Category: art

Dear Apologists for Immoral and Unconstitutional Laws

Can you believe that lady? High ideals are all well and good, but she knew the rules. So unprofessional! She didn’t have to take that bus. If you don’t like the rules, don’t ride the bus. I’m an industry professional, and I give up my seat all the time – that’s what “professional” means. What if it were YOUR bus? You certainly wouldn’t want just any riff-raff riding it as they pleased. Plus if she’s so great, she should have raised $220,000 for skin-lightening cream – problem solved. Or buy her own bus! But no, she thinks she’s so special. What a whiner.

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Too bad people forget the story of Rosa Parks – but then it’s been hard to see the documentary Eyes on the Prize over the past decade, thanks to unconstitutional copyright laws.

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Am I a Criminal?

Naturally I keep up on the latest grim developments in copyright law. The new Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights Act, which unsurprisingly “is strongly backed by the music and movie industries,” would “(allow) for the Department of Justice to bring civil suits against IP infringers.”

Continue reading “Am I a Criminal?”

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Loins of Punjab Presents

It’s one of my favorite movies of all time. Its director, Manish Acharya, is the voice of “Shadow Puppet #3” in Sita. And it’s opening TODAY in the US!

Showtimes in NY/NJ/CT:

Quad Cinema, 34 West 13 Street (btwn 5th & 6th Ave)
Fri, Sat, Sun Showtimes: 1:00, 3:10, 5:20, 7:35, 9:50

The ImaginAsian, 239 East 59 St. (btwn 2nd & 3rd Ave)
Fri, Sat, Sun Showtimes: 12:15, 2:30, 4:45, 7:00, 9:15, 11:30
(No 11:30 pm show on Sunday)

Bloomfield 8 Cinemas, 863 Park Avenue, Bloomfield, CT
Showtimes: Fri – 3:30, 5:30, 8:00, 10:00
Sat/ Sun – 1:30, 3:30, 5:30, 8:00, 10:00

Columbia Park 12 Theatres, 3115 Kennedy Blvd, North Bergen, NJ
Showtimes: Fri / Sat/ Sun – 1:00, 3:00, 5:00, 7:00, 9:00, 11:00
(no 11pm show on Sunday)

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The Bright Side of the Dark Side of the Rainbow

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Here’s that Very Good Idea I promised yesterday. Please bear with this long post, it’s worth it I promise.

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Everyone’s heard of Dark Side of the Rainbow: You play your own legally-obtained audio of Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon, while watching a legally-obtained video of the Wizard of Oz. As long as the audio is legal, and the video is legal, enjoying them at the same time is legal.

Continue reading “The Bright Side of the Dark Side of the Rainbow”

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Sita Soundtrack Project

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With the help of old record collectors and Annette Hanshaw fans, I’m hoping to put together a free, easily-downloadable “soundtrack” of the 11 old Hanshaw songs in Sita Sings the Blues. The collectors will provide the tracks – MP3s probably – and I’ll provide the “album cover” and publicity.

Who wants to provide the server? We need a server to put all this on. Please contact me if you have some server space to donate.

This isn’t to make money, it’s to bring Hanshaw’s beautiful music to new eager ears for free. It’s also to publicize that all the effort in preserving and sharing Hanshaw’s voice has been on the part of record collectors, not the music industry.

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The new music in the film is the responsibility of its respective composers, who are busy artists like me and haven’t yet had time to organize an album. Hopefully we’ll have a soundtrack of their stuff for you eventually, but meanwhile you can sample their delights at their respective web sites:
Todd Michaelsen
MASALADOSA
Rohan
Nik Phelps and the Sprocket Ensemble
Rudresh Mahanthappa

Any volunteers want to produce an album of their “Sita” music? It’s like herding cats, but they’re all super-nice, just very busy, like me.

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