October 26, 2007

Friday? Drop By for Music News Day

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Music News

  • OiNK founder Alan Ellis posted bail after his arrest on Tuesday and gave a defiant interview to the Daily Telegraph, saying “I haven’t done anything wrong… there is no music sold on the site,” adding, ominously, that the music download directory was “no different [than] something like Google.” Really, so I’m a moron for not buying OiNK stock too?

  • The B-52’s are inspired enough by my collecting of a few of their videos here on the Riff that they’ve decided to record a new album, their first in 15 years. “Hey,” they said to each other, “if the Riff likes us, I bet we still got it!” Well, actually, no, that’s not how it happened, they say was a vacation in Maui or something that inspired them, but still, maybe we helped.

  • 1,730 guitarists strummed in unison at a stadium in Guwahati, India today in an attempt to break the world record for most guitarists playing together at a stadium in India. Or just “biggest guitar ensemble.” Their song of choice? “Knocking on Heaven’s Door.” An organizer told Reuters, “Though we set a new world record, we are sad as we were expecting more than 2,000 guitarists.” Talk about a negative Nelly.

  • San Francisco officials have withdrawn a planned honor for Snoop Dogg. What? No! Apparently a representative from mayor Gavin Newsom‘s office was supposed to present a proclamation for the rapper and a party promoter at the Exotic Erotic Ball, an annual Halloween- and sex-themed event this weekend, but the Newsom administration is a little jumpy after all the bad publicity they received for “Colt Studio Day.” So this probably nixes my idea of an official “Fuck with Dre Day?” That settles it, I’m voting for Quintin.
    •

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    We have a considerable $390,000 gap in our online fundraising budget that we have to close by June 30. There is no wiggle room, we've already cut everything we can, and we urgently need more readers to pitch in—especially from this specific blurb you're reading right now.

    We'll also be quite transparent and level-headed with you about this.

    In "News Never Pays," our fearless CEO, Monika Bauerlein, connects the dots on several concerning media trends that, taken together, expose the fallacy behind the tragic state of journalism right now: That the marketplace will take care of providing the free and independent press citizens in a democracy need, and the Next New Thing to invest millions in will fix the problem. Bottom line: Journalism that serves the people needs the support of the people. That's the Next New Thing.

    And it's what MoJo and our community of readers have been doing for 47 years now.

    But staying afloat is harder than ever.

    In "This Is Not a Crisis. It's The New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, why this moment is particularly urgent, and how we can best communicate that without screaming OMG PLEASE HELP over and over. We also touch on our history and how our nonprofit model makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there: Letting us go deep, focus on underreported beats, and bring unique perspectives to the day's news.

    You're here for reporting like that, not fundraising, but one cannot exist without the other, and it's vitally important that we hit our intimidating $390,000 number in online donations by June 30.

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