Doesn't this just make you want to get off your ass and DO SOMETHING?

...Almost?

BTW: Make sure you check out the Full Moon tonight, it's supposed to be (relatively) close to the Earth...

Art Is Resistance
-Zero

Labels: Call To Action, Videos

Every now and again, I flip back through the archives here at conradzero.com, and yesterday I came across this easily forgettable post from a year ago. Back in March 2007, Gizmodo announced their position on the RIAA's unethical tactics, and posted an accurate and meaningful manifesto which called the RIAA out on their own bullshit.

If you are a musician, or even a music fan, you owe it to yourself to know the truth, and at least skim through the manifesto. You should understand who the RIAA are, and what they are doing. Once you know what they are doing, you won't need to be told that it's unethical. You'll understand why established bands like Nine Inch Nails are leaving their labels. You'll understand why new bands like Jagged Spiral have no interest in being 'signed'.

The RIAA served their purpose when we had nothing else, but for years they have actively fought against using the internet as a method of music distribution, and when they finally (begrudgingly) put their music up on the internet, they poisoned it with DRM.

This is the point where we don't need the RIAA anymore.

The parting could have been avoided if they simply gave the customers what they wanted (and were more than willing to pay for,) internet distribution of music that we could purchase and play on our own terms. They wouldn't give it to us, and the internet opened another method of music distribution, so this is the point where we say "Goodbye RIAA, it's been great! So long!"

The parting could have remained amicable if the RIAA hadn't decided to become unethical. Unfortunately, the RIAA decided to rewrite and twist the laws of this country to their own ends, and to start unfairly suing their own customers and innocent people.

So this becomes the point where we don't need OR WANT them anymore. This is the point where we say, "Piss off RIAA, you really screwed up that relationship! Fuck you!"

What saddens me most is that all this bullshit gets between the musicians and the consumers. The desperation of consumers to get at music they want is being held up by the greed of the RIAA to restrict access, and control how consumers use the product they sell.

It didn't have to be this way, but the RIAA made their choice. They went to the Dark side. They chose...poorly.

It doesn't have to continue to be this way, but that's for YOU to decide.

What can YOU do about it? Simple. Don't endorse the behavior. Don't fuel the RIAA's efforts. Now that the RIAA's antics are public knowledge, people don't have the right to be ignorant. Anyone purchasing music from the RIAA labels is endorsing, enforcing, and promoting this behavior. Likewise for artists who sign contracts with RIAA labels.

Trust me, there is SO MUCH independent music out there, that the RIAA labels and artists could all die today, and you wouldn't miss them for long. Finding the music you like is half the fun. Check out local bands, and "indie" labels. Look at myspace, pitchfork, Hype Machine and such. If you like music, there's plenty to pick from, lots of it better and lots of it worse than what the RIAA provides, and much of it is in your hometown!

If you want music to thrive, the best thing you can do is to give your money directly to the artists - go to their shows, go to their websites, and buy the art directly from them. The worst thing you can do is give money to the RIAA. Don't fall for I-Tunes. Don't fall for Rhapsody, Zune or Napster. Support websites that support independent artists:

emusic
mp3tunes
Magnatune
Garage Band
CD Baby
Yes, even Amazon.com.

If you know of others, please comment them!

Art Is Resistance
-Zero

Labels: Call To Action, DRM Sucks, Music Industry

You might be tired of me going on and on about how visionary and cool Trent Reznor is...

...I'll stop going on about him when he stops giving me reasons. Case in point:



Art Is Resistance
-Zero

Labels: Call To Action, indie movies, NIN, Ubercool

A Vote for Jagged Spiral is a vote for an Alpine Stereo System for Colin's Truck! Honestly, the man has a portable CD player connected via a cassette-tape-adapter-thingy! What's that? You haven't heard of cassette tape? Let's just say, he could use a new car music system from Alpine, and there is a simple, easy, (and free) way you can help!

Alpine has agreed to give Colin a brand-spanking-new car stereo system! We just need a few cool Jagged Spiral Fans to vote for our songs in Alpine's Rock The Dash contest. It's easy, just a couple mouse clicks, and no registration is required.

Simply go to http://www.rockthedash.com, use the remote to play the Jagged Spiral songs: "Let It Out" or "Not Enough Bullets", then click the "Vote For This Track" button. It's that easy. You can vote for as many songs as you want, every day until the end of May! If you're a real fan (or a psychotic, stalker fan...not that we mind) you can vote once per day from each computer you have access to.

Both our songs have been moving steadily up the charts! We just entered "Let It Out" and "Not Enough Bullets" two days ago, and they have already moved from their start at 320th place to their current location: tied at 126th Place!

The contest ends on March 31. If Jagged Spiral ends up in the top 5, BAM! Colin has a new car stereo, and our weekly trips to Chipotle can be uninterrupted by CD disk changes! Remember, less interruption while driving means less chance of Jagged Spiral exploding in a fiery crash while changing CDs on the way to our practice sessions!

So make it part of your daily internet-fix-routine thingy:

• check e-mail


• update myspace profile


• check www.vita.mn for cool things to do


• check/reply to latest blog posts at www.conradzero.com


• vote for Jagged Spiral at www.rockthedash.com

Jagged Spiral thanks you for your support!

Art Is Resistance
-Zero

Labels: Call To Action, Contest, Jagged Spiral

It's sad when we have to create laws simply to keep people and businesses from doing things that are intuitively evil and wrong.

Props to savetheinternet.com. They are trying to push a bill called the Internet Freedom Preservation Act, which would stop Big Businesses from twisting the existing system of internet to their own design, and screw over independent artists and labels.

Data service providers are pressuring Congress to allow them to create different levels of internet access speed; not to the music and media consumers, but to the providers. Media providers willing to pay more money would have their content moved through the internet at a preferred/faster rate. We can also look at this from another point of view: those who cannot or will not pay extra get their data traffic slopped into the slow lane.

So it won't matter if you have a full-blown 25GBPS connection, if you aren't accessing sites that can afford "Premier Platinum Top-Shelf Delivery" you're going to be remembering what it was like when you had a 28.8 dial-up modem. OK, maybe that's a bit harsh, but not impossible. But the problem is worse than simply an issue of speed, and it goes deeper than just music.

The phone companies should not be allowed to monitor your voice communication and edit out swear words, or political phrases they don't agree with, right?

Internet Service Providers should not be allowed to block blog posts that are anti-Republican, or Anti-Anything, right?

But we've already seen AT&T censor political statements during their web broadcasts. If the Republican Party can afford to pay AT&T more money, their messages get premium (read: unfiltered) service. If the Green Party can't.... well, without some intervention this is where the system is headed.

Comparing this to the way the cable company works is not an accurate analogy. The cable company decides their own content, and they can make you pay more for better content. This makes sense; you pay for content. Data service providers have NOTHING to do with the content coming through them. They are a service, and they have no right to tamper with the data going through their pipes, unless they would like to be held responsible. Do you think AT&T could be held responsible for providing data service to terrorists? Could your internet service provider be held responsible for allowing you access to illegal pornography, or allowing someone to send e-mails about how to construct an atomic bomb?

This is the very reason the FCC exists, to stop nonsense like this from happening. Otherwise, the services might just as well be deregulated, shut down the FCC and save the taxpayers a few billion.

Thank goodness a more reasonable solution was devised, a bill called The Internet Freedom Preservation Act or HR5353, which basically tells data service providers to leave the system the way it is, and let the data flow "...without unreasonable interference or discrimination..."

What you can to do help is make your representative aware of this bill, savetheinternet.com provides a simple way for you to get in contact with your rep and a prepared text to make him/her aware of the situation, and hopefully get the bill passed into law.

Props (as always) the Future of Music Coalition for the linkage and their ongoing efforts to maintain Net Neutrality.

Art Is Resistance
-Zero

Labels: Business Phenomena, Call To Action, Cool Website, Good Cause, political

If you aren't into Internet Radio yet, you should be. Check these sites out:

Accuradio
Live365
Pandora
Digital Gunfire (My personal favorite)

Do you enjoy the content? Diverse huh? Cool, huh?

Not for long. Internet Radio sites are being unfairly shafted by 'The Man'. They need your help. Check the following link, they do a better job of defining the problem than I do.




The solution is to call your Congressional Representative, and tell them (don't ask, that's not how it works.) TELL your representative to cosponsor the Internet Radio Equality Act, or forever hold your tongue about how internet radio became the same bland shit as terrestrial radio.

You have until 15 July 2007.

Blog on,
-CZ

Labels: Call To Action, Music Industry, political, Politics

I recently read about a Sociologist who was doing a study of bathroom graffiti across the nation. It makes sense really - in complete privacy and anonymity, people have the opportunity to write absolutely anything they like, and they know it will be read by members of the general public. (Well, of the same gender anyways). And I bet a lot of info could be gathered by dividing the content by geographic, gender and other divisions. For example, does women's restroom graffiti have more profanity than men's? Does gas station restroom graffiti differ from other types? Do urban graffiti topics differ from rural ones? Where does most porno-graphic-art occur? Where do the funniest jokes occur?

It occurred to me that blogs (personal blogs anyway) are similar to bathroom graffiti, without the anonymity and with a far greater potential audience. They smell better too. Mostly.

Because of the lack of anonymity, I suspect the authors will edit themselves accordingly - most likely to shape the sense of their perceived identity. In effect, a blog post says, I want you to know *this* about me, and *this* is what I think is important/funny/stupid etc.

That is an important difference, because it means that blog posters could *lie* (gasp!) or at the very least emphasize what they want you to think/know about them, and deemphasize what they don't.

Even so, a person's blog probably says as much about them as the bumper stickers on their car, and one could (if one were so inclined) perform an analysis of a person by the content in their blog. Is the content cheerful and upbeat? Or brooding and cynical? Is it all about themselves, or the world around them, or some balance between the two?

Anyway, it would be an interesting experiment for all you fellow bloggers out there to take a look through your posts and decide what they tell the world about you, and what that could mean. Looking back through my own posts as though they were written by someone I did not know, I would guess the following:

• This person likes Computers, Under-Rated B Movies, and Industrial Music


• This person hates DRM, Dashboard Confessional, Quentin Tarrentino, Over-Rated Which Fail To Deliver, and Stereotypical American Attitudes


• This person probably wears a lot of Black


• This person is a Listmaker

Blog on,
-CZ

Labels: Blogging, Call To Action, Culture, Philosophy