You are currently browsing the monthly archive for October, 2007.
to much of the internet nerd world’s chagrin, OiNK is no more. for the unaware, OiNK was this invite-only BitTorrent site that can get you any music album imanigable. Want some non-released Prince album? go to OiNK. that sort of thing.
I never received an invite, nor did I ever ask for one. OiNK always intimidated me for some reason (says how much of a pussy I am, even behind a monitor). Sadly, I always believed your music catalogue had to meet a certain standard to be invited to Oink, and as much as I like the music I have, I couldnt stand behind it. I dont own much of anything obscure, and at best I could only fill up half of a 30 gig Ipod.
I learned of this news I think on Tuesday. And I new public opinion would be huge, but never to this level. There are arguments of how this will set precedent of how information will be distributed all over the internet (as if music should be treated as information. just because you can store it on a disc, it doesnt mean music can be likened to some spreadsheet you did at work). It’s all very sci-fi to me, which is the interesting part, what is intriguing of the story. The fact that Allen Ellis, the young creator of the program, was arrested over this hints at images of a police state (a clown version of at the very least). I obviously dont agree with this. But when he says he is totally guilt-free of the amounts of money up and coming bands lose by having their music pirated all over the world is just ridiculous. I understand Oink (and any other filesharing site) contributes in a word-of-mouth sort of way, but we’re talking about the livelihood of many people. If they were born to play music, let them have a chance to make this their profession! Let them make some money off this!
The idea of music-solely-as-art is a tired one. If I want to lend someone a book, thats fine, at least someone contributed to their economy. but when you arent even given a chance to compete in the marketplace, that’s akin to a monopoly. and they end up more broke than how they started out.
We’re all guilty, I suppose. I freely download music and pretend I’ll support them when they go on tour. There’s only a handful of artists that have my unwarrented consumer loyalty, and even that number is shrinking! I had a conversation with a girl one time and she snickered at people who purchase music off ITunes. I couldnt believe it. She made it seem the act of buying a song for 99 cents was ludicrous. We buy shirts, dont we? If we want to watch a movie in a dark theater, do we not fork over those 10 bucks? I suppose if we could download a pair of jeans, we would do so. But just like internet porn, it will never be the same as copping some ridiculous colored tape with 5 hours worth of humping.
Besides, some Oink copycat must be around already. I wish I could go to some sort of demo site just to see what OiNK looked like. So stop crying, everybody! We’ll survive this, just like we survived all other internet deaths (napster, audiogalaxy, whatever).
but she’s a bad girl this time around! i’m happy for her. I loved Veronica Mars, but it was going nowhere in the CW; probably wouldve been better off had UPN stucka round longer.
her and the black girl are the most interesting thing going on in Heroes right now.
(EDITORIAL NOTE: i took the picture from a Heroes fansite, www.heroesfanatic.com, who apparently even run gossip re: the show. who knew peter patrelli and the cheerleader were dating? i certainly didn’t!)
and, as a public service for the d-bags who don’t know naan about Rayden …
- i just joined Facebook, only because a company i volunteer some of my time to invited me to their street team page. i’m indifferent to it just as much as myspace. i have three friends, only one of whom ive had any significant interaction with, making me more of big-time loser than in my myspace persona. hello MH, if you happen to run into this!
- carwashes have to be some of the most disgusting places in New Jersey, they generally smell putrid, and the liquid they use to clean out your tires smells like doo-d00 and looks like dirt and piss water combined.
- the New York Football Giants are 5-2 and we’re facing one of the worst teams in the league next week, live from LONDON! haha were gonna kick their asses Chelsea style.
- i found it hilarious to learn Dumbledore of Harry Potter was revealed to be gay by JK Rowling herself. I’m not that big of a fan of HP, never read the books, and i thought the last movie was kinda stupid. I think JK was just giving a stupid answer to some stupid kid who had a stupid question. either that or she wanted to come across some really steamy fan fiction involving Dumbledore, that blonde kid and a wand in the near future.
- i’m sick of the food i’m eating. i need something new in my life.
- halloween is coming, i need to get a custome with the quickness. something easy probably, like a cowboy. i’ll see if i can get creative in the next couple of days.
- i’ve been listening to The Reminder by Feist (pictured above) a lot these days. i was initially disappointed during my initial listening sessions months back. And I was turned off by hearing “1, 2, 3, 4″ on those iPod ads (stupid of me, I know). But holy fuck is that album incredible. there’s a trio of songs in the middle stretch of the album that works as an incredible centerpiece, defining the essence and energy of The Reminder (the songs are “Sealion”, “Past in Present”, and “Limit to your Love.”) Not as satisfying as Let It Die, but what is? A beast of an album nonetheless, and I’m glad I was wrong.
South Florida certainly came to play in The Banks, but Rutgers got the best of them. the difference: two special teams plays; one for first down on a fake punt, the other for a TD on a fake FG. wild stuff, cetainly what college football is all about.
Bu there is a part of me that cant be entirely happy no matter how much school pride I have.
Seriously, THERE WAS NO NEED TO RUSH THE FIELD. This is not 2006. If we want to be treated like a program thats come a long way, than we better start acting like it. Yes, it was a great victory, but c’mon.
I feel bad for South Florida. All their hard work is now for nothing. They are a Big East team with hopes for a national championship, and unfortunately one loss will put an end to that. Ever since three of the top programs in the nation left the conference for the ACC, we are just not considered at all for such positions. They had an impressive resume, but losing to Rutgers, no matter how respectable they are, will only get them a chance for conference champs. USF played tougher teams than Ohio State U, but because they are a traditional big time program, they will always get the benefit of the doubt.
Well, one has to figure all the talking heads are happy about last night’s results. They can pretend their observations of USF just being “pretenders” were onpoint all along. They’ll probably get the BCS championship game they wanted all year, some Pac-10 team vs. LSU (or whatever SCC team comes out of that vicious pack).
They may be right about one thing it seems. The SEC Championship game might as well be the National Championship. I’m not a believer in the playoff format for Bowl Sub-division teams, but unless all teams get a FAIR evaluation, the playoff format is the way to go. and I’m talking about more than 4 teams, BCS gatekeepers.
i didnt watch any of the two games, so admittedly i dont even know their quality of futbol. but i do know this. they lost 1-0 to venezuela, one of the worst teams in South America. and they were crushed by Brazil by a score of 5-0. it doesnt take a genius to understand that both score represent general diappointment and negative signs of what’s to come.
i know its only the first week of world cup qualifiers in South America, and there’s about 2.5 more years of this, but i’ll be looking at all their games with caution.
UPDATE: I just saw the highlights for the Ecuador-Brasil game. some of those goals are just remarkable, particular Ronaldinho’s effort, and Kaka’s shot. Goal #s 2 and 5 are just pathetic on the part of Ecuador.
and take note on the oh-so-fine babe presenting the highlights. I think i’m in lust.
UPDATE #2: a more in-depth highlight real. Brasil was just toying with Ecuador. it was basically a practice drill out there. Woe is me.
i dont know if that’s even the correct phrasing for what im trying to covey. maybe it’s a good thing the internet is around to make me realize how much of a dufus i am.
Sasha Frere Jones is a writer for the New Yorker who recentlly posted an article entitled “A Paler Shade of White,” where he argues (or comes to terms with, maybe?) indie rock’s lack of Jamaican and/or Black American influence, considering rock and roll’s roots in Black history. Pretty good article. In his blog, he also links Lester Bangs’ seminal confessional “The White Noise Supremacists,” an article that left such an impression on me during my more formative years; it’s still such a treat for me to read after all these years. Essentially, S/FJ harks back to the Bangs article and includes his unique, eloquent understanding of our scene.
Reading the comments of said article on okayplayer, and i come to find out S/FJ is a white guy. i wasnt convinced, thinking to myself this was just message board chatter. So i took my ass to google images to find out what the real is (i did the same with Julianne Shepherd about two years ago, since just by reading her stuff i had a crush on her and i had to know what she looked like). this is what i found:
this is a picture of him a couple of years back. he’s the one standing next to the RZA.
What!!!!! A White Guy!!!!! I read his writings every now and then, and never in my mind did I believe this guy was anything but a black man (his name, maybe? the nature of his writing?). initially, i thought he was a girl (Sasha, duh), but i kinda found out right away he was a dude.
sorry, S/FJ. I know your race should not be a big deal at all. your writing rocks, man!
i believe in jinxing in sports. Athletics (professional, collegiate, or otherwise) summon the superstition in me. i’m not religious or psychotic by any definition, but i swear i sometimes put a hex out on my teams.
take for example, Rutgers. I made a post after they started out 3-0. They went on to lose their next two matches, and winning their following one. I think to myself if I hadnt made that post, things wouldve turned out differently.
well, now I’m back to it. RU has an important match against the numero dos in the country, South Florida. We win, we’re back in the Top 25, we get back in the running for top dogs in the Big East, and we set up for another important match against West Virginia next week. We lose, then we could still have a good season, still try to be bowl eligible, but otherwise all our preseasonhopes and optimism are erased.
in an effort to throw a big F*ck You to the “jinx” I’m making this post to wish all the best to the Scarlet Knights on thursday night. should be an exciting one, and i cant wait till kickoff. best believe i’ll be in a bar wearinng some sort of Rutgers aparell.
other times i jinxed my teams.
I made a post about the Yanks making it to the playoffs. they lost in in 4 games against the Indians.
i was rooting for LSU against Kentucky only because i wanted more lower tier top 25 teams to drop out, making it easier for RU to get back in the pack. they lost.
I predicted Cal to go undefeated, and they messed up.
another example of the opposite game. I was sure the NY Giants would do crappy all year, but they have a ounted a 4-2 record. is this the week we come back to earth.
I talked a lot of smack in fantasy football, but now my record in 2-4. i’m one of the two bottom teams in my division.
why does the music player not work????
i’m gonna write letter to wordpress.
meh.
it’s hard not to be overjoyed by the new Radiohead album In Rainbows, although one of my first reactions was “i’ve been here before.” I’ve been surrounded by hype, some created by me, some by others, for every Radiohead release since Kid A. Every single time they’ve deserved their laurels, though every once in a while you have to come to a realization that every move taken by a band considered the greatest of our generation will be overrated and over-analyzed.
I came to this realization when Hail to the Thief was released. I championed that album mostly because it wasnt Amnesiac. I wanted them to sound like a band again, and not like some guitar riffs over sleek drum patterns and blips. The truth is Amnesiac is superior, and while HTTF was very good in parts, it just didnt gel together, matter of fact it had a couple plain boring songs.
I even ignored Thom Yorke’s The Eraser, figuring it would just be too mellow. To this day i’ve only heard a couple of songs, maybe soon I’ll introduce myself to it.
Well, yesterday I finally got around to listening ot Rainbows, and I was blown away. as a complete package, it comes together very well. not a single weak song. some memorable songs, others play their part very well. at times it sounds like Radiohead pretended to be an old R&B group with their approach to melodies. and oh whats that? they decided to rock out!!!
Simply put, their realized their sonic goals for HTTF and brought it home with this one. The album sounds like the perfect blend of the band’s two best albums, OK Computer and Kid A.
Yes, I sound like an overhyped fanboy. But I did listen to the album 3x in a row last night, and I wasnt sick of it in the least bit.
02-radiohead-bodysnatchers.MP3
bodysnatchers left the first real impression on me. sure, the drums on 15 step were awesome, but this song was balls out excitement. youll see why, if you havent heard the album yet.
which brings up th issue of In Rainbows as a social phenomenom. Not often do we do many things together on a global scale. We might take a piss or go out drinking around the same time, but thats hardly a shared experience; taking a piss at the same time as other people in the world is purely coincidental, while going to a bar is common, but normally is done with a group of your own with sometimes no intention of interaction with fellow club/bar hoppers. People “preordered” the Radiohead album in the 10 days since the initial announcement, and hundreds, thousands of them listened to the album at the same time. Surely people were keeping track of their last.fm and noticing that all your listening peers were doing the same. Others visited their mp3 blog of choice to comment on the album while giving it their first respective spins.
I’m not sure what Radiohead’s goals (fiancial or otherwise) were when planning this marketing strategy, but i’m convinced the shared experience is something they were indeed going for. They “sold” 1.2 million album on the first day. that’s so sick.
sorry, just testing the music player.
sharon jones and the dapkings - answer me
i stole it from soulsides, dont be mad at me! i just need to see this works, and then i will host my own music.
he’s certainly reaped the benefits of his media-respected image. unfortunately, his become quite the egotistic maniac.
http://sports.aol.com/fanhouse/2007/10/08/tiki-barber-i-miss-football-i-still-have-a-lot-left/
in a recent interview with Chauncey of Steppin Out Mag/Howard Stern fame, Tiki expressed his regret of early retirement:
“I miss football. I want to be out there playing on Sunday afternoons. I miss the stage. I also miss the guys a little bit because they were my close friends for so many years. In fact, I ran into Jeremy Shockey on the street the other day and I said to him, ‘Damn, I forgot how big you are!’ He gave me a big hug and said he missed me too. It was great. If I wanted to come back and play football next year I could. I know I still have a lot left.”
Of no coincidence is the Giants are riding a three game win streak. Not too long ago when the Jints were losing he was trashing Tom Coughlin, citing his retirement on his lack of desire to play for him. He also questioned Eli Manning’s leadership (which I happen to slightly agree with, but he was way out of line considering he no longer plays for the team).
Last year, he explained his intention to retire on the weekly punishment his body endured during th football season.
As a fan, I certainly respected his decision to retire if he was looking out for his well-being. He has a family to live for, and his post-football options were looking good for him, especially in the media field. He had spots in Fox and Friends, the Today Show, and a cohost gig for Football Night in America (or whatever that show i refuse to watch is called). But these new “revelations” look totally bitchmade. If he wanted to skip training camp, he should have done it the Strahan way; we all know he has enough clout for that.
I hope he goes to the Eagles. Wouldnt surprise me one bit. Good luck to him.
i was down the shore this weekend, and there were about 5 girls in our not-too-big-or-small group wearing these things.
i suposse they look kinda cool. they have that stunna shade look and they may be functional in the blockling UV rays way. but they are listed at over $300 retail!
i hope they are getting knockoffs. but i dont think they make knockoffs with the )( symbol (the 2 c’s).
i had a lot of fun at your wedding. it was lovely.
speaking of which, i wrote something really stupid in their card. i was really at a loss for creative words and i felt obligated to write something more than the standard congratulations.
enjoy the wedding. enjoy your company. Alex
i feel like a jackass. my only saving grace is my writing looks like chicken scratch.
i never sleep more than 3.5 hours in hotels.
I dont know why, the beds are generally comfortable (more comfortable than my bed, at least). they give you all the pillows your little heart may desire.
in my case, if i’m staying in a hotel, chances are good i’m drinking way too much and partaking in other substances maybe. so the chances of a good re-energizing sleep are good. even then it just won’t happen for me.
obviuosly this is not a totally random thought. i stayed at a holiday inn last night and this happened to me again. tis happens, everywhere: the florida keys, LA, vegas, insert random destination here. i hate myself for this.
i had round 3 with drinking Sparks last night. more and more I know this will be my drink for the rest of 2007, maybe even longer. the taste is not putrid to me, no chance, as long as i’m not drinking the super strong one.
I bought 3 tall boys last night and had a couple of vodka shots. watched the yanks lose miserably, thinking to my myself what is it about the postseason that makes Joe Torre a lazy thoughhtless lunatic? went home, watched some It’s always sunny in Philadelphia, brushed my teeth, an passed out.
This is where shit gets weird.
I had a dream that has me all sorts of messed up in the head.
It starts with me looking into my backyard from the kitchen, and I see a brown horse in my backyard! I pointed out the color of the horse so no one will think “white horse” ala Twin Peaks or the cocaine reference. He’s just there. Doing what horses do when they’re doing nothing when all of the sudden people have taken interest in the horse. Apparently some thought that maybe we could train him to be a racer or something. whatever. i cant tell who has taken this peculiar interest, my dad? family? strangers? too much to think about.
As this intererest increases, a pretty Latin girl is hired as the primary caretaker, and she is hired to teach the horse things outside of regular training. i dont really interact with her, though i am checking her out. She’s not exceptional, but i’ve definitely taken some interest in her.
The most interesting task the horse was taught was how to clean up after itself. By “clean up”, I mean picking up its own shit. this was a total trip. I’m observing this horse sitting on its ass, picking up logs of shit the shape of bowling balls with a supermarket brown paper bag, you know, the big ones you tend to usually ignore in favor of the plastic bags. The horse wraps the poop up with the bag, rolls it closed, and throws in some sort of special horse shit trash bin. Amazing!
This is where I’m concious of my dream state. I know what horse shit looks like, and I know it doesnt exit a horse’s ass looking like a bowling ball. So I feel like i’m in pseudo-control of my whereabouts, but apparently i’m not.
Tom Brady and Peyton Manning show up in my dream. They have also taken interest in the horse and have become financial investors in the success of our horse. Obviously, i’ve been watching too much TV. Manning is in every commercial imanigible on Sundays, and Brady’s attention is just overly queer. Last monday night during the Pats/Bengals game, Ron Jaworsky made a joke about his man-crush for Tom “i’m the new derek jeter” Brady. I felt kind of gay hearing these comments, and I felt super gay having both All Pro QBs in my dream.
For the sake of brevity (sp?), the horse ran away. I find my cousin Tony outside trying to look for him, and we found out our horse has gone the way of Barbaro. He got hit by a car while trying to cross the street. Poor horse. And then I had sex with the Latin chick. The End.
When I woke up last night I was wired; could not go back to sleep for the life of me, all sorts of thoughts circulating throughout my nervous system. I couldnt wrap myself around what I had just experienced; it was so intense I had to tell my brother Oswalsito about it. It didnt take much to figure this dream was about my dog Benny. I hate walking the dog, and I specially hate picking up its shit. But there’s gotta be more to it, and I’m just glad I remember everything so vividly.
I’ll never forget the image of that horse picking up its own shit.
Oh yeah, I’m convinced Sparks was the reason for this dream.
Radiohead’s new album In Rainbows is coming on October 10, and you can choose the price of the album. Or you can choose to pay absolutely nothing for the album. Whatever you want. This is not a lie (or at least not yet).
It is will be available as a 10-track DRM-free download for two months through their official website. A proper release is scheduled for god-knows-when next year, but i dont give a crap; I’m getting new Radiohead music next week.
So far the whole talk is that they’re avoiding the traditional promo route (no advances, reviews, etc.). But this is a promotional strategy, as it is commonly practiced these days, except it has never been so totally legal up until now. Only a band like Radiohead can pull off something like this.
I’m debating how much I want to pay. One dollar sounds about right for my cheap ass, or should I wait until it “leaks?” For those that want to play a penny, there is a catch (as there always is): there is a $1 credit card fee. So there, you can pay $1.01 for what could be a really awesome album.
I wonder how much money they will make of this?
like many a football fan living in the US, I’m in a fantasy football league. We toil for about three hours through what might be the most boring experience imanigible, the fantasy draft, to talk shit and make sure our rosters are up for the competition.
I’m pretty satisfied my offensive roster:
Joseph Addai, B Roethlisberger, Reggie Wayne, Roy Williams, Willis McGahee, Santonio Holmes, are pretty much the core, whether I opt for the 3 WR/1RB combo, or a 2/2 split.
I’m caught up in a disappointing 2-2 record thus far, and it seems that both of my losses can be blamed on my lack of production in the Tight End and Kicker positions. I had to dump both of my original picks for both positions in favor of the Steelers kicker and the Panthers TE, whose names escape me at the moment. Week 3 was good for them, which meant an asskicking victory on my part.
Last night, however, my cuse returned. My TE didnt do jackshit, and the Steelers reached the endzone twice, with a couple of turnovers in other drives. Bummer to the tenth power. Woah is me to find my opponents players in both positions: Tony Gonzalez racking up points, and his kicker perfect from two 40+ yarders.
I did a lot of shit talking in lieu of last Sunday’s match, pretty confident I would be the victor. Shit, I had delusions of grandieur, with aspirations of the playoffs, maybe the Superbowl. My goal was to reach Week 6 with a 4-1 record, before I had to do some major shuffling of my lineup. You see, a big portion of my roster has their bye week in Week 6, and I was hoping to possibly throw the game and not have to deal any of my players. Now I see something must be done, and some of my players I may have to sacrifice for the good of my team.
Fuck me for taking this so seriously.
- The Mets are on some serious shit. I’m not gonna lie, there is a part of me that’s very happy, if only to have some fire for those bastards who want to talk shit about the Yanks, and who happen to be Met fans. If they dont make the playoffs, there’s gonna be some grown men around here crying for about a week.
- I need a new job like yesterday.
- i think my favorite food of all time is Eggs Benedict Florentine, and that gives me a guilty feeling. i’ve been consuming more eggs than usual in the last couple of moNths; i need to cut that shit out.
- can someone in New Jersey point to a good bartending job? I might be trying out for one in a latin club in Elizabeth NJ, but anything in Jersey City or Hoboken would be ideal (i know, too much to ask for.)
- 2nd favorite food of all time, Chile Relleno.
- it took me forever to publish this post, and now the Mets are officially not in the playoffs. A heartfelt fuck you goes to all their fans and their shitty attitudes toward my Yankee fandom. better luck next year!
