Assorted Links of Curiosity 12.26.10

Dear Friends,

For some of you, the internets have provided you with your much needed escape from the clutches of those folk we call family.  If you’re anything like the BrothersFiasco, you are only online because you need to provide your dear friends with less amazing family with something curious to read and consider.  Well, this is going to be quick because our family rocks and we don’t want to miss out on this business.

• Steve Wozniak has always been a bit…. eccentric.  Check out his rather accessible stance on net neutrality.  Also worth a watch is the documentary on Hackers provided at the end of that post.  Not to be confused with Hackers.
• “The music industry is changing rapidly. On the one hand there are tens of thousands of artists who use the Internet as a distribution channel and share their music online for free, but on the other side of the spectrum Big Music and Apple are tightening the bolts.”  Torrentfreak discusses why music is better off on bittorrent than with apple or big music
• For whatever reasons, you believe that computer programming is the obvious career path for you. Before you pursue that dream job though, let’s imagine how things would be after a few years. — So you wanted to be a computer programmer.
• While the U.S. government tries to determine whether what WikiLeaks and front-man Julian Assange have done qualifies as espionage, media theorists and critics alike continue to debate whether releasing those classified diplomatic cables qualifies as journalism.
• Is this the peak for Netflix?
• It seems that the Americans aren’t really that much more religious than everyone else; they just are more likely to lie about it: An article on overreporting religiosity.
• Guest share about Holy Basil – Tulsi tinctures
  SisterFiasco: “Well, everyone should know about adaptogens.. May or may not help with zombie attacks. But promotes your overall well-being.  Can be grown in your urban garden.  Can be tinctured in rum, vodka, brandy… Excellent when used fresh in a tea.  Highly recommended by anyone who has tried so far.”

Monday Welcomes New ish!

The other day when the BrothersFiasco were throwing around new ideas for weekly adventures to regularly feature on the blog we decided on New ish.  New ish is music, video and media that we want to share because we find it to be legit, in some form or another.  Keep a close eye on the New ish as there is no regular New ish posting schedule at this time.

Today’s New ish features B. Dolan‘s live performance of Border Crossing with the What?Cheer Brigade.  For all of you who are not familiar with B. Dolan, he is an activist, slam poet, rapper and performance artist signed to the always brilliant Strange Famous Record Label.  He is also co-creater and co-founder of Knowmore.org, which is a wiki devoted to connecting consumers to social responsibility information about corporations.

If you are familiar with Sage Francis at all, chances are you’ve heard something from B. Dolan.  Dolan started out performing as a slam poet and captured the Providence Poetry Slam in 2002 and 2003. He also released his first version of “The Failure,” which was a demo of his earliest work.  He soon co-created Knowmore.org, went on tour with Sage Francis,  and re-released “The Failure” in 2008. It is an amazingly brilliant hip hop concept album with the concept being that the listener is in a fallout shelter, listening to the recordings of the last man on earth. Woah.  He went on to release the “House of Bees vol. 1” mixtape in 2009.  Alias produced his second official album, “Fallen House, Sunken City” in 2010, which is where you will find the studio version of “Border Crossing” in all of its glory.

As well as being a founder of Knowmore.org, Dolan is also an author of several articles within the site. He is especially known for an article on American Apparel‘s CEO Dov Charney.  That article is well worth the time to read.

B. Dolan will probably never get radio play or mainstream recognition yet he tours from coast to coast and is a formidable new presence in the worlds of lyricism, performance art, and political action.

Classic ish Thursday

The BrothersFiasco were throwing around a few ideas for weekly adventures to regularly feature on the blog.  One of the ideas that made the cut is the revival of old classics that may have an importance to modern times or may deserve more attention or we just think were really cool and want to share.  So was born the first Classic ish Thursday.

This week’s Classic ish Thursday is featuring 90s alternative rock group Morphine.  Morphine was formed in 1989 by bassist/vocalist Mark Sandman and saxophonist Dana Colley.  Drummer Jerome Deupree, who had played with Sandman in previous efforts, joined Morphine and completed its initial lineup.

If you’re familiar with Morphine at all, chances are you’ve heard something from their sophomore album Cure for Pain, with singles like “Thursday” and “Buena.”  In 1994, “Sheila” and “In Spite of Me” were prominently featured on the soundtrack of the film Spanking the Monkey. The band returned to the studio in 1995 and produced Yes. The album featured the single “Honey White,” the music video for which appeared on Beavis and Butt-head.

[EDIT: For some reason, the Beavis & Butthead clip for Honey White is not posting.  A simple YouTube search for “beavis and butthead honey white” will work splendidly.]

(btw, I dare you not to be sucked in by old Beavis and Butt-head videos)

Two years later, Morphine signed with DreamWorks Records, who released their major label debut, Like Swimming.  It was a critical success, but did not break the band into the domestic mainstream as had been hoped.  DreamWorks released a music video for the single “Early to Bed”; directed by Jamie Caliri and released in March 1997, the nightmarish yet humorous video became an instant favorite among fans and was later nominated for a Grammy award.

The band’s final studio album, The Night, was completed in early 1999.

On July 3, 1999, Sandman collapsed on the stage of the Nel Nome del Rock festival at the Giardini del Principe in Palestrina, Italy (near Rome).  He was soon pronounced dead of a heart attack and Morphine immediately disbanded. The Night was released in 2000.

Morphine’s instrumentation was quite unusual:  Sandman’s primary instrument was a two-string bass guitar (with both strings usually tuned to a 5th or octave interval) played with a slide; however, on the group’s records he added touches of guitar, piano, electronic organ, and other self invented guitar instruments such as tritar (three stringed guitar). Colley played primarily baritone saxophone, along with soprano or tenor saxes, and the rare bass saxophone, and he sometimes played two saxes at once, a la Roland Kirk; he also played occasional percussion, and Dobro on a B-side.

The Morphine sound was unique and innovative but still unable to gain mainstream US tread.  So take a second to watch some Classic ish quality tunes from the late Mark Sandman and Morphine.

Assorted Links of Curiousity

Here are some assorted links that may perhaps peek your interests.

• Where Are America’s Corner Pubs? – Why doesn’t the American corner pub exist?
• When Faith in Government Decreases, Faith in God Increases. Yikes.
• 9 Tasty Post-Thanksgiving Economic Considerations
• Fun Theory at Work – Increases Recycling, Lowers Speeding
• Art Garfunkel’s Last 40 years of Reading.  Woah.
• Bolivia’s Evo Morales Blames Capitalism for World’s Problems
• Curious Look at the Roles of the President’s Economic Advisors
• Investing in Piracy – The Ownership Society
• Trent Reznor on the Economics of Ticket Scalping
• Public Enemy’s Inventive Use of Assurance Contracts: Bring The Funds
• Timothy Egan’s Take on How Obama Saved Capitalism & Lost the Midterms