28 March 2001
Chuck Pride Can Go To Hell
Chuck poses with that large-breasted country-western singer
Every time I significantly increase the intensity of my workouts, I suffer from lethargy for a few days. I had previously mentioned that over the past weekend, I gently tweaked my workout schedule. What looked like minor tweaking actually was more, since it upped the intensity significantly by concentrating the weight training from 4 to 3 days. Yesterday, the lethargy struck, probably exacerbated by crappy weather (50 degree high -- 20 degrees below normal for this time of year -- and wind, cold, and rain; I had to run the heater last night, which is unheard of for Houston at the end of March). I had no energy all day, came home to a short nap, then went and saw Trish Murphy at the Duck (I already had reservations). I only made it through her first set, and bailed so I could come home and sleep. It was too bad, because she was putting on a better show than the last time I caught her there.
* * * *
I see that Charley Pride (for those who don't know, an ANCIENT country-western singer best known for his song "Kiss An Angel Good Morning") has decided to put out his newest CD with anti-ripping copy protection because he was astonished to find his earlier work spread all over Napster. Frankly, I'm astonished at that as well, but that's another topic. Anyway, so good ol' Chuck has decided to use technology that causes cds not to play at all on some older cd players to combat what he sees as a major piracy problem.
What Chuck has also done is lump all of us good music fans with the bad (more on this topic here). In Chuck's view, we're all thieves who want to "steal" his work. He is punishing those of us techno-geeks who prefer music in the form of files in the digital realm but who nonetheless have never even DOWNLOADED Napster right along with those who download entire CDs from Napster because they think a computer, modem, and cd burner give them a right to steal other people's work. Nice. Thanks, Chuck.
So, Chuck, you have prompted me to do a number of things that are firsts for me: 1) I'm gonna order your new CD off Amazon, dreadful as it probably will be, 2) I'm gonna go through the same process I go through with my bootlegs -- analog extraction of the songs on your CD via patch cables from the stereo into my soundcard, remastering with SoundForge, and splitting into individual tracks manually, 3) I'm gonna download Napster for the first time and run it full-time on my print-server computer, and probably Gnutella as well, and 4) I'm gonna put JUST your CD up for anyone who wants to download it, though I can't imagine that's very many people.
Why? Because I don't appreciate annoying assholes (usually the government, but in this case a tired country-western has-been -- I actually thought he was dead) treating me like a child. If you insist on treating me like one, I guess I will have to comply by acting like one. I hope you enjoy visiting Napster after your CD release party!
[Posted @ 01:38 PM CST]
COMMENTS
Not only will you not be able to rip the CD to MP3, you won't even be able to use your machine's CD-ROM as a CD player. That's not a punishment for techno-geeks -- that's denying every office worker the ability to listen to their purchased, rightfully owned CD of your music. I spend anywhere from 10 to 16 hours of the average day at the office in front of my computer. I'm home and awake for approximately 4 hours a night. Hmmm, wonder where I listen to more music? The recording industry obviously believes that customer alienation is a good way to bolster sales. Another fine product of the Dumbass School of Logic...
[Posted by The Cranky Atlee on 28 March 2001, 04:21 PM CST]
You're not really going to do that, are you?!
You said "aSSholes"!
[Posted by A Gaping Evelynne on 28 March 2001, 06:52 PM CST]
So tell us, Kev.... How do you *really* feel?
[Posted by Big Dave of Iceland on 29 March 2001, 08:57 AM CST]
