Mass Media?

The move was successful but in the process we learned that we would have a bit less space. Being an audiophile, the stereo was set up immediately although we didn’t have a clean drinking glass from the boxes strewn across the floor. The CD’s made their way into the media rack, into the entertainment center, into the CD jukebox and case organizer, and then nowhere. I looked around and realized I’d run out of storage for the rest of the music and I stood dumfounded in the middle of the den. My brother mentioned that he had went through his collection a few months ago and his wife took the box of discs to work and her coworkers quickly pillaged the stash.

I thought about all this for a second, walked over to the media rack and glanced over Charles Mingus, Ween, Sly and the Family Stone and Frank Sinatra. I must have spent some time going over the titles and humming tunes because my brother’s voice broke into my trance state imploring me to, ‘Pick out the ones you don’t really listen to.’ Quickly, I became like Bilbo Baggins protecting his ‘precious’ ring as I snarled and huddled closer to my wall of CD’s. How could I give up my life long ambition of having every inch of living space dedicated to music? Anyone who comes closer is going to loose an eye!

Well, no music had to perish in the move and the discs without a bed are snuggled closely together in shoe boxes over in the corner. I guess they’ll remain there over the next few days and go unnoticed with all the other clutter or until someone complains about them taking up room. Is there any music that I ‘don’t really listen to’? I may have to eat cereal out of my hand this morning but I’ll have my precious music playing throughout the house as the milk slips between my fingers.


S. Remington – Editor
PhreshWater.com
Questions or Comments: editor@phreshwater.com

Moving Day

Thanks for visiting the PhreshWater Editorial Blog. I am moving over the next few days and will return to posting by Wednesday. If you have any music related subjects that we should cover after my return please email them and we'll get started.

S. Remington - Editor
PhreshWater.com
Questions or Comments: editor@phreshwater.com

Download This…

How many songs did you download last week? Are you using Kazaa, Morpheus, Grokster? The music news headlines have become, on the ‘pop’ end of the scope, a virtual propaganda street brawl between artists, the recording industry, politicians, and now my cat wants to call a press conference. The RIAA has brought out their big guns and in the image of Big Brother have decided to employ their ‘Police State’ tactics to go directly into your home, handcuff you and your hard drive and slam you both into the back of the paddy wagon.

Do you think I’m kidding? The RIAA has already issued subpoenas for over 200 people using the Kazaa network for offering copyrighted music for download and who’s to stop them from hauling them off to the electric chair? I guess when your over paid lawyers can’t get a handle on things and are fighting a seemingly loosing battle, like alcohol prohibition, you simply aim your rifle into the crowd and start picking off bystanders to get your point across.

The issues that never seem to come from the talking heads on CNN and from the mouths of the spineless RIAA thugs is why illegal downloading has happened in the first place. If you want to find the source of this problem then follow the stream back to the recording industry who has sat on its enlarged, gluttonous, haunches for the past ten years getting fatter and fatter on over priced CD’s and siphoning the pockets of pre-teen women with clone after clone of the next Boy Band! Suddenly, after their long slumber, they realize they have ignored the advances of technology, the global community, and a budding new industry of digital music on demand. Because they didn’t pay attention and wallowed in their own incestuous greed the recording industry is lagging slowly behind, trying to catch up, and their poor ego’s have been bruised in the process.

But, there are success stories that can’t be ignored. Fans of ‘Live’ music have banded together with the artists themselves and continue to offer free, legal, live performance recordings for download. Furthur network is teeming with material ranging from Bluegrass, Jazz, Jam Bands, and beyond because of the expressed written consent of the artists themselves. Phish even had the foresight to open it’s own LivePhish.com which comes right off the soundboard, clean as a whistle, and into your CD-Burner.

So, the RIAA continues to play Gestapo and not offer any real solutions, which is that the recording industry needs to regroup and get their shit together before they loose even more ground.

S. Remington – Editor
PhreshWater.com
Questions or Comments: editor@phreshwater.com

Viral Stupidity

As a music writer my inbox is filled to the brim every morning with press releases, newsletters, amidst the spam and scant personal fare. On Tuesday I saw that one of my favorite Jazz newsletters had arrived and my eyes moved quickly down the browser to the first headline that stated clearly that Metallica was suing the Canadian Rock band Unfaith for using the guitar chords E and F. Naturally, with my punk rock non-conformist upbringing, I rose from my chair and yelled something to the effect of ‘No @#%&;$ way!’

I felt compelled to mobilize quickly as my anger propelled me to Google to find the band Unfaith who had, undoubtedly, become the next victims in the wake of Metallica’s whining tyranny. The Unfaith home page met my eyes with Lars Ulrich’s gaping mouth like a stranger had stole his lollipop and my anger raised up inside like a monsoon. But as I read, I realized that I had been had… Apparently, this was all a hoax and my trusty Jazz newsletter had incited the same hysteria in me as many others who found the story, like I had, to defy the laws of common sense and musical integrity.

Quickly, I called up the newsletter and pounded out a quick note to the Editor that they had printed a hoax. Later in the day the Editor wrote back saying they knew it was a hoax all the while and that, ‘The beauty is that it's not inconceivable for Lars to launch into something like this after the Napster episode...,’ and that they would print it was just a hoax in a few days.

Is viral stupidity everywhere? Why would you knowingly reprint a hoax to prove a point? I suppose in this day and age where personal responsibility has become an afterthought that it all made sense to someone, somewhere…….

S. Remington - Editor
PhreshWater.com
Questions or Comments: editor@phreshwater.com

Welcome Music Fans

Thank you for visiting the PhreshWater Blog powered by 'Blogger'. If you have no idea what PhreshWater.com is all about then please stop over for a visit. Our staff, Interns, and Music Fans from all over the world come together to bring you, via Independent Journalism, the latest in Music News and Reviews. What is 'Independent Journalism'? ---- It means that no matter how many millions and billions of dollars that the record industry pours into super-hyped publicity we will report and write about music the way it should be --- With a Free and Open Mind. We are not funded by any outside sources and we are only fueled and read by avid music fans who understand 'quality'. If a band can pawn off 1 milllion cookie-cutter, over-produced, CD's does it mean that it was the 'Album of the Year'? Not necessarily.....

This 'Blog' is going to serve PhreshWater.com readers, New readers, and Blog-Hoppers as a type of 'Letters to the Editor' section that I will try my best to make a daily addition. The topic will always be music related and you are more than welcome to Email me any questions or topics that you would like to discuss and I may even publish your letter in it's entirety.

Take care and visit again -- Let's Blog!

S. Remington - Editor
PhreshWater.com
Questions or Comments: editor@phreshwater.com