Rush Documentary
First off – RUSH FUCKING RULES – FUCK OFF!!
Ok, got that out there.
So yeh, I was a fan the second I heard the first Rush thing I ever heard, which was 2112, at Herman’s little place in Juneau, which was where a bunch of us heard a lot of things for the first time….(and a LOT of other stuff happened) I loved it, and although I’ve frequently kinda felt the lack of certain things that I value very much in terms of songwriting and arrangement etc nowadays, they’ll always be a band I like listening to…
Watching the documentary I was struck by something that has always haunted me throughout my life as a musician….I ALWAYS wanted to be in a great band, and I always wanted to do that as how I went through life, and although I’ve had a truly amazing life and wouldn’t give it up for any money, that’s always been a goal I never really attained, and I really wish I had.
I was in some great bands that never really took off for various reasons, The City with Billy Trudel (lead vocals – Elton John and MANY things as a singer), my way way back buddy Stuart Mathis (guitar vocals with so many HUGE things I’m not even gonna try, look him up), Jerry Speiser (drums – fresh from “Men at Work” at the time), and the band’s svengali/writer/producer Peter McIan (producer/writer/keys, had produced the first couple Men at Work records)…..Life by Nite with Tom Croucier (GREAT singer/writer who should be huge if the world was fair), Stuart again, Bryan Hitt (REO nowadays), Jeff Nadieu (now passed but spent a long time with Eric Burdon I think), Kevin Anderson (does a ton of work in production and has a studio), a really cool little band I had with Stuart, Bryan and Joellen Friedkin (keys, spent a long time with Keb’ Mo) that never really saw the light of day but had a ton of potential…and of course my own efforts with STILL, which has had a number of people in it (Erik Eldenius – Billy Idol, Micheal Martinsonn – Dilana, Mick Linden – Bad Haggis, Mike Owens – very talented drummer, Billy Steinway – tons of stuff, Dave Odegaard (monster shredder with a number of guitar CD’s out there that are fairly popular, and who interestingly just the other day said those famous words to me “Dude we should put the band back together and do some shows!”, and maybe we will) and a LOT of folks helping out along the way…but none of them ever really jelled and/or took off. There’s a bunch of other things but those are the ones that stick out right now as I write….
(Edit/Update) Fuck, can’t believe I didn’t mention “Different Size Gods” which was a group that kinda just fell together by weird chance and was really really cool…myself, Stuart, Tony Obrahta, Fred Eltringham, and Mike Webb (these guys have SOOO many credits I’m not even gonna try, just Google them), we did that record so quick and in my case literally on the fly, luckily Fred and I played together like we’d known each other for years instead of hardly met before tape rolled….that band shoulda def done more than it did….(/Update)
A lot of that has to do with the musical environment of LA, which is so money and success driven, and maybe less interested in just being great and let the pieces fall where they may…and a lot of it has to do with me being an aggressive opinionated dick for most of my life…and fact is, not many of us EVER get to be in that band, and certainly very few get to succeed at it, and maybe 10 or less like Rush has….
But yeh, I always wanted that…
Watching the documentary, you can see the enormous respect and affection they have for each other, and how much fun they still seem to have doing what they’ve done for like 40 years or so, and it’s striking to think about what a great life that is, and how they seem to “get it” as well….they know they have it going on….THAT’S what I wanted to do….
So yeh, more power to them, I love to see it…I’m a bit jealous, but I’m glad SOMEONE got to do it…it’s very rare that these things are all in the same place at the same time, many people get some of those pieces, but very few get all of them that right.
Forced iPhone hardware upgrade…?
(If you don’t know about the context of this post, go here for some background – note that Apple has NOT released an update to iOS 6 to close this hole, which is a glaring and interesting omission )
So this last update to Apple’s iOS was ONLY for iOS 7, and they have not put one out for iOS 6, tho presumably the one or 2 lines of code would be simple and easy enough to put into iOS 6.
So why not do that?
And why was that gaping hole left there in the first place….? It’s kinda super obvious and any cursory exam of the iOS before sending it out should have caught it… but Apple didn’t catch it…was it FOR the NSA to snoop with? As in Apple says basically, “you (NSA) pay us to put this hole in, and we’ll just wait till someone finds it and then we’ll jump to fix and everyone will think we’re really on the ball… etc….and we look good and you get your software hole in our phones….”.
Yeh, probably no, but could be I guess, clearly these companies aren’t looking out for US the consumer.
Bruce Schneier has some questions as well. (tech security expert)
But I don’t think so….I think it might MORE go like this – *IF* they did it on purpose, what about the idea of putting into the iOS a very big security hole, and then when it’s found, put out a patch for ONLY iOS 7, and NOT for iOS 6, SPECIFICALLY because iOS 6 is working GREAT on older iPhones, in particular the 4 and the 4s. iOS 7 runs pretty poorly on the 4s, and downright shitty on the 4 as it is, but in truth there’s really no overwhelmingly crucial reason to upgrade to iOS 7 on these phones, they work well on iOS 6 and and unless you need the better camera etc on a 5, there’s really no compelling reason to go to either iOS 7, OR the iphone 5 hardware, your phone is pretty good and gets the job done.
Until NOW.
This security hole and lack of a patch for iOS 6 FORCES the owners of the 4 and the 4s to either accept the shitty performance of the iOS 7 on 4.x phones, or keep their phone and iOS 6 with a giant hole in it, or to do what I think might be the REAL point here, upgrade to a new iphone 5.x.
Then it’s simply selling hardware.
By now you’ve figured out that’s what I think is happening.
“I am having the same problem – to the point of it taking up to 30 seconds for my phone to unlock after the code is entered. Have an appointment at the Genius Bar this afternoon to see if they can help. Have to wonder if it is Apple’s way of pushing the new phones. Would love to go back to previous IOS! Apple support fix worked for 24 hours, then phone is back to lagging.”
I’m just pointing out something that seems obvious but I haven’t heard anyone mention, and it seems worth talking about. In fact, it’s really fricking weird no one is talking about it.
Rand Paul sues to stop NSA blanket data gathering….
…and I agree with him, for once. (Click here to go directly to story)
In general I think Libertarianism is a mean-minded 14 yr old’s vision of the world that is completely bereft of any value or even functionality in the modern world and based on the selfish/hypocritical and hysterical ravings of an incredibly bizarre and likely half crazy Ayn Rand….however, every idea should be evaluated on it’s own merits, NOT in the context of who puts the idea out there, and fact is THIS suit needs to happen, and it needs to win.
Paul’s letter explaining why what and how is dead on the money, and his other stances notwithstanding, when someone has a good idea and we agree, then I will support that idea. I firmly believe in moving forward together with anyone that believes as I do on a particular issue, and that it can breed a massive amount of understanding and tolerance in ways that almost nothing else can, regardless of their other views.
The accompanying video is not nearly as interesting as what Paul writes, but it’s there if you care to look….