==pla|\|ing lakes==

Saturday, January 17, 2004

MusicMobster file:

RIAA hiring ex-cops to stage "mock" raids on "music pirates" [Undernews]

Though no guns were brandished, the bust from a distance looked like classic LAPD, DEA or FBI work, right down to the black "raid" vests the unit members wore. The fact that their yellow stenciled lettering read "RIAA" instead of something from an official law-enforcement agency was lost on 55-year-old parking-lot attendant Ceasar Borrayo.

[...]

"They said they were police from the recording industry or something, and next time they'd take me away in handcuffs," he said through an interpreter. Borrayo says he has no way of knowing if the records, with titles like Como Te Extraño Vol. IV and Musica de los 70's y 80's, are illegal, but he thought better of arguing the point.

The RIAA acknowledges it all -- except the notion that its staff presents itself as police. Yes, they may all be ex-P.D. Yes, they wear cop-style clothes and carry official-looking IDs. But if they leave people like Borrayo with the impression that they're actual law enforcement, that's a mistake.

"We want to be very clear who we are and what we're doing," says John Langley, Western regional coordinator for the RIAA Anti-Piracy Unit. "First and foremost, we're professionals."

What separates these people from gangsters?

12:52 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Friday, January 16, 2004

"People love more explosions than culture," Huot said. "The big problem -- it's not against the American people -- but culture in the United States is hard to sell"

Quote from a Canadian tourist visiting the Florida Splendid China theme park on its last day, a victim of the post-9/11 travel malaise and poor maintenance as well as American disinterest

They're turning them away again at Disneyworld and Busch Gardens though.

I'm not a big fan of miniaturized cultural landmarks of foreign lands myself, though places like Disneyworld creep me out even more.

11:27 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

Thursday, January 15, 2004

R.I.P. Uta Hagen

I mostly knew her from The Other, which blew me away when I saw it as a teen.

But her stage work and teaching were paramount in her life. She starred on Broadway in (and won a Tony for) the part Liz Taylor made famous in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?.

11:34 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

Tuesday, January 13, 2004

Pitchfork's post-mortem on "Napster" 2.0

Napster is back, and it's as painful as a mid-day hangover, and as welcome as a phone call from your ex-wife. Innocently named "Napster 2.0"-- as if we'd just been waiting for an upgrade these past three years-- it's back in our faces, crawling out of its dot-coma through a barrage of ads with that original cat-faced logo. Napster is back, and now you can pay for it.

9:26 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

Sunday, January 11, 2004

Twyla Tharp's new primer on "strategies for focusing artistic impulses to yield results": review

The Creative Habit proffers questionnaires to complete (and Tharp's own revealing answers), ideas for organizing time and space, exercises for overcoming blocks, and rules for getting work done. Though its context is a choreographer's world, its principles are universally applicable and sound. Read it as you ponder your New Year's resolutions. It could change your life.

That old Protestant work ethic again. Which has its good and bad points.

I'll check it out, but I doubt it'll get me to a boxing gym to work out for 2 hours before breakfast like she does.

5:17 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

Need to know file:

The Great Pop vs. Soda Controversy [Undernews]

12:08 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Famously undecipherable Voynich manuscript to be bytesected [Arts Journal]

12:06 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

"Some chances are once in a lifetime. Not this one, I've been in the last 12 issues. Either I strike gold this time or I become a lesbian. Man, 43."

A new art form?: Hilarious literate personal ads

12:02 AM - [Link] - Comments ()