HOW ORIGINAL?

What do you think is going to happen to the  InterNETtual property rights of Artists & Writers & Musicians & Corporations?

Shaun Huston on Pop Matters asks,
"Is anything ever wholly original in the sense of having no references or debts to other creators?"

He goes on to write: rip! A REMIX MANIFESTO 
"is an entertaining, thoughtful, and politically committed articulation of what the filmmaker dubs the “copyLEFT”, that is, those who support a copyright regime that favors openness and access to cultural product – music, films, books – rather than exclusive rights for the commercial owners of such product, which is labelled the “copyRIGHT.

The copyRIGHT currently dominates intellectual property law in the US.


What happens to the vitality of a culture when content can be locked down, essentially, for perpetuity? What kinds of options for creativity, for distribution, are opening up for artists in the emerging digital/remix culture? 


Are organizations like the Recording Industry Association of America and the Motion Picture Association of America defenders of creator rights or dinosaurs gasping their last breaths?


This meta-commentary works as well as anything else in the documentary to underline the essential point that culture is made, not owned."  http://www.popmatters.com/pm/review/102337-rip-a-remix-manifesto 

I found another review in the Montreal Gazette.

"A Florida day-care centre was recently busted for having Disney cartoon critters painted on its walls. The centre had to remove them or face the wrath of a seemingly Mickey-Mouse law. It is no stretch to suggest that Disney’s Steamboat Willie character owes its origins to and is a parody of Buster Keaton’s Steamboat Bill. Regardless, Disney was rather litigious when it came to taking action on those who may have infringed on his creations."
http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/news/arts/story.html?id=e88e2492-f6cb-4059-ba2a-17e79ed736b7

SOPA "Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) is a United States bill introduced by U.S. Representative Lamar S. Smith (R-TX) to expand the ability of U.S. law enforcement to fight online trafficking in copyrighted intellectual property and counterfeit goods. Provisions include the requesting of court orders to bar advertising networks and payment facilities from conducting business with infringing websites, and search engines from linking to the sites, and court orders requiring Internet service providers to block access to the sites. The law would expand existing criminal laws to include unauthorized streaming of copyrighted content, imposing a maximum penalty of five years in prison. A similar bill in the U.S. Senate is titled the PROTECT IP Act (PIPA)."
Wiki

A decade ago we all watched the music & recording Industry fall asleep at the wheel as online "piracy" exploded. Steve Jobs came up with iTunes but most bands need to license their song for a commercial and go on tour to make money now. The days of getting royalty cheques in the mail aren't what they used to be. This documentary looks at how the US once brazenly ignored the rights of foreign authors to subsidize and promote American authors...the same situation that exists today in places like China.

Can some sort of compromise be reached or can this genie ever be jammed back in the bottle and corked? 

Imagine there's no Lennon?

I put this drawing together shortly after the senseless slaying of John on December 8, 1980. What I failed to see in the heat of the moment was that it was not "the day the music died".

A part of me wanted, and still wants, to play judge, jury, and executioner and exact some instant karma on his psychotic assassin, but I have a feeling that John would disapprove.

A large part of what allows his music to stand the test of time, is his recurring message of Peace.

'Imagine' has long been my Agnostic anthem.

No hell below us, above us only sky, and no religion too.

However John also mentioned other obstacles, no countries, possessions, nothing to kill or die for, no need for greed or hunger.

This fantastic idealism all makes perfect sense to me and millions of others, despite the fact that there always seems to be just enough humans, who are so full of ignorance and hate, who keep us circling the drain. 

Maybe that's why the song is so bittersweet, because it's totally impossible...

and yet, so many of us still want to believe in it.

They may say that he was dreamer, but he's not the only one.

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month

I thought I'd post this video of Paul McCartney rehearsing 'Maybe I'm Amazed', it was a tribute to his wife Linda.

Linda was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1995, and died at the age of 56 in 1998. Lady McCartney would have turned 69 last month!



I couldn't help but notice how Paul's face lights up when he turns to her.

TWO PATHS!?

I always wondered aboot a particular line in Led Zeppelin's Stairway to Heaven,  a sprinkling from the May Queen? Apparently it's "spring clean"!

DOH! 

"Two Paths On The Wrong Track" was taken at dusk in Woodridge, Manitoba

Some dude on Yahoonswers wrote:

"Plant was deeply into Lord of the Rings at this time, so the May Queen was probably Galadriel, like the lines "all that glittered around her was gold", Lothlorien having golden leaves.
Frodo and his bunch reached there in spring, and were on a mission to "clean out" the world of Sauron."

THE GREATEST GUITAR EVER RECORDED



I have been listening to Rock for over 45 years and I have never heard a better rockin' guitar song..ever.

Perhaps because it was the early 70s and I was coming of age in smoke filled recrooms soaked in black lights...but no other air-guitar solo has ever compared with this masterpiece.

THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT ROCK GUITAR IS SUPPOSED TO SOUND LIKE!
Most people have never heard of  Aphrodite's_Child
 but a few of you have heard of one of the members.. Vangelis_ ..Chariots of Fire.

This is a homemade tribute not a real video but CRANK IT @ 11 .

HOT DAMN!

If you want to be loved and financially rewarded by the most loyal music fans in the biggest music market on Earth,

then y'er gonna want to be a Country Music Star in America!
 

Country music ain't nuthin' to sneeze at in Canada and Australia neither.

Here's a chart of the biggest Music Markets in the world.

In the USofA there are 2,014 Radio Stations playin' Country and 1,323 playin' Rock n Roll in 2009. 

Yessiree Bob that's 77 million adult listeners ever' week...

and 42% of them now have interwebs access!

Now you might not think that songs 'bout drinkin' & cheatin' & horses & more drinkin' ain't entertainin', exhortin', comfortin', & psychologically fulfilling enuff to fill stadiums and sell million$ of CD$...

but you'd be wrong.

I figur'd that I'd hitch my horse to that wagon and try to become the next Garth Brooks?

If you've been livin' on the Moon for the past 20 years, Brooks is the feller what sold 220 Million Singles & Albums in the USofA..

second only to the Beatles.

Now I already have a few songs "in the can" and just recorded a couple more to be shipped off to them thar 2,000 country rodeo..I mean radio, Stations.

Hell, how hard can it be?

Now I ain't sayin'
he a hype-digga!




Is he a marketing genius or just some self absorbed asshat?
Did you see his mama-mea culpa on Leno?

check out this UPDATE!

See, I can do short..nyeh!

"IT" doesn't matter,
Who's Wrong Or Right

Yesterday I left a comment on a Blog posting dedicated to the passing of Farrah Fawcett. The texan beauty whose wholesome face and feathered blonde hair were made famous by her ubiquitous bonerific 70s poster made her rich N' famous. Farrah lived her life and her final showdown with Cancer out in the open.

She was 62.

I stated in the comment section that once MY cohorts (50ish year old celebs born 57.58) start expiring, then I'll start to feeling mortal. The two shiniest stars in my age bracket are Madonna and the most famous person on the planet, Michael Jackson..

shown here as he should have looked at our age.

Some of my other cohorts are:

Sharon Stone, Annette Bening, Madeline Stowe, Holly Hunter, Michelle Pfeiffer, Rachel Ward, Andy McDowell, Jennifer Tilly, Daniel Day Lewis, Gary Oldman, Alec Baldwin, Kevin Bacon, Viggo Mortensen,Christopher Lambert, Tim Robbins and Spike Lee, Prince, Kate Bush, Simon Le Bon, Donny Osmond, Sid Vicious, Joan Jett, Neil Finn, Grandmaster Flash, Paul Weller, Sheila E and Belinda Carlisle, Ray Romano, Jon Lovitz, Denis Leary, Ellen DeGeneres, Bernie Mac, Megan Mullaly, Keenan Ivory Wayans and Dan Castellanta (DOH!) and Osama Bin Hidin.

Then I learned that the frail, tortured, gloved-one had beat it.

Michael was as gifted as he was cursed.

One look at his Father (JW) Joe, a clinic in his own right, and it's easy to see why controversy would shadow his career from the getgo.

A few days ago I had tossed Michael's name in with other famous Bad Dads..mainly because he dangled his child over a balcony...

I should have included his monstrous stagedad!

I prolly got more schadenfreude from Britney's very public meltdown (shame on me) because at least for a while, Michael was a genuine musical phenomenon and trendsetter...thanks in large part to the brilliant Producer, Quincy Jones.


You have to admit, that as far as having "IT", few other performers in the 2oth Century could compete with the innate charisma of Michael Jackson.

Jackson's life has all of the important ingredients required in creating an icon although he would have been better off had he passed after Thriller.

At that point he was still hip N' happenin', before the scandals and scalpels era which has overshadowed his showmanship for well over a decade.

Timing is everything in Show Biz/Life.

A huge part of being an Icon is the whatif factor...

what if James Dean had made 4 movies?

What if Marilyn wrote a tell all book about the Kennedys?

What if Martin Luther King had to face the music about his adultery?

Humongous Elvis trolling around the slot machines in his jumpsuit...we don't want the truth..we can't handle the truth.

These STARS should have been taken down a notch that's what! Their stock should have dropped when all of the evidence is in right?.

Most people assumed that Jackson was descending into weirdness even if he had soldout his London concerts. Most of us figured that he was "done" and headed for his Vegas-Elvis stage...wow that would have been a perfect ending :)

Unfortunately Reality dillutes the Fantasy.

Icons, are essentially a Lie.

We choose to believe and cherish the good stuff.

The empathy factor overrides the culpability and voila..a teflon icon is born.

Thanks to the Internet, the frail bleached performer will become an instant Icon, in the truest sense of the term. Unlike most of the present I-Cons who are fabricated pretentious poseurs or I-conjobs (infamous for trying to be famous) Jackson actually deserves to be famous.

I wonder if Michael had any real friends who looked out for him?

Maybe Liz Taylor?

Taylor certainly knows how fickle fame can be. She was also a child star who was later villified as a slut and then reborn as an Aids crusader.

Being a Celebrity SUCKS.


The troubled man who never had a childhood, and chose to live as a child in his adult years (because he could afford to do it) won't need to worry about what other people think about him anymore.

The great thing about being an Icon is that we, the great unwashed, remember the good stuff...it's called selective memory. Jackson will now take his rightful place in the pantheon of the American Iconosphere.

You either have IT or you don't and his lyrics in the song Beat It testify...

IT doesn't matter,

who's wrong or right.

PICTURE PERFECT PITCH everytime?

We live in a world of Lies...meh, you call that news?

That's not news to any of you because we are all well aware that evolutionary forces make us accomplices. We collude with liars because our brains are programmed to lie to ourselves and others by the age of 4.

I had the pleasure of watching The Truth About Liars...it was fascinating..and I'm not lying..check it out HERE .

"The Truth About Liars concludes with one essential choice we all face -

do we want to live a trusting life and risk being misled,

or be suspicious and risk disbelieving those who are telling the truth?"

Rated on integrity, commitment to promises and reliability, here is the list that the Producers presented regarding Occupational Trustworthiness:

Firefighters 93%
Nurses 87%
Doctors 80%
Police 69%
Teachers 69%
Armed Forces 65%
Judges 52%
Financial Advisors 47%
Plumbers 39%
Real Estate Agents 28%
Journalists 26%
Lawyers 25%
CEOs 21%
National Politicans & Car Salespeople 7%

I would add Bloggers at 100%!

If you have ever used Photoshop or a similar program you know that you can create very convincing images, my dragonhorse thingamabob or the wood-choppens deception in my previous post are poor examples but there are other more technically proficient manipulators out there who can fool your peepers.

Which is why I don't believe anything that I see.

If you've been to a Movie Theatre in the last 20 years you are well aware that you can't believe your eyes anymore..seeing is NOT believing. Special effects wizards can perform virtual miracles. I keep this in mind whenever I watch the News on TV.

So we cannot trust our eyes OR our ears.

I have no idea of knowing how many modern recording artists make use of AUTO-TUNE which is sneaky software that provides pitch correction, timing, vibrato depth, and timbral variation, and allows ANY singer to sound perfect in the studio and during "LIVE" performances.

Personally I would not feel cheated at a concert if they were auto-tuning because if I paid $200 I expect the artist to sound amazing even if they've been on tour for the last three decades.

Believe it or not, some "singers" no longer attempt to disguise this practice.

So, if we cannot rely on our eyes and ears, we had better make damn sure that our nose still knows when we smell a rat or utter bullsh*t!

Homo Escapeons desperately need to fine-tune their Extrasensory Perception (ESP). "The ability to acquire information by paranormal means independent of any known physical senses or deduction from previous experience" needs to become standard operating equipment for modern 21st Century Earthlings.

Just exactly how awesome is your BS detector? How about your other forms of ESP? Can you still smell a rat? Are you a sucker or a deceiver? How much of your Blogospherian persona is LYING?

Don't Lie!

GETTIN' BACK INTO THE GROOVE

As I mentioned earlier, I have been merrily prestidigtizing my vinyl into 0's & 1's.
I haven't heard most of these songs in decades.

I would argue that ((sound)), not smell, is my memory sense.

These songs transport me back to the60s, 70s and early 80s..

to an unemcumbered headspace still free of all the trappings of adulthood that would soon begin to seriously interfere with my spare time.

Some of you may have heard these bands..

CHARLIE was one of my favorite easy listening groups..

I've missed hearing So Alone, Heartless, She Loves To Be In Love, Life So Cruel, Watching TV, Johnny Hold Back, Turning To You..they always had the foxy minx on the jacket.

Have you ever heard of this Robert Johnson?

Wish Upon A Star is fantastic.

How about Lake ? My faves were See Them Glow, Letters Of Love, Red Lake, Scoobie Doobies, Highway 216.

How about the Fabulous_Poodles, Anna Rexia ring a bell?

Todd Rundgren's Utopia ? Windows was one of my faves, My Angel, Love Is The Answer, Trapped...oh how I have missed you. guys..

and Jules_and_the_Polar_Bears You Just Don't Want To Know!

How could I forget the Breakfast_Club who started out with a Drummer named Madonna something..Never Be The Same, Right On Track and Always Be Like This..pure Pop Fun.

The_Other_Ones Stranger, Losing It,All Day All Night, We Are What We Are!!

My oldest album is The_Tornados playing Telstar" the first US #1 by a British group...but it was Chasing Moonbeams, Jungle Fever and the Popeye Twist that I missed the most.

I realise how much more Record Albums offered than today's souless miscule CD

..there was a kinetic physical connection..

you admired and studied the artwork..

WHICH WAS LARGE and interesting ENOUGH TO LOOK AT!

Remember pulling out the lyric sheet? You could actually follow the song plus there could be a thread or clues to the artist's message or state of mind.

We used to get involved in the album like a novel..as if it were a personal journey..and if you weren't too high..you could discuss it with others.

The Music Experience Business was a different beast before Video Killed the Radio Star. Now the gaping maw of the internet swallows songs and bands into the ether. There are about 60 billion bands and 1 millionth of them have about a 1 in a million chance of having a single hit for a few days before the next thing comes along.

All of their music is pirated now so bands have to make all their money touring or selling their song to Nike or Pepsi. Sad really. But I am glad, no make that deeply appreciative that I came of age during the Halcyon days of the 60s and 70s. We thought they'd never end...la la la laa-laa.

Can you think of any hard-to-find songs that you had on vinyl that you'd love to hear again?

HUMBUGGERY Crisismas?..er Cashmass?

More bloody Christmas reruns..

SING-A-LONG

It's the most perplexing time of the year

With the kids belly aching

And Walmart Ads stating

"the must-have gift item is here"

It's the most stressful time of the year

It's the crap-crappiest season of all

With those bad office parties
and red and green smarties

With banktruptcy looming

And suicides blooming

There'll be relatives boasting

Cheap liquor for toasting

And vomiting out in the snow

There'll be scary bank statements

And loan re-arrangements

for Christmas debts one year ago!

It's the most depressing time of the year

There'll be jealousies showing

And insults start flowing

As pleasantries soon disappear

It's the most stressful time of the year

There'll be smiles that you're forcing

And talk of divorcing

For feeding folks nobody knows

You'll hear the same bullsh*t stories

That are so f*ckin boring

about Christmases long, long, ago!

It's the most tedious time of the year

There'll be much mistletoeing

with creepy drunks groping

But soon they will all disappear

Calling Cabs for the stragglers is fine

Waving bye at the Airport sublime

Turning off the tree lights for the last time

That's the most wonderful time of the year

HO HO HO NO NO NO
Christmas Rerun from Nov 06
Why not? TV is nothing but reruns!

It's that time of the year again. The airwaves are clogged with those contrived miserable Carols and their latest incarnations blatantly cashing in to make a fast buck.

Few things in Life are as mindnumbingly nauseating as Christmas Albums.


To help battle the deprresing effects of these done-to-death earworms, I love listening to off kilter stuff like South Park's Lonely Jew at Christmas.



I was contemplating making a new Disc for the Hollow Days and I realised that nobody has ever made a better Christmas album than Boney M!



I think that it's the purpose driven Ka-CHING and artifice of Christmas songs that throws me into convulsions?
The main themes are always some sort of Magical thinking, Good ole fashion GUILT (the gift that keeps on giving) or a very public capitualtion of reasoning and admission of one's encyclopedic ignorance of history.












One particular song, I'll be Home for Christmas, makes me want to ingest a bottle of pills and slide into a warm bubble bath with a plugged in toaster.. it may very well be the most depressing song ever written.











On the other hand, I have adopted Band (84) Aid's Feed the World as a bona fide Holiday Song and I do like Brian Setzer's Rockin Around the Christmas Tree.

I wish John Lennon's Christmas song hadn't been played to death...although it is still lightyears ahead of Sir Paul's effort,
'sim-ply hav-ing, a won-der-ful Christmas time!"

I have always been fascinated by the bizarre pairing of David Bowie with Bing Crosby singing Peace On Earth/Little Drummer Boy together..but it works for me.

To be perfectly honest I find most of these cheesy contrived gimmicky blatant money grabbing songs to be insanely tedious and impossibly annoying.

Thanks to their endless rotation on TV commercials, the radio and in the shopping centres, by December 2nd I just want to scream!


So I need to find some NEW and tolerable Christmas Music to adjust my attitude
..any suggestions?


Since there are so many frightful Christmas tunes somebody out here must know a few songs that are delightful ?

Please forward:
ANYTHING NEW
3 that you LOVE
3 that you HATE.

TAKE IT EASY ON YOURSELF
It's easy to feel blah in Winter..
I mean just looking out at my backyard makes me want to migrate.

Asstronomically, winter officially starts in 2008 on December 21st.... the winter solstice thingamabob, but in reality, "Winter" starts November 1st.





Oddly enough the Celts figured this out Centuries ago when two Druid Dudes who had holidays named after them, Sam Hain and Al Hallows, realised that if it is freezing, snowing, and only light out for 7 bloody hours a day, it must be f*cking Winter!

Now it feels like the Earth is further from the Sun in Winter but believe it or not, it's supposedly 3 million miles closer in December.
What screws everything up is that the Earth leans slightly on its axis....
the precise angle of the tilt is 23 degrees and 27 minutes off the perpendicular to the plane of orbit..whatever the hell that means?

23 degrees off the perpendicular sounds exactly like the angle I like to sit when I watch TV and Blog during the Winter months... coinky dink?
I think not.

Like most people trapped in a Northern Town, I suffer from a sinister, depressing, Oh GAWD take-me-now sense of gloom during our 7 months of Winter.
To ease the discomfort, sometimes I like to sing one of the best pick-me-up songs ever recorded..
check out Jim Carrey's doppleganger Nick Laird-Clowes?!

He said "In winter 1963
It felt like the world would freeze
With John F. Kennedy
And the Beatles."