Designed to Sell? or Designed to Manipulate?

So my wife Linz loves to watch shows like: Designed to Sell and Flip This House etc. etc. Sometime I end up watching. The crazy thing is that these "teams" of people come in and tell you what people are looking for when they are looking at buying a house. Then they attempt to come up with a plan in order to make the "important" things that people look at the most really appealing by very very cheaply dressing things up. Of course with the magic of T.V. they always never spend over their budget and of course they don't ever factor in the cost of labor. Some times they do things that are cool, but most of the time it's all cheap little "cover-ups". 

I think it's crap. What do you think? 

Apple... Do your Job Steve Jobs.

Oh Shit! Someone within Apple out in Cupertino, CA had to have said that in the office at one point or another. I knew that my number one "go-to" company with a great history of efficient machines and support wouldn't last. It was too good to be true. As most of you may or may not know - Apple recently switched their .mac account(s) over to a new feature called Mobile-Me. At the same time they also released the new Apple iphone 3G, iphone software 2.0, and itunes 7.7.

This was a relatively large task that most consumers and Mac users were highly anticipating and now asking "What the hell happened?". I think the shit really hit the fan when AT&T's servers were overwhelmed with thousands and thousands of iphones being activated all within a very small amount of time. Even though AT&T was largely blamed for the iphone fiasco it still made a lot of Mac users a little uneasy.  

Many people with the older iphones tried to update the their phone to the new 2.0 software which turned out less than excited for many users. Most ended up with what they called a $500 functionless "brick" that would turn on, use battery life, but not make calls or anything else useful. Luckily my phone didn't "brick". 

Now onto the Mobile-Me fiasco. Mobile-Me was introduced to act as Apple's version of "Microsoft Exchange". New apple users could purchase a Mobile-Me subscription and the previous system users (.mac) would have their accounts automatically transferred over. This would allow anyone with a Mobile-Me subscription to "seamlessly" sync their iphone, home, personal, and laptop computers together. This was to include calendars, contacts, mail accounts, bookmarks, and apple based web applications such as iweb. Apple also loosely used the word "push" email and contacts which also created a lot of flack. Ultimately a great idea that was disastrously executed. 

I was one of the lucky few once again. My computers and first generation iphone were able to sync together. Mainly and luckily because one of my newer machines (MacPro) has the latest platform (10.5.4) which works best with Mobile Me, even though my older 15" powerbook is running 10.4.11. The only problem I've run into is not being able to publish my new website I've been working on via iweb on my macs.

Other people are experiencing far worse problems. There are many people with mail accounts that no longer work correctly and are being told they need to upgrade platforms in order for their older .mac account to work correctly and be able to switch over to Mobile-Me. That is total bullshit since Mac announced the Mobile Me and previous .mac accounts would seamlessly work with 1o.4.11. 

Apple has pissed a lot of people off including me. It's ironic I was just telling my sister how great a .mac account would be for her this morning and even though I wouldn't use anything but a Mac, I kind of feel a small sense of worry about what's to come of this whole shit storm. 

Way to go Steve - take off your stupid black turtle-neck and get to work. 

Hijacked...because sometimes I think I need a blog

I have hijacked Jay's blog. You see, he leaves me at home alone for long stretches of time when he's in the studio (with phone turned off may I add), and apparently I'm not resourceful enough to just call someone to go do something, but I am resourceful enough to figure out his blog username and password. So I welcomed myself in. And changed all the colors (much better I may add).

And sometimes I just feel like I need a blog (but don't really want to commit to one). Like yesterday - I was thinking about the fact that everyone thinks they can be a photographer. This just seems wrong and worthy of commentary...

Foiled! Jay called and is on his way home. Gotta go.

The Hip/Hop Buzz continues.......

I couldn't really tell what my sister (Leanne) was trying to say about "the club" other than what she experienced personally was much different from what we typically hear "rapped" about in popular songs. Then again I don't know what kind of a club experience the "south" really has to offer. Cancun is one thing, but Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Texas? I think that Usher is probably talking about some swank place somewhere else. Maybe LA, NYC, Miami? I would have to say other than going to "The Swamp" in Destin, FL - I would agree... but I have seen the wet t-shirt contest, Tone-Loke in concert, and the bubble foam party (that my friends and yours truly) took part in.

I definitely have some musical respect for Jay-Z and a few others in the "rap world" , but as for the hip-hop genre as a whole - I think the newest batch of "artists" are ruining it. Who the f@#$ cares about half the stuff they rap about. Don't get me wrong I'm all about beats, hooky chorus melodies, and dancing at clubs. I write stuff like that all the time for different things ... but the stupid crap they come up with lyrically is so juvenile, chauvinist, so degrading, it's really quite despicable and I believe it's a slap in the face to artists. Which of course brings into question this idea of an artist. I mean come on.... do you think Lil' Wayne has something he really wants to say or get across? Horse-shit!

Call yourself an entertainer, call yourself a performer, but please don't call yourself an artist. I can deal with most of these guys because I think "most" intelligent people have some sense of culture and understand what these guys "really" do. Don't get me wrong - I don't think that Ludacris or Loyd Banks are out to make a political statement... I sure seems like they are mostly concenred with making a ton of money (showing it, spending it, and living for it) and showing all of us what kind of shit they have in their refrigerators on MTV's cribs... AND... I'm totally fine with that. There are a lot of hip/hop songs that I like and enjoy listening to despite the lack of integrity in the lyrics. Being a drummer, producer, songwriter, and programmer I can appreciate the production and work that goes into these songs. I just also know that they mean shit in the grand scheme of timeless music. I know what those guys and gals are about and hopefully most others do, but there are a few who really use that term "artist" very loosely and that just pisses me off. And yes.... I know what you are thinking - there are plenty of non-hip/hop "artists" that do the same thing just in a different vein. Take for example all of the big hair bands of the eighties. To save some breathe... DIDO to them too.

I may "paint" shit at home with my little midi keyboard on my computer, but I'm painting. I'm not showing up to the studio to figure out a way to come up with the next best catchy sexual innuendo or attempting to coin the newest narcissistic phrase. I'm playing and writing music because that's what I do it's a part of me and at heart it's really who I am. I would definitely consider the guys who come up with all the music for these morons artists. It takes some serious talent to produce a hip/hop record these days and the really good songs are so tight. For instance... 50 cents "candy shop", "in da club", "disco inferno" those are some musically tight songs. I like and enjoy listening to them, but the integrity of the music, the way those "artists" are portrayed, and the way the songs get written are so messed up. My personal analogy would be like making an amazing statue or sculpture that looks incredible, was molded, shaped, and refined into something amazing and then having a drunk, doped up, degenerate take a massive dump on it.

The crazy thing about all of this... I still listen to it. I'm just as guilty as the next person. I don't go out and buy the next Big Mike album, but I also haven't deleted the spring break playlist I purchased back in 04' either. It's definitely messed up.

We need more Garfunkels, more RUN DMC's, more Beastie Boys (for the most part), more Etta James, more Bob Dylans.

4th of July, inventions, and harrison ford

Did you know that USA Today lists Belton, TX as one of the top ten places in America to celebrate the fourth of July? I didn't know that, but I do now... and guess what? I'm here right now. 

Jared Johnson (CMT's Can You Duet - Contestant/Brother-in-Law) played a show last night in Temple at The Duckhorn Tavern. 

On a completely different note... I am trying to invent something in order to secure my financial future. I'm not really "banking" on the invention thing - I just figure if guys like Tom from myspace and the "geniuses" at facebook can create websites that pretty much make people less efficient all day long.... then I can invent something worth more than a couple of hours a day wasted. By the way... I have a myspace and a facebook page - I'm a hypocrite, but I'm trying to create something else. 

My latest thought has been a new design for microphone stands. Typical stands are always moving and falling over. I just tried to think of something that has always bothered me and how I could make it better. Kind of like the guy from Dyson that invented the new kind of hand dryer you are probably seeing more and more of inside commercial restrooms.

P.S. and totally unrelated... has anyone ever seen Harrison Ford in an interview or on one of the late shows? He is so weird. Creepy.

Finally

Sometimes when you play music for a few years trying to make something of yourself you catch a small break. 

I have to say the first time I ever hear

d a great record with amazing drums I was hooked, and from that day on I wanted to get to play on a record like that. 

Well.... that day came in February of this year and I'm just now getting to hear some rough mixes of what is to come and I am so happy. 

The artist is Aaron Wagner. He calls Weatherford Texas home and his album is almost finished.