Chris Brown released a public apology regarding the incident that landed Rhianna in the hospital and him in a jail cell. Please do enjoy:
This is obviously an attempt to salvage his already shattered career. Chris Brown made the mistake of hitting a woman, especially a well known singer such as Rhianna, and thinks this YouTube apology will suffice. I think not. People who beat women to me are less than scum, and should be treated as such. Five years probation is too light of a penalty, which seems to be the norm when celebrities break the law.
You know, I think Joe Biden is a cool dude. And if you don’t like Joe Biden well you can go sit on a tack. But like most people, Joe Biden has his faults. One of Joe Biden’s major fault is the fact that he has more friends in the RIAA and the BSA than a pro net neutrality guy like myself would want. Sadly, his scumbag friends are now full fledged scumbag government employees.
According to CNET, President Obama, Mr. Net Neutrality himself, is filling the Department of Justice with the RIAA’s best and brightest. The DOJ’s latest acquisition is Associate Deputy Attorney General Donald Verilli. His list of legal douchebagery includes shutting down Grokster, filing a lawsuit against Google and YouTube on behalf of Viacom, and suing a woman by the name of Jammie Thomas, who was accused of sharing 24 songs on KaZaA to the tune of $220,000. Yep that’s right, for 24 songs. Fortunately the judge threw out the verdict based on misleading jury instructions given by the RIAA. The RIAA I believe is still in the process of appealing the decision.
Gizmodo(one of my favorite tech blogs, props to you guys) sums up the rest of the new appointments quite nicely:
This follows up the naming of Tom Perrelli, from the Perrelli Family, as associate attorney general, the third-in-command post at the DoJ. Perrelli was and probably still is the favorite lawyer of the RIAA, suing people and companies left, right, and center in the name of the recording gang. He will be in charge of the DoJ’s civil, antitrust, and civil rights division.
But don’t go away, because there’s more. Who is the deputy attorney general, the second in command at the DoJ, do you ask? Mr. David Ogden, who-according to his previous job’s biography-represents “media and Internet industries, as well as major trade and professional associations.” He also as “part of the department who successfully defended the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act before the U.S. Supreme Court.”
Not enough? Don’t worry, because the VP has otherfriends in other places. Take Neil MacBride, another associate deputy attorney general, who previously was an aide to Biden himself. MacBride was the king of the legal hill at the Business Software Association. As the BSA’s antipiracy enforcer and general counsel, MacBride oversaw the creation of the program that rewarded people for phoning tips about suspected software piracy.
Honestly, all that net neutrality, “I love the Internet”, “come check out my Facebook” bullshit Barack Obama fed us during the election is very much going out the window with these sharks on the government payroll. Obama was notorious for proposing less restrictions for Internet and less power for the RIAA during the election. As soon as he mentioned that the joyfest in the tech community was heard far and wide. But with Joe Biden came a strong foothold for the likes of the RIAA to use to propagate their bogus agenda.
Take the RIAA’s case against Jaimme Thomas. Is $220,000 fair for sharing 24 songs on a P2P network? Do you think in times of economic strife it’s important for an organization such as the RIAA to start coming after individual citizens for large sums of money on the basis that quite possibly, MAYBE, someone could have downloaded one of those 24 songs? Her case for appeal was central on jury instruction No. 15, “which told jurors that she could be found guilty even if it couldn’t be proven that anyone actually downloaded the tracks she was sharing.”
Am I surprised? Hardly. I know how politics works, and regardless of the administration, the political party, or the person in charge, the RIAA will lobby, and make campaign contributions and buy politicians left and right. Barack Obama, sadly, is no different.
Recently, Apple announced that 100% of it’s iTunes library will be free of DRM by the end of the quarter. With Amazon and Wal-Mart running a DRM free operation as well, I think it’s safe to start buying music again.What the RIAA never understood is that people WANT to buy music. They just don’t want them ramming restrictions down our throats after we purchase it. That’d be like Samsung telling me what channels to watch on the TV I purchased. Or Audi Honda telling me where to go after I bought my car. Instead of realizing this and trying to fix it, they sue twelve year old girls that bootleg a $20 Pussycat Dolls album and wonder why she’s doing it.
In the end, piracy isn’t to blame for the recently decline in record sales, it’s DRM. Piracy is but a protest towards the RIAA’s shady practices. Services like iTunes, who provide a la carte options or whole albums at very reasonable prices are no doubt the future of this business. Maybe thats why iTunes is now the #1 music store, and after axing DRM will be for a long time. The CD is dead (if you don’t believe me come check out the stack of CD-Rs I bought at Costco three years ago) and the DRM free MP3 shall live on.
So I recently went to see Quantum of Solace. Being a massive James Bond fan, the new direction they are going with the franchise in general is a great one. Casino Royale was amazing, it was character driven, action packed, and Martin Campbell did a great job. So is Quantum of Solace better than Casino Royale?
Yes, in the sense that it delivered exactly what I expected, great, gritty action and a sense of closer from the events of Casino Royale. Seeing that this film picks up shortly after the second, you could technically pop in CR, watch that and then pop in QoS and sort of finish it off. I disagree with the reviews it was given in a few respects. First off, I do think that there is more character driven moments in the movie than others say. In this film, we are following a hurt, angry Bond.
Vesper is dead, and he doesn’t care what he does, or who he kills to avenge her death. So as the movie progresses, and James Bond literally kills everyone, this is a combination of his anger and his lack of discretion. Remember, he is still a rather fresh Double-0, and still a bit brash and inexperienced. It’s these events that mold Bond, and the clay is still wet.
Second, the action is superb. Some of the moments had me on the edge of my seat, but still kept true to the tone of Casino Royale. The fight scenes were great, very reminiscent of the Connery Bond, but with a brutal twist. Daniel Craig has this unique, brawling style, it’s a ruthless, violent fighting style that contributes well to the Bond he is trying to play. He is not afraid to throw you around, pick up his gun and shoot you.
This Bond doesn’t care how he kills you as long as your dead. One moment that is particularly poignant is when Bond kills the man in the apartment. He stabs him in the leg and literally waits, holding the man’s wrist until his pulse slowly fades away. THAT right there is the tone of this Bond. Determined, angry, ruthless, and out for revenge.
On the other hand, being an old school Bond fan, I had a few gripes with the film. Mainly it was the score and the title song. Another Way To Die is a strange song. It definitely shows that after Amy Winehouse jumped ship (she found some crack in the water) the producers and David Arnold had to scramble. Alicia Keyes and Jack White are an odd combination, and the song has sort of an odd sound. But over all, my biggest issue was David Arnold’s score itself. Seriously, not one time where they used the famous James Bond theme? Not even at the end? David Arnold should cut back on the loud trumpeting and throw in some of the theme…so I don’t forget it’s a James Bond movie.
Another thing is that you can tell that the script was rushed. It seems as though Bond runs out looking for revenge, stumbles upon Dominic Green (a great performance by Mattheiu Almaric), fixes that, and remembers what he has to do at the end. Despite that it’s not a terrible script at all, it just feels rushed. Then again the movie was shorter than normal, but in no way is that a problem. I am just greedy, and want to soak up the experience for as long as I can.
In the end, is Quantum of Solace the best Bond movie yet? Not necessarily. In my opinion, Casino Royale holds that title very firmly. However, QoS is not too far off. It has everything a Bond movie needs, satisfied my high expectations, and did exactly what it had to do, carry the story forth for the third, final movie in the story line. Any negative reviews it is receiving are very undeserved. Go watch it, and I promise you’ll feel the same way.
I am totally feeling the awesomness of Quantum of Solace. The title is great (if you understand its significance), the cast is great, and the director is great. But the song is kind of…odd. Jack White is the man, and Alicia Keys is great as always, but it’s still a bit odd. Check out the video (which is also odd) and let me know what you think. You can watch it here on Yahoo! Music.
Ok, so here is what I can’t stop listening to this week:
First off, of course, Kings of Leon Only By The Night. I love this album, can’t put it down. Use Somebody is such an epic song. These guys deserve to be big in America so badly, and I definitely think that this album will push them over and make them huge here.
This one caught me a bit by surprise. I have kept Adele’s 19 on my “Must Listen CD stack” for a little while, but I finally got around to it and it’s great. I am addicted to Hometown Glory and Chasing Pavement, she has such a great voice, and it’s really refreshing to see her style coming back. She is like a more chill Amy Winehouse.
The All-American Rejects new single Gives You Hell is GREAT. I hate these catchy tunes that get stuck in your head all day, but this one is just a guilty pleasure. Definitely give it a listen.
Finally, the new Cold War Kids album Loyalty to Loyalty. I’ve only gotten past the first 4 tracks, but so far what I hear is awesome. I love this band (and I want the street cred for calling their awesomeness before they got big.) So definitely check that out.
I’ll keep this brief, so as to not go on and on about how amazing this album is. It literally came out today, and it has already become an irremovable album in my CD changer. By the time you hit track 5 this thing almost starts changing your life. You want to run outside and yell at the thunderstorm and have some sort of existential breakthrough. Fantastic album a definite must buy (and I mean BUY, trust me after you listen to it you’ll wonder why they didn’t charge more). Here is a link to iTunes. Enjoy it!
For a price that is. This broke on TUAW today about how there was a rumor coming down the rumor pipe about Apple offering access to half the music library for a flat fee ($129.99) and bundling that with Mobile Me in some way (hoping Mobile Me…you know works when this happens). I think this is a definite step forward down a dead end path. This is obviously some way to appease the RIAA, who is rather perturbed about the .99 cent price points on the iTunes store, and the fact that iTunes sells albums 3 to 5 dollars cheaper than any place that sells CDs. Steve is no doubt on the high horse here. He has a product refresh coming up for his iPod line, and I am willing to be that he is secretly hoping this would fail. Because frankly I think people that use iTunes, audiophiles who not only value the high quality but the ease of use, want to OWN their music. I want my music to be MY MUSIC. I don’t want my music to suddenly end after the subscription up.
Honestly, the failure of this Apple service would be a hug slap in the face to the RIAA. The RIAA needs to wake up and realize that stopping piracy is not about DRM software or strong arming carriers to block large bandwidth download to stop torrents. They will stop piracy when they make their involvement with music end at the point of sale. Price those songs reasonably, price them fairly, give people an a la carte option and completely eliminate DRM. I don’t want to download an mp3 that I can only burn 8 times. People burn a lot of mixes and stuff. Thats unfair. I bought that song and if I want to burn it on 1,000 CDs and litter the streets with them I can. But the RIAA wants to squeeze every single penny out of every single track. Will they learn? Probably not. They will continue fighting this, the consumer will continue to resent them and find new ways of getting all their product out for free and the world will keep turning. Steve Jobs knows this, I wouldn’t put it past the man who has single handedly started one of the most innovative companies on the planet to not know this. But the RIAA is slowly hanging itself. A lot of artists are signing with Indie labels and releasing their stuff at competitive prices (like free…) and are sticking it to the man in their own way. Peace Out.
My iPod is rockin’ lately. I have been pretty hooked on a some good stuff:
I am a huge Ray LaMontagne fan. First time I heard him was when they used his song “Burn” on Denis Leary’s tv show “Rescue Me”. He did a cover of Gnarl’s Barkley’s “Crazy” that is beyond superb. I would link you to where it is on iTunes, but it’s not on iTunes, which means you will have to dive deep and do a little hunting on the internet. But trust me when you find it, you’ll know why it’s worth the extra effort.
I have listened to Dispatch’s album “Bang Bang” a couple of times already. I love this album, bummer that these guys broke up. Chad Stokes is with State Radio, if you have a need for Dispatch that must be satisfied check out “Us Against The Crown”, it’s my personal favorite album from their catalog so far. Anyway, song’s to check out on “Bang Bang” are “Out Loud”, “Drive”, and “Here We Go”.
The Cinematics are another band who I have been solidly listening to lately. Their album “A Strange Education” is such a great album. I like to have this playing in the background during get togethers and stuff. Songs I like are “Race To The City” and “Strange Education”. But it’s all good.
To mellow things out a bit, a friend of mine gifted me City and Colour’s “Bring Me Your Love” on iTunes about 2 weeks ago. It had been on my “Albums to be Heard” pile for quite a while now. Though I must warn you the CD is a bit dark and very centered on death and endings, but profound and well written none the less. “Sleeping Sickness” and “What Makes A Man” are must listens.
Because I could actually go on for a while, I am going to end it with this one. Recently my friend was asked to do a video for a band called Kiddo. Well, they rock. I picked up their EP on iTunes and it’s fantastic. Proof that there is so good stuff across the pond in the UK.
Peace Out!
P.S. Fiction Plane’s album “Left Side Of The Brain”… friggin’ awesome. iTunes it ASAP. Ok, thats it I promise.
I am not joking. This was actually one of the better movie soundtracks. In fact, I remember buying this on cassette when “Santa Claus” brought me a Walkman for Christmas. Then, next year, when he brought me a CD Walkman, I bought it again on CD (when CD’s were $22.50 mind you). Not only was this filled with good stuff (U2, Massive Attack, The Offspring, Method Man, Nick Cave) but it had a little tune by the name of “Kiss From A Rose” by Seal. This is the album that made Seal…Seal. Seal, when you are sitting around, holding all your Grammys, playing with your kids, and looking up to see Heidi Klum making you breakfast, thank the Batman Forever soundtrack. Anyway, this has to be on iTunes or something. Tracks that rock:
This is one of those angry rants directed towards MTV. Forgive my poor tone and writing skills. If anything, this is like my early work. I mean, even Picasso had to doodle. To set it up for you, this was shortly after Britney Spears got smashed (for the first time publicly) and I got mad. And that anger turned rapidly towards MTV. Enjoy…
First of all before I begin, I want to make a few things clear. I am not writing to complain about Britney Spears situation. I really don’t care about Britney Spears. If Britney wants to have a couple of margaritas for lunch and dance around on a stage like she did then so be it. But trust me that is a whole different subject of which I don’t care enough to write about.
Good, OK now that I got THAT out of the way lets move on…
MTV is the only mainstream music portal in America, and pretty much the world today. Well, we have VH1 but how many “Best of the 80’s” recap count down shows can a person take? So basically, all we music lovers have is MTV. MTV has a really large responsibility to live up to because of this, however they aren’t. MTV is filled with nothing but useless reality TV shows that center around 6 or 7 twenty-somethings and the drama of putting them all together in one house. Real World was cool guys, but I didn’t know it was gonna take over the whole network. Now, it’s not only Real World, but Laguna Beach, and couple poorly scripted dating shows. Oh, and MTV Cribs, but I don’t have any beef with Cribs, I really love watching the extravagance of athletes and rappers when it comes to their homes. It’s nice to see how someone can take the same amount of money my mom makes per year and use it to buy a gold plated toilet. You would think that a channel called “Music Television” would, at some point during the day make some worth while reference to music. MTV was once the thriving hot spot for up and coming bands, providing viewers with solid musical line ups and concerts and without a doubt the end all be all in regards to news about the industry (Kurt Loder anyone?). But now, MTV is a biased crowdpleaser. Kind of like the “yes man” during a staff meeting. MTV is the record label’s lackey. Lackluster artists are funneled through in order to get the right amount of buzz. A reality show here, a couple of celebrity mishaps there, and you got the next marketable star. Do you know what time I have to wake up to watch a couple of music videos? Five in the morning. In a channel called “Music Television” I have to wake up at 5 a.m. to hear music. The rest of the day it’s Laguna Beach reruns (undeniable proof that when my generation rises to power and begins running for public office, this country will destroy itself from within), and TRL (which at one point actually played music videos at a reasonable hour, but now plays 30 second clips in order to make room to interview Lindsay Lohan and ask her about her new clothing line for babies). And the only thing sacred that MTV had were the Video Music Awards. The only time MTV would sit down and determine the better artists in the industry and award them for their efforts. But again…not anymore. Now, when they aren’t awarding the same artists they are shamelessly trying to plug, they are having artists fist fight each other to make headlines, or parading drunken pop stars to cause controversy. I don’t normally agree with Kanye West says sometimes, but this time, I do. MTV has sold out. They think they are targeting their programming to the youth and in a way they are, just a dumber demographic. MTV isn’t about music anymore, it’s about churning out useless single season programming in an attempt to lure in 13-16 year old girls so they can learn how to effectively fight for a guy and achieve 40 words per minute on their sidekicks. A channel that fluffs it’s 3AM to 8AM with two music videos per 10 minute block of commercials obviously doesn’t care about music anymore.
This just in to the news room, I deleted my MySpace Page. Facebook has won my undying loyalty and respect. I don’t get junk mail on Facebook (I get ummm junk applications?), I don’t get stalked, I don’t get friend requested by middle aged women (just as shocked as you are) and my page won’t be used to get valuable intelligence on my life or the life of my friends. Well not to say that facebook doesn’t allow for that either, they just go about it in a classier, less creepy way. Honestly my MySpace has been a little stagnant as of late. I guess it’s because everyone I know is on Facebook. I think this is becoming more of a trend. A couple of years ago MySpace was all the rage because it had no direct competition. Friendster was more popular in Asia and Europe (or Eurasia as they like to be called now) and Facebook was closed off to just college students. But now Facebook has changed it’s course. With the applications and the fact that it’s more communication focused. I can definitely see Facebook becoming even more mainstream that it already is. I personally like Facebook more because it has by far the best iPhone Web App, MySpace’s is barely usable. So long story short, down with MySpace! Peace Out.
P.S.
I know MySpace has the advantage in the music label section. It’s truly a great service. However, the reason I wrote this is because I am not a band. If I were a band I wouldn’t be saying what I said here. I think MySpace (and maybe one day Facebook) will be a valuable tool for bands to get the word out. I am one to admit that a couple of artists in my music collection wouldn’t be there without MySpace. But what I am saying today is basically that MySpace has allowed it’s service to be tampered with by spammers and low level advertisers rather than what it should be.
Viva La Vida is awesome. At first I was a little apprehensive (word of the day calendar) about it because I was a big X&Y fan but after track 3 I was already won over by it. Once you hear it you can tell that they refined their sound a lot. This CD exudes a U2 vibe throughout, and I am sure that’s thanks to Brian Eno. I remember reading about Viva La Vida in Rolling Stone and how Chris Martin said that everyday before the started, it was a sort of show and tell session. Each band member would bring in something that they were inspired by. And you can kind of hear small odes to the Beatles and other bands in the music. What a great album! Anyway my favorite tracks are Cemeteries of London, Lost!, Death and All His Friends, Violet Hill, and of course, Viva La Vida. But again, the entire album is phenomenal. I am actually looking forward to getting home and letting this play with my Bose headphones on. Go get it now.
One of the true legendary guitarists. Bo Diddley’s influence can be traced back a long way. He was one of the guys who eased the transition from blues to rock and roll. And he always rocked with that awesome guitar. R.I.P. Bo.
I just bought George Harrison’s “All Things Must Pass” album on itunes the other day. They have digital prints of all his stuff now which rocks (come on Steve, hook us up with The Beatles already!). Anyway this is by far my favorite album of his, amazing stuff. Anyway get the album and listen to track nine of the second disc, “Hear Me Lord”. You should listen to this with a pair of big Bose headphones, if you don’t have them I’ll let you borrow mine…
Welcome to The Jorge Zone! This is my blog, my mental exhaust pipe, slowly filling the atmosphere with my opinions, favorite links, news and the like. This blog is all about the political and social issues we face today. Current events, political & economical happenings, religion & faith, global warming, stuff like ... Continue reading »
I am totally feeling the awesomness of Quantum of Solace. The title is great (if you understand its significance), the cast is great, and the director is great. But the song is kind of…odd. Jack White is the man, and Alicia Keys is great as always, but it’s still a bit odd. Check out the video (which is also odd) and let me know what you think. You can watch it 
Ok, so here is what I can’t stop listening to this week:
I’ll keep this brief, so as to not go on and on about how amazing this album is. It literally came out today, and it has already become an irremovable album in my CD changer. By the time you hit track 5 this thing almost starts changing your life. You want to run outside and yell at the thunderstorm and have some sort of existential breakthrough. Fantastic album a definite must buy (and I mean BUY, trust me after you listen to it you’ll wonder why they didn’t charge more). Here is a link to 
