“That’s ‘Cause Everything Is Black” – Lupe Fiasco
Posted on January 17th, 2012
Filed under: General,Reviews — Karl Olson @ 6:17 pm
So, assuming I can come up with a simple way of doing so, I am going to join in the big SOPA/PIPA/OPEN Protest with Reddit, Wikipedia, WordPress and everyone else on the internet.
This isn’t a political statement either (Baha’is are banned from participating in partisan politics after all,) it’s a simple application of the categorical imperative. If you can ban one type of speech from the internet because it threatens the livelihood or comfort of one group that is otherwise fully capable of protecting themselves, there is no philosophical reason that shouldn’t be applicable in any similar instance, and that seems intrinsically broken. The lack of due process in these laws only makes that worse as it’d be up to the accused to prove their innocence rather than the accuser to prove the guilt of the accused. The possibility for abuse seems close to limitless, and the odd splits between foreign and national websites seems entirely ignorant of how websites are hosted in the modern world. Thus, regardless of any ideology beyond reason and functionality, these seem like objectively negative and ill-conceived laws.
I should mention I say all of this in spite of the fact that people pirate my music constantly (and when no money changes hands, I don’t care much because I doubt I really lost a sale in that instance,) including for-profit Russian pay download sites that sell my music without paying me royalties. I would benefit in that one instance, even as an independent artist, from SOPA/PIPA/OPEN passing. Justice would be served if that site was shut down, and/or they were ordered to turn over any proceeds from selling music without my permission.
Unfortunately, much of the rest of the internet would likely be so paranoid about linking to any content without explicit permission it’d grind to a halt. Getting my name out to people is difficult if the sites I post content to have to dramatically alter their operations to comply with these laws. Without a reliable way to promote myself across the internet, my ability to find my niche audience is dramatically injured.
Oh, and I know all the legislation acts in different ways, and there might even be enough exemptions that someone like me wouldn’t be affected in regards to my outward business. Alas, none of these laws can ever truly stop those who want to pirate media or counterfeit brand names, or rather, for them do so effectively might damage free speech in most instances. It’s a digital, democratized society, and we all have computers on our desk whose potential is effectively infinite in regards to creation and distribution, or at the very least, the only limit is the person behind the keyboard. It’s only going to be more intense as 3D printing gets cheaper and more precise. Want that that designer bracelet? Print it. Shoot, innovate on the existing design to make it more personal, cooler, better fitting and generally more useful. You can’t tell me that doesn’t sound radical yet exciting, and this is a world we are about to enter. Maybe there is even a market for selling branded designs for home recreation, but if there isn’t, that doesn’t mean the technology should be banned nor should it be ham-stringed by some kind of DRM-system that gets in the way of honest use.
To put it another way, I know the idea that I can sell music and perhaps one day even merchandise is a bit dated as we near an era of home replicators. However, I would never risk free expression on the off chance I make a buck off of it, and I certainly wouldn’t want such a thing to be law. Free expression is why I can write music, write blog posts, have interesting things to read online and so on.
Anyway, check in on Thursday for a decidedly fluffier and less weighty blog post.
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2 Days
Posted on January 16th, 2012
Filed under: General — Karl Olson @ 3:24 pm
After a jovial little exchange on facebook with my little brother about my music, I decided I’d total up the play time of everything I’ve been involved in musically. That means all of the content from my various alter-egos, all the remixes I’ve done for other artists through the years, the countless mash-ups I’ve made and all the content I’ve co-written/produced. The number spewed back by my mp3 software of choice, foobar2000, shocked even me. This is because I have apparently created over two days of music. That is a staggering figure to me, but when I realize that each of the 700+ audio files probably had an average of 6 hours of my labor poured into each one, I have probably spent somewhere around 175 days at 24 hours a day writing music. Sure, that’s spread out over the past 14 or 15 years, but that still insane.
Clearly, after I put my next album out along with Nursehella’s and Rai Kamishiro’s respective albums, I think I can take some time off.
Or I have to try to bring that 175 days up to 183, I.E.: over half a year.
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Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.
Posted on January 12th, 2012
Filed under: Reviews — Karl Olson @ 10:00 pm
At the end of the last anime season, I genuinely pondered what I’d be watching next. None the titles really seemed to jump out at until I happened upon a forum thread about Ano Natsu De Matteru. Apparently, it’s from the same person who created the Onegai series, and that fact couldn’t be more obvious. The premise is virtually identical – a buxom, red-haired, alien girl falls right into the middle of a high school boy’s previous droll, pastoral life, much to the dismay of the boy’s childhood friend who happened to have romantic feelings for him.
There are some key differences: in Ano Natsu the high school boy’s parents are dead instead of his sister, the uncontrolled decent of the spaceship’s arrival on Earth kills the high school boy in the opening minute of the show, and now only the alien girl’s kiss can keep him alive. Additionally, the alien girl is only an upperclassman this time, not his school teacher, and it seems that the childhood friend is let in on the alien girl’s secret identity from the start. Those little changes amongst others may have a dramatic impact on the flow of the show, even if many of the other characters in Ano Natsu are near facsimiles of the characters in Onegai Teacher.
That said, while seeing an author who had previously breathed new life into the shonen romantic comedy genre simply phone it in should’ve left me bored, it’s actually really worked so far. The few bread crumbs that are different are so radically different that I genuinely wonder where they might lead. It doesn’t feel setup to reach the same finale either, at least in any obvious sense.
Besides, the series had sold me in it’s first minute before they killed the lead. Much like Onegai Teacher, Ano Natsu’s first episode opens with a monologue from the male lead, and those monologues sold me then and now. It was so simple, so eloquent and clear that from those words that the creative staff have set the show up for a very poignant yet sweet journey. Well, with any luck they should’ve; Onegai Teacher maybe a timeless anime, but Onegai Twins was slightly mediocre. Perhaps that risk makes it compelling as well – it’s a romantic comedy fused with NASCAR.
Anyway, I’m quite glad it’s been pre-licensed by Sentai Filmworks – I’ll probably be catching it on DVD or Blu Ray by the time CrunchyRoll finishes streaming it.
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2 Days & 6 Songs
Posted on January 9th, 2012
Filed under: Music News — Karl Olson @ 8:38 pm
After what has been an admittedly long wait, it looks like things are really beginning to cook with Nursehella’s album. The recent studio sessions have run smoothly so far: we have six songs worth of vocals in the can after only two days in the studio, and she has material lined up for another five or six.
I’m not particularly sure how many of my instrumentals will underpin her album. That fact hinges a lot on her tastes, and how many other producers we can wrangle into working with us. She made a lot of good connections in the past year though, and perhaps it’s time to see how just how good they are.
In regards to my own album, I’m essentially just waiting on material from some of my collaborators now. Everything else has been locked down though perhaps once I have the collaborative elements in, I might tweak my vocals in a few spots. I could also draw the album out to 22 original tracks, plus 9 or more remixes. However, I think I’ll wait to see how long the collaborative tracks run. The final version of those songs could eat up the spare space.
Lastly, readers should expect more updates like this as I am obligated to blog an average of twice a week for a writing class. Not every update will be this extensive, but I figure that I ought to be forward about why I’m using my blog heavily.
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Listen And Watch
Posted on December 4th, 2011
Filed under: Music News,Videos — Karl Olson @ 6:11 pm
Watch and skip around my mixtape. Or just download it from one of these places:
Bandcamp
Multiupload
Google Music
After all, Hipster Please! liked it, and that blog is the Pitchfork of Nerdcore (or so I’ll claim.)
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Pop n’ Rap
Posted on November 28th, 2011
Filed under: Music News,Reviews,Videos — Karl Olson @ 3:00 am
More Soda.
The Mixtape:
Ultraklystron – Storyboard [The Animatic Mixtape]
Also on Bandcamp and coming soon to Google Music.
Enjoy.
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A Refreshing Change of Pace
Posted on November 17th, 2011
Filed under: Music News,Reviews — Karl Olson @ 2:35 am
Don’t mind me, I’m just enjoying some flavorful sodas. Certainly no song leaks in the background of these soda reviews:
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Pretend That I’m Famous
Posted on November 6th, 2011
Filed under: Music News — Karl Olson @ 1:38 am
I have been interviewed about my upcoming project and so on. Highlights included me blathering about my creative process, what I do on collaborative projects, and my favorite Prince song. With juicy sweet information such as the preceding teasers, you know your soul is compelled to observe the amazing secrets of my banal life, as revealed to you in an excitingly over-verbose yet shockingly nondescript fashion.
Meanwhile, I should be more of a narcissist and google myself regularly, so I find sick fan videos when they come up:
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Also
Posted on October 26th, 2011
Filed under: Music News,Videos — Karl Olson @ 3:09 am
Ladies and gentlemen, ZOIDBAHTON.
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If you had donated to Rai’s Kickstarter
Posted on October 26th, 2011
Filed under: Music News — Karl Olson @ 2:53 am
You would already have Storyboard [The Animatic Mixtape] which features a whole bunch of songs of my next album Animatic. Those who didn’t pony up will have to wait until my birthday.
Also, I now have a tumblr that will have all the content from this blog on it. Like the LJ I still auto-crosspost to, I expect it’s relevance to be fleeting at best.