A Short Update; or, New Hotness

The mead is coming along nicely. It's still a couple weeks away from drinkable, but it's getting there. Not much else to say on that.

We had the "1st official" show last night of The Trifecta, which is on WNMC (90.7fm in Traverse City, wnmc.org online) which went well. 3 hours of shenanigans and music. Listen in on Tuesday nights, from 11pm to 2am and call us (231-995-1090). We have a myspace page of the show here. And we will begin recording the shows, and putting them up edited down and in a podcast probably starting next week, so check back for that.

In other news, I am going to begin a semi-regular movie review on my blog. It will happen basically when I feel like it, and deal with movies either in theaters, or on video, old or new, and good or bad. It should be interesting only because you will never know when I will post, or what it will be like, so check back early and often.

Now, I must get back to work. First movie review is coming tonight, you have been warned. In the meantime, check out the Trifecta on myspace, and show us some love.

Polluting Airwaves; or, Radio Gold!

It's Tuesday night, which means I am currently on the air, doing my weekly radio show on WNMC. If things go well, this will hopefully be the last one I do alone. I'm currently awaiting word back from the station manager about my idea to bring in Patrick and Joe, and do some sort of late night talk/music radio. Things sound favorable, and it looks good that it will happen, but until it does, I am stuck doing my show alone. It's not that I don't like being able to do a show on college radio, the freedoms of it are much better than commercial radio. It just gets pretty boring doing music radio for 3 hours. That's why I want to bring those guys in, bring some newness to the show. Keep it fresh, and interesting, with some good bantering, pop culture and movie references, and just overall, different from traditional radio. If I had my way, I'd do all talk radio, with just music for bumpers, I find that to be much more compelling radio personally. But, even a combination of the two would be better than straight music, and if it's Pat, Joe, and myself; entertaining to the extreme!

In other news, the Mead is coming along. It was racked from the pot, to the first jug today. I'm not sure how it's going exactly, because I've never made the stuff before, but so far, it seems fine, and smells really good. It's still a few weeks off before I can say for certain I brewed it correctly, but we shall see.

And lastly, this past week, in my fantasy football league, I mopped up, scoring a league record 206 points. I try not to brag much in my life, and I know karma will come back to bite me on this one...but HELL YEAH! Eat it boys...for this week, I RULE!

Well, back to work on the show

Trying My Hand at Home Brew; or, Barkeep, Mead!

So I've decided to make my own Mead. For those of you unfamiliar with the substance, Mead is an old fashioned honey wine. It's the oldest fermented beverage, and it something of a rarity this day and age. Oh sure, you can find it if you want to look hard enough (or just go here and click the search option), but I wanted to try my hand at it. So, after looking around for a reciepe online, I traveled to the local home brew shop (Diversions in downtown TC) and picked up the needed supplies. Mead is a very simple concoction to make. It's essentially honey, water, and yeast. I added some cloves, cinnomon and lemon for flavor as well. As we speak, the yeast is in it, working it's magic. I'll report back on the mead's progress as it develops.

In other news, there is no other news. Nothing new to report really. Spent most of the weekend just hanging out with Dubbya, and doing very little. Well, except for the mead making, that was an accomplishment I suppose.

Halloween fast approaches, and I really need to put the finishing touches on my costume. It's probably about 80% done right now, but needs some touches to make it complete. So, that's now my focus, as well as the radio show, and filmic ventures.

On the topic of the radio show, I am attempting something new. I have moved to tuesday nights, from 11pm to 2am. I am in the process of convincing the station manager (a wise and sage like man, I should add) into letting me bring Patrick and Joe in to the mix, and make it a mixture of standard college rock radio, and late night talk radio. I don't think the three of us would have much trouble coming up with topics to discuss, and we would incorperate emails and calls from our audience (all 6 of them, including you Jacob). So, if you are reading this blog, tell me, would you listen to a show of three guys, riffing and playing music once a week? And if so, would you tell your friends and get us more listeners? Let me know, spread the word, help us make it happen.

OK, I'm off to watch some more television/movies on my dad's big screen (housesitting is fun!) I'll check back with mead updates, as well as other updates as they develop.

Music Piracy Trial; or, Why the RIAA Should Go Away

I've been following this story lately, and I find it quite interesting. See, Capitol Records (et al) are suing a lone private user for copyright infringement. But what really caught my attention was this little nugget I saw from Ars Technica:

"It's my personal belief that Sony BMG is half the size now as it was in 2000," she said, thanks to piracy. In Pariser's view, "when people steal, when they take music without compensation, we are harmed." Pariser has a very broad definition of "stealing." When questioned by Richard Gabriel, lead counsel for the record labels, Pariser suggested that what millions of music fans do is actually theft. The dirty deed? Ripping your own CDs or downloading songs you already own.

Gabriel asked if it was wrong for consumers to make copies of music which they have purchased, even just one copy. Pariser replied, "When an individual makes a copy of a song for himself, I suppose we can say he stole a song." Making "a copy" of a purchased song is just "a nice way of saying 'steals just one copy'," she said.

That's it. I officially hate record labels. I'm sorry, you can honestly believe that everyone who has ever made a copy of music (and dating back to the advent of recording technology, that would be EVERYONE) is a thief. That's just plain ignorance if you ask me. All that is accomplished by that thought process is to punish normal people who don't pirate music (or movies, or any other media), but who make copies for their own use as backups, or just a way to archive for later use. (on a side note, that means that every single iPod or other MP3 player owner is a thief, and all the money the labels have made off those people apparently doesn't count) Pirates, those who truly want to steal music, will always find ways around any copy protection scheme you can think of, just remember that. I personally will buy music if at all possible. But I despise DRM, and avoid it at all costs.

Get your act together RIAA, and record labels. For all the money you've screwed bands out of in the past to make youselves fat and happy, you deserve what you get. If I thought the money for a CD actually went to the band itself for their intellectual property, that would be a different story. But bands don't make money on that, they earn there cheese on concerts and merch, not album sales.

I will get off my soapbox now...and bid you good day.
I said GOOD DAY!