Rooster_Ties

Just for your birthday, Couw, I brought this thread up for you. Enjoy!!!! What do 12-year old girls, young Japanese housewives and little raver kids have in common? I'll give you a hint: it's small, white, diabetes-inducingly cute, and sports a red bow and a head that's shockingly huge, but has no mouth. Welcome to Hello Kitty's world, a dangerous place to tread if you're a cynic, an old humbugger, or completely lacking a sense of humor and mirth. Move over, Disney. Japan-based Sanrio Company Ltd. has been cranking out the cute since their inception in 1960. Early success came with Strawberry, a character of a little girl with a giant strawberry on her head, about two years before Hello Kitty first appeared on the scene in 1974 on a small change purse. Since then, an endless stream of fat-headed, two-dimensional characters have come bouncing and flouncing down the rainbow path, including, but not limited to, Kero Kero Kerropi, Saru no Monkichi, the leader of a band of playful monkeys, and the most darling brother and sister combo since the Osmonds, Little Twin Stars, an angelic team who live on Compassion Planet in Dream Galaxy. Are you gagging on your own phlegm yet? There are still other alliteration-ridden players in this performance, such as Winki Pinki, Picke Bicke and Spottie Dottie. The marketing behind these products is strategic and complex. Everything is about display, collection, consumption and communication. Character's faces, slogans, and still life moments of the characters "in action" (i.e. drinking tea or smelling flowers) emblazon absolutely any household product you can think of: furniture, clothing, notepads, stationary, electronics, bedding, kitchen appliances, school supplies, candy, stuffed animals, fashion accessories, bone china, theme parks, restaurants...the list grows larger than Sanrio's bank account which, from 1996 figures and the current exchange rate of 140 yen to the dollar, grosses over 5 billion dollars annually. "But what do they do?" asks puzzled friends and non-collectors. They don't do anything. The substance of these characters is as blank and as vacant as the look in Hello Kitty's black dot eyes. They're not from a movie, they don't sing on television, and Sanrio has no pretense about selling their products on anything other than brand recognition. If you ask Sanrio, they aren't in the business of moving merchandise. They are in the business of spiritual retail and "social communication". Shintaro Tsuji, President and CEO of Sanrio, writes, "Our business puts importance on the spiritual side of things. We make things which will help foster communication,... and we seek to help friendships flourish. That is why all of us at Sanrio shall continue, with one heart and mind, to offer the very best social communication business possible, and to help build a bridge between the hearts and minds of people all over the world." Why is Sanrio's fleet of characters so successful? What need do they fulfill in Japan and in ten other countries throughout Asia, Europe and North America? One fan ponders the following: "What is it about Hello Kitty that makes everyone love Her?...Perhaps it's her silent kindness that intrigues us so. Or maybe it's just a clever marketing ploy that's been brought on by Sanrio: Create a character that both kids and adults go nuts over, and make it available only through certain retail stores, making it nearly impossible to acquire if you don't live near one of the above stores. I'm beginning to think it's that she's not sold just anywhere that makes us want her so bad." And She would never slum with the simple and common toys on a cold shelf in Toys R Us. A trip to a Sanrio store is like a mini-vacation, a dreamy wonderland, or a freakish nightmare, depending on your perspective. Golden turrets of castles from long ago, festive balloons, rainbows with their mandatory pot of gold and oversized toy planes transport you into their world. Neatly stacked and arranged little knickknacks, sorted by color, character and design amuse and entertain. Who's buying into the myth? "Oh, everyone", says store Assistant Manager, Sarah Aldana. "Everyone from ages 3-40, tourists, regulars. It used to be predominantly girls, but ever since Bad Batz Maru came out, we have teenage boys coming in, too." Wide-eyed packs of overwhelmed young girls shrill the battle cry of, "Mom! Can I have THIS??!!" throughout the store, sometimes a reasonable request for candy or gum, other times a heartfelt wish for the pink, Hitachi Hello Kitty toaster oven tauntingly on display and only available in Japan. "I'm just buying some stupid little things," remarks Amanda DeHaan, age 23, of her purchase of some Bad Batz Maru barrettes and a My Melody contact lens case. "Everything else is too perky, too pink" she continues, despite the fact that she's shopping in the perkiest and pinkest store on earth. The Japanese are known world-wide for being voracious consumers who buy new products before the old one's wear out, and for giving numerous small, token gifts. Their culture also loves fantastical childish escapes from the tight pressures and high expectations of their hard-working lives. Thus, a company offering tiny, affordable gifts of fantasy can only thrive in such a cultural breeding ground. And it's success in the States and beyond? Westerners have long been fascinated by the seemingly quirky, misunderstood nature of the Japanese, and kids and college hipsters are attracted to Sanrio's infantalistic appeal, its kitsch, and its nostalgic resonance back to Sanrio's first wave of release in the US in the late 1970's and early 1980's. Seasonal product lines, a numerous pool of ever-changing characters, and varying inventory based on region and individual store, all beckon for collectors to start getting itchy, and it's worked. As demand for popular culture items (lunch boxes, etc.) begins to skyrocket in the collector's marketplace, so does the value of classic, no longer produced, Sanrio artifacts. A quick search on Ebay, one of the Internet's most popular trading and collecting sites, revealed about twenty Sanrio items for sale, ranging from a Hello Kitty lunchbox going for $35, a My Melody stuffed animal selling for $20, and a rare, English-language Hello Kitty magazine for around $20, amongst other items. The future of Sanrio can only get brighter, as small retail stores are popping up in malls all over the country, and the company is actively expanding their video production, CD ROM development, software programs, and multimedia products. The official company logo composed of their best known celebrities has recently inflated from two to three dimensions, showing Sanrio's stylistic strategy to keep up with the times. And in this third, added dimension of its characters, in that intangible vastness of social communication, is the reason for the success of this family of products we could all easily live without. The Sanrio collector's blue book has yet to roll off the presses, but it's likely it will soon. Just look for the pink book with Hello Kitty on the cover. Scary or sweet? What's your take on the Hello Kitty obsession? SOURCE

THANKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I've bitched about Downbeat's prices for a couple years (and I never have subscribed), but at that rate - I probably will go ahead get a subscription. Much appreciated!!!

Great track, guys!!! Can't wait to hear the Organissimo Tribute CD (and that "Smiths" cover!!!). Thanks!!!!!!

And, just for your birthday Couw... to go with those Freedom Fries... I even got you ALL the ingredients to make your very own Hello Kitty™ brand Mayonnaise!!! (Don’t all Europeans put that Mayo glop on their fries??) Here ya go!!! (And as with many presents: "Some Assembly Required"... as in, you'll have to put these together yourself with Photoshop. ) PLUS

Really?????? Wow!!! How many did you have pressed?? (I'm guessing 1,000.)

It ain't got vocals (or most of it doesn't), and for a majority of people, music without vocals is just background music. Thankfully not a 99% majority, but I would guess well over 50% think this.

Yeah, the on-line help shows an "Edit Audio" button being on the tool-bar, to get an an audio-editor, but my version of the software has no such button. I think they want me to buy their upgrade to really be able to do anything. Before I do, I really don't want to spend very much money on this --- and I'm half-convinced that there's probably plenty of free-ware to do what I need. And that's where YOU come in. Lead the way!!!!!! Thanks!!!!!!!!!!

OK, the on-line help says something about taking the option "Edit audio file", which is described as "Opens the Sound Editor so you can edit the selected WAV file." Except, of course, I can find no "Edit audio file" command in any of the pull-down menus... Of course, there is an "Upgrade to Easy CD Creator Deluxe!!" menu option, further suggesting to me that I can't really do the audio-edit thing with this version of the software.

OK, I just extracted a CD track to a .wav file for the very first time, thinking that I would probably need to manipulate the .wav file if I wanted to edit it (something that probably can't be done to the CD track directly). I see an option in one of the drop-down menus that says "Split Track", but it's always grayed out - so I can never seem to use it. The 'on-line help' for Easy CD Creator says... So, then, perhaps "splitting a track" can only be done on a 'composite' track??? - and I guess maybe that's some special thing, that extracting a CD track into a .wav file isn't. (Actually, the fact that "split track" is continually grayed out, is what made me think that it was an option that was only available in some content-richer version of Easy CD Creator.) Boy, I guess I'm what you call "really green" when it comes to this kind of stuff. All I've ever done before is burn full-copies of CD's, or made Mix-CD's, feeding the CD ROM drive with disc, after disc, after disc (meaning I've never downloaded the tracks onto my hard drive before), let along done any editing. Thanks for any help, and especially for your patience in helping me. Much appreciated!!!!

I know, I probably could have posted this elsewhere on the board, but I'm asking specifically because I want to edit a couple of the tracks that I want to include in the Blindfold Test I'm putting together. You know, sometimes tracks are just to damn long to include, but the music has some logical break in it that would allow for a clean edit, without making the track feel at all incomplete. Plus, I've got one or two non-commercial tracks I want to include, and I need to edit out a good 30 seconds of crowd noise at the end of the track, and some introductions at the beginning that would give away what it is. Having a "fade-out" at the end of the track would be nicer too, instead of a hard edit. I'm sure there are some Freeware programs, or bare-bones "trial versions" of some meatier software, that would do the kind of VERY basic editing that I'm needing to do. For what it's worth, I used Adaptec Easy CD Creator, Version 4.02d_D5 (copyright 1995-1999) to burn CD's, mostly cuz it's the software that came free with my PC when I bought it (a Dell), early in the year 2000. Actually, I think I've seem that the Adaptec Easy CD Creator software can do this kind of simple editing, but I've never been able to find the right options to get it to work. Maybe they have a more feature-rich version (that I don't have) that does this. (It's been a while since I've looked into it, but I remember not being able to figure out how to do editing when I last tried, about a year ago. I'll check into it this weekend, and try again.) Thanks!!!!!!!!!!!

Yes, !!!!! If you wouldn't mind, tell us a bit about yourself, Selim. Maybe mention some of your favorite recordings (especially, perhaps, some that are a bit more obscure). And anything else you'd like to offer. Welcome!!!

To the tune of "911 Is A Joke"... Going, going, gone! Now my alarm went off a long time ago. Can't you see how slow you're reactin'? You only rise when you feel like you wanna go to the bathroom and take ya a shower. You don't care, and you'll be late anyway. You boss is gonna be mad and dock your pay! And yet you slumber and keep on sleepin' If your hit snooze one more time, then you're D.O.A! Late comers goin' into the office, sneakin' in the back but they'll all know, I betcha! You need to call in quick before they come to fetch ya for the morning meeting, workshop or lecture. You phone will ring when they find your location, You'll lose your job and then receive no compensation! Pretty soon you'll be out of rotation. Unemployment is a fucked up situation! Get up, get up..right now. It's 8 a.m. and you're late for work clown! (Stolen from HERE.)

I think most of you can guess which one is my current favorite!!

Sho' 'nuff is. Check out this thread: Share ideas for Xmas gifts...

That would be a fairly significant increase in the number of RVG's released in any given year. Haven't the been releasing roughly 18-24 RVG's per year, since they started??

FYI, I just got my BFT#4 in the mail today (Dec. 12th), and I got through about the first 2/3rd of disc #1 this afternoon -- while I was running around town, doing errands. I should have some thoughts to post about one or both of the discs, hopefully by sometime this weekend. I've been good, and I haven't looked at this thread -- not even one tiny bit!!!

I was glad to get this one too. A year or two ago, Darkfunk used to have dozens of concerts on-line, all the time (maybe as many as 30 or 40 different shows). Then it changed, and now they only have two or three up at any one time, and they periodically rotate them. (I guess to encourage people to download them, rather than stream them multiple times (like I had been doing).) Anyway, I had heard this particular Miles date once before, but I never did download it -- until today!!! I just burned it, and plan to leave it in the car until I get through it 2 or 3 times.

keep the flava flav clock..I really dig that avatar. Maybe just add a santa hat to him. Somebody with Photoshop, help!!!! Also, perhaps these might be helpful to you Photoshoppers too, with other projects... http://pandemoniumhats.com/images/santa%20reg.jpg http://pandemoniumhats.com/images/santa,yakyak.jpg http://pandemoniumhats.com/we_hats_specialt.htm Edit: One more: http://www.villagehatshop.com/media/b2b-santa-sm.gif

Lord, $6 a CD, and free shipping too????? How the hell can they do that??? It's not like they're selling these to "get people in the door" - unless it's on the theory that they'll surf around the rest of the Best Buy site, and buy some big-ticket items. Really, I absolutely do not get this. Vibes???

Just got this in the e-mail... ===DARKFUNK ANNOUNCEMENT=== for a limited time - download miles davis quintet live at juan-le-pins, July 26 1969 http://darkfunk.com/latest_shows/ more miles, herbie, and mmw coming soon. stay tuned. gemini gemini@darkfunk.com http://darkfunk.com good funking jazz If you want to be removed from the list, go to: http://darkfunk.com/email_list/ Particular shows have been staying up on Darkfunk for about 1-2 weeks at most, before being replaced by other shows. Download this one while you've got the chance. -- Rooster Also, the session info for this date can be found: HERE. This show is from the day after the "juan-le-pins" that was released on on CD by Japanese Sony about 10 years ago. Almost entirely different set-list too.

Jazz isn't dead, it just smells funny...

Here's one for Weizen!!

Here's a little something that Randy might like to get...