December 16, 2008 archive

Caroline Kennedy throws a hat into the ring, and Muntadar al-Zaidi throws his shoes. A rant.

Caroline Kennedy may be the successor to the Senate seat recently vacated in New York.  I don’t know why Caroline, but I don’t know why not.  If anyone has had political theory pushed at her since childhood, Caroline has.  She is one in a family of public servants.  Caroline herself has been involved with public interests in New York for many year as chief executive for the Office of Strategic Partnerships for the New York City Department of Education, and according to Wiki:

Kennedy is currently President of the Kennedy Library Foundation, a director of both the Commission on Presidential Debates and the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, and Honorary Chairman of the American Ballet Theatre. She is also an adviser to the Harvard Institute of Politics, a living memorial to her father.

But for some reason, perhaps because I suspect she is considered because of her relationship to a political dynasty that is losing its head, I am suspicious of the choice.

More rant beyond the fold:

Energy Smart Candidates: A 2008 recap and 2009 look-ahead

Eight months ago, the Vote Energy Smart, not Energy Dumb! effort began.  

The opportunity is before us to bring focus to [energy and global warming] across campaigns, across the United States, and make Energy/Global Warming a winning issue come November and a higher priority for serious Congressional and Administration action come January 2009.

The Energy Smart Act Blue page worked on the philosophy of supporting underdog challengers, who were not “expected” to win when added to the page.  And, most importantly:

The challenger understands energy / environmental issues and will bring a radically different perspective to the Hill compared to the incumbent.

Join below the fold for a recap of the 2008 candidates and the Energy Smart list and a look forward to 2009.

A New Media Paradigm. Part III

A New Media Paradigm. Part I

A New Media Paradigm. Part II

The point is not really the type of music you like, so I apologize to all the Country Music fans I’ve offended even though my true opinion is in fact that I’d rather have my ears Van Goghed than listen to it.

It’s all about the money.

In the vinyl business model your $12 album paid about $2 to the store and about the same to the artist.  The rest went to the greedy bastards in the music business.  Especially during the transition to digital when you had to buy everything twice this was quite a lucrative racket and enabled Record companies to pay Sports Star advances to people like Michael Jackson, Prince, and Madonna.

The interesting thing about advances is that they are advances against future revenues, so it’s not like any of those people were getting real money, what they were getting was the same old $2 only all in a lump up front.  Don’t produce, lose your popularity, sell less, and some soulless accountant shows up at your bling bedecked mansion and tells you your blow budget is cut off.

Bummer to be you dude.

But the soulless accountant and his record company exec friends were still Aok until they started sailing off the shores of digital Somalia.

When you start cutting into Polygram’s blow budget now you’re in for some trouble dude.

I’m both a purist and a technician and I know that it’s simply not possible to duplicate all the information contained in analog media, but as you keep getting incrementally nearer the limits of your derivative you rapidly approach something that is close enough for jazz.  Your brain will fill in the missing pieces.

But once digitized the question simply becomes how many.  If you can play it you can duplicate it, maybe not exactly but close enough for government work (much less than you need for jazz) which is exactly where the execs went to protect their intellectual property.  Unfortunately for them the world is flat and different cultures have different ideas about what exactly property and ownership mean.  Ask Scandinavians (noted pirates and cut throats since Viking times).

So things changed and now you can download your iTunes for $1 a pop and Apple and the artist each get a nickle.

Not quite enough for a swimming pool full of Moet, or even a bathtub.

Still, ya gotta have your bling and the next big thing is concerts and merchandising.  Ever wonder why it costs over a grand to get front row for the Stones?  You’re paying for Keith’s new liver dude and those things are not cheap, even in China.

It has been democratizing in a way.  Now all the artists are starving unless of course you got your start when there was still a mass market and a common culture, but those days are dead as doornails.

Open Thread

Will All Gore attend?  Gmoke over at Daily Kos writes about what Gore has publicly advocated, and folks are taking him up on it, Civil Disobedience Against Coal – March 2, 2009.  Read the email from Bill McKibbon — it’s one of the best I’ve seen when it comes to understanding the consequences and responsibilities of civil disobedience.

Open thread is open!

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