Back in 2009, I wrote a post called “Honor Art” , that began my online project –  it talks about filesharing and its’ effects on indie musicians, among other things.

Those of you who follow me with any regularity know that I give some of my music away often. I do it voluntarily, and am truly happy when those tracks get shared by others.

Well, there’s  a GREAT interview with Don Henley at Penn State’s “Collegian” , where he talks about filesharing, among other things – and I thought he was so eloquent about it.

“A whole new ethical — or rather unethical — paradigm has emerged in which the illegal downloading of music is looked upon, primarily by those who do it, as a kind of Robin Hood activity.

This is due, to some degree, to the fact that the only face of the music industry that most people ever see, is manifested by wealthy rock, pop, rap and hip-hop stars, flaunting their lifestyles. But behind all that ostentation and glitziness is an entire chain of jobs numbering in the thousands.

We employ 100 people in our touring crew, not counting the local crews that augment ours in every city. There are hundreds of music-related office jobs at record companies, publishing companies, accounting firms and legal firms. Read more

Update to the below: this post was written on 5/19/2010… today, in 2017 – I have been smoke-free for nearly 7 years.

Couldn’t be happier.  🙂

_______________________________________

On 5/19,  I quit smoking.

This might sound like a small deal.  It’s NOT.

I’ve been smoking since I was 13 or so.  For the vast majority of time, a pack a day.

My new alternative?

E-cigarettes.

E-cigs are essentially nicotine delivery devices – with one really important difference – you don’t BURN anything. So you’re not breathing in smoke at all. It’s vapor. They come in a billion different flavors and strengths.

But most importantly – they helped me kick smoking after nearly 35 years. Pretty damned cool.

Ignore the date on this video – I added it after the fact, and totally got it wrong.

You can find out more about e-cigs than you ever thought possible here.

What you’ll need:

1. a starter kit, which comes with the items I show in the video

2. Cartomizers (the tip with the liquid in it.) I’m a fan of the Wowboy carts, but you should experiment and find one you like. There are about 8 BILLION flavors.

3. Someone to give your ashtrays to – you won’t need them anymore.