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Post by Ginnie on Aug 12, 2008 20:06:33 GMT -4
And I'm talking about the 'illegal' downloading of music here. Not the visual arts. I have a hard time with this. I really do. On the surface, it seems that it is just plain wrong. Pure and simple. But is it? I have a 'friend' who downloads music every now and then. Now, my 'friend' is around my age, and in his lifetime has bought about one thousand vinyl records and CD's. That's supporting a lot of artists. Some, he's bought four times - in this instance Bowie's 'Diamond Dogs' album : one record wore out, one melted, one replaced the melted one and then I - I mean he, bought the CD. And he bought every Bowie album up until 1988 - that's around twenty just for this particular artist. So Bowie made money on him. So, is it so bad if he downloaded some Bowie stuff that he doesn't have to hear what it sounds like? I mean, Bowie really needed the money back in '74 and my 'friend' helped him out. Another point: My friend finds that by downloading music it gives him a better informed judgement on what to actually buy. And no, he doesn't download twenty albums and buys just one. The ratio is much closer than that. Perhaps five to one. And stuff he doesn't like eventually gets deleted. Also, there is material that you can download that doesn't seem to be available anywhere else - mostly of concerts where another musician/artist made a guest appearance. Example - Bruce Springsteen singing Helpless with Neil Young. I do know some young people who have bigger music collections than me who've never, ever , bought a CD! That, I find is wrong. But is it? And this isn't audio, but how do the Youtube clips not violate copyright laws? e.g. The Beatles from the Let It Be move, which is available in multiple clips from YouTube.
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Post by Ginnie on Aug 12, 2008 19:49:35 GMT -4
I hate buying any of my records again. Ditto tapes. I have a lot of Joan Baez and Cat Stevens that I picked up at yard sales when I was in high school, and that's why I own a turntable. Well, I had too many good ones - all of the Beatles, Bowie, Neil Young... Lots of Led Zep, Pink Floyd, Lou Reed, Black Sabbath, Alice Cooper, Alex Harvey... Remember Gillianren, that I had been buying vinyl for twenty years before CD's came out, so I had a substantial collection - about 350 albums. I suspect you are younger than me - how many albums did you have when you bought your first CD player? When I first started buying CD's though, I bought material that I didn't have on vinyl. After all, at that point the two technologies were co-existing. After a few years, I started to replace some of my vinyl.
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Post by Ginnie on Aug 12, 2008 16:37:16 GMT -4
Too bad Neil couldn't get along better in a regular band... And its interesting that during Monterey Pop David Crosby filled in for Neil when he was having one of his hissy fits. ;DYoung has always walked his own road. Its been worth the winding trip for music fans. Indeed. He could be brutal with people at times. Pissed a lot of his band mates off. He walked out on Stills before they were to tour saying, "Eat a Peach..." Once, CSN dropped by when he was recording. Things went so well that they thought they would put out a CSN&Y album. But at the last minute, Neil wiped out the background vocals and put it out solo. Funnily enough, one of the songs was "Through My Sails", which is on the Zuma album - and Neil mistakingly gave the record company the take that still had CSN on it. If you listen to it, you'll notice the difference in texture compared with the rest of the songs on 'Zuma'. But I must admit to wasting a few dollars on some of his recordings that I didn't like - 'Everybody's Rockin', 'Reactor', 'Life', 'Landing on Water', 'Silver and Gold', 'Trans'... That's the equivalent to about $100 right there. I have 28 Neil Young CD's (including CSN&Y, Buffalo Springfield). If I had my vinyl back, it would be around 35. I sure wasn't going to buy his mediocre material again on CD.
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Post by Ginnie on Aug 12, 2008 16:24:09 GMT -4
Neil had Richie Furay sing his songs until he got enough confidence in his voice to sing them himself.I'd never heard that but it makes sense. Young's voice is very personal. . I just looked up the Richie Fury thing. He was "bitterly dissapointed" about not singing the lead vocal on the Neil Young song 'Burned' on their first album. Neil had just been singing background harmonies up to that point. Neil justified singing it himself, saying "I wrote the song and nobody else can sing it". When the single failed to chart, some people blamed it on Neil's voice!
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Post by Ginnie on Aug 11, 2008 22:57:33 GMT -4
Okay, okay. Can two different materials have the same 'mass' but different shielding properties? By what you said before, the answer seems to be 'no', but...
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Post by Ginnie on Aug 11, 2008 22:54:50 GMT -4
Seventies not Sixties, but Isaac Hayes just died. That Isaac Hayes was one bad mother. Sorry to hear that. Now, that another to add to my must hear list. I've heard Shaft of course, but nothing else by him. And Isaac did start in the sixties - he was a session player on Sam and Dave's 'Soul Man'. So I'm thinking I have to hear 'Hot Buttered Soul' - wikepedia says it was a milestone, so it demands listening...
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Post by Ginnie on Aug 11, 2008 21:56:42 GMT -4
To shielding, obviously -- but "armour" is a pretty non-technical name for it. Shielding density is commonly given in terms of mass per unit area. It indicates the amount of mass that particles impinging on that unit area of outer skin would have to traverse and/or be absorbed in. Think of the unit area as a "window" and the mass figure as the amount of shield mass behind that window. The Apollo spacecraft provided considerably more than 6 lbm (pounds-mass) per square foot. ...well, not that obvious, obviously... ;D Now, lets add this in to the picture... Do you have a few examples of materials and their lbs/sq.ft rating? Like, what would be the rating of paper, or tin foil etc. Even if someone could point me to a website that has than information. And I still have a hard time understanding mass vs. density/weight. Even Bob B. PM'd me with info on that and I still can't get my head around it.
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Post by Ginnie on Aug 11, 2008 21:52:35 GMT -4
I don't know if anyone here has any experience with pickling, but I'm attempting to do just that tonight. I love garlic/hot pickles, but have yet to find any in the grocery stores. So, I'm doing 'em myself.
Ingredients:
Cucumbers Garlic Jalepeno Peppers Dill Tumeric Salt Vinagar Water
I just hope the jars 'seal' or I'll have to store them in the fridge. Only had enough to do four big jars anyway. Hmm, if these turn out alright I'm gonna try pickled eggs next. They cost so much to buy, and I can get free range eggs from a neighbour for 1.50 a dozen.
I'll let you know in a few months how they turned out. Got any favourite pickle recipes to share?
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Post by Ginnie on Aug 11, 2008 21:44:28 GMT -4
Speaking of Traffic, is there any song that has inspired such great redos than 'Feelin Alright'? (other than maybe 'All Along the Watchtower). What's funny is that I hadn't heard the original from Traffic until last week! Joe Cocker, Grand Funk, Rare Earth and Three Dog Night all recorded it.
Now I know that 'Yesterday' has been covered by 1,000 artists...but I'm talkin' good covers...
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Post by Ginnie on Aug 11, 2008 21:16:25 GMT -4
You're talking to the converted on this band my boy! I'm a huge Neil Young fan - CSN&Y too. I just have their first album 'Buffalo Springfield' at home. It's funny that Neil had Richie Furay sing his songs until he got enough confidence in his voice to sing them himself. Indeed, Richie was miffed when Neil decided to sing his own songs. I've read that The Byrds were the American Beatles and that Buffalo Springfield were the American Rolling Stones, but I don't think that's a good comparison. Too bad Neil couldn't get along better in a regular band... And its interesting that during Monterey Pop David Crosby filled in for Neil when he was having one of his hissy fits. ;D
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Post by Ginnie on Aug 11, 2008 21:09:11 GMT -4
I love Sly and the Family Stone. I don't like disco, but I love funk - go figure. Thus I like Sly, Rare Earth, some of George Clinton/Funkadelic, James Brown, War, even a lit bit of Earth, Wind and Fire. The rhythym is so cool, and as a bass player myself, I find funky bass irresistable and mesmerizing at times. I have 'Sly and the Family Stone Greatest Hits', but I plan to get a few of his regular albums, especially 'Stand'.
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Post by Ginnie on Aug 11, 2008 20:49:19 GMT -4
I've come across something in a book that I don't quite understand:
"According to the current data, for a two weeks' voyage, such as would be needed to circumnavigate the moon, the total radiation dose due to primary cosmic radiation and that of the natural and artificial belts surrounding the Earth should not be more than 10 rem with an armour of 2 to 4 lb/sq.ft."
"The protons produced by solar flares, on the other hand, are a real menace to the health and even the life of an astronaut. For greater safety, it would therefore be disirable to increase the armour to 6 lb./sq.ft. " The Space Encyclopedia (1969)
What does the term 'armour' refer to?
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Post by Ginnie on Aug 11, 2008 20:04:42 GMT -4
Or should I say, that I forgot, or never heard in the first place.
Lately I've been listening to music from the Sixties that I never heard much of when I was growing up. It's amazing how much 'unknown' (to me) music there is! Here's a sampling:
The Pretty Things - no doubt you Brits will be more familiar with this band. I remember Bowie recording a couple of their songs on 'Pinups' - Rosalyn and Here Comes the Night. But I hadn't heard anything actually from the group. I listened to their album S.F. Sorrow (1968) - probably the first true rock opera, and it is excellent. Sound quality is good too.
The Kinks - yeah, I was familiar with some of their hits like everyone else, but had never heard a full Kinks album till 1974. But going back to 'The Kinks are the Village Green Preservation Society' (1968) was a bit of a revelation. Just shows that the Beatles et al. weren't the only bands writing great songs in the sixties.
Spirit - I've seen this band mentioned time after time in rock publications, and finally gave them a listen. Good music.
Moby Grape - again, saw their name in print many times but never listened to them until now. Not as good as the above bands, but well worth a listen or two.
Traffic - everyone's heard Mr. Fantasy and Feelin' Alright, but their other material is very good also. Steve Winwood was also in the Spencer Davis Group (Gimme Gimme Good Lovin').
Country Joe and the Fish - besides their Woodstock performance, I was totally ignorant of their (his) work. They have a very psychedelic album 'Electric Music for the Mind' that has been voted by someone as the best psychedelic album of all time. It's still good.
Quicksilver Messenger Service - not as good as their reputation in my opinion, but can't knock them too much - still sounds better than most of the stuff I hear on the radio today.
There is a few more I haven't gotten to - Vanilla Fudge, Insect Trust and a few more. It is so great to find some great music again!
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Post by Ginnie on Aug 10, 2008 21:47:59 GMT -4
I don't know what;s going on. In my TV listings tonight, I noticed on the Discovery Channel (Canada) at 8 pm "NASA" and at 9 pm "NASA" again. So I put them on - they are episodes of "When We Left Earth". Looks like part one - the Mercury missions and maybe part three (?) the Apollo missions. No Gemini at all. Very incomplete to me.
But what a well done series. No animations or historical recreations - all real footage in chronological order, the way I like it. Great interviews with the astronauts, good insights about the dangers and hiccups and really good cleaned up footage, not blurry like the DVD sets I have. Wonderful.
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Post by Ginnie on Aug 10, 2008 18:30:08 GMT -4
What's bowling have to do with cricket? Stay on topic... ;D
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