Home

230,539 people can’t be wrong!

Oops: Colbert Wins NASA Space Station Name Contest

Of course this is all still subject to NASA and their “right to chose an appropriate name.”

I don’t see anything inappropriate with Colbert. Do you?

Now go back and re-read that title like you would if you were saying the old Muppet’s segment, “Pigs in Space.” Heh heh! Awright, now that we got the mood right here…

So while Jon Stewart was duking it out with Jim “Mad Money” Cramer this past week, I saw this little blurb in the news about Stephen Colbert trying to get a room on the international space station named after him. Now, I haven’t watched Mr. Colbert for a few months, the domestic situation being what it is, and I’ve missed the guy a lot. So it was with pleasant surprise to see a news blurb about ‘em. And even more reassuring to see that he’s still up to his usual shenanigans.

Only this time he’s really aiming high. Even higher than the plane in the Virgin Airlines fleet known as Air Colbert. He’s already got a bridge in Hungary, an eagle and an ice cream that’s named after him. Now it seems he’s got his sights set on his legacy enduring for all eternity. If I remember correctly, he has some of his DNA locked away in space, so why not a room on the international space station bearing his name?

Well, I don’t see a problem with that. And neither do the people who have voted so far on NASA’s website to have the room named in favor of Colbert. NASA, though, apparently has this “theme” they’re trying to go with. Other rooms are named Unity, Harmony and Destiny.  On the ballot for “Node 3″ are Earthrise, Legacy, Serenity and Venture.

Hmm… Unity. Harmony. Colbert. Destiny.

I dunno about you, but it fits in perfectly.

Unfortunately, NASA has made this voting thing non-binding. Even if “Colbert” takes in the most votes (and yes, I went and voted), NASA can say “eh, that’s nice but we’re gonna go with suchnsuch name instead…”

At least the Hungarians honored the vote tally for their bridge.  I would think NASA could do the same.

If you’d like to vote, you can too by going here.

*sigh* Oh Stephen. How I miss thee…

For those of you who don’t know, Web 2.0 is this whole user generated content driven web experience that I blogged about previously back in August of 2007 ironically titled, Self Produced Crap. My issue then was with Andrew Keen. Mr. Keen had written a book and had made an appearance on The Colbert Report, basically crying about there being too many people producing stuff and not enough people making up the audience.

He may be right on that point. The other point he had was that most of what is self-produced is dreck. That part I had an issue with.

Anyway, this isn’t a rehash about that post. This is a scathing commentary about YouTube.

YouTube is probably the preeminent example of self-produced crap. Anybody with a video camera can film themselves telling a joke or singing a song or film their dog doing a trick. Next thing ya know, it’s an overnight smash and it’s being featured on CNN. Then by the following week everybody’s forgotten about it.

Well, let’s face it. Other than anything completely and totally original on YouTube, probably 97% of the self-produced crap that’s posted there makes use of somebody else’s material, be it video or music. Very little, if any, of it is done in a malicious context or in an attempt to rip off somebody else. My two videos (which I’ve now removed) were slideshows set to music. Really benign innocent crap. Yet, YouTube, under pressure from Warner Music Group, had to put on it’s Gestapo uniform and crack down on users who had videos that contained any music from a WMG artist or band and yours truly recently got busted.

Since I did not have authoriztion to use ZZTop’s “Rough Boy” with my Bill Maxwell slideshow, YouTube muted the video. The slideshow would still be seen, just with no music.

Man, I feel like such a bad ass now. I was using a song without authorization. GASP!

I figure the reason I got easily busted was because I was dumb enough to put “ZZTop” and “Rough Boy” in the tags. Of course, I also put “Robert Culp” in the tags and I figure, had I waited long enough, the video would’ve been blacked out or deleted for using his likeness without authorization.

You see where I’m going with this? I can’t show my appreciation for something without somebody getting their nickers in a twist about copyright infringement and unauthorized use and blah blah blah. I mean, come on, I’m not mass producing this video and selling it for profit. I make no money by having it posted on YouTube. I acknowledge that the source material is not my own and note where it did come from. I like the song. I love Culp as Maxwell. I thought it went well together and wanted to share it with other folks. But nope, that’s not good enough.

Doesn’t WMG think it’s possible that somebody who digs Culp/Maxwell coulda found the vid but maybe had never heard the song before? And maybe, after watching the vid, they decide they like it. So they go on over to iTunes or to Amazon.com or whereever and end up buying the song. Hey, lookit that, another royalty dime for Frank, Dusty and Billy.

Yeah. FREE ADVERTISING, you can’t handle that concept WMG??

Nope, they can’t. Instead it’s just “you don’t have permission to use this song. You suck. Your video is now muted.  We’re not making any money off this deal and you’re a jerk!”

Oh, I had the option to swap the music out for one of YouTube’s “authorized” songs. Damn, are they kidding? They got songs in there from artists/bands I’ve never heard of. I tried one song with the slideshow and absolutely hated it and there was no way I was going to sample any of the other music on there for this vid. I’m sorry but the slide show was timed to match “Rough Boy.” Anything else will just look stupid.

Of course, I coulda contested the copyright notice if I wanted to basically commit internet suicide. Hahah….right.

So, in the end the creative urge has been squelched. I’ve pulled both my videos, the Dukes one too, as I figure at somepoint somebody will get upset I used ol’ Willie’s version of “Georgia on My Mind” without permission too. Or Warner’s will get upset I’m using the Dukes of Hazzard images and force the thing to be deleted.

By the way, I never got notice that my video was being muted. I just happen to be checking on the thing yesterday and saw the bright pink (Pink? Who the hell picked pink for such a dire warning color?!) banner on my video indicating it had been muted. And who knows how long the thing had been muted.

Morons.

I am done with YouTube.

Awhile back Mufn had an 80’s Flashback and was finding various song favorites from that decade and sharing them with me via links to YouTube vids. Well, I’ve been re-discovering a lot of great 80’s music lately myself. I’m not sure how this all started (tho’ I think it might be Bill’s fault as I’ve gathered a great soundtrack already for my fanfic – not all of it 80’s but a couple of them are), and like getting lost on YouTube going from one video to another, I’ve found myself finding some old song that I knew way back when and then thinking of another song and…well, I’ve spent a small fortune at iTunes lately. LOL

Anyway, here’s my list of recent iTunes purchases of 1980’s Hits…

1. Arthur’s Theme (Best That You Can Do) - Christopher Cross. I remember hearing this tune way back in the ’80s and finding the chorus catchy (“If you get caught between the moon and New York City…”). For years tho’, I never knew the title or the singer and when I couldn’t find it by that title (between the moon and NYC) on iTunes, I had to Google that chorus and I ended up finding it.

2. The Captain of Her Heart – Double. Another tune from waaaay back that I remember, but never knew the artist (but I did know the title). For the longest time I always thought Lou Rawls did this song, but I’m obviously wrong. The chorus/piano part is catchy. Near as I can tell when I looked on iTunes this song has been covered many times.

3. Love is a Battlefield – Pat Benatar. This one has been played a lot on the adult contemporary station we listen to at work and it’s so much an ’80’s tune but it’s a great 80’s tune. Hard to explain on this one but there’s just this nostalgic feeling I get when I hear it.

4. Middle of the Road – The Pretenders. “When you own a big chunk of the bloody Third World, the babies just come with the scenery.” Yet another one that I fondly recall from my childhood, more n’ likely because my older brother had this song on a tape of other hot hits of the day. I don’t think it was was K-tel tape, but it was something along the lines of those “NOW That’s What I Call Music!” series of CDs that come out now.

5. What You Need – INXS. I bought this one along with “Need You Tonight” and “Never Tear Us Apart.”

6. Take My Breath Away – Berlin. I’ve only seen Top Gun in bits and pieces and my fondness for the name Maverick does NOT come from Tom Cruise’s character (it’s James Garner for y’all who ain’t been paying attention). But I remember the video for this playing on MTV all the time and it’s stuck with me for years.

7. I Ran – Flock of Seagulls. Ya know, I ain’t even sure how the hell I ever knew this song (except maybe via MTV. I watched a lot of MTV back in the day. LOL).

8. Holding Back the Years – Simply Red. Nice jazzy feel to this one at a time when one didn’t expect to see videos for this kinda music on MTV. My taste in music run very eclectic and have from a very early age, this song being one of the early examples.

9. Neutron Dance – The Pointer Sisters. I also bought Axl’s Theme with this. I mean, c’mon… Eddie Murphy. Beverly Hills Cop. That crazy chase scene that opens the movie with Neutron Dance playing? Need I say more?

10. Love Theme from “St. Elmo’s Fire” – David Foster. Just a great instrumental and a song I’ve liked since I was old enough to enjoy music.

There’s more songs I’ve bought recently, but we’ll save that for a part two. Khee!