CD Release Party at MarCon!

I'll probably mention this tomorrow as well, just because of Friends List Churn, but my schedule at MarCon in Columbus, OH this weekend is:

• Friday 9:00 pm -- Release Party for The Last Hero On Earth
• Saturday 1:00 pm -- Concert
• Saturday 8:30 pm -- Cynthia McQuillin Tribute
• Saturday 10:00 pm -- Open Filk

We'll have posters in the appropriate areas once we have the room number for the party.

Great Big Sea, Indie Music, And You

It occurs to me that I've never linked up to the remarkable group Great Big Sea. If you checked out the thread below, you heard their song "Ordinary Day". They have a lot of great songs, not to mention doing one of the better covers of R.E.M.'s "It's The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)".

( Matter of fact.... )

Jeffrey Skilling and Ken Lay GUILTY

At last.

ConCarolinas -- POSSIBLE, Not Confirmed

I've been contacted by ConCarolinas... about next weekend. Dunno yet what's gonna happen, but, if you're out that way, it looks like a decent con in any case. They've already got Spider & Jeanne Robinson, Tony Amendola, and the Boogie Knights. As soon as I know something, I'll pass it on here.

Insultingly Stupid Movie Physics

janet_coburn aimed me to this site, which is for everyone who ever rolled their eyes and called No way at something in a movie that simply should not have happened.

Home CD Tech

An update on what's working, and not, for me with burning CD-Rs:

• I like the overall sound of Memorex media best, but they have a higher error rate for burning. Not the finished product -- I've only had to replace a half-dozen or so out of hundreds. I'm trying Imation, which is way better than it was a few years ago, and have only had one burn error so far... but it crashed my machine.
• Memorex CD labels are superb. Period. I ran out, and I had a package of Fellowes/Neato, and they look good, but even though the package says "matte" the paper is so slick that I have to manually load in each page... and the labels curl too readily, which makes applying them a little tricky.
• The CD Stomper is the best hand tool for applying labels. Period.
• Sure Thing software (current version 4.3.0196) is phenomenal. It's got a small learning curve, but once you suss it it's fast, flexible, and powerful. And, if you don't have a head for layouts, it gives you scads of 'em, some of which come in coordinated packages (so you can match, for instance, the CD label, the jewel case insert, and the tray insert).
• Lightscribe disks look great... but they take about a half-hour to burn with sufficient contrast. If I have lots of lead time, fine. If my computer's not doing anything else, fine. If it's a one-off, fine. But I'm not going to be able to use them for convention stock until they speed the process up a lot.

What are you all working with, especially you musicians creating merchandise?