New Music 8/31/2010

Hello again.  I thought I’d share with you some of the new stuff I’ve come across this week. . . 1. Stornoway - Beachcomber’s Windowsill : Sharing their band name with a small city in the North of the Isle of Lewis in Scotland, this Oxford based folk / pop outfit create soft songs with sometimes gritty instrumentation.  Think James Yorkston’s haunting melodies without a lot of the pretense (please don’t tell James Yorkston I think he’s pretentious.... Read More

Yancey – Made Not Only in Words

Yancey, Kathleen Blake. “Made Not Only in Words: Composition in a New Key.” College Composition and Communication 56 2 (2004): 297-328. Print. Yancey begins this essay with a recognition that never before have the technologies of writing contributed so quickly to the creation of new genres.  For Yancey these technological developments mirror the development of the reading public in the 19th century as the technological and economic changes of an increasingly globalized... Read More

Hardin – The Tragedy of the Commons

Hardin, Garrett.  “The Tragedy of the Commons.”  Science.   12/13/1968.  Print. Hardin’s essay centers around issues that have “no technical solution.”  In other words, he wants to address the commons as an issue that must be involved in human values or ideas of human morality. Hardin is pushing back against the “invisible hand” philosophy of Adam Smith in this piece asking whether individuals will – by acting in their own self-interest – also act on behalf... Read More

Barlow – The Next Economy of Ideas

Barlow, John Perry.  “The Next Economy of Ideas.”  Wired.  October 2000.  Print This piece is a reflection on the Napster case and its effects on the information economy. A core claim that Barlow makes here is that “The free proliferation of expression does not decrease its commercial value.  Free access increases it, and should be encouraged rather than stymied. The first use of “DotCommunism” appears in this article. Another chief claim “Noncommercial distribution... Read More

Barlow – The Economy of Ideas

Barlow, John Perry. “The Economy of Ideas.” Wired 1994. Print. Barlow is confronting the problem of digitized property:  “If our property can be infinitely reproduced and instantaneously distributed all over the planet without cost, without our knowledge, without its even leaving our possession, how can we protect it?  How are we going to get paid for the work we do with our minds?  And, if we can’t get paid, what will assure the continued creation and distribution... Read More