Archive for December, 2008
Free Jazz Hour: Dec 29, 2008
Tonight’s set list:
- Phillip Krumm – Texas Music (compilation) – Sound Machine (1966)
- Tim Berresheim – No Time Left – Heinsberg 1975 bis 2006 (2006)
- Pita – Get Out – Untitled (1999)
- COH – Seasons – The Colour of Beauty, Summer is Red (2002)
- Painting Petals on Planet Ghost – Paintings Petals on Planet Ghost – Sakura no hana no oto ga kikoeru (2004)
- Christian Clozier – Quasars – 1er mouvement (1980)
Listen to the archived show here (available until Jan 5, 2009).
Free Jazz Hour: Dec 22, 2008
For Monday’s show, I put together a set list of bluesy, guitar-based avant-weirdness. The first set (up through the John Cale song) explores the intersection of minimalism, blues, and jazz.
- Henry Flynt – Hillbilly Tape Music – Guitar Rebop (197?)
- MV+EE Medicine Show – The Uranian Ray – Future Blues Pt. 2 (2004)
- Tetuzi Akiyama – Route 13 to the Gates of Hell – Don’t Forget to Boogie (2005)
- John Cale – Sun Blindness Music (New York in the 1960s) – Summer Heat (1965)
- Sonny Sharrock – Guitar – Devils Baby Doll (1986)
- Derek Bailey – Mirakle – s’ Now (2000)
- Last Exit – Last Exit – Catch as Catch Can (1986)
- Dredd Foole – C.O.M. 17H4 – Stones in My Passway (199?)
- The Tower Recordings – The Futuristic Folk of the Tower Recordings – Ray of Reynardine (2003)
- Loren Mazzacane Connors – In Pittsburgh – Blue Ghost Blues (1989)
The Importance of Being at the Inauguration
Nevertheless, even if it is symbolism, the Warren choice strikes me as Obama’s biggest mistake since the election. He’s elevating a conservative religious leader to new heights, giving him stature and credibility, and making his far-right message that much more meaningful when he challenges Obama administration policies in the future.
I’ve heard a lot of liberals make this argument against having Rick Warren deliver the invocation at Obama’s inauguration, but I just don’t buy it. Delivering this invocation is going to give him more credibility than authoring one of the most popular non-fiction books currently in print? Than hosting a high-profile election debate at his church? Than being on all those “most influential leaders” lists published by Time, Newsweek, et al? And of course, you could always make this argument from the other side: by having Warren involved in the innauguration, Obama will carry more influence with evangelicals because it shows he respects their leaders, even though he may disagree with them.
One other factor that is not getting nearly as much attention as it should is that there will be another religious leader at the inauguration (performing the benediction): Rev Dr Joseph Lowery. You can read more about him here, but suffice it to say that he’s no homophobe.
The Decline and Fall of Net Neutrality
The Wall Street Journal unleashed a firestorm yesterday with its article on the apparent collapse of the net neutrality coalition that included — well, just about everyone except the telecoms: free speech advocates, major technology companies, the FCC, and the Obama administration. As I was reading it, a couple of things jumped out at me. First, the Journal claimed that Lawrence Lessig had recently softened his position on net neutrality. A Stanford Law professor, Lessig founded Creative Commons, an organization dedicated to promoting and defending a set of licenses providing voluntary, less restrictive alternatives to current copyright. As a well-known advocate of open source software and free culture (and an Obama advisor, the Journal is quick to point out), it would be quite a blow indeed were he to abandon net neutrality.
Luckily, a hop over to Lessig’s blog clarifies his stance (which, he says, hasn’t changed in years):
I distinguish between “zero price regulations” (such as Markey’s bill (which I say I am against)) and what I called “zero discriminatory surcharge rules” (which I say I am for). The zero discriminatory surcharge rules are just that — rules against discriminatory surcharges — charging Google something different from what a network charges iFilm. The regulation I call for is a “MFN” requirement — that everyone has the right to the rates of the most favored nation.
This is precisely the position that the Journal breathlessly attributes to me today. It represents no change — no “softening” no “shift” in my views.
Now no doubt my position might be wrong. Some friends in the network neutrality movement as well as some scholars believe it is wrong — that it doesn’t go far enough. But the suggestion that the position is “recent” is baseless. If I’m wrong, I’ve always been wrong.
Ars Technica, with their own quick response, points out that what Google is trying to do — the lynchpin of the article — does not seem to violate net neutrality principles in the first place. They point to a helpful post from Google’s Public Policy blog, which addresses the WSJ directly:
Some critics have questioned whether improving Web performance through edge caching — temporary storage of frequently accessed data on servers that are located close to end users — violates the concept of network neutrality. As I said last summer, this myth — which unfortunately underlies a confused story in Monday’s Wall Street Journal — is based on a misunderstanding of the way in which the open Internet works.
…
Despite the hyperbolic tone and confused claims in Monday’s Journal story, I want to be perfectly clear about one thing: Google remains strongly committed to the principle of net neutrality, and we will continue to work with policymakers in the years ahead to keep the Internet free and open.
P.S.: The Journal story also quoted me as characterizing President-elect Obama’s net neutrality policies as “much less specific than they were before.” For what it’s worth, I don’t recall making such a comment, and it seems especially odd given that President-elect Obama’s supportive stance on network neutrality hasn’t changed at all.
Unfortunately, the Journal’s article succeeded in stirring up dust rather than clarifying the issues. The type of “edge caching” that Google is attempting does raise some important questions about how close ISPs should be to major content providers. But rather than delving into the possible impact of this particular innovation, the Journal tries to paint a picture of the demise of the net neutrality coalition that just isn’t based in reality, as far as I can tell.
UPDATE: To be fair, a WSJ blogger did follow up with a more balanced and detailed discussion of edge caching. He points to yet another post on Wired, which offers some helpful insights:
So is the WSJ right? Well, while it seems logical to argue that edge caching gives those that use it an unfair fast lane on the web, the reality is that, without edge caching, the whole web might be quite a bit slower.
Free Jazz Hour: Dec 15, 2008
Tonight’s set list:
- “Blue” Gene Tyranny – Out of the Blue – David Kopay (Portrait) (1977)
- Frank Zappa – Hot Rats – The Gumbo Variations (1969)
- Jean Cohen-Solal – Captain Tarthopom – Ab Hoc Et Ab Hac (1973)
- Material – Memory Serves – Disappearing (1981)
- Art Ensemble of Chicago – Les Stances a Sophie – Theme de Yoyo (1970)
- Brigitte Fontaine – Comme a la Radio – J’ai 26 ans (1970)
- Don Cherry – Brown Rice – Brown Rice (1975)
Listen to the archived show here (available until Dec 22, 2008).
Free Jazz Hour: Dec 8, 2008
Tonight’s show focussed on some more recent, electronic music that draws from free jazz / improv traditions. The set list:
- Ekkehard Ehlers – Plays – Plays Albert Ayler (Part 1) (2002)
- Supersilent – 6 – 6.3 (2003)
- David Toop – Black Chamber – Ill-Faced Doll (2003)
- Amon Tobin / Quadraceptor – Supermodified – Precursor (2000)
- Giuseppe Ielasi – s/t – Untitled #4 (2006)
- Jan Jelinek – Kosmischer Pitch – Universal Band Silhouette (2005)
- Keiji Haino – To Start With, Let’s Romove the Colour! – Another… (2002)
Listen to the archived show here (available until Dec 15, 2008).
Religious Party
During the election, Obama worked hard to win religious (even evangelical) voters over to the Democratic ticket, and made significant strides, especially among younger evangelicals. Not surprisingly, Obama did this largely by emphasizing his personal relationship with faith, rather than softening his positions on major social issues, such as abortion. As a result, his gains among this demographic came largely from those evangelicals who were already social moderates. Still, the gains were significant, despite controversies swirling around his church and rumors that he is a “secret Muslim.”
Now I hear (via Democracy in America) that some influential conservative commentators have launched a new blog called Secular Right. This trend, it seems to me, is pretty important. To the extent that we can decouple a single political party from its monopoly on the devout Christian vote, we can have a richer discussion of the relationship between faith and public policy in America. For one thing, it opens up space for organizations such as this.
into the colder place
Imagining your gaze from the air
I say this is a small thing
remembering your hands moving softly
I say this is nothing
since you cut through the clouds
and then drifted like a leaf
into the colder place
YouTube and Copyright
YouTube has always had a complex relationship with copyright laws. While the quality of user-generated content for the video-sharing website has always been inconsistent, it was catapulted to popularity largely by virtue of widespread copyright violation on the part of its users. As YouTube weathers lawsuits over this fact, it has also been developing a solution that, to some extent, will allow it to have its cake and eat it too. Google (which acquired YouTube in 2006) has been rolling out a “fingerprint” technology that allows it to automatically find infringing material. What’s interesting about this technology is what YouTube does when it finds the copyright violators.
Recently a friend of mine was unable to post a video because YouTube had determined, automatically, that it used a copyrighted song for the soundtrack. But this is just one possible course of action. A few days ago I received an email letting me know that a video I had posted back in July contains copyrighted material (Donna Summer’s “If You Got It Flaunt It”). But rather than deleting the video, YouTube informed me that the copyright holder (UMG) had opted to leave the content on the site, but will apparently be collecting royalties from advertising shown on the video’s page (read more about the system here).
This policy strikes me as a sensible solution to the problem YouTube faces, and an encouraging sign that we can enforce copyright while also allowing for creative reuse of existing art. Of course this strategy depends on a distribution system that has an incentive to encourage this kind of reuse and an incentive to protect copyright holder’s rights. In many situations, these incentives won’t exist. But the more prevalent they become, the more comfortable people will be with the “free” exchange of culture.
Free Jazz Hour: Dec 1, 2008
Last night we ventured into so some serious prog rock territory. But I think you’ll hear the jazz influence in… most of this stuff. I started off with a suite of songs by Arturo Stalteri called Il Sogno di André.
- Arturo Stalteri – André Sulla Luna – Alba ancestrale (1979)
- Arturo Stalteri – André Sulla Luna – Il prisma magico (1979)
- Arturo Stalteri – André Sulla Luna – Viaggiando tra i riflessi (1979)
- Arturo Stalteri – André Sulla Luna – Verso la luna (1979)
- Saint Just – La Casa del Lago – Nella Vita, Un Pianto (1974)
- Magma – Mekanik Destruktiw Kommandoh – Hortz Fur Dehn Stekehn West (1973)
- Jean Cohen-Solal – Flutes Libres – Concerto Cyclique (1973)
- Franco Battiato – Fetus – Carioninesi (1972)
- Brainticket – Psychonaut – Like a Place in the Sun (1972)
Listen to the archived show here (available until Dec 8, 2008).
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