Feed: Harp Is Bizarre - AggScore: 50.1

Attack of The Drunken Stripper!!

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This is a video I posted on my YouTube account a while back. I was surprised to see it got over 949 hits! Its really crappy quality since it was filmed with my phone. But it's kinda funny.

Attack of The Drunken Stripper!!

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This is a video I posted on my YouTube account a while back. I was surprised to see it got over 949 hits! Its really crappy quality since it was filmed with my phone. But it's kinda funny.

What So Proudly We Watched?

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Ok.

Christina Aguilera messed up the national anthem....
That's a bummer, and I'm sure she feels like shit for doing it. But that song can be a little tricky....

You see, she is not the first (or last) person to tarnish our national heritage.
Jesse McCartney, Michael Bolton, Olympic sprinter Carl Lewis, and Steven Page (Barenaked Ladies) are all guilty of this "crime.""

The Jackson Five didn't even know the words to the song hours before singing it to a large crowd for the first time. They had it taught to them on the way to the stadium. If you ever saw The Jacksons: An American Dream you know what I'm talking about.

Obviously it is a shame that people actually mash up a song that is so ingrained in our lives as Americans.  I mean, we learned it all throughout growing up (assuming you grew up in America with normal values) and all throughout school (some art schools don't teach it) so how the hell do we mess it up so much?

Performance Anxiety? Maybe.
Anti-American subconscious slip? Possibly.
Ignorance? For some...

But I think the reason is that its an old song, people don't actually understand the lyrics, and it has been improperly taught and undermined for decades.

I believe there is a growing amount of people that are growing up, coming out of our institutionalized school system, not cognitively understanding what the song (or the pledge of allegiance for that matter) stands for and what it represents. I'm not even talking about celebrities screwing up anymore....because honestly, I don't even really understand EVERYTHING about that song. And I'm well educated, with college level history under my belt. Obviously I know it was written around the time of the American Revolution, and its based on events from it... Wait... Wasn't it written afterwards? I'm not even gonna look it up because this situation I've written myself into is only strengthening my point.

Are we losing our nationalism? Or are we the product of a changing nation? Or a changing world for that matter. We actually have people in this country living here (some citizens) that hate this country! Its sad, but its true.

But....

If you think about it, that has always been true. In fact, America was started by a bunch of guys who hated their own country. They met up in a bar in Boston and changed the world.

I don't know.... read a book or something... or maybe I should....

-HB

E-Books: The Future of Publishing and Beyond...

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We used to have a thing called books. They were made of paper, binding, glue and ink. We used to hold these things open with our hands, turn pages and lick fingers. We were forced to read them in school, and we felt guilty about not reading books enough as we got older. I'm not talking about you bookworms out there of course :) Millions and millions of books have been printed, copied, destroyed, treasured and read.
Printing has changed the world. It has spread ideas, started revolutions and has given intellectual and literal freedom to millions worldwide. But I believe that this median that we have enjoyed and taken for granted is about to be history. And by history, I mean no more paper books!

EVERYTHING will be electronic.

Welcome to the age of E-Books! We have all heard of them, and some have purchased/obtained them. But I don't think the majority understands how this is going to change everything we once knew about publishing, copyrights and information.

When it comes to publishing and the old system, it used to be that if you wanted a novel you wrote to be published, you'd have to submit it, get it approved and make bank. Sounds easy. But of course you have to have it reviewed tons of times,  then if it finally gets approved you can then negotiate a contract, and if it even sells you get a percentage of the revenue it grossed. Minus the taxes, fees and other things outlined in the contract your breaking even according to opportunity cost. If it's a hit, then you got yourself some long-term royalties for reprints and possible sequels but that is rare.
The introduction of E-Books has given publishing companies of the old age something new to shoot for and to re-structure for. E-Books are cheap to produce, infinitely cheap to copy and anyone can do it.

Wait.... Anyone can do it?

Yes. Sally. Anyone can publish their own book if they've got the right resources and a good story/idea.

Independent publishers are popping up left and right. With some free software programs and some quick emails/submissions, you can monetize off your own novel. In fact Amazon's Kindle allows you to submit your E-Book right on to Amazon's retail center. You get to keep 70% of your royalties! Which is a lot better than your old-age publishing company.
So you can imagine what this will do to the tight-knit community of publishing giants over time. They will simply shrink or possibly die out. Imagine how many good writers that are out there that are now able to sell their ideas and thoughts over the Internet and with more freedom than traditional ways. We are also going to be exposed to a wider range of subjects and thoughts. A lot of books have been rejected over the years. Imagine all the unpublished books that could be hidden classics that book publishers of yesteryear simply swept under the rug. Because there were a lot of writers in the past 100 years that were way ahead of their time. How do we know that some guy didn't write the best story ever and it got rejected because it mentioned sex or some stupid shit. I'm not even gonna get into the whole "Catcher in the Rye" thing.

This thing will put you on The Grid

So what's gonna happen to copyright laws? 

Daniel Reetz built an interesting book scanner. Click here to see it. He built it out of scrap materials, a couple cameras and some acrylic plastic. He built it because he wanted E-Book versions of his college textbooks. Whether or not he used it to simply copy books because he was too cheap to buy the books is questionable. But either way its pretty gangster. I hope he did say F U to the school/publishing company scheme. You know the schools make tons of money with the publishing companies. Textbooks are big money! If you don't think that your local college or university isn't making back-room deals with publishing companies... Get real!  
Why not just get some college kids together, build a couple of these things, buy and return every book at the bookstore and give them away to the people?!
Whats funny about that, is that you could totally do it and get away with it. As long as you didn't sell anything and you gave it away anonymously on a private website or server, there's really nothing they could do about it. They can't arrest the whole school can they? Unless someone snitches, and we all know what happens to snitches...right? :)
This machine can also be used for good though. You can archive books that you come across, or save damaged books, or you can start doing what Google is doing right now and copy every book in the world.
But what will happen to paper books? They still exist of course. But I guarantee they will stop being produced at some point coming soon. But the whole thing about movable print was that it was a way to keep things secret, and books at one point were considered magical and people read them to gain powers. Seriously... people thought like that in the dark ages!
It will eventually become a rare thing to see a physical book. In fact, it might be the only way to keep secrets in the future. Because the internet itself is an open book...

I for one, am excited to see all this happening. I hope that this ends up becoming a new renaissance of literature and ideas. I want to see people spending and making money off all this and create a whole new system for creative writers and avid readers to be free and happy.

-HB

¡VIVA LA FACEBOOK!

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I'm sure you all may have heard about the civil unrest in Egypt going on right now.
Some people are calling it a political demonstration and others are calling it an attempted overthrow of the country. Of course, the media networks (especially in America) like to blow things out of proportion to sell more advertising space.

But this is a serious issue...

We've seen this kind of stuff before in little countries for centuries and most of the time (for the exception of revolutions in major countries) nothing really gets done. The Man gains control over the peasants again and the local morgue is making a killing (literally.) But this time we got a new variable thrown into the equation....FACEBOOK!! 
The protesters in Egypt got together thanks to the world's largest and popular social networking site. They created events and got the masses together. Apparently they had over 90,000 people ready to go in a day!

Add us on Facebook!!

It is when people wake up, get educated and communicate with each other, these ideas and ideals start to not stick. And people get uneasy. Protests start popping up left and right , followed by some violent scene, then next thing you know you're in the middle of a full-frontal revolution!!
Facebook in theory, is the tool that gathers the masses and spreads the ideas of a new world. As we seen in Egypt, (by the way, they're doing similar things in Algeria, Jordan and Yemen as I speak) small countries that were once ruled by a corrupt, deceitful government, are breaking free of such systems. They want what we (Americans) have. A better life. And they're starting to see that they are living in shit. They want change and they are willing to set themselves on fire (six of them did it in Cairo) to get it. Facebook and the rest of the internet has given these otherwise silent, oblivious and undereducated people something to shoot for.

This is all good and dandy....

Except this is how I see all this going down:

Egypt will get overthrown, same with a bunch of other neighboring countries in the middle east. They will try to reorganize the system, but something will happen. A rift in the revolution party will cause internal collapse and the restructuring process will cease. Then over the next few years people will leave these ghastly countries in search for jobs, food and resources. Millions of middle-easterners will flood Europe and possibly America, and will cause a huge chain of events that turns Europe into a war zone. Because we all know what happens when you get a bunch of Christians and Muslims together! Fun for years :) It never ends!

This is just speculation of course. But I honestly don't see these people in Egypt doing anything with this mess. Of course they can adopt democracy and try to base their country on American ideals. But will it work in a place that has been oppressed for centuries? A place that has been taken over tons of times and hasn't had a world identity since they found out mummies had gold? They also have a national religion. Which is never a good thing. Especially if they ever wanna do that whole separation of church and state thing.

I don't know.

I guess we'll see how this all turns out. But in the meantime, understand that revolution is a very real thing, and it can happen faster than you think. And with more and more people breeding each year, the world population will start doubling every few or so decades. Which means the young majority will have more power than the old minority that used to control things. Its all a cycle anyway. Everything is a cycle.

I personally think it would be funnier than shit if Facebook was responsible for the end of the world. At least lets hope it happens before Google becomes self-aware...

So, before you "Like" an overthrow of government. Read between the lines and think for yourself...

Please use Facebook responsibly  :)
HB

Rock Is DEAD!!

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I have come to the conclusion that Rock music as a genre and a lifestyle is dead... It's sad, but we all know it's true. The whole concept of starting a band with your buddies, coming up with some tasty songs to hopefully get signed by a major label and tour the world is now a crapshoot to say the least. It rarely happens anymore. On top of that it has become a lot easier to start a band than in previous years. We also have this whole new wave of kids growing up playing games like the Rock Band and Guitar Hero franchises.Where, as unbelievable as it sounds, is pretty damn close to an actual band. I guess now they have new guitar technology that makes it so you can actually play chords and 6 strings are simulated. But as far as the basic rhythms go, its a great way for a young kid (or anybody) to learn how to play an actual instrument.

Coming to a VH1 reality show near you!!

But how does this help the Rock cause?

It doesn't...

The music landscape has changed. Rock is quickly becoming a dead music medium due to the fact that it has simply been rehashed over and over again to the point where it's redundant and not fun anymore.

Rock as we know it today is the result of a breakthrough of music coming out of the late sixties, killing the Elvis/Beatles style of classic Blues inspired rock and roll and ushering in a new era of distortion, multi-track recording and a whole generation of people who were thinking and acting differently than the old folks to fuel this trend. As far as I see it, throughout the past damn-near 50 years, Rock has obviously been changed, but it all still follows the same formula of a 4/4 beat and powerchords.

The reason you will never become a famous Rock musician (no matter how good you are) is because there are so many bands out there that are self-produced and/or assisted by a indy label, that the proverbial Pie (that represents the Rock music market as a whole and the money involved) cuts cut into smaller and smaller pieces. It has gotten to the point where its easy to start a band and produce yourself, but you're not gonna make nearly as much money as if you did it 20 years ago. There's just simply not enough dough to go around.

Music is heading in a different direction. Especially with people in their teens and 20's. Its all about this new blend of Hip-Hop and Electronica that's topping the charts. That's the future of music. And believe it or not, it does have rock elements in it, especially when it comes to beats. But I see a future where its gonna be all about this type of music and the club scene will be embracing technology as a part of the experience. I see young people with Ipads (or generic versions) interacting in a club environment talking to each other via devices and little spoken word is used. Because that's what its coming down to! Everyday I see people literally connected to their communication devices like it's a part of them. Why not expand on that? No one even calls anyone anymore. We are all texting machines.

So I guess you really can't say that Rock is Dead, but the way Rock used to be sure is. The future is already here and more and more people are waking up. Times are a changin' and we gotta change with it, unless you wanna live in the past.

Please leave any comments if you believe I am right or wrong about this. I want some input.

Thanks for reading!!
-HB