As national tragedies go, the 9/11 terrorist attacks stand out for the visual images left in the minds of everyone who watched the horror unfold, either in person or on television, so the idea of creating a museum to memorialize some of the objects found in the wreckage of the World Trade Center was a natural. But what objects should make the cut? “At the beginning, with memories so fresh and personal and abundant, the most difficult curatorial choices will have to be made. If the museum were to draw on nothing more than the artifacts… that are now stored in Hangar 17 at Kennedy International Airport, it would have to winnow the collection by about 20 percent just to fit in the designated space.”
Month: April 2004
The Ultimate Do-It-Yourself Music
Who needs a big expensive piano, really? After all, you can make beautiful music for only a few measley bucks! Just “pry open a Gameboy, tinker with its electronic guts, plug the re-engineered result into a Speak & Spell, duct tape it all together, sprinkle liberally with glitter, hook it up to an amplifier and let the good times roll.” The act of creating such self-hacked instruments is known as “circuit bending,” and a new festival celebrating the fad may be proof that it’s becoming a legitimate form of artistic expression.
Solutions? No. But We Do Have A Task Force!
The U.S. Justice Department has announced that it will form a task force to look into the issue of illegal content piracy (online song-swapping, etc.,) and that the task force will advise the attorney general on how the department should be dealing with the problem. “The announcement took place on the same day that a House judiciary subcommittee unanimously approved a bill that would punish file swappers with up to three years in jail for first offenses, and up to six for repeat offenses.”
You Mean MTV Still Plays Videos In Europe?
MTV Europe has backed off efforts to force a cut in the royalty rate it pays to independent record labels. The TV music network, which also owns European music channels VH1 and TMF, had sought a rate cut of 55% from nearly 300 smaller labels, but the companies went public with the dispute, and MTV has apparently backed down.