Folks, please, just… stop.

I have really tried refraining from even touching on the subject of Michael Jackson, but this has now reached absurd proportions.  I can understand fans being sad at his passing, but the idea that the website set up to award tickets to his memorial service (which the fact they are giving out tickets to this is disturbing in its own right) received 500 million hits in the first hour of operation.  While it is safe to say many of those were multiple visits from the same people, that is still insane.

Even though only 8,750 people will be issued a pair of tickets, 1.2 million officially applied for tickets.  The city of Los Angeles is expecting around 500,000 to 750,000 to descend upon the Staples Center to stand around outside the center during the ceremony.

Now comes the news that the networks are going to make this in to even more of a circus

• CBS is handing over the majority of its programming for the day to coverage of the event.  The Early Show, Evening News with Katie Couric and a special edition of 48 Hours anchored by Katie Couric will all originate from the Staples Center in Los Angeles where the event is being held.
• ABC will be doing live coverage of the event starting at 10 AM PDT and will pre-empt their normal daytime programming.  They are sending Charles Gibson to do the coverage.
• NBC will not do live coverage, but instead will do a one-hour highlights show Tuesday night.
• CNN will be live.
• MSNBC will be live.
• E! will be live.

Stop… please, for the love of the deity of your choice, just stop.

Michael Jackson was indeed a talented singer, but he was just that… a singer.  He didn’t cure diseases.  He didn’t serve his country.  He did nothing heroic.  He was a cute child singer, and he grew in to a very disturbed adult man due to any number of reasons that became better known for his eccentricities than his talents.  If you want to mourn him, fine, but does anyone really need to stand outside of an arena in the summer heat to mark his passing?  (hope you all remember to bring water)  Does every network need to have a crew on hand for this?  No.

This is all part of an idolism of celebrities that makes no real sense.  Anyone remember the insanity surrounding the death of Princess Diana?  At least she went out and tried to change people’s lives, while Michael… spent money on amusement park rides?  The fervor over Diana’s death didn’t make any sense either, as I said in Scattercast Episode 50, I’m not sure a terrorist attack by Osama Bin Laden would have gotten media coverage during that week in 1997, and that’s how I’m feeling about this insanity swirling around everything involving Michael Jackson.

You don’t think it has spun horribly out of control? Did you know that Anderson Cooper 360 actually went through the trouble to track down Michael Jackson’s pet chimp, Bubbles? Thanks to The Colbert Report, you can see this news handled in the manner it was most deserving of.

When you start hunting down a chimp as ‘news’, you know this story has been beat to within an inch of its life.

Up until the day he died, Michael Jackson was vilified by the media for close to 20 years, but come the day he died, he turned into something close to being a saint in the eyes of the media, and that is just sickening to me.  Not only have you obviously used this man’s death to improve your ratings, but you have betrayed your previous stance on him with your sickeningly saccharine-laced new version of the events of what and who Michael Jackson was.  Shame on the media.  How about you take that energy you spent on finding Bubbles and look in to what happened in Ft. Worth?  What is the latest on the civil unrest in Iran?  How is the world reacting to the seven ballistic missles North Korea fired in to the Sea of Japan today?  No no, that’s okay, please go do a hard hitting interview with Bubbles… really, that’s what we need more of in this world, not real news.

As for the public… well… I won’t say “shame on you” because I don’t know what each person’s individual motivation is for caring about this man so much about him, but it sure doesn’t make any sense to me to get this worked up over a celeberities death.

I must request that no one calls my cell phone any more.

Hear me out folks! When certain people call my phone, this causes my phone to ring (I know, what a revelation), and since I have attached a ringtone to their number, that means that music plays to let me know who it is. Folks, every time you call me, did you know we’re holding a performance? It’s true! People jump up on tables and start dancing… spotlights suddenly appear as if from nowhere and shine down on the make-shift dance floor… it’s sort of like High School Musical, or, at least what I imagine High School Musical is like since I have never watched even a second of any of those movies, but you get the idea.

This is what the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) would have you believe.  According to the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), ASCAP filed a brief (PDF link) against AT&T saying that even though consumers have paid a download royalty, the musicians are owed a second royalty for public performance when the phone ring in public places such as a restaurant.  They are going after AT&T because they make the phones be able to play the ringtones.

As the EFF points out, this is pretty much doomed to failure.  There is a specific section of the Copyright Act (17 U.S.C. 110(4)) that says performance without any fee or compensation is ok.

(4) performance of a nondramatic literary or musical work otherwise than in a transmission to the public, without any purpose of direct or indirect commercial advantage and without payment of any fee or other compensation for the performance to any of its performers, promoters, or organizers, if —

(A) there is no direct or indirect admission charge; or

(B) the proceeds, after deducting the reasonable costs of producing the performance, are used exclusively for educational, religious, or charitable purposes and not for private financial gain, except where the copyright owner has served notice of objection to the performance under the following conditions:

(i) the notice shall be in writing and signed by the copyright owner or such owner’s duly authorized agent; and

(ii) the notice shall be served on the person responsible for the performance at least seven days before the date of the performance, and shall state the reasons for the objection; and

(iii) the notice shall comply, in form, content, and manner of service, with requirements that the Register of Copyrights shall prescribe by regulation;

So, okay, the consumer is protected because they have legally purchased the ringtones, so ASCAP turns to AT&T  because they are selling the ringtones for a profit, so they are ‘charging an admission’ for the ringtone being played.  So basically they are going after the company that sells you the equipment to enjoy this loophole in the copyright law.  The problem with this portion is that it was ruled on years ago in the infamous Sony Betamax ruling that ruled that companies were not liable for how their technologies were used. If they were to be held responsible for those uses, they would have to ask media companies for permission before building new tech, and this would stifle creativity.

Now that it is clear that ASCAP has no legal leg to stand on… does the greed of the music industry know no bounds?  Is there any possible way that they won’t continue to try to bleed money out of the consumer?  If by some miracle they win this case, you know the royalty fee will be passed down to the consumer, so, yes, this does impact you.  Yet again it is just another example of how the music industry treats all of its customers as criminals from day one, and you basically owe them money for even thinking about music.

This story is a couple of days old now, and I actually was going to give it a pass, but as I continued to think about it, the angrier I got.  Just who does ASCAP think they are?  I know of a retailer friend of mine who got visited by ASCAP at least twice over his personal radio he kept behind his counter.  He played music for his own entertainment as he would sort freight, but ASCAP said he owed them a yearly licensing fee because he played the radio at a certain decibel level that qualified it as a public performance.  He offered to turn it down, but he was informed it was too late and he owed them the fees.  Last I heard he had never paid it and continued to refuse to pay them, but they kept trying to get him for it.

Decibel levels?  Really?  Well, here’s a money spinner idea for ASCAP!  Go park an agent outside any given high school when it lets out for the day, and ticket everyone with a car stereo system over a certain level because they are obviously doing a public performance!  Heck, from my days in high school they would have made a fortune!

The music industry continues to wonders why they continue to have such a lousy relationship with consumers.  Well, I’ve got a couple of ideas of how that might have happened, could it possibly be the fact you come after us for every conceivable cent?  Just a thought.

Hopefully this will get tossed quickly, but you never know.

The 2009 Tony Awards were held last night, and it seems that Broadway loves the story of a kid.

Billy Elliot, the musical based on the movie of the same name, was the big winner last night, taking home a whopping 10 statues.  This includes the odd fact that three boys (David Alvarez, Trent Kowalik, and Kiril Kulish) will share the award for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical due to the rotation of the three through the performance.

Major kudos to Angela Lansbury for winning her fifth Tony for her performance in Noel Coward’s Blithe Spirit.

With all of that out of the way, here is the complete list of Tony Awards 2009 Winners.

Best Play: God of Carnage

Best Musical: Billy Elliot

Best Book of a Musical: Billy Elliot

Best Original Score: Next to Normal

Best Revival of a Play: The Norman Conquests

Best Revival of a Musical: Hair

Best Special Theatrical Event: Liza’s at the Palace

Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play: Geoffrey Rush – Exit the King

Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play: Marcia Gay Harden – God of Carnage

Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical: David Alvarez, Trent Kowalik, and Kiril Kulish – Billy Elliot

Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical: Alice Ripley – Next to Normal

Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Play: Roger Robinson – Joe Turner’s Come and Gone

Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Play: Angela Lansbury – Blithe Spirit

Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Musical: Gregory Jbara – Billy Elliot

Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical: Karen Olivo – West Side Story

Best Direction of a Play: Matthew Marchus – God of Carnage

Best Direction of a Musical: Stephen Daldry – Billy Elliot

Best Choreographer: Peter Darling – Billy Elliot

Best Orchestrations: Martin Koch – Billy Elliot

Michael Starobin and Tom Kitt – Next to Normal

Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre: Jerry Herman

I’m not 100% sure who first thought to do this, but I would send them a huge thank you if I could.

Someone got the bright idea to pose a very simple question: Ever wish songs just sang what was happening in the music video?  The concept is simple enough in that you take any music video that has odd, non-sensical moments (i.e. pretty much every music video from the 1980’s and 1990’s), write new lyrics for the song that deals with what you are seeing in the video, and, there you go, you have a literal video.

I believe the first one was by Dusto McNeato for A-Ha’s “Take On Me“, which has since been pulled and replaced by a version showm on a Digg show.  Since then the concept has really taken off, but I think the person producing the highest quality ones is dascottjr.  Check out his latest for Bonnie Tyler’s “Total Eclipse of the Heart”.

You can check out all six literal videos that dascottjr has done so far on this playlist, or be more adventurous and check out every literal video done thus far (be warned, some of them really suck).

It’s a nifty concept that I am sure will be taken too far as happens to everything else on the Web, but it’s a fun diversion for now.

It has been a year since I tackled the subject of the Dancing With The Stars band, and it seems I need to do it again.

Back on April 15th of 2008 I took on the subject of the Dancing With The Stars band, and Harold Wheeler, the band conductor and arranger.   In the year that followed, this has been a rather large hot bed for comments that bring my intelligence into question.  The comments questioning the placement of my head in my rectal area aside, one commenter, Jeff D, made a point that actually got through to me and made me rethink my opinion on this whole matter a bit.

These arrangements are made for a standard “Big Band” format. That fits BALLROOM dancing.

And therein is the problem I believe.  Well, at least most of it.  This show has attempted to take popular songs from many different genres, and they leave it to the band to try to make them fit a format they were never built for.  I still hate the singers, but this one comment (notice the comment didn’t insult my intelligence, amazing how much further that will get someone) really made me rethink my stance on the actual band.  For instance, does anyone think The Clash were ever meant for ballroom dancing?  No, they weren’t.  Yet there was one of their songs a few seasons ago, being tormented to the point of painful, but I now hate it a little less because I finally see what was being done to it.

I still have problems with what seems like random changes in the tempo of songs that even seem to throw the dancers off their step.  And as for the singers… the singers are a whole different matter that just make me cringe.  I’m sure they’re fine for certain styles of singing, but a lot of times they just seem totally ill suited for what they are being asked to sing on the show.

Now, there is one point where I do still have to wonder about the band and Jeff D’s comment (I’m not attacking him, it is just something specific I thought of), and that is when the band tackles songs by the band Big Bad Voodoo Daddy.  Songs by this group seem to be a favorite on this show, popping up at least 3 to 4 times thus far.  For those of you unfamiliar with them, they are a California band deeply entrenched in the 1940’s swing era style of music, and you may have seen them in the movie Swingers some years ago.  You would think a band that plays in swing style wouldn’t need any “corrections”, but yet, there they are when the Dancing With The Stars band plays them.  It’s usually just a slight tempo change, but it is still a change.

Sure the Big Bad Voodoo Daddy issue is a small one, and I’ll forgive it, and I will say the commenter changed my mind a bit.  The producers are the ones who choose the music each week, and perhaps it is time someone, namely Harold Wheeler, sat them down and said, “You really think this song is a good choice for this show?  Sure it’s popular, but it doesn’t even come close to fitting the style we need.”  I doubt this will ever happen, but I can dream of a day where I stop cringing when I hear them twist another of my favorite songs in to some unrecognizable mess that makes me cringe.

As for the singers… my problems with them have nothing to do with the arrangements, but more so that they are being asked to sing songs that they have never attempted that particular style before in their lives.  What better time to try it out than on live TV?

One last note, in my original post I made a comment about my love of the version of the song “Roxanne” from Moulin Rouge.  Many people have argued in the comments that it is a horrible arrangement, but seeing as the original band, The Police, had to sign off on its use, I’m guessing they didn’t think it was so horrible.  In that particular case, yes, the song was significantly changed, but I felt the arrangement fit the context of the song’s subject matter far better.  It is a song about prostitution after all, and the guttural, growling version that plays in the movie makes a whole lot more sense than Sting’s original ascending vocals that have almost a melancholy tone to them. Yes, that is my opinion, as are all posts on this blog, and it is the one I’m sticking to on that particular case.  I’ll give a small victory to the commenters on the overall feelings on the main thrust of the article about the band, but I will never surrender my love of that particular version of that song.

The Susan Boyle phenomenon rolls on, and currently shows no signs of slowing down either.

Sure there have been a lot of Internet sensations, but quite often they are of the mean or mocking nature, so it’s actually nice to see something uplifting like Susan Boyle’s performance on Britain’s Got Talent being the video everyone passes around this week.

I think it is even more amazing that someone who appeared on a nation specific show is popping up everywhere, showing just how global anything placed on the Internet can be.  As she is making the rounds of the USA television shows, she has now appeared on Larry King Live last night in what is one of her lengthiest interviews over on this side of the Atlantic.  She appeared with one of the judges from Britain’s Got Talent, Piers Morgan, and talked about what that performance was like, and what the future holds for her.  As an added treat, in the second video at 2:25 mark, you can hear her sing a snippet of “My Heart Will Go On” from Titanic, sans musical accompaniment, and even impresses Mr. Morgan again with her abilities.

Also last night on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon did a sketch based around her original performance, and while she does not appear in any new footage, it is quite an amusing little take on just how everyone is reacting to her and her talents. (Sorry, but the video is not available outside of the USA)

Make sure to check out SusanBoyleFandom.com for all of the latest Susan Boyle relate news!

Finally we get to hear Susan Boyle, the 47-year-old who wowed the judges and audience on Britain’s Got Talent, sing a second song to prove if her performance was a fluke or not!

As I said yesterday, hearing Ms. Boyle sing a second song was going to be the key to figuring out if it was somehow a fluke when she sang  ”I Dreamed A Dream”.  The good news is, a second song has surfaced and… she’s the real deal folks!

The Daily Record located a 1999 charity CD that had only 1,000 pressings, and on it Ms. Boyle performs “Cry me A River” and… wow, just… wow.  This woman is a true talent, and I am so thrilled to finally hear her sing a second song so we at last know if it was just some weird oddity when she sang on Britain’s Got Talent the other night.

As The Daily Record is claiming exclusivity on the track, these copies may disappear, but I will try to keep an eye on them.  Thanks to The Inquisitr for the idea of posting two different copies right off the bat to try to make sure you can hear this amazingly rare recording.

And, oddly enough, a copy from a Japanese website.

Make sure to check out Susan Boyle Wowing the judges on Britain’s Got Talent and her appearance on The Early Show.

Make sure to check out SusanBoyleFandom.com for all of the latest Susan Boyle relate news!

Susan Boyle, the 47-year-old who wowed the judges and audience on Britain’s Got Talent, has now made her way across the pond to the shores of the United States.

Now that she has taken Britain and the Internet by storm, it’s time for the United States as a whole to get a taste of Ms. Boyle and her amazing singing voice.  When she appeared on The Early Show on CBS this morning (my original repoort was for NBC The Today Show, and I apologize as I was given faulty info from the Orlando Sentinel), we got at least a little bit more of an idea of what the woman is about than “sad sack”-type moments we got in the original video that was set to “ha ha, look at her” music.

Sadly Ms. Boyle sings the same song she did on the original show, but I have a feeling that may be a ploy by the producers of Britain’s Got Talent.  When she’s asked what she will sing in her second performance in the contest, she simply states that you’ll have to tune in and see.  (well, if you’re in the UK you can, those of us in the USA will have to rely on online videos)

Overall it’s a worthwhile video as you get to see a bit of her town, what the locals think of her, find out a bit more about her life, and, of course, hear her sing a bit.  Check it out below, I have no clue if this will play for visitors outside of the USA, sorry if it doesn’t.  Followed by that is an interview with Broadway legend Patti Lupone, who was the original singer of “I Dreamed A Dream”, and her thoughts on Ms. Boyle’s performance.

Make sure to check out SusanBoyleFandom.com for all of the latest Susan Boyle relate news!

Susan Boyle appeared on Britain’s Got Talent this week, and to say she wowed the judge and audience would be an understatement.

Seeing as I live in the United States, I don’t watch Britain’s Got Talent, but, then again, I don’t watch America’s Got Talent either.  I’ve never been big on the “talent” style shows like American Idol, but then tonight a video was making the rounds on Twitter, and considering it seemed to leave everyone speechless, I went ahead and checked it out.

Same as its American counterpart, Britain’s Got Talent consists of common British folk coming on the show to display their talents, whatever they may be. Unlike American Idol they can dance, sing, play instruments, even spin plates if they want, it really is open to all talents. In the early rounds the judges, Simon Cowell, Amanda Holden and Piers Morgan, can say if someone is passing on to the later rounds, or they can stop them there, and even stop the performance by hitting their big X lights.

In this week’s episode, Susan Boyle, who is 47-years-old and hails from West Lothian in Scotland, came on the show. She informed the television audience that she lives alone with her cat Pebbles, and has never even been kissed, let alone had a boyfriend. When she took the stage the audience and judges were snickering alike… and then she sang.

If there ever was a case of “don’t judge a book by its cover”, it is obviously Susan Boyle.  I hate to admit it, but I was snickering along with the audience when she took the stage in her awkward little way.  Shame on me.

I also have to admit it is very rare for me to actually watch a shared video on Twitter, it is even odder for me to watch the whole thing, but I have watched this one a couple times thus far.  Her voice is simply amazing.  If I had the ability to vote in this show, I would be, and I don’t even know if there is someone with more talent performing, but I find that difficult to imagine.

Good luck, Ms. Boyle, but somehow I doubt you’re going to need it if you keep wowing the audience and judges like this.

UPDATE: You can see the Susan Boyle CBS The Early Show interview here.

Update 2: Hear Susan Boyle sing “Cry Me A River”.

Make sure to check out SusanBoyleFandom.com for all of the latest Susan Boyle relate news!

Lars Ulrich, the drummer and founder of Metallica, has admitted to pirating music off of the Internet.

This wouldn’t be worth even mentioning if it was just about any other musician on Earth, but when you were one of the most vocal opponents to Napster, leading to its eventual downfall, it pretty much leads to every blog on Earth calling you a hypocrite.  True, Mr. Ulrich has seemingly changed his stance on music piracy in general as of late, but now that he has publicly admitted to having done the same, you really can’t help shake your head at his idiocy.

The story goes as follows.

“I sat there myself and downloaded [METALLICA's latest CD] ‘Death Magnetic’ [illegally] from the Internet just to try it,” he told Eddie Trunk of VH1 Classic’s series “That Metal Show”. “I was like, ‘Wow, this is how it works.’ I figured if there is anybody that has a right to download ‘Death Magnetic’ for free, it’s me. I sat there one night at my house with about six of my friends and a bottle of wine. And what was it called?! [Trying to think of the name of the file-sharing client he used to download the album] We found it — this was like two or three days after ['Death Magnetic'] leaked. I was like, ‘You know what? I’ve gotta try this.’ So we sat there, and thirty minutes later, I had ‘Death Magnetic’ in my computer. It was kind of bizarre.”

True, it was his own band’s album, but does Metallica own 100% of the rights, or does their record company own a portion?  If the record company owns any of it, then he technically stole.

That aside, what worries me is this comment of  “I was like, ‘Wow, this is how it works.’”  So Lars has been damning something for years now without understanding what exactly it was he was damning?  He destroyed a business without understanding it?

Don’t get me wrong, I am not endorsing piracy, but I find it shocking that someone would be so publicly opposed to something he hadn’t even bothered to research or try themselves.  Yes, yes, I know the same thing could be said about my opposition to beastiality, but there is a difference between having sex with an animal and taking 5 minutes to learn how a technology works that you are going to launch a one-man crusade against.

The thing is, the more Lars tries to backpeddle his way out of this whole debacle, he just keeps making it worse.  He’s gone from being anti-piracy, to being somewhat okay with it just a few days before an album’s release to doing it himself.  Where does the insanity end?  Is he going to start leaking albums to the piracy sites himself now?

Perhaps it is time for Mr. Ulrich to just finally drop the subject altogether as each time he attempts to address it again, he just comes off worse.

There are some things in this world that are inexcusable, and the beating of singer Rihanna by her boyfriend/singer Chris Brown is one of those.

While I have actually avoided this subject on purpose up until now, now that TMZ has released the first image of the beating Rihanna took at the hands of Christ Brown, I can not even fathom how anyone could defend something like this.  For those who missed it, it is reported tha Rihanna, 20-years-old at the time, got in an argument with her boyfriend, 19-year-old singer Chris Brown.  After that details get sketchy except that when the police arrived, Rihanna was sitting in Chris’ car in the passanger seat, and Chris Brown was gone.

She had been beaten, that much is definite, and Chris Brown had fled the scene.  After that there have been rumors of Rihanna having given Brown herpes, which died a quick rumor death.  There have been others saying that Brown got a text from Paris Hilton and that set her off, and on and on and on.  Who knows when, if ever, we will learn the true story, but does it really matter?

I got involved in some comments over on The Inquisitr where I said:

Unless Rihanna pulled a weapon on Brown there is NO excuse to hit a woman… EVER. I don’t care if she smacked him, I don’t care if she called him every name in the book, there is zero reason to hit a woman.

To say I have been shocked by the responses I have received would be to put it mildly.  You can go check them out for yourself, but essentially I have been given an endless list of reasons why hitting a woman is okay, and how some women deserve it.  I want every single person to look at the picture with this post, and then tell me this is okay.  I don’t care if it’s a man or a woman, this type of bahavior is never okay… ever.

I have come close to punching a woman exactly once in my life, but notice I said “close”.  Her gender was the first thing that stopped me, but the second thing was that I also realized that violence was not the answer to situation, and it never should be.  I really don’t care what Riahanna supposedly said to Chris Brown, I don’t even care if she did give him herpes, the thing to would have been:

1. Pull over
2. Tell her to get out and/or discuss it

No where in there should there have been hitting involved.  He also did himself no favors by fleeing the scene, that doesn’t exactly help his case, and it certainly doesn’t make him look innocent.

Again, I am not one for celeberity gossip in general, but this has nothing to do with gossip.  This image is a cold hard truth that a young person was beaten by someone they have been dating, and there is never an excuse for such an action, nor should there be.

Muzak, the company that has punished elevator users for over 75 years with their hideous “music” renditions, has filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

According to Bloomberg.com, Muzak filed for bankruptcy this week with credit problems of $465.3 million, but listed assets of only $324.2 million.  The problem is that the company pushed a lot of their debt to mature in the early part of 2009 seeing as they were relying on a merger or sale of the company to help them control the debt.  Now that neither has happened, the company was left with only the option of filing for chapter 11 reorganization.

According to TheStreet.com, this is a list of how some of their debt breaks down.

• U.S. Bank NA – $371 million
• Universal Music Enterprises – $349,321
• EMI Capital Records – $320,323
• AT&T – $257,384
• Dish Network – $251,276
• The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers – $213,020
• Companies without amounts listed include Sony Music, BMG Film & Television Music, United Parcel Service and Virgin Records

How in the world do they owe U.S. Bank $371 million?  What were they taking out loans for that would amount to anything close to that?  The music companies aren’t surprising since they have to pay out royalties for all of the music they play, but in general this is a company that sends out music and nothing else.  I know in the old days they were sent out by tape, but I would imagine in this day and age they transmit their products by satellite to the elevators.  What is even more frightening is that their list of secured creditors has yet to be released, so this is possibly only the tip of the iceberg.

While there are so many saddening stories right now of companies cutting jobs or going out of business, this is one that just leaves my head spinning.  How could a company with such a simple concept be so badly mismanaged?  And how could a bank, one I happen to have accounts with, allow a company to have $371 million dollars in unsecured loans?  What was that money going to?

I feel sorry for the companies owed money… okay, not really, my feelings towards the music industry machine aren’t really a secret, but I do feel sorry for the artists.  Hopefully they will be able to get the debt problem settled, and get the money out to those they owe.  If not, think of how much more pleasant a ride in the elevator will be next time when there isn’t some overly jazzed up version of The Beatles “Hey Jude” playing in the background.