LB's Rambles

Maybe Your Ringtone Should Just Be "Ka-Ching"?

Never one to miss a possible opportunity for shooting itself in the foot, part of the music industry is at it again. This time, it's the venerable American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers - known in the trade as ASCAP - which is looking for ways to tap what they see as a huge new source of revenue: the ringtones on your phone.

According to Wendy Davis at Online Media Daily, ASCAP wants a judge to rule that they have the right to collect royalties when their songs are played as cellphone ringtones, since that represents a "public performance" of their music. Mind, they don't want to charge consumers. Heaven forfend! They just want to collect a nice chunk of change from your phone service providers (who will, of course, immediately pass that charge along to their customers).

So some consumer groups and other organizations are getting ready to fight ASCAP in court. After all, they point out, there really isn't a law against noncommercial public performances; the industry, for example, doesn't charge people for listening to their car radios with the windows rolled down.

You know, I wish they hadn't said that. I suspect it's a bad move to offer the industry new ideas...

Jacques Brel Is...

All right, this is a bit off-topic for this blog. Maybe. But this blog is about communications, and the late Jacques Brel could communicate his French songs with an intensity and power that still amazes me. I've been a fan of Brel's songs for many years and own many of his LPs and CDs (including the amazing live recording from the Olympia in Paris, 1961) - but, as he died in the '70s, I never saw him perform.

Until now.

Jacques Brel La Valse à Mille Temps 1959 English subtitles
Uploaded by lightning49

I found this purely by accident on a video site called Dailymotion, and I certainly hope I'm not violating copyright. But if you have never heard Brel, try this. English subtitles, too. Apparently recorded in 1959. 50 years ago. Wow. That's all. Wow.

"The Country's in the Very Best of Hands"

You won't find much political commentary here, as a general rule - but I see where Instapundit pointed out this clip from TCM. It's from the musical "Li'l Abner," based on Al Capp's classic comic strip, and it's a song by lyricist Johnny Mercer with Gene DePaul's music, sung here by Peter Palmer and Stubby Kaye, proving that damned little has changed in the past 50 years...  Enjoy!

Not Dead Yet

Yesterday was supposed to be "the day the music died." Apparently it's not quite dead just yet.

Yesterday was the day the new royalty rules for streaming music over the Internet were supposed to take effect. The prediction was that these rules, which were proposing to impose drastically high new payment rates on Internet radio stations, would drive those stations out of business.

However, according to Wired's "Listening Post" blog, while the rules are in effect, the smaller content providers are still negotiating for a more reasonable payment level. And, while they negotiate, the music industry isn't going to sue them for non-payment.

That's good. I admit to being pretty conflicted about this. I've always made my living by writing, and I know only too well that "putting it out there for free" isn't a good way to feed a family. (No, I don't get paid for this blog. That's another story.) On the other hand, I also understand the problems of a small Internet station trying to survive and suddenly faced with the prospect of thousands of dollars in royalty fees. Let's all hope these negotiations continue and reach a conclusion which will satisfy both sides' needs.

Word for the Day

I thought I was pretty good at coming up with unusual words...but James Lileks, not surprisingly, has me topped with the word for today to end ALL words for today...

New Word Today

As readers of this blog know - at least those who check out my links in the right-hand column - I am an avid reader of classic mystery novels and a fan of their authors. Consequently, when I discovered that there is a volume of biographical and literary essays about Ngaio Marsh, published on the hundredth anniversary of her birth, I bought it.

And, on the second page of the introduction, I was informed by the author/editor, that this book is a festschrift.

A WHAT?

Festschrift.

According to bibliomania.net, a festschrift is "A complimentary or memorial publication in the form of a collection of essays, addresses, or biographical, bibliographical, scientific or other contributions, often embodying the results of research, issued in honor of a person, an institution or a society, and usually on the occasion of an anniversary celebration."

Now you know.

There aren't a whole lot of opportunities to use festschrift in everyday conversation, so I thought I'd share it here...

Bad Lyrics?

Over at buzz.mn, the indefatigable James Lileks has posted a thread inviting readers to submit examples of truly terrible song lyrics.

Now lyrics are just another form of writing. And, as we all know, there is a huge amount of bad writing attempting to crowd out the good writing. But song lyrics, particularly modern song lyrics, seem to invite this kind of thing. There are great song lyrics (see the collected works of Johnny Mercer, Lorenz Hart, Cole Porter, etc. etc.), but there are also terrible ones. At last count, there were 95 comments on that buzz.mn thread, most of them with egregious examples of bad lyrics.

As I noted in a comment over there, the whole thing brings to mind a favorite lyrics by W. S. Gilbert - from Ruddigore, if anyone cares:

This particularly rapid, unintelligible patter

Isn't generally heard, and if it is, it doesn't matter!

If anyone is moved to leave lyrics in the comments (either here or there), please feel free...

Say, What?

Would you believe that "blogosphere" comes in second on a list of the most irritating words spawned on the Internet?

Neither would I. But today's Daily Dog, quoting Agence France-Presse insists it has earned that distinction on a list of words that make you "wince, shudder or want to bang your head on the keyboard."

Also in the poll, sponsored by a book award called the Lulu Blooker Prize, were words like "blog," "wiki," and "netiquette." I'm not sure what's offensive about them (except, obviously, that they are neologisms), or exactly who is offended, but there you are.

On the other hand, the word that came in as most irritating was "folksonomy." There may be some merit in the poll results after all...  ;-)

R.I.P. for Mr. Wizard

I note with considerable regret the passing of "Mr. Wizard," Don Herbert. He was on TV back when I was growing up (which dates me, I know), and I remember his show fondly - it was mostly about chemistry, and it may be a reason why I wanted very much to be a chemist until I grew up and learned that I really didn't have a talent for it.

For no particular reason, it also brought back memories of another early childhood TV show - "Captain Video," which was broadcast over the old Dumont Network. It was science fiction (Mr. Wizard was science fact), and featured the adventures of Captain Video and his sidekick, known only as "Video Ranger." I remember the theme was Wagner's "Flying Dutchman" overture. In my mind, the music has always been associated with Captain Video. I remember once, some years ago, walking into a room where the Flying Dutchman overture was playing, grabbing a chair and inverting it over my head, and calling out "Captain Video to Video Ranger." People in the room looked (a) mystified and (b) embarrassed, and I left shortly thereafter, looking for an older crowd...

Word for the Day

I learned a new word today.

Multure.

According to the Free Online Dictionary, it is the charge imposed by a mill for grinding grain, under Scottish law.

See, there's this Scottish folk song which has been going through my head (and you thought YOU had problems). It's called "The Maid Gaed to the Mill," it is distinctly single-entendre bawdy, and it speaks of the maid's determination to "hae her corn ground/mill and multure free." Use your imagination. The miller was happy to oblige.

Anyway, I went looking to find out what "multure" meant. Now I know. Can't wait to try to get that into a client's release somehow...

Wonder if there's a Technorati tag for "multure"?