lungStruck

I just want to post a generic "happy holidays" to everyone I know.  I should have done it earlier but to be honest I haven't been filled with the holiday spirit this year.  But I'm not giving up, maybe I'll catch it today, maybe not.  In any case, I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday (whatever it may be) and if 2007 wasn't your year either, let's hope 2008 doesn't let us down.

Here's a few shots I took over the summer and only recently got around to processing.  The first is from my shoot around the park in downtown Kent, Ohio and the other two are from my visit to Indian Point Park in Leroy Township, Ohio.

Coming 'round the bend

Nature Detail

A place to rest

I bought an iPod.

As stated in an earlier post, I recently acquired an 80GB iPod Classic, and I love it.  Being able to have all my music with me, and listen to whatever I want when I feel like it is a wonderful thing for me.  I love music, and I have lots of  CDs.  I can't count the number of times I wanted to hear something but couldn't because I didn't have it with me.  Not anymore!  If I have my iPod, I have the song I want to hear.

Of course, I feel very spoiled by this, and wonder if it's really necessary.  Well, no; I know it's not.  I almost feel embarrassed to have spent the money on such a 'luxury' item as an iPod.  There is no reason I couldn't continue throwing CDs in my car to listen too, do I really need to have my entire music library with me at all times?  No.  And let's not forget too that I have Sirius satellite radio in my car as well... I really am becoming quite spoiled.  Regardless, I bought the thing, and I love using it, so it's here to stay.

Now that I have the iPod, I've begun purchasing music from iTunes and Amazon's MP3 store.  And I'm becoming more comfortable with the idea the more I use it.  However, there is one problem I have, one that I can't see any solution to.  The problem is that there is no way to resell the music I purchase, or to buy 'used' music.  This concerns me.

With the obvious exception of newly released albums, I almost always purchase my music used.  As a teenager, I frequented a local used music & video store.  The only other place where I live that had music was the mall, and the prices there were abhorrent: $16-18 for a single disc.  The store at the mall is long out of business now, but the used music store is still around.  It's not hard to see why: I've bought CDs as cheap at $5 there that were in mint condition. 

Nowadays, I still check out a couple stores that sell used CDs and records, but when I can't find what I want there I have another wonderful source: The Amazon.com Marketplace.  In my opinion, it's the greatest feature of Amazon's website.  I purchase lots of used CDs this way.  Often, I can do very well for $7 or less.

But now digital music downloads are increasingly becoming a popular option for legally obtaining music.  Better yet, DRM-free downloads are becoming more and more common, ensuring that when you pay for your music, you'll always be able to listen to it on any device you want, as many times as you want, for all time.  It really is a great thing.  But what if you want to sell your music?  Not so good.

It would be too easy for you to sell your DRM-free music to somebody else and still keep a copy on your own computer.  There really is no good way to control it: you've got an open format and no physical object.  This changes things a bit.  The used music market is effectively destroyed.  Music will always have to be purchased 'brand new' at the current retail price.  If you purchase something and decide you don't like it, too bad.  You can delete it if you like, but you can't sell it.  There's no way for your to recoup any of your cost in obtaining the music you purchased.

For somebody like me, this is very bad.  As I stated, I buy lots of used music.  This allows me to buy CDs that I'm uncertain about, because if it turns I don't like it, I know that I didn't pay much for it, and that I can turn around and sell it again.  So my loss is greatly minimized.  But with digital music, I must pay retail price, and I can not get any money back if I don't like the music I purchased.  The result?  I become more cautious about my music purchases.  I discover less music as a result, and potentially spend less money on music.

To illustrate what I'm talking about, let's consider a couple recent examples for me.

Earlier this year, I saw the music video for Shoot the Runner by Kasabian.  I loved the video, and the song was was catchy.  Next time I was at the record store, I saw they had the new Kasabian CD with that song on it.  I wasn't sure about it, but on a whim I bought the CD.  I didn't end up liking it that well, and sold it.  I lost a few dollars, but that happens.  If I had purchased the album digitally though, I wouldn't have got anything back.

Just a couple days ago, I heard the vocal mix of Brown Paper Bag by Roni Size/Reprazent on the radio and made a mental note to check it out when I got home.  I had heard the song before and liked it but never pursued it.  When I got home, I found the song on Amazon's MP3 store.  After looking through the track list for the entire album, I found it had some other songs I knew, so I decided to the buy the entire album.  Price?  $18.  Whoa!  Now granted, it's a double CD, hence the high price.  But $18 is too much to spend when I don't know if I'll like the album or not.  So I left the MP3 store and checked out Amazon's Marketplace instead.  I found a seller with a "like new" copy for less than two bucks + shipping.  I purchased it from him rather than obtain it digitally.  I'll have to wait longer, but I saved around $12.

But now let's pretend that we live in a world where music is only obtained digitally.  What would I have done different?  I wouldn't have purchased the Roni Size album.  It's just too expensive when I don't know if I'll like it or not.  Those 30 second song snippets aren't enough to tell me if I'll like it or not.  I've got to hear the album.  But since I don't want to spend $18 on something I'm not familiar with, I'd end up just buying a few tracks I recognize for around $3 and ignore the rest of the album.  I could be missing on some great music, but I can't afford the risk.

This is what scares me.  If digital downloads become the standard for obtaining music and CDs disappear, this is exactly the kind of scenario that will occur, at least for me.  But I doubt I'm the only one.  More and more people will completely ignore albums and just buy the songs they know.  Many people do it already.  I'm not saying it's wrong, but what happens when everybody purchases their music that way?

I'm not one to speculate about the future, and only in time will we know what all the ramifications of digital music downloads are on the industry.  But I think we can be fairly certain that the used music market will be drastically changed and reduced if digital downloads replace more tangible methods of obtaining music.  Time will tell.

If you watch any television, then maybe you've seen the ads for AT&T declaring their network's ability to work in more places all over the world, places called "Sanfrakota" and "Chilondoscow".  Hey, that's great.  Too bad it doesn't work in a place called Rural America.

Let's see how great it is in my part of the world, a place called Ohio:

Att-ohio

Today was Thanksgiving day for many of us.  I hope everyone had an enjoyable holiday.  I ate at my parent's house, and had a chance to take some photos of my brother, "Big Time" Kevin.  He always photographs really well, and I was especially pleased with the shots I got today.  So here's three from today, and a couple older ones as well.  I'm hoping to do some of him "on the job" at work soon.

Become a Better You

On the phone

Deep

Kevin, Relocation Specialist

Made Man

And how.

I should know better.  I'm always carrying on about our society today and how people must define themselves by their purchases, and purchase certain brands to fit in with a certain group, and blah blah blah nobody cares but I go on anyways.  But I am guilty too.  Yes, I am.  I tried.  I really did.  But I couldn't stop myself anymore:

I bought an iPod.

I bought an iPod.  There are probably better players out there with more features at a lower price, but dammit I WANTED AN IPOD.  It if didn't have a little fruit on the back of it and start with a lowercase 'i', I did not want it.  Now I have an Apple MacBook and an Apple iPod and they work so well together and I'm happy.  Temporarily at least, until I realize that this really doesn't solve any of the important problems in my life.  :-)

I could have done worse.  I could have bought an iPod Touch.  I mean, geez... for another $150 I could store only a fraction of the music that this one holds.  Oh, but it has a touch screen!  And Wi-fi!  I admit, I wanted one, but not until the storage goes up and the price goes down.  I also think the iPhone is cool, but I'm quite happy with my current carrier so until they unlock it I guess that won't be happening.

I'm quickly becoming an Apple fanboy, and I think it's only going to get worse.

Ringtones: What's yours and how often do you change it? 
Submitted by enrico.  

I created my own (I know, what a nerd) using Audacity and some tips I found on the net.  My ring tones are:

Incoming call (loud): Neighborhood #3 (Power Out) by Arcade Fire
VM received (loud): Blueberry Boat by The Fiery Furnaces
Text received (loud): Cowboys by Portishead

Incoming Call (quiet): Sleeping in a Submarine by Arcade Fire
VM received (quiet): Terrapin Station by The Grateful Dead (The Closing of Winterland performance)
Text received (quiet): Haiti by Arcade Fire

I was pretty big into Arcade Fire at the time, obviously.  For each one, I just took the first 20-30 seconds or whatever.  The Portishead one was really a bad choice, it's too loud.  But I'm used to it now.

I never change it.  Not sure I remember how to now.

CD-Rs

Saw this on BoingBoing today: a perfect example of why DRM is bad for consumers.  A man legally purchases and downloads hundreds of baseball games from MLB, and out of nowhere he can't watch them anymore because the server that handled the DRM licensing was taken offline.  I almost hate to write a post about how bad Digital Rights Management is when so many people have already written about it, but I feel it's justified until everybody knows how bad it is.

Spending your money on a product or service that can be taken away from you or disabled at any time is a bad thing to do.  DON'T DO IT!  If it has DRM, avoid it.  Write to the organization and tell them you will not support it and let them know they are not getting your business as a result.  It will make a difference.  Amazon.com is offering DRM-free music downloads, as well as iTunes.  Why?  Because they've realized that customers are becoming better informed about what they're purchasing, and they don't want their ability to enjoy the music and other media they download hindered.  In time, more and more companies will realize this, but only if we make sure they know we're not going to give them their money until they do.

It is incredibly easy in this day and age for people to illegally pirate music and videos, there's no doubt about it.  I don't think any amount of DRM is going to change that; people will always find a way around it.  In the meantime, paying customers will be the ones who suffer, and ultimately will either take their money elsewhere or turn to piracy themselves.  Make it stop!

My boss returned from China last week, and brought me back a Chinese Buddha wood carving.  I thought it was quite interesting visually and would photograph well, and it fit really well in this cup I had laying around.  I think it worked out well.

This was also a great chance to try out some of the great things I've learned from Strobist, two of the shots (or three, if you count the diptych as two) utilized off-camera flash and I think the results were outstanding.  I especially love the effect of the gelled flash on the 'Blue Buddha' shot.

All photos taken with my Canon Digital Rebel XT w/ kit lens.  Flash is a Vivitar 285hv.  Enough words, let's see some photos:

Chinese Buddha in Cup

Buddha meditates in the woods

Blue Buddha

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