Eurovision…
Oh well, it’s that time of year again - and not even starting the show with last years winners can really help it…
However this year’s videos between the songs at least had Linnanmäki’s Vuoristorata scenic railway coaster - but then went back to the expected and stereotypical scenes of ice and snow… with the occasional stadium sized IT conference and Bog Football (and at the time of writing we’re only about 45 minutes into the show…)
As for the songs, well, nothing stands out - half the acts are using pyrotechnics in some form - and there’s a distinct lack of Lordi Wannabes doing heavy metal power songs…Â this is probably for the best.
The less said about our entry the better really…Â I mean, why do we go into this so expecting to lose that we field “Scooch” as our best hope…
Sometimes I wonder why I’m bothering watching it at all…
Straight Outta Lynwood
How cool is this - a “Dual Disc” CD/DVD (literally, a single disc which is a CD on one side and a DVD on the other, containing a full 5.1 mix of every track, “karaoke” instrumental versions, plus videos) - a great idea for adding value to an already inexpensive album… hey, music industry - that’s called “adding value” to a $14 purchase - I’m impressed!
Weird Al Yankovic’s “Straight Outta Lynwood”
Now for a bit of a review - the album is the usual mix of original material and parodies, and the inner geek in me loves the lyrics of some of the songs… especially “White and Nerdy” (parody of a rap song I’m not familiar with) and the two obviously computer geek songs - “Don’t Download This Song” (available for download from the official website of the song) and “Virus Alert“, but the highlight is “Trapped in the Drive-Thru” an 11 minute tale…
It’s just a shame the best track had to be dropped… but it can also be downloaded from The Website (scroll down near the bottom of the page and look for “You’re Pitiful”)
All in all, better than Poodle Hat, but it’s no “Running With Scissors”… and as usual the original material is often funnier than the parodies.
As the final track says “Go and buy the CD like you know that you should” - Straight Outta Lynwood
allofmp3 Illegal
It seems that the authorities have now decided that the webiste known as allofmp3 (no link!) and thoroughly written up by James is not legal for UK music downloaders to use.
the site’s ROMS license is the key here, as even if it were legal in Russia, it wouldn’t be legal here - the site would have to be licensed to sell music downloads in each locality (eg the US, the UK etc)
So, it seems us users are now expected to not only take a site’s word for it’s licenses, but somehow we should be checking that the site is actually licensed. How do we do that I wonder?
The age-old mantra “if it looks too good to be true, it probably is” certainly seems to hold weight here. However we should look at the source to - the BPI - that’s right, the trade association for the British music industry, who, you have to admit, probably have a vested interest in disuading people from buying their music cheaply, and going to licensed, expensive, retailers with proper copy protection to stop you listening to the music you’ve bought where you want to. They conveniently have a list of legal download sites on their website.
Of course, most online downloads are far more restrictive in what you can do with your music, paid for with your hard-earned money than if you’d actually gone and bought the CD… and generally cost about the same as the CD…
Thanks to this article on the BBC
Eurovision, Lordi Lordi…
I’ll say here from the start, I didn’t watch the whole thing this year, but did catch the end, when the winning band gave their encore performance… and of course, have been reading up on the very unusual winners…
Looking like extras from Lord of the Rings, “Lordi” produced one of the most unusual Eurovision winners for years - none of the traditional meaningless pop ballads and love song, but a heavy metal rock track, Hard Rock Hallelujah which has to be one of the most distinctive eurovision winners ever, and if we’re lucky will change the face of the competition forever.
The victory is a vote against empty soul-less pop music across Europe - the winners had something distinctive, and put on a real show.
Lordi on Last.FM
Flickr Images of Lordi
The bands website
BBC News story
Last FM
Last FM/Audioscrobbler have updated their website software - with some nice new features, including a “Shoutbox”, tag clouds and various RSS feeds being highlighted.
I’m becoming a big fan of their personalised radio service, more often than not I’m listening to music from their service rather than music from my own MP3 player or hard-drive (although the MP3 player is only a 128Mb model so I don’t have much of a selection on the move)
No Surprise Here
Filed under: Computer Security, Entertainment, In The News, Music, Science & Technology
Since the recently revelations about the Sony “Rootkit” - it really comes as no surprise that virus writers are now using the protection that the rootkit offers them and are now planting Trojans on PC’s where the rootkit is installed.
Of course, it’s also no surprise that preparations are afoot to sue Sony over this error in judgement… and no surprise that folks who bought legal product from a company they trusted are now joining voices to recommend that others boycott Sony products over their handling of this fiasco.
I for one will not be buying any “copy protected” CD’s from Sony now - it’s one thing to protect your copyright - by making it a nuiscence to be able to listen to the music I’ve paid for anywhere - but to actually open people’s PCs to possible virus/spyware infection as a result is going waaaay to far.
Music (or “Dreaming of Swansea”)
My media player just randomed onto “Swansea” by Martyn Joseph - a song that always seems to make me melancholy for happier times… times when I was thinner, had a relationship, had friends around me…
Yes, tonight I’m “on a low” - so this is likely to be a classic example of rambling about nothing much at all… feel free to stop reading, I doubt this is going to get any better as it goes on…
Oh well, let’s see what the next song is…
“I’ll be there for you” by the Rembrants (or “The Theme From Friends” as it’s better known) - “when it hasn’t been your day, your week, your month or even your year”
Why is my music collection full of depressing stuff… I need to get some decent music that doesn’t depress me…
At least it’s not as bad as the track I heard in the gym a couple of weeks ago, dunno who it’s by, but with lyrics which were something like “Lonely. so lonely, I’m Mister Lonely - I have nobody to call my own”
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