Copyright's been annoying me a lot lately, in a very particular way: Canada seems to be getting screwed when it comes to media access. If the internet is founded on a premise of being able to access all available information, it then becomes that little bit extra irritating every time that you try to read some post or follow some link only to be brought up short by a message that the content can't be viewed in Canada.
What got me thinking about it was a comment by the remixers who created that Robyn video from a few days ago - A remix, it must be stressed, made with the blessing of the original artist. At the original Youtube posting, people were asking about the possibility of buying the remix, but the remixers commented that it's up to the artist - well---
Q [Gella21] : So then you've decided to drop the mthrfckrs part of your name? Also, when is Be Mine coming out on vinyl???
A [ocelotmthrkckr] : yes we decided it was a cleaner branding job to just do ocelot and also we would be fighting an uphill battle to radio, distributors and stores to carry our records. i dont think our version is going to be on vinyl in the end i think the robyn camp decided ours would go on a cd or maybe just digital. the downside of remixing is that once you turn a track in you rarely get a copy of the finished product. and living in america makes it increasingly difficult to acquire them.
"living in america", indeed. If you go to the Robyn website, it splits off into a site for North America (splayed over an American Flag, no less), and one for the rest of the world. One of them has lots of information (at least), and the other barely has a store, which dumps you on iTunes. Guess which is which? I suppose it's a step up from the old days of import versions, but just barely.
And as the walls go up around the US, where does that leave us? Scrabbling on the outside, peering in at clips from US shows that redirect us to their crippled Canadian counterparts?
And that's not even getting into the really ominous news from today:
Copyright crazies gaining steam in Canada.
And yet, on the other hand, this week I came across (via Beaucoup Kevin) something so impressive as to beggar description: a remixed hour long history of sampled music called "Raiding The Twentieth Century", put together by DJ Food originally for XFM's 'The Remix' show in London, in 2004. The MP3 is an incredible listening experience, and if you doubt it check out the track listing:
Link
So yeah. Fascists, Anarchists. 21st century style. I think I'll be revisiting this one.
Saturday, April 26, 2008
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Shocked, Shocked, I say.
From Sybil Vane over at Bitch, Ph.d., an excerpt from Things I Learned While getting a Ph.d:
4) Academics are, on the whole, not as progressive as they fancy themselves.
Testify. You can also substitute "Baby Boomers" for Academics, or use "Baby Boomer Academics" as the square of the function.
On the plus side, I am constantly enjoying watching Generation Y making Boomer heads explode, a trend which shows no sign of abating. Watching people with poor self-knowledge get a reality pie in the face is one of life's little guilty pleasures.
Note: There are baby boomers whom the above doesn't apply to, of course. But as a demographic, sorry. The most influential leaders of the baby boom so far have been George Bush, Stephen Harper and the Clintons. Res ipsa loquitur.
4) Academics are, on the whole, not as progressive as they fancy themselves.
Testify. You can also substitute "Baby Boomers" for Academics, or use "Baby Boomer Academics" as the square of the function.
On the plus side, I am constantly enjoying watching Generation Y making Boomer heads explode, a trend which shows no sign of abating. Watching people with poor self-knowledge get a reality pie in the face is one of life's little guilty pleasures.
Note: There are baby boomers whom the above doesn't apply to, of course. But as a demographic, sorry. The most influential leaders of the baby boom so far have been George Bush, Stephen Harper and the Clintons. Res ipsa loquitur.
Monday, April 21, 2008
My subordinate senses are tingling...
So I'm spending the start of this week filling out performance evaluations for my superiors. Hoo boy. When people who can fire you (and at very least make your life a misery) ask for honest opinions (anonymity guaranteed), it's a time to try the soul. If you've ever been burned on anonymous feedback that turned out to have mousetraps in the comments box, or had a friend ask for an honest opinion prior to going all psychiatrists' couch on you, you know what I mean. An honest opinion is a trust exercise, at the end of the day, and trust is earned, not requested. Not that I won't complete the exercise, but it does mean that every response must be carefully weighed, rendered neutral, and considered before submission. Did Hawaiians sweat like this every time they tossed some offering into the volcano? Gotta do it, gotta keep Pele happy, but you never know what's gonna set off the explosion, and heaven help you if you were the one in charge of the delivery that day...
Huh. Evidently early Hawaiians didn't toss people into volcanoes. Well, that's good to know.
Sunday, April 20, 2008
It's like an echo in my head.
This is probably the best evocation of missing someone you're likely to ever see. Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you Robyn, Be Mine (Ocelot Mthrfckr Remix)
In case you are wondering, the people in the footage are the filmmakers themselves and not some unsuspecting extras lured in with coffee and donuts.
Via the every enjoyable Beaucoup Kevin Church, linked at right. I always like to toddle by his blog and see what nifty music, vids, or comics commentary he's served up.
In case you are wondering, the people in the footage are the filmmakers themselves and not some unsuspecting extras lured in with coffee and donuts.
Via the every enjoyable Beaucoup Kevin Church, linked at right. I always like to toddle by his blog and see what nifty music, vids, or comics commentary he's served up.
Saturday, April 19, 2008
In case anyone ever wonders...
Where I've been? Ah, that's a longer discussion, and probably not one for this space at this time. But let me give a partial answer.
I'm hardly the first person to say this, but writing is hard. It's particularly hard to do as a sideline, or in your spare time, because it is difficult, and draining, and not precisely fun. Thus, if you aren't writing for a living, or as your sole outlet, it's hard to build up the momentum to compose things when you don't have to. You have to write a lot to get good at it, and you have to write a lot to even get halfway competent, and less than a few hours a day just doesn't cut it. It isn't so much that writers starve for their art, as that they starve because they are writing, and they write (as opposed to pouring the time and energy into a career that pays living wages) because they are driven to.
Now me, I am what you call a generalist, and we live in an age of specialists. I figured out a long time ago that the top 5% or 10%* of any profession is where the driven people and specialists are, and they tend to be the ones with the talent, luck, connections, and above all narrowness of focus to do really well.
Now obviously, some people get there more by talent and some more by connections or luck, but what they all have, I am convinced, is that narrowness of focus. And obviously that exact percentage varies with profession - take sports for example. The percentage of soccer players who make a living at it versus the percentage of pentatheletes is probably very different. (Of course, given how many more soccer players there are than people who do pentathelon, it might even be soccer that gives the worse odds, who knows).
It's possible to be good- sometimes very good- at something and still not be good enough to live in that top percentile. It's what separates the most glorious amateur from the mediocre professional. And when it comes to the creative arts, that top percentile is generally the only band that makes enough money to exclusively do art for a living. People below that band who write, act, dance, or make music for a living generally do so because they're driven to do it enough that they'll endure the financial hardship it entails. The catch is, that they're also the only ones who devote enough time to their art that they can get really good at it.
I write for part of my living. Which is to say, I sometimes write things as part of my job description. But it's not creative writing, and if you're not doing creative writing then you aren't getting any better at it. And so long as I am researching and writing about what I will generically describe as government regulations for a living, that's always going to be a drain on my creative energy. After spending 10 hours a day working in front of a monitor, doing so on my own time just doesn't seem to appeal.
So if I'm going to get better - or at very least stop the corrosion in my writing skills - it's time to get back at this.
*Who knows what the actual number is, but a grad school friend of mine used to spit out the phrase "the talented tenth" to refer to those who vacumned up the work experience, plum positions, and financial aid, leaving the rest of the peons to pay the full shot for everything. Regardless of the number, it's a pattern that was pretty clear to see, and had a dubious relation to talent as opposed to what cohort you entered the school in, or how good you were at apple polishing, or whether you were under 30. Seriously.
I'm hardly the first person to say this, but writing is hard. It's particularly hard to do as a sideline, or in your spare time, because it is difficult, and draining, and not precisely fun. Thus, if you aren't writing for a living, or as your sole outlet, it's hard to build up the momentum to compose things when you don't have to. You have to write a lot to get good at it, and you have to write a lot to even get halfway competent, and less than a few hours a day just doesn't cut it. It isn't so much that writers starve for their art, as that they starve because they are writing, and they write (as opposed to pouring the time and energy into a career that pays living wages) because they are driven to.
Now me, I am what you call a generalist, and we live in an age of specialists. I figured out a long time ago that the top 5% or 10%* of any profession is where the driven people and specialists are, and they tend to be the ones with the talent, luck, connections, and above all narrowness of focus to do really well.
Now obviously, some people get there more by talent and some more by connections or luck, but what they all have, I am convinced, is that narrowness of focus. And obviously that exact percentage varies with profession - take sports for example. The percentage of soccer players who make a living at it versus the percentage of pentatheletes is probably very different. (Of course, given how many more soccer players there are than people who do pentathelon, it might even be soccer that gives the worse odds, who knows).
It's possible to be good- sometimes very good- at something and still not be good enough to live in that top percentile. It's what separates the most glorious amateur from the mediocre professional. And when it comes to the creative arts, that top percentile is generally the only band that makes enough money to exclusively do art for a living. People below that band who write, act, dance, or make music for a living generally do so because they're driven to do it enough that they'll endure the financial hardship it entails. The catch is, that they're also the only ones who devote enough time to their art that they can get really good at it.
I write for part of my living. Which is to say, I sometimes write things as part of my job description. But it's not creative writing, and if you're not doing creative writing then you aren't getting any better at it. And so long as I am researching and writing about what I will generically describe as government regulations for a living, that's always going to be a drain on my creative energy. After spending 10 hours a day working in front of a monitor, doing so on my own time just doesn't seem to appeal.
So if I'm going to get better - or at very least stop the corrosion in my writing skills - it's time to get back at this.
*Who knows what the actual number is, but a grad school friend of mine used to spit out the phrase "the talented tenth" to refer to those who vacumned up the work experience, plum positions, and financial aid, leaving the rest of the peons to pay the full shot for everything. Regardless of the number, it's a pattern that was pretty clear to see, and had a dubious relation to talent as opposed to what cohort you entered the school in, or how good you were at apple polishing, or whether you were under 30. Seriously.
Monday, April 14, 2008
Just for fun, and for absent friends.
I wonder if you can imbed videos in blogger? There must be a way. If you can't get a little moved, when, years later, you hear the music of your teenage years, then I'm not sure you were really living them. Which is not to say I feel any obligation to subscribe to nostalgia for the music of other generations' teenage years. Hmm, let's try this:
Ah, that works. There is a version of history where we all formed an absolutely magnificent 80's hair band, I dressed like Thomas Dolby and played bass like nobody's business while you crooned buttery lyrics and seduced anything that moved, as we strode the stage and brought the house down night after night after night, surrounded by budding geniuses the likes of which we've never quite seen since. You know this in your heart of hearts, yes you do.
Ah, that works. There is a version of history where we all formed an absolutely magnificent 80's hair band, I dressed like Thomas Dolby and played bass like nobody's business while you crooned buttery lyrics and seduced anything that moved, as we strode the stage and brought the house down night after night after night, surrounded by budding geniuses the likes of which we've never quite seen since. You know this in your heart of hearts, yes you do.
Thursday, April 03, 2008
Not Dead Yet.
If the Goddamn Fafblog can come back from an 2 year hiatus, well, what excuse do I have?
First Up: The Matrix Revolutions.
After that, Facebook, The University of British Columbia, Butter Chicken Pizza, and whatever else crosses my path.
Oooo, Blogger's added a new 2.0 Tool for easy edits. Well played, Blogger, well played.
First Up: The Matrix Revolutions.
After that, Facebook, The University of British Columbia, Butter Chicken Pizza, and whatever else crosses my path.
Oooo, Blogger's added a new 2.0 Tool for easy edits. Well played, Blogger, well played.
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