Huffington Post downloader

About 10m ago I got a virus notification at work on Symantec and then a call from our administrator. I’d gotten the bloodhound.exploit downloader caught by the program. My first thought was what did I accidentally click on to get this, so as for it not to happen again? At the time I was just scanning Huffington Post for news headlines, something I’ve done since in the early days of last year’s campaign. I did a Google search on the downloader name plus Huffington Post and came up with a number of hits indicating that this news site was probably responsible (I had no other windows open). So basically byebye Huffington Post. Kind of the last straw. My other two issues with the site were extremely misleading headlines on a consistent basis, usually to inflate the site’s liberal outlook (something I often share might I add) on something minor (and in several cases often fixed when people complained) and also a heavy emphasis on Hollywood-ish sorts of issues, long blogs on the fashion of Michelle Obama, loads of Perez Hilton celebrity stalker sorts of articles, basically all things I could do without. What I liked was having the headlines of Washington Post, New York Times, AP, etc etc all together, so I need to find a new downloader-free site that does the same thing. The only other time I got a downloader notification was a year or so ago at progrock.com, which is a place I never really look at or use but probably ran across when researching something. Now I get these things show up at all sorts of nefarious sites but it gets irritating when they’re at places you’re supposed to trust not have these things. Grrr.

Computer Up plus the latest

As of last Friday evening, my computer is back up and running again, which means it was out about 5 days. Things went relatively well, I got a diagnosis saying it was the button on the front panel, which meant I had to order a new front part from Dell and Dell delivered very quickly with two day mail. To have discovered this myself would have been to do what needed to be done in replacing it, basically removing the plastic cover from the entire machine. In replacing it (credit to my old man who’s very good at this kind of thing), it was discovered the metal piece that triggers the power button had broken off. With a new front and requisite cleaning the machine looks almost brand new. Really, about the only thing I missed, given computer access at work, was just quickly checking the news when I got up in the morning or before I went to bed.

But it has been part of a string of really rotten luck of late, the kind of bad luck that looks humorous with some distance (which I don’t quite have yet).

Music, Outer Music, Progressive Music, etc.

I’ve had this intense feeling I’ve been juggling too many balls in the air at once. Most of this is due to Olfactory Rescue Service and the site’s growing success in the incense community, which has basically reduced this blog to tumbleweeds since I moved the incense to ORS (making Prattle the perfect venue for this sort of ramble). To say the least, my experience in incense has been something of an exercise of comparing and contrasting with my experience in the music fields.

In ten years, my musical outlook and tastes have vastly changed. In the 90s I was involved with several progressive rock magazines: Expose, Audion, Melodie e Dissonanze. In the last 90s/early 00s I was coresponsible for starting the Gnosis project. But it always felt like as soon as I created something in the music field, my tastes had already changed to the point where I never felt part of the audience these projects were aimed at. I’ve always felt more comfortable in areas where people had more multiplicity and breadth in their musical tastes and have always felt that certain musical communities were quite insular and navel gazing. That is, I think it’s possible to like something without the act of that like becoming an implicit dislike of something else.

Overall, I don’t have the musical appetite that I used to and think that perhaps some of this interest has just transferred to my passion over incense. WIth music, I generally feel satisfied with what I’ve collected and feel very rarely that when I add something new to the pile that it sufficiently enhances it. For years I’ve had that idea that trying to appreciate something outside your tastes enhances your life and while it does, it has the exact opposite effect on your pocketbook. The major event for me was “cracking” the Grateful Dead. Never liked them much growing up, but around 2000-2001, I figured I’d give them the benefit of the doubt, started playing Europe 72, broke through my hesitancy and became a fan. But what it did for me most importantly was realize how much pleasure I could get out of one band. And learning this, along with some other influences, more or less ended the ”need to hear everything” mentality I picked up from progressive rock. I find more satisfaction in trying to get to know something better than I do in trying to get to know something new.

Another aspect of this was retiring from Expose. As a writer you stay up on everything and are generally aware of almost everything remotely connected to the genre that comes out. All other issues aside, leaving the magazine was a relief in that hours of listening to promos you’d rather not could be used for something else. Being fully in control of what you listen to means you gravitate more and more to what you naturally like, passionate listening rather than intellectual. And overall, I think I’ve found I just generally like late 60s and early 70s music above all else, no matter if it’s rock, jazz, funk, soul or anything else. My respect for the avant garde is almost entirely intellectual or mental, never particularly passionate.

All of these questions are sort of hanging over me in a very Virgo-like way, as I consider hanging up musical activities. I sometimes have to resist the urge to make clean breaks. At the moment I don’t have a particular urge or desire to return to music writing of any sort. Not only have my tastes moved away from progressive rock but it’s a genre without any intellectual/academic dialogue while being tailor-made for it. Like the entire political landscape of the day, facts aren’t facts anymore, it’s a matter of how you feel and who yells the loudest. The genre’s greatest strength, its eclecticism, has now just become another competing idealogy with those who think its greatest strength is melodrama.

So, if you’re here wondering why I’m taking a (probably permanent) sabbatical from music forums and writing activities, this is generally where my head’s at. I honestly don’t feel like the world of progressive rock is going to miss my voice much at all, after all it’s not a voice much representative of the genre or its fans anymore (if it ever really was). And remember, I’m saying that as a progressive rock fan in love with its eclecticism not its melodrama. It’s not a statement fishing for someone to convince me otherwise, just someone who sees the art of criticism as opening a dialogue rather than digging a trench, while seeing the landscape of progressive music as a map of trenches where the dominant aesthetic is to lob grenades at each other. I’ve had grenades lobbed at me in the incense world as well, the difference there is that your fellow soldiers will deliver the A-bomb back, where in progressive rock they’ll blame you for the war.

Mike’s Prattle and the Olfactory Rescue Service

When I started Mike’s Prattle in 2006, I had no idea it would turn into an incense resource, and over time the original, casually named blog name seemed less and less appropriate to the new direction. So I’ve exported (almost) all of the blog content from MP to the new blog:

http://olfactoryrescueservice.wordpress.com

The credit for this name goes to Ross Urrere, who graciously let me borrow it. Thanks Ross! Apparently my links column did not make the transition but I hope to add them all back in the next few days if not sooner.

I’ve decided it’s pretty practical to actually split the two blogs up. From here on out what you’ll find here is random chatter not associated with music (Outer Music Diary) or incense (Olfactory Rescue Service). For the time being I’ve disabled comments here to encourage redirection of the conversations to ORS. If you’ve written a comment that did not go through, please contact me through the About page.

[Incense categories, links and articles are now removed from this site 6/4]

Update

Been spending quite a bit of time on my other blog of late, Outer Music Diary, so posting here will be quiet for the next week or so. OM survives collaboratively based on how we coordinate and encourage our writing streaks and we’re kind of fortunate that things are very good on that end for both Tom and I at this point, so we’re going to keep the flame going while it lasts. I think we’re about a month ahead at this point. Should be back with the February Incense Top 10 in a week or two.

Dear progarchives.com,

Thank you for giving me so much web traffic recently. I can hardly believe how many people still find my posts about the site so interesting even to this day. But all good things must come to and end, and, so must these old posts, no longer relevant thanks to your kind, if time-delayed, cooperation. They are now toast, as may this blog be, now that nobody will read it. Peace and good luck in your total domination of the prog rock world!

Your pal,

Mike

Introduction

[Edited] I originally intended this blog to be inclusive of Outer Music Diary but I haven’t been able to figure out how to insert that one on this blog. So at least for now, this page will be about everything BUT music.