Uh, some stuff

Music questions

What was the first concert you ever saw?
Chicago. Wouldn't have been my first choice (or in the top 10 or 20) but was the first opportunity.

What are you listening to these days?
It's funny how listening to music has changed over my life. First it was 20 minute album sides from one band. Then whole CD albums. Then I had a carousel CD changer so five CDs, often in a random mix. Now, with an mp3 player, I can listen to most of my music on random shuffle. Though I do listen to a CD sometimes still. Lanois in performance and production has seen much play of late.

What was the first album you owned?
Simon and Garfunkle's Greatest Hits. Followed shortly by Kiss Alive!

What artist, genre or musical trend does everyone seem to love, but you just don't get?
As a life-long grumpy old man, I've poo pooed many a musical craze of the moment. I can "get" why people do most anything if try. But Lordy I don't have the energy for all that trying.

What musical act, current or defunct, would you most like to see perform live?
If I had a time machine I'd be going to a lot of concerts. Off the top of my head--early Scorpions, several flavors of King Crimson, Beefheart doing Mirror Man.

Musically speaking, what is your favorite guilty pleasure?
I mostly don't feel guilty about music I like. I do, however, sometimes feel guilty about the music I don't like.

What song would you like to have played at your funeral?
If I told you then you wouldn't show up.

What band or artist changed your life & how?
Unsurprisingly Eno comes to mind. At least half the music I listen to can be directly tied to him.

Figurative gun to your head, what is your favorite album of all time?
I have the hardest time with such questions because my brain isn't organized that way. But I'll go with a tie between Eno's Ambient 4: On Land and Eno, Eno and Lanois' Apollo: Atmospheres and Soundtracks. Apparently because I like albums with colons in the title.

This is supposed to be a 30 day meme. Doing this over 30 days isn't happening. So here's the whole thing at once.

( Lots of video links to good music. )

Actually, it wasn't Napster but a better, similar thing that I got in on the last of. Started with an 'A' I think. Anyway, I was mighty sad to see all that go. I could have, have, and will, go off about the music industry in general, but that's not my point here. I was the poster boy for the Napster clones. Mostly I used it to get easy access to rare, unpublished tunes and to check out songs--I actually bought CDs based on checking out tunes on some peer to peer thingy.

But that was so a long time ago. It's YouTube now baby! And while I probably do not appreciate all the wonderfulness that is YouTube, I am thrilled that rare video from the past (AKA before some of you were born :)) is now available to anyone (well actually me). Then and now I could give a crap about the latest hit song or video. I want access to the old, the odd, the WTF?

What I fear is that bandwidth will evolve to the place where movies really can be exchanged beyond odd people that will spend three days or more downloading a crappy, compressed version of a movie. Will the powers that be destroy all in their path to ensure their hegemony? I hope not.

To get slightly into the politics--I do differentiate music from cinema. These days any talented person with access to a good computer and some hacked software can put out music that puts the 70s production values to shame. And more importantly, damn near equal what's coming out from record companies today. Certainly video has done similar things to the visual art but the gap is still very wide between Joe Blow with a video camera and an expensive production. Yes, a lot of crap is put out by big studios that is easily trumped by creative people with video cameras--but there are still some VERY good productions that quite simply CAN'T be made cheaply. Cinema and music are not the same, and the same standards don't apply.

I hope that YouTube and its successors can find some cooperative level with the powers that be such that great cinema at all levels can continue to be available. Along with those wonderful clips we'd all be without but for this medium.