Aging Bohemians

Sorry, I don’t normally do this, but…

 

via Open Culture

Steve Jobs has done it again. Once again Apple has cut their users off at the knees. That’s okay. I’ve been a loyal fan. I’m used to it. I keep coming back for more.

Remember when Apple decided to stop shipping floppy drives in their machines, and you had to buy an external floppy to transfer all you data? Not to mention their on again off again flirtation with proprietary video connections, serial connections, network connections, etc.

And now: no firewire 400 on the new MacBooks. Mr. Jobs says you can do everything with USB 2 that you can do with Firewire. Well, Chuckles, that’s not the point. I assume you’re too out of touch with the hoi-poloi to grok it.

For me, the point is, I’m a musician. The focal point of my studio is a laptop with a Firewire audio interface, and not a cheap one. Mr. Jobs apparently feels that I must purchase a USB audio interface when I get around to upgrading to one of Apple’s already expensive new laptops.

I love Macs, really. But I don’t want to be at the mercy of capricious decisions that affect a proprietary hardware/software appliance. That’s one of the things I dislike about Microsoft. Apple is no different. They have the arrogance of Microsoft without the market share.

So, I’m looking (again) into Linux. I’ve done this before, only to give up in frustration. Linux has its little peccadilloes, too. That’s another post. For now, I’m going to see if I can get audio satisfaction from the open source world.

First, the distro….

I will keep you posted.

There are times when I hear a song on the radio and I think, damn, that’s a good song, who wrote that? And I find out. Then, a few years later, I hear another great song. Turns out to be the same songwriter. Then I find out that I’ve been hearing great songs by the same person for years, and just didn’t know who that was.

So, I just had another songwriter experience, only this time it was for Robert Wise, director.

 I mean Sound of Music, The Andromeda Strain, West Side Story, The Day the Earth Stood Still?

So I’m sorry to report that the remake, due out on the 12th this month looks terrible. I’m only judging by the trailers. Two things scare me.

One: The Klaatu character says, “If the Earth dies, you die. If you die, the Earth lives.”  Uh-oh. You mean some aliens invade, and seeing how we’re “ruining the planet” decide to wipe us all out? You’ve got to be kidding. This is about as bad as a story line gets. Trite, i.e. another environmental sob story with no real fact, no real subtlety, no real thought. Incoherent, i.e. how do you “save” Earth by murdering 7 billion people? 

Two: Based on the massive amounts of dramatic CG, they should have called the movie, The Day the Earth Got Really Frenetic and Noisy.

I sure hope I’m wrong. But I think a lot of people on this project owe Mr. Wise an apology.

After a botched upgrade early in the year and several months of apathy, I finally, more or less, restored the website. I’ll get the old graphics up, too. Then, hopefully, I’ll get back to posting more often.

Okay. Happy New Year.I’m a casual media listener. I check news when I’m on the computer, listen to the radio in my car. I don’t watch TV, so I suppose I’m off the big bump in the bell curve on that stat.Be that as it may, it has been several elections since I got any real benefit from the fourth estate. The common dialog in the media during an election year should be about issues.  Instead I get an earful about financing and strategy. The press has long declared the Democratic race to be between Clinton and Obama, and not one vote has been cast yet.  There’s an insightful piece over at Salon on the inflated importance of the events in Iowa this week, and Big Media’s failure to point that out. Enjoy:Iowa’s undemocratic caucuses are no way to choose a presidential candidate. - By Christopher Hitchens - Slate Magazine

My daughter, the budding visual artist and social commentator, has produced her first YouTube video: ”The Barbie Life Cycle”.

I think it’s a work of art. You?

The first of a series of juxtapositions I’d rather not think about…

President Bush and 151 Senate Republicans do not want to spend $35 billion over the next FIVE years to expand the already successful State Children’s Health Insurance Program.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates just asked Congress for an additional $42 billion on top of the already requested $147 billion for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan for fiscal 2008. That’s $189 billion of our tax dollars for ONE year.

(image: Whetzel Momma, flickr.com)