It is that ancient DVD player I bought at the computer show in 2005 to check out the technology. It is three times the size of a contemporary unit and is from the 1990s. Remembering how the Sony Walkman was discovered by accident, I walked over and put a Karaoke CDG disk in the slot and it began to autoplay. This prompted another round of investigations, whence I discovered copies will not play, only the originals. But I’m hot on the trail. If an old player will decode the disks, then it is not any type of special Karaoke format, in itself a valuable tidbit of knowledge.By noon, I have determined that at least one format used for CDG is called “CD Extra”, although the separate tracks cannot be seen on the disk. A dodo named Mark L. Chambers managed to write a 329 page “CD & DVD Recording For Dummies” in 2004 without once mentioning Karaoke. He describes CD Extra on page 182 without giving a single example. (Actually, the whole book is pretty bad; he is more concerned with sounding clever than imparting any information.) It is well known how exasperated I am by such authors, I often call them “MicroSoft grade” as an insult.
By quitting time I had determined the only thing wrong with the Karaoke machine is a snapped off RCA plug, but it is so solidly in there I may have to chance drilling it out. I was pleasantly surprised to find out JVC, the manufacturer, has a free on-line instruction manual (down-loadable) for every product they have ever manufactured, including those no longer in production. Hey, Sony, did you hear that?
That was enough to get me out on a Friday to do something besides perform. I drove to the Barn in Aventura, and since they didn’t have a single book on File Express, I read trivia for three hours. They have switched to some bitter new brand of coffee, exactly the wrong thing to do to save money. I read several articles on the path that entertainment is to take in the next generation, and I think the predictions of 3D media are wrong, or at least further away.
It appears to me that for the first time in history, the form has outpaced the authors. There will always be rare and remarkable talent, but in general, even freebies like YouTube have failed to produce any blockbusters. If the current crop of authors cannot instill us in 2D, either the medium has to change from mass to mini or be replaced by something not yet dreamed of.
Pop-Sci has another article on a flying car. Hey, they’ve got fifty years and zero air miles on that theme. There is something to the rumor that by 2012, most cars made in Europe will have an engine that shuts off when the car is idling, resulting in an 8% efficiency gain. Does this mean it dies in standing traffic? (Most American cars over ten years old already have that feature, ha-ha.) Unless they have also invented an engine that restarts instantly when the accelerator is pressed, I’m not impressed yet.
Can I use the word “pundits” again? No? In that case, the experts are saying that global warming has already gone too far to be reversed. At the concentration of greenhouse gas already in the atmosphere, we have 5,000 days left. A four degree rise in average temperature means most coastal cities will be under water and half of all species will die. That’s February, 2023. Looks like I’ll have to move further up the mountainside and learn to cook small mammals.
I gave a long listen to the music on Eddie’s list, I’ll refer to him as Eddie Monroe. Like many guitar strummers, he sure likes those slow tunes. I’m the other extreme; I’ve played two years without any draggy “mood” songs, and all that time without a complaint about it. Some of it I like and that is why I leave lethargic music for the audience to play on the jukebox during my breaks. I find it too risky to lose the crowd by playing a sluggish Eagles number at the wrong moment. I swear the only talent some Florida musicians have is knowing when to kill the moment. Hopefully I’ve found an exception.
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