It seems miles gone. I can’t explain how tedious this class was; especially the first weeks were just like puzzle to me. Not the subject matter though, the tone of work and the instructions given. To find a page we I have to cross many outlets to reach to the spot. Who can forget the due dates for those assignments? I can be able to remember all of them, every week I have something to knock me down on the last minutes. Thank God I have finalized this course. I am proud of myself, with two kids who need my full attention it was hectic. Even though we have given this much of our effort, I love it for the most part.  It forced me to read and read, it forced me to write on topics I had never experienced nor having knowledge on it. Most importantly it thought me to be punctual, use my potential, to have patience and work diligently. I mostly agree on the idea how this class helped me to improve my writing skills, to learn from my classmates and my instructor. I never had blogging experience, which I love most from this class. For sure I will use this experience for my personal projects…wish me luck please. The coaching experience from Jennifer has tremendous value. She was always right there to help, understanding my situation and most of all for her encouragements for the whole class… especially remember those encouraging words on the announcement page. On one hand I am not that much satisfied on her grading though, I am crossing my fingers she will acknowledge those hard times we had passed in reaching this point. I had also experience in-class instruction, but none of them are comparable to this class demand and effort. The other activity I like most from this class was our peer draft review. It was a marvelous experience reading and sharing my classmates’ paper, their input and the genuine cooperation we had. For that I salute every one of my group members. Our group works were funny though, every one of us was having fun and freedom to say whatever we want. It was our little sanctuary where we support each other. The thesis central place is one of the likable places from this class. We do have easy access to our instructor, meanwhile learning from our classmates. I have mostly challenged by our reading discussion forums, since it was very difficult to me to promote the discussion with a question that will help for further discussion. Probably some of the pages in this class might not be that much important or they may create some kind of confusion especially during the first weeks.  Overall the course was really fantastic in empowering and enriching my writing and reading skills.                     

English 101

Even though online class was not new to me, when I first started this class it was really frustrating. I have read and read the syllabus more often but nothing seems to knock off my head. When I saw something I did not remember where I read it. It took me a while to get used to the material. Of course I made so many mistakes till the past two weeks. The tone of work in each week was another headache for me. I have never had this much assignments in my previous online classes. I guess I have to understand this is college level; I have to fit in that environment. The good thing is I did it, I have placed every bit of my time for this class and I understand I succeeded. I don’t want to skip to other points before I say thank you to Professor Gross. Especially those encouraging words she provided us, makes me to holdfast till the end. At one time I even wrote her an e-mail while I was in an emotion. Later when I read it, it clearly shows how I was frustrated. But she knows how to calm us and how to guide us. For all the support you provided me, words can’t explain but I say thanks in million. Even if the course has a lot of hectic work, it is for good. I never had blogging experience before, blogging I thought is something for someone who is perfect in writing…don’t forget the world wide audience. This course was an eye opening in dealing this thinking. I was able to convene my ideas, to share others thoughts, to learn from others, to argue, to agree and disagree in many phenomenon of writing. I love reading as many blogs as possible; this is how I understand mostly what I should write before I run my fingers on the keyboard. I really like giving responses to my classmates, especially on those who raised controversial ideas. Most of all I love love reading responses forwarded to me; I guess I love feedback from anyone. I have created a new e-mail that was serving for this class only, whenever my email pops-up with any of responses that are provided to me I was totally eager to read. This course really helps me to read and read. It definitely improves my writing ability. I was not good enough to write on subjects I am not familiar with, it is a good thing because of the tension I am now able to write on any topic. It thought me to find additional information from literatures, then I added up my ideas blended with what I read …there goes harmony. For the most part of the group work I love our PDR, it really gave me a short cut to see what my classmates are unto. I love reading their papers and their feedback for me. I mostly have improved my writing skill on the essays; I know most of the topics were very difficult to express them in words. This is the good part of challenge, from it new things grew. The other aspect of this course where I have challenged mostly was the reading discussion forum, imagine for someone who is not accustomed with this nations musicians and music environment, and the prompts ends with questions on musicians which I don’t know. Oh it was a hard time to convene those ideas with mine and prompt a question. But I did it. All in all I have definitely changed for the better, the better writing style, understanding, reading, adding up my vocabularies, and good understanding of the music world.        

Censorship

Censorship

Art is the freedom of expression, the freedom to express ones feeling, the freedom to educate, to inform, and the freedom to connect with. From where is art originated? It is from the reality. The reality it experienced, the reality it lived not from the outer space where mind never explores. Creativity of art solely is the result of ones experience. Music the art of reality touching us with its melodies is the subset of this reality. The reality where society lived upon, the reality society accepts, the reality society ruled and abide. As Plato said “the right sort of music would help to set the soul in harmony rather than discord”. We relate to a music that connects with our sole, with our feeling and our reality. We decline that tells us unreal, since we are not accustomed or we are not comfortable with it. When saying this it doesn’t mean art denies creativity. It highly appreciates it but believes it is no way out from the actual reality. Plato talked about this with essence of the beauty “The beauty of a flower, or a sunset, a piece of music or a love affair, is an imperfect copy of Beauty Itself. In this world of changing appearances, while you might catch a glimpse of that ravishing perfection, it will always fade. It’s just a pointer to the perfect beauty of the eternal.”  For Plato beauty is the Form of “ideal”. He called beauty as "the Really Real". As he said the world of this Form is rational and unchanging and only has reality to the extent that it succeeds in imitating the Forms. This statements asserts we are cultivated with these realities, if an art is discordant of these realities we decline it… this is where censorship comes. This doesn’t mean minorities can shape or influence the general, rather the wholesome of society rule. Specific religious views, customs, ideologies or else can’t or must not direct creativity and destroy their owners. Society always follows the influx of creativity, advancement or change. And not always is stubborn for the beliefs entrenched within. It progressed with an idea for creativity, growth, advancement, respect and mutual benefit. An art in the name of creativity, personal money making, disrespecting and damaging will never have a place in our society. Even for a music that depicts sex, drug and violence society gives a place to listen.. this explains its relatedness to our daily being. But music that transcends the fine lines imprinted by our society will not have acceptance, for that censorship works well. As Mr. Lombardi mentioned …liberty to do what he considers right…. This right signifies the right to respect what is acceptable…that is the ultimate right. All in all art that tells our reality harmonize with our interest; the reverse is true for an art that is unreal. Art cannot be restricted by special interest groups and minorities, majorities must rule. Majority never denies the progression of ideas rather wanting to hear ideas that are related to our practice and familiarity.               

The Dreaded Research Paper

My thesis statement is designed to answer whether the US copy right law in protecting illegal music downloading and sharing over the internet is making effective actions or does it lacks bold actions to solve the problem, which is now becoming extensive. While analyzing the problem of internet piracy, I am working in measuring its effect from all perspectives- that is the hierarchical loss incurred. Such as how much is exactly the recording companies are losing in the past year, how is it affecting the promoters, the writers and the musicians in terms of cost, time, and the production of quality work. For all these parameters I am working on the bench mark to see its effect. I am also working how the extent of the problem is affecting the nation’s economy by depriving the revenues fetched to the GDP. These points are very important since they determine the importance of the copyright in mitigating such a problem. Further I am looking into the acts and the reforms in the perspective of how far they hinder the problem at hand. In supporting this idea I have looked some of the measurements taken to circumvent antipiracy mechanisms. While working on this I have found that there is an argument on the importance of copyright law. One side of the argument lie upon, since record companies are the profit makers who uses the traditional way of disseminating music they are the ones protected by the law, not musicians. Therefore it is better to use digital technology and internet selling, in order to benefit musicians; music recording companies are no more value than bureaucracy and monopoly of profit making brought by others effort. Moreover the law doesn’t always progress with the advancement of technology and the terminologies used in the law either lacks wholeness or lead to misinterpretation on a relative form.  On the other side of the argument music recording companies are the ones that are investing every bit of cost for the quality of the production, wide dissemination (internationally), promotion and having the capacity of paying all the costs for the projects, therefore they should be protected. Further copyright law has also a big protection for digitally shared materials over the internet. Of course it is a hectic work in bringing up a common ground of these ideas. However I am looking extensively to see which one out weights the other. Since the topic is mostly dealing on copyright law, the literatures I am finding are not easily understandable for someone who doesn’t have legal background like me. The good thing on the process I am learning a lot, which is why I appreciate working on this topic. I hope the rationale of the paper is coming at the end which definitely will answer my proposed thesis. The paper will also hold some recommendations which will be drawn from the review of the literatures and the gaps I have seen in those literatures.         

Internet Piracy

Internet piracy is a theft of intellectual property such us music, film and software…. to mention few. The act performed by copying or sharing of intellectual property without the consent of the property owner/producer which was given a copyright ownership. Copyright is a legal right that protects intellectual works from being reproduced, shared, or disseminated without the permission of the copyright owner. Mostly the act is performed by consumers who do not or having minimal knowledge that the act is considered as illegal. If someone has bought music CD and burn the CD into many copies he/she thinks, as long as I bought the CD it is mine. But the CD is our property not the songs recorded these are intellectual property of somebody else’s. Especially nowadays music and film piracy over the internet is becoming rampant. The music recording companies and film producers are losing record profit from their work and investment. Music piracy was started at first by Nepster. Nepster had unlimited music collections that were shared on a network of computers. Because of the unlimited effort by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and other organizations/foundations representing the music industry Nepster was banned and shut down.  The experience has dispersed to Southern Pacific Islands where the US law can’t be implemented. The network sharing of music and other intellectual property is especially uncontrollable in these areas since it is not allowable to reserve or shutting down the ISPs.

As we know the music industry specially is responsible in producing, reproducing and dissemination of the records; therefore most of the cost incurred is paid by these industries. This implies the illegal copying and sharing of the CDs costs a lot to these companies than anyone involved in the project. A recent figure shows that the entertainment industries such as the music and the film have alone lost more than four billion in the past years from such kind of piracy over the internet.  Before the advancement of technology for someone to reproduce a CD it takes a lot of effort, but today’s digital world makes this effort to be effortless and the produced materials have the same quality with the originals which is even difficult to identify which ones are illegal and which ones are not. In an effort to stop piracy the music industry with its affiliates is implementing many tiresome efforts, such as suing the companies who are directly involved in the acts and those who provide host for those companies. For the companies who were directly involved in the sharing of these files many courts have ordered for their shut offs, however for those who provide hosting, they are considered unaccountable and are not intiteled to identify their clients.

Furthermore the music industry and its affiliate’s starts suing individuals who are involved in the act, however the effort is tiresome to reach and penalize every individual in the ocean of the network world. On the other hand there are music stores that are legally selling digital music like ITunes and the rebirth of Nepster; the success of these companies indicates that many people are interested the convenience the digital system provides rather than the traditional model the music industries are following most. The convenience created in terms of cost ($0.99 for a song), preference for a song than everyone of the songs in a single CD, time, comfort ..many more are accountable for such preference. Therefore understanding of consumer choices, tracking of any illegal dissemination over the internet, controlling any illegal theft  can be achievable but it takes the gut from everyone of us who aspire the continuity, the best quality, ultimately the growth of music and its economy which ultimately affects our GDP.           

Licensing Songs

Licensing Songs

The arguments rests upon music is for personal truth or purpose not for commercial. As the other end of the wing argues we relate to the music with our true sols and memories, we don’t want our music being used to sell products. Musicians need to keep their pride and integrity ahead of desperation for money. On the other hand others say if music is entrepreneurial work it should serve the business. As musicians are business persons they can use their creativity to expand their wealth. In the controversy between the two extremes I found myself to lean towards the idea musicians can use their talent to sell any product. Why? In today’s free market economy we see so many products on the market on the same type of an item. If we want to buy the item we can check the price, the quality, reviews anything else that could help to convince. In the free market we see honesty and it’s opposite too. Who do we trust to assure the stated quality? No one except our own intuition and investigation. Thus from all these hassle who will save us, a person we trust who is credible in his/her works, therefore we trust their endorsements. When Oprah Winfrey acknowledges a book..Then it controls the market, when Marta Stewart talks about a pan it is believed a special. Sometimes this helps, not always it may not work well, even though we see their tags on the products, it may be the worst of all.  

On the other aspect we can’t separate music from commercials. As if they have the same derivation they both express our sexuality. As music expresses love, sexuality, attraction so do commercials. The commercials what we see or hear use our sexual being to sell their product. Whatever you see on TV starting from toothpaste, deodorant, or Carl’s Junior’s burger all themed our sexuality where we tend to be attracted to this. So there is a common ground for music and commercials which we can’t separate. Having supported a commercial with a back tone of music.. that is all done, it controls our interest.  Therefore whether we accept it or not music and commercials goes hand in hand.

The Historical Roots of Jazz

The Historical Roots of Jazz

It was written that Jazz music had begun in Congo Park in New Orleans currently known as Louis Armstrong Park in ninetieth century. A group of African- Americans collectively started drumming, and playing string instruments mixture that reflected original substance from African heritage, which was like a pervasive ritual ceremonies of Africa. However, the music by these groups lasted little long. As Gioia wrote “The Congo Square dances were hardly so long-lived. Traditional accounts indicate that they continued, except for an interruption during the Civil War, until around 1885. Such a chronology implies that their disappearance almost coincided with the emergence of the first jazz bands in New Orleans.” During the first era Jazz music it was a collective memory and oral history of the city's black community. Buddy Bolden was the first to be acknowledged as a Jazz musician. He had revitalized the traditional music mostly alike with African origin to modernity of Jazz. As Gioia noted “the Americanization of African music had already begun, and with it came the Africanization of American music”.

During that time many Jazz musicians were emerged and produced the music through blending the cultural elements that previously existed in the genre with the modern style. Even if the African-European music were mixed prior to the era of the Congo park musicians, the true birth of modern Jazz was recognized with the blend of African, European and Latin American culture. However there is still a controversial point on the single origination of Jazz music as the heritage from the African music “The popularly accepted theory that Jazz stemmed from a simple combination of African rhythms and European harmony is in need of a little revision. Both African and European rhythms were employed. African music supplied the strong underlying beat (absent in most European music), the use of polyrhythms, and the idea of playing the melody separate from or above the beat. European music provided formal dance rhythms” ( Weinstock). The integration of multi-culture in Jazz music had produce a blend of diversity, as  Gioia stated “which evolved out of European dance forms like the French quadrille, the waltz, the mazurka and the polka. Including the Spanish rhythms in early Jazz, an effect he calls the "Spanish Tinge". As Weinstock argues “The multiplicity of ethnic, cultural and musical conditions needed to spawn Jazz was thus unique to the United States and specifically to New Orleans”. Since from New Orleans Jazz went on to be recognized as  America's Classical Music growing in its performance and acceptance. As Weinstock wrote “jazz gracefully making the long trip from Funky Butt Hall to Carnegie”. The music gained recognition to be presented in the Lincoln Center of the Performing Arts, the Smithsonian Institution, Congress, most Universities and music conservatories, for surly to world wide acceptance (Weinstock)

Works Cited

Gioia , Ted. "The History of Jazz ." Prehistory of Jazz (1997): n. pag. Web. 20 Apr 2011.

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Weinstock , Len. "The Origins of Jazz ." Jazz is Timeless Records n. pag. Web. 20 Apr 2011.

      <http://www.redhotjazz.com/originsarticle.html>.