Basement Blog

Mark your calendars: the 95^th Tour de France 2008 starts this coming Saturday, July 5^th. As in the previous few years, this cycling event of the year will again be covered by commentator trio Bob “Bobke” Roll, Phil Liggett and Paul Sherwen on versus, the former Outdoor Living Network (OLN) channel.

Running until Sunday, July 27^th, the tour will be made of 21 stages and cover a total distance of 3500 kilometers or about 2175 miles. There will be 10 flat stages, 5 mountain, 4 medium mountain stages, 2 individual time-trials, and 2 rest days.

And that’s already all for today. If I find some time to spare I might write a bit about the individual stages later during the the tour.

This is the last of my routes in and in the area of my old hometown Mönchengladbach. It leads into the same direction as the previous Niederkrüchten route, but follows different paths leading to Waldniel. Waldniel is one of several districts in the municipality of Schwalmtal/Viersen.

The route starts through Stadtwald Rheydt again — this time not passing the miniature golf place, but following a different path through the park parallel to the A61 Autobahn. At Waldesrand the route crosses the A61 toward Voosen and continues through Kothausen, Gerkerath, Koch, Genhodder, Rickelrath and Lüttelforst to Waldniel. In Waldniel it continues back on Schulstrasse towards Berg, Steeg south to and through the British Forces base, the Joint Headquarters (JHQ) or Military Complex in Rheindahlen, the Hardter forest, and through Hehn and Holt back into the city.

This route leads through a number of very beautiful areas including Stadtwald Rheydt, Kothausen and Hardter forest, but it is especially fascinating and historically interesting because of the JHQ. This base is open for visitors and can be entered through one of their checkpoints after showing your id or passport. And once you are inside you are really visiting a different country. Street names and signs are all written in English, and even the sidewalks and buildings look distinctly different. I remember when I was a child I thought of the headquarters as a very strange and mysterious island in the woods, such a different world. Even years later I find myself surprised by how different this area looks and feels compared to the surrounding cities and villages. Not so much because of the obvious language difference, but the smaller details, the overall quietness or the emptiness of the roads. I would like to ride this route again and see what this area is like today, more than a decade later.

On the way to or from the JHQ there also is a nice incline I always enjoyed. The route is about 49 kilometers long and ends my series of routes in and in the area of my old hometown. I hope you found any of the previous routes interesting or enjoyable. I’m not sure if and when I’m going to have more routes in Germany as I’m not living there anymore — and I will not begin to collect other routes I haven’t ridden before and that can’t ride myself right now. Instead I will continue to work on a collection of complete routes in and in the area of Baltimore City. I hope I can find a few routes that are also between 30-50 kilometers (18-30 miles) long and relatively easy and pleasant to ride. Longer routes might be interesting, too. I would love to tackle challenging destinations like Washington DC or finding another way to the Northern Railroad Trail. It will be an interesting journey

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Just recently I ran across some rare copies of Boards of Canada’s three cassettes Old Tunes Vol. 1, A Few Old Tunes and Old Tunes Vol. 2, and being a BoC fan I was very excited about this find.

If I still was in my teenager years fifteen or twenty years ago, I immediately would have created a playlist and posted a blog with all these tracks, accessible to every of my readers or visitors. Back then I wouldn’t even waste a thought about “copyright-violations” or “unauthorized broadcasting” of this material, or how private, public or accessible my blog was. I would just happily announce “look & listen to what I have found… great stuff!”

Of course fifteen to twenty years ago we didn’t have the web as it exists today, we didn’t have music in mp3 or other digital formats. But we shared music and mixtapes, recordings from vinyl, radio or television, photo-copies of book pages or magazines — all material that had always been protected by copyright laws. The only difference between then and now existed in that we met with real people in a comparably small real-world environment. It wasn’t an internationally accessible forum, and this exchange of copyrighted material could not be monitored or followed by the production companies, agencies or law-firms. If they had the means to do that back then, they might have pursued the creation and sharing of mix-tapes, or made mix-tapes part of their exploitation chain.

The cassette tapes from back then didn’t stop people from buying vinyl records, sticking posters onto the walls, and being a fan of the music and artists they loved. The digital files today didn’t stop me from buying CDs and vinyl records and being a fan of certain musicians. I give some music a listen, just like I used to listen to the radio in order to discover new music. If I don’t like it I dismiss and delete the song. If I do like it, I’m eager to welcome this and other albums in a tangible format to my collection and keep up with the future releases. And in some cases I buy something not only once, but as both vinyl, CD, that collector’s edition box-set or the accompanying t-shirt, hat or whatever merchandise. And if there is a live-show, I still happily pay the money for the tickets, the ridiculous processing fees, and at the venue, the signed CD and other merchandise as well. No digital file would ever change anything about that.

And yet companies try to maximize their profits by criminalizing the exchange of copies rather than treating it as a free promotion and fan-generator. The old debate goes on about copyrights, file-sharing, digital rights management, etc and so on. The excitement about music fades away and becomes more of a disappointment about the dirty ways of the music industry. I for one am very disappointed about having to worry about such things as copyright laws, unauthorized publications and licensing fees rather than just freely enjoying and sharing the excitement. What is this world coming to if every music consumer has to have or become a lawyer? How could anyone know all the answers to questions like “Am I allowed to post that song or picture on my blog or website?”, “Am I allowed to post that rare, unreleased, out-of-print album on my blog or website?”, “Who do I have to ask to get official permissions to share that song or album?”, “Will I have to pay any licensing fees if I post that song?”, “How much?”, “Do my 6 readers of my blog really matter that much?”, “Will I have to limit access to my site to 5 people?”, “Are the copyright laws in the United States the same as in Germany?”, “What about other countries? Considering the Internet is international?” , “And what about those Boards of Canada cassettes…?”… the list could go on and on, but all I really want is to enjoy, write about and share some of my music and excitement. I shouldn’t even have to think about these things. Something is seriously wrong there.

Music used to be a product that required the machinery of a big music label and studios. Music had to be recorded professionally, records and cds had to be produced and manufactured, and a huge promotion campaigns, radio and television appearances, concerts and world tours had to be organized, and all the products had to be distributed to the record stores world-wide. What a gigantic undertaking… Today, however, free, legal netlabels like thinner or autoplate, small independent labels and even individual musicians without a label are able to produce music with the same and even better quality than the big players. Perhaps it doesn’t surprise that they are trying to grab the last straw.

All this really is no new news, but I wanted to share some of my thoughts on this topic. New is a musician I just discovered when I was looking at those Boards of Canada cassettes. Benn Jordan, also known as The Flashbulb. I really liked, loved the pieces I have listened to so far. Beautiful and inspired. Some reminded me a little of the mood I like so much about BoC. His music touches a wide range of styles and influences and makes me want to hear more. But what I found most remarkable was this readme-file in which he writes:

“Hello listener…downloader…pirate…pseudo-criminal…

If you can read this, then you’ve more than likely downloaded this album from a peer to peer network or torrent.

You probably expect the rest of this message to tell you that you’re hurting musicians and breaking just about every copyright law in the book. Well, it won’t tell you that.

What I would like to tell you is that my record label understands that a large portion of people pirate music because it is easier than buying it. CDs scratch easily, most pay-per-download sites have poor quality and shitty DRM protection, and vinyl is near impossible to find or ship without hassle.

In many cases I wonder why people buy CDs at all anymore. A few like the tangible artwork, some haven’t adapted to MP3s yet, but most do it because they have a profound love for music and want to support the artists making it. Kind of restores your faith in humanity for a moment eh?

So, now what?

Like the album? About to go “support the artist” on iTunes?

Well, don’t.

Alphabasic is currently in a legal battle against Apple because NONE of our material (Sublight Records included) receives a dime of royalty from the vast amount of sales iTunes has generated using our material.

Want to buy a CD just to show your support?

If you don’t particularly like CDs, don’t bother.

Retailers like Best Buy and Amazon spike the price so high that their cut is often 8 times higher than the artist’s. Besides, most CDs are made out of unrecyclable plastic and leave a nasty footprint in your environment.

If you do particularly like CDs, buy them from the label (in our case, alphabasic.com). After manufacturing costs are recuperated, our artists usually receive over 90% of the actual money coming out of your wallet.

In addition, all of our physical products are made out of 100% recycled material.

Want to show your support?

Go here and browse our library of lossless, DRM-free downloads.

Already have that?

Then feel free to donate whatever you want to your favorite artist. 100% will go directly to them.

Hell, you can even donate a penny just to thank the artist.

If you really like ‘The Flashbulb - Soundtrack To A Vacant Life’ and want to show your support without it going to greedy retailers, distributors, and coked-up label reps, then click the button below.

If you send us your mailing address, Alphabasic may occasionally send you various goodies (overstocks, stickers, even rare CDs) in appreciation and encouragement for your support.

Thanks for reading.

Who knows if my little business plan here will work to fund new releases, but even failure is better than the crappy label/distributor/retailer system musicians have suffered from for over 50 years.

We hope you enjoy the music as much as we do releasing it.

Finally, if you plan on sharing this release, please include this file. The only reason it is here is to show the listener where he can support his favorite artists!

Benn Jordan
CEO - Alphabasic Records”

Wow… finally someone who just gets it and brings it all to the point. Why aren’t more people treating digital music like this? Radiohead already proved with their last album that new approaches like offering an album as legal download and allowing customers to select their own price can really work. I think if more artists and labels, rather than being threatened, just used the new media and distribution channels as a way to promote their work, get known and lead people to their sites, blogs or stores — more people will eventually switch to a new way of consuming music and supporting the artists they love. As soon as it leaves the illegal gray-zone and becomes a regular customer-producer relationship, I’m sure the downloaded “preview” will eventually transform into a purchase of tangible media or merchandise or even just a donation. I think the more people do it, the more people will join, and nobody will feel exploited in the end. The customers will feel good about supporting the artist and producers and still enjoy spending money on their favorites — the labels will not have to fear that downloads will completely ruin their business but actually benefit them. Perhaps it’s a bit like a critical mass of cyclists… the more people ride bicycles, the more will join, the more have joined, the less threatening becomes the motorized traffic, and they all happily coexist and share the roads ever after.

Benn shared some details about his experiment and interesting numbers in his blog From Pirates to Profit. Here is an excerpt:

“[...] It would be absolutely impossible to come up with an accurate statistic since I have no way of finding out how many people on the internet downloaded and listened to the album. I’ve taken the stats from 4 sites that I believe to be the top contributors. As of this morning:

What.cd had 8532 downloads, Waffles.fm had 432, Idmtrade had 2144, and Piratebay had 1238. These 4 sites add up to a total of 12,346 downloads of the full length album in either V0 or FLAC format. This is definitely estimating low, as this blog and Alphabasic.com had hits in excess of 150,000 per day last week.

If we are to assume that ALL pay-per-download purchases were from people who downloaded the album “illegally” (very unlikely), then 0.55% of downloaders bought a pay-per-download copy of the album. Surprisingly, I only sold 69 digital downloads in February for a total of $673.73. The expenses run around $130 a month to maintain the download server, so after transfer fees I’m hanging out at around $500 without touching another 3rd party service. Not bad, not good either.

The donations turned up a little better.

1.83% of downloaders donated. Those 227 people donated an average of $11.02 each, totaling $2490.97.

The total percent of people who either donated or purchased a digital file (under the assumptions I’m making…that definitely side on the positive end) is 2.38%.

If only I could somehow figure out what is going on with that other 97.62%. How many of them thought the album wasn’t any good? How many of them were too broke? How many didn’t have or feel like setting up a Paypal account? How many simply don’t pay for something they can get for free?

Now compare this to the gross income from the CD sales, which from 1429 total CDs sold chimed in $21,435. I’m not going to attempt to figure out if the torrent ordeal helped or hindered CD sales, but before the album was released, I had 969 preorders…which is beyond double the sales I had in February.

So, did I do good? Is piracy helping my income or hindering it?

Well, if you don’t count the cost for gear, hiring musicians, or any of the other expenses that go into making, manufacturing, or shipping an album…I have grossed $24,598 in the first 2 weeks of it’s release without spending a dime on promotion. I’d love to say that my little torrent experiment brought me to that number, but the bulk of that sum was in CD preorders.

Again, without calculating expenses, it is like earning $12,229 annually or $235 weekly. If I had a bunch of hipster roommates and lived very very modestly, I suppose I could get by from just writing and releasing albums (which is probably my life long dream).

That being said, me playing about 10 shows or licensing/composing for 1 big ad campaign brings in more money than that “whole year’s work”…so until my album sales go way up, I’ll continue to divide my time working in television and flying around the world clowning out my art.

Wait! Before you say it…

I’m not bitching! I understand that there’s plenty of people who wish they were in my shoes. Although I do admit that I often envy those with boring office jobs, as they allow the person to not only enjoy the benefit of a guaranteed paycheck, but they can separate work from their passions. I hate to admit it, but even writing this article waters down the innocence and purity that comes with writing music.

…which I guess is my point. You probably think that 2.38% number is disappointing. But it also allowed me to expose my life’s work to, at the very least, about 10,000 new people. By running all these numbers I expected to add to the argument that the music industry needs more creative business plans, which I’m not sure if I have or haven’t done…

I’m too distracted by the content feeling when looking at the numbers. It reminds me that after all the labels, tours, contracts, and bullshit…I’m still making albums for one reason…because I simply fucking love writing music. [...]”

Yes, that number looks disappointing, but I’m convinced it will increase over time. I downloaded first, loved what I heard, absolutely appreciated his model, the openness and his transparency, the numbers, so much I didn’t even hesitate once about purchasing these two CDs that were still available. If more people knew about and discovered his music and if they like it I’m sure more will actually follow through with some purchases. Of course tastes are different and not everybody who downloads the music will also like it. But it reached somebody, and somebody took the time to listen to it. And even if the person just downloaded it to spread further around, that’s just free promotion then. No harm done.

I hope other musicians and labels will follow Benn Jordan’s example and embrace the new web of digital media instead of fighting it. He deserves all respect and applause. Check him out at the official website, his blog, and his label.

Date/Time:
06/27/2008 06:13 AM

Route:
After a high-intensity ride through rush-hour traffic last afternoon (not logged) I decided to take it easy this morning. So no outside route today, but a recovery interval workout in the basement: Spinervals 16.0 “Aerobase Builder I”, normally for autumn and winter days, focusing on technique and aerobic or ‘blue zone’ intensity training.

Traffic:
None.

Length:
approx. 1 hour 22 minutes

Bike:
Windsor Wellington 3.0 road-bike with 700×23c Maxxis Xephyr

Weather:
warm, felt very humid

Condition:
This week has been a little intense because in addition to the bike rides I had other workouts on my evening schedule, but to my surprise I could take it well so far. I intended to do this interval workout next Monday, but I did it today to recover a little and give myself some more time to think about a new route to try next. This workout is longer than others, but relatively easy progressing from 4×5, 4×4, 4×3 to 4×2 minute intervals with decreasing resistance and increasing cadence. The only thing that bothered me was the humidity. It didn’t take long and my t-shirt was wet as if I had taken a shower, not to mention the bike and the puddle of sweat underneath it. I think it may be time to turn on some fans and the dehumidifier.

Heartrate:

The following is another of my favorite routes. It starts at the Volkgarten park and Niers river again, leads east straight through Korschenbroich, passes Kleinenbroich and Büttgen, the A57 Autobahn and continues to the Rhine river at Rheinuferstrasse. This viewpoint is 735 kilometers from the Rhine river’s origin. The route back to Mönchengladbach is almost the same, just in opposite direction. If you continued a few meters further across the river you would find yourself in the metropolitan area of Düsseldorf.

This route is another easy ride on flat terrain, but it leads through very beautiful parks, parkways and nice roads. The parkway through the municipal park in Neuss is especially beautiful in autumn when the leaves begin to fall. Left and right, old tall and very beautiful trees are forming a high arc over the unusually wide path, which believe it or not is not accessible by motorized vehicles. This magical sight alone makes this route worth the ride. But I also always enjoyed the way through Morgensternheide. Its path is finished and smooth, and yet this area always felt very untouched and quiet. Every time I rode through this area I had to wonder why so few people walked or biked in such a beautiful place. But at the same time I was very thankful for it — it wouldn’t be the same if you suddenly had to share the path with crowds of people.

Riding to the Rhine river obviously was another highlight of the route. Düsseldorf is to Mönchengladbach what Washington DC is to Baltimore. Many people commute from Baltimore to DC, and a lot of people from Mönchengladbach and surrounding areas are commuting to Düsseldorf every day. The Autobahn is crowded with traffic; the double-decker trains are completely packed with people squeezed in up to the doors. It took me about an hour to an hour and a half with switching trains to get from Mönchengladbach to Düsseldorf. After experiencing these rush hours for a while one can’t even imagine any other way to get to a city like Düsseldorf (or Washington) other than taking the train or car.

The more surprising is a bicycling route like this one, proving that there are far more pleasant ways to cover essentially the same distance. Every time I also find it interesting that when you take cars, trains or buses, places seem much further away than if you rode a bicycle or walked the way. Motorized routes are generally longer, and the start-stop rhythm of traffic, traffic lights, bus- or train-stops just make places feel much further away than they really are. I was very surprised when I first walked all the way down to the Baltimore harbor, or when I just recently rode this route all around Druid Park, the Baltimore Zoo, Clipper Mill Road, Pennstation and back on Charles Street.

I’m glad that there is such a beautiful route that connects Mönchengladbach with Neuss and the Rhine river. I would love if I could find a similarly nice route from Baltimore to Washington DC one day — even if I had to make it a whole day or two-day trip.

Other highlights include probably the best Turkish Döner Kebap fastfood restaurant in Büttgen and the ice cream parlour I already mentioned with the previous Korschenbroich route :). The route below is about 50 kilometers long.

View Google Map | Open with GoogleEarth

The last route went east to Mönchengladbach’s neighbor Korschenbroich — the following route will lead through the western neighbor Niederkrüchten, a municipality in the district of Viersen. Living in Baltimore nowadays I haven’t ridden any of these routes for quite a long time, but my memories of the Niederkrüchten route seem to date even further back into the past, because I don’t exactly remember any details about the segment in Niederkrüchten.

I remember enjoying this route a lot, especially the ride on the bumpy dirt tracks, through the fields to the municipal park in Rheydt I mentioned in some of my previous routes - featuring mini-golf, table-tennis and more. The route follows Stadtwaldstrasse along Rheindahlen towards Merreter, Genhausen, Bau and Gatzweiler to Holtmühle. I remember Holtmühle. The fifth stage “Around Mönchengladbach” led to and through this area, too. From there my memory fades as the route continues along Molzmühle to Merbeck, from Merbeck to Niederkrüchten, Luettelforst, Schwaam and Fischeln. My memory returns again with Hardt, Venn and Holt. But strange, even the photos and satellite pictures of the Niederkrüchten area fail to refresh my memory. I should definitely ride this route when I visit my old home again. It is about 50 kilometers long.

View Google Map | Open with GoogleEarth

Date/Time:
06/25/2008 05:47 AM

Route:
Resumed last week’s route through Druid Hill Park to Baltimore Zoo, continuing on Druid Park Drive toward W 41st Street. This time continued Druid Park Drive, right onto Clipper Road, across the Woodberry lightrail station, right onto Clipper Mill Road all the way straight. Continued straight after it became Falls Road to Penn Station, then back uphill on North Charles Street. [Google Map]

“Oh bliss! Bliss and heaven! Oh, it was gorgeousness and gorgeousity made flesh. It was like a bird of rarest-spun heaven metal or like silvery wine flowing in a spaceship, gravity all nonsense now.” lol… yes, that was the route. After I returned last week I checked the map and found that West 40th street was not necessary and that instead of just returning uphill to the zoo I should have continued across the Woodberry station. Clipper Mill Road was really pure bliss — what a beautiful and quiet road to ride on. This discovery finally allowed me to complete the old boring circles around the lake to a more complete route. Next I want to explore the park further north around Greenspring Avenue etc and make the route longer than the current  length of about 9.2 miles.

Traffic:
easy going all the way

Length:
approx. 9.2 miles

Bike:
Jamis Durango Hardtail Mod. with 26×2.5 Maxxis Hookworm

Weather:
very nice, sunny, fresh, very good air-quality

Condition:
Woke up well, got started quickly and easily. The ride felt easy and under control, even the uphill segments. Overall very enjoyable and refreshing, especially on Clipper Mill Road.

Heartrate/Elevation:

I’m looking forward to Ulrich Schnauss at the Metro Gallery next Saturday, but I am not going to post something about it every day now — This is the last post, I promise However, I thought the following clip is worth mentioning. I don’t know why, but I was very surprised to find all these favorites combined in a single video mix. I mean, what are the chances that somebody’s taste would so closely match my own all across the board from François Truffaut’s French 1959 classic Les Quatre Cents Coups (The 400 Blows), Darren Aronofsky’s black and white indie-math-thriller Pi and his brutally disturbing Requiem For A Dream to Ulrich Schnauss’ Stars?

The following is a compact little route around my old “neighborhood” - well, sort of. My old home is close to the Volksgarten park and Schloss Rheydt, the old manor-house that already appeared in many of the previous routes. Korschenbroich is the next neighbor town east of Mönchengladbach, situated on the Niers river.

The route starts on Zwölf Morgen and follows Ritterstrasse toward Schloss Rheydt, then Bruchstrasse next to the sports field Neersbroich and the old Bolten brewery. It continues via Danziger street, Engbrueck toward the Niederrhein clinic and turns left to the Korschenbroich train station. At Rochuskappelle it will follow the Neusser street to an Austrian restaurant “Zum Tiroler” and continue north on Zollhausstrasse to Herrenshoff. The rout then will lead through Herzbroich back to the Korschenbroich train station, on Grüner Zierdenweg north to Raderbroich, and then back south toward Pesch, Zalfenstrasse to the Rochuskapelle. It leads back on Korschenbroicher street, and at the Niers bridge it turns into the Volksgarten park.

I can’t say for sure what exactly I like about this route, but I always found it very enjoyable. Maybe it’s the familiarity of the area, its proximity to home, the Volksgarten, the straight (fast) segment on Korschenbroicher street. But it also leads through the park, trails and streets — urban, but safe, quiet and really nice areas. It’s perhaps the mixture of different terrains and sceneries that make this route so enjoyable. The route is about 29 kilometers and very easy to ride. It’s a great little warmup for the longer (50 km) routes, and also features probably the best ice cream parlour in or near Mönchengladbach.

View Google Map | Open with GoogleEarth

Date/Time:
06/23/2008 06:06 AM

Route:
No outside route. Decided to do an interval workout in the basement instead: Spinervals 3.0 “Suffer-O-Rama” with sprints, tempo and anaerobic sets.

Traffic:
None.

Length:
approx. 52 minutes

Bike:
Windsor Wellington 3.0 road-bike with 700×23c Maxxis Xephyr

Weather:
mediocre, a little humid

Condition:
As usual it was hard to wake myself up after a weekend, and I didn’t feel like doing it at all this morning. But the ride on the trainer was much better after I readjusted the derailleurs and shoes last week. I think a few more times and this bike will feel as comfortable as the mountain bikes. Spinerval 3.0 is another interval workout I always enjoyed. It feels similar to Spinerval 1.0: it’s relatively short, but still challenging. Compared to a few weeks ago, when I still used the old mountain bike on the trainer, this workout felt much tougher to me. I either lost all my strength, or it’s the morning and the new gear ratio that made it harder in general. I would like to believe it’s the latter.

Heartrate: