Wimoweh Lawsuit Won

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In the jungle,
The mighty jungle,
The lawyers sleep tonight…

Heh.

Back in July of ’03 I pointed to an incredible in-depth look at the story of ‘Wimoweh’, the South African tune most popularly known as the melody for “The Lion Sleeps Tonight”.

A year later, in July of ’04, came word that Disney was being sued by the heirs of ‘Wimoweh’ author Solomon Linda.

Finally, the case has been won by Linda’s family.

No one is saying how many millions will go to the daughters of the late composer Solomon Linda, who died in poverty from a curable kidney disease in 1962 at age 53.

But the family’s settlement with New York-based Abilene Music, which gives Linda’s heirs 25 percent of past and future royalties, has broad implications.

[…] In the 1950s, at a time when apartheid laws robbed blacks of negotiating rights, Linda sold worldwide copyright to Gallo Records of South Africa for 10 shillings — less than $1.70.

Gallo also tried to sell the work in the United States, but American folk singer Pete Seeger had adapted a version that he called “Wimoweh.”

[…] It remains to be seen how the settlement with Abilene, which holds the copyright to the popular songs that grew from Linda’s composition, will affect his family. Abilene music could not immediately be reached for comment.

Of his three surviving daughters, only the youngest has a job, as a nurse, and she still lives in the family home in Soweto, a satellite suburb set up for black workers under apartheid.

Her sisters never reached high school. One runs a home-based grocers. The other recently lost her job cleaning a doctor’s office and supports a daughter who gets occasional work cleaning homes.

Linda’s fourth daughter died of AIDS in her 30s in 2002 as the lawsuit dragged on, without money to buy drugs that could have saved her life.

Neat to see the story finally reach resolution. I highly recommend reading the 3rd Ear article that details the origins of the song and what happened to Linda and his family.

iTunes “Lion Sleeps Tonight, The (Wimoweh)” by Nylons from the album Best of the Nylons (1993, 3:12).

Registered (Spring ’06)

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With the end of winter quarter comes the beginning of spring quarter. As before, Prairie and I figure we can afford to put me through two classes this quarter (I’ll be taking summer quarter off, and should have financial aid for next fall).

This quarter’s schedule:

  • MUS113 (Music in the United States), M-F 10:00 – 10:50 am, Shakarian
  • MAT098 (Intermediate Algebra), M-F 11:00 – 11:50 am, DeSoto

One quarter down…many more to go.

iTunes “Unbelievable (Hip Hop)” by EMF from the album Unbelievable (1991, 4:15).

The President Supports Abortions

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Of course, it’s not President George W. Bush. Rather, it’s President Cecilia Fire Thunder of the Oglala Sioux Tribe on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. Infuriated by South Dakota’s HB 1215, which banned abortions in all situations save a direct threat to the mothers life, President Fire Thunder has pledged to open a Planned Parenthood clinic on reservation land — where it will be under tribal jurisdiction, rather than that of the Government of South Dakota.

When Governor Mike Rounds signed HB 1215 into law it effectively banned all abortions in the state with the exception that it did allow saving the mother’s life. There were, however, no exceptions for victims of rape or incest. His actions, and the comments of State Senators like Bill Napoli of Rapid City, SD, set of a maelstrom of protests within the state.

Napoli suggested that if it was a case of “simple rape,” there should be no thoughts of ending a pregnancy. Letters by the hundreds appeared in local newspapers, mostly written by women, challenging Napoli’s description of rape as “simple.” He has yet to explain satisfactorily what he meant by “simple rape.”

The President of the Oglala Sioux Tribe on the Pine Ridge Reservation, Cecilia Fire Thunder, was incensed. A former nurse and healthcare giver she was very angry that a state body made up mostly of white males, would make such a stupid law against women.

“To me, it is now a question of sovereignty,” she said to me last week. “I will personally establish a Planned Parenthood clinic on my own land which is within the boundaries of the Pine Ridge Reservation where the State of South Dakota has absolutely no jurisdiction.”

Strong words from a very strong lady. I hope Ms. Fire Thunder challenges Gov. Rounds and the state legislators on this law that is an affront to all independent women.

LiveJournaler [kathrynt's info]kathrynt called the tribal offices, spoke to Ms. Fire Thunder, and got permission to post information on how to donate to the reservation to support this effort.

If you want to mail donations to the reservation, you may do so at:

Oglala Sioux Tribe
ATTN: President Fire Thunder
P. O. Box 2070
Pine Ridge, SD 57770

OR: and this may be preferred, due to mail volume:

ATTN: PRESIDENT FIRE THUNDER
PO BOX 990
Martin, SD 57751

Enclose a letter voicing your support and explaining the purpose of the donation. Bear in mind, the Pine Ridge Res is not exactly dripping with disposeable [sic] income, so do consider donating funds directly to the tribe as well as specifically for this effort.

ETA: Make checks out to OST Planned Parenthood Cecelia Fire Thunder. This will ensure that the funds get routed properly.

For email contact, you can contact the president at:

firethunder_president AT NOSPAM yahoo DOT com
cc:vbush AT NOSPAM oglala DOT org

That is Ms. Fire Thunder’s personal email address; I have received permission to post it here. For the sake of record keeping, do cc: the listed address on all correspondence; that’s her official secretary.

She was frankly kind of surprised that a white girl from Seattle was calling to express support, and even more surprised that the news had spread so far so fast. She’s likely to get deluged with screaming hate mail soon, so get your support in fast. Send email with good thoughts if you can’t send money.

ETA: Yes, please, dear God, link it anywhere and everywhere!

This makes me wish I had more disposable income to donate. Hats off to President Fire Thunder, and I hope this goes forward.

(via MeFi)

iTunes “Victory (Nine Inch Nails)” by Puff Daddy and the Family from the album Victory (1997, 5:35).

Breaking News: Killers can destroy innocent life!

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It still boggles my mind that a man who comes up with gems like this got elected to the office of President of the United States. Twice.

But we realized on September the 11th, 2001, that killers could destroy innocent life.

No shit, Sherlock.

The full exchange between Bush and Helen Thomas is even better…

Update: Crooks and Liars has video!

Read more

Sometimes birthdays come early

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Last week sometime, Prairie surprised me by mentioning what she’d been thinking about for my birthday present this year. Really surprised me, too — it was far and beyond anything I’d expected her to do.

When we went online and checked prices, we found that there was a 20% off sale going on right then…and that it would be over in just a couple days. Since waiting and paying more money didn’t make sense, Prairie went ahead and ordered the present for me.

It came in today.

Read more

George Clooney does not make statements. He answers questions.

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There appears to be a bit of a tussle going on between George Clooney and The Huffington Post, where his “I am a liberal” post (now removed from THP) was printed.

It’s George Clooney versus Arianna Huffington in a standoff worthy of “Good Night, and Good Luck.”

The newly minted Oscar winner says he did not write a blog posted Monday on commentator Huffington’s Web site, though he gave her permission to use a compilation of his critiques of the Iraq war from interviews with Larry King and London’s The Guardian.

“Miss Huffington’s blog is purposefully misleading and I have asked her to clarify the facts,” Clooney, 44, said in a statement issued Wednesday. “I stand by my statements but I did not write this blog.”

[…]

A rebuttal on [Huffington’s] Web site says she and her staff initially compiled a “sample blog” for Clooney from his interview answers because he wasn’t sure how a blog worked.

Huffington said that after she sent Clooney the sample, a film publicist e-mailed her and three days later approved it, without any changes.

“This was an honest misunderstanding,” she wrote. “But any misunderstanding that occurred, occurred between Clooney and the publicist. We based our decision to post on the unambiguous approval we received in writing.”

Clooney’s publicist Stan Rosenfield disagreed.

“It’s not a misunderstanding, it’s misrepresentation,” he said. “She knows what she was doing. She was saying to people that she had George Clooney’s blog and was printing it. George Clooney does not make statements. He answers questions.”

Arianna Huffington has since apologized and redefined some of THP’s editorial standards.

At the beginning of the week, I was so focused on making it crystal clear that we did indeed have permission to run the Clooney blog that I was blinded to another extremely important issue: that a blog, where the source of the material is not clear, diminishes the amazing work of bloggers who day in and day out put their hearts and souls into writing their blogs.

I can’t thank our commenters enough for, in different ways, driving this point home.

I now realize that I made a big mistake in posting a blog without clearly identifying that the material in it didn’t originate as a blog post but was pieced together from previous interviews.

Sounds like everything’s pretty much wrapped up by now.

To me, this is notable primarily for two things:

  1. The original post — whether or not it was penned by Clooney, said by Clooney, thought by Clooney, or created by painstakingly taping together shreds of paper from cut up and randomly shuffled cereal boxes and erotic novellas — which is still a worthy statement;

  2. Clooney’s publicist’s unfortunate and hilariously pretentious pronouncement that, “George Clooney does not make statements. He answers questions.” That gave me the best laugh I’ve had all morning.

iTunes “Chime (Hot Tracks)” by Orbital from the album Hot Tracks 15th Anniversary Collectors Edition (1997, 5:34).

More Reunions

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One of the more popular way to combat comment spam these days is to have your weblog software automatically turn comments off for posts more than a few days old. I’ve played with this ability in the past, but there’s one big reason why I’ve never stuck with it for very long: the comments that pop up on old posts can lead to some fun coincidences.

Late last year, I mentioned one such situation, where a bunch of people from Anchorage’s old punk community started stumbling across an old post of mine, started chatting in the comments, and ended up setting up their own website to keep in contact.

Over the past few months, I’ve been watching a very similar situation develop. Back in 2003 I posted about the annual “Goth Day/Bats Day” at Disneyland, when as many goths as possible spend a day flitting about the Magic Kingdom. A year later, a chance comment on that post mentioned a UK Disney Channel show called “Bus Life” that ran in 2004.

Apparently, that was enough for Google to push that post to the top of the rankings for people searching for “disney bus life” or “daniel bickerdike“, one of the actors on the show. Since then, that post has become a meeting point for both fans of the show and cast members, giving them a chance to reconnect after having all gone on to other projects for the last couple years.

I love watching stuff like this go on — and I’m very willing to put up with the occasional bout of comment spam in return for being able to watch old friends reconnect thanks to Google and some random piece of babble on my site.

iTunes “Prelude” by Mauve Sideshow from the album Meet Me in the Wasteland (1993, 2:20).

Vice Versa

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Here’s a thing of beauty:

On Wednesday, March 1st, 2006, in Annapolis at a hearing on the proposed Constitutional Amendment to prohibit gay marriage, Jamie Raskin, professor of law at AU, was requested to testify.

At the end of his testimony, Republican Senator Nancy Jacobs said: “Mr. Raskin, my Bible says marriage is only between a man and a woman. What do you have to say about that?”

Raskin replied: “Senator, when you took your oath of office, you placed your hand on the Bible and swore to uphold the Constitution. You did not place your hand on the Constitution and swear to uphold the Bible.”

The room erupted into applause.

(via Pharyngula)

Garth Brooks is a Gateway Drug

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Neither Prairie nor I are big fans of country, but we both listen to a little bit. Last night I’d popped on a compilation I made a few years ago as background music while I was cleaning house, and still had it going when Prairie came home. It turned out that she knew every song on the CD as well, and we had fun listening to some of the songs and chatting about what got us started listening to country.

In my case, while dad had some small part in it (he’s not a big country listener either, but his LP collection is responsible for introducing me to Johnny Cash when I was a youngster), it can all be blamed attributed to some of my ex-girlfriends. They listened to some, I happened to be around, and I ended up discovering that there actually was some country music that I enjoyed listening to.

Prairie can also blame credit an ex for the songs that she found that she likes. In each case, though, one of the primary artists we found was Garth Brooks. I mentioned that I’d often noticed when talking to people that, if they had even a little bit of country in their collection, there was a pretty good chance that Garth would be in there somewhere, if not the sole representative.

Which led to the realization that Garth Brooks is a gateway drug.

So now you know, kids.

Don’t do Garth.

Herewith, then, is a selection of country music approved by me (and, in most cases, by Prairie, also). It’s pretty much entirely the fun, upbeat style of country…I just can’t get into the ballads.

  1. Toby Keith, How Do You Like Me Now?
  2. Jodee Messina, I’m Alright
  3. Garth Brooks, Two Piña Coladas
  4. Mary Chapin Carpenter, Down at the Twist and Shout
  5. Clay Walker, Then What?
  6. Dolly Parton, Why’d You Come In Here Lookin’ Like That?
  7. Clint Black, Only On Days That End In ‘Y’
  8. Reba McEntire, Fancy
  9. Joe Diffe, Third Rock From the Sun
  10. Shania Twain, Don’t Be Stupid (You Know I Love You)
  11. Tim McGraw, Something Like That
  12. Lee Ann Womack, I’ll Think of a Reason Later
  13. John Michael Montgomery, Sold (The Grundy County Auction Incident)
  14. Trisha Yearwood, She’s In Love With the Boy
  15. Brad Paisley, Me Neither
  16. Collin Raye, Little Red Rodeo
  17. Reba McEntire, The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia
  18. Rick Trevino, Bobby Ann Mason
  19. John Michael Montgomery, Life’s a Dance
  20. Trick Pony, Pour Me
  21. Rodney Crowell with Johnny Cash, I Walk the Line (Revisited)
  22. Dixie Chicks, Goodbye Earl

iTunes “I Walk the Line Revisited” by Crowell, Rodney with Cash, Johnny (2:43).

Freeline Skates: Because There Aren’t Enough Ways to Kill Yourself Already

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Actually, these things are seriously cool. I don’t think you’ll ever catch me actually trying them (I’ve yet to set foot on a skateboard, and I haven’t tried any form of skates — traditional roller, inline, or ice — in years), but they’re still neat. Two skateboard wheels attached to the underside of a small (looks to be about 3″ by 4″) board just big enough for your foot. One set for each foot. Skate.

(via MeFi)