It was just 9 years ago that a young man named Shawn Fanning developed a way to share music over the internet in MP3 format. The service was called Napster, and it didn’t take long before musical acts started trying to take down the music piracy enabling software. The most notable act was Metallica, whose new album, Death Magnetic, will be released worldwide on September 12th.
Being the Metallica fan I am, I’ve been anxiously awaiting the new album, and clicking on the band’s official website daily. This morning, much to my delight, a song from Death Magnetic, titled “My Apocalypse,” was available to listen to. I chose to listen to it in Windows Media Player, which, while listening, I noticed has a Napster logo and the option to “Buy this CD from Napster.” Here’s the screenshot:
Oh the Irony! (Click for full view)
With Napster now being a legit music service, there’s not much Lars Ulrich and company can do about people obtaining their music that way if their label has an agreement with the service. Of course, they’ll actually be making money this time, so I suppose they wouldn’t be complaining much anyway.
On a parting note, here is one of my favorite things to have come out of the whole Metallica/Napster controversy, from the 2000 MTV Video Music Awards:
Last year, I posted a blog entry on stupid5pin.net about why I hate free concerts after attending The Violent Femme’s performance at Buffalo’s Thursday at the Square. Last night, I took my first trip up to the Square since that article was written. I went to see one of my favorite local bands, klear, who were re-uniting with their original vocalist after nearly four years. They were opening up for Saliva, who are known for songs such as “Click-Click-Boom” and “Ladies and Gentlemen.”
I showed up early to the Square, because I wanted to be front and center to support my hometown boys. I get up to the front over by the guardrail, and I have some space on either side of me. So far, so good. The guys on my left are wrestling fans, which didn’t surprise me, since Saliva has been tied closely with World Wrestling Entertainment, providing the theme songs for WrestleMania X-8, WrestleMania 24, and their ECW program on Tuesday nights, not to mention a song for WWE Superstar Chris Jericho, and the current theme song of the WWE’s Batista. The guy on the other side of me was pretty cool, he complimented me on one of my tattoos. Along comes this lady, along with what was apparently her fiancee and a couple of other people. I could tell they wanted to squeeze in to the guardrail, but only the one woman succeeded. What she didn’t succeed at, however, was keeping her hands to herself. She kept inadvertantly touching my back, my sides, and my hand. If I didn’t know she was a fellow klear fan, I would have told her that if she couldn’t keep her hand to herself, she’d be going home without it. Credit where it’s due, once the show started, she managed to not touch me again.
The guys on my left, the wrestling fans who were there for Saliva, had nothing nice to say about klear. If you’re going to a show, if you don’t like the local opening band, hang back and let their fans enjoy their set without having to hear comments from the peanut gallery.
I did take off for a bit after klear’s set, stopping first to talk to returning frontman Fred Shafer, so that I could make sure I had the right information to update klear’s Wikipedia entry, and when I came back, I took my spot back by the tree that I had during the Femme’s show last year. I stood back and observed the crowd, who only responded when Saliva played one of their big radio (or commercial) hits. I’m sure the wrestling fans (yes, I know, I’m a wrestling fan too – but I was a fan of Saliva before they started doing wrestling music) were thrilled when they announced “Ladies and Gentlemen” with “this is the theme song for WRESTLEMANIA 23!” I really don’t have a complaint about the crowd for this one – it was what it should have been: a friendly crowd who were there to have fun, including this guy who came to me and said “Peace be with you,” which, despite all my rants about religion on this site, I thought was a kind gesture.
What did bug me about this show is the fact that Josey Scott didn’t seem to be trying very hard. I’d seen Saliva a couple of times before, and I know what Josey can pull off in live performances, but since the last time I saw him five or six years ago, I think he’s lost a step. Interestingly enough, it’s not that Josey can’t sing. For some reason, Josey’s rapping and screaming needed a little work.
While things weren’t that bad last night, I guess we’ll see what happens when I attend a free Joan Jett concert tonight and a free Candlebox concert next week.
ThinkSoJoE note:this here is another one of those “Lost articles,” so named because it was only available for a brief period on stupid5pin.net. Here it is in it’s entirety, written late last June following The Violent Femme’s performance at Buffalo’s Thursday at the Square concert series.
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Do not misconstrue this. I am 25 years old and I do not think that I’m “too old” to go to concerts. In fact, it’s one of my favorite things to do. That being said, I’ve grown to dislike free outdoor concerts. A lot of this article/column/whatever is based on my experience at a performance of The Violent Femmes at the Buffalo, NY summer concert series, “Thursday At The Square.”
First, the people. People will go to anything if they don’t have to pay for it. Today, I saw a gentleman that had to at least be in his 50s at an alternative rock concert, and he was mockingly pointing out to his wife the kids with multi-colored hair. “Oh, look at that one, he’s got blue hair! Hahaha!” Note to this guy – You’re at a Violent Femmes show, you are the odd one here, not them.
Another example, a couple of older ladies next to me, not quite as old as the gentleman making fun of the alt rock kids, but still older than most of the people there, were having a discussion. One lady asked the other, “so, do you like this band?”
“Eh, they’re alright.”
The problem here is, you can be sure that they weren’t the only ones. The place was swarming with people who didn’t care for the music and were only there because it was a free outdoor activity in downtown Buffalo.
Then there’s the lady behind me who, three songs into the Femmes’ set, was screaming “BLISTER IN THE SUN!!!” First and foremost, bands have these things called setlists. They have the names of the songs they will be performing during their set, listed in the order that they are going to play them. Somehow, I think after 20 years that The Violent Femmes didn’t all of a sudden accidentally leave their biggest hit off of it. Besides, it’s only 8PM, the band will be on until 9PM, and if they play “Blister In The Sun” now, most of these people would leave early. Actually, that may not have been a bad idea…
And then, there’s the tall people. If you’re 6′5″, please get out of the way of the 5′8″ guy behind you. This was my view of the majority of the Femmes’ set:
Tall bastard at the Square
Yeah. I could see. Really.
So, since the tall guy was in the way, I decided to look around at some of the fashion around the Square. Pretty much the usual summer look for the square people, but I did notice one disturbing trend. Those giant sunglasses that are apparently back in style for girls. A lot of them were wearing them. I thought that fad would’ve burnt out by now. They look absolutely ridiculous. I also saw an old guy with a mullet and an unbuttoned Hawaiian shirt. Give it up, Don Johnson. I doubt that look even worked for you in the 70’s.
Note to our female readers – wear underwear if you’re going to wear low rise jeans. Not that I mind seeing the ass crack of an attractive female, but I’m sure you don’t really want that kind of attention. Besides, with the advent of camera phones, those kind of things will inevitably end up on the internet:
Girl's ass crack at the Square
Speaking of asses, don’t be an asshole. While I’d prefer that you find a spot you’re happy with and stay there for the duration of the show like I do, I understand sometimes you’d like to move and get a better view of the show. Don’t be a dick about it. This one guy pushed his way past me without saying a word, which I really didn’t care about, but then did the same to the girl standing in front of me, who was standing up on a curb. She fell into me, so I kicked the guy in his ass to defend her honor! Yeah, because I’m a gentleman.
Other than all the idiots at the show that really shouldn’t have been there, it was a really good time. The Femmes put on a hell of a show and I hope to have the opportunity to see them again in the future. I think I’ll stand up front the next time – which will leave me the opportunity to write about chronic crowd surfers.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHA you suck, U2! Apparently somebody was driving by Bono’s house while the Irish vocalist was playing his new album pretty loudly. They managed to record four tracks, and the songs have leaked onto the internet. TorrentFreak has the story at the link below:
I don’t know if you guys have seen this yet, but there’s a fan created poster for a theoretical sequel to The Dark Night. Bam! Kapow! has the poster, and their take on it, at the following link:
I was watching Rosanne, and Dan started to hum some familiar sounding music – which I mistakenly thought was the old theme from the HBO Feature Presentation bumper that used to be shown on the network when I was a kid. So I did what any good procrastinator will do – I went and watched the bumper – and then I watched a video about how they made the bumper, which was pretty cool. So, courtesy of HBO’s Channel on YouTube, here they are!
First, the 1983 HBO Feature Presentation bumper:
You know, that end part with the lights spinning in the “O” always made me think of Wheel of Fortune. Anyways, here’s the making of:
BONUS! Here’s a couple of different HBO-produced parodies used as April Fool’s jokes in the late 80’s
Bring up Grease to a group of women, any age, and you will be greeted with the same response: “Awww, I love Grease.” This is fine. They get a kick out of summer lovin’ and watching pretty people dance around in a simpler time. But things take a dangerous turn when you admit to an ounce of dislike for this musical. They’ll pounce faster than greased lightning, ready to declare you a heartless, un-American fiend. You’d think you were the hardass judge from Footloose and had just banned dancing altogether. For the record — that’s a better musical.
Why We Should
The songs, although catchy, are grating. The acting is stiff and borders on self-parody. The comedy is immediately dated. And worst of all, the problem with making a movie that celebrates a simpler time is that simpler times are by their very nature boring. Aside from it being an entertaining enough movie, it’s just not the ultimate joyous musical that many feel it is. And no, I’m not saying that because I’m threatened by John Travolta’s scientologist henchmen.
The problem with that is, I’ve always been critical of the film, and I’ve always been extremely vocal about it, at one point going so far as to survey women about whether they like the movie or not. Not surprisingly, most of them said they love it – except for, oddly enough, women named Nicole for some reason.
I despise the movie. I’ve always said that it’s the second worst film ever made – the first being Grease 2. In all fairness to the John Travolta greaser pic, that statement is a little exxagerated. There are much worse films in existence than the two iterations of Grease. The fact remains that Grease is one of the most overrated films of all time, hands down. As the guys over at Flixter point out, the movie is just plain boring. On top of that, the music is irritating. I’d rather shoot myself in the head than hear a damn number from Grease again.
My ex wife loved the movie. She had a copy of it on VHS (and for those of you too young to remember, that’s what we used to watch movies on before DVDs came out) – I threatened to destroy it if it was ever viewed in my presense. She watched it one time while I was sick. I woke up and it was on. I didn’t destroy it – but I at least scared her (because she’s an idiot and thought that opening the little plastic door and exposing the film would automatically destroy the tape).
I applaud you for your list, Flixter. I just don’t think Grease belongs on it, as I’ve never been afraid to criticize it to anybody, thus proving that entry wrong.
This is technically meant for theatrical releases, but the fact remains that The Dark Knight has broken record after record after record since it’s debut at the box office. So whether you’re Pirates of the Carribean 3 or The Lord of the Rings, or even The Godfather, which was upended in the top spot of the IMDb Top 250 by the newest film in the Batman saga. So, while The Dark Knight continues to rake in the money at the box office, every other movie in the history of cinema looks pretty stupid for the month of July, 2008.
Hey guys, I was bored yesterday so I built myself a new website. It’s more of a personal site than anything here on stupid5pin. I figure I’ll use it to keep thinksobrain fans up on my projects. If you guys wanna check it out, it’s over at thinksojoe.thinksobrain.com.
ThinkSoJoE Note: This was posted a few years back on stupid5pin.com. I don’t remember the exact date, but it was only up briefly before the site came down. I figured that since it’s Sunday, a good day to go grocery shopping, I’d repost this list of things that still piss me off today about the idiots you run into at the grocery store. Enjoy!
I’ve come to the conclusion that nobody has any fucking clue about proper grocery store etiquette. So the good natured person that I am, I decided that I’d do some public service by presenting some of these rules to you.
1) If you are standing on the side of a shopping cart, and other people cannot get around you – LOSE SOME FUCKING WEIGHT!
2) Never back up in a grocery store. If I have to explain why, you’re probably retarded and don’t mind getting hit by oncoming shopping carts.
3) If you own a grocery store, and you rennovate and move things to different aisles, please leave a sign up where those things used to be that says where it is now for at least three months. If bread was on one side of the store, and now it’s on the complete opposite side, don’t make me look for it, fuckers!
4) Cart boys – don’t try to push more carts at a time than you’re capable of – especially if you’re gonna be in the fucking way.
5) Speaking of being in the way, stock boys – work overnights so you’re not in the fucking way in the middle of the afternoon. Isn’t that just common sense?
6) If you’re going to stop and look at something on the shelf, move your card and yourself to one side of the aisle so other people can get through.
7) If it’s your first time using some kind of new technology, like the relatively new self-scanning checkouts, try things a couple of times before wasting the cashier’s time. Like, if you put a dollar in a machine, and it comes back out, try it the other direction.
8) Speaking of dollar bills, it’s the digital, self-service age, if you rip a dollar, don’t tape it back together unless you’re a bum. It’s a fucking dollar, get over it. The self-checkout machines don’t like taped up dollars.
These are just a few things that I wanted to get off my chest, hopefully next time you go to the grocery store, you’ll do your part to help improve grocery store etiquette.
