Aaron White

Confused & Music

I just downloaded the new “Girl Talk” album, which consists entirely of illegally sampled sound bytes from music of all genres, and synthesizes them into something entertaining.

I was given the choice of paying any amount I like for the privilege of downloading the music, I opted for zero dollars. (Note: I appreciate the artists work & talent, on the other hand, paying him endorses law-breaking, even if you don’t agree with the rules) I’m sure I’ve broken a few laws despite this.

This one experience is a tangled knot of just about every unresolved issue the music industry is stumbling through.

What it does highlight for me is that, whether you think it’s ‘good’ from a moral standpoint, or ‘good’ from a ‘we are heading there anyway’ perspective, music will be free. Not because it needs to be, or ‘wants’ to be, but because while the digital distribution juggernaut that is the Internet lumbered over the music industry’s meticulous little cash-village, the big-five chose to attack the problem in the form of wasps stinging a giant, instead of doing anything meaningful to control and steer the situation somewhere we’d all be happy.

Humans are still willing to pay for the music ‘experience’. We’ll still pay for concerts and shows. I hope all those who are passionate about making music will be able to scale up an audience large enough to support them in a reasonable way. Hats off to whoever helps solve that problem.

Portmanteau of the Month: Transplendid

Definition: Adj., something that transcends splendor. Mash-up of transcendent and splendid.

I was sure that after much drinking, this was my unique creation, apparently this word was introduced earlier by Woody Allen. If you credit me by mistake, I won’t take offense.

I encourage you to find use for this transplendant word at least once this week. At the very least, make sure your spell-checker is cool with it. That’s a start.

99 times out of 100,

99 times out of 100,

If someone is upset with you, then it’s helpful to remember people only get upset when they care.

99 times out of 100,

If you’re angry with someone or something, you’re really just mad at yourself.

The universe is gracious enough to have given me ample opportunity to re-learn this.

Briefly...

mattlanger:

… during this neverending collective journalistic orgasm over the Michelle and Barack knucks/bump/pound/fisting debacle, has it occurred to even just one of these idiots that this gesture is the now customary greeting in a lot of younger circles?  I feel like the only substantive angle of deconstruction to leverage towards this issue has been completely overlooked: its symbolic representation of the generational turnover happening in American politics right now.

The “bump,” symbolically speaking, is right in line with the rejection among the youth of the still lingering style of bunker mentality Democratic politics offered up by the Clinton campaign.  Obama accomplished something with his campaign that top-dollar operatives have sought for years: energizing young voters and getting them out to the polls.  He did it by redefining the brand, and offering up an identity suitable to voters who didn’t live through Vietnam, who didn’t experience the widespread splintering of the left in the 70s, who grew up in an increasingly interconnected digital world where borders are blurring and the politics of response to the “Southern Strategy” grow more irrelevant by the day.

Perhaps pounding fists with his wife was what “kids today” might call “a shout out.”  I know when I first saw the photo my only thought was: he’s one of us.

I Love a Good Walled Garden

Ok, I’ve beaten this horse before, and I’ll continue to do so whenever the urge arises…

Dear Internet & her Developers: Just because some app-platform is half-closed, half-proprietary, or a ‘walled garden’ does not make it bad. The reflexive cry of “but it’s not open!” falls on my deaf ears.

Walled gardens are just fine, thank you. If someone has a vision, and control is needed to execute to it, then that’s the way it is! Presumably the world will be a better place after that vision is realized than it was before. The net-effect of the introduction of the walled garden is positive.

When walled vs. open matters is when you have two services or two products that are reasonable substitutes. It’s in this scenario, that you can reflexively cry “open!” and I’d be forced to agree.

But how often does that happen, really? Is there a perfect substitute for Facebook? Not to my knowledge, so I find myself sitting-pretty inside their (hopefully) benevolently dictated zone.

My call-to-yall: open is not always greater than closed. Let’s applaud companies that focus on creating value, before we consider them in the light of open vs. closed.