The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
[the b-side} Thursday, March 8, 2007 - 3B
File-sharing blues
By PAUL TASSI Do theythinkthey can putcfear in
Daily Film Editor us with potential fines and lawsuits?
The reason the RIAA is trying to
After readingthe article about the settle instead of suing is because if
Recording Industry of America in they actually went to court, every-
Monday's Daily (RIAA to Students: one would laugh at how ludicrous
Pay Up, 03/05/06), I was pretty sure the suggested penalties are. And if
the entire music industry somehow we're halting construction on some
collapsed and I didn't hear about it. vice president's Maui beach house
I figured the executives and artists or preventing some rapper from
had lost so much money, they had no getting a gold toilet installed in his
other choice but to sue undergrads bathroom, I think I speak for all of
to repay the massive losses piracy us when I say we don't care.
had inflicted upon them. Then I The importantthings in the music
realized this wasn't the case: every- industry haven'tchange since piracy
thing was fine and at least one of the began other this cycle of intimida-
As in RIAA stood for "assholes." tion and threats by the record labels
In fact, I'm pretty sure that toward their own customers. New
instead of worrying about whether artists are still getting discovered
his last album sold 10 or 10.1 mil- every day. Kids are still supporting
lion copies, Justin Timberlake is their favorite bands by buying CDs.
still checking his Rolex, debating if Established stars are still making
he should bang Jessica Biel or Scar- millions or going to rehab. And rich
lett Johansson. I'm also guessing P. music executives are still greedy
Diddy isn't filing for unemployment bastards. The real artists out there
yet; he's busy fueling up his Gulf- are just happy people are listening
stream and sipping Cristal. The to their music, and the ones who are
same goes for the record execs. Call complaining need to look around
me when they can't pay for the Fer- and see if they even deserve every-
raris that cost more than my house. thing they already have.
This may sound like a steal-from- The RIAA has always main-
the-rich-to-give-to-the poor sce- tained that stealing music is like
nario, because, well, that's exactly walking into a store and cramming
what it is. There's no massive influx your pockets with CDs. But if the
of jobs flooding out of Los Angeles. store has no employees, no cam-
It's only the rich who suffer, and it's eras and no security guards, why
only the rich who are complaining. the hell am I going to stop and pay
Do they want to see what a real an outrageous price for something I
industry crisis looks like? Look at barely want in the first place? Piracy
Michigan. Thousands of autowork- is far too easy not to do, and there-
ers are laid off daily due to increased fore everyone does. Even the CEO
competition within the industry. of Warner Brothers admitted his
And that's exactly what they're kids pirate music. If the RIAA really
saying the problem is. Competition. wants to do something about it, they
Their competition is selling their should go after the file-sharing net-
product for free, and all we get from works themselves. And the truth is
their offices is that they're suing col- they have been trying, and while
lege students for downloading the some have been shut down, others
only good song off the new Fallout like Limewire have been proven in
Boy CD retailing at $18.75. court not to be operating in any ille-
Goingafter college kids? We can't gal manner. So now they resort to
even afford to buy more than one picking us off one by one.
topping on our pizzas much less pay In times like these there isn't an
fines of $750 to $150,000 a song. For avenue for the fun, harmless brand
a studentwith around 2,000 pirated of crime Robin Hood made popu-
songs, the estimated fine would be lar. Piracy is our generation's form
anywhere between $1.5 and $300 of protest against a corporate land-
million. And their friends who scape that drives us to an insatiable
have their entire hard drives full of consumption of commercial goods.
music? The fines could theoretically Or maybe we're just lazy college
top $1 billion. kids who like free stuff.
a fault, the My Bloody Valentine
- CARGO frontman is a near-genius in the
From page 1B studio. I don't know how his tech-
niques would apply to this band,
me what their voices would sound but it'd be interesting to hear what
like together, with Love on the bot- Willie Nelson would sound like
tom, Hall in the middle and Case with some reverse-reverb and a lot
taking the high harmonies, but I of tremolo.
bet it'd somehow compliment Van The only thing this band still
the Man pretty well. I know what needs is a name, a task more diffi-
you're saying here, too: Daryl Hall? cult than it seems. If naming a band
From Hall & Oates? Yeah, but have were easy, then we wouldn't have
you heard his first solo album, band names like Panic at the Disco
SacredSongs? Didn't think so. - or, ugh, Hoobastank. After care-
Last, somebody would have to ful deliberation, I think I finally
produce this big mess of a band, settled on one: The Ginger Strands.
and I'd wager Kevin Shields isn't .......__._.._.__..__--- _ _ - - -
doing anyhingelse important with - -mail Cargo a
his time. A perfectionist almost to lhcargo@umich.ed.
Enjoy the Summer-
&EanUpto 1l0
Credits!
UM BOLOICA STTION
ww.Isa.u ich~edulumbs
Is your life
STRUCTURED?
If so, you can help us.
FORMAN
From page 1B
Forman and his family made the decision to
move to California when he visited Coller after
filming in Canada wrapped for "Dawn of the
Dead." He went to Los Angeles knowing that he
had a few connections like Coller, but still with
some uncertainty, although he knew that he
could find steady work as a tattoo artist. When
he first became involved with tattooing 13 years
ago, he saw it as a job where he could get paid to
draw, yet still maintain a degree of credibility.
"The kids that I hung out with in high
school (were) more Bohemian," Forman said.
"I definitely wasn't going to end up at Chrysler
designing ash trays."
Tattooing changed the way Forman
approached drawing and primed him for the
work he does now. He regards it as one of the
best ventures he's ever pursued, as it forced
him to sit down and create work the client
demanded of him.
"I wasn't exposed to anything that held me
to that degree of accountability at the time,"
Forman said. Ultimately, tattooing would help
Forman pay his way through college and bring
him out west - and in a way, to "300." Not only
is he Coller's close friend, Forman is also his
tattoo artist. Coller helped get him onboard for
"300," to which Forman contributed concept
artwork and also ended up working directly
with the makeup effects artists, applying tat-
too makeup to actors based on actual Scythian
tattoo designs he'd researched.
Originally, he had read "300" and Coller and
Snyder had talked to him about the new proj-
ect, and Forman began sending his friends his
interpretations of Miller's novel.
"It was so early on in the project that in that
stage of the game we were really looking for
inspiration everywhere - just nourish that
monster that starts to grow," Coller said. "It
was fun because Adam was drawing a lot from
historical elements but putting an Adam For-
man twist on it, which was parallel to Frank
Miller's (approach) to Thermopylae."
Novelists and filmmakers can research and
they can try to replicate history, but imagi-
nation is sometimes necessary to fill in the
gaps. After all, to quote Bukowski, fiction is an
improvement on life.
"Our focus wasn't 'Let's jump in a time
machine and make Thermopylae come to life'
but 'Let's get Frank Miller's graphic novel
come to life,' " Coller said. He added that sev-
eral of the historians that have already seen
the film have embraced the core of the story as
it aligns itself with the basis of mythology - a
grand exaggeration of life.
"If I have an opportunity to research some-
thing and not make it up, I do that," Forman
said. "The film itself is not a historical film, but
it gives you a really great platform to start from
... (History) makes a good platform, but (you're)
not shackled by it at the same time."
As "300" was finishing up pre-production,
Forman had also taken on the seven-month-
long Disney job. And then through Snyder he
hooked up with the zombie novel writer Falk,
himself a director and producer for PBS and
The Food Network.
Most artists in Forman's field take on mul-
tiple jobs at once, so they are more or less
working consistently, according to Forman.
But there is time off, which he fills with other
endeavors: Forman's band Gygax recently
signed a record contract, and he just returned
from working in New York with fashion com-
pany Par Balle. While he catches up the band
and his tattoo clients, he's also fielding calls
about potential film gigs. In the past he's also
done a Russian commercial for Orbit Gum - "a
pain in the ass with the time difference" - and
produced short films.
"The amount of ventures one can find them-
selves in L.A. seems to be bottomless," he said.
"There's a degree of acceptance (for having
multiple interests) in L.A. that isn't in the Mid-
west."
FORMAN NEAR YOU
If you think you've yet to see Forman's werk, you might
be surprised to find his imprintlontwo of familiar vices.
Although he described working for R.J. Reynolds as
"cashingthe checkifrom the grimreaper at the bank,"
Forman designedovintage tattoo-inspired boxes for
Camel Lights and Camel Menholsthis pasf year More
noble - andltasty - is his long-fem inoolementlwith
Jolly Pumpkin Artisan Ales, based in nearby Dexter. Jolly
Pumpkin's award-winning microbrews have won raves
locally (Ashley's bartenders likethe La Roja amberale)
and nationally (Men's Journal magazine ratesthe spicy
golden Barn Biere as one of the nation's 25 best beers),
for their distinctive flavors as well astheir labels.The
labelstrend to the more romantic, fantastical side of
Forman's work, with a dash of gothic. It's Tim Burton
meets Peter Pan, but less cuddly.
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So. You want
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Your future never looked brighter.
Join the team at The Michigan Daily
by becoming the Ad Layout Manager.
Layout the ads for all Daily papers, includir
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