Fashionistas you have arrived 3-25-03 - 10-3-03

[dtb]

Originally posted by ThurgreedMarshall
As far as the larger stealing/not stealing argument goes, I think I'm the only one on this site that doesn't do it.

TM

Well, maybe you're the only one of this site who actually knows how to do it that doesn't do it. (I may possibly be the only one who on this site who doesn't know how to do it.)


d(Fashionably lo-tech)tb

[evenodds]

Originally posted by ThurgreedMarshall
As far as the larger stealing/not stealing argument goes, I think I'm the only one on this site that doesn't do it.

No, you're not.

[NotFromHere]

Originally posted by purse junkie
Need money-grubbing pathetic professional hangers-on really be told that it is unwise and ungentlemanly at best to describe your meal ticket in such unflattering terms on a TV show?

Really, community-property laws or not, he ought to have his share stripped for sheer stupidity. Not to mention that youngish men who nonetheless appear to have had a Joan Rivers-esque amount of face-stretching plastic surgery are hardly in a position to criticize.

Speaking of bad face-lifts...I saw an interview with Bing Crosby's wife last night as she was talking about Bing and Bob Hope. She has GOT to have the worst face lift ever! She's got the one where she looks totally surprised and it's pulled so tight she can't blink or smile. Sad.

In other news - your favorite guy BenFleck is wearing too much makeup.The L'Oreal guy Gotta love the creepy comment.

July 29 — Has Ben Affleck been dipping into the freebies at L’Oreal? The “Gigli” star and new face of L’Oreal cosmetics overseas hit the red carpet Sunday with fiancée Jennifer Lopez, and people in the crowd were buzzing that Affleck’s face seemed to be slathered in make-up. “IT LOOKED to me like he was wearing more foundation than Jennifer,” one onlooker tells The Scoop.
“It was an afternoon event, and in the sunlight especially, his face looked really orange. It was creepy. We kept expecting him to look into the camera and say, ‘Because I’m worth it.’”
When asked about his client’s make-up routine, a rep for Affleck said, “No, I don’t have a comment on the allegation that he was wearing a lot of makeup.”

[bilmore]

Originally posted by ThurgreedMarshall
This can't be your argument going forward, though. I'm sure a much more cost effective version of the music's version of Westlaw (hell, maybe Westlaw itself will do it) will evolve once file sharing and song releases from indie musicians mesh. I bet that however it evolves (legally or illegally), the new internet middle man will be cheaper and more efficient than what we have now.

No doubt. Once the music industry gets past this crisis stage, I think we'll see real progress in more consumer-friendly music distribution. But, right now, they're in panic stage - the betas of the next generation of P2P are out there, and they're damn near untraceable. If they don't shut it down now, their chance will be gone.

(And, yeah, in spite of my professed views, I DL. Mostly, I've DL'ed stuff I can't find anywhere anymore, or selected works suggested to me by others as a way to sample different types that I don't normally buy - but, still, I do it.)

[cheval de frise]

Originally posted by ThurgreedMarshall
As far as the larger stealing/not stealing argument goes, I think I'm the only one on this site that doesn't do it

I've never downloaded an MP3 or visited one of those file-sharing sites, although that's more out of apathy than anything else.

(I do think it's stealing, plain and simple. One can write thousands of words in an attempt to justify it, but that's a rationalization, not an excuse.)

[Mmmm, Burger (C.J.)]

Originally posted by dtb
Well, maybe you're the only one of this site who actually knows how to do it that doesn't do it. (I may possibly be the only one who on this site who doesn't know how to do it.)


d(Fashionably lo-tech)tb

Well, I had too old a computer to use napster until after it was shut down. So, I guess i'm in the TM/E-O/dtb group. Bilmore most assuredly is not.

[Not Bob]

Originally posted by dtb
Well, maybe you're the only one of this site who actually knows how to do it (ed. file sharing/stealing intellectual property) that doesn't do it. (I may possibly be the only one who on this site who doesn't know how to do it.)


d(Fashionably lo-tech)tb

Not Me. As we speak, I'm busy using my reel-to-reel to record my Mitch Miller 8-track collection.

[Sidd Finch]

Originally posted by bilmore
Watch for very user-friendly single-song download services by membership, and a lower barrier to entry for the smaller music people. I think the new technology is only going to make life easier and more fun for the indies, as they sign up to be part of bigger online distribution groups.

ack!!! Ack!!!! ACK!!!!

In other words, I agree with Bilmore.

[str8outavannuys]

Originally posted by NotFromHere
Speaking of bad face-lifts...I saw an interview with Bing Crosby's wife last night as she was talking about Bing and Bob Hope. She has GOT to have the worst face lift ever! She's got the one where she looks totally surprised and it's pulled so tight she can't blink or smile. Sad.

In other news - your favorite guy BenFleck is wearing too much makeup.The L'Oreal guy Gotta love the creepy comment.

July 29 — Has Ben Affleck been dipping into the freebies at L’Oreal? The “Gigli” star and new face of L’Oreal cosmetics overseas hit the red carpet Sunday with fiancée Jennifer Lopez, and people in the crowd were buzzing that Affleck’s face seemed to be slathered in make-up. “IT LOOKED to me like he was wearing more foundation than Jennifer,” one onlooker tells The Scoop.
“It was an afternoon event, and in the sunlight especially, his face looked really orange. It was creepy. We kept expecting him to look into the camera and say, ‘Because I’m worth it.’”
When asked about his client’s make-up routine, a rep for Affleck said, “No, I don’t have a comment on the allegation that he was wearing a lot of makeup.”

Does anybody else think Wade (of "For Love or Money") bears a striking resemblance to Ben Affleck?

In other reality show news, I'm going to get to meet Chip (of Reichen and Chip) at a Yale networking event next month! I'll issue a full report here. Go Chip!

[sebastian_dangerfield]

Originally posted by evenodds
This is ridiculous. Independent radio promoters are not the problem with the industry. The problem with your radio is corporate radio programmers and the sweetheart deals they have with majors.

In the industry, you need people other than the artists to ensure the artists' music does not suck. You need producers, you need A&R, you need people to broker the deals with other artists and producers to improve the product. Or else no one would want to hear it.

You also need distributors so that the music can get into stores. I know independent distributors who service mom-and-pops with indie product -- they spend days on the road, putting the right product in the right stores at the right time so it can be there when you want it.



We have an artist to consumer model -- it's called buying cds at a show. It's incredibly inefficient, but the artist has the ability to get paid for their work. Unlike peer-to-peer, when the artist gets screwed.



Wilco is a pretty awful example, and there are others like the Yellow Jackets, who have released their own product on the web and have done great. They have three essential things most of your marginally commercially viable bands don't have: (1) name recognition; (2) existing fans -- so a market already exists for the product and so that independent, college, and public radio djs will program it upon release; and (3) most importantly, money to make and release their own product.

(As for money, if they can do absolutely everything themselves, and can independently support themselves, it will cost between $5,000 and $25,000 to record and manufacture a cd. If they need producers and musicians and want to press 10k units and get it on local radio, you are looking at up to $250,000. For most struggling musicians, the $5,000 is as hard to come up with as the $250,000.)

Without those three elements, you would never know the music exists if you didn't stumble into one of the MCVBs shows (as we did with Charlie Hunter a few years ago, and Bavu Blakes last year).

Your model ensures a healthy regional market with very little national coverage. It works well in hip hop, but then some of those artists have other ways of supporting themselves.

I never argued that producers should be canned. Of course, one needs a producer to create a good record. Producers are not the middle management people to whom I referred. I think there's a lot of fat to be cut in the industry if you adopt a model whereby the artist works with a producer and they cut the record electronically. I just read an article a little while ago from a large producer saying that he can pretty much do most of what a large studio can do with much smaller, cheaper electronic production machinery in his home, and technology progresses exponentially. Why not put the studio out of business? Each party who gets taken out of the equation leaves more for the remaining people.

If you get rid of the compact disc/tape/reord/whatever hard copy medium and switch to pure downloadable material you get rid of the stores, which gets rid of the distributors' fees, which gets rid of the plants, which gets rid of the union labor, which gets rid of the guy who sell the jewel cases, all of which eventually gets rid of a lot of middle management at all the companies involved. The process is streamlined - the consumer wins. Now the cost to society and the people eliminatedis another issue, but that's another debate.

I registered no gripe with radio - radio is so bad that its not worth talking about.

[Sidd Finch]

Originally posted by ThurgreedMarshall
As far as the larger stealing/not stealing argument goes, I think I'm the only one on this site that doesn't do it.

'scuse me, Mr. Holier than the Rest of You Shmucks. I've never pirated a file either. Not once.


Sidd(I did used to shoplift comic books, but that was ages ago)Finch

[Atticus Grinch]

Apropos of the now-dead poll, I wanted to say that the coolest band name ever is "Godspeed You! Black Emperor" because it is perfect in every way. I cannot call it the cleverest name, however, because that would imply I have some fucking idea what it means. But I love it just the same. And I have never heard this band's music, either.

That is all.

[Replaced_Texan]

Originally posted by Sidd Finch
'scuse me, Mr. Holier than the Rest of You Shmucks. I've never pirated a file either. Not once.

Sidd(I did used to shoplift comic books, but that was ages ago)Finch

Uh, is there a difference between sharing an occasional song or CD with a friend or relative and using Kaaza/Napster (I hear version 2 is coming out soon)/peer to peer downloads? If no, give me an eyepatch, a parrot, and lots of eyeliner cuz I'm a pirate. If there's a difference, er, I'll give that song back as soon as I can figure out what the hell I did with it.

[W.W.L.D.]

Originally posted by bilmore
Watch for very user-friendly single-song download services by membership, and a lower barrier to entry for the smaller music people. I think the new technology is only going to make life easier and more fun for the indies, as they sign up to be part of bigger online distribution groups

I really do not think that this is what the RIAA is going for.

[ThurgreedMarshall]

Originally posted by Sidd Finch
'scuse me, Mr. Holier than the Rest of You Shmucks. I've never pirated a file either. Not once.

Not really "holier than thou," schmuck. It's more a product of only spending time on the computer at work. If I used my computer at home, I'm sure I would have downloaded lots of shit.

Originally posted by Sidd Finch Sidd(I did used to shoplift comic books, but that was ages ago)Finch

I'm not talking necessity, man. Shit, when I was in college and had zero cash, I had the best method of ganking shit from the local supermarket.

Thurgreed(my mere presence would distract the help while my blonde, innocent-looking gf stole everything in the store)Marshall