Borrowing, Stealing, and Copyright Infringement

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New artists imitate, great artists steal.

(I was asked to write a post explaining the basics of copyright in music. This is not really that post.)

An original musical work is protected by copyright law the instant that the artist (or artists) first records it or writes it down. An unrecorded session doesn’t create any lasting rights, copyright-wise at least. After a first recording, a musician has a protected copyright in both the song as a musical composition and the recorded version of the song as a sound recording. This assumes the songwriter and performer are the same. It seems strange now, but back in the old days music had to be put in notational form to gain copyright protection. In practice, a musical composition and a sound recording are typically owned by different people and different sets of rules and rights apply to each. Read more

Listen to Bushwick On The Air Every Day This Week

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The Bellevue the Library was the last stop of our recent King County Library Systems: A Place at the Table tour, where Bushwick performed original music inspired by Michael Pollan’s The Botany of Desire and The Omnivore’s Dilemma. KBCS 91.3 FM was on hand to record this event and interview the artists. They put together some fun little 10 minute radio segments of each artist and every day this week at 4:20pm they will be broadcasting a new Bushwick segment. Yay! The schedule is posted below. Read more

Bar 4 Is Shutting Down: How A Tiny Bar in Brooklyn Changed My Life

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As one often does these days, I discovered the news on Facebook. After trying to decipher a series of posts in my newsfeed, I finally found the one that made them all make sense: a press release announcing that Bar 4, in the Park Slope neighborhood of Brooklyn was closing. I started crying.

“Friends and family,

It is with great sadness that we announce that after 14 years as a neighborhood institution, music venue and beloved Slope staple, Bar 4 will be permanently closing its doors on August 15, 2013.”

And not like wimpy crying. I was sobbing so much. I felt embarrassed about it even though I was alone in my apartment. I couldn’t stop, couldn’t calm down and couldn’t rein it in. I know this sounds overly dramatic (I DID do all the plays in high school), but I would love to tell you why a tiny bar in Brooklyn impacted my life to such a significant degree. It also relates to The Bushwick Book Club Seattle; I promise. Read more

The Music of Language: Phone Calls and Inspiration

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One wonderful aspect of the Bushwick Book Club: it conducts art across fields, generating new creation. From textual to musical, prose to lyrical. Inspiration via artistic translation and cross-pollination is a wonderful phenomenon with a rich, varied history.

I heard my own favorite example of this occurrence at a Seattle performance years ago. Back when Consolidated Works was a happening venue, the pianist Jason Moran (a recent MacArthur Award winner, deservedly in my estimation) came to town and used mesmerizing artistic translation in a solo piece.

The video below is the same song he played that night. Check it out–I’ll bet you’ve never heard anything quite like it. (Although this version is with a trio, you’ll get the idea even if you only listen for a minute). Do you know Turkish? In addition to piano, bass and drums you’ll hear a woman in Istanbul chatting with her mother on a cell phone. What to listen for? Hint: the night I heard this tune my friend turned to me, noticed my furrowed brow, and said: “He’s playing a note on every syllable.” This ordinary conversation becomes the tonal palette for Moran’s composition. Read more

Bookshelf Report: Book Piles Are the Best Kind of Piles

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The Bookshelf Report is an ongoing series where we ask 5 questions and share 5 pictures of a bookshelf  belonging to a Bushwick reader. Today’s bookshelf comes from Hollie Young, Bushwick Book Club Seattle volunteer extraordinaire and all around sweetest person to ever exist EVER. 

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What is your favorite book on this shelf?

My favorite book on the floor is The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami. This book is mysterious and  captivates me in a way I have yet to experience from any other book. It is weird and intriguing. The characters are greatly developed and complex. I also love that you need an active imagination to truly see how the story unfolds. Read more

This Week in Books and Music: “Weird and Awesome” with Lots of Awesome

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Thursday, August 1

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Tiny Messengers at the Tractor Tavern, 9pm

Lacey Jane Henson reading at The Furnace Reading Series at Hollow Earth Radio, 7pm

Evan J. Peterson at the Seattle Erotic Arts Festival

 

 

Bushwick_JackStraw_067-178x178Friday, August 2

 

Jack Straw Foundation reading at Elliott Bay Books, 7pm

Bradford Loomis at the Hard Rock Cafe, 8pm

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Around the Corner: Magus Books

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Nothing catches my attention like a sidewalk cart full of books priced cheap. Without exception, I’ll convince myself to buy something I will probably never even read simply because it costs $1. And it’s a book!

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Magus Books, courtesy of Michael P. on Yelp

Today I had 12 minutes left on my meter and there were multiple carts full of books so the obvious story was likely to play out. Add to that a significantly increased chance of getting a parking ticket the second I walked through the door of Magus Books. Read more

This Week(End) in Books and Music

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We know the Capitol Hill Block Party is this weekend, but be sure to catch some of these upcoming shows from our Bushwick artists and other Seattle picks.

Friday, July 26still from the film Blackmail

The Hitchcock 9 film series opens at SIFF Cinema Uptown. The nine surviving silent films by Alfred Hitchcock, accompanied by live performances of original scores by Seattle musicians including Miles and Karina, The Diminished Men, cellist Lori Goldston, DJ James Whetzel, and more. Tonight kicks off with Blackmail, the story of a woman’s flirtation that turns dark and sinister. Films play through August 1 at SIFF Cinema Uptown.

Bradford Loomis plays at the 6th Street Fair in Downtown Bellevue, 4pm and free

Saturday, July 27

MoZo playing at the High Fidelity showMoZo plays with Jackrabbit at Slimfest (other bands include the Dusty 45’s, Davidson Hart Kingsbery, and The Swearengens), 6pm at Slim’s Last Chance

Bradford Loomis plays with The Wicks in Chelan, 7pm at The Vogue

Nancy K. Dillon performs in the Singer/Songwriter Circle, 7:30pm at Couth Buzzard Books

 

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Monday, July 29

Bucket of Honey plays with Mingo Fishtrap, 9pm at the Tractor

And next weekend, Evan J. Peterson reads poetry at the Seattle Erotic Art Festival!

 

Have an upcoming show? Want to share it with us? Email [email protected]

Bookshelf Report: Library Guy with a Joint Collection

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The Bookshelf Report is an ongoing series where we ask 5 questions and share 5 pictures of a bookshelf  belonging to a Bushwick reader. Today’s bookshelf comes from Levi Fuller, a veritable veteran of the Bushwick Book Club Seattle. Over the years he’s performed songs inspired by The Shining, 1984, Dr. Seuss, Alice in Wonderland, Lust by Ellen Forney, and many others.

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What is your favorite book on these shelves?

I will give you two answers: My current favorite book on these shelves as a possession is a recent edition, my signed copy of Ellen Forney’s Lust. It will always remind me of how much fun it was to play the Bushwick show for that book, and how gracious and wonderful Ellen was. My favorite book just as a thing to read is probably David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest, although that’s tough to answer, as I pretty much only hold on to books that I really love or have some other attachment to. Read more

Books, Booze, and Friends: An Evening of Your Favorite Things

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We can all agree that spending a few hours in the company of good friends, having a couple drinks while chatting about a book you’ve been reading is time well spent. Now throw in the opportunity to meet some new like-minded people all interested in sharing their own bookish adventures (and a few drinks of course!) – you may have yourself a flawless evening. A gathering such as this is what we call in the book business a “literary mixer” and there just so happens to be one coming up next week that I highly recommend you attend. Read more