E. Michael Harrington

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(written last Wednesday, flying from Washington, DC to Nashville)

THE 2007 FUTURE OF MUSIC COALITION Policy Summit was the best conference of the year, as always. My panel was a blast Lady Kira is like no one else - completely charming, funny, irreverent, intelligent and dressed in great color. She also spoke so well about her experiences of sampling and being sampled, and music industry matters. I look forward to seeing our group photo. (We went outside before our panel and stood tightly packed together. Of course, I stood next to Lady Kira.) Two great attorneys were also on the panel - Whitney Broussard of Whitney Broussard Consulting and one of the greatest speakers, thinkers, law professors and enlightened people I've had the pleasure of knowing - Peter Jasczi of America University's Washington College of Law. Jasczi and I have a great love of fair use in common although he is the most articulate advocate for fair use and I am just a BA fan of fair use. I articulate with grunts and groans - the rest of the panel, including my friend Kembrew McLeod, fortunately, were very well spoken.

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I should go on and on about these excellent days in DC and at FMC and I might but I'd rather be negative. I've attended FMC every year and only once stayed in a bad hotel and it was this past week - the Virginian Suites are to be avoided. It beat sleeping outdoors or under a bridge but only by a little. I stayed in the always excellent George Washington University Inn on Friday and Saturday night. Sadly, I had to move across the river to the large bad suites of the VS on Sunday.

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And the greater offense was the party Microsoft threw for us. The Monday drinkathon was sponsored by the Consumer Electronics Association, CEA to its friends. It was the usual FMC bash - open and unlimited liquids and good finger foods, finger hummus, finger meatballs, finger spring rolls…. That kind of stuff. Al Carnival Time Johnson, a great guy I hung out with on Sunday night at the Pho Dinner in Arlington VA, played and sang a few of his songs and there were friends everywhere, the old kind and the new kind. And the student center at GWU has a wonderful roof, so we could hang out there as well.

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But then came the Microsoft Party on Tuesday night. It was held at a beautiful people hangout in Foggy Bottom - Karma. But where every FMC party since 2001 had unlimited free liquids, the gargantuan Bill Gates corporation saw fit to give everyone ONE (yes, the number 1) free drink. One drink. One free drink. The finger hummus and finger sandwiches were very good but the one free drink thing from the Largest Evil Empire was a shock. They also gave away a free Zune. I hoped that my number would not be drawn as I would fear owning the Zune if only because I would probably tell everyone I owned it and would not want to shame my self or my family by having a Zune. They would probably wonder what was coming next - was I on a forever downhill fall - what would be next after owning a Zune? - Michael Bolton or James Blunt tickets, or an arrest for shaking down sports memorabilia show buyers in Las Vegas a la OJ Simpson. (I hope OJ Simpson's 11 crimes stick. He obviously has no problem getting away with the small crimes - battering his wife, killing his wife, killing a waiter.....That stuff.)

But maybe Microsoft was being really cheap because with the money they used, they were going to send it to Africa to do some good. I really am impressed that after all those years of making bad software and operating systems, Bill Gates has become a great humanitarian with his Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. He deserve praise for finally turning his life around. The corporation, however, is still Microsoft.

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LAST NIGHT was especially cool as four of us left the cheapskate one drink Microsoft party and went to see Suzanne Vega at the fantastic Birchmere Club in VA. We were able to hang out with her after her concert (one of the four of us was her manager), and the excellent band. She's as neat as her music and lyrics and a truly nice person, as were the band. And the Birchmere is on a par with Johnny D's in Somerville MA. These are now my two favorite places to see and hear live music - excellent music, food, drink and venue.

On both flights to and from National Airport I had the window C seat with an empty adjacent B seat. How have I gotten this lucky on airlines? Leaving from BNA and not a large airport and leaving at the quieter times - early and mid afternoon - I think helps. Of course that meant I stretched out, shoeless and happy with great views and a happy iPod. I listened to podcasts to DC - my usual stuff - Washington Week In Review, Real Time with Bill Maher, Shields and Brooks, CNET's Buzz Out Loud, The Onion Radio News, the NY Times Music Popcast.... On the way back< I’m now listening to discs my friend JR, brilliant attorney and Law Professor at GWU and AU, gave me – Theivery Corporation's The Cosmic Game is one of them. This is fun electronica, and it is hitting me just right 35,000 feet above Virginia.

Now on to the Byrds, Johnny Cash, Sting, Beach Boys, Angelo Badalamenti (Twin Peaks' music, of course), the Pixies and The Verve. That should get me back to Tennessee.

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My total and complete happiness will go on. Tomorrow night I fly to New York City for a special Yom Kippur. I don’t think I'll have to worry about atoning for having those bad thoughts about Microsoft. My other bad thoughts? I'm very happy to see OJ get caught for 11 crimes, but I do feel sorry that stupid Britney keeps plummeting downhill. Doesn't she have a manager?

Other stuff and negative thoughts for which maybe I should atone?

I always love it when The Church Of Scientology gets caught doing what it does.

I want Michael Jackson to quit serving Jesus Juice and fall for someone his age

The thoughts I entertain about the RIAA and the U. S. Copyright Office (those federal employees who are so shamed of the phrase from the U. S. Constitution, "to promote the progress of science and the useful arts..." that they removed it from the front page of their website? The USCO's love of the RIAA is slightly stronger than their love of the U. S. Constitution - one is alive and one isn't?)

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Back to pondering atonement and how sorry I am for some of my negative thoughts, and looking down on the beautiful Tenne-Tucky…..

Posted by EMH at 05:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

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I AM FLYING TO WASHINGTON, DC at 2:00 this afternoon to speak at the 2007 Future of Music Coalition Policy Summit and at George Washington University Law School. Information about my FMC panel is here. The schedule for the two days is here - notice the CEA and Microsoft sponsored cocktail hours. I did.

Good vs. Evil tonight in Boston. I'll try to watch the Red Sox from some nice Washington location - perhaps a nice office on Capitol Hill? Georgetown? Georgetown is, surprisingly or not, the first place I saw live "rap" (it wasn't hip hop then) on the streets - these cool young kids with boomboxes and turntables and poetry.... Part of it, I thought, was an updated way of cutting heads. I didn't know what was going on but enthusiasm, passion and the real deal always win over a crowd. Georgetown's not that way anymore and it barely was back then (1980).

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Posted by EMH at 12:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

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I WAS MOST FORTUNATE TO BE ABLE to hear and see Elvis Costello with the Nashville Symphony two nights ago. The first half of the program was devoted to one of Costello's larger works, the orchestral, instrumental score, "Il Sogno," followed by a few other works. The second half consisted of Elvis singing with the orchestra, accompanied by his longtime/forever pianist, Steve Nieve. Throughout the entire concert there was a lot of celesta and cimbalom, great instruments that need to be heard more often.

Elvis' singing, repertoire selection and humor were exceptional - damn great concert. The NSO played really well also, and the great Schermerhorn Symphony Center was its usual acoustically pretty self. But by tiny bit, "pretty" sounds in a pretty hall pretty hall applies more to the sound than the hall. I was sitting in a loge box above the trombone and reading his part and squinting to see some of the trumpet parts as well. Having orchestral parts to see below is always fun.

If it wasn't Elvis Costello himself doing these orchestrations...... Well, nevermind.

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September 9 was the 4th anniversary of Senator Dick Durbin's (D-IL) great line to the RIAA and their then new thug technique of suing 12 year olds and dead octagenarians named "Walton" from Iowa who file share or don't (because they're dead and don't own computers) - "Are you headed to junior high schools to round up the usual suspects?" Appropriately, and cosmically enough, as I am writing this, Elvis Costello's "How To Be Dumb" is playing.

"Are you ready to take your place in the modern museum of mistakes?" from the chorus of "How To Be Dumb" is even more appropriate in 2007 than in 2003.

Yes, that line perfectly suits the suits at the RIAA.

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YESTERDAY, I had physical tests for more than four and one half hours. I had psychedellic glowing stuff pumped into my veins so that I would,

1. glow, and

2. not be able to hide any strange things inside my body as they took photographs or NMR'ed or performed some other scientific experiments on me at 2400 Patterson Street.

It wasn't that bad - I only saw one person who looked like Cousin It or Lurch. 2400 Patterson Street was not a horror film - just a place where a lot of people are getting tested for medical issues. I also got a stress test where I got to walk and run as fast as I could on a treadmill (I've been near those damn things but always opted for the better and more sophisticated machines, or for happy hour - yesterday was my day of reck/wreckoning like it or not - hello treadmill, how are you?). The good news is that I surpassed what they thought I could do - I reached Level 6 of 7, with a pulse of over 180, and survived with cords attached to my strangely shaved chest - the woman managed to shave circular spots on me while she conversed with me - damn it, she was good at what she did - while she attached things to me. Today I am left with CROP CIRCLES ON MY CHEST that are irritable and itchy. My Irish skin is irritated and bothering me a lot. I need relief, someone who can empathize with and nurture these CROP CIRCLES so they become wooded and heavily forested again. It's time to bring back trees and bushes where arid circles now lie.

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LARRY CRAIG

FINALLY, I owe a great THANK YOU to Senator Larry "I-Stand-Wide" Craig for his opting to give me days and hopefully weeks more of good humor. I wanted him to stick in (did I just write that?), stand wide and take it, and defend himself. He is only a U. S. Senator so obviously he would not have known the meaning of a written document that spelled out that he was pleading guilty to some sort of action. Larry will delve deeper into dishonesty and avoiding the truth. I wish him a good revelation and acceptance. Being happy with one's sexual preference is a damn good thing, in my rarely humble opinion.

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BRITNEY BRITNEY BRITNEY....

And I think Britney Spears looked good moving SLOWLY walking downstairs SLOWLY, having gay male dancers grab her breasts SLOWLY, with soft non-ripped skin (she's had 12 kids or was it 2?) and singing out of synch with MP3's backstage at the VMA's. I think slow will become the new sensual. Britney is freeing old and slow people. If she can be slow, so can they/we. Her AARP card is not yet in the mail.

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Posted by EMH at 10:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)