Great Moments in Internet History

For my 25th birthday, my good pals Julia and Cole and my adoring husband took me to Stanford & Son’s Comedy Club.  Dave Coulier (of Full House fame) was the headliner - and apparently, so was everyone else there - They have some sort of Kindergaten logic that they like to apply to the line-up, so there are no such things as opening acts…Only headliners.  We watched 3 headliners;

1.)  Italian guy that was horrible.

2.)  Guy to soon be on Letterman that was mediocre.

and, of course…

3.)  Dave Coulier from TV’s Full House!

Oh Dave Coulier…

Well, if you don’t remember Full House - Just try to think of Rocky and Bullwinkle or “Cut it Out” or mouth trumpeting.  Coulier made Full  House the joke that it is today. 

Watching him do his “comedy” was surreal, but meeting him was ridiculously surreal.  In his act, he did some mullet jokes, probably, most definitely insulting a man  in the audience with a “skullet”.  He also played the harmonica and did a lovely impersonation of a (black) blues musician…you know, cause (black) blues musicians are SO funny.  OH!  And don’t let me forget the Shaq ueille O’Neil jokes - those were endless…  It was his “full circle”.  All comedians have the full circle…They say something funny, and then at the end of their act, to wrap things up and leave on a high  note, they tell a different joke that then goes back to their previous joke from the middle of their act…Hence, a full circle.  So, he started talking about Africa at the end of his act, and then tied Shaq into that…and tada - his act came full circle.  Way to go, Coulier!  Way to go!

Well, I couldn’t sit 50 ft. from Uncle Joey without meeting him…CUT IT OUT!  We waited not long at all to meet Mr. Coulier face-to-face.  I didn’t have to think hard to know what I wanted him to sign.  Yes, I got his autograph!  It was my birthday, so I pulled out my ID to prove it to Uncle Joey, and as I pulled out my ID, I realized that my donor information had not yet been filled out…and I call myself a donor…pshhh!

So, I requested that Dave Coulier be my donor witness!  He obliged, and also agreed to a wonderful portrait that I intend to frame and display near the shitter. 

Below, is his testament of witness to my organ donation.

Sweet.

Thank you to ALL for the wonderful birthday!  And a special thank you to my husband, Josh, for the lovely surprise party that he put together for me!  I loved it! 

Dave Coulier being uncomfortable in my presence while I decide which organ to donate….

Somehow Furbys and Webrings were made for each other. The both share a pre-9/11 ancestry, and although you can still find either they’ve long past their glory days. Some highlights:

• Hilary’s Furby
• Furby’s United
• The Furby Fantasy Art Page
  
• Furby Crazed!
• 100% Furby

Consider me bummed, the second major Kurt in my life is also gone now, also in April. Thanks for a whole lot, good sir, you’ll be missed.

Creative Commons, no less, so you can use it without being sued.  It’s a fart noise, very difficult to record on your own.  Without further delay…
http://freesound.iua.upf.edu/samplesViewSingle.php?id=26216

Hell yes!  I’ve now obtained the most wonderfullest of domain names:
http://werewolfvagina.clownpenisdotfart.net/org.internet

No clue what the fuck I’m doing.  Not a one.

Full disclosure: my company made these. We took American Apparel zip joggers, screen printed zippers based of the MJ original, then hand foiled each one to make ‘em all shiny. Michael’s 3rd nose would be proud.

read more | digg story

One of the great things about Andy Warhol was the way he altered iconic imagery and made it his own. Warhol’s subject material was often covered by copyright, but of course he changed the source material in such a way that it made it his own. Anyone else could do the same thing and use the same source material, but they would’ve looked like fools for copying Warhol’s clearly defined style. I’m bringing all of this up because of this post that Sean brought to my attention this morning.

Our friend Micah designs posters for MySpace, and much of his source material is public domain imagery. Micah has turned these various bits and pieces into some very well received works, all bearing his unique style. He recently created this poster, which among other things uses this public domain image of a cat. Unbeknownst to Micah this image has also been used in a series of prints by artist Derek Erdman.

All of this brings us to the post linked above, in which Erdman accuses “MySpace, Chili’s or a band called, ahem, “Red Suit Space Jump Apparatus” of stealing one of his Cat Head paintings and making a poster out of it. Of course, the kitty in question isn’t his at all, it’s a piece of clip art. Some actual artist at some time did create this cat, just not Derek. In truth Mr. Erdman just wanted credit, I guess original credit for finding Mr. Kitty first. Regardless, they’re both welcome to it, as it belongs to the public now, to do with as we please.

All of this really wouldn’t matter to me if it didn’t remind of the way, say, record labels treat mashup artists. The point here is not to claim that the Erdman piece isn’t art, it clearly is, but it likely would have never been created if the source material was still covered by copyright. Unencumbered by the threat of a lawsuit both Micah and Mr. Erdman made their separate pieces of art, and a simple drawing of a cat, created long ago by someone long dead, was given not one, but two new lives.

Postscript: I chatted with Derek on AIM tonight and he explained that this was a misunderstanding and that he’d spoken with Micah, everyone loves each other and presumably still loves Chili’s. The cat has accepted a position as an editor at The New Yorker.  Burton still cares way to much about copyright issues, and should probably stop visiting digg every day.

For starters, go here and here for the back story (and Fark’s take here).  Briefly, a web opportunist named Michael Crook sent a DMCA takedown notice to 10 Zen Monkeys‘ webhost demanding removal of an image of his face.  The cited article is here.  Said image was from Mr. Crook’s appearance on the Fox News program “Hannity and Colmes”.  Did you follow that?  The actual owner of the copyright on the image is Fox, not Michael Crook, but no matter, because of how the DMCA is written the host took down the site.  It’s back up now, and the EFF is, rightfully so, suing Mr. Crook for abusing the DMCA.

The real point of this whole thing is that the DMCA is written in such a way that it is very easy to use it to silence protected free speech.  I think the hope here is that such a flagrant abuse of the DMCA could actually cause some sort of rewrite of the law, at least that’s my hope.  How many other people have filed false claims?  This study found that about one third of DMCA claims are questionable, with only seven instances of counter-notices being sent.  It’s obvious that criticism and free speech are being silenced by the DMCA, so perhaps Michael Crook’s foul is exactly what needed to happen.  Hopefully.

Prepare for cheese.

Josh and I spent a Saturday afternoon making a horror film which we titled Clean Conscience.

In case you watch it and don’t get the significance of a “clean” conscience…well, that’s just too bad for you.

I discovered the power of YouTube.com and now present to our “film” Clean Conscience.

Please, feel extremely welcome to leave comments and input pertaining to the movie.  All comments are welcome and appreciated…including the comments about my big nose which are inevitable.

… I wouldn’t even know how to begin to comment on this.

 http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6776137864046669367&q=label%3Afreaky&pr=goog-sl