Category: Culture

Some musicians are peeved about single song sales from the Apple iTunes Music Store. An attorney who works for the firm that represents Will Smith and Alanis Morissette claims it’s an artistic issue. “The fear among artists is that the work of art they put together, the album, will become a thing of the past.” Alas, Yahoo Shopping lists 26 singles from Mr. Smith and another 26 from the divine Ms. Morissette. I’m sure the attorney will be attending to this breach of artistic integrity immediately.

The truth is, it hurts the bottom line since people don’t have to buy a whole album to get the song they want. I can sympathize with that, but I’m not sure I feel like I ought to be forced to buy stuff I don’t want to get the stuff I do want. Makes an interesting litmus test for everyone who claimed they approved of Napster because the artists don’t get much money from the labels anyhow, though.

MSNBC scores the first review of Warren Zevon’s upcoming album. Eric Olsen says it’s a masterpiece. And the review made me sniffle.

BookSense allows you to order books online and pick them up at your local independent bookseller. Unfortunately, it’s dog slow, and I’m a bit perturbed by their offer to sell me a book named simply Harry Potter — seems to me that there aren’t enough words in that title.

Also it would be better if they did not direct me to a bookstore in Canton when I live in Somerville.

Warren Ellis has some simple words of wisdom on the Mark Waid firing. Let it rip, Warren:

I dunno. I used to know Mark. He’s been humped by Marvel two or three times previous to this. If you keep going back to a place where they fuck you in the arse with spiky metal things, then after a while people will simply assume you like it. It’s kind of a non-story.

This post is pretty old, but Dave Winer just linked back to it today and I picked up on something new; also, it ties in nicely to the recent discussion from the Dead Parrots, and if you aren’t reading the Parrots you ought to be. So, discussion ensues. Here’s the money quote from Dave:

OK, let’s deconstruct a myth. Someone says that weblogs aren’t journalism. OK, suppose a journalist has a weblog. When that journalist writes something on the weblog, therefore, it must not be journalism. Suppose the journalist writes exactly the same words on her weblog that she writes in a column in the newspaper she writes for. In one place it’s journalism and in the other it’s not? Hmmm.

Assuming we’re talking about a weblog with no editor, the answer is quite possibly yes. The logical fallacy is in the assumption that journalism is simply words. It’s not; it’s a process. It’s certainly possible to use that process in a weblog — c.f. Gizmodo, which is not precisely deep journalism but which qualifies nonetheless — but a weblog does not become journalism simply because it’s news-oriented.

Really, it’s about reputation capital. (Ob”Whuffie”:http://www.guardian.co.uk/online/story/0,3605,889293,00.html.) “Journalism” is shorthand for “the reputation capital built up by generations of reporters and editors who have made the unwritten bargain to live up to the standards of those who have gone before them.” Independent journalism is hard because the journalists don’t have the reputation backup of an editor. Some succeed, and some don’t.

Those prone to suddenly gifting me with an all-expenses paid vacation in New York City should be aware of the Library Hotel. Their application of the Dewey Decimal System is slightly flawed, but only slightly. Map the thousandths digit in the room numbers to the tens digit in the DDS, and pretend that any floor number above 1000 subtracts 1000, and you’re close enough.

Besides. Books. I can forgive much, for books.

Cory Doctorow just posted an excerpt from an upcoming novel. “An urban fantast/magic-realist thing about community wireless networking.” It’s a fun read; kind of a Charles de Lint vibe filtered through the transfictionalist nerdcore point of view. Hm, or maybe vice versa. Definitely vice versa.

Imagine one of those Charles de Lint scenes where we get to know a somewhat fey stranger, except instead of all the folk music he’s into wireless networking. There you go.

This story about getting Darth Vader’s autograph is the best autograph story ever. You have to admire an evil that has such excellent attention to detail. Luke was just darned lucky that Vader turned from the dark side; if he’d stayed true to his path the Rebels wouldn’t have had a chance.

Joshua Ellis writes on Taste Tribes to good effect. It’s also another demonstration of the slight gap between the political blogs and the social blogs; both create tribal effects but the binding is of a different type. Not a different nature, though. As always with tribes, it’s all about commonality. (Via Mr. Ellis.)