A little night music

I just finished reading a news story about the EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation) and a judge's ruling earlier today about "fair use." The case in question: a 29-second YouTube video of a dancing toddler that had a Prince song playing in the background. The record company said it was a copyright violation; the creator of the offending video said it qualified as "fair use."

In this case, the judge ruled in favor of fair use and not the record company. And thank goodness....because at this rate, we might have to start wearing special earplugs to avoid accidentally overhearing music that we didn't pay for...like, from that open car window, for instance.

I like this statement from the court:

"A good faith consideration of whether a particular use is fair use is consistent with the purpose of the statute. Requiring owners to consider fair use will help “ensure that the efficiency of the Internet will continue to improve and that the variety and quality of services on the Internet will expand” without compromising “the movies, music, software and literary works that are the fruit of American creative genius.”

And not just American creative genius, I might add. The issues of copyright are challenging, and that's why my own downtempo music podcasts focus predominantly on artists and labels who offer Creative Commons-licensed music as much as possible...except in a few cases where the musician or the label gives me permission to include their work.

Curious? Check out my latest podcast episode. (There's only a brief voiceover intro followed by 50 minutes of uninterrupted music, then a summary of artists and track names at the end.)

There's a lot of great, independent music out there that's not signed with the big labels, so some of this brouhaha can be avoided altogether....

MuniMe

It's been awhile since I've had to take the Muni Metro system during rush hour, but today I needed to go downtown at the height of the commuter hours. And with the increased use of the transit system over these past few months -- that is, with people finally figuring out that public transit is a saner option than driving a gas-guzzling automobile around the bay area -- I was hoping that Muni was stepping up to accommodate the growing masses. You know, decreasing the time between trams, increasing the number of cars attached together during heavy commute hours...making the system more tolerable, rather than a chiropractor's dream come true. I'm a huge advocate of using public transit, having used it most of my life--I'm practically a cheerleader for trains, trams, and buses. And I want San Francisco to rise to a higher standard. (Think: Zürich.)

Here's a photo of what I was greeted with today when I entered the metro station....mind you, the tram cars were already full with passengers on arrival...let's hope there was a good reason for this.

Electionitis

On Tuesday in California, we're having the second primary election so far this year. I'm not sure why we're having another election before the November election -- why couldn't they consolidate them to save money?

The star of the show this time seems to be a big, nasty ballot measure that's supposed to wipe out all forms of rent control in the state. I guess some political groups decided that it wasn't enough to have the highest cost of housing in the country, so they're trying to push through a ballot measure to enable the costs to go even higher...even faster.

We've got other ballot measures to sort through as well...there's always one for "affordable" housing and city workers' pension plans and near-identical regional politicians running against each other and keeping the Photoshop artists very busy doctoring up their images on the flyers and posters. And anyway, why am I often voting on things like workers' pensions, which should be decided on by my elected officials?

Another election, and still not the big one that we've all been waiting for since November, 2004.

Whatever happens on Tuesday, I'll be relieved when I stop getting a mailbox full of electoral propaganda every day and the annoying, pre-recorded phone blasts (with poor audio quality) in my voicemail. Here's just a sampling of what I've been tugging out of my mailbox and dropping into the recycling bin lately.

meet me @ casablanca

Last night I went with my friend Alain to a little cafe that we saw on Polk Street: Casablanca Café. You can almost miss it when you walk by: it's next to an North Beach-style coffeehouse between California and Sacramento streets.

The café is a small operation run by a friendly Moroccan man and his wife. There's only a few tables, a small bar area, and a deli counter that separates the cooking area from the eating area. It's not "upscale" looking.

Only the man was working last night--which means he waited on tables, poured drinks, and also did all the cooking. We settled into a corner bench with some pillows, drinks, and appetizers, and just waited patiently. And the wait was worth it! Alain ordered chicken tagine with prunes, and I ordered lamb tagine with lemon, artichoke, and olives...both were delicious, and cooked fresh for us while we waited.

Casablanca Cafe is no frills, but the food is good....and it made me feel like I was in the 10eme arrondissement in Paris...or perhaps in Belleville. If you like Moroccan food and you don't mind visiting a small place that doesn't have waitpeople...and you want a bit of authentic ambiance in a distinctly urban environment, then check it out: 1609 Polk Street, San Francisco.

And now ...for a little music

Enjoy this 10 minutes of psychedelic chillout from Aleph Zero Records. This is Shulman live on stage in Tel Aviv. I love watching musicians play live on stage alongside laptops. Nice little video....too bad it doesn't fade out at the end.

A Tale of Two Torches

2004:
I was walking from my flat near the Voltaire metro station down rue de la Roquette, when I came up to the busy, multi-pronged intersection at the Bastille. I noticed a huge crowd of people standing on the curb--but not crossing the street-- waving French flags. I was on my way to the really friendly post office that's right off of rue St. Antoine and was lost in my thoughts. But I stood for a moment at the intersection with the crowd, wondering what was going to happen.

Then I heard sirens...followed by a crowd of people walking down the street, accompanied by police. And in the middle of the crowd, almost unnoticeable, was the Olympic torch runner. It wasn't impressive, really. The torch runner seemed lost in the crowd, and the flame itself was more like a can of Sterno on a stick. It looks so much better on TV. But I have this story now of how I accidentally stumbled across the Olympic torch runner, amusing only because other people had planned their whole day around trying to see it.

2008:
Once again, I was somewhat oblivious while the Olympic torch passed through my city. I had a head cold and a lot of work to do...but at lunchtime, I headed out for a quick errand. I took a shortcut through the Muni metro station. Over the PA system, they were making loud announcements in Chinese, which is not typical. When I emerged from the station, I saw protesters making phone calls to each other on cell phones.

I've watched the coverage of the protests in London and Paris, too, and while I agree that China's record on human rights is abysmal, I don't think the demonstrations are going to make an impact on China's policies any more than the annual demonstrations at the World Trade Summit have stopped globalization. And the USA is unlikely to boycott the games any more than it did in the 1930s in Germany. The world we live in today is powered behind the scenes and en route to a destiny that we are not likely to influence with handwritten placards or email petitions, and this is certainly true with both the USA and China.

Why does Safeway hate their customers so much?

Last night I went to Safeway. I normally don't shop there, but sometimes it's the only option after 9:00 at night. In fact, there's little at Safeway that I want to buy: not its vast array of pesticide-sprayed produce, nor its dribbling packages of hormone-fed meat. However, I do have pets, and I needed supplies for them.

So there I was....and so were about 100 other people, all waiting helplessly on line for approximately three numbed-out cashiers. Then I remembered: this is how it ALWAYS is when I go to Safeway. It has about 30 checkstands, but Safeway deliberately keeps most of them closed and purposefully understaffs its stores. Instead, the burden is placed on the customers to waste the better part of their evenings while they wait on long lines like caged animals. Safeway is the anti-customer experience, a hellish glimpse of a day in the life of an apocalyptic future that I hope never materializes.

The experience is usually not complete unless, when you finally make it to the front of the line, your cashier is relieved from duty and replaced by another, who arrives -- slowly, begrudgingly -- with her own cash drawer and has to get set up by the manager, thus prolonging the agony even further. And Safeway trains their cashiers to make an effort to address you by name when they hand you the receipt, always mangling the pronunciation with great insincerity, and basically delivering the coup de grâce to yet another painful episode.

Last night I never made it to the cashier. I waited on a long line for 20 minutes, only to discover that at least 10 more people around the corner had formed a second branch of this line for the same cashier. This ensured at least another 20 minutes of waiting. Just then, a man walked by, muttering "Hell, I've been on line here so long that I thought I'd left the store already!"

That did it. I left my basket standing in the aisle and left the store. Sorry, Safeway...if you want my business, you have to treat me like a customer, not a prisoner.