Ginger Baker, Unhinged

Ginger Baker is one of the UK's most famous drummer.  As the timekeeper behind Eric Clapton and Jack Bruce in Cream, his place in rock'n'roll history has been assured for some time.  Problem is that he's not a very nice man.

There's a new documentary called Beware of Mr. Baker which highlights his predilection for nastiness. Before a screening of the film, there was a live Q&A with a writer from The Guardian. It went...poorly. [VIDEO]

It was all downhill from the introduction. Our video omits most of the times Baker dismissed my questions, or raised his eyebrows in disgust. It omits the one-word answers, by and large. It omits his more withering reponses to questions from the audience. It leaves out the 15-second pause where I simply sat in silence, wishing the earth would swallow me whole. It leaves out Baker deciding he's had enough with the words "I want to go home now." You may able to note the one point where I have just about had enough, and my voice tightens and quickens while I ask another "silly question". It doesn't sound much on the video, but it was an effort of will to get a question out instead of telling him what I thought of his rudeness.

I've had plenty of interviews where things went all pear-shaped from the very beginning. Fortunately, I've never had the pleasure of talking to Mr. Baker.  I think I'll steer clear, too.  Read the whole story here.

Did I mention that Baker physically attacked the man who was making the documentary?

Nokia Music Launches in Canada

There was an event ahead of The Killers show at the ACC in Toronto last night held by Nokia, announcing the arrival of their new streaming music service to Canada.

Nokia Music is a free (and ad-free) streaming music service featuring a library of 18 million (and growing songs) available through their Windows Phone handsets.  I've had a chance to play with a Lumia 920 and I gotta say that I like it.

First, don't pooh-pooh the Windows mobile OS.  It's actually quite good and very intuitive.  The home screen is easy to customize and it's cool watching all the tiles update themselves in real time.  When I went back to my iPhone 5, I was stunned to see how old and tired iOS seemed in comparison.

Going one level deeper into the menu is the Nokia Store, which is where you go for your music, apps and games.  You can also easily pin the Store to your home screen for faster access.  (Here's a look at the desktop version.)

Accessing music is free and simple with no sign-up or subscription fees required.  And there are no ads, either.  All access is included for anyone who has a Lumia phone.  Pretty sweet, really.

Once inside, you can assemble your own playlists or access human-curated streams called Mix Radio There's also a way to have Nokia Music analyze the music in your library so it returns a custom music discovery-type stream. So if, for example, it determines that your library is 77% rock, 13% hip hop and 10% country, those same percentages will be reflected in the music it chooses for you.  Interesting.

Songs from your streams are resident on your device (good for those long plane rides) but you can also purchase songs for permanent access.  Prices are right in line with what we've come to expect from iTunes.

Where it gets more interesting is in the ancillary services.  There's a gig finder function that lets you know where and when artists on your playlists are performing nearby (complete with a map app, too.) There's a lyric function that displays the words of a song as its playing.  Basic access to these services is free, but you can always upgrade for $3.99 a month for the full monty.

It's all rather interesting. There's a bit of learning curve with the OS, but that's normal.  It's certainly worth a look if you need a new phone and you want a different way to access music.  

Have a look at Nokia Music through the Windows Phone store.

Everything is Connected 16 May 2013

By Brent Chittenden

As followers of this column may know, I'm a bit of a nerd. I'm a music nerd, a comic book nerd, a sc-fi nerd and one of my all time disappointments in a tv show was that of Star Trek: Enterprise. It had a cast I liked but just seemed to kind of trudge through tried and true Star Trek themes we had seen millions of times before. But one of the things that always caught my attention was it's theme song.

Where My Heart Will Take Me was the first Star Trek theme to feature lyrics mainly because it was also the first theme not specifically written for Star Trek. but it sounded a little... familiar...

Click to read more ...

Tweet Analyzer Claims That Justin Bieber and Lady Gaga Are Sexist (And Don't Even Ask About Slipknot)

I've occasionally been criticized for posting what's perceived to be sexist material. (Be careful whenever using the term "rock chick," even in the most positive way, including reference to those who self-describe themselves as such.  Trust me.) 

Perhaps this is a way to innoculate ourselves against perceived sexism.  A new site claims to tell Twitter users if they tweets are sexist.  

Twee-Q (Twitter Equality Quotient) was developed in Sweden by an equal opportunities group called Crossing Boarders in association wtih Joan Smith, the UK author of a book called The Public Woman, which deals with gender roles and inequality.

By entering in your Twitter name, the site will look back at your last 100 tweets and render an opinion on your level of sexism.  A perfect score is 10.

Entering @alancross returned a Twee-Q score of 1.6, which is horrendous.  But what, exactly, does that mean?  

The score is based on the source of the tweets that I've retweeted.  Of the recent retweets analyzed, 87% (47 out of 52), were tweets by men.  In other words, Twee-Q insists that I'm only interested in propogating male opinions.  This makes me sexist, apparently.

Let's plug in some other folks, shall we?

Amanda Palmer:  8

Lady Gaga:  7.6

Justin Bieber:  4.6

Pitchfork:  4.8

Slash:  2.6

Rolling Stone magazine:  0.4

Slipknot:  0

Just Broke Up? Then You Need a Sad Song

The headline in the Mail Online is "Take a Sad Song and Make it Better."  Apparently listening to downbeat music will help you get over the ex.

Breaking up may be hard to do, but it could be easier if you listen to sad music or watch a tear-jerking film, according to new research.

The study contradicts popular opinion that upbeat music and humorous movies can help people get over a relationship break-up.

It says that people experiencing relationship problems are more likely to prefer experiences that reflect their negative mood.

Continue reading.  On a related not, the study also says that when we're frustrated, we like angry music. Duh.