Lying on the floor helps me think clearly. I used to do it a fair bit at university, not only did it help my back, just staring at the ceiling makes you actually think because its such an effort to move. Perhaps it was the marble hearth cooling my pins and needle infected feet or the dim glow of blue bell shaped lamp shades, I just felt really really good. Or of cause it could be the alcohol ..
Why was this good? Well of late I have felt a little isolated here in dull Congleton, these 4 walls have although protected me from the shlongs elements have become a sort of prison. My parents god bless them are wonderful, but I have little in common with them. An example is my dad actually turning over the TV to watch (note not avoid) Last Of The Summer Wine. I mean for Christ sakes, how many times can you watch old people go down the hill in a bath, bike or on roller skates. The internet has become my only way of escaping once again, just like when I was 14.
Of late music has had a greater influence in my life (note the links at the side). As I write this blog in Word (it makes me spell correctly) I’m listening to Brian Wilson’s Smile album. It’s pretty mental but if you want to listen to I would recommend reading the background to its conception and the demons Brian had to face bringing out this piece. Well anyway, getting music off the internet has being a hobby of mine since before Napster (the original one) appeared on the scene. It used to involve search web and ftp sites for specific files, and then to download them on your 56k modem whilst trying not to run too much of a phone bill up and piss mother off. After Napster we had WinMX and Music City which in turn became Morpheus and then Kazza. Kazza still lives, so I’m told but download copyrighted material is impossibly due to the sheer amount of fake fills put up by the music companies. After that I moved on to Suprnova using the bittorent protocol, then at that point the music industry had the bright idea of releasing music on the internet, gee wiz what a great idea! Gold star for the guy who thought that one up. So now in the UK we have iTunes charging 79p per song download. Is this too much, well I think so. Take for example the price of a CD delivered to my house. I recently brought …And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of The Dead’s album Source Tags & Codes for £5.99 (great name for a band). On iTunes this album costs £7.99. Although iTunes has its benefits, in that I can get the album instantly and transfer it to my iPod with little effort, I feel its not as good as a CD. The CD has album art, its tactile, will last longer than my iPod and no doubt my computer. Plus a CD technically is superior in sound quality than an iTunes download. And then there is the problems with the files you get from iTunes itself in that they are riddled with digital rights management (DRM) software keys and what nots. Why the fuck would a pay more?
As for music downloads though recently I came across some interesting Russian music download site offering album downloads form around $1. Too good to be true, well apparently not. To put it simply it works, and very well too. I am no legal expert, but as far as British law is concerned the purchase of music or films is legal, it’s the seller fault if they fail to gain permission of the copyright holder to sell such a product. The site offers modern and old music for download at your encoding specifications, so for example I choose Lame MP3 256kbs variable. And it just works. Although the copyright problem is an issue, even if these sites do get shut down we see that there is a profit to be made. Such a company could move to China, the Philippines or anywhere else with favorable copyright laws to make a profit. Well there is my 2 cents.
