New podcast episode of music from the Flying Other Brothers!

TBone Outtakes Remakes and Rare Breaks, hosted by Tony Bove and Rockument, includes a studio recording produced by T Bone Burnett and live gems from past shows featuring G.E. Smith, Country Joe, and Bob Weir. In some ways it is a career rectrospective, highlighting band configurations going back to 2002, and featuring some of our favorite special guests.

Song list:

1. Take a Drive – studio outtake (T. Bove, B. Keely) produced by T Bone Burnett

2. Let’s Get Together (Powers) with G.E. Smith

3. Ohio (Young) with G.E. Smith

4. Sugaree (Garcia, Hunter) with G.E. Smith

5. King Harvest (J.R. Robertson) with G.E. Smith

6. Rockin’ Around the World (McDonald) with Country Joe

7. Playing in the Band-Other Miles Jam (Weir, Hunter, FOBs) with Bob Weir

8. The Main Ten-Uncle John’s Reprise-Playing in the Band Reprise (Hart, Weir, Hunter, Garcia) with Bob Weir

Read about and download this free podcast now!

Free song download from the Flying Other Brothers!

“Take a Drive” by the Flying Other Brothers, written by Tony Bove and Bert Keely, was recorded at Village Recorders in Santa Monica on Aug. 5-7, 2006, with T Bone Burnett at the controls, in preparation for a studio album that has not yet been released. Published by Fobros Music Publishing (ASCAP). Produced by T Bone Burnett, Roger McNamee, and the Flying Other Brothers. 

Download this tune now!

Shut Up and Play Your iPhone

Apple iPhone sales are well ahead of expectations. Rumors are swirling about a wide-screen, multi-touch iPod in August (as well as yet another rumor of a Yellow Submarine iPod loaded with Beatles tracks). The list of new iPhone widgets and applications is growing exponentially. Gripes aside, I still see the iPhone as a platform despite the fact that this first version is not quite complete. Check out my first impressions and accumulated links to reviews and news in “Shut Up and Play Your iPhone, Volume 2” on my blog, iTimes.

Hey! We’ve Got to Have iPhones Today!

Are you waiting in the line forming at your local Apple Store (or AT&T store)? Here’s a ditty to sing along all night long.

We’ve Got to Have iPhones Today

by Tony Bove
(Set to the tune “You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away” with apologies to Lennon and McCartney)

Here I stand, head in hand
Turn my face to the door
If it’s gone I can’t move on
From the line at the Apple Store…

See “A Song for the Apple Store Line” for the rest.

Still Can’t Open Word Docs

What’s interesting in the war of words between Bruce Chizen of Adobe and Dan’l Lewin of Microsoft is that Dan’l used to work at Apple and has a perspective from Apple’s old days that Microsoft software was essential to the Mac’s early success.

It’s hard to believe that it’s 2007, and I still get Word documents I can’t open. As I write “Microsoft’s Interoperable Assimilation” in Get Off Microsoft, I’m unable to use my Mac to open a document sent to me by a normal business that tells me they are using Microsoft Word. I have in my arsenal the Mac version of Word, OpenOffice 2.0, NeoOffice, TextEdit, and on the Web, Google Docs — all of which open older Word docs and standard formats. Sure enough, the only program that would open this file is Word running on Windows XP, and only after installing some kind of unspecified converter from the original CD-ROM. Maybe this is just a glitch, or some form of temporary insanity while we all adjust to a world of Microsoft “standards”.

Peeking inside with BBEdit, I see that the document appears to be a variant of XML. This document was saved that way by a normal business that has other things to do than change default settings so that documents can be opened on other systems. And this is how Microsoft gets away with “interoperability” — co-opting proven standards (like XML) and turning them into Microsoft pseudo-standards, which are then set as defaults for the program while offering the real standards as options. Normal businesses don’t realize how these default settings — which keep them locked into Microsoft products — disrupt rather than unify our multiple-platform world.

iPhone and Web 2.0

The iPhone is a platform in infancy, waiting to be exploited in the next decade. It has already changed the way people think these devices should work, and how developers should provide third-party applications. Even as naysayers pointed to the lack of a decent software developer kit, two new applications appeared from third parties within two days of Steve Jobs’ appearance at the Apple Developer Conference. When it ships on June 29, 2007, the iPhone may very well be the first platform designed for completely for Web 2.0 technologies. For my complete report, see “Shut Up and Play Your iPhone, Volume 1” in my blog, iTimes.

What’s the New Mary Jane?

She catch Patagonian pancakes
With that one and gin party makes
She having all the ways good contacts
She making with Apple and contract.
What a shame Mary Jane had a pain at the party!
– Beatles, “What’s the New Mary Jane” (Lennon/McCartney), one of the missing Beatles songs released in the Anthology series.

I started writing something like a Web diary way back in 1996, before the blogosphere existed, titled What’s the New Mary Jane. The last “blog entry” in Sept. 2003 told about how my band, the Flying Other Brothers, had started a mini-tour. Like Bob Dylan’s infamous Never Ending Tour (which lasted at least five years, give or take a year), our tour seems like it will never stop; unlike Bob’s tour, ours did not sell out venues and generate cash rewards. Like touring, blogging can also seem like an endless chore with no return. I suffered Blog Depression way back in 1997, and posted less and less over time until I gave it up entirely.

Until now. Welcome back, Maryjane. What’s new?

The Rockument podcast, produced by yours truly, are free shows devoted to rock music history. Each show includes information about each song and its musicians, with links to artist, fan, and historical sites, and links to music for purchase on Amazon.com or iTunes.

The Flying Other Brothers podcast, hosted by yours truly, are free shows from our tours. Also visit the Flying Other Brothers home page for info about our tours.

To support my book, Microsoft: Just Say No (No Starch Press) I started Get Off Microsoft, which offers a topic-specific blog about getting off Microsoft, and links to information, alternative software, and resources.

To get my other books — including iPod and iTunes for Dummies — see my personal site at tonybove.com.

This is my personal blog, a continuation of What’s the New Mary Jane. I promise to not waste your time. I’ll write only about things that interest me, or piss me off.