Read a little. Learn a lot. • Tightly-written news, views and stuff • Follow us on Twitter • Be a Facebook Fan • Tumble us!

21 Feb 2009 11:56

tags

Offbeat: That must’ve been some pretty boring karaoke

  • 76 straight hours of singing by one person – a record, by the way source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

15 Feb 2009 20:07

tags

Music: Chris Brown finally speaks out on allegations

  • Words cannot begin to express how sorry and saddened I am over what transpired. I am seeking the counseling of my pastor, my mother and other loved ones and I am committed, with God’s help, to emerging a better person.
  • Chris Brown • Through his spokesman, in response to the allegations that he hit his girlfriend, Rihanna, last weekend. He didn’t say much else, except to note that he didn’t say anything on his Facebook page about the charges. • source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 2 Comments • Permalink

15 Feb 2009 12:38

tags

Tech, World: The Pirate Bay + trial + fans = “Spectrial”

  • What’s going on Administrators of The Pirate Bay, that spot where people download their illegal software from because Adobe charges too much, are going on trial for copyright charges in their home base, Sweden, tomorrow. The torrent tracker has long evaded getting shut down due to the country’s fairly lax copyright policies (and some clever thinking on the part of the owners). They have, however, been raided in the past. source
  • What’s going on Administrators of The Pirate Bay, that spot where people download their illegal software from because Adobe charges too much, are going on trial for copyright charges in their home base, Sweden, tomorrow. The torrent tracker has long evaded getting shut down due to the country’s fairly lax copyright policies (and some clever thinking on the part of the owners). They have, however, been raided in the past.
  • What they’re doing The thing that has won the site many fans is that they don’t go down quietly, going out of their way to avoid getting shut down by whatever means necessary. And in the current case, their related political party, Piratbyrån chose to make a spectacle of the trial, a “spectrial” as they put it, complete with Twitter feeds and a cool hacker-ish Web site. They want to stir stuff up. Should be fun to watch, if nothing else. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 2 Comments • Permalink

13 Feb 2009 16:14

tags

Culture, Music: U2 unleashes its juggernaut on one poor guy

Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

12 Feb 2009 11:06

tags

Music, World: Is M.I.A. an apologist for the Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka?

  • She’s unknown at home Despite her massive critical acclaim, the ubiquity of her hit “Paper Planes” and her recent Grammy and Oscar nominations, she remains fairly unknown in her homeland, Sri Lanka. Those who do know her claim she’s an apologist for the Tamil Tigers, the separatist group which has fought a lengthy civil war for independence. source
  • She’s unknown at home Despite her massive critical acclaim, the ubiquity of her hit “Paper Planes” and her recent Grammy and Oscar nominations, she remains fairly unknown in her homeland, Sri Lanka. Those who do know her claim she’s an apologist for the Tamil Tigers, the separatist group which has fought a lengthy civil war for independence.
  • In her words M.I.A., born Maya Arulpragasam, recently commented on the crisis in an interview on Tavis Smiley’s PBS talk show. “Being the only Tamil in the Western media, I have a really great opportunity to sort of bring forward what’s going on in Sri Lanka,” she said “There’s a genocide going on.” source
  • She’s unknown at home Despite her massive critical acclaim, the ubiquity of her hit “Paper Planes” and her recent Grammy and Oscar nominations, she remains fairly unknown in her homeland, Sri Lanka. Those who do know her claim she’s an apologist for the Tamil Tigers, the separatist group which has fought a lengthy civil war for independence.
  • In her words M.I.A., born Maya Arulpragasam, recently commented on the crisis in an interview on Tavis Smiley’s PBS talk show. “Being the only Tamil in the Western media, I have a really great opportunity to sort of bring forward what’s going on in Sri Lanka,” she said “There’s a genocide going on.”
  • Fighting art with art Many Sri Lankans who have seen M.I.A.’s videos claim that her imagery either glorifies or supports the cause. M.I.A. says she doesn’t support terrorism, but at least one rapper has taken her head-on: DeLon, a Sinhalese rapper based in L.A., put up a video remix which directly attacks the singer’s stance. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

10 Feb 2009 20:38

tags

Biz: How big is the proposed Ticketmaster/Live Nation merger?

  • $2.5 billion in market value (plus convenience charge) source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

10 Feb 2009 10:52

tags

Biz, Music: Licensing the legend of reggae icon Bob Marley

  • Building a brand around a counterculture figure. Bob Marley stood for peace and love, but he might just stand for beer and headphones, if a private equity firm has its way. Hilco Consumer Capital recently took half-ownership of Marley’s name, and they plan to market the heck out of it. They also own Linens-n-Things, so you know that they clearly have his best interests in mind. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 

09 Feb 2009 10:45

tags

Tech: Back to piracy: University-minded tunesmith Ruckus shuts down

  • What their deal was Ruckus was a product of a much simpler time, when the RIAA was suing college students left and right, and the music industry needed to provide an alternative to Limewire. Ruckus, with its Windows-only software and DRM-heavy music collection, was the answer to a question few wanted answered. source
  • What their deal was Ruckus was a product of a much simpler time, when the RIAA was suing college students left and right, and the music industry needed to provide an alternative to Limewire. Ruckus, with its Windows-only software and DRM-heavy music collection, was the answer to a question few wanted answered.
  • The end of Ruckus Ruckus was acquired last year by TotalMusic, a music-industry-owned company that attempted to be the driving force behind the failed Facebook Music initiative. TotalMusic is kind of not doing so hot, though they just launched a streaming music site. As for Ruckus, it shut down without warning on Friday night. source
  • What their deal was Ruckus was a product of a much simpler time, when the RIAA was suing college students left and right, and the music industry needed to provide an alternative to Limewire. Ruckus, with its Windows-only software and DRM-heavy music collection, was the answer to a question few wanted answered.
  • The end of Ruckus Ruckus was acquired last year by TotalMusic, a music-industry-owned company that attempted to be the driving force behind the failed Facebook Music initiative. TotalMusic is kind of not doing so hot, though they just launched a streaming music site. As for Ruckus, it shut down without warning on Friday night.
  • What about my tunes? Did you download some DRM-addled tunes from Ruckus? Well, you’re in luck. You can continue to listen to your music until it phones back home to the DRM server, which died along with Ruckus. That should happen in the next couple of weeks. Aren’t you glad that digital rights management exists? source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

09 Feb 2009 08:01

tags

Music: Dear Grammys, why did the safe choice win again?

Alison Krauss and Robert Plant, album of the year? Way to put me to sleep. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

07 Feb 2009 10:42

tags

Music: Auto-Tune’s creator: I never intended it to be used T-Pain-style

  • If you set it to 10, that means that the output pitch will get halfway to the target pitch in 10 milliseconds. But if you let that parameter go to zero, it finds the nearest note and changes the output pitch instantaneously. I never figured anyone in their right mind would want to do that.
  • Andy Hildebrand • who created Auto-Tune based on seismic autocorrelation techniques he learned in the oil industry. He designed it to be unnoticeable (in the article, super-producer Rick Rubin says it’s used even more than you think), but producers found creative ways to break it. Now Kanye West uses it to make breakup albums. He should be proud! • source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 2 Comments • Permalink
 
<< newer 
top tags
older >>