Threshold of Revelation
Monday, May 23, 2011
Montagnard Cooking
Sunday, May 22, 2011
Depth and Perception
RULES
(US COPYRIGHT LAWS)
Section 107 contains a list of the various purposes for which the reproduction of a particular work may be considered fair, such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Section 107 also sets out four factors to be considered in determining whether or not a particular use is fair:
The purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes
The nature of the copyrighted work
The amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole
The effect of the use upon the potential market for, or value of, the copyrighted work
REASONS
We like to reproduce, share, build off of, and remix works of art. Wikipedia gives some broken down examples of why we do this musically.
▪ to give a formerly popular song a second chance at radio and club play
▪ to create a stereo or surround sound version of a song where none was previously available
▪ to improve the fidelity of an older song for which the original master recording has been lost or degraded
▪ to alter a song to suit a specific music genre or radio format
· to alter a song for artistic purposes
So, all of these reasons seem fair, and make sense, right? Well if there is such controversy over copyright laws there is obviously still an issue. Artists and regular people are being prosecuted for sharing or appropriating music, movies, and images.
"If you make a mix CD for a friend or play DVDs at a house party. Each will lead you into a facial violation of the Copyright law, and in today's world, it's almost unavoidable." - Tim Wu
So if it's unavoidable how do we deal with it?
In this quote the Disney remix artist Pogo talks about his choice to continue to make art despite a nearly inevitable lawsuit.
"The sad reality is, Swashbuckle was contracted work. I’d literally have to start saving the money that Disney would sue me before making the decision to upload it. But who knows? It might just come to that. My music is my mark in this world. If I have to pay to watch it entertain millions of people, then so be it. What's really odd is that the blog post indicates that he had to take down his "classic" Disney movie remixes while he was working at Disney, but now that his contract is up, he's free to put them back up."
This is an example of his work
This is just one more example of electronic musical creation. Like a much further form of the band Atomic Tom who used their iphones as instruments after they were stolen.
A very interesting and innovative way of going around corporate regulation is to personally monitor your art. Issa, a musician, left Warner Brothers to control her own music. Her website is donation based. Her fans pay whatever they want for her music, and it averages to be more than what companies like itunes and Amazon charge, though nothing is technically required. Also in exchange for a download the user can do a good deed. Fans can also donate money to pay for a day in a recording studio, which is normally what record labels do. Through Issa's goodwill approach she actually makes a fair amount of money, and fans say they feel more connected to her. They trust her, and she trusts them. She has managed to breech the cold impersonal electronic distance made farther with its heavy capitalistic inclination, and touches her fans all over the world.
Another way of dealing with copyright laws is crusading for change like renowned lawyer, and anti copyright activist Larry Lessig. (From Tim's Wu's article "Tolerated Use: The Copyright Problem")
"Why should we tolerate tolerated use?" His point: If you care about free expression and the core reasons for our copyright law—i.e., protecting the artists—why would you put up with a system that makes something like fan art illegal and then tries to ignore the problem? Surely the right answer is to fight for reform of the copyright law: Have the law declare clearly that most noncommercial activities, like fan sites and remixes, are simply beyond the reach of the law."
There is also a way that the little man gets around it. In this blog you have seen the terms “fair use” and “tolerated use”. This means that if the copyrighted material is being used in a non-commercial way to educate the public, while fitting a number of other criteria, then you might get away with using it. This kind of material is like the material in; “The Story of Cosmetics” (though that is original material) Another
example is the video segment, “Right Wing Radio Duck.” A video segment that uses a Donald Duck cartoon and pairs it with the rantings of Glenn Beck. His response is infuriation at the fact that free use allows this to happen, and that the copyright association considers this an informative piece. The fact of the matter is that they do, and because of that people can get their art access to the public.
Is this all sounding a little vague and confusing luckily there are many sources in circulation that are created to help the independent artist from getting slapped with a law suit that may cost as much as they make in years. This is one in a comprehensive comic book form.
Actually copyright laws are so confusing, especially in the increasingly common extenuating circumstances of film and television media in
correlation to websites like YouTube, that it isn’t always even enforced. Tim Wu describes it like this. “The paradox is that the current law is so expansive and extreme that the very firms that first sought it cannot even make use of it.”
What he is talking about is the battle for control within the corporations that control film and television. There is a constant struggle with the legal and marketing divisions. Legal is fighting for control while marketing has realized that fansites and millions of people reposting and watching clips from their shows all over the internet is amazing advertisement.
When this first started happening corporations would immediately serve copyright infringers with a cease and desist letter, but once they realized that the work is promoting theirs, then they usually allow it. This has been the case with NBC and YouTube, Warner Bros. and Harry Potter fansites, and countless other cases. Now we actually have
sites like Hulu which allow for free unlimited streaming. As long as the use of their product is considered to be harmless, among other criteria, then it will most likely be left alone. Tim Wu summarizes the dangerous game that artists and corporations are playing with each other, "Remember, copyright is important, and you're breaking the law and you may face massive fines. But on the otherhand, your site is totally great, so keep going!"As you can see there is no black or white answer, and there are many constantly changing, innovative, or stringent, ways to deal with copyright laws. It is not always a noose around the throat of an artist.
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Best Played Loud
Friday, May 6, 2011
MINE!
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
Food feeds culture. Culture feeds food.
Monday, April 11, 2011
Crafty People Crafted People
To some, the time and thought behind this choice of a single word would seem banal and anal, but to others the feelings a single word can evoke are of the utmost importance. Frank Luntz is a master of this and his career is based off of framing. He took the term "Estate Tax" and changed it to "Death Tax". This tax had been around for ages, and no one had noticed, but with the striking image of a "Death Tax" people rallied against it for the first time. So too do we as writers feel this triumphant, vehement sunset, that is screaming over the mountain top, as opposed to (slowly) crawling or (gently) peeking. We read that it is screaming, and we see and feel it in a different way.
Also in screenwriting we learn about demographics. Our teacher told us a story of when he used to work in LA. If a story was pitched to one boss he had, he'd get all of the executives in the room and see who liked it. If everyone liked it he would trash it had no demographic. We are pitched to in the same way by advertisers. We love to think that we are different but we all fit into a category. We are pitched to in the framing of our demographic, and though the pitches are different, we are manipulated in the same exact ways.
"A cyborg is a cybernetic organism, a hybrid of machine and organism, a creature of social reality as well as a creature of fiction... creatures… who populate worlds ambiguously natural and crafted...”
BUT To frame concepts is human. To create tools to make our life easier is human. So is embracing/playing into the palms of consumerism just evolving humanity, or killing it? Are we mutating into a species of addicted zombie label whores. Are zombie films actually a framed metaphor for what we have become? I know these are questions that take it, quite far. I know that whoever is reading this might be nodding in agreement by saying, "Oh sure, I know some people like that, but not me." I thought that too. I don't own a TV. I only go to the mall because it has the Post Office closest to my house. But take a look at this and see if you don't understand a little bit more just what ALL of us have become, simply by living in this time and place. Mark Crispin Miller from NYU said that "Once a culture becomes entirely advertising friendly, it cease to be a culture at all." Watch this and if you can relate to this world for one moment, ask if this is your culture. Then ask if you see any shred of culture in the world you've just recognized as your own.
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Neither here, nor there, but EVERYWHERE!
Though I live in small town America now, that was not always the case. I was born in New Orleans, Louisiana. I have also lived in Miami, Florida, Greensboro, North Carolina. New York, New York, and Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil.
This is the view that I see when I walk out onto my front porch every day.
This is the house that I was literally born in, in New Orleans. It looked a bit different 21 years ago.
I have traveled to Brazil, Italy, Germany, France, Canada, England, and all over the US.
Columbus Circle, a block from my dorm at Fordham University in NY, NY.
Left: A statue of the Apostle Peter as the fisherman, on the Fordham campus.
Right: A group of people doing capoeira at the entrance from Central Park, a couple of blocks from my apartment.
I enjoy surrounding my everyday life with the art I enjoy and the art I create. This even extends to my living space. These are some rooms I have lived in.
I love the Beatles, polaroids, red, and living in rooms painted sky blue. I actually painted this room.
This was a dorm room that I lived in.
This was the room that I occupied growing up in my parent's house.
I love to do yoga.
I studied theatre and spent most of my life studying for the stage before I went to film school.
Among working in restaurants, on a horse ranch, nannying, and other jobs, I had my most rewarding job as a theatre teacher. For a year I taught Kindergarten through 2nd Grade and 3rd through 5th Grade. This is a picture of a few of my kids in one of my classes.
I have a large, close, and loving family. In my family I have a dog named Hazel.
I have a Mom, Dad, and Brother. We are a little silly.
When we have enough resources I get to visit my family in Brazil. These three pictures are from New Year's. In Brazil on New Year's Eve people wear white and drink champagne on the beach while watching fireworks.
This is a picture of my grandmother, a couple of my aunts, cousins, and parents on Christmas. I have been blessed with a large family, consisting of many aunts and cousins, and a large extended family that spans multiple continents and cultures.
This is a photo of myself, my little cousin, and my late grandparents. Around the turn of the 20th century, my grandparents' grandparents came through Ellis Island in New York from Italy.
This is Alberi Italy, a mountainous coastal town.
They settled in Brooklyn, New York, enjoying the company of a large family and living in the larger community and Italian community. They made a living from themselves by owning a running a small gourmet grocery store.
My Dad came to America when he was 30. This is a picture of the airport in his hometown of Porto Alegre RS, Brazil. He came to America to continue his job in the lumber industry, and make a life in a safer, thriving country.
My experiences living in America and Brazil, and growing up with both a Brazilian and American family, as well as having many cousins in Germany, (My father's family immigrated from Germany to Brazil at the turn of the 20th century) have shown me interesting dynamics that a culture specifies for its youth, families, citizens, and workers.
I understand how hard it is to move to a foreign culture, learn its language, and unspoken rules. The two pictures above, if you look closely, demonstrate the high security measures that are required of a person living in Brazil. The picture on the left is of my grandmother's house. It has a tall fence, with an electric fence on top, steel shutters, and bars on the windows. The right picture is of a security guard stationed outside of my cousins house.
In America, these precautions aren't necessary, but when you are the child of a person who has grown up in an impoverished country run by a military democracy and under going a revolution, there can be a strong disconnect. My father can come off as over protective of us. When I was younger it was hard for me to understand, and frustrating, but now I see that it is love, and he has relaxed. It is a bit of a struggle being a child of someone who was raised under these circumstances, but life will be easier when parent and child work to understand the circumstances under which they are coming from.
I have six Brazilian cousins. All of them are above the age of 25. One of them is married. Two are successful business men, one with a Masters degree. One is an architect. One is an army Colonel. Of these six people, four of them still live with their parents. This is the way of the Brazilian culture. The same with my Italian family, up until my mother's generation. In that culture when a woman married a man, she would move in with him and his parents. In America in the present the culture is very different. I have been living on my own since I was 18.
Life between cultures is very different. My life is a hybrid of so many different things. I hope that you can make sense of it. For people who need to mesh multiple cultures the advice that I can give is try to understand. Keep your own culture, but don't be so indignant of others that you outright reject it. Let your children choose what they want to embrace, but make sure that they understand they strong roots from which they came. They will be proud. I couldn't love my heritage more.