JamesLindenschmidt.com

I just realized I haven’t posted about this. I have 2 new gigs going on. I’ll still be doing weekends at my old gig, so that’s remains unchanged. I still have no free weekends except on rare special occasions. :-(

The first is that I am in the process of opening up Crafted Recordings: Quality on-location audio recording in Northern New England. I’m surprised I haven’t blogged about this yet, but I’ve had a separate website going for a while. Hop on over and check it out when you can. My recording rig isn’t quite finished, and I’ve hit some (not insurmountable) snags on the portability end of it. I’ll need to get a truck and/or a trailer to haul it around, and I still need to finish building the rack lids so I can safely move them. I have the materials I need, I’m just waiting for the stars to line up with time and good weather so I can do the carpentry. This is very exciting, as it gives me a chance to earn a living doing what I love.

The second is that I’ve entered into a part-time consulting relationship with Realtraps. Realtraps, “the experts in acoustic treatment,” is an acoustics company run by Ethan Winer (and his partner Doug Ferrara, as well has a half-dozen-ish employees). Ethan wrote the single best introduction to listening room acoustics that I know of; this article was my point of departure in developing an understanding of how to make rooms sound good. In addition to this (and other) articles, Ethan is more than generous with his expertise on various forums online that I hang out on. We started communicating a while ago via these forums, and we became friends.

So these are exciting developments for me, as both of these mean I will be starting to earn (at least part of) a living through music.

After all this time, I’ve finally gotten round to reinstalling Linux, both on the laptop and on the desktop. I tried Ubuntu again, but at this point I am of the opinion that PCLinuxOS completely smokes Ubuntu.

Full featured, easy to install. No hassle. It just works, with all the software you will ever need.

If you are contemplating whether or not to run Vista, just don’t. Get PCLinuxOS instead.

Looks like the Brazilian and Italian governments are getting together to draft an Internet Bill Of Rights. This is a good idea, and it would appear that they are on the right track, since they are discussing

Privacy, data protection, freedom of expression, universal accessibility, network neutrability, interoperability, use of format and open standards, free access to information and knowledge, right to innovation and a fair and competitive market and consumers safeguard.

Among the signees of this resolution are Gilberto Gil, a Brazilian musician who is also the Brazilian Minister for Culture. I have respect for Gil and what he does as a politician. I remember Lawrence Lessig writing about an encounter he had with Gil a couple of years ago:

This was a scene that was astonishing on a million levels. I’ve seen rallies for free software in many placed around the world. I’ve never seen anything like this. There were geeks, to be sure. But not many. The mix was broad-based and young. They cheered free software as if it were a candidate for President. But more striking still was just the dynamic of this democracy. Barlow captured the picture at the top, which in a sense captures it all. Here’s a Minister of the government, face to face with supporters, and opponents. He speaks, people protest, and he engages their protest. Passionately and directly, he stands at their level. There is no distance. There is no “free speech zone.” Or rather, Brazil is the free speech zone. Gil practices zone rules.

Let’s hope this sees the light of day; the values contained in this declaration do need to be foregrounded in discussion.

Yes, I happily admit that I’m a Harry Potter fan. I think it’s a great series, incredibly imaginative, reasonably well-written, and the movies aren’t bad.

It goes without saying that J. K. Rowling has become one of the most famous authors in the world, her books have sold millions in dozens of languages, academics are studying them and writing about them, along with other famous writers firmly established in the western canon. Tolkien comes to mind; they are similarly famous, in related genres, and both have had blockbuster movies made within the past decade.

But, J.K. Rowling has gone over the top. Apparently, she is suing a publisher for having the audacity to publish a reference book about the Harry Potter universe.

Rowling’s argument is clear, albeit misguided:

It is not reasonable, or legal, for anybody, fan or otherwise, to take an author’s hard work, re-organize their characters and plots, and sell them for their own commercial gain. However much an individual claims to love somebody else’s work, it does not become theirs to sell.

If this argument were sound, then there would be no reference books at all for any copyrighted work, apart from reference books published by the original copyright holders of the material.

No Cliffs Notes.

No reference books on Lord of The Rings.

No reference books on Narnia.

No reference books on Star Wars.

No reference books on the His Dark Materials trilogy.

And curiously enough, no Harry Potter reference books, dozens of which have already been published.

I truly hope that J. K. Rowling isn’t vain enough to actually believe that she, the richest woman in the UK, richer than even the Queen, should exclusively profit from the hard work of other people, in this case people who compile the reference materials.

If she does, well. It’s too late to boycott since my family already owns all 7 books.

Which brings up another point: does Rowling truly believe that people are going to buy these reference books INSTEAD fo the original novels? That there will be ANYONE who buys this reference book who doesn’t already own all 7 books, probably in both paperback and hardcover, all the DVDs from the movies made, and at least a dozen tickets to each movie in the theater?

Reality check. J.K. Rowling is often portrayed as a hardworking mom who struck big with an imaginative idea. That may have once been true; but if she really believes this then she is now nothing more than a fabulously wealthy node in the corporate network.

And sure enough, suing your best customers is probably not a good idea.

Now, you have ISPs shutting down websites for hosting copyrighted material…. even though the same people who own the website hold the copyright! It’s out of control…

The music industry (defined as a near-monopoly by a few major labels) is doomed. They are panicking. Too bad for them.

I’ve lived in the suburbs. I’ve lived in medium-sized midwestern cities. I’ve lived in small coastal cities. I’ve lived along the beach. I’ve lived on a beautiful hill overlooking the Atlantic Ocean.

But living in the woods is easily my favorite. At least so far.

I ran across The Wrath of the Secretrons by Connie L Schmidt. In it, she coins the very amusing term “New Wage” movement, which is her term for “the prosperity-obsessed, MLM-loving segment of the New-Age and motivational crowd.”

Basically, she dismisses The Secret and its emphasis on the Law Of Attraction in promoting personal wealth, which I agree is a somewhat dubious motivation for spiritual enlightenment.

One of her biggest critiques is that the Law of Attraction “is presented as a scientific law akin to the law of gravity.” This reveals her misunderstanding: The Secret, What The Bleep, and all this other stuff is metaphysics, not physics.

Metaphysics cannot be proven one way or another; it either makes sense or it doesn’t. They all are theories and cannot be scientifically tested; whereas metaphysics speculates on the whole of the universe and how it operates, scientific theory must rely on isolating variables (ie, cutting off the interesting variable from the rest of the universe and testing it in lab conditions). One cannot do this with metaphysics.

I agree, The Secret and What The Bleep and countless other metaphysical offerings have their problems. But they shouldn’t be taken as science. They are more metaphysical in nature; they suggest to us ways of being in the world as opposed to solid, provable, repeatable, and peer-reviewed hypotheses about isolated chunks of existence.

An interesting bit of science:

The Cardiff team suggests that radioactive elements can keep water in liquid form in comet interiors for millions of years, making them potentially ideal “incubators” for early life. They also point out that the billions of comets in our solar system and across the galaxy contain far more clay than the early Earth did. The researchers calculate the odds of life starting on Earth rather than inside a comet at one trillion trillion (10 to the power of 24) to one against (emphasis added).

The technical name for this theory is panspermia, which invites its own lewd metaphorical joke. But maybe Tim Leary was right — ashes to ashes, dust to dust, from outer space to outer space.

There are lots of junk shops, antique shops, and the like in Maine. It’s a big, rural state, with a small economy, where lots of people with money own second homes (which of course drives up the property prices, further repressing Maine’s economy).

You can find just about anything in these shops. That’s probably where this collectible severed hand was found.

….wake up one day, look around, and realize you live in a really amazing place?

That happened to me the other day. And a few times since.

All of our stuff is unpacked now, and I’ve been quite busy around the house doing lots of fix-it type things. I’ve built 8 bookshelves (4 quite small, two quite large, and two medium-sized), a new compost bin, and a bench seat for my daughter’s loft bed. I’ve also lowered her loft bed (she can now sit up in bed!!!). I installed a new kitchen faucet, and caulked our bathtub. Whee!

In all seriousness, I really love this kind of work.

Soon now, I will begin turning my attention to the outside. In the short term, I have compost to cook, garden beds to plan and landscape, and a yard to get ready for a party in September. In the medium term, I have a studio to build. In the long term, I’d like to put a screened-in-porch and a deck behind the house.

Fun fun fun. The woods behind our house are very cool. I need to spend more time in them.