Music / Audio

Celebrity Death Bump

Me with a Vulcan at the Las Vegas Star Trek Experience
Star Trek Experience Re-opening in May

When a formerly popular musician dies, I suddenly see a bunch of people posting in social media about them. They come back into the consciousness. And, many people are suddenly listening to the music again. Today it was Eddie Money. But, I’ve seen this trend for most.

I bet it means more sales and listens on streaming services. (For movie stars streaming their movies or sale. For authors more book sales.) In which case, it is good for the owner of the music as they make money off them. I guess the estate benefits from this renewed attention.

Which is crazy to me. I wonder if any of these deaths were tied to financial insolvency? And could have been prevented by getting the same amount of attention while still alive?

It seems sad that we only remember many of these people at their death. Why don’t we remember them in their life?

Podcasts updated for 2019

Back in 2016, I did a post on the podcasts to which I was listening. About six months ago, I lost everything due to my cloud-based podcasting app becoming unreachable.

It is weird to me how talking styles for radio news shows I listened to 15 years ago are unlistenable today. It makes me think maybe I should give another try to something I’ve been avoiding.

So here is my list at the moment categorized into genres:

Podcasts

Until recently I mostly eschewed podcasts. I only listen to the local NPR radio station as part of my morning alarm or driving somewhere.[1] Podcasts were often how I listened to the whole episode for something that was interesting. I did not really subscribe so much as list them and occasionally check for something.

A couple years ago I did start more actively listening. About a year ago I started looking for new content. Like all things that I do, I over extended myself. I am at the point where I need to cull. There is no way that I am ever going to listen to all these podcasts, so I need to decide which to keep and which to ditch.

So here is my list at the moment categorized into genres:

Obviously much of what I listen is influenced by NPR, which is explained by my origin. But, also FiveThirtyEight, Gimlet Media, and various science magazines.

Shows that are dead in the water, but in my backlog.

Podcasts discussed Sunday that I may have to try.

Podcasts I noticed researching this post.

Here are ones I started listening at some point and gave up on.

  • British History
  • Freakonomics Radio
  • Invisibilia
  • Planey Money
  • Reply All
  • Serial
  • Try It, You’ll Like It
  • Vox’s The Weeds
  • Waking Up with Sam Harris
  • Welcome to Night Vale
  • 2 Dope Queens

Notes:

  1. This has been my habit since 1998 when my human growth and development psychology professor went on a rant about how important it was.

War of the Worlds

Today seventy-five years ago, much of the United States freaked out. People fled their homes into the streets. Police, newspapers, and radio stations were overwhelmed with calls about an alien invasion. All because they believed a radio play was real. A radio play based on a book from 40 years prior and who was recently an extremely popular comic serial. RadioLab asked the question could it happen again? Then showed how it did… in Ecuador. 

The Atlanta public radio station played this Sunday night. It was a made my drive much more enjoyable. (Normally it sucks, but I actually enjoyed it.) If the player does not work, then try War of the Worlds RadioLab s4e3.

American Experience also has a War of the Worlds take. Slightly different take looking more at the production and completely ignores Ecuador.

TED Tuesdays

As I watch TED talks, the ones I wish to share will be scheduled to post here on Tuesdays. This has been happening the past few weeks, but I wanted to point it out in case anyone looking for them wishes to watch out for them.

Also, I watched some of TEDxAtlanta live yesterday. All were about the evolution of community. It seemed interesting to me how much music was a part of that.

Armed

Devon Gundry – “Armed” from Justin Baldoni on Vimeo.

First heard Devon at the Tennessee Baha’i School back in 2007. I bought his CD. It gets a spin when I need to contemplate. This one like so much of his music makes use of a small part of Baha’u’llah’s Writings. In this case from a prayer for protection….

Armed with the power of Thy name nothing can ever hurt me, and with Thy love in my heart all the world’s afflictions can in no wise alarm me.

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Blind Not Insane

The National Federation of the Blind is upset about a movie portraying people who are blind as behaving badly.

Pyyhkala, 36, of Boston, said he has read the book and seen parts of the film. He said his grievances stem from the film’s potential to sway public attitude about blindness. He said the movie exacerbates stereotypes and gives false information to uninformed viewers. [Link] (Since starting this post now requires a login?)

I haven’t seen the film or read the book, but the trailer for the films shows the people being put into quarrantine for a medical epidemic where people go blind. Stories generally portray people as acting incompetent and fearful when they are trapped in an unfamiliar situation. The whole point is to create an environment whereby a person, the hero or heroine, who is the bright light of reason and to whom everyone else appeals can rise to the challenge.

Blindness happens to use people who are blind, most likely because a the author was trying to be creative and use something readers would find new. Jose Saramago: “Stupidity doesn’t choose between the blind and the non-blind.” [Link]

Chris Danielsen, a national federation spokesman, said while he understands that the film plays on the public’s fear of sudden blindness, the idea that loss of sight is equal to incompetence and immorality is “outrageous” and “vicious.” Everyday tasks like getting dressed and using the bathroom do not become impossible if a person loses their sight, Danielsen said.

Works of fiction do not depict reality. Otherwise… they would not be fiction. Stop giving movies more meaning than they actually have. Otherwise, you give them power they didn’t already have.

The Catholic Church’s opposition to the Golden Compass made me read the book and go see the movie (latter was awful). I wouldn’t have cared otherwise. Denouncing it made me wonder what they had to fear from something so silly as a book and movie. After seeing the trailer, I wasn’t interested in Blindness. After reading about the opposition, I am interested. I don’t have much luck with movies from books lately, so I may go book first.

All In – Instead of Nickel and Diming You

5 & 10 is a nice place.

[info]aya1081 and [info]brittsaqt invited me out for dinner with some others. Good trout and ‘tater pancake and desert.

So now I am home and killing time before doing the maintenance for work tonight. At least that will be short. I won’t even get to catch up much on TiVo like last week’s (10pm to 2am).

[info]arfore has cool Music Video Friday series at his real blog.

I’ve been thinking about playing with the Firefox 3 Beta.

I really want a legitimate (pays the studios) copy of Macross Zero. All I’ve seen in US stores are obvious pirated copies. Why do the companies make it so hard to play by the rules?

What do you use for RSS feeds? I’ve used Bloglines, GReader, FeedDemon, NewsGator, BlogBridge, Firefox Livemarks, and Thunderbird. Lately I have taken to playing with Feedreader 3. So far it seems the best.