Free Republic

Barack Obama loves Chicago music, and it shows: In his speeches, he echoes the ideals — hope, tolerance, determination — heard in the songs of such local greats as Sam Cooke, the Staple Singers and Curtis Mayfield President-elect Barack Obama paid homage to Chicago soul in his Grant Park acceptance speech. He riffed on Wendell Phillips High graduate Sam Cooke by saying, “It’s been a long time coming, but tonight, because of what we did on this day, at this defining moment, change has come to America.” This clearly expands on Cooke’s 1963 hit “A Change Is Gonna Come.” But...

Echo Park resident Joseph Lee doesn't necessarily look like the leader of a musical movement. Blanketed in thug-like tattoos, a menacing goatee and often photographed in bandanna and Tupac Shakur tee, Lee could easily pass for a long-lost member of Cypress Hill. Yet under the sobriquet Deadlee, Lee is arguably Los Angeles' most prominent gay rapper, having helped organized the first national "homo-hop tour." In spite of frequent censure from the greater hip-hop community, a vibrant gay hip-hop subculture has evolved -- both locally and nationally -- with the clear-cut goals of defying bigotry and realizing self-expression. Los Angeles has...

...These grass-roots music events... have come up against the demands of US copyright law, as enforced by a handful of companies who act as collection agents for songwriters and composers. The law states that no performer in a public venue can present someone else's copyrighted music without their permission and, usually, without compensating them. A number of agencies, chief among them... BMI and... ASCAP, charge music venues an annual copyright "license fee" ranging from $300 to nearly $10,000 for the privilege of presenting someone else's music. Much of the music at those Ragged Edge open mics was written by the...

Sales of the vinyl single are now back up above the million mark in the UK Downloads and iPods are all very well, but for many musicians, your latest song just hasn't been released until it's been forced on to a small, grooved plastic disc at a pressure of more than 2,000 lb per square inch. ...The 45 rpm single is about to reach its 60th anniversary and despite repeated predictions of its demise, sales are rising once again... Most people think of records as being made of black plastic, but it turns out that coloured vinyl is as old...

Famed rock-and-roll guitarist and longtime Ann Arbor resident Ronald "Ron" Asheton was found dead in his home on the city's west side this morning, police said. Asheton, 60, was an original member of The Stooges, a garage-rock band headlined by Iggy Pop and formed in Ann Arbor in 1967. His personal assistant contacted police late Monday night after being unable to reach Asheton for days, Detective Bill Stanford said. Officers went to the home on Highlake Avenue at around midnight and discovered Asheton's body on a living-room couch. He appeared to have been dead for at least several days, Stanford...

The debut album by US indie rock group Fleet Foxes has won the Art Vinyl prize for best cover. The self-titled album features the 1559 painting Netherlandish Proverbs, by Pieter Bruegel the Elder. A mixture of 50 obscure and well-known vinyl record sleeves from 2008 were shortlisted for the prize, with 3,000 people voting online. The winning covers will be on display at art galleries in London, Birmingham, Northampton and Norwich. Londoner Roots Manuva's album Slime and Reason - featuring a classical-style bust of the rapper complete with green slime - was voted second while the cover of Coldplay's Viva...

The departure of Tax Assessor-Collector Paul Bettencourt has opened the door for some discussion of whether his successor should inherit the job of maintaining Harris County's voter rolls... ...73 of Texas' 254 counties have established separate elections offices... 19 other counties have assigned the voter registration role to the county clerk. ...Emmett said he would be open to shifting those duties to the county clerk but opposed the creation of a new elections administration office. Garcia said she prefers the idea of an elections administrator because that person would be prohibited by law from making political contributions or endorsing candidates...

Somebody pass Mayor Bill the black-eyed peas... Between dubious pocket park dealings and roundabout red light camera study findings, the mayor has had a belly full of bad press lately. It was no way to end a year. Or begin a U.S. Senate campaign. Especially when you're facing a field of contenders vying to replace an officeholder — Republican Kay Bailey Hutchison — who hasn't even resigned yet. No doubt, Bill White is still the Golden Boy of Houston politics, fresh from an admirable performance in his familiar role standing between Houston and the ravages of natural disaster. His administration...

As Cuba prepares to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Fidel Castro's revolution on 1 January, most of those in power are the same people who fought alongside him half a century ago. ...But there is a new generation of communists waiting in the wings. ...The youngest, Liaena Hernandez, is just 18 years old. A petite young woman with long black hair and an engaging smile, she has been a political activist since her early teens... "Having young Cubans in parliament shows that the revolution continues. It isn't just something from our history..." Her father is in the army and she...

A cassette tape of a "drunk" John Lennon recording a cover version of a rock 'n' roll song has sold at auction in Los Angeles for $30,000 (£20,200). The six-minute recording, made in autumn 1973, is of Lennon performing Lloyd Price's Just Because. "Debauched lyrics" improvised by "a drunk Lennon" include "just a little cocaine will set me right", auction house Bonhams and Butterfields said... Lennon's "slurred warbling" included, "I wanna take all them new singers, Carol and the other one with the nipples, I wanna take 'em and hold 'em tight," Bonhams and Butterfields said. "The background band speeds...

Having fun in New York may be getting a little pricier. Under a budget proposed by Gov. David A. Paterson yesterday, the state would charge sales tax on activities that include downloading music, attending a ballgame and getting a massage. Paterson's executive budget included 88 fees, 10 fines and 39 tax changes that would bring in more than $5 billion next year. ...If the Legislature approves, the state would begin taxing hair salons, credit rating services, cable and satellite television and radio, movies and sporting events. Sales tax would be charged when downloading music, movies, photographs and games. Taxes would...

After Kanye West's performance on "Saturday Night Live" over the weekend, the chattering classes are wringing their hands today over the gee-whiz revelation that, maybe underneath all that gratuitous Auto-Tune, West's voice might be a bit, as they say, "pitchy." We can go back and forth about the relative disaster-or-not qualities of his two-song set, but the hullabaloo over it begs for a few responses. First: hey, indie rockers, if you don't think that half your favorite beardo bands use things like Melodyne... But the second, and more crucial one, is this: What makes a "good" singer anyhow, and what...

Houston Mayor Bill White used a Web video to announce his plan to run for U.S. Senate today.... He cites turbulent economic times, a rising federal deficit and high unemployment rates in the video, saying "this may be an opportunity for our nation to do things it has only dreamed of before..." White previously worked as deputy secretary in the U.S. Department of Energy under President Clinton and as chief executive of the Wedge Group, a Houston-based holding company with interests in oil-field services, engineering and real estate. In comments today, he also highlighted signature domestic issues such as health...

Throughout history, musicians and composers have battled rampant piracy, unscrupulous publishers and dubious employment practices. The problems of today's recording industry pale in comparison On 26 November a video message was sent to the Prime Minister on behalf of professional musicians, demanding an extension of copyright protection for performers from 50 to 95 years after any recording. With many of the classic tracks of the high noon of rock'n'roll about to reach their half-century, the issue is becoming urgent. Such an extension is not thought to be supported by the UK government. A spokesman for the artists was understandably irate...

He's already painted himself as the most avant garde Beatle, now in what seems like another attempt to rewrite history, Sir Paul McCartney claims he was responsible for radicalising their their political views In a statement that forces us to read Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da as a commentary on American neo-colonialism, Sir Paul has said that it is he who turned the Beatles on to politics, introducing John, Paul and Ringo to the evils of the Vietnam war. Whereas John Lennon is widely considered the "political one", penning songs like Revolution and Give Peace a Chance, sweet Sir Paul is now presenting...

...Obama "is going to change hip-hop for the better," predicted the rapper... "I really do believe we as hip-hop artists pick up what's going on in the world and try to reflect that," he told CNN, outlining his belief that mainstream as well as so-called "conscious" rappers -- the more socially aware -- will pick up on what he sees as the more optimistic prospects of an Obama presidency. "I think hip-hop artists will have no choice but to talk about different things and more positive things, and try to bring a brighter side to that because, even before Barack,...

...Sotheby’s will offer the document for sale Thursday, along with two others: the scribbled notes for a speech King planned to deliver in Memphis, Tenn., three days after he was assassinated, and a letter of condolence from former president Lyndon B. Johnson to King’s widow. The auction house put the overall presale estimate for the three documents at US$750,000 to $1.13 million, with the Vietnam speech alone valued at $500,000 to $800,000. ...“I am at the end of my life — I will be 82 shortly — and there are a lot of causes I believe in for which resources...

...Forrest J Ackerman, who died Thursday at 92 of a heart attack in Los Angeles, was all these things and many more: literary agent for such science fiction authors as Ray Bradbury, Isaac Asimov, A.E. van Vogt, Curt Siodmak and L. Ron Hubbard; actor and talisman in more than 50 films ... editor of Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine and creator of the Vampirella comic.... ...Born in Los Angeles in 1916, Ackerman traced the birth of his vocation to 1926, when he read his first "scientifiction" tale in an early issue of Amazing Stories... ...His dream of bringing together the...

"Shop for cops" isn't yet a seasonal slogan, but it may as well be. While the private sector has a lot riding on the holiday shopping season, so does the city of Houston. The nation's fourth-largest municipality depends on sales taxes for almost 30 percent of its operating budget. December is crucial to city coffers. More gifts under the tree mean more money for police, sewer repairs and flood projects... Sales tax revenue could be 3.4 percent lower than planned for this fiscal year, said Controller Annise Parker. That means a shortfall of $17.7 million from what was budgeted. "I'd...

This weekend's Dickens on The Strand is Galveston's first major event since Hurricane Ike struck in September, and could indicate how quickly this island city can revive its vital tourism industry. The 35th year of the festival, which recreates the 19th century with period costumes, also is an attempt by Galveston businesses to let the outside world know that most of its restaurants and hotels and many of its attractions are up and running. ...The Galveston Tourism and Convention Bureau has predicted that tourism will return to pre-Ike levels by spring break, but that is of little consolation to shop...