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The music industry, bleeding profusely from largely self inflicted wounds, is proposing to volunteer your wallet to bind their wounds:

Edgar Bronfman Jr.‘s Warner Music Group has tapped industry veteran Jim Griffin to spearhead a controversial plan to bundle a monthly fee into consumers’ internet-service bills for unlimited access to music.

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I last posted anything I claimed to be “music” on Valentine’s Day. I started working on another “song” shortly thereafter, actually thought I had it pretty close to done, and then all Hell broke loose.

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It’s time for another Garageband creation, and this one is a little different in a couple of ways.

One, compared to previous offerings, it’s decidedly mellow. Vibes. Mandolin. Piano. An E here. An F there. I call it “sweEt unFancy” (3:55, 5.4MB).

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It seems that every two to three weeks, in the course of eating, sleeping, working, and goofing off, I still manage to squeeze out some form of audio mayhem and claim it as music. People talk about how they’re good for maybe 3,000 words per day (no matter how you divide it up, email, work, or blogging). I’m apparently good for about 4 minutes of music every three weeks or so.

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It’s time to close out 2005 with a couple of creations mixed up in Garageband and distilled down to an MP3.

Both are attempts to find and sustain a groove or two. I guess this is sort of like an A side and a B side. But I’m not sure which is “A”.

Probably “Year End Strut” (4:36, 7.8MB).

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I’m in the midst of a busy week with not much time for any real writing here (no, nothing on the “new” Iraq plan, I’ve said it all a long time ago), however, I do have a new Garageband creation.

I tried to construct this one a bit differently. You know those songs you hear now and then that start off … oddly? The rhythm is slightly off, there seem to be distinct parts that don’t match, or seem out of place, and it creates an odd tension … which is suddenly released when everything pulls together and clicks. What sounded chaotic suddenly makes sense.

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It’s been almost a month since I uploaded one of my Garageband creations. Time has been a bit limited lately. And I’ve played around with three or four “songs” that didn’t seem to be going anywhere, so they never got “finished.” But I’ve got one that is. Barely.

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It’s time for two more … musical experiments … from the child inside to be added to the downloads page. While I don’t know that they’re completely successful experiments, they do both break a bit of new ground for me, and were quite successful at injecting fun into my otherwise busy days recently (though I actually play with these late at night). They are also pretty indicative of the diversity of my musical listening tastes, which I guess will tend to come out in this form.

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Yes, it’s time for another bashing from my keyboard emitted in MP3 form. And this one reminds me of the old Saturday Night Live sketch on “Flucker’s Jam”: “With a name like Buzz and Drone in C, it’s gotta be good!”

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OK, so I dumped a couple of songs on you last week, my first efforts ever with my Birthday GarageKey, and it was a bit like a child showing off fingerpaintings. If you can recognize that the green thing is a tree, well, the kid’s doin’ great! If you downloaded them, I appreciate it. If you didn’t, don’t bother. I’ve got something much better.

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The rules have changed. I used to be able to claim I wasn’t making a song, um, I was merely mixing parts others had made into a, er, construct. Yeah. But due to a birthday present from my Accommodatin’ Darlin’, I am now able to create all kinds of new noise all on my own … and, yes, Dear Listener, inflict it on you.

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I warned you once. I warned you twice. But with over 500 downloads so far, you failed to squash this addiction to Garageband, and the resulting afflictions on you, Dear Reader Listener. And now, like some evil mutant zygote, the rate of growth has doubled. You now get two songs demi-musical constructs in one blast.

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As of right now, about 60 people have downloaded the first MP3 I made in Garageband (I told Susan I am now a rock star, so she must be my groupie), and not one person has come forward to say, “Reid, it sucks” (though it’s not too late). Based on this overwhelming encouragement (what do you mean, “apathy”?), I’m assaulting you with Sound Infliction, #2.

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I have no displayable musical skills whatsoever. My musical training consists of about three months of trumpet lessons in the sixth grade (they didn’t “take”). Oh, and as a teenager, I taught myself the rock and roll minimum for playing guitar, three chords … as long as the song allows lots of time to switch from one to the other. But thanks to the purchase of a Mac Mini loaded with the program Garageband, none of that matters. Who needs talent, skills, or training when it can be replaced with some computing power, some loops, some software, and a lot of mouse clicking? And thus, I get to inflict the result on you, Dear Reader Listener.

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I normally get as peeved as anyone when rock and rollers try to get high mindedly political. It’s as obtuse as a NBA basketball star opining on military strategy. Or an actor promoting their One True Religion. But for some reason, this one tickles me.

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I got it from Pat, who got it from Reecie, who got it from Knotted Knickers, etc. Yep, it’s a meme! “Put your iTunes library in order alphabetically by song, then take the first song for each letter of the alphabet.”

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It’s a musical phenomenon, one that was going strong when I left the radio business two decades ago, and that continues today across the musical spectrum…

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I’m a bit late to the story of Linda Ronstadt’s altercation with the Aladdin Casino in Vegas, and some of its patrons who attended her show. Mainly because I really had nothing to say about it.

But some of the reactions to the event are worth comment.

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Welcome to Michael’s World – When Michael Jackson used to sing, ”I’m bad, I’m bad, I’m really, really bad,” at the time it was hard to put a meaning to those words other than ”really, really bad and banal lyrics.”

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