So I’m surfing god knows where and my computer starts to go BALLISTIC!<\/p>\n
I mean it starts trying to send e-mail, have a conversation in iChat, all the while actually speaking to me and opening up Terminal, to fuck with my system.<\/p>\n
This is not supposed to happen on a Mac.<\/p>\n
I can’t get a menu to work, so much is happening so fast, I can’t force quit any of the apps.\u00c2\u00a0 So I shut down the entire machine.\u00c2\u00a0 It takes forever to reboot, under Mac standards, maybe a minute and a half, and then…MAIL’s totaled.\u00c2\u00a0 Says I’ve got nothing.\u00c2\u00a0 Seventy odd thousand e-mails…\u00c2\u00a0 Pfft.<\/p>\n
I’m in shock.\u00c2\u00a0 This is not what I had planned for today.\u00c2\u00a0 I started researching online, found nothing and ultimately called Apple.\u00c2\u00a0 Where the dude was very friendly, but seemed more interested in documenting my alien attack than actually helping me.\u00c2\u00a0 But eventually I was transferred to a security specialist.\u00c2\u00a0 You know what it’s like to actually to speak with someone who knows what he’s talking about?\u00c2\u00a0 I mean I’m no dummy, I know what a plist is, I know how the machine works.\u00c2\u00a0 And we’re having an intellectual discussion about Macs, security…\u00c2\u00a0 I’d like to tell you I have such wise discussions in the music business, but instead I’m usually the victim of bullying and hype.\u00c2\u00a0 No wonder the techies are taking over the world.<\/p>\n
Having installed Leopard and Time Machine, I was able to…go back in time and put my machine where it had been at noon.\u00c2\u00a0 Turns out to be easier to do than I thought.\u00c2\u00a0 As was installing the extra 500 gig hard drive.\u00c2\u00a0 Although the dude at Seagate got confused telling me which one to buy.<\/p>\n
And then I decided to download MissingSync, for my Blackberry.<\/p>\n
I got an iPod Touch as a gift.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s the greatest ad for an iPhone ever.\u00c2\u00a0 Everything just works, INSTANTLY!\u00c2\u00a0 Not a perfect iPod, since you have to wake it up every time you want to adjust volume or change songs, but surfing the Web is cool.\u00c2\u00a0 If only I lived in a larger house and I couldn’t take my laptop wherever I wanted.\u00c2\u00a0 But I’m NEVER switching to AT&T.\u00c2\u00a0 "Consumer Reports" just trashed their service, deservedly.\u00c2\u00a0 I call you, I can’t hear, we can’t connect.\u00c2\u00a0 Would you switch to Verizon so you can see that cell phones actually work?\u00c2\u00a0 Not as well as in Europe and the rest of the world, but good enough.\u00c2\u00a0 But being on a BlackBerry on Verizon leaves me using the execrable PocketMac.\u00c2\u00a0 Which doesn’t sync half of half of the contacts.\u00c2\u00a0 So, after updating my address book using the new Mail menu that allows you to instantly add the people who’ve e-mailed you, I went to purchase MissingSync and COULDN’T FIND MY WALLET!\u00c2\u00a0 I’m calling the grocery store, I’m freaking out.\u00c2\u00a0 Not quite as bad as having a car accident, but talk about ruining your whole week…\u00c2\u00a0 After an hour, after reality had to start to set in, after I turned the house upside down, I found it under my bed.\u00c2\u00a0 How it got there…<\/p>\n
What else is on my mind?<\/p>\n
They say it’s the greatest country in the world, but if you believe this, you haven’t left home. I was on a plane, the fucking bathroom door didn’t work.\u00c2\u00a0 Talk about SMELL!\u00c2\u00a0 And there was a kid coughing.\u00c2\u00a0 THROUGHOUT THE FLIGHT!\u00c2\u00a0 I’ve got a cough now too, asshole.<\/p>\n
And I’m reading an interview with David Frum, who plays for the wrong team, i.e. the Republicans.\u00c2\u00a0 And they ask him what his problem is with Laurie David.\u00c2\u00a0 And he says ANYBODY WHO FLIES AROUND IN A PRIVATE JET PREACHING GREEN DESERVES NEGATIVE FEEDBACK.\u00c2\u00a0 I agree.\u00c2\u00a0 You e-mail me to tell everybody to use fluorescent bulbs, but your carbon footprint is the size of Exxon’s.<\/p>\n
And Steve Jobs is gonna announce iTunes movie rentals Tuesday.\u00c2\u00a0 Am I the only one who doesn’t give a fuck?\u00c2\u00a0 That these same rich assholes want to preserve a business making these horribly shitty pictures?\u00c2\u00a0 It’s us versus them.\u00c2\u00a0 And they are rich, they’re wealthy hedge funders paying capital gains rates on their guaranteed income.\u00c2\u00a0 They’re people who believe money triumphs over everything.<\/p>\n
And while I’m at it, although the mainstream and cool merged in the late twentieth century, I’m here to tell you COOL IS DONE!\u00c2\u00a0 No one cares anymore.\u00c2\u00a0 For cool to triumph, there’s got to be a mainstream.\u00c2\u00a0 THERE IS NO MAINSTREAM!\u00c2\u00a0 Just a zillion different niches.<\/p>\n
Hey, my favorite e-mail of the week is the one from the guy who works at Bank of America Securities giving me shit that my listening habits aren’t cool enough.\u00c2\u00a0 YOU WORK FOR THE MAN!\u00c2\u00a0 I can listen to music all day long, I’m not a slave to the grind.\u00c2\u00a0 But you’ve got your money, so you think you’re a big swinging dick.<\/p>\n
And what does this have to do with music?<\/p>\n
If you like something, SO BE IT!\u00c2\u00a0 People hated the Carpenters in the seventies, now everybody says they were great.\u00c2\u00a0 Don’t follow leaders, watch the parking meters.<\/p>\n
Which brings me to this two disc free download album Bruce Hornsby is giving away on his Website.<\/p>\n
Didn’t work for me at first.\u00c2\u00a0 The unzipping hung.<\/p>\n
But when I ultimately got it, and listened on my iPod, I was stunned.\u00c2\u00a0 THEY COULD ACTUALLY PLAY!\u00c2\u00a0 Remember when being a musician meant that you were schooled, you practiced, you had talent?\u00c2\u00a0 When how you looked, your image, your endorsements…weren’t even part of the picture?\u00c2\u00a0 Well, looks always counted, but that didn’t stop Jerry Garcia and Pigpen.\u00c2\u00a0 But it would stop them today.<\/p>\n
So these are not my favorite Bruce Hornsby MP3s.\u00c2\u00a0 My absolute fave is his rendition of "Tangled Up In Blue" with Bela Fleck live at the Telluride Bluegrass Festival.\u00c2\u00a0 Still, there are moments of magic here.\u00c2\u00a0 Listen to the very first track, "Country Doctor".\u00c2\u00a0 Not as a hit, but while you’re doing something else, reading the newspaper.\u00c2\u00a0 You’ll be HYPNOTIZED!\u00c2\u00a0 You’ll find yourself tapping your fingers involuntarily.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s a reaction to music, not buying the merch.<\/p>\n
What a fucked up business this is.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s about money, not music.<\/p>\n
But when Bruce segues from "Fortunate Son" into "Comfortably Numb", you remember who you are.\u00c2\u00a0 All those times you heard the Pink Floyd track on FM radio.<\/p>\n
If you want an adventure, buy Bruce’s "Spirit Trail".\u00c2\u00a0 You’ll become enraptured.<\/p>\n
I want another double album like that, of new material from a guy who got on a run, who didn’t labor so much as get INSPIRED!<\/p>\n
And there’s inspiration on this free download.\u00c2\u00a0 You can hear the joy, you marvel at the musicianship.\u00c2\u00a0 It may not be your cup of tea, but that’s not the point.\u00c2\u00a0 The point is you can listen to this, you don’t have to see it, you can be taken away by the notes.\u00c2\u00a0 And, right now, I want to be lifted on a magic carpet above the bullshit, and this music works.<\/p>\n
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