Wednesday, June 27, 2007

Radio Silence  I never gave much creedence to the efficacy of a good public relations stunt. I used to allow the stunt nature of the relating to form soft edged but negative conotations within my draining thought. But no more. The public do not chat among themselves, but face each other institutionalised and atomised respectively. At all times. Things need to be done properly. Plus while the Copyright Royalty Board's (part of the Library of Congress apparently) ruling last April that would impose steep and retroactive fees on internet radio programming spawned some commentary in the press. It dropped off quickly and seemed un-inclined to ask any underlying questions on the matter.  Questions like the relationship, in business and personnell, of the Board to the RIAA to the collection agency SoundExchange.  Of the universal mandate SoundExchange has to collect monies on others (artists) behalf who have never asked it do so, and may not desire they do so. There are question about the particulars of the schedule of rates as well as the over-all effect, repercussions, and critically the intention of all this.  A "Day of Silence" last Tuesday by internet streaming radio stations brought out the press BBC NEWS | Technology | 'Day of silence' for US web radio and got them asking questions Playlist: Day of Silence.  WFMU had a unique take on the day. They choose to simply silence the mechanically reproduced output that was under the 'jurisdiction' of SoundExchanges mandate and play other things National Day of Silence for Webcasters.  There are always other things. 11:52:12 PM    comment [];trackback []; One Day In Maine  One of the indelible places that the children's book illustrator and author Robert McCloskey drew into the pages of his stories is closing down According to an article in the Monitor: Is it a Maine morning without Condon's Garage? | csmonitor.com. McCloskey is the author of Make Way for Ducklings and many other books. Condons' is a small town garage was featured in the story One morning in Maine. The McCloskey family's life in Maine was featured in a number of his books; Blueberries for Sal and a Time of Wonder, as well as One day in Maine that I've read at least. I remember once when my niece was still quite young after a storm on Chincoteague blew a tree over, by my sisters old vacation house, it was similar enough to one of McCloskey's illustratons that we were able to imagine ourselves in a similar story and extract a extra measure from the day. The only McCloskey book I have with me now is the Homer Price book.  Living up on the Maine Coast back in the 1950's was probably tough. If you weren't from there weren't used to the winters, weren't used to the isolation, didn't have an innate fondness for broken down junk. My sister spent four years down Maine, going to college in Lewiston. That's four Maine winters. That's a heap of winter right there. My mother says that there was a hill on the Bates campus where you could sit and see the Northern lights in the winter. My childhood friend, George, from Holliston used to spend parts of his summers on Mt. Desert Island. I got a LL Beans seersucker shirt to see me through a Washington DC summer.  So Kathleen Caldwell, Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor, as her byline puts it drops in on Condon's to talk over their closing of the garage and passing of an era. Don Condon has a few thoughts and tells a few stories before wandering off back into his daily life.  Beyond Boston in the lower forty seven we can only say: "Brooksville, Maine? No, you can't get there from here. 9:35:22 PM    comment [];trackback [];

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License. 2007 P Bushmiller. Last update: 6/28/07; 1:51:03 PM.