Compact Discs, and Why I Buy Them

Posted on 17 February 2012 by Morten

I always buy my music the old way: on compact discs. Except for a few occasions where I buy it the OLD way, ie. on vinyl. I’ve stopped buying it the Old way though; those silly cassette tapes are better left behind.

I also buy music frequently, and often have it delivered to my office instead of home (saves me a trip to the post office). This means that more people get exposed to this ancient fashion of mine, and hence more people ask the question: why don’t you just buy it on iTunes? Having thought about it, here are my reasons:

Better quality. I often say this one instinctively, and people often don’t find the counter-argument before the conversation has moved on (mostly to the music on the CD). However, this reason is bullock as I don’t posses an audio system that would allow me to tell the difference. Moreover, the first thing I do is always to rip the CD to iTunes and from then on listen to it from there.

It’s cheaper than iTunes. This one is often true actually. As far as I can tell, the price on iTunes is more or less fixed, at least on a few steps. Amazon on the other hand often lowers the price shortly after release (it may be more expensive at first though, meaning I have to be a bit more patient).

The artwork & lyrics. Putting on an album and throwing myself on the couch with the artwork and lyrics sheet is a favourite. I could look up these things on the computer but I find that it takes my mind away from the album — there is always something else to look up when the fingers are already on the keyboard.

The album as a whole. This is related to the above reason, and comes from the fact that I like to see the album as a coherent unit with related songs. This is not always the case of cause, but buy the CD prevents me from buying just the tunes that are catchy at first (but also from skipping the truly crappy tracks).

Ever-lasting. Although logically silly, I find this reason quite powerful. It is the satisfaction of knowing that I can always make a new rip if the hard-drive fails. That the CD contains all the information, nothing is lost due to compression, should I one day get a proper sound system. But most importantly, that I’m leaving a trace behind for me to re-discover years from now (while this could be the case with hard-drives as well, experience tells me that what is on old hard-drives is left on old hard-drives) — I feel less in control with the digital trace, even if it fully controlled by me.

No lock-in. The CD does not lock you in to iTunes or Spotify. No-one can take it away by the click of a button or the expiration of an account. Although I may be forced to abandon CDs within the next 20 years, I am avoided the lock-in for as long as possible. 

As a final remark, let me note that I have recently been challenged a couple of times on this ancient style of buying music. Firstly, I would like to buy the Rules album by Civil Civic but have so far only been able to find it as an MP3 download. I understand that this is perhaps a cheaper option for the band, but still. Secondly, my copy of The Year of Hibernation by Youth Lagoon contained a paper slip telling me to go download two bonus songs not on the CD. I can’t judge if this is because they were added after the CDs where burned or if it is because they made a deal with the download website, but it annoys me a bit.

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Idiom: Det går den vej hønsene skraber

Posted on 28 December 2011 by Morten

I’d never before heard the idiom used by my grandfather today:

Det går den vej hønsene skraber

with an literal English translation along the lines of “It is going the way the hens are scratching”. He used it when losing in a game of cards, looked at us, and added “… backwards”.

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Slow Smoke: Playing with the Canon IXUS 220 HS

Posted on 23 December 2011 by Morten

I was recently playing with the film recording abilities of the pocket camera, and noticed that it also had a slow-motion feature. Here is some of the outcome.

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Concert: D-A-D

Posted on 18 June 2011 by Morten

Unexpectedly I ended up at a D-A-D concert last night, arranged by Aarhus University to celebrate (some would say ‘apologise for’) the new restructuring of the university administration. Two things came to mind as I was watching the show. Before continuing I should mention that as a teenager I listened to D-A-D a lot, like so many other Danes born in the 80′s.

So, the first thing that occurred to me was that D-A-D is not unlike an American burger chain (pick your favourite among McDonald’s and Burger King, but exclude Jack in the Box and Wendy’s — they’re too good):

  • it’s good, but not amazing
  • always the same, you know what you get
  • you can go without it, but if you haven’t had it for a while a need starts to build

Musically D-A-D is not amazing, neither the lyrics nor the guitar riffs. They are good, but not amazing. Perhaps one illustration of this is that the bassist didn’t move his right hand doing most of the concert.

Moving on to the second point, they have hardly changed since I saw them ten years ago. Most importantly: the songs are the same with one or two exceptions, but also making it very easy to shout along. They still bring a huge cow’s head, and the band members still run around the stage, only a bit slower now.

To an extend these two things imply that you can go for a while without any big need to see or listen to them. However, after some time, you’re really happy to see them play again, which brings us to the second thing that occurred to me: why I find a lot of concerts today boring. The music can be great but often the performance on stage is straight-off boring, most recently noted at Northside Festival — the music was good but nothing to watch. D-A-D on the other hand put on one hell of a show! Unlike most bands this includes:

  • smoke — but also proper 2m tall flames
  • light effects — but also fireworks, including a scene where the bassist run around the entire stage wearing a Mohawk fireworks helmet
  • drum solo — only with D-A-D the drummer is put in focus by being suspended from a crane 10m above the audience, or by strapping himself to his chair and then being raised into a full vertical position (in both cases complete with drum kit of course)
  • fancy guitars — which for the bassist means both a transparent guitar, a rocket guitar, and an obscure reversed guitar

As mentioned above there’s also a big cow’s head in the background, featuring a screen projecting film clips matching each song. And the tight leather clothes of the bassist with the word ‘nasty’ printed across the arse, which he on at least one occasion clearly pointed out by bending down.

So there it is: growing up with these sort of concert is bound to make concerts where they just play boring! It was a great pleasure being entertained by these guys again, thinking that instead of growing up they have spent the time coming up with new stupid things to do on stage. Besides making it very easy to sing along they also made it very easy to smile.

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Exhibition: Growth

Posted on 9 April 2011 by Morten

One of my favourite photo blogs is PHOTO.fr, who a few weeks ago mentioned the Growth exhibition currently on display at Passage de Retz in Paris. I went there today and found it refreshingly good.

The first thing intriguing my attention was the photos online. Not really looking into the concept I simply liked the photos for their content and style.

My attention was further raised entering the exhibition and reading about the exhibition and the project. Mixed from the project’s website:

The Prix Pictet has a unique mandate — to use the power of photography to communicate vital messages to a global audience. The goal is to uncover art of the highest order, applied to confront the pressing social and environmental challenges of the new millennium.

The theme for the third cycle of the Prix Pictet is Growth. At once a blessing and a curse, Growth, in all its forms, presents one of the great conundrums facing humanity in the early decades of the twenty-first century. From the dizzying expansion of our cities with their ever increasing dependency on scarce natural resources to the relentless growth of populations and the need to feed ourselves.

Here’s a great purpose for taking photos, a clear illustration of letting an idea drive and decide what photos to take and how! In trying to find my photographic identity I’ve run into the typical problem of working within a frame too broad. As I’m starting to experience, your creativity suffers from this and what you produce is too scattered to reach the depth required to make it interesting. I’m not sure Growth is the right frame for me but it does provide an example from which to draw some enlightenment and inspiration.

My attention was cemented upon seeing the prints. The first we saw were huge prints of three photos from Michael Wolf’s Architecture of Density, each filling up 3×4 meter on the walls. From the leaflet:

Hong Kong is one of the most densely populated metropolitan areas with an overall density of nearly 6,700 people per square kilometre. The majority of Hong Kong’s citizens live in flats in high-rise buildings whose units can house as many as 10,000 people. [..] Bits of laundry and hanging plants pepper the tiny rectangles of windows – the only irregularities in this orderly design. The images [..] give us an inkling of what our cities could look like if growth continues unchecked.

In this size the photos were really powerful.

The photos from Chris Jordan’s Midway: Message from the Gyre left an equally big impression. From his website:

On Midway Atoll, a remote cluster of islands more than 2000 miles from the nearest continent, the detritus of our mass consumption surfaces in an astonishing place: inside the stomachs of thousands of dead baby albatrosses. The nesting chicks are fed lethal quantities of plastic by their parents, who mistake the floating trash for food as they forage over the vast polluted Pacific Ocean.

Along with the photos, each artist also provided insight into his or her interpretation of the theme by a small accompanying text. I was particular fond of Chris Jordan’s text:

For me, kneeling over their carcasses is like looking into a macabre mirror. These birds reflect back an appallingly emblematic result of the collective trance of our consumerism and runaway industrial growth. Like the albatross, we first-world humans find ourselves lacking the ability to discern anymore what is nourishing from what is toxic to our lives and our spirits. Choked to death on our waste, the mythical albatross calls upon us to recognize that our greatest challenge lies not out there, but in here.

It’s stories of that calibre I want to have behind my photos! :)

Last but not least, winner Mitch Epstein had two great photos in the form of large prints from his American Power series, illustrating the power industry’s intrusion on American towns and landscape. Really good as well.

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