’”
I miss albums. I like them a lot better than CDs and MP3s. I miss the heft of the album, the fact that they were hard to store. I miss the pops and hisses and clicks. I miss the chewed corners of the jacket sleeve. I miss the album covers, blurred by the years.
But, oh well. Things change. I miss insurance and job security and Federico Fellini, and Kurosawa, and Luis Bunuel too. Buster Keaton. I miss him. You whippersnappers. Get out of my cabbage patch!
From Knight-Ridder.
Complaints about tight restrictions at Bush's events have become common. His presidential campaign used tight crowd-control screens last fall, and similar tactics now seem to be employed at official presidential stops, which unlike campaign events are paid for by taxpayers' dollars.
Democrats strike back!
A new commercial asks Doc Hastings, head of that mythical organization, the House Ethics Committee, to "do your job and clean up Congress without delay." Kind of a pun. A play on words.
Justice News.
C-Murder, a rapper seeking to get a murder conviction overturned, hopes that the Louisiana Supreme Court will help him out.
He told the Associated Press, "I'm just trying to bring darkness to light the best way I know how. I'm hoping everything turns out all right."
I’m no legal expert, but maybe a change of name might help a little bit. How about C-Puppy, or C-Kindness?
Speaking of the law….
From Reuters:
“A Shanghai online game player stabbed to death a competitor who sold his cyber-sword, the China Daily said Wednesday, creating a dilemma in China where no law exists for the ownership of virtual weapons.
Qiu Chengwei, 41, stabbed competitor Zhu Caoyuan repeatedly in the chest after he was told Zhu had sold his ‘dragon saber,’ used in the popular online game, ‘Legend of Mir 3,’ the newspaper said a Shanghai court was told Tuesday.”
Qiu Chengwei “owned” the cyber-sword, and it was “stolen” by Zhu Caoyuan. How can you steal a fictitious object? This question will be decided by higher courts sooner rather than later, mark my words.
The same question might apply to a “song.” If it’s on the Web, it’s no longer unique. It’s just another piece of data. But the album, my friends, is mine. Hands off! (Um, anybody got a turntable?)
posted by Merle Kessler at 6:30 PM
2 Comments:
In the mid-50's my late mother-in-law was a showgirl at the Desert Inn. One production featured Rudy Vallee at the top of the bill and Buster Keaton somewhere along the line.
She said Rudy was a strutting preening jerk, a sort of proto-Mick Jagger. Buster however always came around with a kind words, flowers or the offer to buy you a drink after the show. She said he was a true gentleman and "a gentle man."
It's a nice way to remember him.
The kids I feel sorry for are the ones who will never be able to twirl a record backward for the secret Satanic message. How are the youth of today supposed to hear the Word of the Dark Master on an iPod? I ask you.
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