Slate questions the value and plausability of reviewing a mammoth book like Bill Clinton’s 957-page My Life in time for the 24-hour news cycle. Publisher Alfred A. Knopf denied reporters a copy of the book before its official release on June 22. Several papers ran reviews in the next 24-48 hours, though not every reviewer actually read the book. Seems more akin to elementary school book reports than professional book reviews.
Monthly Archives: July 2004
Plagiarism Obvious Online
A New York Times veteran writer recently wrote a story for the online edition that heavily borrowed from a Wall Street Journal piece, prompting plagiarism charges. The incident was noticed so quickly it underscores the contradictory nature of the Internet for writers:
“The very technology that makes plagiarism so easy to commit
No Purchase Necessary
So Apple’s doing a big contest to celebrate 100 million songs downloaded on iTunes. They’re giving away 49 20 GB iPods and a grand prize of a 40 GB iPod, 17 inch Powerbook and 10,000 free songs. Not too shabby.
The prizes go to whoever purchases a 100,000th song between 95 and 100 million. So you download song number 95,100,000 and you win an iPod. Not too shabby.
Yet the official rules clearly state “no purchase necessary.” Apparently you can also be entered by using the “Tell a Friend” feature to e-mail a track suggestion to a friend. Yet Apple fails to explain how you can win with this method considering winning involves being the purchaser of a 100,000th song. So either you simply can’t win with the free option (but you can enter!), or Apple’s going to inflate their download count with free entries.
Confused? Me too.
CD Prices Falling?
Don’t tell anyone, but CD prices are starting to fall — in some cases dramatically. Best Buy is selling the new Spider-Man 2 soundtrack for $8.99 this week. They have Breaking Benjamin for $6.99. Target does too, as well as The Killers for $6.99, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs for $6.98 and Ozmatli for $5.98. Franz Ferdinand and Modest Mouse have both seen their latest releases in the $8.99-$9.99 range.
The drastically reduced prices seem to be short-term sales, most likely instigated by record companies, designed to boost sales and exposure. Though good luck finding anyone talking about it. There’s plenty of news about Universal’s 5 percent price drop (though apparently some retailers are keeping prices high and pocketing the difference), as well as the recent price fixing lawsuit accounting for a minor price rollback. But most of those stories have to do with regular CD prices, lowering stickers from $15.99 to $13.99. Nobody’s talking about these 44 percent price dives.
And maybe they should. CD sales in the first half of 2004 were up 7 percent over 2003. Prices under $10 prompt impulse buys. It worked for me: I bought the Spider-Man 2 soundtrack solely on the merits of Dashboard Confessional’s “Vindicated.”
NASCAR Not Just for the Boys Anymore
What used to be a good ol’ boys’ sport is quickly gaining popularity among women. 42 percent of NASCAR fans are women, more than the NFL or major league baseball.
So You Wanna Be a Rock Star?
Semisonic’s Jacob Slichter released a memoir earlier this week about the real life of a rock star, So You Wanna Be a Rock & Roll Star?: How I Machine-Gunned a Roomful of Record Executives and Other Tales from a Drummer’s Life.
The 65 pages I read while enjoying the air conditioning of Barnes & Noble were witty and self-effacing, showing a guy who liked the dream of being a rock star more than actually being one. The overly self-conscious description of the band’s first photo shoot was hilarious. If it wasn’t a brutal $21.95 I would have bought it on the spot.
Best & Worst Album Covers
USA Today’s Whitney Matheson gives her suggestions for the best album covers of the summer, giving the top nod to the Cure’s new self titled CD.
Matheson also recognizes some of the worst album covers of the summer, which is a bit like shooting fish in a barrel. (link via kottke.org)
No SUVs in the Pool
You just can’t make this stuff up. A husband in Hawaii was giving his wife driving lessons when she overcompensated to avoid another car and crashed the SUV into a pool.
The picture is just classic, the kind of thing you’d expect to see in a commercial.
(link via kottke.org)
Flower or Weed?
This beautiful flowering weed thing is growing next to my house. The leaves are kind of spindly and ugly, but the flowers are beautiful.
Unexpected surprises. Yet another reason why I like weeds.