November Album Work

NaNoWriMo is upon me again.  Since 2007 I have only crossed the 50,000 word finish line once.  It was quite exhilarating and damn near killed me.

With that said, I am doing it again.  But this time I have a fun plan.

I have purchased a handful of vinyl records of artists I know absolutely nothing about: zip, zero, nada!  I will approach each one and do a full write up - no matter how awful it might be.  I found the first four in the library sales rack for $0.25 each.  I'll be going by garage sales and picking out the most obscure titles and artists I can find.

I know your next question, and that means you have to come back in December.  During the NaNoWriMo process, I simply write (and you can write... for inspiration), and next month I will edit my notes and ramblings.

Here is my tentative approach to each record:

• I go through each of the songs.  I'll highlight some of the lyrics and try to be as serious as possible in my discussion of each record.
• I will look into the main artist(s) and subsequent musicians involved.  Are they known studio musicians, do they have names like "Slippery" Mike or "Slappy" Pappy?  What is their talent level?
• The songwriters, if different than the artist, will be sure to get my attention.
• The miscellaneous section will be if there are any known trivia facts about the artist(s).  Were they in jail, did they do something regrettable that destroyed their career, where are they now, etc..
• I then do a quick wrap up and give my final thoughts.

If you have something obscure and painful you wish to share with me, you should know how to find me by now.

See you in December with some music reviews.

Stop! Think! and Google!

You've done, I've done, we have all done it at one time or another.

We made the mistake of forwarding information or 'breaking news' that was not true.  We fell prey to something shiny and felt like being the first one in our circle to let everyone know that we knew it first.

Of course, once the truth is out, we look foolish and have to backtrack what we sent.  At least, those of us with a conscience that can accept when something is not true and admit we were wrong.

You see, boys and girls, it only takes a moment to look up the facts.  There is such a thing a Google, and there is PoltiFact and Snopes out there.  I have gotten to the point now that I look more closely at the news source.  If it is not someone legitimate (AP, Reuters, BBC, major news affiliate, etc.) I consider the claim "unknown" and forgo any forwarding of the information.  If it something really questionable, like "President Komrade Donnie looks into the sun during the eclipse," I actually went online and checked the news sources.  In this case, it was true: the Ding-A-Ling in Chief did just that, just like that time I learned that Supreme Court Justice Scalia died from auto-erotic asphyxiation. 

The problem with most of the untrue stuff that goes around the internet is that people wish these lies to be true.  They so wish that they had caught their most hated person screwing up that they want to shout it to the world accompanied with a "booyah!" of those that ever doubted them.  The bigger problem is when they refuse to admit that they posted something without checking the facts.  Or they get really pissed when someone sends them the Snopes article or anything that contradicts their every wish.

That's what has happened on Social Media, it is a lot of wish-makers out there that do not take the time to double-check themselves.  But then the lie spreads like wildfire and no amount of backtracking can undo it.  

Get yourself a piece of wood and hammer a nail in it.  That nail represents the lie you spread on the Internet through social media, or through email to your family and friends.  Now go pull the nail out: representing the minor steps you took to undo your mistake - by simply deleting the post or not answering any of the emails with Snopes links.  You notice that hole in the wood?  Did that get corrected when pulled out of the lie?

So, at the end of the day, Stop! Think! and Google!

Stop for a second and ask yourself is this tidbit of information is plausible.  Did anti-abortionist and U.S. Representative Tim Murphy of Pennsylvania really knock up a mistress and then demand of her to get an abortion?

Think for a moment if the information you are putting out can make you look like a bigger tool for posting it if it is remotely false.    Also, consider if it is false, what kind of damage are you doing?  What if someone posted that you were a pedophile, merely by accident, and it was not true?  But, even after the retraction and your name being cleared, all of your friends and associates think twice before inviting you over or including you in anything - though you absolutely did nothing wrong.

*You might think this example is too extreme, but it is what happens day in and day out on the Internet.*

Google! For Thor's Sake people, we have the Internet at our fingertips.  We have the entire Encyclopedia Britannica in our pockets on our phones.  The facts are there.  Look for them! Examine them! Validate them!

Bottom line... don't be part of the problem.  Be smarter than what is running the country today (which, granted is setting the bar quite low).

Stop! Think! Google!

That is all.

More News @ Eleven

Unnecessary Chatter

In our digital age, I am happy that we have maintained the medium of radio.

Of course, there are those on the radio waves that incite hate and make up a lot of nonsense that we can do without, but if you leave the knob at your local NPR station, you are doing it right.

However, I do not have it in me to lay into the talk radio folks, I believe what they do is synonymous with shouting 'Fire' in a theater and, in some cases, tried for treason.  But that is a rant for another day.

I want to talk about the deejays that still insist on talking over music.  They go on and on about some nonsense or plug some event well into the introduction of a song and cut out before the lyrics start.  Honestly, in our digital age of YouTube, Rhapsody, Slacker, Napster, etc.. we are still accustomed to commercials between songs, but not over the songs.  The bottom line here, is that it is disrespectful.

Back in our heyday, I could understand the chattering over the music, as we were all either holding up tape recorders next to the radio or had a built in cassette player to capture music.  The radio stations and artists were making it more difficult for us to share music by copying it from the radio because some deejay was blathering over the beginning of the song, and sometimes the end of it.  Given the time, I can find it within me to forgive them at that time.  Now, the cutting of songs - that is also a rant for another day.

Why do they still do it?  We have one very annoying deejay in Tampa.  I will not name him, but he is on a popular 'classic format' station in the mornings.  He has all the kind of jokes that appeal to preteen boys and was one to make disparaging remarks about our last President - and again, with a kind of humor found on a Spongebob Squarepants show (and Spongebob is actually funnier, but I am trying to give a better example of the intended demographic).

He's an old school deejay, I get it.  But it is time to stop.  Put the ego aside and shut the hell up.

I will say one thing about this station, they have this tag line that says "the weather tight window studios" or some nonsense like that.  This is Florida, and it is blistering hot outside and it rains often, so maybe having a sealed studio from the elements with all of the gear it takes to run a radio is implied.  Every time I hear this phrase, I roll my eyes.

As I said, the bottom line here is simple - shut up already.  It's annoying and disrespectful to the artists.  We will eventually move away from radio, and one of the driving forces will be the annoyance of deejays.  Oh, and another annoyance is the KIA spokesperson here in the Tampa Bay area.  I will refuse to purchase a KIA just because of him.

Before I go, I will say that there are many deejays out there with insightful information about the music and the artists.  They bring value to the music and will play the songs in their totality whilst respectfully not talking over any of it.  That is what they are supposed to do and not have their egos step on the opening riffs or intros to any piece of music.

Furthermore, future deejays of America, if you really want to talk, there are plenty of talk radio stations out there and I hear that there is thing called podcasting.