funnystrange.com

I suppose you've all heard about the new iTunes music downloading service. I just installed it this morning and have been playing around with it. The idea of paying $1 per song or $10 per album, no subscription fee, is so much more sensible than other services I've heard about. I've always said that I would be happy to pay for music online if there were a way to do it that actually worked.

Also the usage restrictions seem fairly easy to work with -- you can put the music on 3 computers and unlimited MP3 players, you can burn songs onto unlimited CDs (although you can only burn the same "playlist," identical CDs, ten times. Which I assume is to prevent large-scale piracy).

I like the structure a lot, it seems really easy to use. Although I haven't bought anything yet because they haven't had anything that I was looking for. It's not just that my taste is obscure -- they don't have anything by XTC, none of David Byrne's solo work, nothing by Daft Punk or Tribe Called Quest or De La Soul. These aren't particularly obscure, I don't think.

On the other hand, I have to concede that most of the stuff I want is fairly obscure, so I wasn't surprised not to find it. A lot of it is albums that have gone missing from the radio station, on which I really loved one song, but the album is either 1. out of print, or 2. not worth spending $18 just for one song.

I heard (in one of the multitudinous glowing articles) that the entire iTunes catalog is currently from the 5 major labels. Which would explain why so much of my wish list wasn't there. I'm hoping that if it's successful, they'll get some indie labels to sign on.

So, this morning I was trying on an old vintage dress that I haven't worn in years, just to see if it fit. And it did, which is the good news. The bad news is, the zipper got snagged and I can't get out of it! I'm completely stuck in this dress. The zipper is on the side, under the sleeve, so it's difficult for me to see what I'm doing. And it's kind of fragile, so I'm afraid of damaging it. I feel kind of silly sitting at my computer working in a lacy vintage dress, but I may have to stay in it all day until Georg gets home and helps me out of it. I should dig out the vintage purple hat I used to wear with the dress and wear that too. At least that way I would match.