By now you’ve probably heard about our friend Jonathan Coulton’s podcast interview with NPR’s Planet money, in which his career and success were more or less written off as a “fluke”, and was smugly labeled a “Snuggie” by Frannie Kelley of NPR’s music blog The Record. If you haven’t, follow the links to get up to speed and share the outrage.
I am not writing today to defend Jonathan, or to argue against Planet Money’s assessment of the internet’s effect on the music industry. Jonathan has already done both of those things earlier today in magna cum laude fashion in a blog post.
Instead I’m going to focus on Jonathan’s idea that ALL musicians are Snuggies:
Read More »
I generally don’t like to acknowledge personalities or events that use the media to achieve idiotic or nefarious ends, much in the way that a hurricane feeds on warm waters to increase its power. So much so that I’m not even going to provide specific examples*. Monsters can thrive on even the smallest amount of attention, so the best solution comes from Paul Anka’s song on The Simpsons: “Just Don’t Look“.
So I was hesitant to write about the latest in a centuries-old line of end-of-the-world scares. Why add fuel to the moronic fire? To refute it? Nah. Anyone buying into it is clearly beyond reason. To poke fun at it? Compelling, but it would come at the cost of helping those fueling the stupidity to achieve their ends. Because it’s 10:30 p.m. and I couldn’t think of anything else to write about? No comment.
Read More »
Technically I’ve written way more than 250 words today, including quite a bit involving JoCo Cruise Crazy II. But none of those words appear here.
I actually find it’s much harder to write “fun stuff” after spending the day doing drier writing, versus when I have lots of fallow time. Yes, it’s partly because I’ve already spent a lot of brain energy stringing words together (which certainly disallows me from writing a well-honed rant). But the larger problem how difficult it is to switch mental gears after having one’s brain marinated in unfunizone all day long.
Not even wearing my jammies, feet up as I sit on a big comfy couch, and in the presence of two purring cats can shake me out of Business Mode tonight. Frankly, right now it feels like I’m sitting in the ball pit at a Chuck E. Cheese’s wearing a business suit. No, that wouldn’t be awesome. You’d be worried the whole time about getting crappy pizza on your tie, or that you’d be arrested. Because why else would someone be in a kid’s arcade wearing business attire, except to lure children through the power of professional demeanor?
See? See what happens? I tried to shift gears with a metaphor for my mental state, and instead of coming off as light-hearted and fun, it was downright creepy. Which I suppose validates my Pizza Time analogy: I’m completely out of place writing for Longer Thoughts right now–and the more fun, innocent side of my mind knows it, and wants it arrested.
So good night. Hopefully I’ll be bored enough tomorrow to peck out something more fun and/or interesting. Or at the very least, less creepy.
———–
Business Suit Man photo from Matt Gibson (Flickr)
Bad Advice Comix will be back, but in the meantime pull up a chair and prepare to receive wisdom.
THE DISCLAIMER: I’m not an expert of any kind, I cannot vouch for the efficacy or legality of my advice, and as a blanket statement recommend that no one should follow it, ever. It is bad advice. I will also not be held accountable if any of my advice is found to be thought-provoking, or if any portion therein could be deemed to be, by a deranged mind, constructive.
Hiya Storm,
My question deals with colleges yayy! Since I am pretty sure I want to be in Virgina/DC/Pennsylvania area, since I want to major in history. Would you happen to know about the colleges in Virginia? Like which ones are pretty good, etc and any advice about colleges would be awesome ( picking / applying to them ). I would be applying from out of state (CA)
~Collegebound
Read More »
Usually it’s round numbers that mark the biggest anniversaries, probably because it’s easy to divide by ten. I’m sure some people celebrate their 7th wedding anniversary like it was their 50th, or make a point to fete their 27th birthday like it was some kind of Turbo SuperChristmas. But our digital biology isn’t always what makes occasions momentous. Certainly not for me today, here at the end of the 21st anniversary of Jim Henson’s death:
[S] Jim Henson died 21 years ago today. Long live Jim Henson http://tumblr.com/xjd2josb3p (LGT @jimjeroo’s Tumblr)
Read More »
UPDATE: May 13, 1:43 p.m. At least one concern has been answered, regarding Twitpic’s ability to sell deleted items: the ToS does indicate that they will only access user images “in the event of a legal issue”…
You understand and agree, however, that Twitpic may retain, but not display, distribute, or perform, server copies of your media that have been removed or deleted. The above licenses granted by you in user comments you submit are perpetual and irrevocable. Deleted images are only accessed in the event of a legal issue.
…though when combined with the previous clause that states “any sub-license by Twitpic to use, reproduce or distribute the Content prior to such termination may be perpetual and irrevocable”, deletion will not prevent a user pic that’s already been farmed out from being displayed. So in the alien photo scenario, if a user were to delete the image from Twitpic before it was farmed out to an affiliated partner, they would have the sole copyright from that point onward.
Thank you to TwitPic Software/Systems engineer Ryan LeFevre (@MeltingIce) for helping clear that up. The question of Twitpic’s rights within the ToS to sell user content remains fuzzy to me, but I hope it’ll be cleared up as well.
[S] Twitpic to sell user photos and not share proceeds http://bit.ly/klh6X3 ♫ Farewell and adieu, you ladies of Spain ♫
Read More »
My brain am still kinda broke-down and glum, so today I’m giving away a MILLION DOLLAR BUSINESS IDEA!* I’m practically making money just by thinking about it. Why is it so valuable?
- It doesn’t require a lot of retail space
- Its appeal is as novel as it is practical
- Startup costs are low
- It involves soup
That’s right, Soup On Tap is just what it sounds like: a storefront quick-serve soup joint where the meals are served through a modified beer tap. Read More »
Still working my way up out of the grumpies, so a list it shall be…
Flanging (pronounced “flan-jing”) is an audio effect produced by mixing two identical signals together, with one signal delayed by a small and gradually changing period, usually smaller than 20 milliseconds. This produces a swept comb filter effect: peaks and notches are produced in the resultant frequency spectrum, related to each other in a linear harmonic series. Varying the time delay causes these to sweep up and down the frequency spectrum. –Wikipedia
Still not sure what it is? Do you remember the first time you heard the song “Killer Queen”, and when Freddie Mercury sang “dynamite with a laser beam”, you went “YEAAAAAAAH!” because “laser beam” sounded SO FRICKIN’ COOL?!
That, my friend, was the work of flanging, the playful porpoise of the audio world. In sound production, if reverb is meat and EQ is bread, then flange is cheese sauce. Healthy? Mostly not. A responsible choice? Nope. But it can instantly make anything taste good! And when applied deftly and in moderation, you could almost call it noble.
Read More »
I knew this day would come. At the outset of Longer Thoughts, I pledged for my own betterment to write at least 250 words a day. And now as I sit on my couch, ill of mood and brooding, I have absolutely nothing positive of interest to say.
Yes, I did write over 250 words on a post for paulandstorm.com that will go live at midnight. But it doesn’t count: it’s not the kind of thing I’d post here. Entertaining as it may be, it’s really a pure promotional piece for a song release, and not an over-thought observation about something trivial, a story of any sort, or even bad advice. Even if it was, since it doesn’t go online until midnight, it could at best be counted as Tuesday’s post.
Only 129 words? Really? Okay; time to freeball a story…
Read More »
Y’all seemed to enjoy the first one, so here we go again! (“We” meaning yours truly and artist/illustrator Len Peralta (Geek-A-Week, Monster By Mail)). The comic below is in response to a real person who wrote me looking for really bad advice.
THE DISCLAIMER:
I’m not an expert of any kind, I cannot vouch for the efficacy or legality of my advice, and as a blanket statement recommend that no one should follow it, ever. It is bad advice. I will also not be held accountable if any of my advice is found to be thought-provoking, or if any portion therein could be deemed to be, by a deranged mind, constructive.
Would YOU like some bad advice? From ME? I hope so, because my stock of questions is running low. Simply send an e-mail to badadvicecomix@paulandstorm.com (or if that still isn’t working, storm@paulandstorm.com), and please put the words “bad advice” in the Subject line so that I can tell it apart from all of the space junk. But before asking, visit
this post for complete details, disclaimers, and other caveats. NOTE: some questions will receive written answers, some will be made into comix, and others might not be answered at all. Just depends on what I eat for breakfast on any given day.
BY REQUEST…if you cannot see Len’s terrific illustration, I’ve included the text and description I sent to Len below, which will give you a pretty good idea of what’s going on. Click on the “More” for…more. If that doesn’t help, I’ll try to think of something else.
Read More »
