Postcards From Myself

I recently picked up “Through The Storm: A Real Story of Fame and Family in a Tabloid World” by Lynne Spears. Mrs. Spears is the mother of Britney, Jamie Lynn and Bryan Spears. What struck me first was the title, or should I say subtitle. A “real story” of the “tabloid world” seemed to be contradictory. But, as painful as it is to read and admit, this does ring true as a real story in exactly the same way that one could do a real story about cosmetic surgery.

Reading the book it also quickly becomes clear where the root of the families problems is. Lynne Spears is a mother who passed on to her children the need for fame and success without any real regards for the cost or the process. Turning true talent and personality into celebrity became the fastest way to do that.

There is a quote pulled out about two-thirds of the way through the book that says, “I wonder what Mama and Daddy would have said about all the craziness surrounding Britney, Jamie Lynn, and all of us. They were from another era, a time when character counted more than celebrity, and when you word was your sacred trust.” Those two lines about sum up this unfortunate story.

The incidents in “Through The Storm” show that the Spears girls, led by their mother, abandoned character and values for the glamor of celebrity. Equally as evident in reading this is that there is always someone else to blame or a prayer that God will bail you out. Instead of taking personal responsibility for actions, causes, and consequences, Lynn Spears always places the blame outside of herself. Showing still that character just is not there.

As for the book itself, it is a quick but disjointed read – very much like the lives of the pop celebrities it details. The style and content is about as filling as watching E! on television. If that is what you enjoy then you will enjoy “Through The Storm”. If however, you prefer real biographies, real stories, real news – then move on to something else.

Just a quick note for anyone who is a Nine Inch Nails fan. NIN are giving away their new album, The Slip (Halo 27), totally free. According to their website, it is Trent Reznor and the group’s way of saying thank you to the fans for their continued support.

The album is available for download at http://theslip.nin.com in a variety of formats including high-quality MP3, FLAC or M4A lossless at CD quality and even higher-than-CD quality 24/96 WAVE. Submit your email address at the Nine Inch Nails site and you will receive an email that contains a link to the downloadable album. Your link will include all download options – all free. All downloads also include a PDF of the album artwork and credits.

I have only listened to The Slip once so far, but I enjoyed it a lot. It is not as hard as Nine Inch Nail’s early albums, but is more “song oriented” and accessible than than Ghosts I-IV which was also available for download though at a cost. The Slip runs about 45 minutes long and is a must for any NIN fan, even the most remote. Once again, Trent Reznor comes through.

Imagine this – you are quietly surfing the web on the computer in your bedroom in the early morning while your spouse slumbers peacefully in bed nearby. Suddenly and unexpectedly music starts blaring from the speakers! Ahhh! You try to find the volume control as quickly as possible, but it is too late. “What are you doing?” comes the grumble from the bed. Yup, you have been nailed by a website with auto-play music.

Or you are happily surfing away on your lunch hour at work, because you certainly wouldn’t do it during normal work hours, when all of a sudden your computer springs to life and starts screaming, screeching, and maybe even rapping. All eyes turn towards you. There is no happiness in cubicle land today, for you have broken the silence as surely as if you had let one fly after dining at Taco Bell. But no, all you did was visit a blog where someone has a music video with auto-play enabled.

Now trust me, I love music as much or more than the next person. And I love watching funny videos on-line or even stupid ones. Hey, I even watch music videos on-line. But the nice thing about the web is that it I can use it, surf it, or ignore it on my schedule. Please let the sounds be the same way. If I want to hear the music you have on your site or watch the video demonstration you created to pump up your “I want to make a million on the Internet” business site, then I will click Play. Otherwise, please leave it off. What is the end result if you don’t? The result is that I, and lots of others like me, will just stop visiting your site. Rough yes, but it is the truth. The best you can hope for is that we will turn of the volume before we get to your site, so what is the point anyway?

Additionally, auto-play just chews up bandwidth. And that is really annoying when you are trying to multiple things at once. Just sucks away the traffic flow.

Maybe it is just me, but I find this really annoying. Am I wrong? Am I missing something here?

How come I didn’t know about this extremely cool website before? I am talking about Last.fm. Last.fm is an social music platform. Using a music recommendation system known as “Audioscrobbler“, Last.fm builds a detailed profile of each user’s musical taste by recording details of all the songs the user listens to, either on the streamed radio stations or on the user’s computer or portable music device. This information is transferred to Last.fm’s database (“scrobbled”) via a plugin installed into the user’s music player. The profile data is displayed on a personal web page. The site offers numerous social networking features and can recommend and play artists similar to the user’s favorites.

This thing is seriously cool. Not only do I get to stream music that I really like but have never heard of, but I also get to find out about new music by finding out about the preferences of friends or people I admire. For instance, you can list to author Neil Gaiman’s station here. Or mine, that I am still building, here.

Very cool stuff especially since it can look at the history of what you played in iTunes or on your iPod. Also, I have been running it and monitoring the behavior. It really doesn’t seem to take a huge amount of bandwidth in streaming mode, so it really doesn’t slow everything else down when it runs. Give it a try and let me know what you think. I have no vested interest, and no affiliate link, I would just like to know your opinion!