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[shareamuse]

[shareamuse]

In a just world Carmen Ortiz would prosecute herself for the death of a 26 year old male instead of prosecuting a 26 year old male for posting JSTOR files to the internet.

[shareamuse]

Censor Space

So I don't really know any art/activist pieces that deal with the difficulty in publishing or performing works particularly works with an activist slant that refer in any way to previous media or culture without often paying up the nose for the licensing fees and having to hunt down the creator of orphaned works.

I think it'd be interesting then to have a digital collection of student and professional but unrealized documentaries where film footage that could not be distributed because of copyright law is altered or censored so the film's copyrighted materials is blacked out or silenced and then can be viewed in this highly altered form. 

I imagine that having to remove sound and images from all legally questionable portions would so totally transform each work that it would be nearly impossible to distinguish the original meaning.

At every moment a copyrighted occurance happens, the amount it would cost to allow that scene to occur would be displayed and the total is caluclated at the bottom of the screen until you get the total.

Besides for making an interesting piece to watch, already there are artistic pieces that re-imagine existing works simply by blacking out portions (obviously this is a simplification), I think it would really underline the expansive and relatively recent restrictions to our means of expression in the United States.

But viewers can also donate some money to the film that might lift the cost of that censorship for that scene. So not only does it make the statement of our curtailing of expression and that 'libre' is not necessarily 'gratis' anymore, but it could be a portal where, if a documentary is good enough, crowd funding might bring it to see the light of day. 

Could be called "The Price of Freedom" or  "Pay-to-Express" or something.

Any film or music piece or w/e can be posted and distributed for free (or for sale). 

And those sales can help repeal the cost of the copyright until the film is at a level where it can be sold and distributed through the general public (where the site becomes it's distribution platform).

In addition, these censored films could serve an education to young film makers for how to avoid policies that could restrain their film or speech. Or, more simply, highlighting what speech film and song creators are allowed to express.

But I think there could be one more aspect to this. Films that breach copyright are not permitted to be distributed to the public. But there can be selected viewings. So if there were a physical location, a Dark-Room where individuals can visit and watch the entire film of their choice, uncensored, and alone.

There's a twist though. Because the film can't legally be screened to the public, entry would require heavy background checks and surrendering of the basic freedoms one normally assumes with our normal consumption of media.

Even then, it is up to the discretion of the theater owners to reject those who wish entry outright, for no reason. Or to allow them inside but then not screen the film that they wished, either screening something horrifying or nothing at all for two hours.

Anyway, I think it would be interesting if some project like this existed in the United States.

[shareamuse]

could use a little better aesthetic.  but very much what I was going for

[shareamuse]

Make It Better: Band Name Appropriateness

Some band names just don't fit the genre in which they work. Pick one, and tell them what they should be doing.

Atilla Engin (Jazz Fusion) 

=

Atilla Engine (Metalcore)

-S.B.

[shareamuse]

I once read about a recording looped over and over until the tape fell apart. It was on a list of best songs of something-something. It was haunting, and released shortly after before 9/11. It felt like listening to a song die.

Greg Gillis is a necromancer of music. Remixing him isn't important. You have to kill him and bring him back to life. Do it with images. Do it with recordings and shitty tape recorders. Make him a zombie.

-S.B.

edit: Whomadecookies helpfully pointed out that it's called "The Disintegration Loops" by William Basinski and was released just prior to 9/11. Thanks for ending my difficult Google search.

[shareamuse]

Remix or sample a song known for being a remix or a sample. Keep doing it until it's unrecognizable and then try to get sued.

-S.B.

[shareamuse]

Read up on this, and then muck around. Distort the grid. Flip the colors. But do it with respect.

-S.B.

p.s. Click on the title.

[shareamuse]

myideasforfree:

The refresh cycle on video game consoles is far too long. The gap between the PC and console experience is growing larger every day.

What I propose is a modular video game system. Imagine a “brain” (CPU/GPU) of the console being removeable. Think RED cameras. You want more power? Upgrade the...

[shareamuse]

onemoresalutetovanity:

Just another great business idea that does not yet exist but would be sure to delight if someone was smart enough to invest in my hopes and dreams.

I envision it as a romantic nautically themed roadside paradise, perhaps just off of Route 6 somewhere in Truro, Massachusetts, right before you hit the bustling hamlet of Provincetown. Every room would have a romantic anchor-shaped hot tub and be draped in red, white, blue, and gold.

And boobs, of course. There’d have to be boobs.

The Motor Boat Inn

[shareamuse]

If Copyright has anything to do with plagiarism, it’s that it makes it easier to plagiarize (because works and their provenance aren’t public and are therefore easier to obscure and lie about) and increases incentive to do so (because copying with attribution is as illegal as copying without, and including attribution makes the infringement more conspicuous). American Copyright law does not protect attribution to begin with; it is concerned only with “ownership,” not authorship.

-Nina Paley: Credit Is Due

If you are unfamiliar with Nina Paley, get reading.

(via veganarchonomics)

[shareamuse]

I want to write tiny messages on fallen leaves in a busy park

that say,

please help

I've fallen

or something. Then film that leaf being passed, ignored, maybe even stepped on, by all the passerby.

On a similar note, filming a small paper crane placed right in some nook outside on a very rainy day and see if anyone picks it up and carries it out of the rain before it turns to mush

JML

[shareamuse]

Stolen at Comic Con: Urinal Interview

This weekend at New York Comic-Con, I stood at Geof Darrow's booth next to Pete from 30 Rock and some bloggers who sought to interview him (Darrow, not Pete. But Pete's cool too). 

Darrow, a charming man, said that he had always thought that someone should start conducting interviews while the interviewee stood at a urinal. You could either make it as short as a piss, or loop a pissing sound for the entirety of it. 

SOMEONE DO THIS.

Make a blog, make a Tumblr, make a web series, put it on YouTube. Just...do this. Famous people, regular people, this would be wonderful.

Then a woman can get angry and call it sexist and start interviewing ladies in stalls while videotaping their feet or something.

...Also, there's probably a decent way to pun "urinal interview" as "you're in a-l interview" 

-S.B.

[shareamuse]

Stolen: Tales From a Beauty Shop

A friend a few years ago talked about wanting to write a short story about all the things a beautician heard while cutting hair, and, concurrently, the story the hair itself told. It was almost pitiful to hear him say he wanted to write it, but hadn't begun, and he begged me not to take the idea.

It's not the most original concept, but rote ideas just need inventive executions. I'm sorry I not only took it, but shared it, but you didn't make good on your desire to commit word to page. Maybe someone else will.

-S.B.

[shareamuse]

Take this Idea: The 6 Degree Shuffle

Hey guys. Remember Chat Roulette. That was fun times huh?

So this is a throwback idea. Probably couldn't be popular now. but there is that theory out there that everyone is separated by everyone else by at most 6 degrees.

So what about a chat roulette that connects you only with those people?

The only people you meet are people who, no matter what, will never have any connection to you. You won't know any of the same people, or ever meet eachother in the same social circles, or encounter eachother ever at work. 

Total anonymity.

And yet, because of the slice of people that use this, there would probably be relatively few people who you'd encounter on this site that would in fact be that far removed from you.

So it might be that you end up seeing these same people a bit.

And developing a relationship with someone on the other side of the social sphere.

Missing: The technology, the following

[shareamuse]

Take this Idea: On-Demand Theaters

What's required:

1 small room and a projector to serve as a theater.

Seats.

A website.

So the premise is simple. How much would you pay to see a movie that you really like in a room filled with other people who also really like that movie?

Create a site where people submit a movie that they want to see and, when enough people choose that movie (say when the room sells out) you're ticket is processed and you go.

Like Kickstarter, you pay up front, and if the film doesn't reach it's goal then you are reimbursed.

Anyway, the main problem with this idea is the legal issues associated with licensing.

But I hope someone figures that out because I'd really like a theater like this.

[shareamuse]

What in God's Name? - A Short Film Idea

So a religious historian is in his white, cramped, cubicle going through screen after screen of religious text on his computer.

In short, by chance, he reasons Gods name.

And he is about to speak it.

But, the moment following the realization but before the spoken word.

A miracle.

In his open outstretched hand apears a burger.

A quarter-pound double cheese with pickles.

He eats the burger, it is delicious. He calls his friends and colleagues.

-another scene-

You see him again, now his tiny cell has four other people, four other computers, impossibly cramped together all typing furiously away. There is talking in the other room, one woman sitting on the edge of the desk drinking a glass of wine.

And the first scientists one hand. A burger appearing, brought to the mouth, eaten, swallowed, the hand again beseeching (almost demanding), it is filled with a burger once more.

I think it's important that the scientist never actually says God's name. It's always almost out of his lips but unspoken. Kind of like a threat that's never carried out.

-I'm not sure where to take the premise from here. But I think that there are a couple of themes that are important even if they aren't really entirely in tune with reality.

The scientist never leaves his chair in the entire time. Not once. And he's always getting fatter. More Jowly.

He never really speaks either. Just has the hand, burger, mouth motion.

The discovery is hailed as a miraculous success. A testament and challenge to science and academia.

But of course there is a tragedy, maybe a nearby miscarriage, caused by the repeated, demanded miracle.

That's all I got guys. Please take this and make something of it if you like it.