TLC has redesigned their logo, website, and branding. Looking pretty sharp. I guess that answers this question. ~

Everything you ever wanted to know about cracking your neck. For about two months I’ve been telling anyone who will listen that I need someone to pop my neck. Maybe not? (via Sport Center Austin) ~

Beatles for sale

When I was a kid I dearly loved the Beatles. Though I had missed their heyday by almost thirty years, and even their existence as a performing group by another five, I still placed them extremely highly on my list. As a unit they wrote and performed some of the best songs of any genre ever written, and managed to keep a sense of humor and humility while being the most famous people on the planet.
Any reading of the career of the Beatles is fraught with the peril of seeing the mask slip, however. There’s a story lurking underneath of bad financial dealings, greed, avarice and back stabbing to rival any other in rock. It’s saddest when it’s the Beatles though, because as a lover of music and a musician you want to believe.
In the late 1960’s the Beatles started Apple Corps, Ltd. for the same reason many bands start their own labels: they realize they either have been or will be swindled by their recording contracts with major labels and want not to be. It’s a noble enough goal, and in this case brought us many minor greats like Badfinger and James Taylor who might have gone unnoticed were it not for a watchful George Harrison and Apple Corps. Long after the disolution of the Beatles as a performing band, and the tragic loss of Lennon, Apple Corps continued on mostly as a royalties collecting limb of a now deceased enterprise. The eighties saw Apple Corps limping along essentially in receivership to its creditors, leveling hairbrained lawsuits at anyone with the misfortune of having a publically listed mailing address.
The eighties also saw the meteoric rise of one Apple Computer, the proverbial “rag tag” company on a mission to take mainframe technology to the masses. Upon the success of its initial offerings the company set out to create what would be called the “Macintosh”, and in the process it attracted the ire of Apple Corp who sued repeatedly in protection of their trademarked name. In fact if you look in the “Sounds” Control panel of any pre-OS X Mac you’ll find a system sound called “Sosumi” directed at Apple Corps; literally, “So, sue me.” Cute.
The lawsuits were settled out of court, with Apple paying a chunk of cash to Apple Corps and promising to never distribute music products, something no one dreamed a computer company would ever do anyway. Ahem.

Wait for it.

The launch of the iTunes Music Store in 2003 opened the floodgates at Apple Corps, and found them suing yet again. Now opening arguments are underway, and the end is not so easily seen as before. Apple Corps alleges all sorts of awful wrongdoings, including trademark infringement and trading on the Apple Corps logo. It looks as though one of the remedies they seek is that the Apple Computer logo be removed from iTMS in any and all forms. Because, you know, it’s so easy to confuse the two. And honestly I guess I could see some merit in this if Apple Corps had sold a single music product in something under a decade. But as they have not, and act purely as a fixed address from which Paul and Yoko may retrieve royalty checks I’m ready to call all this a load of shit. Paul’s already made the move onto my fecal roster after selling the rights to part of the Beatles catalog to Michael Jackson, then bitching about “Revolution” winding up on a Nike ad. It also took him about five minutes to remarry after poor Linda croaked. And don’t get me started on Yoko.

Dude, I mean it.

So Apple may again pay out of court just so that they can continue being a company that actually makes stuff for money, instead of waiting for people to land on Boardwalk and demanding the rent like Apple Corp. But this is one of the final nails in the coffin for me as far as my own Beatlemania in concerned. And looking back I should have known better. I mean, this is the band that tried to write a hardluck blues song about entering a higher tax bracket. ~