EchoDitto

I feel as if I am in a secret club.

Backstory: One of my best friends, Sarie, works at MoMA, and pretty much anything I know about contemporary art is due to our friendship. Things like: the new Olafur Eliasson microsite that user Flickr to sort user-generated photos, or the fact that you can get AudioGuides on your iPhone or on iTunesU, or PopRally. Aka the secret club.

PopRally describes itself as

a program of events at The Museum of Modern Art and P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center that features collaborations with artists and musical acts, performances, film screenings, receptions, and special viewings of exhibitions at moderate prices.

MoMA hosts amazing events featuring art, film, performance and music, with free booze for $8, aimed at a younger, hipper audience.

I almost bought it. A moment of nostalgia almost made me long for "the good old days" when you had to go to a record store and rifle through the bins if you wanted to buy music. I really should have expected it, after hearing the news that iPod sales have topped 100 million. 

But I think I can be forgiven a momentary lapse. After all, I had my first "dream job" working at a record store (just using the term "record store" is dating myself, for sure), and went to college in a town that was known as the "Liverpool" of its time. 

A few months back I heard about The Venice Project, one more video player in the ever-growing field of video players. I’m always curious to hear why this player is different than every other player, so I signed up to become a beta tester. I was eager to download the application, until I learned there is no mac version. Who are these people who put out non-mac products? Mac users are first movers and the influentials, but I digress.

A few weeks later, I got an email, under the subject line, “We’re so Joost!” The Venice Project announced that they have changed the name of their project to Joost.

I was surprised to learn that some of my coworkers had not heard of the Sony debacle, so I thought I'd give a quick run-down. The progression thus far:

1) Sony ships new music CDs for purchase by retail customers.
2) CDs are discovered to have DRM software (basically, copy protection) that auto-installs on your Windows PC when you play the CD, without warning.
3) Sony issues an uninstaller, which creates a security vulnerability on your Windows PC.

Regardless of what you think of this weekend's Live 8 concerts (i generally agree with Sanneh's sentiments from Sunday's NYT), Live 8 organizers and partners were smart about how they used technology to engage the majority of us who couldn't attend one of the 10 concerts.

Here's what impressed me most about this global online effort:

(1) Taking advantage of the traffic :: On the official Live8 site, you can "sign the Live8 list" for G8 leaders via SMS or online or upload your photo to be added to a wall of faces at the G8 -- no gallery yet?!. (Reminds me of the almost 2,500 photos submitted online at FightHunger.org!). Nice clear asks taking advantage of all available technology, coupled with some solid video and exclusive content.

Here's another example of how grassroots are using the internet to fight back.

Earlier this month, Nike stole the album cover from Ian MacKaye's 1981 punk/hardcore classic Minor Threat to promote a new line of shoes. Nike's advertisers have been courting American skater culture and subculture in general for a long time now, but ordinarily they at least ask for a celebrity's permission before using him/her as a spokesperson.

It's been all over the internets that the President has an iPod. That, in and of itself, isn't really news. Neither is what's on it (a paltry 250 songs on a player that can hold 10,000).

What is news, particularly in light of the case currently under consideration by the Supreme Court, is just how those songs got on the Prez's iPod. According the article, the songs on the presidential iPod are "downloaded from others."

News flash: Your mom may not be the ultimate authority on the virtues of sharing now that the Supreme Court has taken up the issue. Last week, the court heard arguments in the case of MGM v. Grokster, or the entertainment industry's latest attempt to put the file-sharing genie back into the bottle. Take your pick. We'll probably have to wait until summer for a ruling. Look for the loser in this round to take the issue to Congress next. In the meantime, there's plenty to discuss.

Talking about file sharing these days is somewhat like skipping blindfolded through a minefield. Now that the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has sued something like 3,000 people—settling most cases for a fine and a promise not to engage in file-sharing again—one reasonably hesitates to publicly even hint that one might have engaged in the crime of (file) sharing, lest the RIAA come a-knocking. Sure, they can't catch everybody, but they might catch you. Right? So let's clarify a few things right now. Napster? Grokster? Morpheus? Kazaa? Gnutella? Nope, never used ‘em. Never even heard of ‘em until just now. OK?

This is good for a laugh. The popularity of iPods is no secret. (I see them everywhere, now that I have one.) But get this, iPods are so popular on the Microsoft corporate campus that company executives have started writing memos about them.

Microsoft's leafy corporate campus in Redmond, Washington, is beginning to look like the streets of New York, London and just about everywhere else: Wherever you go, white headphones dangle from peoples' ears.

To the growing frustration and annoyance of Microsoft's management, Apple Computer's iPod is wildly popular among Microsoft's workers.

"About 80 percent of Microsoft employees who have a portable music player have an iPod," said one source, a high-level manager who asked to remain anonymous. "It's pretty staggering."

The source estimated 80 percent of Microsoft employees have a music player -- that translates to 16,000 iPod users among the 25,000 who work at or near Microsoft's corporate campus. "This irks the management team no end," said the source.

So popular is the iPod, executives are increasingly sending out memos frowning on its use.

Kinda funny. It looks like no one has tipped off Microsoft employees that it's considered tres gauche to use the earphones that come with the iPod. I must admit, however, that I've been guilty of that very thing, since my favorite earbuds died on me and I haven't had time to shop for a replacement.

I just scanned the Upcoming.org DC feed on my blog before heading out tonight see if I was about to miss something BIG. Sure enough, I almost did.

Four area music-critic bloggers from bluestate are aiming for a new level of transparency tonight when they see if they can do any better on the decks than the artists they critique. They'll even tell you what they want to play.

Or maybe they're just looking to have a good time. Either way, it's free admission and you have one hour to turn off your computer and get to the Black Cat and watch real live bloggers (bloggers are people too) spin some tunes.