They all have one thing in common; connecting people - whether by broadcasting what you are doing, expressing yourself, blogging, asking questions, maintaining a web-based public profile or just communicating to individuals on the other side of some arbitrary distance over the internet.

And one thing is very evident from this and that is that the world is a whole lot smaller; way way smaller. In fact in one person could in all likelihood know any other person through a very small number of sequential relationships. There is a theory called six degrees of separation that is the idea [that if a person is one step away from each person they know and two steps away from each person who is known by one of the people they know, then everyone is an average of six "steps" away from each person on Earth (from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six_degrees_of_separation)]

This is a scary idea, because Jesus said in Matthew 24:14: "And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come" It was always thought that the world was small because one could, with relative ease, travel to any place in a short space of time. Yet now one does not have to travel to communicate to any person or to any group of people. Even with Videos and now DVDs of sermons so readily available; preaching of the Word of God is not restricted to a physical location and the availability of a preacher.

Ok, this may not hold true for the subsistence farmer in Tibet who does not know what a DVD is or what social networking means. But you may know that farmer thru the theory of 'six degrees of separation' and maybe, as a Christian, your interaction with people may indirectly affect that farmer. It's a long shot, but would it not be cool to find that that was actually the case when you get to Heaven. Awesome.

And now in this modern age of networking, we can interact with people without knowing it. We can write a blog, post a comment, submit a video, tweet, or maybe podcast, and in so doing make an investment into someone's life that will cause a chain reaction to Salvation. This by no means takes anything away from the Holy Spirit - firstly because whoever created these social networks were gifted by God to create them and secondly it is God's work in them that ultimately brings them to Salvation, everything else is just a tool or a means to the hopeful end result.

I think that it is really cool to be working in the video side of things as a volunteer for God (essentially) , to be aware of what can be done for the purpose of Salvation in the realm of Social Networking for both video and audio. I see churches making podcasts available of sermons on iTunes, I see cool video being posted in blogs and video sites that just show God off in awesome ways. Some of the most influential  of Churches have regular blogs and tweets where you can see pretty much anything discussed from family, creativity and actual video work done for the Church.

However there is quite a weight of responsibility on  Christians in such environments of social networking, firstly because such environments are conducive to the pushing of moral boundaries, just visiting YouTube casually can result in an unnecessary temptation, it is unfortunate that this is the case. Secondly there is that pressure that can be placed on you to keep the facade up of the perfect Christian whenever you post something. Hmmm, we were watching On Location by Andy Stanley in our Community Group, and one of the things that came up was this idea that a little bit of righteousness goes a long way - as in the case of Sodom and Gomorrah when Abraham 'argued' with God to spare the people if only 10 were righteous in a town of about 800 - that almost only 1%. That may well be the case for the online community - that there is only 1% Christians. The fact that you are there may play a role in an unsaved individual, that maybe your just being there may go a long way to saving them, or even better - playing an active role in being righteous in the the environment of social networking will go a whole lot further.

As for the Church playing a role in reaching the lost within the online networks, one thing that is certain is that it takes only one seeker to find a place where God is and be found for it to be really worth while. Ok that sounded strange. What I think is that the Church has an important role to play for God in the online community in the form of a corporate involvement (Church Web Site, Sermon downloads etc) and individual involvement ( personal blogs, videos, tweets, etc). And just being online, even reaching someone without knowing it can actually reach further that the theory of six degrees of separation - that maybe the subsistence farmer in Tibet has an internet connection and he reads your blog.

Since the dawn of online-music, social networks have been concentrating on music and band profiles, leaving the touring industry as an untapped market for web 2.0 start-ups. The Live Nation-Ourstage venture gives a boost in that direction. Seeing how Ourstage bands must be higly ranked for Live Nation to consider booking them, I think the majority of bands won't benefit from this feature, but this is an interesting service that uses the power of social-networks to help bands get gigs. DeepRockDrive is about the only other service I can think of that does this, but they too have a model unfit for smaller unestablished artists. These still remain exciting times for the touring musician, and another reminder that fan-validation and web 2.0 strategies are key to innovative online-music businesses.

http://www.ourstage.com/entry/KPOTZQRDPDQD-um-bop-waa-waa

There is a player here with a video mash up of the apparently legendary duo.

Also, yes, this is a bit of a shameless plus for where I work, but I love the place. I think everyone should go there and love it as well.

LEON CHEVA

OURSTAGE.COM/PROFILE/ANONIMOMUSIC

*Last.fm says that making music free has boosted sales by 119%. [ars technica]

*YouTube launches a trendspotting channel. (Uh oh?) First up: Political Music Videos. [watching tv online]

*On the heels of Beyonce v. Jay-Z wedding rumors, Billboard analyses what marriage does for record sales. [backstage pass] Next up, what pregnancy does for CD sales?

*In the money: OurStage (basically, crowdsourcing A&R) and mTraks (another indy MySpace) take venture capital. [venture beat]

Kris has two songs on there at present: 
“Livin’ for Tomorrow” in the BATTLE FOR THE ROO competition

"Destined" in the SINGER/ SONGWRITER competition. 

When you are judging in any category, two songs pop up, you listen to both, and then judge the songs on a scale.  It's fun, it's quick, and it is helpful to the artist.  I've heard several artists that I am going to be looking for on MySpace to check out a little further.  Haven't had a chance to vote for Kris Bell yet, but each time, I hope its his song that pops up next.  Go sign up today and help out Kris, and other artists too!  Don't forget to fix up your profile, then find KRIS BELL MUSIC and join the fan club there. 

The film is finally available online thanks to the wonderful folks at Ourstage, who have offered to pay me! The link above will take you to Ourstage's home page, and if you sign up (for free) I get a dollar!

Once there you'll be able to see Game Over in all it's internets-version-glory! Tell your friends! Tell their friends! (don't tell me. I'm sick of hearing about it..)

(The sign up is completely optional, and you'll be able to view the film without it, but it seems like a pretty good site, and I seem pretty poor, don't you think?)

Direct link to the video -- Please sign up to the site via the link above!

In other news, Voting for FROM HERE TO AWESOME will go live on April 7th, and I could really use your vote to get it distributed! Watch this space!

So far you have raised to make me rich!

Last night was the finals, the last stage to vote in, I really wanted Zircon, SGX, or Jill Goldin to win so I was up all night voting for them in the finals. I voted all of the 666 different battles which wasn't easy. It ended up good because Jillian won!!

CONGRATS JILLIAN!! :)

"I picked my favorite bands, and no one fucking agrees with me. If it happens one more time, I'm gonna go Martial Law on a mothafucka quick!"

- Dick Cheney after judging on Ourstage .com

I have no qualms with the judging system on Ourstage. Like I said in my previous post(s), I really enjoy the system and think that it welcomes a great deal of competition without coercion from hype or label marketing schemes.

I only have a problem with the comments made after my voting. And the comments aren't the problem, but it is the reason that these comments come up that bother me.

Example: I have to vote between band 1# ( I'll keep it anonymous; I don't feel like hurting egos) and band 2# ( I loved you more, but lets keep it objective.). I have to listen to the song for a minimum of 15 seconds each, but because it downloads quick, I have the ability to traverse through the song up to the ending if I want to ( traverse = move the thingy around to different parts of song).

At first, I thought band 2# blew chunks of shit, while band one was just plain sucking Jane. The last sentence sounded like an BDSM porn; believe me, the music initially sounded horrible enough that 2 girls 1 cup would've been a better waste of my time.

But upon getting into the good part of the song from Band 2#, I realized that I was the asshole who didn't know what he was talking about, and I grew insanely fond of the song. Band 1# on the other hand got a little better, but they had this Alice-in-Chains double-vocal revival that was off the mark and boring enough that I was itching for the 15 second-limit to be over.

Case in point. Band 2# was better. Way better than Band 1#. I listened to Band 2# for 5 minutes ( it was a long song) and added it to my favorites. I picked the "by far" button for band 2# ( which means they are by far better than band 1#).

When the page refreshes for the next two bands, the website showcases a small comment on how many people were in consensus of my decision of band 2#. And when the tally came in, it said that only 15% had the same musical opinion of this song.

What gives with this bullshit? The other song was atrocious; if I were to pick that song over the better song, I would smile about how cool I am, and then blow my nuts off with a shotgun. It would be hard to point a 2-foot barrel into my crotch, but if I vote on music that bad, it probably isn't a good intention to pass my intelligence off to my kids.

Getting away from rants and coming back to objectivity, I am not sure if the judging meant that the band is usually picked, or if it meant that the band is usually picked over the other band. Not many people use Ourstage, and I would think it is highly unlikely that there is enough judging that two bands can square off multiple times. I could easily email them and ask them this question, but I am a jackass and will stay willfully ignorant and arrogant of my own shallow existence.

Anywho, I think it could be more that I picked the highest praise for the band ( by far ) and not many other people ( the other 85%) did the same thing. Even if the last thought is a resolution explaining Ourstage's voting habits, some of these top 10 bands make me question quality of music the voters are usually immersed in. But if you have anything to say about Ourstage or how the top bands make it, leave me something and I'll add it.

Bom, vou lá pra cama. O festival tá acabando, e eu tô acabado, como essa piadinha infame deixa claro. Fiquem com os vídeos aí. Ver o J Mascis fazendo isso aí de perto foi MUITO foda.

Four Bands: I will review them, and tell you Ourstage's winner, including my own true winner. Let's take a look shall we.

Brian Bergeron

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Sam R-P ( Is he in the world of Tron?)

His music is actually not that bad, and it varies from song to song. In the song Remember, he has a girl backing up vocals. It is pretty decent, but it is pretty tame. This is a song I feel I have heard in many a dorm rooms, while the dealer passes an 8th you know is .2 short of the mark. But hey, the market's tumbling, so daddy's money will save you at least another year of free drugs. And the dealer always has chill parties with girls and Pabst; are you complaining? I hope not.

Although his songs are nice, it reminds me nothing more than a decent jam session between roommates that knew each other for about two years, and they like Dylan, Velvet, STP, Zep, Hendrix, and maybe Pearl Jam ( Magic Sky riff is familiar).

" A shooting start knows where we are/ because its watching from above all day long." Shooting stars are never there all day long. I know I am harping on the smallest lyric which could mean anything, but most of the lyrics aren't really good.

"In a Dream" is actually really well done. I enjoy listening to this song; if more songs folow that emotion, I can see how this guy can go above the latter two bands.

Ameranouche

Ameranouche is a string trio instrumental, and by far the most unique band of the four. I don't want to guarantee them as winners because I think their is a method to easily be instrumental than it is to write and produce songs. But nonetheless, I really enjoy listening to the band.

I have little to say about them because like the others, they don't float over as something different. But they do approach that realm, and is a band I will give more a listen to in the future as I find more content.

Spike's Blues is a really fun song to listen to. Wouldn't be surprised if a publishing deal to place it in a movie or show would be on the way in their futures.

The Ourstage Winner for Best College Band in New England:

The Zach Hillyard Band

They won it because of music fundamentals and doing everything right. In sports, that is the equivalent to watching the New Jersey Devils trap defense. My vote for the best band by far goes to Ameranouche. But, I do understand people's short attention span for virtuoso instrumentals ( I tune off even when my friends try to play John McLaughlin, but will go nuts over Castle Made of Sand.).

This wasn't done to showcase great bands ( except for Ameranouche ) but to showcase the good job Ourstage.com is doing and hopefully lead more sensible people to come around and check out the talent. For now, the Americana Pop is getting a lot of high praise from this contest. Let's hope these contest pools won't be as diluted in the future.

I am talking about those bands and musicians that are good but are pretty well off any music radar. If there is any way to simplify who this blog is going after, I'll put it this way: You probably don't get more than 100 results from Google. You probably won't hear from them again after they made one song with their friend in a cold Minnesota garage. They probably remind you of your friend's band that broke up after one gig because of a fight over a sorority girl.

In short, true underground bands. If it sounds good, we will post it up here. 99% of music is mediocre. Let's sift through the mess and find some good gems shall we? A decent amount of bands will come from Ourstage and Myspace. If you have any other arenas we might be overlooking ( and bands too ), tell us. Let's UN-Pitchfork this Motha!

Si è detto tante volte di come la rete sia un mezzo molto potente in questo senso, eppure la presunta democraticità del web viene spesso messa in crisi proprio da questo "effetto marmellata".

OurStage sembra riuscito a razionalizzare l'offerta di contenuti indipendenti, dividendo questi ultimi per generi e ponendoli poi al centro di concorsi mensili basati sul gradimento dell'utente. Come recita un promo di presentazione, i vantaggi per gli artisti possono consistere tanto in somme di denaro, quanto in esposizione mediatica o contatti con i partner.

Recente poi è la notizia secondo la quale OurStage starebbe "girando" alcuni contenuti a degli appositi canali di Joost. Quest'ultima riuscirebbe così a divincolarsi un attimo dai broadcaster tradizionali, che ad oggi sono i maggiori fornitori di contenuti della piattaforma. 

Il caso di Ourstage, pur non avendo l'appeal di altre forme di tv via web, mi pare interessante perchè mostra come i contenuti online stiano cercando una loro nuova ritualità. Era del resto chiaro a tutti che la prima vittima eccellente del web sarebbe stato il palinsesto, per cui non era molto chiaro quali sarebbero stati i nuovi scenari d'uso dei nuovi contenuti. 

Non so se questa dimensione "agonistica" possa avere un futuro, ma sicuramente spinge autori e utenti ad una partecipazione che non sia mera condivisione/fruizione. Certamente il rischio è di premiare i cosiddetti "hub" - che magari hanno più amici dai quali farsi votare - che non il prodotto necessariamente migliore.

Terrei comunque a mente questo modello, se non altro come ottima integrazione con i modelli esistenti di tv sul web. 

*The identity of a presidential candidate, delivered to you in an easy-to-consume, YTMND format: Barack Until the Break of Dawn. [triumph of bullshit]

*8-bit + hip-hop = Super Barrio Bros. [kotaku]

*Slacker releases its handheld player. [digital music news]

*Toilet Tunes: The finest in On-Toilet music delivery (plays automatically when the lid is up, shuts off when the lid is down). [boing boing gadgets]

*R. Kelly's PR agent of 14 years bids adieu. "Mr. Kelly crossed a line that forever altered the scope of our relationship." Oy. [xrrxf] Also, Vulture interviews Mr. Kelly here.

*Salon tells you "What You Missed While Watching 'Project Runway.'" Doubly painful to link to, since I'm not a Salon fan (long story) and think Rob Walker's work in the Times is both painful and execrable (though his murketing stuff seems pretty awesome). [murketing deli.cio.us]

*Bob Dylan and Jack White are working on cranking out tunes from Hank Williams' old never-produced lyrics? [peefork]

*Remember how Ben Bridwell and Band of Horses were all like "Eff the indie man, we're taking money from the Man Man," but then they decided to say "Eff the man," and embrace the indie man, and ditch Wal-mart licensing at the last second? Well, Of Montreal isn't doing that. They talk about the art of selling out on Stereogum.

*Videoville: A wiki for all your "cool music video" needs. Huh. Nothing yet. [fimoculous]

*GigaOm reviews music games (Phase and Musica) for the iPod. Tangentially: 183 point streak on iLike on Facebook. That is all.

*Take the Mental Floss lyrics quiz. I will not be destroyed (not part of this quiz - as far as a I know - but a sort of lyrics quiz nonetheless).