On How Can We Get Artists Paid On The Internet? A Chat With David Lowery
The original NPR post was awful (thought not at all unusual as an argument you find online!), but I guess where Lowrey's response loses me is the slippage from, in the beginning, "it is up to us individually to put pressure on our governments and private corporations to act ethically and fairly when it comes to artists rights" to the end, where he seems to be saying instead that it is up to us individually to directly give money to artists or their label/non-profit intermediaries. I'm on board with the former but I dunno about the latter? It sounds a bit like we're hoping people will become ethical consumers, another argument you hear a lot around online music that I think isn't exactly right either. But maybe Lowrey's just saying that we need to change our ethical view first before the policy change can come? But that doesn't seem true because he makes all these direct appeals for people to give money to certain organizations? Oh, I don't know. Maria, are you familiar with a policy that's been proposed to ensure artists get paid without falling into the trap of limiting creative expression? What should we be supporting as a policy, ethically, aside from "everyone stop pirating things"?
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On Crispin Glover's 1989 Novelty Album About Clowns and Screaming
@jfruh That's good to know! I've never seen him in person, and I wondered.
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On Free To Be... Straight White Males
The thing I'm wondering about, I guess, is how much of this is just The Internet? Because sure, there is some of that not-niceness stuff online, but walking down the street as me-who-I-am I don't get aaaaaany of that. So is The Internet the Real Thing, the place where the social mores that enforce privilege are broken down and we can be honest with each other? Or is screaming at each other in text boxes inherently disconnected from how things play out on an interpersonal level and ultimately not all that meaningful? And how does all that connect with the TED stuff - does it mean in THE FUTURE we will all be online and so will be yelling at one another about privilege, or that the super-rich ding-dongs building THE FUTURE will build it in such a way that it enforces their view of how the world should work?
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On Brand New CeeLo Track! The... Meow Mix Theme Song Remix
PS IN WHAT WAY IS THIS HORRIFYING
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On I Have Thoughts About Commenting Systems!
Didn't read through this, but basically the commenters would all like the commenting system to stay the same, right? NICK DENTON WAS SOMETHING SOMETHING
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On Brand New CeeLo Track! The... Meow Mix Theme Song Remix
Honestly, I'm surprised this wasn't commissioned by the Awl as its theme song?
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On Bloomberg Takes Strong Stand Against Extreme Socialism
I always wonder if Quinn and Bloomberg work this shit out in private to help Quinn's candidacy. "OK, now you should propose this liberal-sounding but mostly inconsequential policy, and then I'll come out really strongly against it, to show that you're not in my pocket and to make people think it actually is a big, consequential policy."
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On Solar Storm Update: Clocks Running Backwards, Poles Reversing, Animals Screaming at the Sun
@Bitzy No! We drove up to Magnuson Park and waited for a while but it started to feel like the first episode of The Killing so we booked it.
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On Solar Storm Update: Clocks Running Backwards, Poles Reversing, Animals Screaming at the Sun
Oh thank god - we went out last night to try and see the Northern Lights (Seattle!) and both of our iPhones were very confused about which way was which and we thought both of us were so inept that we couldn't even read a goddamned compass right.
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On How Can We Get Artists Paid On The Internet? A Chat With David Lowery
@Moff It's obviously right (like I say: 0% on board with the original NPR post), but it seems to me like the digital music version of abstinence-only education.