I’ve tried for years to explain the seemingly inordinate amount of state pride I exude, and if you know a Wisconsinite you’ve probably come up against this at least once. Typically it’s brushed off as a superiority complex among inferior states (we’re “flyover country” and “the Rust Belt” to those on the coasts).
Now you know it’s more than that.
To learn the basics behind why Wisconsinites have occupied the state Capitol Building in Madison and return in the tens of thousands every day, visit the local media outlets who are helping to hold down the fort (the mainstream media has hopelessly painted this controversy into a frame of ignorance), or follow the Twitter feeds. Continue reading “Wisconsin's Insurrection Began in the Fourth Grade”
Month: February 2011
Your Tax Dollars At Work
Last July, they first went after nine who wore the title “pirate” on their sleeves, and trafficked primarily in music and movies.
Then, they took down 82 more for selling counterfeit goods on the Monday after Thanksgiving (“Cyber Monday”). The net was expanded to include those vending “sports equipment, shoes, handbags, athletic apparel and sunglasses as well as illegal copies of copyrighted DVD boxed sets, music and software.”
On Valentine’s Day, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s “muscle” division, Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE), seized 18 more web site domains for marketing fake luxury gifts. Continue reading “Your Tax Dollars At Work”
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”
New York Next to "Outlaw" Pirate Radio
The New York state legislature is considering a bill to make unlicensed broadcasting a class D felony, punishable with possible (undefined) imprisonment and a fine of up to $10,000. The bill would call foul on any broadcaster without an FCC license and/or accused of causing interference to another radio station.
Good luck with that. New York is a major hotbed of pirate radio activity in the United States, topping the perennial pirate radio capital of the nation (Florida) for the first time just last year. Continue reading “New York Next to "Outlaw" Pirate Radio”
Egypt: Old Media Sustains Change
Lots has been written about the power of the Internet and tools like Twitter, YouTube and Facebook in the recent promulgation of popular protests across northern Africa and the Middle East.
Latest under the cyber-microscope is Egypt, where a corrupt, decades-old authoritarian regime actually tried to turn off the Internet as protesters began to organize in force over the past couple of weeks. Continue reading “Egypt: Old Media Sustains Change”
Prometheus Radio Project Founder Moving On
Last week, the founder and Director of Electromagnetism of the Prometheus Radio Project, Pete Tridish, announced his departure from the organization.
Beginning from a background in unlicensed broadcasting based around the Philadelphia station Radio Mutiny, Pete was instrumental in not only organizing microbroadcasters in the lead-up to the FCC’s debate over LPFM more than 10 years ago, but he also worked tirelessly to convince Congress to pass the Local Community Radio Act late last year, which will expand the number of LPFM stations on the nation’s dial.
Apparently, his departure has been in the works for several months, but the announcement was held off so as to not detract from the LCRA advocacy campaign. Continue reading “Prometheus Radio Project Founder Moving On”