U.S. facing possible hearing loss epidemic

This is for all you morons out there who think you’re so cool as you drive down the street with your bitchin’ sub-woofers.  Yeah, you… with sub-sonic, high amplitude bass with such power that your car rattles noisily and the drivers beside you wonder if parts are going to start falling off your car.  You, who complains about “the man” while pounding your brain and vital organs with something the military has developed into crowd control weapons.

This is especially for that asshole neighbor of mine who’s numerous and frequent pals thump so loudly that I can hear them over my surround sound system with the door closed and they live three houses away.

Gosh, you are SO cool.

What really sucks is that as these neighbors and people like them slowly go deaf, the average schmo like me has to listen to them get consistently louder as they loose their hearing… wallowing in denial and the desire to quench their thirst for that throbbing rhythm that has so thoroughly enslaved their temporal lobe.

Let the class-action lawsuits against sub-woofer manufacturers begin.

Music Industry Throwing in the Towel?

This morning I read an article about a service that will offer millions of song free for downloading.  All legal.

 Legal?  But, what about the RIAA?  What about all the lawsuits against college students, 10-year-old girls and 80-year-old grandmothers?  What about all the money in settlements that people have paid for downloading music?

This new “service”, QTrax, will offer a song catalog of over 25 million songs from EMI, Universal, and Warner Music… all companies who have sued their fans for “stealing” music.  The new service will use DRM to track downloads and song plays and feed people ads.  The record companies will then reap profits based on this data.  Won’t work with iPods, but, then again, what does except iTunes?

Anyway… are they going to give the money back to all those people they sued?  Don’t hold your breath.

UPDATE:  Oh, well… never mind. 

International Songwriting Competition Starting

“ISC is a competition for passionate musicians around the globe. ISC is open to musicians, artists, and songwriters at every level from amateur to professional. Anyone with a passion for music, talent and of courseâ?¦ a song may enter the competition.”

30 bucks per song to enter… Big Cash prizes. They supposedly don’t judge the entries on their production quality, so just you, an acoustic guitar and a mic should work.  You can enter online with MP3 content if you want to and save yourself the hassle of mailing a CD.  Sounds good!  (Pun intended.)

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New Hampshire Supreme Court Rules unlawfully seized property can be Destroyed

Michael Cohen’s record in Concord was raided under suspicion of selling bootleg music CDs. Cops seized more than 500 CDs from Pitchfork Records in 2003. When Michael went to court, the state failed to prove that any of the recordings were made illegally. Still, the state Supreme Court ruled that it was o.k. for the police to destroy the CDs because “it was likely” that a crime had been committed even though the courts ruled that this was not the case.

To me, though, the saddest part of this story is not the CDs got destroyed, it’s that probably nobody is going to care until the cops start kicking in their own door. I mean, after all, “it is likely” that you have committed some sort of crime.

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Maynard Ferguson, World Famous Trumpet Player, Passes Away

“Walter ‘Maynard’ Ferguson, one of the most influential musicians and band leaders in the history of Jazz, passed away August 23rd at 8:00 pm Pacific Time at Community Memorial Hospital in Ventura, California. He was 78 years old. His death was the result of kidney and liver failure brought on by an abdominal infection. Mr. Ferguson’s four daughters, Kim, Lisa, Corby, Wilder and other family members were at his side when he passed away after this brief illness. He spoke by phone with his friend and manager Steve Schankman from St. Louis, longtime tour manager Ed Sargent, and friend, and fellow trumpeter Arturo Sandoval.”

I played trumpet and baritone back in junior high and high school. Used to listen to Maynard back in the day. Rest in Peace… I’m sure there is plenty for a horn player to do in Heaven.

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