GRABBINGSAND

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Originally uploaded by grabbingsand.

Happy Birthday, JC the waiter.

On the left, Tony. On the right, Joseph. All around, glee.

(And we finished in 2nd place this evening at trivia. Present were your host, Nikki, Alyssa, Wendy, Matt and the two revellers pictured above.)

I’ve the potential here to make a very cogent post about online music piracy, file sharing and the recording industry. Provided I spend the time to do a bit of research and gather some facts, the end result will be something remarkable. Just you wait.

See, I found this article. It appears that Warner Music (UK) is having such a successful sales run on “Crazy” — the super-sweet track from Gnarls Barkley — that they are simply going to stop shipping the single. That’s right. Business is so amazing that they are going to cut off production at somewhere around a half-million pressings and call it a day. All the better, they say, to build up a head of steam for “Smiley Faces,” the next single from St. Elsewhere.*

Now, what I need to do is reach back through my memory and Google to correlate all of the various cries of “Wolf!” we’ve heard from the music industry. Pirates are everywhere, they say, and they’re killing record sales left and right.

Additionally, I could talk a little bit about how popular “Crazy” has been and remains on the various file sharing networks. Of course, I’ll speak about this in low tones, so as not to alert the authorities. Basically, all you need to know is that anyone who wanted to acquire this single via the Internets, could do so. Easily.

And yet, sales are booming.

Interesting Fact: “Crazy” was the UK’s first number one single based on online sales alone.

In the end, this post would wrap up with a brilliant conclusion about how so many of us have been right all along. File sharing, MP3 blogging, music podcasting. All of these so-called questionable practices serve primarilly to spread word of new music. Sure, some music pirates really do have peglegs and eye-patches (perhaps two of them), and they are attempting to actually make a dishonest doubloon from counterfeit product.

Many folk online are just regular people. They hear something good and want to share it. At the end of the day, they’re doing more A&R work than PR folks that promote music for a living.

But I’m just too tired to make such a sensible post.

* - Other sources are saying that Cee-lo & Dangermouse made the call to halt … but I’m doubting it.

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Originally uploaded by grabbingsand.

Hancock.

Its Not MARTA, Nor Mine Neither
Originally uploaded by grabbingsand.

I’m almost famous. Or famously misrepresented. Take your pick.

Here is how I found out.

I was in Midtown on Tuesday morning. Off-site conference. Around 9am or so, I got a text message from Darcey. I’ve deleted it since — the phone gets preturbed with more than 20 texts in the Inbox — but I think it went something like “You and your blog are in Atlanta Magazine.” Maybe she put “Did you know” before and a question mark after. Either way, my response was “What?”

At the next break, I give her a call. Incredulosity is nigh impossible to express via text. She repeats the news, describing the magazine appearance as some kind of “BlogWatch” feature. They found my MARTA anagram map (posted way back in February) and found it entertaining. “Really … huh.” This whole thing is news to me.

Useless Note: Darcey discovered this while in a doctor’s waiting room. This strikes me as funny, as the only time I’ve ever really cracked open an issue of Atlanta Magazine has been in the waiting room of my eye doctor. No offense intended, Atlanta Mag …

On my way to lunch that afternoon, a co-worker asks me if I’m the same Thomas Strickland she read about in her latest issue of Atlanta Magazine. “Apparently,” I tell her, “I am.” Another co-worker makes the same connection before the day is over.

Today, I got to see it for myself. And I have to say … I’m amused. And I’m annoyed.

I’m amused because I made the map months ago, in the midst of all of the hub-bub about the original anagram map of London’s transit system. London didn’t take kindly to the joke and censored it. In response, anagram maps of other systems worldwide started to sprout along the information highway. I figured that Atlanta was an eventual subject of such an endeavour, so I took it upon myself to put MARTA through the anagrammatical ringer. But I wasn’t quick enough, it seems, as BoingBoing — the site that quickly became the aggregator of all such maps — picked up Zone38’s rendition instead.

So here we are, four months later. And out of nowhere, Atlanta Magazine’s BlogWatch spots me. Neat. But maybe not that neat. You see, nobody from Atlanta Magazine contacted me. That’s a little annoying.

I’m a smart blogger. I blog about my life, my hobbies, my interests, but not about things that would get me arrested, deported or fired. I don’t make a huge effort to hide my identity. I mention myself and my friends by name. You wouldn’t have to be Miss Marple to figure out just who sits behind this curtain. Hell, I’ve been in the AJC in an article about this very weblog. Hello, my name is Thomas.

But really, I’d think that a mention in a relatively high-volume printed publication might merit an email or a phonecall. Even if it was just to say, “Hey, like the map. Printing it.” That would’ve been fine.

Only, the map in the feature is not mine.

Yes, the anagrams are mine and it is still a remix of a MARTA map, but the map was redrawn for use in the feature. Says so right on the bottom of the page. “Illustration by Scott Thigpen.” Now, I understand that they might’ve needed to do a little rework. My PhotoShop-Fu is not the very best in the world and I took a couple of artistic shortcuts. The humor of the exercise was more in the renaming anyway.

And that’s where the annoying part comes in. Take a good look at the map, the one printed on page 44 of the June issue. From the top, you’ll see a renamed North Springs station, then a renamed Sandy Springs station. Now, look to the west. Hey, Sandy Springs (renamed “Snags Dry Pins”) has replaced Bankhead! It’s in the middle too, replacing Garnett. Then at the southern end, the Airport is also Sandy Springs.

Ah, Copy & Paste. How fickle you can be, even to a very talented artist like Mr Thigpen, I suppose.

Useful Note: I love Scott’s work, if indeed this is the same Scott as the one I met some time ago. I can only assume he was hurried along. Happens to the best of us.

I’ll be emailing them tomorrow. Why? Just a matter of principle, I suppose. Mistakes like those are proof of the value of good editing. If nothing else, somebody needs to tell them about it … and it might as well be me.

So hey, if you found me via Atlanta Magazine, welcome. Thanks for stopping by. And if you would, take a look at my original map, the one that hasn’t replaced the World’s Busiest Airport with a suburb.

Update: Just got off the phone with the Editor-In-Chief of Atlanta Magazine. Very pleasant. Very professional. Before I said a thing, she apologized for not getting in touch with me prior to publication. Evidently, a fact-checker was assigned to do so and, well, didn’t. Apology accepted. Like I said, I don’t keep a private weblog and I don’t mind the publicity.

I mentioned that the map in the magazine wasn’t mine. Her explanation made perfect sense. My map was meant only for web-based consumption, so the resolution wasn’t anywhere near the density required of a print publication. Redrawing it was necessary. No problem.

Then I asked if she had a copy of the magazine within reach. It wasn’t long after I started talking her through the pecularities of the printed map that she understood completely my remaining concern. Until then, she hadn’t noticed the errors. She was profusely apologetic, adding that a correction will be printed. The magazine with the correction will be mailed to me.

All in all, a better-than-expected response to a bizarre situation.

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Originally uploaded by grabbingsand.

Bruce and REO at Mellow Mushroom.

BONO: Now, did you become funny to stop being beaten up?

EDDIE (IZZARD): No, I became funny to get girls, actually.

BONO: It’s either one thing or the other, isn’t it?

From yesterday’s Independent, edited by Bono. (via MeFi)

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Originally uploaded by grabbingsand.

The program. Can’t tell actors apart without one.

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Originally uploaded by grabbingsand.

Canvassing.

One of our show posters in a Roswell shop window. I spent my lunch hour walking up and down Canton Street, asking permission to post. Most agreed. Some just took a poster and promised to put it up later.