Flickr Stats- January 21, 2008 I'm not sure how I missed it, but Flickr has implemented a statistics tracking for all photos. I noticed in the metadata smallprint for today's upload that there was a link that said "Photo stats". I clicked it and turned them on and a few minutes later had full stats on all photos going back as far as I wanted, referrers and all. Way cool.http://www.webmink.net/2008/01/flickr-stats.htm Amazing Grace- January 20, 2008 Another free taster has done its work and I've now got Grace Potter and the Nocturnals on rotation, specifically their album This Is Somewhere UK. The free track that hooked me is only free until tomorrow so you'd better pounce - Apologies, a lost-love ballad that is among the quietest tracks. Despite the samples Amazon has chosen, the rest of the album is much more rocky, with the sort of hard edge that the sparse historic line of female rockers would be proud of. If you do buy the album, you..http://www.webmink.net/2008/01/amazing-grace.htm In Praise of Freeloaders- January 19, 2008 I think I'll be going along to listen to Bryn Haworth tonight locally, a guitarist I've not heard live since the early 80s. The friend I was talking with wanted to know what he sounded like, so I went to his web site to look for a sampler. Nothing there. Bryn is clearly only interested in people who already know what he sounds like. No free sample track. Not even any track previews.So conversation turned to the paradox of the new web-mediated market and how some musicians don't seem to get it..http://www.webmink.net/2008/01/in-praise-of-freeloaders.htm The Guggenheim Grotto- January 10, 2008 I'm not sure what drew my attention back to them, but I bought an album (for the benefit of those who have been asking that's a useful archaic term for "a collection of related MP3s grouped under a fanciful name") by The Guggenheim Grotto, an Irish acousticfolk band with a talent for both lyrics and melodies. I'd first picked up their track Told You So off the 2006 SXSW sampler and then Philosophia showed up as a free song on iTMS US. That second track finally got to me and I decided to get the.http://www.webmink.net/2008/01/guggenheim-grotto.htm Wax Poetic- January 8, 2008 I ran into Wax Poetic the first time when I found they were the band that Norah Jones started with before she was famous, but this newer stuff is much more international - like a raw Les Nubians with a jazz break. Give the Last.FM embed above a try.By the way, if you'd looked at their 2003 album Nublu Sessions on iTMS and wondered what the missing track 1 was, it's there on Amazon with no DRM. Turns out it's a fantastic pre-fame Norah Jones track called Tell Me.Fixed the post time on this one,..http://www.webmink.net/2008/01/wax-poetic.htm You are what you eat- January 3, 2008 I've been meaning to mention that I finished reading The Omnivore's Dilemma UK during December and really loved it. It had been jumping into view each time I went to a bookshop and I finally gave in during October.It was a deliciously smooth read - even with my usual ADD I found it compelling. Michael Pollen digs into the American food system and finds that the mass-market food system has been ridiculously skewed by a policy decision made under the Nixon administration. Attempting to prevent...http://www.webmink.net/2008/01/you-are-what-you-eat.htm |