Have You Registered to Vote? Are You Sure?

Are you registered to vote? Are you positive about this? (Seems some voters who voted in the Primaries have discovered themselves not registered.) Voter registration deadline is s early as October 4 in some states.

Are you registered at the address where you'll be living on Election Day? (Seems some foreclosed voters are mistakenly being told they won't be allowed to vote, and there's a lawsuit.) And does your photo ID match the address on your voter registration? If not, better head to the DMV. Meanwhile, check out these resources:

Here's another excellent resource of voter information I stumbled upon while reading email this morning (I subscribe to their newsletter and clicked a link).

Whatever your party, whomever your candidate, register and vote. And when you do, be sure you're not wearing anything with a candidate's name, picture, or political party on it: hats,

T-shirts, stickers, anything. We've been informed that anyone doing so can, and most likely will, be legally prohibited from voting, because the ballot is supposed to be secret. The poll workers are supposed to let you leave the line to remove the item and then come back...But some poll workers may not remember this rule, and you don't want to accidentally miss out on your opportunity to vote.

So don't take the chance: Save that "Go Barack" hat or your "I'm in love with John McCain" T-shirt for the celebration AFTER you've cast your vote at the polling place. (Thanks ReverbNation for this info.) Tell your friends!

But do vote. If you don't vote, you lose your right to complain, protest, or even make jokes about the candidates, winners, and losers...

...And what's the fun in that?

Edited 9/287/08 to provide additional voter information, and to correct a punctuation error--RR

Mortgage Foreclosures / Credit Crisis Means Local Promoter, Club, and Small Label Crisis? How Musicians Can Avoid Getting Ripped Off

How does the mortgage foreclosure / financial crisis /credit crisis affect touring musicians and indie label recording artists?

This article on MusicBizAdvice.com explains how, along with giving you some simple tips to keep from getting burned.

RIP Balinese Room

RIP Balinese Room nightclub in Galveston, TX.
1929 - September 13, 2008

We at MusicBizAdvice.com send good thoughts and positivity to everyone affected by Hurricane Ike and Hurricane Gustav.

Want to help? Donate to the American Red Cross.

Want the Same Results? Hire the Same Team

OK...I really do try not to get political in this blog, because that's not what most of you come here for.

But as someone whose job entails coordinating PR and marketing campaigns to highlight (or help to create) an artist's desired image, I cannot sit by silently while the political PR machine is used so ludicrously to take the focus off the issues. (Pig in lipstick outrage? Puhleeze. Looks like somebody'd trying to distract the public from thinking about the war, the economy, healthcare, and education.)

Watch this and decide who you want to vote for.

Are these people really who you want in office?

I'm always advising clients, "If you want success, hire a team of people who have helped successful people do what you want to do." That's exactly what McCain did; he's hired some of the very same people from the Bush team to run or advise his campaign. (Karl Rove anyone?) And I'm sure there are more to come if he gets elected.

They say the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result...

So again I ask, are these people really the people you want in office after the election? Because that's what you'll get if McCain wins the election.

Are you better off than you were 4 years ago? How 'bout almost 8 years ago? What about the economy? Is that better? Are we really safer? What about our ports?

Personally, I say ENOUGH!!!!

Love Letters from the MTV Video Music Awards (VMAs) 2008

To Paramore: That was cool. (Real singing and all! Pay attention, kids...)

To Pink: Performance of the night. (And again, with real singing!)

To anonymous artist: If you can't sing along on pitch to your own voice on your backing track...[Editor shakes head sadly.]

To Russell Brand: It was pathetic that you had to apologize for the running joke about purity promise rings...(Although we can't help noticing the irony of a Brit coming 'cross the pond to get persecuted by the religious...Guess everything comes full circle, even if it takes a few hundred years!)

To Jordin Sparks: Learn to take a joke. Calling people who have sex before marriage "slut"s was uncalled for. ( Wasn't there something in the book about judgment as well? Great Christian attitude there, Jord(!)) But most of all, shouldn't the AMERICAN Idol remember that Americans have many varied beliefs?

To Kid Rock: You sounded great!

Get to the Truffles

Overheard in conversation between MBADC Contributing Writer Darcie-Nicole Wicknick and MBADC Editor-in-Chief:

"You gotta dig through the dirt to get to the truffles."

Hotter Than Hell: A Motley Copyright (Licensing) Quiz

MusicBizAdvice.com staffers were singing this over the weekend:

[Sung to the tune of "Louder than Hell" by Motley Crue]

Hotter
L.A. is hotter than hell
Hotter
L.A. is hotter than hell
Oo I don't like it
I Don't like it
It's heeeeeeell!

(Nikki Sixx and his co-horts got the hell out of dodge to their gig in Canada just in time, by the way...Once again, they escape by the skin of their teeth! No, I don't know Mr. Sixx personally; I just thought it was ironic.)

Really, this is worse than Phoenix (and is one of the many reasons why I left)...At least in Phoenix everyone has central air when it's 112 out. I don't know what's going on, but I've lived in So. Cal off and on since 1980, and L.A. is definitely hotter, and hotter more often, than it used to be. What's up with that?

Still, I love, love, love this town. Only in L.A. in the midst of a power outtage in a heat wave can you hang out with good friends and a news crew comes to your door asking to film the inside of your fridge. (I'm not into being on camera and had no perishables in my fridge so I abstained, but my friends had a lot fun being on the Channel 7 news.)

Copyright (licensing)Pop Quiz: Ten points if you know what kind of licensing / permissions would have been needed, and from whom, if the above MusicBizAdvice.com staffers had been performing their version of "Hotter than Hell" live for an audience, or if they'd planned to record and release a studio version (God forbid).

Twenty more points if you knew that reprinting lyrics requires licensing / permissions as well.** 10 more if you knew that because only a small portion of the lyrics were used here AND were used in the context of an educational discussion, their use in this blog entry falls under the Fair Use exemption of the Copyright Act.

So, what's your score? Answers are in Darcie-Nicole Wicknick's MusicBizadvice.com article, "Publishing and Royalties 101: The Nuts and Bolts of Songwriting Income".

**Yes, I know some of you will try to argue that people reprint lyrics all the time without paying for them. I'm just here to offer you the facts so you have information that can help you. What you do with those facts, or whether or not you choose to use them at all is up to you. Ignoring something doesn't make it cease to exist.

Sorry about the rambling entry. It was take 2 after another power outtage this afternoon wiped out the first draft just as I was finishing the last paragraph.

I'm off to get water...

Stay cool,
RR