A great loss

I love the Bernie Mac show. My favorite thing about it is Mac's ability to confront difficult life situations in a way that is both sensitive and hilarious. All of us experience frustration and struggle as we deal with the challenges that confront us, but few of us are able to maintain a sense of humor and humility as we face these challenges. Mac portrayed a man whose successful, glamorous and care-free life was suddenly interrupted by the challenge of raising three children who had been dispossessed by their drug-addicted mother. He portrayed a man who, rather than bemoan his change in circumstances, embraced the change, with all its new challenges and its new joys. He found happiness in serving others, in raising children, even though this was not a duty that had come to him completely voluntarily. In that, he presented a great role model for us all. Plus, he was hilarious. 50 years are far too few for a person of his talents, and we've lost a great contributor to our popular culture.

Pixies on eMusic!

Just a brief, but exciting note. I've been a member of eMusic for about a year now, and have really liked the idea of paying a cheap, flat rate per month for a large number of mp3's. You end up paying much less than you would on iTunes (I currently get 100 mp3's a month for about 25 bucks... you can do the math), plus the site specializes in independent labels and provides you with multiple ways to discover new music. I've discovered a lot of great stuff through the site. Oh, and the mp3's are higher resolution than on iTunes, and contain no DRM, so you can share them with your friends, use them for sampling in your own compositions, etc.

The rub with eMusic has always been its lack of major or indie-major label music, so, oftentimes, when I've heard about something new and great, the site will lack it. They've really stepped it up lately though, and began to offer more big-indie stuff. And today I made the ultimate discovery: the entire Pixies catalogue, including B-Sides and live records! I used nearly all of this month's downloads to buy digital copies of these seminal albums (except for Surfer Rosa, my personal favorite, which I had purchased from iTunes some time ago). These were the kinds of CD's that, in my youth, I would be so exuberant over that I would take them everywhere I went and would often let friends borrow them ("It'll change your life, man!"). And, inevitably, almost all of them became lost or scratched to the point of non-playability. I am so happy to be listening to "Letter to Memphis" right now (from Trompe Le Monde). I had almost forgotten how great these songs are.