Tuesday, February 23, 2010

ACTA, The beginning of the End?



ReadWriteWeb published a piece by Jolie O'Dell / February 22, 2010: "UK Nixes Internet Ban for P2P Infringement"

I commented there and then decided to publish the comment (with a few changes) here also...


I’m beginning to think ACTA and DMCA are being used by rights holders not to protect their content but to project it; to forward an agenda towards guaranteeing dominance in emerging markets. I noticed for example, that of the countries attending the ACTA treaty meetings, India - the biggest content producer on the planet – is not in attendance. China was not invited either.

I think rights holders from the richest markets are trying to engineer a return to the good old days where selling music to kids was like 'shooting fish in a barrel' - but on a global scale.

In the heyday of record industry super-profits, artists were signed to deals that kept them enslaved to producers through their entire careers. (Only so called 'Super Groups' eventually gained control of their own content - if they were smart and were well lawyered enough.) Payola to DJ's in the 1950's guaranteed what content got airplay (in the 1990's payola was legalized as regulators took a 'hands off' approach to the law). This Hit Production Mechanism guaranteed a market wide 'Buzz' - which exponentially puffed up the effectiveness of ad dollars. Essentially a licence to print money.

The global recession is triggering the long awaited monetizing of the web and is leading to a more bare-knuckled, competitive landscape in the content production biz, and thus, I think, stakeholders are starting to fall out of line on ACTA.

Could the story out of Britain flag the beginning of the end of the unity of the evildoers?

I hope so.


Electronic Frontiers Foundation: TakeDown Hall of Shame



mh

Sunday, February 21, 2010

The Weakerthans



The Weakerthans rhyme words and 'list' sounds to port and starbourd, that make the Reostatics, Radiohead, and Coldplay wish they had lived - in Toronto anyway.

I looked up the reference that 'sounds' so much, it's everywhere: philosophy, feminism, natural history, anthropology, literature... .

What, are these guys smart or something?



Left and Leaving is Left Leaning. There are other malapropisms everywhere to.



Get ready for the "TakeDown" tag, not now.



mh

Sloan's "The Other Man" Original Video TakeDown



Longtail Posthumous Aperitif for September 10, 2010

Spike TV has removed the page where Sloans "The Other Man" was up, I've replaced it with the same video embed now up at Youtube, again...


As promised this Blog is reporting "TakeDowns".

You can record a Take Down at a list in Twitter, just include "#TakeDowns" in your Tweet.

Remember this Video? Sloan's "The Other Man" on Youtube? A great film, subtle and full of content. Bigger than the company that is now replacing it with... ..CRAP.




As always, if I can, I'll point you to the original from another less evil source:



Dead link at Spike TV.

Thanks.

Please note, evil bastards, I'm compiling a picture archive of things you're targeting to destroy.

I will turn around your hero meme faster than you can say, 'Holy Democratic Blind-side Batman'.



mh

Saturday, February 20, 2010

"The UberApp" may be 'Importing Tools' arrayed around a Social 'Tool Box'



I imagine a blank page, an empty 'tool box', to use Stowe Boyd's analogy, surrounded by 'importing tools' which let the user import the social tools of their choice in the same way blogger lets you import elements in push button publishing.



With the ever increasing number and mobility of the social tools like MySpace, Facebook, Twitter and now Seesmic, Foursquare and Google Buzz, a need has emerged for an application that ties them together, a utility I like to call "The UberApp". But how does one connect all your important social tools when new tools are still coming, when the demand for new tools has yet to be satisfied?

I think Seesmic, Foursquare and Buzz saw themselves as great connectors or UberApps when they began development, but after their release web developers and network effects are re-purposing them. The latest connecting applications may yet become the next generation of social tools, and thus may soon be among the number that need connecting, rather than those pretending to UberApp status.

As such, early adoptors are left to combine the various social tools as best they can with the application connecting devices already out there: email, bookmarks, and RSS feeds.

All kinds of applications use the Atom or RSS protocols to stream updating data back and forth; Twitter is a perfect example. This knowledge lead me to think that Atom feeds may be the best way to unite the social tools going forward.

Using feeds to import social tools and their feeds, I imagine a blank page, an empty 'tool box', to use Stowe Boyd's analogy, surrounded by 'importing tools' which let the user import the social tools of their choice in the same way blogger lets you import elements in push button publishing - in flash or html - configurable by the user to any colour, font, size or location. As such, the eventual UberApp would be developed by users using this 'empty box' and 'importing tools' over time.

Perhaps 'potential box' is better.

To this end I've noticed that it's not simple enough for 'consumers of the web' to set your blog up with an RSS feed. I've been thinking about those places that create a widget for you by asking you to input specified data into boxes. HTML code is then written that you then cut from a box and paste into your sidebar 'Add a Gadget' box.

As I am educating myself about RSS and Atom feeds as I go, I thought I'd better start at the beginning. I found that a simple, push button, consumer oriented way of connecting blogs via RSS and Atom feeds was not available. I had to go to forums through search to find an explanation. I then created a blog post explaining to consumers of digital media how to RSS feed my blog to theirs, and theirs to mine - which I posted in my sidebar and now below. But what is really needed is an Atom feed writer that configures the elements Atom address and imports the content management software all in simple push button publishing style.

Sidebar Post





PUSH THE RSS BUTTON above and it will take you to an Atom (the simpler RSS) Google Live Bookmarks page (Wikipedia article on Atom (RSS) that allows you to direct a FilterBlogs feed to your browser, your home page, your email, your phone etc., etc..

In the new era of social networking connectivity I'm using my Atom feed application, "Bookmarks Toolbar" more and more. In my Firefox browser the toolbar appears under the address bar. The titles of Blogs I've chosen to follow appear in small boxes; when I click a box, it shows me that blogs last 30 days posts in a drop down window.

Atom is a great way to spread Your Blog - it's a syndication feed to the web. To get syndicated first check to see that your browser has a 'content management system' for Atom feeds installed (like Live Bookmarks from Mozilla), then take your blogs front page address (mine is "http://filter--blog.blogspot.com/"), and simply add "atom.xml" to the end of it (http://filter--blog.blogspot.com/atom.xml).

Now you've created your Atom feed address. Paste it in your address window and the address will take you to a page that looks like this (I've dropped down the choice window):



"Choose Application" took me to "Bookmarks Toolbar" application - I clicked 'Create Feed', 'Save Bookmark' and I'm done.

Wherever I am on the net, an easy reference to any article in my blog (and yours) is two quick clicks away. :)

(end of sidebar post)


I think I have the HTML hacking expertise to create an RSS feed html writer page. That's the next step towards the much more complex 'Empty Tool Box surrounded by Importing Tools' UpperApp creation kit.


iphone icons image courtesy Little Box of Ideas Blog.

PC Social Media Icons courtesy Kaplang Blog.



mh

Monday, February 15, 2010

A Twitter like Application as a Customer Service Tool for Retailer's Web Sites (updated - new link)


Longtail Aperitif - February 19, 2010

After some articles are put to bed at FilterBlogs they get a Posthumous Longtail Aperitif; links to related articles published after my original post - towards a better user experience for you, the reader:

Your Longtail Aperitif: Peter Morville, 'Search works best as a Conversation', discussed in an interview by Mac Slocum at O'Reiily Radar, Feburary 19, 2010.


Monday, February 15, 2010

I was thinking of those bad major retail web sites that are stuck in web 1.0. Stationary un-linked lists of products with no prices. Even the page that posts hours of operation of the store near you is hard to find. You usually end up looking in the phone book and calling the store - and that's a whole other story in bad customer service.

Then it came to me, why not set up a Twitter application on those web pages?

As a customer I come to the site and choose a handle, @myname, and use the product index to copy and paste 4 key elements into a 120 character tweet:

@michaelholloway $Cost of 1 #RedHoolahoop? Does the @LeslievilleToronto store have it in stock?


  • @michaelholloway is the customers handle, an address to send the answer back to in the Twitter application.
  • $Cost is a tag that directs the computer to expect a product description.
  • #RedHoolahoop is the product description, quantity always 1. Because this has to be accurate for the computer program to do it's job, the customer copies and pastes this info into the Tweet-box from the product index that the customer finds through a really good, in house Search Engine.
  • @LeslievilleToronto is a tag that tells the computer program to check availability of #RedHoolahoop at the Leslieville, Toronto, Ontario, Canada Location - and the hours of operation, delivery options, payment options, etc., etc. can be included in the reply.

A Company Twitter Helper is on-line 24/7 to help customers make the automated system work for them. More tags can be added to fit the retail meme.

Tell everyone you heard it here first please.



mh

Sunday, February 14, 2010

Google Buzz Kills Symmetric Social Networks (facebook)



Or, how to post a facebook comment on a post by a friend of a friend that appears with no comment link - but never-the-less appears on your wall.



Hmm... No Comment link :(

I've done something like this before - in a FilterBlogs post entitled "Re-Tweeting a facebook Post". Facebook is a symmetric network, people connected lineally; thus when I friended "Nick Danger" (and he friended me back due to an esoteric connection with-in a "Firesign Theatre" meme), posts he has commented in, or 'liked' now appear on my home page, BUT - I can't comment on them because I'm not friends with the original author (in the example above), David Scofield!

This is an example of a limitation of a symmetric social network. Because it connects series of people in a line and also groups them in defined networks - the borders of these networks cannot be crossed with out a 'passport', a friend request - approved.

In Twitter or Google's new Buzz, on the other hand, I can follow anyone I like and they can follow me back, or not - their tweets will still appear on my time line and I can re-tweet or comment on their tweets. They can see those actions, and they can respond if they want without having to make a commitment to follow me then, there after, or at all.

The 'follow' connection in Twitter only enables that persons tweets onto your time-line feed. All other connectivities in Twitter are non-lineal, flexible and inclusive - rather than exclusive. All connectivity relies on tags - rather than exclusive networks separated by virtual walls, as in facebook. As a result, Twitter links gets completely crawled by search engine bots and listed in search results, further asymmetrically connecting particular 'Tweetmeme' to the world. Google Buzz has enabled some tags and search bots are allowed to crawl all over Buzz. (Ewe!)

Asymmetry makes for a much more fluid community. I'm always seeing new people in my time line in Twitter. They come to me via re-tweets and responses to tweets by people I follow. I can then re-tweet, respond, or start a new conversation. If we get along, I may follow the new person and they may follow me back. And so it spreads, naturally.

It's like modern love, not so many silly rules. It's modern (like, so this week) social networking - and it's much closer to the natural behaviour of human beings in real-world friend networks.

Tim O'Reilly of O'Reilly Media explains Asymmetric Networking in a piece I've just read entitled "Goodreads vs Twitter: The Benefits of Asymmetric Follow". I linked to it from another post by O'Reilly on Asymmetric Networking, "Google Buzz re-invents Gmail".


So... getting back to my initial point, This is how I post a comment on a post I'm not allowed to post a comment on: I'm going to publish this piece, and then republish it in facebook. Hopefully Nick Danger (third eye) will see it and post a comment; then David Scofield will see it and my mission, complete. :)

Firesign Theatre, Nick Danger (Third Eye) Part 1



Has any one noticed a contrarian anywhere around here?

Quick! Hand me those pliers!



mh

Saturday, February 13, 2010

This Week on "A Translation of WireTap with host Jonathan Goldstein"


Or, how to 'long tail' a phone conversation you're eavesdropping on but can't hang up the receiver because they'd hear the click and find out.


Podcast of the February 13th 2010 show, "A Matter of Taste"



This Week on "A Translation of WireTap with host Jonathan Goldstein": Sometimes there is no theme tying everything together, 'Loaning' out your password while drunk & Drilling deep into the history of someone you don't really like and should have unfollowed a long time ago.

That is all.

(translations may vary according to province)


Image of Jonathan Goldstein, courtesy 'The Romantic' Blog.

Podcast courtesy CBC Radio 1.

Player from "How to Embed MP3 Audio Files In Web Pages With Google or Yahoo! Flash Player" which features an embed for Google's Google Reader mp3 player (Google has an mp3 player in Google Reader??).

Thanks to "The Podcast Place" for the player.



mh

Friday, February 12, 2010

The Web Doesn't Need More DRM, DMCA or ACTA Bad Cop Routine (updated - new link)

After some articles are put to bed at FilterBlogs they get a Posthumous Longtail Aperitif - links to related articles published after my original post. Towards a better user experience for you, the reader.

Longtail Aperitif: Roger Ebert rages against takedowns of his Siskel tribute
From Boing Boing By Cory Doctorow at 11:38 PM February 19, 2010


"That's where to go here in Toronto for boot legs of everything you can imagine, even $100 Million new releases - sometimes before they're in theatres - an underground economy probably run by the Triads or the Chinese mob; that's at Spadina and Dundas - anywhere along there."


Today a Tweet from The Electronic Frontiers Foundation (the good people setting precedents towards citizens internet rights) reminded me that I've been meaning to get angry about the increasing incidence of take downs of user generated content around the web.

Hem hem. So here goes...



I've added a Tag to this Blog: "TakeDowns".

It's Time to start recording the litany of carnage wrought by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) - and it's international version, the up and coming Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) - to user generated content on the web. That list will be the FilterBlog tag "TakeDowns".

It's not as easy as it would seem. I want people to care enough about this content being destroyed, to do something about it; write their member of Parliament, their Congressman, bring pressure to bear that will stop the process - and then reverse it. But to point to something that is now gone that I might convince you it was worth having is a problem.

I was thinking therefore I will just tell you about the wonderful Chromalias Channel on Youtube which was 'disappeared' earlier this month. Chromalias had seven Channels, one for each season of "Star Trek Voyager" Series (the state of the art of the franchise in my opinion). Every episode tastefully edited and laid out according to their original air dates.

A better ad for Paramount Pictures there could not be. Now an equally bad campaign for Paramount, and a move that will cost a lot more to fix than sales lost due to people watching medium quality copies, whenever they felt like it, on their desktop PC.

A community formed around Chromalias Channel that Paramount Pictures has alienated.

Chromalias would respond to comments regularly; we all thought it was a really cool place. There's nothing sexier than a Alpha-Girl geek running a community on the internet. You felt good in there; and not too many jerks came by at all.

The videos were not in that new HD Youtube is pushing - they were just good enough for a desk top sized monitor.

I'm sure someone will replace Chromalias now that she's gone - and they'll put up episodes in super-high-definition, good enough for a wall sized flat screen TV - and good enough to sell in Chinatown.

(That's where to go here in Toronto for boot legs of everything you can imagine, even $100 Million new releases - sometimes before they're in theatres - an underground economy probably run by the Triads or the Chinese mob; that's at Spadina and Dundas - anywhere along there.)


With-in the DMCA and the coming ACTA laws it is the responsibility of the Internet Service Providers (ISP's) and the application owners to enforce copyright complaints. So when a Youtube user uploads a video of say, "Star Trek the Original Series" and Paramount's Sumner Redstone claims this is a copyright violation, his lawyers send a notice to the ISP - in my neighbourhood that's Rogers Communications Inc.. Rodgers lawyers then send a note to Youtube that says this or that URL has uploaded 'x' episode of Paramounts property with out written permission. After as much dithering as their lawyers say they can get away with, Youtube pulls the account and for example, "Chromalias's Channel" disappears - like this:



Law makers and legacy brands need to get with the Web 2.0 program. In the future (now) content production will be paid for through the box office and a small tax on ISP's.

Counterfeiters producing mass copies of first run movies can easily be shut down. There are only a few copy factories in the world, crack down on them, regulate them, whatever.

But stop terrorizing ipodsters listening to low quality mp3 versions of formula, industrially produced crap. Stop depressing geeks watching Star Trek and music lovers listening to low quality videos of their favourite bands.

This is just weird. As I posted earlier in a FilterBlogs post, "Youtube: Betcha George Orwell Didn't See This Metric Coming!" there is no reason for it. It is a pious self-hatred directed outwards, a fascism that starts innocently in a lawyers office and become an addiction to sadism, an inquisition, that eventually invokes a dark ages.

STOP IT! (and go to your room.)

Concentrate instead on selling high quality music with-in branding strategies that use social tools and networked communities. Accompany this with a re-newing the corporate vision through the investment in the high quality sound systems of the future and then buying into ISP's. This is the future, and it's really close.

Many majors are starting to embrace network marketing. A good example is John Battelle's "Federated Media". They're embracing the blogosphere and aggregating sellers to the blogs particular traffic in a subtle, creative way for all parties concerned. As the site says, "a three way partnership." The company employes a leading edge professional understanding of Web 2.0, quality people who have experience in both styles of marketing, and a measurable metric. In my reading at Federated Media I see a scalable process that can serve even the largest companies on a global scale as the web as platform evolves.

Tim O'Reilly of O'Reilly Media said in the beginning of 2009 in a piece entitled Web Squared: Web 2.0 Five Years On:

"When we started the Web 2.0 events, we stated that "the Web is a platform." Since then, thousands of businesses and millions of lives have been changed by the products and services built on that platform.

But 2009 marks a pivot point in the history of the Web. It’s time to leverage the true power of the platform we’ve built. The Web is no longer an industry unto itself – the Web is now the world."


The web as a tool to market directly in appropriate social spaces has developed more quickly than I had imagined when I read that last year. The recession in large part, has propelled ad dollars away from ebbing institutions and strategies at a time of flux - towards new and promising vistas which have been apparent for many years. As author William Gibson said loosely paraphrased, 'The future is here, we need now to spread it around'.

We don't need to hedge with a DRM, DMCA or ACTA bad cop routine - which is bad for brands and the political landscape as well - we do need is to embrace the future of the web.

Please all, let's lift our collective heads from the graves and see the sun coming up. :)


Gee, I just can't get angry about this stuff - it's just art. Everyone has some in them, even Sumner Redstone.

(And besides I can watch Voyager on about seven other channels in the web.)

This tag will continue to report on "TakeDowns" in social spaces. If you have any news in this regard, please drop me a line.


TechDirt post: "Google's Latest Music Blog Kerfuffle Highlights Problems With The DMCA:"

EFF Twitter post

Federated Media Icon re-purposed from an Image at VentureBeat.com



mh

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

People Like to Talk About the Weather Using Twitter Lists (updated - new links)



After some articles are put to bed at FilterBlogs they get a "Posthumous Longtail Aperitif" - links to related articles that were published after the original post. Towards a better user experience for you, the reader:

1) GIGAOM, Feb. 23, 2010, "Yahoo Adds Twitter Firehose, Tweet Integration Coming" "Yahoo will include real-time tweets on its News, Finance, Entertainment and Sports pages." writes GIGAOM's Liz Gannes.

2) Backwards in time; Laurie Sullivan at Online Media Daily broke the story that Twitter was about to announce a monetization strategy: Online Media Daily Tuesday, Feb 22, 2010 "Twitter Ad Platform 'Imminent'" by Laurie Sullivan.




"..#Snowpocalypse2 is a direct-democracy, real time, user generated News Feed. You will find people's stories, pictures, video's uploaded as they're happening or soon after."


In Twitter, The Great Washington DC Snowstorm of February 6th 2010 is known as #snowpocalypse2. It's really popular - as are all weather stories - in any media.

A picture of FilterBlogs post on the December 19th 2009 Washington snow storm known in Twitter as #Snowpocalypse(1).

Today I had a look at my StatCounter and the second Washington snowstorm in as many months, #Snowpocalypse2, has caused an avalanche - a four fold increase in traffic - twigging on key words in my earlier post on #Snowpocalypse(1).

Most of these are hits are from Google searches for "Washington + Snowstorm + February".



When an F4 Tornado hit Elie Manitoba in 2007, I wrote a piece that attracted a 19 fold increase in search 'pings'. People were looking for pictures and video of the destruction in which fortunately, no was was killed.


Here's a ScreenPrint32 picture of my blog post that reported on the blog post that created a huge buzz in 2007. (In this case the media that is the message is the media and the message... :)

The reason I'm getting these 'pings' is because I posted a blog on the Washington #Snowpocalypse showing how my Twitter timeline was acting as a news ticker. I follow 5 people from the Washington area in Twitter and I watched as the Washingtonians invented the hashtag #snowpocalypse.

Now #snowpocalypse2 is a Twitter list where you can find great links to user generated photographs and video taken during the storm. Thus #Snowpocalypse2 is a direct-democracy, real time, user generated News Feed. You will find people's stories, pictures, video's uploaded as it's happening, or soon after.

A bit of tension too! People calling out to friends and neighbours for help!! Like "Bring food, beer, scotch and a shovel to dig your way IN!"

In December 2009 #snowpocalypse(1) happened and a spontaneous, fun snowball fight turned into a stand off with a Washington police officer who drew his sidearm on snow-ballers (the zero tolerance officer has been reassigned to desk work).



This time, with handy cams and i-phones rolling teams formed, flags poled and even armoured divisions recruited (4-wheel drive pick-up trucks), Washingtonians fought a flag snowball game that included 300 snow-ballers. This is a video I watched, now posted to Youtube, through the Twitter list #snowpocalypse2.



The use of lists is really starting to be understood by everyone in Twitter, and as more people use them the better Twitter lists get - because we begin to group subjects... ..like #snowpocalypse2! You should go!


More snow is expected in the Washington area today, February 9th 2010.

No iceballs now! :)


Update 2/9/10 @ 4:30 AM EST More snow is falling in Virgina and DC 3" by one Tweet.

A new list has been started in Twitter by the Alpha Geeks, Tim O'Reilly's term. Stowe Boyd calls them "Edglings": early adopters of new technology.

New Twitter List is #snowpocalypse3.



Props to:

M. Edward (Ed) Borasky or @znmeb twigged me to the news feed possibilities of Twitter back on Janurary 6, 2010 in his post, "The Twitter Streaming API — How It Works and Why It’s A Big Deal".

John Battelle (@johnbattelle) published a really interesting piece, also in January - I think under the heading "Signal from Noise" - on how he was tracking news stories on Twitter with a keyword search algorithm he created.

John Battelle (John Battelle's Searchblog) reported the application spotted three news items world wide that later went viral - in less than a month.

I tried for a hour to find the piece but I could not; maybe you can. If so, please let me know in comments or email - michaelholloway111(at gmail dot)com. Thanks.



mh

Saturday, February 6, 2010

Honest Song from London Ontario Canada



For the best User Experience listen to four tracks while reading: (right click - open in new tab - click 'play' icon beside "Flash in the Pan")


Recently I Tweeted (@m_holloway) "Folk is the best New Thing."

It's Rich Terfry's fault.

Olenka & the Autumn Lovers "Flash in the Pan" is a soulful rocking lament that Rich Terfry woke me to the other day with his one man Canadian Cultural Army at CBC Radio 2's Drive.


"Flash in the Pan" is a folk song about coming of age, hubris and getting your come-up-ance - true love and a nieve spoiling of it.


A beautiful complex lyric and composition that weaves of stylings of Niel Young, then drives to California and back - dumping the van near the Thames River just off Dundas Street, London Ontario.

"Ballad Of Lonely Bear" then clinks glasses on a long road trip, telling a story in Polish of a barefoot romp on the dark edge of European Nihilist punk mixed with modern capitalist angst:
We have a lovely house,
In the suburbs,
Where it's safe.
Which reminds me of the 'lawn mower wars between the Black on Black Queen Street West crowd and the suberbia of North York (North York didn't know there was a war).


Influences I'm hearing besides Neil Young are Pete Seager, Toronto's Shuffle Demons & The Flying Bulgar Klezmer Band (circa 1985). The lead singer reminds me of Nina Hagen from East Germany and the great Canadian songwriter Nelly Furtado. The band has the modern sound that I'm associating with the highly educated IT generation, they're darkgreen and tested - nobodies fools - especially their parents.

As one of their fans captions in their facebook photo album, they're "Hard Core" (which I believe is a good thing. ;)


Olenka Krakus - classical guitar, lead vocal

Sara Froese - violin, vocals
Paterson Hodgson - cello, vocals
Daniel Mancini - drums
Blair Whatmore - lap steel, electric guitar, mandolin, accordion, vocals
(I heard an oboe in there)

Niel Young's "Borrowed Tune" from 1975's "Tonight's the Night" comes to mind with the great metal slide guitar sound in combo with harp in "Flash in the Pan".

Olenka & the Autumn Lovers Website.

CBC Radio 3 has a page for Olenka & the Autumn Lovers, as they should. ;)

Olenka & the Autumn Lovers Facebook page.

Olenka & the Autumn Lovers in Wikipedia

Olenka & the Autumn Lovers Myspace

A Great resource for Southern Ontario Bands: (London, ON:) Burgeoning Metropolis blog. I can't find the Olenka & the Autumn Lovers post (maybe the author could link it in comments).


Of note here should be Neil Young's Borrowed Tune Lyrics. listen to it too (if you can find it).

I'm climbin' this ladder,
My head in the clouds
I hope that it matters,
I'm havin' my doubts.

I'm watchin' the skaters
Fly by on the lake.
Ice frozen six feet deep,
How long does it take?

I look out on peaceful lands
With no war nearby,
An ocean of shakin' hands
That grab at the sky.

I'm singin' this borrowed tune
I took from the Rolling Stones,
Alone in this empty room
Too wasted to write my own.

I'm climbin' this ladder,
My heads in the clouds
I hope that it matters.

(Copyright Reprise Records, Neil Young, Tonight's the Night 1975.)

("CBC Radio 2 Drive" should be called "CBC Radio 2 Home" in my opinion, and the morning show "Work". Drive kills it for me. The eccentric/brilliant previous host Jurgen Goethe's "Disk Drive" OK, but this is Rich Terfry...)



mh