As I prepare to put my own company’s media online, DRM and copyright keeps popping up in my head. I had the thought the other day, “what’s to keep tweenies from buying a show then posting it on YouTube for all the world to see for free?” That of course is just one poor example. But DRM is a huge issue. It’s not about large corporations being greedy but for me it’s about small corporations who plan to make their entire income online being kept afloat at all. I guess time will tell. But of particular interest, besides the interoperability comment (with which I wholeheartedly agree), is the bit on YouTube and copyrighted music. It would make the world a so much better place if noncommercial home videos could use copyrighted music for fun without fear of Big Music reprisal, their being given the option to veto the vid of course. But it doesn’t make commercial music licensing any much easier for me, which as of right now I anticipate to be the bane of my existance. That or I just avoid all nonorignal music anyway.

I’m in Urinetown the Musical this fall. A Denver company is producing the show from November 3rd to December 3rd at the Denver Water Reclamation Building and I’m playing the part of Mr. McQueen. Rehearsals begin Saturday the 23rd.

What is your vade mecum? Or have you more than one? A purse or wallet? A cell phone? An organizer? Howabout something unusual?

http://dictionary.reference.com/wordoftheday/archive/2006/09/09.html

It’s the eve before I depart NYC. I’ve filmed for a month. I should know what I have, but I won’t truly know until I watch all of it. I took the last few days off and enjoyed what the city has to offer, namely Broadway. Saw Avenue Q, Forbidden Broadway: SVU, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, and tonight Mamma Mia in as many days (my wallet is still smoking). I mostly saw the last one tonight because a friend of mine from UNC was starring as Sky on Broadway. 21 bucks for a standing room ticket wasn’t too bad. He’s been doing the show since October. If I had to do a show like that for that long I’d probably shoot myself. But it’s steady work and probably good pay and probably kinda fun, so nevermind.

On a discussion board I frequent, the question was posed, “Is MTV chronicling the demise of our society or assisting it?” and I suggested the reply:

The original question suggests a larger question: does art immitate life or does life immitate art? I’m not calling MTV art (I never watch it but I am part of that generation), but being in film & video production myself, I have to believe in the latter. The filmmaker interprets life into his “art,” which is then reintegrated into his environment by those who view it. The filmmaker’s responsibility is awesome: the ability to shape the very foundations of his society. The filmmaker’s power is not as obvious as that of an E.R. doctor nor are the results as immediate. In fact the results may not even be too late.

The excitement and the bustle and the lights and the crowds. The energy of the city. The city that never sleeps. All of that gets a little wearing after three weeks. Then you start to notice the trash on the streets, the graffitti on the walls (and doors and windows and mail boxes), and the blank stares of oppressed apathy on the daily train commuters. Nobody smiles in this city. You either adapt or the city devours you piece by piece. Or maybe that is adapting.

Some people love it here. Good for them. I’m sure if I stayed here longer (much, much longer) that I’d learn to tolerate it. But I see no scenery and would hardly call a 10 square foot triangle of grass a park, so I’m leaving soon. To return, yes. Either for business or—if I’m wealthy enough—pleasure. And I can’t tell you how pleased I am to be leaving town soon. Oh wait—yes I can. I’m very pleased.

The Onion did a radio news segment recently on AOL e-mail. And although it was a joke there was a lot of truth to it. It’s unfortunate but every time someone gives me an e-mail address that ends with @aol.com, a little alert goes off inside my head that says “warning: this person hasn’t yet left their internet training wheels behind.” I used AOL at one time. It’s fine for anyone who doesn’t want to venture out onto the internet or for folks just getting started. But do not get AOL confused with truly being connected online. Not everybody has to host their own e-mail and web servers, but just be warned that “@aol.com” to many people means internet diapers.

We should stop giving hurricanes human names. It is most unfortunate for the people who happen to have the names of these storms. You can bet for sure that Katrina was not a popular baby name last year. The American Indians believe that naming something gives power to it. Just as Hitler ruined the name Adolph for a lot of people, let’s stop giving these hurricanes names that could give them more power and ruin the day for the people who have those names. I wouldn’t mind using the Greek alphabet to start, instead of using them as a backup in case we run out of “regular” hurricane names.