Hey, you're always asking me where I find stuff...
Friday, August 27, 2004
Subscriberthon Update
The RRR FM subscriberthon went quite well. They managed to break the 10,000 subscribers barrier for the first time in the station's history. I'm a little bit dubious about that number though, because I've seen how the subscriber database works. If a volunteer is entering subscriber details and they go back a screen to check something, when they hit the button to go to the payment screen again a new subscription is created in the database. So there are a lot of duplicates in there. In addition, while most people pay for their subscription on the spot with a credit card, some choose to pay later, and I'm sure there a few who decide not to follow through on their pledge. But still, it was a great effort.
And having been a phone volunteer (phone-voll) for four years now, I've learnt a few things:
Putting Faces to Names/Voices: One of the big benefits obviously is seeing your favourite show's announcer/s. I'll never forget the time I turned up to a Tiger Beat slot and ended up describing the taste of fish rice porridge to David Vodicka on air. Bastard.
Pizza/Chips/Snakes: The phone room coordinators (henceforth known as 'phrcs') do their best to load up the volls with pizza, jelly snakes, chips & coffee, so that the volls don't become sluggish. I don't know how much energy you really expend moving a mouse across 6 square inches of desk, but at least eating helps pass the time. And of course if you're a student, a few jelly snakes and a bowl of chips is probably your biggest meal of the day.
Drinking: Those night time slots can go pretty slowly. When you hear presenters say "there's 8 lines free so ring up and subscribe" they actually mean there are 10 lines free and no-one's called for about 15 minutes. And the last caller didn't actually subscribe - they just wanted to request Public Enemy & Anthrax' "Bring tha noize". That's why I like to deposit a six-pack in the fridge and work my way through it over the next three hours. Offering someone a tin is also a nice way of building trust with the voll sitting next to you. And drinking is much better than Solitaire. Speaking of which:
Solitaire: Start-->Programs-->Accessories-->Games-->Solitaire. Go for it.
Avoid the Breakfaster slot: The Breakfasters slots are usually pretty busy, and often quite manic. There is a core group of volls who do Breakfast - they gather every year, stake out their favourite chairs in front of the studio window and then catch up on how the kids are going etc. One guy always brings some home baked treats, another guy maniacally tries to answer every call, and they all sit around talking about Chris Hatzos and Kate Langbroek. This isn't a bad thing, it's just the way it is. They're all very nice, but it's all too freaky for me.
Final tip: Don't ever let the Station Manager get away with bagging loud guitar music. Every time a presenter plays a Fugazi track she stands in the phone room saying "Oh that loud guitar music drives the subscribers away". If that were true, all the RRR subscribers would be listening to 3MP Time Warp Radio.
And having been a phone volunteer (phone-voll) for four years now, I've learnt a few things:
Putting Faces to Names/Voices: One of the big benefits obviously is seeing your favourite show's announcer/s. I'll never forget the time I turned up to a Tiger Beat slot and ended up describing the taste of fish rice porridge to David Vodicka on air. Bastard.
Pizza/Chips/Snakes: The phone room coordinators (henceforth known as 'phrcs') do their best to load up the volls with pizza, jelly snakes, chips & coffee, so that the volls don't become sluggish. I don't know how much energy you really expend moving a mouse across 6 square inches of desk, but at least eating helps pass the time. And of course if you're a student, a few jelly snakes and a bowl of chips is probably your biggest meal of the day.
Drinking: Those night time slots can go pretty slowly. When you hear presenters say "there's 8 lines free so ring up and subscribe" they actually mean there are 10 lines free and no-one's called for about 15 minutes. And the last caller didn't actually subscribe - they just wanted to request Public Enemy & Anthrax' "Bring tha noize". That's why I like to deposit a six-pack in the fridge and work my way through it over the next three hours. Offering someone a tin is also a nice way of building trust with the voll sitting next to you. And drinking is much better than Solitaire. Speaking of which:
Solitaire: Start-->Programs-->Accessories-->Games-->Solitaire. Go for it.
Avoid the Breakfaster slot: The Breakfasters slots are usually pretty busy, and often quite manic. There is a core group of volls who do Breakfast - they gather every year, stake out their favourite chairs in front of the studio window and then catch up on how the kids are going etc. One guy always brings some home baked treats, another guy maniacally tries to answer every call, and they all sit around talking about Chris Hatzos and Kate Langbroek. This isn't a bad thing, it's just the way it is. They're all very nice, but it's all too freaky for me.
Final tip: Don't ever let the Station Manager get away with bagging loud guitar music. Every time a presenter plays a Fugazi track she stands in the phone room saying "Oh that loud guitar music drives the subscribers away". If that were true, all the RRR subscribers would be listening to 3MP Time Warp Radio.
Thursday, August 19, 2004
Further adventures in music publishing
One of my favourite bands - Fugazi - have started an experiment in getting their music out to their fans using the internet. Fugazi have always been the most independent of all the 'independent' bands. They have their own record label and throughout their career have kept prices low on their albums. Now they are selling CD's of their live shows.
AUD$15 for a live double CD including postage? That's fantastic. All bands should do this - burn CD's of their live shows and sell them immediately after the show. Do you hear that sound BMG? That's the internet burning your business model...
"This site is a way to offer our audience access to selected tapes from that bank of recordings. We have digitally transferred to compact disc an initial sampling of twenty of these shows from various points in the band's career and outfitted each with a uniform generic cover with individual concert information and a track listing. Shorter shows that fit on one disc are available for $8 postpaid. Longer sets are on 2 discs and are available for $10 postpaid."
"It should be noted that these are very much the original recordings without any attempt to correct for things like volume changes, strange mixing effects, the occasionally out-of-tune guitar or the tape running out. Though the sound quality on these tapes does vary, if a show was too poorly recorded it didn't make the cut. We hope to add more shows in the future but for now here's twenty."
AUD$15 for a live double CD including postage? That's fantastic. All bands should do this - burn CD's of their live shows and sell them immediately after the show. Do you hear that sound BMG? That's the internet burning your business model...
Friday, August 13, 2004
Subscriberthon
It's that time of year - the coldest month in Melbourne, and that means it's also time to subscribe to RRR FM. I'll be doing my usual stint of helping out in the phone room taking subscriber calls. Call me on +61 3 9419 2066 and subscribe!
Tuesday, August 10, 2004
Bridgework
My dad likes taking photos of bridges. He's an engineer so this is understandable. On the weekend I went for a sail, and part of that involved motoring down the Yarra. So I took the opportunity to take some photos of bridges as well (click on the thumbnails for larger versions).
This is the Bolte Bridge:
And this is the Westgate Bridge:
That's it.
This is the Bolte Bridge:
And this is the Westgate Bridge:
That's it.
Monday, August 09, 2004
Photo of a photo
The Melbourne International Film Festival is over, and I saw no films. On Saturday though, I did go and see an exhibition of photopgraphy by the Australian cinematographer Christopher Doyle. Doyle has mostly worked in Asia, particularly with a director named Wong Kar Wai.
The photographs on display were taken by Doyle during the shooting of a number of films - most of them appear to be of actors rehearsing or waiting for the next shot or scene. All of the photos show elements of the style that characterises Doyle's work - often just-out-of-focus, or strangely coloured, obscured, or oddly lit. Doyle is a master of hiding part of the image and asking the viewer to deduce what should be there.
This photo (my photo of a photo) is of Tony Leung and Maggie Cheung on the set of "In the mood for love" (click on the photo to see a larger version).
After we saw the exhibition, we rented the DVD of "In the mood for love" and watched it that night. So maybe in a way we did see something in the festival.
The photographs on display were taken by Doyle during the shooting of a number of films - most of them appear to be of actors rehearsing or waiting for the next shot or scene. All of the photos show elements of the style that characterises Doyle's work - often just-out-of-focus, or strangely coloured, obscured, or oddly lit. Doyle is a master of hiding part of the image and asking the viewer to deduce what should be there.
This photo (my photo of a photo) is of Tony Leung and Maggie Cheung on the set of "In the mood for love" (click on the photo to see a larger version).
After we saw the exhibition, we rented the DVD of "In the mood for love" and watched it that night. So maybe in a way we did see something in the festival.
Guest Editor - Melbourne International Film Festival
Today we have a special treat - avid filmgoer (and indy music specialist) Ken "Grasshopper" Ho spent a fair bit of the last couple of weeks attending films at the Melbourne International Film Festival. He went to see a film about the Ramones, who are one of my all-time favourite bands. Here's his review:
END OF THE CENTURY: THE STORY OF THE RAMONES
A very well-made documentary telling the full story of the Ramones from their origins in Queens, NY until their anti-climactic final gig in August 1996. The Ramones can rightfully be labelled as one of the most seminal rock groups of all-time (and I mean up alongside the Beatles, Stones, Velvet Underground, Led Zeppelin). In the 80's and 90's, successful groups as diverse as Nirvana, The Smiths and Metallica would cite the Ramones as an influence. Twee Scottish indie bands of the mid-80's such as Talulah Gosh and The Pastels recorded for a label called 53rd&3rd (named after a Ramones song) with catalogue nos. such as AGARR001 (with the AGARR standing for As Good As Ramones' Records). And metal stalwart Lemmy wrote a tribute to the Ramones for his band Motorhead, simply called "Ramones". For the band themselves though, big success always managed to elude them, especially in the USA. In the first instance, English groups who virtually copied their sound wholesale such as The Clash and Sex Pistols grabbed their limelight at the critical moment in 1977. Then, when a generation had passed and punk broke in 1991, the Ramones again missed out on their chance as the Seattle bands and later the new punks of Rancid, Offspring and Green Day all went on to sell millions as unashamed followers of the Ramones.
The inside story of the band is as sad and tragic as their career path. The four outsiders who met up to form the band were vastly different personalities and it's worth pointing out that they really were on the margins. As Marky Ramone noted in his spoken word visit in May, the rock underground today is largely made up of kids who are quite hip and already "in". They have connections to people in the scene and in other creative fields. I suppose he means Yeah Yeah Yeahs' singer Karen O getting her hip fashion buddies to design clothes for her and The Strokes' Julian Casablancas being the son of the head of Elite Modelling Agency etc. The Ramones really did seem to be made up of those who weren't cool or hip in any sense. Perhaps metal might have that kind of status these days. Whaddya think?
Johnny was the hard man of the group. He describes himself in the documentary as VERY stand-off-ish. He was not even a huge music fan until he saw the New York Dolls play on an off-chance. But after he saw them, he bought a guitar in the next day or two and decided to become a guitar player. Johnny gets the most air-time in the doco being the only living member of the 3 key Ramones. He is admirably candid about himself and the band. He says that he was a real cunt as a teenager and although he got into college in Florida, he was back in NEW York after a week, deciding that it was not for him. From the ages of 18 to 20, he was a delinquent. Then, as he re-tells in the film, he simply straightened himself out one day at the age of 20 and whipped himself into shape - out went the petty crime, drink, drugs, violence and overnight he changed and decided to plan the rest of his life. The New York Dolls catharsis came shortly after and by the age of 22 he had formed the Ramones. As extraordinary as this sounds, it certainly fits in with the way he conducted himself as the Ramones unofficial leader. He was very business-minded. He came up with the look of the Ramones – the bowl haircuts and leather jackets, and didn't allow deviations from it. He was determinedly drug-free and in control. He also hated most industry people he came into contact with. He wrote the majority of the songs with Dee Dee with Joey occasionally writing lyrics.
Joey was the singer and a romantic. He was tall and geeky and suffered from OCD. The interviews with his elder brother are illuminating. Joey was shy and gawky and found solace in rock 'n roll. Joey's love was girl groups, bubblegum music, surf groups, then the British invasion, then the Stooges and the Dolls. It seemed that only in his own mind could he be a rock star. His brother re-tells his astonishment at seeing Joey's first live performance with his first band The Snipers. Joey's brother describes it as an amazing transformation but that he could also see that his brother was finally coming into his own.
Dee Dee was the bass player and comes across as a kinda Lenny sidekick to Johnny's George. He is a loveable rogue with a child-like outlook. He is clearly a smart guy as he co-wrote most of the songs but he was also susceptible to outside influences, be they other people or drugs. I wouldn't draw comparison with Sid Vicious though coz Sid was really thick.
The tragedy in the story mainly stems from the fact that in about 1979, 4 albums into their career, Johnny won over Joey's girlfriend Linda, whom Johnny would later marry and to whom he is still married to this day. Johnny and Joey hardly spoke to each other for the last 17 years of the band's existence, despite the fact the two of them were the only two to be in the Ranmones for the entire life of the band. The band never got their breakthrough record. Johnny even admits to giving up hope of a hit after the Phil Spector produced debacle (1980's "End of the Century") and deciding after that to simply keep the Ramones profitable as a job, which they did until 1996. They toured constantly, even becoming huge stars in South America. By the early mid-90's, they were playing stadiums in Brazil and Argentina but clubs in North America. Their farewell tour of South America saw them play to 60,000 people at the River Plate Stadium in Buenos Aires. The bootleg DVD is available on eBay.
They were inducted into the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame in 2002 but even then, it was too late for Joey who died aged 49 in 2001. Dee Dee would die 2 months after the Hall of Fame presentation, of a heroin overdose. Unlike the likes of Iggy and Lou Reed who were ignored when they produced their great records but were given their credit decades later, the Ramones truly never got their due.
The documentary is solid. Full of important information and moves along at the right pace, spending most time on the 70's and early 80's. The interviews are informative and there is the absence of wise-cracking, talking-head fevered egos, maybe with the exception of that Legs McNeil character who was the first person to write a punk fanzine or something.
Thanks Ken!
END OF THE CENTURY: THE STORY OF THE RAMONES
A very well-made documentary telling the full story of the Ramones from their origins in Queens, NY until their anti-climactic final gig in August 1996. The Ramones can rightfully be labelled as one of the most seminal rock groups of all-time (and I mean up alongside the Beatles, Stones, Velvet Underground, Led Zeppelin). In the 80's and 90's, successful groups as diverse as Nirvana, The Smiths and Metallica would cite the Ramones as an influence. Twee Scottish indie bands of the mid-80's such as Talulah Gosh and The Pastels recorded for a label called 53rd&3rd (named after a Ramones song) with catalogue nos. such as AGARR001 (with the AGARR standing for As Good As Ramones' Records). And metal stalwart Lemmy wrote a tribute to the Ramones for his band Motorhead, simply called "Ramones". For the band themselves though, big success always managed to elude them, especially in the USA. In the first instance, English groups who virtually copied their sound wholesale such as The Clash and Sex Pistols grabbed their limelight at the critical moment in 1977. Then, when a generation had passed and punk broke in 1991, the Ramones again missed out on their chance as the Seattle bands and later the new punks of Rancid, Offspring and Green Day all went on to sell millions as unashamed followers of the Ramones.
The inside story of the band is as sad and tragic as their career path. The four outsiders who met up to form the band were vastly different personalities and it's worth pointing out that they really were on the margins. As Marky Ramone noted in his spoken word visit in May, the rock underground today is largely made up of kids who are quite hip and already "in". They have connections to people in the scene and in other creative fields. I suppose he means Yeah Yeah Yeahs' singer Karen O getting her hip fashion buddies to design clothes for her and The Strokes' Julian Casablancas being the son of the head of Elite Modelling Agency etc. The Ramones really did seem to be made up of those who weren't cool or hip in any sense. Perhaps metal might have that kind of status these days. Whaddya think?
Johnny was the hard man of the group. He describes himself in the documentary as VERY stand-off-ish. He was not even a huge music fan until he saw the New York Dolls play on an off-chance. But after he saw them, he bought a guitar in the next day or two and decided to become a guitar player. Johnny gets the most air-time in the doco being the only living member of the 3 key Ramones. He is admirably candid about himself and the band. He says that he was a real cunt as a teenager and although he got into college in Florida, he was back in NEW York after a week, deciding that it was not for him. From the ages of 18 to 20, he was a delinquent. Then, as he re-tells in the film, he simply straightened himself out one day at the age of 20 and whipped himself into shape - out went the petty crime, drink, drugs, violence and overnight he changed and decided to plan the rest of his life. The New York Dolls catharsis came shortly after and by the age of 22 he had formed the Ramones. As extraordinary as this sounds, it certainly fits in with the way he conducted himself as the Ramones unofficial leader. He was very business-minded. He came up with the look of the Ramones – the bowl haircuts and leather jackets, and didn't allow deviations from it. He was determinedly drug-free and in control. He also hated most industry people he came into contact with. He wrote the majority of the songs with Dee Dee with Joey occasionally writing lyrics.
Joey was the singer and a romantic. He was tall and geeky and suffered from OCD. The interviews with his elder brother are illuminating. Joey was shy and gawky and found solace in rock 'n roll. Joey's love was girl groups, bubblegum music, surf groups, then the British invasion, then the Stooges and the Dolls. It seemed that only in his own mind could he be a rock star. His brother re-tells his astonishment at seeing Joey's first live performance with his first band The Snipers. Joey's brother describes it as an amazing transformation but that he could also see that his brother was finally coming into his own.
Dee Dee was the bass player and comes across as a kinda Lenny sidekick to Johnny's George. He is a loveable rogue with a child-like outlook. He is clearly a smart guy as he co-wrote most of the songs but he was also susceptible to outside influences, be they other people or drugs. I wouldn't draw comparison with Sid Vicious though coz Sid was really thick.
The tragedy in the story mainly stems from the fact that in about 1979, 4 albums into their career, Johnny won over Joey's girlfriend Linda, whom Johnny would later marry and to whom he is still married to this day. Johnny and Joey hardly spoke to each other for the last 17 years of the band's existence, despite the fact the two of them were the only two to be in the Ranmones for the entire life of the band. The band never got their breakthrough record. Johnny even admits to giving up hope of a hit after the Phil Spector produced debacle (1980's "End of the Century") and deciding after that to simply keep the Ramones profitable as a job, which they did until 1996. They toured constantly, even becoming huge stars in South America. By the early mid-90's, they were playing stadiums in Brazil and Argentina but clubs in North America. Their farewell tour of South America saw them play to 60,000 people at the River Plate Stadium in Buenos Aires. The bootleg DVD is available on eBay.
They were inducted into the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame in 2002 but even then, it was too late for Joey who died aged 49 in 2001. Dee Dee would die 2 months after the Hall of Fame presentation, of a heroin overdose. Unlike the likes of Iggy and Lou Reed who were ignored when they produced their great records but were given their credit decades later, the Ramones truly never got their due.
The documentary is solid. Full of important information and moves along at the right pace, spending most time on the 70's and early 80's. The interviews are informative and there is the absence of wise-cracking, talking-head fevered egos, maybe with the exception of that Legs McNeil character who was the first person to write a punk fanzine or something.
Thanks Ken!
Wednesday, August 04, 2004
Record companies still don't get it
This is a timely post given that the Australian Labor Party has announced it will in the main support the proposed Free Trade Agreement with the United States. So that means our various intellectual propert laws will be harmonised with those of the United States. What does that mean for you and I? Well, it means that having a DVD player that can read DVDs from more than our own region will become illegal, because it 'circumvents' the copy protection built in to the DVD. And it means that thousands of Australians will immediately become the targets of a pumped up recording industry, cracking down on people who download songs without paying for them in an effort to stop the decline in recorded music sales.
Setting aside the debate about whether filesharing is actually responsible for the decline in CD sales (DVDs might be cannibalising CD market share for example), it's worth considering the relationship between fans and artists, and how that relationship drives sales.
Ian Condry from MIT in the States, has published a paper (PDF) that looks at the differences between how the American and Japanese recording industries are tackling the problem of illegal copying of music. He finds that the same impulses for copying are present in America and Japan - that consumers feel that CDs are grossly overpriced and usually only have one or two good songs on them, that copying doesn't really hurt artists because the record companies don't pay them much anyway, and that those who artists do have a lot of money can afford a few illegal downloads.
Condry points out that many consumers have become alienated from the industry as they understand that they are the subjects of deceptive marketing practices designed only to shift ever-increasing volumes of product. He also found that many consumers would be prepared to pay for music produced by musicians they respect and admire, and have an ongoing relationship with.
Unfortunately the record companies show no sign yet of understanding that their own awful practices are to blame for the devaluing of their own product. Instead they continue to take teenagers and grandparents to court, to sponsor anti-filesharing legislation and to wage a propaganda war against the consumers and the technologies.
In the end they will lose of course. The ease with which a file can be copied means that copying will always continue. Record companies will either eventually learn to change, or they will die. Unfortunately that will take some time, and while we wait they are going to do their best to turn us all into criminals.
Setting aside the debate about whether filesharing is actually responsible for the decline in CD sales (DVDs might be cannibalising CD market share for example), it's worth considering the relationship between fans and artists, and how that relationship drives sales.
Ian Condry from MIT in the States, has published a paper (PDF) that looks at the differences between how the American and Japanese recording industries are tackling the problem of illegal copying of music. He finds that the same impulses for copying are present in America and Japan - that consumers feel that CDs are grossly overpriced and usually only have one or two good songs on them, that copying doesn't really hurt artists because the record companies don't pay them much anyway, and that those who artists do have a lot of money can afford a few illegal downloads.
Condry points out that many consumers have become alienated from the industry as they understand that they are the subjects of deceptive marketing practices designed only to shift ever-increasing volumes of product. He also found that many consumers would be prepared to pay for music produced by musicians they respect and admire, and have an ongoing relationship with.
Unfortunately the record companies show no sign yet of understanding that their own awful practices are to blame for the devaluing of their own product. Instead they continue to take teenagers and grandparents to court, to sponsor anti-filesharing legislation and to wage a propaganda war against the consumers and the technologies.
In the end they will lose of course. The ease with which a file can be copied means that copying will always continue. Record companies will either eventually learn to change, or they will die. Unfortunately that will take some time, and while we wait they are going to do their best to turn us all into criminals.
Monday, August 02, 2004
Original Post!
Heh - I got a story published on Slashdot. (That's my Slashdot username by the way - 'awful'.)
Sunday, August 01, 2004
Sunday Afternoon Stocktake
Last night there was a birthday party at my place (not mine). There were quite a few high-jinks, mostly involving the small chimney pot stove in the back courtyard. Some guests thought it might be funny to melt a beer bottle or two and dump some citrus-oil based cleaner in the fire. It was quite blaze for a while there and I'm glad I took the precaution of removing the spray can of butane. Which is all my way of saying I had a few drinks last night and now I'm on the sofa, just relaxing. And I think it might be time for a short stocktake.
a) Football – right now it's Geelong v St Kilda in an absolute cracker of a match on the telly. Geelong are in front by 6 points with about 4 minutes to go. Seth is down there today with his Dad - I bet he's having a great afternoon.
b) Music - "The Battle of Algiers" by Ennio Morricone. Oh-oh, Kingsley just kicked a behind - could end up being a one point win. Back to the music - it's a great track - it makes me want to watch the movie.
c) Cat - is on the couch after a very successful night last night. She was adored by everyone, even the noted cat disliker Spreadsheet Pete. Top work Milly. Oh - Geelong won! The crowd goes wild!
d) Remixing Projects - I really need to get back to work on "Falling in Love With a Woman Reading Numbers". Perhaps tonight...
e) Make a small video - I just realised that since my camera can record video, it might be possible to make a small video with it. It would have to be short, because I'd probably have to download each shot one-by-one. So if it was too long it could get annoying. And the sound quality would be kack as well. But it could be fun. Just gotta write a script now.
f) Employment - it really is time that I actually managed to land one of these jobs I've been interviewing for.
On Sunday, everything seems possible.
a) Football – right now it's Geelong v St Kilda in an absolute cracker of a match on the telly. Geelong are in front by 6 points with about 4 minutes to go. Seth is down there today with his Dad - I bet he's having a great afternoon.
b) Music - "The Battle of Algiers" by Ennio Morricone. Oh-oh, Kingsley just kicked a behind - could end up being a one point win. Back to the music - it's a great track - it makes me want to watch the movie.
c) Cat - is on the couch after a very successful night last night. She was adored by everyone, even the noted cat disliker Spreadsheet Pete. Top work Milly. Oh - Geelong won! The crowd goes wild!
d) Remixing Projects - I really need to get back to work on "Falling in Love With a Woman Reading Numbers". Perhaps tonight...
e) Make a small video - I just realised that since my camera can record video, it might be possible to make a small video with it. It would have to be short, because I'd probably have to download each shot one-by-one. So if it was too long it could get annoying. And the sound quality would be kack as well. But it could be fun. Just gotta write a script now.
f) Employment - it really is time that I actually managed to land one of these jobs I've been interviewing for.
On Sunday, everything seems possible.
- RSS