Do You Want Me To Let You In On A Little Secret?

I'm really digging this Lady Gaga person. Her music is as catchy as hell.

The First Motion Comic?

With all this talk about motion comics for mobile phones, I remembered this Alan Parsons Project video from 1984, "Don't Answer Me." At the time I thought it was pretty nifty, mixing comic book motifs with animation as well as live-action & clay animation.



And yes, some of those old Marvel cartoons are probably the *very* first motion comics, in a sense...

10 Shameful Songs I Like

Just call me Valerie "AM Gold" D'Orazio

10. "I Woke Up In Love This Morning," The Partridge Family


9. "Little Willy," The Sweet


8. "Putting On The Ritz," Taco


7. "Ghostbusters," Ray Parker Jr


6. "Sugar, Sugar," The Archies


5. "Xanadu," Olivia Newton-John


4. "Say Say Say," Paul McCartney and Michael Jackson


3. Anything by Nickelback


2. "Mama Said Knock You Out," LL Cool J (not complete without the lip sync)


1. "Mmmbop," Hanson

Does The "Pay-What-You-Want" Paradigm Work?

Robert Smith of The Cure recently had choice words regarding the "Radiohead" model of user-determined value of media. Just to remind you, Radiohead released an album in 2007, "In Rainbows," that was available for a theoretically "free" download; it was up to the user's discretion how much money they would pay/donate for the music. It was estimated that 62 percent of users downloaded "In Rainbows" without paying one cent, something Radiohead denied. Nevertheless, after three months the band abruptly ended the experiment, returning to a more traditional sales model.


Smith has said that he "disagreed violently" with Radiohead for allowing the fans to only pay as much as they wanted for "In Rainbows."

"You can't allow other people to put a price on what you do, otherwise you don't consider what you do to have any value at all and that's nonsense.

If I put a value on my music and no one's prepared to pay that, then more fool me, but the idea that the value is created by the consumer is an idiot plan, it can't work."

Reaction to Smith's words on the website Stereogum was largely negative, accusing the singer of being out-of-touch, greedy, and irrelevant. Smith then issued this statement, entitled "Free Music For All," on his official site:

"SO IT SEEMS A FEW PROFESSIONAL APOLOGISTS (YOU HAVE TOLOVE THEM!) OUT THERE DISAGREE WITH MY "EVERY ARTIST SHOULD VALUE THEIRART" MUSING

AND THINK ITS OK FOR ART - MUSIC IN PARTICULAR - TO BEMADE AVAILABLE FREE FOR ALL...

NO I AM NOT CONFUSING 'ARTISTIC VALUE' WITH'COMMERCIAL VALUE'

MERELY QUESTIONING THE DUMB ACCEPTANCE OF THE 'FREEART IS THE 'NEW' PARADIGM - THATS JUST THE WAY IT IS' MANTRA

IN THE WAY OF OUR BRIGHT AND BRAVE NEW WIRED WORLD

THESE IDIOT CRITICS HAVE TRIED VERY HARD TO TURN MYGENERAL POINT - A POINT I MADE USING RADIOHEAD'S 'IN RAINBOWS: PAY WHAT YOUWANT' MARKETING RUSE AS IT IS THE MOST WIDELY KNOWN EXAMPLE - INTO A MOCK SHOCKHORROR "HOW DARE ANYONE QUESTION THE FAMOUSLY INDEPENDENT ANDANTI-CAPITALIST RADIOHEAD, THEY SELL MORE 'PRODUCT' THAN THE CURE SO THEIRSTRATEGY OBVIOUSLY 'WORKED' (HUH?!!)... AND ANYWAY, ROBERT SMITH IS WAY TOO OLDTO COMMENT ON CONTEMPORARY CULTURE" MOMENT...

MY POINT IS NEITHER PARTICULARLY NEW NOR ORIGINAL

NOR EXCLUSIVELY ABOUT RADIOHEADS 'IN RAINBOWS'

BUT IT IS I FEEL STILL COMPELLING

ANY FAMOUS ARTIST WITH A HUGE AND DEVOTED FAN BASE(OFTEN ARRIVED AT WITH A LITTLE HELP FROM A WEALTHY AND POWERFUL 'PATRON' ORTWO?) CAN AFFORD TO DO WHAT HE, SHE OR IT WANTS...

INCLUDING GIVING THEIR ART AWAY AS SOME KIND OF 'LOSSLEADER' TO HELP 'BUILD THE BRAND'

ALL WELL AND GOOD...

HOWEVER

IF THIS 'ART FOR FREE' IDEA BECOMES THE CULTURAL NORM

THEN HOW DO ARTISTS EARN THEIR LIVING?"

What do you think? Do you think the "pay-what-you-want" model works for music? And obviously, the next question is -- would it work for comic books as a whole?

The Day The Music Died

Seriously, this was my Sunday afternoon on teh internets:

"Oh shit, Perry Farrell died?!"

"Yeah, man. They reported it on CNN.com."

"Wiki has an obit, yo."

"He died on the same plane as Dave Navarro."

"Holy fucking shit, are you serious?"

"And Gavin DeGraw."

"Who the fuck is he? I care about Perry Farrell."

"And all of Blink 182. They were on the plane too."


"Fucking Perry Farrell, man. Fuck."

(I go knock on the door of the bathroom, where BF is taking a shower)

"Hey, Perry Farrell died!"

"What?"

"I said: Perry Farrell just died in a fucking plane crash with motherfucking Dave Navarro!"

"From Jane's Addiction?"

"Yeah. It's like Buddy Holly all over again! I'm so fucking depressed now. But also strangely invigorated."


Thirty minutes later, back on teh Internets:

"Oh, Perry didn't really die. Perez Hilton confirmed it."

"Are you sure? How about Dave Navarro?"

"Where the fuck did you get Dave Navarro? Did you pull that one out of your ass?"

"Wiki just changed the obit on Perry. He's alive now."

"Well, did anybody die?"

"I think DJ AM died."

"WHO?"

"And the drummer for Blink 182."


"So I was right about Blink 182!"

"No wait. They are confirmed alive."

"Oh. So nobody dead, then?"

"I think the pilot and the co-pilot. And some non-famous people."

"I heard Shanna Moakler died, Travis' wife."

"No, they found a female body on the plane, but TMZ is confirming that Shanna is alive."

"The female was one of the pilots."

"Well, that explains a lot."

"So Perry is safe?"

"As long as Perry is okay."

"I heard Travis got his dick burned off."

"Serves him right for cheating on Shanna with Paris Hilton."


"That's a fucking horrible thing to say. Fuck you. When you die, I'm going to piss on your ashes and shit on your grave and then we'll see how much you laugh about it, asshole."

"So, when I play this Crazy Town video: which one is DJ AM?"

"My heart goes out to all the victims."

"At least Travis' tats are still okay."

So that was my Sunday afternoon. I'm not sure what I did Sunday night. I think I watched Family Guy.

No wait, I didn't watch Family Guy.

Cult Movie Songs: The Original Music Videos

This was inspired by my search for the original song for the crash scene in Death Proof on YouTube. Here is a selection of original "music videos" for songs from cult movies:

Death Proof: "Hold Tight," Dave Dee, Dosy, Beaky, Mick & Tich


Blow: "Black Betty," Ram Jam


The Craft/Charmed The TV Series: "How Soon Is Now?," The Smiths


Donnie Darko: "Never Tear Us Apart," INXS


Reservoir Dogs: "Stuck In The Middle With You," Stealer's Wheel


The Big Lebowski: "Condition," Kenny Rogers And The First Edition


American Psycho: "Hip To Be Square," Huey Lewis And The News


Boogie Nights: "It's A Living Thing," ELO


Trainspotting: "Lust For Life," Iggy Pop


Say Anything: "In Your Eyes," Peter Gabriel

U2's Joshua Tree Falls Down

The tree made famous on the sleeve of U2's hit 1987 album The Joshua Tree has indeed fallen down.

Between this and that recent Simpsons retcon episode that took place in the early 1990s, I'm beginning to feel old.

Also, the whole impending birthday thing is not helping.

(Tina Fey is 37...37, yes this is good...)