Yesterday, Senate majority leader, Harry Reid put an indefinite hold on the Protect Intellectual Property Act (PIPA), and at the same time representative Lamar Smith, the primary sponsor of the Stop Online Piracy Act pulled it until further provisions could be made. This is good, meaning that the online effort against the bills over the past week was a success. However, it is likely that the bills will return in a different form. Representative Smith pulled the bill saying that it wasn’t ready to be passed. The new version of the bill would likely not be as potentially destructive to the internet as it’s deceased predecessor, and if it were, there is significant power in numbers, as we’ve seen in the protests and online efforts over the past week, and another could just as easily be stopped. Thank you to everyone who played a part in writing to congress, calling their senators and representatives, signing the petition, and showing the world that the bill was bad for the internet.
“Lost” Song from The Finalists Recording Session
The Finalists' "Somebody Broke the Copy Machine" - 2010
I remember recording this song, and how much time and effort we put into making it sound good, and actually, looking back on how little knowledge I had of music, I’m impressed with myself. I wrote this song my freshman year of high school when this band was called “The Businessmen” and the idea was that all our songs were going to center around this theme of office humor. Well, we changed names a few times, and stylistically changed just a wee bit, trying to go more in a bluesy direction, but this, and our other pop-punk piece “My Mind” are all we ever really recorded. I’m asking myself while sitting here listening to the recording, “Why didn’t we release this one as a single, rather than that other song?” Now granted, when you listen to it, some things have been enhanced. We lost the bass track while transferring files over DropBox, so I re-dubbed that after the band’s breakup, and the mix has been tinkered with as well (largely fixing EQ and volume discrepancies, and adding that lo-fi filter on the vocals to hide suckiness). Well, though I was probably embarrassed to release it at the time that it was recorded, here it is: the world premier of the slightly cleaned-up recording of The Finalists’ “Somebody Broke the Copy Machine” originally recorded July 26th, 2010.
Some Week 1 FAWM Favorites!
Stick Boy (@tomski)
Stick Boy (@tomski): “A Fine Day For A Bike Ride”
http://fawm.org/songs/22757/
The instrumentation on this song is just cool. A ukulele and banjo hold down the chords in the background as a glockenspiel covers a melodic line over the vocal. Genius. This guy has a real sense of melody. On top of the aforementioned instruments, acoustic guitar, tambourine, pillow, egg shaker, and bells are present making for a very cool arrangement. The whole piece is just brilliant!
Desiree (@amusia)
Desiree (@amusia): ”The Lobotomobile”
http://fawm.org/songs/22712/
I’m a sucker for some good jazz saxophone, and this song has got it. The swing melody in the beginning section is just infections. Creepy, but catchy lyrics catch your ear and pull you in to listen until the song is through. Desiree did a really great job blending bizarre with fun in her lyrics. Listen for a twist at the end both musically and lyrically! A great way to top it all off!
“Easy to Swing”: a FAWM Work in Progress
FAWM.ORG!
February is upon us which means February Album Writing Month (FAWM) is in full swing! To the time I’m posting this, just day three, over 1200 songs have been posted, with more being posted every few minutes! That’s about 3.1 days of solid music written so far in less than three days! On top of those crazy numbers, seven participants have already finished the challenge with more than 14 songs written. Following close behind, three participants have finished nine songs, and 673 so far have written at least one song! These are some crazy awesome numbers! There is so much creativity going on and we’re only a few days into the challenge!
My second song so far is a little bit of a work in progress. I’ve got a very simple eight bar jazz head repeated twice which comes out to about 30 seconds, which I wouldn’t quite say is enough to constitute a song, but with the addition of a section for solos, plus some variation on the head, I can pretty easily shell it out into a full-featured jazz tune. Take a listen here:
All Republican Candidates Oppose SOPA
In tonight’s republican debate in Charleston, South Carolina, all four republican candidates (Ron Paul, Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum, and Newt Gingrich) voiced their opposition to the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA). The debate happened just one day after the massive internet protest in which many popular websites such as Wikipedia, Google, and WordPress “blacked out” their content to show how the passing of this legislation could possibly affect their content.
Massachusetts governor, Mitt Romney and former Speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich basically agree in saying that internet censorship on behalf of the economic interests of big corporations is wrong. Romney said,
“The law as written is far too intrusive, far too expansive, far too threatening to freedom of speech and movement of information across the Internet [...] It would have a potentially depressing impact on one of the fastest growing industries in America, which is the Internet and all those industries connected to it.”
Ron Paul spoke, crediting himself as “the first Republican to sign on with a host of Democrats to oppose this law.” He then went on to say that the bill would not pass, but to watch out for future iterations of it. He stated that his opponents on the stage had been on the wrong side of the bill.
Rick Santorum finished the discussion of SOPA in stating that he views the internet as a “free zone” where anything goes. He went on to say that he doesn’t believe that the internet should be used to infringe on property rights (the big business content providers MPAA, RIAA, etc.) and that piracy is illegal.
So in conclusion, all four of the remaining republican presidential candidate hopefuls are opposed to the passage of the Stop Online Piracy. This comes on the heels of a massive protest yesterday involving the blackout of many major sites (Wikipedia, Google, WordPress, etc.), millions of people signing Google’s anti-SOPA/PIPA petition, and thousands of citizens contacting their local congressmen concerning the bills. Eighteen new senators jumped on the bandwagon since yesterday in opposition to PIPA, bringing the total opposition up to 25, with 13 more senators leaning toward opposition.
Online protest isn’t going to do anything other than spread awareness, so if you truly oppose this legislation, get on the phone with your local representative or senator. Let them know you’re a voter in their district, and that you are against SOPA and PIPA. Write them a letter or an email. At very least sign Google’s petition.
Good News! Strong New Opposition to PIPA in Senate
Yesterday was incredible! I woke up to an email from Fight for the Future reporting on the success of yesterday’s anti-SOPA/anti-PIPA protests. Since yesterday, 18 new Senators publicly oppose PIPA, and 13 more are leaning towards opposition! (read more on Ars Technica)
Wikipedia "went black" in protest against internet regulation bills SOPA and PIPA
If you know anything about the US Senate, you know that in order to pass a bill, you need 2/3rds of the vote, or 60 votes since there are 100 members. This means we effectively need at least 41 votes in opposition of PIPA to stop it from passing. With that said, the battle isn’t over just yet. There are still 33 senators in favor of the bill, and the rest haven’t voiced an opinion publicly yet.
So what can we do to win the extra support we need to stop PIPA in the Senate? Blacking out your website the day (as I did) or changing your twitter avatar are merely symbolic ways to show your support. The make a difference is to go directly to the source. Write a letter or email to your senators and let them know that you oppose PIPA. Call their office or stop in whenever you can and let them know you are against the bill. At very least, sign Google’s petition or the petition on americancensorship.org. We’ve made significant progress in influencing the Senate so far, but we’ve still got a ways to go until PIPA is gone officially.
You Can’t Read This Today, But…
nicksamuelson.com blacked out on Jan. 18th to protest SOPA and PIPA
Many websites are blacked out today to protest proposed U.S. legislation that threatens internet freedom: the Stop Internet Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect IP Act (PIPA). From personal blogs to giants like WordPress and Wikipedia, sites all over the web — including this one — are asking you to help stop this dangerous legislation from being passed. Please watch the video below to learn how this legislation will affect internet freedom, then scroll down to take action.
Contact your local representative today and tell them how you feel about the legislation. I emailed one of my senators, and will be writing the other, as well as my representative later this evening.
FAWM 2012 Site is Live!
FAWM 2012 Website
I posted last week about FAWM 2012 coming up, but at that point the site was still under construction and hadn’t launched yet for this year. Well the wait is over because as of sometime yesterday, the site is live and there is already a handful of lively discussions going on in the forums. Also, to build the anticipation until the beginning of February, they’ve included (as always) a countdown timer until it all begins. As I’m posting this, there are just under 16 days left until FAWM.
Now that the site is back open, users can access the writing tools page, a helpful suite of web apps to help you when you’ve succumbed to writers block. I discussed the basic functions of each of the tools in my previous post, so I won’t reiterate that entire bit. They’re pretty self explanatory anyway, so go try them out, even if not writing a song, they’re pretty entertaining in their own right.
Also open again to the public after the relaunch of the site is the merch/donations page. You can buy T-shirts, mugs, guitar picks, stickers, and the FAWMpilation CDs that I also referenced in the previous post. On top of things to buy, you can just be a generous soul, and make a donation to the site to off write some of the costs of running a site of 5896 users and counting!
So that’s all from me, I’m excited for FAWM, and if you write songs, you should be as well! Go on, if you’re not already signed up, give it a whirl! What have you got to lose? All you’ve got to gain are a bunch of songs and cool new online friends! I feel like I’ve done this ending in a previous post I’ve referenced too many times, so I will cut off my rambling here. Thanks for reading, and happy FAWMing!
“Party Rock Anthem” by LMFAO for Pep Band!
I asked my band director if I could arrange a piece or two for pep band to play at basketball games this year, and he was all for it. Here’s an audio demo proof of concept for my work in progress on Party Rock Anthem by LMFAO.
As I said, it’s a work in progress. Some bits aren’t present, or the playback might be glitchy. Give it a little time, and I’ll post the finished version as well.
This Gets Me Excited…
Visit FAWM.ORG for more info!
One of my favorite things about the new year, is that early in the year (February 1st), a group of musicians gather online each in an effort to write an album of 14 songs (14½ this year!) throughout the 29 (leap year!) days of February. We call this “FAWM” which stands for February Album Writing Month. The idea is that you write one song every two days (though you’re not limited to just that! I wrote 56 one year!), however since this year is a leap year, you’d come out with an extra half of a song. What’s half of a song, you ask? For that one, it’s suggested that you find and collaborate with a parter via FAWM.ORG, and believe me, there are plenty of members that would love to work with you. Some of my favorite works (example: Track #6 on SENSATIONS by Sean Wright) from FAWM have been collaborations.
If you’re stuck with a case of writer’s block, which I get frequently (we all do), the site offers a plethora of tools to help you find inspiration. Each week there is a prompt on the home page that is meant to be a challenge, and a source of inspiration for a new song. This challenge could involve finding a random photograph and writing lyrics about it, or imagining that you were commissioned to write a song for your favorite band. On top of the challenges, there are also four songwriting tools the developers have come up with—Plot spline, Struxxure, LyriCloud, and Titular, all for helping write songs. These range from generating random (and potentially awkward) song titles, to grouping similar keywords together to aid in lyric writing, to providing a form (verses, chorus, bridge). They’re loads of fun, and practically make the songs write themselves.
If you’re thinking this sounds interesting, but you’d like to hear the cream of the crop from the past six years of FAWM, you’re in luck! Each year, musicians who participate (FAWMers, as we call them) can choose to submit songs to be on the FAWMpilation CD—a compilation of some of the best, and most representative songs of the FAWM community. It also helps the website if you buy one of the FAWMpialtion CDs because all proceeds go to help offset the costs for the administrators, and running a free website for thousands of musicians isn’t free, and it doesn’t necessarily feel like a donation, because you get an awesome CD of 14 great songs out of the deal! That’s what we call a “win-win” situation!
Anyway, if you’re interested, I highly recommend it. You’ve got nothing to lose, and 14½ brand new songs, tons of new friends, and a lot of fun to gain! It’s a really good time, and it’s free! Check out FAWM.org for more. The site’s not fully up at the time I’m posting this, but you can sign up for the mailing list to find out exactly when it will be up and running! There’s only 30 days left!
Nick Samuelson
