Everyone knows that digital music distribution is a way to cut out the
middlemen, you don't need to have a record company contract in order
to disseminate music to fans, thanks to mp3's and the internet. The
other end of this, not really discussed much, is the production end.
To produce decent sounding songs suitable for radio play it used to be
musicians had to go to a recording studio, which was not cheap. That,
in addition to distribution, gave the recording industry a
stranglehold on musicians. An essential part of any record deal was an
advance, which was a loan to the musicians to pay for the studio time.
It was a gamble for the record companies, as a band who's album didn't
sell could not afford to pay back the advance but considering the
money recording companies have brought in throughout the years it has
worked well for them. Home studio's became available for musicians, in
the form of 4 track cassette recorders by Fostex and TASCAM. The
quality of these was not very good(I had one), so musicians still
needed to go to a recording studio if they wanted a high quality
recording. Fast forward to 2009, and now you have high quality,
affordable digital multitrack recorders, as well as software you can
run on your computer to turn it into a multitrack recording machine. A
home recording studio capable of producing professional sounding
recordings has now become affordable, for less than it would cost to
go into a professional studio musicians can now buy their own. What
this means is that not only don't musicians need the recording
industry for distribution, unless they require some really fancy(and
expensive) sound effects, they don't need them for music production
either.
Friday, October 23, 2009
Saturday, October 3, 2009
Room Mates
Room mates suck. No ands ifs or buts about it. Let's start off with a couple I had. I'll refer to them as Asshole and Fuckboy. Of the two, Fuckboy was definitely the lesser of two evils. He was a self centered Casanova type. Living in the room next to his was like being next to a porno shoot, and no that is NOT fun when it goes on day after day at 3:00AM work nights. The other room mate was a more than decent guy, so the situation was annoying but tolerable. Then, of the two of them of COURSE the decent room mate moved out, and Asshole moved in.
I had met Asshole once before, as he was a friend of the home owner, when he bragged about how much he LOVED to stomp on people heads once he got them on the ground. I suspected he would not be a fun room mate to have around, but the homeowner wanted him in, and at first he seemed decent. Then Fuckboy asked him to do something really minor, like leave the shower curtain closed so it would dry better. Assholes response was "fuck you", and that was his response to anything asked of him, no matter how reasonable it was.
Asshole loved the cold, and he made sure everyone got to share that love by jacking open every window in the house even when it was in the 30's. As everyone had to share the bathroom, this really sucked. Close the windows and Asshole would be jacking them open again 10 seconds later. Asshole could do anything he wanted and not care, but if anyone did anything HE didn't like, there was immediate and harsh retaliation. If Fuckboy shaved and didn't rinse out the sink, Asshole would shave his pubic hairs and throw them in the sink. One of Fuckboy's girlfriends made Asshole late for work one morning by hogging the shower, so Asshole pissed in Fuckboy's trash, which was in the hallway. Asshole could do whatever HE wanted to do, but the reverse was not the same.
Complaining to the home owner was useless, when the homeowner finally forced Asshole to stop jacking the windows up when it was freezing outside, he started playing rap at rock concert volume at 5:00AM every morning. When he was told to stop doing that he started writing nasty notes on the condensation of the windows. The homeowner LOVED Asshole, so he was never going to get kicked out no matter what he did. I made damn sure to rent a self contained studio with a private bathroom when I moved out, which was not long after Asshole's latest escapade.
I've had some friends and they have had sour experiences with room mates too. Eric was living with a Joe Hardballs type even more unreasonable than Asshole. Joe Hardballs threw Eric out, and then wouldn't even let him back in to collect his things. Eric had to call the cops. The cop showed up and told Eric he had 10 min to clear his stuff out. It wasn't enough time so Eric wound up losing his guitar and a few other things to Joe Hardballs.
My other friend Kevin had a fun room mate too. He was recommended by a friend of Kevin's, so Kevin thought he was OK. As it turns out, the roomie had a habit. A crack habit. Kevin came back from a days work and all the walls were covered in whipped cream, because his room mate thought that would be fun after smoking crack. The problem was self repairing, as the crackhead paid his dealer but not his share of the rent, so they both got evicted and Kevin was living on the street.
My co-worker has room mates where he lives. They are nowhere near as malicious as the ones I described, but they still suck. They are vegetarians with 0 disease resistance, they are always getting sick. Then my co worker gets sick, then I get sick. So even without living with any, room mates are still sucking for me.
I had met Asshole once before, as he was a friend of the home owner, when he bragged about how much he LOVED to stomp on people heads once he got them on the ground. I suspected he would not be a fun room mate to have around, but the homeowner wanted him in, and at first he seemed decent. Then Fuckboy asked him to do something really minor, like leave the shower curtain closed so it would dry better. Assholes response was "fuck you", and that was his response to anything asked of him, no matter how reasonable it was.
Asshole loved the cold, and he made sure everyone got to share that love by jacking open every window in the house even when it was in the 30's. As everyone had to share the bathroom, this really sucked. Close the windows and Asshole would be jacking them open again 10 seconds later. Asshole could do anything he wanted and not care, but if anyone did anything HE didn't like, there was immediate and harsh retaliation. If Fuckboy shaved and didn't rinse out the sink, Asshole would shave his pubic hairs and throw them in the sink. One of Fuckboy's girlfriends made Asshole late for work one morning by hogging the shower, so Asshole pissed in Fuckboy's trash, which was in the hallway. Asshole could do whatever HE wanted to do, but the reverse was not the same.
Complaining to the home owner was useless, when the homeowner finally forced Asshole to stop jacking the windows up when it was freezing outside, he started playing rap at rock concert volume at 5:00AM every morning. When he was told to stop doing that he started writing nasty notes on the condensation of the windows. The homeowner LOVED Asshole, so he was never going to get kicked out no matter what he did. I made damn sure to rent a self contained studio with a private bathroom when I moved out, which was not long after Asshole's latest escapade.
I've had some friends and they have had sour experiences with room mates too. Eric was living with a Joe Hardballs type even more unreasonable than Asshole. Joe Hardballs threw Eric out, and then wouldn't even let him back in to collect his things. Eric had to call the cops. The cop showed up and told Eric he had 10 min to clear his stuff out. It wasn't enough time so Eric wound up losing his guitar and a few other things to Joe Hardballs.
My other friend Kevin had a fun room mate too. He was recommended by a friend of Kevin's, so Kevin thought he was OK. As it turns out, the roomie had a habit. A crack habit. Kevin came back from a days work and all the walls were covered in whipped cream, because his room mate thought that would be fun after smoking crack. The problem was self repairing, as the crackhead paid his dealer but not his share of the rent, so they both got evicted and Kevin was living on the street.
My co-worker has room mates where he lives. They are nowhere near as malicious as the ones I described, but they still suck. They are vegetarians with 0 disease resistance, they are always getting sick. Then my co worker gets sick, then I get sick. So even without living with any, room mates are still sucking for me.
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