Eric Clapton and his grandmother Rose.Since I'm posting '80s stuff, here's some music from the decade.
parts 2-6 after the bump...
And here is the Toast song I also tried to describe. Again, its by Heywood Banks as he performed on the Bob and Tom radio show.
Now that you have heard it, go to YouTube and search for the "toast song" to see how popular it is. Yeah Toast!
Here is a video of the hilarious song "18 Wheels on a Big Rig."
The song is by Heywood Banks as he performed it on the Bob and Tom radio show.
I have talked with several people who have never heard this so here's your chance to actually hear the song rather than my pitiful description of it. Enjoy!
Why we're so good at recognizing music
By Clive Thompson
MONTREAL: 'Listen to this," Daniel Levitin said. "What is it?" He hit a button on his computer keyboard and out came a half-second clip of music. It was just two notes blasted on a raspy electric guitar, but I could immediately identify it: the opening lick to the Rolling Stones' "Brown Sugar."
Then he played another, even shorter snippet: a single chord struck once on piano. Again I could instantly figure out what it was: the first note in Elton John's "Benny and the Jets."
Levitin beamed. "You hear only one note, and you already know who it is," he said. "So what I want to know is: how we do this? Why are we so good at recognizing music?"
This is not merely some whoa-dude epiphany that a music fan might have while listening to a radio contest. Levitin has devoted his career to exploring this question. He is a cognitive psychologist who runs the Laboratory for Music Perception, Cognition and Expertise at McGill University in Montreal, perhaps the world's leading lab in probing why music has such an intense effect on us.
"By the age of 5 we are all musical experts, so this stuff is clearly wired really deeply into us," said Levitin, an eerily youthful-looking 49, surrounded by the pianos, guitars and enormous 16-track mixers that make his lab look more like a recording studio.
Last summer he published "This Is Your Brain on Music," a layperson's guide to the emerging neuroscience of music. Levitin is an unusually deft interpreter, full of striking scientific trivia. For example we learn that babies begin life with synesthesia, the trippy confusion that makes people experience sounds as smells or tastes as colors. Or that the cerebellum, a part of the brain that helps govern movement, is also wired to the ears and produces some of our emotional responses to music. His experiments have even suggested that watching a musician perform affects brain chemistry differently from listening to a recording.
Levitin is singular among music scientists for actually having come out of the music industry. Before getting his Ph.D. he spent 15 years as a record producer, working with artists ranging from Blue Oyster Cult to Chris Isaak. While still in graduate school he helped Stevie Wonder assemble a best-of collection; in 1992 Levitin's sensitive ears detected that MCA Records had accidentally used third-generation backup tapes to produce seven Steely Dan CDs, and he embarrassed the label by disclosing it in Billboard magazine. He has earned nine gold and platinum albums, which he tucks in corners of his lab, office and home. "They look a little scary when you put them all in one place," he said.
Scientifically, Levitin's colleagues credit him with focusing attention on how music affects our emotions, turf that wasn't often covered by previous generations of psychoacousticians, who studied narrower questions about how the brain perceives musical sounds. "The questions he asks are very, very musical, very concerned with the fact that music is an art that we interact with, not just a bunch of noises," said Rita Aiello, an adjunct professor in the department of psychology at New York University.
Ultimately, scientists say, his work offers a new way to unlock the mysteries of the brain: how memory works, how people with autism think, why our ancestors first picked up instruments and began to play.
Levitin originally became interested in producing in 1981, when his band — a punk outfit called the Mortals — went into the recording studio. None of the other members were interested in the process, so he made all the decisions behind the board. "I actually became a producer because I saw the producers getting all the babes," he said. He dropped out of college to work with alternative bands.
Producers, he noted, were able to notice impossibly fine gradations of quality in music. Many could identify by ear the type of amplifiers and recording tape used on an album.
"So I started wondering: How was the brain able to do this?" Levitin said. "What's going on there, and why are some people better than others? And why is music such an emotional experience?" He began sitting in on neuroscience classes at Stanford University.
By the '90s Levitin was disenchanted with the music industry. "When they're dropping Van Morrison and Elvis Costello because they don't sell enough records," he said, "I knew it was time to move on." Academic friends persuaded him to pursue a science degree. They bet that he would have good intuitions on how to design music experiments. They were right.
For his first experiment he came up with an elegant concept: He stopped people on the street and asked them to sing, entirely from memory, one of their favorite hit songs. The results were astonishingly accurate. Most people could hit the tempo of the original song within a 4 percent margin of error, and two-thirds sang within a semitone of the original pitch, a level of accuracy that wouldn't embarrass a pro.
"When you played the recording of them singing alongside the actual recording of the original song, it sounded like they were singing along," Levitin said.
It was a remarkable feat. Most memories degrade and distort with time; why would pop music memories be so sharply encoded? Perhaps because music triggers the reward centers in our brains. In a study published last year Levitin and group of neuroscientists mapped out precisely how.
Observing 13 subjects who listened to classical music while in an MRI machine, the scientists found a cascade of brain-chemical activity. First the music triggered the forebrain, as it analyzed the structure and meaning of the tune. Then the nucleus accumbus and ventral tegmental area activated to release dopamine, a chemical that triggers the brain's sense of reward.
The cerebellum, an area normally associated with physical movement, reacted too, responding to what Levitin suspected was the brain's predictions of where the song was going to go. As the brain internalizes the tempo, rhythm and emotional peaks of a song, the cerebellum begins reacting every time the song produces tension (that is, subtle deviations from its normal melody or tempo).
"When we saw all this activity going on precisely in sync, in this order, we knew we had the smoking gun," he said. "We've always known that music is good for improving your mood. But this showed precisely how it happens."
The subtlest reason that pop music is so flavorful to our brains is that it relies so strongly on timbre. Timbre is a peculiar blend of tones in any sound; it is why a tuba sounds so different from a flute even when they are playing the same melody in the same key. Popular performers or groups, Levitin argued, are pleasing not because of any particular virtuosity, but because they create an overall timbre that remains consistent from song to song. That quality explains why, for example, I could identify even a single note of Elton John's "Benny and the Jets."
"Nobody else's piano sounds quite like that," he said, referring to John. "Pop musicians compose with timbre. Pitch and harmony are becoming less important."
Levitin's work has occasionally undermined some cherished beliefs about music. For example recent years have seen an explosion of "Baby Mozart" videos and toys, based on the idea, popular since the '80s, that musical and mathematical ability are inherently linked.
But Levitin argued that this could not be true, based on his study of people with Williams syndrome, a genetic disorder that leaves people with low intelligence. Their peak mental capacities are typically those of a young child, with no ability to calculate quantities. Levitin once asked a woman with Williams to hold up her hand for five seconds; she left it in the air for a minute and a half. "No concept of time at all," he said, "and definitely no math."
Yet people with Williams possess unusually high levels of musical ability. One Williams boy Levitin met was so poorly coordinated he could not open the case to his clarinet. But once he was holding the instrument, his coordination problems vanished, and he could play fluidly.
Not all of Levitin's idea have been easily accepted. He argues, for example, that music is an evolutionary adaptation: something that men developed as a way to demonstrate reproductive fitness. Music also helped social groups cohere. "Music has got to be useful for survival, or we would have gotten rid of it years ago," he said.
Here is some happy news. My favorite teacher in school was my chorus teacher at Lakeside Middle School during 6th-8th grade. I just came upon a story at Jacksonville.com that she is now at Ridgeview High School and that her choir performed at the White House this year for Christmas, what an honor! For the article, see below.
Here is a video from Channel 12 News before the trip.
Ridgeview High's chorus sings in the White House
By MARY MARAGHY, Clay County LineRidgeview High School chorus teacher Louise Woolard said it was quite thrilling when a receptionist said, "The White House is expecting you."
Woolard and 27 choir students performed Christmas songs in the White House foyer on Monday.
Woolard sent an audition tape to the White House in the spring and got an invitation Nov. 1 to join a select group of holiday entertainers.
"It was an incredible experience, an incredible honor and the students lived up to it. They were absolutely wonderful," Woolard said. "I'd do it again in a heart beat."
"It was so cool with all the cameras flashing," said chorus member Becca Fuhrman. "We felt like celebrities."
"It was surreal that we were in the White House and people were taking pictures of us," said another member, Brittany Trahan. "It was definitely the most amazing experience of my life. To close out our senior year with such a big bang is very, very exciting."
Trahan and other sleep-deprived chorus members were bubbling Wednesday about their action-packed two-night stay in Washington.
The students drew followers when they started rehearsing in the subway.
They slept only four hours a night at the Hotel Washington, built in 1868.
Some ice skated for the first time in their lives at the National Gallery of Art Sculpture Garden. They visited the Smithsonian Institution and saw the Hope Diamond. They were impressed with the Holocaust Museum, which is set up to look like a concentration camp and gives visitors the feeling of being shipped to the gas chambers.
"D.C. has the biggest squirrels," said Charlie McNeill. "They're on steroids."
The Christmas decorations were over-the-top, students said. Each state had a decorated Christmas tree on display. Louisiana's tree - which won best tree - had glass ornaments with paper houses in each and thank you notes to the other states that helped them during the hurricanes.
"It was so pretty at night," said Patti Trahan, Rebecca's mother. "I had a ball. The kids had a blast. They sang gorgeously."
Only 21 students were allowed in the White House. Fortunately, Trahan said, the alternate singers left out were able to visit the Washington Monument where they saw President George Bush's motorcade drive by.
The trip cost about $20,000. Students paid about $200 each, the Clay County school system kicked in about $6,000 in discretionary funds, and fundraising covered the rest.
Olivia still sounds great. She doesn't have the pipes to hit those high notes but her backup singers fill in nicely. The blend is so good you don't even notice that Olivia didn't hit the last of the notes. Olivia looks good for being 58 but you can definitely see signs of aging compared to last year when I saw her in concert.
She performed the songs that you came to hear including hits from Grease and Xanadu as well as some songs from her latest album "Grace and Gratitude." There were a few songs missing that I love to hear her sing but since I have seen her in concert so many times it's good to have a little different mix. Her concerts really haven't changed much over the last few years. In fact I would say she needs to revamp the production before it starts getting too stale for her fans. She has been touring a lot and as a fan who goes to see her in concert whenever she is close, I can see how it can get monotonous. I finally took my mother to see her this time. Of all the times I have seen Olivia, I have never taken Mom. Being her first time, she loved it and had a really nice evening. She even got an Olivia T-shirt in the deal.
The only distraction for the evening was security. When I pulled my camera out 45 minutes before the concert, a security guard said politely that no flash was allowed. I promised him no flash which is fine by me. I hate people flashing their cameras and blinding me in a concert. Out of respect for those around me, I never use flash during a concert. I just manually change my camera's setting to shoot without it. No flash, no bother. Once the concert began and I began clicking, another security guard came to me and politely said no photos. I explained that I was not using flash and she said OK. Now the first security guard was still standing 10 feet away. Half way through the concert another guard came up while I was taking a photo. This time in a not so polite way. She bent over me and shook her finger saying NO! I explained to her that I was not using flash, that I had explained this to the security guard still standing 10 feet away and he should be able to confirm that I have not used flash at all. He shook his yes at this and she said OK and left. You would think that would be the end but no. Towards the end of the concert a police officer came up to me and told me no flash. I not only told him I wasn't using flash but showed him by taking a few. He said no flash and left. Actually, he was pretty polite about it. Now mind you, there were flashes going off all over the theatre during the whole concert but none from our section. What erks me is that if they would have just watched me take a few pictures they would have seen that there was no flash. Why places freak out so much over camera's is bizarre to me.
For those interested in seeing the dangerous photos, head over to my Flickr site.
And for those interested in some video of the concert, see below.
Xanadu
You're the One That I Want
Hopelessly Devoted
Suddenly
Magic
Have You Never Been Mellow
Physical
Please Mr. Please and If You Love Me Let Me Know
Totally Hot and Twist of Fate
Make a Move on Me
A Little More Love
I'm Not Gonna Give Into It
Rumors
If you like Guitar Hero and Tenacious D then check out this quick flash game. Go ahead and waste 5 minutes.
Looks like DVD Jon is back and this time he's freeing all that music you legally own.
Jon Johansen became a geek hero by breaking the DVD code. Now he's liberating iTunes - whether Apple likes it or not.
FORTUNE Magazine
By Robert Levine, Fortune
(Fortune Magazine) -- Growing up in a small town in southern Norway, Jon Lech Johansen loved to take things apart to figure out how they worked. Unlike most kids, though, he'd put them back together better than they were before. When he was 14, his father bought a digital camera that came with buggy software, so Jon analyzed the code and wrote a program that worked better.
Apple's iPod is turning 5
When Johansen bought an early MP3 player that kept crashing, he studied how it worked, wrote a more reliable program, and posted it on the Internet so other people could download it for free. Later, the company that made the device asked him about writing a new version, but he didn't hear back after he sent in his résumé. "I assume it had something to do with my age," Johansen says dryly. He was 17.
Sometimes, however, the things Johansen tries to improve were made a certain way for a reason. When he was 15, Johansen got frustrated when his DVDs didn't work the way he wanted them to. "I was fed up with not being able to play a movie the way I wanted to play it," that is, on a PC that ran Linux.
To fix the problem, he and two hackers he met online wrote a program called DeCSS, which removed the encryption that limits what devices can play the discs. That meant the movies could be played on any machine, but also that they could be copied. After the program was posted online, Johansen received an award from the Electronic Frontier Foundation - and a visit from Norwegian police.
Johansen, now 22 and widely known as "DVD Jon" for his exploits, has also figured out how Apple's iPod-iTunes system works. And he's using that knowledge to start a business that is going to drive Steve Jobs crazy.
A disruptor
If you want to be specific - and for legal reasons, he does - Johansen has reverse-engineered FairPlay, the encryption technology Apple (Charts) uses to make the iPod a closed system. Right now, thanks to FairPlay, the songs Apple sells at its iTunes store cannot easily be played on other devices, and copy-protected songs purchased from other sites will not play on the iPod. (The iPod will play MP3 files, which do not have any copy protection, but major labels don't sell music in that format.)
Johansen has written programs that get around those restrictions: one that would let other companies sell copy-protected songs that play on the iPod, and another that would let other devices play iTunes songs. Starting this fall, his new company, DoubleTwist, will license them to anyone who wants to get into the digital-music business - and doesn't mind getting hate mail from Cupertino.
So far, DoubleTwist consists of four cubicles in a generic-looking glass-and-steel building in Redwood Shores, Calif., one client, and no full-time employees other than Johansen and co-founder Monique Farantzos.
As he and Farantzos explain DoubleTwist in a conference room they share with several other companies, he points to a sheet of printer paper tacked on the wall that has a typed quote Jobs gave the Wall Street Journal in 2002: "If you legally acquire music, you need to have the right to manage it on all other devices that you own." As Johansen sees it, Jobs didn't follow through on this promise, so it's up to him to fix the system, just as he fixed the software for his father's camera.
"Today's reality is that there's this iTunes-iPod ecosystem that excludes everyone else from the market," says Johansen. "I don't like closed systems."
Companies that rely on closed systems don't much care for him, either. For his role in writing DeCSS, Johansen was charged with breaking the Norwegian law that prohibits gaining unauthorized access to data, then was acquitted twice when courts ruled the data were his own. The movie studios didn't like that decision, which almost certainly would have been different in the U.S., where the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act (the DMCA, for short) prohibits circumventing digital-rights-management technology (or DRM) for any reason. The movie studios used that law to successfully sue a hacker magazine called 2600 that linked to DeCSS on its Web site.
Johansen, who had left high school at 16 to become a programmer, testified in the 2600 case and became frustrated that companies could prohibit customers from using a product the way they wanted. "I really became interested in these issues," he says. He also became something of an icon to hard-core geeks: When Johansen announced on his blog that he was selling the old iPod he had used to break FairPlay, a Berkeley researcher bought it to keep as a souvenir.
"We all talk about disruptive forces in business," says Mike McGuire, an analyst at the Gartner Group. "This guy is a disruptive force unto himself."
A thorn in Apple's side
There's an obvious question: Isn't opening the iTunes system illegal? There is no obvious answer. FairPlay is not patented, most likely because the encryption algorithms it uses are in the public domain. (Apple would not comment for this story.) And Johansen says he is abiding by the letter of the law - if not, perhaps, its spirit.
To let other sites sell music that plays on the iPod, his program will "wrap" songs with code that functions much like FairPlay. "So we'll actually add copy protection," he says, whereas the DMCA prohibits removing it. Helping other devices play iTunes songs could be harder to justify legally, but he cites the DMCA clause that permits users, in some circumstances, to reverse-engineer programs to ensure "interoperability."
"The law protects copyrights," he says, "but it doesn't keep you locked into the iPod." Johansen isn't the only one who feels that way - or the only one who has found a way around FairPlay.
In 2004, RealNetworks (Charts) released a program called Harmony that would allow songs from its RealPlayer Music Store to play on the iPod. Steve Jobs memorably accused the company of using "the ethics and tactics of a hacker" and threatened to sue.
Instead, Apple released a software update that made Harmony ineffective - although Real subsequently fixed that. Another company, Navio Systems, has announced that it has developed a way to play iTunes songs on other devices. Several more programs on the Internet will strip the FairPlay encryption from a file, but none of them has a large following.
And not everyone who wants to open up the iPod is a hacker. There have been demonstrations in the streets of France over Apple's DRM, and lawmakers there have attempted to require Apple to license FairPlay. Apple said that such a move would be "state-sponsored piracy."
In the U.S., courts have traditionally allowed inventors to reverse-engineer products to determine how they function. But the DMCA allows programmers to do that only in certain cases. "What he's working on is clearly in the spirit of the reverse-engineering the courts have been most friendly toward," says Fred von Lohman, a senior staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation who has informally given Johansen advice. "But the law is untested, and the case is complicated."
Since the DMCA was passed, the most relevant legal precedent is a case in which the videogame maker Blizzard sued an ISP that hosted an unapproved server where people could play its games, which the court found to be a DMCA violation.
"On the surface, Apple would have a good case," especially when it comes to making iTunes songs play on other devices, says Robert Becker, an attorney at Manatt Phelps & Phillips who has represented the copy-protection company Macrovision. "Apple would say you're buying music under certain restrictions."
Indeed, how you feel about what Johansen is doing may depend on how you feel about a question that will become more important as the media business gradually embraces digital distribution: What exactly are you buying when you purchase a song on iTunes?
An unscientific survey of friends generated only one answer: a song. An attorney, though, might say that you are buying a license to play a song on a specific set of devices - and that using Johansen's software violates Apple's user agreement (the one you didn't bother to read when you signed up for iTunes).
If the distinction seems minute, suppose you replace your iPod with another digital music player; unless you convert them to MP3s, your songs from iTunes will be as useful as eight-track tapes.
A tense atmosphere
For a man so intent on changing the way music is sold, Johansen isn't a big fan himself. "I've probably bought ten CDs in my whole life," he says. Much of the music he does have - mainly techno - he buys from iTunes. When the store went online, it didn't accept foreign credit cards, so Johansen bought iTunes gift certificates on eBay.
Instead of going to concerts, Johansen bakes. His blog, "So Sue Me," features dessert recipes along with news about technology and arguments about copyright law. When DoubleTwist signed its first client - which Johansen declines to identify - he made an apple pie to celebrate.
Johansen has a soft-spoken modesty that belies his stature as a hacker. He was among the first to crack FairPlay - he did it for fun on a vacation in France - and he has also broken a Microsoft code. "If reverse-engineering were a sport," says Michael Robertson, the Internet entrepreneur for whom Johansen worked before setting up DoubleTwist, "Jon would be on the all-star team."
Johansen realizes that taking on Apple could make figuring out FairPlay look easy. But he seems to regard the fact that he could get sued as one of those complicating factors an engineer must deal with, and he keeps the reverse-engineering clause of the DMCA near his desk for easy reference. "We don't want to go to court, because it's a waste of time and money," he says. "But if it comes to that, we will test these issues in court."
Johansen's legal arguments involve the rights of consumers, but opening the iPod could also be good for the music business. The major labels worry that compatibility concerns will slow the digital-music market, especially when Microsoft (Charts) comes out with its own closed system this Christmas. Chafing at Apple's one-price-fits-all policy, they would love to see more retailers enter the market. But it says something about the power of Apple that none provided an executive who would speak for the record.
It is anyone's guess how Apple will react - the company hasn't contacted DoubleTwist. (Johansen says he had lunch with Jobs last January, but he hadn't yet started his company.)
So far, Apple hasn't sued anyone who has created or distributed any of the FairPlay hacks. That could be because the company is afraid that losing a case would set a precedent that would encourage imitations of the iPod. Or it could be that Apple doesn't want to give anyone the publicity.
Whatever Apple does, Johansen could have a hard time making DoubleTwist into a viable business. Companies could be reluctant to license Johansen's software for fear of being sued along with DoubleTwist. And they might have a tough time convincing the major labels to let them sell their music, since the labels know how much that would upset Apple.
"There has to be an agreement between the label and the retailer," says Josh Wattles, an attorney at Dreier and a former corporate counsel at Paramount Pictures. "What's the likelihood of a record company granting that?"
Whether or not Johansen makes any money with DoubleTwist, he will almost certainly make his point. "The iTunes music store was getting so popular, and I was kind of fed up that people were accepting that DRM."
On the other hand, if Apple gets fed up with him, he'll end up making his point in a courtroom.
-----------------------------------------
Seems OJ is at it again. He is writing a "what if" book. He isn't confessing but is writing a hypothetical book on what if he did commit the double murder. Even if this guy is innocent, and I don't believe that's the case, what kind of person writes a book like that, especially if you were the prime (translated: only) suspect.
O.J. Simpson is confessing. Hypothetically, that is.
The former football great, who was acquitted in criminal court 11 years ago of killing his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ron Goldman, reportedly has been paid a whopping $3.5 million to write about the double murder that shocked and riveted the nation in 1994, according to a detailed report in the new National Enquirer.
But Simpson is not actually confessing to the murder — rather, he’s writing a “hypothetical” book — which the Enquirer reports is tentatively being called “If I Did It.”
The early part of the book tells how Simpson fell in love with Nicole and how the marriage collapsed, reports the tab. He goes on, according to the article, to describe in gruesome detail the killing of his ex-wife and Goldman; he stipulates that the murder scenes are “hypothetical.” But, notes the tab, the descriptions are “so detailed and so chillingly realistic” that readers are left with little doubt as to what really happened.
Simpson can never be retried for the murders because of double jeopardy laws, according to the Enquirer, which also claims that Simpson aims to keep any book money instead of paying it out in a civil suit judgment against him by spending it all quickly.
By Jeannette Walls
This sounds like the hammer hitting the death nail for Allofmp3.com. If you have never heard of Allofmp3.com it is a Russian based music store. You could by a whole album for as little as a buck with no copyprotection. Apparently according to Russian law, 15% of the sale price goes to a central Russian agency that then distributes it to the artists. The US music industry (RIAA) did not like this arrangement because it did not set an actual price but a percentage which is why allofmp3 could charge such a low price.
The RIAA has been lobbying the US government to apply pressure to the Russian government to stop this. Since they could not stop them along the legal route it looks like they pressured Visa to do the dirty work. Visa will now not allow you to use their card for a perfectly legal activity; they have made a moral decision. Does this mean that you can't use your Visa at casinos or how about stopping the use of Visa for buying cigarettes and alcohol.
Allofmp3 is now going to an ad supported format. You download a song for free but it can only be played on their media player installed on your computer and it can't be copied to multiple computers. This of course will kill them. It's turning into a radio station and I can get a radio station without downloading an ad-supported media player.
Visa halts its service for allofmp3.com
Beleaguered music download site says it will stop discounting songs and give them away, says newspaper report.
By Greg Sandoval
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
Credit card company Visa International said Wednesday that it has suspended service to music download site allofmp3.com, the latest setback for the Russian company accused in the U.S. of pirating music.
"It's no longer permitted to accept Visa cards," said Simon Barker, a Visa International spokesman. "The action we've taken is in line with legislation passed in Russia and international copyright law."
The news comes as allofmp3.com launches a public relations campaign to counter claims by the U.S. government that the site is an outlaw operation. On Tuesday, allofmp3.com announced plans to give away hundreds of thousands of albums for free, according to a story in the International Herald Tribune.
U.S. trade representatives say allofmp3.com is profiting from unauthorized music sales. Executives of allofmp3.com say that the company carefully adheres to copyright law in Russia. That doesn't satisfy U.S. music labels' concerns about copyright infringement, however.
Like music download sites that came before it, such as Napster and Kazaa, allofmp3.com offers unlicensed music for deeply discounted prices.
After years of court battles, Napster and Kazaa now cooperate with record companies. Other sites around the globe, such as Spain-based Weblisten.com, have succumbed to legal pressure and shut their doors.
The U.S. has indicated that by allowing allofmp3.com to continue operating, Russia could be jeopardizing its bid to join the World Trade Organization.
Found this interesting article. I wonder how many cover bands know this and does the band not have any liability?
Restaurant owner says songs may cost him his business
A performance of the Jimi Hendrix classic, "The Wind Cries Mary," may cost Michael Dorr his restaurant.
Dorr, the 37-year-old owner of Imbibe on Southeast Hawthorne Boulevard, has been slapped with a federal lawsuit by companies that own the rights to a trio of popular classics that were performed at Dorr's restaurant in 2005.
The songs at the center of the suit?
Other than the Hendrix song, the music companies say Stevie Wonder's "That Girl," and a 1971 tune, "Slippin' into Darkness."
Dorr says a rep from the American Society of Musicians and Publishers paid an unannounced visit to his restaurant one night and heard covers of the songs performed by local band "Black Notes."
Because his place features local musicians and covers are rare, he didn't think he had to pay the musicians and publishers group an estimated $2,000 to cover performances of copyrighted tunes.
But the owners of the songs, including Wonder and Hendrix's estate, say he does.
Now they're suing Dorr for copyright infringement - and they're seeking payment of between $750 and $30,000 for each song, along with attorney fees.
"It's basically going to bankrupt me and put me out of business," Dorr said this morning. "I can't afford the lawyer and the fees. It's going to close me down."
The married father of two, who opened Imbibe a couple of years ago, said bands typically start playing after 10. But after Friday, the restaurant will do without live music because of the lawsuit.
"It's a total bummer," he said. "It's scary for me and my family. The restaurant business is hard and on top of other things, business is slow. This is the icing on the cake."
New photos from the Scandal, Loverboy, Eddie Money, and Rick Springfield concert posted on my Flickr page.
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