Man. It's all about me today, I'm afraid. Two awesome nights, and a chance to catch up, finally!

Let's do this anti-retro-circum-chronologically. Last night: Balkanology. Wicked idea, to catch the upper niche by throwing the whackest party this side of Novi Sad. Everything was weird.

Thursday night: Coffee Bean. Got off the stage, stood in the middle of everyone and did my show there. Much better. Did a recently revamped A Man Appeared and Burn, and it was something totally different to the usual singalong copycat stuff. Fresh, even to me, and I got the idea that it was, once again, the beginning of something new. Awesome feeling actually doing what you mean to do.

So with this new passion, I tackle the small, open mike gigs. Looking forward to it.

The news of the century (and possibly a happy tipping point for digital rights-managed music producers) is that iTunes has buckled under market pressure by reducing copyright-free tracks to below a dollar. Yaaay!

More important than the 30c per track that buyers will now save is letting the popularity of the music speak for itself, rather than being regurgitated and forcefed to an ignorant, hungry audience. Pigeons, I tell you.

It's about time that a price war put the strings back on the guitar of the consumer. Hey, even if we don't buy that many mp3s online down here in Cape Town, we are feeling the sting of being burdened with an industry that is disproportionately scarce in supporting upcoming creatives.

But boo-&$*#ing-hoo. Let the games begin!

Today's links:
iTunes - AmazonMP3



Today's cooing:

Three-hour meeting with the Key Watermelon last night regarding the future of the SA Music industry. Let's just say, as before, that wheels are turning. Also ran into Toby2Shoes at this new place in Stocks called Jamaican Me Crazy (and found out that his brother plays flute in Freshlyground). New live music venue?

Holding thumbs for a pair of passes to Balkanology -- got in touch with Ma'or and stuck up some press. Hey, this pigeon stopped paying for parties a while ago.