Guy Berger

Last week I parked my car at a metered spot for 8 hrs and didn't get a ticket! Guy

Amen. Though now that deus62 isn't here, I no longer confuse him with ubu. Guy

I had a dream last night that this latest edition had a listing for Madonna. Guy

Up. I'm listening to the second movement of the overlooked sonata #22, Op. 53. This is one of Beethoven's wackiest movements, I love the accelerating, out of control ending!! Guy

The Warriors were god-awful last night. Guy

You've probably heard the song "Heat of the Moment". It was a hit at the time. Guy

FWIW, this segment on dating is funnier than anything in the movie. Guy

There's no Hebrew, it's gibberish composed of a mixture of made-up words and words in Russian/Polish/Uzbeki/etc. that don't amount to what they are being interpreted as in "translation". Trust me, a lot of it was Hebrew. And it did match the subtitles. Guy

I get the impression that you're not real familar with all they have done. All is a big word. Probably you're right. I'm also not familiar with ALL what Christina Aguilera did, but still I enjoy listening to her more then to KC. But KC, probably more than most bands, has had enormous changes in style during its life. Therefore, if you've only heard one or two albums, 7/4 is probably right. Guy

I liked the movie and parts of it were hilarious but... I didn't like the "plot" parts much*, nor did I like his sidekick. Also, parts of the movie felt staged -- I'm not sure if they were or not. The Borat segments in the Ali G show are better, IMHO. I was surprised by how much of the "Kazakh" Sasha Baron Cohen was speaking was actually (excellent) Hebrew, usually pretty faithful to what the subtitles were translating. Guy *By which I mean that having a plot kinda hurt the movie. It would have been better just as a bunch of skits.

I've been impressed by Monta Ellis's play. On the other hand, four of the starters -- Davis, Richardson, Murphy and Dunleavy -- have been really horrible thus far. Guy

Sometimes we give machines less credit than they deserve. Guy

I'm not that impressed with the win over Portland. But at least they're not going to finish 0-82. Guy

The first four songs on it are fantastic but the rest is of lesser quality. Guy

I have two of his albums with Ben Folds Five. Well-crafted pop-rock. Guy

Thinking of them as a "fusion" band is a mistake, Alon. Guy

Well, I think that in general burning CDs is bad, especially in large numbers and for artists/labels that are very sensitive to small amounts of sales. That said, I think burning a small number of CDs over your lifetime (relative to how many you buy new) as a listener is a minor sin. Furthermore, if you are an individual who buys or sells lots of used CDs I would urge you reconsider. Finally, DO NOT SHARE MUSIC FILES OF IN PRINT MATERIAL ONLINE (unless it is of a Britney Spears type musician) -- I am guessing that in the aggregate this is far more harmful than burning or used cd sales. Guy

No! Neither a CD-R nor a used CD sale is necessarily a foregone sale -- there is a sizeable probability that the individual would never have bought the CD at full price. (Emphasis in Aggie's post is mine.) Guy But you would naturally agree that that probability is less than one, so basic probability/algebra issues aside, Aggie's point is not without merit. No, it's not without merit. But as I pointed out in my 1st post in thread (way back in page 1), from this standpoint a used CD sale is WORSE than a CD burn. A used CD sale is more likely than a CD burn to be a displaced new copy. Guy

At any point in time, there is only one owner for the used cd. The artist got paid for it. The artist doesn't care about how the owners are distributed across time. He does care that at some point there were two owners, but only one paid him. Guy

No! Neither a CD-R nor a used CD sale is necessarily a foregone sale -- there is a sizeable probability that the individual would never have bought the CD at full price. (Emphasis in Aggie's post is mine.) Guy

Not quite -- it's an open question which is more harmful -- depends on a lot of variables. Guy

My feeling is that if purchasing a CD will not get any money to the hands of the originators (label, artist, etc.) you should feel free from an ethical standpoint to burn or download. It would be a nice touch to send some money to those originators if possible -- better to give it to them than to some middleman who is charging extortionate prices. Guy

And when a CD is sold used, it has two owners while the originators were only paid by one of the owners. Two owners, one price. It's the same either way. Nicely put. The only difference is how the owners are distributed across time -- simultaneously or sequentially -- but from the artist's perspective, the end result is (approximately) the same. Guy

I am completely in agreement with you on it.. Burning CDs generates excess economic harm to the originators. (And so does selling used CDs.) Guy

Why not? Show which part of my reasoning was faulty. Guy