A song written about my wife’s Rum Cake (yes, it is that good).

A couple of article in Stratechery about Platforms and Aggregators.  Took me a while to digest this and understand the distinction.  The two articles are:  The Bill Gates Line and The Cost of Developers (which discusses the Microsoft acquisition GitHub).  The (paraphrased) Bill Gates quote discussing Facebook maybe sums it all up:

“This isn’t a platform. A platform is when the economic value of everybody that uses it, exceeds the value of the company that creates it. Then it’s a platform.”

I came across the New York Dolls via David Johansen’s solo work.  They were glam, punk, art and hard rockers before most of it even had a name.  Still love this album.  The first notes of Personality Crisis hit hard, and it never lets up,  but in a fun way.  Gotta go back and listen to Johanssen’s live stuff again, though lots of it is Dolls covers.  Not that there is anything wrong with that.

Just something that caught my eye today at work.  A pile of arms used to hold computer monitors.  I see I still have two more albums to go …

Almost as much as Blonde on Blonde, the Sex Pistols Never Mind the Bullocks stunned me.  My first reaction was:  what is this noise?  Then I played it again.  And again.  Hard to put it in context, but the radio was filled with bloated prog-rock from the previous generation.  These guys were loud and angry.  It was a hurricane of fresh air and a peek at where things were going.

I must have a couple of these albums left.  Ok.  It was mid-2000s.  Had survived the dot-com crash and here comes Mr Bush with his 9/11 and his wars.   I just kept thinking that the young people of America are getting screwed, but are too naive to realize it.  Along comes American Idiot, and I realized the kids were going to be ok.  The country would see lots more wreckage before it was all over, but at least there was some hope for the future.

I realized immediately that these guys have made a 1970s style Rock Opera, like Tommy or Jesus Christ Superstar!  I never figured out why the whole Concept Album thing died out, but I was glad to see it make at least a small comeback.  And who would have figured Green Day to rise to the occasion?

I remember playing this one over and over again at summer backyard BBQs with friends and neighbors.  I don’t think any of them picked up on it.

Taking a lazy day off.  In the horse latitudes of this Top 10 Albums thing  (and no, I don’t think a Doors album is in the cards).  So much stuff that I really like, that could easily make the list.  New Orleans music like Dr John, Prof Longhair or even Wayne Toups.  Bands with long strings of albums I bought like U2, R.E.M. or even early Elton John.  Maybe some Bob Schneider to show I’m not just living in the past (does that even prove anything?)  Maybe some older Jazz that I still listen to like Sun Ra’s Blue Delight, to class it up a bit.  Even some of my parents old music that I still listen to.  Frank Sinatra, Louis Prima, Dean Martin.  Sometimes nothing else will do.

From the New York Times:

BRITAIN’S BIG SQUEEZE

In Britain, Austerity Is Changing Everything

After eight years of budget cutting, Britain is looking less like the rest of Europe and more like the United States, with a shrinking welfare state and spreading poverty.

Out at Joel’s on the lake.