Dave Allen is far more eloquent than I am, and he lays it down for why today is a great day:

When people realized they had become handcuffed by a technology that was forced upon them, and they realized that this feature’s intended use was to stop “piracy” but actually didn’t, and then they realized that iTunes and the record labels assumed that they were “pirates” even though they had no intention of dropping their purchased MP3s into a file-sharing service, they understandably got a little pissed off. Soon the minor frustration grew into a monster and the tipping point was achieved. I for one openly embraced the Amazon MP3 service as I hated the fact that Apple sold me an album that was DRM’d but also made me aware that the work around was to burn the purchased album to CD-R and then re-import the album as MP3s - what a ridiculous work around and what an incredible waste of plastic too. Public opinion forced the dropping of DRM because in the first place the public had embraced MP3s because they wanted a change. Change is powerful as is public opinion - don’t be messing with it. Keep your customers happy is the mantra.

Something similar happened in Iowa I would guess. Senator Clinton took the high road out of the gate telling the world that she was the front-runner all along as if she and her team expected by saying it, it would come to be. The public has now voted and they seem to be saying “no thanks,” the old “business as usual” politics are not for us. We desire change. Experience is not a ticket that candidates can run on these days. The collected wisdom and experience in the current administration hasn’t helped at all with economy and the war in Iraq, the top two issues on voters minds apparently. They are willing to risk change. Me too.

Well put. In related news, he also posted a track from a band he formed in 1981 with Barry Andrews of XTC (!!!) called Shriekback. The track is meticulously constructed, a perfect mixture of dance and experimental sounds, although I would love to get a hold of the extended version.

Shriekback: “My Spine is the Bassline”