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Episode 017

– Raising The Bar –

iTunes link: Banal Leakage

  • – still sneezing here; I’ve grown tired of how much I sneeze, which is in the 20-30 times a day.
  • – fruit is not quite in season here; bought strawberries and watermelon and they were pretty tart; a couple more months and they will be delicious.
  • News – Story 1: Netflix Increases Profits, Monthly Fees
  • – that just doesn’t flow together; profits are higher, but we are going to raise monthly fees; at this point, this is for new users so those of us that have been long time subscribers are safe from a price increase for what they say will be “a generous time period” – however long that is supposed to be, is anyone’s guess; the last time they did a price increase, users left in droves; this is not to say that they can’t raise prices; but when profits are high and users are pretty happy, why rock the boat?; the last thing Netflix needs is to have the low approval rating of a service like cable TV; speaking of which, they just paid Comcast a tidy sum to free up bandwidth restrictions; guess they are looking to new customers to fund that bounty; I like Netflix, but they need to really be smart these days or they will find themselves with fewer fans and customers.
    – Link to article: Netflix is raising prices for new customers
    atari dig
    Original image found at Engadget

  • News – Story 2: Atari E.T. game cartridges found
  • – a 30+ year urban legend in the video gaming industry, the legend and stories were revealed to be true; after the disaster that the E.T. game was for the Atari 2600 game console back in the early 80’s, they wanted to just get rid of the excess stock pile of game cartridges; so they took them to a landfill in Alamogordo, New Mexico and buried them, along with other 2600 cartridges like Asteroids, Defender and Centipede; and then they covered in in concrete to stop trash diggers from rummaging; Microsoft funded an upcoming documentary on Atari which part of the subject matter was the E.T. games; the find geeked me out a lot when I heard they found the games; I had heard the story for years; I had a 2600 and a copy of the E.T. game; it sucked bad, even worse than the Pac-man for the 2600 VCS; the documentary, called “Atari: Game Over” will be out later this year, exclusively on Xbox One.
    – Link to article: The Dig: Uncovering the Atari E.T. games buried in New Mexico desert

  • News – Story 3: Public racist remarks see a surge
  • – Cliven Bundy, rouge Nevada rancher, drops racist remarks, suggesting black people were better off as slaves; Donald Sterling, owners of the NBA team Los Angeles Clippers, caught in a 10 min rant with his girlfriend, objecting to her bringing black people to basketball games; in the case of Cliven Bundy, his press statement was not directly related to his standoff with the BLM over years of free cattle grazing on public lands; for Donald Sterling, the idea he would make such statements when black players are very prominent in the NBA; Magic Johnson and Michael Jordan have denounced his statements; Snoop Dogg also posted a video of his denouncement; it’s never been right to have these kinds of statements made; back in the days before the Civil Rights Act was passed, they were common; it’s 2014… why are there still those who hang on to these outdated and uncalled for positions; I thought gay was the new black; guess these people are hanging onto their ancient fossilized ideals and their biased way of thinking.
    – Link to article: Donald Sterling Racist Rant

  • RANT: Concert Ticket Fees
  • – Ticketmaster and many other ticket agencies, charge several fees for each ticket you purchase; ticket starts out at $25, then after all of the fees, it ends up costing you $43.50 per ticket; fees include: service charge for purchasing the ticket, print tickets at home, holding ticket at will call, online convenience fee, facility charge, parking, mailing a physical ticket, Flash Seats, regular connivence fee; it’s all bullshit; There are exceptions, such as in 1994 when Pearl Jam decided to fight Ticketmaster; that didn’t work out too well since ticket companies like Live Nation and Ticketmaster are a monopoly and also own the venues and control the ticket distribution; locally, we have 24Tix, which I like since they have only one handling fee, normally under $5 a ticket; and that includes mail delivery of a physical ticket; there is sometime the option of going to the venue ticket office and purchasing your ticket, which there are no fees; which strikes me as odd since there is an actual human doing actual work to order the ticket and hand it to you with a smile.

  • SHAMELESS PLUG: Elton John’s “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road” gets a 40th anniversary reissue
  • – there’s been two prior remastered versions of this landmark 1973 album; it’s considered Elton’s best, to many fans, including myself; the 40th remastered edition also comes with a second CD with remakes of songs like “Benny and the Jets” performed by Miguel; and “Saturday Night’s Alright for Fighting” by Fall Out Boy; not bad, but I still prefer the original Elton; in comparing the last version I had, which is the 1995 remaster, there are some very noticeable differences in musical notes, keyboards, guitars; I never heard the 30th edition, so I wouldn’t imagine there would be much difference between it and the 40th edition; still, if you are a fan of Elton John and don’t have this album, you should pick it up; there are different versions of this 40th year remaster; the ultimate is a 5 disc set with DVDs of a 1973 concert.

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