Song of the Day: Dire Straits - Brothers In Arms

If you’ve ever wondered what might make a hard man misty-eyed, what does it for me in particular, here’s one example. While there are a few things that have that effect on me, this is the only one I’m sharing at the moment.

This has been one of my favorite songs of all time, and it gave me goosebumps the very first time I heard it. It still does. It’s hard to listen to sometimes, and I have noticed that it affects many others the same. It is a fitting tribute as well to those generations past, whom sacrificed so much.

Mark Knopfler’s guitar playing is transcendental, and words cannot describe how I admire his playing. I wish I had the tiniest fraction of his talent. I’m including two different video versions of Brothers In Arms, by Dire Straits, so you can hear the album version and so you can see it as it was played live in 1988, at Nelson Mandela’s birthday celebration in South Africa. I don’t care about the politics of it, but even if you can’t escape it, it is worth seeing merely on the strength of the artist’s performance.

That second video is just so haunting, as befits the song. Eric Clapton, who was there to perform as well, backed Mark Knopfler on this song—and, I daresay, you can see that even Slowhand was awed by the moment. If you have ever wondered what a musician making magic and touching something divine looks like, be sure to watch the last minutes of the 1988 Mandela birthday tribute performance. It is humbling. It is what music is meant to be.

Today’s Song of the Day goes out to those of you who were there, and those that are no longer with us.

The album version…

The Live performance in South Africa, 1988…
[From 5:18 to 6:32 there were technical difficulties, but hang in there, as soon as the video comes back, it is simply amazing.]

Fed Buys Short Term Debt, Cost Of American Ass Goes Up

Now the Fed is buying short term debt in the form of commercial paper. Just like everyone knew in the first place, the $700 billion bailout wouldn’t work and wouldn’t be enough to change anything. But politicians and CEO’s and financial analysts (whose jobs depend on investors and speculators…so it’s not like you couldn’t see that one coming) convinced Congress and a lot of citizens through fear tactics that it was necessary to save us.

Now Congress and the Federal Reserve have saddled us with an incredible amount of debt to bail out those that started this mess in the first place.

While refusing to give an actual number on how much they would buy, $1.3 trillion worth of short term credit would qualify. Let’s use that to figure out how fucked We the People just got by Congress and the Federal Reserve.

How much will America be in debt now thanks to Congress and the Fed?

$700 billion bailout plan
$600 billion in cash loans to financial institutions
$1.3 trillion in commercial paper/short term debt
———————————————-
$2.6 trillion dollars in one week!
$300 billion in already outstanding cash loans to financial institutions
———————————————-
$2.9 trillion in Federal debt!

[Update: And analysts are saying that retirement accounts have lost $2 trillion in worth in the past 15 months.]

We the People just got fucked to the tune of $2.6 trillion dollars in less than a week. Congratulations America, you are the world’s most expensive piece of ass. How’s it feel?

And that on top of our preexisting deficit of $10,198,103,073,856.34 as of Oct. 7, 2008. [Note: I have seen claims it was actually five times higher, at $50 trillion...but I went with the lowest figure I could find. See? I'm not all gloom and doom and just out to make things look or sound worse than they are!]

Our national debt has been increasing about $3.18 billion every day since September 2007. Which means every 314.4 days we go another trillion dollars in debt.

Oh yes, don’t forget that the trade deficit back in April of this year was $62.3 billion. It shows no signs of shrinking and has been growing steadily over the years.

And all the while, our government wants to approve free trade agreements with Columbia, South Korea, and Panama—giving everyone else a break and robbing American taxpayers and workers of billions of dollars in revenue.

Did you catch that? Your Congress is seeking to reduce the burden on the people and businesses of those in other countries while increasing your tax burden and the amount of debt you and your children will be responsible for.

How much representation did YOU have in all of that? Did you want that debt? Did you get to vote on that debt? Or did someone elected by an electoral college that subverted your vote create an incompetent administration and do it? Did some Congressman/Congresswoman do it even though their constituents warned them not to and asked them not to?

And CEO’s and executives at all these institutions going under that caused this are making off with billions in severance packages, spitting in the eyes of the American people now suffering because of these executives’ greed, lack of competence, mismanagement, criminal conduct, and lack of ethics and concern for their countrymen.

It is as if our own government is waging an economic war of repression against the American people. No wonder the minimum wage is kept low (in keeping with The Iron Law of Wages) and debt is heaped upon us, and the number living below the poverty line (as established by our own government) keeps growing every year. In little over a year, that number has jumped from 35 million to more than 39 million.

Maybe it’s time We the People come up with our own solution to this crisis, like ridding ourselves of those that got us into it in the first place and those politicians and judges who made it all possible through their collusion and failures? That will fix our economy quicker than anything the Congress and the Federal Reserve can come up with.

No taxation without representation. It was enough for our founding fathers. And having politicians who represent their own interests or those of corporations instead of those of the American people is the same as having no representation at all. Semantics do not substitute for ethics and principles.

I can only imagine the founders of our nation are ashamed of the weaklings and cowards we Americans have turned out to be.

Song of the Day: Dolorata - You’ve Gotta Want It

I don’t know anything about this band. Yet. But I will.

Solid rock with a kick-ass vibe. And one of the guitarists (Dori Sappo) looks to be sporting a Yamaha SG (hard to tell, could be an Ibanez Artist…what the hell, it’s an onset double cut, what else matters?), so I already like her. Check out the video and then visit their official website: www.dolorata.com

I Agree With Ron Paul: Do Not Bail Out Wall Street And Mortgage Lenders

Ron Paul is indeed the only politician with any common sense, I truly believe that. In an article published today, Congressman Paul offers his take on the economic crisis. His understanding of economics just shames other politicians.

Neither Obama or McCain will be getting my vote this year—both of them have failed miserably to offer even the least bit of insightful commentary on the situation much less come up with any kind of solution.

Ron Paul has been warning about this very thing for a long time. Investors take their chances, they know the risks. I don’t think the government ought to be bailing anyone out. Especially not those who make their money speculating and then cry about it when they lose their ass due to their own stupidity and panic which contributes to the economic crisis.

Let them all go down. Why should the American taxpayers spend $1 trillion dollars to bail out banks, lenders, corporations, speculators, investors and people living above and beyond their means? We shouldn’t. Let them all go down, and in the long run we’ll be better off.

The Federal Reserve needs to be eliminated once and for all. Its constant tinkering and malpractice in the realm of finance and economics has helped lead to this ruinous situation. It’s time to pay the piper—not write him another IOU.

Meanwhile, Fed chairman Bernake said we risk a recession without a bailout. Hello…where the hell have you had your head for the last two years that we’ve actually been in one? Get rid of the Fed, the idiots who run it, and the idiots who support it—it is far past time to do so.

Besides if there are lots of foreclosures, investors and home shoppers who weren’t/aren’t living above their means will be able to buy them cheap on eBay.

Team Disbanded, Kid Is Banned From Baseball: He Is Too Good

The liberal feel-good, overzealous protect-kids-from-everything-under-the-sun crowd really have outdone themselves. A 9 year old boy was banned from little league baseball and his team disbanded because he pitches too fast.

Yes, he’s too good at what he does, so he shouldn’t be allowed to use his talent. Parents who raise their kids to be mediocre and afraid don’t want their kids to compete against a team that has an exceptional player. The message being sent, loud and clear for everyone to hear, is that if you stand out as exceptional, you will be cut down to size. Mediocrity and low expectations are all that are acceptable in America anymore it seems.

Look at the quality of goods produced in America. Look at how much outsourcing and poor business conduct occurs in the name of cutting costs (and customer service…what the hell is that?). Look at how obese American kids are becoming, how drugs and gangs and a million other things are getting worse and worse (right along with the economy, which is no wonder) every year.

A large part of the reason is poor parenting. Why on Earth would you teach or encourage your kid to be mediocre, or to fear a challenge, or to dread loss and failure? Those things test people and build character—especially in young people.

What next? Will we see schools and attorneys and moonbats say you can’t target the easiest kids to hit when playing dodge ball? Worse, will they say you can’t play if your aim is too good?

The entire field of sports is becoming a joke. From football to boxing to basketball to the Olympics, joke, joke, joke. And poor jokes at that. Underage gymnasts, steroids, ear-biting, brawls with fans, shoplifting, killing endangered birds of prey with golf balls, whining about getting paid hundreds of thousands of dollars (or millions!) to play a kids game for a living… You can’t hardly find a respectable athlete that you would feel comfortable having a kid look up to.

Hell, you could probably start a sports trading card company just using mugshots of arrested athletes these days.

I don’t even really like baseball. I find it boring to be honest. But even I think it is incredibly stupid to ban a 9 year old kid from playing baseball because he essentially is better at what he does than those around him.

Gosh, I hate to think what kind of message it might send if excellence was respected. I wonder… Do you think a business would ever want to hire someone who is more talented at what they do than the majority of those in a peer position? Nah…that’s crazy. Why would you want someone talented on your team?

Instead of hiring a kick ass doctor, your hospital should be forced to close down—and that doctor should be banned from practicing…unless he is willing to accept a position as a CNA. That’s the kind of society we want to live in, right?

Give me a fucking break.

Taking It To Yet Another Content Thief

I hate scrapers. I hate people who steal original work from others and try to pass it off as their own. Here is one more on the list of many I have dealt with. My original post: Comparing Tactics Of WTO Negotiations To Nazis

Check out how the loser who has the blog Cumulatelove.com stole an article of mine and tried to pass it off as original work, and my response.

Here’s a screenshot…

My blog posts being stolen...

Here’s what I posted as a comment:

You have reproduced my original content without my express permission and without attribution, which constitutes a violation of copyright under the Digital Millennium Act, and is therefore a crime.

If you do not remove my content from your site immediately, I will contact your hosting company, ISP, and domain registrars and inform them of your criminal activity. This means Vivid Media GmbH all the way through PublicDomainRegistry.com and proper law enforcement authorities in Germany and the USA will be notified.

You have 48 hours to comply before I will pursue legal action. Content theft is a serious crime.

Sincerely,

Sean Wilson
My Errant Mind
http://errantmind.wordpress.com/
(original author of this stolen content)

This is another example of the crap and spam and scraping that goes on through the company Vivid Media GmbH and other such companies that provide convenient cover for spammers and hackers alike. It’s time for governments to crack down on who can and cannot become a domain registrar, and perhaps licensing webhosts or something that makes them more accountable.

Comparing Tactics Of WTO Negotiations To Nazis

The headlines all sound like everyone is so shocked that Brazilian Foreign Minister, Celso Amorim, made a comment which is true. He said that certain tactics employed by certain governments negotiating in the Doha trade round reminded him of the sort of things Nazis did. What’s the big deal?

It’s absolutely true.

Especially where he takes them to task for misrepresenting the talks and the ulterior motives many of the more industrial nations have in engaging in the talks. Contrary to what the headlines suggest and the official reaction of those retards who lead our country, I’m glad to hear someone in politics telling it like it is. Wish we had a few more of those sorts of politicians in our own country (and no, moonbats don’t tell it like it is) to help Ron Paul out.

“Goebbels used to say if you repeat a lie several times it becomes a truth,” Amorim said. And that is exactly one of the tools in the propaganda toolbox of all nations, including the United States’ own political toolbox. In fact, George Bush’s Presidency has pretty much been built upon that premise, as have the Clinton’s careers. WMD’s, blue dresses and airport snipers come to mind.

Are the WTO negotiators really that shocked at the accusation, or just the fact someone sees their tactics for what they are and called them on it? Our government and others are doing many things the Nazi regime once did, and have done the same or worse in the past. The recent revelation of the US military doing nothing and thereby condoning the machine-gunning of thousands of innocent civilian Koreans in the Korean War is merely one disgusting example of how our government hypocritically condones and allows atrocities and war crimes to occur…even AFTER using those same excuses to wage war on Germany.

What’s shocking isn’t that the Brazilian Foreign Minister made the accusations, but that more people don’t know enough about politics and history to realize it is true that our government has agencies and politicians and workers in it every bit as corrupt or morally decrepit as any that served in the Nazi regime, and that they use the same tactics, and have perpetrated or condoned more than a fair share of evils of their own. Large industrial nations’ governments are just more subtle in the way they persecute, kill, poison, imprison, destroy other nations, impose their will, take resources and enslave the masses.

Where it isn’t so subtle is the terrible acting by those serving in governments.

Another Reason To Be Disappointed In America

I used to be proud of my service in Korea, and looked back fondly on my time there. That is, until today. Looking back after reading an article detailing the US military and its lack of intervention in the massacre of thousands of Korean civilians, I have a different feeling about the country, my time there, the leadership of America and the military commanders and officers serving at the time.

Bluntly speaking, I’m disgusted in those in our military who sat by and did nothing about mass executions of civilians. Bluntly speaking, I’m ashamed of my country for what it did—which at the very least was to do nothing, and at worst was to actually condone or encourage it through tacit approval by its refusal to do something about it.

What am I talking about? Lining up political prisoners and machine gunning them to death and putting them in mass graves. Not just one incident of it, but a policy and practice of it, every bit as heinous as the war crimes committed by the Nazis in WWII. By one of our allies, and after we took those Nazis to task for the very same sorts of things, which probably makes it even worse in my opinion because it adds the element of hypocrisy.

Right now I couldn’t be much more disgusted in my country, those who led it, and those who lead it now. I will never think of my time in South Korea the same way again. Gone will be what good memories there were, replaced by a revolting, sick thought that I ever helped protect the country of those murdering bastards and sick degenerates. No wonder the communists hated them so fucking much.

Those South Koreans were no better than the communists they fought against. And towards McArthur and all the American military officers who did not stop those atrocities, I look down on them as spineless cowards, despicable, disgusting and weak excuses for men who I wouldn’t piss on—even if they were on fire and begged for it.

You would think that as one grew older and wiser, they would be able to find more reasons to love their country. That’s not the case at all for me. I find more and more reasons to want to see it changed from its present form, much like our founding fathers saw many reasons to change the government which they themselves lived under prior to gaining independence.

Which is why I didn’t even celebrate Independence Day this year. I’m done celebrating the beginning of this government we have to endure, and all the cowardly, evil, crooked, profiteering, corrupt, freedom destroying bullshit that it propagates under the false pretense of freedom and democracy. It’s all about money and power, and that’s all life will ever be about in the eyes of the government here in America.

It hasn’t been about the people, democracy, rights, freedoms and liberties in over 200 years, which is part of the reason we already had one Civil War.

There needs to be a history class in high schools focusing on all the ugly, disgusting, revolting things our nation has done, and who did them—so that we put an end to the mindless worker-drone production line that those in power so love (which, of course, is why it will never happen). We also need laws that prevent any military aid or foreign aid to any nation which allows or condones human rights abuses, the status of which is reviewed each year.

Which if we are to avoid hypocrisy, means we need to hold our own government accountable and have a better means to do so. Elections are simply insufficient means of doing so. So is impeachment, as it is only initiated by other politicians (who are by nature reluctant to do so, for fear of it becoming a commonly used tool whereby they themselves might be removed), and despite popular belief—removal from office is not mandatory if one is impeached.

As an American, I am tired of seeing our nation helping Israel, Arab dictatorships and monarchies, African warlords and various potentates around the world who keep their people in bondage. But in truth, we need to hold our own government accountable first. It is fast becoming one of the worst governments of all for violating personal freedoms, privacy, liberties, and for human rights abuses.

I don’t mind taking other nations to task when security necessitates it. I’m fine with war as sometimes it is necessary. But it is altogether a different thing to close with and destroy the enemy who was taken the battlefield willingly and under the laws of warfare as generally agreed to by nations…and machine-gunning innocent civilians—men, women and even children—in the name of expediency, political protectionism, or anything else for that matter!

What the South Korean military did is the same as what the Nazis did, and the same thing Al Qaeda does—murdering innocent people. Looking back at history in that context, and looking at what is happening today, I find it highly hypocritical that we’re at war with terrorists for doing the same things our allies in South Korea did.

The only difference I see is that Al Qaeda isn’t murdering those innocents of our enemies…just the innocents of our allies and those on our side. I wonder if America would be engaged in a global War on Terror if instead of flying planes into the World Trade Centers, Al Qaeda had instead flown them into the Kremlin, or downtown Beijing?

Probably not.

The Creepy Evangelical Christian Influence In The American Military

We have seen that the separation of church and state in America is disappearing along with other liberties, freedoms and any notion of justice or sense of duty to Americans. This video sheds a light on something that is troubling to me as an American veteran, which is the influence of evangelical Christians in the US military.

Even back in the 1990’s it was apparent—however, it was growing into a considerable problem. As if there wasn’t enough abuse of rank and privilege in the military, preferential treatment and others being skimmed over for advancement because they do not share a particular faith is a bad thing. It is even worse when top officers and those responsible for military-wide policy have their own personal crusading agendas.

That is yet another reason why I am against organized religion.

We have all sorts of lobbyists and special interest groups attempting to determine what equipment and weaponry our warriors ought to be fighting with or using, and now we have evangelical Christians seeking to pervert the loyalties of American fighting men and women.

The sort of things these idiots stand for are exactly the sort of things I promised to fight against—enemies foreign and domestic—when I enlisted. Any institution which seeks to pervert the loyalties of soldiers, insert its own agenda and policies into our military, and to encourage strife and warfare in the name of religion is an enemy of America in my book…be it Islam or evangelical Christianity.

Recently, soldiers have been finding themselves hounded by their chain of command for being Atheists. Pagan soldiers have had a hard time getting recognition of their faiths—which the followers of the Jewish sky-god in all their myriad variants have long enjoyed. Also recently in the news are reports about PMC (Private Military Corporation/Company) Blackwater having these self-same ties to evangelical Christianity and having unusually high percentages of such Christians evangelicals in their ranks—from the operatives in the field right through the senior level executives.

How bad has it become? Well, last fall, Secretary of State Rice was accused of hampering a Congressional panel investigating issues in Iraq. Why? Because they were investigating Blackwater.

It’s bad enough we have to defend America from Islamists and their terrorism, but now we have our own internal threat in the form of right-wing neo-cons with evangelical fervor in control of the world’s largest PMC and a growing number of military servicemembers who subscribe to that same zealotry.

Really…as if America doesn’t have enough problems, now the same idiots that don’t think I should be able to buy beer on Sunday have their own private military and are trying to subvert our national military. Is there ever going to be a day when America isn’t being sold out by Americans in order to make a buck or religious zealots wanting to reclaim a piece of dirt in the Middle East for the Jewish people?

Does anyone wonder why I dislike all those running around committing insanity in the name of some Jewish sky-god or some Arab moon-demon?

You know, the list of people and organizations I don’t like is far longer than the list of those causes and people that I do like. More and more I keep hoping that there will be some sort of Apocalypse, just so those of us who can’t stand all the zealots that operate in the name of money, the UN, religions, drugs, terror, globalism—and all the other lunacies—will have a chance to get rid of them.

They’re just fucking up our world.

You think I’m kidding? The fanatics of the Jewish sky-god are right here in America, armed to the teeth and preparing for the Apocalypse themselves, just waiting to establish yet another religious state–much like Al Qaeda wanted to create an Islamic caliphate in Iraq. Only they will call it the Christian Colonial Republic.

It’s nice to know if there is an Apocalypse, that freedom loving people will have no end of enemies and opponents to fight if they want to avoid having to live under religious oppression. These sorts will be my enemy just as much as any supposed anti-Christ! In fact, I would view both in pretty much the same light—a threat to liberty.

I didn’t recall Patrick Henry saying, “Give me religion or give me death,” but rather, “Give me liberty or give me death!”

My self-compiled SHF-T (Shit Hits Fan-Threats…”shifty” for short. Kinda like METT-T. Catchy, huh?) list is growing almost daily…

One of the many problems with America and Europe—all of western civilization in fact—is that western civilization has let itself be defined by religion that came out of the Middle East. Two centuries later, people are still running around fighting wars over the words of men long dead, a divine unmarried carpenter born of a virgin and a holy pedophile bandit with a taste for blood and taxes at that.

It’s no wonder the world is so screwed up. Makes me laugh every time I see those idiots in the KKK, the various Aryan sorts that claim to be standing up for racial pride of whites…yet who have tied their identity to the religions of those whose races they hate and look down on. Isn’t that just hilarious?

The whole Christian identity movement doesn’t realize how ridiculous their premise sounds to anyone who realizes that the faith they cling to is not the faiths of their ancestors or their race. And they are all running around toting their guns and hoping for an Apocalypse too, just so they can perpetuate more fallacy, idiocy…and violence on the world…and, err…say it is in the name of peace-loving baby Jesus, right?

Remarkable, the human propensity for madness, isn’t it?

Illegal Immigrants Must Pay Out Of State Tuition In Colorado

Does anyone else think this is exactly the kind of idiocy that is wrong with the government throughout the USA? Why allow illegal immigrants to go to college in the USA at all, especially when we don’t have every American citizen already going to college? You know, a government is supposed to work for those it governs, not those of other countries.

This is yet another example of why our nation if falling apart at the seams–stupidity in government. I certainly don’t blame anyone for wanting a better education, but if they aren’t here legally, they don’t deserve to be in, nor should they be in, our institutions of higher learning. It is an insult to every American.

I mean, for example–they offer law enforcement degrees in colleges and universities in Colorado I would assume (then again, perhaps they don’t, which is why they can’t figure things out in a way that makes sense), and you would think they do, right? What kind of hypocrisy is it to be awarding degrees in the enforcement of law when those very same institutions are encouraging BREAKING THE LAW AND INVADING OUR NATION?

Another example of the stupidity driving our nation to ruin in grand style by law makers who will do anything to further their political careers or cater to lobbyists in order to protect their salary. All the while selling out their countrymen…

Semi Nude Moms From Spain Need Your Help

If you haven’t heard about the group of women from the small Spanish village of Serradilla del Arroyo in the northern province of Salamanca, Spain, who posed semi-nude for a calendar in order to raise money for their tiny rural school and its children, you have now. They ran into financial trouble after not selling many of the calendars and found themselves in debt.

Not knowing much about marketing or publishing, they missed the Christmas rush (extremely important in Calendar marketing it seems) and were left with about 5,000 unsold calendars. The printer has pressed the issue of their being behind on payments and media attention has put the spotlight on their efforts.

Their tiny village of around 400 has one teacher for its one room elementary school spanning four grade levels. The mothers decided to try and do something that would raise money for their children to have a recreation center. I certainly have to give them credit for trying. However, it wasn’t as easy as it was for the British women who did so—and whose story inspired these Spanish ladies. These concerned moms owe $16,000 to the printer.

You can help out by purchasing one of the calendars. Better yet, buy one for yourself and as many of your friends as you can. How often do you get to honestly say you bought a semi-nude calendar to help out children in a remote Spanish village?

Calendars can be purchased here: La Casa de Medico (Calendar is towards the bottom of the home page, Calendarios Madres de Serradilla)

Carter Talks With Terrorists Of Hamas While They Plan Attacks

So the incredibly incompetent former President, Jimmy Carter, has once again stuck his nose into foreign affairs when he ought to stick with writing books no one wants to read (except maybe Nancy Pelosi). This time, he went to the Middle East to have talks with Hamas representatives.

You had a nice chat, didn’t you, Mr. Carter?

While you were doing so, Hamas was planning a terrorist attack which they carried out on Saturday, the same day you were meeting with their representatives in Damascus.

Hamas made you look like a complete fool (not that you needed any help), and you have shown yourself to be a disgrace by supporting terrorism and terrorists. Why don’t you do all of us a favor and stay in the Middle East from now on and not bother coming back to America?

I would be laughing if the loss of lives weren’t saddening. Democrats, you are showing Americans that you support terrorists with your continued support of foolish people like Carter and Pelosi. Peace talks…what a cover for planning terrorist attacks, eh Mr. Carter?

If Carter goes to Russia to talk about missile shields, you better find a nuclear blast shelter quick…

Condensed Soup And The View: Elisabeth Hasselbeck Too Smart For Them All

The host of Yahoo’s Condensed Soup segment apparently found an analogy by Elisabeth Hasselbeck too difficult to comprehend and tried to poke fun at her. Apparently, he did not realize just how stupid it makes him look.

That’s OK, he isn’t alone. Hasselbeck’s co-hosts on The View couldn’t make the connection either.

See the video for yourself.

Apparently no one is smart enough to grasp the simple concept Elisabeth laid out: all the good one has done does not excuse any future action.

I think it’s time for some media companies to start looking in a different talent pool for hosts. Preferably, in the pool where people have something better than a third grade education.

Racists remarks by Rev. Jeremiah Wright, in the analogy Hasselbeck was trying to make, are not excused by his having previously done good works. She was simply making a point everyone in the world ought to understand really.

Everyone, that is, but wannabe comedians and talk show hosts with condensed soup for brains.

Mastering Your Mix: For Musicians

Just a short and sweet post to point out a great article on EQ Magazine’s website that makes a great introduction to mastering. The article offers a lot of tips on what is often considered an arcane art and is an excellent primer for the recording musician.

Even if you have no intention of attempting it yourself, understanding the mastering process will help you as a musician, especially if you consider your songs in a sonic context. If you’ve wondered how to turn your rough mix into a finished masterpiece, this article will tell you what you need to do it and how to do it.

I’m not going to say you will be mastering before the night is over or that it’s really easy, but after reading Mastering For Musicians, I was sure encouraged!

There are a lot of tips on mastering strategies, how to get increased loudness without over-compressing, tips on EQ, and creating a good album flow with your songs.

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Update 1, 03-27-2008: There is another great article that is worth a read on the topic of mastering on EQ Mag’s site. Check out The 12 Step Mastering Program for some thoughts to keep in mind as you approach mastering a song.

Also, you might be interested in Tape Op: The Creative Recording Magazine, which offers a free subscription and is chock full of some of the best how-to information, gear reviews, interviews with pro sound engineers and recording musicians. The gear advertisements alone are worth looking at it, and I bet the articles will inspire your next recording session in some way or another. Hurry now…