“The sweeping digitisation of music—both from a distribution standpoint as well as a production and composition perspective—has had some devastating effects on the industry and the art form. That’s not to say it’s all black-and-white, of course, as there have been some positives, like the diversification and democratisation of certain areas that have come with it, but in so many other ways, the transition from analogue to digital in music has proven to be a rot.” Speaking as a fellow Old Man, all I can say is that while I like plenty of engineered electronic music, I will always favor bands that feature people playing instruments. Sue me.
“Instead of going after minority voters, the RNC apparently plans to remake itself even more in Trump’s image.”
“A new poll by HarrisX, exclusive to IndieWire, found that 34 percent of U.S. adults prefer to watch movies in theaters, which means a solid two-thirds would rather wait for them to be released on streaming.”
“The Left Behind novels were embarrassingly out of date by the time I started blog-reading them in 2003. And that’s even more so today. That ain’t because they failed to forecast cell phones or Uber. It’s because there hasn’t been a Rapture.”
“Private reserves of privately owned, never-before-seen creatures may be an inevitability, and I can’t say I’m optimistic for what happens when those creatures meet a natural world that has no familiarity with what they are or what change they might bring.”
Why are hummingbirds staying in Kansas instead of migrating south for the winter? The answer may or may not surprise you.
RIP, Paul Alexander, the “Iron Lung Man”, who lived a truly remarkable life.
“MLB sees slowly improving diversity in its youth pipeline, despite record-low number of Black major leaguers”.
“US health officials are warning doctors about the dramatic rise in measles cases around the world, and advising families traveling to a measles-affected country to get babies as young as 6 months vaccinated before they go.”
“In the decades that I have been a lawyer, this is the most bizarre order I’ve ever seen issued by a federal judge. What makes that all the more amazing is that the second and third most bizarre orders I’ve ever seen in federal court were also issued by Judge Cannon in this case.”
“Donald Trump does not have enough cash to obtain an appeal bond that would prevent New York’s attorney general from seizing his real estate assets to satisfy a $454 million civil fraud judgment, his lawyers indicated in a court filing Monday.”
Wishing Leon Coffee a happy retirement.
“Giant redwoods – the world’s largest trees – are flourishing in the UK, a study has found.”
“There are several recent signs that the federal judiciary’s center right is losing patience with its far right.”
“Trump’s predicament is also the latest reminder that his financial challenges make him a national security threat — something that has been a reality ever since he was elected president in 2016. He’s always been willing to sell his name to the highest bidder. There’s no reason to believe that Trump, whose businesses collected millions of dollars from foreign governments and officials while he was president, won’t have a for-sale sign out now that he’s struggling with the suffocating weight of court judgments.”
They’re coming for birth control.
“Donald Trump lost over 500,000 votes to Nikki Haley during Tuesday’s GOP primaries, despite the former South Carolina governor dropping out of the race, with tens of thousands of other votes going against the former president.”
“The Los Angeles Dodgers interpreter for Shohei Ohtani was fired Wednesday afternoon after questions surrounding at least $4.5 million in wire transfers sent from Ohtani’s bank account to a bookmaking operation set off a series of events.” Yikes.
“Until we do hear anything from Major League Baseball, those of us with some basic reasoning ability are all but obligated to walk through what is known, to make reasonable inferences, and to apply Occam’s Razor to this matter to the extent possible. So let’s just throw some observations out there and see what sorts of conclusions we can draw, shall we?”
RIP, M. Emmett Walsh, versatile character actor known for roles from Blood Simple and The Iron Giant to Knives Out and The Righteous Gemstones.
“But as a friend reminded me yesterday evening, Trump doesn’t own Trump Tower.”
“The Justice Department on Thursday announced a sweeping antitrust lawsuit against Apple, accusing the tech giant of engineering an illegal monopoly in smartphones that boxes out competitors, stifles innovation and keeps prices artificially high.”
RIP, Shigeichi Negishi, entrepreneur who invented the world’s first karaoke machine.
RIP, Peter Angelos, attorney and longtime owner of the Baltimore Orioles.
The scandal with Shohei Ohtani‘s interpreter is really bad. The only thing that gets someone MLB’s version of the death penalty is betting on baseball, for good reason. I hope Ohtani is merely a fraud victim and not participating in this, because a rare player like him, who can pitch and hit with excellence, is good for the sport (even if he is a Dodger).
Needless to say, two thumbs down on Pete Rose. He was warned, in writing, on signs posted in every clubhouse.
Re iron lungs- when I was in early elementary school I had to go to the school on a weekend for something about polio. I was too young to understand what that was. It was strange being in the school then, and we were all in the cafeteria area which adjoined the auditorium space. They were showing some kind of movie, but it was a horrible movie with children in iron lungs. Then we were given sugar cubes with pink splotches on them to eat. This was early 1960s. I had nightmares about the iron lungs. I am glad I got the vaccine and didn’t get polio. Before I retired I was asked at work what vaccines I had been given. I told the young nurse guy “polio, tetanus, and smallpox”. He looked at me like I was from another planet.