Mike's Minutiae

Labels: Pointless Nostalgia

Q: I think that Ennio Morricone is one of the great composers of our time. I regard the music to Once Upon A Time In America as a heartbreaking masterpiece. Is it true that Morricone has worked with you on your new album, and if so, how was it to meet Il Maestro and work with him?
With gratitude and tenderness,
Peter Birro
Sweden

A: hello Peter
Yes, the Maestro came into the studio with his orchestra and worked on a song called "Dear God Please Help Me" – which was very flattering because he'd turned so many multi-million selling pop acts down (I won't mention their names – U2, David Bowie, etc.), so I was delighted that he said yes to scruffy old me. In the event, he was very shy, and he was heavily surrounded and shielded, and there was no way that he and I would end up at the local pub playing darts. But – that's OK. Life's rich tapestry, and so on.

The government collects the data to monitor activities including economic output and Americans' health habits, information used to shape public policies and develop private business strategies.

[Robert Bernstein, a public affairs specialist at the Census Bureau] culls the holiday information from a variety of government sources, relying on the Agriculture Department for much of the data about Thanksgiving.

"We try to put out popular, kind of hip information," Bernstein said.

What many regard as the nation’s first Thanksgiving took place in December 1621 as the religious separatist Pilgrims held a three-day feast to celebrate a bountiful harvest. The day did not become a national holiday until 1863 when President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed the last Thursday of November as a national day of thanksgiving. Later, President Franklin Roosevelt clarified that Thanksgiving should always be celebrated on the fourth Thursday of the month to encourage earlier holiday shopping, never on the occasional fifth Thursday.

[...]

Number of places in the United States named after the holiday’s traditional main course. Turkey, Texas, was the most populous in 2004, with 496 residents; followed by Turkey Creek, La. (357); and Turkey, N.C. (267). There also are 16 townships around the country named “Turkey,” three in Kansas.

• Webmasters who didn't think when they registered their URL
  
  (which has my favorite blog comment of the week: "who cares if its not brand new or original? its still funny so stfu you little goon.")
  
  
• 'Tis the season: the holiday house
  
  
• And just what did 19th century moral authorities think of masturbation?

The $5 million settlement with the Warner Music Group, the nation's third-biggest record company, was the latest in Mr. Spitzer's widening investigation, which has exposed payments to radio programmers in exchange for playing music and routine manipulation of playlist information.

(click for larger image)

He said he would take all this info to the PD - Gavin, who does not deal with record poeple [sic], only Binky. (redacted) has Binky on the case to help us here.

Here is what I have as committed contest spend [sic] from you all this week... WHTG 3 mini iPods in different colors - $750

Aside from the payola, you do get an idea of how stupid these radio people are, and how they’ve just about killed rock and pop radio in every market.

For example, at WHTG in Asbury Park, N.J., the program director “shys [sic] away from anything with ‘screams’ in it…” I guess they’re not playing any James Brown records.

• Back in April, the Senate introduced the Quality Cheese Act of 2005. And I never called my Senators in support?
  
  
• In June, the House considered a resolution "Condemning the Government of Mexico for printing and distributing blatantly racist postage stamps." Hmm. Odd.
  
  
• The Senate, back in January, declared by legislative fiat that "Johnny Carson was bright and witty" yet "never forgot his roots." Awww.

Now to the topic: I bought Coldplays X&Y. With laut.de I before already read the message, according to which Coldplay brings a Song out as bell clay/tone. Geschmunzelt. Excluded!

And now, where I have the disk, the topic of Speed OF Sound is probably the only bell clay/tone, from which I could imagine that I would ever load myself him on my Handy.

The topic sounds nearly, as if only the bell clay/tone Trade Union of German Employees nature and Coldplay would be then a super song drausgemacht: -)

The plate is not bad by the way. Hmmm. Parachutes pleased me better. And about melancholy: I do not become depressive by its music. But somehow calmly. Perhaps contently. It already occurred that I course-greeted wild stranger of people from my car, while Coldplay ran.

Ok one, that was already times with Neil Youngs Ragged Glory like that: -)

The new OASIS I also bought. Hmmm.

America Online early next year will begin offering free access to popular older television shows through video-on-demand under an agreement with Warner Bros., another division of Time Warner.

The new In2TV broadband network service will include 15- and 30-second video advertisements that will be limited to a total of one to two minutes within each 30-minute episode, compared with eight minutes of ads on broadcast television, AOL said in a statement....

The on-demand deal, which involves about 300 shows including "Welcome Back Kotter," "Kung Fu" and "Growing Pains," will feature six channels ranging from comedy and drama to animation and science fiction.

Social activities will be another outlet. Since political campaigns won't be able to just buy your attention, the political party that can be more social and fun will have a sustained advantage.

The FCC is...seeking to develop a next-generation alert and warning system that takes full advantage of digital media's potential, including the Internet, wireless technologies, and high definition digital content sent via fiber optic cables.

A drink somewhere between coffee and beer could soon be on the menu. Nestec, part of the Nestlé empire in Switzerland, has filed patents in every major market round the world on a "fermented coffee beverage" that pours and foams like beer, but smells of strong coffee and packs a concentrated caffeine kick.

Scientists have known for decades that male lab mice produce high-frequency sounds — undetectable by human ears — when they pick up the scent of a female mouse. This high-pitched babble is presumably for courtship, although scientists are not certain.

But it turns out those sounds are more complex and interesting than previously thought.

"It soon became ... apparent that these vocalizations were not random twitterings but songs," said researcher Timothy Holy. "There was a pattern to them. They sounded a lot like bird songs."

To make their point, the researchers provided audio recordings of the sounds, which have been modified for human ears. The recordings do indeed sound birdlike.

The exchange was a corporate marketer's dream -- and one, in this case, come true for Microsoft Corp., which hired Gossett to peddle its notes-organizing software on campus. Microsoft is among a growing number of companies seeking to reach the elusive but critical college market by hiring students to be ambassadors -- or, in more traditional terms, door-to-door salesmen.

In an age when the college demographic is no longer easily reached by television, radio or newspapers -- as TiVo, satellite radio, iPods and the Internet crowd out the traditional advertising venues -- a microindustry of campus marketing has emerged. Niche firms have sprung up to act as recruiters of students, who then market products on campus for companies such as Microsoft, JetBlue Airways, The Cartoon Network and Victoria's Secret.

"There is a paradigm shift in the way that corporations are marketing to college students," said Matt Britton, a managing partner of Mr. Youth, a New York-based firm that specializes in college student marketing. "The student ambassador tactic embraces all the elements that corporations find most effective: It's peer-to-peer, it's word of mouth, it's flexible and it breaks through the clutter of other media. For all that, it's growing very quickly."

Mr. Youth® now offers its partners access to nation's largest college marketing event, now in it's 20th year!

CollegeFest® gives college-aimed brands the opportunity to interact, demonstrate products, conduct sampling, collect data, and even perform market research with nearly 15,000 college students from throughout New England during the critical back to school period.

• In Brooklyn, Mr. Youts®
  
• In Chicago, Mr. Youse®
  
• In the South, Mr. Y'All®
  
• In Pittsburgh, Mr. Yinz®
  
• And, in California, Mr. Perpetual Youth®

Welcome to the practice of smirting (smoking and flirting), a craze which has swept Ireland since the introduction of the pub and restaurant smoking ban in January 2004. As it took hold, enterprising pubs and bars introduced outside areas for smokers to gather and with them came a more relaxed attitude to meeting people. Now, instead of spending time in crowded bars, people find themselves striking up conversations over a quick fag.