On File-Sharing

On File-Sharing and Music

The RIAA may be nearing the point where they will have to pick another scapegoat for their failing business model.

Apologies

I deeply apologize to everyone for the near incoherency of the previous post. I was writing it on the brink of sleep, much like I used to write all my columns in college... which reminds me that is time to apologize for the incoherency of those pieces.

Sometimes, just because words can be fit together, does not mean they should be.

I also apologize to everyone who I have to send e-mails to... This time my excuse is still lame, but it is better than most times as my laptop has inexplicably lost function of its G, H, Backspace, and ' keys. I generally prefer writing on my laptop, and it is psychologically difficult for me to use my tower for that sort of thing these days.

We (and by we, I mean I, but maybe you will empathize) have been spoiled by an abundance of technology. I will get my act together very soon, but I have two other things distracting me right now.

1. I received a pass for the Chicago preview screening of the movie version of Hellboy the comic. I like Hellboy a lot. To me, it's a readable superhero comic, one that works well in a short story format along with the drawn-out serial plotting. The characters are clear-cut and consistent. The art is superb; bold, dark and brooding with elaborate simplicity. And it's got everything... Demons, Nazis, mythological monstrosities, fishmen, frogmen, wolfmen, Lobster Johnson... I'm excited to see how well it will transfer onto celluloid. I'll throw my thoughts up here.

2. Also for free, I signed on for the Lineage 2 open beta. It's my first experience with a Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game since Gemstone 3 and Federation (which I cannot find even a tangential link to) were centerpieces of AOL's online gaming aspect. Both were text-based if it helps you put things in perspective. Unfortunately, Lineage 2 has been packed and the servers seem unpredictable as to their ability to keep people on, so I haven't been able to get a decent session going. I have, however, killed my fair share of wolves on the open plains of the game's starting towns. It's a funny sight to walk over a hill and see hordes of individual players chasing wolves around and slaughtering them. I don't understand why MMORPGs insist on having players mass execute in order to get to a point where they can actually begin playing. Give players a quick tutorial era where they can get a chunk of abilities and develop their own style within a few fights. After about ten kills, I should be choosing if I want to be on my way or if I want to screw around with brutality. No other genre could get away with the tedium that's acceptable in MMORPGs. But, as I said, I haven't really gotten to play for more than a few hours, so my criticism may not be entirely fair.

Anyhow. I'm going to try and ride my bike for a bit before the movie, so I'll be taking off now.

Dawn with the Sickness

Saw Dawn of the Dead (the remake) last night, and I think I agree with the widespread critical analysis of it as the original without the underlying social commentary. Not necessarily a bad thing. It's a crazy zombie action movie, and it's definitely fun.

What Dawn of the Dead (2004) does well is tell a lot of mini zombie-stories through the basic structure of survival in a mall. As if you were shopping it, the movie has a lot to choose from... And you're not going to buy everything. There are scenes and plot twists in Dawn of the Dead (neuvo) that are hopelessly ridiculous and would likely spoil the movie if you were allowed to ponder them as in the film's inspiration. But walk away with one shopping bag of savvy finds, and you'll be delighted. One of my favorite moments was the addition of "Andy" a gun shop owner alone on his rooftop across the parking lot from the mall that the central characters dwell in, whose communication with Ving Rhames' removed cop is the centerpiece of a montage scored with a lounge cover of Rage Against the Machine's "Down With the Sickness". Other added characters don't work out as well; the head mall security guard, for instance, undergoes a major attitude shift almost instananeously. Some moments work (the communication breakdown during the rescue of a truck full of "refugees"), others don't (the escape from the mall is generally silly). But everything gels well.

Zombie fiction, however, is in a state of crisis with the continuing presence of fast zombies (28 Days Later) which goes against traditional zombie lore. Directors seem to feel that fast zombies will help make zombies more terrifying, and they're right. Fast zombies are much more frightening than true, slow zombies. But. They are made so overpowering that human survival becomes completely implausible. Directors create a situation that requires a deus ex machina in order to drive the story. This breaks any added suspense having a fast zombie creates. We need slow zombies back. Now, more than ever.

"Not Cool at All"

"Not Cool at All"

A great interview for anyone who loves/hates/has heard of Ryan Adams.

Desktop of the Pops

Desktop of the Pops

Links to some of the best new/nearly new music that clutters my Windows Desktop.

Of Montreal - Disconnect the Dots
New Wave plus Vocal Pop plus Kevin Barnes Style Psychedelia - sounds like a train wreck but works as well or better than anything to come out of the Athens twee scene in years. From the forthcoming Satanic Panic in the Attic

TV on the Radio - Dreams
Unbelivably heavy and gloriously uplifting at the same time, TV on the Radio is the flying buttress of the indie rock world. From Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes

Out Hud - Dad,There's A Little Phrase Called Too Much Information
How could you possibly dance to this? From last year's S.T.R.E.E.T. D.A.D.

The Decemberists - Shiny
This straight forward country/folk single from The Decemberists proves that they can write good songs that don't involve pirates. From The Tain.

Xiu Xiu - Clowne Towne
Far closer to art than entertainment, Xiu Xiu are destined to dominate the mix tapes of stuck up collectors for years to come. From Fabulous Muscles

Kanye West - Through the Wire
At first, rapping through a broken jaw seems like an obnoxious gimmick, but West's nimble lyrics and solid flow turn it into a inventive disruption of an increasingly predictable genre. From The College Dropout.

Errol Morris' Fog of War

In the same way that people apply Sun Tzu's Art of War to practical use, I feel like the eleven lessons that make up the structure of Fog of War have similar application but for a culture where combat is generally avoided.

In the film, McNamara looks back on his role in major points of 20th Century conflict and grapples with his successes (the Cuban Missile Crisis) and his failures (Vietnam, the fire-bombing of Japan) and attempts to explain what is important to learn from those events in hindsight. As he meets with former foreign opponents to openly discuss history, he discovers that they had very different national interests than the Cabinets McNamara was part of had assumed. Instead of Sun Tzu's "Burn the bridges", Morris and McNamara present "Empathize with your enemy", referring to how nuclear war was avoided in the Cuban Missile Crisis and ultimately the United States' failrue to control the situation in Vietnam. While McNamara is not saying that conflict is always avoidable, his thesis in the film is that the time we spend in war can be minimized with practical values, with an understanding of the flaws of human nature, the flaws of reason.

Fog of War is masterfully shot, edited and scored and is an incredible insight into conflict in the 20th Century. Definitely a documentary deserving of its Academy Award.

Proof that God has a sense of humor.

Live Action Anime

What would happen if you made a live action Anime?

Casshern is what.

Can you call it Anime? It sure looks like Anime... But the actors aren't animated. (Are the Mary Poppins subset of films considered cartoons?)

You might argue The Matrix is already an example of this. But I'd respond that what Matrix does is take a lot of Anime style and paste it onto an American action movie. It's kind of like the Chipotle of movies. Yeah, it's a burrito, but too many things have been tweaked to make it a real burrito.

RIAA Realizes... There is a Better Way

From the Chi Trib today. Apparently, the new boom in SACD / DVD-Audio formats (Elton John's Goodbye Yellow Brick Road has been re-released as a hybrid disc, by the way) is a way to discourage piracy by presenting better audio quality and more features in a physical format.

Brilliant.

This is good news all around. Hybrid discs are still rippable to the mp3 format, still unlimitedly burnable to new CDs, but the original discs have quality that is uncapturable. Sharers rejoice because they can have the freedom to share, to test drive music and to become more informed on what's out there without having their minds flogged by radio. Record companies hold onto sales even if people have downloaded an album. Audiophiles and music lovers reap the benefits of having a high quality audio format being pushed in the mainstream (and will have to replace their old Elton John CD's).

And if you're Sony right now... Keep crying about album sales and let no one realize the kind of money you've been minting with the sales of mp3-playing devices and now SACD-compatible players. You are so money and you know it.

I guess Jack Kelley's involvement with WJI is a big was, because they have (in the very least) taken his name off the listing.

Here is the google cache so that you can be sure I am not lying to you.

The Real Humor is in the Layers

During the State of the Union address, W was caught in an unforseen rhetorical problem when anti-Patriot Act politicians applauded after the statement, "Key provisions of the Patriot Act are set to expire next year." Bush continued to say that it should be renewed, but his point was lost in the shuffle. Easterblogg notes today that there was another layer of humorous applause in the segment.

Proof That You Don't Have to Be Young and Black...

...all you need is no sense of ethical responsibility. Here's the cut-and-dry "we're gonna sink this bastard" version of Jack Kelley's ouster for plagiarism and fabrication from USA Today.

Here's my you-heard-it-here-first moment of the century, discovered by my tireless research (Google)... Jack Kelley is (was?) faculty at the World Journalism Institute.

The reason I'm familiar with WJI is because flyers for it are frequently passed on to me by my pastor. That's right, WJI is a journalism school focused on Christian ethics. From their mission statement (linked above):

There is one primary reason why the World Journalism Institute should be committed to the education of young journalists: it comes directly from the need to be faithful to the Christian example of accurately reporting (e.g., being reliable eyewitnesses) the work of God in today's world.

We at WJI believe it is now time to implement a new phase of this statement in order to help turn out journalists capable of presuppositional reporting.

O I love the smell of irony in the morning.

I'm Just Like All These Other Collector Losers, I

Thought I'd diversify the listing of things a little bit by adding some of the better comics I've been reading.

Hell - (preview available) Gorgeously drawn and colored. Hell of the title is actually an island of genetic experimentation (Eden) gone horribly awry. The coloring is lush; there is probably no better word for how well its details and pallettes work. And the drawing... Done in a graffiti-ish style, with sharp, jagged emphasis along curving and twisting forms, captures action and motion as well as (if not better than) anything I've seen. I'm only through issue 1 (there are four on stands), but if the story holds up, Hell could assert itself as one of the best action comics in production.

B.P.R.D. - (preview) With the Hellboy movie coming out, it seems providential that I discover B.P.R.D., a Hellboy spin-off as sure as they come. This comic makes me very curious about the film. Yeah, the first issue ends with a lot of screaming and shooting and punching and monster noises. But you gotta have some of that when you've compiled a task force of tortured superfreaks. There's an air of "League of Extraordinairy Gentlemen", but I get the feeling that much more has been invested into the story than with that book. We will see when the second issue comes out in April.

The Pogostick - Our hero is a mixture of Milton from Office Space and Jimmy Corrigan of Smartest Kid on Earth fame. As such, Pogostick is a dark comedy of office interrelation hijinx and tragedy. Al Columbia is an amazing comics artist, yet (like many underground comix) his work is difficult to come by when it's out of its run. It's good to be reading it during the cycle.

Some quick notes as well... Dead@17 is essentially Buffy the Zombie Slayer and a little disappointing because of it... The Clockmaker folds out to tabloid size and wins some art points because of it, but the story itself is plodding (I'm on issue 3) especially for a short-run comic... the new Optic Nerve is on par for Adrian Tomine; I'd reccommend the previous issue (#8) if you'd like to read an exemplary story of his.

Ripped from the headlines...

Kudos to Eric Zorn's amazing blog for this one. If you've ever seen even one episode of "Law and Order" or "Law and Order: SVU" or "Law and Order: Criminal Intent" or "Law and Order: CSI", you must check out the Random Law and Order Plot Generator. My favorite so far:

A headless corpse is discovered in a park by out-of-towners. Lenny and Curtis initially pin the crime on the victim's lover, but after insurance fraud is revealed, they arrest a down-on-his-luck executive. McCoy and Kincaid prosecute, but McCoy must skirt the law to win. The old DA takes a drink and says "Advice is like castor oil, easy to give but dreadful to take." Tony Danza guest stars.

These are the actual TV Guide recaps of tonight's episodes on NBC:

After a sweatshop owner is beaten to death, suspicion falls on the husband of a worker he impregnated.

The discovery of a woman's body in the Hudson River leads to an investigation that uncovers a scandal involving attorneys and a judge.

I wonder if McCoy will get his man.

My Michael the Car

"Michael Jackson wanted to star in a movie about a man who turns into a car that’s driven around by a little boy."

Get an Axe...

...it's a trap.

Spanish Bombs

It's impossible to tell just what the swing in the Spanish vote was caused by. Any of the reasons I've heard (from the polls being wrong, to the Iraq war, to the heavy-handed accusations at ETA) have validity on a micro level with individual voters. It's silly to think that the entire swing was motivated by one particular response. Democracy is wild and diverse...

The issue here, in my mind, is that what happened went exactly as predicted.

From a piece on Iraqi jihad that the Guardian cites being published in December:

"If [Spain's] troops remain in Iraq after the attacks, a Socialist victory is practically guaranteed and withdrawal of the troops will feature in its election manifesto."

This is what makes the election results frightening however fair and justified they may be. There is a plan in action that we (again) did not foresee.

The [Start] and Fall of Matte

Noticed today that alt.culture magazine Matte has given up its domain and is no longer even in Google. A sad sight (site) because the folks at Matte were putting out one of the best magazines on the shelves. What did Matte do well? Well, for one, its design balanced text with art in interesting ways (like a black and white Print almost). Here's a sample. Tied to that, it was terrificly readable. The writing was handled maturely without being too heavy-headed, and the design was enough to draw you into an article you might otherwise skip over. Plus, there were just a lot of in depth articles. Reading 30% of the magazine was like reading everything in two issues of Rolling Stone. Even aside from these basic foundation points, Matte had a lot going for it. A large advertising base with pricey rates (for a small press publication) was in place from the very first issue. They had a publisher belaying, at least, part of the up-front cost. And distributors. A large staff and what seemed to be a good support structure...

So what went wrong? Well, I have guesses... The change in printing between issue 2 and 3, moving from a thick, unfinished heavy stock like The Believer to a more traditional paper quality, seems to hint at the economic plan of the magazine falling apart. I'd gander that the magazine wasn't able to pull in subcribers with its $20 for 4 issues plan. I also imagine its abstract covers weren't able to attract the eye of buyers on a newstand end. The third side of effective distribution for a print pub these days is the web, but Matte's website was static and fairly minimalist. The readership for Matte should have been much larger, but its most basic draws for building that readership were fairly impotent.

In my dreams, I imagine co-editor Anne Elizabeth Moore's seeping-through-the-pages pretension (which may or may not be fair to her outside Matte) to have turned enough people off to lead to the withering of Matte. But, I'll place my bet in reality on the business model collapsing because of the mag consistently turning its back on effective marketing techniques. I don't know who is at fault for that. Still, Matte's collapse has an important lesson in it for the small press... Even if everything goes right, it can still be blown.

Delegates in the Dark

The two man against 193 men parliamentary Double Dragon style fisticuffs reported in a prior post apparently looked more like a musical than River City Ransom.

I don't know if this is good, bad, or in between. But, yes, that's a flying toupee.

Does this story imply that 2 guys physically fought everyone else in the room?

SHOCKED

Jayson Blair seemed shocked and unprepared to deal with hardball questions on MSNBC's Hardball earlier today.

Hm.

Nobody ever said the guy was a genius. O wait! They did!

To make matters even zanier.... The guy who once pretended to be a journalist is now pretending to be a superhero.

Not enough pain for you?

In his book, Blair blames his problem on "drug and alcohol addiction, undiagnosed manic-depressive disorder and the pressure of being a young, black reporter at a large, competitive newspaper." On Hardball, he said he was at home sick when he was first lured into fabricating stories. If he would mention the depravity of man he'd have a straight flush.

Blair ducked and weaved through the interview attributing all he could on the "old" Jayson Blair, even looking like he had never thought about how he had shown a total lack of respect for the NYT readership.

The moment of the Hardball interview when he shook Chris Matthews hand and said with a smile, "Thanks for having me here," made me physically nauseous.

If the New York Times has done one thing right, ever, it's currently refusing to acknowledge that Blair exists as a media figure.

Update! Bookslut caught a tidbit on Slate with another Blair excuse "He was do-gooding. He had visited a man in prison, taught at an inner-city school, and visited his girlfriend's childhood weekend home in Morris, N.Y. Also, he was tired."

Hello World

I'll Be Your Friend If You Give Me a Dollar a Day

Excited to be joining the Chicago Blogs web ring. You'll see the link added to the left in the links column... Click on the arrows in either direction to move through the blogs in the ring or hit "chicago blogs" to go to the central site. Initially, the other bloggers will probably view us as a pack of tools without the concise, poetic wit of their own pubs. But, over time, they will come to realize that our prose is so poetic, our subtlety so concise, our wittiness so witty that they were fools to ever think elsewise. They will shower us with comments like rose petals from the city walls, paving roads where we are thinking about walking (but will probably change our minds), reinforcing corroded infrastructure, asking for our autographs and hollering "Yo da man!" while we try and sink a putt for birdie on the 7th hole. And then we will quit.

The world will fall into the black void of silence once again... Until they post in their own blogs. At which point, we'll be nothing more than the Suck.com of the 21st century.

Maybe I'm Weak

Maybe I'm Weak

But these guys make me laugh.

This is the Washington Post we're talking about, right?

This is the Washington Post we're talking about, right?

From the Washington Post: a comprehensive analysis and explanation of their fairness and accuracy policies, including a discussion of the use of anonymous sources.

I, like many people, despise anonymous sources. It's nice to hear someone apologize for having to use them. But much of the problem comes from protection of people whose information is not ni fact sensitive while skewering up those who are in actual danger. There isn't a consistency in the standards. What that means is that the press gets manipulated by its interviews, especially in Washington.

Just Be In Love When You Scream That Song II

Just be in Love when You Scream that Song II

Here we go.

Violent Femmes - Johnny : I've been appreciating a bit more how good the Violent Femmes are since seeing Guster cover their self-titled debut on MTV2 last Friday. My first exposure to the band was during high school, sitting in a car with two other not-theater-type theater friends while they with great anticipation popped in an album. Like the whole environment of the evening and my relation with those friends, I remember the music being roughly defined, dark and still somehow poppy as hell. So, I've always had a considerable warm spot for the Femmes, but I don't think I ever delved too deeply with them. "Johnny" is a track I had never listened to. It has all the angry variations of emotion that Femmes are known for but in a song that pulls itself back into a simple eulogy every time it starts to break away.

Guided by Voices - Echos Myron : Honestly, I like it just because it's a catchy little lo-fi number; a toying melody against an electric wall of noise.

Elvis - (Marie's the Name) His Latest Flame : I've spoken my love for "In the Ghetto" before for its pure bizarrity. But before Elvis was overblown (or switched places with an impersonator), he was singing simple numbers that - so much more than his later efforts - delighted and shocked the world.

Josh Rouse - Love Vibrations : I'm saying "Love Vibration" even though I probably listen to "Slaveship" a bit more, because I feel like if you want to get to know Josh Rouse, "Love Vibration" is a very good place to start. Think Conor Oberst if he was obsessed with soul and could feel the human emotion of love. The album is appropriately titled 1972
, right before the 70s turned sour. (I think.)

Scott Miller and the Commonwealth - Any Song off Thus Always to Tyrants. : Alright. I know I broke the rules, here, but... If you have any love for rock, if you have any love for country, if you have any more love in you than Conor Oberst, you need to stop by your local music shoppe and nab a copy of Thus Always to Tyrants. Steal it if you have to. Scott Miller is not Radiohead. He's not obsessed with form and complexity. What he does is write a song that will hijack your brain and make you believe there is a guitar in your hands and a rock star in your heart. Perfectly crafted, perfectly delivered, perfectly captivating. Nothing more, nothing less. Yum!

Picture Pages, Picture Pages

Draw simple line art in The Scribbler and generative lines give the piece an inky textured look. I spent about 4 hours playing with the program this evening and made some fun stuff. Share your own art in the comments section.

Gollum!
Homeless Wolverine finds pot of gold!!!
This is where they stop being lame as Corey Wilson joined in the fun:
Imp by Corey
Old Dude by Corey
Flower Picker by me!
Dude by Corey
Flowers by Corey
Flower Pot by me!
At this point, I couldn't think of anything else to make... Corey had one more in him
Lamp by Corey

Happy Weekend!

At the Movies

Today in the Sun-Times (Still 35 cents!), Roger Ebert writes one of the best movie reviews I've read in a long time.

What movie does he review? It doesn't matter. And that's the point. A movie review should be interesting and hold your attention even if you don't know a thing about the film. The lead paragraph in this review is superb.

Holy Golden Nuggets!

Holy golden nuggets!

Bug Me Not

Bug me not

A neat way to get around registering for access to online newspapers. Bugmenot.

Air America Radio, The Left AM

Air America Radio, The Left AM

So, it appears the much-ado, thankfully-not-named-Indie-Network, politically-left radio network Air America is about to dive into the pool with air-time locked in New York, here in Chicago and a handful of other cities.

I've decided to create a short list of both reasons it could succeed and reasons it could fail; this way, I'll be right regardless of what happens.

Reasons Air America Could Succeed

1. Al Franken - He's funny. The guy is good at sifting through rhetoric and has become the classic antithesis of Rush Limbaugh because of it. Accordingly, he's been able to hold his ground in debate against conservative rhetoricians like Sean Hannity. A name I've seen for his program is the O'Franken Factor. Cute.

2. Jeaneane Garofalo - She's funny! Another talented comedi person and the Hannity killer for the network... Because Sean Hannity is so Rah-Rah-publican and so so unentertaining to listen to if you disagree with him, Garofalo stands an excellent chance of picking up stray listeners (even conservatives) who are tired of that idiotic Hannity theme song.

3. Political Satire - It's funny!! Liberal, conservative, it doesn't matter... Satire is unassuming and coy. Basically, AAR has assembled representatives from every quality poltical satire entity in the past decade. Franken is from Saturday Night Live, Garofalo was involved with Michael Moore's TV projects, Lizz Winstead is somewhere in the mix and a co-creator of the Daily Show. Is that gold or is that platinum? You can decide.

4. There is a Void - Liberals who are tired of repetitive music stations have escaped to talk radio along with their conservative brethren. They listen to conservative programming and end up calling in to complain, at which point they are obliterated by well-trained conservative hosts. Yes, there are liberal talk radio hosts even on otherwise conservative networks, but the conservatives are the ones moving up in ranks (for whatever reason). Somewhere there is a market, and you need only listen to Rush Limbaugh for a few minutes to hear voices from it.

Reasons Air America Could Fail

1. Al Franken - We'll start with the easy points here... Franken comments on commentators. Now that he has his own show, he's going to be unable to listen to and study those commentators (**cough**Rush**cough**) and direct commentary has to be the center of the show. While we've seen Franken push policy, it's generally been in the wings. On a side note, how many weeks before trying to call in to Limbaugh's show becomes a regular staple?

2. Garofalo - Her fame is from generic comedy. Yes, she's been vocal about political issues, and being vocal is the basic prerequisite for radio. But is she going to be able to spit out dates, cases and records like her counterparts whose mainstream identity was born from political debate? Maybe. If she's not at the start, it's going to take her some time to get into the swing of things... Is she going to be interested enough in this program to stick with it that long? As much as she is an asset, she is also a tremendously large question mark.

3. NPR - In the radio world, NPR is like a badge of courage for the liberal educated and political talk is unbearable schlock. Is it going to be necessary for AAR to pull liberal listeners from NPR (where they've found refuge from the likes of Limbaugh)? Is it possible given the social status of NPR? Not saying NPR is liberal, just saying it is something of a haven.

4. What Good's the Radio? - Franken, for one, admits he is in this deal partly as an effort to get Bush not-elected come November. But add a lack of radio experience with talk radio's traditional impotence when it comes to presidential elections, and you could get frustration... especially for investors. Ask yourself. What good did Limbaugh ever do? The AAR website itself places the foundation of conservative talk radio in 1988 when a (R) was in the Oval Office, which boomed through 1992... when Bill Clinton (D) won the presidency. It continued to steadily grow through 1996 when... Bill Clinton (D) won again. After the 2000 election results, certain individuals (including candidate Al Gore) began partly blaming talk radio for Bush's win (robbery, of course, was the major complaint). Thus, the polterzeitgeist was born. But it's never proved to be anything substantial; it's obsessing over gnats while you're getting stung by bees. Here's a column on this issue from a liberal perspective in an effort to prove I'm not being ridiculous with this point.

Anyway, I think I've covered my bases. Back to you.

Traditions I Don't Understand

Sorry. Feeling a little brain-fried today so no diatribes.

But here's a link to a Mid-East tradition I don't understand yet find fascinating... The aforementioned link.

If anyone's interested, I changed the splash page over at the Nation of Legacy sub-site as part of my ongoing effort to beat the worldly excesses from RF leaving a much purer, better site.

Dispatches from the Commonwealth

Dispatches from the Commonwealth

Been a fan of Scott Miller since he assembled the Commonwealth and released Thus Always To Tyrants so I was excited to read about a recent whistle-stop tour on the Amtrack Crescent. Jack Neely of Knoxville's MetroPulse stayed along for the ride and crafted "This Train Goes On" a long form piece of rock journalism that blends remnants of the Civil War, public transportation and rock and roll into a portrayal of region-by-region perceptions of Miller on this interesting tour.

Porn on Beta

Porn on Beta

A couple weeks ago, I was casting out the question, "Was porn ever made on beta?" Not because of a particular desire or need for it, but because of the popular legend that the porn industry's exclusive support for VHS was a major force in the demise of Betamax. You most commonly hear the story in conjunction with a defense of porn's importance in driving new technology particularly the internet. If the accounts are correct, then porn on beta is something of legendary status in the annals of antiquated technology. One band from Vancouver, at least, has acknowledged this (although, their bio avoids it).

Unfortunately, the answer I fished up wasn't nearly as exciting as the mythos of the question.

One respondent attested to owning a fairly large collection of porn on beta.... which ruins my hope that such an item is a monumental rarity. He also claims that the fall of beta mostly had to do with aggressive marketing of VHS by JVC, including some ultra-discounted distribution in the professional market. (This may be where the porn myth arises.) The claims seem backed up by the Urban Legend archive, which outlines the marketing battle and resulting price war.

As much as I hate to abandon this novel story, it appears the facts are forcing me to do so.