ernest hollings has just introduced a bill in congress called the "consumer broadband and digital television promotion act". this bill would require any device capable of processing copyrighted digital works to include a federally mandated copy protection system. "digital television promotion"? the idea is that there would be more "high quality" digital content available, such as downloadable movies targeted to hdtv, if copy protection mechanisms were in place. ya, right.

it's kinda funny. this bill originally went under the title "Security Systems Standards and Certification Act". i wonder how much money was pumped over to hollings by disney and news corporation (backers of the bill) to get the name changed to something more palatable?

...yet another great record store. i stumbled upon Aquarius Records while reading some stuff from the John Zorn mailing list. i do not need another source of new music.

dammit

i was reading an essay about the lincoln-douglas debates. those things lasted for hours! too bad that what passes for political discourse these days has been squeezed down (my first word choice was distilled, but that's giving them way, way too much credit) to the 1-minute tv ad plus the occasional network news soundbite.

under the digital millenium copyright act, a ruling has been passed that will essentially shut down most web music-streaming stations. why? the fee structure, instead of being like the reasonable ascap and bmi fees, can amount to thousands of dollars per day.

this coffin nail is really directed at the music industry as a whole. not web radio. the industry has again succeeded in tightening its grip on all of music's commercial "paths": recording, distribution, concerts, radio. and now, web-based radio. 'regular' radio has become something of a joke as all of it is owned by so few companies that all of the diversity and life has been squeezed out of it. it's musical velveeta. so just keep it up guys. web radio will either disappear or become just another arm of your pathetic marketing plan...and all the while you will continue to whine about decreased cd sales. it's a good thing. sooner or later, one of the big labels will implode. and sooner or later kids will discover that there are other ways to find new music (stuff like cdbaby for one). it'll be a great day when the big-label middlemen are out of a job. good riddance.

uh...i don't know. i had to go to bed.

what i learned from this year's oscars:

• woody allen still makes me laugh (despite all that i know about his personal life)
• i still think stuff done in black & white looks really cool
• halle berry is impossibly good looking

republicans love to slam democra..., uh, tax-and-spend liberals for their supposed love of social engineering(whatever the hell that is)...so it's funny to hear that bush wants us to spend money promoting the benefits of marriage to teens. it's always been pretty obvious that reduction of unwanted teen pregnancies is a good thing. but marriage? don't get me wrong. i think marriage is a great thing. but do we really want more teens to get married? wouldn't it be a little simpler to reduce unwanted pregnancies? hey, there's something called "birth control". oh, i forgot....we've gotta teach abstinence....gees, this is so confusing

so...i think i'm at a baseball fantasy camp or something....and i'm batting against oilcan boyd...he buzzes one in just a little too close for comfort. i ask the catcher to hand me the ball. he does...and i whip the thing back out there. oil can is pissed at this and proceeds to plunk me with the next pitch. i charge the mound but for some reason he's just standing there looking down at his feet. so i pull back and decide not to smash him in the face.

...that's it!

dammit, my parents' words have finally come out of my mouth. i was listening to a promo for a local radio station the other day (wbcn) during which they played three short clips from Hoobastank, Staind and Incubus...and except for slight differences in the vocalists there really wasn't much difference in the music. just a bunch of squalling guitar. luckily, there are more kinds of new music out there than this stuff....i don't even know what you call it. i guess it's the pop version of 'nu-metal'...things like Slipknot and Mudvayne.

i heard a great description of this stuff the other night. andy richter said it all sounds like a beer commercial. yup.

in an interesting (and depressing) article about a proposed tax on blank cds, a great quote from a musician:

Our band has chosen to stay independent because we think the music industry has the ethics of vampires. Now they have figured out a way to leech blood from us, too.

watched Meet The Parents this weekend. i laughed once. ok, maybe twice.

this must be a sign of my growing "curmudgeon-ness"....or the movie actually just sucked.

phew! it's a good thing we've got a state like florida where the believer can take refuge from the evils of the world. first, we had inglis florida where they banned satan. now we've got the state of florida attempting to revoke the vanity license plate "Atheist". it's a damn good thing too. we wouldn't want to offend any of the god-fearing citizens of the sunshine state.

i gotta go listen to some Black Sabbath now.....

i admit it...i watched the celebrity boxing matches on fox last night....and i liked it.

the surreal white-trash female bout, tonya harding vs. paula jones was just too much fun to pass up...tho i kinda felt sorry for jones at the end. unfortunately, the giant head protectors didn't allow harding to break jones' reconstructed nose. oh well.

the michael richards show....bob patterson...and now "watching ellie"....

all suck ( well, actively suck...or used to suck...pick yer verb tense)

you know, i think this bush presidency is working out after all. it was reported in the associated press that more money will be spent by the government to promote abstinence-only sex education. this will apparently be more effective than touting the benefits of birth control usage. one group in particular, favoring absstinence-before-marriage, thinks this is great idea:

People who pay taxes have the right to have their money go toward teaching kids a healthy message

the organization's name: "Project Reality".

damn, this is a great country.

oh happy days, a terrific clearing house for information about what's going on with the recording industry.

hair darker than your worst thoughts
from beyond-scarlet lips
a smile's not the right word
my newpaper cost 60 cents
(i think)

every other day...another piece of mail asking me to consider verizon dsl service. then, at least once a week, a phone call in the evening inquiring about verizon dsl. i suppose they're trying to run a business. but....i'm already a versizon dsl customer! who's runnin' the ship over there anyway? so i'm not surprised to see a report that they're cutting 10,000 jobs.

the three wise men review Ulrich Schnauss.

...after a week of sitting around in portland, maine. pouring as many books into my head as possible. still, the "work" side of my brain (as in, 'oh shit, i still have a job') isn't quite engaged yet.

oh ya, there's one of those mini tv's with a built-in vcr in the bedroom of the place we rented. ever wonder what other people like to tape? well, i pop the thing in and it's full of curling highlights from the olympics! hmmm, maybe the condo owners are canadian or something.