And this concludes our broadcast day...

It's been quite some time since I contributed any sort of posting to the Chronicles here and while I may have been busy elsewhere - writing and contributing to CNN.com both in print and video - I can't say that's much of an excuse...

And so it's here - at yet another crossroads in my career, that the future of the Chronicles becomes fairly clouded.

Originally, when I first moved to Los Angeles, the Chronicles was a weekly e-mail dispatch detailing my early adventures in TV journalism and Hollywood for friends back in South Florida and New Orleans. It somehow developed a readership that existed outside of my own circle of friends, thanks to the magic of the Forward button.

Over time, the focus of the Chronicles progressed from celebrity sightings to rambling rants against corporate America, to pop-cultural esoterica and back, much like my career.

Today, I'm happy to report that I've resigned from my position at CNN, effectively ending a 16 year career in broadcasting.

I've been given an extraordinary opportunity to join a new media start-up based in Santa Monica known as Deca. As their newly minted Director of Production, I'll be bringing my experiences in both radio and TV to help create and develop video content for several online portals including mega-blog Boing Boing's new venture Boing Boing TV.

After a career that began back in 1992 with an on-air gig working for CBS-Radio (on the now defunct "95YNF"), and ending things both on-air and behind-the-scenes for one of the world's premiere news gathering organizations with CNN, aside from the obvious change of venue, you might say things are heading in an entirely new direction.

And that gives reason for pause...

All I can say is that after giving CNN the opportunity to try and keep me on staff, and finding out in the end that they had no clear direction or plan for the road ahead, it might as well be up to me to figure out what's next.

I'm excited beyond measure... to be at the beginning of an new chapter - and at the start of a new journey on life's road, where the path ahead is almost entirely my own choosing is quite the head trip.

Usually when these "moments" have popped up along the road, I've marked their passing by beginning a new "volume" of the Chronicles. Now, I'm contemplating closing the books on them altogether. It seems fitting enough.

Of course, new adventures beg for new tales to be told - so it's not like I'll be riding off into the sunset at the end of the picture.

They tried that shit at the end of "Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade," and guess who's coming to a theater near you this summer, with bullwhip, fedora and fiber supplements in hand?
(Fuck you, Steven Spielberg.)

As to what's next, I'll borrow some famous not-so-last words from the great Stan Lee...

Stay Tuned True Believers!

Your man on the coast,

Matt

Office Boredom?

Raid the supply closet and get ready for battle!


DIY Binder Clips Mini-Gun -

Some people have way too much time on their hands.

Music lessons

From the brilliant Seth Godin...

"Things you can learn from the music business (as it falls apart)."

A keen observation on an industry gasping for breath - which is sounding more and more each day like a death-rattle.

Read more...

Also worth noting, this collection of articles from The Daily Swarm detailing the various plans for digital distribution (other than iTunes) being considered by the major labels.

The general sense, once you sift through the quagmire, is that despite having a "high-tech" solution - they still have no clue...

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.