Ye Olde Kid Sister wrote this song thirty years ago when #1 son was born. Last week she put this video together.
Leaving for the wedding in a few hours.
– – –
I wrote this song in October of 1983, just before I met my nephew, Tom, for the first time. And I thought that now was the perfect occasion to get out my old cassette player, make a digital copy of the song and add a few pictures. Congratulations, Tom and Jane! I love you, Nora
I just finished watching the series conclusion of Breaking Bad. The final song played was Baby Blue by Badfinger, a top hit from 1972 and one of my favorites. At a time when kids named their cars, I named my second car, my second VW bus, Baby Blue.
As the crystal meth Walter White made was a trademark blue, Baby Blue was a fitting song. Actually it is fitting in many ways, on many levels.
Breaking Bad is destined to be a cult classic.
Baby Blue was a cult classic in the 1970s.
Wikipedia has a good discussion of it, including acknowledgement of it’s appearance in Breaking Bad (who updates Wikipedia so fast?)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baby_Blue_(Badfinger_song)
Click below to go to iTunes
Badfinger recorded on the Apple label, the Beatles label well before Steve Jobs created the other Apple. In fact there is a lot of history on this as well.
I have updated Phobos Rising, you may want to reread it. Just sayin’. Although, in truth, the changes are small.
While updating, this played on the Mrs playlist …
Thought you might enjoy …
Koyaanisqatsi is perhaps the second greatest film of all time behind 2001 A Space Odyssey.
From Wikipedia – Koyaanisqatsi
Koyaanisqatsi English pronunciation: /koʊjɑːnɪsˈkɑːtsiː/[1] also known as Koyaanisqatsi: Life Out of Balance, is a 1982 film directed by Godfrey Reggio with music composed by Philip Glass and cinematography by Ron Fricke.
The film consists primarily of slow motion and time-lapse footage of cities and many natural landscapes across the United States. The visual tone poem contains neither dialogue nor a vocalized narration: its tone is set by the juxtaposition of images and music. Reggio explains the lack of dialogue by stating “it’s not for lack of love of the language that these films have no words. It’s because, from my point of view, our language is in a state of vast humiliation. It no longer describes the world in which we live.”In the Hopi language, the word Koyaanisqatsi means “unbalanced life”. […] film was out of print for most of the 1990s.
Watching this film in one sitting will leave you physically and emotionally twitching. It is a visual and auditory roller coaster ride. The imagery is stunning and breathtaking. The music haunting and compelling.
If you have never seen Koyaanisqatsi you must see it. If have seen it, you should watch it again. It is available from iTunes, Amazon, and other usual locations. I own both 2001 A Space Odyssey and Koyaanisqatsi on both DVD and digital iTunes format.
Click on the subtitle above to go to the EFF web badges page for bloggers. Just add the indicated text to your blog. I have listed the available tags below.
Nobody every accused me of not being passionate. Just ask the Mrs.
RANT
Hey Googstapos … To paraphrase Arlo Guthrie, “You’ve got at lot of damn gall to come after folks who include copyrighted music in their YouTube videos when you collect and store FOREVER every damn bit of personal information you can about us to be used against us to try to sell us crap we don’t need!”
OK … That about sums up the rest of this post. This is an incoherent rant. Deal with it.
Weggieboy’s comments on my JOSIV5 post hit a nerve.
Now I am not a lawyer and I don’t even play one on TV, so I have no legal insight here. But consider the following: let’s say
Oh and somewhere in there is “I go to a local coffee shop and play C. W. McCall’s Convoy loud enough that everyone can hear it.”
Do you see where this is going?
Let’s try to separate “ethical” from “legal”. “Ethical” is doing the right thing. “Legal” is some arbitrary construct decided upon by lawyers and the courts, often in favor of big business and the rich. I say the rich, because the poor and middle class have neither the time nor the money to hire the lawyers to write the laws.
Ethical is paying artists for their work. Legal is making sure that the corporate entities who bought the rights to the music get every penny possible in order to pay large CEO salaries and lawyers to ensure they get every possible penny.
Ethical is not selling something that is not yours to sell. Legal is making sure that no one has access to art, music, information, or technology without paying for it. (How do libraries even exist anymore?)
So back to my scenario of C. W. McCall’s Convoy above. At what point does it stop being Ethical? Selling you a digital copy sounds unethical to me. Giving it to you … possibly. Letting you listen to it? I would argue that every scenario where I let you listen to it, whether at my home, or at the coffee shop, or via a link on the Internet is ethical. Implicit in this is that if you like it and want to listen to it again … you go buy it. (Thus my links to Amazon and iTunes for C. W. McCall’s Greatest Hits). Just ask yourself “What’s the right thing to do? How would I like to be treated? Think of the Golden Rule.
Legal is an entirely different answer. Selling a digital copy? Illegal. Giving a digital copy? Illegal. Posting online via YouTube for one-time use? Illegal. Uploading for download and unlimited use? Illegal. Play in public for others to hear? Illegal. (It is illegal to even sing Happy Birthday in public without paying royalties). Playing for a friend to listen to while in the physical presence of your friend? (lawyers: is there a way we can get him to pay to listen? No? Whaaaa) OK Legal
Ethical – everyone knows what feels right. Just ask the question “Is this fair? How would I like to be treated?”
Legal – you don’t know what is legal without access to the law or statute, the legal opinions handed down by the courts, or a lawyer to explain it to you. Two different lawyers might give two different interpretations.
Ethical is about fair.
Legal is about greed.
Now hold on a minute … You say “We need laws, otherwise people could just do whatever the wanted.” True. But how many laws are at the end of the day all about the Benjamins. ($$$)
Sharing is a fundamentally socialist construct. You can’t make money when people share things. That is the problem with the Internet. Is was designed at its very core to be collaborative, to share. Hence the ability of hyperlinks to jump all over the web. The ease of embedding images and videos from other sites. It was never about making money. You will notice that there are no ads on my site. I am not making any money off of this site. My links to iTunes and Amazon were “doing the right thing” … if you like the music, buy it “here”. Rest assured when (if) I finally have a book to sell, I will direct you to a site that will accept your hard earned currency in exchange for my product, but until then just do the right thing.
Copyright Law
The idea of Copyright Law was an attempt to assure one had the ability to profit from one’s work for a period of time before it transferred to the Public Domain. There was a fixed period of time. Now it seems that copyrights are bought and sold, renewed, long out-living their original owners. Multinational corporations now hold the copyright to books, music, movies in perpetuity. They never go into the public domain. At least it seems that way. Ethical is making sure a musician is paid for his music while he/she is alive. Legal is making sure that the corporate entity that bought the rights from the musician or his/her estate continues to make money from it as long as (legally) possible.
Patent Law
Same thing with Patent Law. At one time patents were only granted to things, actual working prototypes of machines. Now any concept no matter how general or far-fetched can be patented. And it is in the best interest of the patent applicant to patent as many variations as possible to keep another person from patenting the invention out from under him and then suing or threatening to sue once the item is in production.
Even so most patent cases either end up in court or patent trolls end up extorting money from manufacturers who can not afford to go to court. Once in court, the rulings are either completely arbitrary, or determined by the skill of the winning legal team.
Oh well, it’s late. I’m tired. I’ve blown off steam. There is so more more to vent about on this subject, but not now. Respond if you wish.
cb
Just ran across this on http://www.loopinsight.com
A fellow with the handle JOSIV5 has posted a number of classic Beatles songs with the instrumental portion drastically suppressed. You can still barely hear it in the background, but for all intents and purposes this is the Beatles Acappella.
Enjoy …
JOSIV5 isn’t the only one, another fellow … bauersnarky is doing the same thing.
Bee seeing you …
[Author’s note: This post is a continuation of the Welcome to the Future series of essays. If you haven’t read Welcome to the Future, I suggest that you start >> HERE <<]
The Silverton
It all comes down to this. This is my third and final installment on the music of C. W. McCall. The first was Convoy.
The Silverton has been called C. W. McCall’s best song. It sings tribute to the Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad. The kids loved to listen to this song when they were growing up. This is the Silverton Train that we sent my wife’s parents over Wolf Creek Pass to get too. Sadly, my wife and I never got to see it (or ride on it) in person.
Thankfully this is the same version we have (and you can have from iTunes or Amazon).
And now without further ado … The Silverton
Subtly different version + different footage
The Silverton Lyrics from
http://www.cw-mccall.com/works/black_bear_road/silverton.html
She was born one mornin’ on a San Juan summer
Back in eighteen and eighty and one
She was a beautiful daughter of the D and R G
And she weighed about a thousand ton
Well, it’s a-forty-five mile through the Animas canyon
So they set her on the narra gauge
She drank a whole lot a’ water
And she ate a lot of coal
And they called her the Silverton (Silverton train)
[Chorus]
Here comes the Silverton, up from Durango
Here comes the Silverton, a-shovelin’ coal
Here comes the Silverton, up from the canyon
See the smoke and hear the whistle blow
Well, now listen to the whistle in the Rock Wood cut
On the high line to Silverton town
And you’re gonna get a shiver
When you check out the river
Which is four hundred feet straight down
Take on some water at the Needleton tank
And then a-struggle up a two-five grade
And by the time you get your hide
Past the Snowshed slide
You’ve had a ride on the Silverton (Silverton train)
[Chorus]
Here comes the Silverton, up from Durango
Here comes the Silverton, a-shovelin’ coal
Here comes the Silverton, up from the canyon
See the smoke and hear the whistle blow
[Musical interlude here. Nice violins, and the kettle drums boom well.]
[Chorus]
Here comes the Silverton, up from Durango
Here comes the Silverton, a-shovelin’ coal
Here comes the Silverton, up from the canyon
See the smoke and hear the whistle blow
[If the next line seems a bit familiar, you’re correct. Chug-chug, toot-toot, off we go.]
Now, down by the station, early in the mornin’
There’s a whole lot a’ people in line
And they all got a ticket
On The Train To Yesterday
And it’s a-gonna leave on time
Well, it’s a forty-five mile up the Animas canyon
So they run her on the narra gauge
She takes a whole lot a’ water
And she needs a lot of coal
And they call her the Silverton (Silverton train)
[Chorus]
Here comes the Silverton, up from Durango
Here comes the Silverton, a-shovelin’ coal
Here comes the Silverton, up from the canyon
See the smoke and hear the whistle blow
[Fade out]
Here comes the Silverton, up from Durango
Here comes the Silverton, a-shovelin’ coal
Here comes the Silverton, up from the canyon
See the smoke and hear the whistle blow
Here comes the Silverton, up from Durango
Here comes the Silverton, a-shovelin’ coal
Here comes the Silverton, up from the canyon
See the smoke and hear the whistle blow
And now without further adieu …
Be seeing you …
[Author’s note: This post is a continuation of the Welcome to the Future series of essays. If you haven’t read Welcome to the Future, I suggest that you start >> HERE <<]
This is the second installment on C. W. McCall. The first was Convoy (the previous post). By the way I have recently updated the content of my Convoy post. You might want to back and re-read it.
Wolf Creek pass was released in 1975 before Convoy. Before becoming a (albeit short-lived) national sensation, C. W. McCall was becoming a cult hero in Colorado. Many of his songs were Colorado-centric and he won local acclaim. In many ways he was the anti-John-Denver. In the late seventies the Mrs’ parents came out to visit us in Evergreen (west of Denver) while I was still in college. They were going to take a ride on the Silverton Train. To get there they had to go over Wolf Creek pass. I did not know that her father had a fear of heights.
Again not the same version we have (and you can have from iTunes or Amazon), but close enough.
Wolf Creek Pass Lyrics from
http://www.cw-mccall.com/works/wolf_creek_pass/wolf_creek_pass.html
Me an’ Earl was haulin’ chickens on a flatbed out of Wiggins, and we’d spent all night on the uphill side of thirty-seven miles of hell called Wolf Creek Pass. Which is up on the Great Divide.
We was settin’ there suckin’ toothpicks, drinkin’ Nehi and onion soup mix, and I said, “Earl, let’s mail a card to Mother then send them chickens on down the other side. Yeah, let’s give ’em a ride.”
[Chorus]
Wolf Creek Pass, way up on the Great Divide
Truckin’ on down the other side
Well, Earl put down his bottle, mashed his foot down on the throttle, and then a couple’a boobs with a thousand cubes in a nineteen-forty-eight Peterbilt screamed to life. We woke up the chickens.
Well, we roared up offa that shoulder sprayin’ pine cones, rocks, and boulders, and put four hundred head of them Rhode Island reds and a couple a’ burnt-out roosters on the line. Look out below; ’cause here we go!
Well, we commenced to truckin’ and them hens commenced to cluckin’ and then Earl took out a match and scratched his pants and lit up the unused half of a dollar cigar and took a puff. Says “My, ain’t this purdy up here.”
I says, “Earl, this hill can spill us. You better slow down or you gonna kill us. Just make one mistake and it’s the Pearly Gates for them eight-five crates a’ USDA-approved cluckers. You wanna hit second?”
[Chorus]
Wolf Creek Pass, way up on the Great Divide
Truckin’ on down the other side
Well, Earl grabbed on the shifter and he stabbed her into fifth gear and then the chromium-plated, fully-illuminated genuine accessory shift knob come right off in his hand. I says, “You wanna screw that thing back on, Earl?”
He was tryin’ to thread it on there when the fire fell off a’ his cigar and dropped on down, sorta rolled around, and then lit in the cuff of Earl’s pants and burned a hole in his sock. Yeah, sorta set him right on fire.
I looked on outta the window and I started countin’ phone poles, goin’ by at the rate of four to the seventh power. Well I put two and two together, and added twelve and carried five; come up with twenty-two thousand telephone poles an hour.
I looked at Earl and his eyes was wide, his lip was curled, and his leg was fried. And his hand was froze to the wheel like a tongue to a sled in the middle of a blizzard. I says, “Earl, I’m not the type to complain; but the time has come for me to explain that if you don’t apply some brake real soon, they’re gonna have to pick us up with a stick and a spoon.”
Well, Earl rared back, and cocked his leg, stepped as down as hard as he could on the brake, and the pedal went clear to the floor and stayed there, right there on the floor. He said it was sorta like steppin’ on a plum.
Well, from there on down it just wasn’t real purdy: it was hairpin county and switchback city. One of ’em looked like a can full’a worms; another one looked like malaria germs. Right in the middle of the whole damn show was a real nice tunnel, now wouldn’t you know?
Sign says clearance to the twelve-foot line, but the chickens was stacked to thirteen-nine. Well we shot that tunnel at a hundred-and-ten, like gas through a funnel and eggs through a hen, and we took that top row of chickens off slicker than scum off a Lousiana swamp. Went down and around and around and down ’til we run outta ground at the edge of town. Bashed into the side of the feed store… in downtown Pagosa Springs.
[Chorus]
Wolf Creek Pass, way up on the Great Divide
Truckin’ on down the other side
Wolf Creek Pass, way up on the Great Divide
Truckin’ on down the other side
[Author’s note: This post is a continuation of the Welcome to the Future series of essays. If you haven’t read Welcome to the Future, I suggest that you start >> HERE <<]
This essay is both historical for it’s content and futuristic, based on the ease with which one can now learn about C. W. McCall and access his music. Enjoy …
From Welcome to the Future
No smart phones, no cell phones, no satellite phones, no pagers, no texting, no answering machines; only land-line phones at home and if you needed to make a call away from home there were coin-operated “pay phones”.
The above was still true in 1975 when Convoy first debuted. I was in my second year of “real college” in Colorado, my time at Junior College (or Community College as it came to be called) barely counts. OK not strictly true, I met my wife-to-be in Junior College while attending a fencing class. She was my partner during field camp for the “barbed-wire stretching” section. We had five miles of barbed-wire to stretch along a section of canal that bordered the Everglades. She cut her hand and I cleaned and bandaged it tenderly with love and care. So gentle were my attentions that she soon fell under the spell of my gentle but manly manner and soon we were lying under the shade of a mangrove tree making sweet, sweet …
Oh wait that was last night’s dream … It was fencing class as in touché, sabers, etc. …
My wife-to-be in fencing class:
Ok not my wife … and besides in 1973 the world had not yet been introduced to light-sabers. We used foils, épées, old-school sabers. Her sweet smile and school girl laugh pierced my heart as did the unshielded tip of her épée. When I finally got out of the hospital … OK that was lie. It was fencing class nothing more. But it was the beginning of a 40 year love affair.
I digress. Where was I? No cell phones. But there was a thing called Citizens Band radio or CB for short (coincidence? … I don’t think so). CB radio became popular with over-the-road truckers as a way to communicate between themselves. In a time without cell phones it became the dominant mobile communications venue for America’s truckers.
Also in 1974, the U. S. national speed limit was reduced to 55 miles per hour, in part due to the Arab Oil Embargo and the need to conserve fuel. America’s truckers who had been used to Interstate Highway speed of 75 mph or in states like Wyoming and Montana no posted speed limit at all, rebelled. Time is money and the reduced speed greatly increased the time it took to get goods across America. They embraced the CB radio as a way to stay in touch and keep an eye out for “Smokey“, the endearing name for state highway patrol officers. So named because they frequently wore hats that made them look like Smokey the Bear (“Only you can prevent forest fires”).
CB radio was the cell phone of it’s day for truckers and was embraced by many car owners as well. The truckers developed there own jargon, slang, or lingo for talking on CB. The term handle, meaning the alias or name you went by, originated (or at least became popularized) with CB radio a decade or more before online accounts, chat rooms, and blogs.
C. W. McCall merely popularized the current CB language and phenomenon. There were in fact other CB related songs on the air at the time, but they have all faded to obscurity. Only C. W. McCall and Convoy have survived the test of time (at least as long as I have any say in it).
C. W. McCall
Excerpted from http://www.cw-mccall.com/legend/
C.W. McCall is not a real person. “C.W. McCall” isn’t the name of the group that recorded the music. C.W. McCall is the nom de chanteur of Bill Fries, an advertising man who created the character of C.W. McCall.
In 1972, while working for the Omaha advertising firm of Bozell & Jacobs, Bill Fries created a television campaign for the Old Home Bread brand of the Metz Baking Company. The advertisements told of the adventures of truck driver C.W. McCall, his dog Sloan, and of the truck stop that McCall frequented, The Old Home Café. Bill based the character and his environment on his own upbringing in western Iowa. The commercials were very successful. So successful, that the Des Moines Register published the air times of the commercials in the daily television listings.
From those commercials came the first of the C.W. McCall songs, named after the restaurant: “Old Home Fill-er Up An’ Keep On A-Truckin’ Café”. While Bill provided the lyrics to the song and the voice of C.W. McCall, his collaborator Chip Davis wrote the music. Soon C.W.’s first album, Wolf Creek Pass, was released; its title song was a misadventure of a truck with brake failure.
C.W. McCall’s popularity reached its peak in January 1976, when “Convoy” — from his second album, Black Bear Road — reached the number one position on both the pop and country charts of Billboard.
See also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C._W._McCall
I was attending college in Colorado when Convoy became a national sensation. I would like to be able to share the exact version of the song that the Mrs has on her playlist, but it appears that YouTube has scrubbed the audio from all of the videos containing the original recording.
If you remember the original and want to relive your own history you can get it from iTunes by clicking on the image below.
Besides Convoy, there are all of his other hits including Wolf Creek Pass, The Silverton (Train), Old Home Fill-er Up An’ Keep On A-Truckin’ Café, and many others. In addition to their historical significance, these are just plain fun songs with entertaining lyrics and great guitar licks and banjo pickin’.
C. W. McCall is definitely Cat-Beard tested and Momma approved.
If you aren’t an iTunes fan you can also get it from Amazon by clicking below:
For a trip down memory lane or to listen for the first time, I offer for your consideration …
A VH-1 historical perspective
A “live” version of the original 1975 Convoy
A raunchier version from the 1978 movie (not my favorite)
Next >> Wolf Creek Pass
1975 Lyrics from http://www.cw-mccall.com/works/black_bear_road/convoy.html
[On the CB]
Ah, breaker one-nine, this here’s the Rubber Duck. You gotta copy on me, Pig Pen, c’mon? Ah, yeah, 10-4, Pig Pen, fer shure, fer shure. By golly, it’s clean clear to Flag Town, c’mon. Yeah, that’s a big 10-4 there, Pig Pen, yeah, we definitely got the front door, good buddy. Mercy sakes alive, looks like we got us a convoy…
Was the dark of the moon on the sixth of June
In a Kenworth pullin’ logs
Cab-over Pete with a reefer on
And a Jimmy haulin’ hogs
We is headin’ for bear on I-one-oh
’Bout a mile outta Shaky Town
I says, “Pig Pen, this here’s the Rubber Duck.
“And I’m about to put the hammer down.”
[Chorus]
’Cause we got a little convoy
Rockin’ through the night.
Yeah, we got a little convoy,
Ain’t she a beautiful sight?
Come on and join our convoy
Ain’t nothin’ gonna get in our way.
We gonna roll this truckin’ convoy
’Cross the U-S-A.
Convoy!
[On the CB]
Ah, breaker, Pig Pen, this here’s the Duck. And, you wanna back off them hogs? Yeah, 10-4, ’bout five mile or so. Ten, roger. Them hogs is gettin’ in-tense up here.
By the time we got into Tulsa Town,
We had eighty-five trucks in all.
But they’s a roadblock up on the cloverleaf,
And them bears was wall-to-wall.
Yeah, them smokies is thick as bugs on a bumper;
They even had a bear in the air!
I says, “Callin’ all trucks, this here’s the Duck.
“We about to go a-huntin’ bear.”
[Chorus]
’Cause we got a great big convoy
Rockin’ through the night.
Yeah, we got a great big convoy,
Ain’t she a beautiful sight?
Come on and join our convoy
Ain’t nothin’ gonna get in our way.
We gonna roll this truckin’ convoy
’Cross the U-S-A.
Convoy!
[On the CB]
Ah, you wanna give me a 10-9 on that, Pig Pen? Negatory, Pig Pen; you’re still too close. Yeah, them hogs is startin’ to close up my sinuses. Mercy sakes, you better back off another ten.
Well, we rolled up Interstate 44
Like a rocket sled on rails.
We tore up all of our swindle sheets,
And left ’em settin’ on the scales.
By the time we hit that Chi-town,
Them bears was a-gettin’ smart:
They’d brought up some reinforcements
From the Illinoise National Guard.
There’s armored cars, and tanks, and jeeps,
And rigs of ev’ry size.
Yeah, them chicken coops was full’a bears
And choppers filled the skies.
Well, we shot the line and we went for broke
With a thousand screamin’ trucks
An’ eleven long-haired Friends a’ Jesus
In a chartreuse micra-bus.
[On the CB]
Ah, Rubber Duck to Sodbuster, come over. Yeah, 10-4, Sodbuster? Lissen, you wanna put that micra-bus right behind that suicide jockey? Yeah, he’s haulin’ dynamite, and he needs all the help he can get.
Well, we laid a strip for the Jersey shore
And prepared to cross the line
I could see the bridge was lined with bears
But I didn’t have a dog-goned dime.
I says, “Pig Pen, this here’s the Rubber Duck.
“We just ain’t a-gonna pay no toll.”
So we crashed the gate doing ninety-eight
I says “Let them truckers roll, 10-4.”
[Chorus]
’Cause we got a mighty convoy
Rockin’ through the night.
Yeah, we got a mighty convoy,
Ain’t she a beautiful sight?
Come on and join our convoy
Ain’t nothin’ gonna get in our way.
We gonna roll this truckin’ convoy
’Cross the U-S-A.
Convoy! Ah, 10-4, Pig Pen, what’s your twenty?
Convoy! Omaha? Well, they oughta know what to do with them hogs out there fer shure. Well, mercy
Convoy! sakes, good buddy, we gonna back on outta here, so keep the bugs off your glass and the bears off your…
Convoy! tail. We’ll catch you on the flip-flop. This here’s the Rubber Duck on the side.
Convoy! We gone. ’Bye,’bye.
Yarrrr … Cat-Beard the Norwegian π-rat has a theme song 🙂
An email of a Russian dashcam video leads to the discovery of music by Two Steps From Hell and their Archangel album.
Song # 13 is Norwegian Pirate:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fc9nTcROQtw?rel=0
It is currently my 3.14159th favorite song of all time.
Any sufficiently evolved technology is indistinguishable from magic. – Arthur C. Clark
Usually I compose offline, read / edit / reread / edit … POST / reread / “how did I miss that?” / edit / POST / reread / aaarrrggghhhhh! / edit / POST / reread / [expletive deleted] / edit / POST …
This time I am doing it live. So what you read … NOW … may be totally different from what you read …
…
…
…
NOW.
So as you read this, don’t assume that you are reading the final version.
Now if you follow the web at all, especially if you follow the geek tech sites, you know that the world is in the midst of another “Apple vs …” kerfuffle. I really should strive to use kerfuffle more. Anyway this time it is Apple vs Samsung, or perhaps Apple vs Google, since the Android operating system used by Samsung is made by Google. Last time it was Apple vs Microsoft.
Now perhaps forty-eight percent of all Internet traffic is devoted to Apple, Apple vs Samsung, Apple vs Google, Apple’s innovation or lack thereof, AAPL stock price, Apple’s cash horde, Apple this, Apple that …
OK I just made up that forty-eight percent figure, but you get the idea.
I am not going to tell you why should like Apple. I actually don’t care what you like. That sounds callous, maybe there is a better way to put this. If you like Samsung, Android, Google, Microsoft, or even if you HATE Apple, that’s fine. Just don’t reply with a flaming attack on me or Apple because I will just delete it. I am not here to pick a fight. AND it is my blog. Ready? OK Let’s go!
Why I Like Apple
Ignoring for a minute that I have always liked Apple, I probably like Apple most for all of the reasons the Apple-haters hate it. It is a closed ecosystem. What do I mean by this? Apple makes the whole thing. Well OK they design all of it and have many of the parts made or assembled by other international subcontractors, but they control the entire process. They make the hardware. They make the operating system, they vet the apps, they sell content. The end result of this kind of cradle to grave design to delivery system is that, by and large, it just works.
I work with non-Apple hardware and software all day long every day usually trying to figure out why it doesn’t work (it’s my job). When I get home at night I just want to use something to surf the web, read and respond to email, watch videos, listen to music, read a book, maybe play a game, write fiction or essays, and update my blog. I do not want or need an open system that I can hack, jailbreak or otherwise reconfigure. I just want it to work.
Enter the iPad
Too make a long story short, my kid sister, who is now on olde woman (she is so going to kill me, Muahahaha), got me an iPad for father’s day three? four? years ago. The very iPad upon which I am typing now. Did I mention that I maintain this blog 100% on an iPad? It is a very olde iPad by iPad standards. It is first generation. Next month or so, Apple will announce the fifth generation iPad in time for Christmas. Every generation of iPad has roughly doubled the performance of the previous generation, so my olde decrepit iPad is truly an ancient outdated slab of uselessness. And did I mention that I just downloaded 2001 A Space Odyssey onto it? And I maintain all of my finances, bank, 401k, stocks, etc. using it?
OK let’s make a short story long. So my sister who had an iPhone (I still don’t have an iPhone, I have an olde battle-scarred Samsung “dumb as a stump” flip phone) called me a few years back to tell me she just got the new iPad. Mrs and I had her on speaker phone so we joked with her thanking her for getting me an iPad for Father’s day which was coming up. Well she felt so sorry that the all time geek of the family didn’t even have an iPhone, that she got me an iPad for father’s day. This iPad. Woo Hoo!
(standby more to come … later … It is 1:21 AM here… Will pick up tomorrow … See it isn’t finished yet)
[8:12 AM Wed. … Just a quick addition, adding the A. C. Clark quote at top and a few more lines below]
Where was I? Oh yes, the iPad. So my sister got me the first iPad not long after it came out. It was the perfect example of “it is interesting, but do I really need it? would I really use it?” I was skeptical. It was really really cool and all, but just how useful would it be? I certainly never would have bought it for myself.
I CAN NOT LIVE WITHOUT THIS THING. I use it for everything. Well at least everything that it is capable of doing (it can’t cook or clean house, but I would use it for that if I could). In no particular order: I maintain this blog. (using it now). I check email (personal and business), I get my news on the web, I get my weather, (with the help of Google, Bing, Wikipedia, WordPress) I ask it questions and it gives me answers I can use, I read articles and videos about how to do stuff, I listen to music, I watch TV, I watch movies, I read books, I learn, I satisfy my curiosity, I take it with me everywhere, it runs all day long.
(uh oh … Gotta run … Later … More to come)
[updating off line now]
I manage my finances, pay my bills, actively manage my 401k, manage my stock account, track prescription drugs and medical EOBs, play games usually in versus mode with a friend. Now obviously Apple doesn’t provide all of these services, but the iPad easily and seamlessly accesses all of them.
My friend who is dyslexic, uses his to read web articles to him. He stated that this has allowed him to learn more faster than ever could before.
Wife’s iPad
Eventually the Mrs discovered my iPad. And by discovered, I mean she confiscated my iPad for her use. Last year I got her an iPad of her own, a gen 3 “iPad with Retina display”. It blows mine away in terms of performance and image quality. Apple released the gen 4 last fall and will release gen 5 this fall. Wife’s iPad has 4x the performance of mine. Gen 5 iPad should be 4x performance of her’s. Which would be 16x the performance of my poor olde iPad.
I had her iPad engraved at the sweatshop factory.
[Wife’s name]’s iPad
Keep’a yo hand’s off
She loves it. I put her favorite game, Mahjong Solitaire on it. Loaded her favorite music to it. We soon discovered that she could stream SiriusXM oldtime radio to it. Then we discovered free podcasts on iTunes of all of her favorite oldtime radio shows. I got her a set of the Bose over-the-ear noise-canceling headphones. I set her up with a Google news icon. Just this weekend I set her up with a playlist of her favorites. She frequents the hospital monthly to bi-monthly, so she takes the iPad and headphones to keep her company.
The Mrs is the poster child for technophobic anti-computer Luddite. Yet, she loves her iPad. She recommends it to everyone she meets. She follows the news from Google news. Checks and replies to emails. Talks to me via iMessage, keeps her doctor appointments on it. Tracks her temperature on it. Follows the weather, listens to music and radio drama.
iLove iTunes
Much of what I have discussed isn’t unique to Apple. iTunes on the other hand is Apple. This is where A. C. Clark’s magic really begins. The iTunes store was announced ten years ago in April. Recently it surpassed it’s 25 billionth song download on February 6th, 2013.
Click on the image above to see detailed download history.
iTunes Match debuted on November 14th, 2011. With iTunes Match, all of your music is available all of the time on all of your devices, whether or not you purchased your music from iTunes. For a small annual fee, Apple provides access to all of your music. If you did not purchase your music from iTunes and iTunes identifies a better quality version on iTunes, you get access to the better version. The beauty of iTunes Match is that you can download all or part of your music at anytime to any of your devices … or you can stream your music via WiFi or a cellular connection without downloading it (or any combination thereof).
I subscribe to iTunes Match. Mrs and I have full access to all of our music and playlists anywhere, any time we have WiFi access. This is seamless magic.
Did I mention instant gratification? … What was that song by you know who? … Oh yeah, that’s the one. … iTunes has it? Downloading now …
Apple App Store
Similar to iTunes Match, any app you buy at the Apple App Store, is always available for re-download. So if I need to clean out some space I can delete apps knowing that I can always download them again.
iBooks and iTunesU
Similar to iTunes and App Store. Delete books to clean up. Download again as desired. Nice backlit reader with fully adjustable text. Good for olde eyes.
More instant gratification. Think about book … Find book … Downloading now …
Bluetooth
More magic. You just read a review of the Bose Mini Bluetooth speaker. It connects easily and reconnects automatically, or at worst at the push of a button. Same with Bluetooth in my car. I can set up a music playlist, leave my iPad in my brief case, and automatically start listening when I startup the Prius.
WiFi
Access to the Internet is automatic with our iPads. Whether at home or at the hospital, or Starbucks, or our local breakfast cafe once set up the iPad remembers and automatically reconnects when in range.
Although I am doing my part for global carbon dioxide production by going paperless. I sometimes need to print out coupons, so I bought a cheap HP WiFi printer. Connection of the iPad to the printer was seamless and easy. Yet more magic.
No Worries Mate
Is your antivirus software up to date? Would you know? One the things that iPad (actually iOS) haters hate about iPad is the “app sandbox” design concept. This is what I love most about the iPad.
If you use a computer, and if you are reading this you are probably using a computer, you know that you can use a file browser (Windows Explorer) to view / copy / paste / delete files just about anywhere on a Windows computer. Same is mostly true for the Mac. If you can view / copy / paste / delete a file or executable, so can a hacker, virus, worm, spyware, etc. The iPad is different. Each application runs in its own dedicated storage space. Take for example the web browser Safari. It and all of its data all live together in the same directory. It can not get out of its prison. Viruses can not install themselves on an iPad. It just can’t freakin’ happen.
I don’t have, need, or use antivirus software on the iPad. The only danger is a rogue developer writing a malicious app. That is where the Apple iOS App Store comes into play. This is again a sore point with Apple Haters (haters gotta hate). Apple has strict and draconian control about what can be published on the App Store. This means that an app gets tested by Apple to confirm it is not malware or spyware. I like this. I have enough to worry about. Yeah, yeah, every so often you hear that someone has snuck something snarky onto the Apple App Store to prove it can be done, but really … no worries.
An iPad can be “jailbroken”. This is a process whereby the owner can be granted full access to the underlying OS as the “root” user. However you can now no longer download from the App Store and will need to find a different site. There are many sites, but making sure that you are now getting safe apps is your responsibility.
If you want to poke around in your iPad, monitor storage space, performance, memory utilization, etc. I highly recommend System Status by Jeri Techet, available at the App Store. 
In Conclusion
iPad … Cat-Beard Tested, Momma Approved
Be seeing you …
[Final upload Wed. Aug. 21, 2013 @ 7:15 PM … While drinking wine at the bar of a neighborhood Italian restaurant waiting for my take out order … final (?) edit 8:03 PM … Three glasses of wine … Final proof read by Mrs at 9:00 PM … Final upload at 9: 40 PM]
[Woke up unexpectedly at 4 AM On Thur. Aug. 22nd, 2013 … adding more edits and thoughts]
… or what you read … NOW
Bose SoundLink Mini
Cat-Beard Manor is rocking’ the kasbah. Over the weekend I surprised the Mrs. with a new toy. She recently discovered playlists on her iPad, and, being a shut-in, having access to her tunes and/or oldtime radio podcasts (or SiriusXM oldtime internet radio) is critical. Last year I got her a set of the Bose over-the-ear noise-canceling headphones (which we both love). But she doesn’t always want to have to wear headphones and the single speaker on her iPad is a bit anemic.
The sound on this new wireless Bluetooth battery-operated speaker is really good. It fills the room and the whole house with plenty of volume.
Click on the image above to go to the Bose website or click the video below to watch a CNET review.
Cat-Beard recommended, Momma approved.
Be hearing you …
Next >> Why I Like Apple
I started this essay a while ago, but I never finished it.
If you haven’t read Welcome to the Future, I suggest that you start >> HERE <<
Excerpted from Welcome to the Future
In 1968, a year before Neil and Buzz first frolicked on the Moon, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer released Stanley Kubrick’s epic 2001 A Space Odyssey. I begged and pleaded with my dad to take me to the Miami showing which debuted in 70mm ultra-widescreen Cinerama – the IMAX of its day. The 142 minute long movie was unique in its realistic depiction of space flight, with ground breaking special effects and a powerful musical score. It was equally unique in its use of long periods of silence to portray the vast distances and length of time required to travel to Jupiter. The original showing even had an intermission. 2001 opened to mixed reviews. My dad and I mirrored the critical and public sentiment. He thought it was long and boring. I thought – and still do – that it was the greatest science-fiction movie ever made. If you have seen 2001 A Space Odyssey you know what I am talking about, if not Wikipedia, the Internet Movie Database, and numerous fan sites do a much better job of describing it than I ever could. If you like science-fiction and have never seen 2001 you really owe it to yourself to see this film.
Recall that in the ’60s and ’70s there was no such thing as VHS tapes, DVDs, or digital downloads. If you wanted to see a movie you either went to the theater to see it, or hoped it would be shown – cut and commercial-filled – on TV. Fortunately 2001 enjoyed frequent returns to theaters after its 1968 release, albeit in 35mm format on a much smaller screen. It enjoyed a cult following in part due to the spectacular light show at the end of the movie. I saw 2001 A Space Odyssey every time it came back to the theater, often multiple days in a row, often multiple showings in a row. I lost count of the number of times I had seen it after my twenty-second viewing. My dream was to someday be rich enough to have my own home theater and a film copy of 2001 that I could watch whenever I wanted.
2001 A Space Odyssey depicted the video phone, video tablets, and the quintessential sentient computer, HAL 9000. The technology may not have existed yet when I was a kid, but the ideas did and I wanted all of it. I dreamed of video phones and personal communicators. I dreamed of having my own computer that could answer any question I posed of it. I dreamed of the future.
2001
Despite the Y2K (year two thousand) “panic”, the new millennium did not actually begin until January 1, 2001. That is because there was no year zero. The current calendar starts with year 1 A.D. (alternatively C.E.). Thus 2001 marked the beginning of the new millennium. This is why Kubrick and Clark chose the name 2001 A Space Odyssey.
As a teenager in 1968, I envisioned the year 2001 to be the dawn of a fantastic new world. In 1968 the world of 2001 was thirty-three unimaginable and somewhat frightening years in the future. Who would I be in 2001? Where would I live? What would I do? Would I be married? Would I have children? Would I be alive? What would the world be like? Would we have permanent settlements on the Moon? Would humanity even be alive?
If you could have somehow teleported my teenage self from 1968 to 2001 (perhaps via a souped-up DeLorean), I would have been amazed at how much had changed. Yet I would have been even more amazed at how little had changed. Listen to the Merry Minuet by the Kingston Trio, circa 1959:
First notice how little has changed since 1959. Second despite the dark humor, please realize that fear of nuclear annihilation was ever present throughout my teenage years. I personally think that global nuclear annihilation is less likely now than it was fifty or so years ago, but I am less optimistic regarding localized nuclear engagements or terrorist attacks. I actually think that although our fears have subsided, the real danger may have increased.
I plan to address Negrophobia and U. S. race relations more in a later post, but I think it is safe to say that much has changed both in the U. S. and around the world since the 1960s. For some folks, things are better, for others maybe not so much. Still I remain hopeful and optimistic. Much more to say in future …
Epiphany
I’d have given anything to have my own PacMan game at home.
I used to have to get a ride down to the arcade. Now I’ve got it on my phone.
Brad Paisley, “Welcome to the Future”
A month or two ago I had an epiphany while driving into work (possibly listening to some obscure “teenhood” song playing on my iPad streaming via Bluetooth to my Prius sound system). The epiphany was that everything I could have hoped for as a kid had come to pass. I have my own human-enhanced computer database that can answer any question I put to it (so does everyone else, but I will gladly share). I have near instant access to any book, song, or movie from my childhood, teenhood, present, and just about any other era. I have my own computer/vidscreen/music player/communicator that I carry with me at all times. I have HAL 9000 as the wallpaper of my iPad.
And just because I can … I now have 2001 A Space Odyssey on my iPad.
By the way, the stock symbol of the company I work for is … HAL. I’m not making this stuff up.
Headers
My Headers post got three likes and three votes (one from my wife) for A (sunrise over the Earth). As you can see by the header at the top of the page, I am really partial to the sunrise over the Earth header. Hmm, I wonder why?
And as icing on the cake, number one son graduated high school in the Class of …DUN DUN DAHHH, DA DANH … 2001. I mean seriously how cool is that.
Next >> Momma’s got tunes
While waiting for the next installment of Day 42 (DayZ of DiZeaZe) … that would be Day 46 … you might enjoy this musical interlude from the late 50s.
Be seeing you …
I lied. I’m blogging again. This time in a new category. Music. Epic Music.
If you watch movie trailers you have heard their work. If you watch movies you have heard their work. Click the image below to go to their website.
An email on a Russian dashcam video, leads to a reposting on Contrafactual, on which I note that I like the soundtrack of the video. JeonicDe replies that it is Strength of a Thousand Men by Two Steps From Hell, which I download from iTunes in the form of their Archangel album. I am listening to it as I compose this post.
Download Archangel to your iPhone and Bluetooth it to your car stereo. Your daily commute will be heroic. Or listen on head phones as you commute on the train or bus. Your commute will be epic. Or listen at night with a good Single Malt. Your relaxation will be majestic. To quote the Two Steps From Hell website:
MUSIC MAKES YOU BRAVER
I just got this in an email. I spent the better part of the ’90s working off and on in Siberia. Today Russian drivers mostly have dashboard videos. This is from the site vk.com/dashboard Auto Video. The title, Второй день рождения, translates as “Last Christmas”.
I really like the background music.
cb
Contrafactual 