This and that

On Monday, Sony Music announced that Fiona Apple's Extraordinary Machine would finally be released on October 4th. But this won't be the version that leaked onto the internet earlier this year. That version was produced by Jon Brion. It was a masterpiece.

Having heard two tracks from the retooled version, produced by Mike Elizondo, I'll say it has more of a sheen on it. Definitely more commercial than Brion's take on the songs. Apparently, Apple is happier with the new version.

I'll reserve judgement until the album's released, but it'll be hard to top the first version.

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A shout out to blogger Jay Gnospelius. I told him I'd give him a plug for a new venture of his: Kidparazzi.

Kidparazzi is basically a modern version of a kid photographer. He comes to your public event, free of charge, and shoots the hell out of it. Then you go to his site and buy prints. He makes a cut of all the sales. Pretty good deal. There's a nominal fee for private parties, but that's only natural.

I don't receive anything except Jay's gratitude, so check out his services.

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Last post I said I was working on some redesigns of parts of the site. The first upgrade is up: the Martial Artist's Guide to Hong Kong Films. All the reviews are written by my good friend and sometime columnist Passenger 58. He's been practicing martial arts all his life and he knows his shit. In fact, his subdomain is one of the most visited parts of my site. Check it out if you're into chop socky flicks.