E. Michael Harrington

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WEDNESDAY WAS ANOTHER WARM AND BEAUTIFUL DAY IN NEW YORK and my third day in a row wearing shorts. Today is December 1 and the high is predicted to be only 48 but I need to wear shorts again just so that I will have been in shorts in New York City in every month from August - December 2005. I used to swim, or jump in a reservoir ("breaking the law breaking the law"), lake or ocean every January 1. We would break through the ice if necessary. Wearing shorts in forty eight degree weather will lead me back to jumping in cold water on January 1 and back to child-teenage hood.

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I TAUGHT A GRADUATE MUSIC TECHNOLOGY class last night in New Jersey. The students and the professor were really great and I got to rant about the problems of the foolish DMCA, the North Korean style Consumer Broadband and Digital Television Promotion Act which is still dead but still the dream of the music and entertainment industries, the Fairness in Music Licensing Act, and say a few good things about the Audio Home Recording Act, the Digital Performance Right in Sound Recordings Act, and the work of the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Public Knowledge.

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I came home from New Jersey. I had gone there via NJ Transit train to Upper Montclair, a beautiful town that looks like Newton, Massachusetts, and then went to campus. Afterwards, I did not take the NJ Transit home but got a ride to Manhattan. (Sitting in traveling cars is really an odd experience when one only walks and subways places.)

The following numbers will tell what next happened. A native New Yorker or one who knows what's what here will be able to answer the riddle of these numbers, I expect:

175
168
163
155
145
135
125
59
7
47-50

Figure it out? I took the A train at 175th and it stopped at the next stops. At 125th, I changed trains. I went across the platform to the D train, an express that then goes from 125th to 59th, probably the longest uninterrupted subway excursion in New York. After 59th comes the 7th Ave. stop (the BDE - BDE would normally mean "5 flat 7 8" in the key of E to me, but it is also the confluence of those three trains at 53rd and 7th) to 47-50 stop, also known as Rockefeller Center.

I just love number series that have some symmetry but then get silly and incongruous. Why would 125 lead to 59 to 7 to 47-50, and without changing direction? Fascinating. It makes me smile.

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TOMORROW - the day begins in Suite 6308 of the Empire State Building, followed by another trip to New Jersey, and then to the Bluenote to hear Arturo Sandoval.

I would like to comment on the oral arguments before the U. S. Supreme Court in Ayotte v. Planned Parenthood that took place today. Maybe later.

I also would like to comment on Japan's decision to not have an iPod tax. Maybe later.

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Tomorrow, ANYONE READING THIS WHO IS IN THE TRISTATE AREA (NY, NJ, CT) should go hear a great band with an even greater sense of humor - Milwaukee's finest -

BEATALLICA

BEATALLICA will be playing at the Knitting Factory on Friday night at 9:00 PM. Beatallica and I met on the telephone in March 2005 and were able to hang out at the Harvard University Law School in Cambridge in April. Beatallica quite unintentionally got into a little copyright trouble with Sony. Yes, that Sony. The Sony BMG Rootkit Trojan horse HIV sexually transmitted disease distributors. (If you don't own a Macintosh, what are you waiting for? We Mac users did not get HIV from Sony BMG.) As George Walker Bush called Sony BMG - THOSE EVIL DOERS.

Please read more about Beatallica, especially the FAQ and News at www.beatallica.com. Notice their Creative Commons license, much like this website.

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A GREAT QUOTE THE GUY NEXT TO ME SAID

"Lance is Russian for Bubba." LOL

That is almost as good as, "Gillooley is Greek for Buttafuco."

Remember Tonya Harding's ex-husband, Jeff Gillooley? He is now Jeff Stone. Why is such waste in my head? There is one thing more wasteful and it is -----

55 hours

55 hours?

55 hours is the number of hours Britney Spears' first marriage lasted. Shame on my brain cells. Go away and come back when you have something useful to retain.

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EVILS FROM RELIGION

"How many evils have flowed from religion?" - Lucretius, 60 BC

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Posted by EMH at 11:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (0)

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I FLY MANY TIMES PER YEAR, nationally and internationally, and know that I will be able to keep sacrificing carrying knives, cigarette lighters and sharp tools that are 7 inches or shorter. I don't need fingernail files, screwdrivers, hammers, box cutters or other sharp objects. The plane will ascend, cruise and descend without these objects and I feel much better knowing that my fellow passengers are similarly UNARMED. I am very happy to walk through metal detectors, have my computer x-rayed, take off my shoes, and almost anything else to assure my safety. I happily fork over ALL OF MY CIVIL LIBERTIES to get on an airliner.

I have not carried anything dangerous on a plane since 1988 when my friend and I each carried several cans of highly explosive sterno onboard a Southwest Airlines flight from Nashville to Los Angeles.

Why the terrorist act?

We were flying to Los Angeles one way so that we could bicycle from Los Angeles back to Nashville. We expected to frequently camp out and cook during our 2,500 mile bicycle ride. The sterno was for our little stove so that we could cook. We were not then and are still not terrorists. We wanted the plane to fly safely and never realized that carrying cans of sterno on a plane was dangerous. Nor did Southwest or any other airline. Ah, the 80's! Naive is how I usually go through life.

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BUT TIMES HAVE CHANGED. WE KNOW that carrying explosive fluids on a jet airplane is a bad idea and society and the FAA would never allow this. But we also know that it does not take explosive campfire fuel to bring down a plane. A few guys with box cutters can do it. The same goes for screwdrivers or hammers or steak knives. Maybe even butter knives or spatulas in the right demented FUNDAMENTALIST hands. "God is great - we must kill the infidels - may my whisk and 7 inch screwdriver ensure God reward me with 76 virgins in the afterlife." You know how these religious "it's my way or the highway (to heaven and 76 virgins)" fundamentalists are.

CHANGING THE RULES TO ALLOW POTENTIAL WEAPONS back on planes is such a damn stupid idea. It is the most foolish idea I have heard in a while. It rank up there with those suggestions that attacking Iraq would only cost $1 or $2 billion, we would be welcomed as liberators, we would find lots of WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION, and we were avenging Saddam Hussein for his link to 9/11.

How do people who come up with ideas like this - let's re-arm passengers with 7 inch screwdrivers and other sharpened metal objects - even have jobs, let alone federal jobs with excelllent health benefits, unlike milions of the rest of the U. S. populaltion? Damn Morons!

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TIME FOR BOB DYLAN

THIS BRINGING WEAPONS BACK ON PLANES change in policy HAS ANGERED ME, obviously. How idiotic is my government? I think quoting Bob Dylan on the subject of idiocy would be appropriate.

In the words of Bob Dylan, from "Idiot Wind":

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Idiot wind, blowing like a circle around my skull,
From the Grand Coulee Dam to the Capitol.
Idiot wind, blowing every time you move your teeth,
You're an idiot, babe.
It's a wonder that you still know how to breathe.

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Posted by EMH at 12:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (5) | TrackBacks (0)

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I HAVE MENTIONED BEFORE THAT I DO NOT TRUST THE BIG FOUR music record labels/corporations. Sony BMG has been caught and fined for their illegal pay-for-play radio business model. Sony BMG then got into much more trouble with their use of spyware via Rootkit as they infected MILLIONS of computers worldwide by their incorporation of software in 52 of their recently released CD's.

Throughout all of this, I tried to make it clear that Sony BMG are not the only BAD ACTORS here, and that the others are crooked and with sin.

So, I am sorry that I am just getting around to heralding the latest edition of New York Attorney General Elliott Spitzer's fine work on behalf of American citizens. SPITZER WILL NAIL THEM ALL. His second in the line of crooked corporations is...................... (the envelope please - it can be one of the remaining three.)

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THE WINNER OF THE SHADY, FILTHY MOST RECENT CRIMINAL CORPORATION IS (trumpet, please - synthetic or real trumpets - it does not matter as it is only music and not something of value) the American owned corporation. That's right. The next BAD ACTOR is......

WARNER MUSIC

To repeat a few times

WARNER MUSIC WARNER MUSIC WARNER MUSIC WARNER MUSIC WARNER MUSIC WARNER MUSIC WARNER MUSIC WARNER MUSIC WARNER MUSIC WARNER MUSIC WARNER MUSIC WARNER MUSIC WARNER MUSIC WARNER MUSIC WARNER MUSIC WARNER MUSIC WARNER MUSIC WARNER MUSIC WARNER MUSIC WARNER MUSIC WARNER MUSIC WARNER MUSIC WARNER MUSIC WARNER MUSIC

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Here's some of the NY Times article about WARNER MUSIC from this site:

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/23/business/media/23payola.html?adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1133013989-ihxjkZZhoXKnXVzv+nlqBg

The $5 million settlement with the Warner Music Group, the nation's third-biggest record company, was the latest in Mr. Spitzer's widening investigation, which has exposed payments to radio programmers in exchange for playing music and routine manipulation of playlist information.
In July, Sony BMG Music Entertainment reached an agreement with Mr. Spitzer. The two record companies that have not settled - the Universal Music Group, a unit of Vivendi Universal, and the EMI Group - remain under investigation, as do many big radio chains, according to people involved in the inquiry.

Warner acknowledged yesterday that certain employees had pursued radio promotion practices that were "wrong or improper," and apologized. In a separate statement, the company added that "we consider this to have been a valuable process."

"From our perspective, radio cannot be too consumer-driven. The music that people hear on the radio always should represent the highest quality the industry has to offer."

Mr. Spitzer said that Warner executives had obtained play time for songs through "deceptive and illegal" practices, including making payoffs in the form of personal electronics and tickets to the Grammy Awards, the World Series and the Super Bowl.

The $5 million settlement with the Warner Music Group, the nation's third-biggest record company, was the latest in Mr. Spitzer's widening investigation, which has exposed payments to radio programmers in exchange for playing music and routine manipulation of playlist information.
In July, Sony BMG Music Entertainment reached an agreement with Mr. Spitzer. The two record companies that have not settled - the Universal Music Group, a unit of Vivendi Universal, and the EMI Group - remain under investigation, as do many big radio chains, according to people involved in the inquiry.

Warner acknowledged yesterday that certain employees had pursued radio promotion practices that were "wrong or improper," and apologized. In a separate statement, the company added that "we consider this to have been a valuable process."

"From our perspective, radio cannot be too consumer-driven. The music that people hear on the radio always should represent the highest quality the industry has to offer."

Mr. Spitzer said that Warner executives had obtained play time for songs through "deceptive and illegal" practices, including making payoffs in the form of personal electronics and tickets to the Grammy Awards, the World Series and the Super Bowl.

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ON TO OTHER SUBJECTS

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Tonight I re-met one of the most interesting, versatile, original and charismatic New Yorkers yet -

Noel

Noel is from Crown Heights, Brooklyn, and speaks fantastic and creative English, Portuguese, Spanish and street English. Street English as in gang stuff. Many of us may have heard it but he is the real thing with respect to that and the other languages. Among all of the things he does, he also is playing the role of strict disciplinarian pseudo father to his nephew. His nephew is 13 years old. 13 year old males are perfect storms of trouble and potentially life ending stuff and his nephew seems to be no exception. Whatever Noel was, he is now "old school," old school as in the old school, when it comes to being the only real parent. Old school seems necessary and seems to have a great chance of working well especially when many other things have not worked and the REAL PARENTS are not around. When it comes to parenting, real parents can get into much more trouble than substitute parents can.

NOEL AND I TALKED THAT STUFF as well as the more pressing and immediate stuff - female human beings. He's excellent at that too, and we had a lot of fun as we complement each other really well. BIOLOGY WAS RAMPANT all around us and male animals were out to woo female animals. That's certainly another great subject but one that would take too long.

We've seen each other before, like each other, and look forward to seeing each other again. He is rare - someone of great originality, guts, integrity, originality, kindness, humor, street and toughness. And more brains and humor than the great majority of people.

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TIME FOR NEGATIVITY

CONSCIENCE

"Conscience is the inner voice that warns us that someone may be looking." - H. L. Mencken, 1949

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Posted by EMH at 09:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

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I FLEW FROM LOGAN TO LAGUARIDA this morning. It was a great American Eagle flight - how can a takeoff over Boston's 34 islands not be great? There was a strange warning before we began, a "go to the bathroom while you can" notice as the plane's lavatory was not in working order. But if you are in Gates 22-29 at Logan, you have to leave the gates and go through security again if you want to use a restroom, sort of a double whammy for those who are not used to this corner of Logan. In that sense, that old part of Logan resembles Kansas City where the waiting areas at the gates are slightly larger than my cramped NYC apartment.

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THE UZBEKISTANI LIMO DRIVER who picked me up at LaGuardia and took me to West 51st, laughed when he heard I spend half of the year in Tennessee.

He said,

"TEN-SEE. Tornadoes. How can anyone live there? They're all tornadoes."

He has a good point, and because of his slightly mangled English, he's uttered something profound, if possibly a bit insulting to some sensitive people. LOL Actually, a TEN-SEE tornado took the rook off a house five doors down from me about one year ago. If anyone reading this knows my mom, you'll know she does not have or want a computer, so she has not read that statement about the tornado. PLEASE DON'T TELL her, she worries enough as it is! LOL

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I'M LIVING LIFE RIGHT. I'm back in my beloved New York City so I had to do all that is good - first, I had not had lunch so I went to the corner of 50th & 7th and had a $1.50 sausage. The guy there really wants the hot dog, sausage, knish or pretzel to be done just right and he ever so carefully can get everything on the sausage and bun so that it does not run to the napkin, no matter how one bites it (I better not re-read this sentence).

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NEXT - take the 1 train to Lincoln Center, walk around Lincoln Center, go to Tower, and then the sublime - go to Central Park to see everything - the Sheep Meadow, Cherry Hill, The Bow Bridge, The Ramble, the Boathouse, the Russian bartender (there's a Russian theme to this day) as she is very nice to me, the lake, through the southern part of the Park to gaze at the new Hearst Corporation Building, and the new CNN light display, to 59th & 7th and then back home.

On the way to the Bow Bridge, a guy was driving around in a little golf cart type thing collecting the trash. He drove off from one barrel and it tipped over falling to the ground. I rushed over to pick it up, while still holding the phone and chirping away, saving him the back tracking. He was so impressed that someone could be so polite. We smiled and I felt good that I could contribute to keeping the world's best designed park clean and beautiful.

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I jaywalked on 57th, a very busy two-way street, and got caught - a very nice policewoman said, "you shouldn't do that." I apologized and smiled and said I wouldn't do it again. At least I wouldn't do it in front of her. It was getting dark and I did not see her. I am extremely respectful of police, especially pretty policewomen (there is an abundance of them here). (John Lennon - "pretty little policemen in a row. See how they fly like Lucy in the sky see how they run....") I hate getting caught when I am law breaking.

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And next was Brazil Grill where Juliana, who might be the most beautiful woman in NY, only in terms of personality, charm, sweetness, brains, humor and physical appearance - that's all she's got going for her - was working. We were very happy to see each other as it had been awhile longer than we'd like, so we got to catch up. Later she told me that she is sad because she does not have a boyfriend. Her real job is in the fashion industry, and 80% of the males are gay and the other 20% married, she told me. I'm in the third half (to Yogi Berra-ize the math) - non-fashion oriented, straight, and not married.

Juliana was thrilled that I had done the Brazilian thing while in Boston, bought cachaca, made caiparinhas, and had fried chicken. She gave me a couple of trade secrets on limes in caiparinhas. I'm psyched about trying these out!

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While at Brazil Grill, I met ELENA, the lovely Russian businesswoman/owner of http://developall.com/. (Not many of my sentences have that many "/".) There is a lot to say about her. Perhaps it should wait. We unexpectedly spent a lot of time together.

Her English is perfect, as she learned British English growing up in Russia, loves English metal bands, likes punk, hates rap, hates Bill Gates (thank God - she's an open sourcer - YEA!!! - we reallly got into a great copyright, trade secret, patent discussion), doesn't care for the French (we argued about that one as I am a Quebecois wannabe), is a proud Orthodox Christian with her own variations on that (this lead to arguing about Catholic and Orthodox, yet was fun and not mean spriited), voted for George Bush because she thought he was better for small business (this lead to arguing - again it was not mean spirited), and is leading the life all of the women in her family wish they could live - independent, not married, not a mother, and well off. She and I are both only children. As I wrote earlier, I could go on and on about her. She just closed a business deal with Nick, for which I was somewhat involved. That's why she was at Brazil Grill. She lives in Hell's Kitchen at 47th & 9th. We will be in touch.

ELENA is 43 and beautiful. A friend called and came to see me. She also is 43 and beautiful - I love that kind of symmetry - one 43 year old beautful women replaced the other about one minute after the first had left.

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CLOSING NEGATIVE thought

"You can't expect a boy to be depraved until he has been to a good school." - H. H. Munro, 1910

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Posted by EMH at 06:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

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ROOM

ROOM USED TO MEAN space that may or may not be filled, or an area within a building, or the scope or possibility for something to exist. Room is also a part of "room service," "room and board," and a line in many songs. Here a few uses of the word, ROOM:

"Alone in this empty room" - Neil Young

"Now it's dark and I'm alone but I won't be afraid In my room" - Beach Boys

"Trailer for sale or rent rooms to let 50 cents" - Roger Miller

"There's no room in my heart for the blues" - Hank Williams

"It never fails to take me back to the room where you made things so right" - Conway Twitty

"From the moment I walked in saw your lonely face across the room" - Conway Twitty

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The New Age use of room - the use of room designed to make many of Oprah Winfrey's female fans swoon:

"The greatest thief in the high Sahara enters the room where a sleeping princess lies" - Sting

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The "scope of possibility or something to exist" definition of room is best represented by the Dixie Chicks:

"She needs wide open spaces, room to make a big mistake" - Dixie Chicks

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The meretricious, sexually inclined uses of room include these:

"Black snake crawling in my room" - Blind Lemon Jefferson

"He came to a room and he looked inside. Father, Yes son, I want to kill you. Mother, I want to......" - The Doors

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Now room can mean, "will you be adding milk or cream to your coffee?" i.e., do you need ROOM for cream, milk, soy milk, lowfat milk or lowfat soy milk? Everyday I notice that ROOM is used in one of the following ways:

Do you need room for cream or milk?

which is often shortened to

Do you need room for cream?

which is often shortened to

Do you need room?

and even

Room?

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I drink my coffee black due to the days of relative poverty during college. I might not have had the money to have milk or the lifestyle to have fresh milk, and not expired sour milk, in my refrigerator. I got used to black coffee due to necessity as often there was no milk available. This habit has continued and has now been enhanced as I love strong tasting black coffee.

There are three serious problems with adding milk or cream to coffee. They are VERY SERIOUS problems and they are listed below:

1. The milk or cream will only dilute the strong taste.

2. The milk or cream will lower the temperature of the coffee.

3. The milk or cream will also edge out the caffeine, and that is a real crime as caffeine is one of my favorite legal drugs and cream has no right displacing drugs.

Legal drugs? I only do legal drugs.

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So I now tell the very nice Starbucks partners (they are not employees), "venti dark roast with NO ROOM," or "venti dark roast, no room," or "venti dark roast and I don't need room for cream," or "venti dark roast and I don't need room." Sometimes I slip up and say the now antiquated, "Black," but I think they might think I am referring to an African American in a politically incorrect manner. Some have looked at me confused so I try to get it right and tell them, "venti dark roast without room."

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How damn complicated. We as a society are usually getting into brevity and sound bites except at Starbucks and in this ROOM vernacular. What a mess.

I would like to see Starbucks partners taught that some very old people (born pre-1975) might talk like the old people they are, and that they might say, "BLACK," when they mean, "NO ROOM." It does not hurt to know that a long time ago in another space time and on another space planet, "black" or "black coffee" once meant NO ROOM.

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I HAD ONE REALLY BAD MORNING at a drive through car wash. It was as surreal as anything I ever experienced. I sharply cut my middle finger when I fell inside the car wash. I also hurt my back, arm, neck, side and hand. Fortunately the car and my computer are fine. My pain is getting worse.

Walking around in one of those car washes is something one should not do, especially with the strong fans that blow one's car dry. The fans did not make me fall - the surfaces on the grate were very slick and I slipped on the gates or the concrete.

What was I doing walking around inside a car wash? That part would take too long - even hours later it does not make sense and is not quite believable. This has been my most injury prone last few weeks.

If these things come in threes, I am worried! LOL

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PURITANISM

PURITANISM - the haunting fear that someone somewhere may be having fun.

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Posted by EMH at 07:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

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I like ANNIVERSARIES. There are many on November 26. Here are some dragged up from the depths of my computer:

GOOD NEWS IN 2002

ON THIS DAY IN 2002, the California Supreme Court threw out a lawsuit filed by the DVD Copy Control Association, which had accused Texas resident Matthew Pavlovich of publishing trade secrets. Pavlovich allegedly posted a program on his Web site that enabled users to bypass copy protections and copyright safeguards on DVD's.

The court found that in order for a California business to sue an out-of-state person or entity in state court, it must prove that the person or entity "expressly aimed" harm at the California company.

BAD NEWS in 2002

ON THIS DAY IN 2002, the United States Naval Academy seized 100 computers from students suspected of downloading music files. The punishments were said to include expulsion and court-martial. While on the subject, why not include Dick Cheney style sanctioned torture? Or be like our oilmen (not oil people or oil women) in the Middle East, Saudi Arabia with their often barbaric types of punishment? They are proudly non-Democratic, and their women cannot vote or even drive cars (not due to oil shortage). And the Royal Family are best friends with the Bush Family. Birds of a feather.....

Of all of the crime rings in the U. S., these crimes committed by Naval Academy students are the ones that least concern me, especially as this was in the wake of 9/11 and future military leaders were viewed as more helpful to our national security than not.

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Indifferent News in 2003

ON THIS DAY IN 2003, the Backstreet Boys sued Zomba for $100 million, "saying the record label effectively barred the group from recording a new album because of a preoccupation with a now-completed merger with German media giant Bertelsmann AG."

The B-Boys were seeking $75 million for trademark violation, $5 million for a lost advance and at least $20 million in punitive damages.

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GOOD NEWS IN 2003

ALSO ON THIS DAY IN 2003, there was some good news as Diebold, the manufacturer of very flawed voting machines, announced it was withdrawing more than a dozen legal threats against ISP's that had hosted users who published links to to coroporate documents suggesting that there were flaws in Diebold equipment and irregularities with respect to voting results. Diebold is an example of a shady company operating in a shady fashion that also will use brute force against the First Amendment as it may please Diebold.

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GOOD NEWS IN 2004 because children were taught to sing SCANDALOUS LYRICS and should reap the reward of singing SCANDALOUS LYRICS.

Here is the opening excerpt from the Reuters story:

"A group of former London schoolchildren who sang on Pink Floyd's 1979 classic, 'Another Brick In The Wall' have lodged a claim for unpaid royalties.

Twenty three teenage pupils from Islington Green School secretly recorded vocals for the track, which became an anthem for children with the chorus 'We don't need no education.'

On hearing the song, the headmistress banned the pupils from appearing on television or video - leaving them no evidence and making it harder for them to claim royalties - and the local school authority described the lyrics as 'scandalous.'

The album sold over 12 million copies and the single became number one in Britain and America.

Royalties expert Peter Rowan told Reuters he was appealing to a music royalties society on behalf of one former pupil and was working with other members of the class. He said he was still trying to contact the majority of the group.

'They are owed their money and we lodged the first claim last week,' Rowan told Reuters. 'I've been working on it for almost two years.'

Music teacher Alun Renshaw took the schoolchildren to a nearby recording studio without the permission of the headmistress after being approached by the band's management.

The lyrics 'We don't need no education, we don't need no thought control, no dark sarcasm in the classroom - teachers leave them kids alone' were described by the Inner London Education Authority as scandalous.

The school was paid 1,000 pounds ($1,860) and later given a platinum record of the song but the pupils were paid nothing.

Rowan said the money would come from a music royalties society and not Pink Floyd. He expected the 23 pupils to receive about 200 pounds each.

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LYRICS quiz:

"Started my life in an old cold run down tenement slum, tenement slum" is from _____________

"I tell the truth 'cept when I lie..." is from ________________________

"I've been too busy drinking she's been too busy thinking about the kind of love she needs and the man she never sees..." is from ___________________

"Practice where the news is read, television children fed, unborn living living dead, bullet strikes the helmet's head...." Is from _________________

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I WANT TO BUY SOME LAND IN THE COUNTRY. I heard a great interview with the head of Progressive Farmer. The organization seems very helpful to those who would live in the country. When I live in the country, I'll develop my farming and growing skills as I intend to raise mint for mojitos, limes for mojitos and caiparinhas, oregano and tomatoes to join forces in all foods, and dark black silicon chips for my digital media devices. I won't be buying my country land anytime soon however as I've got a few other things to do first, like experiment by raising dark silicon chips in Manhattan next month before I try raising silicon in better and more arable country farm land.

http://www.progressivefarmer.com/farmer/

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I GOT TO EXPERIENCE SOME BRAZILIAN LIFE IN FRAMINGHAM last night. I wish I could speak Portuguese, I wish the music was not as loud and of better sound quality (Satan himself set up the large speakers and did so to excessively distort the good music and harm humans), and I wish I wasn't so fearful of dancing - I like to see dance, I'm very good at rhythm, I find almost nothing to be in the Puritanical sense of bad taste when it comes to dancing but I just won't and can't dance.

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CONSERVATIVE

"A conservative is someone who believes that nothing should ever be done for the first time."

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Posted by EMH at 12:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

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BIG IMPORTANT UPDATE as history is made late this afternoon (just now). I just bought a bottle of Cachaca da Roca from Brasil, my first bottle of cachaca, an historic day for me. Oh my. I now have the potential to make my own caiparinhas but staying in one of North America's most Brazilian spots, Framingham, I might just keep looking at my Cachaca instead and visit Ipanema, about 1/2 mile from here to see how these real Brazilians make them.

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This came after an hour in Callahan State Park, a haven for dogs of all sizes. I saw a woman who had 12 dogs, all different - two were pint sized, a few large and the rest medium. Another woman had what looked like two small grey deer. In fact, they were BA Irish wolfhounds and thought I was pretty cool. I was lapped by a lot of dogs this afternoon but none wetter than those two behemoths.

The park is still white with snow. The little ponds have not yet frozen but will before the end of next month.

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GEORGE BUSH HAIKU

"There's an old saying
In Tennessee I know it's
in Texas, prob'ly

In Tennessee that
Says fool me once shame on.... shame
On you, fool me.... you

Can't get fooled again"
These three haiku are unlike
Anything I've done

The first thirty-one
Words of these haiku are from
President George Bush

George Bush spoke these words
No one else could have done this
In the way he did

As one who often
Criticizes George Bush I
Must give him credit

I do not have his
Skills as a thinker. He is
An original

I have my moments
Of originality
But they're not like his

He's Maine and Texas
And old money shaken up
And educated

I'm not Maine, Texas
Ivy League educated
And not elected

I don't struggle as
Much with English as he does
But he speaks Spanish

His Spanish is much
Better than his English. Could
That be due to Yale?

Yale is his southern
Most alma mater. Maybe
Yale's more Mexican?

He must have been a
Dignified arts and letters
Ivy League scholar

His library times
Paid off in foreign language
But hurt his English

Perhaps he wanted
His work SUB-LIM-IN-A-BLE
And more than just good

Despite shortcomings
He will speak like no other
His language differs

From ev-ry other
English speaker and thinker
There's only that Bush

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THANKSGIVING WAS EXCELLENT - great food and friends.

I drove down Route 9, New England's second busiest commercial area, this morning. It seems that this is the last day on Earth and one must shop in these final moments. I just want to get a few good pieces of clothing, as opposed to Boston and Cambridge shirts, so I headed out to one store. The clothes are too fancy for me and I need female help. I don't need female help with t-shirts and sweatshirts, but do with those other things. So I'm off to get my friend and do a surgical strike at one store. 20 minutes is my shopping limit on a good day.

This might get continued later.

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Now this is continued.

I bought two camel hair sport jackets and one corduroy sports jacket at Joseph A. Bank. One, or maybe two of them, has/have three buttons and the other(s) has/have two buttons. I don't know why and don't remember any more details. Thank God I did not have to go to a mall to get the clothes as that would have been torturous.

This trip was fast - even the tailor did his measuring of me fast. Yea. Fast. No more clothes shopping for a long time. I'm not turning Metrosexual anytime soon either. Instead I'll keep exploring the SEXUALITY of a hetero and not the SEXUALITY of a METRO.

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TWO VERY SPECIAL FEMALES WERE BORN ON THIS DAY 24 years ago - the Bush twins, Their names are, "What Would JENNA drink (WWJD), and Barbara. Before Jenna turned 21, she was arrested a few times (few = more than once, less than thrice?) for under age drinking. Now with the good news for England that many pubs will be able to stay open far past 11 PM and even 24 hours, the twins might be due a nice vacation across the pond.

I woke up this morning with dumb George Bush quotes in my head. It led to the haiku above. Hopefully the day will become a bit less wasteful later!

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William Swanberg, of Washington County, Oregon stole more than $100,000.00 of Legos, especially Star Wars Legos by way of stealing bar codes. He would then resell them on eBay. He's now caught. Maybe he'll be able to make Legos in jail, or make prison art and sell it.

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JOSH BECKETT WILL JOIN THE RED SOX. It became official last night. Happy Thanksgiving to us.

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Posted by EMH at 11:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

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I USUALLY START MY DAYS IN FRAMINGHAM, THE BEST AND MOST DIVERSE OF THE WESTERN BOSTON SUBURBS, IN THE LEAST EAST (aka western most) of the Route 9 Starbucks. Yesterday was typical as I went to the Route 9 and Prospect Street Starbucks. I had a book with me. Part of its title read, "Freedom of Expression."

Coming to the same Starbucks a lot one gets to know faces. Even if one wanted to hide one is seen and gets known. So, there is this one guy who always scribbles like mad on a large yellow pad (I think it might be a steno pad but I don't know enough to call it a steno pad). He and I have chatted before and he knows of my work in copyright and intellectual property. He was looking at the book's cover and I asked if he liked the title, Freedom of Expression, and he replied, F____ you. I said, What? and he replied F_____ you. I caught on and started laughing as I understood his freedom to express F____ you.

He then said, ""How many New York taxi drivers does it take to change a light bulb?" He answered, "F____ you."

This is one very funny guy. I found out that he is a retired math professor, and one very brilliant character. He has a Boston accent and is one funny salty dog. This type of humor between guys who don't even know each other's name is something I value about Boston. It might be too crass for some but it certainly embodies freedom of expression, fast thinking and lack of fear.

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THIS MORNING I HAD A GREAT CONVERSATION WITH a beautiful retired Delta flight attendant who is into Bikram yoga and suggested that I would love it. I might try this. She does her bikram yoga in a very hot room. She told me that there are 26 or so set positions or postures or exercises or whatever that noun was. Sweating a lot used to be one of my favorite pastimes. Maybe I should spend $15 to sweat with strangers in a hot room on Route 9 and do bikram yoga. I won't be doing it today though.

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LAST NIGHT I had an amazing Indian dinner prepared by a friend. The first course consisted of shrimp, scallops and fruit. The second consisted of warm (or was it hot?) spinach salad with pine nuts, fantastic dressing and more. The third course was lamb and saffron rice and more. She had freshly ground all of the spices - black pepper, cloves, cumin, coriander and more - for all of the meal. (I keep using the phrase, "and more," due to my incomplete memory and not for effect.) Finally we had chocolate fondue with strawberries, pound cake, mango, and port. I was really fortunate and wondered what I did to deserve such an evening.

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All of that food followed by the National Day of Food - Thanksgiving. This is my favorite holiday because there is great food everywhere, concern for the poor who also get to eat well today, and one gets to see friends today if one is lucky. If one is unlucky, one gets stuck with people who are related through marriage…. There is a word for that. Oh yeah. FAMILY. Family is often the byproduct of marriage stemming from not enough thought. Many have FAMILY obligations today. My family obligation is a joy and not an obligation - it consists of seeing my mom, something I do whenever I can. I like friends more than family because we are there for each other due to choice and not obligation or poorly conceived partnership or marriage.

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But the best thing about Thanksgiving is that it is nonexclusive. There is no religious rift on this one day - the shades of religious difference do not matter today. There is no argument as to what the FOUNDING FATHERS meant with respect to turkey, stuffing, yams and gravy. There are no Turkey Fundamentalists to be pains in the ass to the rest of us today. No one is arguing over whether one religious group killed another religious group's turkey, or whether the Founding God, Son of God or Prophet meant for his FOLLOWERS to eat turkey, capon, chicken, tastes like chicken, ham or bottom dwelling fish today. I doubt the Founding Fathers worried about the separation between Fowl and State. I know of no debates or amendments about what to eat today, or whether the government should support this fowl or that or no fowl at all. What joy - divisiveness is dead today.

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WE ARE HAVING A BEAUTIFUL WHITE THANKSGIVING......THE VERY LARGE WHITE SNOW FLAKES, falling heavily, and many trees that still have leaves. It looks like 3 or maybe 4 inches of snow have fallen. It is time to sing

3 4 3 flat 3 natural 3

4 4 sharp 4 5

As anyone will recognize, the words that accompany these pitches are

I'm dream - ing of a

White Thanks - giv - ing

I chose to add an extra 4 because there is an extra syllable in this holiday derivative work.

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IN BOSTON, we are having a bit of fury over the Christmas tree that has been delivered to the Boston Common. On some official website, this Christmas tree is being called a Holiday Tree. Mayor Thomas Menino, a good guy and well liked four (or five?) term mayor, calls it a Christmas tree. I call it a Christmas tree. Millions of people call a green evergreen tree that starts to acquire ornaments a Christmas tree. Even though there is a Christ in Christmas tree, calling the green evergreen with ornaments a Christmas tree is not an endorsement of a religion as much as it is a use of English language nouns in an accurate descriptive manner. There really is a Christmas that is celebrated. For good or bad, Christians run the show in the U. S. They get their way with this their biggest celebration. The Christmas tree is a known symbol. And calling the green evergreen tree wth ornaments a Christmas tree is primarliy descriptive.

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Jerry Falwell has put out word that he and his over paid thug lawyers intend to sue Boston if the words, "Holiday Tree" are on the website.

I think Jerry Falwell and I have little in common. I would guess that we both like our friends and would rather breathe clean air than polluted air. I know we feel differently about terrorism and the September 11, 2001 attacks on the U. S. I felt that they were a result of 19 religious fundamentalist tool thugs, who thought they would each get to have sex with 76 virgins, who hated the U. S. and other countries. Falwell thought it was a result of God being angry at the U. S. because of our feminists, environmentalists and the ACLU and other groups I like.

I would be insulting the rectum of a horse, and the horse, if I called Falwell a horse's ass, so I will not. But I will celebrate the day he really goes away for good. Part of me will miss him though as I love the comedy he and crazed right wing politicians - Jean "Tight Faced, Mad Dog" Schmidt, Tom DeLay, Bill Frist, Ted Stevens and other extremist comics - provide.

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I wish Falwell would pray for that person or those persons who wrote the phrase, "Holiday Tree" and not, "Christmas Tree," at the Boston website. But Falwell should keep his damn Christian Crusader lawyers out of the courts. We would be better off if his thug lawyers would try to find the more than 6,600 people who are still missing from New Orleans and the Gulf areas, or help the sick, the poor, or provide free legal help for those who cannot afford it. The thug lawyers should not sue people in another country - Boston - over two words on a website that need not concern them.

Falwell gives Christians such a bad name.

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I will close by invoking a great Republican of the past, Barry Goldwater, one of Ronald Reagan's true heroes. Barry Goldwater said -

"EVERY GOOD CHRISTIAN OUGHT TO KICK JERRY FALWELL IN THE ASS."

I could never express it better than that! I know my friend, the retired math professor, could express other suitable and deserving expression about Falwell. LOL

Happy Thanksgiving. I love and value my friends and wish them the very best.

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BOSTON AND CAMBRIDGE WERE EXCELLENT YESTERDAY, despite strong cold winds and rain. I met some brilliant Berklee, Harvard Law and Emerson students who attended presentations of mine. And I got to reacquaint myself with all of those good Boston things - the subways, the stores, Harvard Yard, bookstores, cafes, cemeteries, restaurants, street intersections without right angles, and people.

MANY PEOPLE SAY BOSTON IS FRIENDLIER THAN NEW YORK and it might be but it is very easy to quickly have a lot of fun with strangers in those two areas as I did yesterday in Boston and Cambridge.

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The subway is only $1.25 as opposed to $2.00 in New York. The cars on the Green line are very old and sometimes only have two cars to a train, as opposed to New York's ten. The Red line is much newer with longer cars and trains, and have about six cars per train. The Green line train felt sluggish and arthritic as it kept faking stops only to then start and almost toss riders. The riders were all laughing as it got to be a strange will it or won't it show. The Red line, on the other hand, is a fast and modern seeming train. The best thing about the Red line is that it surfaces by Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and goes on the Massachusetts Avenue bridge above the Charles River from Boston to Cambridge. The view on all sides during this part of the ride is well worth the entire trip.

The Harvard Square T-stop (the Subway is the "T") is as unusual and egg-headed as the environment aboveground, i.e., Harvard University - Hah-vihd Yahd, some people joke but we pronounce it right and the world is wrong, JUST ASK MY MOTHER, ME OR THE NATIVES OF THE REPUBLIK OF CAMBRIDGE. The HS T-stop had carts with used book sellers (how odd is that?), fruit carts, clothing carts, a Dunkin' Donuts (no Krispy Kreme here), and more. Unfortunately, on my trip back to Boston yesterday afternoon, three cult Scientologists had opened their charlatan fraudulent "Stress Tests." These three cult Scientologists ran the gamut from beautiful 40 year old woman, to 25 year old man, to 65 year old man, all with smiles and all trying to shove L. Ron Hubbard's "Dianetics" into the faces of those innocent lambs taking stress tests.

I WANTED TO BE THE OBNOXIOUS ONE AND INTERRUPT THE PROCEEDINGS, as I have so often done in above and below Times Square in New York but I had to get back to Berklee for my final presentation. F____ Scientology, that most evil of cults. May those bastards burn in hell.

I would have thought that MY PEOPLE - people in and around my birthplace, Cambridge/Harvard - would not fall for such fraud as Scientology but unsuspecting people (suckers) can be found anywhere.

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AT THE HARVARD LAW SCHOOL BOOKSTORE, the smallest but most concentrated bookstore I have ever seen, I found my favorite straight out copyright law book - UNDERSTANDING COPYRIGHT LAW - by Marshall Leaffer in its new 2005 Fourth edition. This is the book from which I learned the most and my almost six year wait for the new 4th edition was finally over.

The woman at the checkout told me that I could not return the book. I told her that it would be easier to take my wallet or iPod than to take this book from me, and that I loved the book! (I should have invoked Charlton Heston when he held a rifle above his head at an NRA convention and said, "from my cold dead hands!")

She was in complete shock and told me that she never heard anyone so excited and happy about a book. I guess the Harvard Law School bookstore customers are usually buying things they have to buy and not their favorite Green Greatest Hits of Copyright book. She could not stop smiling as I guess I was one real oddity to her. We talked some more and I went away happy as hell.

A few minutes earlier I had bought two more great copyright books at the Harvard Coop, a bookstore for the public that has very essoteric things as well. Ah Cambridge.......

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ON THIS DAY IN 2003, WALT DISNEY DID THE FOLLOWING. They are often a heartless corporation, as is seen here, but it could be much worse. They could be the Church of Scientology!

"The Walt Disney Corporation pulled out of a new £60 million film version of Peter Pan after refusing to give a share of its profits to Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital in London.

The Hollywood studio became embroiled in a row with its fellow producers when it rejected a deal that would have given the hospital a share of the royalties from lucrative merchandising deals linked to the film.

At the height of the dispute with two other studios the company announced that it was withdrawing its £20 million investment from the project.

The disclosure of Disney's departure comes just four weeks before the Boxing Day release of the now-completed film, which is expected to be one of the biggest hits of the year. "

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2003/11/23/ndiz23.xml&sSheet=/news/2003/11/23/ixhome.html

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Dinner at the Atlantic Grill, on Boylston Street, was excellent. I had never been there and my friends knew that it was great and that there are excellent seafood restaurants in Boston not named, "Legal Seafood."

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Jean "Hell Hath No Rage Like Me" Schmidt has tried to apologize to Rep. Murtha over her remarks that he, the two time Purple Heart winner, was a coward. As one would expect from a nasty, bitter, over the hill fool like Jean Schmidt, her apology was disingenuous as she said that she did not mean to insult Rep. Murtha. Her apology proves that she is, in addition to nasty and cantemptible, dishonest. She needs to just go back to Ohio, get psychiatric help to figure out why she is so vicious and full of hatred, and possibly get Katherine Harris scowl removal surgery.

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Posted by EMH at 10:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

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EXCELLENT NEWS IN BOSTON LAST NIGHT - The Red Sox may have just gotten Josh Beckett (Wow - the best pitcher out there - the New York Yankees must be heart broken!) and Mike Lowell (he needs to proove himself again, but we'll take him), for three Red Sox prospects. I was trying to not think baseball but now I'm back. Spring training is almost here!

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42 YEARS AGO TODAY President John F. Kennedy was assassinated by a group of guys (more than one) with guns. Our government would later issue a fictitious report to obfuscate the truth and cover up the crimes. There will be a lot of discussion about the JFK assassination in 2008 but not today. That is because we like to notice and celebrate anniversaries that end in 5 or 0 - the 45th anniversary, someone turning 30, 20 years of marriage, etc.

Today in Chicago, a knitter is entering the U. S. Navy. I hope she gets to continue knitting. (see an earlier blog)

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EVERYONE IS WEIGHING IN ON SONY BMG. Here is from today's New York Times. There is one extremely laughable Sony BMG defense:

"Sony BMG contends the SunnComm software has been installed on only 12 million CD's." (As is to be expected, Sony BMG are not being honest here either as the number is closer to 20,000,000 and not 12,000,000.)

THAT'S A GREAT LINE - they ONLY infected 12,000,000 CD's It's not like everyone in the United States will have to suffer. Only the equivalent of all the residents of New York City and Chicago.

In thw words of Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott:

"What's wrong about all this is that in an effort to protect against illegal copying, it was Sony BMG that engaged in illegal conduct."

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More great quotes on Satan's Spawns (Sony BMG):

"Consumers have a right to listen to the music they have purchased in private, without record companies spying on their listening habits with surreptitiously-installed programs." - Electronic Frontier Foundation staff Attorney Kurt Opsahl

AND....

"Music fans shouldn't have to install potentially dangerous, privacy intrusive software on their computers just to listen to the music they've legitimately purchased... Regular CD's have a proven track record - no one has been exposed to viruses or spyware by playing a regular audio CD on a computer. Why should legitimate customers be guinea pigs for Sony BMG's experiments?" - Electronic Frontier Foundation Legal Director Cindy Cohn

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More on Sony BMG available here:

http://www.eff.org./news/archives/2005_11.php#004192

and here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/22/technology/22sony.html

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IT IS VERY SAD TO HEAR THE NEWS THAT GENERAL MOTORS will lay off 30,000 employees. Bad news like this during the holidays is always worse and with Christmas coming, there could be the depression brought on by the shopaholic mentality of the season.

What is surprising to me is that General Motors has lasted so long as they have designed and manufactured cars that are bad for decades and gotten away with it. Japanese car companies seemed to never run their businesses anywhere near this badly. GM just always did it wrong and for years could get away with it. Globalization contributed to GM's decline but only after first pushing them to listen to customers, react to the high price of gas and start to make cars better.

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But General Motors for decades has intentionally fought all changes the government of the people wanted to impose. GM was a vociferous opponent of all that is now considered normal, safe and sane. GM spent a considerable amount of energy fighting government by means of expensive lobbying (it is not cheap, easy or quick to buy the votes of members of Congress). Like the National Rifle Association, General Motors' means of operation involved ardently opposing every single proposal the U. S. government wanted to make, regardless of the simplicity and/or necessity to make the change.

What GM specifically fought, since the early 1960's include the following, alll of which we as consumers wanted:

Making cars safer by way of having stronger roofs

Better front and rear impact strength

Seat belts

Auto pollution controls

Mandatory increased fuel mileage

Air bags

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GMs problems always stemmed from the top but the workers on the line are not completely without blame either as laziness and slopiness, whether built into the system because of the UAW or not, was rampant. I grew up in a GM town with more than 3,000 employees. The GM employees themselves would know and tell their friends to never buy a GM car that was finished on a Friday as Friday was the day when many were working on preparing for the weekend, not the line. This is not to say that most employees were this way but enough were to cause problems and to give GM the name they have. GM is not Honda or Toyota and problems and mediocrity at every level in GM have gone on for far too long to be able to quickly turn around its problems.

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FAIR USE

There was a hearing on Fair Use on Capitol Hill last week and the PDF's of the invited testimony can be found at the Silicon Valley Media Blog:

http://www.svmedialaw.com/content-209-fair-use-hearings-in-congress.html

I will write more about this soon as the first three testifiers are radical, wrong and consider the Constitution a quaint old relic that needs to be put aside. Archie Bunker who once remarked, "Entertainment is a thing of the past - today we have television." I think these three really mean to paraphrase Archie Bunker - "Fair use is a thing of the past - today we have technology so that you can pay each time you read, listen, watch or quote."

Shameful testimony from the first three. More from me later but it's now time to go to Boston to begin my four hours of corrupting young minds. Too bad these three can't stop me. LOL

Go Red Sox!

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TEXAS IS THE FIRST STATE TO BRING AN ENFORCEMENT ACTION AGAINST the Evil Doers (Sony BMG) for their copy protection action concocted in the depths of Hell.

Satan, in a press release this afternoon, demanded that Sony BMG disavow any association or endorsement. "You guys are on your own on this one," stated the Horned One with Pitchfork.

http://www.oag.state.tx.us/oagnews/release.php?id=1266

Monday, November 21, 2005

Attorney General Abbott Brings First Enforcement Action In Nation Against Sony Bmg For Spyware Violations

Hidden technology allegedly makes computers vulnerable to viruses and hacking

AUSTIN - Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott today sued Sony BMG Music Entertainment as the first state in the nation to bring legal action against SONY for illegal "spyware." The suit is also the first filed under the state's spyware law of 2005. It alleges the company surreptitiously installed the spyware on millions of compact music discs (CDs) that consumers inserted into their computers when they play the CDs, which can compromise the systems.

Online Complaint Form

The Attorney General's lawsuit alleges the New York-based company violated a new Texas law protecting consumers from the hidden spyware. The company accomplished this by using new technology on certain music CDs to install files onto consumers' computers that hide other files installed by Sony. This secret "cloaking" component is installed without the knowledge of consumers and can cause their computers to become vulnerable to computer viruses and other forms of attack.

"Sony has engaged in a technological version of cloak and dagger deceit against consumers by hiding secret files on their computers," said Attorney General Abbott. "Consumers who purchased a Sony CD thought they were buying music. Instead, they received spyware that can damage a computer, subject it to viruses and expose the consumer to possible identity crime."

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I FLEW FROM LAGUARDIA TO BOSTON YESTERDAY AND SAW SOMETHING UNUSUAL IN A PLACE WHERE I EXPECT TO SEE USUAL. The co-pilot was wearing a baseball cap. I couldn't see the pilot but hoped he wasn't wearing a Zorro mask. I like to see the right hat worn for the right job. I love New York City policewomen in their police hats (I'm noticing them more and more these days - I've heard some say that they love a man in uniform - ditto for me and NYC policewomen).

Actually I miss the days of great humor onboard airplanes. I used to love flying Peoples' Express and New York Air with their very witty irreverent flight crews. Southwest used to be more fun and it used to be a good place to get a date. In 1988 when my friend and I flew to Los Angeles to begin our first of three cross country bicycle trips, we met a nice flight attendant who sat with us. There weren't many people on the flight and we got to know each other well. She & I started seeing each other, long distance, when I got back to Nashville.

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IT'S JEREMY AND ELROY TIME AGAIN

I think George W. Bush will be beyond thrilled if it ends up that Al-Zarqawi is dead. If he is dead, however, it will be one more non-piece of news as his death or Osama bin Laden's death are meaningless - the hatred of the U. S. will not go away 100,000 terrorist deaths from now. We've destroyed the great wiill we had on September 12, 2001. The death of Al-Zarqawi will do nothing to curtail the violence, anymore than turning the aircraft carrier around so that the First Jumpsuit could land for the cameras (a sillier than Michael Dukakis in a tank photo op), "MISSION ACCOMPLISHED" and toppling the statue, killing Hussein's lovely sons - Jeremy and Elroy - did nothing, and capturing the Bearded Father of Jeremy and Elroy in his Hole did nothing. What a damn mess.

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Zaraqawi is dead
Laura I think it's time. George
please go back to sleep

Laura. No. This calls
for a special gesture. We
Need to consummate

The American
people are now safe. I'll show
you how safe I am

George you should be turned
on without the death of a
bearded terroriist

What is it with you
and Dick Cheney and your wars?
Where is the romance?

It's always one war
or another that really
can get you going

Why can't the love of
a lone Texan woman push
and prod you to love?

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NEW YORK HAS BEEN BEAUTIFUL THIS WEEKEND. I spent time Friday doing Central Park but trying it in reverse order from my more common routine. Instead of going from 72nd east past Strawberry Fields and the Daniel Webster statue, to the lake, to the half of the BA tree that is still standing and did not fall on me, to the Ramble to the Boathouse, to the lake across from Pale Male's home on 5th Avenue to the zoo to Land of Horse Manure (the land of tourists and horse droppings on and near 59th Street) to home, I started from 66th, went through Tavern In The Green, to the Sheep Meadow to the roller skating dancing area, to the fountain by the lake to the Boat House and then did everything as chaotically as I could, backtracking, changing speeds, venturing off the paths in the Ramble, throwing a frisbee with strangers and busting out of my interesting almost-routine.

Everything was in its usual beautiful state but taking strange turns in the Ramble can bring you on to peculiar people doing things by themselves hiding behind rocks, talking to themselves and more. Also, some people who see you there, for example, a woman walking her dog, might get frightened. This particular woman looked quite scared of me although I cannot understand why. Was my mind showing and she was a Tom Delay fan? No. Probably not on both counts. She was just a lone woman in the woods of the Ramble.

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One of my primary goals was to check out PALE MALE, the hawk who became an international symbol when some of the shortsighted residents of the beautiful apartment building where he is perched decided that he, his family and nest had to go because of the droppings and small dead animals that come from living underneath a large hawk. They had his nest destroyed. But then the world noticed and gave them lots of protestors (I was one) until they relented and let the hawks rebuild their home.

I saw what looked like a large nest above the top window but could not see any hawks nearby. Perhaps he has moved.

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My other concern was THE SWAN. There used to be a gigantic swan who lived in the southern lake in Central Park but I have not yet seen him this season. I decided to talk around the lake shore and off of the paths to see if I could find him, but again, as with Pale Male and his family, came up empty. If anyone knows the swans whereabouts, please let me know. There are a lot of hawks but only one swan in Central Park and seeing him is always fantastic.

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On the way back out of the Ramble, approaching the southwestern edge of the lake, I heard music that was noisy and poor quality reggae influenced music but could not tell from where it was coming. About 60 feet ahead I saw a guy smoking and coughing seated on the bench. As I got closer, I could tell the loud, noisy and annoying music was coming from his iPod and bouncing off his eardrums into the air. This guy's ears and brains must be in a quite damaged state, as well as his lungs. He was coughing as if he was about to die and I suspect his brain was as charred as his lungs. If there ever was a perfect DO NOT SMOKE television commercial, I was watching it - the poor bastard. This was also the perfect example of what not to do with an iPod - turn it up to 11 and let the eardrums bleed.

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FRIDAY NIGHT's party was amazing. I was fortunate enough to be invited to be with a distinguished group of about 40 guests celebrating the birthday party of a great guy. This was not the usual I AM BIG STUFF BECAUSE OF MY INCOME type of party but people of diverse back and foregrounds.

I met P, a guy with an extremely similar background to mine but one who ended up in a much different place. P and I had both studied guitar, classical music theory and composition, gotten the terminal degree and studied with Milton Babbitt. P has a software company, dual citizenship, an amazing mind, leads a very busy and diverse life, and does not blog. I blog, have U. S. citizenship, lead an interesting life but am not burdened with intelligence.

Everyone at this party seemed to have fascinating lives and stories and reminded me of the remarkable diversity of Island Manhattan. I could blog on and on about the people but won't. I made new friends there for which I am grateful.

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I will be speaking at the Berklee College of Music twice tomorrow and am quite thrilled about that. Boston and Berklee and friends and fish…. How does it get better than that?

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SEXUAL RELATIONS WITH AN ANIMAL

My favorite quotes from yesterday are wildly different from each other. They are related only in that I heard them - one shows great humor while the other is nasty, disgraceful, inappropriate and the sign of a feeble mind.

Here's the first quote:

"If you're going to have sexual relations with an animal, make sure it's a horse because if things don't work out at least you've got a ride home." Willie Nelson, November 18, 2005

I do not know if this quote is original to Willie Nelson or not but it surely got my attention. Like a lot of rap music, one should know when to take things seriously or not. This quote is a win-win situation I suppose. It is obviously funny, but if one acts literally on this quote, perhaps it is true that the horse will give you a ride home. I rode horses English style for six weeks back when I was a kid. It was a hell of a lot of fun. I liked my little whip thing and the steel helmet on my head. I would have kept riding them but it was expensive and as in many things I did, I caused my parents concern. I wanted the horse to be able to jump over the moon, travel the universe and go fast. My mother was too nervous watching Frosty and me act up. No, we were not acting up in the Willie Nelson suggested way, we were just young and fast. That doesn't sound right either. No more talk about horses.

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A U. S. Marines General who served in Vietnam is a coward?!

Yesterday, Jean Schmidt, a first (and final) term Republican U. S. Representative from southern Ohio, disgraced herself, the Republican Party and her southern Ohio district by saying the following about Congressman John P. Murtha, a decorated U. S. Marines General and war hero.

In the words of Jean Schmidt:

"…. A few minutes ago I received a call from Colonel Danny Bop, Ohio Representative from the 88th district in the House of Representatives. He asked me to send Congress a message: Stay the course. He also asked me to send Congressman Murtha a message, that COWARDS CUT AND RUN, Marines never do. " Jean Schmidt, November 18, 2005

What an obnoxious, mean spirited thing to say, especially to a Marine General who really served in a war (Vietnam) and has been awarded two Purple Hearts. Dick Cheney, on the other hand, got five deferments to avoid the draft, and never served in the military. It would be truthful to call Vice President Dick Cheney a "coward," and chicken hawk, not Murtha. Murtha also is well respected in Congress and the Pentagon.

I expect that Congresswoman Schmidt, the newest of new representatives, will be looking for work in 2006 as her fate, hopefully, has been sealed by that appalling remark. Southern Ohio voters cannot feel too good about her.

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I keep having the highest balcony seats in beautiful Lincoln Center venues on consecutive nights. All of the seats, especially in Rose Theater, are very good.

The Met was fantastic last night. The seats were in the fifth balcony. For Wynton Marsalis, the seats were in the third balcony and great.

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ROMANCE

"The worst of having a romance is that it leaves one so unromantic." Oscar Wilde, 1891

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TODAY IS THE 9th Anniversary of the One Click patent, Amazon.com's simple, obvious and useful means of storing your credit card and address, welcoming you and helping you buy more quickly. I love the convenience of one-click but hate the fact that it was awarded the massive backing of the massive U. S. government for a patent on something as non-novel and very obvious as one-click.

The problems stem from the fact that the cost of this transactional process is now paid by so many.

PLEASE DO NOT READ THE ABSTRACT for the patent, below, as it should be painful and avoiding pain is often good.

Here begins the abstract. As I said, please don't read this:

United States Patent 5,576,951
Lockwood November 19, 1996
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Automated sales and services system
Abstract

"A system for composing individualized sales presentations created from various textual and graphical information data sources to match customer profiles. The information search and retrieval paths sift through a hierarchy of data sources under multiple operating programs. The system provides the means for synergistically creating and displaying customized presentations in a convenient manner for both the customer and salesperson to achieve a more accurate, efficient and comprehensive marketing presentation. Organizational hierarchies of data sources are arranged so that an infinite number of sales presentation configurations can be created. Multiple micro-programs automatically compose the sales presentations initiated by determinants derived from customer profile information, sales agent assessment data and operator's entries including the retrieval of interrelated textual and graphical information from local and remote storage sources. A similar system can be used for filing applications with an institution from a plurality of remote sites, and for automatically processing applications in response to each applicant's qualifications. Each multimedia terminal comprises a video screen and a video memory which holds co-related image-and-sound-generating information arranged to simulate the aspect and speech of an application loan officer on the video screen. The simulated loan officer is used to acquire personal loan data from the applicant by guiding him through an interactive sequence of inquiries and answers."

And that is just the abstract!

The inventor:

Lockwood; Lawrence B. (5935 Folsom Dr., La Jolla, CA 92037)

Lawrence B. Lockwood did well and I don't blame him. I blame the USPTO. Laws relating to intellectual property in this country need fixing.

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Yesterday's anniversary

Robbie Williams' Escapology was the first copy-protected CD to make its appearance in Australia. It was realeased November 18, 2002. Like most DRM, those who legally purchase are harmed while hackers get to delight in hacking the DRM.

Posted by EMH at 11:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

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I WAS WRONG TO STATE THAT MY BOYCOTT OF Sony BMG should end. What they have done - surreptitiously install a Trojan Horse on millions of personal computers - is such an egregious thing. I was foolish to consider letting up. I really should be insulting these bastards and not spending my money on their products. Why should anyone trust them? This is one of many reasons why I will always be suspicious of them and the other three of the BIG FOUR

I will not trust TIME WARNER
I will not trust UNIVERSAL
I will not trust EMI

In EMI's defense, however, they did sign the Beatles. But that was 42 years ago. What have they done for me lately? (Answered with pitches 5 6 1 b3 a la Janet Jackson)

The BIG FOUR and the RIAA do not learn from their mistakes and they do not suddenly get religion, morality or decency. Unlike other merchants, they do not like or trust their consumers and actively work to do whatever it takes to turn profits. And if they hurt, offend, insult, give a sexually transmitted disease to their customers, they think that the end (their customers might steal their songs and should be technologically stopped, as the law and worst of all, EDUCATION, are not working) justifies the means.

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Because I don't want to sound too negative and untrusting, I think it's time to list who/what I trust:

I trust the Electronic Frontier Foundation
I trust Public Knowledge
I trust Doctors Without Borders
I trust L. L. Bean
I trust Honda
I trust the Boston Symphony
I trust They Might Be Giants
I trust Chuck D
I trust Barney Frank

I'll stop now as this list has made me realize that I am trusting sort.

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IT IS EXTREMELY IRONIC THAT IF YOU PURCHASED any of the HIV-infected Sony BMG discs, you were severely punished. YET IF YOU DOWNLOADED this music illegally, you were rewarded with music that would not corrupt your computer. This sends one strange message, doesn't it?

I hope the public becomes aware of DRM and the music and film industries' attempts to limit the fair uses of one's legally purchased intellectual property.

One of the sad things about Sony BMG's self destruction is that Sony has had such great successes and have done so many things rights - make great products, been very innovative, and their name was one I always trusted, as opposed to other corporate names I do not trust - General Motors, Chevrolet, Hyundai and Dell for example.

Just now at Starbucks, I got talking to a very nice man from England and his wife, He works for Sony. And here I am - when I found he worked for Sony, I asked him what he thought of rootkit. He is a high up guy at Sony and the name Sony, sadly, conjures up rootkit. He is quite upset about the nonsense and thinks that Sony better get working immediately to correct this and try to regain its good name.

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NO BACKBONE? DICK CHENEY?

Dick Cheney cannot accuse any human being (and any DEMOCRATS) of losing his/their backbone any more than I can accuse someone of being too passionate a Boston Red Sox fan. It just won't fly. Dick Cheney is an outright coward. He has always been pro war yet when he had the opportunity to put his money where his mouth is - Vietnam - he hid. He & George Bush are the worst type of hypocrites - chicken hawks.

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SCOOTER LIBBY, a more than 50 year old guy who is known as Scooter, and his defense team are having orgasms over Bob Woodward's admission that he knew about the CIA operative a full month before Bob Novak revealed the names of Valerie Wilson's identity. It took more than 30 years to find out who Deep Throat was. This SHALLOW THROAT will be known in less than 30 weeks, or so I predict. And Libby will still be in trouble as the Woodward admission should do nothing to alleviate Libby's lying to a grand jury.

In the meantime, the White House has a Shallow Throat. YEA.

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TWO NIGHTS AGO I SAW LUCIANA SOUZA at Joe’s Pub. We were in a table next to the stage - excellent seats in a beautiful venue. She is extremely skilled - has flawless precise pitch and uses very little vibrato only near the end of sustained pitches. She has the appearance of an angel and one immediately knows that one is in the presence of a wonderful musician.

Her guitarist was daring, original, gutsy, passionate and very musical. I correctly guessed that he, like Luuciana, is Brazilian. I have never been to Brazil but have more than 1,000 Brazilian CDs and been to dozens of Brazilian concerts in the U. S. (Milton Nascimento, Caetano Veloso, Marissa Monte, Gal Costa, Djavan, Astrud Gilberto, Tom Ze, Carlinhos Brown, Bebel Gilberto and more). I am convinced that there is special air, water, plants, seeds and DNA in Rio, in many miles in all directions from Rio, and of course especially through Minas Gerais and the great Northeastern cowboy parts of the country.

And Luciana Souza and her guitarist brought great soul to the performance but could also be as elegant, refined, subtle and subdued when the music was more jazz than Brazilian. I would love to see her again.

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YESTERDAY HAD SOME GREAT FIRSTS FOR ME. Every day should throw strange things at me. Yesterday was no disappointment.

Life in Suite 6308 of the Empire State Building was its usual excellent - the people, the discussions, and the views were inspiring. New Jersey too was great as well as seeing friends I don't normally get to see over there.

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My time in NJ ended with a trip to Penn Station in Newark. I've been going to Penn Station in NYC since I was 4 years old but Penn Station Newark was new to me.

They have a little store that only sells lots of wine and beer in very small bottles and cans as well as larger more normal sizes. I was surprised to see this drink intensive place and stood looking at one of the unusual wine displays when a beautiful and beautifully dressed woman asked me if I needed help.

Before I could answer - I know had this puzzled look but big smile - she told me, "Here. Get two, and when you get up there ask for a cup and a bag." So, I did just what she said - bought two little bottles of chardonnay - and told the woman at the counter how much I loved New Jersey and this funky little store. She said, "You love New Jersey? I do too." I asked her rhetorically, how can life get better than being in NJ and NY? The beautiful woman, aka my personal wine consultant, and I chatted a little more until she headed to Track 4 and I to Track 1.

I guess it is commonly known that at Penn Station Newark, one buys two little bottles, and gets a plastic cup and bag for drinking on the train, as the guy behind me did the exact same thing. It was a short trip for me - one stop in Secaucus and then the end of the line at my normal Penn Station.

I think I want to return to Penn Station Newark as soon as I can as I feel I am now a PSNNJ Club Member, and membership has its benefits.

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I THEN RUSHED TO THE 1 TRAIN to Columbus Circle as I had a ticket to see Wynton Marsalis, with his quartet (sax, piano, bass and drums), and a large ensemble of 23 strings (8 first violins, 6 second violins, 6 violas and 3 celli - the only double bass was Wynton’s bass player) and 5 winds - flute. oboe, bassoon, French horn and tuba/euphonium.

The music performed consisted mostly of standards that were done with thick chords - few triads were heard but big bear altered 11ths and 13ths were everywhere. Being a THICK CHORD KIND OF GUY from way back in childhood, who finds melody to often be simply a by product of great chords, I was thrilled.

Rose Theater at Lincoln Center is one of the world’s best halls, acoustically and visually, for its size and style (wrap around balconies), and every seat is excellent, even better than Fenway Park.

It is impossible not to be impressed by Wyntons playing. I wish he was less of a traditionalist and more like his brother Branford but what Wynton does he does beautifully. I had forgotten how much he can do with inflections, glissandi and portamenti. I loved the trumpet playing of the late Lester Bowie of the ART ENSEMBLE OF CHICAGO, and would take a live performance by the AEC to about any other musical experience, but Wynton has perfected the world of the notes in the crack and does more in that micro world than any other trumpet player.

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From there, 8th Avenue and Brazil Grill seemed to beckon me and a beckoning I went. Elton, my favorite NY Brazilian, was there along with some of the usual gang and the lovely M. Because it is Brazil Grill, everyone talks to everyone and of course I made new friends. I walked M home and am now recovering from a day that began at 8 AM in the Empire State Building and ended today.

Tonight is La Boheme at the Met. Of course melody will show up but I'll be listening for thick chords.

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Posted by EMH at 12:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

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THE FRENCH WILL SHOW ANYTHING ON TELEVISION, or almost anything. I WENT TO MY FAVORITE FRENCH RESTAURANT, MELI MELO, on 29th and Madison, last night. It was the perfect storm of all things good. Tasha was working until 7 PM, had heard good about me (imagine such a thing?!?), and wanted to meet me. Evelyn, also a perfect woman and also from Poland (I now think perfect seductive Polish accents are French), was also there. And meeting new people there is very easy especially at the bar. One woman at the bar had two broken wrists in casts. She told us that her fiancee had dumped her for another woman and that later the same night she had fallen 8 feet and broken both wrists. What a bad day. I told her that the bad karma this guy, her ex, would suffer would be heavy duty - HDBK (heavy duty bad karma).

Others in our vicinity included a Cameroonian Mason (not a brick layer but that religion or whatever it is called "Masons"). Once I knew he was from Cameroon I asked him the obvious questions about Manu Dibango and other great West African musicians from C. His wife was nearby and had to tolerate his flirtations with the Injured Woman as well as my friends. It was a Flirt Fest with