Category: la

mini-talk at CC Salon tonight

I’ll do a shorty talk at the Creative Commons salon in Silverlake, in LA, tonight. My topic is going to be the role of permissive licensing in the business of internet music. I’ll lay out a map of the industry as a whole and situate copyleft within it.

Flavorpill describes the event this way:

Creative Commons is at the forefront of the progressive copyright movement, seeking arrangements that allow the free flow of artistry and ideas while at the same time protecting intellectual rights and freedoms. A group taking the middle road, its efforts have been invaluable in the face of technology’s rush into the future. At tonight’s salon, Mark “Frosty” McNeil — founder of noted DJ and multimedia collective Dublab — and XSPF developer Lucas Gonze tackle the ramifications and opportunities that could result from current and proposed copyright policies and discuss their larger effect on the music industry.


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LA talk 11/11

I’ll do a short presentation at the Creative Commons LA salon on November 11. More about the event:

on the CC blog;
on the CC wiki;
on Upcoming;
on Facebook.

I’m going to extend my comments on music biz / internet economics, e.g. on RCRD LBL, on the Myspace music / Amazon deal, on ad-supported music as a whole.

I don’t get a huge amount of time but I think I can pull off a good conversation starter. I hope that people will take my comments as a cue to engage with the large-scale fiscal realities and possibilities of internet music. I want people on both the internet and music biz side to put their arguments on the table. I want less bloviating and hating, and more constructive engagement.

I’ll probably play a bit of music as part of the talk.

gigs thursday 4/3 and saturday 4/5

If you’re in LA, c’mon down and see me play at the Hyperion Tavern in Silverlake tomorrow night, Thursday April 3. I’ll sit in with Madame Pamita for her set at 9:30, then will do a set of my own guitar music at about 11:00.

Among other fine songs trashpicked from the dustbin of American history, I’ll be dusting off an 1882 jingle for a brand of rat poison:

The sheet music, “Rough on Rats,” was offered as a premium by Ephraim S. Wells, chemist, Jersey City, N.J., the manufacturer of “Rough on Rats” poison. “Send 35 cents for Song and Chorus of ‘Rough on Rats.’ Just out. Everybody crazy for it.”

The “dwelling house size” of the product sold for 25 cents. Wells’ advertisements claimed “sure death to rats, mice, flies, vermin, ants, insects, roaches, waterbugs, bed bugs” and “one application clears out a building.”

Sheet music for that tune at Library of Congress. I imagine it hasn’t been heard in a public place for at least a hundred years.

Then on Saturday April 5 I’ll play an 8:45 show under the stage name Alvin Pleasant at a little gallery right off the beach in Venice for an event called Foolfest:

Sponto Gallery at 7 Dudley Avenue was the home of the infamous Venice West Cafe from the late 50’s to the early 60’s – an important birthplace for the Beat movement, much like North Beach in San Francisco, the Village in New York and the Left Bank in Paris. Sponto Gallery retrieves the explorations of Alan Kaprow’s Happenings, Jack Smith’s experimental films and the Fluxus art movement with its various film, poetry and comedy events. Visit 81x.com/7dudley/cinema AND myspace.com/sevendudleycinema for more information.

Sponto is a groovy little spot — tiny, good acoustics, comfortable, free.