Paste Magazine: Signs of Hope

This is undoubtedly the happiest I've been writing a blog post in some time. After ceasing publication last September, Paste Magazine is back.

Meet Paste mPlayer, the digital incarnation of our beloved magazine. An email went out this morning announcing the launch and explaining what happens from here. In short, the good folks at Paste will produce a weekly magazine, a true multimedia product.

The interface is slick; Apple generation-friendly in terms of design, if you will. Songs (the Paste Music Sampler) and videos are integrated into articles, and most of all, Paste can once again return to the long-form features and essays that made it great and thereby fill the void created when it went away. (Ex. Listening to my life: Stereolab, North Carolina)

Personally, I'm more excited than I can express. When Paste stopped printing, I mourned the loss of a publication so strong and forward-thinking. I cringed to think that maybe magazines were doomed after all because if Paste couldn't do it, no one could. Today, with unbounded positivity, I say that in the rapidly-changing world of journalism and digital platforms, if anyone can make it work, it's Paste.

Here's a link to the FAQs page. It has details on subscriptions. Though, you should note that the paid model doesn't kick in until September, so there's time to scope it out. Also, issue No. 1 is live, so have at it.

One more thing: Viva la Paste Music Sampler, baby!

The "New Soul" of MacBook Commercials

Mac is back at it, trying to get as close to the Feist vibe from the iPod Nano commercials without actually using another one of her songs on the new MacBook Air ads. Psh...like no one would notice. The latest little ditty is "New Soul" by Yael Naim who, if scattered bio information is correct, is a French woman who was raised in Israel. Apparently she's only 50% of the equation though, the other half being a guy named David Donatien. There's really not much on them but I do wonder if the duo will ride the Mac train out of obscurity or will people tire of having their tastes dictated. The trendiness is difficult to deny. Stay tuned.

Changing the Way We Hear Business

A couple years ago I griped about how it's so hard to take the plunge and buy an album. I don't really care to waste $14 on something that's got one good track and the rest of it makes me want to use it as a coaster. If only there was a way to hear the other tracks on an album without the awkwardness of standing in a bookstore with those gigantic headphones, pretending to be so engrossed in the album artwork because there's nowhere else to look. Fast forward slightly to one afternoon when I was killing time on my computer and saw AOL was having a "listening party," the gist being, they were featuring a couple albums about to be released and by featuring, I mean you could hear the whole thing for free. Nice. I actually bought one of the albums I heard that day. It was Rock Kills Kid. Good stuff, slightly negative at times but otherwise fun to listen to. Anyway, I figured that was a pretty good way to promote and for people like me who are always trying to keep the music machine going, it was the perfect tool in expanding the collection.

The reason I bring this up is because technology is blowing my mind. NBC announced just recently that it was pulling its shows off of iTunes to put them on their web site. Now, what is true of all three major networks, is a person can watch whatever they want whenever they want and don't after to pay more than about a 1.5 minutes of attention to commercials. It's no longer a novelty trick of ABC, that's just the way things are. I think it's great and along similar lines, being able to visit a band's website or myspace and hear multiple tracks has been a major blessing, especially in writing this blog. Fans can come from odd places, going off of recommendations, or whim and maybe they like what they hear. The result? CDs, merch, and maybe I want to catch them when they come to my town.


It's no secret that the world has gone digital. Everyone's seen the charts. Downloads are up, everyone else is praying to their higher authority for salvation. I'm just hoping that no one is going to screw things up. As dopey as it sounds, I'd be pretty ticked if I was losing money because some idiot is too cheap to pay 99 cents. That's all I'm saying. Sure, I still love the feeling of personally engaging in my epic CD shrink wrap battles, but I won't blindly buy a CD without some kind of insurance that I'll like it,so hearing album cuts prior to purchase has become important to me. We're moving to a pretty cool direction with this kind of accessibility (and the way I see it, culture sharing). Let's just all try to behave ourselves, okay? Please?

Ban Britney

While it turns my stomach to cheapen my pretty little blog in any way by even bringing it up; I feel I've got to be blunt and open when I see the very name of music besmirched through association with worthlessness. That said, let me explain my rant. The other day I heard a few words that sent a chill up my spine. I will not vouch for the veracity of what I heard if I heard it correctly at all. These frightful words were, "Britney's back in the studio." It could be a fear of mine manifesting itself in some kind of auditory trickery-- but I do believe this is a situation that will raise its ugly head inevitably. So, what's our plan of action? Surely there has been enough boiled up resentment from those of us who feel that there's absolutely no justification for mass obsession with a person who has nothing to offer, that it wouldn't matter where she was or what she was doing. She doesn't act, write, model, advocate, or even really sing. The behavior of an immature, unbalanced media machine should not consume such a large portion of the population when there are so many other issues to be paid attention. It's as if the country needs a good smack across the face. There's nothing to see here-- let's move it along. Since her unfortunate peak of popularity, music in general has improved by leaps and bounds, yet she hangs around like a chronic rash derived from a slip in judgement. There should be some standards in the media besides sales figures regarding what it takes to get that kind of attention. Ever tried punching the buttons on a vending machine in hopes of scoring some Doritos without putting in any money? Yeah-- nothing happens. The consumer should think enough of themselves that they would not insult their intelligence by wasting time reading (or listening to) about what she's shaved this time and as a result the media would be pushed into finding subjects more worthy of publication. If it were a matter of unbridled talent mixed with substance-influenced whim-- surely exceptions have been made, but when there is so little talent that she's actually in the red...step over the pile of dog crap and keep walking. So, let's prepare for the worst, clear out the muck, and turn our fascinations elsewhere. Please.