Artists and the Internet

The Pew Internet and American Life Project has released its report on artists, musicians and the Internet. I haven't quite tackled the entire thing--it's 61 pages of .pdf files--but the prologue is interesting. Here's a small appetizer:

Artists are divided, but not deeply concerned about the file-sharing that happens online. They want control over their creations, but most do not say Internet piracy is a big threat.

It also goes on to say that most artists, even if they think file-sharing is illegal, would go after the companies who run the file-sharing services, rather than the individual users. It's interesting stuff, and I'll probably read the whole thing over the holidays.

Old home week: I had a couple "blasts from the past" today; first, a former student of mine from several years ago got a job at the store where I teach (we caught up for about an hour, since we probably hadn't seen each other in 6 or 7 years), and then I ran into one of my old high school buddies when I was checking results at all-region tryouts tonight (I had three people make it--one on each sax--and one alternate, and it bodes well for the future, seeing as how three of the four are sophomores). And it was just a couple weeks ago that I talked to a former student of the same time whom I hadn't heard from in about four years, and then I saw yet another one the same night at the region jazz concert (I didn't immediately recognize him when I saw him; likewise for the guy at the store today; they both look all kinds of different). The music world continues to get smaller and smaller.

Birthday parade: Lots of birthdays to acknowledge from the weekend and early this week: James of the Daily Prawn (it's not till tomorrow, but in Australia it is tomorrow already); yesterday's trifecta of Chris C. (formerly of 15th St. Jazz), my frat bro and future club-owner Wyatt, and my former combo-mate Andrew D. (the latter two also born in the same year as well as the same day); and Lexi, Halfling's li'l sis, on Saturday.

UPDATE: Halfling just reminded me about an addition to the birthday parade--one which I'd actually read about in the paper much earlier today: Dave Brubeck turns 84 today! He's one whom I really hope to be able to see someday, though I don't know how much he performs at the moment.