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. $10)W0 b30cR!,C Enr ra p''-ii ,fr-'-#>.oi- ~.yt7e arritxtror f: - ,TAAr ' .>q"' t1C_\l ,n"T t.A' .n# >C; .f'"fa-.c~ Cr> .:ct~r± rz, #,'ss .a " ~cr~ :." #s 2>-,- rc S-C-c~" Frrart'Ttspi"j -=-,-_r, d. cz714s c c rtr earr3e 3 _.. ~"Lx-i Avaecd :an drissomC:nutnaF T e . nt, 0Vifeftf:t . t £ati~ ~ to. > G Hti E a o F ~ssr-t ~ i E S :anf i' C #y: R yE dS G U rtA r _MA Nir tta::_T~uaT EEDOr Y VaacCRva M O N E Y .. B r:3, ~ar A .C Ksro> i So. You want one good reason to earn a pharmacy degree from the University of Michigan? Here are 12 good reasons, for starters: 1. Respect: Each year one-third of the students admit- ted to our professional degree program are cross- campus transfers from LSA 2. Unparalleled career choices 3. Financial support unequalled by any other U.S. pharmacy school 4. Continuous growth potential 5. Outstanding pay 6. Job security in economically uncertain times 7. The power to apply medical knowledge at the forefront of technological innovation 8. Life and career mobility 9. Membership in an influential alumni network spanning the globe 10. The prestige of owning a degree from one of US News & World Report's top-ranked pharmacy schools 11. Unlimited opportunities to improve people's lives 12. One-to-one learning with world-renowned faculty If you've had health-care patient experience, and if you've taken Chemistry 130, 210, 215, or 260; Biology 162, 305, 310, or 311; Physics 125, 126, 140, or 240; or Calculus 115 or 116, you're already on your way to a pharmacy degree at U-M. To learn more about the PharmD Program at the University of Michigan, visit the University of Michigan College of Pharmacy Web site at www.umich.edu/-pharmacy. Or contact Assistant Dean Valener Perry at 734-764-5550 or by e-mail at vlperry@umich.edu. 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 Classifieds. Determine the size and shape o paper we publish! Work behind the scene! student-run college newspa per! Without you, the paps Availability between 1 & 3 pnc recommended. Ability to work w a strong sense of order i E-mail Brittany at brimaroc@umic t