boredop's recent activity
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Comment on Trump steps up attacks on progressive congresswomen, says they 'hate our country' and Israel in ~news
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Comment on Man arrested in murder of American biologist in Greece as grisly new details emerge in ~news
boredop (edited ) Link My fiance is a biologist and was attending the same conference as the victim, Dr. Suzanne Eaton. I have been following the story since they realized she was missing and each new revelation about...My fiance is a biologist and was attending the same conference as the victim, Dr. Suzanne Eaton. I have been following the story since they realized she was missing and each new revelation about Dr. Eaton's fate has been more disturbing than the last. They initially thought she might have been overcome by the heat or slipped and fell when she went out for a run, and was waiting in a shady spot for someone to come find her. Unfortunately the real story was far worse. This all hits a little too close to home.
(thank you @alyaza for adding proper tags)
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7 votes
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Comment on Why Stars Won’t Come to the Knicks in ~sports
boredop Link I'm not a huge basketball fan, but to the extent that I am I root for the Knicks. Or at least I would like to, but the team's owner James Dolan has really made it difficult for the last 20 years....I'm not a huge basketball fan, but to the extent that I am I root for the Knicks. Or at least I would like to, but the team's owner James Dolan has really made it difficult for the last 20 years. He is one of the most hateable people in New York, and that's really saying something. Also, his music sucks.
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8 votes
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Comment on What have you been listening to this week? in ~music
boredop Link Alice Clark - self-titled - this was a reissue of a super-rare soul jazz album for Record Store Day a couple of months ago. (I have a promo CD copy.)Alice Clark - self-titled - this was a reissue of a super-rare soul jazz album for Record Store Day a couple of months ago. (I have a promo CD copy.)
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Comment on What have you been listening to this week? in ~music
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4 votes
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Comment on Here Are Hundreds More Artists Whose Tapes Were Destroyed in the UMG Fire in ~music
boredop (edited ) Link Following up on this story from a couple of weeks back: NY Times writer Jody Rosen provides a new list of 700 artists whose master tapes are believed to have been destroyed in the Universal vault...Following up on this story from a couple of weeks back: NY Times writer Jody Rosen provides a new list of 700 artists whose master tapes are believed to have been destroyed in the Universal vault fire. This is certainly not a complete list. For example, the article mentions that the masters of the blues label Excello Records were destroyed in the fire, which means that the original master tapes of more obscure unlisted artists like Lightnin' Slim, Lazy Lester and Carol Fran are probably gone for good, along with at least one classic funk album from Maceo Parker. There must be countless other examples like that.
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9 votes
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Comment on What is a scam that people should know about? in ~life
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Comment on What is a scam that people should know about? in ~life
boredop (edited ) Link Here in New York we have something called ESCO scams. (I'm not sure if this is specific to NY or if it happens in other states too.) It involves an energy reseller trying to get you to buy your...Here in New York we have something called ESCO scams. (I'm not sure if this is specific to NY or if it happens in other states too.) It involves an energy reseller trying to get you to buy your electricity from them instead of Con Edison or whatever the local utility is. Often the person selling this will try to make it seem like they are affiliated with Con Ed in some way. They'll ask to look at your utility bill and claim they can lower your electricity bill. Spoiler: they don't. More info:
Operating on a multilevel-marketing business model that makes accountability difficult, Ambit has been accused by some customers of a kind of bait-and-switch attack that lured clients with low rates, then raised them up to fourfold. The Voice spoke with former employees who worried that the company was duping its customers; we attended a company conference where a speaker openly mocked Ambit’s own clients ...
Created during a nationwide deregulation frenzy in the late 1990s, ESCOs were supposed to bring the “magic” of the free market to the utility industry, lowering costs through competition. But it has become increasingly clear in recent years that, even aside from their predatory marketing practices, they weren’t accomplishing even that goal; ESCOs on average in fact charge more than traditional utilities. As part of a lawsuit involving ESCOs last year, it was revealed that New Yorkers who used an ESCO paid $820 million more over a thirty-month period than they would have with their local ConEd or equivalent.
I can also think of a few street-level hustles that tourists need to be wary of here.
- The broken glasses scam: Someone will physically bump into you and claim you broke his glasses. (Or, a bottle of booze.) He'll demand you reimburse him for the broken whatever, and will follow and harass you until you pay him. Tell him to fuck off or you'll call the cops.
- The "check out my CD" scam: Dudes on the street will try to get you to take a CD of their rap music. If you stop to talk to them they'll ask you what your name is so they can sign the CD for you. You agree to take the CD, and only then do they demand that you give them money for it. People don't like saying no (especially after they sign the CD) so they pay up. But the disc is always either blank, or it's just some random album the scammer downloaded from the internet. Also note, they'll try to get you to stop and talk to them by accusing you of being racist. "You must be scared of black people!" It's bullshit, they're just looking to see if you're going to try to convince them you're not. Guess what: if you do that, they know you're a sucker. (I have seen this scam in New York and New Orleans, so I assume it's common in cities with heavy tourist foot traffic.)
- The Statue of Liberty scam: This one is in lower Manhattan, in and around Battery Park. If anyone approaches you and says they can sell you tickets to go to the Statue Of Libery, it's a scam! They're actually selling more expensive tickets to boats that pass by the statue but don't actually stop at Liberty Island. If you want to actually go to the island and go inside the statue, just buy the ticket online. On a related note, if anyone tries to tell you there's a charge to enter Battery Park, tell them to fuck off. Also, if anyone tries to sell you tickets for the Staten Island Ferry, tell them to fuck off. The Staten Island Ferry is free.
- Anyone asking for money on the subway on behalf of any organization is scamming you. If they're collecting money for the homeless, it's a scam. If it's a kid selling candy or asking for donations for their school's basketball team, it's bullshit. It's illegal to solicit money on the subway.
(By the way, there's a really interesting book about these and other scams called The Con Men: Hustling In New York City.)
And here's one I have only seen in New Orleans:
- Random guy on the street will say, "hey, I'll bet you I can tell you where you got those shoes." If a sucker stops and takes the bet, the guy will say "You got 'em on your feet. You owe me five dollars." If you try to walk away they'll try to intimidate you into paying up. I was told about this one on the first day I moved to New Orleans more than 20 years ago, and amazingly they're still doing it.
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Comment on Sources: Rays to explore playing in Montreal in ~sports
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Comment on Kevin Devine - No Time Flat in ~music
boredop (edited ) Link Cool to see this here. A couple of old college friends of mine played on this. They were a big part of a cool scene of alt rock bands in our little corner of upstate New York in the mid-'90s. The...Cool to see this here. A couple of old college friends of mine played on this. They were a big part of a cool scene of alt rock bands in our little corner of upstate New York in the mid-'90s. The bassist, Chris Bracco, was in a band called Wookiee, which sounded to me a bit like Smashing Pumpkins. The drummer, Mike Skinner, was freakin' fantastic. We auditioned for the school's jazz ensemble together. He also played in a bunch of rock bands on campus, but he eventually left school to start a project with his brother called Sidedoor Johnnies. When that happened I replaced him on drums in one of his other projects, Tokyo Sexwhale.
Eventually Mike connected with Kevin Devine in Miracle of '86, and played on and produced a lot of Devine's solo stuff. Unfortunately Mike died a few years ago. I never did find out exactly what happened to him.
Anyway, hearing this brings back some good memories in a roundabout way, so thanks very much for posting it.
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Comment on Spotify begins testing curated podcast playlists in ~tech
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Comment on The Day the Music Burned - The 2008 Universal fire was the biggest disaster in the history of the music business — and almost nobody knew in ~music
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Comment on The Day the Music Burned - The 2008 Universal fire was the biggest disaster in the history of the music business — and almost nobody knew in ~music
boredop Link Parent And also bootleggers / pirates. In many cases it's because of them that alternate takes and unreleased songs will survive in some form. One organization I support enthusiastically is the Archive...Goddamn, you weren't kidding about the scale of this disaster. And it certainly puts the efforts of enthusiast librarians/archivists (e.g. like those over at /r/datahoarder) in perspective, since these big music publishers clearly can't be entirely trusted to safeguard our cultural heritage, doesn't it? :(
And also bootleggers / pirates. In many cases it's because of them that alternate takes and unreleased songs will survive in some form.
One organization I support enthusiastically is the Archive of Contemporary Music in NYC. They are doing a lot of great preservation work. In recent years they have partnered with archive.org on mass digitization projects like The Great 78 Project.
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Comment on The Day the Music Burned - The 2008 Universal fire was the biggest disaster in the history of the music business — and almost nobody knew in ~music
boredop (edited ) Link For anyone who loves music this loss is horrifying. A huge cultural and historical disaster. The musical equivalent of the Brazil museum fire or Notre Dame burning. How something like this can...For anyone who loves music this loss is horrifying. A huge cultural and historical disaster. The musical equivalent of the Brazil museum fire or Notre Dame burning. How something like this can happen in the 21st century when we have the knowledge and technology to prevent it ... But people never fucking learn.
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6 votes
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Comment on Transgender hurdler CeCe Telfer easily wins national championship by more than 0.5 seconds. in ~sports
Remember that time she tried to go off the record so she could anonymously trash her husband in an article about their relationship?
https://mashable.com/article/kellyanne-conway-off-the-record-washington-post/