The passing of the days is captured in art

From the equally soon-to-be-gone Our Valued Customers:

Bookmarks: After Prince

The Open University's OpenLearn Live service has pulled together a collection of some of the more thoughtful responses to the sudden death of Prince.

Also worth your time: New York Mag on how Prince helped editors when he changed his name to the symbol:

Prince did the only thing you could do in that situation: He had a custom-designed font distributed to news outlets on a floppy disk.

The Prince font substituted his symbol for what would otherwise be a capital P. In addition, the font was also made available for download on CompuServe. It was accompanied by a stern letter featuring both usage and installation instructions.

You may have heard a lot of the tribute radio programmes that were broadcast on Friday night. But if you haven't caught Radio 4's The World Tonight, it's worth it for the interview with sound engineer Susan Rogers. You can listen to that here.

On the other hand... not everyone covered themselves in glory.

The Daily Mirror should be ashamed of its "Prince found dead in party mansion" headline on Thursday night online - nothing factually incorrect, but the inference was clear and unwelcome. Not as bad as Fox News, though, which spoke loudly about how the mansion was being treated "as a crime scene". The story, surely, was big enough to not need extra nudges and winks.

RIP: PRInce

Bugger.

Bugger that, and bugger this year.

Rock sick list: Prince

Prince had to get his private jet to make an unscheduled stopover in Illinois after he felt ill onboard.

He'd apparently been ill before getting on the plane, which kind of makes me feel glad he flies on private jets and doesn't wind up disrupting lots of people.

It's exciting for the people of Moline - the airport where he touched down - as it's the most exciting thing to have happened there for... well, possibly forever. It used to have a slogan "Joined together, as the boroughs of New York City", and when your region's motto references a more exciting place elsewhere, you know you're in a quiet town. ("Tamworth - where people bleed, just like they do in London"; that sort of thing.

Sadly, though, the local hospital wasn't planning on becoming a sideshow:

The TMZ report said a private plane carrying Prince landed at Quad-City International Airport in Moline early Friday, and the performer was taken to a hospital.

But Blake Long, marketing manager for UnityPoint Health's Illinois region, would not confirm that late Friday afternoon.

"Prince is not currently listed as a patient," Long said, adding the hospital system had no other comment.

You have to respect a place where the marketing manager for a hospital, handed his biggest opportunity, declines to get involved.

Meanwhile...

The Minneapolis Star Tribune reported Friday night that two sources close to Prince told the paper that he was at home in Chanhassen, Minn., on Friday evening. One said he had been suffering from “bad dehydration” but that “all’s good.”

Well, which is it? Is everything good, or is the dehydration bad? Which is it?

The Dancing Baby is free to dance

Eight years after a dancing baby created a shitstorm, a Federal Appeals Court has told Universal that it needs to think things through before issuing takedown notices:

Today, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled that copyright holders like Universal must consider fair use before trying to remove content from the Internet. It also rejected Universal’s claim that a victim of takedown abuse cannot vindicate her rights if she cannot show actual monetary loss.

“Today’s ruling sends a strong message that copyright law does not authorize thoughtless censorship of lawful speech,” said EFF Legal Director Corynne McSherry. “We’re pleased that the court recognized that ignoring fair use rights makes content holders liable for damages.”

The baby in question danced for a few seconds while a Prince song played in the background. Universal sued with a straight face claiming that this would stop Prince from being able to make a living.

Oh, Mo, you didn't

Lil' Mo went to see Prince, but needed a pee. "No problem", she thought, "I have a VIP pass - a VIPee pass, if you will. I shall just nip backstage and use the facilities there."

Oh, but it wasn't to be:

According to reports, the "Superwoman" singer had a VIP pass to the festival but apparently was stopped backstage when she tried to go use the bathroom because Prince was making his entrance to the show.

"Oh, never mind", thought Mo, "I can either hold it for a couple of minutes until Prince has passed through, or else use one of the other toilets out in the main area of the venue."

Hang on. No she didn't.

She moaned. On Instagram:

Lil Mo wasn't happy about it, and she made her opinion known on Instagram soon after, though her post has since been deleted.

It read:

"The muthaFCUKIN [sic] NOLA police just tried me and @dynamiteKO we had VIP passes to meander the whole superdome dude talmbout 'we gotta hold the walk through cuz PRINCE coming through the back' bitch wtf. I don't want to see him. I had to PEE. This industry shit is CRAZY. Erbody think they not human!!

Mannnnn.... I'm GONE."

Instagram? Why would you post that to Instagram? I mean, why would you post that anywhere, but especially Instagram?

Now, it's possible to have some sympathy with Mo - all she wanted was a wee, and she was blocked from doing so by Prince behaving like a prima donna.

On the other hand, it's Prince. Going to Prince gig and complaining that he's behaving like a 17th Century Laird is a bit like ordering a blue cheese sandwich and complaining the filling is mouldy. Given everything we know about Prince, would you really expect him to greet you, guide you to the dressing room toilets and rummage in his fannypack to share his Andrex wet wipes with you?

More to the point, if you're going to launch a stinging, if poorly spelled, attack on the self-obsessed, entitled nature of the music industry, "my VIP pass wasn't honoured" might be starting you off on shaky ground.

Still, Little Mo does have form for over-reacting when it comes to revenge:

Brits 2014: The morning after

A couple of thoughts as the 2014 circus passes into history.

First: If Kate Moss mumbling something about Scotland is the most outrageous thing to happen, congratulations: your awards ceremony is officially moribund.

There is an interesting point, though: if Scotland does break from the UK, would it have an influence on the Brits?

Not really. None of last night's winners are Scottish. None of the performers were Scottish. I don't think any of the award presenters were Scottish.

Bowie might have been better off sending the message 'Scotland, join us' rather than 'stay with us'.

For the record, here's the full list of winners:
British Male Solo Artist - David Bowie

British Female Solo Artist - Ellie Goulding

British Group - Arctic Monkeys

British Breakthrough Act - Bastille

British Single - "Waiting All Night" by Rudimental ft. Ella Eyre

British Album Of The Year - AM by Arctic Monkeys

Best Video – One Direction

International Male Solo Artist - Bruno Mars

International Female Solo Artist - Lorde

International Group - Daft Punk

Global Success - One Direction

Critics' Choice - Sam Smith

British Producer Of The Year - Flood & Alan Moulder

Today just tried to draw the Arctic Monkeys on the Scotland issue, and got rewarded with one of those sub-Lennon "witicisms" rather than an answer. Their desire to not say anything upsetting confirms they've passed a certain point in their career - the Muse Horizon - where they just turn up with album after album that sounds a bit like the last one; the record business assumes they're some sort of edgy, alternative act; and everyone does very nicely out of this drifting along. Apart from the fans.

Finally:

#Brits2014 host James Corden interrupted a speech from Prince to take a selfie #r4today pic.twitter.com/TqxOCADL2H

— BBC Radio 4 Today (@BBCr4today) February 20, 2014

You can see Prince thinking "aaaand this is why I don't do this sort of thing."

Brits 2014: The artist formerly known as above this sort of thing

Prince has been confirmed as playing the Brit awards this week.

In other news, ITN have sighed and moved Wednesday's News At Ten back to around 3am on Thursday morning.

Prince: The returns

2007: Prince does a large scale comeback, distributing a new album for free with the Mail On Sunday. Everyone's invited.

Result: Little interest.

2014: Prince does a small scale comeback, playing tiny gigs in London at which a surprisingly high proportion of attendees work in the media.

Result: Front pages held, features on Today, mass acclaim, etc.

The Artist Formerly Known As A Litigious Gadfly

Prince had launched a lawsuit demanding millions in damages from defendants, known and unknown, who he believed had been helping distribute unlicenced copies of his music.

It was a move about as popular as his last couple of records, and in the face of a huge backlash, he's backed down. He's trying to spin this as a victory:

On Wednesday, TMZ quoted Prince's attorneys as saying: "Because of the recent pressure, the bootleggers have now taken down the illegal downloads and are no longer engaging in piracy. We recognize the fans craving for as much material as possible, but we’d prefer they get it from us directly than from third parties who are scalpers rather than real fans of our work."

Yes. It's absolutely likely that you'd not have been able to get the links taken down without demanding stupid levels of damages, Mr. Prince.

Face '83: Shannon

So, we're considering reissues outwith the scope of this project (thank god for that, eh, otherwise it'd drag on for what feels like forever); and I think we're all familiar enough with Little Red Corvette to let that through on the nod (Face 14; History 9).



Not only is this absolutely perfect, but The Face picked it as one of the best songs in 1983 almost as soon as it was minted, and for that, they deserve our respect.

Face 15; history 9.

[Part of The Face's best recordings of 1983, to which we shall return, again, until we get through the list. It's just your time you're wasting.]

Prince won't let you see for free

Prince has tried some odd approaches to the music business over the years - giving an album away for free to Mail On Sunday readers being one of the oddest (most readers used the disc to throw at foxes.)

Now, he trying to ensure that nobody will see his latest pop opus without giving him a pound and thirteen pence.

In order to let you have a bargain, for just fifteen pence I'm prepared to tell you that the song is as meandering, noodly and disappointingly self-indulgent as nearly everything else he's done in the last twenty years. Paypal me 15p, and I'll email you back that sentence.

You can't choose your fDeluxe

The Family - one of those strange creatures flung together by Prince when he was at the height of his powers - are back, back, back. Only, erm, they're now trading as fDeluxe.

Sure, The Family was a better name for a cult than a band. But fDeluxe? It sounds like a probiotic product.

To give the band their due, they're under no starry-eyed confuison about their creation myth:

Paul Peterson: [Prince] wanted to create something that would be funky but get into some of that Duran Duran money at the same time.

To be fair, the same motivation covered most of Tony Hadley's career, too.

Glastonbury 2011: For Prince, it's 150,000 people bitterly disappointed in a field

It's not really a surprise that Prince has an inflated sense of his own importance. But his anti-Glastonbury snark in the Guardian is still amusing:

Next weekend, Prince is back in Europe – this interview is to promote his headlining appearance at the Heinken Open'er festival in Poland – but he bats away an inquiry about the annual Glastonbury rumours. "They use my name to sell the festival," he glowers. "It's illegal. I've never spoken to anyone about doing that concert, ever."

Yes, every year. They open the booking website, the counter barely clicks over, and so Emily Eavis whispers to a journalist that Prince is headlining and - bingo - the ticket page goes down.

If Glastonbury were somehow using Prince's name to sell tickets, yes, it would be illegal. But they don't. I love the idea of Prince sitting at home on the last Monday in June convinced that thousands of people had been tricked into tramping over to Somerset on the off-chance of seeing a live version of When Doves Cry ruined by some over-active noodling.

[Part of Glastonbury 2011 full coverage]

My name is Prince! And I am apparently a bit rubbish at settling my bills!

Prince is being sued by his own lawyers who claim he owes USD700,000 in unpaid legal bills.

Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler reckon that he hasn't settled with them for work done representing the Purple One in overseas affairs; he also hasn't paid them for doing his divorce.

If you don't pay your divorce bill, do you get remarried by default? Prince might want to check on that.

Mirror Maths

Here's something strange:

Order your copy of the Daily Mirror for £3.15 and get the new Prince album 20TEN for Free.

The Mirror costs, what? 40p. Postage can't costs more than a pound, even if it's in an envelope. And that envelope can't be more than 50 pence worth.

So how does paying £3.15 for a 40p newspaper make the Prince album "free"?

It looks rather as if the Mirror is selling the Prince album for £3.15 from where I'm sitting.

Prince helps out the Mirror

So, how did the Prince album giveaway do for the Mirror? Pretty well, from the paper's perspective:

Their sales increased by 334,000 and 45,000 [for sister paper the Daily Record] respectively when compared with sales on the previous Saturday.

The Mirror hopes that people will have been so thrilled with the paper that came with the record that they'll be back for more Andy Capp and 3AM. Good luck with that, Mirror.

They're also convinced they've created something collectable:

According to the Mirror, copies of its Saturday issue have "become an instant collector's item" and the CD itself has "sparked a global bidding war" with copies "being touted for $22 - £14.60 - last night on the internet...

Perhaps. But you can pick it up for 99p right now. Which, to be fair, is still a profit - although the large number of 'no bids' suggests it might not have been such a canny investment after all.

Prince declares internet 'over'; Google announces plans to power down

Yes, as he prepares to release his next album exclusively through the Sunday Mirror, Prince has declared the internet to be at an end:

He explains that he decided the album will be released in CD format only in the Mirror. There'll be no downloads anywhere in the world because of his ongoing battles against internet abuses.

Unlike most other rock stars, he has banned YouTube and iTunes from using any of his music and has even closed down his own official website.

He says: "The internet's completely over. I don't see why I should give my new music to iTunes or anyone else. They won't pay me an advance for it and then they get angry when they can't get it.

Not entirely sure iTunes gets angry when they don't get the new Prince album - it's a bit like believing that a butchers' would be annoyed if they didn't get first dibs on a hedgehog roadkill.

Prince seems to be the angry one here - why won't someone else pay me to make a record upfront? - but it's touching that he believes him not putting a record on the net constitutes an effective end to the whole business.

As if there's someone in an office block with a polished brass sign outside saying 'The Internet', sucking a thoughtful tooth and saying 'well, we managed to rub on by without The Beatles, but if we can't guarantee late-period Prince, I don't think there's much point in us going on. Timmy, you go and unplug the computer; I'll ring the naked ladies and tell them we don't need any more pictures.'

Before the internet finishes, though, Prince has a couple more thoughts:

"The internet's like MTV. At one time MTV was hip and suddenly it became outdated.

The internet isn't like MTV, though, is it? That's a bit like saying, I don't know, Prince is like silent movies or something. Confusing a medium with a channel.

"Anyway, all these computers and digital gadgets are no good.

"They just fill your head with numbers and that can't be good for you."

It's possible that Prince has made a terrible mistake and stuck his iPod headphones into his calculator. Is he worried about digital music being numbers? But then why would he be releasing CDs?

Still, let's not be too quick to rubbish Prince's grasp of what's popular and what it isn't. He is, after all, distributing his new album through the Sunday Mirror next week. Who could deny his understanding of the modern media market?

The illustrated Hello: Peter and Paul

Oh. The first one is a bit of a challenge. Peter and Paul.

The general assumption is these are the Saints of the same name - how apt for today.



You could throw in a Mary and then you'd get this:



Saint Peter was the first Pope - and probably the only one who didn't preside over a Catholic Church that was full of financial and sexual irregularities; Saint Paul was a large city in Minnesota, birthplace of Charles Schultz - who crops up later on in the song via one of his more famous creations. And, across the river in the twin city, there's this chap:



And, erm, they're all saints, aren't they?



Hmm. Two names in and I'm already stretching it a little.

[Part of The illustrated Hello]

Prince is where the party is at

Prince has announced that he's throwing his house open for an Oscars party on Oscars night. I'm not sure if you need an invitation, or if it's enough to just get the address off Facebook and turn up with a six-pack.

Prince is hoping that this will be more successful than his Eurovision part last year, when only Annie Lennox turned up and he was left eating stale Tesco tortilla chips and slightly-off guacamole for three weeks after.