Sunday, September 12, 2004

Comic strip sendup of MPAA "respect copyright" ads Remember those in-theater MPAA ads blogged here, here and here on BoingBoing? Boondocks lampoons them this week. Link (Thanks, Patricio!) REM's Peter Buck: enthusiastic pirate! Thomas Hawk sez, "Recently REM's Peter Buck was reported to have given iPods full of music (probably around 10,000 tracks, if really full) to every single person who worked on REMs latest album, even reportedly engineers who he had only known a few weeks." While Stipe and Mills have developed other interests in their adult life beyond the band and music, Buck hasn't. He recently filled up the iPods of everyone who worked on REM's new album with songs that he thought they might like - and considering iPods can take up to 10,000 songs, this was a Herculean feat of downloading. "He's become obsessed with it," says Stipe. "He has done this for everyone who worked on our new record, including the engineers, who he had only known for a couple of weeks. What's interesting is to discover what he thinks we should be listening to. Mike got entire albums by Miles Davis, for example, while I only got the greatest hits. It must have taken him weeks, but he really isn't interested in anything apart from his family and music," adds Mills. "He reads books, and plays music, and hangs out with his family. That's it. So he loves the iPod because it gives him a chance to go through thousands of records that he hasn't played for the last 20 years. Link (Thanks, Thomas!) [bOing bOing] 2:03:38 PM    comment []

Tell Me How Long Trane's Been Gone. Created by award-winning producer Steve Rowland and written by Larry Abrams, "Tell Me How Long Trane's Been Gone" is the most in depth discussion of John Coltrane's life, music and journey ever created for broadcast. This five-hour series is hosted by poet Michael Harper. [WNYC New York Public Radio] 9:01:30 AM    comment []

SUNDAY COMICS [Begging To Differ] 8:32:42 AM    comment []

Bank gives beggars phones instead of cash. Grameen Bank, famous for pioneering micro-credit programs in Bangladesh, has launched a new idea to empower the poor: arming beggars with mobile phones so they can sell a roving service for cash, reports Reuters. Beggars would need to be a member of a Grameen Bank project to be eligible to get a mobile phone. Each mobile phone will cost them 8,500 taka (80 pounds), repayable over two years in interest-free instalments. They also are responsible for paying a subsidized monthly service charge of 152 taka. "We won't ask them to stop begging immediately but would encourage them to ask people they stretch hands to if they need to make a phone call," Barua added. "The money the beggars will get from calls would give them an extra income -- from which they will use a part to reimburse the cost of the cellphone to the bank." The cellphone project would primarily target beggars in the rural areas where they earn much less than beggars in the cities, he said. Grameen Bank believes its latest venture will be widely accepted and could change the lives of many of the country's beggars. The bank will also provide 500 taka in cash to each "cell-class" beggar so they can sell snacks, chocolates, cookies and nuts for additional income. Earlier the bank offered mobile phones to rural wives and mothers for commercial use that not only assured them enough money to survive but enabled some to earn an equivalent of $300-$400 a month, enough to buy land and even buy vehicles and start cattle farm. Currently, there are 75,000 women, known as "Phone Ladies", with Grameen mobile phones across the country. Ownership of mobile phones is still low in impoverished Bangladesh, a country of 130 million with per capita income of $444. [Smart Mobs] 8:30:10 AM    comment []