MOVED

er, so as you can see i kinda totally fucked up the formatting over here. so i decided it was time to just do it, which is to say----

> > I HAVE MOVED < <

(rather, I am moving. . . not much over there.)

I'm not gonna be sentimental about it 'cept to say I would be mighty pleased to see you over at the new blog (which is still very much under construction but will be more of the same & then some :)

sharing is caring.

So, guys-- do you agree with Wired that "The Age of Music Piracy is Officially Over"? I don't, especially because I was never downloading things because I didn't like the sound quality offered by Apple. (Actually, this whole thing is probably just an article sponsored by Apple. Cos they would do that, I tell you. My secret shame is that I have an iPod, but happily not one track on there was purchased via iTunes-- which can I say has been annoying the heck outta me? I've made the informed decision, after trying out version 9 or whatever, to go back down to 7, which I like fine. I might have mentioned this before. But all the recent updates have just been add-ons to get you to buy music-- Genius thing, or whatever. And that really annoying feature where it scrolls back to whatever song starts playing, so if you were browsing around in the Rs but listening to, say, your Justin Bieber music, it scrolls back up to that part of the alphabet when the next song plays? That drives me batshit. for real.)

I do find that it's harder to find new releases to nab, but what the hell. This is actually relevant because I think someone requested on a dusty old post for a file reupload-- I just can't track down what it was. I'm very sorry to say that, as you guys recall, I've had to change my policy to no more full album uploads. Keep in mind, though, it's pretty easy to do a Google search or to convert, say, Youtube audios into mp3s, so best of luck to you, sir or madam!

i'm back! [kinda]

and I have a pretty good reason for dropping off the radar:

I had a kid.

Yeah, what the fuck, right? Errol was born two Mondays ago, and he's doing well. If you'll look at the post 2 prior to this one, I mention that I was sick-- turned out it was morning sickness. Haha very funny, life! (And when Jim asked if I was trapped under something heavy, pretty much, yeah :p

And then my computer broke, and I didn't have a computer all summer while I was living in the Middle of Nowhere, PA, and everything was hectic, what with 3 separate moves and the whole life milestone changey changes thing, and it kind of all came down to a sort of pre-maternity leave.

So where am I now? I am living with my husband (he had to make an honest woman out of me) in Atwater Village, CA. We left New York (for reasons this guy will explain and the bedbug epidemic & because J. is getting his PhD at USC) and are settled in here. I have never been so tired in all my life. Like this: once in college I pulled an all-nighter cramming for a final, then did not sleep the next day and then the next night took a wacky substance that then kept me up all night the next night into the afternoon-- so that's, what, 48 hours with no sleep? I've been more tired than that and then some everyday for the past 2 weeks (and I'm sure anyone who has a kid is going DUH, b). I've also discovered that it's hard to type one-handed while holding a kid in the other, or rather, discovered that I've been trying to do it more often than I expected, so posting is probably going to be short & sweet. But I realized how much I missed this place and all of you, because let's face it, I've been doing this for too long & have met too many awesome people, so I'm going to do my best to keep it consistent. I've been reading a lot and watching a lot of things and just want to get back to sharing my thoughts with you guys.

I'm also having my first Guinness in 9 months. So right now, life is pretty fucking good.

I hope the summer treated you all well, and I'll be seeing you around!

xoxo b

now i know. i wish i didn't.

"The fucking man," The Rejectionist says, "always wins." Indeed he does. It also tipped me off on places to avoid like the plague-- Urban Outfitters has a blog. (Of course they do, ugh and I know people like that-- so glad they're moving to Philly.) But the reason I mention this is because I had really wanted to change the way this bloggyblog looks, somehow, to something different, and for a second had toyed with making it all in Courier, or maybe the posts. Which I find hard to read, but I thought, well this is still supposed to have some semblance of the punk blog it started as (cos I posted punk music), and besides, like Impact (white on black, pink on gross, blahblahblah) Courier is so omgDIY and I am so omgnotDIYcosIgetmad BUT in other news FOUND my Fred Perry button that fell off because that is what happens when you buy those shirts on eBay from Bangkok because that's what happens when- OH- Urban Outfitters (the one time I woulda) & Bloomingdales only sells boy Fred Perrys- so I gotta sew that shit back on. (Yes, 99x is excellent and does sell them but I had a Bloomingdales giftcard.) Oh whoa, bummer, 99X shut down. That's too bad, the people there were awesome. I'll blame Urban Outfitters for it. goddammit the man does always win. The question, why give attention to something you are trying to argue is not worth our time? Because I'm a girl. And that's what we do.

Anyway, I'm jettisoning the Courier idea faster than an escape pod leaves a Rebel blockade runner. The Urban Outfitters blog uses it like it's going out of style. Which it should have. & now I know that the winds of change etc. (LOOK UP THERE I DID IT IN PAINT TOO SO IT'S SUPER WHATEVER.) Speaking of the man, I love what the Simpsons did with the company that makes myfuckyouTunes.

So second week back at work and I'm admitting the holidays are over. Been having a bit of bad luck with my computer. Virus! Very funny tvshack, but I managed to eradicate it thanks to the magic of internet forums. Also, I decided to downgrade my iTunes because iTunes 9.fuckyou.0 is a piece of bloated shit, but hilariously, that means having to reload my entire library. Which means, hilariously, having to relabel and re-album-cover-ize my entire library. So I'm like halfway through that, then I have to reapply all the album covers, which I get obsessive about for some reason. (I think everybody does.) Oh, and we have bedbugs again.

I think the point of this post is to say one, I hope you guys had a great holiday season! and you're easing back into the swing of things not-too-hard, and to repost what I thought was a deeply clever holiday "card" picture (up there) before I retire it until next Christmas. It's a riot a minute with Noise Annoys. See? A Santa hat. It's funny because. I don't know. The only way that guy on the stoop's day is going to get worse is if that wreath falls on him, though. And that would be funny. The commercial-religious institution is always coming down on me, maaaaan. (In your head say it like the bus driver in the Simpsons.)

New Year's Resolutions!

I don't usually make specific ones, not because I'm perfect and don't need them, but because I would rather take things as I go, improving myself and my environment (not in a hippie green way, but in a like clean out my desk way) gradually and constantly as I see fit.

And because I'm lazy.

But for the blog, and especially because I've been sent another takedown notice (?!?! on the same post?!?! so not sure what's going on) and because the emphasis on music has been certainly decreasing, to bring my tag cloud (see right-hand sidebar) to equilibrium-ish. The "avail files" tag is way too huge, and I want to start posting more on Movies, Reading, Artsy, Photography, other stuff that is hopefully still interesting.

And if I have one fantasy New Year's Resolution, it is that I would like to stop this ridiculous trend that refuses to die-- glasses with no lenses in them, often oversized. YEAH I'm talking to you you freakin hipster chick on the A train on Monday. I'd rather see you wearing Uggs with fringe on them.

Belated 12 Days of Xmas Countdown starting in its usual haphazard fashion.

BUT.

So I got jumped by the usual suspects and came back from PA to find a DMCA email in ye olde inboxe.

I have re-posted the full contents of the email below and have edited the post so that it doesn't include the rapidshare links. As usual, Blogger has included a link to Chilling Effects, "founded in 2001 by Internet activists who were concerned that the unregulated private practice of sending cease-and-desist letters seemed to be increasing and was having an unstudied but potentially significant "chilling effect" on speech" [source].

Without incriminating myself. We've all done things that are "illegal"-- severity varying, because I know you have all peed in public before, at least-- and when caught, it's hard to argue against the consequences if you have entered into a contract with the government under which you live, which is easy to do. You're living there. And so I can't be too terribly indignant about getting that post taken down.

I don't feel bad though because it was the Clash Singles box set. That box set being a very pretty go by a record company at milking a cash cow 20 years later for the rest of what it's worth. So hopefully you guys grabbed the more rare tracks way back in 2007, and really, that thing was about the beautiful re-issues of the singles covers, which you can find sprinkled around the internet. It's too bad-- or fitting-- that someone (whoever you are) decided to go after a shining example of exactly why people take issue with record companies and why they are trying to provide this material for other enthusiasts.

But this means I will be sticking to my new more cautious policy of severely reducing the amount of files actually posted by me. I will continue to link, though I will be more careful about burying the link so nobody else gets in trouble. I will continue to abstain from posting entire albums. This is too bad because I was hoping to post an album that I have been meaning to post for years, so I might lift that restriction just once. I will continue, as I have done since this blog started, to properly cite all text that I quote, which I think is one of the most important things to do. I do have some standards.

Finally, I am very happy that blogger now sets the post to DRAFT status. I was pretty irritated the last time this happened, on what I thought was a well thought-out review of the new Green Day album, when the whole thing disappeared because I had linked to one of the tracks. I think it's a nice recognition of the work done on blogs (maybe not here, after all the goofing off, haha) because a lot of the places I have downloaded from have always included well-written, insightful reviews of the music.

For the email, as if you guys haven't seen it before, Continue reading!

Blogger has been notified, according to the terms of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), that certain content in your blog is alleged to infringe upon the copyrights of others. As a result, we have reset the post(s) to "draft" status. (If we did not do so, we would be subject to a claim of copyright infringement, regardless of its merits. The URL(s) of the allegedly infringing post(s) may be found at the end of this message.) This means your post - and any images, links or other content - is not gone. You may edit the post to remove the offending content and republish, at which point the post in question will be visible to your readers again.

A bit of background: the DMCA is a United States copyright law that provides guidelines for online service provider liability in case of copyright infringement. If you believe you have the rights to post the content at issue here, you can file a counter-claim. For more information on our DMCA policy, including how to file a counter-claim, please see http://www.google.com/dmca.html.

The notice that we received from the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) and the record companies it represents, with any personally identifying information removed, will be posted online by a service called Chilling Effects at http://www.chillingeffects.org. We do this in accordance with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). Please note that it may take Chilling Effects up to several weeks to post the notice online at the link provided.

The IFPI is a trade association that represents over 1,400 major and independent record companies in the US and internationally who create, manufacture and distribute sound recordings (the "IFPI Represented Companies").

Sincerely,

picture source

xmas. break!

I will be heading out to PA, again, for the holidays. It is very cold in that place, and I will most probably not be bringing my broken-ass I-can't-run-on-battery-power laptop with me. So until sometime next week, it will be pretty quiet around here. When I get back, I hope to use the 12 Days of Christmas to do something I've been meaning to for awhile-- posting songs and albums that I always thought I had but never did. Albums and songs I really want to use the opportunity to "get out there" because I think they're worth it. I'll probably be combining that with reposting songs I posted this year that I think are worth the time, like a greatest hits. And I will have put together that movie list by New Year's. Ah, youthful ambition.

But seriously, have a wonderful Christmas and don't slip on that ice. xoxo.

backk.

guess which one was the shit hole. hint. t's the one with blood everywhere.

hey all. So it's been awhile, but I have an excuse! I've spent the last few weeks embarking on a less-than-expected chaos but still overwhelming move out of the old shithole and into a fab new apartment downtown. We just got the wireless set up two days ago, after 5 or so customer service calls, 2 of which didn't get us anywhere because the party making the call was drunk. Wasn't me. But here's the best part, besides that we have a real kitchen and we're by some mediocre but cheap bars. . . we NO LONGER HAVE BED BUGGIES. (And our friends will visit us again. I think.)

So some party music to welcome me, you, us (?) back. I don't know why I've been listening to this song so much. I don't own nor have I ever worn Adidas, but you could probably hate Adidas for your own personal secret important reasons and still (had better) dig this track. According to the Adidas website, it was the first time a major artist endorsed a brand, though interestingly, "no checks were signed[, n]o managers were approached." So of course Adidas is a little bitter about it all, or would be except that group is plastered all over their website.

PS. What's with the explosion of Run DMC shirts everwhere? They're even before my time and I saw a 12 year old wearing one on 9th Ave the other day. Is Urban Outfitters selling them?

	Run-D.M.C. - My Adidas
	Found at skreemr.com

pffft.

Well guys, I got dinged again, this time by a scary little DCMA e-mail from Blogger, which I'm sure y'all have had personal experience with. This time I knew that I was posting a recently released track etc, I was doing it because I was impressed with that particular track and wanted others to hear it. Frankly, I didn't think anyone would notice this corner of the internet; as I said earlier, apparently free publicity isn't good publicity. Anyhow, I've pulled the Rancid track, just in case, but I'm keeping the other Green Day track up because whoever was pawing through my posts didn't really care to be thorough.

So I just want to take a sec to reiterate that Rancid has their entire album up on their Myspace, which is a pretty cool thing to do. It's not Reznor-core, and I'm not expecting it, but the best thing is that it's a very generous fan-minded move.

• Rancid Merch Site

Info vital to the survival of the rebellion is in the memory systems of this R2 unit

*Seriously cribbed from the ultra-fabulous iharthdarth.

Dear Pretty Girls & Pretty Boys,

I.
The files posted here are for sampling purposes only and should be deleted within 42 hours. If you find something you like, do consider purchasing it, especially if it means supporting the artist. If you find something objectionable, please leave an explanatory comment in the most recent post and the file will be taken down.

II.
We love the pretty boys & pretty girls who stop by here more than Johnny Rotten loves his beautiful self, so many, many thanks for taking the time to look around, and always, thank you taking the time to comment. Which brings us to number 3.

III.
Like all strong, modern women, we here at NA crave Validation and Attention, so leave comments, comments, comments ! ! ! Because if you don't, I will be that girl in her pajamas in line at the super market with a a carton of ice cream, a pack of bologna, and three cans of Reddi-Whip wondering why nobody loves her.

IV.
And we do take requests. If a comment, question, or request goes unanswered, feel free to leave it again in the latest post. Actually, I recommend heading straight to the latest post with the requests, as I don't get notified when comments are left.

p.s. Best viewed in Mozilla Firefox. I'm not sure why.

p.p.s. If you're thinking, oh my god, why does she keep talking, you can skip straight to music posts with this available files link. Handy! Labeling is in progress. The label does not indicate that the file is working. If you'd like something re-upped, give us a holler in the latest post and we'll get to it asap :]

xoxo,

new vital info.

I'm sorry to say that requests are closed for the time being. I got a few too many notices re: digital copyright for my taste. It was a little strange because not all the complaints were, I think, legitimate. However, the fact remains that there are other links up and I don't think it would be a good idea to contest anything. I am thankful, again, that Blogspot & Google have stopped completely eradicating the post-- I am here because I like to write. Being able to physically spread my love of music in the form of files was a pleasurable icing on the cake.

I am also hesitant to link to actual files on individual sites because somebody clearly filed these complaints and I don't want to leave a trail that will do damage to someone else. I will continue to do my best, though, to make music available in some form.

I will not be taking down any files or links unless requested to do so -- and it has always been my policy to respond promptly to such requests-- so it is worth it to see if the files are still up. They oftentimes are. It is also relatively easy to search for the files online. There are many guides on how to do that. Some pointers-- just be careful and use common sense. Some people out there suck. Other people are really fucking awesome, and if you are able to, I would recommend patronizing other music blogs and I urge you to always, always, always leave a note or comment of thanks.

Here are, for reference's sake, the old guidelines.

xoxo
b

1.23.2010