Friday, August 31, 2007

I AM A WALKING MAN, not a Walkman

I cut back on Pop Tarts for breakfast. Way way back. And why shouldn't I? Kellogg's quit running a special Sony promotion which guaranteed a free song download with every box purchased. Besides already knowing that Pop Tarts have very little nutritional value, I also learned that you had to download Sony's CONNECT music player to your computer in order to play the songs. I grew suspicious. Sony has a shitty track record in the music industry; they were caught with their pants down when consumers downloaded purchased CD's onto their computers and discovered that Sony infiltrated their operating systems with a rootkit. Still, a man's got to have his free music. Ironically, after a few dozen songs, I discovered that I could only play them on the Sony music player, even though I prefer a different source. As for my MP3 player, anything but those F'N free Sony songs would download.

On August 30th, Sony sent me an email. I'll spare you all the bullshit and get to the meat and potatoes of their message:

Dear Valued Sony CONNECT Music Customer:

Today Sony announced its intent to move to a Windows Media Technology platform for Walkman products (they included a trademark symbol here). We strongly believe that the decision to embrace a more open platform for these devises will enable us to provide you with a better overall experience. Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, BLAH.

They would have been better off apologizing for their greed. Thanks for the headaches.

I did receive a much nicer digital message this week regarding David Lee Gilbert, the rock and roll singer for The Rockets. Last month I did a special tribute to him and the band, including a slideshow with their song "Born In Detroit." Here's the comment:

Hi, it's me, Dee Gilbert. I just loved this tribute to my late husband. He would have been so honored by this. You are the best.

Now I'm walking proud. And burning calories too. I am The Walking Man. At least for the moment. Unless it's been copyrighted.

13 comments:

the walking man said...

Nope no copyright on that, just a name given me by a girl when I was on the road 20 odd yrs ago...welcome to the club. But now because of all the fusions you have to walk for both of us, you'll stay skinny and I'll stay sedate listening to my music i purchased the old fashioned way...at the resale shop.

Peace

TWMtwo

Beth said...

You ate Pop tarts??

And what a lovely message to receive from Dee Gilbert. It's that old, "what goes around, comes around..."

ivan@creativewriting.ca said...

Uh.

Sneaky way to winnow a comment out of The Walking Man. :)

Ivan

eric1313 said...

Sony bastards! I knew the were no good. The playstation comercials are filled with subliminal messages, and they give their artists crappy record contracts attempting to own each artist's music--like a lot of labels, but they are particularily adamant about it.

I've eaten so many poptarts I can't stand them anymore, especially the apple cinnamon ones. I can't even talk about them without the urge to spew, they're so gross.

Settling in at Lansing. Life went nuts, or I did, not exactly sure which, but things are getting better, they're getting better all the time...

Anonymous said...

Hey JR, watcha ya fishin' fer? Nice comment by his widow. I wonder how she knew? In the case of Sony... You get what you pay for, but wait a minute, all you bought were pop tarts. You gotta watch those freebies. Enjoyed the post. MW :)

serafinafly said...

hey jr...thanks for stopping by the site...no catch for the freebies - all offered as free and legal downloads, believe it or not. there is a wealth of mp3s for the taking if you have the energy to "mine" for them. :) i hope you enjoy some of the tracks. check out my podcast sometime: www.bunchofbettys.blogspot.com
cheers!

Gina said...

Better to have had a pop-tart binge and lost it than to never have had a pop-tart binge at all.

ivan@creativewriting.ca said...

I once offered to eat a pop tart, but she warned me. "All my friends have these designer diseaes."

Ooh. Good vodka!

Ivan

Erik Donald France said...

Haha! Good one, Jim. Cool from Ms. Gilbert.

I'll let any additional "pop tart" quips be . . .

Free music for everybody!

jbwritergirl said...

Isn't a pop tart also a female british performer?
JB

Joanne said...

Sony has changed so much *sigh*

Leslie: said...

re your previous post that I missed: Good on 'ya fer standing your ground. That's the part I hated working in the school system - having to kowtow not only to the administration, but also to parents who thought they knew how to teach their kids better than the teachers did. Huh? Why did I go to university for umpteen years to "learn" how to "teach?" Duh!

Jo said...

Wow, JR, a note from Gilbert's wife...! You should be proud.

And stay away from those pop tarts. They're poison.

And, ignore Ivan. He's baaaaad. Designer diseases? Ha!