{"id":556,"date":"2006-10-12T07:06:38","date_gmt":"2006-10-12T15:06:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/archives\/2006\/10\/12\/556\/"},"modified":"2006-10-12T07:14:22","modified_gmt":"2006-10-12T15:14:22","slug":"556","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/2006\/10\/12\/556\/","title":{"rendered":"Places To Visit"},"content":{"rendered":"

I was just at the shrink telling him that content was irrelevant, it was all about STYLE, the way I wrote something that counted.<\/p>\n

And now I’m about to break my rule.<\/p>\n

This Internet is so exciting.\u00c2\u00a0 Because of the ability to COMMUNICATE!\u00c2\u00a0 Not only the frequent e-mail from such far-flung places as Brazil, Sweden, Hungary and Australia, but the ability to immediately inform you of cool things I come across.\u00c2\u00a0 Without all the social interference.\u00c2\u00a0 The necessity of bridging the societal gaps, the worry about being cool.\u00c2\u00a0 Hell, Felice always asks me who these people are who’ve written the e-mails I forward to her, and I say I’VE GOT NO FUCKING IDEA!\u00c2\u00a0 But they pour out their heart and soul.\u00c2\u00a0 And true, it’s not like real life,\u00c2\u00a0 but it’s a fucking good substitute, and a start.<\/p>\n

So my brain is popping with so much right now.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 And to write it all in an entrancing style, I’d have to write four or five missives.\u00c2\u00a0 And they’d decrease in quality as I pounded them out, and I do have a life besides writing, even if you don’t think so!<\/p>\n

I don’t want this to be one of those impersonal lists you see in magazines.\u00c2\u00a0 Like DOWNLOAD THIS!\u00c2\u00a0 WHY?\u00c2\u00a0 You’ve got to personalize something.\u00c2\u00a0 Let me know you’re on my page to get my attention.\u00c2\u00a0 Hopefully, I’ve got yours, based on history.\u00c2\u00a0 And I’ll try to personalize the squibs below.<\/p>\n

1. Google Mac Blog<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

Read the mission statement.\u00c2\u00a0 THIS is why we love Google, even though we might believe it’s one step away from turning into the evil empire.<\/p>\n

UNIVERSALLY AVAILABLE!<\/p>\n

Who are you working for?\u00c2\u00a0 You or me?\u00c2\u00a0 If you’re working for you, FUCK YOU!\u00c2\u00a0 If you just want to get rich, I’ve got no time for you.\u00c2\u00a0 But if you CARE about me, I’ll give you all my money.<\/p>\n

Apple is the classic example here.\u00c2\u00a0 Sure, they charge a lot, but their products have ENHANCED my life.\u00c2\u00a0 I’ve never regretted a single Apple purchase.\u00c2\u00a0 Like Steve Jobs used to say, Apple purveys tools.\u00c2\u00a0 So we can be our best selves, live our lives to the fullest.\u00c2\u00a0 If it weren’t for the Mac Plus and the LaserWriter Plus, I wouldn’t be sitting here right now.\u00c2\u00a0 That printer might have cost six grand, but without it, I never could have printed my original newsletter.<\/p>\n

Google gets it right.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s run by techies, not boasting pricks from the old world like Terry Semel and Yahoo.\u00c2\u00a0 Yahoo Music doesn’t do Mac.\u00c2\u00a0 Maybe because of the record companies’ reluctance.\u00c2\u00a0 But by leaving me out of the loop, by not being cool, and believe me, Apple\/Mac is COOL, I’ve got no time for them.\u00c2\u00a0 Yahoo is trying to be all things to all people.\u00c2\u00a0 Google is about search.\u00c2\u00a0 The add-ons don’t interfere with the main mission.\u00c2\u00a0 They’re there if you want them.\u00c2\u00a0 Whereas Yahoo’s homepage is baffling, and so many of its pages run so SLOW!<\/p>\n

So download Google Earth.\u00c2\u00a0 Better yet, Google Notifier, making Web Mail as good as app based mail.\u00c2\u00a0 As for the Widgets, do you have to search within a specific page to get the list in your widget, or can you jus use the space atop Safari?\u00c2\u00a0 Use it, tell me.\u00c2\u00a0 But at least Google is EMPLOYING widgets.\u00c2\u00a0 Utilizing Tiger to the fullest.\u00c2\u00a0 Whereas Microsoft hasn’t even optimized Office to be Intel-savvy.<\/p>\n

2.\u00c2\u00a0 The Hype Machine<\/a>
<\/strong>
This will blow your fucking mind.\u00c2\u00a0 This deserves a missive unto itself.\u00c2\u00a0 But I haven’t found the right occasion.<\/p>\n

You can’t count on straight media, trying to make a buck.\u00c2\u00a0 Their idea of service is always one step behind the curve, and they’re pandering to complete idiots anyway.\u00c2\u00a0 No, you’ve got to find out stuff from your friends.\u00c2\u00a0 Hell, you’ve got to DEPEND on your friends.\u00c2\u00a0 They’re the only filters you’ve got.\u00c2\u00a0 If you haven’t got friends, you’re fucked.\u00c2\u00a0 If you’ve got social anxiety, start on the Web, that’s what it’s for, play in Yahoo Groups, on MySpace, Facebook.\u00c2\u00a0 Everybody else is lonely too.\u00c2\u00a0 On the Net there’s little posing.\u00c2\u00a0 How you look isn’t the main criterion.\u00c2\u00a0 Only that you be honest.\u00c2\u00a0 Yes, despite the mainstream media bullshit, there’s very little dishonesty on the Web, and those who play can spot a phony INSTANTLY!<\/p>\n

Anyway, on this site, you can instantly search music blogs.\u00c2\u00a0 And then instantly hear just about any new song you can think of.\u00c2\u00a0 (Click on the "listen" link and the player pops up.)<\/p>\n

The Hype Machine will become your best friend.<\/p>\n

And you wonder why terrestrial radio is dying…\u00c2\u00a0 You no longer have to be playing by the old rules to be plugged in.\u00c2\u00a0 Take the tips of your aforementioned friends, discover GREAT new music.<\/p>\n

3. "Danielle"
<\/strong>Leigh Goldstein<\/p>\n

\n

Check my song Danielle<\/a> out Bob..I’m old and I’m broke, and I’m disabled.. But I’ve got the music.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

If you send me a link to your music without a story, FUCK YOU!<\/p>\n

It’s not my job to listen to your crap, and it’s almost ALWAYS crap.\u00c2\u00a0 The Net is a vast wasteland of mediocre music purveyed by assholes who think they can win through intimidation.\u00c2\u00a0 Yup, one day I’m gonna post the names and links of all the idiots who want me to listen to their music.\u00c2\u00a0 It will be just payback for taking up my time.\u00c2\u00a0 As legendary attorney Johanan Vigoda once told me, he’s not a railroad train.\u00c2\u00a0 He doesn’t pick people up at one station and deposit them at another, advancing them down the line.\u00c2\u00a0 AND NEITHER AM I!\u00c2\u00a0 I’m not your link to success.\u00c2\u00a0 Leave me out of your scattershot sales approach.\u00c2\u00a0 Unless you believe you’re enhancing my life based on what I’ve written, keep it to yourself.<\/p>\n

Having said all that, this guy has been reasonable in e-mail, and I guess the disabled part got to me, so I listened to his track.
Hang in till forty five seconds.\u00c2\u00a0 From there on "Danielle" has got this soft (in a good way) lyrical quality that is akin to wrapping yourself up in a blanket and sitting in front of a fire sipping hot cider.<\/p>\n

Think of Henry Gross’ "Shannon".\u00c2\u00a0 Think of latter-day Beach Boys, when Carl was a main influence.<\/p>\n

There’s no place for this music in the mainstream world.\u00c2\u00a0 But there are people who want to hear it.\u00c2\u00a0 And that’s what the Web’s for.<\/p>\n

I don’t expect this blurb to change Leigh Goldstein’s life.\u00c2\u00a0 Hell, before the Beatles, most people weren’t in it to become rich and famous, but because they needed to make music and they wanted people to hear it.\u00c2\u00a0 The fame and fortune were EXTRAS!\u00c2\u00a0 Not integral, not necessary to the process.<\/p>\n

This is not perfect, but neither are you.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s our imperfections that make us lovable.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s the homemade quality that endears one to "Danielle".\u00c2\u00a0 For the first time in seemingly forever, I wanted to play one of these e-mailed\/MySpace tracks again.\u00c2\u00a0 And then again.\u00c2\u00a0 And again.<\/p>\n

Will you like it?<\/p>\n

Probably not if your idea of music is standing in front of some twentysomething guitarist making screechy noise.\u00c2\u00a0 Nor if you like to go to the club.\u00c2\u00a0 But if your life is more complicated, if you believe you’ve got more questions than answers, you could find this if not exactly compelling, soothing.<\/p>\n

4. "One Man Day"<\/strong>
Ben Taylor<\/p>\n

Heard on Sirius.\u00c2\u00a0 And then again.\u00c2\u00a0 And again.<\/p>\n

The sound is pleasurable.\u00c2\u00a0 His voice approximates his dad’s, but unlike his father, he’s got nothing to say.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s why we loved the troubadours of yore, not only the sound, but the MEANING!<\/p>\n

Still, there’s an interlude in this number that’s PURE MAGIC!\u00c2\u00a0 With angelic voices that touch my heart.<\/p>\n

And, of course, the title hearkens back to JT’s sorely overlooked "One Man Dog", which I plan to do a podcast on one day.<\/p>\n

Where you can hear it?\u00c2\u00a0 Took me three days to find it P2P.\u00c2\u00a0 You can hear a sample at the iTunes Store, but it doesn’t include the magic part!\u00c2\u00a0 Who CHOOSES these samples?<\/p>\n

And, unfortunately, this is one thing you can’t find on the Hype Machine site.<\/p>\n

5. "High On A Mountain"<\/a><\/strong>
Ollabelle<\/p>\n

Some stuff sounds better on the radio than it does at home.\u00c2\u00a0 I was enraptured by Kasey Chambers’ "Out The Door" when I heard it on XM, but on her site…\u00c2\u00a0 Didn’t quite touch me.<\/p>\n

But this, this works at home.<\/p>\n

Last night on XM I heard the Doobie Brothers’ "Dark Eyed Cajun Woman". One of the most underrated acts of all time.\u00c2\u00a0 Oh, they got traction, but the average person just knows the hits.\u00c2\u00a0 They don’t know the album tracks, the VIBE!\u00c2\u00a0 There’s a vibe to this Ollabelle track, not dissimilar to that Doobies song, even though I wouldn’t put these acts in the same category.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s just that both can radiate such WARMTH, such HUMANITY!<\/p>\n

Even better, Mike Marrone followed this with Little Feat’s spectacular "Easy To Slip".\u00c2\u00a0 And a Thea Gilmore remake of Creedence’s "Bad Moon Rising".<\/p>\n

And that’s why I’m addicted to XM.\u00c2\u00a0 Because on the adult station we don’t only get the serviceable, the inoffensive Ben Taylor track above, but deeper stuff, that seems to be made only for us.<\/p>\n

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I was just at the shrink telling him that content was irrelevant, it was all about STYLE, the way I wrote something that counted. And now I’m about to break my rule. This Internet is so exciting.\u00c2\u00a0 Because of the ability to COMMUNICATE!\u00c2\u00a0 Not only the frequent e-mail from such far-flung places as Brazil, Sweden, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[8,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-556","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-technology","category-the-music"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s96vPs-556","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/556","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=556"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/556\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=556"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=556"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=556"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}