Doctor Who

You might recall from my "big" graph of fandoms that one of those fandoms was Doctor Who. Based on the sites I frequent (EW.com, AV Club) this Saturday's premiere of the 6th season* of DW is pretty well known. If not, this Saturday, 9pm, BBC America. Watch and be amazed (hopefully). But today the DW fandom got some pretty sad news. We've had a rash of deaths over the past couple of months of actors who played main characters during the classic series.** It's been sad, but has left a pretty big hole in her passing, namely Sarah Jane Smith. She was a companion to the 3rd and 4th Doctor*** and came back in the new series for an episode before starting her own series "The Sarah Jane Adventures." Sadly, the actress who played Sarah Jane, Elisabeth Sladen passed away today. The only happy thing to come out of this, and it's really perversely happy, is that Sarah Jane and Elisabeth are a worldwide trend on Twitter. And here's the proof:

(click for the full picture)
Anyway, I know I'll be thinking about her this Saturday.

*If I were British I would have put series which is the same as season over here, but I didn't want to confuse people. Also there was a "season" of specials when the last Doctor (David Tennant) was starting to bow out. However that doesn't count as a real season, so this new season (and I keep wanting to say series) is the 6th one of the new run. More on that later.
**The original run of Doctor Who ran from 1963 until 1989 and is called the "classic" series. The new run of the show (which is referred to as "New Who") started in 2005 with Christoper Eccelston playing the Doctor.
***The first Doctor was played by William Hartnell who was old. So when he was like "I'm out of here because I'm old" and the series was really popular the good producers over at BBC were like "We'll just say that because the Doctor is an alien, he can 'regenerate' into a totally different person with a different face and a different personality and he can do that 13 times." And so it was that we've had 11 Doctors, some who have stayed for a really long time (David Tennant, Tom Baker) and some who only stick around for one season (Christopher Eccelston.) Trust me when I say, you really don't have to understand all of this to watch the series. But it can be helpful.****
****In case you were wondering, except for Tom Baker, I remembered all this information off the top of my head. Because I am a boss.

I Took A Photo of My Fandom(s)

There was a time when I didn't know what fandom was. This doesn't mean I was a fan girl (I really was) I just didn't know what fandom was or that I was a fan girl. I just knew I really, really liked the Beatles. I've since learned (in depth) what fandom is and that various fandoms have different names for their fans. For instance, when I really, really liked the Beatles I could have described myself as an Applescruff.* Not every fandom has a name for its fans and generally lady fans are called fangirls and gentlemen fans are called fanboys. Fanboys and fangirls got to cons and if you're really obsessed you dress up as your favorite character. That's called cosplay. Of course all this is a rather extreme version of fandom and there are a great many people (myself included) who take more of a back seat when it comes to fandom. I never got around to writing about this, but I am very much a lurker. This is because I'm naturally shy and have never really thought of taking advantage of the anonymity of the internet to break out of my shell. But I'm not alone in being a lurker. So those are kind of the two extremes of fandom at least from my perspective: Cosplayers and lurkers. As with everything there are loads of people who fall in between the two extremes and they probably make up the bulk of fandom.**

As you can tell by the chart I made (which doesn't actually include everything) I consider myself a member of a whole ton of fandoms. That's the thing about being a lurker: You can sample a lot of different things without giving up too much of yourself to anyone of them. I have friends who cosplay and go to cons and I can tell you they give a lot of themselves to a select few fandoms and pretty much invest completely in those fandoms. I on the other hand can be a part of 12 different fandoms and enjoy all of them to various degrees and not be invested completely.*** In my opinion fandom can be a good thing and a really awful thing and it depends entirely on how much of yourself you invest in the fandom. Fandom is great when it introduces you to like minded people and you make friends that can last a really long time. But fandom is really awful when you've become so invested in it that you start to blur the line between the reality and fiction. I'm not saying that investing in a fandom automatically means you're going to go crazy. But there's always the chance.
So how do I intervene in my fandom? I don't. I'm a co-founder of the school's sci-fi club (for what that's worth) and I take a real interest in everything that goes in within my fandom. But I learned awhile ago that I'm not really meant to intervene, that I'm better off as a lurker. So, I took a photo of my fandom.The "Family and Friends" section got a little squished because I tend to forget how many fandoms I was introduced to because of nagging from friends/family.**** Hopefully you can read my handwriting otherwise none of this is going to make sense and quite frankly my fandoms don't make sense in list form. And if a fandom isn't underlined it means that it hasn't become inactive but I'm not currently "participating" in it either. So now I define active, inactive, and random outliers.

• Active - This means that I either a) follow one of the members/entity on Facebook/Twitter, b) am actively watching/listening/reading works having to do with the fandom or c) awaiting the return of said entity be it through new shows, new albums or tour dates I can actually go to.
• Inactive - This if fairly simple. I no longer give a rat's ass about what this group/entity is doing. They once meant something but now I no longer care.
• Random Outliers - This group has no direct connection to any of the circled entities and generally speaking were discovered by pure chance.***** They may or may not influence participation in other fandoms, but generally speaking they just kind of exist in their own little worlds of awesomeness.

So that's it. Those are my fandoms.

*Another example: Chiefs and Chiefettes for the Kaiser Chiefs, Whovians for Doctor Who and of course the most famous Trekkies for Star Trek.
**The crazies (cosplayers) are just more well known because they are crazy. And I say this as a friend of at least 3 hardcore cosplayers. This does not make them less crazy.
***I have some not fun experience in investing way too much into a fandom :cough:Kaiser Chiefs:cough: that did not end well. I kind of couldn't listen to them for a good three months. I've since recovered and decided that being a lurker is better for my mental health.
****They don't always nag. But sometimes they do. And then they force to me to watch things when I don't pay attention to their nagging.
*****This is particularly true for the Killers who I discovered by watching VH1 on a snow day. "Mr. Brightside" is unlike anything I had ever heard before and Brandon Flowers is hella cute. A lot of my fandoms are based on the attractiveness of the members. It's shallow, but you gotta start somewhere.

Last Cuts

So last night I had my second to last radio show (ever) and quite appropriately I played last tracks from albums. In introducing the theme of the show I said that part of what constitutes a last track is the conditioning you get from listening to an album over and over again. I then went on to talk about other characteristics of last tracks including the fact that some just don't know how to end and the use of fade-out by the group/artist. I've since been thinking about what I think contributes the most to what makes a last track a last track. I concluded earlish this morning that the reason a person might identify a last track as such is because they've been conditioned to thinking of it as a last track from listening to the album it finishes off over and over again. In our world of downloading what I consider to be the hallmarks of a last track (namely that sense of finality you get when listening to it) may not be as universal as it use to be. It's not like with a classical piece where you go through certain structures (exposition, development, recapitulation, coda) that lead you to a sense of finality. I identify these songs as last tracks because I've listened to the albums enough to be conditioned to identify them as such. The reason I put "Come On Home" and "40'" from Franz Ferdinand's first album together is because when I listened to the album (about a million times) I became conditioned to identify them as one big lump. So while there are things that are universal about last tracks, it's also a very personal thing. However none of this changes the fact that songs that you identify as last tracks are hard to program within a radio show. Unless you put them last in which case it works just fine.
Playlist

1. Talking Heads - Road to Nowhere
2. The Clash - Train in Vain
3. Cake - Tougher Than It Is
4. Kate Nash* - Merry Happy**
5. Keane - Love Is The End
6. Ok Go - Bye Bye Baby
7. The Beatles - Tomorrow Never Knows
8. The Zutons - Don't Ever (Think Too Much)
9. The Cribs - Things Aren't Gonna Change
10. Franz Ferdinand - Come On Home/40'
11. The Beatles - Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight/The End***

*Nifty fact about Kate Nash: She's from Harrow, Middlesex which is where I lived when I studied abroad. Also she's dating one of the lead singers of the Cribs Ryan Jarman.
**Another nifty fact: I can play the main piano theme that you hear at the beginning and the other piano theme from the end. Knowing how to play those two things lead me to learn the following about the song: It's in the key of A major. Yay being a music major!
***The Beatles - Her Majesty

The End of an Era or My Mashup

I have a lot to say about being a WMWC DJ. Most of it's very positive. But that's for another entry, probably next week. This entry is about the mashup I created for the assignment that will also be featured on my last radio show ever next week. My idea was that I would string together 15 second (or so) snippets of a variety of songs from artists who I a) played only one song of theirs, but I played it frequently, b) played often but not as frequently as others or c) played one song just once but who's style covers a range of similar artists who I played one song by once or twice. The mashup-ed artists and songs are as follows:

1. The Asteroids Galaxy Tour - Golden Age
2. The Ting Tings - Great DJ
3. Adam Ant - Goody Two Shoes
4. The Rumble Strips - Not the Only Person
5. Spoon - The Underdog
6. Guillemots - Trains to Brazil
7. Mystery Jets - Young Love
8. BPA - Seattle
9. Music Go Music - Light of Love
10. The White Rabbits - Navy Wives
11. Eliza Doolittle - Pick Up
12. The Submarines - You, Me and The Bourgeoisie
13. Feist - 1234

Obviously if I had unlimited time I would have included more songs, but I think the 13 songs I chose are a pretty good summary of all those outliers I've included in my radio show over the past 3 and a half years. And of course I know you want to hear it, so here it is in all its glory.
Elmashup by cydwarning30
Enjoy.

Last Week's Radio Show

This entry has nothing to do with copyright. I promise.
So I haven't written about last week's radio show. I apologize for this, it's just been one of those weeks. I'm doing it now though.
As I mentioned on my show I have had some trouble in the past programming female (or lady) artists. We all have blind spots when it comes to what we listen to and for whatever reason, lady singer/songwriters or just female artists in general is a major blind spot for me along with rap and hip-hop. So this past week's show was an opportunity to try and explore a group of artists I'm not particularly familiar with. In putting together the playlist for the show I knew I absolutely had to include the following artists: Patti Smith and Blondie. While the song I chose for Patti Smith doesn't really show it, Patti Smith had a huge impact on popular music in the US and really is considered the first punk artist in the US. Again, the song I chose didn't really show that side, I was really pleased that I finally got to tie in something I did in high school to a part of my college life that means a whole hell of a lot to me. As for Blondie, much like Patti Smith, they were a major influence in the New York post-punk music scene and unlike the Talking Heads, have no connection to an art school. I knew I wanted to include those two because of their importance to musical movements that still influence what I listen to on a regular basis. Everything else, particularly Rickie Lee Jones, were artists I either knew because of my parents or are artists that I listen to all the time. I'm still kind of surprised at how few female artists (who write their own material anyway) I have in my music collection, but as I said, we all have our blind spots. And now for the actual playlist.

1. Rumour Has It - Adele
2. Paris - Kate Nash
3. Oh My God - Ida Maria
4. Frederick - Patti Smith
5. French Navy - Camera Obscura
6. Waltz (Better Than Fine) - Fiona Apple
7. Chuck E's in Love - Rickie Lee Jones
8. Kiss With a Fist - Florence + the Machine
9. A Smokey Room - Eliza Doolittle
10. Rocket - Goldfrapp
11. Sweet Dreams - Eurythmics
12. Call Me - Blondie
13. Born Secular - Jenny Lewis and the Watson Twins

As heads up this week's show will consist entirely of last tracks from a variety of albums. And I will write about it before this time next week.

Sharing Isn't Bad Unless It's Not Yours and Then It's Stealing

*DISCLAIMER: For the last time, I'm not actually an expert on copyright law. I have opinions on it, but then again I have opinions on lots of things including music, literature, and film. So while it's nice that I keep getting my opinion asked on matters concerning copyright law, I don't know what I'm talking about. These are just opinions. And a very sparse smattering of facts.

This is probably going to hurt me in some way later on in life but I have illegally downloaded music. To anyone crying foul I would say this: I don't anymore and everyone's a hypocrite. The reason I use to illegally download music was because I use to be so obsessed with certain British bands* that I had to have everything they ever recorded in my collection or I would be sad. I'm no longer at that level of obsession and I have a better understanding of how royalties work so I can no longer argue that I make up for my nefarious ways by purchasing merch and going to their concerts. I "get" illegal downloading. Honestly I do. But just because you understand why someone does something doesn't make their illegal action any less illegal. I've said before that copyright law isn't perfect and that they way record companies handle enforcing copyright law (amongst other things) isn't perfect either. But as any elementary teacher can tell you two wrongs does not equal a right. Illegal is still illegal even if it doesn't conform with how you think the world should work.
So what's so wrong with sharing? Nothing. If you choose to share an original work, for instance a photograph, and decide to forgo normal copyright protections for Creative Commons then sharing is just jimdandy. Or let's say you take a photograph and decide that you're just going to forgo any kind of legal protection for the work. You put it the work into the ether and let whatever happens happen. That's fine and completely your choice. The problem occurs when you share something that isn't, legally speaking, yours to share. I own a copy of Lily Allen's most recent album.** That one copy is mine and mine alone. According to copyright law I don't have the right to provide copies of Lily Allen's album to the ether. It doesn't matter if I don't make a single penny, it's not my right to share my copy of Lily Allen's album with anyone. The fact that Lily Allen (and Lily Allen's manager and producer and the people who wrote the songs with her and her record labels) lose money is almost beside the point. The only person who has the right to make copies of Lily Allen's album is Lily Allen.*** Hence copyright. It's the right to make copies. I don't have that right. You don't have that right. My blind dog Rosie doesn't have that right. Only Lily Allen. So when you share a copy of your favorite artist's album with someone else over the internet you are, in a very general way, depriving that artist of some money. And that small amount of money amounts to a shit ton of money when millions of people all around the world do it. And that's when sharing becomes a problem.
Tempestuous Sea (Erin) made a really good point after class about filing sharing, particularly dealing with music but which really applies to all kinds of file sharing. If you really love an artist you should be willing to fund their career by actually purchasing their music. And I think that's part of the reason I don't illegally download anything anymore: If I really like something I should be willing to take the time to watch it or spend the money to own it legally. You can say what you want about the big bad record companies and how copyright only benefits the fat cat corporations (and you wouldn't be entirely wrong) but as I've said time and time again copyright came into existence to benefit creators. And for the most part copyright still does what it's suppose to do. Now please stop asking me to write the same thing over and over again.

*Okay, one British band that will be discussed at length when we get to fanfiction. You guys have no idea what you're getting into when we get to that section. It's going to be insane.
**Why Lily Allen? Because I'm listening to her right now. That's why.
***This is probably not technically true. Based on my class last year, her record label probably actually holds the copyright to the sound recordings and her music publisher probably holds the copyright to the songs. But we're going to pretend that it's Lily and only Lily.

TUSK!

This is my favourite* mashup ever. It was introduced to me by a friend in 8th grade and every time I hear one of the songs used in the mashup I almost immediately say "TUSK!" in my head. I feel I should point out that I haven't heard full length versions of most of the songs used, but if you don't know the context or haven't heard every song used (and therefore don't necessarily get all the references) it's fine. And still very, very hilarious.

*You might have noticed this, but I've recently gone back to using British spellings for a lot of things. I used to do this more regularly, but the sour aftertaste immediately after I returned to the US after my stay in London meant that I forced myself to use American spellings for words I had used British spellings for before my stay in London. I've since gotten over all of that have gone back to spelling things the British way.

Mashup Solution

Here's a conundrum: You've been a diligent and dedicated DJ at your local college radio station for three and a half years. However because you have managed to graduate on time (fingers crossed) your tenure is coming to an end and you're having to put together your last show. This makes you sad because there's no way you can feature all of the artists you've ever played on your show (which varied between 14 to 27 songs a week) and it's your last show so you want it to be awesome. Obviously there are some artists you featured more than others, so those guys will definitely get a song on your last show. But what about all the outliers? What about the awesome songs that you played just once or maybe twice but were awesome nonetheless? And the killer part is you only have 45 minutes. What do you do?
If you're me you realize that you have a mashup project due in your digital storytelling class that will solve this problem quite elegantly. Despite my initial wariness of going anywhere near Audacity again doing an audio mashup of about 3 minutes and 30 seconds (with each song getting somewhere between 15 and 30 seconds each) will allow me to fix the conundrum I'm in. I get to feature my favourite artists and get in most of the outliers as well. Rather an elegant solution, no?
I will say one thing about this mashup though: It will not be anywhere near as lovely as the mashups created by professionals like, for example, Girl Talk. Then again I don't have the same amount of time or the kind of equipment Girl Talk has, so I don't even know why I'm bringing them up other than to say that what I'm going to be doing is somewhere along the same lines as what Girl Talk does. Kind of not really. I still like this idea though and I think it will work. I don't know how well, but it will work.

Mashup Conundrum

I don't know what to do for my mashup. My original idea was to string together a bunch of clips of Stephen Fry being awesome* and calling it a day. But after thinking about it long and hard I've decided that even my idea of taking various clips from all the various projects Mr. Fry has been a part of and having him declare himself god would a) not really work as a mashup b) wouldn't be very long at all (I'm sure there's some sort of time component for video mashups) and c) would be far more complicated than I have time for. So now I'm not entirely sure what I should do for this project. I do know one thing: I'm not bloody well doing an audio mashup. It may seem simple to do an audio mashup, but I know deep in my soul that it really, really isn't and I don't want to mess with Audacity ever again (or at least for the rest of this semester.) I shall have to think on this now.**

*If you don't know who Stephen Fry is go to YouTube and search "qi." Watch whatever clip you like and you'll begin to understand how awesome Stephen Fry is.
**I have a cold. That's the excuse I'm using this week for any poor grammar that occur in this blog.