This is an amazing collection:

From Thomas Edison to American Idol, this is the complete history of the music that shaped and defined five generations. 3 million records and 300,000 CDs containing more than 6 million song titles. It's the undisputed largest collection of recorded music in the world. About half of the recordings are new and never played, and every genre of 20th century music is represented. There are countless rare recordings worth hundreds, or even thousands of dollars each on the collectibles market. Organized and cataloged, the collection is meticulously maintained and housed in a climate-controlled warehouse. The estimated value of this amazing collection is more than $50 million.

All for $3M dollars...at least at current bid but wait, there's more:

The new owner of this magnificent collection will also acquire (1) the rights to Spin-Clean, the owner's patented vinyl record cleaning system, considered the best on the market by audiophiles the world over, (2) the rights to Discmist CD cleaner, (3) CD Saver 2-part archival CD storage sleeves, (4)Yellow Jacket 45 RPM acid-free archival storage sleeves, (5) ownership of the owner's six publishing companies and eight independent record labels, and (7) more than $100,000 worth of antique recording and listening devices and other music memorabilia currently on loan to a museum.

You don't just get the music, you are buying a set of businesses.  You are buying a piece of history and it is amazing that only 3 people have bid, then again, this isn't a Christy's auction and in spite of the interest, there are not lots of us to buy/ship/house this collection.  Certainly the type of people that are thinking about or already have ordered their $150K Wilson Alexandria 2's should be the right person to go after this.  What cracks me up the most in this listing is the number of people complaining about the opening bid price or that as a "no reserve" auction that there is a starting bid at $3M or the why are you not supporting the "boycott"

Check out http://www.thegreatestmusiccollection.com/index.html for full details.  The only part that doesn't make sense to me is:

the collection is too special–too important–to be sold to just anybody. It needs to be preserved. It needs a suitable and fitting home.

I understand this desire but in an auction with bidders it will go to "just anybody" who has the money to acquire and potentially then sell of the pieces a piece at a time.  Certainly the intent is to not have this happen:

We’re seeking a buyer who will guarantee to keep the collection intact (other than to sell duplicate copies, if so desired) and to keep the music alive for the enjoyment and music lovers, now and for years to come.

If you represent a museum, library, university, or charitable foundation, or you’re a philanthropist interested in purchasing the collection and donating it, please contact the owner’s representatives for more information, pricing and a personal on-site inspection.

Yet the auction doesn't stipulate such a guarantee.  No matter what, it is a staggering collection

I hate these new pop-up ads appearing all over TV shows now.  It was bad enough years ago when stations decided we couldn't remember what station we were watching without putting this little logo in the corner.  I guess this is their answer for our ability to tivo and zoom through all the commercials. 

What great timing, kids unwrap presents, great joy, dash to the 360 for a little fun and bingo, we get the 3 flashing light show.  I run all the unplug, etc. routine with no luck.  From what I can tell using the diagnostics we have a dead dvd drive though I have heard this is misleading.  Next though came the fun of calling 800 4My-XBOX.  What a mess this call center seems to be.  People are friendly and my order did get processed but there were definite language barrier issues and the place is so crowded that I could hear at least 3 other calls going on.  That made it hard enough for me to understand let alone my ESL customer service agent understanding me.  Don't get me wrong, I am happy with MSFT for extending the warranty but that was just the right thing to do but that wasn't a smooth transaction that was efficient for either of us and time processing calls is money.  Still, bottom line is what kind of timing was that fortunately we focused our gift selection around non-Xbox type of things this year.

This has always been my favorite book of the series.  It is cohesive and well woven and carries the main story line forward in a clear fashion.  I would say that the movie well meets this level of performance.  The extraction from the text to the tale of the screen is well done and much cleaner than the last movie in presentation, camera use, etc.  The movie clips along at a fast pace keeping the viewer engaged throughout the 2.5 hours and pieces that have been cut from the book are nicely alluded to so that you may relive the memories of the written pages.  Umbridge is perfectly cast and played as is Evanna Lynch as Luna.  It was definitely worth the early am showing the fact that I will be sleeping for only a short while before the work day begins

Sgt. Peppers just finished tracking through over in the CD player (what kind of old technology is that) and as Track 13 dies it goes into the old LP out cut which was one of those famous Beatles use of tape loops and reversing for the "inner groove" track and the fun we had as kids running various lp's backwards, trying to decipher the hidden messages, things that somehow you just can't do as easily in our digital age. 

Everyone did a much better job than I expected going in with Jordan ending up being the only one to struggle.  But wouldn't this show have been awesome with a bit of Sanjaya?  Hair extensions and all?  Blake, he was awesome.  A performance and I loved the start with blowing the dust off the album.  It showed a lot of uniqueness and kept true to the main hook and he sang with a lot more power than he has recently.  But Sanjaya, that would have been such a crack-up...serious to the competition?  No, but that is entertainment.

DialIdol continues to struggle this year with getting the prediction right this year.  Of course their "predictions" for this week put everyone except Blake at risk and we never really know the real vote.  It also appears that the distribution is pretty flat across the contestants thus for the last two weeks Phil has been in the bottom 3 but been "ranked" on DI at 2 or 3.  According to the show over 35M votes where cast this week of which <270K came from DI or .8% so there is a large number of votes from other systems either raw dialing, different software or messaging.  Since this is a worldwide vote and you can "vote often" it is nice to know that compared to a presidential election (2000 saw 111M votes with 153M registered voters).

Part PR campaign or not, the Idol Gives Back campaign is excellent and it is great to see the machine make this effort.  I applaud the fact that they are working both in Africa and America.  While children even in poverty in American may have more than other locations, lifting the impoverished up will continue to enlarge the pool of people that can lend a hand to others in need.

Last night we went to opening night for Camelot featuring Micael York as King Arthur.  Overall it was an enjoyable performance and flowed along nicely.  The story line is a bit uneven and it isn't the world's greatest music but it does have a good bit of humor and Rachel York was outstanding as Guenevere giving beautiful vocal performance as did James Barbour playing the role of Lancelot.  What an outstnding voice he has.  York performs well given his age and that he is out of his natural element and isn't a trained singer.  He comes through well delivering the hope of a brave new equitable world that is his dream of Camelot but many would not question Guenevere's head being turned but a seemingly younger, mightier version.

The 5th Ave. is a delightful venue with good overall acoustics, a reasonable stage, almost enough leg room and classic oriental styling.  Camelot may not be a play that makes it quite to the elevated ideals of Arthur but it has a mix that should be enjoyable for the whole family.

We are in the classic part of the show now.  I don't know if it is VFTW, Crying Girl 

or "panting boys"

but it is when people that may be nice, could be workable in some Nickelodian sitcom, or working in Disneyland get to stay on the show and others that actually have the ability to sing get dropped. 

One thing that is interesting to see this year is how far off the DialIdol predictions are this year.  There is a huge margin of error and I am expecting that more and more votes are being cast by text message rather than by calling.  You don't get a busy signal, it is easy to send a bunch of times, you can even do it from the web and could automate this to send large quantities of votes and tools that predict based on the number of calls placed with their software or the number of busy signals won't get any read on this. 

No matter what, the show this week was much better than the prior week in general.  Not that all the performances were outstanding but last week had some truly terrible performances and this week we were able to listen to the whole thing.  Still, I could never watch this live without the ability to fast-forward.

Back when the try outs were going on the "judges" made a statement that Seattle was the worst city they had been to talent wise with Simon stating:

Shut your mouths, people. According to "American Idol" judge Simon Cowell, you sound like @#$%!. When the TV talent show auditioned "Idol" wannabes at a downtown hotel last October, he called our locals "the worst bunch of miserable singers" he'd ever heard.

Funny then that at Hollywood week there was such a strong contingent that made the through to the final cut and that of the final 24 Seattle is well represented.  Hey and all those guys that really made it through were all Seattlites not out of towners.  Ahh, but anything for drama is the name of this show.  I can't believe some of the keep/cut decisions done in Pasadena but I guess that makes the narrowing of the field to the final 12 that much easier.  Interesting that this year we don't have any budding country stars, no rockers, no real gospel powerhouses.  So far it seems like we are looking at run of the mill pop.  Will our imaginations still be captured?

Have you heard of NerdCore hip hop? If not, check out Wired's article Rap Marketing Goes Nerdcore. 

Dan Fernandez's Blog : Original Gangsta - VB Rapper

Great pointer to the broadening culture of the "geek" world.

Very nice, far better than episodes 1 and 2.  The way the Emperor turns Anikan and seals him with self-loathing flows well but you still have to wonder why the Jedi have such little capability for perception in front of Palpatine.

Tape delay as in Tivo like devices is great.  Zoom past commercials, instant replay, slow-motion, etc., they're all good.  But, tape delay of sports events, is killing me.  SpeedTV for the last couple races has been showing practice, qualifying, etc. at normal times but they are delaying broadcasts of the races by a week.  Since F1 is normally run on a fortnight schedule, this gives SpeedTV the ability to have F1 every week.  But, it means you see the race well after it is over and basically can't participate in online forums unless you don't care about if you know the results before you watch the show.  They had a much better formula last year showing the live race on race weeks and showing other F1 programming like F1 Decade on off weeks.  This also means you can't have the FIA live timing running while you watch.  I hope this is just a couple  race aberation and not a permanent fixture though there probably isn't enough nascar and poker on tv for most fans.

Currently appearing at the Pantages Theatre (an awesome deco venue) is currently staging The King and I with Stefanie Powers in the lead role.  The production is pleasant, the sets are very nice but while Ms. Powers overall performance is fine, she is just a bit too old sounding for this role.  The first number she opens her voice to sing and you are thinking this isn't a young widow we a dealign with.  Perhaps a role as Auntie Mame would be more fitting. 

The supporting cast was quite good.  Ronobir Lahiri works well as the King, and Catherine Mieun Choi as Lady Thiang is awesome especially when it cuts to her solo and the operatic quality of her voice soars.  The children of course are cute...that is what children are for in such productions.  The ballet during "The Small House of Uncle Tom" is quite nice.  Overall, if you are in LA and have some open time, it is an enjoyable evening.

My wife and I are on our second season of watching American Idol.  We do the 1 hour PVR delay version complete with our own versions of Simon and Paula's comments.  I have to give the judges credit this season for assembling a bit more variety this year than previous seasons as far as the singers musical variety and I am glad that they have provided a few opportunities for singers to choose from a pretty broad selection of music.  I dread another Barry Manilow night though it would be a crack up to watch Constantine and Beau singing "Can't live without you."  But it struck me that Idol is also walking along the edge of Long Tail, power curve potential.  Beyond becoming the "next idol" a broad number of micro-segments can be developed both for what music people like as well as which performers that would allow the Idol site (if it was not so constrained) to exploit power curves to push additional content for a long period of time.  Cowell seems to think the show could run for years, so could interest in the material and performers.