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Saturday, February 11  

Consistent Hobgoblin

"A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines. With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do. He may as well concern himself with his shadow on the wall. Speak what you think now in hard words and to-morrow speak what to-morrow thinks in hard words again, though it contradict every thing you said to-day."
~ Emerson: Self-Reliance

Friday, February 10  

Digital Distribution Makes Better Music

Finally the economics of the music industry start favoring the bands that can put out consistently good music:

"'I have to ask my artists to make better records... I need at least four singles. We lost a lot of fans over the years because we gave people average albums, with one or two singles and the rest of the album was trash.'"
~ Talent manager Michael "Blue" Williams

The beast deserves to starve to death so it can be reborn as something else.

Thursday, February 9  

15 Seconds

Hey, I've been kottke'd! That's how it's done - just gotta be accidentally 8 hours ahead of the New Music Tuesdays email blast.

 

&

I'd rather be a fool than an idiot*.

*This almost resulted in a singular Google answer (not to be confused with a GoogleWhack). Too bad two is twice as many as one. Perhaps soon it will be three.

Wednesday, February 8  

Uncertainty

A variation on Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle applies to bureaucratic systems:

Bureaucracies can know:
a) What they are doing
b) Why they're doing it

But not:
c) Both at once

Tuesday, February 7  

Billions and Billions

For all my carping and whining, the fkrs at Apple sure know how to market: iTMS Billion Songs Countdown. The cascading column of album covers with the live counter are awesome.

Now, I'm not saying it's gonna happen, but I'd have to revise some of my previous criticisms if I scored the grand prize*: an iMac, 10 iPods and a $10,000 gift card. That's a lot of songs.

* No purchase necessary to win; limited to 25 entries per day

Friday, February 3  

Don't Steal My Song Title:

Randolph Farmer dies in storage bin.

Wednesday, February 1  

Clarity

I've been thinking about perfect songs lately, and this one is just stuck in my head today - Clarity, by Jimmy Eat World.

It rocks, it rolls, and it's peppered with astoundingly good lyrics:

Say what I know you'll say and say it through your teeth.
~
Now in the deep and down, I don't know how but I know I want out.
~
Pull one excuse from another.
~
And with pride keep every failure in.
And with pride hold on to your thinking.