Category Archives: PopCulture

U2FU?

U2's manager, Paul McGuinness, recently came out heavily against Radiohead and file sharing in general.  If you know U2's position on copyright, that's probably not a big surprise. So the main reason I'm posting this story isn't because of that revelation but because of this hilarious quote from the MetaFilter discussion:[McGuinness:] Notwithstanding the promotional noise, […]

Last.fm now allowing on demand streaming of artists and tracks

There was a very significant development in the ongoing mutation of the music industry today.  last.fm just announced that they are now offering limited, on-demand streaming of various artists and tracks.  Naturally, there's also all kinds of commentary, speculation and further linkage on MetaFilter, Reddit and TechCrunch (and probably a bunch of your other favourite […]

100 Books Every Child Should Read

The UK's Daily Telegraph comes in with a list of 100 books every child should read broken into three categories – early years, middle years and early teens. 

Some Thoughts on Satellite Radio

I joked a few entries ago that being on the road doing computer training in rural libraries might mean I have more time for blogging.  Wrong!  I'm just back to my hotel now, at the end of a jam-packed 13-hour day.  Tomorrow will potentially be an even longer day as I will hit two nearby […]

Canadian Copyright: A Citizen's Guide

One of my favourite professors from FIMS, Sam Trosow, has co-authored a new book entitled “Canadian Copyright: A Citizen's Guide“.  The page I link to is the home page of the other co-author and has a few excerpts.  This site has a brief summary and links to where you can buy the book. 

On The Road Again

I've had a few different jobs in my life.  One of my favourites was my college summer job where I visited various small towns around Saskatchewan as a traveling cable TV salesman.  (Yes, I know a “vacuum cleaner salesman” joke just popped in your head.  Don't bother – I've heard it.)But this job was different […]

Scotch Mist – Radiohead

Radiohead are usually extremely innovative with any multimedia products they put out – from videos to concert films to web sites (although the current version is quite traditional compared to what they've done in the past.) That makes this hour long video they recently released of them performing all the songs from “In Rainbows” in […]

Threatened By The Internet? Music Biz Should Rock Like Librarians

Quinn has posted a great article on his site (I've bolded the really fascinating part below):At the risk of jinxing things – I think it’s pretty clear that there’s a historic shift underway between activities we used to engage in offline and things we now do online. It’s no surprise, for example, that CD saleswere down […]

"Christmas Card From A Hooker" – Tom Waits

Not really a music video but a fine example of the “emotionally ambivalent” style of Christmas song I wrote about recently.

"JCB Song" – Nizlopi

Last year, I posted a series of videos during the week of Christmas so I thought I'd carry on the tradition this year.  “JCB Song” is a great song to start with this year.  It's not really a Christmas song but was contender for the UK Christmas #1 a few years ago.  The song has […]