In the interest of full disclosure (I’ve always wanted to say that) let me begin this post with this. Yes that’s me wearing my seven-year-old’s Harry Potter glasses, and the monkey on his back bears a striking resemblence to the same protagonist. I took him to the midnight release party at Barnes and Noble for Harry Potter and was SHOCKED at the frenzied scene (notice the crowd outside as well). I know in Harry Potter terms this post is very late in coming, it’s been 3 weeks since the release. But it wasn’t until I finally read the latest Harper’s weekly review that I felt compelled to reflect on what the Harry Potter spectacle means. This week’s review has nothing about HP in it, but the weekly review from July 24 does. Nestled in between news of Japan’s rearmarment and a six-year-old hanging himself is a reckless spoiler for the book. It states that Hedwig dies. Hedwig (for those who don’t know) is Harry’s pet owl. What the next week’s review does have is a lot of pissed off letters in response to the spoiler:

TO: Harper’s Weekly FROM: Cynthia Patricia I am writing because I am extremely upset by Paul Ford’s Harper’s Weekly, in which he blatantly gives away a spoiler in the final Harry Potter book. I’m not sure how dorky I sound here, but it’s the kind of thing that you just don’t do. It had no relevance to the sentence whatsoever, and I find it in poor taste to send it out to all the subscribers who generally enjoy reading the review but who haven’t gotten around to getting a copy of the book yet, even if it’s been over 48 hours and 8.3 million people know what happened already. Let’s hope Harper’s wont make it a habit to follow the poor judgement and standard of the Times.

FROM JOSH RICHARDS: Shame on you for giving away even a small detail of the new Harry Potter book, buried mid-paragraph, with no warning. Shame.

FROM KEN KOONTZ: It’s the totally gratuitous nature of the Harry Potter spoiler that bugs me. How lame.

FROM KATIE BOMBICO: Thanks for ruining the book for me.

FROM D.H. PRESCOTT: I found your action to be indicative of a flippant and condescending attitude.

FROM REBECCA EWING: How mean-spirited of you.

FROM PAUL LARSON: Bad form.

FROM JOE WINTER: That’s just rude.

FROM PATRICK DEVITT: I would think that a magazine published since June of 1850, as you advertise, WOULD UNDERSTAND THE CONCEPT OF A “SPOILER”!!!

FROM BARBARA CORNETT: Paul Ford is an asshole for telling that Hedwig dies in the Harry Potter book. Nobody does that sort of thing. Who does he think he is. What makes him above everyone else so that he does not have to abide by the rules and at least warn people if he is going to spoil a book or movie by telling things about it that the writers intended for readers and movie goers to experience and not some asshole like Ford to spoil for them. I hope a wizard puts a hex on him and his dick falls off.

FROM LEVI FULLER: Fuck you very much, assholes.

Generally speaking, Harper’s intended audience is one likely to actually read long, very involved articles on complex subject matter. The magazine has very little advertising and the pictures either pertain directly to the article, or feature fine art. The back page of classifieds have ads for things like mail order berets, tea imports and dating service networking exclusively for the alma mater of the Ivy League. So when someone writes in that they hope a wizard hex causes Paul Ford’s dick to fall off, it carries a weight more excessive than if someone had written into US Weekly with the same comment. This isn’t to say that all of Harper’s readers are of the highest intellectual order, but is to say that the majority tend to actually value their ability to think, rather than run from it. So, it interests me to know that there are a number of readers (myself included) who also read the Harry Potter series. Not only read it, but (unlike me) feel impassioned enough about a spoiler (btw, Hedwig’s death occurred within the first 50 pages, it wasn’t as if it gave away the ending) to write angry letters.
Did they miss this part: a newborn was found in a trashcan at a Denny’s in Anaheim, California; a 17-year-old girl with blood dripping down her legs was discovered nearby, having just shared a meal with her family?
Or this: A French geologist stated that a newly discovered underground lake in Darfur, which was expected to help bring peace to the water-starved region, likely dried up at least 5,000 years ago. Topics that revolt and disappoint in equal measure– realities that should cause serious concern and invoke thought, or at least give pause. And while they may have, what people wrote in about was Harry freakin Potter. Or, at least, those are the letters that Harper’s chose to print. And they are funny. Harper’s letters are usually just as wordy as the articles themselves… so the Harry Potter letters add a sincere amount of humor– but it is a dark joke. A tongue-in-cheek reflection on the investment people have in their favorite fantasies. The entitlement felt that they have the right to individually discover the fate of the protagonist and his cohorts on their own time. The importance of individual freedom within leisure time–and the impassioned protection of it.

This is all understandable–after all, they’ve (presumably) read six other books that all lead up to this point. They’ve waited two years for the conclusion to be revealed, projected what might happen, passed the time with a new HP movie. I know leading up to the release of the new book my excitement for the series was renewed, my anticipation and speculation reinvigorated. But I wonder if we haven’t all missed the point. In the Harry Potter series Voldemort is the embodiment of dark hearted power. In Hitler-esq ways he hopes to cleanse the wizarding world of all those that aren’t ‘pure blood’, he hopes to take this strong culture he creates and spread its ideals throughout the greater muggle world. To subjugate them for their own good. After all, the muggles (humans) are unable to do soo much, they are without the abilities the wizards have, their culture is unimpressive, their accomplishments laughable to Voldemort and his ilk. And while this evil seeps into the muggle world from the wizarding one, people are unaware of it. They don’t understand that the pervasive sense of hopelessness and despair are really bad guy scary dementors sucking the joy from their very spirits. They are asleep. Most of those within the wizarding world follow the lead of their (presumbably democratically elected) leaders and deny that the evil take over that is occurring. They accept the twisted facts, read it as reality and go on with their lives. And then, of course, there is our hero and his fellow lofty do-gooders. Harry Potter–the innocent, accidental leader. The effort of JK Rowling in the HP series attempts to analogize the different levels of our awareness. Inside the themes of good v. evil are the cloudy in between states people drift towards when that war is waged.

It’s sometimes easy to become numb to the death toll in Iraq, to the lost children in America, to the dashed hopes for Middle East reconciliation. As a country as well as individually we are constantly in turmoil, often with no choice of involvement or voice with which to assert any power. Because of this, our focus can shift instead on the aspects of our lives–our experiences–that are controllable. The lack of a spoiler alert denied the impassioned readers that power. Their relationship to the story became fractured, leaving them feeling cheated. It’s just too bad we can’t all invest in the story that is unfolding right now–the soon-to-be history of the Bush administration, the impossible war on terror, the everyday process of contributing to our tangible lives– rather than retreating so fully into fantasy worlds. Even fantasy worlds that attempt to reflect the greater truth of our own.

Then again, I had already finished the book when I read the Harper’s spoiler… so what did I care?

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We like many others received this email yesterday from Pandora.  We hope you take this seriously and call your representatives.  The ability for many websites to operate is at stake.

If you don’t know who your representative is, you can find out here.

“Hi, it’s Tim one more time…

Disaster looms! Yesterday a federal court denied a plea to delay the massive increase in rates webcasters must pay the record labels. This means that, absent immediate Congressional action, the new ruinous royalty rates will be going into effect on Monday threatening the future of all internet radio.  

This is a very dire situation and I’m writing to ask one more time for your support. The effort you’ve made over the past four months has been extraordinary and has forced the rapid introduction of the bill, but the committee process has been sluggish and we need to once again remind the representatives of the urgency of this issue. This is perhaps the most important phone call you can make for us. Please call your Congressional representatives in the House and the Senate and ask them to force immediate action on the Internet Radio Equality Act and bring the bill to a vote. It is critical that their phones begin ringing off the hook starting early in the morning. If it’s busy, please try again later.Congressperson John Campbell: (202)225-5611

Senator Barbara Boxer: (202) 224-3553
Senator Dianne Feinstein: (202) 224-3841

I’m sorry that we have to keep asking you for this - but it’s our only recourse. We are no match for the legal and legislative strength of the RIAA and we need your help.  

Thank you again.  Gratefully,
-Tim Westergren
(Pandora founder) “  

 

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Idiot administrations are hazardous to the health of a nation. Studies have shown that quitting such administrations as soon as possible can greatly reduce the risk of wide spread idiocy and can stop the spread of fundamentalist influenced health policies.
Well, something like that.

The former Surgeon General of the Bush administration has recently spoken out against the administration. How many sticks need to be pulled out before Bush, Cheney and the cronies topple?

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An updated public broadcasting advocacy site makes it a lot easier to make a difference.

Just click the link and add your zip code to get started.

Why Is Internet Radio Endangered?

Public radio music webcasting is in immediate danger. The recent ruling by the Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) exposes public radio stations that stream their musical content to huge increases in royalty payments and threatens to drastically curtail the programming diversity found on public broadcasting websites. This decision treats public broadcasters the same as commercial entities and saddles public radio stations with inappropriate and unachievable requirements.

Additionally, because the CRB’s decision requires public radio stations to pay royalties on a per song/per listener basis, it directly contradicts public radio’s public service obligations and mission. In a very direct way, the CRB decision penalizes public radio stations for their service to the public. The more of the American population we reach, the larger the royalty payments.

Artists, listeners, and public radio webcasters have joined together to help preserve our public service. We strongly believe in compensating artists, but public radio music webcasting as we know it cannot survive under the new rules. As it stands now, royalty rates for webcasters will increase drastically come July 15th and will be retroactive to Jan 1, 2006!

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*Here’s an update thanks to Harper’s weekly. I have few fixations– Harper’s and honeybees are two.

Researchers investigating the collapse of honeybee colonies in Europe and the Americas identified several possible reasons for the catastrophe: poor diet; radiation from mobile phones that disturbs bees’ sense of navigation so they cannot fly home; increased solar radiation due to the thinning of the ozone layer; bee AIDS; stress from cross-country travel in trucks; falling queen fertility; the microsporidian fungus Nosema ceranae; or imidacloprid, a pesticide sold under the brand name Gaucho and banned by France in 1999 for spreading “mad bee disease.”

*And just in case we forgot about what was really important:

Investors were advised to put their money in gold and corn futures to profit off the recession that may result from the disruption of the food chain caused by the vanishing bees.

*And, whether scientist or theologian– we can all agree the world will end soon.

Grapes, which self-pollinate, and olives, which are pollinated by the wind, will not be affected by the bees’ disappearance; Christians pointed out that the Book of Revelation predicts that a famine sparing grapes and olives will precede the apocalypse.

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At Virginia Tech University, a gunman opened fire in a dormitory and in classrooms, killing 32 people and then himself. In Iraq, suicide bombs exploded in the parliament cafeteria and on a bridge over the Tigris, toppling cars into the river and killing 10 people. An explosion near a Shiite shrine in Karbala killed 16 children, and the U.S. Defense Department extended troops’ tours of duty from 12 to 15 months. It was reported that a forthcoming book by the editor of the Washington Post suggests that a Google search might have prevented the Iraq war. Senator John McCain assessed the situation in Iraq, saying “I have no Plan B . . . If I saw that doomsday scenario evolving, then I would try to come up with one.” Former Deputy Secretary of Defense and current World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz apologized to colleagues for arranging a salary increase and promotion for a Bank associate who was also his ex-girlfriend and faced booing, catcalls, and demands for his resignation. It was reported that almost a year before seven U.S. attorneys were fired, an email from D. Kyle Sampson, former chief of staff to Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales, proposed replacement candidates for them. Four years’ worth of email from Karl Rove, sought by Democrats investigating Rove’s role in the firings, was missing from the Republican National Committee server. A bird flew into the engine of Vice President Dick Cheney’s plane while it was en route to Chicago, but the plane made a safe landing. Kurt Vonnegut died. Scientists announced the creation of nascent sperm cells from human bone marrow samples. A leaked, X-rated DVD sent to parents of elementary school students in Illinois featured the principal having sex with a teacher on his desk, next to a pile of standardized tests. A study found that students who participated in federally endorsed sexual abstinence programs were as likely to have sex as those who did not. “This report confirms that these interventions are not like vaccines. You can’t expect one . . . small dose to be protective all throughout the youth’s high school career,” said the commissioner of the Family and Youth Services Bureau. In Hong Kong, race horses suffered the worst outbreak of equine herpes in the region’s history. In Saudi Arabia, a widely circulated text message claimed melons entering the kingdom from Israel were infected with AIDS. A Ukrainian woman was arrested after customs officials found hashish inside the battery compartment of her vibrator, the Indian civil service announced (and then revoked) new rules mandating female employees to provide details of their menstrual cycles, an Australian study reported that acting on sadomasochistic fetishes improves men’s happiness, a Minnesota jail guard was suspended after thumping an inmate with a Bible, and the Amsterdam chapter of the Hells Angels biker gang organized a benefit to raise money for legal costs. Prince William broke up with his girlfriend via telephone. Responding to Philadelphia’s high rate of gun violence, gun control advocates urged state legislation to limit handgun purchases to one per person per month. Critics of the proposal called it an infringement on Second Amendment rights. German national television released a videoclip of an army instructor in Schleswig-Holstein telling one of his soldiers during a machine-gun drill, “You are in the Bronx. A black van is stopping in front of you. Three African Americans are getting out and they are insulting your mother in the worst ways . . . Act.” A study surveying African-American women in the Mississippi Delta found that a majority of respondents believe anyone who gets AIDS deserves it, especially if he or she is a homosexual, bisexual, or prostitute, and that the U.S. government created HIV/AIDS to destroy the black race. North Carolina’s Attorney General dropped all charges against the three former Duke lacrosse players accused of raping an African-American stripper at a party, calling the athletes innocent victims of an overzealous attorney. Radio personality Don Imus lost his job after he called players on the Rutgers women’s basketball team “nappy-headed hos.” It was announced that President Bush and his wife paid $186,378 in federal taxes on income of $642,905, while Vice President Cheney and his wife owe $413,326 in taxes on income of $1.6 million. The interior minister of Macedonia was driving a BMW that may have been stolen from English soccer star David Beckham. A Staten Island food pantry turned people away after a thief robbed their storeroom of a month’s worth of provisions, and researchers at the U.K. Department of Food Science spent over 1,000 hours testing 700 variations on the traditional bacon sandwich to find the ideal “crispy and crunchy” formula. In New York City, delivery workers continued to picket several Asian restaurants, accusing owners of making them work 70-hour weeks while paying them only $1.40 an hour. A lawyer jumped to his death from the 69th floor of the Empire State Building.

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The Waggle Dance

Jamie returns so she gets to pick the music this week. We play Don’t die in me by Mirah and Always for you by The Album Leaf. No interviews this week, but we do talk about chocolate jesus, zombees, and even Jamie’s newest evolutionary theory. All this and more….
We are available through iTunes or you can stream us through our site’s sidebar.

————————–Mirah————————-

——————–TheAlbumLeaf——————

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There was such a catholic fury over the anatomically correct chocolate sculpture of jesus that the gallery show featuring it was cancelled. Word is M&M’s are trying to create a candy shell loin cloth, for the kids.Now we can safely go back to the more tolerable images of Jesus, you know, the ones with gaping wounds spilling blood, face twisted in agony and dispair. I suppose you have to draw the line at the idea that under the loin cloth there was more than a nebulous ken doll-like bulge.I actually found out about this from a Harper’s weekly update, which stated that someone stole the penis and ate it. Followed by a quick correction–they had gotten that information from a satirical site. That is funny.

here’s an article. This also calls for a little Tom Waits’ Chocolate Jesus, perhaps an inspiration to the artist? Who btw is now covered in sweet sweet offers for his work.

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