The US Festival Revisited

I remember wanting the US Festival(s) to be my generation's version of Woodstock, yet feeling kinda underwhelmed by it all. despite many of my favorite groups being involved. Although I only saw it on television, something about the hot Inland Empire setting with all of that dust blowing around seemed like the antithesis of a good time, confirming my suspicions that concert festivals, like cruises, just weren't for me. (A live version of "Money" by the Pretenders was the best thing I got out of it.) Still, I wasn't actually there, so I'm open to learning more. But if a documentary is to be made to set the record straight, can't multibillionaire festival founder Steve Wozniak pick up the tab instead of begging "us" for cash?

From the Kickstarter pitch:

Remember the US FESTIVAL!

When Music, Technology, People Were UNITED... IN SONG

New documentary film on the innovative and influential 1982 US FESTIVAL - remastered music; never-before-told stories; never-before-seen footage; featured interviews from then and now; campaign now live on Kickstarter!

 

This campaign is to complete a feature-length documentary on the 1982 US Festival ("US" as in "you and me"), a magnificent, innovative, influential, and sometimes forgotten West Coast mega-concert. The film is mostly done, some of the music is licensed and cleared, this campaign allows us to license additional music and finish post production. If you've not heard about The US Festival, that's either a function of your age, or probably because the story has never been told. It's a really good story though - and we're very proud to tell it.

1982 lineup. It was 110 degrees that weekend and 100 arrests, plus 35 drug overdoses. The festival lost a reported $12 million.

1983 lineup. The reprise festival lost another $12 million and two people reportedly lost their lives.

i Don't Get It

Like anyone could figure out that f**king iCloud -- or any Apple product, for that matter. 

The iPod Goes the Way of the Walkman

Fans scramble for iPod Classic, the music player Apple killed off 

Two months after model discontinued, fans pay up to four times more for last gadgets 

Wow, this is so funny/ironic. My 160GB iPod -- which I use as my home stereo system because it can hold 40,000 songs -- died just a couple weeks ago and I was freaking out about what I was going to do when I came to realize they don't sell iPod Classics, as they came to be known, anymore. . The new and "improved" iPod Touch is really an iPhone without a phone, which means there is a fraction of the storage space plus all sorts of things I do not need to just listen to music at home. It just didn't seem like a feasible alternative. so I ended up getting an appointment at the Genius Bar to see if my vintage model could be salvaged. It couldn't, but it turns out the Apple store in the Meatpacking District actually has an inventory of the 160GB iPod Classics for situations like mine, so they swapped it out for a nominal fee, despite its no longer being under warranty. With no Apple Care on the player I'm not sure why they were so kind -- especially given what this article says -- but I guess they did it because it was a mechnical flaw, or perhaps they took pity on me! To be honest, I find it hard to believe Apple would get rid of the iPod considering it was what put them back on the map.

If there hadn't been this happy ending, I was going to write a blog posting asking people how the hell they listen to music at home anymore. When this replacement iPod inevitably dies, I suppose I could get wireless speakers and play music directly from iTunes on my laptop. I actually do still have most of my CDs, but I do prefer the convenience of playing them through a player.

Would love to hear how others are handling home stereo these days. I DO NOT listen to Spotify, Pandora, playlists or shuffle my music -- I am an ALBUM guy through and through -- so please keep that in mind when writing!

Apple CEO Tim Cook: 'I'm Proud to Be Gay'

Good for him -- and better late than never. Read HERE.

And as great as this is, don't forget that in 32 states your boss can still legally fire YOU for being gay or transgender.

From HERE.

Apple Introduces iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus

UPDATE: Apparently people are just going to carry tablets around with them now. I have a 4s and it's smaller than the one here that is smallest!

Ice Cube

I haven't been over there since the storm hit, but the Daily Mail reports that the glass box -- aka "The Cube" -- in front of Apple's store on Fifth Avenue has shattered in the cold thanks to a snowblower mishap trying to clear the way. Now this is the kind of brutal New York City winter I signed up for!

iCannotTakeIt

The iOS7 update already ruined my iPad. Is my iPhone next?

Venus and Serena Put the Tennis in Table Tennis

Love this Apple iPhone ad featuring Venus and Serena Williams. As kids, my brothers, my friend Greg and I would play entire "tennis" tournaments on the ping-pong table, assuming the roles (and styles) of everyone in the draw until a winner was crowned. (Years later, the quote "I'm gonna be Bettina Bunge" was used against Greg on more than one occasion.) This included serving overhand -- Terence's McEnroe windup could take three to five minutes to lift off, using two-handed backhands and being allowed to serve and volley. It seemed natural for tennis players like us to play ping pong this way -- watching the way professionals play with no looked so hackish -- so it made me smile to see Venus and Serena seem to favor our style too, even if neither one of them can imitate Barbara Potter for shit, much less Miss Bunge ...

Rotten Apple

 I'd like to personally thank Apple for taking it upon itself to add each and every app from my iPhone that I have ever deleted and putting them on Michael's when he attached his phone to my computer to add a song from iTunes. In particular, the Grindr app, which I had for a grand total of an hour -- I'm listed on their press page -- because I was curious to see what it was all about. Luckily, I'm not the type to blush easily -- and Michael totally believes me, and by "totally believes me" I mean doesn't believe me at all.

Sour Apples

A musical shit storm was started over the weekend when an intern at NPR's All Songs Considered blogged that she has 11,000 songs in her iTunes, yet has only bought 15 CDs in her life. (“As monumental a role as musicians and albums have played in my life,” she wrote, “I’ve never invested money in them aside from concert tickets and T-shirts.") Putting the apples and oranges comparison aside -- she's 20, so wouldn't it have made more sense, and been more galling, for her to have said she's only downloaded (bought) 15 songs from iTunes? -- how do people feel about getting music for free these days, whether it be through borrowing friends' CDs; copying friends’ song files; or being given 15 gigabytes of music by a prom date (as she says she was), especially when (as the New York Times notes) it's not done through so-called "illegal" downloads? I''m pretty agnostic about it, truthfully. I certainly didn't think it was criminal in 1982 when I borrowed my friend Greg's copy of "10 Cents a Dance" by the Flirts and taped it on my Price Club stereo. I always thought I was being kosher by buying the things I truly wanted, and "borrowing" the things I was just curious about -- I still sort of operate by that standard -- but many recording artists are not so forgiving.


The NPR intern says she will pay for convenience, but she will not pay for albums. Isn't that the real issue nowadays, that the Apple product is considered the work of art, not the music?


Instead of being mad at today's generation, I've never understood why musicians haven't targeted more of their outrage at Steve Jobs and Apple, whom Pete Townshend once called "digital vampires." They can't fault Jobs for making a gadget that is so beloved -- or for the convenience he's given consumers, not just how we listen to music, but how we buy it and how we store it, as well. But they can fault him for raping artists by taking such an exorbitant cut for the middle man, so that even when people do pay for music, artists feel robbed. Microsoft has been repeatedly sued for antitrust violations, but isn't Apple the ultimate monopoly? If anyone balks -- like a Pete Townshend -- Apple just says, "Fine, don't sell you music here" and artists are cut off from a majority of the music-buying public. Seconds later, they are left begging for another chance.

You Cannot Be Siri-ous!!!!

After switching to a BlackBerry from a touchscreen not-so-smartphone a couple years ago (the LG Dare), I finally started to think it was time to move to into the 21st century. After much debate between Android and iPhones (a handful of my best pals swear by Droids, as does my brother), Michael finally decided he wanted an iPhone (his two best friends at work sold him big-time, and promised this flip-phone user they'd help him out if he took the plunge) so he got us His and His 4s models on Sunday, one black and one white. His Zune-using nephew immediately declared that we had gone to the "dark side" -- and God knows no one has to sell me on being anti-Apple -- but it's been a few hours and despite my absolute fear of change, I haven't had a nervous breakdown yet. My pal John from AmericaBlog says the Blogger app has numerous problems, but besides downloading it, I haven't played with it much. Still, Twitter and Facebook are up and running, so I'm pretty much back to where I was with my BlackBerry -- so I remain cautiously optimistic. Welcome to 2007, Kenny!

Now, who has app recommendations?

iWouldn't Dare

Given my iPod history you know where I stand on this one, but have any of you dared?

One Bad Apple Don't Spoil the Bunch?

SEE UPDATE BELOW!
I know a lot of you are tired of hearing about my Apple/iPod problems, so if you're one of them please stop reading now.

Truth be told, though, this is really more of a question than an actual complaint. So remember how I took my iPod to Rome last month and didn't even turn it on until the flight home, only to discover the battery was dead (having been fully charged and then never used)? Today I was in the mood to listen to the new Peter Bjorn & John tracks I got on iTunes (see how hip I am?) so I took my fully charged iPod to work with me today. Listened to about two songs on the short ride to Times Square and then I turned it off. As I was leaving work tonight -- a mere seven hours later (thank you, Newspaper Guild of America!) -- my iPod was completely dead again.

Do other people have this same experience or is my iPod truly defective (again)? I can't believe you can't listen to it on the way to and from work in one day without the charge going dead. With the Rome thing it had been sitting in my bag for five days, so even though that seemed ridiculous given the fact that it wasn't turned on, I could almost accept that. But all in one day? More than anything, I'm in disbelief. Anyone? (In case it matters, mine is the Fifth Generation model.)

UPDATE: So I turned my iPod on at 2 p.m. and decided I would continue to let it play until the battery died. It's now nearly 10 p.m. and it's still playing -- and the green battery indicator says it's still fully charged. I have no idea what is going on. I'm guessing the problem may have to do with the unit's ability to turn back on after resting. The battery (obviously) is more than capable of working for hours on end. Sadly, my iPod is more than a year old now and Apple kind of blows you off at that point, or so I've heard.

S'Mac in the Face

My disdain for all things Mac is well-documented. Although I always have problems with mine at work, this week has been particularly frustrating with InDesign and InCopy crashing every half-hour. (My loud cursing would probably have gotten me fired anywhere else, but everyone else working on the Macs in my section is yelling too, so I kind of blend in.) But this isn't even about that. As regular readers know, Michael (sweetly) got me an iPod for Christmas 2005. It died after 10 uses and Apple promptly sent me a new one. But even though I only travel three stops on the subway with it, every time I dare to use it something goes wrong. Each time, I've ended up bringing it home and putting it on the speaker-station my mom got me and it seems to be working fine again, so I convince myself that the problem is me (I hadn't charged it enough, I hit the wrong buttons, etc.). So Michael and I leave for Rome last month and I make sure my iPod is fully charged (the little green battery indicator assured me I was good). I ended up reading and sleeping on the plane ride there, so I didn't pull out my iPod until five days later on the way home. Lo and behold, it's completely dead. The screen lights up and hieroglyphics appear for a second and then BAM! Nothing. Back when I was "slumming it" I could bring my portable CD player and listen to as many CDs as I wanted. If the batteries died I always made sure I had some backups. For reasons that are unclear, Michael's older iPod was working fine even on the way home, but when I asked an iPod enthusiast at work if he had any idea what was going on with mine (did I get another lemon?) he said that the batteries frequently lose their charge even if you don't play it. HUH??? Doesn't that defeat the whole purpose of having an MP3 player with you on a trip? I don't carry around a computer with me (can you imagine?) and even if I had had the station, the plugs are different in Europe, so I still wouldn't have been able to play it. Again: when it comes to Mac products, I just don't get

iConfused

Being the music purist that I am, I've never bought anything off of iTunes before. I like having the artwork, the disc, the whole thing in my possession. (Despite what you've heard, 80 percent of music sold is still on compact discs, so I know I'm not alone.) Nonetheless, I was aware of the litigation going on in Europe and elsewhere regarding songs purchased from Apple not being compatible on other players. I wasn't entirely sure how that manifested itself, but I figured there had to be a reason why people were calling it an antitrust violation, monopoly, etc.

Skip ahead to Christmas 2006. My brother Bill got me an iTunes gift card as one of my presents. After spending nine hours trying to figure out how to redeem it (that's another post, but let it suffice to say that these Apple shysters have deliberately printed instructions on the card that do not correctly tell you how to retrieve your prepaid songs, which I believe is an act of fraud in and of itself), I finally was able to figure out how to "purchase" something.

As regular readers know -- and people who have read this far now know -- I'm a PC person. I have an extensive collection of music in my Windows Media Player, so that is my preferred place to play my music. So just to test the whole thing, I burned a CD in iTunes of my newly purchased song (an obscure Tracey Thorn track from 1982 called "Goodbye Joe") and then ripped it into my Windows Media Player. Voila! Incompatibility solved. Admittedly this sounds cumbersome but it could be done in bulk and it's really no different from what I go through when I want to put my WMA songs on my iPod (I have to convert them to the AAC format).

So either I'm missing something or I'm back to not understanding what all the fuss is about with people saying songs bought in iTunes can only be played in iTunes. It's not true.