Broadcasting in Pause-filled Digital

Well, today's the day the States go digital for their television broadcasts.

What an incredible waste of time.

Anyways, for me living in Windsor, it does affect me a little bit. Luckily, I already had a QAM tuner built-in to my TV so picking up the stations isn't a problem. The problem is watching them. The picture is pretty great...unless it decides to snow; rain; look like it might rain; there's a chance of rain in the 5 day forecast; be windy; be breezy; or have a pigeon fly by my apartment.

I tried watching Game 6 of the NHL playoffs the other night. There's nothing quite like watching a breakaway, having the picture freeze and then kick back in after the save.

Ah, technology.

I went back to the analog station, and even though it was snowy, was way more watchable. No hiccups, no freezing - it works.

I'm not sure who sold this idea to the States but wow. Why the change? Was it a cost factor? Does the U.S. want to go back to being Isolationists and close-circuit themselves in? Is somebody getting a kick-back?

Other than picture clarity, it's a completely useless way of broadcasting. Also there hasn't been anything good on television since the Writer's Strike a few years ago.

Anyways, you can never go wrong with analog whether it's radio, TV, or telephone. It just works.

Nothing Really Important

Last weekend we, The Toastment, were at the Canusa on Friday night. It was their first night with bands in over a year. Turn out wasn't high but that's to be expected since a) it was the first night and b) it's just that part of town. The place looks nice inside though. I used to go there way back when I was underage and they had a Thursday night jam. Now I'm one of the old guys I used to make fun of. Kinda funny.

Saturday I got to take Blind Date to get mastered. Always fun to go to Mark's...and I end up learning a bunch of stuff again (recording techniques, things to watch for, etc.) For the first round of mastering, eveything went well even though there's a few tweaks to do next Tuesday. But, it's basically done. I even printed out a mock cover and that didn't turn out so bad either.

Thanks to IndiePool; the Landing Strip cover turned out nice; I got that last week. I might do The Spy Is The Limit next. That's my favourite cover so far.

Then back at the Canusa on Friday. That was unexpected. When I asked about playing this coming weeked, the response was, "Oh yeah, we forgot tell you". I'll take another gig. I honestly thought last week we'd be done til the Fall. I have my Summer pretty much planned already.

One more thanks to RadioIndy because:
"We want to let you know that we've awarded you a GrIndie Award for your excellent CD "Drives It Home". We published an announcement of this award on your RadioIndy artist page, on your CDBaby CD page, and it will soon be sent via email to our listeners of your genre. We are thrilled to help you promote your excellent CD.
Sincerely,
Manny and Greg
Co-founders, RadioIndy.com

Nice.