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Resurrection of the Cassette Tape?
I blogged a couple months ago about the death of the record store. So I was really intrigued when I read a post on Boing Boing Gadgets about cassettes still being a multi-million dollar industry. In prison.
The Boing Boing post references a NYTimes article about a North Hollywood-based mail-order tape business. Pack Central is a retailer that caters to about 50,000 prisoners. The inventory includes 10,000 CD titles and 5,000 cassette titles.
But as Boing Boing's John Brownlee points out, unlike a CD, "[A] tape can't be broken apart and used as a shiv. Prisoners are allowed to have them."
According to the Times article, current top-selling cassette titles include Mariah Carey's "E=MC2" and Lil Wayne's "Tha Carter III." Evergreen best sellers include Al Green's "Greatest Hits" and Michael Jackson's "Thriller." They might not sound the best on analog, but it's better than prison with no music.
The biggest takeaway point from this story, I think, is that corporate record companies could learn something from Park Central. This small retailer is doing so well because it's opening itself up to an undervalued market. If the recording industry put more resources toward innovative technology and business strategies it wouldn't have to go after so many illegal downloaders.
Mideast Youth Takes On Afghan Media
Last year, we profiled Mideast Youth, an independent blogging network dedicated to eliminating extremism from the Middle East and North Africa. I thought I'd check back in with the group to see what they've been up to. Sure enough, they've been busy as ever. But their new project is both fascinating and really cool.
Mideast Youth has launched Afghan Press, a blog whose purpose is to "use digital media to show the world what currently goes unreported" in Afghanistan. The journalist-activists who started Afghan Press want to cover daily events in remote villages and interview locals -- everyday people -- who are never represented in the media. And they hope to do this using all different forms of media.
Afghan Press has also become a place to announce journalism training opportunities for Afghan journalists. In this way, Mideast Youth hopes to contribute something to Afghanistan's media.
From the Afghan Press mission statement:
Afghanistan is a country riddled with poverty, illiteracy, censorship, human rights abuses and corruption. There are hardly any progressive and independent news sources functioning within it. We aim to change that!
We want to create a powerful Afghanistan through new media technologies. The internet is our only gateway to free speech and global outreach...It is time for Afghanistan to have a successful digital media outlet that is by the people, for the people, to the world and whose mission is to improve the country.
If You Can't Beat 'Em, Join 'Em
Music sales dropped this year to their lowest point since 1985. Album sales, including paid-for downloads, are down 11 percent from $2.9 billion. (In the compact disc's heyday, music sales peaked at $3.4 billion.)
With the demise of records stores across the country, free downloads and piracy, it's not too surprising that CD sales are down. But the numbers aren't exactly as they seem.
As blogger Stan Schroeder points out, digital sales are climbing at a pretty fast pace. In 2007, CD and DVD sales fell 13 percent, while sales of downloads (including ringtones) went up by 34 percent. Although the rise in online music sales hasn't been enough to offset losses -- in fact, revenues dropped by 8 percent -- those numbers hint at something really important.
In time, digital sales will get back up. But if the music industry wants to help that process along, there are a few things it needs to do.
Record companies need to learn how to adapt to a changing market. Instead of the RIAA stubbornly sticking to its own ways and investing abundant resources in going after piracy perpetrators, it needs to get with the proverbial program. Illegal activity has long had its place in the market -- think ticket scalping, made stronger than ever by online sources like Craigslist. Once music companies abandon old ways of thinking and figure out how to use new technologies and online resources to their advantage, they'll be able to innovate, compete and get back to making "obscene amounts of money," as Schroeder puts it.
Since illegal downloading isn't easy to police, the music industry would do well to view the phenomenon as a viable competitor. Right now, that competitor is pleasing consumers through ingenious means (BitTorrents, invite-only downloading sites, etc.). Record companies just need to figure out how to give customers what they want.
It's pretty telling that when Radiohead allowed fans the option to choose their own price for its album Rainbows -- at first released only digitally -- consumers did actually pay for the album. In the U.S., the digital download made about $8 an album. It just goes to show, people are willing to pay for quality, even if they have the option not to.
Once the RIAA realizes it can't edge illegal downloading out of the market as easily as it can edge out small, independent labels, music sales might start to go back up.
Growing The Urban Vineyard
I've been reading a lot about urban farming and sustainable food systems lately. All over the country, local folks are finding ways to tie together goals of community-building, education, economic development, health, and self-reliance through models of sustainable agriculture. So I was really intrigued when I heard that some people are taking those models to another realm, with urban viticulture and enology -- that is, vine growing and wine making.
The concept of growing a vineyard in the middle of a city is particularly interesting because viticulture is a very precise science. Grapes are sensitive and temperamental creatures. Growing them for wine requires just the right conditions. Variations in climate, soil contents, pesticides, etc. can make all the difference in the world.
I found two bloggers who have started urban vineyards. Manhattan resident Nathaniel Martin calls himself the "Self Sufficient Urbanite." Here's the reason he gives for starting his project:
Being self sufficient and treading lightly on this planet means consuming only what you need and understanding the sources of those goods and the methods that created them. I've been an avid beer brewer and wine maker for years which has brought me a lot closer to understanding how good alcohol is made from raw ingredients. The transformation from barley and grapes into alcohol is a magical alchemic process. Sugar is converted into alcohol by yeast. The sugar comes from either fruits that have sugar naturally or grains that have starches that are converted to sugar through heat and enzymes. Growing these ingredients is another matter... I've never made (or more appropriately grown) those raw ingredients myself, so I was still missing out on part of the experience of how beer and wine is made into a finished product.
Martin says he started growing grape vines last year -- two Cabernet Sauvignon vines and one Shiraz. Both come from a local farm in Upstate New York. You can check out his photos documenting the beginnings of this project.
Another urban dweller, blogger Chris Pearson, is growing vines in Washington, D.C. For anyone interested in urban vineyards, Pearson's blog "The Urban Vineyard" has so far done an excellent job of documenting the step-by-step process of vine growing, with tips along the way. His photos are also a good resource.
Whether urban vineyards will follow the footsteps of urban farms remains to be seen. This could very well be a next step for local food advocates looking for ways to bring communities together.
Charleston's First Integrated Prom
Canadian filmmaker Paul Saltzman is working on a documentary that's sure to be hopeful, fascinating, and at least a little bit heartbreaking. Prom Night in Mississippi tells the story of Charleston High School's first integrated prom. For the first time ever, black and white students attended their prom together.
Legally, segregation ended in Mississippi over 50 years ago. Public schools were integrated about 40 years ago. But if the story of the Jena Six in Jena, Louisiana taught us anything, it's that racial separation and racial tensions are alive and well in some parts of our country.
Actor Morgan Freeman is originally from Charleston, Miss. Since 1997, Freeman has tried to get the high school to integrate its prom. Each year, he's offered to pay for the dance if the school allows all students to attend. This year, school officials finally took him up on the offer.
NPR's Bryant Park Project has a great story today inspired by the upcoming documentary. Photographer Catherine Farquharson worked with the film crew on Prom Night in Mississippi. Her amazing photographs depict a group of excited students getting ready for the prom -- and having a great time once they got there. Check out the audio slideshow featuring Farquharson's genius as well as an interview with one of the students from the high school.
Charleston High School's 2008 interracial prom went off without a hitch. As you can see from the pictures, the students really enjoyed themselves. But, sadly, some white parents didn't let their kids attend, and some insisted on holding a private prom of their own. Listen to the whole story here.
Not Everyone's On Board With Urban Farming
People across the country are getting involved with the urban farming trend. Young people, old people, socially conscious people, gardening lovers, and people who just like to eat. In light of my piece this week, I thought this account of new urban agriculture endeavors in Seattle was pretty interesting.
What stood out to me was the backlash some new projects are getting from the city's transportation department.
Seattle residents interested in the local food movement are getting creative in finding green spaces in areas of unused, urban land. In these overlooked "nooks and crannies," reports SeattlePI, residents are starting to grow their own fresh produce. For example, they're transforming planting strips adjacent to city streets into sources for cheap and healthy food.
But Seattle's Dept. of Transportation say that these impromptu gardens are potential traffic hazards. It also says they could cause health risks. From the article:
[T]he Seattle Transportation Department, which technically requires homeowners to get a street-beautification permit before planting anything there, discourages people from growing food. Among the potential problems: crops tainted with automobile and stormwater pollution; bushy plants spilling into the street; creating a haven for rodents and pooping dogs; and potential complaints ranging from vegetable theft to unsightly dead cornstalks.
However, transportation officials also say that there is no law that specifically prohibits small-scale farming on planting strips.
Furthermore, the Dept. of Transportation hasn't actually done any studies or surveys to find out if their claims about health risks are valid.
Meawhile, many residents seek an alternative to shopping at grocery stores where prices continue to rise. Plus, in inner-city areas, it's difficult to find healthy food even at existing grocers. Residents believe they should be able to grow their own food instead of having to drive long distances to get access to fresh produce (with gas prices being what they are).
What city officials may not realize is that transforming unused bits of land into small-scale farms is the first step to creating a sustainable food system that will not only boost health (rather than presenting a risk to it), but will also boost local economy and the community.
Burger King Caves!
After years of resistance, Burger King finally joined fellow fast food giants McDonalds and Yum! Brands in meeting farm worker demands for decent wages and working conditions. The Coalition of Immokalee Workers and Burger King announced on Friday that the fast food chain will begin paying a penny more per pound of Florida tomatoes in order to boost wages for tomato harvesters. A penny more per pound actually raises wages by 75 percent, if you can believe that. Until now, the standard rate has been about 45 cents for a 32-pound bucket.
As The Nation's Katrina vanden Heuvel points out, the victory is "testament to the tenacity and discipline of the Coalition, a community-based worker organization, which has exposed a half-dozen slavery cases that helped trigger the freeing of more than 1000 workers." The students who have continued to fight hard for this cause also helped pave the way for Friday's announcement.
In her piece, vanden Heuvel mentioned a Senate Labor Committee hearing on harsh working conditions for South Florida farm workers. At the hearing, Fast Food Nation author Eric Schlosser said simply of the Florida tomato harvesters:
"The exploitation of farm workers should not be tolerated in Florida. It should not be tolerated anywhere in the United States. There are many social problems that are extremely difficult to solve. This is not one of them."
It's especially not difficult for Burger King, who will only lose less than $300,000 a year -- that's nothing when BK made $2.23 billion last year.
A good bit of news for once for immigrant farm workers.
Courage In The Aftershocks
Thousands of people slept in the streets yesterday in and around Chengdu, China as panic spread due to reports of another powerful aftershock by state media. The reports turned out to be false, and state news tried to get the word out as quickly as possible to calm frightened families.
At the same time, young people filled Tianfu Square, standing together in solidarity for their country and their loved ones lost in the quake. Yesterday marked the first in a three-day period of mourning.
"Go China! Sichuan! Stand up! Be strong!" they shouted, NPR's Andrea Hsu reports. They gathered together to chant, sing, light candles and honor victims of the natural disaster. Their strength is nothing short of inspiring.
NPR's All Things Considered has been keeping a Chengdu Diary of the Sichuan province in the aftermath of the massive earthquake which has killed as many as 70,000 people. As many as 40,000 are still missing.
That Diary has captured touching stories of survival, especially among young people.
Melissa Block spoke with two young friends, both 15, who managed to make it out alive. They were at school when the quake hit. Huang Zhihui was in history class, and his teacher told everyone to run. Zhihui ran down the staircase. He made it out of the building, to the playground, as he heard the building collapse behind him.
Juyuan Middle School was destroyed, and hundreds of Zhihui's schoolmates were killed, crushed by the wreckage.
Zhihui's friend, Wei Bo, didn't run when his politics class felt the ground shake. Their teacher said to be calm and stay in their chairs. The building came crashing down on the class. Wei Bo managed to escape from the debris. He also pulled out another student who was buried. But most of his classmates and his teacher died.
It's not always clear what to do in such a situation -- duck and cover? evacuate? stay put? stay away from staircases? or just run?
The most touching part of these stories from NPR's Chengdu Diary is the courage that only comes with strength in such a crisis. A mother dying to save her baby. Parents searching for their missing child. Villages desperate for water and food. A farmer pleading for feed for his pigs. And friends, families, and strangers standing together and strong -- helping each other get through it all.
Read or listen to NPR's reports on the crisis here.
In Burma, Politics Could Get In The Way Of Saving Lives
Relief organizations and the U.N. are becoming more and more frustrated with the Burma junta’s unwillingness to accept foreign aid for cyclone victims. Cyclone Nargis has killed nearly 30,000 people in Burma, according to Myanmar TV, although some are putting the death toll as high as 100,000. Around 1.5 million people have been displaced from their homes.
The Burmese military government began accepting some aid from the U.N. last week, but aid workers have struggled to gain access. The process has been slow, relief workers have experienced trouble getting visas and delivery of aid by the junta has been characterized by an “unacceptably slow response to this grave humanitarian crisis,” according to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
The U.N. has tried to increase pressure on Burma this week to avoid making the crisis exponentially worse. Many cyclone victims currently require medical attention that they’re unable to receive. Another serious concern is that there could be an outbreak of infections diseases. Both of these factors could result in an even higher death toll.
Today, the U.N. and other agencies expressed additional concerns about the children affected by Nargis. Up to 40 percent of those killed in Nargis were children, they said, and many of the survivors are also children. Children who are now staying in crowded, makeshift shelters could be at an increased risk of human trafficking and sexual abuse, the agencies said. Children separated from their families are forced to live alongside adults “often in dark or unlit areas with little supervision” reports the AP.
“We are really concerned about the risk of exploitation and sexual abuse,” said UNICEF’s chief of child protection in Myanmar, Anne-Claire Dufay. She said that this is a common concern in post-emergency situations.
The lack of security in many areas of the country, among all populations, is another cause for concern with Burma’s reluctance to accept aid. Since U.N. orders don’t seem to be getting the country’s attention, many are trying to get another government to step in.
Human rights advocates have called upon China to use its significant influence in Burma to pressure the junta to immediately accept U.N. relief. Human Rights Watch says that China must do “the right thing” and pressure Burma to lift restrictions on foreign aid efforts. "The world is watching to see if China does the right thing for Burma's cyclone victims," said Brad Adams, the HRW Asia director.
Sein Win, an exiled leader of Burma’s opposition party, has made similar pleas. “The world is not telling China to do what they should do…to save people,” he said. “[T]he question is whether they are going to use [their leverage] or not.”
But China is busy worrying about political strategy. The country does not want to alienate Burma’s government, and it does not want the world to see it siding with Western aid interests. China itself doesn’t like Western agencies to independently operate within its borders, even in national disasters.
Read the rest of the post »
Local Food Gets Globalized
A new documentary, simply titled Asparagus!, gives us big reasons to care about this one little green stalk. The film focuses a magnifying glass on Oceana County, Michigan, the asparagus capital of the world. Over the course of 53 minutes, we meet many of the residents, family farmers, and farm workers for whom asparagus defines life.
The film brings to life our country’s local asparagus industry, while pulling in issues from the local food movement to free trade to the U.S. war on drugs to the struggle of family farmers in an increasing globalized world. As many documentaries do, Asparagus! sets up a David/Goliath conflict: Oceana County’s asparagus community finds itself under serious threat from foreboding forces of the U.S. government’s war on drugs.
In the early 1990s, the government started using U.S. tax dollars to pay Peruvian farmers to grow asparagus instead of coca. Since then, hundreds of American farms have gone out of business. Not only is imported asparagus cheaper, but it’s available year-round – because Peru’s agricultural conditions allow for year-round growth.
For Oceana County, the impact has been particularly damaging. Many family farms have been forced to shut down. The ones still holding on for dear life struggle to compete with cheap imported asparagus.
Unsurprisingly, the so-called war on drugs initiative has done nothing to curb cocaine production or distribution. As one farmer in the film says, it’s not like coca farmers stopped their growing and switched over to asparagus. And why would they, when the cocaine industry is such a lucrative one, mainly due to high demand from the U.S.?
The film also takes on free trade, depicting small farmers whose lives and livelihoods are being greatly impacted by U.S. foreign trade policy.
But the real appeal of the film is that it’s got heart. As we get to know Oceana’s residents and farmers, hear their stories, and learn about their idiosyncratic love for asparagus, it’s hard not to fall in love with the town. Which also makes it hard not to get onboard with their cause.
Asparagus!, the award-winning “stalk-umentary,” is part of the Media That Matters film festival, and was released in its full length on DVD last week. Watch the trailer here.
The Death of the Record Store
Earlier this month, many of us celebrated Record Store Day by visiting local record stores, or possibly mourning the loss of some of those stores. In the last decade, over 3,000 independent record stores have shut down across the country. A new documentary is looking at why record stores are losing their place in American life and what it all means for the music industry as a whole.
I Need That Record!: The Death (Or Possible Survival) of the Independent Record Store features such musical greats as Chris Frantz of the Talking Heads, Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth, and Ian Mackaye of Fugazi. They're joined by such experts as punk historian Legs McNeil and political theorist Noam Chomsky. Filmmaker Brendan Toller also interviews both small business owners and music label executives.
The film not only explores how technology and the Internet have changed the way we consume music -- with everything from mp3 players to iTunes to music blogs and MySpace to, yes, of course, illegal downloading. It also takes a hard look at how corporate giants like Wal-Mart and Best Buy are pushing small businesses out of the market, how corporate radio dictates what many of us listen to, and how major music labels "squash new ideas" by focusing on the bottom line.
From Toller's I Need That Record! blog:
The music industry has always been a unique marriage of art and commerce, but today commerce has proved to be the ultimate influence. Rather than develop great acts, embrace new technology, offer affordable products; the major labels are more concerned with turning the clocks back to preserve old business models- with only one thing in mind- THE BOTTOM LINE.
Keep the full paid expense accounts and 7 figure incomes. Keep suing fans. Keep shoving bland music down people's throats that will sell x amounts. Keep producing homogenized radio programs that play the same 50 songs. Keep supporting big box businesses that could care less about music; businesses that sell music below list price. Keep screwing the consumers and retailers who love and care about good captivating music. Squash new ideas, new innovations, and new possibilities as the future of recorded music, a commodity that supports the artist, vanishes.
I Need That Record! premiers May 3 (this Saturday) at Hampshire College in Amherst, Mass. All are welcome to attend the screening.
View the trailer here:
And check out a few more links here:
HeadCount's At It Again
HeadCount evolved from an idea that politics and music are inherently intertwined, says co-chair Andy Bernstein. The grassroots group recognized that young people are already getting together and sharing ideas. They’re already organizing around things that they care about, and one of those things is music. It just made good sense to add civic engagement into the mix.
Last week, Concerts4Charity released A Call to Action, a documentary about how the live music community and grassroots organizers came together to form HeadCount, a voter registration group focused on registering young people at concerts and music festivals. Those involved with HeadCount include Phish, Bela Fleck, the Dave Mathews Band, and Bob Weir of The Grateful Dead -- who sits on the organization’s Board of Directors.
Bernstein says when he thinks about political organizing, he hears music. “I always picture music from the 1960s. Social movements to me are often tied to music,” he said. “[We’re] fully recognizing that Woodstock is not the Martin Luther King ‘I Have a Dream’ speech -- and that Jerry Garcia and Gandhi are not to be in the same sentence. I’m not trying to put music in a place it doesn’t deserve to be. But music is an imprint. It’s something that strikes people at a very core emotional level. Something that inspires people and also inspires change.”
Read the rest of the post »
Fanning The Flame Of Protest
San Francisco is preparing for the Olympic torch relay to pass through the city in its only U.S. stop. Already, seven people have been arrested as protesters climbed up the cables of the Golden Gate Bridge to unfurl banners calling for a free Tibet, blogs Wiretap's Adrienne Maree Brown.
Thousands of protesters are expected to line the waterfront route to greet the torch with outrage, following scenes in London and Paris. Activists demonstrating for a free Tibet join those protesting China’s policies in Darfur and Burma.
But not everyone thinks the Olympics is the place for protest. According to a poll by the L.A.-based Kelton Research firm, many Americans think sports and politics should not intersect. Of 1,000 people surveyed, 90 percent said they agree with the statement that the Olympics and politics should be kept separate; 70 percent said they strongly agree with that statement.
By contrast, 21 percent of those polled said they support boycotting the Beijing Olympics. Slate’s Anne Applebaum gives a couple good reasons for why the Olympics are the perfect place for a protest.
For one thing, everyone is watching. Media from all over the world will be in Beijing to capture demonstrations. The Games haven’t even started and those demonstrations are at the center of pre-Olympic coverage.
For another, she argues, history has shown that boycotting sporting events can make a difference:
The boycott of South African athletes from international competitions was probably the single most effective weapon the international community ever deployed against the apartheid state. ("They didn't mind about the business sanctions," a South African friend once told me, "but they minded—they really, really minded—about the cricket.") The boycott of the 1980 Moscow Olympics helped undermine Soviet propaganda about the invasion of Afghanistan and unify the Western world against it. I don't know for certain, but I'm guessing that from the Soviet perspective, the Soviet bloc boycott of the Los Angeles Olympics four years later was successful, too. Presumably, it was intended to solidify Soviet elite opposition to the United States in the Reagan years, and presumably, it helped.
The modern Olympics were founded with the goal of promoting international peace. Having the games in China turns that idea on its head by supporting a government that hasn’t supported peace. The hypocrisy of it all also makes Beijing ripe for protest.
China's Tibet Accusations Continue
China’s repeated attacks on the Dalai Lama really isn’t doing much for its image. Last week, the notorious human rights offender accused the Tibetan Nobel Peace laureate of being a terrorist. Today, China said the Dalai Lama and his supporters are planning suicide attacks.
I swear, you’d think this stuff was straight out of The Onion.
From the AP:
The Tibetan government-in-exile swiftly denied the charge [regarding suicide attacks], and the Bush administration rushed to the Tibetan Buddhist leader's defense, calling him "a man of peace."
"There is absolutely no indication that he wants to do anything other than have a dialogue with China on how to discuss the serious issues there," State Department spokesman Tom Casey said.
The Chinese government saysthe Tibetan Buddhist leader’s master plan is to collude with Muslim terrorists to destabilize the country before the Olympics. The only thing that’s clear, though, is that China is doing a good job all on its own of destabilizing the country’s image before the Olympics.
China's claims about Tibetan violence continued this week. The Chinese Ministry of Public Security says it found an array of weapons in Lhasa, Tibet, including 176 guns, 13,013 bullets, 7,725 pounds of explosives, 19,000 sticks of dynamite and 350 knives.
But China’s ban on all foreign media makes it impossible to gauge whether there could be any truth to its claims that Dalai Lama supporters are planning violent attacks.
Violent Crackdown and Information Blackout in Tibet
The news from Tibet keeps getting worse. Well, what little news China will let us hear.
China has been able to block information out of Tibet. Thousands of Tibetans living in exile in India had relied on email and cell phone correspondence to obtain information about the protests in Tibet, and the violent Chinese crackdown that has followed. But now those emails and calls have stopped.
This comes after China banned foreign media last week.
At today's U.N. human rights forum, China was urged by the EU, the US, Australia, Canada and Switzerland to ease its military crackdown.
Meanwhile, China has actually had the gall to say what's needed in Tibetan monasteries is "patriotic education." We can only assume the Chinese government is talking about patriotism for China; because, as far as I can tell, fighting for rights and autonomy for Tibet is pretty patriotic if you're Tibetan.
In the midst of all of this there's a little event that's supposed to happen this summer. What is that? Oh yeah, THE OLYMPICS. Yes, the Olympics are still actually taking place in Beijing, despite its perpetration of egregious human rights violations. Awesome.
About 50 Tibetan exiles in India began a global torch relay of their own, which will end in Lhasa, Tibet on August 8, the first day of the 2008 Olympic Games. Tibetan exiles are planning their own mock Olympics from May 15-25 in Dharmsala, India to show the absurdity of it all.
Sumedha Sood is a 2007 fellow in the Academy for Alternative Journalism at Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism. The former assistant editor at the Center for American Progress, she is a frequent contributor to WireTap and AlterNet.org.