July 2006 Archives

Hi all. In order to keep up with the suddenly prolific RFO, I thought I would entertain all of you with a summation of a very fascinating article. I won't make you read it, though I suggest that you do if you have the time. Read here.

But, if you want my take, well, keep reading. Basically, my man Chris Anderson talks about how the Internets have changed everything. Sure, we all realize that, but how?

Well, I'll tell ya. Anderson has a theory, and he calls it Long Tail. Hmmmm...Anderson lucidly presents the argument that alternatives in entertainment, i.e. books, music and movies are really the wave of the future. In other words, thanks to the Internets we can obtain information and entertainment easier than every imagined.

As Anderson states, "The future of entertainment is in the millions of niche markets at the shallow end of the bit stream." In other words, the alternative music, the obscure movie documentary or the previously out of print of book can now be obtained. So, pay attention big music companies - your idea of needing only hits and labeling that as good, while all music that does qualify as a hit, as bad is passe as passe can be.

Anderson's gives several examples of his argument, but the following is best.

'To get a sense of our true taste, unfiltered by the economics of scarcity, look at Rhapsody, a subscription-based streaming music service (owned by RealNetworks) that currently offers more than 735,000 tracks.

Chart Rhapsody's monthly statistics and you get a "power law" demand curve that looks much like any record store's, with huge appeal for the top tracks, tailing off quickly for less popular ones. But a really interesting thing happens once you dig below the top 40,000 tracks, which is about the amount of the fluid inventory (the albums carried that will eventually be sold) of the average real-world record store. Here, the Wal-Marts of the world go to zero - either they don't carry any more CDs, or the few potential local takers for such fringy fare never find it or never even enter the store.

The Rhapsody demand, however, keeps going. Not only is every one of Rhapsody's top 100,000 tracks streamed at least once each month, the same is true for its top 200,000, top 300,000, and top 400,000. As fast as Rhapsody adds tracks to its library, those songs find an audience, even if it's just a few people a month, somewhere in the country.'

This is the Long Tail. And this is good, non-mainstream music - here is Ben Sidran "Feel Your Groove" and Planning to Rock "I Wanna Bite Ya."

I like to pay attention to the news, because every so often I catch things that make me wonder about my government. I suppose I am a conspiracy theorist at heart, but it doesn't hurt when I see things as blatant as this. Every since I watched Fahrenheit 9/11, I haven't stopped keeping a crooked eye at El Bushy and the Osama connection.

The correlations between those two punk bitches is thicker than the Bible and Koran strapped together. Bushy wants an American Taliban (OK that's a bit much, but he does love Pat Roberts) and well, we know what Osama wants. So, what's my proof you ask? All you have to do is read kiddies. First, take a gander at this story. Seems Zarqawi's little lady thinks he got sold out to the Americans by his boyz. In return, the Americans would back off their search for Bin Laden. Hmmm...

Really, no way. Well, wait a tick..take a look at this. Coincidence? I think not. SO, you mean to tell me she makes that wild acusation only to have it completey validated by the CIA quietly shutting it's Bin Laden unit the day after Independence Day? Oh the irony. What the F? What do you think loyal 7?

Anyway, here's Maynard and the boys (AKA Tool) doing "Vicarious" and I imagine Osama is "Still Jiving" by Hawkeye (Thanx RFO) in his cave somewhere, getting funky with his 30 wives, smoking a big-ass hooka doing his I-outfoxed-and-out-maneuvered-the-CIA-jig.