'Examined Life': Philosophy of the Moment

If you've never taken a philosophy course above level 100 in college, chances are philosophy isn't your bag. Yet everyday, on some level, philosophy informs our most basic decisions. Which is precisely why philosophic thought is especially worth examining in the mist of the current world climate. In the face of global economic turbulence, what new role is philosophy taking in shaping shaping our lives? Moreover, how is philosophy informing the self examination of our lives?

In Examined Life, filmmaker Astra Taylor speaks with eight of the most important philosophers of our time (including Cornell West, Peter Singer, Slavoj Zizek, Judith Butler, Kwame Anthony Appiah, and others), and discusses the impact that this particular historic moment is having on our individual and collective philosophies. The feature-length documentary, which initially opened on February 25 at the IFC Center in NYC, started its national roll-out March 5, and is expected to play across country throughout May. For more information on where and when to see the film go to: Examined Life's official website.

-Amir Said

Serius Jones - 'Life As Serius'

There are many different ways to essentially do the same damn thing. In hip hop/rap music, marketing and promotional tools are often duplicated without any sense of character or individualism. When rappers began doing their own "movies," it was immediately clear to me that the norm was going to be some half-assed cliched look at life in "the streets." And though I have seen a couple of decent "do it yourself" street videos, for the most part, I have yet to be impressed... That is, until now.

In Life As Serius, rapper Serius Jones and directors Winfield Ezell, Jr. and Dave Wilson bring us a "do it yourself" film that delivers a distinctly honest and glaring look at the life of a black male trying to make it in seemingly opposing worlds. The movie scorns the exhausted "king of the hustle and streets" approach, and instead focuses on offering a fair and well-rounded glimpse at Serius Jones' story of family, school, crime, and friendship. The tone and flow of Life As Serius is just as much "matter-of-fact" as it is subtle. Nothing appears overstated or contrived. Moreover, the message, which clearly underscores the balance of this impressive work, is that in order for one to truly make it in the music industry (or indeed life in general) they must embrace they're own unique nature and then proceed accordingly with perseverance. If Serius Jones sticks to this formula, he will undoubtedly see many measures of success.

-Amir "Sa'id" Said

Serius Jones presents Life is Serius[The Movie] from IrunsNY on Vimeo.

RIAA "Bloodbath" Clears Way For Permissive Sampling

Due to steadily declining CD sales and a weakened economy, music industry revenue plummeted from $14.5 billion to $8.5 billion, between 1999 and 2008. In that time, changes and staff reductions at the RIAA, the music industry's largest trade group in America, have been ongoing. But the recent round of job cuts at the RIAA, which are expected to come down as early as next Tuesday, are being called a "bloodbath" by an insider source at hypebot.com. In addition to some positions being limited by attrition, layoffs are expected to claim anywhere between 31 to 90 of the company's 104 employees, or at least no less than 30% of RIAA's entire workforce, according to CNET News.

Recent woes at the RIAA are just the latest example of the cost the music industry is having to pay for years of bad policy. Wild West style mergers and acquisitions has left just four major labels (Universal, Sony, BMG, and Warner) that dominate recorded music. After industry consolidation, the "Big 4" wasted no time in limiting and centralizing their product. C- and B-list artists, who through their creativity and individuality had long maintained decent and core fan bases, increasingly found themselves without a label home. Moreover, the labels shifted from an album-based product model to a singles-based product model; in the process, they ushered in a wave of new "copycat" artists and an era of low-quality music. Furthermore, using their nearsighted, greed-based zeal for any revenue even remotely associated with recorded music, the Big 4, (through there strong-arm representative, the RIAA), went after Napster.

Though the RIAA won their court battle against Napster, effectively shutting down the giant internet file sharing company, they effectively lost the sales war...in a big way! Because of their absolute ignorance of the actual flow of technology and the power of the world's most unstoppable vanguard that is the internet, the Big 4 not only shot themselves in the foot, they managed to hit both ankles, a knee, and a pinky toe boot. Soon after the Napster victory (loss), once again, in their nearsighted gluttoness, the RIAA announced plans to sue as many as 30,000 individuals for file sharing infractions. Apparently, the greedy blokes didn't realize what this would all mean: the advent of new and better music file sharing services; the creation of a culture that feels "entitled" to free music; and absolute litigation hell.

Well, after five years, the RIAA has been forced to deal with the reality of the culture and climate of free music that they indeed mostly created. Here, it's important to note that the RIAA could have gone into business with Napster. Heck, they could have bought Napster. But to them, the upstart company did not respect their right to rip off artists, centralize product, and stem quality of popular music. How dare Napster!

What does this all mean for sampling?

It's clear that labels are, and have been for a while, running out of money. Through in a rotten economy, and they're no longer in trouble: they're in crisis! Here, it's important to point out that there are only so many cuts that the industry can make before their business model completely collapses. Will there be more mergers? Sure, of course. In this environment, merges are the last line of survival before bankruptcy. However, there is a tremendous amount of difference between mergers and acquisitions that are based on a company's plan to expand and mergers and acquisitions that are based on a company's desperate attempt to survive.

A careful reading of the RIAA's recent woes reveals that they haven't the money, resources, and/or man power to continue to fight any of their terror-style litigation battles. And I've long maintained the inevitably of the end of the "non-law" regarding sampling. I've written before that the music industry's attitude towards sampling and sample clearance would become increasingly laxed, eventually leading to most forms of sampling being considered "fair use" or something in the like, where some forms of sampling are legally permissive without the need of permission and/or clearance. The RIAA bloodbath is just more evidence of the inevitable.

-Amir Said

Genius and Brilliance

"Genius is seeing breaks that put you ahead. Brilliance is possessing the ability to create those breaks that put you ahead." -Amir Sa'id

Virgin and TRL: Ain't So Mega Anymore...

All Virgin Megastores located in the U.S. are set to be closed by the summer. For real, who didn't see this coming? Honestly, who DID NOT see this coming? I remember several years back I made a quick dash to the Virgin Mega Store in Times Square. Then it was new... Right across the street on the corner was TRL (Total Request Live), MTV's kiddy-bop-pop machine T.V. show. The management of Virgin Mega Store at Times Square couldn't have been more encouraged by the presumable synergy that TRL provided. Here they were, two over-sized media spawns; one a certified television brainwash show, the other a heavy-handed retailer with ties to a woefully mismanaged record label. Both poised to induce an already ultra-consumed public into buying, buying, buying... music... and music-like products... or any widget they saw fit to peddle.

First, TRL fell. Well, actually, they hadn't fallen as much as they had dragged slowly down the cliff of a giant mountain. Carson Daly wouldn't last for ever. He was an excellent ring leader, but the people at MTV new the future was in the tween to teen crowd. Thus, Carson Daly's days were numbered from the first time he took the mic. Fast forward, and all the teens and tweens were gone. And all the advertisers were missing, too. Were did they go? Yep, that's right folks, the party moved right on over to the internet. O.K., to be fare, as the tweens became teens and the teens became adults, the daily "fluff" and "hype" potion began to wear off. And most of the once hardcore TRL-ers boogied outta Times Square, presumably to places like Myspace, Facebook, and Youtube.

Next, Virgin Megastore went down. But were they ever really up? In New York, rent kills...seriously. Nobody escapes that fact, real estate is New York City's oil. And so, if you're going to develop any real estate with the word "mega" in it, it damn well better be a high-rise with plenty of office spaces to rent out. And if it's anywhere near Times Square, it might be a good idea to throw in a couple of luxury condos...just sayin'. So the first time I ever walked into the Virgin Megastore at Times Square, (en route to buy, well, I forget), I noticed that the place was stocked with CDs, DVDs, music accessories, and random apparel. What I didn't see, however, was any office spaces or luxury condos, or even affordable apartments. That's when I knew: Virgin Megastore was not going to last very long. (Yo, Mark Ecko, if you're reading this, I think you're dope, I fully respect everything that you've done...But dig this: holding down a lease on 42nd Street between 7th Avenue and 8th Avenue? Shiiiiddd. Even the The Lion King couldn't sustain that lease.) But I digress... Sure, Virgin Megastore was doomed either way. Again, rent kills in New York, so you better own and flip, or generate money and skip. But fact is, nobody wants to schlep over to a warehouse in the busy section of a fast town. Moreover, the real beauty of a music store is how it briings music lovers of common taste into to close proximity of each other. Hmmm... Hey, wait, you can do that online...

Thus, though it may look like the Virgin Megastore chain and TRL are victims of the "Economic Tragedy of '08," the reality is that both media spawns are victims of a shifting culture. A culture whose participants, it would appear, are bent on being able to choose their form of brainwashing and bandwagon jumping. (Just kiddin'. No, I'm not... For real, just kiddin'... Well, O.K., for some people, no, I'm not...) And "choice" is exactly what the Virgin Megastore chain and TRL did not provide. Both just centralized their product offerings, (even though the centralization in music is kind of an oxymoron). Neither provided anything particularly "new" and/or engaging. I once traveled to two separate Virgin Megastores looking for two specific Led Zeppelin albums. Of course neither store had them. But I was told by sales associates that they could "order it for me, and they'd call me when it arrived." (I ordered the albums myself from Amazon.com and received them 48 hours later.) TRL increasingly became more and more paranoid that their tweens were growing up, (um, that's because they were), and as a result, the show became more and more predictable: guests began to mimic the style of other guests; hosts begin to mimic the style of other hosts; and crowds just struggled to keep up with the giant cardboard "applause" signs.

So now these two media spawns will be no more. Virgin Megastore is dead, and I hope the idea of a "mega music store" has died along with it. (Well, iTunes lives, but at least it's not a brick and mortar eyesore.) TRL, on the other hand, isn't really "dead" dead. Remember MTV's Club MTV or The Grind? Yeah, those were just early prototypes for TRL--MTV hadn't yet figured out the whole "maximize profit by controlling the audience thing." No, MTV could "retool" and spin TRL out as something new, if they wanted to. But I doubt that will happen, I don't think MTV is that foolish, after all, they did get out of the video business and into the television/movie making business rather quickly.

For details of the Virgin Megastore U.S. closings, see report in The Wrap.

-Amir Said