Jim Alfredson

It was bypassed. Supposedly 2.3.3 fixes some security stuff and might even fix the "having to log in all the time" bug.

I gotcha, but I think the law that was passed due to this case is ridiculous.

As is humans killing anmals. True, but he didn't eat the cat and it was not attacking his livestock. He shot the cat because he believed it was going to eat the bird. Even if we say, it's okay he killed cats on his own property this one was in a public place. I agree with that.

Like the grandmother post, this is comparing the value of a human life to that of an animal. I understand that people can grow close to their pets. I've owned pets my entire life, but let's be realistic here. Are you really telling me that animals and human beings are on equal footing? If your daughter and your cat were both drowning, would you really have a hard time choosing which one to save first?

I'm calm, I just think it's ridiculous. I grew up on a farm. We had outdoor cats and indoor cats. The indoor cats were the beloved pets of the family and were well taken care of. With the outdoor cats it was understood that, although we loved them too, they might get hit by a car, freeze to death, catch rabies and have to be put down (happened a lot), or they might get into the neighboring farmer's chicken coup and he'd kill them. That's the way it goes. Did the guy who claims to own the cat actually take care of it besides giving it some food and a couple of toys? Did it live in his home? Did he change it's litter box? Or was it basically an outdoor cat that he fed and enjoyed? To me, that's the distinction. If the cat is basically feral, then I don't see a problem with somebody killing it. If it was the guy's pet, then there is a problem. People shouldn't be allowed to kill another person's pet on a whim. As for comparing the life of a cat to that of somebody's grandmother... c'mon. Let's get real.

I see. Killing cats who are killing birds is a no-no, but killing squirrels is okay? To make a law that says killing any cat, feral or not, is punishable by jail time is just ludicrous. What if the cat has rabies? What if it attacks your cat? What if it attacks your kid? We're really edging towards total craziness in this society.

Dudes... it was a frickin' cat! There are literally MILLIONS of them. Go get another.

I saw one recently, but I don't recall where I was. I want to say Pentwater (on the west side of Michigan).

No. You won't be a real musician until you drive 800 miles to play a club for the door and make $20.

Bah... I'll have to upload my favicon again.

We sell most of our discs on the gig. Sometimes 20 to 30 copies a night. But those are easier sales because you just got done (hopefully) wowing people and they want to take a little bit of that home with them. But CDs as a whole are dying because people don't want to buy them anymore. The sales figures for the latest RD disc, which has been out about two months and is getting massive radio airplay right now, are downright depressing. And like I mentioned before, the disc has already been ripped and is on the bittorrent sites. Yay! We spent $12k on that one without factoring in duplication or the radio promo. You have to look at it as a promotional expense and hope that you can use it to get gigs with.

Well, Zora has a bug now. She woke up with a sore throat and I can't get her to eat anything. She's sleeping on the couch right now. Poor thing. Yesterday she came outside for a bit to "help" me rake leaves (not much she could do). We've kept her home from daycare for the time being due to doctor's orders. She is usually in daycare Mondays and Wednesdays. It's been hard for me to get anything done, since I can't really leave her alone for fear that she'll do something crazy, like climb up on a chair and jump off (she has tried... the kid is pretty thick-headed). We made cupcakes on Monday and yesterday she helped clean the house. She and I are both getting a bit of "cabin fever". I also need to prepare for a recording session tomorrow (I'm the engineer), but it's hard to find the time. I'm still coming to terms with the injury. Jazzmoose is right; she'll heal and probably forget about it, but every time I look at her and see the enormous cast on her arm, I tear up. I know it wasn't my fault, but I feel terrible for her.

Waiting For The Boogaloo Sisters Copies sold on CDBaby: 158 Income: $1771.20 Income from (legal) downloads: $555.05 TOTAL: $2326.25 Cost to record & manufacture the disc to date (including reprints): roughly $10k This Is The Place Copies sold on CDBaby: 226 Income: $1925.50 Income from (legal) downloads: $915.58 TOTAL: $2841.08 Cost to record & manufacture the disc to date (including reprints): roughly $14k Now, obviously we've sold copies at gigs and we sold some via CDUniverse, CDStreet, and Amazon (though we never got paid for any of those due to the companies that were distributing our product for us going out of business and never paying the balanced owed). We're on our third pressing of both discs (we press 1,000 at a time). But most of those go to promotion; radio, clubs, festivals, etc. Basically, the CD is a promotional tool at this point. As you can see by those numbers above, the proposition of actually making any money or even breaking even is a fool's game. That's why for the next one, we'll be doing it as cheaply as we can. We can't afford to go $10k in the hole anymore because it takes years to get out of it (we're still paying off the last reprints of both discs and we haven't released anything since August of 2005). Here's the thing about jazz that I have learned, especially from hosting this forum: In general, what small jazz listening population exists is concerned more with the latest BN re-issue than new music. They would rather spend $15-$18 on the latest remaster of Blue Train than buy a new release or even actually go to a show. Not trying to rip on anyone specifically, I'm just being honest. We've gotten some flack here and there for going after the "jam band" crowd, but you know what? Those kids actually GO TO SHOWS! No, they don't usually buy CDs (they rip from friends or download from the internet, usually illegally) but they come to shows, they buy beer, they tell their friends, and they make club owners happy! And that's all we have now. Live performance is the only thing people cannot steal. Sure, you can record it with those neat-o little handheld digital recorders, but it doesn't beat actually being there, hanging with friends, throwing back some brews, and having a good time!

Nope. I guess it didn't happen. Invision was supposed to perform the upgrade, as the last time I did it, it took forever. But it appears they didn't do it yet. Hopefully tonight.

$100 a night is what my dad was making 30 years ago in this biz. I average a bit more ($125 a night) and that's still pretty shitty when you factor in $3 a gallon gas and the wear and tear on your vehicle. I don't know what the answer is; I do know that since people can get something for nothing, that's what they'll do. So you have to try and make it another way.

Stop competing I guess. Can they play a b-3 like you? Can they write music like you? Eventually, the truth comes marching in. You're assuming that success and/or making a living is directly related to how good you are. Unfortunately, that's not really the case. Good question. Considering the proliferation of DJs, many people would probably say "nothing". I tell you, it's a real trip to be playing a tune, people are getting into it, dancing like crazy, laughing, smiling, having fun... and then when you finish the tune, they turn away and sit down. No applause, no recognition, nothing. It's like they don't realize the music is coming from real people as opposed to a CD.

Hi, The forum software will be upgraded tonight starting around midnight, EST. This may take up to an hour to complete. During that time the board will be unaccessable. Thanks!

WEMU has been very good to us. In fact, they just hooked us up with a gig on December 7th at Goodnight Gracie's. First time we've played Ann Arbor since April of 2006.

http://www.nytimes.com/cnet/CNET_2100-1030...?ref=technology Interesting article about Prince. On another note, there has seemingly been an influx lately of "musicians" who are financially secure (ie, supported by rich parents, uncles, etc.) that do not need gigs as income and thus go into venues and undercut the hell out of everybody, which of course hurts those of us who do need that income. How can you compete with someone when you need to make X number of dollars and they go in for nothing?

Brilliant!

Bill Walton is horrendous. I can't stand Musberger, mainly because he's such a Wolverine fanboy. When the Pistons games are carried locally it's usually a tag team of Greg Kelsor and George Blaha announcing and I prefer listening to them, even if the actual picture quality is not as good as ESPN. Sometimes Pistons games are on both channels and I always go with Special K and Blaha. George calls the Michigan State games, too. Strange looking dude, but a great voice and a good understanding of the game(s).

She does remember; she was talking about Zoe the other day. But I won't pass along your phone number, Mr. Ambulance Chaser!

Ack, lice. I had lice when I was a kid. The worst part was I was old enough to be ashamed by it and thought that when I got back to school (I think it was 2nd grade), everybody would know and avoid me like the plague. Luckily that didn't happen. My sister did the "try to drive bike up tree" stunt. She hit her head so hard that she knocked herself out and doesn't remember that day at all. The worst part is my parents didn't know because it was at my cousin's birthday party and nobody told my parents what happened. Only us kids saw it and we were afraid of getting in trouble, so everybody was tight-lipped. Man, some of the shit we used to get away with is insane...

We were hoping it wouldn't require surgery, but she fractured two bones and dislodged a couple others. She really messed it up. I'm hoping the scar will remind her to think before she leaps! This morning I got up after my wife and Zora and Zora was on the couch eating a purple popsicle... at 7:00am!!! Talk about getting spoiled!

I broke my collar bone four times, so now I know what my parents went through. That's the right word for it: devastating. Thank you all for the support.