I Don’t Like to Make Political Statements…
…as you all know. And yet, there is this: I support Barack Obama and so should you.
So many people have already written and spoken about him far more eloquently than I could hope to do myself, so I won’t talk about his integrity, his inspiring message, his real commitment to change. Because here is the thing that matters to us here in this little circle of monkey-, robot- and mad-scientist-lovers: he a geek’s candidate. If you understand why network neutrality is important, if you can imagine how transparency and connectivity might improve our Democracy, if you think it’s sort of important that the people who run this country know something about computers and the internet, then you have no business backing anybody else. Obama understands these issues in the way that geeks understand them.
If you are not convinced by all the intelligent and forward thinking people around the internet who are also Obama fans (John Hodgman, David Rees of Get Your War On, Randall Munroe of xkcd, Andy Baio of Waxy.org, Lawrence Lessig of Lawrence Lessig, I could go on and on), then I must deploy the superweapon.
Do as I say: vote for Obama.
Lady A’s Muu Muu
[UPDATE: Well, that was fine for a while, then the stuff that I was putting off caught up with me. Sorry about the webcamus interruptus, but now I’ve got to go move the car and return some phone calls. Backup vocals next, then some reassessing to see where we are…]
This is ridiculous – wasn’t it about six months ago I recorded the guitar part for this little ditty? I’m putting a whole mess of things on hold so I can do a little bit more this afternoon – going to start with some vocals, maybe some organ, maybe a little slidey lap steel something or other. Watch above…
Hacking My Site
Enterprising young (I assume) rianthefreak92 has posted a video at YouTube that demonstrates how to download all my music for free. I was just trying to leave a comment about it, but he must be screening them because it hasn’t appeared there yet. See my response below the video.
As I tried to say in my comment, something like:
Nice “hacking,” though in my day we used to call that a “browser plugin.” I will point out that all the Thing a Week songs were posted as free links initially and all those posts are still there (I do that with all new songs as they come out too). Also, they’re available through the podcast area of the iTunes music store, and of course in the Thing a Week rss feed. Plus P2P sites, torrents, and of course the CC license allows you to legally share the songs with friends (though not the covers, those can’t be licensed CC because I don’t own the songs).
I don’t lead with the free options on my site here, because of course I’d prefer that you give me money so that I can make a living and continue to record songs and entertain America. But I’m aware that they’re there, and I know that many choose to use them. I don’t worry about it too much, because somehow or other this whole thing continues to work. At least until this post ruined it (ha ha ha, I hope not! ha ha).
Anyway, well done rianthefreak92 – the free stuff is your reward for knowing more about computers than most people. Enjoy the music, tell your friends, maybe donate someday in the future when you get a job. Or come to a show, or buy a shirt, or a CD. Most of all, keep on hackin’ you adorable script kiddies!
Bad News in New Haven
The Yankee Doodle has closed for good. I am terribly sad about it. This was a tiny place with a row of 6 stools and a counter, and they put butter on their hamburgers, and they stuffed their hot dogs with cheese and wrapped them in bacon, and they mixed up vanilla cokes, and you could eat and eat and it would only cost you a dollar. I tried to go there last time I was in New Haven and it was suspiciously closed at lunchtime – my worst fears are now confirmed.
“The place is small, the food is great. It’s worth your while to stand and wait.”
Who will put butter on my hamburgers now?
Previously, on Twitter
On Instagram
Follow Jonathan
