Will fans pay? Reznor opens books on ‘Net music experiment

Trent Reznor produced the new Saul Williams rap record, then offered it online for 1) free or 2) five dollars. 18 percent of the downloaders paid. Success?

read more | digg story

Here Comes The Rain

Forecasters are calling for the worst rains to hit SoCal since 2005 to begin falling this evening. (01.03.08)

Check out the warnings, courtesy of the National Weather Service.

...SIGNIFICANT RAINFALL EXPECTED TONIGHT THROUGH SUNDAY NIGHT
ACROSS CENTRAL AND SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA..

...STRONG AND POSSIBLY DAMAGING WINDS ACROSS PORTIONS OF CENTRAL
AND SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA FRIDAY INTO FRIDAY NIGHT..

A SERIES OF STORMS WITH THE POTENTIAL FOR AN EXTENDED PERIOD OF
SIGNIFICANT RAINFALL AND STRONG WINDS WILL MOVE INTO THE AREA
TONIGHT AND WILL LAST THROUGH SUNDAY NIGHT. THIS COULD BE THE MOST
SIGNIFICANT RAINFALL ACROSS THE SOUTHLAND SINCE JANUARY 2005.

THREE IMPULSES ARE EXPECTED DURING THE COURSE OF THIS STORMY PERIOD.

FLASH FLOOD WATCHES HAVE ALREADY BEEN POSTED FOR THE BURN AREAS...WHERE HIGH INTENSITY RAINFALL COULD
PRODUCE SIGNIFICANT FLASH FLOODING AND DEBRIS FLOW IN AND AROUND THE
BURN AREAS. FOR MORE INFORMATION...PLEASE REFER TO THE LATEST FLASH FLOOD
WATCH PRODUCT (LAXFFALOX).

From my experiences working in local news, I can tell you that the media love to over-hype the smallest threat of rain - going on "storm watch" for what would otherwise be considered "drizzle" in any sane part of the country. I actually spent quite a bit of time studying weather and weather patterns, working for a time as a weather graphics producer during one particulary heady period at KCBS-TV and I can tell you, from the look of the NWS's statements - this is a storm of near Biblical proportions.

While I'm not exactly looking forward to the snarled traffic and intermittent road closures, I am kind of excited to take some pics of the chaos with my new digital camera rig.

Meanwhile, enjoy this latest radar image from NOAA.

My Imaginary Friend Can Beat Up Your Imaginary Friend

It's a conceit that I've held for a long time towards organized religion.
The notion that various faiths, mostly of the Judeo-Christian tradition, have continued to wage war -- whether real or imagined -- against each other in a battle to prove that theirs is the one, true God.

"My Imaginary Friend Can Beat Up Your Imaginary Friend"

You can't imagine then how excited I am when members of the Catholic League or some other fanatical sect of the Religious Right get themselves worked up over pop-culture.

Their latest target, the film version of "The Golden Compass."

At the heart of Catholic League's criticism is the notion that writer Phillip Purman, who penned the series of novels on which the film is based, is an avowed atheist. Since "The Golden Compass" was published more than a decade ago, critics have claimed that its story - in which a young girl battles against an age-old spiritually based organization which is seeking to rule the world - is anti-religious.

In an interview on the CBS Early Show, Bill Donohue, leader of the Catholic League, said that the film is an outright attack on religion.

"This teaches atheism to kids. Phillip Pullman is very open about this. The movie is basically innocuous, but parents may want to say to their kids, 'You know what? A great Christmas present would be to buy his 'Dark Trilogy,' the name of the three books.' Now you've introduced your kids to atheism.

The League is, of course, calling for a boycott of the film.

Now, I haven't seen the film yet. Nor have I read the original book on which it's based. But now, I'm fascinated.

Any time the Church, or those who claim to represent its interests, feels strongly enough about anything to openly campaign for its censorship or removal from public view, it only makes me want to see what the fuss is all about.

The studio, New Line Cinema, is attempting to combat The Catholic League's campaign by saying that the film is not at all anti-religious. Director Chris Weitz, on the film's web-site says it's a film about "things that matter, like the human spirit, loyalty, kindness and free will."

Something the Catholic League is apparently none too fond of.

"It's the definition of the Catholic Church," Donohue says, "They're teaching about the Pope convening with the bishops. The spin is too late now. They're trying to say all this could represent any authority. We're not talking about the police bureau or an abusive schoolteacher. They're talking about the Catholic Church. The book is clear."

And even if it is, so what?

Religious leadership constantly finds reason to rail against anything that falls outside of its world view to the point that it calls for its eminent destruction. Sounds an awful lot like an "age-old spiritually based organization which is seeking to rule the world."

Synchronicity I

My odometer and speedometer, eerily in sync last night...

Synchronicity II

A half mile later... for good measure.

Now these are some fightin' words...

Posted today on Reznor's web-site, www.nin.com, the alt-industrial rocker continues to rail against his former record company Universal Music.

Several years ago I persuaded my record company to let me begin posting my master recording files on nin.com, in order to see what kind of user-generated content would materialize from my music. I had no agenda… the main reason I did it was because I thought it was cool and something I would have liked to do if it was available to me. A lot of really fun stuff started to happen….communities developed, web sites were created, even traditional radio got in the game and began playing the fans' mixes. I felt the experiment, despite not having a specific purpose, was a success. So much so that we're now releasing a remix album that includes some of this fan-created material as well as the actual multitrack master files for every song from my latest record, Year Zero.


One piece was missing to me and that was an official nin.com presence for aggregating all of the fan-created remixes. Several intrepid fans had stepped up and done a great job providing a destination for people to post these, but I felt all along this was a function I should more directly support. So, upon release of this new remix album, our plan has been to launch an official site on nin.com that would provide a place for all fan remix material and other interactive fan experiences.

Or so I thought.

On Saturday morning I became aware of a legal hitch in our plans. My former record company and current owner of all these master files, Universal, is currently involved in a lawsuit with other media titans Google (YouTube) and News Corp (MySpace). Universal is contending that these sites do not have what is referred to as "safe harbor" under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, and therefore are in copyright violation because users have uploaded music and video content that is owned by Universal. Universal feels that if they host our remix site, they will be opening themselves up to the accusation that they are sponsoring the same technical violation of copyright they are suing these companies for. Their premise is that if any fan decides to remix one of my masters with material Universal doesn't own - a "mash-up", a sample, whatever - and upload it to the site, there is no safe harbor under the DMCA (according to Universal) and they will be doing exactly what MySpace and YouTube are doing. This behavior may get hauled out in court and impact their lawsuit. Because of this they no longer will host our remix site, and are insisting that Nine Inch Nails host it. In exchange for this they will continue to let me upload my Universal masters and make them available to fans, BUT shift the liability of hosting them to me. Part of the arrangement is having user licenses that the fans sign (not unlike those on MySpace or You Tube) saying they will not use unauthorized materials. If they WERE to do such a thing, everybody sues everybody and the world abruptly ends.

While I am profoundly perturbed with this stance as content owners continue to stifle all innovation in the face of the digital revolution, it is consistent with what they have done in the past. So... we are challenged at the last second to find a way of bringing this idea to life without getting splashed by the urine as these media companies piss all over each other’s feet. We have a cool and innovative site ready to launch but we're currently scratching our heads as to how to proceed.
More to come….

By the way, the potential implications of a lawsuit like this one go well beyond creating hurdles for a Nine Inch Nails remix site. Here is an excerpt from technology site Ars Technica regarding a similar lawsuit Viacom has filed against YouTube:

The DMCA's Safe Harbor provisions aren't just important to video sharing sites; they're important to almost every sector of Internet-based business.
"Nearly every major Internet company depends on the very same legal foundation that YouTube is built on," said von Lohmann. "A legal defeat for YouTube could result in fundamental changes to its business, potentially even making it commercially impossible to embrace user-generated content without first 'clearing' every video. In other words, a decisive victory for Viacom could potentially turn the Internet into TV, a place where nothing gets on the air until a cadre of lawyers signs off," he said. "More importantly, a victory for Viacom could potentially have enormous implications for Yahoo, eBay, Amazon, MySpace, and many other Internet companies, because they all rely on the same DMCA Safe Harbors to protect many facets of their businesses, as well. The stakes are high all around."

Indeed.

What the critics are saying...

Ouch! Apparently, the Los Angeles Times was not impressed by CNN's handling of the Democratic debate in Las Vegas last Thursday. Despite record ratings for the political showdown, Times columnist Tim Rutten compared the event to the circus and host Wolf Blitzer to a carnival barker outside the tents of the bearded lady and the dog-faced boy. An excerpt...

"It all would be darkly comedic if CNN's descent into hyperbole and histrionics simply represented a miscalculation in reportorial style, but it signals something else -- the network's attempt to position itself ideologically, the way Fox and MSNBC already have done. In fact, we now have a situation in which the three all-news cable networks each have aligned themselves with a point on the political compass: Fox went first and consciously became the Republican network; MSNBC, which would have sold its soul to the devil for six ratings points, instead found a less-demanding buyer in the Democrats. Now, CNN has decided to reinvent itself as the independent, populist network cursing both sides of the conventional political aisle -- along with immigrants and free trade, of course."

"In other words, for the first time since the advent of television news as a major force in American life, the 2008 presidential campaign will be fought out with individual networks committed to particular political perspectives. Why does that matter? As far back as 2004, the nonpartisan Pew Research Center found that "cable now trails only local TV news as a regular source for (presidential) campaign information. In several key demographic categories -- young people, college graduates and wealthy Americans -- cable is the leading source for election news." Thus, for key segments of the electorate -- groups rich in what the pollsters call "likely voters" -- the main source of political news is now a partisan, or at least, a politicized one."

Read the full article here.

Get Your Game On!

In case you missed it last Friday on CNN.com...
Here's the latest installment of "Get Your Game On!"

Kia Ora!

Jean and I are back from New Zealand... with the pictures to prove it.

Check out the Flickr album here!

Feeling the burn

Unbelievable.
The sheer magnitude of the fires that continue to rage across Southern California.


When I heard first a report on KCRW-FM of a fire that had broken out in Malibu Sunday morning, I had no idea that the situation would erupt into what's quickly becoming one of the worst fire disasters in California history. As my buddies and I headed out for a morning surf at El Porto, a surf break south of LAX, I began to realize the severity of the situation. The Malibu point, usually visible on a clear day from Porto, was hidden behind a wall of smoke.



But today, as I watch the nearly continuous coverage of the dozen or so fires that are burning between Santa Clarita to the north, down to San Diego -- I'm humbled by nature's fury.

CNN.com has a spectacular slide-show of photos, with many submitted by viewers who have been forced to seek higher ground as the flames continued their relentless approach.

Back from the dead... Captain America

Today, Marvel Comics revealed that this January, the Star-Spangled Avenger, Captain America will return to his post in his monthly comic book.

According to this article at IGN, Cap will be return in "Captain America #34," wearing the red, white, blue and black?

Alex Ross is providing the designs that will update the Captain's classic costume - which still includes his signature shield... but now adds a gun to his arsenal.

But, in a Universe where death is often a temporary condition, Captain America writer Ed Brubaker confirms that it won't be Steve Rogers under the mask.

Find out who will wear the mask -and wield the mighty shield this January.

Here's the classic -- in the mighty Marvel manner of the 1960's.

Pop Digital on CNN.com

Check out this week's Pop Digital on CNN.com
Featuring Slacker - a new portable Internet radio device.

News Judgement - or complete lack thereof

Oh, the dichotomy!

A snippet from this morning's CNN editorial conference call notes:

[discussion about Myanmar/Burma]
"we need to continue to do story to build outrage."

Meanwhile, in the Los Angeles bureau, CNN's cameras, live trucks, reporters and producers are camped out in front of the L.A. County Courthouse waiting for the details of a closed door hearing involving the one-and-only Britney Spears and her ongoing child custody issues. A private family matter made embarassingly public by the media. I did mention it was a closed-door hearing? Like vultures waiting for scraps.

Meanwhile, half a world away in Myanmar... wait - K-Fed's here? He's wearing an eye-patch??

If creationists read the newspaper, they'd be freaking out about this....

From the AP:
Austrian judge: Chimps aren't people

"He's now got a human name — Matthew Hiasl Pan — but he's having trouble getting his day in court."

Animal rights activists in Austria are campaigning to have Pan, a 26-year-old chimpanzee, legally declared a person.

The legal battle dates back to February, when the animal shelter where Pan and another chimp, Rosi, have lived for 25 years filed for bankruptcy.

From the article:

Organizers could set up a foundation to collect cash for Pan, whose life expectancy in captivity is about 60 years. But they argue only personhood will ensure he isn't sold to someone outside Austria, where he's protected by strict animal cruelty laws.

The animal rights group has been pressing to get Pan declared a "person" so a guardian can be appointed to look out for his interests.

Group president Martin Balluch accuses the judicial system of monkeying around. "It is astounding how all the courts try to evade the question of personhood of a chimp as much as they can," he said.

NINE INCH NAILS Frontman Says His Record Company Is Run By 'Thieves'

From the article:

"It's a very odd time to be a musician on a major label, because there's so much resentment towards the record industry that it's hard to position yourself in a place with the fans where you don't look like a greedy asshole. But at the same time, when our record came out I was disappointed at the number of people that actually bought it."

Unless you used to work in the music industry, or have a great understanding of new media, it's often hard to understand why there is so much backlash against major record labels.

Trent Reznor manages to explain the problem - both from the perspective of being an artist - as well as music fan.

read more | digg story

Google Lunar X PRIZE

The X PRIZE Foundation and Google Inc. today announced the Google Lunar X PRIZE, a robotic race to the Moon to win a remarkable $30 million prize purse. ..to land a privately funded robotic rover on the Moon.


We have the technology; we've had it since 1969. Once the cold-war ended - and by extension, the Space Race - so too does it seem that real innovation in the area of space travel also slowed.

Yes, we have the ISS (International Space Station), but it's continued deterioration further underscores that NASA's mission has gone off-course and that the exploration of space greatly needs an infusion of new energy and new ideas.

The original Ansari X-Prize paved the way for the notion of "space tourism," by nurturing the concept of sub-orbital flight for the masses, which will hopefully be a reality within our lifetime. The Google Lunar X-Prize could do the same for civilian travel to the moon.


read more | digg story

Netizens offer new take on news

A leading research house compared the news coverage and popularity from three user-edited news sites including Digg to the the traditional news media and found the two mediums to be radically different. The traditional news media tend to focus on issues such as war, immigration, finance. Web news is more interested on console wars or what Paris or Britney is up to.

The original BBC.com article doesn't indicate that so called reader-aggregated news is replacing traditional journalism or for that matter, mainstream editorial decision making - but it does offer some interesting insight into the tastes and preferences of those who use the Internet as their main source of news.

read more | digg story

Album Artwork for iTunes

My geek-tendencies laid bare...

For some reason, music on my iPod just feels incomplete unless it's got artwork attached to it. Thanks to this web-site, now you can find FULL SIZE, hi-resolution artwork that you can attach to your songs in iTunes and in your iPod.

Check out this site: http://www.thejosher.net/iTunes

Sure, iTunes will sometimes do this for you automatically, but not necessarily at this resolution. Now, you can enjoy these images in all their 1425 x 1425 glory. It's not a complete library, mind you - you're subject to what Apple has on file.

It seems like no matter what the format, vinyl LP, CD or digital file - the artwork will always matter in music.

Meanwhile the guys that designed the GORGEOUS cover to "Axis: Bold as Love" are rolling over in their graves.

Cadbury Guerilla Marketing - Dairy Milk Gorilla Ad (VIDEO)

Cadbury has come up with a new gorilla marketing campaign. The 90 second Dairy Milk video doesn’t feature chocolate once, not verbally or visually, until the very last second. Instead, the video is focused on a gorilla playing the drums and rocking out to Phil Collins. (Quite possibly the best drum fill recorded in the 1980's)

Reportedly, it cost the UK-based chocolate maker 6.2 million pounds to produce.

The question I have is -- is it a man in a gorilla suit? Is it a puppet? Animatronic?

BMX Vert Finals @ X-Games XII

I managed to score VIP access to the X-Games in L.A. this weekend.

After taking in some Moto-X, I made my way to the giant vert ramp to catch the Finals in the BMX Vert Competition.

I was a witness to history at Simon Tabron from the UK pulled off the first-ever back-to-back 900's ever in competition. Despite this AMAZING feat, Tabron only placed SECOND the final.

You can only imagine what his fellow Brit Jamie Bestwick was doing on the ramp that allowed him to take home the Gold...

I took a bunch of photos with my cell phone. I'm an idiot for not thinking to bring something more substantial. You can check them out here.