I call "Bullshit"

Apple Threatens iTunes Shutdown over Royalty Dispute

I believe this is simply a case of Jobs trying to throw his weight around for absolutely no reason. And such a release from Apple does not make sense. Not because it sounds stupid, but because they cannot afford to do such a thing. Not that Apple is making a ton of money from iTunes. No sir, they claim to be almost losing money in the store. And if the royalties are increased they say they surely will lose money on every song, because they do not wish to increase the 99 cents a song to $1.05 a song.
But there is a bigger story here and that is Apple has for the last 4-5 years been building an ecosystem around iTunes. iPod, iPhone are both completely reliant on the iTunes. Well that's not completely true. They can be run on any other programs also, but just the simplicity of using iTunes for music and other media transfer makes it important enough for Apple to have in their stable.
And if they plan to continue expanding into media and entertainment offerings, like Apple TV and Time Capsule, then they definately need iTunes to be at the center of their Household Entertainment hub. So I call "Bullshit" or "Bluff" depending where in the world you are.

Day Zero

Ok ok this is not the same pressure as in an IIT setting. That probably cannot be replicated anywhere else in the world imo. I can say that with confidence having been an Indian media witness of the IIT job forum chaos for the past 5 years atleast.
That does not mean I'm any less important, atleast to myself. Having established that, I have officially begun the job search process today. Company no. 1 who deserves my attention is W.R.Grace. Funny story, they have been bankrupt for 7 years (US style, which is funny, but about that on another day) and were sued some time back for some form of asbestos contamination. Brilliant start to a promising career I say. Whatay??!!

Rose Polenzani & Session Americana

Last night I went to the Lizard Lounge in Cambridge to check out Rose Polenzani CD release party. I've heard her once before at the same venue and had loved her music. And to top it off, Session Americana was the guest band for the evening. On a side note, they will also be the house band for a month at Lizard.
Rose's music is something I would not listen to normally. But there is something about her voice and her lyrics that draw me to her music. And last night was no different.
Session Americana also is music I do not listen to regularly, but these guys have so much fun playing live, it's hard not to get sucked in. Highlight of the night, cover of "So Lonely" and then the last 2 songs dedicated to the bassist Kimon Kirk about to leave. The thing about these guys is they play around a roundtable and all sing into one microphone. And keep exchanging instruments. At one point, they were trying to teach Kimon to play the mandarin.
And may I say I absolutely love the setting at Lizard and the beer. Good house beers on tap unavailable elsewhere mostly and perfect setting for a good night of music and camaraderie.
The only disappointing thing is when its a relatively small setting and the music is not all that loud, some people talk a little too loudly and the thing is their conversation decibel rises with the volume of the music. But hey, its not my house and there is only so much dirty-staring capacity in me. So you learn to try and ignore such people.

Apocalyptica

Went to check out these Finnish guys famous for playing Metallica covers. What with my faith in Metallica now re-born; not the same ole glory days pre-Reload and St. Anger, but getting there. Anyways I was at the Palladium in Worcester on Thruday night to listen to some great covers of Master, One and Nothing Else Matters, which are the only ones I've heard by these guys. The club turned out to be pretty cool and also had a full bar. And $5 beers instead of freakin $8 beers as is the norm to loot fans at any other bigger venue.
The music was good, and I was pleasantly surprised to hear them play David Bowie's "Heroes". Good cover. Among Metallica songs, they played One & Seek & Destroy.
Now I wait for January to hear Metallica play again.

Metallica @ Ozzfest 2008

Oh hell yeah!! I was there!! Albeit adventurously.
So I had a early morning flight to Dallas from Logan. The flight got delayed and I still missed it. by a minute. But try explaining that to the US Airways lady who shut the skywalk door in front of me. Who in the world misses a delayed flight. So then I was stuck at Boston airport for 5 hours. Grabbed some breakfast and was generally hanging out, trying not too look suspicious.

When the time came to board the new flight, US Airways announced they are overbooked and looking for volunteers to stay back for another flight. I was almost sure if no one stood up, they would off load me first. None of that happened. Got safely to Charlotte (stop over) and in a timely fashion. Same story repeats at the Charlotte airport. The volunteers bit, not me missing the flight. But there were some people who chose to wait back. Makes me wonder, who wants to fly on random days to random places. If I am heading somewhere, I have a plan, or atleast a place to be at a time.

Anyways got to Dallas also on time, and shared a ride to get to Pizza Hut Park around 6 pm. Tons of bands I missed on stage but I wasn't there was tons of bands. I was there for only one band.

Concert ticket....$150
Flight ticket....$350
Hotel....$30
Food and beverages....$100
Watch Metallica live....Priceless

It was also half way across the US. But still priceless. They played after Ozzy. They played everything I wanted them to and much more. Sad but true, Nothing else matters, Enter sandman, One, Seek & Destroy, Harvester, Master, Ride the lightning. Not one song from Load, Reload or St. Anger. Great 2.5 hour set. On the encore, King Diamond joined them for their Garage cover of his song, "Mercyful fate". They also played one new song from Death Magnetic. I am not completely convinced about the new album from this one song. Still lacks Hammet's solos.

But all in all super good. More than worth my money, time, sleep, and hunger.
And oh Ozzy was good too.

Can't find a better man

Attended Pearl Jam's concert on Saturday night. Great great set list. They played half the songs from Ten, a few from Yield and some I hadn't heard before. Here are two videos from the concert; one is an improvised solo from Alive. The other one is my favourite moment from the concert. Eddie Vedder started strumming the intro to Better man and before he could start singing, the whole crowd sang the entire first verse of the song. Then Eddie stopped and smiled and this is where the video picks up. Great experience except for the fact that it took us 2 hours to get out of the parking lot at Mansfield in the night. Still worth more than my money.

The imitation of live

I'm just a casual REM listener. Having only heard their greatest hits collection, was enough for me to go for their concert. The National and Modest Mouse were the opening acts. Reached a little too late to watch The National, which sucks coz that band rocks. Seriously; go listen to their album The Boxer. Modest Mouse was surprisingly good. I had only heard one of their songs before on the radio. Good indie music. Although I would love to watch them in a cramped underground bar. Their music seemed much more fitting there.

And REM was simply so good. Most of the crowd was old school. More than half the crowd in the arena had been to their shows 15-20 years back also. And REM just loves to perform. Total entertainment.

And may I add I had great seats. The photo shown here is taken from my phone without zoom. This is how close we were.

So 1 concert done. Next up Pearl Jam on June 28th and then Chris Cornell with Linkin Park on July 16th. Summer in Boston rocks like no other time. Hot in the day and cool in the evenings. Rock on!