:: jenny chowdhury says, “put that in your pipe and smoke it” ::

still from the video gabe and I did for communications lab

see the video here:
http://itp.nyu.edu/~gac277/movies/roundandround.mov

I was recently asked “what inspires me most”. One of the things that most immediately jumped into my mind was JK Rowlings’ Harry Potter books.

Turns out, I’m not the only one feelin’ the inspiration. Check out these links:

~Harry and the Potters
“The idea is that the Harry Potter from Year 7 and the Harry Potter from Year 4 started a rock band. And now, no one can stop the wizard rock.”
http://www.eskimolabs.com/hp/band.htm

~The Harry Potter Dancers
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5409947201428088801&q=harry+pot

I feel so small..

The other day, i incensed a dog by rollerbladding past it. It was one of those little white dogs inbred to the point where all mental capacity has been switched out in trade for cuteness. I was casually skating by when it nipped me on the leg.

Yesterday, my mom, who hadn’t been told of the incident, called me up telling me she dreamt i had contracted rabbies from a bird biting my back.

what does all of this mean?

Both of these guys have something to say about Micropayments a mode to access the internet.

While Scott McCloud has a more utopian view – artists are paid for their work since it is “not a commodity”, Clay Shirky is more of a realist. I know i wouldn’t pay for content if i could find similar content for free elsewhere. But i know there are some people out there who aren’t quite as cheap or poor as me.

Sorry Mr. McCloud

Back in 1993, Biz Markie released the sample-safe, but terribly bland album “All Samples Cleared” in reaction to being sued for using an unauthorized sample on his 1991 album “I Need a Haircut”. The lawsuit served as a major speed bump in Biz Markie’s career and although he eventually experienced a smaller second wave of success, I often wonder how many other top ten hits Biz would have produced had he free reign to sample the musical spectrum.

The story of DJ Danger Mouse’s “The Grey Album” starts off with a similar premise, but ends on a happier note (at least from the viewpoint of the artist producing the remixed track). DJ Danger Mouse used/infringed upon copyrighted material from Jay-Z’s “The Black Album” and the Beatles’ “White Album” and created a remix dubbed “The Grey Album”. What a clever idea, i thought when i first heard about it. Those holding the rights of the high profile “White Album” weren’t as enthusiastic and filed suit against Danger Mouse. (I’m not sure how Jay-Z, who’s made a career out of borrowing others’ songs, felt about this whole thing.)

So how is Mouse’s case different from Biz’s you ask?
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