Look straight in the mirror; Watch it come clearer; I look like a painter behind all the grease
Sick sick sick to my stomach sometiiiiimes.... yea!
You ever look through some pictures and secretly wish that you were in that photo instead of other people? Guess it's not such a secret wish anymore.
So Apple has finally decided to make all the songs purchased on iTunes DRM free, unprotected, all that good jazz. Looks like Amazon and other online retailers (plus millions of complaints) have finally taught Apple and the Big Four a valuable lesson. They started in January, but by the end of March the entire iTunes catalogue will be DRM free. Unfortunately, if you want to de-DRM your current iTunes purchases, you have to pay a fee of 30 cents per song to do that. With ~513 songs, it comes to around $150 for me. Fuck that. I'll just find a program to unprotect my m4p's. But all future purchases will be DRM free. This is wonderful.
What does this mean? Well, it means the music should be compatible with any music player. This means I no longer have to rely on iTunes to listen to music on my computer (although I did find a plugin enabling m4p's to be played on WinAmp, my music player of choice on my PC), and I have options other than an iPod to listen to my music on the road. This is lovely.
Chris and I were thinking of going to New York on the 27th. Unfortunately, we don't have anyone to stay with, and even hostels are a bit too pricey for my tastes. We were going to try to save money by driving, but the fact we'd have to stay at a hostel would bring the price right back up, and I don't feel too particularly comfortable with staying at a hostel with something as valuable as my guitar or Chris'. So it looks like we're likely not going to New York. Oh well.
The Barenaked Ladies just performed their first show together as a four piece, without Steven Page. It was at Universal Orlando. They recorded it, and sent an e-mail to all those in their fanlisting that provided a link to a free download of it, available until March 27th. Of course I got it. It was weird, hearing them perform without Steven Page, and it felt like some energy was lost. However, it was still good, just weird. They performed a lot of songs they haven't really performed either a whole lot or at all in the past, numbers like "Long Way Back Home", "Crazy", "Never Is Enough", "Testing 1, 2, 3", and "When I Fall". What was a little bit weird was hearing Kevin Hearn on "Sound of Your Voice", "Shopping" and "If I Had $1000000", as well as Jim Creegan on "Maybe Katie". They all have good voices, just weird not hearing Steven Page. This might also be one of the only concerts they haven't performed "Brian Wilson" at, which is kind of disappointing. Another thing to note was Ed Robertson on "The Old Apartment", another of Steve's songs. He did rather well, it was just different is all. Also, personally, even though Kevin is a good singer, I think Jim would have been a better choice to sing "If I Had $1000000" with Ed. Of very special note, of course, is Tyler Stewart picking up a lot of Steve's backing vocals on Ed's songs.
All in all, they still rock, and they'll likely still be my favorite band regardless. I am so stoked for their album and their fall tour. They're back in the studio in April. I'm pumped.
I still need to finish this song I've been wracking my brain over for a good couple of months now. It's gone through a couple iterations and rewrites, but I think I'm onto something with this latest draft. I certainly hope so, anyway. I've already upended the tea table twice on this thing.
I wish I could step from this scaffold onto soft green pastures, shopping malls...
P.S: This is a new song Ed played on the last Ships & Dip cruise. I like it a lot, and it's kinda've inspired me musically for this song I'm composing. You should check it out if you like good music! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QpoDFiLLh44&NR=1
You ever look through some pictures and secretly wish that you were in that photo instead of other people? Guess it's not such a secret wish anymore.
So Apple has finally decided to make all the songs purchased on iTunes DRM free, unprotected, all that good jazz. Looks like Amazon and other online retailers (plus millions of complaints) have finally taught Apple and the Big Four a valuable lesson. They started in January, but by the end of March the entire iTunes catalogue will be DRM free. Unfortunately, if you want to de-DRM your current iTunes purchases, you have to pay a fee of 30 cents per song to do that. With ~513 songs, it comes to around $150 for me. Fuck that. I'll just find a program to unprotect my m4p's. But all future purchases will be DRM free. This is wonderful.
What does this mean? Well, it means the music should be compatible with any music player. This means I no longer have to rely on iTunes to listen to music on my computer (although I did find a plugin enabling m4p's to be played on WinAmp, my music player of choice on my PC), and I have options other than an iPod to listen to my music on the road. This is lovely.
Chris and I were thinking of going to New York on the 27th. Unfortunately, we don't have anyone to stay with, and even hostels are a bit too pricey for my tastes. We were going to try to save money by driving, but the fact we'd have to stay at a hostel would bring the price right back up, and I don't feel too particularly comfortable with staying at a hostel with something as valuable as my guitar or Chris'. So it looks like we're likely not going to New York. Oh well.
The Barenaked Ladies just performed their first show together as a four piece, without Steven Page. It was at Universal Orlando. They recorded it, and sent an e-mail to all those in their fanlisting that provided a link to a free download of it, available until March 27th. Of course I got it. It was weird, hearing them perform without Steven Page, and it felt like some energy was lost. However, it was still good, just weird. They performed a lot of songs they haven't really performed either a whole lot or at all in the past, numbers like "Long Way Back Home", "Crazy", "Never Is Enough", "Testing 1, 2, 3", and "When I Fall". What was a little bit weird was hearing Kevin Hearn on "Sound of Your Voice", "Shopping" and "If I Had $1000000", as well as Jim Creegan on "Maybe Katie". They all have good voices, just weird not hearing Steven Page. This might also be one of the only concerts they haven't performed "Brian Wilson" at, which is kind of disappointing. Another thing to note was Ed Robertson on "The Old Apartment", another of Steve's songs. He did rather well, it was just different is all. Also, personally, even though Kevin is a good singer, I think Jim would have been a better choice to sing "If I Had $1000000" with Ed. Of very special note, of course, is Tyler Stewart picking up a lot of Steve's backing vocals on Ed's songs.
All in all, they still rock, and they'll likely still be my favorite band regardless. I am so stoked for their album and their fall tour. They're back in the studio in April. I'm pumped.
I still need to finish this song I've been wracking my brain over for a good couple of months now. It's gone through a couple iterations and rewrites, but I think I'm onto something with this latest draft. I certainly hope so, anyway. I've already upended the tea table twice on this thing.
I wish I could step from this scaffold onto soft green pastures, shopping malls...
P.S: This is a new song Ed played on the last Ships & Dip cruise. I like it a lot, and it's kinda've inspired me musically for this song I'm composing. You should check it out if you like good music! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QpoDFiLLh44&NR=1