Creative Commons

Copyright protection is extensive in the US and most of the developed world. This stands in stark contrast to the Third World and most NYC streetcorners. Once your pen leaves the paper, or notes recorded, you have exclusive right to that for life plus 75 yrs after, for your kids & theirs. Thing is, there is so much content out there. We basically have a herd mentality and want to view/hear that which we think most other people are viewing & hearing. Copyright is not very meaningful to most people because it's so hard to get a foothold on popularity, they do not see themselves at all in the content-holder role. As powerless as they are as creators, they accept the same as consumers too! They allow themselves to be brainwashed into believing that they have no right to their own culture, the one they created, if only by watching it.

Meanwhile, large corporate interests that create the brainwashing, also target and cultivate the most talented artists, early in life, and then, in many ways, own them. So, these copyright "protections" are not in the interests of individuals or artists, they are in the interests of the owners, who duped and ripped off the real owners. It's the classic case of the tail wagging the dog. We see it with the drug companies, the food/obesity thing, tobacco, alcohol, firearms. Why do you think these are some of the most powerful lobbies in DC? These are all cases where you have large corporate interests basically at odds with the health and happiness of the public, and yet they succeed! Time after time after time. It's unbelievable. The only way to fight back is through educating people, or trying to. It's an uphill battle, even when you're offering people free music.

Often, artists don't want or need all that "protection". They like to have their art disseminated, enjoyed and used by others for their own creative purposes. Most people don't want someone taking their art and selling it for their own profit, but are happy to allow others to use it, make it better and more meaningful, as long as they get credit. For example, two of the photos uploaded to this blog were taken by others. I titled them and they enhanced my site while giving "airplay" to the talented photographers who put their photos on Flickr under a cc - creative commons license.

So, check out the Creative Commons website, the link is above. It's got a great little video on the White Stripes. I'm looking forward to putting more stuff out there, and using more stuff, under these oh so much better licenses. Even the ever-so-charming Hillary Rosen "Learned to Love Larry" ( Lessig, an article she wrote for Wired), and these very creative and hopefully increasingly common licenses.

Billboards

Best moment of the evening: when Diana Ross dropped that feather thing - she looked like some kind of mutant flower. Now, she is really holding up well. I don't quite understand why they didn't christen Beyonce more. They usually have a new black girl every year but they held up at Alicia, I guess because she's so artsy, serious & musical & Beyonce, like all the sexy dancer types are somewhat dissed. Few understand how hard that stuff is. I love Alicia Keys. Falling is stunning, so original, a blend of gospel, hip-hop, r&b, but, so is Crazy in Love, in its own way, that is one jazzed up, aggressive song. There are a lot of folks who turn off at women doing in your face sex/power stuff, Madonna & Britney take a lot of flack. Now, don't get me wrong, I can't listen to that pop sound for more than 3 minutes, but, let's face it the American public has about as much taste for sexually powerful women as it does for powerful black men, or that of any ehtnicity, for that matter. Did Eminem miss a deadline or something? I don't remember seeing him & he just put an album out, he's usually so promotional. Oh well, no loss, the guy is so bitter, he's not even funny half the time... though I did like the MJ stuff in his last video.

Grammy Nods

Again, Maroon 5 gets shafted, along with Beyonce, OutKast, Joss, Jet, Keane and Chevelle.

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind: Externally Enhanced Denial

The convention of this film is that it takes place at a time when the technology exists to help people erase pesky memories, maybe other thoughts too. Just go in, put on a Devo hat, and one of their highly trained professionals will muck around in your mind looking for distasteful thoughts and delete them. Sounds pretty plausible to me. After all, if this service were actually possible, I'm sure it would be a huge success. Just ask the alcohol & drug companies, or entertainment companies, or psychologists.... better yet, go ask your best friend what the connection is between their family of origin and their current life.

If denial were a fungible commodity, it would be the world's biggest selling entity. Most people are ten times better at denial than incorporating and dealing with their many, often confusing, often painful, thoughts and feelings. I'm no exeption, my denial about my childhood lasted till I was 38. And, I like to see stuff, I welcome awareness, and that is unusual. Most folks seem to think it's quite pesky, gets in the way of all the important stuff they want to do. For me, I need the awareness first, in order to determine what I want to do. I think for many others, it works the opposite way. They start from what they think they need to do; thoughts that fit, stay, thoughts that don't...go. We all have some control over what we think. Problem is, it's not total control. And, that's where the helpers come in... drugs, distraction, denial. All of it can work, for a while, to a degree.

Alright, you know the drill... what's the next question? What is the cost? According to the movie, it's based on the classic quote by George Satayana, "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it". Which is exactly what happens to the principals. Although the movie offers the possibility that the second, unaware do-over, will work out better. The cost...not fucking learning from your own life. Now, for some reason I will never understand, that does not seem to bother many people. It bothers the living shit out of me, even to see it in others, because, to me, life is for learning and loving, that's it. Why? That gets me to the quote that really came to mind, that frequently comes to mind. It's one of my favorites and Nicholson delivered it beautifully in Easy Rider.

I mean, it's real hard to be free when you're bought and sold in the marketplace. Course, don't ever tell anybody that they're not free, cause they're gonna get real busy killin' and maimin' to prove to you that they are. Oh yeah, they're gonna talk to you and talk to you about individual freedom - but, they see a free individual, it's gonna scare 'em.

There is nothing we cherish in this country more than freedom. But, I look around at these highly educated people, some of whom have very little quality of life. For all the gloss, they do not seem happy, and they certainly don't seem free. Maybe we don't go in for Devo hats, but something is messing with the minds of these people. Otherwise, they would demand more out of life. So, as CSN&Y said, "Find the cost of freedom". What is the cost? Your denial. That's what you need to cough up, in order to get free. It may not sound like a high price, but it is. Even still, self-induced amnesia is still quite attractive, because you can't always get what you want. It's hard though, when you're flipping through your RS 500 - Collector's Issue and see the face you're trying to forget, again staring.

Anyway, I highly recommend seeing this great film, which should get an Oscar nod, on DVD. It includes a chat between Jim Carrey & Michel Gondry, the gifted director. They talk about the night the elephants were being brought through NYC for the circus and how they spontaneously mobilized to get footage, and how one night Jim ended up driving a bed around Jersey freeways for hours. I think back to my earlier post and how he once tried to squelch all that with Prozac. His life stands in such stark contrast to that. He lives out everyone's fantasy. He gets paid $25M to ride around on a bed, and chase elephants with Kate Winslet... can't beat that. You can see why he'd be so attracted to the role, a guy willing, literally, to pay for brain damage, in order to turn off the pain. It stands for exactly what Carrey is so proud to have avoided.

Bob Dylan

Just saw the Dylan interview. It brought a tear to my eye, seeing one of our greatest living artists shoot the breeze with Ed Bradley after so much silence. I'm not a particularly huge fan of his music, though I've seen him perform, with and without the Dead. I sing his songs, and I certainly appreciate his contribution to music and culture. I guess the most poignant of his comments, to me now, with my passions so aroused about this Free the Music (my new slogan - I'm about to start putting it on T-shirts) issue is his open recognition about where the music really comes from. Most of the great songs come in whole. They happen when the artist gets to a point where they can get out of the way and let the music come. When you watch the music award shows, the artists almost always thank god. They rarely do that for other awards, even artistic awards. But, the musicians know. They feel it when they play, when they sing, when they hear the song come in. Dylan talks about the deal he made with his creator, the one that let the music in. He knows where the music comes from.

Dylan, along with other visionary artists like John Lennon and Jerry Garcia, has a lot of spiritually oriented fans who actually think he is some kind of deity. Both Lennon and Garcia had to do a lot of explaining to people that they were not gods, they just channel their music. Actually, they were both very Buddistic about it. It took John a long time to make peace with himself, if he ever did. Jerry had better support & had a gentler, mellower soul, less troubled past. Dylan seems basically at peace, lives a quiet life in Woodstock, which is a great town. He says he doesn't get the music anymore, but he can do other things. He can still write music, but it probably won't be Blowing in the Wind. Songs like that, and the other 499 that should have been on Rolling Stone's top 500 are our culture, our music. It came from god, pretty much wholesale, ask the artists, and it belongs to all of us.

Joss Stone Show

The first time I heard her voice, I could barely believe it. And to see it come out of this teenage white girl, instead of a forty year old black woman still boggles my mind even when I'm close enough to see her white toe nail polish. Her voice is a gift but she is very innovative with it and has such guts and soul. Incredible! Jem shined and The Calling filled in for Los Lonely Boys wonderfully with only two acoustic guitars. Great show! The venue was the Masonic Temple on Nob Hill, top location, intimate and less than $25. This is exactly what I want to see more of!! Interestingly, I learned of it through friends and not my usual Ticketmaster alert system. This was on Tickets.com, which I usually don't use because it's not local. So, there are still glitches. There are probably lots of underused venues due to lack of a cohesive alert system.