BGNews Thing #2: The Horrors of File Sharing

Oh the horror, the horror of file sharing!

Today, the BGNews featured a front-page news story abount some national student group's quest to make sure we all "Download Legal", as well as a staff editorial defending their claims.

The news story was kind enough to allow campus music-guru-type Alex Merced to give the opposing side of the story; that the labels are actively screwing us, and that's why we download.

Allow me to go further...

Here is a list of albums I have purchased in the past year or two:

Fiona Apple - Extraordinary Machine
Jenny Lewis with the Watson Twins - Rabbit Fur Coat
Metric - Live It Out
Metric - Old World Underground, Where Are You Know?
Sufjan Stevens - Illinois
Broken Social Scene - Broken Social Scene
Broken Social Scene - You Forgot It In People
The Arcade Fire - Funeral
Cat Power - The Greatest
Bright Eyes - I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning
Stars - Set Yourself On Fire
Feist - Let It Die
Green Day - American Idiot
Modest Mouse - Good News For People Who Love Bad News
Modest Mouse - The Moon and Antarctica
Spiritualized - Ladies And Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space
The Flaming Lips - Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots
The Flaming Lips - Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots 5.1
The Flaming Lips - The Soft Bulletin
Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
The Postal Service - Give Up
The Decemberists - Picaresque
Rilo Kiley - More Adventurous
The Shins - Oh, Inverted World
Franz Ferdinand - Franz Ferdinand
Cake - Fashion Nugget
Cake - Comfort Eagle

That's 28 legitimate, legal CD purchases that would not have happened were it not for the fact that I had already heard (and loved) these albums through file sharing.

Were it not for file sharing, I probably would not have ever heard of half of those albums. I'm totally sure I would have never heard Feist, Stars, Cat Power, Broken Social Scene, Spiritualized, Jenny Lewis, and Sufjan Stevens (which is sad because that's some of the best music I've ever heard). I'm totally sure I would have dismissed American Idiot and Extraordinary Machine had I not heard the whole albums first.

And that's the point. File sharing is the best advertisement for music that's ever been invented. With file sharing you can listen to a greater variety of music than 99% of radio stations out there will ever provide you with. You can't explore music with traditional options. It simply isn't possible. Even with something like iTunes, you're limited to 30 second clips...I'm sorry, that's not good enough. How many people would have bought Dark Side of the Moon if they had just heard 30 second chunks of it? It's the brilliance of the whole package that matters.

The problem here is that I am not an idiot. I will not buy an album because I heard one good song on the radio or saw an artist on TV. I want brilliant albums with brilliant songs, and the only way to find things like that is to listen to whole albums (especially considering the assinine state of music reviews).

At the same time, consider the technical side of "Download Legal". They want you to buy DRMed garbage. I refuse to buy a whole album on a medium that has been purposely broken. Music is a shared social experience. If I can't send something I love to a friend, than there's no point in buying it. If I'm limited were I put it (such as what brand digital audio player I chose to buy), there's no point in buying it.

BGNews Thing #1: President's Day Hillarity

Right-Wing BGNews columnist Alan Calcaterra writes some hillarious shit, I must say. Today, he wrote what starts out being a perfectly innocuous column about President's Day facts:

President's Day is today, and most people think this is a meaningless holiday.

It actually does have a lot of meaning because it was created for the celebration of all the presidents of the United States.

Originally, George Washington's birthday and Abraham Lincoln's birthday were two separate federal holidays in February until 1968, when Congress passed the Uniform Holidays Bill.

The bill, however, didn't become effective until 1971, combining Washington's and Lincoln's birthdays into one day called President's Day. It exists to honor all presidents and it is celebrated on the third Monday of February.

See?...Good wholesome President's Day fun. But, Alan is a right-wing blowhard, and that means that on President's Day, he has an irresistable temptation to start worshipping Ronald Reagan. It's like a moth drawn to a flame. So, lets go to the next page...

TBN, which is the most-watched religious network according to the Neilson ratings, is airing the award-winning documentary "In the Face of Evil: Reagan's War in Word and Deed," which is about Ronald Reagan and the 40-year campaign against the Soviet Union and communism.

Oh, there it goes...This is actually a triple word score for Alan, because he mentions TBN, Reagan, and communism in the same sentence. It's like a reactionary shish kabob.

The film has been getting great reviews and broke box office records in multiple cities when it was released in 2004.

It is considered one of the best documentaries on Reagan and the Cold War, and TBN is expecting high ratings for this President's Day feature.

The documentary is based on Peter Schweizer s best-selling novel "Reagan's War: The Epic Story of His Forty Year Struggle and Final Triumph Over Communism." This book is best known for saying that Reagan achieved the final victory over the Soviet Union through direct confrontation.

So, in honor of all of the presidents, go see a right-wing propaganda film today!...

I consider him to be the greatest president of the 20th century. His contribution to ending the Cold War and fighting communism was one of the biggest victories ever in U.S. history because it was the first time the U.S. fought against a superpower with nuclear weapons.

O RLY? FDR says hi.

Message Board Post of the Day

Bless you, GAF:

In the last couple days my PC has shut off a few times out of nowhere. It is usually preceeding by a message that my video card isn't getting enough power and that the settings are being turned down.

I havent changed anything with my PC's setup in months. Is this just a problem of my PC not getting enough power?

On the back of the Power Supply there is a red switch. I have it on 110. Do you think turning it to 240 would help?

I'm really clueless here. Thanks GAF.

It Never Fails

It's after 2AM, and I have found yet another cool thing...

uBrowser is an experimental Mozilla based browser that renders everything through OpenGL. Want to see cnn.com waving like a flag? Slashdot mapped on a sphere? Digg on a cube? Digg scrolling by like the intro to a Star Wars movie? This is the browser for you.

Quote of the Day

Today's QotD comes from a poster named Axolotl on Fark:

I'm old enough to remember when we were the good guys.

The US did not invade without prior attack.

The US did not torture.

The US believed in the right to public trial.

The US did not spy on its own citizens.

The US had legitimate popular elections.

The US was a role model for other nations.