Nuclear Winter
I wrote this early in 2004, during my senior year of high school in a creative writing course. Something reminded me of it today, and I found it in the dusty archives of my laptop and felt like posting it. It’s titled “Nuclear Winter.”
A Vision of Students Today I don’t think this video does a good job at making a point, whatever that point might be, but it does introduce some honest statements that I, and a ton of other kids I know, could easily corroborate. It’s worth a look.
Muse wins Best Live Act Congrats to my favorite band, Muse, who won Best Live Act at this year’s Q Awards. I have yet to see them live, but I will soon enough.
Website pays $1,000 for new Radiohead PureButtons.com put a grand in the pockets of Radiohead, who recently released their album with a pay-what-you-want sales scheme. Survival of the fittest.
I am an assigned reading?
My Get the Look Design Guide Series is an assigned reading for Ben Glassman’s Intro to Web Design course at Champlain College in Vermont this Fall. Awesome.
Survival of the Fittest
The music industry is changing, and only the strongest will survive. Who will it be? I’d put my bet on Radiohead.
Radiohead is releasing a new album this month, their first since 2003’s Hail to the Thief, titled In Rainbows, and at the moment it is only available online at a tailor-made website. Having fulfilled their contract with EMI, the band is now free from the restrictions of a record label, and that fact is quite obvious in their new sales and distribution scheme. Fans have two options:
- Order a digital download, which will become available on October 10th, and when you checkout, there is a form where you enter how much you want to pay. That’s right. “It’s up to you,” as the website says. Pay nothing, or pay $100 — whatever it is worth to you.
- Order a “discbox” at the cost of £40 and receive: the album on a CD, the album on two 12-inch heavyweight vinyl records, an artwork booklet, a lyrics booklet, and an enhanced CD containing more new songs, digital photographs, and artwork. To top it all off, everything is encased in a hardcover book and slipcase, and you automatically receive the digital download on October 10th. Discboxes will ship on or before December 3rd. This is a sweet deal.
It’s great to see a band acting intelligently and embracing the inexorable changes in the music industry rather than fighting in vain against them.
