Argument

Well, things got ugly repeatedly today with the s/o. (That sentence looks cumbersome to me, but I don't wanna mess with it tonight) The s/o is communicating now, which has been a big gripe, bud damned if all the communication is targeted to hit where it hurts the most. There have been several times where I have gotten so ticked that it has been all I could do to keep from fighting back, but fighting dirty with someone I love is off limits -- if I say something in an argument, it is my real feelings.

The job thing is getting me down. I need work. I'm rather miffed that nothing has broken yet. I'm a majikal person who prefers to shop a resume instead of light a candle, but I'm doing both, and I seem to be running through oatmeal, or even worse, grits.

I've been invoking several deities, and I'm about to get Shinto on them. (If the Shinto want rain, they call the spirit in charge of it and leave offerings by its statue. If they don't get it, they make more offerings. If the statue still doesn't fork up the rain, they sprinkle water on it to remind it of what they're talking about. And if still no rain, they toss the statue in the ditch and urinate on it to really stir its memory....)

To make it worse, Mercury is in retrograde. This means that everyone who believes in Astrology is falling all over themselves in an effort to be misunderstood. Yeah, there is probably some effect from the shining speck in the sky, but I am always amazed by how it seems so much worse in the pagan community. They'd say it is because they're more in tune with the cycles of the universe. My response is to tell em to shut up or I'll put the lid back on the stewpot again. (Not to mention that most of the really ancient cultures clearly state that the more spiritually enlightened you are, the less the earth controls you.)

Yes, I'm in a mood again. It has been a tough day, and I seriously want to see an end to all of this stress.

tick, tock....

Well. It seems that I am getting quoted. Cool.

I sit here waiting. The s/o pissed me off 6 times yesterday -- that has got to be a record. 3 of them were storming out of the room ready to lose it incidents.

What's it all about? Money and my lack of a job. Like I need any encouragement there.

Still no word on the job front. Still waiting on word from the recruiter -- the company has not responded.

A friend told me that there is a pool going around at B&B betting on when it will fail. I was offered a chance in, but declined -- not worth my energy. The bets vary between 60 days from now to November, with most in the spring and summer.

It's sad to see something supposedly dedicated to helping the community run by such a head case. The woman needs help, but she's manipulative enough to keep getting her hairbrained schemes backed by her court because she manipulates them so heavily.

When someone wants to know how to find B&B, I tel lthem to look for the heap of dead staff members behind an ugly dump covered in bad grafitti near Fair Park. And pack your own security.

Hmmm. Looks like I'm ranting. After yesterday, that's no surprise.

The Obligatory Napster Rant

I know, every live journal has to have one, and now it's my turn.

First, let me say that Napster has their head up their tush. They are playing the Record Label game, and that's the wrong game to be in. They need to be playing the broadcast game. If they change their conceptual model to that of a broadcaster instead of a distributor, all they have to do is pay BMI, ASCAP, SESAC and a few other smaller agencies their royalties based on logs of their transfers. A fee will cover that, and it'll be low enough to not kill their user base. Competing with Universal and their ilk is going to kill them, and is far too much like bathing with lepers for my taste anyway.

I'm in a quandary here. I hate those suited fat assed pud pulling bastards in a way that only another musician can appreciate. (Although most parents who have to suffer through NSTYNC, The Backdoor Boys, Clittney Spears, and their ilk may empathize somewhat...) However, on some level the musicians are still gaining royalties from the sales of the records.

Where the argument goes up in flames is when you take into account that record sales are up on heavily hit artists on Napster. (No stats exist for Gnutella, of course)

But here is the real place where I get my blood flowing. I want the Labels to die. In a history of music, I want "The Record Label Era" to be something discussed as a time when music was stifled and creation curtailed.

Before companies created records, people had to listen to it on radios that Marconi stole the design for from Tesla, or more likely, they had to patronize a local club, symphony, music hall, or other such place. With the advent of records, it changed from art to commodity. The well known started taking up a much larger piece of the pie. The lesser known were getting squeezed out. And of course, this swelled to the point where we got people like Steve Perry, The Stones, The Who, and others in their ilk filling huge stadiums and getting rich while an increasing percentage of musicians worked for the money made at the door or even less and fought to get heard because everyone was sitting at home listening to their stereos. And with no audience, the Labels deemed the bands "No Commercial Appeal" and instead signed Steve Perry to a solo career. (And boy, Columbia regretted that move. Even Steve Perry admits that...)

And now, I look at the possibility that these evil fuckers will die a slow wasting death of the type that is only seen in a bad movie adaptation of a Steven King book. And I do the snoopydance. (but not on top of my piano...)

I'm working toward releasing my stuff on the web. I know the technology isn't quite there yet, but its coming soon, and until then, I know a good fulfillment house.