Jackson ends up telling NO story - just a vomit of computer-guided coloured lights. Sound and fury, signifying nothing...

I was more worried about replenishing Red Vines, than seeing what happened next.

As a result, the money is stolen not from the customers, but from the bank itself.

"Party on, Garth."

Bizarre argumentation. One hardly knows where to begin with your assumptions and red-herring analogies.

To address your first point - with it's ill-considered implications of parity between democracy, capitalism and actual worth or value: Commercial success at this scale simply indicate how thoroughly that vulgarity and thoughtlessness have been cultivated and encouraged by this media-driven culture over the past 90-100 years or so.

When people make "free choices" in such a society, they do so in appalling ignorance, with a maximum of empty stimulation. This is the post-Edward Bernays world.

The vulgarity of this decadent age. So? He rapes the corpse of JRR Tolkien and that's just fine if it earns a bauble and a penny?

That was a case of "resource constraint".

Exactly.

I AM one of those "small musicians and authors".

FM is now an analog/digital mix. They broadcast the analog channel with two digital channels piggybacked on the signal. They don't call it digital, they call it "High Def".

And if they're too broke to pay the fees, they must have trouble selling ads. KSHE has no problem, but they're probably the most popular station in St Louis.

I certainly agree that copyright lengths are way too long, and that the extreme lengths hinder creative expression. I ran across it with Random Scribblings; I had to change Dork Side of the Moon, reducing the lyrics of the two songs to "fair use" snippets, since I can find no way to contact Roger Waters for usage permission. That album is four decades old and should not be under copyright.

You are right, copyright is supposed to encourage creators so their work will belong to everyone after the copyright lapses. How is anyone supposed to get Hendrix or Cocker to perform again?

It does add challenges to creativity.

You keep using that word. I don't think it means what you think it does....

It's actually a tragedy and missed opportunity, that Jackson has so little talent as a director, and so little discipline in telling a story.

I was appalled by how little he regarded the audience - and proportionally insulted his actors - in "Desolation". Huge musical cues 'instructing' the audience of the drama or character development that was supposed to be on screen, at all times. This seems to be because he cannot elicit real performances from his actors.

I might muse that this is because to Jackson, they are not actors - but merely the armatures on which he templates his green-screen composited glory... But to assume that this is the root of his deficiency, rather than another symptom of of his artlessness, would be to succumb to curmudgeonly urges.

The lesson to be taken away is that Jackson should be designing games, not ruining popular cinema.

It appears that - despite the contempt it provoked in my teenaged self - Rankin and Bass actually produced the best ever adaptation of Tolkien, with the greatest respect and truth towards the source text in feel and substance. Perhaps, when we have destroyed the concept of copyright as a tool of corporate greed, another - more thoughtful - filmmaker might use this as a point of departure for a loving and well-crafted "Hobbit".

I suspect a long period of suffering by most, followed by a French revolution style bloodbath.

For movies and video games there is a thousand years worth of public domain sheet music your musicians can perform. You can do anything with Beethoven's music, for instance, that you want. Bend it, shape it, make it fit your game or movie.

That's very true; I spend far more time proofreading and editing than I do writing, but it's like being a bricklayer: the final product is what's important; it's the accomplishment itself that's worthwhile and makes the drudgework part bearable.

Interesting article, but a bit suspect. I think probably the difference between "Deep Tracks and KSHE is that "deep tracks" is a secondary stream similar to KSHE2; you need a digital radio to pick it up, and KSHE (which is listened to world-wide) is the main feed, and KSHE2 isn't streamed. Your link says "A great deal of care went into the "Deep Tracks' station, making it one of highest quality rock stations in America. the music was locally programmed and carefully selected. DJs were used to give greater insight into songs and deliver a better listening experience. Most recently, the DJs used were local rock radio veterans Seaver and Byrd"; no different than tonight's show on KSHE.

Tonight you can hear Journey - Departure, Joe Walsh - So What, Steve Miller Band - Book of Dreams, Def Leppard - Hysteria, Blind Faith's only album, and Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here. They play the whole album uncut and uninterrupted without a disk jockey talking over the music.

Oops; that was last night, being retired I lose track of what day it is. They haven't announced next week's yet.

So I suspect "deep tracks" is in trouble not for the format, but for streaming their second channel. Also, the RIAA and ASCAP collect higher fees from streaming than broadcasting, making that article look even more suspicious.