Posts by Stuart Coats
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I've never been to an actual race, although like everyone else here it seems I used to quite like watching them on the telly.
I've always wanted to know - at the track is there a "ground announcer" who tells you things like "Radisich has just crashed" or "Murphy has entererd the pits" if you're somewhere where you can't see it happen? -
I do wish I could get some of the music/copyright people into these discussions.
I used to manage a small record company so maybe I can help, although I make no claim to this being a definitive answer!
As has been pointed out previously the record company holds the copyright in the recording, not the work itself. I used to work for a classical label, which makes the differentiation easier to follow. If we record a work by Mozart this does not give us the copyright to that work. All it does is give us the copyright to that recording of the Mozart.
In the case of new works, we would negotiate with the copyright holder of the work, which in most cases is the composer. We would then negotitate a fee for the use of that work in the recording. This fee can be a straight one-off payment, or it can be a percentage of royalties from the sale of the recording. Under this scenario the record company cannot stop the composer performing the work under copyright grounds, or even allowing the work to be recorded by another company. However, in most recording contracts there will be a clause to stop a multitude of recordings happening. In the "pop" world this will take the form of an artist being signed to a record label - the label then has the right to all of artists recordings made during the term of the contract. This is why you often see compilations made of artists work without their agreement (the latest Radiohead compilation is an attempt by EMI to cash in on their copyrights and it's out there even though Radiohead don't want it to be, and there are lots more examples of this.)
The obvious thing to state here is that record labels hate illegal dowloads of recordings because recordings are their income stream. Artists are often a little less concerned because often their income from recordings can only be a small part of their income (playing live is a much quicker way to make money) and the more people have heard your music the more likely they are to come to your gigs. One notable classical music composer in New Zealand sees recording solely as a promotional tool. -
And you can't really begrudge the Rays can you?
Yeah I can, because they changed their name from the Devil Rays to try and change their team's luck and it worked. I'm surprised that some fundamentalist hasn't mentioned this.
Wait, did they do the name change this season or last? -
I've been re-thinking my stance.....
I once had an argument with Telecom. In the course of this argument, which went over many days through many different customer "service" represnetatives, I lost my temper and started shouting. Loudly. With attached swearing. I got to speak to a manager only after I made the woman at the other end of the phone cry. She cried and put me through to her boss who both fixed my problem and gave me a great deal on my pricing plan.
So I felt like a heel, but not enough to not take the cheap plan! I thought that things shouldn't be like that: I shouldn't have to make someone cry to get things done in this world, that being nice shouldn't get me nowhere.
So with that in mind, maybe I should just pony up with the tickets. -
What you should do is find out who that guy was, and get your publicity people to offer him two free tickets if he wants to come down - show him that being nice isn't without its benefits, and sometimes they're actually tangible.
Hmmm, rewards for being nice. I would rather people were nice for the sake of it, rather than for a reward that may or may not come.
This is a philosophical point, not an pathetic attempt to be cheap!
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What an excellent idea! I'd like to take the opportunity to apologise to the guy at Shell Taupo who served me yesterday. I am driving a New Zealand Opera branded car at the moment (four our production of Jenufa, which starts in Wellington next week and you should all try and see) and he asked me how it was going, about the opera, about the company. To be honest I was tired from the drive south, daunted by the drive south to go and surprised at his genuine interest. While I wasn't rude, I don't think I answered his enquiries as thoroughly as I would like or owuld normally do. So thanks for your interest, and I hope you do make it down here to see the show.
On a poorer note, I was at Wellington airport this morning and they had a fire drill. It was one of the most poorly organised events I have ever seen. And, after we all milled about looking like lost sheep, no announcement was ever done to say that the drill was over, that life could now return to normal. It's a good thing there wasn't actually a fire.....
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Just saw that your Mets lost, meaning that for the second straight year they won't make the playoffs after seeming shoo-ins.
But don't feel bad - my Yankees were out of it weeks ago depite having the biggest payroll in the sport. You'd think with all of that money they'd buy some pitching help for Rivera, but alas no.
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I think that is pretty much a guaranteed saving of $3.8 per week.
I've already saved myslef the $3.80, so can anyone tell if Hitler was indeed on P? Because it's going to affect my daily life.
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Newstopia explains the US electoral system:
Thanks you so much for brightening my day with that clip. I am still laughing, not just at the US election explanation but the Steve Fosset joke that follows.
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And then change it back again when we lose it.
Maybe that's the answer for all cities - when you win the shield you get to make it your logo. It would be cheaper that way.