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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 29, 2004)
Cultural Forum helps bring Carnaval Brasil benefit to UO I he second annual event is also being sponsored by the nonprofit Students Helping Street Kids International By Steven Neuman Freelance Reporter The EMU Ballroom will be filled with stomping feet and Latin beats Saturday when the UO Cultural Fo rum transforms the space for the sec ond annual Camaval Brasil. The Cultural Forum is co-spon soring the benefit event for the first time, along with Students Helping Street Kids International, a local nonprofit organization that pro vides educational scholarships for at-risk kids in countries like Brazil and Tanzania. SHSKI, which was founded in 1997 by former Springfield school coun selor Bob Crites, originally focused its efforts on Brazil, but the organization began offering scholarships to chil dren in Africa after Crites had a chance encounter with Dr. Jane Goodall at a conference in Portland. Courtesy Proceeds from Saturday’s Carnaval Brasil will go toward helping youths in Brazil. Currently, the organization helps six kids in Tanzania in addition to 25 in Brazil. Deputy Director for SHSKI An drea Callahan has helped plan the benefit both years. The first benefit was sponsored independently by SHSKI. "Last year was our first attempt," she said. "We were planning to do a fund-raiser and were trying to bring in a big name singer, but those plans fell through." Callahan saw the problem as an op ium to BRASIL, page 12 'Private revolution' will end industry's control of music One theory of how the dinosaurs went extinct is that they killed them selves off. Not on purpose, but because they just didn't know how to survive. They grew too large to adapt to their surroundings. They couldn't see the er rors of their ways, and their Darwinian instincts were not quite intact. The music industry could learn a lot from history. Just like the di nosaurs might have done to them selves, the music industry is slowly aiding its own self-extinction. The fi nal vestige of this dying organism is a last strike, an all-or-nothing bet. Lawsuits against file-sharers, insane pricing of CDs and monopolistic holds on an artist's material are all prongs of the industry's last strike. But like any prophetic statement, there is more warning behind these words than fulfillment. There is the possibility of change. But what can be done? The an swer is complex. But there is one fa tal flaw that has become excruciat ingly obvious to most music fans: There is no diversity. Once upon a time, you could lis ten to the radio and hear a little of everything. It was like a buffet. The dishes included hip-hop, soul, rock, jazz, blues and pop all on the same station. Today's mainstream sound is the that of white noise when you compare it to what is actually hap pening in this country. The diversity RENTALS! Downhill (new shaped skis).$12 Snowboard & Boots.L u Back Country & Tele Pkgs...$20 BefgV/hifhop 13th& Lawrence* 683-1300 • www.bergsskishop.com in music has exponentially in creased, while the media for com municating these distinct and inno vative sounds have decreased. The lack of attention to diversity, coupled with the rise of technologi cal wonders such as Kazaa and Nap Carl Sundberg Reasoning with madness ster, has given the audience power once again. This has created one of the greatest movements in the histo ry of music. A private revolution, if you will. But for the music industry, it is the source of its collapse. According to the Recording Indus try Association of America, the mu sic industry rakes in $40 billion an nually. The United States takes about a third of this. These enor mous profits are dwindling due to music pirates. This has turned the big companies into angry giants, crushing any and all in their path. On Jan. 21 of this year, 526 new I - lawsuits were filed against music pi rates, on top of the thousands from last year. This tactic is merely dealing with symptoms, not the disease, and it has done little to stop piracy. Like the "War on Terrorism," this battle will continue indefinitely. One issue in suing file pirates is the offshore cases. How do you sue some one in Argentina? Another problem relates to perception. The average file pirate doesn't feel he or she is ripping off any artist, if they think about it at all. It's the corporate media outlets that are getting the brunt of the loss. This is partly right. In a recent inter view in Progressive magazine, Tom Morello, guitarist for Audioslave, says that an average record deal gives the musician "10 cents on the dollar" while "the record label gets 90 cents on the dollar." With this kind of unfair treatment of artists, it's crazy to think we even have a music community. If the labels were smart, they would invest their money in re search and development rather than police tactics. They would seek a way to please the masses rather than attack them. They would find ways of embracing change rather than fearing it. They would diversify their sources of revenue rather than greedily and ignorantly milk a dy ing cash cow. Turn to SUNDBERG, page 12 "A Minor Masterpiece " "Perugino Is itself a minor masterpiece. We could have easily been in an Italian neighbor hood or on a fashionable walking street. I can't wait for another visit." Nonie Fish / The Register-Guard "Best coffee in town!" Karen Hagcdorn "A smart little coffeehouse and wine bar. 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