Tag: music

Ruckus RIP

Ruckus, the company at which I first worked after graduating from college, shut down today around 5:30pm EST. I left the company in February of 2006, nineteen months after I was hired as the approximately thirtieth employee. While I’ve been far removed from the company for a long time, I look back on my time there in a positive light. I met some outstanding people, learned about balance in my own life, and had a great deal of fun. I will always have a great affection for “start-up culture,” and hope to experience it once again someday.

Here is a TechCrunch article that explains what will happen with the Ruckus music libraries.

Rest In Peace.

Smooth Tunes, Smooth Swing

I played the saxophone in junior high school, which for some reason – a reason I will never live down – got me hooked on Kenny G’s music. His album titled, “Breathless,” is my favorite. Although, I would also recommend “Miracles” if the holiday season is nearing.

And the point of this post is to note that Kenny G got a sponsor’s exemption into this week’s Mark Christopher Charity Classic, a Nationwide Tour event. He turned down an invite to play last year, but did tee it up in 2005. He shot 82-83 to miss the cut.

Looks like the silly season is starting early.

Anti-DRM T-Shirts

I would classify myself as an anti-DRM person. I like my MP3s to work when and where I want them to. And I want to play them as many times as I want to on as many machines as I want.

That’s greedy, but it’s also the mainstream thought process when it comes to digital music, which has proved very difficult to protect (from the label’s perspective). And very easy to obtain from the “listener’s” perspective.

However, I also fall into a group of people who don’t mind that Apple has a vice grip on my media, players, computer, etc. etc. I’m OK with only being able to play my music on iTunes and my iPod because I really like the iPod. But, as you may have heard (because Steve Jobs made it abundantly clear) that Apple is not the one behind the iTunes DRM, the labels are.

I get why. They want to protect music. But it doesn’t work. And because it doesn’t work, and there isn’t a clear alternative other than completely abandoning DRM, which is a scary proposition, they’re clinging to it for the moment. People want expect music (and movies to a lesser degree) for free, now. But that’s hardly fair to the people putting in time and effort to make what we love to listen to and watch.

So, what is the answer? Maybe make some t-shirts like these.

Shows This Semester

The Queers (somewhere in Boston / Cambridge) – I enjoyed this show because it was, well, outside of my comfort zone. And, it made me functionally deaf for 48 hours. I’ve never heard an old man scream so loudly. Is it sacrilegious in a punk-rockish kind of way to say that about Joe Queer? Jenny Lewis […]

Update 2009: It cuts off.