I am quite disappointed that the administration opted to censor my film based on the fact that it contained "copyrighted music," and offered no further clarification other than to point me to the FAQ entry that lists some URL's to online spots for music that is considered acceptable. What makes no sense about the explanation is that all published music is copyrighted. The following is the entire note that I received from the site administration:

"I had to remove your videos from the gallery this morning as they both contain copyrighted music and we can't allow that on the site. I really enjoyed both of them and would welcome you to repost them without sound or using a source we've listed in FAQ #852"

Notice the clearly worded "they both contain copyrighted music" statement that offers no clarification other than to say that copyrighted music is not allowed on the site? This makes absolutely no sense to me as, like I said, all published music is copyrighted.

Music from bands that are signed with the big labels, indie bands, bands that publish solely online, and whatever else, is all copyrighted. The only difference between these groups is that some are backed by the monolithic recording industry whereas the others are small bands with little, to no, money in their pockets. Regardless, they are all afforded the protections that copyright law offers, especially if they took the time to physically register their copyrights on paper and file with the copyright office.

I am not writing this out of some perverse desire to start any upheaval. Sometimes, writing about a situation is healing, and helps me better comprehend the situation itself. In this case, I am truly confused about this situation because the offered explanation makes absolutely no sense.

But I digress. I do not care any longer.

I have not posted here in over a year so it probably does not matter, but this is more than likely the straw that broke the proverbial camel's back. I will most certainly not post here again, which is sad if you really take a step back and think about it.

So anyhow, enough of that crap; just had to get that off my chest before I post the link to where the video is now located. I seriously hope that everyone does get a chance to check the deviantART Summit video out. Like I said before, the summit was a lot of fun, and finally turning the video in to a digital creation was a lot of fun as well.



Check out the deviantART Never Before Seen Footage over at YouTube: [link]

If you would like to download the full, higher-than-YouTube-quality version then grab a copy of it from here while supplies last: [link]

Sports Day 2007, if you care to see my son Anthony running around the track at school during Undokai, then check it out here: [link]

Thanks to all. Enjoy!



jarkolicious dot com

Check out the never before seen footage from the deviantART Summit, taken by yours truly when I attended the Summit in June 2005, at the Hollywood Palladium in Los Angeles CA.

Slapping the very limited number of clips that I have together has been something I have been wanting to do for quite some time. Since I was playing around with iMovie '08, which comes with iLife '08, I finally decided to get off my lazy ass and put something together, no matter how unexciting the final product turned out.

Admittedly there is not much footage here. I was too busy meeting deviants, talking to deviants and enjoying the festivities, however lame those festivities were in retrospect. The absolute best part of the event was meeting the many deviants whom I interacted with on a daily basis.

If I somehow managed to get your name wrong then I apologize. Methinks I got everyone right, even though there is a very limited number of appearances in the footage. But like I said, if I screwed up your name then please let me know and I will be more than happy to fix0r.

The best part of the footage is the quick conversation with $lolly. When you see it you will know immediately what I am referring to.

On a side note, I guess embedding the embed code in a journal is not possible. Would be nice to be able to embed film, much like YouTube offers such embedding options. But I digress.



jarkolicious dot com

It is my understanding that a UFO has been spotted above Los Angeles, CA. Has anyone witnessed any random anal probings from the armada of aliens that are sure to attack ostensibly innocent bystanders? Although information about the UFO is spotty and unreliable, it has been overheard by fairly reliable sources that the current invasion is expected to last weeks.

If anyone does manage to catch a glimpse of the surreptitious aliens that are sure to be probing the citizens of Los Angeles throughout the next few weeks then let me know, as I am cataloging all encounters and abductions.

Interested in more information on this subject matter then feel free to ask. Only serious inquiries will be entertained.



jarkolicious dot com

Do you Twit? Perhaps you Pownce? Prefer Jaiku?

Have you bothered to use any of these services? Have a preference? Why?




jarkolicious dot com

I wonder, is deviantART still relevant any more, especially with all the other similar, and non-similar-yet-closely-similar, sites out there?

After all, there are plenty of other freely accessible sites that offer far more bang for your buck, have a much more user friendly interface, are run by people with artistic morals in mind, are managed by a team that is interested in honest and frank communication with their audience, where the leaders truly care and listen to the complaints rather than automatically act dismissive, and where the developers actually update the site on a regular basis in order to quash bugs and add new useful features.

So I ask again, is deviantART still relevant any longer? If so, why?

Is there a bug with journal notifications that I am not aware of? I ask because I logged in to see roughly 134 journal notifications awaiting me. These are new as of the previous 48 hours (I had not logged in for 48 hours) and therefore an exceptionally high number. To make matters worse, I see journal notifications for deviants whom I have never added as a friend. This makes the whole thing really confusing.

Anyone else experiencing such strangeness?

Happy New Year! I hope that everyone had an enjoyable 2006 and ends up with an equally, if not better, 2007.

I am looking forward to partaking in some very interesting opportunities that will most deservedly see fruition in 2007.

Rock on!

America has been given a horrible present for Christmas this year as James Brown has passed away at the tender old age of 73. The "Godfather of Soul," as he was known, was hospitalized with pneumonia although the exact cause of death is currently undetermined.

The one thing that I will always remember him for are those crazy lyrics that were almost incomprehensible at times, coupled with the rapid foot stomping and dancing of his. His antics and music inspired so many musicians that are considered popular today, such as Mick Jagger, Michael Jackson, David Bowie and more.

The passing of James Brown definitely, or a more apt word would be "finally," gives new meaning to the old school techno song by L.A. Style entitled "James Brown is Dead." I am not entirely certain that there will be mass hysteria due to James Brown's death, although he will be mourned by the entire world.

Rest in peace James Brown! You were one hell of an artistic legend that can never be duplicated or matched.

Video: Anthony's Autumn Concert, where he plays the drums yet again. Not the elaborate setup like last time, but nonetheless wicked! Check it out right here: [link]

His previous concert is here: [link]ZS-0JMRWIA (shows b0rked thanks to deviantART's broken parsing system)

This Saturday at Anthony's elementary school was their annual Autumn Concert. The sixth grade class had a number of songs that they played, with Anthony participating in four of them. Anthony's "main event" had him playing a single bass drum in contrast to his previous attempt on a scaled down drum set. Though he was slightly nervous this time around, he did exceptionally well yet again and showed why he is the reigning champion musician of the house!

This video is part 1 of 4. Rather, it will be; I have only bothered to encode this one 5 minute clip thus far. It is slightly late and we are heading out to Narita Temple in the morning so expect the others to be posted by the end of the weekend at the latest.

Give Anthony a round of applause on his exceptionally wicked drum skills!

P.S. Sure would be nice to be able to embed YouTube clips in a journal entry. Certainly parsing that out is rather simple methinks.

I recently signed up for a Facebook account in order to test out the service and see what the big deal is. If you use Facebook then let me know, so we can network with each other.

My account: [link]

If you have any thoughts on Facebook itself, as a service and web site, then please by all means, share them.