Thursday, April 30, 2009
neat website
Has any of you explored www.scribd.com. allows you to embed pdfs and the like into websites. so if rusty got all excited he could embed a paper discussing the ramifications of globalization on intellectual property rights as they applied/misapplied around the world. Or maybe scott wants to keep all abreast of the proceedings of the american college of surgeons. or perhaps the brendan could throw out something from the salk institute. Jason, perhaps that seminar on cards you've been meaning to give. you get the point.
Big Brother
I now have a greater understanding of the whole tin foil hat club.... Orwell, Alex Jones, care to comment? the photo is of 1.57 gigapixels.
http://www.gigapan.org/viewGigapan.php?id=17217
Huge guy, great voice, from New Orleans
I was really hoping to see this guy in the Neville Bros video (though I wasn't disappointed)...
I was on the phone with Scott when I took this picture back in early January 2007 on Bourbon Street. That's Fat Al. He's built for comfort, not for speed. Fat Al, that is, not Scott. Like I said before, Scott was built for something else.
I was on the phone with Scott when I took this picture back in early January 2007 on Bourbon Street. That's Fat Al. He's built for comfort, not for speed. Fat Al, that is, not Scott. Like I said before, Scott was built for something else.Hats off to the Neil Young show last night....here is a highlight song for me.
Also, this was one of the openers. They are called the Neville Brothers. They are from New Orleans and have been around forever. And holy shit do they put on a good show!
FUNKY FUNKY FUNKY!!!!! NOTE: check out the huge guy with an awesome voice!
Since summer is coming up soon....
An awesome site to snag some fun reggae albums... I know you guys like someone to package up the music in a nice myspace package with a bow on it, but I have confidence that you can figure this out. PEace.
To rusty, from scott
Hey, so I am sitting here in the computer lab looking at the ol blog and brian, who is sitting next to me asked if he could on to post stuff too. So if its cool could you send him an invite? bgbiggerstaff@gmail.com Cool.
It's not cold in Seabearia
http://www.myspace.com/seabear
It's almost Friday wodes, this has been helping me get through.
p.s. Scott, it's looking like grizzlybear has a new cd out-- do you have any information on this?
It's almost Friday wodes, this has been helping me get through.
p.s. Scott, it's looking like grizzlybear has a new cd out-- do you have any information on this?
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
High School Graduate Hires Stripper To Attend Reunion
To be honest, when I read the headline "Fear a High School Reunion? Hire a Stripper" I thought of Manderscheme himself. So I kept reading. It wasn't Manderscheme, just some chick filming a prank on her high school class. You can catch the preview for the movie (which may never come out) on YouTube:
Needless to say, though, the stunt got me thinking. This is as much a Seinfeldian move as you're going to see. You guys remember "The Race"? Have you seen the new addition to the Guggenheim?
Fans of The Colbert Report, you may just be fans of yourself
A recent study conducted at the The University of Ohio indicated (confirmed?) that viewers' perceptions of Colbert were heavily influenced by their own political biases. "The Irony of Satire: Political Ideology and the Motivation to See What You Want to See in The Colbert Report" comes with the following abstract:
This study investigated biased message processing of political satire in The Colbert Report and the influence of political ideology on perceptions of Stephen Colbert. Results indicate that political ideology influences biased processing of ambiguous political messages and source in late-night comedy. Using data from an experiment (N = 332), we found that individual-level political ideology significantly predicted perceptions of Colbert's political ideology. Additionally, there was no significant difference between the groups in thinking Colbert was funny, but conservatives were more likely to report that Colbert only pretends to be joking and genuinely meant what he said while liberals were more likely to report that Colbert used satire and was not serious when offering political statements. Conservatism also significantly predicted perceptions that Colbert disliked liberalism. Finally, a post hoc analysis revealed that perceptions of Colbert's political opinions fully mediated the relationship between political ideology and individual-level opinion.
The paper is available for download here, though I think the abstract does a good job of summing the 17 pages. At least for bar talk purposes, right? I think it'd be more interesting to find out whether Colbert is aware of his perceived function as a satirical rorschach? Let's watch this and think about that, huh?
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Playing for change band, street musicians worldwide UNITE!
Yup, it may be obvious by now that I've spent most of the day in front of a computer. Paper's coming along beautifully, and I feel like with the world wide web at my fingertips I can trick myself into thinking that I actually have friends right now. To this, the Playing For Change Band say "Don't Worry." Well, if you put it that way...
By the way, did you know Playing For Change has covered Marley? These guys know what they're doing. You should too.
If you're wondering who these guys are, dig this for a second. Street musicians from all around the WORLD were recorded performing "Stand By Me." I'm talking New Orleans, Santa Monica, to Amsterdam, Zuni, Toulouse, Rio de Janeiro, and all the way to Moscow, Caracas, the Congo, to Guguletu, Barcelona, Umlazi, Piza, and Mamelodi. Virtual studio goes everywhere. Dig it?
"Stand By Me"
I've said it before, but this project pretty clearly demonstrates that the real financial power of music is its ability to bring people together. ONE LOVE, says the late Mr. Marley...
By the way, did you know Playing For Change has covered Marley? These guys know what they're doing. You should too.Peace.
Party Time Reggae Music...24/7!!
So get this. There's this website which broadcasts live feeds from several users all over the world. The feeds are organized in different categories, including Religion, Animals, Technology and MUSIC!!! That's where I found this little gem, Bess100Radio on www.ustream.tv. 24/7 Reggae music, from JAMAICA! Since posting the music directly in The Shanty would unduly invade our acoustic space, please find the link below.
MGMT sues French President Sarkozy's UMP party for music piracy...
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...and settles for 30,000 euros. You can read the story at Reuters. You can also check out the story on Youtube, but it's in French and doesn't include any footage of the pirated material, just the UMP ("Union for Popular Movement") Secretary General explaining the incident.
MGMT was upset by the party's pirated use of "Kids" at its national congress in January, as well in online videos, apparently available on its official website. I looked, and I can't seem to find them anywhere, nor can I find them on the party's blog. I'm sure the terms of the settlement included the removal of the offending material.
MGMT's victory puts the party in a pretty awkward position. The party had previously failed to pass a "three strikes" rule (introduced in June, 2008) which would require internet service providers to kick off customers caught pirating copyrighted material three times (see also, Tuts my Barreh). Tomorrow, they'll try again. To say the least, the party has certainly lost credibility because of the settlement. As one commentator has put it:
[MGMT] specializes in "shape shifting psychedelic pop." Not a bad choice for the UMP, then, which specializes in shape-shifting hallucinogenic economic pap.
Let's have a look at some of the "shape shifting psychedelic pop" that they're referring to. Also, take a look at some of the (pirated?) footage used for the video. And the weatherman. Dig the weatherman.
For Scooter Mix Central, Keep 'em coming
I am making it a point to check out every band you post on here. I'm sure others are, too. There are several times a day when I'm looking for some total Rando diamond in the rough, and you're my miner. But, there are many more times in the day when I'm looking for something new, but not some TOTAL rando. I require something more specific; my needs have qualifications (my attention has limits?).
I might be looking for something in the ambient, shoestaring variety (see Yume Bitsu, great post).
I might be looking for something the in upbeat, triphop variety (see Massive Attack or Gorillaz).
I might be looking for something in the jammy, loopy get-me-out-of-bed variety (see Animal Collective).
OR, give me something that slaps me across the face like a shot of ol' Evan (see Gogol Bordello, coming to Omaha 7/21, btw).
I need a miner, but I also need a marketer. I need you to give me a little something to let me know that this is what I'm looking for, THIS meets my qualifications. Which is why I love it when you make a reco and use this kind of language...
if you are in the mood for some nice background down tempo, trippy, instrumental tunes. this is for you
Or this...
that last one is a bit atmospheric. This is more folky, trippy, ethnic, etc...
That kind of introduction goes a LONG way. With a few favorable comparisons (like this one takes Hammock a step closer to my basement) I'll bet that you can make one that goes even further. Good work, Scootro. I'm checking out every reco and hanging on your every word. Never disappointed.
Monday, April 27, 2009
and another.
http://www.myspace.com/emancipator if you are in the mood for some nice background down tempo, trippy, instrumental tunes. this is for you.
Well as it turns out I am bored and here is another.....
http://www.myspace.com/voiceofthesevenwoods that last one is a bit atmospheric. This is more folky, trippy, ethnic, etc...
Watching the pigeons watching the people...
"What information consumes is rather obvious: it consumes the attention of its recipients. Hence a wealth of information creates a poverty of attention, and a need to allocate that attention efficiently among the overabundance of information sources that might consume it."
-Herbert A. Simon, Computers, Communications, and the Public Interest, 1971
[Author's Note: The above graph is actually a picture of a graph taken from my phone and uploaded here. It's amateur hour at The Shanty today. Converting TIFF files to JPEG files is really hard, so this will have to do. Hopefully, the graph's explanation below will cure any ambiguities created by the fuzzy text. If not, please comment below]The above graph has been excerpted from Matthew Hindman's The Myth of Digital Democracy (p. 61) (2009). He explains the graph in the following terms:
Figure 4.1 demonstrates visually just how important news sites and political sites are--or are not--in comparison to other online content, using Hitwise traffic data from March 2007. The outer circle represents the total volume of Internet traffic. Within it, smaller circles show the amount of traffic that goes to specific categories of Web usage. The figure is to scale: the area of each circle is proportional to the amount of traffic each category receives.
Overall, about 10.5 percent of Web traffic goes to adult or pornographic Web sites. A slightly smaller portion (9.6 percent) goes to Webmail services such as Yahoo! mail or Hotmail, 7.2 percent of traffic goes to search engines, while only 2.9 percent of Web traffic goes to news and media sites.... In the center of figure 4.1 is a small circle denoting the 0.12 percent of traffic that goes to political Web sites.
That's about 30% of web traffic accounted for, and a third of that for porno. There you go, that's the magic of the Web. Keep on 'batin' America!
Nod to Dennis Leary's 'No Cure For Cancer'
"'Cause we tried to be nice to you nonsmokers, we fuckin' tried. You wanted your own section in restaurants. We gave you that. But that wasn't enough for you. Then you wanted the airplanes. We gave you the whole god damned plane! You happy now?! You own the fuckin' plane! I'd like an explanation about that one folks, 'cause I will guarantee you that if the plane is going down the first announcement you're going to hear is, '"Folks, this is your captain speaking. Look, umm, light 'em up 'cause we're going down. OK? I've got a carton of Camel non-filters, I'll see you on the ground. Take it easy.'""The filter's the best part. That's where they put the heroine. Only us real good smokers know that fuckin' secret. Yea, we tried to be nice you nonsmokers but you just fuckin' badger us, you know, you won't leave us ALONE! You got all your little speeches that you're always giving to us, your little facts that you got from a newspaper or a pamphlet and you store that little nugget in your little fuckin' head and you see us light up and you spew 'em out at us, don't ya? I love these little facts. 'Well you know, smoking takes ten years off your life.' Well it's the ten worst years isn't it folks? It's the ones at the end! It's the wheelchair, adult diaper, kidney dialysis fuckin' years. You can have those years, we don't want 'em! And I guarantee you if I'm still alive then I'll be smokin'. I'll be in my wheelchair with my adult diapers on and my twenty five year old born again non-christian son behind me. I'll be going, "Hey! Make sure you wipe this time. I was itchin' all week for Christ's sakes. And get me some more whiffits, I'm almost out you fuckin' pussy, come on!'"
"'Cause they're always tellin' us, 'Well you know, if you quit smokin' now, every cigarette takes three minutes off your life. If you quit now, you can live an extra ten years. If you quit now, you can live an extra twenty years! If...' Hey, I got two words for you. Jim Fix. 'Member Jim Fix, the big famous joggin' guy? Jogged fifteen miles a day? Did a jogging book, did a jogging video, and dropped down of a massive heart attack WHEN?"
"When he was fucking jogging, that's when!"
"What do you wanna bet that it was two smokers who found him the next day and went, 'Hey, that's Jim Fix isn't it? Wow, what a fuckin' tragedy. Come on, let's go buy some boxes.' It's always the yogurt sprout eatin' motherfuckers that get run over by a bus driven by a guy who smokes three packs a day. 'Sorry officer, I didn't see him. I was too busy smokin'!'"
To see Dennis perform this bit, click here.
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Music Recommendation...
Start with song 3. Its the fourth song on the listing.
Saturday, April 25, 2009
Amazing website for amazing music.
http://secret-music-box.blogspot.com/
Seriously, have fun with this one. Hauntingly beautiful stuff. Jason, it follows the theme of minimalist, shoegaze, ambient, etc..
All those buzzwords that we love. The good good.
Friday, April 24, 2009
Shepherd's Dog attempt number two
http://www.ironandwine.com/
Go to this site and you will find it on the front page. Sorry about that.
A wise fellow then myself once said, sometime you eat the bar, and sometimes the bar, well...
http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/us/2009/04/24/dnt.woman.bear.hit.run.kktv
Sorry for the link, having trouble embedding the video
Sorry for the link, having trouble embedding the video
Why Everybody Lost The Pirate Bay Trial
Torrent Freak's recent post on Pirate Bay is rather insightful, though maybe overstated.
No one should have to accept people “stealing” their work, just as no one should have to accept a company demanding that its business model works when it doesn’t. But we all have to adapt to new market realities. The way we communicate and distribute all kinds of information will continue to change at an alarming pace. Taking hard-line measures against file-sharing in the interests of a handful of large organizations sets a dangerous precedent for the future of privacy, net neutrality and freedom of speech. Intellectual property laws are about striking a balance between the interests of individual IP creators and society as a whole. If the law tips too far in either direction, the whole system will fall. Bad legal decisions on piracy may actually end up doing more damage than the piracy itself.
Though the case itself doesn't do much to offer in the way of solutions so much as it highlights the differences between the parties, solutions are probably more prevalent than the author would lead you to believe. I know some of our recent posts reflect some of the more successful varieties (I hope, at least). At the very least, the artists participating in these varieties seem to be doing well enough.
Thursday, April 23, 2009
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Young McDeeshai
Young McDeeshai rolled through town
one day to turn some minds around,
some say, while others aren't so sure,
they found, he'd not a thing to do.
Young McDeeshai, won't be found,
they say, around, these days, this town.
You see, he'd found a thing to do,
right here playing peek-a-boo.
"Fuck, I'm going to eat, goddammit!"
His concession at the very end kills me, "...it's not as tasty as yours is, but it'll work." Truly, we've found a man of principal here. Get yer shit together, Jimmy Dean. "Fuckin' pussy roll of sausage". This is 'merica.
Daytrotter Sessions
This is a great site. Every day, there is a new live act that comes in and plays a few tunes at a studio in Rock Island, Illinois. It's a great way to check out new bands, some are better than others of course. But there's some diamonds in the rough if you're willing to put in the time.
Deeshaiyania!!!
http://www.daytrotter.com/
Deeshaiyania!!!
http://www.daytrotter.com/
New Site Recommendation: www.babelgum.com
Hey Folks! If you're interested in spending a spell online, check out some of the great finds to be found at www.babelgum.com.
MGMT,
The Humpback Whale (This one's actually a film. Happy Earth Day.),
The Linguists (This one's actually a film, too. As featured in Wired.com)
Personal favorite at the moment, J Tillman.
There's probably way more. Let me know.
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
For those who have not seen it, this clip is of the Youtube Orchestra. The orchestra was a virtual collaboration of artist from around the world who came together for a concert at Carnegie Hall about a week ago. From a critics standpoint, it was good but technically not great as they did not really do anything delightfully complicated. I find it intriguing because it brings into question what we've all more then once discussed: how technology is changing the landscape of relationships, collaboration, etc. It's the Postal Service but with 90 some more artists.
RE: Wish I would have been in Siberia
For the full effect, turn down the volume on the video, turn up the volume on the track. Start the track. Wait about 20 seconds. Then start the video.
May be a day late, but I appreciate the salute McBirdy. Ol' Jay Mac 'n' Cheese.
Aide de Camp
"He who understands baboon will do more towards metaphysics than Locke." ~ Charles Darwin, 1838"For Madmen Only." ~ Herman Hesse, 1927
"Tiger got to hunt, bird got to fly; Man got to sit and wonder, 'Why, why, why?' Tiger got to sleep, bird got to land; Man got to tell himself he understand."
~ Kurt Vonnegut, 1963
Monday, April 20, 2009
We live in the greatest country on the face of the planet
There are times that you see a product on the shelves and you can't help but think, "HOW DID THEY GET INSIDE MY HEAD?!?!"
RE: Crucial, Innovative and Brilliant
Black Cab Sessions: this site rocks! Bon Iver, Calexico, Fleet Foxes and MMJ! I already have a favorite:
It kinda sucks that you can't embed clips directly from the site. I was forced to go to YouTube to find this one. BCS, you guys should work on that.
My very first movie....what do you guys think?
I like to call this one Mr. Wode.
How Bout This One
http://edition.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/02/09/synesthesia.genes/index.html
No caption needed-- just plain cool.
No caption needed-- just plain cool.
Sunday, April 19, 2009
Finally.
I love Wired.com. It's a definite "must read" early in the morning and especially on Sunday-Couchdays. For some reason or another, the folks at Wired just seem to get it, whatever "it" may be at the time. Right now, "it" is digital music. A recent blog post, "Why File Sharing Will Save Hollywood, Music," notes the recent Pirate Bay guilty verdict (Reuters story here) and comments that the move by content industries to charge and convict four dudes supplying peer to peer infrastructure is a shortsighted and probably a self-destructive one.
The entire post is pretty right on, though I'd love to hear the woder gallery weigh in on this one. For me, the meat-n-taters of the piece was its reference to Jim Griffin's keynote at Digital Music Forum East. If you had time to read either the keynote or the Wired blog, I'd read the keynote. Here's why (from the keynote transcript):
Music's greatest financial power is its ability to draw a crowd, not our ability to control its quantity and destiny with digital or analog friction. We should focus on its effect on the heart and soul.
Amen reverend! Alleluiah! Finally, someone has articulated what I think we all knew intuitively. With that, I leave you with 1,000 words to show you what I mean.
Friday, April 17, 2009
Aisukuri-mu: Tuts my Barreh
Big subject of interest. In the context of cross cultural musical interpretation, when does one Culture A's consumption of Culture B's music amount to Culture A's ownership of that music?
To get a sense of what I mean, consider the Japanese term for "ice cream." "アイスクリーム" in Japanese script. "Aisukuri-mu" in the latin alphabet. Aisukuri-mu is an example of gairaigo, or "loan word" in Japanese. Put briefly, along with the importation of the food product, the term "ice cream" was imported into the Japanese language. Because of the differences in pronunciation rules and phonology between English and Japanese, importation led to linguistic adaptation. For instance, what was once two syllables is now five. Pronounce the term (like EYE-soo-koo-REE-moo) over and over out loud and you'll see.
The interesting part is that even though it's a borrowed term, aisukuri-mu is nonetheless a Japanese word with a unique significance in Japanese culture. I'm willing to bet that asking for "ice cream" in Japan will earn more than a few confused looks. Likewise, asking for "aisukuri-mu" in America will earn you nothing more than an even louder "Can I take your order?" than the last. In this way, "loan word" is really a misnomer. The Japanese own it now. There's no way we can take this one back, nor is there any reason to take it back since we'd be getting something completely different.
So what about music? What happens when music crosses national boundaries? When it's imported into a new culture? For instance, does "Korean Boy" (so dubbed in this popular YouTube video) now own "Touch My Body"?
I know what you're thinking. Who gives a flying fuck? I mean, "Tuts my barreh"? "Ram it in my thigh?" Am I hearing this right? Is he?
By the by, he is Dong-won Kim, or Dawn Air to his American fans. Yes, fans. He has actually has a YouTube profile (265 friends, last I checked) and a website. With regard to whatever the hell's coming out of his mouth, I don't think anybody really knows for sure (but that shouldn't keep you from checking out some of the attempts to subtitle Dawn's valiant interpretation).
It's probably not even all that important, anyways. I don't think it really matters that Dawn Air's interpretation isn't that faithful to Mariah Carey's initial hit. What matters is Dawn Air's treatment of his recording. His website labels the video (posted July 21, 2008) "Kim's mobilization," which suggests that he claim's some level of ownership. What's more important is when you consider the fact that the video has probably been viewed close to 300,000 times. Having seen the video, anybody interested can easily make their way to Dawn Air's profile. From there, they can purchase his CD's.
Yea, CD's. Apparently, this guy's a real singer songwriter. And he takes advantage of the traffic generated by "Touch My Body" to push his merchandise. Now, I'm not saying this guy's stealing Mariah Carey's audiences away. But Carey probably did a lot to generate global publicity for "Touch My Body." And since Dawn Air has released his own "Touch My Body," he's certainly enjoyed way more publicity than he otherwise would have had he never "rammed it in his thigh." This publicity likely translated into increased CD sales.
The situation is further complicated by South Korea's recent crackdown on the web. South Korea's three strikes policy on internet music piracy, though previously considered in other states including France, represents a bold move in internet regulation. It's been suggested that online piracy doesn't carry the same social sigma in eastern states (Singapore for example) which would work to suppress that kind of activity. It may be in the place of stigma, South Korea has chosen a harsher regulatory regime. What this means for consumers is a more limited access to "Touch My Body" and other great hits.
If pirated music isn't available, I'm sure Dawn Air would be happy to step in with "Tuts my Barreh." And the legitimacy of his doing so will depend much on the legitimacy of his ownership rights.
.....someone has to be the first
A joke about a guy smuggling wheelbarrows. Every day for years and years a customs agent would search through this guys wheelbarrow. Finally, when he was about to retire, the customs agent asked the guy, "We've become friends. I've searched your wheelbarrow every day for many years. What is it you're smuggling?" "My friend I am smuggling wheelbarrows."
-Kurt Vonnegut
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