Bestill my beating heart.

I-tunes sees the error of their ways. Kind of. It isn't the entire I-Tunes library; just EMI at the moment, but from what I hear, EMI is not doing so well, and this could be their last-ditch effort to save their sinking ship. I hope it works for them.

While the DRM-Free tracks (.m4a) are encoded at 256-bit instead of 128, they list at $1.29 each instead of the $.99 for the DRM-infected (.m4p) tracks. Strange, it should be the other way around, I mean, it took a lot of engineering and tech to infect those files with DRM!

Also, keep in mind that the .m4a files have your account name embedded in them, so don't be too quick to drop them on bittorrent. This really is just a different type of DRM, but at least it allows the user to playback their music on any device or player, and make unlimited copies (for themselves, natch...)

Blog on,
-CZ

Labels: DRM Sucks, Music Industry

The film "Impaler" is mostly about Jonathon Sharkey, self proclaimed Hecate Witch, Satanic High Priest, and a Sangu...Sangwe... um, some kind of Vampire.

I've written about Jonathon Sharkey before, and attended the premier of "Impaler" on 30 May 2007 to get a better glimpse into this colorful character running for President in 2008.

Jonathan Sharkey is a pretty exciting guy. Besides being a Witch/Satanist/Vampire, he was a pro wrestler, a drill sergeant, and a race car driver. Jonathan isn't terribly well-spoken, and he tends to ramble a bit, but these things haven't kept others out of office, and Jonathan does have several things going for him. He isn't ever uncomfortable or nervous in front of the camera, and he does have an abundance of Moxie. Undoubtedly, his non-traditional party status, his former wrestling career, and his powerful charisma will get him more than one comparison to Jesse Ventura.

Unfortunately, the documentary "Impaler" did more damage than good to his potential governmental career. The filmmaker/director W. Trey White clearly has no idea what he's doing. The movie is not so much a 'documentary' as it is a cameraman without a tripod (or lights, or a good microphone) following Jonathan around for a while, taping stuff and then cutting the interesting bits together in more-or-less chronological order.

During the filming of "Impaler", Jonathan was arrested in Indiana and jailed for 175 days, Mr. White admitted that he didn't know what to do with his main character literally 'out of the picture', so he had the idea to interview other people who knew Jonathan. Just think, a documentary about a person with input from OTHER PEOPLE! Imagine what the movie would have been like if Jonathan hadn't been jailed.

Strangely, in this so-called 'Documentary', we never find out what Jonathon Sharkey currently does for income. There is No mention of any previous political experience. He mentions a political science degree, but does not tell us where he got it. There is also No mention of his 2004 campaign for the presidency, or his several failed attempts to be elected to congress. However, we do get to see his girlfriend drink his blood several times, which is ridiculous and pathetic. We get to see the cards made for Jonathan's girlfriend by the kids she drove to school before she lost her job, accompanied by sappy music, because...um, well... perhaps Mr. White was hoping that if you felt sorry for her, you might give Jonathan a sympathy vote. Oh yes, you also get to see Jonathan's girlfriend try to light her blood on fire...um, I really can't even try to justify that one...

Jonathan repeatedly asks us to 'ignore his beliefs', but that's difficult to do when more of the film was about his lifestyle and strange relationships than his political platform.

In the end, "Impaler" isn't about a man running for the presidency, it's a man's rebuttal to all the fucked up relationships and events in his past. The speech at the end of the movie confirms this.

I was disappointed with Mr. White's discussion after the premier. In part of the film, Jonathan asked Mr. White to turn the camera off, but he left it running, catching pieces of a conversation 'the audience wasn't meant to hear'. Right. Anyway, when asked about it, Mr. White said it wouldn't be right to censor the facts, because the audience deserved to hear the whole story. But not five minutes later, he admitted that Jonathan's children had said some incriminating things about Jonathan, and he felt that the children weren't being entirely honest, so it was decided to cut those accusations out of the movie. This proves that W. Trey White has a slanted sense of journalism, and isn't smart enough to hide it (like a real journalist.)

Jonathan Sharkey is an interesting, charismatic, angry and probably dangerous person, which makes him someone I want to have a beer with someday. I might even vote for him, I mean I voted for Jesse Ventura. His promise to Impale criminals is refreshing. (Although if you read this blog at all, you will know that as King of The United States, I have brought back 'Burning at the Stake' as a real punishment.)

Jonathan showed up at the premier with a large spear and threatened to impale W. Trey White if he found the movie "Impaler" mocked him in any way. I was surprised to find he allowed Mr White to live after seeing the movie.

Blog on,
-CZ

Labels: movie reviews, Politics

Although I detest the name of the website, vampirefreaks.com is like myspace.com, only wearing black studded leather and carrying a bullwhip. The music is better by far, although the coding for the site is "fair to partly" if you know what I mean.

These online spaces are virtual extensions of your so-called-life, and part of the attraction is to make them your own, by adding lists of friends and bands and "I Like Ponies" and "I Hate Emo" and joining like-minded individuals (called Groups on myspace, but called Cults on vampirefreaks) Anyways, here is the latest cult I've been contacted by:



We shall see if they accept my application...

Blog on,
-CZ

Labels: Blogging, Cool Website

As The Demonslayer's Handbook nears completion, I have found myself casting the net of Googleness into the icy vastness of the interweb, hunting for morsels of information about what the hell I'm supposed to do with this stack of 120,000 words.

There's plenty of info out there on the process of landing a book deal, and you can get some good stuff from writers who have been through the whole rigamarole, but if you asked me for one source which would give you the layman's low-down on agents/inquirys/submissions/slushpiles/publications and everything leading up to any kind of "Book Deal"...

I would send you to Miss Snark. I have read her blog posts every week for at least the past six months, and saved/memorized/internalized as much as I could.

Yesterday, Miss Snark announced her retirement from the blog, and while I'm flummoxed and saddened, I'm not too surprised. There are only so many ways you can keep answering the same questions.

Her archives will remain open for those who get to the point of seeking agents/publication, and seekers will find a lot of harsh reality there for them.

I'm sad to see her retire, but also pleased that she was aware enough to know when it was time to move on. Off the top of my head, I can give you the very best of her advice:

-Write well
-Follow the damn instructions
-Focus on the writing
-Query much and widely
-Keep Writing (well)

Goodbye Miss Snark, and thanks for the good laughs and the good info. I hope you and Killer Yapp have fun slurping from the Gin Pail with George Clooney...

Blog on,
-CZ

Labels: Authors, Cool Website, Praise, Writing

A touching story about a boy and his pet python.





Blog on,
-CZ

Labels: Funny, Videos

In my neighborhood, the first person to mow their lawn in the spring is a jerk, because then the rest of the lawns look like ass, and we have to mow them. Here is a typical spring conversation in my neighborhood:

"Hey Bill, I see you finally caved in and mowed your lawn, huh?"

"Yeah, it was up to my knees, and I figured..."

"Thanks A Lot, Asshole!"

I imagine it was the same with DRM-Free music, nobody wanted to be the first to sell it, and be hated by the RIAA. Smaller sites like magnatune and mp3tunes were too small to be a threat, so they were like weeding the garden, and didn't really count. But we knew the end was near when we heard Steve Jobs half-hearted anti-DRM speech.

But now, like Fish says, "The game is over!". Amazon has announced that they will have DRM-free music available later this year.

So the rest of the music outlets can hate Amazon for forcing their hand, and i-tunes and microsoft will be forced with a decision. They are big enough that they could try to keep their DRM-infected collections in place, perhaps offering them at reduced rates compared to DRM-free tracks. (Or, if you see the glass as half-empty, consider that the DRM-free tracks would come with an "I buy DRM-Free Music, and therefore, I am a criminal, and must pay extra" fee). Oldsters might remember the fee that was added to blank cassette tapes and blank CDs marked as blank "AUDIO" CDs. This is how the industry dealt with their fear that anyone with a tape deck and a CD player was 'ripping them off', and I see no reason for them to be original now.

Perhaps Microsoft, i-Tunes and such could contract big-name acts to come over and release only DRM-infected tracks EXCLUSIVELY through their websites. That would be a clever way to get people to succumb to their DRM-Protection; even if people knew about it, understood it, and didn't like it, they would still Buy it if they wanted the product badly enough.

It would also make them the New Record Labels.


Blog on,
-CZ

Labels: DRM Sucks, Million Dollar Idea, Music Industry

Listeners who tuned into Drive 105 this morning were probably quite shocked to hear their alt-rock replaced with nostalgic 60s-80s fluff.

Star Tribune reports why.

The reason Drive 105 got pulled should be no surprise. Low Ratings. The low ratings should be no surprise: Three fucking radios stations. 105.1 105.3 and 105.7 depending on where you are in the cities. For someone who primarily listens to radio in my car (If I listen at all) I can tell you that I was rarely able to listen to the station. It seemed no matter where I was in the city, all three stations sounded like ass. It has been that way since 105 was born as Rev 105 (Revolution Radio) and reborn as Zone 105 (The Edge).

The playlist for Drive 105 wasn't the greatest, but it certainly was one of the best in town, which just goes to show you how bad terrestrial radio has become. I laughed every time they said they were "taking chances" The fact is, I didn't hear much on 105 that didn't already have some buzz or a Seal of Approval from Pitchfork et al. They could have tried harder to be different, and they certainly could have played more local music.

It's too bad that one of the better radio stations in town got turned into a clone of the new Jack 104.1. No doubt the massive success of Jack (A completely mediocre station which only thrives because everything else sucks so much) has spurred 105 to switch. Hey, Maybe the tagline for the new 105 can be, "We're Playing What We Want TOO!"

For those lamenting the demise of Drive 105, don't feel too bad. Check out Radio K instead 106.5 /100.7 and punctuate your listening with some White Stripes and Cake, and you will be fine.

...and don't even Talk to me about The Current.

Here is a Million Dollar Idea: How about a Radio station that only plays songs from Independent Labels? Here is a Ten-Million Dollar Idea: How about a Radio station that ONLY PLAYS LOCAL MUSIC? That same station could broadcast live shows every night from a different bar. There is so much live music here in Minneapolis, I think people really have NO idea.

Why can't any people with money think of these things?


Blog on,
-CZ

Labels: Million Dollar Idea, Music Industry

Oh...

...please...stop!

Your'e killing me!

[Editors Note: Sorry to all friends of Conrad Zero who are Macintosh users. You are obvioulsy exempt from any intended harrassment via the above link.]

Blog on,
-CZ

Labels: anti, Cool Website

Ooooh, Ouch. Swing-and-a-Miss.

Spider Man 3 had a lot going for it before anyone set foot in the theatre. Cool villains picked out, lots of money for CG, perfect casting, and best of all, it had the coattails of Spider Man 1 and 2 to ride on. All that Sam Raimi had to do was have some lame thread tying the action scenes together, and it would be a big hit.

It is with a deep sadness that I report to you that he couldn't pull it off. Spider Man 3 is a soap opera rarely interrupted with action scenes, when it should have been the other way around. What really made the first two Spider Man movies great was the pacing; there was plenty of 'day-in-the-life-drama' in 1 and 2, but it was well balanced out with plenty of action, while Spider Man 3 drowns in its own sappiness. Spider Man cries more often than he fights anyone, and every character in the movie bursts into tears at least a dozen times. I almost cried myself, because the movie should have been much better.

At this point, I would like to shatter to a paradigm in Movies-Based-On-Comic-Books:

NEW VILLAINS DO NOT NEED TO HAVE THEIR GENESIS DURING THE MOVIE.

The creation of villains is often so contrived that it would make the movie better if they just left it out. The Batman movies should have taught us this, and the makers of the X-men movies prove that it works, but the Sam Raimi hasn't figured this one out yet. The genesis' of Sandman and the symbiotic suit known later as Venom, are so silly that you will wish they left them out and made the movie shorter.

That brings me to another paradigm-shattering point that I've brought up before, but since no one reads my blog, it never gets implemented:


MOVIES RARELY NEED TO BE OVER TWO HOURS LONG!

How about you make a movie that is one hour long, and charge half the price? This goes for all movies, but especially Spider Man 3, which forgot where the hell it came from: A Comic Book, not a Danielle Steele Novel.

While I'm at it, I will add this one:


ALL WOMEN ARE NOT HELPLESS!


I would appreciate it if we saw the 'woman dangling from a high place as bait for the superhero' LESS OFTEN. In fact, a female Super Hero (Like Dazzler? Ha! LOL! or maybe Dagger from 'Cloak and Dagger') or perhaps a female Super Villain (Belladonna? Plastique?) would be much appreciated.

By the way, my guess for one of the villains for Spider Man 4 will be The Lizard, since the character of Dr Curt Connors was introduced in 3. But, I think next time, I will wait for the reviews of 4 to come out before I go see it. If Spider Man 4 turns out to be another 3, I'll just wait for the DVD, it so I can scan past the boring parts, and cut the movie length down to a reasonable time.

I can tell you funniest part of the movie is that as Peter Parker wears the symbiotic suit for a longer period of time, it makes him look more and more like the lead singer for Panic at the Disco. Hysterical.

Blog on,
-CZ

Labels: Hollywood, movie reviews

I love Neil Gaiman.

I mean in a *manly* sort of way...you know, like the movie "300", like, "Dude! You're an author, and I'm almost an author..I mean, we both write right? Let's go Man Up and run half-nekked across the moors with swords and cut down enemy forces outnumbering us one-hundred-and-fifty to one! See those three-hundred Spartans over there with their tiny little abs, HA! Dare they pit their ten or twelve tiny chicklet abs against my giant one? Why settle for a 6-pack when you can have a pony keg!"

Then Neil and I could open a can of Whoop-Ass, clean up, do lunch, and talk about writing. We would be sure to sit on opposite sides of the table though. Manly, like I said.

Anyway, I'm reading Neil Gaiman's 'Fragile Things' right now. It's quite good. I'm on page 3. I'll let you know when I have enough info to augment my opinion.

But I did read Good Omens long ago. Great book. Very funny. If you enjoy a 'dry as a funeral drum' sense of humor not too dissimilar from Douglas Adams, then you will like it. I have somehow managed to avoid reading the Sandman series; I keep meaning to stop over at Dreamhaven Books and pick up a copy of Ultimate Sandman when Neil is visiting there and tell him how much I love the first three pages of his new book, but our schedules don't seem to mesh.

How can you Not like Neil Gaiman? He's a famous author who doesn't act famous. He answers his fan mail. And he has a cool accent.

He links to cool things like this.

And this.

Meanwhile, I just rip him off, and post the cool links here.

(On the other hand, I do make sure to give him credits.)

On the other-other hand (?) I notice that Neil has enough fan mail to run his entire blog just off simply responding to them. I do get some questions from fans, but they don't seem very blog-worthy. Here is an example:

Dear Zero,

I just read the synopsis of your upcoming book, "The Demonslayer's Handbook". What the hell is wrong with you?

Signed,
Disturbed


See what I mean? Anyone who reads my blog should know that I don't like Disturbed. Their cover of Genesis's' "Land of Confusion" was pretty good though.

But Neil Gaiman gets the Ubercool Seal of Approval in my book.

Blog on,
-CZ

Labels: Authors, Book Review, Praise, Ubercool

Don't miss the 2007 Art-A-Whirl!


FRIDAY, MAY 18th - from 5-10:00 p.m.
SATURDAY, MAY 19th - from 12-8:00 p.m.
SUNDAY, MAY 20th - from 12-5:00 p.m.


http://www.art-a-whirl.org/

Blog on,
-CZ

Labels: Minneapolis Event, Ubercool

BBC is reporting on the latest (and largest) flare-up of THE CODE, a magical 32-digit Hexadecimal number which can be used to defeat the encoding on every DVD manufactured to date. I won't reprint the number here, but check out

this myspace page for a clue

OF course the AACS was more than just disappointed that some basement hacker defeated their code on his winter break, and tried to get websites like digg.com to delete posts or content containing "THE CODE". Of course, the blogosphere reacted violently, reposting the code as fast as webmasters could delete the posts, and eventually digg.com crashed.

Its too late now, the code is leaked, and for those who know what to do with it, all DVDs manufactured before 3 May 2007 are now unprotected.

It will be interesting to see how this gets resolved, because the question to be answered is "How public should public knowledge be?" Or possibly, "Can or Should some public knowledge be removed from the internet?" For example, if someone figures out the administrator username and password for a government online database, or some local financial institution, and pops the username/password on the internet, there is simply no stopping the spread of information. How can the entire blogosphere and all internet users be held accountable for such actions?

The answer you are looking for is: They can't.

It seems right (to me anyways) that some uber-internet-administrator-person should be able to delete all references to such info in the interest of national security, but as we learned from Spider Man, 'With great power comes great responsibility' and we have also learned, Americans love to abuse power. So those with the power need to be monitored, but "Who watches the watchers?"

It also seems right (to me anyways) that freedom of speech be maintained. Somewhere between these beliefs is a line that has to be drawn, and it's the kind of line that gets drawn in all the touchy topics like abortion and gun control and such. People endlessly bicker about where the line gets drawn, and mistake their opinions as facts.

Like I said; interesting to see how this pans out.

Blog on,
-CZ

Labels: Culture, DRM Sucks

The latest City Pages contains Lindsey Thomas' review of Year Zero. Strangely, instead of calling attention to the amazing marketing campaign and phenomena behind Year Zero, she completely Dismisses it:


"...not a single original thought to be found..."
"..If Year Zero reveals anything, it's that his music does little for people with a working knowledge of current events and a desire for sonic evolution.

Her review saddens me more than I can say. I thought that Year Zero was a strong album, with some great hits like "Capitol G" and "The Beginning of the End". The song, "In This Twilight" is a phenomenal piece of music.

Overlooking the music, the message in Year Zero is a timely one. The great, dumbing down of society. People sick of the way things are being run, finally rising up and rebelling, joining the underground Open Source Resistance...

Even if one were to ignore the music and the message (a horrific thing for a *music critic* to do,) Year Zero is still a remarkable album in the method it was marketed. Finally, there's an artist who has figured out how the new music system works, and he is showing the world by DOING. Trent Reznor is creating an image and an event which extends WAY beyond the music. He is inviting everyone to be part of the phenomenon; social puzzles, secret codes, intentionally leaked songs, interactive websites, secret concerts, freaking phone messages fer crissakes! He isn't sitting around trying to look kewl and sound "indie" while releasing shit-rock like all the pitchfork.com darlings, he's actually DOING SOMETHING NO ONE HAS DONE BEFORE!

...and Lindsey Thomas comes along like some old person who has never heard of the internet, and dismisses the entire astonishing thing by saying he hasn't got a single original thought.

Wow.

I suppose that if the White Stripes did the same thing, she would be praising their idealism and creativity the way she praised Arcade Fire for their insight and suggested that they have 'plumbed new depths of social commentary', but she doesn't even give a passing nod to the artist who is starting an underground revolution.

When that revolution marches down the street in front of her house, she will wish she had spent more time researching that review.

Blog on,
-CZ

Labels: anti, music reviews, NIN

Year Zero from Nine Inch Nails is not an album, it's an event. That means that what you read in this review are only the facts *to date*. Keep your eyes and ears open for more.

Blog on,
-CZ

Labels: music reviews, NIN

If you aren't into Internet Radio yet, you should be. Check these sites out:

Accuradio
Live365
Pandora
Digital Gunfire (My personal favorite)

Do you enjoy the content? Diverse huh? Cool, huh?

Not for long. Internet Radio sites are being unfairly shafted by 'The Man'. They need your help. Check the following link, they do a better job of defining the problem than I do.




The solution is to call your Congressional Representative, and tell them (don't ask, that's not how it works.) TELL your representative to cosponsor the Internet Radio Equality Act, or forever hold your tongue about how internet radio became the same bland shit as terrestrial radio.

You have until 15 July 2007.

Blog on,
-CZ

Labels: Call To Action, Music Industry, political, Politics

The FMC (Future of Music Coalition) has been working for over seven years to try and stop the recording industry from providing 'perks' to the radio stations in exchange for airplay, a practice so well-known, that it garnered a nickname: Payola.

Payola is unfair to small labels and independent artists, who simply don't have the resources to compete against the deep pockets of the recording industry.

It's sad to see the recording industry go on a smear campaign of their own customers and harp endlessly about how "Filesharing Is A Crime" but then blatantly engage in the equally illegal practice of greasing the palms of the Radio Station Program Directors for airtime.

But it looks like we are one step closer to the end of Payola.

The Twelve Million dollars the industry bigwigs had to cough up is like about Twelve Dollars to you and me, hell the FCC probably spent more than that on their investigation. All the nonsense about "Maintaining Compliance" through data collection and yearly training is bullshit. This stuff was all 'off the books' before, do you think they are going to start writing down shit like:

-Dec 01: Received Front-Row Tix for NIN concert in exchange for playing Dougherty's latest crap.
-Dec 02: Received Limo Rental for one day, dinner at Jax, a hummer, and a strawberry fruit smoothie in exchange for playing Dashboard Confessional's latest crap. (Also threw in a 12-pack or Pabst Blue Ribbon for the DJ if he would say that he personally loved the band.)

Not.

The cool thing about the FCC's decision is that they are requiring Radio Stations to provide more than 4000 hours of airtime to local and independent artists. It should make for some more diverse programming on terrestrial radio, something I NEVER thought would come to pass.

I might actually listen in to my local radio stations again.

Blog on,
-CZ

Labels: Business Phenomena, Dashboard Confessional Sucks, Music Industry