Some (maintenance) issues have surfaced, nothing critical but resolving them has higher priority than the state of this thread.
Under normal conditions each album is linked to RYM’s Database, due to lack of time those links are pending and I’m posting this month’s albums in *plain text*. Temporarily.
I’ll return later on to update the titles 😉
(…)
Problem fixed 🙂
September’s schedule*, not necessarily in this order:
If there’s one thing that can make me press “Stop” on the CD-Player/Computer Audio Player etc, it’s football.
Especially Major Tournaments like the World Cup or, in our case, the forthcoming European Championship.
To make a long story short, this *season* ends prematurely.
I’ll try to cover as much as possible, but after the first kick-off [on Friday the 8th, 19:00] you can forget about me.
There will be no posts whatsoever, you may as well stop visiting the blog during that period…
July too, which typically is the hottest month of the year and makes my life -and many other city dwellers- a living Hell.
Depending on weather conditions, potential heat-waves etc [this SHIT is killing me, seriously, heat can render me useless], you shouldn’t expect new posts before mid-August
[crossing fingers/praying for cloudy days & strong breezes – otherwise, the damn building will never cool-off!]
Assuming the country hasn’t collapsed after the elections, the next schedule will include some super-duper-deluxe editions by Lynyrd Skynyrd and Ozzy both of whom will be playing here.
Just realised that “Ozzy & friends” show coincides with Euro 2012 final
Now, that’s a tough choice.
It’s also the reason why God invented digital video recorders 😛
Given the positive feedback on last month’s *extras*, I figured I’d better start where I left off making only minor amendments.
Mainly adding a couple of MSG Remasters [in anticipation of Michael Schenker‘s show on April the 20th] as well as filling a few requests [Ronnie Montrose & TNT]
1. Shit happens! 2. Isn’t anyone paying attention? 3. So, what (the Hell) have you been doing for an entire month?
1a. Yes indeed.
Starting with Megaupload, which proved to be just the tip of the iceberg, the hull got breached.
It wasn’t targeted randomly, no sir. You don’t need to be a political analyst to realise it was a tactical hit, a display of power.
What better way to show who’s got the upper hand than to take down the *flagship*? Especially after failing to pass the SOPA/PIPA legislation.
The hearing of the news alone, was enough to intimidate [read: scare shitless] the majority of file hosting services which immediately took measures [read: disabling accounts indiscriminately, deleting any questionable material from their servers etc] in order to comply with the law [read: avoid being prosecuted like the chubby bloke who run MU]
Is it irreversible? Only time will tell.
You know something? I hope they ban everything! Bring the Internet traffic back to dial-up era levels.
Maybe then they’ll realise they were digging their own graves all along.
In nature, when the host dies so do the PARASITES.
I’d very much like to see them getting ridiculed (on second thought, they’re already used to that and probably won’t mind) trying to explain WHY there was no *sales* increase as predicted.
WHY? I’ll tell you why.
Because with or without file-sharing*, it all comes down to how much customers can spend. *file-sharing ≠ “piracy”
RIAA, DMCA etc have been using the latter term arbitrarily in a rather pitiful attempt to convince the public of alleged crimes while concealing their true intentions:
To perpetuate an unjust system in which middlemen enjoy the “lion’s share” while the artists get peanuts.
Claiming that every *illegally* downloaded album or movie should count as *loss of profit* is laughable.
The vast majority has to deal with a very specific budget, do you honestly think they could afford them all?
Even if the file-sharing magically disappeared, they’d still be in no position to buy more than [pick a number] a month.
I know I wouldn’t. And I’m known to ignore basic necessities in favour of CDs!
Last month alone I purchased… Let me check my records…
Oh, to Hell with it! Here’s a fully detailed list:
Orders placed from December 30th 2011 to January 31st 2012, sorted by store:
■ Amazon.co.uk
Dream Theater – “Live at Budokan” [3CD-set] £6,57
Prophet – “Prophet” [Remastered] £10,40
Rodrigo Y Gabriela And C.U.B.A – “Area 52” [CD+DVD] £8,99
Rainbow – “Down to earth” [Deluxe Edition 2CD-set] £10,99
David Lee Roth – “Eat ’em and smile” £3,99
Deep Purple – “Bananas” £3,99
Annihilator – “Alice in Hell” [Reissue] £7,47
Ratt – “Infestation” £5,69
Iron Maiden – “Flight 666: The film” [2CD-set] £5,49
Royal Hunt – “Show me how to live” £7,24
Rush – “Moving pictures” [Deluxe Edition 2CD-set] £10,99
Foreigner – “Agent provocateur” [Remastered] £3,99
Kansas – “There’s know place like home” [2CD-set] £4,49
ZZ Top – “Tres hombres” [Remastered] £3,99
Black Sabbath – “Live evil” [Deluxe Edition 2CD-set] £9,99
■ CDWOW!
Scorpions – “Love at first sting”
Zebra – “Zebra”
Andy Timmons Band plays Sgt. Pepper
■ GROOVES-INC.com
Marty Friedman – “Loudspeaker” €8,29
Martone – “When the aliens come” €10,59
Jorn – “Spirit black” €8,09
Royal Hunt – “Paradox II: Collision course” €6,59
Nouvelle Vague – “3” €6,09
AC/DC – “Blow up your video” €5,49
V/A – “Butchering The Beatles: A headbashing tribute” €9,49
Ekseption – “3 Originals” [4CD-set] €13,69
Danger Danger – “Revolve” €14,39
Glenn Hughes – “First underground nuclear kitchen” €3,09
Scorpions – “Sting in the tail” [CD+DVD] €7,99
Lana Lane – “Project Shangri-La” €2,79
Annihilator – “Never, Neverland” [Reissue] €5,89
Kansas – “Monolith” €6,09
■ Play.com
Fleetwood Mac – “Tango in the night” €4,99
Demon – “The unexpected guest” [Remastered] €7,49
After Forever – “After Forever” €4,99
Nightwish – “Made in Hong Kong (& in various other places)” [CD+DVD] €6,99
Styx – “The grand illusion and Pieces of eight – Live” [2CD-set] €12,49
That’s more than one CD per day on average while at the same time, I still wear the same sneakers I got 3 years ago and only have 2 pairs of (cargo) pants to go around!
[You know, wear one/wash the other/repeat. T-shirts are a different story ;)]
The point is, I’m the exception here, I need music 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. Variety too.
If the weather is tolerable, I’d rather walk miles -so to speak- than pay for a bus/subway/taxi fare. In my book these are redundant expenses.
But when a Super Duper Deluxe Edition that comes in embossed digipak, containing signed photos, a guitar pick and God knows what else [the *most original and/or peculiar CD packaging award* belongs to Helloween with the special edition of “Rabbit don’t come easy” which includes -among other things- pumpkin seeds!] is announced, then it’s (pre)Order NOW!
Even worse, it can escalate to “Goddamnit! I can’t risk losing this offer, this edition is limited to xxxx copies [True fact: see Heir Apparent’s “One small voice” 2010 Remaster], will YOU lent ME some money/buy it on my behalf?”
The problem is that not everyone is an avid collector or willing to go THAT far – understandably so.
Can you really blame those who put other, more important needs first?
1b. How does that affect you?
Well, a native idiom comes to mind:
“Being fortunate in your misfortune”, meaning the situation could have -easily- been worse.
Is it a major setback? YES.
Is everything lost? NO, at least not yet…
That extra time I spent creating *mirrors*, finally pays off.
As most of you know Megaupload was my primary host. All the archives [more than 600 RARs, 2/3 of which were FLAC rips] are now gone. Irretrievably.
The same applies for Fileserve although the number of files stored there was smaller.
The good news is, some of the file hosting services I’ve been also using [mainly FileFactory, iFile.it, Rapidshare] were spared from this witch-hunt.
Which means you can still access (most of) my CD-rips.
Of course the other services are nowhere near as convenient as Megaupload was, but you don’t have much of a choice.
I’ve already begun re-uploading a few of the stuff but haven’t made up my mind as to which will be the new *primary* host.
So, until further notice everything goes to iFile.it.
Feel free to make your suggestions and leave feedback, but bear in mind that, as an uploader, my criteria will probably differ from yours.
Downloaders typically care mainly for speed, wait restrictions, readable CAPTCHA [or ideally, no CAPTCHA at all] and so on.
My main concern however, is expiry due to *inactivity* [the longer, the better], reliability [some hosters disappeared over a night WAY BEFORE Megaupload’s shut-down] etc.
And that’s one of the reasons why I won’t be using Rapishare for obscure (=not so popular) albums.
One month is simply not enough 🙁
How about some tangible evidence?
Just check the screenshot below and you’ll immediately understand what I’m dealing with:
Rapidshare File Expiry
Almost forgot:
A number of threads [Dream Theater – “A dramatic turn of events”, Bob Katsionis – “Imaginary force” and Imaginery – “Long lost pride” to name a few] have been *red-flagged*.
In such cases DL links are being systematically *reported* and, as a consequence, remain valid for a very brief period of time – usually LESS than a week.
Re-uploading the deleted archives is futile. Once a post catches the attention of those SOBs, there’s no escape. It’s only a matter of time before the files are taken down again.
Well, NO MORE! I’m not bloody Sisyphus and this shite is holding everything back, OK?
From now on, whenever something like this happens -and it inevitably will-, the content stays private.
Posting the links publicly will only create a vicious circle and I’ve had my fair share of those “all links are dead, will you re-up please?” comments, alright?
In order to get them, you’ll have to contact me personally via e-mail.
[As a precautionary measure, I might a run a check on your IPs, e-mail addresses etc. to ensure you’re not one of the *bad guys* thus avoiding any nasty surprises]
Alternatively, you can visit RockPlanetArcadiaX.net [registration required] and view the respective thread.
Note: The above doesn’t apply for files that have been removed due to expiry 😉
2. Isn’t anyone paying attention?
I mean, seriously! Hasn’t anyone noticed?
Fine, just answer a simple question then:
Do you recognize the following logo? Y/N
What, not even remotely familiar? Haven’t you ever heard about Online Music Databases? Discogs and RYM (RateYourMusic) are probably the two most popular.
Oddly enough, and despite occasional users’ requests, RYM never had a logo – just a *favicon*
The one you see at the right side of the blog [under Categories/Archives],
is an unofficial attempt and was placed there for a very specific reason:
To be easily distinguishable.
To draw everyone’s attention.
In other words, to urge visitors to click the damn thing!
And yet, no one seems to be the slightest bit curious about what it stands for.
What can I say? Maybe it’s not fancy enough for your taste, you know, an eye candy…
That wouldn’t normally bother me. But then a bunch of e-mails pop up in my inbox.
And guess what.
The senders -who quite often type in CAPITALS as if delivering an ultimatum- are asking me to rip CDs I do NOT have.
Etiquette/good manners aside, it would be wise -and certainly save your time as well as mine- to check my RYM profilefirst.
Comprende amigos? RYM‘s database (and any other music dB for that matter) can be extremely useful.
Hardly a day goes by without me visiting to check new releases/recommendations, catalogue my collection [at the rate I’m going, it’ll take years to add* everything :P], submit an issue/correct its details and so on.
A valuable tool for sure, whether you’re a collector or not.
Remember, “God is in the details” – from what I hear, the Devil too 😆
* for various reasons, I’ve only listed 20~25% of the CDs & vinyls I actually own.
3. So, what (the Hell) have you been doing for an entire month?
Clickety click, clickety click… I’m not done writing this part yet, but here’s a hint or two: SSD with problematicfirmware in conjunction with new Windows 7 installation.
Now throw these in
and you have a rough picture.
“A series of unfortunate events” would be a fitting title…
Pending from last month: Journey – “Revelation” [Walmart edition inc. bonus CD&DVD]Rescheduled Styx – “Cyclorama” ✔ Trade Μark – “Fatal Blues” ✔
* Subject to change
Also considering the following:
[Depending on my spare time & YOURfeedback] Jelonek – s/tRescheduled Message – “Fine line” ✔ Within Temptation – “The unforgiving” [Limited edition inc. bonus DVD]Rescheduled Epica – “Design your universe” [Digipack inc. bonus tracks]Rescheduled Masterplan – “Time to be King” [Limited edition Digipack inc. bonus track] ✔
I’m looking at a very, VERY busy month.
Many time-consuming things to attend to, things I’ve put off repeatedly.
So, be advised and don’t get your hopes up too high.
I’ll be lucky to find enough time to cover 10 CDs [that’s the usual standard btw], let alone 15 (some of which happen to be double-sets).
Then why include more titles than you can handle you may wonder…
Well, the list below will be adjusted according to your preferences 😉
Consider it a sort of poll if you will.
Just remember: It runs on a *first-asked, first-served* basis, so hurry up!
[Note: “Diablo Canyon” has already been requested]
November’s schedule*, not necessarily in this order:
For -21grams – Sharing the folder may in fact be a risk as it looks like it allows others to edit the content of the folder? I can see an option which seems to allow me to upload files to the same folder.
akira
-21gramns
ppstone
John Doe
https://disk.yandex.com/d/gI_DnsjZtsv–g
https://disk.yandex.com/d/ar5bTIbM3H8W0w