Evolution Control Committee Drops All Rights Reserved

The Evolution Control Committee, a true pioneer of remix culture (most widely recognized as formative instigators of the mashup music genre), is alive and well as evidenced by its newest release, All Rights Reserved. It’s the ECC’s second album for Negativland‘s Seeland Records, and the first new album in seven years.
With a quarter-century of aural experimentation in the hopper – starting long before the advent of digital audio files and production tools – the craftsmanship of this music is sublime. This is why Girl Talk plays campus clubs and small theaters, while the Evolution Control Committee enjoys an artist residency at Warsaw’s Centre for Contemporary Art: the ECC is old enough to be Girl Talk’s parents. Continue reading “Evolution Control Committee Drops All Rights Reserved”

The Yes Men's Building A Posse

With all of the somewhat-depressing news coming out of the circles of media reform these days, I was heartened to see the announcement that the Yes Men are hard at work to spread their extra-special brand of media pranksterism; the work of identity-correction.
Announcing the Yes Lab for Creative Activism: “a series of brainstorms and trainings to help activist groups carry out Yes-Men-style projects on their own.” Continue reading “The Yes Men's Building A Posse”

More Miscellaneous News of Note

About a week and a half left until dissertation-research formally concludes. Then a short break after which it’s time to organize the ~800 pages of notes collected from FCC dockets, trade publications, and related materials into formal prose. In the meantime:
Pirate Radio: Pally-pal Paul Riismandel wrote two excellent articles this week for Radio Survivor on unlicensed broadcasting. The first looks at a spate of FCC enforcement actions in Massachusetts, and especially around the Boston area. Continue reading “More Miscellaneous News of Note”

Harvey Smokes In Heaven; Limbaugh Already Self-Combusting

Looking through the site logs, there is an uncommonly common search phrase that ranks relatively high: “paul harvey bong.” Well, now that the venerable storyteller has passed on, variants have spiked: “paul harvey on pot”; “paul harvey tokin”; etc. Continue reading “Harvey Smokes In Heaven; Limbaugh Already Self-Combusting”

Cooking By The Book? Not Quite

I am never short of amazement at the heights to which collage artists, especially in their most popular form – the mashup – are taking this expressive outlet. I really have to learn more about video collage, especially, as many innovative DJs whom I respect – and some of my own students – are taking a shine to the mix-medium.
This one, for example, features two subjects I’ve never had much love for – Strawberry Shortcake and Lil’ Jon – and transforms them, on multiple levels, into something I can’t get out of my head (in a good way). By the way, the preceding clip is neither safe for work nor lil’ children.
Props to one of my most-recent COMM 264 students for tipping me off to this gem. It’s always fulfilling when the learning process works both ways.

Scene Report: California

While I may still be on partial hiatus, as the fall semester ends in its typical whirlwind of student-meetings, evaluations, and grading, life moves on. And I am pleased to report that the microradio movement is alive and well. I will be most interested to see just how the FCC wraps up this year’s “war on pirates” – when I finally find the time to digest the data.
Some heartening news comes from the old guard in California. Berkeley Liberation Radio, after suffering a government raid on its studio premises (not related to the station itself), has safely relocated and is kicking as usual. Across the Bay, San Francisco Liberation Radio has also been revived – the correspondence I received does not explicitly state that this return will include a frequency-modulated signal, but it leaves room for speculation: “Since our court case was resolutely rejected by the Ninth Circuit, SFLR dropped the legal proceedings but continued to stream internet radio. Now [a new crew] will continue in the long and storied tradition of SFLR in the South of Market area.” You can’t keep a good idea down. Continue reading “Scene Report: California”

Catch-Up Notes of Miscellany

Going to try to ease back into the swing of things, though there’s still a lot of non-site work in my life right now still going on. But just a few notes to let you know I’m still alive:
1. Good friend and collagist extraordinaire rx has released an eight-minute trailer of his latest magnum opus – a remix-documentary of the 2008 presidential election. rx isn’t a big fan of deadlines (especially those self-imposed), but he tells me the full doc should be ready for public viewing hopefully by the end of this year or early next. Continue reading “Catch-Up Notes of Miscellany”

McCain Flip-Flops on Astronaut Experience

Finally, the Truthful Translations of Political Speech become useful for actual fact-checking purposes!
This week, John McCain was asked a provocative question by the editorial board of the Des Moines Register: why all the hate on taxpayer-funded health insurance proposals from a man who’s lived the majority of his entire adult life covered by government-funded and -administered healthcare systems?
Fortunately, the (non-)answer was caught on tape. But let me direct you to approximately 30 seconds into his response: Continue reading “McCain Flip-Flops on Astronaut Experience”

Truthful Translations Almost Go Mainstream

No, not the massive archive curated here: this boost is courtesy of Stephen Colbert’s “Make [John] McCain Exciting Challenge.” The Colbert Report uploaded footage of McCain standing behind a green screen, and then asked the public to make his speechifying more attention-grabbing through the magic of digital video editing technology. Continue reading “Truthful Translations Almost Go Mainstream”

Collage Expansion Underway

I just processed a backlog of new collage-files, featuring both consumer collage and Truthful Translations. The media collage section of the site more generally is undergoing an expansion and overhaul right now, as I prepare to use it for teaching purposes in the fall. If anyone has good suggestions of online, accessible, enjoyable tutelage to be found explaining the intersection of appropriation and art, the potentials of fair use, etc. please drop a line. Continue reading “Collage Expansion Underway”