Song Talk with Morry Campbell

Call my Senator, and tell him you're not happy

As long as we're off of the songwriting topic already, I want to encourage everyone and anyone to call my State Senator and tell him how displeased you are that he is opposing fair and equal treatment for all New Yorkers.

Senator George Onorato, (D) District 012, pictured above, plans to oppose the marriage equality legislation that is soon to be presented and voted upon in the New York State Senate.

I don't know why he opposes it. I've been emailing him and calling his office for an explanation, and have not received one as of yet. I can only assume, however, that he's making this rather antiquated, regressive stand on his religious convictions. With a name like "Oronato," I'm guessing Catholic.

Please explain to him that he is is a Senator, and not a Cardinal. This is a democracy, not a Theocracy. Religious sentiment has no place in creating civil rights laws. Everybody deserves equal treatment under the law. (You know the drill: be respectful, but firm and to the point).

Call Senator Onorato and tell him to do the right thing. Tell him to support marriage equality in the State of New York.

Albany: 518-455-3486

Long Island City: 718-726-9706

email: onorato@senate.state.ny.us

Give it up, Norm...

You look like a freakin' idiot.

Is this a surprise to anyone?

Okay, warning:  I'm veering out of the usual songwriting territory and veering into pure politics, but I saw this and I had to comment. Does this surprise anyone? It seems there are studies on everything these days, and the subject of this particular study was on the popularity and consumption rate of pornography from state to state, using anonymised credit card data from a major online adult entertainment provider as the criteria.

"When it comes to adult entertainment, it seems people are more the same than different," says Benjamin Edelman at Harvard Business School.

However, there are some trends to be seen in the data. Those states that do consume the most porn tend to be more conservative and religious than states with lower levels of consumption, the study finds.

"Some of the people who are most outraged turn out to be consumers of the very things they claimed to be outraged by," Edelman says.

Typical. I'm so not shocked by this news I may not pass out and hit my head on the floor. Those that decry the evil pornography the most are those that are using it more than anyone else. If this was just a simple question of human foibles and harmless hypocrisy, that would be one thing. But this is a much deeper issue than that.

One more reason you shouldn't steal music

This is pretty wild. Someone downloaded a file sharing program on their company computer at a defense contractor in Bethesda, MD, and it allowed someone in Tehran (yes, the Tehran in Iran) to download detailed plans for Marine One, the President's helicopter. Boback is the CEO of the company.

Someone from the company most likely downloaded a file-sharing program, typically used to exchange music, not realizing the potential problems, Boback said.

"When downloading one of these file-sharing programs, you are effectively allowing others around the world to access your hard drive," Boback said.

I guess for an indie musician, there are certain plusses to outweigh the minuses of peer-to-peer and file sharing networks. Yes, it's possible that it may help you build a fan base and get your music into the hands of some folks that would not otherwise listen to your music. But if the cost is that your potential fans leave their hard drives open to anyone that wants to poke around there, it might be cheaper in the long run for them to just buy the song. It might be not only dishonest to download free music, it may be dangerous.