Some sort of update will come soon. In the meantime... this is an oldie but a goodie. I first saw this in 2002 or 2003. Its obviously off about a few things... but its still good for provoking thought.
Keeping track of the Google / Verizon net neutrality kerfuffle 
the following quote is taken from this New York Times article.
Applying the logic expressed in the quote above to Google’s long standing “Do no evil” philosophy would seem to yield the following outcome: Do no evil... with exceptions for new forms of evil that broadband providers could offer...
the following quote is taken from this New York Times article."The proposal says Internet providers should treat all providers of Internet content the same, and should not be able to block them or offer them a paid “fast lane.” It says the Federal Communications Commission should have the authority to stop or fine those who break the rules.
But the proposal includes exceptions for wireless Internet access and for potential new services that broadband providers could offer, including things like “advanced educational services, or new entertainment and gaming options.”
Applying the logic expressed in the quote above to Google’s long standing “Do no evil” philosophy would seem to yield the following outcome: Do no evil... with exceptions for new forms of evil that broadband providers could offer...
This is terrible. Not sure if it makes to rant or ramble... but given the subtext of this site this news comes like a gigantic wave crashing down on my beautiful little sandcastle. 
Greetings! The site traffic has been picking up lately... which is fine by me... though kind of surprising. Lots of folks in the Netherlands... awesome! Anyway... Just wanted to post a note that the site is not dead... and music proceeds apace. I will try to get some sort of update posted by the end of August. Musically I have a few irons in the fire, though obviously, I’m also a working stiff, and so the music all gets handled in discrete pockets of time. Playing with a few people... and there are even mumbles of writing as a group rather than just indiscriminately jamming. Then there is also the music I’ve been making on my own. These things make it difficult to know where I am on the creative map, or how long the gestation period will be until the next posting of music. If people start arguing, or if the rehearsal space I have keys for disappears, then I might post some pretty epic improv based things any day... Alternatively if everyone hangs together... then this may all have been just the formative stage of something grander, and sections and segments from jams will get cobbled together into material resulting in a completely different sort of project getting posted many moons from now. Either way the creative process continues unabated, and struggling heroically in the face of rat race hamster wheel employment drudgery. Not that I should complain. Having a job is an increasingly rare thing these days... precarious unto itself. Survival of the fittest... making this music very fit I suppose. Difficult times call for creative commentary... so there is plenty of motivation to continue... so keep checking back. Again I’ll try to provide more details on where things are at the end of summer. Cheers!
Oh Canada!
Rock n' Roll the latest collection of music is up. Notes
Link to an article by a friend on the topic of Last week’s Supreme Court ruling.
The worst news in 100 years... and of course it gets burried beneath Jay Leno and Conan O'Brien... [News] -
admin - osonic@osonics.com @
Yesterday, January 21, 2010 is the day the United States committed itself to restructuring its class system to emulate Mexico and Brazil.
The importance of yesterday’s Supreme Court ruling protecting the free speech of corporations and allowing them to spend unlimited amounts on direct advertising in political elections simply cannot be overstated. It overturns a century of political and legal precedent, and as such it is arguably the most important court decision of the last hundred years. Quoting from this article in the New York Times:
Picture this hypothetical lobbyist working for Big Tobacco, or for McDonalds, or for the fine and proud makers of Viox. Money will be spent not to spur creative growth and development, but to maximize returns on existing investments. Just wait until Goldman Sachs gets into the mix... advertising directly for candidates who promise to keep the finance industry de-regulated.
The simple, horrible, unutterable truth is this decision makes plain that the class systems at work in Latin America have finally worked their way north ... quite possibly irreversibly... into the United States. As in Mexico and Brazil we are on the threshold of having an extreme wealthy class, and a massive underclass with nothing in between and no method of transit or merit based escape from one class to the other.
The principle reason for this is that corporations, as I have observed first hand... are rarely run well. They are nearly always focused on perpetuating what they perceive as past “success” and emulating proven strategies. This is a catastrophic recipe for disaster in the face of the emerging innovation engine driven by other economies such as India and China. The idea that the executives at General Motors can be trusted to exhibit foresight about how to safeguard this nation’s best interests is ludicrous. What we have just done is unleash staggering amounts of funding which will be spent protecting a status quo of diminishing returns.
The issue is not government vs. free enterprise. The issue is the over accumulation of power. It does not matter *where* the power resides... An overly powerful Coca-Cola company, Google or Monsanto is just as pernicious as an overly powerful Communist or National Socialist party. What keeps a society healthy, as laissez faire free traders themselves will correctly argue, *IS* competition. The argument will be made that the Supreme Court ruling facilitates such competion by allowing multiple corporations to compete via advertising, and effectively “bid” on the outcome of elections.
But this argument is specious as it overlooks the fact a countervailing and competing alternative to corporate power has now been all but dismantled. That competitor is none other than the institution of government itself.
To sum up, here’s a quote a friend sent me from this thread:
The thing that’s most insane about this... is most of these companies are multinatioal corporations anyway... so... how does this become good for “America”? Do we even know whom the Supreme Court has just handed control of US elections over to? China? Saudi Arabia? Did the jingoistic conservatives on the Court even take this into full consideration?
The importance of yesterday’s Supreme Court ruling protecting the free speech of corporations and allowing them to spend unlimited amounts on direct advertising in political elections simply cannot be overstated. It overturns a century of political and legal precedent, and as such it is arguably the most important court decision of the last hundred years. Quoting from this article in the New York Times:
“ 'We have got a million we can spend advertising for you or against you — whichever one you want,’ a lobbyist can tell lawmakers, said Lawrence M. Noble, a lawyer at Skadden Arps in Washington"
Picture this hypothetical lobbyist working for Big Tobacco, or for McDonalds, or for the fine and proud makers of Viox. Money will be spent not to spur creative growth and development, but to maximize returns on existing investments. Just wait until Goldman Sachs gets into the mix... advertising directly for candidates who promise to keep the finance industry de-regulated.
The simple, horrible, unutterable truth is this decision makes plain that the class systems at work in Latin America have finally worked their way north ... quite possibly irreversibly... into the United States. As in Mexico and Brazil we are on the threshold of having an extreme wealthy class, and a massive underclass with nothing in between and no method of transit or merit based escape from one class to the other.
The principle reason for this is that corporations, as I have observed first hand... are rarely run well. They are nearly always focused on perpetuating what they perceive as past “success” and emulating proven strategies. This is a catastrophic recipe for disaster in the face of the emerging innovation engine driven by other economies such as India and China. The idea that the executives at General Motors can be trusted to exhibit foresight about how to safeguard this nation’s best interests is ludicrous. What we have just done is unleash staggering amounts of funding which will be spent protecting a status quo of diminishing returns.
The issue is not government vs. free enterprise. The issue is the over accumulation of power. It does not matter *where* the power resides... An overly powerful Coca-Cola company, Google or Monsanto is just as pernicious as an overly powerful Communist or National Socialist party. What keeps a society healthy, as laissez faire free traders themselves will correctly argue, *IS* competition. The argument will be made that the Supreme Court ruling facilitates such competion by allowing multiple corporations to compete via advertising, and effectively “bid” on the outcome of elections.
But this argument is specious as it overlooks the fact a countervailing and competing alternative to corporate power has now been all but dismantled. That competitor is none other than the institution of government itself.
To sum up, here’s a quote a friend sent me from this thread:
Before the Court Decision:
CEO: Man, the environmental regulations that congressman is proposing are going to kill the profitability of our california plant. What can we do?
Advisor: Well we would have to set up a 527 group to oppose these regulations, we would have to find some guys to staff it that aren’t employees of our corporation, we would have to be careful to distance ourselves from this organization, and we would have to walk a fine line between issue and candidacy advocacy.
CEO: fuck it, lets go golfing
After this ruling:
CEO: Man, the environmental regulations that congressman is proposing are going to kill the profitability of our california plant. What can we do?
Advisor: I’ll have our ad team throw up some billboards saying congressman Joe is destroying jobs. Should be up by next week.
CEO: cool, lets go golfing.
The thing that’s most insane about this... is most of these companies are multinatioal corporations anyway... so... how does this become good for “America”? Do we even know whom the Supreme Court has just handed control of US elections over to? China? Saudi Arabia? Did the jingoistic conservatives on the Court even take this into full consideration?
Oh... well at least now its official... America is over.
Just posted... The Kelly Clarkson Ep.
This is a recording of a spontaneous jam that took place about a year and a half, or two years ago between Osonics, Peter Kwon and Ben Moran. The Jam was so off the hook successful that plans were made to form a band. The band rehearsed Kelly Clarkson and some other material a few times... but then fell apart. Various culprits were cited, Ketamine, lack of music theory for the O, car loss... There are occasionally claims the band didn’t fall apart and that like King Arthur or George Patton it shall return.
By dubbing the band “Lazy Horse” I believe I have settled on my own personal theory as to the issue. At any rate, absent a polished round of rehearsed material... here is the original, semi-incendiary jam that caused three grown men to spend about a year’s worth of Saturdays together.
PHISH + Neil Young + The Talking Heads = Kelly Clarkson
Enjoy!
spirit form was only just recently completed in July of ‘09, yet there is more to come very likely before the end of the year. An “album” tentatively entitled Rock n’ Roll and an EP called Kelly Clarkson are both on the horizon and should be posted here fairly soon. These works will feature the best, most “song like” moments from jams and improvs conducted over the last year or so primarily with Ben Moran and Peter Kwon, but will also feature contributions from Liam Wood and Paul Griffith. Keep checking back between now and the end of the year. The recordings are done and all that is left is the mixing... which is substantially underway already.
The lights should start flickering slowly back to life at Osonics.com over the next couple of months. Here are some things to expect:
-A new Osonics “album” is in the mixing stages. Working title is spirit form . This will be another ‘solo’ Osonics “album” in the vein of Wilderness of Our Dreams and Lava lamp in Grand Central Station. Here’s the latest:
“Mixing is a dark art form. It can be over at any moment... or reveal a new “join” where new ideas can attach themselves to a developing structure. It’s hard to predict... but the mixing has been underway for a while... and the magic 8 ball says “All signs point to YES” that the “album” will be done within the next couple of months."
-An EP of “live” / "band" aesthetic Osonics material should follow the spirit form album within just a couple of months. This will feature music from some “one off” configurations of players, and is unrelated to the brewing prospects of a formal band demo recording mentioned earlier.
I’m delighted that I went to see 63yr. old Neil Young at MSG this last month of 2008. Really amazing. We should *all* be so alive at 63!!! (Hey... It’s what I’m aiming for. Music is a gooood thing!) Here’s a clip from the show someone has posted on You Tube:
Happy Holidays!!!!
Happy Holidays!!!!
Saw a really interesting documentary over the weekend called Heavy Metal in Badhdad. It reminded me of what I think is useful about music. Musicians, real ones anyway, aren’t really looking to take over the world. That sort of nonsense is reserved for megalomaniacs, and people intoxicated by the marketing tidal wave that surrounded rock and roll between the time of the Beatles, Zeppelin and Jay-Z. Musicians in the meanwhile are those people who just like to make music the way some people like to cook.
The distinction is useful when thinking about something like Heavy Metal in Baghdad. Here is a way of understanding Iraq in the most human terms possible, for those who like to cook... or rock. It profiles four mid twenty somethings who are trying to do what so many of us have done, in the midst of madness. It offers a very straightforward way of relating to that part of the world at this time.
The section below struck me in particular from the 8 minute mark on to the end, when the bass player mentions the concept of sectarian violence in Iraq is a myth. Who knows if this is true or not, but it’s an interesting documentary that other folks making music on the margins of day jobs should be able to relate to as well.
The distinction is useful when thinking about something like Heavy Metal in Baghdad. Here is a way of understanding Iraq in the most human terms possible, for those who like to cook... or rock. It profiles four mid twenty somethings who are trying to do what so many of us have done, in the midst of madness. It offers a very straightforward way of relating to that part of the world at this time.
The section below struck me in particular from the 8 minute mark on to the end, when the bass player mentions the concept of sectarian violence in Iraq is a myth. Who knows if this is true or not, but it’s an interesting documentary that other folks making music on the margins of day jobs should be able to relate to as well.
So if you have a $20 million “security” made up of bad debt... and you “insure” it for $100 million, which would you rather see? The “security” pay the $20 million, or fail so that you can claim the $100 million? Now suppose you are a captain of industry... and you can influence the market to tip that security past the point of no return?
The $700 billion may just have been necessary to keep bad “securities” from defaulting, and entitling those that bought them to even larger claims against completely deregulated, and unmonitored “Credit Default Swaps”.
(Sit through the cheese-ball pre-roll commercial.)
The $700 billion may just have been necessary to keep bad “securities” from defaulting, and entitling those that bought them to even larger claims against completely deregulated, and unmonitored “Credit Default Swaps”.
(Sit through the cheese-ball pre-roll commercial.)
"Wait eh... wait a minute. Le'me see if you got... le'me see if you got yerself some a that soul in yer eyes like the last feller."
Urban Super heroes take risks fighting super criminals in city streets. Enter the Billboard Liberation Front.
This 20 minute video starts off being a little fluff, but by the time it hits the topic of breast milk you might just find yourself re-evaluating your entire world view.
A freind of mine recently told me there is an area of the Pacific Ocean twice the size of Texas that has been turned into a plastic landfill. After a brief browse on the web it turns out he is essentially correct. Here is an Article on the topic.
Fans of the arts and the entrepreneurial spirit should be intrigued with any project bankrolled in large part by Peter Gabriel and Richard Branson. ‘The Elders’ project seems mighty interesting to me. It invoves bringing Nelson Mandella, Jimmy Carter, Kofi Annan and Bishop Desmond Tutu together with others to try and form a “Council of Elders” to help advise a Golbal Village.
No one will listen to them of course, and if you Google “Elders” you will get listings for rock bands and real estate. Still, it is often said the Google algorithm ranks sites based on the number of web pages linking to them. So, embedded with the photo below, here’s a link for ‘The Elders’ project. Book mark it and go back in a few months. It will be interesting to see what they have to say.
No one will listen to them of course, and if you Google “Elders” you will get listings for rock bands and real estate. Still, it is often said the Google algorithm ranks sites based on the number of web pages linking to them. So, embedded with the photo below, here’s a link for ‘The Elders’ project. Book mark it and go back in a few months. It will be interesting to see what they have to say.
I’ve been working my way through Al Gore’s The Assault on Reason. I recommend it strongly. He weaves anthropology, history, biology and an insider’s knowledge of our political system together to make a powerful and compelling argument about the current state of our republic. It is a very, well, reasoned, work. That having been written, click the image below to hear a snippet from one of the more impassioned, rhetorical, and yet chillingly effective sections of the book as read by actor Will Patton:
Anyone out there who remembers the blog will recall that during the quiet periods on the site (Actually the “Work in Progress” periods) things will start to creep into the political around here. With that in mind have a look at this article from the BBC on Cindy Sheehan. Here is an excerpt:
She said her son Casey, who died in Baghdad in April 2004, was "killed by his own country which is beholden to and run by a war machine that even controls what we think.
"Casey died for a country which cares more about who will be the next American Idol than how many people will be killed in the next few months while Democrats and Republicans play politics with human lives.
“It is so painful to me to know that I bought into this system for so many years and Casey paid the price for that allegiance. I failed my boy and that hurts the most.”
Ms Sheehan criticised the US anti-war movement for often putting “personal egos” first.
“It is hard to work for peace when the very movement that is named after it has so many divisions.”
She said that one-time allies among the Democratic Party had turned on her when she no longer limited her protests over the Iraq war to the Republican Party.
The US will rapidly descend into “a fascist corporate wasteland,” she said, if “alternatives to this corrupt ‘two’ party system” are not found.
Apropos of not much, I’m watching Chris Dodd “debate” Newt Gingrich on Meet the Press right now. I’m struck that one haircut can have two such different opinions.
A wave of revisionist history has overtaken the site. Only the faithful will ever know. Just like life.
As per the last report things are likely to be a bit slow here on the site for quite a while. Think of this as being due to a combination of Summer siesta, and the time it takes to dream up new music. With this in mind, here’s something which might pass for interesting during the down time.
Anyone familiar with the lyrics to the song "Air & Space Museum" from Great Buys on Lullabies with it’s, um... cheeky referance to Ross Perot Jr. might appreciate this. Earlier this evening I was checking on site traffic and found the site has gotten several hits today from this IP: 160.109.103.154 A quick trip to Who Is revealed this address is associated with (drum roll please)....
OrgName: Perot Systems
OrgID: PEROTS
Address: 2300 W. Plano Pkwy
City: Plano
StateProv: TX
PostalCode: 75075
Country: US
Here’s hoping everything *is* bigger in Texas... including the senses of humor
Anyone familiar with the lyrics to the song "Air & Space Museum" from Great Buys on Lullabies with it’s, um... cheeky referance to Ross Perot Jr. might appreciate this. Earlier this evening I was checking on site traffic and found the site has gotten several hits today from this IP: 160.109.103.154 A quick trip to Who Is revealed this address is associated with (drum roll please)....
OrgName: Perot Systems
OrgID: PEROTS
Address: 2300 W. Plano Pkwy
City: Plano
StateProv: TX
PostalCode: 75075
Country: US
Here’s hoping everything *is* bigger in Texas... including the senses of humor
NEW MUSICLegal Drugs (Ep) just posted. Special thanks to Michael Gorman for the cover art photograh.
April 3rd @ 7:30pm Osonics will contribute a song and a colaboration to Liam Wood’s first show at the The Knitting Factory down in “The old office”.
Just posted both here on the “Singles” page and on Myspace, “halfman”, a song from 1994 recorded just days after Kurt Cobain’s death. At the time Osonics was in college and was extremely puzzled by all the campus-wide candle-light vigils and memorial services. He was fortunate enough to run into two other students (one of whom would go on to become PG Six) who were just as perplexed. Together they took a Stone Temple Pilots song and concocted “halfman” with Osonics singing and vamping and PG declaring that he don’t have no gun.
The Links page has been updated. In addition to providing connections to some blogs maintained by friends of Osonics, there are now links for Eugene Jarecki’s masterful documentary Why we fight and Errol Morris' informative discussion with Robert S. McNamara Fog of War. For people too busy to read several volumes on modern history so as to make sense of the Iraq war, these films are tremendous assets for making sense of what’s been going on. Highly, highly, highly recommended.
Also, be sure to check out the link for Frontline Documentaries. Frontline is the PBS show produced by Lowell Bergman, the former 60 minutes producer played by Al Pacino in The Insider . Bergman is famous for having forced CBS to air a critical interview with a Tobaco Scientist who went public with the knowledge that Tobacco companies not only knew their products were lethal, but worked to chemically refine the nicotine in them so as to make them more addictive.
These Documentaries are deeply informative, and far more daring than anything else on TV.
Also, be sure to check out the link for Frontline Documentaries. Frontline is the PBS show produced by Lowell Bergman, the former 60 minutes producer played by Al Pacino in The Insider . Bergman is famous for having forced CBS to air a critical interview with a Tobaco Scientist who went public with the knowledge that Tobacco companies not only knew their products were lethal, but worked to chemically refine the nicotine in them so as to make them more addictive.
These Documentaries are deeply informative, and far more daring than anything else on TV.
'Daddy’s War' the musical offering featured in the Q4 ‘06 report was performed live at the Third avenue music school in Manhattan last friday (1/26) as part of a recital for the musical work of composer Liam Wood. Liam wrote the music to ’Daddy’s War'. Osonics collaborated with Liam on the lyrics and performed the vocals while wearing a cowboy hat, suit, handgun belt buckle and western themed rodeo shirt. The audience received the peice very warmly and it will probably emerge again in some other form at some other venue down the road.
After several requests, ‘Ode to Rosser Reeves’ is now up on the ‘Singles’ page. Previously it had only appeared as part of the Q2 report. This is a pretty nifty composition featuring music O played and composed as well as samples from Giuseppe Sinopoli’s version of Mahler’s Fifth, and spoken commentary from David Halberstam’s documentary “The Fifties”. ‘Ode to Rosser Reeves’ was recorded in about 1997, just before the era of Pentium and G3 processors lending quite a clunky old school edge to the sound and style. These qualities (along with the fact it leans so heavily on copyrighted material) had previously lead O to consider this tune a “dark sheep”, but with the benefit of hindsight (and the fact no one is trying to make any money from the copywritten samples) it’s quite fun.
That Sadam assassination was pretty abrupt wasn’t it? First it’s “Trial and due process.” “There will be an appeal.” “This could take months.” ... Then low and behold it’s suddenly “It could come any day.” “Within the next 48 hours.” “Imminent.” Wonder what changed? In no doubt unrelated news... President Ford apparently left all sorts of criticisms of the current administration and of Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld in particular to be read just after his death. I saw a commentator on the news this morning saying it was telling that these comments, made during seperate interviews with Bob Woodward and Michael Beschloss, weren’t having more of an impact. Then he shifted gears and started talking about Sadam’s lurid last moment on the gallows.