I think the root of the problem- and it doesn’t matter who would be doing this- is that practically no one thinks they should have to pay for anything anymore. It’s not just isolated to music, either. You could put up a Kickstarter saying Led Zeppelin would play in your backyard if you pledge $50, and you’d still have people saying I DONT KNOW MAN, NOT SURE, CAN SOMEONE ELSE PAY AND I JUST SHOW UP? COOL?

I think art and music are two of the most critically important fundamentals to our core as human beings. It’s one of the least respected things in the world, taken for granted all the time that it even exists, let alone the enrichment it brings to daily life.

- kevin quillen

I said that (obviously).

Sometimes I enjoy reading through years of history and conversations. Sometimes, gems like this pop up and you think wow, look at me.

This was in heated response to why artists are now taking to platforms like Kickstarter to fund their albums- and why (or how) they’ve ended up there. Anyone on a label has just about every single dime taken from them, creditors are lined up to pick you clean, and you have an entire culture of people who feel they just ‘deserve’ to have anything for free. “Imma download it man whatever, 99 cents?! F that!”.

There are scores of artists out there who just want to write and release music. Most of them will never be ‘rich’ and most of them don’t care to be. But unless they can pay the bills and keep food on the table, its not a sustainable industry to be in because it is one of the very few where the worker (musician) is hardly compensated beyond the satisfaction of penning a great song or riff. Could you imagine heart surgeons working for 30 years on what equates to a $10-20k a year salary? And that’s if they had steady cases!

Before you ask- I’ve paid out $1000 in the last 6 months on music. I couldn’t imagine a day going by without hearing a song or thinking about some of my favorite movies. I give back what I can when I can.

What the hell?

Seriously. I just stared at this in disbelief for what felt like an hour. This is at the top of a popular Wordpress plugin. Straight WTF.

if (file_exists("./wp-config.php")){include("./wp-config.php");}
elseif (file_exists("../wp-config.php")){include("../wp-config.php");}
elseif (file_exists("../../wp-config.php")){include("../../wp-config.php");}
elseif (file_exists("../../../wp-config.php")){include("../../../wp-config.php");}
elseif (file_exists("../../../../wp-config.php")){include("../../../../wp-config.php");}
elseif (file_exists("../../../../../wp-config.php")){include("../../../../../wp-config.php");}
elseif (file_exists("../../../../../../wp-config.php")){include("../../../../../../wp-config.php");}
elseif (file_exists("../../../../../../../wp-config.php")){include("../../../../../../../wp-config.php");}
elseif (file_exists("../../../../../../../../wp-config.php")){include("../../../../../../../../wp-config.php");}

Octopress to Tumblr Conversion

You may have noticed my blog changed from its old look and feel to Tumblr, noted in an earlier post.

I spent a half hour today cleaning up / testing my Ruby script to import my old Octopress posts into Tumblr- and now they are in.

The working version of the script can be found here. Nothing fancy, no bells and whistles, just a cool Ruby script to do the grunt work I didn’t want to do.

Later Sandy

Guess it was a little stronger than I assumed, but nowhere near the annihilation predicted for this area. We skirted by yet again here in Delaware, a couple scratches here and there but largely spared. It sucked to have canceled vacation- knowing what I know now, I could have easily made it to Myrtle Beach without so much as a drizzle affecting me.

One thing you can say about Sussex County is, it is a pretty decent place weather wise. We rarely ever get natural disasters.

I know it’s all odds though, and eventually we will. But for now, back to normal.

Well, decided against going. I can’t get clear reports of what is actually going on down there, and they don’t seem to know if the roads will open up to Salvo tonight, tomorrow, or Tuesday, or at all (depending on the waves/wind/sand damage to the bridge). I can’t just air on the side of them thinking it will ‘go away’- and now that the insurance company is closed until 7 AM I can’t even begin to attempt a refund yet. 

They better damn well give it to me- I can’t even access the area. But since they are causing me to linger here, I can’t make a decision to leave due to their inaction and inability to help and give me a clear picture.

If I get it all back, I might have the dough for the Stones ticket I thought I wouldn’t have.