Author Archives: Karl

Bought a guitar and….

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The Grammys had it’s moments, but overall still sucked. For starters, the artists kept their mouths shut. How boring. And frightened looking. I swore you could see the uncertainty, “Should I speak, or will I get booed?” Even Springsteen played it safe.

Did you notice the expanding trend (started last year) of highlighting music that’s back to basics? They are so desperate for it they practically threw awards at Norah Jones. You could see her and John Mayer’s true surprise. Even Eminem played with musicians in the background – Philadelphia’s kick ass hip-hop band The Roots. Damn I love that song. The tribute to Run-DMC at the end was a nice touch too.

Bruce seemed to be the glue that held everything together, even if I think he could have brought the house down, and send a message, by ripping thru “Born in the USA”. The lyrics bear listening to in this day and age.

More then ever before, the category selections made no sense. Crackheads must do the category assigning. Bon Jovi for pop song? And what’s up with nominating Pink for so little? Unlike other teen pop stars, she’s growing up to be tougher and more honest lyrically, showing real growth, instead of simply showing more ass (although really, who am I to complain?).

Metal and punk, except for the Joe Strummer tribute, were non-existant. I guess that’s as it should be.

Speaking of “back to basics”, check out the Johnny Cash video of him doing Hurt. It will rip your heart out. “You can have it all… my empire of dirt.”

You can’t be in music for the money. According to the NY Daily News, your average rock star will earn $40k from a gold album.

BTW, the NYTimes has been running a series on influential musicians. This week they cover Chuck Berry.

As for me, I’ve had more then a few tuning and action issues with my new Strat which have been keeping me busy. Most of my creative time has been spent tweaking her the past few weeks. Now she plays the way I play – which is both messy and nuanced. I transition from picking softer then a feather to harder then a jackhammer – wherever the a song takes me – and that required some work to get the action just right. Otherwise I was stuck with buzzes or needing Superman’s strength to bend strings.

One thing I now know is that it’s best for you to do your own guitar set-ups. No one, except maybe people close to you, can satisfy your needs, especially on a guitar as personalized as a Strat.

In related news… if things go well, and I think they are, I might be able to go public with news of a new band. I don’t want to jinx it. Suffice to say – practices have been kicking ass. Nothing serious – just having fun. And therapy.

Good news. bad news, craziness

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First the good – Mike is considering to resume blogging. I have the very same feelings about Mike’s efforts that Jonathon Delacour did. He’s a great conversation starter and will get you thinking in terms you may be uncomfortable with. He’s back on my on blogroll in anticipation of getting those controversial discussions started up again.

Wired asks Why did Google Want Blogger? while the BBC questions whether Google has grown too powerful. The NYTimes has the best summary I think.

Jeff Jarvis defends his take on “Mr. Duct Tape”.. More and more it looks like a bad episode of South Park. Well… there are no bad episodes of South Park so take that as you may…

A thing that strikes me is how we’ve squandered the world’s support after 9/11. Click the link or the image to the right and know people across the globe stood with us. The attack backfired as far as world opinion went. Now that united spirit has been fractured, maybe even lost. Whose fault is that? You decide.

Update 2/24/2003: The Washington Post decided on publishing a story on this today. How timely.

The anniversary of Daniel Pearl’s horrific murder just passed by. Read his wife’s impassioned plea to attack the real enemy. We must be intolerant to intolerance and fanatical against fanaticism. True evil lies within each.

“There was nothing they could do, it went up so fast”

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At least 60 dead at a Great White show. I’ve gone to countless shows just like this. I’ve even played a club very similar to this. My prayers go out to them today.

What I’m about to say is for those people that listened to Great White and won’t admit it. If you always didn’t like them – then the following isn’t for you…

If you think it’s cool to question how so many could be at a Great White show these days because it’s passe, you’re an asshole.

For us music is more then a fad or a phase. For us music isn’t something you grow out of – it’s something that carries you thru. Good music is timeless. Good music is forever. If you find yourself “growing out of music” – consider why you listen to the music you do. Don’t be a poseur.

If you want to question anything, question the pyro usage in such a small club.

Update: News coming out pretty much damns the band and/or it’s management. Looks like they’ve been using the pyro without permission. Everyone is pointing fingers.

Now if you’d like to ask how could a band such as Great White can get so many to its shows without industry support – that’s a good question! Networks of fans. Word of mouth. Many bands survive and some even thrive, on tour, without major label support, without radio airplay. And it’s not limited to just metal bands. You can find examples in all genres. Where the industry doesn’t provide, underground culture will.

Garret asked a couple days ago where this generation’s protest songs were. I’m sure they are out there, but as this NYTimes story says, with the consolidation that’s occured in the industry, chances are slim you are going to hear them. But they are being played, at shows the industry isn’t supporting, being supported by fans, thru word of mouth.

Avengers Assemble!

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Let me urge the Dem webloggers on my blogroll to link to one another more often.

Oliver Willis, Eschaton, Rittenhouse, rc3.org, dangerousmeta, BillSaysThis, Jonathon Delacour, Burningbird, PageCount.

Actually – the last three already do. They cross-blog like crazy. But my associates at the top sometimes miss each other’s good works. Republicans seem more likely to link to one another. Is there proof of that somewhere? I’m just making a personal (unfounded) observation without analyzing any data. Nevertheless…

And if you are reading my site scratching your head about the sites above… well.. visit them! Not your average ordinary bears.

Get the conspiracy theories out of your head

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There is nothing conspiratorial about a company trying to make a buck while providing a service. That’s the way it’s supposed to work. Praise Google for having some vision. Just like Yahoo! before it. That was the point I was trying to make in my previous post that may have gotten lost. The Blogger team deserves this day and has helped to establish a new medium.

For a similar view, check out Google don’t blink at Scripting News and his overall thoughts on the deal.

Search Engine Watch: Google Buys Blogging Company – But Why?.

Threads: Blogroots and Metafilter.

Boing Boing: Gbloogle: what it all (may) mean.

On oldie but goodie: Jakob Nielsen: Why Yahoo is Good (But May Get Worse). Read it and compare to present day Google. 1998!

Another oldie: Louis B. Rosenfeld: The Untimely Death of Yahoo. 1995!

And another!: Traffick.com: Why Yahoo Is No Longer Good. Just last year.

And back to the issue at hand… NYTimes: Google Deal Ties Company to Weblogs. Whadda stupid title for this story! Google hasn’t “tied” itself to weblogs anymore then it tied itself to newsgroups upon purchasing DejaNews.

Congrats to Dan on the NYTimes mention and scooping just about everybody!

Yahoo!, AltaVista, and now Google

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Yahoo!, how we loved you so?

You had a directory whose quality was unquestionable.

You had pages that were quicker then quick, light and fast.

You had the greatest geek mindshare, bar none.

When people asked – how do I find [this] on the web? We confidently answered, “Yahoo!”.

Then you decided to grow your business. AltaVista came and kicked your ass.

AltaVista, how we loved you so?

You had search results that were more accurate then your competitors.

You had pages that were quicker then quick, light and fast.

You took over the greatest geek mindshare, bar none.

When people asked – how do I find [this] on the web? We confidently answered, “AltaVista”.

Then you decided to grow your business. Google came and kicked your ass.

Google, by purchasing Pyra Labs (Blogger if you live in a cave) is now trodding down a predictable path. Will it make the same mistakes?

People forget how much power Yahoo! had over the web in it’s early days. As Google decides to grow it’s business – I’m going on the lookout for who is going to dethrone it. Look for it to happen in one to three years. Like to make a bet?

Isn’t this good for weblogging you ask? Initially, yes. Congrats to he Pyra folk who have been providing a valuable service to so many webloggers and readers. The service will definately be strengthened with Google’s resources behind it. I fear that eventually however, when companies control both the pipe (in this case the search engine) and what goes thru it (weblogs are found more by search engines then by other weblogs, contrary to belief) – it is only good for one entity – the company itself.

Usenet newsgroups are just growing by leaps and bounds aren’t they? Shelley is on target to remind us of Google buying Deja News.

Do people forget how great Geocities once was? eGroups? What makes Google so different from early Yahoo!?! Nothing! The same spirit that drove Yahoo! back in the day drives Google now. Yahoo! kicked ass. The geeks rallied behind it. Now it is a successful business. Good for Yahoo!. The pioneers however, moved on and promoted the upstart. Google has been kicking ass. The geeks have been rallying behind it. Soon it will be a large, successful business. And soon, a new generation of geeks will move on – eventually taking the web with them – to the new upstart.