Author: admin

The bankruptcy and closure of what may be the last pro-level manufacturer of analog audio tape in the world may be the beginning of the end for analog audio. The plant employed about 250 employees and in its heyday employed around 1,800 workers. Musicians and producers all over the world are scrambling to stockpile the last reels of unused analog tape available. I’ve never used analog tape much myself, but this may be the end of an era and that’s always accompanied by a bit of sadness. The ramifications of this go beyond music, too. Here’s more from NPR.

Gary Webb, a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist who reported on the connection between the CIA and the crack trade in Los Angeles, shot himself a couple weeks back. Those articles he wrote back in 1996 struck some nerves and several notable newspapers worked hard to discredit him and his reporting. They succeeded and his career was destroyed. Since then the bulk of his findings were have been admitted to by the CIA itself, but the LA Times completely failed to mention that in his obituary. Instead they took the opportunity to discredit him further. Sad sad sad.

Yamaha, known for making motorcycles and jetskis, as well as lots of musical instruments and professional audio gear, is buying Steinberg, the company behind music software Cubase and Nuendo. Cubase and Nuendo are notably the last cross-platform PC and Mac digital audio workstation (DAW) applications out there, other than the venerable ProTools which can only be purchased along with their hardware. The other two major audio and midi applications (Logic Pro and Digital Performer) are both Mac-only. There’s some other notable applications that are cross-platform, but Cubase/Nuendo, Performer and Logic are the ‘Big 3’. This move puts Yamaha directly in competition with Apple, who owns Emagic and their Logic software (now called Logic Pro and branded as an Apple product). I suspect Yamaha wants the software technology as a complement to their range of digital audio hardware, but we’ll see what happens!

Bill Moyers recently received the fourth annual Global Environment Citizen Award from the Center for Health and the Global Environment at Harvard Medical School (wow, that’s a mouthful), and in his acceptance essay he paints an interesting and somewhat infuriating and a bit depressing picture of the grip Christian ideas has on today’s America. Go read it now and tell everyone you know!

An interesting article that breaks down the red state/blue state concept we’re all so familiar with into red county/blue county terms. If you’re too short on time to read, it turns out that most blue states are actually predominantly red when viewed by county. Likewise, most red states have some large blue sections. The blue sections turn out to be mostly the major cities. The author then argues that the Democrats need to focus more on ‘urban issues’. It’s worth reading even if you don’t agree with all of the points made. I think there’s some real wisdom in there.

Oh, and by the way, I’m really sick of all these “It’s the [Blank], Stupid” slogans and titles. It wasn’t that funny or insightful the first time.