Stars New Album

Posted on July 25, 2007

The Stars' new album, In Our Bedroom After the War, is up in advance on eMusic. I hope this is not just a marketing ploy and they just put the MP3s when they were done and the rest of the world has to wait simply because the CDs need to be pressed.

I really liked their last album, Set Yourself On Fire, as there was three or four songs that I really feel in love with. You Ex-Lover Is Dead is just amazing and also worked almost as well in the Degrassi episode (go canada!) as Breath Me did in Six Feet Under. Calendar Girl is also amazing.

In Our Bedroom After the War is a solid album but doesn't have any songs that really jump out at me. Over time I'm going to learn to love all the songs but I really love albums that grab me with really amazing singles.

I can't say they got worse cause they sound great and the album is a good purchase for any Stars fan. But they were not as lucky as last album with songs that really grab you.

If you want to get in to the Stars I would not start with this album and instead check out Set Your Self on Fire.

Harry Potter 7’s Goblin DRM

Posted on July 23, 2007

J.K. Rowling adding a really interesting bit about goblins in HP7.

"You don't understand [...] To a goblin, the rightful and true master of any object is the maker, not the purchaser. All goblin made objects are, in goblin eyes, rightfully theirs."

"But it was bought --"

"-- then they would consider it rented by the one who had paid the money. They have, however, great difficulty with the idea of goblin-made objects passing from wizard to wizard. [...] I believe he thinks, as do the fiercest of his kind, that it ought to have been returned to the goblins once the original purchaser died. They consider our habit of keeping goblin-made objects, passing them from wizard to wizard without further payment, little more than theft."

- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows pg 271

Perhaps the record industry herd she was sharing songs on her ipod and this is her revenge.

This explanation of how goblins feel about their work is basically word for word how the RIAA and MPAA looks at the works they own. They would love it if ever person had to buy the music over and over again and did not pass it on in their family. They see the music and movies you buy as simply a license that you borrow the music and not own it.

If she knew it or not the current climate of the music industry has invaded J.K. Rowling's thoughts and she has come down against this kind of Goblin DRM.