Linkage Feb 15 08
- Late Night Summit Meeting. Here’s my latest article for SEE Magazine. It’s available in this week’s issue (Feb 14th – Feb 20th), inside the back cover. A late-night encounter with a hammer-wielding divorced sort-of mechanic.
- I Drink Your Milkshake! If you’ve seen Paul Thomas Anderson’s There Will Be Blood, this will be a lot funnier. It’s a site devoted to discussing the film and features an audio recording of Daniel Day Lewis’ slightly insane and now famous declaration.
- The Definition of Palaver. Interesting.
- Surfing the YouTube recently I came across these two video gems: Atomic Playboys by Steve Stevens and Hocus Pocus by Focus. Steve Stevens was Billy Idol’s guitarist and was perhaps best known for his work on the Top Gun soundtrack (Top Gun theme). I actually loved Atomic Playboys when it came out, but looking back, HOLY SHIT. What a bunch of fucking tossers. The Focus vid is likely the most ridiculous thing you’ll see in your life: A blend of 70’s hard rock and, wait for it, yodeling. Check out the end of the vid when the audience goes wild. Unreal.
- A Tight Grip Can Choke Creativity. Times article on a lawsuit involving J.K. Rowling and a small book publisher. Personally, I side with Rowling.
- Facebook, Twitter, and Bird Flu. Jeffrey Zeldman on bad influences and dwindling office productivity. “Like comic books, rock and roll, heavy metal, gangsta rap, gaming, and MySpace, the web is no longer an easy card for parent-scaring pundits and politicians to play.”
- Springsteen and Arcade Fire do Keep The Car Running. A shaky but decent quality video of an Ottawa concert wherein Bruce Springsteen and Arcade Fire pound out the latter’s Keep The Car Running. The guy filming it takes the cake with his enthusiastic “Holy Shit!” exclamation.
- The God Poll. Does god exist? Do humans have souls? Where do animals go when they die?
Entry #71 · February 15, 2008 in
Mary
Mike,
Great news! Facebook let me change my name to Dolly Varden…Wallace better watch his back now!
Mary
PS Did you know that you are running for President in America? I just discovered it when I searched for your website, had I know early I might have tried to use my vast connections to line you up with a celebrity equal to Obama’s Oprah or Huckabee’s Chuck Norris. Alas, our exit polls are telling us that you should probably just settle for a good Dolly Varden reference every now and then.
# Feb 15 2008 · 16:20
Mike Gravel
Ha! That’s funny. Dolly Varden is such a great name.
And yes, the presidential candidate thing is also quite humorous. When the guy announced his candidacy back in ’06, I got a ton of email from people who thought I was him. It was fun. I would love to be president.
# Feb 15 2008 · 17:07
Adam Snider
You side with Rowling? Why? Unofficial guides to fictional universes are published all the time. They don’t infringe on copyright, so why should this particular case be any different?
The authors/editors of this book haven’t stolen Rowlings ideas. They aren’t claiming to have created the intellectual property. I don’t see how this isn’t fair use.
# Feb 18 2008 · 22:17
Mike Gravel
That’s easy to say when you’re not the author of the work in question. And also easy to say if you haven’t poured your life into it., built it into a massive, successful thing like Rowling has (regardless of its artistic merit). I’m no fan of Rowling, but I think she’s in the right here.
The guys in question didn’t ask permission. Didn’t communicate with Rowling at all. If it were me in Rowling’s shoes, I’d be pissed if someone decided to publish a guide that I myself was planning to publish – whether I was donating the profits to charity or not. They should have approached her as a gesture of good faith, if nothing else.
She wrote it, she created it, she built it into something. She put in the real work. She should be able to decide – to a reasonable degree – what is done with her creation. She can’t control everything, and inevitably, unofficial guides will be published and fan websites will exist. Some of these may help her, some may not.
It’s a touchy area that seems to be in flux right now. It’ll be interesting to see how it turns out.
# Feb 19 2008 · 08:50
Adam Snider
I see where you’re coming from, Mike, but I think that guides of this nature generally have more potential to help an author than hurt her. And, I admit that I only skimmed the article you linked to, because I read a similar one in the past, but as far as I know, Rowling had no intention of writing such a guide, but rather feels that she should retain the right to do so, and no one else should be allowed to. Personally, I disagree. Derivative works are (usually) covered by fair use, and aren’t the same as outright plagiarism.
I’ll admit that, as a writer, I have mixed feelings about copyright law. While I certainly don’t want anyone stealing my work, I recognize that some of the greatest works of art (written or otherwise) have been created as a result of playing off of existing pop-culture, “borrowing” ideas from other sources, and occasionally even from borderline plagiarism (see nearly everything Shakespeare and Chaucer wrote).
While I definitely think that authors’ and creators’ rights need to be protected, I think that clamping down too tightly on intellectual property will ultimately stifle creativity, and make the world a much less interesting place.
# Feb 20 2008 · 13:53