I’ll have you know that she’s:

* Blood Type: A
* Height: 160cm
* Bust: 82cm
* Waist: 58cm
* Hips: 84cm
* Shoe Size: 24.5cm

What more do you need to know?

And why can’t you post pics like this:

http://img360.imageshack.us/img360/614/chinatsuwakatsuki9it2.jpg

First let me say that I’m happy to read whatever you are interested in writing about. It’s not like I can’t get political blogging elsewhere.

On the subject of velvet ropes, I have to tell you about on of my favorite bands: Marillion. They started out in the late 70s / early 80s and had a top 10 UK hit in 1985 with a song called Kayleigh. They were never able to repeat that success, but they retained a fiercely loyal core fan base in Europe and the US. Over the years, their CD sales dwindled, their singer quit, and they couldn’t afford to tour North America. Nevertheless, Marillion carried on, making artistically brilliant albums and pleasing their fans.

Around 1999/2000 Marillion realized they could use the internet to market themselves and get closer to their fans in new and innovative ways. They no longer had a traditional record deal, but they needed cash to record their next album. So, Marillion sent out an email to all their fans, explaining the situation. They asked, “Would you be willing to order the next album a year in advance, so that we don’t have to make another lousy deal with a label?” Marillion hoped to get a few hundred “Yes” responses. They got 8,000. They ended up selling (if memory serves) 12-15,000 preordered copies of Anoraknophobia. Preorder fans got a special deluxe package and their names printed in the liner notes. Marillion did the same thing with the subsequent album, Marbles. This time, preorder fans got a 2-CD set, among other perks. On their last album, Somewhere Else, Marillion had reached a point where they didn’t have to do the preorder to finance it. Whereas the band were relieved that they didn’t have to burden their fans this time, the fans were disappointed. They asked Marillion to bring back the preorder program for the next album! It’s partly for the perks, but mostly because they love the band and want to support them.

Another thing Marillion does is an annual fan festival. They reserve a campground somewhere in England or Europe and spend a weekend hanging out with their fans. They put on special performances, even let fans that are musicians perform with the band onstage. They sell out every year. A great band with great fans, each learning how to get closer to each other in a changing industry.

Oh, and I got to share a cab with the singer on the way to a Marillion show in Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, England. If you do move to the UK, La Shawn, things like that may be more likely to happen to you.

P.S. Brevity is not necessarily a virtue!
P.P.S. Congratulations on being HOT!

And just think…you didn’t have to pose in your underwear to make it on the list. Thanks from intelligent women everywhere!

I suppose it’s a hazard of listening to music with a smaller audience.

It seems my only hope, if i want to keep my music legal, is in digital downloads from places like Amazon. That way the record companies don’t have the associated costs of manufacturing/warehousing/distribution a physical CD – hopefully making it profitable to sell some of the less popular music again.

All some bloggers do is blockquote from news stories and add a sentence or two in their own words. I prefer to link to stories, with minimal blockquoting, and offer commentary and/or analysis. For what it’s worth, I think it adds more value to the post.

Blog long, and prosper!

I’m right there with you, La Shawn. When I first started blogging, Hugh Hewitt advised me to keep it short and model myself after Betsy’s Page. Can’t do it, except on very rare occasions (like when the child-rapist-murderer John Couey was convicted, all my post said was, “Good.”).

I appreciate the depth your longer posts bring to the topics you cover. And congratulations on your Hotness!

One overlooked reason is quality. It’s ironic to me that in this age of high-definition TV and bigger screens that the audio equivalent is ignored. High-definition audio has been around for decades, but only audiophiles seem to understand that there is a difference, and that you CAN hear it. Nothing you can legally download today approaches the resolution of a physical CD, and even that is a compromise compared to vinyl, or SACD and DVD-A. (Sadly, both formats are on their deathbeds due to yet another format war. You’d think they’d learn.)

So for me, a CD is a necessity for anything I’m going to seriously listen to, especially since the downloaded versions from iTunes and Amazon cost just as much. As far as I’m concerned, the value simply isn’t there. I can create my own MP3’s from the CD and still have an uncompressed copy for my high-end home system, and get the artwork too.

But there is a way around that also, and I’m looking forward to the day artists start offering lossless-encoded tracks for download directly from their websites – at an appropriately cheaper price. After all, if we lose the middleman, the cost should drop and the artists will still get more.