Yesterday Napster was ordered by an american court to stop allowing the sharing of copyrighted materials. Everyone had opinions about it. But most people agree this is just the beginning of greater battles.
Almost twenty years ago I was extremely fascinated by Jimi Hendrix – but Jimi was dead. He was a genius who wanted to play music more than anything else, so the only thing he left behind was music. Lots of music – some say he is the most over-released musician in history. I bought everything I could find and lots of it was trash – but I also knew that good music was locked up in vaults by record company lawyers.
So I started buying bootlegs and concert recordings. Eventually I had a small business trading and selling my own recordings: using two very good tape recorders and an equalizer I learned how to make decent analog copies. This was illegal – but the things I traded and sold couldn’t be had any other way.
Today, Hendrix family is finally in control and are releasing official versions of some of the best stuff I had. Would I download it if I could? Yes. Sell it? Hell no – that would be both illegal and immoral. I always wanted to buy this music from people who cared about it and now I can.
Some people won’t buy, of course. That’s too bad – but once we have smelled freedom we can’t go back to locking up music again.
BTW – here is a page about Hendrix and funk. I got seriously into black music via Hendrix – while guitar heroes and oldtime psychedelica can be nice, a little bit goes a long way. Hendrix was always more than that.
Some people didn’t like Band of Gypsies, but I always thought Billy Cox was a great bass player. And I just found out he is still playing: a bit down on this page are some recordings from last year.
The null device is a nice, unpretentious blog by someone from Australia. I was about to say good clean fun – but I am not that jaded.
Why do we read about the death of a dot-com wonderboy, a webcam legend betraying her best friend in public or brazilian teenagers killing without missing a beat ? Cheap thrills, food for thought, raw material for commentary… all of the above? Neither?
Gary links to me from his Favorites list. Thanks, and keep up the good work! ISeeISay is getting better and more ambitious all the time.
Hal explains what he means by letting someone else drive the bus. And I suddenly remember this line from Electric Kool Aid acid test: “I’ll always be on the bus”.
Greg Franklin of Flyingchihuahuas comments on recent horror stories about ExtremeProgramming, likes wild analogies and has a slight japanese touch to his FAQ. Thanks for the link!
Cult of the week (via Totally useless). Of course, you and I don’t belong to any cults – this is a joke, right? 
Classical indian music, indian food, peace & quiet… I relax after a long afternoon of weblogging. And realize that my notebook and my weblog are the same right now. When I come home I’ll use this paragraph exactly the way it is.
And I did. This was written after dinner at Ellora, my favorite indian restaurant and a true oasis. Today they where plaing santoor music by Shiv Kumar Sharma. Here is a sample