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An Iowa man wants his name change to reflect his one true loveAfter Microsoft Zune super fan Steven Smith, better known as the Zune Guy to the online communities that know him, got his third Zune-themed tattoo the question that begged answering was what’s next?
The answer came when Smith posted in the zunescene.mobi forums that he is now in the process of changing his name to “Microsoft Zune.”
Within the post Smith made it clear that he wanted to make the change all-inclusive. “Also if I get what I want and this goes through I will be changing all my important documents over to my ‘new name.’ So look back sometime for a Iowa driver's license with my new name, lol.”
Smith also claims that he has done some initial research on the feasibility of changing his name to that of a trademarked product. He claims that, according to what he found, that the change could be made as long as the person changing their name is not benefiting from the change or doing it to harm the company or product in any way.
Naturally once major technology blog sites caught wind of this news, the “Zune tattoo guy” was quickly a topic of much discussion, drawing both encouraging and negative feedback from various places on the Web.
Steven Smith’s dream of becoming Microsoft Zune may not be as farfetched as it sounds. American professional wrestler Brian Hellwig, best known as the Ultimate Warrior in the WWF, legally changed his name to Warrior in 1993 in order to use the name outside of the WWF.
A man named John Sterling reportedly changed his name legally to Sony PlayStation after becoming obsessed with the game console. And who could forget in March 2005 when Terri Iligan auctioned off her name on E-Bay and legally changed her name to GoldenPalace.com, the winning bid, for $15,000.
Currently any further information about Smith’s quest to become Microsoft Zune is still under wraps. But he has promised that he will be making video posts to document his quest in the zunescene forums.
New album proves why the band is called Say Anything
For fans of the new double disc opus from Say Anything, In Defense of The Genre, the October release date could not come fast enough. Now the album is finally up for release and it’s time to take a look at whether all the fuss surrounding this defender of genres was actually deserved.
Max Bemis has never really been a polished vocalist, whether considering his crude lyrics, forced rhymes or the fact that throughout half of the album he sounds like he’s passing a stone, Bemis definitely doesn’t try to sugar coat his messages on this album.
From the get-go on the first disc of In Defense it becomes obvious this album is, as Bemis himself puts it, “a comet of verbal vomit” as well as all over the place in terms of musical stylings. While In Defense sticks pretty close to its rock groundings, it also bounces between dirty ballads, synthesized pop, hardcore, emo and a variety of other random attempts to be somewhat of an all encompassing defense of exactly what genre?
The album hits its lowest point (excluding the heavy sprinkling of f-bombs throughout most of the tracks) comes in the form of a heavy puking sound right in the middle of, ironically enough, “Hangover Song.” The vomit splattering over the top of vulgar lyrics pretty much epitomizes the depth of the lyricism involved with In Defense. That and the line “so I’ll go out and get crunk with my friends.” Just because “crunk” made it into the dictionary, it doesn’t mean you have to use it. But in defense of the album, a more-than-healthy dose of vocal guests appear on the album join up with Bemis to mask his sketchy, rough singing. Guests include Pete Yorn DJ Swamp and members of Alkaline Trio, New Found Glory, Paramore, Taking Back Sunday, The Almost, My Chemical Romance, Circa Survive, Saves The Day, Dashboard Confessional and The Starting Line.
Kenny Vassoli even provides some pretty brilliant vocals. His pleas that accompany a string arrangement that support the actual song create an amazing close to “Plea” and the album itself.
In Defense of The Genre has its moments where it shines through (“Baby Girl, I’m a Blur,” “That Is Why” and “Plea”) but overall it’s only maybe worth a single spin through. That is, if you can make it through songs like “This is F***ing Ecstasy,” “An Insult to the Dead,” “Died a Jew,” “Spores,” “Spay Me” and “You’re The Wanker, If Anyone Is.”
November is finally here, which means Thanksgiving, having Christmas everything crammed down your throat for the next month and half and last, and more relative to When In Doubt, Clap!, a number of bands are putting out albums of unreleased material and b-sides from previous albums. Included in the list of bands putting out albums full of not-so-new material during November are Copeland, The Format, The Killers, Thursday and Anberlin. Coincidentally, three of these albums (with the exception of Kill The House Lights by Thursday and Sawdust by The Killers), a deluxe two-disc edition of U2's Joshua Tree and an album of material from Taking Back Sunday off of Tell All Your Friends will hit shelves on exactly the same day - Nov. 20. Even though Thursday's album was released Oct. 30 and The Killers released Sawdust Nov. 13, you've got to wonder, what's the mysterious fixation surrounding this pre-Thanksgiving release date? That's what I'd like to know. Was there some sort of contract time where they couldn't do anything with these songs after Thanksgiving or vice versa? I really don't know what the reasoning is, but I would love to find out.
