“A piece of art is not a loaf of bread. When someone steals a loaf of bread from the store, that’s it. The loaf of bread is gone. When someone downloads a piece of music, it’s just data until the listener puts that music back together with their own ears, their mind, their subjective experience. How they perceive your work changes your work.

Treating your audience like thieves is absurd. Anyone who chooses to listen to our music becomes a collaborator.”
– Jeff Tweedy, frontman for the band Wilco

Read the whole interview @ Wired.com.

Tanker Spill Leaves Chocolate-Covered Highway Upstate
Part of a highway in the Finger Lakes region was closed for five hours Thursday evening after a tanker truck crashed, spilling 45,000 pounds of slippery liquid chocolate that hardened.

La lee doo dum, la lee doo dum daaaaaaay!

Sometimes, you get in the car and turn on the radio, and the absolute perfect song is playing. When I left work at 7 tonight, after a full day of everyone griping about the election, I heard exactly what I needed to hear.

You can’t always get what you want
You can’t always get what you want
You can’t always get what you want
But if you try, sometimes, you might find
You get what you need.

You Can't Always Get What You Want

It’s a thematic entry today.

“President”, Wyclef Jean
President

“Another National Anthem”, Assassins (Original Off-B’Way cast)
Another National Anthem

I hope you can see this because I'm doing as hard as I can.

So, I went over to my parents’ house to help them move my mother’s computer and office furniture to their new place in Monroe. And as I’m disconnecting the computer that’s given me so many goddamn headaches over the last 5 years, it occurred to me that this would probably be one of the last times I would step foot in the house I grew up in. And then I realized…I was pretty much ok with that.

Don’t get me wrong. I’ll miss that house. I spent 22 of my 29 years (plus college breaks and trips home to mooch food) in that house. Good times, bad times, you know I had my share. But most of the better times of my life were spent away from home – Stagedoor, college, London – I was away from home for all of those experiences. Sure, it was always nice to know that the house was there to come home to, and I’ve always thought of it as ‘home’, even after I had my own place. But when my parents said they were selling the house…well, the new house is not even 3 minutes from the old one, and all my stuff’s already moved out. Plus, the new house is much, MUCH nicer. There’s also the fact that Twin RIvers just isn’t the place it was when we were growing up there, and the fact that some of the people living in my parent’s court are just flat-out jackasses. So I wasn’t too sad to see them move.

Besides, it’s not like they’re following Darren’s parents down to Florida. So I’ll still be able to mooch.

Well, as much as it causes me great mental and physical pain to say this…congratulations to the Boston Red Sox for winning their first World Series title in 86 years. They had to work for it in the ALCS (and yes, I’m still a little bitter that it wasn’t the Yankees tearing the St. Louis Cardinals a new one on TV tonight), but they earned their title.

Not that I’m bitter or anything, but…George Steinbrenner – get that checkbook (or Visa Check Card, whatever) out and start signing some pitchers, if you want to even have a hope of getting to the ALCS next year, let alone the World Series. And for Brak’s sake, get a second closer. Mariano Rivera may still be the best closer in the business, but he was overworked and too well scouted in the playoffs this year.

“Battle Without Honor or Humanity”, Tomoyasu Hotei
Battle Without Honor or Humanity

You may know it better as “Hey, It’s That Song” from the Kill Bill vol. 1 soundtrack. I know it as the song that’s running through my head constantly.

TeeVee.org – Kidz Bop Drives Father to Violence

It’s only Monday, but someone in the Tech Sector has already found a way to make my blood boil. Specifically, Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer, who had this to say at an event in London:

“We’ve had DRM in Windows for years,” Ballmer said. “The most common format of music on an iPod is stolen.” (Full article here.)

No, you vacuous moron, the most common format of music on an iPod is a format that has been around for years, is easy to use, and is essentially ubiquitous among end-users.

It’s called fair use, you mouth-breather. Consumers don’t dislike (or try to get around) DRM because it’s difficult to use – consumers avoid DRM because it infringes on their fair use rights. That’s why Apple’s DRM works – it’s practically invisible, and doesn’t limit my ability to listen to music that I own.

You know what, Ballmer? Keep “improving” Windows DRM. And you’ll keep driving users to Apple. And in the meantime, revel in the fact that you’ve been named Douchebag of the Week.

(Yes, I had a bad day at work today…why do you ask?)