(I originally posted this in 2002)
We’ve all seen the pictures of the mega-studio complexes of the 70’s and 80’s - huge consoles, multiple treated recording rooms that sound great, racks of real tube preamps. Some major label artists still work in those studios. Along with the great sound, however, came a tight structire that artists had [...]
It was bound to happen sooner or later:
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2347258,00.asp
Though Ars can be forgiven for relying on an article they didn’t actually read about a study they don’t have access to, I mean, this is Ars we’re talking about and they have a POINT to make, Dvorak is generally smarter than that. Who were the ‘internet users’ [...]
Harlan gives the finger to his home town. Basically, they wanted to give him a prize, but he had to pay to go there and talk for three minutes, then go home. ‘Sorry, give it to someone else please.’ Awesome! I wouldn’t pay to go to Cleveland either.
Only a month ago, if you googled news about ‘torture’ you’d get a lot about Bush and Cheney and the illegal torture scheme they hatched in the White House. Now, you’re just as likely to get Pelosi, Pelosi, Pelosi. What we’re witnessing is the CIA and their oldest and dearest friends biting back at the [...]
The Author’s Guild posted a response to the Reading Right’s Coalition’s protest yesterday:
http://www.authorsguild.org/advocacy/articles/kindle-accessibility.html
Some excerpts, providing some possible solutions to this problem and a reiteration of principles:
“There’s an easy technological fix here: those with certified disabilities could have a Kindle operating system that is subtly modified to permit voice output for all books, overriding any [...]
The Reading Rights Coalition, an organization consisting of advocacy groups for the visually impaired, is protesting today in front the Authors Guild offices - of all places. They feel that Amazon should have gone ahead with the Kindle’s TTS feature, which allowed people to hear an audio reading of a Kindle book. Frankly, it’s naive [...]
(originally published 1/2008)
‘It’s inevitable’ they all say, books will be replaced just like those dumb LP’s were, those obsolete optical discs! The future is digital and the future is now!
People have been saying ‘now’ for about fifteen years. Is it now yet? Where’s the damn Ebooks? It’s inevitable, right? Of the few inevitable things from [...]
Pop uses the indigenous music of the host country, whether that be blues or another folk music, it pretends to be familiar:
Some stuff is completely American sounding:
pop goes the world:
Pop has become the true international music. Every nation on earth not only worships American Pop, but they have their own endless stream of britneys, coming and going and lip syncing, no one can remember when they started and there is no end in sight. It is the perfect distillation of the global overculture, cheap, [...]
Let me tell you (let me tall you ALL about it, no really) the real problem of Rock. Its about freedom, or more succinctly, liberty. Rock in all its forms was about libertas, same as jazz. For rock and jazz, the lowest common denominator was a deep and personal cultural freedom. You can hear it [...]