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July 01, 2004

Spotting John C McGinley

Posted by nerdling | July 1, 2004 04:43 PM

Only nineteen shopping days left until my birthday, and then I'll be one year closer to a quarter century with nary a thing to show for it.

Twenty years after its release, Salon looks at Hüsker Dü's Zen Arcade and why the '80s underground was so important to music, then and now.

Hüsker Dü could make you cry, but just for good measure they would rupture your eardrums in the process. Depressive? Angry? Delirious with angst? Conventional gauges of intensity are, at last, irrelevant. Hüsker Dü were all of those things, but they didn't brood. ...

This is the album Nirvana and Pearl Jam only wish they could have made: intelligent, clamorous, and hashing out more torment and passion in four sides than all the grungers and headbangers since -- all without a hint of heavy-metal pretension. It's amazing to think anyone could concoct a 14-minute bombast of guitar leads and layered feedback -- "Reocurring Dreams," Side 4 -- and have it not come out self-consciously. And when the 40-second whine at the end of "Dreams" is at last pinched off, the album trembling to a close in a congealed, numbing squeal, the silence that follows is palpable, painful and disconcerting. Not until you've stopped to catch your breath is it apparent that your notions of punk are forever changed.

Have you ever wondered why record companies hate faithful consumers?

By their every indication, record executives appear to be unhappy that I am more engaged with popular music. They are busy cooking up half-baked copy protection schemes that will prevent me from ripping my own newly purchased CDs. They are pushing legislation intended to criminalize all kinds of behavior and technology. Rather than make it easier for me to spend money, they would rather I return to the neolithic times when if I heard a song on the radio I liked, I would have to trudge to the record store and spend $18 on bloated filler. Why am I not excited?

Apple will soon be celebrating the sale of iTunes' 100 millionth song by giving away some very generous prizes, beginning tomorrow with the sale of the 95 millionth song. "Apple will begin the countdown to 100 million songs by giving away 50 special 20GB iPods—one to the purchaser of each 100,000th song downloaded between 95 million and 100 million songs. In addition, the person who downloads the 100 millionth song will receive a 17-inch PowerBook, a 40GB iPod, a gift certificate for 10,000 iTunes songs to create the ultimate music library for their iPod and the opportunity to create their own Celebrity Playlist to be published on the iTunes Music Store." Please God, let me be that lucky SOB.

As reported yesterday by Coolfer, Apple's old rival Commodore is jumping into the MP3 player market with the e-Vic, an updated take on the classic Vic-20 game computer. Despite its stylish look, it probably won't be able to compete with what looks to be Apple's fiercest upcoming competition: the new Sony NW-HD1 Walkman. The NW-HD1 will hit the shelves in August—the same time as the e-Vic—weighing 1.8 ounces with a 20-gig HD that holds 13,000 songs and a re-chargeable battery that promises 30 hours of playback. That's smaller, lighter and with more storage capacity than the iPod.

Just in case you wanted it, here's more iPod news: Dell has debuted a trade-in program that offers customers $100 if they trade in their iPod for one of Dell's 15GB Digital Jukebox MP3 players. I know I'm biased and all, but why would you do this? It makes no sense at all.

The Save the iPod campaign that sprung up in response to Orrin Hatch's so-called "Induce" Act is getting some press coverage outlining all the reasons consumer lobbying isn't going to do a damn bit of good. I know no one is listening, but sending a fax makes me feel better.

In spite of—or perhaps because of—the media circus that has surrounded Howard Stern's unjustified exile from the airwaves, "The Howard Stern Show" will be launching on nine Infinity Broadcasting stations on Monday, July 19, recapturing markets that Howard has been cut out of.

I have been harboring a strong suspicion that Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation is a shoddy attempt at making grammar hip and is at least mostly full of shit. Turns out I was right on both counts. Apparently the author hadn't bothered to find out what grammar is before she started the book.