I find this article perversely fascinating.
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20010312/moglen
Very little of that ARPA-ish research was militarily useful. A lot of it ended up in general domestic computing instead - which is likely a good thing.
What's depressing is the extent to which the free content movement has been driven by lawyers like Moglen and Lessig, who really know nothing at all about art, or what kind of work is involved in making it, but still seem to feel qualified to preach to working artists and musicians about how they should be trying to make a living.
However, I suspect, like many preachers, he would do well with that scheme.
However, this insecurity, valuable though it seemed in principle, was cherished almost exclusively either in the second person or in the abstract. Its need was thought urgent for inspiring the efforts of other persons or people in general. It seldom seemed vital for the individual himself. Restraints on competition and the free movement of prices, the greatest sources of uncertainty for business firms, have been principally deplored by university professors on lifetime appointments. Their security of tenure is deemed essential for fruitful and unremitting thought.
- Galbraith, The Affluent Society If you only spend 20 minutes of the rest of your life on economics, go spend them here.
Plus we get Pamplamoose Music ...
With publications (whatever the media), the publication is the performance.
One of the factors that pushes Japanese anime to focus on pandering to "otaku" culture, even where it may result in less mainstream appeal, is that in otaku culture, "buying all the stuff" from a favorite show is a way of showing off, so its possible to sell a series by the two-episode (25min episodes) DVD volume, then the boxed set with trinket to all pre-orders, then the collectors box set, all to the same customer. Plus a wide range of merchandise on top of that.
However, that is just one income stream for the anime producers. With other income streams under pressure, there's the risk of having all your eggs in one basket - and there also the question of just how much anime can be produced on the back of harvesting a large share of the income of obsessive otaku. I've been accused of being a Marxist, yet while Harpo's my favourite, it's Groucho I'm always quoting. Odd, that.
... in which I think Beyonce looks like some kind of hypersexualised cyborg freak, compared to that cover.
But the cover is a cheat too. The video performance has nothing to do with the recording, which is heavily autotuned and looped. It looks folksy and cute, but it really isn't.
Pomplamoose won't get any income for their time. It's an enjoyable cover that probably took a day or two to put together.
But it's free entertainment.
This cover is a VideoSong, a new medium with 2 rules: What you see is what you hear (no lip-syncing for instruments or voice). If you hear it, at some point you see it (no hidden sounds).
So not every loop is on screen at the same time, but supposedly every loop shows up on screen sometime. I've been accused of being a Marxist, yet while Harpo's my favourite, it's Groucho I'm always quoting. Odd, that.
And loop technology is way past simple repetition. You can't be me, I'm taken
If they did the scratch effect with some other device or on the computer, and just pretended to do it with the patch box, that would be cheating. If they made a click sound electronically and showed it as closing a classic If they muffled the bass drum (their September cover) electronically but showed it being done with a muppet hand puppet, that would be cheating. And confer where they have the keyboard that is clearly computer filtered, they have both the keyboard and the laptop in one of the shots.
Its all samples mixed together, but they claim, at least, to show where all the of the samples come from in the video.
... though maybe La Vie en Rose is more apropos ... I've been accused of being a Marxist, yet while Harpo's my favourite, it's Groucho I'm always quoting. Odd, that.
I'd bet on the opening harmony being autotuned, because it's just a little too perfect and shiny. But after that it gets less clear. There's quite a bit of timing slop on the vocals, which suggests live recording for at least some of the harmony lines.
Not that I'd want to be too picky - it's a very good cover, and I like it a lot more than the original.
And of course, there's no promise to show every sample they recorded, just the ones they used. I've been accused of being a Marxist, yet while Harpo's my favourite, it's Groucho I'm always quoting. Odd, that.
