From: owner-ecto-digest@smoe.org (ecto-digest) To: ecto-digest@smoe.org Subject: ecto-digest V12 #108 Reply-To: ecto@smoe.org Sender: owner-ecto-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-ecto-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk ecto-digest Friday, April 28 2006 Volume 12 : Number 108 Today's Subjects: ----------------- musician's sites. [adamk@zoom.co.uk] Re: favourite or perfect websites (and MySpace, and Paris) [andrew fries ] Re: favourite or perfect websites (and MySpace, and Paris) ["Xenu's Siste] Re: favourite or perfect websites (and MySpace, and Paris) ["Sue Trowbrid] Re: favourite or perfect websites (and MySpace, and Paris) [andrew fries ] Re: favourite or perfect websites (and MySpace, and Paris) [raven@igc.org] Thea Gilmore UK tour dates [] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 27 Apr 2006 09:58:57 +0100 From: adamk@zoom.co.uk Subject: musician's sites. I don't hang around many, I have to say, but ones I like include Thea Gilmore's (www.theagilmore.com)which flashes a bit but doesn't take too long to load. Meredith Meyer's site (www.meredithmeyer.com) is surprisingly lovely for such a rookie, really quite beautiful. Carina Round (www.carinaround.co.uk) I've always found ugly and rather unhelpful (at one point it was so outdated, I gave up on it completely, but on just revisiting it I see there's a new song) One I really used to hate was for the now-defunct group Witness. Great band, lousy website. So Flash-heavy I couldn't figure out what was going on or where I was going and always spent a long time staring at an ugly, throbbing screen. I also like Jonatha Brooke's (www.jonathabrooke.com) which is utterly comprehensive, with video clips (which I've never been able to get to work, however) links to her discussion group, shop and lots of lovely photos. Boos to the Dear Janes site, however: good humoured, but it hasn't been updated for almost two years and gives the very definite impression that they are no more (I sent an e-mail inquiry about a year ago, and heard nothing back). adam k - ----------------------------------------------- This mail sent through http://webmail.zoom.co.uk ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 27 Apr 2006 21:30:47 +1000 From: andrew fries Subject: Re: favourite or perfect websites (and MySpace, and Paris) Xenu's Sister wrote: > And no, sites that aren't on MySpace aren't automaticlly > good. How can someone hate MySpace *that* much? Oh, I don't hate it that much, and obviously I was exaggerating somewhat - - not being on MySpace is no guarantee of quality. But I do dislike it so I tend to avoid pages on it given any choice. My dislike has little to do with Mr Murdoch (it predates his acquisition of MySpace). I just found lots of technical problems such as pages not rendering properly on my system or occasionally crashing my browser (though I have to admit, it hasn't happened in a while - the crashes, that is. Rendering is certainly far from perfect). Then again I found the whole thing seems all too often to be just a maze of links with little visible content. An endless popularity contest... collect more friends!! I find it bizarre, and pointless. And in a few cases where I did find something interesting (Kirsty Stegwazi's new band is there too!) I get annoyed by the fact one cannot leave comments unless subscribed. It could be excused as a safety or spam protection measure, but it actually seems more like 'suck them in' thing... On Livejournal for example it is possible to leave comments as anonymous, yet so far it manages not to collapse under avalanche of spam, while remaining pretty popular. But most of all, I just dislike this lemming-like rush to join MySpace. - - "You have to join MySpace!" - - But why? - - "Well, because EVERONE is on it!!!" Now I'm not even saying there is anything wrong with that. In terms of business, it is probably the right move - as you said, it brings Happy a lot of exposure she would not have otherwise... Yet my mind simply does not work like that, with me it goes more like this: - - "You have to avoid MySpace!" - - But why? - - "Well, because EVERONE is on it!!!" ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 27 Apr 2006 06:27:49 -0700 (PDT) From: "Xenu's Sister" Subject: Re: favourite or perfect websites (and MySpace, and Paris) - --- andrew fries wrote: > My dislike has little to do with Mr Murdoch (it > predates his acquisition of MySpace). I just found > lots of technical problems Yeah, I can't argue with that. MySpace sucks technically. I switched to Firefox and it's better. I don't seem to get the adware/CPU drain problems I used to have, but it could be much much better. > Then again I found the whole thing seems all too > often to be just a maze of links with little visible > content. The content (for me anyway) is the music. Wonderful, glorious, glorious music. And LiveJournal isn't a maze? > An endless popularity contest... collect more friends!! Who cares about those kinds of people? I don't. I care about the music. To condemn the whole thing just because there are idiots/pedophiles/status seekers there is silly if there's something worthwhile about it, and there IS something worthwhile about it: the music. It's like not going to see, say, Tori anymore because there are posers and jerks in every audience. If it's about the music, you should be going for the music, not staying away because of morons that have nothing to do with you or Tori. (Personally, I stay away now because of the ticket prices. That does have something to do with me personally. I did go see her last year but the lawn tickets were only $10 and it'll probably be the last time I see her). And in a way you're talking about me, except that I don't collect just any old friends, I "collect" musicians. Happy's gone from zero to over 4000 in just a few months, but I hand-picked each and every one of them. Ok, not every one. People request adds from me too, and I accept almost all of them. There have been a few weirdos I rejected, and I've rejected a couple of bands who looked like they used a program to add people. When some unknown podunk band has over 100,000 friends, I'm not going to accept unless they write me and say they really like Happy. Anyway, I go to people's pages, I listen to the music, I request the adds. Yes, I have no life. This is my life now. What else could I be doing, watching Fear Factor? So some morons use a program to up their numbers. They're idiots, but are easily ignored. It should be about the music, and is, for me. > I find it bizarre, and pointless. It is, but what does that have to do with Happy? Really, hate MySpace all you want, but can't you at least be happy for Happy? Can't you be happy for the people who are now fans? Can't you be happy that she's now known and liked by people like Hector Zazou, Anelli Drecker, Julianne from All About Eve, the lead singer of The Trashcan Sinatras, and hundreds of others who *never would have heard her otherwise* (even if they've been given CDs which they never lisetned to, like Yngve and Anneli). > But most of all, I just dislike this lemming-like > rush to join MySpace. > > - "You have to join MySpace!" > - But why? > - "Well, because EVERONE is on it!!!" Sigh. Again, who cares? My philosophy (one of them) is take what's good and leave the rest. Bands *should* be rushing to join MySpace and I'm glad for the (good) ones who do. I'm there for the music and to expose Happy to new people. I don't care about anything else. > Now I'm not even saying there is anything wrong with > that. In terms of business, it is probably the right > move - as you said, it brings Happy a lot of exposure > she would not have otherwise... I don't think you meant it like this, but I have to ask. Do you think I do this for *business*? I don't care about business. Grant me my fandom and leave the word business out of a paragraph that includes Happy. She's no longer in the "music business." She makes music simply for the love of it. I'm not trying to sell more albums for her, I just want to spread the music. Not that I don't want her to sell albums. Sure, getting her more exposure might sell more albums, but so what? She's never going to sell more than a few dozen CDs or maybe, being wildy, unreasonably, spirit-sappingly, soul- crushingly optimistic, a few thousand when Find Me gets released. She will never make a living from her music, which is a vicious circle because she needs to make money from her music to make more music, but oh well. What can you do? I know what I can do. Spread the music whereever I can. It's my mission in life. I'm not all that good at it, and there are times when I have to step away from it to preserve my sanity, but when I'm on a roll I'm on a roll, and I'm on a roll with MySpace, Mixposure, mp3unsigned and soon, Independant Artists Company. (I signed Happy up at a couple dozen other places, but they've all been duds.) > Yet my mind simply does not work like that, with me > it goes more like this: > > - "You have to avoid MySpace!" > - But why? > - "Well, because EVERONE is on it!!!" Including lots of great musicians. Turning people away from music...tsk tsk tsk. Vickie - -+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ Music, all I hear is music, guaranteed to please... Happy's MySpace profile: http://www.myspace.com/happyrhodes Happy Rhodes song samples and rarities: http://wretchawry.com - -+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 27 Apr 2006 12:22:10 -0700 From: "Sue Trowbridge" Subject: Re: favourite or perfect websites (and MySpace, and Paris) On 4/27/06, Xenu's Sister wrote: > Yeah, I can't argue with that. MySpace sucks technically. > I switched to Firefox and it's better. I don't seem > to get the adware/CPU drain problems I used to have, > but it could be much much better. I am using Firefox on a Mac and when I go to a musician's Myspace page, I don't see the music player in the upper right of the screen. I can see it on other browsers, but I really like Firefox, except for this and a couple other little bugs. Has anybody else using Firefox/Mac been able to configure the browser so they see the player? It's annoying, since I can't pause or choose songs. - --Sue ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 28 Apr 2006 06:32:30 +1000 From: andrew fries Subject: Re: favourite or perfect websites (and MySpace, and Paris) Xenu's Sister wrote: >> I find it bizarre, and pointless. > > It is, but what does that have to do with Happy? Actually, it has absolutely NOTHING to do with Happy. In fact, this whole thread has nothing to with Happy. I started out pointing what I would consider good things about site design, then went on explaining why *I* don't particularly like MySpace. I can, and I am, very happy for people who get introduced to great music in this way. I just prefer not to play in this particular corner of the net, that is all. I also apologise for using the word 'business' :) I meant, in pragmatic terms, having a page there is a good move, because it *will* bring more exposure... for whatever reasons one seeks exposure, be it commercial or just the love of music. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 27 Apr 2006 13:42:50 -0700 From: raven@igc.org Subject: Re: favourite or perfect websites (and MySpace, and Paris) At 12:22 PM 04/27/2006, Sue Trowbridge wrote: > >I am using Firefox on a Mac and when I go to a musician's Myspace >page, I don't see the music player in the upper right of the screen. I don't use Mac, I use Windows XP. I use Firefox for MySpace, but Netscape for most other sites. I used to see their music player in all four of my browsers, but for several weeks I have not seen their music player... not that I could use it anyway, I'm on dial-up. But MySpace uses at least 50 different URL's for various purposes (I can provide a list if you'd like), and while most only need javascript, at least two need ActiveX for their Flash music player (a change 2-3 months ago)... lads.myspace.com and music.myspace.com and maybe more need ActiveX now, as I no longer see their music player at all, on any of my browsers. And their video players probably need ActiveX, but I've never looked at MySpace videos. I know this is just a firewall issue, if I turn off my preferred firewall and use the one built-in to Windows, I can see the music player just fine, in every browser. So your problem may be related to your firewall, assuming you use one in Mac computers too. - -- John ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 27 Apr 2006 21:25:49 +0100 From: Subject: Thea Gilmore UK tour dates Here's what I've managed to piece together of Thea's UK tour: 20th September - The Junction, Cambridge 22nd September - Zodiac, Oxford 26th September - Fleece & Firkin, Bristol 28th September - Koko, London 3rd October - King Tut's Wah Wah Hut, Glasgow 7th October - Manchester Academy There are definitely more, including (I believe) the Glee Club in Birmingham, but these are all the dates I can currently find... Mike - ----------------------------------------- Email sent from www.ntlworld.com Virus-checked using McAfee(R) Software Visit www.ntlworld.com/security for more information ------------------------------ End of ecto-digest V12 #108 ***************************