Saturday, January 10, 2009

Interesting read about book on the music industry

The Village Voice has this piece which is an interesting read: ["How the Music Industry Died: Steve Knopper's Appetite for Self-Destruction"] and this extended version of it: ["More Apocalyptic Discourse with Appetite for Self-Destruction scribe Steve Knopper"].
While I haven't read it in many years, "Hit Men" is one of my favorite books too, especially since I was heavily involved in the music industry, as a musician and fanzine publisher, at the time I read it.
In many ways though, the record industry deserves what it gets, the same way the newspaper industry does. The key though is that many people who work in both industries DON'T deserve the treatment they are receiving ... treatment brought on by the people running both industries into the ground. Oh well.
Another piece here about the death of newspapers: ["All I Wanted for Christmas Was a Newspaper"]. You should have seen the flurry of letters responding to this one!
In another opinion piece from the WSJ, is HGTV to blame for the economic collapse? This guy makes a good case: ["Blame Television for the Bubble"].

Saturday night link dump
Here's a bunch of stuff worth a second look ...
First, one of Seattle's major dailies is going under: ["Seattle P-I for sale, could close"].
The Hollywood Reporter's blog says tonight that layoffs in the media industry amounted to more than 28,000 jobs last year, the highest since more than 43,000 lost their jobs in 2001. That combined number - about 70,000 - is one-third the number of Americans currently working in the automobile industry that was just bailed out ... 70,000 over two years ... never mind the thousands in the other six years. So, again, where is our bailout?
This guy has an idea worth discussing, even though I don't completely agree with everything: ["Bailout for the People: 'The Cook Plan'"].
Another open letter for Barack Obama, this one from Jello Biafra: ["OPEN LETTER TO BARACK OBAMA"]. Again, worth the read even if I don't completely agree with everything in the letter.
I'm by no means an advocate of a sugar tax, but this video really made me think about my eating habits:



Here is another video clip about a water-powered car from Japan ["Water Powered Car Roundup"].
In actuality, it's a hydrogen-powered car, since it is the hydrogen in the water that is making the car run. But who's getting fussy about specifics. Just get them here already!
Three hilarious blogs here. First, this one that my co-worker Bryan pointed out to me: ["Hot Chicks with Douchebags"]. And then this one: ["Boobs on Things That Don't Normally Have Boobs"]. And lastly, this one: ["SKANKS in NYC"] ... which brought on this lawsuit: ["EX-VOGUE MODEL SNARED IN UGLY WEB"].
So, the U.S. military is preparing for unrest in the United States after all: ["Doomsday: U.S. report warns of 'strategic shock' leading to massive unrest"].
So, people were murdered after Katrina, just like Cynthia McKinney insinuated: ["Katrina's Hidden Race War"].

No comments: