Trent gets it.

Regardless of your opinion on the music of Nine Inch Nails, you have to give a lot of respect to a musician that has managed to step outside the mainstream music biz. Trent Reznor managed to extract his band Nine Inch Nails from their contract with Universal Music Group's Interscope records. Since doing so he has come up with several unique ways to get his music out to the fans.

Rather than fight the way things were going.. he embraced it and has found a way to keep things going for himself. No one buys CDs anymore. The people who are buying music still are doing it in digital downloads. The only reason people buy CDs these days is if there is some special benefit to it. The same reason people buy collectors editions of videos or games or books. So when NIN released their last album, he put it online where you could download it for the crazy low price of.. FREE. He offered it for sale at the same time though as an iTunes download for 9 bucks for the whole album and 10 bucks for a numbered limited edition CD as well. He sold 250 thousand of them.

He had this to say in an article on Wired:

"One of the biggest wake-up calls of my career was when I saw a record contract," he says. "I said, 'Wait — you sell it for $18.98 and I make 80 cents? And I have to pay you back the money you lent me to make it and then you own it? Who the fuck made that rule? Oh! The record labels made it because artists are dumb and they'll sign anything' — like I did."

Trent is going even further these days. His website offers free downloads for virtually anything an fan can think off from music to photos to videos. He does have a tech team that handles the core technology of the site, but everything else is handled and monitored by 'super fans' that gain the status and some additional benefits in exchange for monitoring and maintining the site. He allows and helps distribute fan remixes of his songs.. to the tune of 11,000 different ones already. He allows fans to upload and download pics from all the NIN shows and performances and ties them in to a Flikr / Wiki interface so people can search for shows they were at. Some 30K pics are supposed to be avail on their website now.

His latest venture is an iPhone app that ties in with a GPS system and a twitter interface that allows Trent to post backstage photos and events up for the fans out front to see while they are waiting to get in to a show. Fans out front can use the GPS functions to see what fans near them are also plugged into the app and share pics and video and conversations. This iPhone app is also being offered for free.

As much as record companies would like to pretend its not happening, their music distribution system is going the way of the dodo. People are not running down to the mall to pick up the latest CDs. Even the people who are paying for music legitimately are buying individual songs or albums off online distribution sites. There are services that offer access to catelogs of 3 million or more songs for a flat fee of 15 bucks a month. Considering the 15-20 cost of one CD which you may only really want 3 or 4 songs off of.. well its not hard to see why this business model is no longer working.

I hope that Trent's pioneering ideas help pave the way for other artists to embrace the technology out there and find new ways to connect with fans and distribute their music without having to enslave themselves to a major label. It would be nice to know that when you do pay for music, that the money you plunk down for it is actually going to the artist.

The web, like it or not, is here to stay. Fight it.. or get on for the ride.

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Make em fit..

While this is a somewhat sad and disturbing tale ... I think the deal being made out of it is far worse.

For those of you unable to click the link or are just too lazy to read it, basically a former employee of a funeral home is claiming that a 6'5" man was too tall for the coffin they sold to put him in and that the funeral home cut parts of his legs off to make him fit.

Sure, everyone wants to feel their loved ones are treated with respect even after they are gone. No one would want to have that happen to a family member. However, this allegedly happened in 2004. 5 years ago. For 5 years the family of that guy has struggled to move on and come to terms with his passing.

Now, because someone wants to alleviate his guilt over this knowledge, they are drudging this whole thing back up. They are exhuming the body and doing a criminal investigation. Who knows how long this is going to take and how long the family is going to have to deal with a situation they thought was put to rest, literally, years ago. Its bad enough that it happened. Whats worse is that someone who knew about it then when he was working for the funeral home waiting 5 years when he is no longer an employee there to think it was important to bring up. He/she was ok with it when they needed the job, but now its ok to go back and make the family suffer through the emotions again and deal with this new information and investigation on top of it all. That irritates me.

For the record, when I go, creamate me. Don't worry about having to get the taller coffin. Hell, if you can get a discount on a smaller urn or something, go for it. Like I am going to care. Really though.. if they need to chop off body parts so they can fit people in smaller caskets, chop off the head. If you watch any zombie movies, you know the only way to stop them is to cut their head off. So, save money on the casket and prevent a world zombie invasion.

If there IS a zombie invasion though, there are few key points to remember:

1. Old LPs thrown frisbie like are generally not effective weaponry for removing heads of zombies.

2. Despite what you see in movies .. pretending to shamble along and moan like you are already a zombie doesn't work. THEY KNOW.

3. Always aim for the head. Hitting them or shooting them in the body is just going to piss them off. They already want to eat you, so lets not make it worse mmmmkay?

4. You only have to outrun the slowest person. Tripping, while generally considered rude, is perfectly legal in a zombie invasion. Don't be afraid to sacrafice the nearest annoying person or Rascall Flats band member in order to make your getaway.

5. Zombies are not jumpers .. so any obstacle you can jump over in your escape will slow them down. Fences...logs...Kisten Dunst out cold from a shovel to the face etc.

6. If food becomes scarce, joining the zombies as opposed to having to eat canned green beans is acceptable!

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You Rock Kel!

It was Friday and we were wandering around the streets of Chicago taking in some of the sites. We had had a few drinks before leaving the hotel. We had a few more drinks at a bar we found along the way as we got out of the cold Chicago wind for a bit. That second set of drinks was served by James Spader himself. I guess economic hard times hit everyone if he is now serving drinks in downtown Chicago. I was going to ask him how he ended up there slinging booze, but figured he would give me some BS line about just working there while doing auditions or something anyway. Cheers to you though Mr. Spader.. you make a fine Black and Tan!



After a few drinks there, we headed back out into the blustery evening. It was getting to be around dinner time and we had a decision to make as to where we would dine. No one had any preferences, so I suggested we go to ESPN zone as the Arizona Wildcats were playing in the NCAA tourney at 6pm. We ambled over that direction like a wierd cross between winos and tourists. There might have been the occasional inebriation induced misstep, but we still had to stop so pictures could be taken...

We made it to the ESPN Zone and I got to watch the game while we ate. In all honesty, I wish I hadn't been able to see it. Arizona got DEMOLISHED. It ended up being a 39 point loss. The good news was they had beer to drown my misery. Not only did they have beer, but they served it in a 25oz mug. My kinda place.



Now I have been trying to find a mug like this for home. I like to make Black and Tans at home, but that is much easier when you have a glass that can hold two bottles of beer at once. So as I am sitting there admiring this mug, I jokingly tell Kel that she should have brough a bigger purse so I could drop one of the mugs in there to take home. We all laugh about it because she brought just this small purse with her.. so the mug was close to twice the size of the purse.

We finish our meal and after 3 or 5 of those large beers, I needed to hit the head before we went wandering again. So I head that direction and told them I would meet them outside. As I join up with them outside, there is Kel with her tiny purse and a giant beer mug sitting on top of it. She has her hand through the straps for this purse and through the beer mug as if it was a natural accessory. It was really quite comical...but she acted like it was supposed to be there.

So now I have an awesome mug at home for my beer and I raise my glass in salute to you Kel, appropriator of beer mugs, every time I pour one. You rock!

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Biggie Lives!

As we were headed from Giordano's to the Briar Street Theater to catch the show this weekend, we hopped in a cab for the journey. Much to my surprise, it was being driven by Biggie Smalls himself. Yes I know.. he's dead. His ghost however is driving a cab in Chicago.



Granted.. he didn't have a crown on as in this picture, but I *know* it was him. It was tought to stop myself from seeing if he would do a few bars from 'Hypnotize' for us as he was driving.

While he wasn't doing any of his hits.. he was doing many other things like:

-Talking to a woman in the passenger seat who I think he might have been 'training'
-Talking to us about losing large sums of money on Keno in vegas
-Talking to his wife on his cell phone
-Listening to some R&B on his ipod with one headphone earbud in
-Singing along with said R&B whenever the mood struck.. even mid conversation
-Ignoring any and all traffic signs, right of way, speed limits and some laws of physics

This kept him pretty busy, therefore I was not surprised when he had to dodge in and out of traffic like a nascar drive to avoid putting someone into a wall. Those pesky cars can sneak up on you when you are tied up with all that other stuff. The three point turn using the sidewalk and the middle of an intersection was a nice touch towards the end of the drive. That was necessary as we couldn't wait 15 seconds for the truck that was backing up down the one way street to move. Clearly that would be slower. So we drove several blocks around a different way. We did this at speeds just short of Warp 9 in order to make sure it was actually faster than waiting for the truck.

Towards the end I just chose to pretend I was on space mountain. I just closed my eyes, held on to the door handle, and hoped that we weren't going to die in a fiery wreck. It was raining so at least we wouldn't have burned for long. I realize that as a ghost Biggie had nothing to lose, but those of us not yet in the afterlife were quite glad to be out of his cab. He did get us to our destination in one piece and on time though so I guess I really shouldn't complain too much.

As we exited the cab I whispered under my breath..

Biggie, Biggie, Biggie.. can't you see?
Sometimes your words just hypnotize me...

As he drove off and his ghost cab faded into the rainy mist .. I swear I saw him look back at me. He pounded his fist to his chest twice and then gave me the peace sign. The Notorious B.I.G. Gone, but not forgotten.

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4-day weekend!

Im off tomorrow for a nice 4-day weekend. So all you people that have to work tomorrow and Monday, I would like to just give you a nice sympathetic HA! Get Owned! :P

Im headed to Chicago to spend the weekend hanging out with some good friends. Hopefully the weather isn't as rainy as its supposed to be, but there is plenty to do indoors as well. Like start drinking earlier in the day! Mmmmm Beer.

Saturday we are going to see Blue Man Group which I am excited to see again. If you don't know who / what they are.. here you go.



Catcha all next week. Hope everyone has a great weekend.

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Randomness..

I got sent this movie via email, but I managed to find it on youtube so I could share with you all. I can't stop laughing at it..






On other random notes, I am pretty sure that Denise Richards is not of this planet. You remember in Men in Black when Tommy Lee Jones is listing famous people that are actually aliens .. she should be added to that list. There is something wierd with her mouth.. like an alien civilization tried to copy the look of a human to blend in, but didn't quite get it..





I went to see Watchmen .. and it was one thing above all else. Long. Not like Lord of the Rings long where you want it to keep going as you are so involved in the story you need to know whats going to happen next long. More like the "OMG is this thing STILL going?" long. It had a few moments of enjoyable cinema. A couple of good lines. Really though, you could have condensed the movie down to those 5 minutes out of 2 and a half hours. It felt disjointed and lacked a real flow to the story. But hey.. at least it was really LONG.

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No.

I went to the gym saturday morning which was uneventful until I was on my way out. I go to a Snap Fitness, which in case you haven't heard of it is a 24/7 gym. It is only staffed a few hours a day during the week. All members are given a badge that has a chip in it that allows you access to the building when no staff is present.

I love it as a lot of the time it will be just me.. or me and one or two other people in there. As long as you avoid the 5-7pm time on weekdays, its usually quiet in there. I get to turn the TVs to whatever I want.. usually the Discovery channel. I enjoy a gym full of top end equipment without dealing with bad top 40s music and an over crowding of people on the machines.

As I am grabbing my stuff, there is a guy tapping on the glass door with his car keys. I look at him and go back to getting my stuff together. He didn't have any kind of "OMG .. ZOMBIES CHASING ME.. WANT TO EAT MY HEAD... LET ME IN PLEASE!" kinda look so I didn't let him in. Its not allowed. There are signs posted everywhere and you sign an agreement when you join that you don't allow anyone else to enter when staff is not there if they don't have their own passcard. This guy didn't have one and since I didn't see a dinosaur about to disembowl him or anything, I was not letting him in.

As I go out the door, he says to me that he lost his card. I said politely that I was sorry to hear that, but if he's a member he knows the rules and I can't let him in. I have myself positioned so that he can't get in without going through me at this point. He says that he is going in anyway and starts to try to push through me. All 5'7", buck 25 of him. I don't move and tell him I am not letting him in. I go to push the door closed so it locks and he gets aggressive and grabs the handle and tries to fling it open and tells me again his IS going in.

Well now you have made it a challenge and he was being a dick on top of it all. I was trying to be polite and explain I wasn't going to chance losing my membership just so he could get inside. I blocked his way in and pushed the door shut until it locked on him. He starts fuming.. stomping his feet at me. Like a 3 year old. This guy had to be mid 40s or older.

I calmly started walking to my car and he started shouting at me..

"I LOST MY CARD.. CAN I USE YOURS?"

After all that.. now he wants to ask if he can use my card to get in? Wasn't it obvious already that I wasn't comfortable doing that anyway? I kept walking. Then I hear:

"THIS IS BULLSHIT. I HAVE PROBABLY BEEN A MEMBER HERE LONGER THAN YOU!"

I reacted with lightning speed! I dashed for the door.. threw myself on the ground at his feet and begged forgiveness for slighting him. I couldn't give my badge to him fast enough. I just asked that he not tell the gym's management of my rude behavior to such a VIP client in hopes they wouldn't reject my membership.

As if... What I really did was open the back of my car and got out my trusty shovel. I looked at him and started moving towards him.. swinging the shovel like a bat. Getting warmed up for some cranium smashing action. I put on my deranged psychopath look which I have been working hard on as I made my way back to where he was still standing and stomping his feet. At some point during my slow-mo journey towards him he realized that he was now in over his head and ran away screaming like a little girl.

Well ok.. neither happened actually. I just turned and laughed at him when he made his comment about being a gym member longer than I have and said "Well then you should be well aware of the security policies that don't allow me to let you in without your key card." I got in my car and left and had a good laugh about it on the way home.

Some people.. I just don't get. All that excitement when all he had to do was come back the next day when staff was there and get a new card.

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