Small Brush Fire

The Court and Spark/ Bless You/Absolutely Kosher Records
Download "Fireworks" (MP3, 192kbps)
Buy at iTunes Music Store/ Rhapsody/eMusic


At the office party/ bbq, i had the pleasant opportunity to hang with cohorts - people with whom i share memories and new faces with whom there is much future. and... the chance to get very very drunk and somehow remain articulate enough to expose my most recent lame idea - reinventing cellular emergency reporting - a more efficient emergency reporting and broadcast system built for the mobile phone era in the digital age, utilizing the tools available for transmitting information via a mobile device which far outweigh the act of a phone call.

with slurred words and distinct inabilities to describe why i like my idea, i spat out the plan to anyone who would listen. Some did, but walked away in minutes, others just looked at me blankly probably wondering why they were stuck talking about Attention models, SMS, XML, and the communication systems of bees (and how bee communication mirrors human interweb experience). I babbled on and on about the ease of information transfer via xml and how, with geotags, a non profit MVNO, and sms, the process by which emergency communication occurs, and broadcast between devices/ between devices and hubs, can be made not only more efficient but more adaptable to an evolving digital and cellular nation. Our cellular lives have made us the mapmakers of information, good and bad.

I know that next to drinking too much at the office party and yapping about bees is not the wisest move. nor is posting the same idea in a blog. The technology business is almost as bad as the music business, con artists everywhere, two faces for every greeting - a depressing jungle for any honesty driven idea person. Which is why it's almost more fun to give it up for free. to whore out the idea knowing that sometimes jealousy is the only real way to bring life into an idea. Now i don't know if anyone will like this idea, or want it. but i do think there is room for improvement in the way our mobile devices serve as emergency broadcast systems as well as informative emergency tools. And I don't care if anyone likes this enough to do anything with it, because (go figure) it's a not for profit idea to begin with. If anyone were to steal this and profit from it, i'd probably blog about the perversion of humanity, an expected outcome in a lazy consumerist society.

So here's the basics. its not that revolutionary. it all happened when i got a txt msg from a person on the road, who saw an unattended brush fire. they asked me to look online for a spot to report unattended brush fires. immediately i wanted the sms to have geotags so i could just enter those tags into a form and let whoever (the california hwy patrol) know of the issue, while remaining anonymous b/c i like anonymity. and privacy rights.
so...

- A state gets a non-profit MVNO for emergency communication
- all cellular/ mobile 911 calls are routed through this mvno to standard 911 emergency triage
- using the mnvno enables information to be transmitted via sms and can also utilize xml
- all transmissions to 911 will use geotags so latitude and longitude are determined
- cellular phones are also gps devices/ geotags will automatically attach to any communication within the non profit emergency mvno
- privacy rights (phone caller info) will apply - phone caller name will not be revealed
- reverse 911 messages can include photos
- photos can also be included in emergency sms messages sent from a caller to the 911 dispatch
- can also include video from video phones


as applied to the small brush fire, the witness would simply send a txt or a photo (or both) to 911. that's it. the picture/ txt message would carry all the necessary info.

there are open questions and i don't yet have answers. like......what if the 911 folks want to call back? is that an invasion of privacy? i am leaning toward a big no on that. as long as the name is withheld, what's the harm in allowing 911 triage call back a message sender to ask questions. In addition, having access to the phone number will enable police to police the system. false reports will be treated the same from a cell phone as from the land line. I'm not an expert on emergency broadcast privacy procedures, but i do believe in the ease of mailability of xml and the reality of cellular renaissance. And whether or not my non profit mvno idea (used for emergency message transmissions) makes any sense - well, i'm not sure i care. like unattended brushfires, some ideas burn hot with potential while drastically vulnerable to a change in weather.


technorati tags: mvno, emergency, court_and_spark, promonet, technocrat

House Of Large Sizes

HOLS. House Of Large Sizes. [one of] my favorite band(s) on W.A.R.? and definitely on the list of top 5 favorite projects i've ever worked. "Fine Time" was an older song but ended up on the last HOLS release (self-titled). Still my favorite. That's barb on bass. She likes to swing her pig tails.



House Of Large Sizes
What Are Records

Download "Fine Time" (MP3, 192kbps)

Buy at Napster
Buy at eMusic

technorati tags: hols, what_are_records, promonet, ioda, iowa, house_of_large_sizes

Bermuda Triangle Of Sin

I usually spend the days before any vegas excursion dreading what i know it will entail. like.. the sounds of slot machines, spending $20 on a plate of iceburg lettuce, boob jobs gone wildly wrong, and the world's slowest, most unthrilling monorail.

Thanks to a weird 6 month ad campaign 5 years ago (which was quickly abandoned by the city), hundreds of families seem to think vegas is a great place for kids (who are you people, and why do you still bring your kids?). I don't have kids, but really, the absurdity of one's choice to introduce their offspring to a seizure-driven casino environment, which boasts the 3rd highest murder rate in the country is. . .well, could you people just go stay at circus circus and keep your kids out of the MGM? that'd be great, thanks.

That said, thousands of the rest of us flock to vegas to enroll in the Sin City plan. Until the moment my flight touches down, I never allow myself to consider vegas a desirable vacation spot, it's more of a place to engage in activities that would otherwise be considered unamerican by any of the blue states. In vegas one can visit the Bunny Ranch, the hoover dam, take a full margarita into a cab and walk around with what the rest of america calls "open container," light their car on fire in the desert for some extra insurance money, or go to a show of famous-person impersonators.


Why Waste Time Admitting to Love Vegas...?
Because in vegas there is no time. so no time is wasted. There isn't really any proof that it even exists. Las Vegas is an interstitial strip of consumer driven residue, transcending time and space somewhere between death valley and boulder, co.

Las Vegas doesn't exist, which is a succesful culmination of it's history (built on Meyer Lansky's relationships with the mob, and more recently, Wynn's junk bonds), the air (nuclear testing site for 11 years), it's structure (no clocks, insulated environments/ closed systems), and most brilliantly, the general marketing of the city (what happens in vegas stays in vegas). It does? that's great! it means i was never really there.

Apparently i I went to vegas this weekend with a couple of old friends. Old college roommates. We share memories but know exactly how to make more everytime we are together. So It wasn't vegas, vegas doesn't exist. The environment and marketing of Vegas allowed us to indulge without the chains of everyday life. Even tho it never happened. And no, i don't have any stories (for you) about what did or didn't happen when we were or weren't there. All i can say is, i think i was at Studio 54, but not the real Studio 54 - the MGM Grand version of Studio 54. which means i was never really at Studio 54 at all. I think i saw diana ross, but not diana ross as she exists now - i saw a transvestyte pretending to be diana ross at the imitation version of studio 54. But as far as vegas is concerned, i was at studio 54, partying with one of the supremes.

Further proving that Las Vegas doesn't actually exist is this bizarre end result: my friends and i spent an entire day at the pool - well, 4 hours of our day - in the hot sun, no clouds, no spf anything (sorry mom). and none of us were sunburned.

let's review. I life in the pacific northwest and work at a startup. I'm NEVER sunbathing. but in vegas, i took these pasty legs to the pool and had myself a poolside massage, a mango margarita or two or more, and snubbed off dumb boys, thereby encouraging them to follow me around like little cabana helper monkeys desperate for a pat on the head. And what happened to these pasty legs? nothing. no burn. If it was just me, i'd propose that it's me who doesn't exist, and not las vegas. but it also happened to my other friends. 4 hours, during peak sun hours, and we didn't burn. we didn't fry. I'm convinced we were never really outdoors. and since what happens in vegas stays there, i'll never really know. It's a closed system. It's a Thomas Pynchon novel waiting to happen. It's the next set for ABC's "lost" - it's las vegas on the map. But really, it's the bermuda triangle of sin.

America needs las vegas b/c without it we are wholly oppressed by our own regulation of vices. When visiting vegas we are liberated, and the chamber of commerce allows us to liberate ourselves without consequence. What happens in a closed system, stays in a closed system. We need vegas to remind us of how free or chained we want to be - americans need 3 days without expectations as a desirable outlet in a nation built on routine. We want to feel free to throw away as much money as spend "wisely." We need to believe that causal sex is common and emotions are just side effects. With Las Vegas, we can pretend. And when we go home to our boob tubes, and we see the ad campaign, we are reminded that indeed we can be redeemed for sin - without ever getting a sunburn.

P2P & TPC's Nature of The Experiment

Limewire got sued by the Big 4. this isn't shocking
(....how come the porn industry isn't afraid of Limewire?)

Record labels sue LimeWire
By Nichola Groom
Saturday, August 5, 2006; 12:19 AM

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Some of the world's biggest record labels sued the makers of the file-sharing program LimeWire on Friday, saying the software allows users to download music without paying for it. The complaint, filed in Manhattan federal court, is the latest in a string of lawsuits the music industry has filed in an attempt to curb Internet piracy. That effort was bolstered last year when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that content companies can take legal action against technology firms that encourage copyright infringement. Record labels owned by the world's four major music companies -- Universal Music, Sony BMG, EMI Group Plc (EMI.L), and Warner Music Group Corp (WMG.N) -- brought the lawsuit against New York-based Lime Wire LLC. The suit seeks $150,000 in damages for every song "willfully infringed" by LimeWire. It also names LimeWire parent Lime Group LLC as well as chief executive Mark Gorton and chief operating officer Greg Bildson as defendants.
LimeWire officials could not be reached for comment. In the complaint, the record companies accuse LimeWire of profiting from illicit downloads of their music, saying "the scope of infringement is massive." LimeWire and its executives "have had a direct financial interest in, and derived substantial benefit from, the infringement of plaintiffs' copyrighted sound recordings," the complaint said. In a statement, industry trade group the Recording Industry Association of America said that "despite numerous efforts to engage LimeWire, the site's corporate owners have shown insufficient interest in developing a legal business model."
Last month, one of the world's best known file-sharing networks, Kazaa, agreed to pay more than $100 million and commit to going legitimate to settle two lawsuits brought by the movie and music industries. Kazaa had emerged as the dominant file-sharing network after recording industry lawsuits brought about the collapse of the original Napster in 2001. Napster has since reemerged as a paid service. In recent years, illicit file-sharing networks have lost ground as legitimate music services like Apple Computer Inc 's (AAPL.O) iTunes gained popularity.
Further solidifying the case for legitimate music services was last year's precedent-setting ruling by the United States' top court, which stated that because "peer to peer" company Grokster's intent was to encourage copyright infringement, it could be held liable for the music traded on its network.

::end article::

so here's an mp3 from the Tokyo Police Club you can't get sued for downloading. from Promonet.



Tokyo Police Club
A Lesson In Crime
Paper Bag Records

Download "Nature Of The Experiment" (MP3, 192kbps)

Buy at iTunes Music Store
Buy at GroupieTunes


Technorati Tags: tokyo_police_club, ioda, promonet, Not_Shocking, mp3, limewire

James Figurine: Apologies

Mistake Mistake Mistake Mistake
James Figurine
Download "Apologies" (MP3, 192kbps)

Buy at iTunes Music Store

W.A.R.? - 100 Releases and more on the way....

W.A.R.? - 100 Releases and more on the way....
Originally uploaded by crazywanda.

the w.a.r.? (what are records) office is one of the most unique buildings in Boulder (if not the country) - the W.A.R.? office is shaped like an eye......and now when you walk in the front door (cornea) just look to the right....there you will see the wall of 100 releases...releases spanning 1991 to 2006. And going strong....

This is Not Shocking

Lance Bass: I'm gay
'N Sync singer worried he would harm group

NEW YORK (AP) -- Lance Bass, band member of 'N Sync, says he's gay and in a "very stable" relationship with a reality show star.

Bass and Fatone, 29, are developing a sitcom pilot inspired by the screwball comedy "The Odd Couple," in which his character will be gay.

the rest of the article is here @ cnn.com.

how very scandinavian of me: Nordic Lounge Weekend

Nordic Lounge Weekend

Download "Supernova Sky" (MP3, 192kbps)

Buy at iTunes Music Store

Blake Ross: NiceJewishBoy

Blake Ross
Originally uploaded by Laughing Squid.

sigh.

Chris Anderson Signs My Book

Chris Anderson Signs My Book
Originally uploaded by crazywanda.

...while i geek out

for those about to steal an idea: we salute you

Sen. John Edwards meets Bit Torrent

seattle-post-gnomedex
Originally uploaded by Ianiv & Arieanna.

Thanks to Dave Winer/ Scripting News for highlighting this big piece of news today. A Presidential candidate goes p2p. I would have loved to have been a fly in the wall when his staff tried to figure out the torrent. But they did, and that's what matters.

getv+podtech=crazy delicious!!!!!!!!!!!!

getv+podtech=crazy delicious!!!!!!!!!!!!
Originally uploaded by irina slutsky.

congrats, Irina!
PodTech signs Geek Entertainment TV. Read about it on Eric Rice's Blog

Joan of Arc

the moon is waning gibbous.



Eventually, All At Once
Joan Of Arc
Flameshovel Records

Download "Eventually, All At Once" (MP3, 192kbps)

Buy at iTunes Music Store

Interstellar Overdrive

R.I.P. Syd B

Gnomedex Summary...?

working on it.

til then it's best said in a haiku.

Conference of many men
powerful women ignored
add more girls next year


I might annoy a few people and write a nice piece on how the indie sector of the music business got a raw deal here. I have nothing less than praise for gnomedex, filtered only by the glaring misrepresentation of the opportunity New Media affords indie industry, especially music. With two men representing the music business, and only 2 models (direct deals and major labels) (no indie label representation at all) - it's time for a little estrogen, boys. LISTENUP CHRIS: The music business is already a boys club. Must we merge that old world mentality with the new medium we are in the midst of building?

more to come. thou shalt stay tuned.

rest assured, however, that even with the critique, I learned enough to teach a class of 35 students for one full collegiate semester. And developed a crush on blake ross. could there be a better conference? A more elaborate summary is on the way. . .

Everything is Ok (different)

for the bryght boys. i do believe you'll like this one.



Stonefruit
Halou
Vertebrae Music Productions


Download "Everything Is OK (Different)" (MP3, 192kbps)

Buy at iTunes Music Store
Buy at eMusic

crunch in all the right places

Brant Bjork & The Operators

it's got flaws but crunch in all the right spots.

Download "My Ghettoblaster" (MP3, 192kbps)

label: The Music Cartel
Buy at iTunes Music Store
Buy at RealNetworks / Rhapsody
Buy at eMusic

The New Black Mountain Poets: Asheville meets SF. . . Again

Residents of the mission district in san francisco are a most glorious extension of the black mountain poets. With all the flickr tagging, vloggerconning, moblogging, mobilcasting, and digital logging - the internet is more than the new library or new mapping system, it is a medium by which neighborhood characteristics are once again brought to light in the shadow of real-life Wal Mart domination. Digital media embraces the subjective and turns each agent into an artist, decomposing and re-recomposing itself as a palette. The mission district and the digital media artists (documentarians, really) who are congregating within it, are leading the movement - our neighborhood is our palette, "web2.0" is our tool, and the ways we manipulate each tool is yet another form of the art.

Take, for example, the sidewalks stencils as seen in flickr group sidewalk aphorisms.

The Mission is easily reconstituted as new artforms and creating a movement in digital media by simply existing . . . now the rest of the world is quickly experiencing the sidewalks & graffiti in the mission in multi tiered formats.

Photography recreates the stencils, tools on the web enable the syndication and therefore the experience. video puts it to motion. general freak factor in sf helps make it wonderful. Perhaps one or two tourists are walking around the mission, right now, looking for the sidewalk stencils they heard about/ saw on the internet. The mission is a digital palimpsest, experienced in layers and documented with indelible ferocity, in multiple mediums - written by The New Black Mountain Poets. That's us.

The Slip - in San Francisco - Cafe Du Nord

Thursday, June 15 - 9pm - Cafe Du Nord



Alivelectric
The Slip
reapandsow, Inc.
>Buy at iTunes Music Store
Buy at RealNetworks / Rhapsody
Buy at eMusic


Download "If One Of Us Should Fall" (MP3, 192kbps)