Edshugeo The GodMoor

March 10th, 2010 - Customers affected by these cancellations are being offered $25 gift certificates. Like I said, wasn't that upset. Though it would'a been very cool to have all those thick-assed comic-books. Nice gesture, I think, and free stuff is always good.


March 9th, 2010 - My orders were canceled (except for Four Constables) as were those of many others.


"Unfortunately, due to a pricing error, we sold many more than expected. In fact, we completely sold out — we don't have any in stock right now, and we're not even sure if we'll be able to get more.
As a result, we've had to cancel your order. I realize this is disappointing news, and I'm so sorry for any inconvenience this causes.
You may want to check our website from time to time to see if this item is available. If anyone is selling it, you'll see a "More Buying Choices" box on the product detail page; if it's not available from any sellers, you might see an "Order it used" or "Alert me" link. "Order it used" allows you to place a pre-order for the item in case another seller lists the item for sale later. "Alert me" allows you to sign up so we can e-mail you when Amazon has stock available for purchase.
I'm sorry I don't have better news. We hope to see you again soon."


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Hmmm. Not as upset as I maybe should be? Those prices were way too good to be true....


March 8th, 2010 4:38-ish PM - Prices are back to normal, except for the Chinese titles near the bottom. Those will change too I'm sure.

These are mostly 400-800 page hardcover Omnibus collections, but I also found a couple of unrelated sets that had been sitting in my shopping cart reduced in price also. Dunno how long these prices are good for (Howard The Duck was showing as out of stock but I was still able to order it).

The original link via Lightning Deals
The fist couple of titles there are regular graphic novels, and the rest Omnibus.



Plus a few others I was able to find, There, may be more...

Labels: comics, good deal, online retailers, The Sell Out?

eMusic has been rolling out some major label stuff for a while now, first from Sony and now from Warners (and perhaps others); Talking Heads, The Clash, , Hendrix, Van Halen, INXS and now Prince. Though the Warner Prince stuff might last about as long as the early Rolling Stones catalog did on that site a while back. That depends on whether or not Prince has a say on where (and for how much) his stuff is sold. If he does, consider it gone.

At this writing there are only three of his albums (not counting the various configurations of the pre-fame 94 East exploitation record put out by a former band mate), The Hits/B-Sides, Parade, and Planet Earth. I take it more are coming. I initially saw a couple of INXS albums a couple of week or so ago, and then just about the full catalog last week when I grabbed some good stuff off one of their greatest hits compilations. There's also some Sheila E; Most notably Glamorous Life and Romance 1600. Also The Time. I haven't had those first two albums since vinyl. Pity I spent all of this month's downloads. Crap!

Labels: good deal, music, online retailers, Prince

Labels: downloads, good deal, music, online retailers, The Sell Out?

Only know a couple of songs off this one, but I snapped it up.

Labels: downloads, good deal, music, online retailers, The Sell Out?

The performance from last week including the full encore (without commercial break).



The album, The House That Dirt Built, is available on eMusic. 6 download credits for 11 tracks (as of this writing). Just got it now as I had to wait till my download allowance refreshed. I don't think this deal existed last week, so I dunno how long it'll last.

Labels: Awesome, downloads, good deal, music, online retailers, tv, youtube and other video

Oddly enough, I have no Van Halen (maybe a song or two in my asst. folder?) in my MP3 collection, which means I probably don't have any of their CDs since I've long converted all my discs to MP3s and some to that iTunes format (I'm gonna have to redo those).

That means I haven't listened to a (whole) Van Halen album since the early nineties. About the last time I had a turntable. By then Sammy Hagar had been their lead singer for a while, and I was repulsed by him ever since "I Can't Drive 55". He did manage one or two decent singles with the band (can't think of which ones right now - Oh! Right Now was one, the other was kinda country sounding), but on the whole I hated post 1984 Van Halen.

1984 had been my favorite album of theirs, out of that, Diver Down and Women And Children First (my least favorite of the three). Didn't have the others.

How was I able to live without songs like Panama, I'll Wait, Hot For Teacher, Top Jimmy and Jump for about a decade anna half? Okay, I heard a few of those on the radio, Muzak and TV occasionally, but still...

Labels: downloads, good deal, music, nostalgia, The Sell Out?

Amazon's Black Friday MP3 deals.

Haven't had a chance to go through all of these, but Soul by Seal is a definite buy for me.

Also, get three bucks worth of mp3s for free. expires November 30th, 2009.

Labels: good deal, music, online retailers, The Sell Out?

From Blu-Ray.com:

"Warner Home Video has announced that they have launched a new program which allows owners trade in their Warner DVD titles for Blu-ray upgrades for as little as $7.95. To take advantage of the program, owners will be required to identify which titles they want to upgrade through the DVD2Blu site, and then mail-in their DVD discs to show proof of ownership. In 4-5 weeks they will receive Blu-ray copies of those same titles."

More details here and at DVD2Blu.com itself.

Only 55 title are represented currently, of which I have four. Blazing Saddles, Rio Bravo, Superman II: The Donner Cut, and Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle. Of those, only Blazing Saddles would've been upgraded eventually. The rest were fine as they were as far as I'm concerned. Not every movie absolutely needs to be in hi-def.

Labels: DVD, good deal, HDTV, movies

Today. Hey Ho! Let's Go!

Labels: good deal, music, nostalgia, online retailers, The Sell Out?

Been going on for about three weeks and about to expire, I think. Saw on Lightning Deals that Elvis Is Everywhere was offered as a free download. Cool! I remember that song. Not what it sounded like, just that I liked it. Downloaded it, and then searched Wikipedia for Skid Roper cuz I'm just starting to realize that I can answer the questions I like to ask myself or others like "Whatever happened to...?" (though I still ask questions like that cuz they're good conversation fillers). I move on to Mojo Nixon, cuz I don't really know what he's been up to either. A few song titles sound familiar, but I don't remember what any of them sounded like. Then there's a passage about a bunch of albums given away free on Amazon in October 2009 and I'm like, "Wait, it's still October 2009." So I look, and yeah, there's a crapload of Mojo Nixon albums at Amazon for free and of course I download all that shit, even though I don't remember what any of this stuff sounded like. Just that I liked some of it and thought it was amusing at the time...

Gotta love those song titles. Wonder if he inspired Primus?



Mojo Nixon's home page.

Labels: fun, good deal, moments of incoherency, music, nostalgia, online retailers, The Sell Out?

Dunno how long this deal's been up or when it expires. Also dunno licensing issues here. Can they be used in audio/video productions royalty free?

Labels: downloads, good deal, online retailers, The Sell Out?

This is early Ella Fitzgerald. This review puts the compilation in context, if you happen to be as ignorant of the history as I am.

Labels: downloads, good deal, music, online retailers, The Sell Out?

Unfortunately, it's not their latest, but that's fine as I only posses Black Holes And Revelations
from a couple of years back (or so) which I love.

Labels: downloads, good deal, music, online retailers, The Sell Out?

The Four Seasons, fool! What! What!

I know the names. The music, not so much. Hopefully, I'll actually listen to this at some point.

Sept. 14th, 2009 - I have. Not that crazy about it, though it turns out I know one or two of these pieces.

The above deal will expire any minute, now, I expect. Returning to it's regular price, whatever that is.

Labels: good deal, music, online retailers, The Sell Out?

Probably not, but we'll see. I own and enjoy both a PS3 and an Xbox 360. Have games for both as well, though currently more for the 360 than the PS3. A few of these remain un-played and quite a few unfinished. That means buying new games aren't a priority for me (especially at sixty bucks a game), unless I catch a good deal or it's something I think is really cool, like when GTA IV came out. Or when Best Buy had a bunch of games for ten bucks each and I got Quantum Of Solace (PS3) primarily for the 007 t-shirt.

Anyway as to how the PS3's price drop will affect it's competition with Microsoft, it certainly can't hurt.

Some people don't like the design, but no-one buys a console for how it looks.

It's no longer backwards compatible with PS2 games, but I have one that is (software emulation) and have little interest in using it. PS2 games mostly look like crap, especially in high def.

No Linux. Linux on the PS3 was crippled anyway and not very practical. Allowing Linux to take advantage of the hardware's full capabilities might've opened Sony to some risks they didn't want to take so we ended up with a slow as hell and pointless OS. The PS3's native OS has a web browser and plays Youtube, Hulu and Crunchyroll well enough (with room for improvement). Still, a powerful Linux box in the living rooms of the world could'a hurt Microsoft where they live. At least a little.

So those things aren't deal breakers. The stuff Sony has going for it aren't necessarily deal makers either.

It's no longer the least expensive Blu-Ray player. Stand alone players can be had for $150. and less. It is a great player and is update-able. I own about a hundred Blu-Rays. It also streams media from one's PC using Windows Media Player or TVersity (my preference). Great for AVCHD and MKV (via MKV2VOB) hidef downloads. The last bit may not be a mainstream concern, though.

Despite claims from fanboys that the PS3 is powerful enough to overthrow humanity, neither Sony nor any third party company has produced a game (so far) that has obviously outclassed the abilities of the 360. There are subjective opinions on games that may look a little better on one system or another, but no killer app that puts the PS3 over the top.

Still, a price drop can't hurt. It'll be interesting to see how far the pendulum swings over the next few months. Particularly the holiday season.

PS3 Slim Questions Answered

Also: PS3 Slim doesn't support SACD (not a big deal unless you have the right receiver (I don't, yet), but bitstreams Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD. This excites a lot of people. I don't know what the fuck it means.

Labels: good deal, PS3, video games, XBox 360

The band Rerun was tryin' to bootleg on What's Happening, for that guy from Goodtimes. Some nice stuff on here. I know three tunes off of this; the title track, What A Fool Believes, and Depending On You.

Labels: good deal, music, nostalgia, online retailers, The Sell Out?

I was gonna pass on this cuz I'm not a huge fan of her voice, but decided to give the songs a chance. Familiar with A Case Of You from it's being covered by Prince. Famously from a bootleg performance at First Ave. in '83 or thereabouts, and less so from a studio version on an album of piano noodling, One Nite Alone (from a few years ago).

Labels: downloads, good deal, music, online retailers, The Sell Out?

Haven't listened to this one yet. Not even the samples.

Labels: downloads, good deal, music, online retailers, The Sell Out?

Not the type of thing I would seek out, but I like the sounds of the samples (I'm only familiar with the first track, Suite: Judy Blue Eyes).

Amazon also has another bunch (50) of albums for five bucks a piece. Nothing that I want to jump on at the moment, except maybe for the Les Claypool one, which caught my eye because I kinda, sorta know the cover artist, Travis Louie. Great work, as always.

Labels: downloads, good deal, music, online retailers, small world, The Sell Out?

The entire first season. Probably the best TV show of the late eighties. Doesn't come out til August, which gives me time to debate if I want this. The DVD is apparently showing in it's original aspect ratio; 4:3, or fullscreen if you have an older TV. The show was seen some years ago on HDNET in Hi-def, but observers were unable to determine for sure if the series (which had been shot on film) was cropped to attain a widescreen appearance. I'd say it's likely. I had a similar question watching UFO when Cablevision had the Voom HD channels. That show was from the late sixties or early seventies so it had to be cropped...

All that is brought up merely to say that I might be willing to double dip on this one should a hi-def release surface sometime in the future. The DVD doesn't come out til August. I've pre-ordered it. The list price on this thing is like fifteen bucks. So, it's gonna be cheap whether or not it's on sale.

Labels: DVD, good deal, online retailers, The Sell Out?, tv, youtube and other video

Labels: good deal, music, online retailers, The Sell Out?

There are a number of blu-ray discs in the sub twelve dollar range on Amazon these days. 2001 is a must own in my opinion. I bought it early last month for about eighteen bucks and don't regret the recent price drop. I first saw it in the 1970s when it returned to theatres for a while (wasn't unusual for movies to stick around for more than a year, and then return periodically back then). Marvel Comics also had put out a comicbook version by Jack Kirby. I recall there was a tabloid sized "treasury edition", which I'd never gotten. I did get the first issue of the regular series, which I think I brought with me when I saw the movie.

I was having a discussion with a friend at work about the role of aggression not only as an integral part of history but in nature itself. That nature does not exclude humanity seems obvious, but always requires mentioning for some reason. Anyway, that talk colored my perception of the film (I watched the disc the next day) and I feel that I understand HAL in a way I hadn't before.

Also, has special effects ever been better than this? I'm not sure that it has and that movie's forty years old.




Price subject to change without notice, of course.

Labels: comics, DVD, good deal, movies, nostalgia, online retailers, The Sell Out?

Good for a day or so. I sampled a few tracks and there are some different types of music here from all over.

Also; a John Fogerty/Creedence compilation for three bucks - Today-ish.



I bought Willy And The Poor Boys in a previous deal. I'm a get this one too.

Labels: good deal, music, online retailers, The Sell Out?

A li'l while back, Amazon had one of Ike's greatest hits collections on sale. I opted for a few of his full albums available on eMusic, as a hits collection couldn't do justice to the artist. I saved Shaft for later seeing that the album contained 15 tracks as opposed to the usual 4 or 5 (8-15 minute) tracks on his other works from this period. Except for Black Moses which has two discs of 7 tracks each. Good thing I hadn't dug into this month's allotment of eMusic tracks as I can take advantage of this better deal.

Labels: good deal, music, online retailers, The Sell Out?

Rhino Records has these collections of songs from various artists called Hi-Five. One artist. Five of their (best?) songs. Would'a been called an EP if it was on vinyl or Compact Disc, but with mp3s, a collection of songs can be a short or as long as whatever and then dropped into a playlist. Albums* still matter if you love an artist, but not so much if all you care about are a handful of their songs, which is where greatest hits collections or even better, something like this comes in handy.

Five great songs, no filler.

Fire And Rain
Sweet Baby James (don't know this one, actually)
Mexico
How Sweet It Is
You've Got A Friend



*Some people seem to think the album went out when CDs became the preferred term for five inch plastic discs and more-so now with downloads. Albums are just compilations, regardless of medium. Physical or sequences of ones and zeroes on a device. Music or photographs.
That much is obvious. The difference between an album and a playlist? Kinda grey, and may become greyer.

Labels: good deal, music, online retailers, The Sell Out?

I'm kinda exited that albums and tracks from Sony's back catalog will soon be available on eMusic. The news that a price hike was accompanying the new partnership was not so great, but I'm not as incensed as I was when I first read it, as the music will still be significantly cheaper coming from eMusic than from iTunes or Amazon (except for many of Amazon's daily mp3 deals).

Labels: downloads, good deal, music, online retailers

Yeah. It's a gimmick, but I can't resist. Dub Side Of The Moon was pretty awesome, while RadioDread didn't get more than a listen or two. I think in part because, despite having five Radiohead albums, I don't really know their songs (except for Creep and I don't remember that being on there), but I do know what some of them sound like.

I'd like to see the Easy Stars take on Prince, preferably with Parade or Sign O' The Times, though I wouldn't mind hearing Purple Rain all dubbed out.

The next logical choice would probably be Elvis Presley. That too, would be rockin'.

Labels: good deal, music, online retailers, The Sell Out?

This one has most of my favorite Rod Stewart songs and a few not so favorites.
Missing is the cover of Curtis Mayfield's People Get Ready that he did for a Jeff Beck album back in the eighties. Was the first time I heard that song, and it remains my favorite version.


Not on this album

Labels: good deal, music, online retailers, The Sell Out?, youtube and other video

This week only.

Labels: good deal, PS3, video games, youtube and other video

Yikes. Four of these in a row. I need to break it up.

Steve Earle is an exception to whatever I was saying about modern Country music yesterday. Jerusalem was great, and he co-produced one of my favorite Country-Rock albums, Jack Ingram's Livin' Or Dyin'. I also have The Revolution Starts Now, and the Austin City Limits Live thing, but haven't really gotten around to listening to them. Those two and others on Earle's discography can be found on eMusic. Townes isn't on there yet.




From the album, Jerusalem.

Labels: good deal, music, online retailers, The Sell Out?

Not a huge fan of the genre, I can't help but appreciate the beauty of classic Country & Western when contrasted with much of what passes for country music today (Western Pop?). Then again, that could be said for many other musical genres as well, couldn't it?

Deal's good for a day. Just about.

Labels: good deal, music, online retailers, The Sell Out?

Sounds like a good deal (lasts only about a day), just to sample some of the stuff that made Ike famous, however eMusic has a bunch of his albums available for download, and I'd rather go that route. Hayes is among a number of great artists under-represented in my music collection. All I have, so far, is a promo CD from the last decade with selected tracks from 2 albums he was putting out at the time, Branded and Raw & Refined.

Labels: good deal, music, online retailers

Today-ish.

Labels: good deal, music, online retailers, The Sell Out?

I'm not familiar with Mr. Coleman's music, though I think I bought an LP back in the early nineties - also for about a buck or so. The comments suggest some controversy, but the samples sound decent, and at ninety-nine cents (today), I can't go wrong.

Labels: downloads, good deal, music, online retailers, The Sell Out?

I hesitate 'cuz of lines, but I'm tempted.

Free Comicbook Day

Labels: comics, good deal

The Beach Boys deal is good for today-ish. Amazon also has 50 mp3 albums available for five bucks each, this weekend.

As seen on Lightning Deals.

Labels: good deal, music, online retailers, The Sell Out?

Ubuntu Studio 9.04 is out.

Haven't tried it, yet.

Later.

Labels: bittorrent, computers, downloads, good deal, Linux, music making, possibilities for creative expression

Labels: good deal, music, online retailers, The Sell Out?

A classic. Bowie was among a pantheon of gods I worshiped in the late seventies/early eighties that included Hendrix, The Police and Prince. Alas! The Gods have fallen, and I think there are no new gods to replace them. Or perhaps I am just too old to recognise them.

Anyway, I have the Rykodisc version which contained a couple more songs (Abdulmajid and an alternate version of Joe The Lion), but haven't listened to it in quite a while.

Labels: good deal, Heroes, music, online retailers, The Sell Out?, youtube and other video

Amazon's MP3 daily deal.

Labels: good deal, music, online retailers

Today's Amazon MP3 Deal, and not an April Fool's Joke.

Labels: Awesome, Capt Kirk was a bad MuthaFucka, covers, downloads, funny-ass shit, good deal, music, odd, The Sell Out?, tv

Another must have!

Tried to post it (and another) this morning, but it didn't take. Wonder what's up?

Labels: downloads, good deal, music, The Sell Out?

I didn't have this one. I do now.

Labels: downloads, good deal, music, The Sell Out?

Had this on cassette back in the day. Not sure how well most of the songs hold up, but Still Of The Night was on the radio* yesterday, and it still retains it's awesome imitation Zep badassery. Almost worth the price of admission alone.

*Somebody else's radio. I don't listen to radio.

Labels: good deal, music, The Sell Out?, youtube and other video

Two dollars today. Tomorrow?....
Good deal if you like classic 1950s Rock and Roll. Some of this would qualify as rockabilly, I guess. Yes, it does.

Labels: downloads, good deal, music, online retailers, The Sell Out?

All three of them (the third by a protege), sold as a set for twelve bucks! At Target, who also sell Altoids at a decent price.

More news at Prince.org (R.I.P. Housequake*), which includes some bits about the what Prince's website will be like when live, a commercial shot for Target and a branded Lotus Flow3r Flip video camcorder, which will no doubt be confiscated from fans at his concerts.

3 CDs for twelve bucks? That's a deal! Hopefully there's enough good music across the bunch to make one great playlist.


*I hope Housequake's demise is temporary, though the reluctance of promoting an artist who doesn't appreciate their efforts is understandable.

Labels: Anticipay-yay-shun..., good deal, music, Prince, That's what I'm talkin' about

Dunno how long this deal is for, but it's a good one.
The Falco song is not part of this set, of course.
And my Amadeus Blu-Ray (which comes with a CD) should arrive at any time now.

Labels: downloads, good deal, music, music video, The Sell Out?, youtube and other video

Don't know how long that'll last. This price drop follows Best Buy who had it on sale for this price. I've already placed my order (and also added Chocolate).







update: One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest is also on sale for $14.99. I haven't seen it before, but know it through it's reputation. I'm not fond of movies that take place in asylums, I Am A Cyborg, And That's Okay, being a recent example, but I'll try this.

Labels: Awesome, DVD, good deal, kung fu, movies, music, The Sell Out?, youtube and other video

Cablevision's Voom "Network", a suite of channels that included Kung Fu, Monsters, Gameplay, Filmfest, Rave and a few others in Hi-Def finally got shut down yesterday. Cablevision plans on replacing them with multiple premium channels in HD because some people apparently don't have enough channels called HBO, Showtime, Cinemax, etc.

Perhaps there just isn't a big enough market for a Kung Fu channel. If that's the case, so be it. I have less use for Cablevision now, as a result. Right away, I've cancelled the IO package of channels that the Voom suite were a part of. Currently, this is what the basic Io package consists of:
History International
Investigation Discovery
Logo
Military Channel
MLB Network
MLB Network HD†
MTV Hits
MTV Tr3s
mun2
The N
National Geographic Channel
National Geographic Channel HD†
Nicktoons Network
Noggin
Planet Green
Science Channel
Science Channel HD†
Toon Disney
VERSUS
VERSUS HD†
VH1 Classic
VH1 Soul

I don't watch any of that shit. So why would I pay an extra ten bucks a month for it?
I don't subscribe to the premium channels, so that leaves broadcast basic and Family cable, and I'm thinking of dumping family, which does include stuff I watch like CNN, FoxNews, Comedy Central for The Daily Show and South Park (neither of which needs to be seen in Hi-Def).

News I can, and do get on the web (through Cablevision, mostly, though sometimes even on my cheapie little Virgin Mobile phone). The Daily Show is just as accessable. South Park hasn't been very good in a while. I don't think I'll miss it.

So what replaces the rest of it? Blu-Ray and DVD movies (I buy more than I have time to watch), Netflix on Xbox Live, TV on internet video (such as The Daily Show, Hulu, etc.) via the Ps3s web browser, and of course streaming hard drive content (downloaded movies and whatnot) from the PC to both consoles using Windows Media Player 11 or if I'm on Ubuntu, to the PS3 using MediaTomb.

I've been trying out the XBox/Netflix thing for about a week or so and am very impressed despite some issues. The two week trial is free but then goes into a regular membership. I chose the basic one disc at a time membership which is like eight or nine bucks a month. An extra dollar if Blu-Rays are to be included. At the moment my disc queue does not include movies available on Blu, so I'm holding off on that.

My first experience with streaming Netflix was the Johnny To movie, Exiled. It started out in Hi-Def (which in this case is really decent DVD quality) but at nearly the hour and a half mark, the image froze up and a message appeared on the screen saying that my internet connection had slowed. Playback was gonna adjust to accomodate the current speed. I then ended up with something that at the time looked to be Youtube quality. There was another freeze and I called it a night. The next night I watched the rest of the film without incident (if I recall correctly).
I liked the movie. Kinda (intentionally?) silly take on John Woo's bullet ballet thing, which To may've done before on Heroes Never Die. Sorta.



Next movie was Harold, a silly indie film about a kid with male pattern baldness. Video quality was just below DVD (not seeing what the actual DVD looked liked), but quite a bit better than standard def cable. I don't remember if this was supposed to be Hi-def or not. Kinda liked this one, even though it's a bit stupid and clichéd. Speaking of stupid, they pulled the trailer off Youtube.

Kiltro was billed as a Chilean Martial Arts film and I guess it is, but it felt like more. This one froze up a couple of times, but didn't drop in quality the way it had when I watched Exiled.
Really enjoyed this one.



My first disc from Netflix was The Bodyguard, a Thai movie that claims on it's U.S. release to star Tony Jaa, but clearly does not. I assumed this might've been an old movie dusted off 'cause Jaa had a small role of some sort and avoided it and it's sequel when I sighted them on a store shelf. As a rental, it was not a risk at all when you consider the bang for the buck you get with this deal. I thought it was a surprisingly and often funny action comedy. Jaa does show up in a cameo, but it appears the film was made after he was famous, not before.



I only sent it back the other day, so my next disc isn't due till like tomorrow (according to an email). Another Spanish language action film, The Nest. I know nothing about it, but look forward to seeing it.

My queue includes a number of films and series I might not normally try. Plus I just noticed there are a number of Shaw Bros. films available through Netflix as well as some wu-xia and anime series I've yet to sample.

You know what? who needs Cablevision (aside from internet service)?

And I'm returning their DVR as soon as I watch all the stuff I got stacked on it. That's another ten dollars a month.

Labels: bullshit, DVD, Fucking Idiots, good deal, HDTV, kung fu, movies, PS3, ripoffs, Shaw Bros., tv, wu-xia, youtube and other video

Alison! Red Shoes! Mystery Dance! Watching The Detectives! All classics. Not familiar with the other tracks, but the previews sound decent.

Lightningdeals.com for daily updates on stuff like this and more from Amazon.

Labels: good deal, music, online retailers, The Sell Out?

Today only (I think), then it goes up to whatever 99 MP3s might normally (?) cost in a single deal.

I dunno much about classical music, but Beethoven is some good shit, so I'm on it like flies.

Would be cool to have a similar set (with a similar price) for Mozart, to tide us over til Amadeus comes out on Blu-Ray in February.

Labels: Awesome, downloads, DVD, good deal, music, online retailers, That's what I'm talkin' about, The Sell Out?

Madonna's ex set to get $75 million in settlement

Now I can stop feelin' sorry for Guy Ritchie and hope he starts making good movies again. If all he can do is British gangsters, that's fine by me. Though I have a feeling there are have some issues he might want to get off his chest. That could be fun, too, if he was able to pull it off, and I have my doubts.

Didn't see RockNRolla, yet.

Is he gonna pretend to be interested in their adopted (you know it wasn't his idea to adopt) Malawi child so people don't assume he's racist?

Labels: good deal, I know I shouldn't even care about this shit

Was I wrong about NerdCore Hip-Hop? The whole thing just seemed jokey and disrespectful when I first heard about it. When Maja popped up, I figured him for an exception.

This dude's name MC Frontalot just seems to play to that supposition. But listening to the previews (cuz the MP3 album download is cheap, today), I find I like what I hear. So far, anyway. I bought it.

Labels: downloads, good deal, music, online retailers

Electric Ladyland for a dollar ninety-nine, only for about a day or so. Naturally, I have this already, cuz it's Jimi. Anybody who don't, should.




And of course Amazon has their Friday 5 up, which includes, Bloc Party's Intimacy, which I did not have, but now I do, for five bucks.

Labels: downloads, good deal, music, online retailers, The Sell Out?

Madonna's first (?) album, Madonna is today's Daily MP3 deal at Amazon. It features my favorite Madonna song of all time, Burning Up. Also containing Lucky Star, Holiday, Borderline and Everybody, it's practically a greatest hits record. Considering how much I like all of those songs, it's weird that I didn't expect any longevity out of her career at the time (1980s).

This deal ($1.99) is usually only good for a day or so, after that, it's back to eight bucks.



Amazon has their Five For Friday (now called Friday Five) deals up, too. Five MP3 albums for Five dollars each. Out of this weekend's bunch, the They Might Be Giants children's album, Here Come The 123's sounds intriguing. The Rocky Horror Picture Show movie soundtrack is on eMusic as well, and I've already downloaded the only track I'm interested in from there; Timewarp.



Friday Five is usually good till about Monday

Labels: downloads, good deal, music, online retailers, The Sell Out?

50 Albums - $5.00 each for a very limited time

I bought two of those; Q-Tip - The Renaissance, and Portishead - Third, without so much as a preview listen. I'd previously scanned positive reviews for both albums and I'm already a fan of both. I happen to think $5.00 is the sweet spot for mp3 album pricing, and would like to see this catch on. Amazon has been doing Five for Friday for a while now, and I think I spotted some Five dollar deals on iTunes last week. Including my continuing subscription to eMusic, I've bought (with money) more music this year than in a long while.

Ten dollars is a good CD price, though I hardly buy any of those anymore. I recently ordered and got Pink Floyd's Dark Side Of The Moon on SACD to enjoy in surround sound (on my PS3) but found that I can't. My audio receiver doesn't have HDMI, and the optical digital audio cables don't have the bandwith to carry it. I think a compromise of sorts was available on an earlier firmware, but not since the last couple of updates. I think I'll also get Seal's new album, Soul on CD. I'm a fan of his, but I didn't know he had a record out last year, System. I'll have to look out for that too, though I don't like the prices I'm seeing for it. I might have to "find" it.

By the time the weekend's over, I may buy one or two more albums in this deal (traditional 5 for Friday's tend to end on Monday - I don't know if that's the case here); TV On The Radio's Dear Science is pretty decent and kinda funky in their own way. Much, much better than Return To Cookie Mountain. I know this having "found" it a few weeks ago. I think it's worth paying for.

Other recently purchased MP3 albums from Amazon (not from the above sale, but over the last couple of weeks or so); The Killers - Day & Age, The Carpenters - Singles 1969-1981, Meiko - Meiko, Mos Def - Black On Both Sides, Credence Clearwater Revival - Willy And The Poor Boys, Talking Heads - Remain In Light, Louis Armstrong - New Orleans Nights
Some of those were way less than five bucks.

Labels: downloads, good deal, music, online retailers, The Sell Out?

Today only, I think. The whole album. I'm jumpin' on it as I've not heard of it aside from "If You Really Love Me".

Labels: downloads, good deal, music, online retailers, The Sell Out?

Today only. Not just one song. The whole album.





As seen on Lightning Deals (check it daily).

Labels: downloads, good deal, music, online retailers, The Sell Out?

There's a number of things to complain about Cablevision, a local (?) provider of cable, broadband internet, and phone service; High prices, loud ass commercials which make it unsafe to leave the TV running in the background while doing other stuff, high prices, occasional issues trying to access my bill online, the DVR which every now and then forgets to record The Daily Show on Mondays. My brother lived in a building in which many people were using Cablevision for internet, and that severely slowed down his online access, forcing him to switch to Verizon (not a problem in my building).

They do get some stuff right, which should be noted.

Kung Fu HD - which I keep mentioning around here. Cablevision sees their competition coming from satellite and now from phone companies. Many of their HD channels were added with them in mind. Kung Fu HD is a far better channel than I used to fantasize about. Hi-Def, a decent selection of movies (including a lot of Samurai flicks and some vaguely related genres), a whole load of Shaw bros. films, no commercial interuptions (as of this writing) and best of all, no episodes of Kung Fu, the slo mo western series starring David Carradine. I assumed any 24 hour Kung Fu channel wouldn't be able to avoid that shitty ass show. I'm glad to be wrong (as of this writing), but I would've put up with it for the good of the cause. Not all the movies are good (Bruce Li), and they play about 3 films play per day, to be repeated throughout. That's fine. I only have so much time to watch and so much space on my DVR.

Note - Kung Fu HD is long gone. Bastards!

Free Wi-Fi - Long Island was supposed to build an island wide free wi-fi network. I don't know what the status of that project is, but in the meantime, Cablevision has stepped up and waived the $30 (I think that's what it was) monthy fee it used to charge it's customers to log in when outside. Hotspot access is still somewhat spotty, but continues to grow. It's even available in my neighborhood (though not when I'm inside). I have limited use for this currently since my PSP has barely enough internal memory to go online before I get a "not enough memory" error message. Sony won't allow the PSP to use the memory stick for such purposes. Newer versions of the PSP has more internal memory, but I don't know how well they fare online. In any case, this is pretty cool. I have audio issues with my current PSP and instead of upgrading to a newer model, as I was considering, I may get some other gadget altogether...

Usenet Access - Andrew Cuomo, son of one of New York State's favorite Governers, recently convinced a number of internet providers to drop usenet service so he could pretend he was doing something about child pornography. Any action taken that does not end up with child molesters/pornographers in jail is actually no action taken against child pornography. It's just a pretence that will be repeated during Cuomo's inevitable run for the Governorship or some other high office in the near future. Not getting my vote, Andy.
Cablevision has so far continued to provide usenet access, to my surprise. While many usenet users responded to this news, noting that their ISP had sucky usenet service (and their preference to commercial usenet providers), I feel that Cablevision's usenet service is actually pretty good. Not as good as commercial usenet servers (which are unaffected by Cuomo's pretentions), but I happen to think that approximately 90 days retention (based on a couple of recent downloads) is more than adequate. Of course, it may be that they've outsourced usenet access, and are continuing service until a contract runs out, like at the end of the year or something. Until then, I can continue my own illegal activities of downloading movies, television shows, and music. Yay.

All three of these things add value to Cablevision's service, and would make me reluctant to go to the competition. I might be inviting a fare hile by admitting that in public, though.

Labels: Awesome, good deal, HDTV, kung fu, Long Island, movies, technology

Quoting George Jefferson.

Jack Thompson, 2 Live Crew and Grand Theft Auto nemesis/publicist is disbarred.


'Bout time.

Labels: Awesome, Fucking Idiots, good deal, video games

I don't have an iPhone, yet (ever?), but this new initiative from iVerse sounds interesting;

“We have developed an extremely simple iPhone Application that allows us to display comics that have been specifically formatted for the iPhone/iPod Touch.” said iVerse Media owner Michael Murphey. “What we’re doing is creating new comics, and adapting existing comics into a format that makes reading comic books an enjoyable and easy experience on these devices. There’s no “zooming” or “pinching” required. All you have to do is flick your finger.” Comics adapted using the iVerse Media software will be available in the iTunes App Store for as little as $.99. Some titles will be released free of charge. “Creators and Studios will be able to set the final prices on their titles, but we’re expecting most standard length titles to be around $.99, and we’re encouraging creators to give away the first issues of their titles to allow new readers who may not be familiar with comics, but are iPhone/iPod Touch owners, to give comics on the devices a try.” “With Digital Comics on the iPhone/iPod Touch we have access to a world wide audience, no printing costs or print run minimums, and it doesn’t take 3 months to get the title from in the catalog to on sale in a store. Each title will be featured as its own application in the App Store, and will be backed up onto the readers desktop or notebook computer each time they sync their device.”

99 cents for a normal length comicbook doesn't sound like a bad deal. Of course I wouldn't mind even lower prices. I guess we'll see how well the majors take to this idea, or if some talented indies take advantage of this opportunity.

iVerse Media is currently discussing comic adaptions and new creations from a variety of industry professionals and studios, and as of today (Aug. 25th 2008), is accepting submissions from new creators. Details on submission requirements can be found at: http://www.iversecomics.com/submissions/ Established creators and Studios wishing to contact iVerse about adapting existing comics, or creating new titles can do so at: http://www.iversecomics.com/contact-us/

Labels: comics, downloads, good deal, possibilities for creative expression

Amazon.com has a weekly Friday 5 feature (only good during the weekend); 5 album downloads (selected by Amazon) by different artists for $5.00 each. Last weekend, Eric Clapton: Unplugged was one of the selections. I was gonna buy it, but I was on my way out, and didn't remember until Monday or Tuesday-ish when the sale was over.

This weekend the albums are;
Kanye West: Graduation *
Nirvana: Nevermind
Dane Cook: Harmful If Swallowed
Art Blakey And The Jazz Messengers: Moanin' (The Rudy Van Gelder Edition) and
Sufjan Stephens: Illinoise

Five dollars for an MP3 album approaches eMusic pricing, but for albums not usually found on eMusic (in this case except for Sufjan Stephens). For me, this kind of pricing inspires more impulse buying. I could've easily searched for Nirvana and Kanye albums and found them for free (once it occured to me I wanted them), with hardly any effort. In fact, I may still do that. They've got other records...

I bought the Nirvana and Kanye West selections, two artists not represented in my collection.
I always thought Nirvana was very good, but managed not to ever buy a CD of theirs. Also was turned off by the post Cobain adoration that came after his death (that sort of thing is happening with Heath Ledger now, but won't put me off The Dark Knight).

Kanye West is a guy who's mostly impressed me with live performances like the Grammy performance a few years ago of "Jesus Walks" with the Five Blind Boys Of Alabama



and of course his George Bush doesn't care about black people moment with Michael (I don't know this guy) Myers. One the greatest moments in TV history, even if I think he was being a little silly.

There's also a Paul Westerberg album, 49:00 made up of a single track that's 44 minutes long for 49 cents. Bought that too.

*There was a error on Graduation, where the Amazon downloader won't download the thirteenth track, Big Brother (says "track no longer available. Please contact Customer service."). Just noticed that, and emailed customer service. Let's see what happens...

2:17 PM - problem solved.

Labels: downloads, good deal, music, online retailers, youtube and other video