By
anders pearson
11 Jul 2002
read about this on ars technica.
<p>Universal Music has apparently smartened up a little and come out with the first (potentially) viable business model for selling music online. they took their catalogue of older, hard to find albums and put them online. for a fairly low rate, you can get unlimited access to download mp3s. i haven’t actually plopped down the money yet, but it looks intriguing.</p>
<p>i’ve always used napster and the various p2p networks to find music that i just can’t find for sale in stores on CD, and to check out new bands without having to actually spend money only to find that they suck.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.emusic.com/">emusic</a> seems to have come pretty far to meet my desire to find older, hard to find stuff. the prices are low enough (as long as you have a broadband connection) to be appetizing. download speeds are rumored to be pretty good. the ars technica article mentions that the mp3s are only 128kb/s, which isn’t ideal, but is as good as 80% of the crap you find on napster anyway. having somthing of a guarantee that the albums were ripped well is probably worth the cost of the subscription alone. all the other attempts at selling music online have been pretty lame; either they insist on using some copy protected format that prevents you from burning backups or mixes (and usually don’t have a linux player for) or the prices are too high and the selection too small.</p>
<p>the only thing holding me back from signing up now is that i’d still prefer a system where the record companies were just out of the equation entirely. if artists owned their own work and all got together and set up a similar system to sell their music online, that would be ideal. </p>
<p>so i’m considering signing up. whatever i do, i’ll be watching closely to see if it succeeds.</p>
By
anders pearson
08 Jul 2002
our friends Debbie and Daphne from Avenue D were invited to perform at july 4th festival in, of all places, Charlotte, North Carolina. Debbie, a couple Charlotte locals that they knew who live in nyc now and a couple other new yorkers got in a van earlier last week for a little trip to the south. daphne and lani had to work till wednesday so Daphne and i took a bus down to DC wednesday night where we met up with lani and daphne’s friend Marin and drove down to Charlotte from there in a borrowed Pulsar.
<p>i think that driving many hours across several states just to see Avenue D play makes us all officially groupies now.</p>
<p>since we left DC at about 11 pm after all working all day, we knew it was going to be a long night. at about 5am, somewhere south of Chapel Hill, and still a few hours from Charlotte, we gave in and got a motel room for a couple hours of sleep. when we got up we continued on and met up with everyone who’d come down earlier. </p>
<p>the whole trip was kind of a redneck safari. the group consisted of: debbie and daphne (from miami but living in nyc), marin (from miami but going to school in austin and living in DC for the summer), me (from maine but living in nyc), lani (from washington state but living in DC), rick and grant (both living in nyc and i’m not sure where they’re from), lauren (from georgia but living in nyc), travis, derek, and autumn (charlotte locals who all live in nyc now). travis and derek basically acted as our tourguides, showing us around the city and introducing us to the cool people they knew there.</p>
<p>on the fourth, the <a href="http://www.fatcitydeli.com/">Fat City Deli</a> had their “family fun picnic” which was a combination music festival (with two stages) and 9 hour long party with food and booze. it’s a pretty cool place; lots of nice graffiti and alternative subculture type people hanging around. you get the feeling that it’s one of the places in charlotte where the few cool people in the city hang out on a regular basis. Avenue D performed at about 6pm on the outside stage. the fact that it was called the “<em>family</em> fun picnic” amused me to no end. Avenue D is <em>not</em> what comes to mind when i think of “family” entertainment. they make 2 live crew sound like someone you’d see at disneyworld. nevertheless, they played, they kicked ass, they shocked and impressed the locals, and, miraculously, the didn’t get arrested for being the most obscene act that the bible belt’s seen in quite a while.</p>
<p>there were more local bands throughout the night. most of them were fairly mediocre punk and garage rock types. a couple really stood out though. Snagglepus sounds kind of like a cross between the B-52s, the Cramps, and Babes in Toyland; fun and loud with some horns and sax. the last band of the night was Babyshaker. everyone was pretty tired by then but they still rocked. they’re pretty straightforward heavy garage rock. sort of reminded me of Kyuss or Queens of the Stone Age. nothing fancy, just solid rythms, loud guitars and catchy melodies.</p>
<p>between the bands, the cool people, and the cheap beer (<span class="caps">PBR</span> for $1.50), it was one of the better parties i’ve been to in a while.</p>
<p>on friday, those of us where were capable of waking up at noon did so and went to the Original House of Pancakes for breakfast. then we did a bit of shopping and drove out to Automn’s parents’ house which is about an hour outside the city and (most importantly) situated on a lake. i didn’t have a bathing suit with me (actually i don’t even own a single pair of shorts) so i sat in the shade and read for a few hours while everyone else went swimming.</p>
<p>when it started getting dark, we headed back to charlotte and went out to see a sketch comedy troupe which derek and travis were performing with. in new york, travis frequently does a drag queen act as “Pearl”, a janis joplin impersonater. we saw him perform it once in new york at one of Avenue D’s early shows. he really is amazing. he’s got the voice and the personality down pat. the comedy show featured Pearl, a talking baby, the song “fuck the goat” and a bunch of other sketches.</p>
<p>after the comedy show we went to a diner called Athens that was about the only thing open by then. <voice type=“comic book guy”>sketchiest. diner. ever.</voice>. seriously, the place was scary. lani and i shared a seafood platter that i’d rather not discuss in too much depth. let’s just say that it included a whole deep-fried horseshoe crab.</p>
<p>then, because all the bars were closed by that point, we went to a house party. the house was owned by a bunch of musicians (including some of the members of snagglepus and babyshaker i think), some of whom have a hip-hop side project called “the McClintock G’s”. they were excited about Avenue D being in town and wanted to get them to do some cameos on a few tracks for them. luckily they had a whole studio set up in one of the rooms of the house. for hours everyone just hung out in the studio drinking. they set down some beats and just set it to record everything. different people would go up to the mic every few minutes and freestyle until they got tired and someone else would take over. some of the funniest stuff i’ve ever heard. </p>
<p>on saturday lani, marin, and i got in the car and started driving north to DC. everyone else was going to take the van back up to nyc later that day. we managed to stop off in Chapel Hill for a break and had dinner with anthony (and said hi to the llama). </p>
<p>on sunday lani and i walked around her neighborhood and meridian park for a bit before she dropped me off at the bus station. greyhound that day was seriously a clusterfuck. everyone and their brother was traveling that day. to make matters worse, apparently there had been a bomb threat earlier that day and all service had been halted for a few hours. the station was full of people who had been trapped there for hours, all semblance of lines and order had vanished, staff were running around trying to get things organized, everyone was pissed off and tired, and they didn’t have enough buses or drivers to take care of the load. it took me about 2 hours just to get on a bus only to discover that they didn’t have a driver for that bus so we sat in the parking lot for another hour before they moved us to a different bus and we finally left. even the drive up to new york was slow. lots of holiday traffic and accidents. at least i was in no real hurry and i had my diskman and some books to keep me occupied.</p>
By
Mark Boudreau
08 Jul 2002
I don’t know if anyone around here knew or cared who Ted Williams was. Well, I knew and cared and I’m extremely sad that he has passed from this earth.
<p>When I was a kid, baseball was my life. Seriously. It was the only reason to keep living as far as I was concerned. Williams was Thor to my 10 year old eyes. And one year, when we had learned in school how to properly write a letter, I wrote to him. I wish I knew what I wrote. All I know is that I told him how much I looked up to him, how much I loved his book (<a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0671621033/qid=1026148635/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_1/102-6265247-3896909">The Science of Hitting</a>), and that if he had a spare moment, could he send an autographed picture to my cousin who was sick and in the hospital. Well, he sent two autographs, one for my cousin and one for me.</p>
<p>That wasn’t much of a thing to do. But it meant the world to me and my cousin back then. My cousin really was sick at the time. And this man, this god amoung ballplayers, veteran of two wars, and one hell of a fisherman, he did something to make a couple of young kids happy and keep them from realizing that the ballplayers of today were mostly made up of overpaid cry babies (See Roger Clemens).</p>
<p>Thanks Ted.</p>
By
tuck
08 Jul 2002
although its just a side project, ive started a business, and im trying to make it the best it can possibly be. ive managed to acquire some resources here which no one else has, or can, and im in a good position to build a really solid foundation for what could be a truly kickass service with good, honest intentions, and born of a desire to support what i feel to be an important area of study.
<p>visit the <b><a href="http://www.atmschina.com">page, atmschina.com</a></b> and tell me what you think. try to go through all the menus and learn about what im offering and get a feel for things. right now you guys are the only real source of input i have. from the ground up, i built around what i conceptualized as the most complete, appealing program which i would have enjoyed being a part of while having the goals that i did upon first deciding to leave for china. all the ideas, all the writing, even the schools name- its all my creation. so hack it all apart and tell me where things suck, and im sure theyre many places which do suck, if you have time.</p>
<p>ive kept the focus small because im just starting. this is just something to gain experience and fix the bugs. once a season or two pass, my eventual goal is to make this more of a cultural immersion program which uses martial arts training to achieve a deeper knowledge and understanding of various lessons in oriental philosophy. as it is now, philosophy is more of a byproduct of the training instead of the purpose. as mentioned, with the help of some professors, i eventually want it to be the other way around. </p>
<p>i know some pictures need to be changed because theyre lame, but i had no others available. also, a couple violate copywrite laws, probably. but replacements are coming. </p>
<p>my partner/roommate/pal morgan (of vermont, total metal-head) is going to be on an <span class="caps">ABC</span> Newsmagazine special about his training here (and i get a few comments in there too, but unfortunately i have to talk about him hehe) and hes going to mention the business and the page. its kind of crucial that it be a real solid url since a few million people will be learning about it in a few weeks.</p>
<p>were shooting to have the first real load of students this feb, and a megaload (20-25) for next august.</p>
By
Mark Boudreau
03 Jul 2002
And I’ll meet you at the station…
<p>Wee. I’m taking the train to Boston today. 7 hours of sitting around watching movies on my laptop. <a href="http://us.imdb.com/Title?0080748">The Buddhist Fist</a> and possibly <a href="http://us.imdb.com/Title?0068935">Return of the Dragon</a> look likely as the in-cabin entertainment. My <a href="http://www.holyghostclaw.com">boss</a> has become obsessed with Hong Kong cinema, and it’s rekindled my interest in the genre. Anyone have any recommendations for some good movies from the East?</p>
<p>I hope everyone is happy and has a safe 4th of July.</p>
By
jp
03 Jul 2002
so I’m going to be keeping a photo-annotated weblog of sorts of the summer program in Osaka, which you can read here if you’re interested.
By
jp
02 Jul 2002
the Japan times is always good for a few spectacular sidebars every now and again:
<p>“Pandas watch porn to get in the mood”</p>
<p>I’ve heard about this before, but I didn’t know they were still trying to do it. I just wonder if they’ve tried a Ron Jeremy vs. Hua Mei the giant panda babe match up with some bad 70’s funk yet.</p>
By
anders pearson
28 Jun 2002
i frequently suffer from insomnia. this usually involves me lying in bed for hours staring at the ceiling waiting to fall asleep while my mind jumps from subject to subject. a game i like to play sometimes when i’m lying there is to try to backtrack along my stream of consciousness. i try to remember what the last topic i was thinking about was, then i try to think what i was thinking before that lead me to that, then what i was thinking before that lead me to that point. on and on until i can’t remember how i got started on a certain subject. it’s hard at first but if you do it on a regular basis i’ve found that you can usually improve how far back you can remember.
<p>if you do it regularly, i can pretty much guarantee that you’ll gain new insights into how your mind and, in particular, your subconscious works. my theory is that doing this kind of exercise on a regular basis will even change how your mind functions, possibly giving you more control over how you focus and giving you more of an ability to think creatively.</p>
<p>this can also be fun in a group setting. if you’re sitting around with a few friends having a drink and conversation and the conversation hits a lull, pick out the last topic you were discussing and try to work back from there to figure out how you got onto that topic. you’ll probably get much farther than with the solo exercise. also figure out who it was in the group who initiated each topic change. try drawing a diagram of the conversation. maybe you’ll notice interesting things about the group dynamic and individual personalities; eg, perhaps a certain member of the group has a tendency to change the topic much more often than other people.</p>
<p>well, that’s the kind of thing that i think about when i can’t sleep…</p>
By
lani
27 Jun 2002
we got this email saying that by a new federal mandate, nobody is allowed to smoke within 20 feet of a door.
<p>i’m looking at it as not a pain in the a**, but as an opportunity to put sonar devices to use.</p>
By
quiet
26 Jun 2002
<p>Now, they’ve done this several times before, usually on April Fools, and people are slowly starting to wise up. What do you think the chances are that they delayed their prank this year? I’m gonna feel really bad if this turns out to be true, but I can’t really believe it.</p>