Blog
In Phoenix Before The Dust Storm, the Birthday of EMichaelMusic.com & John Lennon & Listen to Moses
Today I am in Phoenix, Arizona to speak to NARIP about my work in music copyright/IP, publishing and advertising, and to spout and rant too. My 3-hour interactive lecture to NARIP will take place on Wednesday, October 9, 2013 at Paradise Valley Community College. I've been referring this college as Paradise. I like to abbreviate names sometimes especially when the abbreviated name seems appropriate - this area is really beautiful!I'll also discuss digital issues and possibly the fair and essential use of sampling as well. By essential use of sampling, I am referring to situations when one MUST sample without permission in order to create a PARODY.
Why do musicians borrow (from other musicians)?
For many, linking one of these four words - composer, creator, author, songwriter - to a musician might be an enormous leap of faith, and an assignment of talent, creativity and intelligence that all musicians do not, by default, possess. I disagree and feel that a performer has to add original expression to every musical performance especially if the music being performed is notated. This is because notation (in every system from every country I have studied) always requires at the very least a modicum of interpretation, and interpretation requires intentional creating, composing or authoring.
Jonathan Coulton, Sir Mix-A-Lot, Glee and Whose Baby Got Back?
I heard about the Jonathan Coulton v. Glee thing all day yesterday, last night and this morning. As usual the Hollywood Reporter account is the best. Coulton took Sir Mix-A-Lot's Baby Got Back and transformed it into a much different composition. Coulton's radical revision is in the same league of radical revision as The Residents' The King And Eye in which they (The Residents) wildly re-imagined famous Elvis Presley songs. Here is one of the tamer re-imagines - The Residents' version of Don't Be Cruel. (I use the word, "re-imagine," so as to heap praise upon this practice which goes far beyond the normal, reserved arranging one often hears in popular music. Earth, Wind & Fire's take on The Beatles' Got To Get You Into My Life is another example but not as wildly reimagined as those by The Residents or Coulton.)
Laugh, Wince & Wonder Why - Eduard Khil, Eric Idle, Barbara Boxer & Paula Abdul
The cloudy sky of the cover is as vague and indefinite as my December 31, 2012 and view of 2012. The colors of the photo do not seem real - the place, time of season and day also seem as untrue and uncertain.As for the following five (5) videos - they make me laugh, wince and wonder why. I hope you'll like them too and try to make them comport to your New Year's Eve's desire(s). Only the first video, featuring Eduard Khil, is appropriate as a reminder of people who died in 2012 and left behind a legacy. In the large list of great people who died this year...
Harvard Law School Lecture - December 5, 2012
I will be speaking at The Harvard University Law School today between noon and 1:15 PM in Wasserstein Hall 3036. The subject will be my work in, and take on, music copyright, intellectual property, tech and entertainment issues. This is a great honor and I am very happy to have been invited.This blog post will also double as my notes or at least a guide to the order of subjects. I'll be able to see this post on a monitor or my iPhone while my iPad plays the music. I'll also bring a DVD or two, unless I choose to access the same material on the Very Wide World Spider Web.