Oxford, England: A 24-year-old thug/bartender named Gregory McCallum attempted to burgle his 72-year-old neighbor named Frank Corti. Corti, a retired boxer, proceeded to beat the ever loving snot out of him. (Actually, he just punched him twice in the face…HARD!)

What’s terrific about this story is that McCallum’s mug shot has been published for all the world to see.

Let this be a lesson, kids…don’t mess with a retired boxer.

24-year-old burglar Gregory McCalium beaten by ‘victim’ - elderly retired boxer Frank Corti

Source: www.nydailynews.com

Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen is at once the most stupendous and stupidest summer movie ever made.

The plot is non-existent. The human characters are marginal (with a few exceptions). The rare moments of “humor” are cheap and offensive.

But the computer generated imagery (CGI) of robots whupping up on each other is tremendous…lots of detail moving by so fast that you can’t get a good idea of what’s happening. I can’t think of any other movie that has a comparable level of complexity and scale in the special effects department…maybe the most recent Star Trek (which is infinitely better in every way imaginable) in certain spots…but this is non-stop from the first scene to the end.

So yeah, you definitely will want to see it! :o)

My previous post in regards to an artist giving an album their all rather than settling for, “well, nobody will notice,” got me to thinking (which apparently can be slightly dangerous)….

Everyone who has followed my posts here or elsewhere knows that I am EXTREMELY picky when it comes to music. I have a tendancy to tear a song or an album apart with what many feel are nit-picky issues. That may be the case sometimes, but I hold commercial music to a high standard; if I am going to spend money on an album, I want to feel that I got my money’s worth. I also hold each artist to a separate standard based on previous experiences; for example, I hold the Gaither Vocal Band to a higher standard than local or regional groups simply because I know what they are capable of producing.

That being said, I want to know….what is your “perfect” album? I don’t mean, what album do you think has the least amount of mistakes, the tightest production, what have you; what I want to know is, what is the one album that you can listen to over and over, not skip any songs, and still enjoy after every spin?

I have a few albums that fall into this category for me, but I am going to hold off on my selections until I see what others have to say….

A comment posted recently on my Recording Oddities entry kinda summed up what I feel is the problem with southern gospel music today….

I think (this is in the for what it’s worth column) that Mr. Gaither probably does not think that the difference is that marked for those of us who are not pitch perfect, nor listen that closely. I find that I focus on the lead performance, not on the stacked vocals behind the performances. I don’t even catch them in concert. It could be that is what he’s expecting, and it’s a more economical way of doing things…

The way I interpret the comment is to say, “The average listener would not notice what you’re nit-picking.” That may be the case, and I have been accused many times of being WAY too picky with my critiques, but in my opinion, there is no reason for an artist NOT to cater to the most picky listener. Not only does it raise the bar from a quality standpoint, but it also shows a dedication to not settle for the status quo.

Imagine if a contractor showed up to build a house, but didn’t pay attention to every little detail. “The door frame is off-center, but unless you sit there and stare at it, no one will ever know the difference.” In my own experience, I recently had the ceiling in my kitchen collapse because a maintenance worker rushed a plumbing job and caused a major leak. He figured if he just slapped it together and made it work, no one would notice. Needless to say, when I came home to a huge hole above my sink….I noticed!! The same goes for any industry. If two people show up for work, one does only what needs to be done, and one goes above and beyond, giving their best effort, which one is gonna last longer?

Now, is every artist going to produce a perfect album every time? No way. Should every artist treat each album as if it’s going to be their best? Absolutely. There should never be a time where the artist says, “They’re not gonna care if we cut corners.”

Via Singing News, Randy Crawford has rejoined Brian Free & Assurance on baritone, taking over the vacancy left by Derrick Selph. A wise move, bringing back a former member, and someone fans will be familiar with. (Thanks to Brian Franklin for the update).

He may have been the eternal punchline in the music industry, and he was unquestionably on a completely different wavelength than anything remotely southern gospel, but there is still no denying Michael Jackson’s influence on the entire music world. I was not a fan of his, per se, but I respected his musical abilities (his lifestyle was another story altogether). While he has been more of a white elephant than a music legend in recent years, I still am going to acknowledge the music and marketing genius (at least until 1985) that was Michael Jackson.

I know that jokes have flown wild about him for years, and will probably continue to do so after his passing, so I ask everyone to please refrain from posting any negative comments. As this is a music site, I feel it appropriate to pay tribute to his musical abilities and influence.

I’m biased in favor of America, of course, but this does a lot more for me than Susan Boyle singing “I Dreamed A Dream.” Enjoy Voices Of Glory singing “God Bless America” on America’s Got Talent.

So I got an iPod. Actually I got it two years ago for my dad, but he never used it, so I took it back for myself and let it sit for a good year before I finally took the effort to organize all my music into iTunes.

Since getting it all synced up and running, I’ve been playing my 3000+ songs (that’s not counting what I still have in storage!!) on shuffle. It’s fun to hear songs that I forgot I even had pop up, mixed with songs I’ve been playing non-stop. According to iTunes, I have enough music to listen for a week and not hear the same song twice.

While enjoying my belated entry into the modern music world, I heard “Heartbreak Ridge and New Hope Road” start playing from the GVB Reunion video, and was reminded of something that should be either a glaring mistake, or pure laziness….

The track for the song was lowered a whole step. Big deal, with technology today, you can raise or lower tracks with virtually no audible distortion (other than some goofy-sounding tones, especially from the drums). The mistake/laziness is in the stacks. When you lower the track, you have to do one of three things: lower the pitch digitally on the stacks, recut them in the new key, or not use them at all.

When you buy performance trax in stores, retail versions will not have background vocals present if the track has been repitched; you only get BGV’s in the original key. The reason for this is that, while instruments can be pitch-shifted relatively easily, voices are a whole ‘nuther beast altogether. Voices generally are not shifted more than maybe a half-step in either direction, and that’s only in small pieces (unless you wanna sound like a drunk uncle on thanksgiving or one of the Chipmunks). The biggest complaint with autotuning today is related to this, as well, giving voices an almost robotic sound when they are shifted more than a half-step.

The most logical thing to do in a situation where the track has been shifted as such would be to eliminate the stacks altogether and rely strictly on the live voices. If one INSISTS on using stacks, then they should be recut in the current key.

Gaither did neither of these.

Instead, he left the stacks on the track, pitch shifting and all. The result is an awkward mix of live voices that sound natural and prerecorded voices that sound like a tape is dragging. It’s most noticable in David Phelps’ voice - as a tenor, his tonation tends to be more open, and the track makes him sound like he’s singing everything more rounded, creating a sonic clash.

On top of that, it’s no secret that Bill tends to keep his bass solos intact on the trax. In this case, his “glory” solos sound downright funny, given that it’s already at the bottom of his range, and now it’s being lowered digitally. I’m also pretty sure there’s an autotuner involved, as well, but it sounds like it’s confused as to where to put the pitch.

This seems to be the same track that Bill used during the Together taping with Signature Sound, and the song didn’t make the final cut (although it does appear as a bonus cut on the DVD), maybe for this very reason. I don’t understand why Bill wouldn’t take the time to recut those vocals, or just leave them out altogether, even if it is done after the fact (which is why I lean more toward laziness rather than honest mistake). That’s the only track on the project that I know of that was edited in such a way (even Mike English sang “I Bowed On My Knees” in the original key during the Reunion taping, something he hasn’t done in a while).

The first time I heard Gaither edit tracks in such a way was on the I Do Believe DVD. “Sinner Saved By Grace,” “More Than Ever,” “I Do Believe,” and “Where No One Stands Alone” (and maybe a couple others, I can’t remember for sure) were digitally lowered, but I couldn’t hear any noticable problems with the stacks (unless Bill wasn’t relying on them as much at that time). I haven’t heard of many artists who have lowered tracks digitally outside of Gaither, either; I know that Gerald Wolfe had “Champion of Love” recut with Lari Goss, pitched a half-step lower, and Legacy Five recut “I Stand Redeemed” lower, as well, but in both cases, the tracks were completely redone, not digitally edited.

Thus far, the stacks that are present on Gaither’s (and just about anyone’s) trax have blended okay, but in this instance, not so much.

A video demonstration of what I’m talking about can be found here and here. The first clip is in the original key, shot during the Austrailian Homecoming taping; the second is the one discussed above from the Reunion DVD. And as an added bonus, here it is from the Together taping….

Doug Harrison recently commented on the Amazon Kindle’s digital rights management (DRM) issues. To get up to speed on the back story, click HERE.

The average consumer doesn’t care about DRM until it directly affects them, which may be a few years after the purchase. It will happen sooner or later. No device lasts a lifetime. By then, Amazon is banking on you not caring enough to complain.

Some people will buy the same book again. No one should have to do that if they’re willing to go to the trouble of making their own backups.

Of course, we all know DRM affects music, as well. It was one thing back in the day when a cassette wore out. A cassette is a physical product, and backups of cassettes never were the greatest option, since the quality degrades. It’s another thing entirely when the company you bought the book or song from retains the ability to restrict your access to said string of ones and zeros if they decide they don’t like you any more.

This isn’t all of the story, either. The Kindle used to offer a text-to-speech function, but that feature was later disabled by Amazon…and not just on new Kindles. People who were already using the feature suddenly learned they could no longer do that with their Kindle. That would be like buying a car and suddenly losing the ability to turn on the windshield washer.

It should be illegal to sell a product and then remove a key feature after the customer has paid for it.