Music Migration

So, let go, yeah let go
Just get in
Oh, it's so amazing here
It's all right
'Cause there's beauty in the breakdown

"Let Go" by Frou Frou

If you visit music streaming sites, you may have heard about thesixtyone's re-design.  A few days ago, the designers revamped the whole site without letting users know ahead of time.  Thesixtyone is now flashier, features full-screen photos of the artists you're listening to, and roll-over menus all over the screen.  Some sites--a lot, actually--have written praise for the bold move.  TechCrunch and the Los Angeles Times have both commented on how much better thesixtyone is now and what a bold choice the designers made.  Many long-term users of thesixtyone left comments on those articles detailing what we lost in the re-design, most notably, the community features that made the site so unique in the first place.

Users e-mailed the designers to voice their concerns about the lack of features in the re-design, but the site owners aren't responding.  Meanwhile, browsing new artists and songs on thesixtyone is more difficult.  The site feeds you tracks to listen to rather than letting you hunt down your own music, as it was before.  The community features that remain are buried behind menus.  Artists can't keep in touch with their audiences and are selling less tracks since the re-design launched.  The new sixtyone may be a nice music streaming site to new users, but the creators of the site alienated the people who made thesixtyone so great in the first place.

Out of all of this, something beautiful and incredible is happening.  Thesixtyone's creators took away community features, but they can't kill the community.  Word spread around that people were moving on to another music site called uvumi.  Uvumi isn't exactly like the old version of thesixtyone, but it has a good community and independent artists who truly care about their work.  It is a social music site in the sense that artists and listeners have conversations.  All users talk to each other and discover music together.  That was the spirit of thesixtyone.  People aren't putting up with the overhaul (read: destruction) of thesixtyone, and we're gathering on uvumi.  (You can find me here.)  The site grew by 30% in the past week.  We're inviting artists to create profiles and upload their music on uvumi.  The staff have been very welcoming and wonderful in accommodating the rapid increase in site activity.

We're finding each other and sticking together, maintaining the community and enjoying our music away from thesixtyone.

Clark Kent is not a commentary on the human race

I haven't seen Kill Bill, but I came across this quote on tumblr the other day:

A staple of the superhero mythology is, there’s the superhero and there’s the alter ego. Batman is actually Bruce Wayne, Spider-Man is actually Peter Parker. When that character wakes up in the morning, he’s Peter Parker. He has to put on a costume to become Spider-Man. And it is in that characteristic Superman stands alone. Superman didn’t become Superman. Superman was born Superman. When Superman wakes up in the morning, he’s Superman. His alter ego is Clark Kent. His outfit with the big red “S”, that’s the blanket he was wrapped in as a baby when the Kents found him. Those are his clothes. What Kent wears - the glasses, the business suit - that’s the costume. That’s the costume Superman wears to blend in with us. Clark Kent is how Superman views us. And what are the characteristics of Clark Kent. He’s weak… he’s unsure of himself… he’s a coward. Clark Kent is Superman’s critique on the whole human race.
— Bill (Kill Bill Vol.2, 2004)

I've read this argument elsewhere online and I've heard it from a few friends too.  I agree with the point that Superman was born Superman and that sets him apart from other superheroes. His alter ego is Clark Kent as opposed to a superhero persona that other characters like Bruce Wayne and Peter Parker had to create.

I don't agree with the argument, however, that the Clark Kent guise is a critique of the human race.  Superman doesn't dress like Clark Kent because he thinks that's how the average human being is.  Superman dresses like Clark Kent as a disguise.  He wants to be under the radar, to be the last person anyone would expect to be Superman so that he can have a life outside of the blue suit and cape.  So the glasses, the dorky behavior, the insecurities--that's all an act to distance himself from the Superman persona.  Superman could have chosen to stay on the farm in Smallville.  He could have played professional football.  He could have been a travel agent.  He could have done anything, but he wanted to keep a low profile and stay close to world news.  He took a job at the Daily Planet and he pretends to be the most awkward dork in the world. No one thinks he's anything like Superman because if anyone did, Superman couldn't attempt to live a normal life in Metropolis.

Bruce Wayne uses a deeper voice when he's Batman.  Peter Parker constantly banters with villains and makes wisecracks as he web-slings around New York City.  They put on acts like Superman does, but their situations are polar opposites.  Batman and Spider-Man make spectacles of themselves while Clark Kent tries to blend into the background.  The Clark Kent guise is Superman's understanding of the type of people we don't pay attention to but not a stereotype of humans.

You cannot skim a video blog

Well...you can.  You can drag your slider through the video to the end.  It'd be like watching choppy stop-motion, but you won't know what the video is about unless there are a lot of visuals.  Even then, it's iffy.  This may be the reason why my YouTube watching habits have tapered off but I still have a general idea of what's going on with the blogs I read.

See, this is what happens.  When I start to lose interest in a YouTube channel, I take a break from the videos or I stop watching every single video on a channel.  When I start losing interest in a blog, though, I skim entries.  I can still get the gist of what they're about without paying full attention.  Skim and scroll down.

So lately, I keep up with only the YouTube channels I'm most interested in, and that's a select few.  I'm watching less videos and less likely to click on a video as soon as it goes up.

And yet, I subscribed to someone new yesterday.

Updates on Spider-man's reboot

More news and discussion on movie sites today about Sony's plans for the Spider-man reboot.  According to Screen Rant and /Film, James Vanderbilt has already written the script for the new movie thanks to Sony's pre-planning with how things would go after the fourth film.

EW reported that the reboot will be gritty and contemporary.  Hopefully Vanderbilt's script isn't gritty--that's not what Spider-man is.  Contemporary would work, I guess.  Make him live in the 21st century. 

Good luck to the director who has to follow Raimi...see the links above for more info.

Spider-man 4 is dead but reboot coming in 2012

/Film and ScreenRant both reported that Sony canceled Spider-man 4 today.  After a few setbacks and schedule issues, Sony and Sam Raimi (the director) decided to part ways.  Raimi will move on to other projects, and Sony wants to reboot the Spiderman franchise for a return to theaters in 2012.

Future movies won't follow the letdown that was Spider-man 3, so hopefully we'll have good Spider-man stories again.  Sony said they'll reboot with Peter Parker back in high school dealing with his abilities and real-world problems.  I haven't seen a lot of Spider-man in his high school years, so this is good news for me.  I'm excited to see where they go with it.  I loved the first four seasons of Smallville simply because they were about Clark Kent in high school and that was something that wasn't shown on television before.  If the reboot works out, the sequels could continue to be about Peter's high school years.  The cool thing about sequels is that they don't have a specified time between stories.  The sequel could be later that year, the following year, or jump a few years. 

I didn't mind Tobey Maguire as Peter Parker/Spider-man, but a new actor in the role will be refreshing.  I wonder which villains will be in the reboot, and I hope Peter gets his snarky banter back.

End of Time

The New Year's Day Doctor Who special "End of Time, part 2" was the last episode for David Tennant, the tenth Doctor.  The episode had lots of good parts but also some let downs.  ***Spoilers below***

The Doctor falling through the skylight for example.  As a rule, if you want to rush in and stop someone from doing something horrible, don't hurt yourself in the process.  The Doctor crashed down through the skylight, and then he was on the floor with broken glass around him, needing a minute to recover before he did anything.  It was a cool shot, yes, but not a practical thing for the Doctor to do.  He's usually smarter than that.

The second letdown for me was Donna.  The Doctor has repeatedly said that she must never remember him or any of her adventures in the TARDIS or else she'll die.  When Donna does remember, all that happens is an energy wave comes out of her head and knocks out the copies of the Master.  She falls asleep and later wakes up with no memory of what happened.  I didn't want Donna to die, but it would have been fitting if her death in some way helped the Doctor stop the Master or the return of the Timelords.  Being the Doctor's best friend, she deserved more than what she got in the episode.

Those were the major letdowns for me, and also the dragging out of Ten's death.  But onto the things I really liked.

The moments between the Doctor and Wilfred were wonderful, especially the conversation about the gun.  The Doctor knew what was at stake if he didn't stop the Master, and yet he refused to take the gun.  The change in his decision is incredible when he realizes the Timelords are returning.  When the Doctor picks up a gun, you know something terrible is happening.

I like that the Master saved the Doctor.  I thought the Master would have let the Timelords do what they wanted, but then he stands up, completely composed, and asks the Doctor to move out of the way. 

The Doctor sacrificed himself to save Wilfred and that's nice and all, but I think there should have been a more significant way for Ten to die after everything he's been through.  In "The Next Doctor," he mentions that he hopes he doesn't die by tripping over a brick.  Ten's death was almost as unnecessary.  Death by inconvenient radiation chamber.  I liked that the Doctor visited his friends before he regenerated, but that also dragged out his death.  I was ready to see Ten die, so seemingly killing him in the radiation chamber only to have him walk around for another twenty minutes was terrible.  I realized how creepy it is to watch the Doctor not speak.  He didn't speak to Martha, Mickey, Sarah Jayne, or Jack.  Those brief scenes reminded me of the end of "The Family of Blood" when the Doctor is dealing out punishments in silence.

All in all, I thought "End of Time" was a decent send off for David Tennant, but I think it could have been better.  We saw only a few moments of Matt Smith, but I'm excited for the spring.

(And who was that woman?  The Doctor's mother?  His wife?  His daughter?  I wish we found out.)