Monster Island (actually a peninsula)*

Pearls of witticism from 'Bo the Blogger: Kushibo's Korea blog... Kushibo-e Kibun... Now with Less kimchi, more nunchi. Random thoughts and commentary (and indiscernibly opaque humor) about selected social, political, economic, and health-related issues of the day affecting "foreans," Koreans, Korea and East Asia, along with the US, especially Hawaii, Orange County and the rest of California, plus anything else that is deemed worthy of discussion. Forza Corea!

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Beatles come to iTunes

Kushibo is too lazy to download pirated music. That's why I like iTunes, a service which underscores a fundamental aspect of music piracy: At some point you're taking on more than 99¢ worth of work and/or headache just to avoid paying 99¢ for a legal download. Just pay the folks who made the music and enjoy a guilt-free listen.

Anyway, as someone who fondly remembers a childhood of listening to his parents' old audio tapes on road trip after road trip in the family station wagon, I've always wanted to add a few Beatles hits to my iTunes-purchased collection of Johnny Cash. And now I can, finally.

I've been growing my facial hair for Movember,
and I'm starting to look like John Lennon, circa 1969.

It has indeed been a long and winding road:

Tuesday's announcement brought mixed reaction from Beatles fans, spanning cheers from those happy to finally to have a way to legally download their music to jeers from others who long ago ripped and burned their favorite songs off CDs or from unauthorized websites.

"Almost anyone who has wanted to download Beatles songs has already done it via P2P torrents, and they can get them free," reader FGaron posted to The Times' Pop & Hiss music blog. "iTunes and Apple Corps missed the revenue stream a long time ago. The songs have been available on numerous torrent sites for years."

What kept the Beatles' catalog off iTunes for so long was a complicated web of legal entanglements. As long ago as 1978 — long before digital downloading was a reality — Apple Corps, the company the Beatles set up to release its own music, sued Jobs' Apple Computer over its use of the Apple name.

Shortly after the 2007 resolution of that long-standing dispute, a settlement put to rest another lawsuit between Apple Corps and EMI Records over royalty payments that Apple said was owed by EMI.

The Beatles and Steve Jobs seem like shrewd businesspeople, but the holdup always struck me as throwing away a bunch of money in order to gain a little.

Anyway, I like what Ringo Starr had to say about the whole thing: "I am particularly glad to no longer be asked when the Beatles are coming to iTunes."

1 comment:

Walter ForemanWednesday, November 17, 2010 8:39:00 PM
If you're in Korea, try Bugs Music (www.bugs.co.kr). They offer 150 songs for 10,000 won!! Also, they offer FLAC and WAV downloads and MP3 files up to 320 kbps. The selection is not quite as good as iTunes, but it's still pretty good!
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My Google/Blogspot data shows that a lot of the 2 million people who have landed on my site (yes, that's the real number) are looking for cultural information on Korea (e.g., “When did Syngman Rhee die?” “What did the Indians bring to the first Chusŏk?’ etc., etc.), as well as practical or historical stuff.

That got me thinking that, hey, I have a master’s degree in Korean studies and a minor in Japanese studies, I’ve lived in Seoul far longer than most foreans my age (whether they're kyopo or non-kyopo), I teach introductory courses on Korea and its cultural trappings and history, so why not offer a free service where I attempt to answer people’s questions, point them in the direction of where they can get them answered, and/or offer my regulars (that’s you!) a chance to take a stab at some of this stuff, too.

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九十五大怪獣란? 쿠시보의 몬스터 아일랜드란?

Pearls of witticism from 'Bo the Blogger: Kushibo's Korea blog... Kushibo-e Kibun...
Now with Less kimchi, more nunchi. Random thoughts and commentary (and indiscernibly opaque humor) about selected social, political, economic, and health-related issues of the day affecting "foreans" ("foreigners" in Korea be they kyopo or non-kyopo), Koreans, Korea and East Asia, along with the US, especially Hawaii, Orange County, and the rest of California, plus anything else that is deemed worthy of discussion. Forza Corea!

* Monster Island (actually a peninsula)

The name of this blog comes from a line in "Lisa on Ice," a beloved episode of The Simpsons, perhaps my all-time favorite television show (even though for several seasons there, it really did suck). Lisa is imagining being sworn in as president, but at the last minute, it is discovered that she failed P.E. (physical education) and she is thus "sentenced to a lifetime of horror" on Monster Island. "Don't worry," the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court confides in her, "It's just a name."

Fast forward to Lisa and other prisoners running in panic through a tropical jungle, chased by Godzilla-like creatures, including a monster turtle and a monster firefly.

"He said it was just a name!" Lisa screams to the man next to her. While he, too, runs for his life, the unidentified man calmly says, "What he meant is that Monster Island is actually a peninsula."

Anyway, I thought in some ways that punchline summed up modern-day Korea in a nutshell. For many people—foreigners and Koreans—the ups and downs and everyday travails of the Republic of Korea make it as precarious as a Monster Island would be (and with the DMZ being the only land border, it really is like an island). But it actually is a peninsula. Okay, it made sense in my head.

So as you can see, despite the hits I get from people looking for Japanese tentacle porn, it has nothing to do with anything salacious as that.