Jason Moran, MacArthur Fellow 2010

Huge shout out to Jason MacArthur for being selected a MacArthur fellw for 2010. Here is the link to his bio: http://www.macfound.org/site/c.lkLXJ8MQKrH/b.6241261/k.84C3/Jason_Moran.htm.

He is a great jazz piano player and probably the most innovative person in jazz for the past decade. His album Same Mother is simply brilliant. The song "I'll Play the Blues For You" is my most played song on my Ipod. (can be found at http://new.music.yahoo.com/jason-moran/tracks/ill-play-the-blues-for-you--14293929). If you have never understood how jazz musicians improvise by tinkering with the elements of a melody and rhythm to break it down and build it back up again. Just listen to this track and here how he adds and subtracts elements, notes, and beats. It really is an amazing song.

Modernistic and Bandwagon are phenomal too. Artist in Residence shows his range and his ability to take tremendous risks. "Artists Ought to be Writing" is a great example of call and response in that Moran's piano is having a conversation with a recorded interview or performance piece by Adrian Piper. It also shows his creativity and his willingness to reshape jazz music. I also think, via his sampling of Piper, that Moran suggests the linkage between jazz improvization and bricolage and hip-hop deejaying.

Mixed Tapes and the Law

Great editorial by Cedric Muhammed at allhiphop.com: http://www.allhiphop.com/stories/editorial/archive/2010/09/14/22386152.aspx.

His discussion about the demise of the mixed tape provides yet another angle to consider how standard intellectual property law and recording industry contracts failed to nourish hip-hop. Rather hip-hop artists have regularly been forced to operate outside of the typical industry practices and in the shadows of the law. This obviously has effected the growth of artists, the relationship between the underground and more commercial forms of hip-hop, distribution deals, etc. While most IP scholars (myself included) have focused on the controversies and cases around sampling, mix tapes suggest how copyright doctrines tended to work against new and up-coming artists. The interesting thing is that many artists not only had to challenge fair use challenges but also how the system for distributing music worked in concert with copyright to limit the market for their work. Muhammed also suggests how the interlocking of copyright law and music distribution networks were designed to hurt small African American record stores.

Sampling Lawsuits Continue

As reported in a number of places, Drive-In Music has been bringing copyright infringement suits related to songs produced and distributed in the early 1990s. Overviews of the situation can be found at http://www.allhiphop.com/stories/news/archive/2010/09/13/22385540.aspx.

For the suit against Leaders of the New School, the conplaint can be found at
http://www.courthousenews.com/2010/09/07/HipHop.pdf.

The complaint in the case against Cypress Hill can be found at http://www.courthousenews.com/2010/09/13/Tunes.pdf.

What interests me in this case - and is probably interesting more generally - is Drive-In Music is claiming that they were not aware of the infringement for nearly 20 years. The statute of limitations in copyright infringement cases is three years from the date of the infringement. (See 17 U.S.C.A. sec 507). Recent cases about sampling disputes, such as Williams v. Curington 662 F. Supp 2d 33 (DDC 2009) have held that diligent copyright owners have a duty to protect their rights. Courts, however, have allowed copyright owners to re-coup damages from the previous three years before filing. I suspect that the court will eventually limit any damages to the last three years.

I do wonder if Apple or Amazon (co-defendants in these cases) will be able to find success in that they that had relied, in effect, on the "tolling" of the statute of limitations and should be protected against any lawsuits.

For hip-hop studies, these cases are reminders the extent to which hip-hop, and the role of deejays, was forced to change radically because of how copyright get applied to hip-hop.

For those interested in intellectual property law, it shows how the current IP regime actually harms innovation and rewards copyright trolling rather than creative activity.

Homework as an end in itself

Because I increasingly believe that college ought to be as much about instilling certain habits of mind as it is reaching levels of proficiency or knowledge, I find myself assigning and grading more homework assignments than ever before. I like written homework because it forces students to keep up with the reading and come to class prepared. Class discussions are better and students tend to say all or most of the interesting things that I was planning on saying. My job then is more about organizing their analysis and/or supplementing their comments with additional and background information.

Homework also allows me to provide some regular feedback about progress. While this feedback cannot be too detailed, I can save students from significant errors and give them lots of positive encouragement.

I have come to believe that regular homework might be more important than tests or papers. The one challenge with this is helping students understand that the homework is for them, not me. What I mean by this, is students occasionally want to turn in the homework late (after we have had class discussion), submit it by e-mail (rather than bring it to class), or turn it all in at once. In these conversations, they sometimes suggest that the most important thing about homework is that I get to grade it. I try to tell them that homework is their way to see if they are getting the gist of things and heading in the right direction. It also allows them to formulate their ideas so that class is more meaningful and their paper ideas can germinate longer.

In other words, homework is not really a "means" for me to grade their progess, but an end itself. Doing it, being prepared for class, askig questions by yourself, formulating your opinions before class discussion and creating good work habits is the "end." I have come to realize that by my grading it, I increas the likelihood of instilling the habit.