The Trademark Blog reports:
“AP reports that the owner of the Dewey Decimal Classification System has sued the Library Hotel (a hotel overlooking New York's Public Library) over its use of the Dewey Decimal System to number its hotel rooms (for example Room 700.003 has books on the performing arts), arguing that the use of the system falsely suggests that the hotel is connected with the owners of the system.”
Tim Oren's great weblog, Due Dilligence, pointed me to this article on BusinessPundit that suggests the music industry's real problem is that it's being displaced from people's attention by other media–and that video games are taking the biggest chunk out of the disposable dollars and free time of the music industry's traditional audience for its volume product.
No big surprise there. Most of the music I buy these days probably doesn't even show up on the RIAA's radar–I buy direct from bands, or direct from independent labels, or on iTunes; my only “traditional purchase” recently was of a Bo Diddley compilation–and that isn't exactly Top 40.
Last night, we went to see John Gorka play at the Cellar Stage at St. John's Methodist Church in Baltimore's Hamilton neighborhood. Given the power outages around town caused by Isabel, Paula called ahead to make sure the concert was on.
The concert was on. The power was not. Gorka had agreed to go on, “unplugged”. So, with about 80 or so other folks, we brought flashlights to St. Johns, and listened as Gorka played with candles for footlights. The lack of a sound system was irrelavent; the acoustics of the room helped out. Crickets outside accompanied him, their percussion filtering in through the open windows.
I'm sure there was a fire code violation with all that open flame. But we didn't care. Gorka gave his signature entertainingly neurotic performance, lights or no lights. It was well worth the price of admission.
The Dalai Lama:“If I had not been a monk,” he said last weekend, “I would have become an engineer.”
Kurt pointed me at a post on Killing the Buddha by John Hooten, The Gospel According to Johnny Cash. Hooten, a theologian, says of Cash's Hurt video:
“At the end of the piece, scenes from Cash's 1973 movie The Gospel Road, depicting the crucifixion of Jesus, are edited into the rapid fire closing sequence of footage that includes Johnny spilling crimson wine from a goblet over a table set for a feast, perhaps his Last Supper. The implication is clear: Johnny shares more with Jesus Christ than the initials of their names. The song and video are not simply about an old man getting older. Their true message involves cultivating a close personal relationship with one's source of salvation and freedom. It is not simply that Johnny needs Jesus to absolve his transgressions; Johnny is Jesus, he who can wash away his own damn sins. ”
Go read the rest.
The video was powerful enough when it was made, before Johnny's wife June Carter Cash died, and before he died. I had only seen clips of it here and there, as I'm not much of an MTV viewer these days. But watching it now for the first time was like being at his deathbed, hearing his parting advice; it had me crying by the third minute.
Sure, to swim is fun
but not in brackish water
in your living room
The Inner Harbor and Fells Point are under water today, as the surge from the storm and the tide combined to put parts of town six feet under. Personally, I wouldn't advise wading in this stuff, given how polluted the harbor is (there's a chromium Superfund site down between the Inner Harbor and Fells Point, and there's probably enough other pollutants to warrant a tetanus shot if you ingest any of that water).
