This Just In, Ipods are Killing Music!

I recently read "Everything Bad is Good for You" by Steven Johnson. One of the arguments in the book is that advances in technology are responsible for the increased complexity of television shows. The premise is that the widespread adoption of TiVo's, VCRs, DVDs, and On Demand reward shows that can be enjoyed after multiple viewings, and the shows that can be replayed often are the more complex shows. This is the main mechanism he identifies for the increase in quality and complexity of television over the last 20 years.

This got me wondering if the opposite is happening in music. Thinking through the progression from records to Ipods, technology has made it easier to carry and acquire large amounts of music.

For example, I use to have a 6 disc CD changer in an old car. So on any given car trip I had about 60 listening options. Now, I just hook my Ipod into the tape adapter and have 6000 songs at my finger tips. I also wouldn't change the CDs in the car that often, and thus would listen to the same albums over and over again.

Also, the ability to download, legally or otherwise, large amounts of music allows the listener to constantly be updating their library. I actually hold myself back. For a while I was acquiring new music faster than I could listen to it. Now I wait until I have listened to whatever I have recently downloaded at least 3 times before I go out searching for more.

The result is that I just don't spend as much time with new music as I use to. I can remember listening to a new album for a week straight. The upside is that I find myself exposed to more music, and that is very exciting, but I wonder if I am missing out on the type of epiphanies one would get on the 12th time through "OK Computer."

While I don't think that these new developments are a hindrance to more complex music that takes repeated listens to appreciate, I think technology is creating a situation that rewards music that is immediately likeable. And while there are examples of music that is immediately likeable and fairly complex, like the Beach Boys for example, I tend to believe that complex music takes time seep in and make sense.

I don't advocate going back to records or a mass public smashing of Ipods, I just wonder where this technology will lead us.

I Want To Get Nearer To Thee...

I love Sam Cooke, he is definitely my favorite singer. I started reading Peter Guralnick's biography of him last week, and it is pretty good, but I have some concerns. Principally, I am about 150 pages or so into this 700 page work and Sam already has 3 children by 3 different mothers. And while this seems bad at first, I should also say that his pop career hasn't started yet. He has three children by three different mothers based on singing about Jesus in churches. I can't even fathom what will happen when "Cupid" comes out.

Say It Ain’t So

I read something shocking in “No Logo” last night. So shocking that I can’t believe it. From google book search:

“These crisp royal blue and kelly green boxes snap together like pieces of Lego (the new kind that can only make one thing: the model fire station or spaceship helpfully pictured on the box)." Emphasis mine.

Please correct me if I am wrong, but is Ms. Klein saying that the lego pieces in new sets can only be used to build the model in that set? Can this be true?

I loved Lego growing up, particularly the Castle series. I remember having a box filled with blocks that I would use to build towns, forests, castles, etc. I think the animated Robin Hood movie really hit me at a deep emotional level. As everyone knows, legos were great because you could use them to build whatever you wanted/imagined.

I can’t find anything to confirm this allegation, but looking a lot of the current Lego models seem to fit the description. Here is the “Death Star” from Star Wars. The pieces look fairly specific, but it is difficult to determine if those pieces can be used to build anything other than the "Death Star." I can't link to any images of old sets, but you can find them here. It looks like Lego has turned into Puzz3D

It makes sense why Lego would change their pieces. A kid could look at a new set and figure out how to build it with his own pieces and Legos wouldn't get any money. I don't want to romantize Lego too much, but it was a great toy. But it is a shame that what made it great wasn't profitable enough.

Don’t Know What I Want, But I Know How To Get It

Let me apologize for random, incoherent, nature of this post. My editor demanded a raise so I had to fire him, but judging from the previous content he wasn’t doing a very good job anyway.

As some of you know, I was an economics major in college. There are many reasons why I chose this major, most of them less than honorable, but the main reason was because I was good at it. For some reason, economics just stuck in my head.

I was at the campus bar one night in my junior year and ended up talking to one of my professors. I spent most the discussion in a drunken rant about the fact that calling economics a “social science” demeaned the word science and that the whole discipline was crap. This is the benefit of going to a small liberal arts school. Fortunately, he was also drunk and probably didn’t remember the argument, or at least never held it against me.

I went to the Redskins game last Sunday. One of the advantages of going to see a sporting event live was that you didn’t get to see commercials. I know that there are always sponsorships, etc. at games, but now Dan Synder has actual commercials play on the big screen during time outs/any break in play. At least at home, you can change the channel, maybe see what is happening in another game, but in the stadium you are trapped. I didn’t really notice this at the first game that I went to this season, but it really bothered me on Sunday. These constant breaks and pleas for your attention turn the game into a series of vignettes, rather than a coherent story. It is also possible that my disgust for the Redskins play bled over into disgust about the whole experience.

While the Redskins are the Washington sports team, I found this ramrod of advertising very un-Washington. Without getting into a debate about which is better, one thing that Washington clearly has over New York is a lack of billboards and public advertising. While not completely free, advertising in public space is very rare, less than any other city that I have been in.

For example, when my band use to play in New York a lot, we would drive from school, and after crossing the GW Bridge proceed down to Chelsea along the Henry Hudson Parkway. I remember a huge screen, like an lcd television thing, off the parkway near the Chelsea Piers that showed commercials. It was just hypnotic, this huge glowing thing was impossible to avoid while driving. I figured that it was placed there by a secret cabal of Body Shops and Car Insurers to increase accidents and drive up premiums in the city.

We just don’t have that sort of thing in DC, probably because most of the buildings are owned by the Government, National Park Service, or the Smithsonian. That is why you occasionally see the driving billboards around, but not very frequently. I think that I passed one billboard on my walk to work this morning, and it was poorly maintained. The fact that you can still see advertisements for “K Street” produced by George Clooney on telephones speaks to the lack of an organized public advertising push in the District.

I say all of this because I just started reading “No Logo” by Naomi Klein last night and wanted to reveal a clear bias I already have towards agreeing with it.

Then I see this on Lifehacker. Apparently, Adbusters is sponsoring a “Buy Nothing Day” this coming Black Friday. Well, I am going to participate. Granted, I wasn’t going to go shopping on that day anyway because I am not insane/masochistic, and I have to work. But now I get to not shop for political reasons! My hope is that this feeling of self satisfaction will make working on Friday easier to stomach.

Now I Am A Real Blogger

Well, Kriston tagged me. This is my first meme, so be gentle.


1. Of all the books that you have eventually finished after many starts & stops, which one took you the longest and how long did it eventually take?

I really want the answer to this question to by Ulysses, but I still haven’t finished it after an almost Sisyphian number of years and attempts. I say almost Sisyphian because he at least got the rock to the top, and Ulysses tends to crush me about halfway through. I tend to be a fairly quick reader, but the answer is probably “Chaos” by James Gleick. I was seduced by the pretty pictures of fractals, but the book probably took me about 6 months when all was said and done.

2. What great band (or album or song) have you heard so often, you wouldn't mind never hearing again even though you still think the band (or album or song) is great?

I think this is a toss up between Led Zeppelin and Bob Marley. Both are pretty great and influential, but I just don’t really ever want to listen to either. In many ways, I think their influence is so widespread that listening to them just seems boring and redundant. Also, people who play “Stairway to Heaven” and “Redemption Song” on the guitar, particularly at parties or camp outs, need to be shot. Not only should they be shot, but do it quick because you know “More Than Words” is coming next.

3. Which cliché or often cited quote needs to be placed in quarantine for a few decades?

“You must be the change you want to see in the world” by Gandhi really needs to go on an extended sabbatical. I know it is inspirational and all, but I am just sick of hearing it.

4. During the 1990s "Compassion Fatigue" received a lot of press, now the media is giddy with "Donation Fatigue". What will be the next trendy fatigue?

I am hoping for “Ambition Fatigue.” Maybe China hurry up becoming a world power so that we can adopt a more European lifestyle because I think I can really increase the number of lunch beers I have in a given day.

5. What percentage of respondents will answer "meme fatigue" to question #4?

Everyone wants to, but this question prevents one from appearing witty, so none.

I don’t really know who to pass this on to, my blog friends are all pretty much covered. Is their bad luck for not passing on a Meme?

This One Is For Tommy

Did any of you see that the "Watchman" made Time's list of the 100 best English-language novels from 1923 to the present. "Snow Crash" made it also. I don't know, I just found this kinda surprising.