music + technology (kanye, yayo, the blues, religious podcasts)

music and tech - those are my two favorite topics to discuss.

while reading the ny times on the way in to work this morning i noticed a few things...

jon pareles pretty much feels the same way that i do about kanye (read his review): "Now that the underdog has become an insider, it's growing harder to be as thrilled with Mr. West's achievements as he is." I know that Trent want's me to feel different about the project. I listened to Late Registration all last week - don't know that I'll listen to it every day - or anymore. I am still rocking Mariah Carey, since it came out - and it will probably be one of my top rated albums of the year. Also, Young Jeezy continues to grow on me. TI's Urban Legend is one of my favs, but then again so is Bloc Party's Silent Alarm. Mostly though, I'm highly anticipating SANTANA's release. If he doesn't go big this time, he never will.

kalefa sanneh is not really feeling tony yayo ((review). yayo is catchy - that's what he is. he's studied the 50 cent school of rhyming even more so than banks and buck. the b&b aspire to be hardcore rappers, while yayo is just happy to be out of jail and making money so spitting sing-songy hooks while it sounds like he's smiling isn't really a chore. oh, yeah, the fact that he cracks a good joke now and then isn't bad either. best believe, yayo will get bumped in the clubs.

*****

there was this other article in the times about folklorist alan lomax and a new book - Lost Delta Found - that uncovers the involvement of three black fisk professors in his blues research. apparently lomax regarded them as a footnote in his own writings, but this book attests that their contributions are major for the body of work about African American vernacular music. the only thing i'm trying to figure out about the article is this:

the writer says: "Work took note of well-spoken blacks who owned land, and the fact that spirituals were already on the wane in certain parts of Mississipi — both of which ran counter to Lomax's assumptions about the Southern black man, Mr. Gordan said.

i realize that both the article author and book writer intend for this to sound really positive - and to be a highlight of the work they've uncovered, but can someone please tell them that this particular phrase "well-spoken blacks" grates a lot of black folks sensibilities. seriously, it's like finger nails scratching on a chalk board. can't we find another way to say this?

*****

spiritually-themed podcasts appear to be taking off. i for one downloaded one saturday. the godcast network features christian podcasts and podcastalley, odeo, and even apple's podcast directories list all kinds of spiritual and religious podcasts - with the numbers growing expnentially.

******

this post was going to continue reading the paper, and then work got in the way. and now i'm kind of consumed by Katrina

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podcast of the week

the lee eric smith show

http://studio.kssx.com/blog/LeeEricSmith

and his website www.forgivethem.org

downloaded to podcast - for walk to gym

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music is the strangest thing...

this is probably old news by now, but it appears that the jigga man is interested in grime, especially in lady sovereign. rumors abound that he's in talks to sign her.listen to lady sovereign - "Cha Ching (Cheque Remix)"

now we all know that the h to the izzo likes his music all worldly. remember "beware the boys" w/punjabi? and linkin park mash-ups ain't no joke either.

speaking of mash-ups, the iwayne roots fans @ sobs on tuesday night had no idea what to make of m.i.a. well at least not until she did a mash up w/macca diamond. btw, macca diamond's "done already" is wicked.

but back to grime - will it stick, will it stay raw? is it roc-a-fella music? i don't know - i thought about that yesterday already. from crunk to grime - dunno that the hardcore hip-hop fans will make that transiton. though ya' boys the diplomats did w/"dutty clap." it just seems like in the ol' us of a - it's the hipsters that dig grime, y'know tha Pumpsta kill whitey movement.

*********

i don't know why lady sovereign and m.i.a make me want to write about fannypack, but...

y'all already know that i was digging fannypack, but i was sure they were going to be a one hit wonder. and maybe they are, but there's some commercial for kids clothes - like jc penny or target or something - where i'm sure i heard one of their latest songs. most people i know think they're wack or corny, but they got more love from me when they covered lidell townsell's 90s mega-club hit "nu ny (yeah yeah)."

is fannypack hipster music?

**********

as appears to be tradition, i took the niece to see the scream tour on wed. i don't have much to report about it - it's pretty much the same as it was two years ago, just a different cast. i felt far more removed from it this time though. the niece and her friend had a blast - and knew practically every word to every song. wife beaters and tight abs can really make teenage girls scream and cry. it sorta felt surreal.

but then i thought, wasn't it the same for me the first time i saw prince or the first time i saw new edition right there in that very same theater. age is definitely on the creep up.

yet i have no shame and announcing that i don't mind marques houston trying to get his grown and sexy on.

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Friday Link Love

8.26.05 Link Love + (Commentary)

Harold M. Clemens confesses that he's a closet socialist hoe. (Whomever needs to pay $30K for coochie with a "bunny" might as well get married. Uh oh, my feminist card is gonna' get revoked for that one.)

Jalylah Burrell is digging Eddie Kendricks' "Intimate Friends." (I've always been a "Goin' Up In Smoke" fan myself.)

Tiffany B. Brown explores topics that make her think and/or get pissy, such as scion's beef w/a rapper over anti-bush lyrics and our consumerist culture. (Isn't it safe to surmise that a society that breeds consumers rather than producers is headed to hell in a hand basket?)

Del F. Cowie's Knapsack and my Beeper post (has me wondering what happened to backpack rap anyway, better yet what exactly is it? Kanye used to sport an LV backpack - is he a backpack rapper? Perhaps Little Brother is the resurrection of that thing, whatever it is. Where are the native tongues when you need 'em, heh?)

Wayne Marshall waxes about the ethnomusicological perspective on reggaeton for the BBC's "the world" program. (Are reggaeton and grime just fads, or will they stick? Wasn't Reggae En Espanol a big play back in the '80s when Shabba Ranks and Super Cat dominated dancehall? As for grime, I'd have to wonder what Hattie Collins did in "will grime pay?" at the BBC Collective in Nov. '04 - "The worry now, of course, is whether Grime will go the way of UKG and end up merging into the mainstream – its real roots lost to the corporate coin eager to rake in the cash rather than build and nurture.")

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Flip Flops - Femalehiphop.net - netlabel: call for beats

From femalehiphop.net:

This is what you have been waiting for: to release one of your homemade tracks on our new netlabel called femalehiphop.net. For our first release "Flip Flops - The Instrumentals" we are looking for beats you'd like to share with the world. We will then release six selected tracks online on femalehiphop.net. This basically means that you can download an mp3 of the track and either listen to it or - this will lead us to our second release "Flip Flops" - add your own rap to the instrumental and send it to us. We'll then choose the best versions and publish them as Flip Flops.

Via FlipFlops, you'll be able to work with a beat/a vocal track of a producer/an MC you didn't know before, so you could sit in Berlin while your MC would be e.g. in Detroit or Sydney. Our motivation to start a netlabel is to push female MCs and producers who didn't get a chance to publish a record yet and also to connect female mcs worldwide. Your tracks will be published under a Creative Commons license (please visit creativecommons.org or www.femalehiphop.net for more information on the license). So get your equipment running and hit us with some banging beats at flipflop@femalehiphop.net! Good luck!

FAQs

Q: Will non-females be allowed to contribute beats?
A: Yes, rhythm has no gender.

Q: Will non-females be allowed to contribute raps?
A: Yes, but we are not going to publish them. There are enough outlets for male MCs already ...

Q: I am a beatboxer, can I contribute?
A: We hope so. Simply record your sounds in a proper way.

Q: Will people be able to get rich from my beats?
A: No, this is what the Creative Commons licence is there for. Nobody will steal your beats, everyone who'll use your beat needs to mention your name and nobody will be allowed to make money from it without your OK. This is family business.

Q: Where do I send my beats to? Which format should they have?
A: Please send an MP3 file with at least 192 kbps to flipflop@femalehiphop.net. Don't send wav files or other uncompressed audio files such as aiff.

Q: May I send a CD too?
A: Yes, please send them to: Caynd c/o De:Bug, Schwedterstr. 9A, 10119 Berlin, Germany

Q: Will there be cover artwork for the final release?
A: Yes, there will ...

Q: I have another question ...
A: Please send an email to flipflop@femalehiphop.net

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the b-day musical mix

ej made me an old school wed bday mix that went live yesterday. heads up to the folks concerned or interested, my bday was actually a week ago on the 17th. To be honest, I had more fun celebrating KB's 40th than I had for my own b-day. Y'know it's just long gone are those days of not being able to wait until your b-day comes cuz mommy and daddy are gonna' take you somewhere or buy you something grand.

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Friday Roundup: 10 Links In A Day

Friday Roundup: 10 Links (+ commentary) In A Day

Feminism

Jessica points to Salon's article - "The F Word" - and further explores generational differences when it comes to claiming feminism.

Hip-Hop

Ambra Nykol muses that perhaps "Diddy" should retire since he hasn't had a hit in years. Though she's more disturbed by the media attention surrounding the shortening of his nickname.

In Is Rap Tomorro's Jazz?, By Thaddeus Russel, laTimes, the author explores the relationship between rap music and jazz utilizing this quote as the kick off of his commentary : "The young girls and boys who constantly take jazz every day and night are absolutely becoming bad, and some criminals," the (New York) Amsterdam News wrote in 1925." Link via negrophile.

Joe Schloss discusses why graffiti activity isn't - or shouldn't be illegal. Over 30 years, thousands - if not 100s of thousands - of art shows, Jean-Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring not withstanding, and we still don't know whether graf is art.

Scott Poulson Bryant talks about Kanye denouncing homophobia in hip-hop on MTV. This could be the best move or the worst move for Kanye in terms of record sales. We all know the power of the gay mafia - so maybe it's a great move. (+ also see Keith Boykin on Hip Hop & Homosexuality.)

Del F. Cowie is loving Little Brother and links to their "Lovin' It" video. With all this love going around the Internet for Little Brother, let's just see if they do Snowman sales.

Reggaeton

Melody reports that Ivy Queen (née Martha Ivelisse Pesante), the only woman to break into the male-dominated up-and-coming music genre that blends hip-hop with Latin and dance-hall reggae beats, has made her mark in the Latin music world as a bona fide reggaeton superstar.

Pop Culture

Kevin wonders if Bobbi Christina might need a little therapy. There was definitely something in last night's episode of Being Bobby Brown that suggested so.

Podcasts

SPIN.com weekly SPINsider Podcast. This week features new music from Mobius Band, Shelby, Sons and Daughters, Koufax, Kid Icarus, and Moggs.

Visioncircle interviews Lynne d Johnson about the growth of hip-hop and about the role of gender in cultural production.

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foxy .vs. kim, again

I was going to post a comparison/contrast piece about Lil' Kim and Foxy Brown in reference to "Lighters Up," and "Come Fly With Me," but emynd @ somanyshrimp already beat me to it. Great post.

I'd just add that Foxy Brown is of Trinidadian ancestry, which has influenced her dancehall-like lyrical flow since day 1. Also, Lil' Kim attempted to frolic over a Calypso beat on "No Matter What They Say," back in 2000. But as emynd intimated, Brooklyn's large Caribbean expat populataion plays a position, as does the ever-popular VP Records and Reaggaeton faction.

And don't we just hear Foxy taking all kinds of jabs @ Lil' Kim - she's using her ad libs, a similar cadence, and even barbs: "I'm a Bad Girl but I ain't signed to Puff." Lil Kim' sounds ready on Naked Truth: "Jacki-O proved you far from a fighter/ ... I'm not gonna come at you, I'm gonna come at your ghost writer."

Looks like it's time for an all out P-Cutta Street War. Anybody keeping score?

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hip-hop hates me

looks like some kids got chips on their shoulders about Vibe's hip-hop bloggers list

in this post ian links to two places that have started threads about it

these discussions raise some important questions:

1. why do you read vibe if you think it's so wack?
2. if you don't care about lists, why are you talking about them so much?
3. why don't you create your own lists - if lists are so important to you? or better yet, make sure your blogroll only includes the blogs that you feel warrant the title "best hip-hop blog" (i know hashim created one somewhere, but i can't find it now. update: that was hiphopblogger's A-list of hip-hop blogs not Hashim's. sorry Hashim i credited that to you in this post)

now to be quite honest - i am not a hip-hop blogger - i often get pegged as such, b/c since 2001, on this site, i have been talking about music - and the music i most talk about happens to be hip-hop - and often i get pegged as a hip-hop feminist blogger b/c of this post, among others (but it ain't all i talk about or know)

y'alls beef w/Exo or the Vibe does not have to become beef w/the people who were listed there (post and write about who the best hip-hop bloggers are, and you can do that w/out spewing venom at the people who were included). this press release about The Mindset Army's takeover of exo's domain warscribe.blogspot.com says:

i have a lot of respect for you young gunnahs representing hip-hop to the fullest on the Web. (and i can't forget the veteran). these types of blogs fill a void that the mainstream hip-hop media and music media leaves wide open - but truth is these hardcore nuhs running through my block representing hip-hop on some gangsta' ish wouldn't even consider a "hip-hop blog" real hip-hop, or would consider this hip-hop blog thing straight pussy, or even better as joey said don't even know wtf a hip-hop blog is or that they exist...

and finally in the words of T.I. (edited for my own purposes of course)

No doubt, it's all good, y'all just statin y'all opinion
But on the Web and in the hood it's understood without sayin
It's a given, and ain't because of what I'm doin for a livin
It's, mo' because of what I do and how I'm livin

I'm a Queen - just respect it and keep my name out'cha mouth

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on the outs - must see film

On Sunday, New York City experienced some of the most miserable weather in years. While sitting in a Chelsea restaurant eating brunch, I watched out the window as a torrentail downpour erupted. It ceased, and then stormed again. We even had to hail down a cab to drive us just a block up to where our car was parked. As we sat in the car, watching the rain continue its crashing dance against our windshield, our eyes happened upon a poster for a film. The poster showed the faces of three young girls, with the title On The Outs written across it.

For some strange reason, I seem to be consistently drawn to films about troubled female teenagers. I could have been a troubled female teenager. In fact, I think I was a troubled female teenager. I have a teenage niece. I don't want her to be a troubled female teenager. And so, I watch these films. These films hit home. And thankfully, not too closely. Like Thirteen, that I saw two years ago. The film was a dysfunctional-family drama, filled with horror beating you over the head like a brick. It was unnerving and troubling to see that this is possibly what the lives of teenage girls are made of.

So in seeing the poster for On The Outs, my curiousity arose. The rain quieted down again, and after returning an item to TJ Max, we drove over to The IFC Center to see if the film was playing. It was going to play in the next half hour, and so we decided to watch the film. I didn't know much about it, other than what the poster revealed, or what I thought I had read somewhere about a month ago. The film is based on the lives of three Jersey City (Brick City) Latina youth whose paths cross in-and-out of juvenile detention.

One girl is a drug dealer. Another, a crack mother. And the final, is a girl whose world turns topsy turvy once she starts dating a drug dealer. The film's docudrama style is chilling, and the acting heartrending. It is actually the acting that warrants attention, even more than the story itself. Murphy's Law becomes a little too apparent, and a little too overplayed. Most of the teens I know would probably suck their teeth and roll their necks with displeasure at the obviousness of the message that the film hopes to get across. Yet it's the complexities of the characters presented by the actors, and not the story on its own, that offer the film its redemption.

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grand theft auto takes on a new meaning

Sex, Lies, and Videogames by Bethany McLean @ Fortune poses this question: "What's most shocking about the controversial-and top-selling-Grand Theft Auto isn't embedded sex scenes. It's the financial chicanery of the game's maker. Why don't investors care?"

What McLean goes onto report is that "on July 20 when the videogame industry's Entertainment Software Rating Board concluded that sexually explicit scenes hidden deep within the bestselling game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas could be easily accessed via software available on the Internet."

Beyond that the company's financial practices and advertising deception is the focus of the article. Yet amisdt all this controversy the company's stock continues to soar.

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now that's funny...

Thank you Jason for helping me find my sense of humor...

You like things silly, immediate, and, above all, outrageous. Ixne on the subtle word play, more testicles on fire, please. People like you are the most likely to RECEIVE internet forwards--and also the most likely to save them in a special folder entitled 'HOLY SHIT'.

Because it's so easily appreciated, and often wacky and physical, your sense of humor never ceases to amuse your friends. Most realize that there's a sly intelligence and a knowing wink to your tastes. Your sense of humor could be called 'anti-pretentious'--but paradoxically enough, that indicates you're smarter than most.

PEOPLE LIKE YOU: Johnny Knoxville - Jimmy Kimmel

If you liked this test, send it to your friends!
The 3 Variable Funny Test

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more feminist hip-hop blogging

I wasn't going to do this self-promotion ish, but since I've gotten so much feedback I might as well.

Here's a link to audio of the Blogher Hip-Hop Feminist Blogging session provided by Ponzi - also via The Chris Pirillo Show

Here's a link to a creatively edited video of the session provided by Renegade - also via blogtelevision.net

And for those of you who missed the Blogging While Black session @ SXSW interactive here's a link to some audio provided by George

The audio and video links are on my server, so how about not using up my bandwidth and right click to save the file to your desktop. Then you can listen or watch whenever you want however often you want.

___

On another note, I have to get back to something I started in this post about a possible need for a Bloggers of Color event, or even a Black Bloggers event. I'm still not quite sure we need this, especially after chatting with cnulan over at visioncircle about it. Yet, the fact that ambra nykol is interested in such a thing, definitely has my curiousity peeked. Sheesh, I didn't even know that a Black Weblog Awards was afoot.

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dead prez on the state of hip hop

the brothers over at visioncircle hipped me to this interview with dead prez discussing the current state of black cultural production and black youth culture in its media and $$$ dominating embodiment as commercialized RaP {Rhyming and Posing. As usual, the prez are candid.

go on over to visioncircle and check it out click here

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is the iPod truly innovative

Over at ilounge Larry Angell reports that Apple continues to hold 'substantial lead' over competitors

yet in the August 2005 edition of FastCompany John J. Sviokla's In Praise of Ecosystems declares:

who is right? in a way, they both are. apple was sort of first to party, so therefore the company will reap the benefits of being the industry leader for a little longer. the tipping point has probably already occurred, or will be reached shortly. and then the entire iPod, iTunes great rise will plateau. at that point, all of the competitors will have gotten their technologies figured out and their products will become just as sexy if not sexier than the ipod.

there'll be a little of Sviokla's ecosystem at play, but also a little bit of good old fashion capitalism.

don't get me wrong, i'm an apple die hard, but if you remember, ma bell only reigned for so long.

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RSS Advertising on Blogs

Published in Online Publishing Insider today - and I think very relevant to all this talk about blogs becoming big business - they really won't. This is exactly the same as social networking, community sites, and message boards - if the advertser doesn't feel in control of the medium - the medium won't necessarily boom. It may become a cultural phenomenon, but not big business.

Blogs owned by media companies are an entirely different thing, of course.

But anyway, here's Scott Raffer, president and CEO of Feedster on RSS Advertising on Blogs

by Scott Rafer, Monday, Aug 8, 2005 2:10 PM EST

AT CHICAGO'S AD:TECH CONFERENCE, IT was reported that marketers indicated a deep ambivalence towards blogs, saying that their companies urgently want a blog presence but, at the same time, fear the consequences of letting consumers freely express their opinions. This is not an unreasonable reaction. What right-thinking company wants their message running on a Web site where they can't know with certainty that the content won't be offensive or may even attack the advertiser's own brand?

Yet, wrote MediaPost, blogs also are seen as the wave of the future -- much the same as the Internet itself several years ago. "People look at blogs today and they say... I have to be in this space. How do I do it?" said Steve Curtin, vice president of e-marketing and search at Digital Grit.

Here are your choices: You can place ads directly on blogs that you have come to know and trust and have an audience that is attractive to your brand. You can restrict your ad messaging to your own corporate blog and link to enough other blogs that your message might be seen by someone clicking back through to your own blog. You can buy into a blog network. But if you do, make certain the network keeps track of their contributors and can tell if a blogger has a history of appropriate/inappropriate writing in great detail.

Alternatively, you can monitor blogs by using blog search engines like Feedster's and respond to other postings. This is a very tricky business since bloggers tend to react poorly to transparently "corporate" messages within the context of their content.

Or, you can advertise in RSS feeds. RSS feeds are summaries of stories from blogs and Web sites that update users as content changes. Users "subscribe" to feeds with a simple click, and access them through a reader. The reader (think of a browser) presents a sort of table of contents with all the updates included as a headline or a brief story summary. It can also contain advertising messages at the top of the content or placed anywhere in the summary listings.

This is fundamentally different from advertising directly on blogs. Your message is clearly intended and perceived as a marketing message, so you won't be seen as co-opting the blogsphere with commercialism. The user doesn't have to click through to the blog to see the ad, it's in his reader. Ads can be placed on RSS feeds that aggregate hundred of thousands of subscribers with common interests.

Look at the example from Click Z columnist David Rittenhouse:

"Let's say a technology company wants to reach software buyers with an offer for an improved productivity application. The advertiser selects the Internet as a strong channel to reach software buyers; he places ads on the main technology and software industry Web sites. But he also wants to reach early adopters and technology users in other ways... you can target users who enter your site via an RSS feed... This isn't targeting by content section (e.g., not in the business section). It's more like creating a new section for all users who have entered the site via RSS. The page's content could be international news, or business, or technology. It doesn't matter. Ads are matched to the pages based on the user's RSS use.

"Simply put, advertising works best when it connects marketers with the right audience," said Alyson Racer, group director, NYTimes.com in Click Z. "RSS is one strategic way to reach out to early adopters, active news seekers, and Internet savvy users." Remember RSS users are subscribers. Although they don't pay for feeds, they won't opt-in for them unless they have a strong interest in the subject. So, targeting audiences via RSS vertical channels can be extremely cost effective.

Reprinted from Online Publishing Insider Monday, Aug 8, 2005

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the ethics of podcasting

from an earlier post you may have read of my session at blogher and of latthana indharasophang of ponzi's schemes recording it for the chris pirillo show.

well it seems that justin who attended the session felt that: "However, one of the people attending the session (who turned out to be Ponzi, girlfriend of Chris Pirillo) asked if she could have permission to “podcast” the session. I figured this meant unobtrusively record the speaker and the audience’s questions from a distance. Instead she proceeded to take over the session, interrupting Lynne to ask questions, and otherwise being rather intrusive. Even I felt uncomfortable. Brave new world indeed."

ponzi has a response of course. most notedly, "Wow - I think it's rather interesting how ones good intentions (mine) can end up someone else's uncomfortable memory (his)."

This discussion brings up a slew of issues surrounding the ethics of audiocasting/podcasting - and probably even videocasting - or how about even photoblogging.

I of course didn't feel intruded upon, and as I said in ponzi's comments and also in a conversation with one of blogher's organizers, I was briefly taken aback. That was until I collected my thoughts and started to go with the rhythm of what was happening. It actually facilitated a better session.

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08.05.05 - friday roundup - blog links in a day

We on Award Tour with Lynne my femme
Goin' each and every blog with the keys replacing pens

I don't get to keep up with the blogs all that often, far too many in my bloglines to do so (and well the business and personal lives tend to take precedence). Nowadays I'm thinking about making a point every Friday to point out the clever, interesting, humorous, informative, witty, and whatnot, posts that I come across.

Joe Twist breaks down what's hip

Hashim's other blog (probably like his 5th or something) hiphopblogger names the A-List hip-hop bloggers - he names, in no particular order, Byron Crawford, Kevin Scott, Hashim Warren, Jay Smooth, Clyde Smith. Of course I won't mention that he left out a couple (so no I won't name them). And c'mon couldn't you even try to name at least one female? (And don't think that's a call for you to name me, b/c I know my content is not strictly hip-hop.

Nicole of thehotnessgrrl blog chops it up with Greg Tate, Chris Jackson, and Havelock Nelson about writers, the profession of writing, and literature in general

which brings me to...

Mark Anthony Neal's post about Bakari Kitwana, Political Writing and the Harlem Book Fair

and by the way, Ronn points us to c-span video clips of the Harlem Book Fair

also now just coming across Keith's Hustle & Flow review, which I concur with wholeheartedly. In fact, in an interview with a Dutch reporter this week, I said some of the very same things. At first she expected more of a feminist read from me, but when she heard my overall opinion of the film - the humanness, the way in which each character was empowered - etc. she got my drift. More important, I was able to explain that hip-hop, or rap music more pointedly, does not exist in a vacuum. Surely we've all heard of the corporate thug? And how about the political pimp? How is it that we make concessions for one and not the other?

The fact remains, Hustle & Flow is a powerful movie. It's not just a glimpse at black culture, or pimp culture, or rap culture, you best believe it makes a provocative cultural statement about the American psyche. I only wish that when the mainstream reads cultural products such as these, that it looks beyond the color of the actors and/or director and instead at the underlying issues presented.

Sounds like I'm on to another post. A little something like - Why Can't Black Film just be Film?

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we want free music, free content, and free tools

Just in case you've been falling asleep at the keyboard lately and may not have noticed, the big 4 are all vying for your eyeballs with a mix of content offerings. When I speak of "the big 4,", I'm referring to google, yahoo, msn, and aol. This is especially true of at least two of the four, as cheaper means of obtaining broadband flourishes, and being simply an ISP isn't going to cut it anymore.

They all offer some means of social networking, aggregating content, a form of search, free email, blogging tools, or at least partnerships with those who provide such services. It's becoming harder and harder to claim loyalty to just one.

As Shawn Fanning's Napster once proved though, it's music that we all really want (or at least some form of audio content). We want more ways to discover new music, and we want more ways to have access to free digital music.

Recent announcemnts on XM partnerships would seem to prove this hypothesis. There's the New York Times deal ("XM will carry New York Times' WQXR music series "Reflections from the Keyboard" on one of its classical music channels and develop other classical programs. XM will also include reports, reviews, and commentaries from Times staffers in several of its talk radio channels, and the companies will develop an hourly newscast for selected XM talk channels.") Then there's the aol deal, offering live music content. And also a radio deal between the two. There's even a Napster/XM partnership.

Now that's just in the world of Satellite, on demand music and video offerings both online and in the cable world appear to be booming businesses. And though we know podcasting won't do much for revenue share, unless backed by sponsors, it's just one more digital music offering for these companies to go out and get wedded to.

But my point here is that we want music, or at least Yahoo thinks we must because the latest company to enter the music discovery fray is, well — Yahoo. Yesterday, the company debuted its audio search engine, "the most open and comprehensive index of audio files on the Web." If this move, along with Apple's sanctioning of podcasts, and all the iPod and iTunes competitors cropping up, doesn't prove to you that music and entertainment are the biggest play of the new economy — then I don't know what will.

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fuse raises ire w/animal-insesitive advertising

According to the New York Post, a new Fuse network spot features two tweens attaching rabbits to parachutes and throwing them off the roof toward targets, such as old tires. The youth receive points for the animals landing safely. One of the actors apologetically retorts, "I used to do other activities back before I had Fuse. I guess I had no choice."

In response to any questions raised by the commercial, Fuse marketing heads admit that the company likes to teeter on the edge.

Personally, I think the commercial is remniscent of MTV's Jackass or perhaps even Tom Green. Either it's real creative genius, or just really bad advertising.

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more blogher...

as you can see over at technorati, a lot of folks have had lots to say about blogher. i wish that i had more to say, but it was really a lot to take in. i missed out on the opening night's activities and didn't get to santa clara until around 1 am on saturday.

then it was a run through the sessions, and then i had to be out to return in time for a dave matthews band, black eyed peas concert. so i didn't even get to stay for the closing, where i'm told one audience member stated that originally she didn't understand the need for a session on hip-hop blogging or brownblogging, but that later she found them interesting. it looks like as much was proven by the blogging while black sxsw panel - with commentary by nancy white, emily gertz, and the lawver wiki, among others, I can still see that there is still much needed discussion around race and blogging as there is about women blogging.

do people of color need to have their own blogging conference? i'm not saying that's the right route to take, but i am definitely wondering if it's needed. from what i can tell, asians, east asians, hispanics and latinos, and even youth, feel left out by much of the "mainstream" discussions around blogging.

but, back to blogher...

overall i had a really pleasant time and most enjoyed meeting people (especially finally meeting halley suitt) and learning that there were people who read my blog from time-to-time , whom i didn't even realize checked me out. also, from what i can tell the feedback on my session was positive. (for the sake of humility, i am not going to link to all of the blogs that mentioned my session, or the folks who video or audio recorded the session, or even took pictures of me at any point during the conference. as for the photos, you can just simply go over to flickrbuzznet's blogher buzzwords.)

it has been interesting reading what the conference organizers had to say: Elisa Camahort over at the blogher site, lisa stone over at surfette, and jory des jardins over at pause.

some of my favorite sessions included the ROYO for Teens & Blogging and the Blogging for Business session, where I learned that stonyfield farms has 4 weblogs. i have been observing lately that more-and-more corporations (not just media outlets) are adding blogs to their sites in order to provide comunnity portals for their consumers.

the only drawback, i suppose, was the fact that there was a lot of content jam-packed into a short period of time and i only hope that for blogher 2006 sessions be a little more spread out so that attendees can take part in more. and then, although the hip-hop feminism blogging session turned out well, i still wish that others had been there to voice their stories. next time, heh.

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where i'll move when i move

as new york city can get very wearing on someone who has been her all of her natural born life, every now and then i start thinking about where i'd move to if i ever moved. often i think the bay area or the ATL are the only places i'd be interested in, but thanks to Trent i found out that's not all. after taking Sperling's Best Places quiz, I soon realized that i had done something similar before over at findyourspot. I like the results of this test a lot better than the last one...

1 San Francisco, CA
2 Los Angeles-Long Beach, CA
3 Boston, MA-NH-ME
4 Long Island, NY
5 Seattle-Bellevue-Everett, WA
6 Washington, DC-MD-VA-WV
7 Oakland, CA
8 San Jose, CA
9 San Diego, CA
10 New York, NY

________
11 Dallas, TX
12 Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN-WI
13 Rochester, MN
14 Monmouth-Ocean, NJ
15 Orange County, CA
16 Pittsburgh, PA
17 Chicago, IL
18 Middlesex-Somerset-Hunterdon, NJ
19 Bergen-Passaic, NJ
20 Stamford-Norwalk, CT

_______
21 Cleveland-Lorain-Elyria, OH
22 Santa Cruz-Watsonville, CA
23 Danbury, CT
24 Newark, NJ
25 Denver, CO
26 Honolulu, HI
27 Houston, TX
28 Fort Worth-Arlington, TX
29 Philadelphia, PA-NJ
30 New Haven-Meriden, CT

________
31 Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, FL
32 San Luis Obispo-Atascadero-Paso Robles, CA
33 Santa Barbara-Santa Maria-Lompoc, CA
34 Detroit, MI
35 Providence-Fall River-Warwick, RI-MA
36 Baltimore, MD
37 Nashua, NH
38 Ventura, CA
39 Miami, FL
40 Trenton, NJ

_______
41 Tacoma, WA
42 Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill, NC
43 Atlanta, GA
44 New Orleans, LA
45 San Antonio, TX
46 Santa Rosa, CA
47 Sacramento, CA
48 Newburgh, NY-PA
49 Milwaukee-Waukesha, WI
50 Bridgeport, CT
51 Portland-Vancouver, OR-WA

Copyright © 1998-2001 Sperling's BestPlaces (Fast Forward, Inc.) All Rights Reserved. disclaimer

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bloghers

until i change the way i link to others on my site, other than my blog fam and in the other links area (when the site update happens and i probably use my bloglines blogrolls for all links), i just wanted to make sure that somewhere on this site i include the blogher blogroll - also more notes on blogher to come soon

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