Month: April 2006

Why the music business sucks

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Further proof the music business sucks. Sony sells their songs and the musicians, the people that actually made the music, receive 4.5% from their sales. What does Sony do with the other 94.5 cents it makes? Granted iTunes is getting a piece, but Im guessing Sony is taking home the majority of it and investing it in ways to further prevent us from listening to the music that we buy. Hmm, I buy a CD and can’t play it on my computer’s CD player without install spyware? That just doesn’t seem right.

And they wonder why we think CDs (and music in general) are overpriced? Now if I bought a CD for $10 and knew the band was taking home 60% of that, it wouldn’t be bad, but I’m guessing they maybe make a buck of that. And who can find CDs for $10, they are 12-13 if you’re lucky.

Sony playing a Cheap Trick on musicians?

Last modified: April 28, 2006, 6:42 PM PDT

By Greg Sandoval

Staff Writer, CNET News.com

Two rock bands, the Allman Brothers Band and Cheap Trick, have filed a lawsuit against Sony BMG alleging that they are shortchanged when Sony divvies up royalties from digital downloads.

Filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in New York, the suit claims Sony should pay its musicians more as part of a contract the company has allegedly failed to live up to, according to reports published on the Web sites of Forbes and Billboard magazines.

The bands, which were at the height of their popularity more than 20 years ago, claim in their suit that they’re entitled to half of the profits from online sales at sites such as iTunes and Napster, Forbes reported.

Right now the bands receive only 4.5 cents on every 99 cent sale of one of their songs, the suit claims.

Neither Sony representatives nor managers for the bands could be reached for comment Friday evening.

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Two-a-days

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Did my first two-a-day of the year today. Took a good long ski set at lunch and then did some more skiing that night. Lunch we had great water. Nailed a nice long one foot across the bay. At night, the wind had shifted and increases a lot, and basically sucked. Still good to get a couple more runs in though. Now I’m beat.

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Scarlet Letter on Drugs?

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If you don’t want a movie spoiler, stop reading now… If you read past this, you might ruin the plot, or you might not. Kinda hard to tell if there is a plot to ruin.

Yea, I went a watched a movie tonight… Caught Silent Hill. Having seen it, I’d have a really hard time telling you what I saw. Needless to say, it is a little strange. I think the writers/directors/whatever must have taken a lot drugs, then read the classic Scarlet Letter, then did some more drugs, and then decided to re-write the Scarlet Letter, but the way they remembered it in the drug induced stupor.

It was actually a horror movie that did send a couple chills through me, but more than anything, it just kinda grossed me out. Never really quite sure what is happening or why throughout most of it. Apparently there were a bunch clues we were suppose to pick up that would explain everything, but I missed them completely. Luckily, they spend about 5 minutes towards the end explaining who, what, when, where and why, but it still doesn’t quite all fit together. Luckily, they set it up for a sequel, and based on the results this past weekend, we can expect that in a year. Maybe then this movie based on a video game will make some sense.

Until then, if you lick horror movies based on video games, it would be worth a Netflix, but I’d have a real hard telling you to go spend some of you hard earned cash on this one, even if you do like horror movies.

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How to feel good about loosing $50

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Or “Can you leave your wet suit and thermal shirt on the sun deck and take off in your boat and have them still be there when you get to the dock?

The answer is no.

Tonight, I hit the lake with John and T-Bell for a quick set in the evening. John took a slalom set out in the main lake. I took a few foot runs in the bay. Actually managed a couple decent one-foots, but nothing significant. It was just nice to get out. The weekend weather didn’t cooperate much, windy, cool, cloudy, scattered showers, you name it. But Sunday was OK, 60, partly sunny and windy, but do-able.

I was the last to ski and once I got back into the boat, I pealed off my suit and shirt and just left then on the sun deck and proceeded to dry off and change as we idled back to the main lake. Once past the bridges, I was now dry and had forgotten that my stuff was still on the back of the boat, and not actually in the boat.

T-Bell passed the no-wake buoy and took off. About half way back to the landing, we hit a good wave, John’s water flew all over, and (unbeknownst to me) my suit and shirt probably flew off the back off the boat.

We get to the landing, trailer the boat, everyone starts handing stuff out of the boat, wiping it down, putting things in their vehicles and mine. Five minutes later we’re all ready to leave. I hop in my truck and drive home.

I get home about 630. I’m tired and hungry, so I just back the boat into the garage and go inside to start cooking some dinner. While cooking and eating, I start watching a show. I finish dinner and then finish the show. Its now about 730 and I head outside and get everything put away. I unhook the boat, put the truck in the garage and start emptying the it. Find my shorts and gloves. No suit, and no shirt. I hop up into the boat and check… No suit, no shirt.

Call John… Did you happen to grab my wetsuit? Nope.

Call T-Bell… Left a message about if she had grabbed my stuff… still haven’t heard anything yet.

Then I call John back and we decide to head down to lake to look for it. I grab a dry pair of shorts and life vest, just in case we see and it is floating out in the water a ways. I’m foolish enough to jump in with floatation when the water is cold and do some skiing, but not so stupid as to take a swim at dusk when I don’t have flotation on.

Now it is after 8 and the sun has been set for 20 minutes or so and it is getting pretty dark. John starts from the north end of the shoreline where we think it may be on and probable had about 20 minutes of looking in before I started from the south end. I walk about 100 yards of the shore, and who’d a thunk it, I see a wetsuit floating right along the shoreline. I grab a big stick and fish it out of the water. Needless to say, it stunk.

We finish looking, but there is no sign of the shirt.

So, realizing I may have lost both a $200 wetsuit and a $50 thermal shirt, coming out with only losing the $50 shirt feels pretty damn good.

One other thing, this is a mistake I’ll never make again.

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Full Circle

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When I was much younger, when there wasn’t a hockey game that my brother or I were playing in, our Friday and Saturday nights consisted of cooking up a tombstone pizza and watching either a) a Badger hockey game or b) The Dukes of Hazard.

Back then, the hockey team was really good. They had Chris Chelios playing D and a very young Jeff Saurer coaching. They even rated regular coverage on Channel 3 (CBS). We watched both (hockey and Dukes) religiously.

Now tonight, many, many years later, I’m at the UW Band Concert. Part of the Badger celebration, because that what’s the UW Band Concert is, a celebration of the Badger year that was, revolved around the Badger Men’s and Women’s hockey teams winning their national championships. Both teams and both trophies were there. Crowd on their feet as the band played loudly (that is the only way they play).

And then, one of the many special guests, Tom Wopat, one of the original Duke boys is getting ready to sing The Day the Music Died and somebody yells out “Play the Duke’s theme”. Tom goes “I’ll get to it.”

He finishes up the one song and then goes into the Duke’s of Hazard Theme. And that got me to thinking of the “Good old days”. Friday nights, pizza, hockey and the Dukes.

Funniest part was, I almost had a Tombstone for supper. And amazingly, Chelios is still playing D. Dude is getting old and still plays like a stud.

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Scary Movie 4

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Well, what can I say about this movie other than it made me laugh. I think it is one that you need to see the movies that they are making fun of to truly appreciate. Since I see a lot of movies, including the bad horror movies that come out, I was able to appreciate a lot of their jokes. Since that is all I expected, I enjoyed it.

Would I have enjoyed it if I had paid for the movie? Probably not so much, but well worth a rental at some point if you see a lot of movies. At times it is just fun to see what they are making fun of. Pure mindless entertainment.

In relation to the other Scare Movies, not as good as the original (they parodied a parody, did a good job of it, and that’s tough to beat), better than 2, and on par with 3.

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Good Friday

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Good Friday was a great day here in Madison. 85 & sunny isn’t unusual in Wisconsin, but it is in April. Friday after finishing up work, I met up with some friends and hit the water for an afternoon of skiing. And when we made a way into Monona Bay, we found water that was 58 degrees. And 58 degrees, although still cold enough to make you go “damn, this is cold” when you get in, it is warm enough that you can leave the dry suit at home. So Friday, I took the first run of the year with just a barefoot suit on. Free at last. Dry suits are great for their purpose, but they are damn uncomfortable to wear and pain to put on and take off. Now if we can just get the wind to cooperate so we can get some nice calm water.

And a word of advice, don’t drop a 4×8 sheet of 3/4 inch plywood your foot. It hurts.

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Didn’t Drive My Boat

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Last Sunday when I went out skiing with T-Bell and Amy was the first time my boat has been to the lake and I didn’t drive it. Typically, I’ll end up taking the boat off the trailer and putting it back on at the very least, and usually end up driving while someone else skis. But Sunday, Teri did the trailoring and drove while I footed. Since she opted to skip the cold and somewhat windy conditions and Amy was just along to spot, there was nothing that demanded that I drive the boat. It didn’t hit me ’til we were heading back to the landing that it was the very first time since I bought the boat in June of 2000 that I hadn’t driven it while at the lake.

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Lunch Runs

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Yesterday I managed to head out for a long lunch on the lake. I can really only head out about once a week for a lunch run, but they are always worth it. Granted the weather didn’t fully cooperate, but it was still fun to get out on the water and get a quick set in over lunch. In a few weeks, when the water is substantially warmer, these will be even better. There won’t be any need to deal with dry suits and all the other crap that comes with skiing in cold water. I admit the dry suit is instrumental to skiing this early without getting sick, but that doesn’t mean I have to like using it.

This is by far the most I’ve skied this early in the year and hopefully it’ll pay off in summer. Get the kinks out now while the water is still bitter cold.

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Surrounded?

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The bird is back, and now it has a little friend. To recap, there is a big fat robin that has been attacking my sliding doors in the back. And I mean attacking. Throwing itself into the window repeatedly for hours on end. I get tired watching it. Feel sorry for it to, because it isn’t going to win. It just means I need to go clean the windows again because I don’t like looking out windows covered in bird crap. And cleaning the windows actually contributes to the fact that it attacks it again the next day since it can now see it’s reflection again. I put some decals up on my sliding doors to “help” deter the birds from attacking it, but my sources say that the bird is still at it. Plus there are traces of it having been there. There’s crap on the window and crap on the deck furniture.

But now, the bird has a new partner in crime. There is small robin that is now attacking my roommate’s window in the front of the house in the morning. Today, she wasn’t too pissed off, she was already awake and getting ready for work when the attack began. But she typically works till 3am and sleeps in, so she may not be so forgiving in a couple days when the bird begins it attack at 6am and she’s only been sleeping a couple hours. The kicker was the bird was still throwing itself at window when I was leaving for work at 830.

I gotta give it to these birds, they are persistent. They see another bird and they attack it relentlessly. And now they have the house surrounded. One in the front, one in the back.

Now if anyone reading this has any ideas on how to keep these birds from crapping all over my windows and generally being annoying, please let me know. I’m open to suggestions.

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