Literal Video Hilarity

This maybe the funniest video clip I've seen in my entire life. It's Bonnie Tyler's "Total Eclipse of the Heart" video, but the words have been dubbed over so that the vocals just describe all the random goings-on in the video. Just trust me - watch it!

Form Letter from eMusic in Reply to My Rage

See the last post for the story on what's going on over at eMusic. Here's the reply they sent after I fired off an angry missive (not an attack; just letting them know I was upset over the policy change).

Obviously, it's a form letter, probably sent out to 1000 customers or more who complained about the change, and I don't believe for a minute they're taking the outcry seriously. I guess eMusic is banking on the idea that new customers signing up for the Sony back-catalog will make up for the exodus of old customers. Anyway, here's the letter I received:

Hello,

Thank you for contacting eMusic Customer Support,

We understand your concern and want to assure you that we truly value loyal customers like yourself and we are very grateful to you for staying with us this long. This is a big change, but not one that was made lightly. The new plans enable us to better compensate all of our labels, plus add new content from Sony starting in July, and even more new labels in the future. In order to offer you more content from Sony and other labels, we simply can no longer sustain the lowest cost plans that some members have, but we are pleased that we can still offer you prices at less than half the average price per download on iTunes and Amazon.

Many of you have expressed concern that eMusic is abandoning our focus on independent artists and becoming like "the big guys". This is simply not true. We've given it a lot of thought, and we're confident that we can integrate Sony music in a way that does justice to eMusic -- and not just eMusic as a business, but eMusic as those of us who use it every day know and love it. As you know, we have an exceptionally talented staff of music editors who are excited to highlight the hidden gems in Sony's deep catalog that will only compliment the collection of awesome and unusual tunes already in your eMusic collection.

So yes, while this is a big change, we believe the end result is a better music experience for everyone in the long-term. We hope you will have patience and stay with us to enjoy all the new content coming soon.

Sincerely,

Your Friends at eMusic
Regards,

Harold- eMusic Customer Support

Emusic Fail!!

I am blogging today just to let everyone (I know, I know...all 3 or 4 of you who read this blog, anyway) know that I am furious with eMusic! (Normally I provide a link to the websites I discuss, but I am seriously pissed off and don't want to give them any traffic.)

For many years now, eMusic has been the "corner indie music store" of the web, where people could get the "digging through dusty crates" experience of a real brick & mortar indie record store. They offer a ton of tracks from indie labels, along with excellent editorials and other music writing & reviews. I have had a subscription there for over 3 years, and have come to depend on eMusic as one of my main sources of music discovery. I discovered The Weepies there, along with many other acts that I would likely not have heard of elsewhere.

The pricing structure was pretty restrictive, requiring a monthly subscription plan, but the prices were so low that it made it worthwhile. The only real problem I had with the plan was that there were months where I forgot to download my tracks and lost them. Still, I have maintained and been pretty happy with my subscription, which has offered me 50 downloads per month for $11.99, which is a great deal, especially compared to Amazon, iTunes, or the like.

A few days ago eMusci announces in an exciting tone that they will be offering a new catalog, including over 200,000 new tracks! Yay! These are all from Sony labels and will largely feature major acts such as Springsteen, Alicia Keys, and other big names. Now, I want to stress that that alone is okay with me. I'm cool with having big name acts available alongside the indie stuff, so long as the editorial content and music discovery focus is still there, and that eMusic doesn't simply become the next Columbia/iTunes/BMG or similar.

But the prices have almost doubled! I have been informed that my 50 track plan for $11.99 per month will now be reduced to 30 tracks! There was a price increase a few months ago, but at that point subscribers were grandfathered in at current rates. Why not now?

I suspect it's because eMusic had to agree to raise prices in order to get access to this catalog. This pisses me off royally, since this catalog doesn't even represent what has made eMusic such a great community for so long! They are completely abandoning their base, hoping that newcomers will make up for it financially.

Well, I don't know yet if I'll cancel my subscription, but I am seriously considering it. Judging by the comments made to the letter to subscribers on the site, many people will cancel in July when the new structures takes effect.

I just wanted to issue a stern slap on the wrist. If only I had more readers, so that this post might make some sort of difference!

Aimee Mann on PBS!

Aimee Mann - 31 Today from Artists Den on Vimeo.

I just love Aimee Mann. She'll soon be on an episode of The Artist's Den on PBS, although unfortunately it doesn't look like it'll be airing in Albany. If you want to see when (if) it will air in your neck of the woods, check here.

Religious Propaganda Rears Its Ugly Head to Continue Assault on Gays

The video clip is an example of religious propoganda. It stinks of the anti-Communist propaganda from the 50's. My favorite part occurs when the narrator, he of the noble voice, attempts to manipulate scientific inquiry by stating that "all the while, it is the gays who have the highest rates of alcohol abuse...and suicide." In this statement he implies that the sins of alcohol abuse and suicide are consequences of "the gays'" sexual choices...when we have only correlational evidence of these relationships, which we cannot use to infer causality. Therefore, it is just as likely (actually far more likely in my opinion...but I digress) that problems such as substance abuse and suicide are actually factors that follow, not from the state of being gay, but the state of being oppressed by an entire society to some extent, but by these right-wing anti-gay fanatics in particular.

Shame on this video!!

Favorite Movie Quotes

What are your favorite movie quotes? Here are mine:

"Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn." (Gone With the Wind)

"Sell crazy someplace else; we're all stocked up here." (As Good as it Gets)

"Why didn't I just concur?" (weird, I know! But in context it's hilarious! From Catch Me if You Can)

"What, like it's hard?" (from Legally Blonde, when Warner asks Elle in astonishment, "You got into Harvard Law?"

"That boy sure is a running fool." (Forrest Gump, of course)

And finally, no movie quote list would be complete without the whole monologue preceding "You can't handle the truth!" from A Few Good Men!

So, what are your faves?

**Editing later to add a few that I've been reminded of**

So here are a couple of great ones I forgot:

"If you can dodge a wrench, you can dodge a ball!" (Patches, from Dodgeball)

Randall: "I don't appreciate your ruse, Ma'am"
Lady : "My what?"
Randall: "your clever attempt to trick me." (from Clerks, obviously)

Christian the Lion

For those of you completely out of the loop, here is a tear-jerker video of a reunion with a long lost lion cub with his human companions! So, the story is that these 2 British guys (from the 70's, if the hair & clothes are any indication) bought this lion cub, from Harrod's of all places, when they saw him in a cage there and felt sorry that he had to live in a cage. So they raised him for awhile, until he grew too big for their home. Then they sent him to a sanctuary in Africa. I think this video was taken a year later. I was shocked to see this - Christian actually remembers them! Well, either that or he cuddles and hugs with all kinds of strange humans.

By the way, if you go to youtube, there's another version of this but edited so that all you hear is Whitney Houston's rendition of "I Will Always Love You". I implore you to watch this one instead, as it features a woman narrating the reunion. Part of a documentary, I suspect. Enjoy!

All the People with Their Pretty Blogs...

Hi. So, lately I've been checking a lot of new blogs. And what I've noticed is that most people have prettier blogs than mine. Now, it's not Blogger's fault. After all, I've used the provided templates and I change them periodically. In fact, I just switched to "Scribe" on my veggie blog, The Newbie Vegetarian, and I like it. But the other day I visited another veggie blog and there was a beautiful photo of colorful veggies up top, and I'm totally jealous!

So here's the thing. I don't know how to do anything fancy. I can add pictures to posts, and I can add videos when the html is right there for me to copy & paste, but I have no idea how people get pretty pictures up on the top header, where the title goes. And I don't feel ready for a more advanced site like Wordpress, where your options are limitless but it costs money.

I think I need to do some research, maybe "Blogging for Dummies" or some other beginner's guide. So, if you are one of those people with one of those pretty blogs, how did you learn? Share your knowledge, folks! Please?