The first line of this article states “The music industry’s worst nightmare may be coming true” but they think it’s CD burners and piracy. It’s actually much deeper, the music industry is obsolete.

I buy less CDs than I used to, but I’m usually not disappointed by them anymore. If I hear something I like, I’ll usually download most of the album to try it out. If I like it I buy it. Good music is earning sales while the junk is failing.

Most of my recent CD purchases been soundtracks or obscure small CDs and imports. Most of these don’t register with the RIAA, but none of the mainstream stuff appeals to me very much. Besides the obscure recordings I’ve been listening to music by friends (Gameface), small releases, and hand-labeled CDs of original music created in home studios.

Wilco’s soon to be latest album Yankee Hotel Foxtrot has been in my playlists a lot during the past five months, even though it hasn’t been released yet. During a dispute with their record company they posted a lo-fi version of the whole album on their website which I downloaded and saved. The album might finally get a packaged release this April and I plan to buy it.

When friends ask me about burning audio CDs with their computers I first tell them how to do it (on Macs it’s as easy as inserting a blank CD with iTunes open). Then I tell them to go to Radio Shack and buy a mini-stereo to RCA Y-adapter cable (#42-2483) and plug the computer into their stereos. Very few people burn more than one or two music CDs once they realize the convenience of MP3s. A lot of friends are buying iPods.

CDs are impractical and cumbersome. I have a shelf of 500+ CDs, all of which can fit onto one $200 portable harddrive as MP3s. CDs only play for about 45 minutes, with MP3s I can set up a playlist which won’t repeat for a month.

Piracy isn’t killing the RIAA, they’re killing themselves.

Often the web seems devoid of emotions. Except for some occasional humor, sarcasm and the odd marriage proposal, it’s rare that anything breaks out of this shallow emotional subset.

And then something does. The Life of Jos Claerbout is one of those sites. In 1999, Jos was working at WebTV when he died suddenly at the age of 25. This site is a memorial tribute written by his parents.

Jos died in the midst of the dot com gold rush and many people whose lives he touched remembered him on the web, these are some of those sites:

• Jos Claerbout
• Jos Claerbout (1974-1999): In Memoriam


• Jos Claerbout


• Jos Tree Dedication Photos
• WebTV Remembers Jos

There are many more.

Guess where we were this weekend.
(just a class, no baby yet)

Bruce and Lynda are in town for Seybold, and I went to see the discussion Lynda moderated about web interface design. On the panel were Matt Owens, Hillman Curtis and Jeffrey Zeldman, an interesting mix of talented people with very good ideas about design.

After the discussion, Lynda introduced me to Zeldman and Carrie Bickner, both wonderfully thoughtful, intelligent people who were a pleasure to talk to. Among other things, the two co-authored the NYPL Style Guide, a brilliant resource which will surely become a seminal document for transitioning sites to XHTML and CSS.

Seybold started at 9am, afterwards some other stuff happened and I didn’t get home until almost 10pm. Happy Birthday Graham

Congratulations Al, Mo and everyone at Bagel Zone on a great review in the New York Daily News this past Saturday. The article was written by Irene Sax, who was awarded Food Editor of the Year by the James Beard Foundation in 1995 and seems to have a very good reputation in food reviewing circles.

The DV Show FXScript talk went really well. Thanks to everyone who was there, I hope you all got something from the presentation.

Overall, the room was about as crowded as I thought it might be, but most everyone stayed and seemed to be understanding what I was showing them. The 90 minutes went by faster than I expected and I ended up showing Joe’s Filters 3 after the time was up. We would have kept going except the hotel kind of kicked us out.

OS X worked flawlessly on the iBook, as usual. I’m still having trouble accepting how dependable it is. The video mirroring worked instantly, FCP, PowerPoint 2001 (in classic), Exporer and BBEdit were all running the whole time. My OWC portable FireWire drive with all the files worked perfectly too, technology was not an issue.

I walked home, burning some extra adrenaline and loving New York City. It had been a while since I’d been up to West 34th St, and the long walk was nice despite the cold. Giving the talk was a major accomplishment to cross off my to-much-to-do list, now hopefully I can finish the filters for release and actually relax a little. You know, before buying an apartment, moving, getting a mortgage and having a baby. My plate is full, can I have another?

Mastering FXBuilder with Joe Maller
Monday February 11th, 7:30 –
9 pm
The New York DV Show 2002

Willya lookit that there ad banner. Hell has apparently frozen over.