February 2012 Concerts in Tahoe: Big Head Todd and the Monsters, Los Lonely Boys, Kenny Loggins

January 31 Roksmyth, Irieyes, and Zombass @ Whisky Dick's saloon
February 1 Moe w/ Lo Fi 13 @ Crystal Bay Club
  SmashelTooth and The Pirate @ The Grid in Kings Beach
February 3 Tea Leaf Green w/ Poor Man's Whisky and Groove Session @ Crystal Bay Club
  Lavish Green @ Plan B Microlounge in Carson City
February 4 Whitney Cummings has CANCELED her show @ Montbleu
  Tower of Power @ Harrah's South Shore room
  JGB w/ Melvin Seals and Tea Leaf Green @ Crystal Bay Club
  Rock/Blues Jam session @ Lakeside Inn
  Tulsi, Chor Boys, the Gnu Deal, Dirty Rythim @ Whisky Dick's
  DJ Fluxx @ Rojo's
Groovebox @ 7800
  ALSO NV republican Caucus @ Whittel High School
February 7 Jipit3r w/ Coop Da Loop @ Crystal Bay CLub
  Nasty nasty, Shane Suffritti and TYMK @ Whisky Dick's Saloon
  Full Moon snoweshoe treck @ Tahoe Meadows trailhead
February 8 John Wayne and the Pain @ Mo's Place
  Mr. Rooney w/ Lil Miss Milkrate @ The Grind in Kings Beach
February 9 Mech Warplanet, Gretlock, Detox, and Rocksmyth @ Brother's bar on Hwy 89
  Molly Taylor, Tyler R. Lewis and Mr. Crumb @ Rojos
February 10 "Higth Fidelity" Roommate, Babylon System, Carrier, Supreme, Indaskies Zeb Early, and more @ American Legion
  Big Head Todd and the Monsters w/ Rogen Cline and The Mark Sexton Band @ Crystal Bay Club
  Tahoe SAFE alliance father-daughter dance @ Tahoe Biltmore
  Diego's Umbrella @ CVIC hall in Gardnerville
  Dad's LPs @ The Divided Sky
February 11 5th Annual Alpenglow winter sports tournement
  The Expendables @ Montbleu
  Los Lonely Boys @ Harrah's
  Lucal Nelson and Promise of the Real @ Crystal Bay Club
  Drinking with Clowns @ 7800
February 12 Sick and twisted "big air" snowboard contest @ Northstar at Tahoe
February 14 Wick-IT the instigator @ Crystal Bay Club
February 15  Hamm FM and JB Sands @ The Grid
February 17 Gomez, Hey Rosetta, and Dad's LPs @ Crystal Bay Club
  The Dean-O-Holics @ CalNeva
February 18 Wayne Brady and EOTO @ Montbleu
  Kenny Loggins @ Harrah's
  Dead Winter Carpenters @ Crystal Bay CLub
  Sub-Reactor @ 7800
February 19 Love Fool w/ Shane Suffriti and Motorhome @ Crystal Bay Club
February 20 Antique Scream feat. Zeus and Weapon @ Rojo's Tavern
February 21 Black Rock City All Stars @ Crystal Bay CLub 
February 22-25 SNOWLIVE @ Crystal Bay Club featuring SouLive:
February 22 Matisyahu w/ Soulive and Keyser Sose @ Crystal Bay Club
  Community Project @ The Grind
  Free guided trail hike @ 11:45 at Explore Tahoe urban trailhead
February 23 Talib Kweli w/ Soulive and Afrolicious @ Crystal Bay Club
  Trevor Kelly, Skoobz, and Magellan feat. TheBrund @ Brother's Bar
  Slim Chance and the Hardly Can't Play Boys w/ Kountry Kittens @ Rojos
February 24 Soulive w/ Ivan Neville and The Monophonics @ Crystal Bay Club
  Too Short feat. Nilla, Mr?E, DJ Kennan @ Cal Neva
  AWOL Snow party @ Harvey's
  Kip Yager @ Jake's on the Lake in Truckee
February 25 George Porter, Carl Denson, Mike Manigan's Big Organ Trio @ Crystal Bay Club
  Iration, Thrive, and Trevor Hall @ Montbleu
  G. Love and Special Sauce @ Harrah's
  Tahoe Skate Park party Feat. TheBrund and friends
  Idekay, Armed for Apocalypse, Pop Murder, Death Valley High @ Whisky Dick's
February 27 New Orleans Boogie show @ Jakes on the Lake
February 26 Slim Chance and the Hardly Can't Play Boys w/ Kountry Kittens @ The Grid
February 28 Roommate, IJV, and Dubfyah @ Crystal Bay Club
  Jellybread @ 7800
February 29 DJ RUNDOWN & I an I (Brainstorm)
  J-Boog "Leap year party" @ Montbleu
March 6  311 w/ The Dirty Heads

Every Week:
MONDAYS: DJ Sonar at Rojo's Bar
TUESDAYS: "Mindfull Massive" @ Whisky Dick's saloon -- Live Music every month
   Karaoke night at Rojos
WEDNESDAY: Dirty dubstep DJs @ Opal at the Montbleu, Open Mic night @ Rojo's
THURSDAYS: Shred Night apres ski party big screen snow flicks, lift tix, super drink specials, board games @ The Flight Deck at Tahoe Airport
    Dubstep DJ Billy Wonka and friends @ Whisky Dick's saloon
   Tony's Open mic @ American Legion
FRIDAYS:  Apres ski party @ VEX at Harrah's
SATURDAYS: Free indoor pool party @ Montbleu
   Live Jazz @ Tahoe Biltmore

THURS-MON: "Illusion Fusion" w/ Alex Ramon @ Horizon
    Improv @ Harvey's comedy show

Nevada Beach and Khale Park in the snow

A walk through my favorite beach and park in the break between winter storms here in Tahoe, you can see the storm rolling in over the mountains of the west shore.

Probably the starkest picture I ever took w/ the ominous clouds and dead trees...

The Stop Online Piracy Act

The Stop Online Piracy Act is a bill pending before the US house of representatives that would substantially increase penalties for copyright infringement, including breaking the internet by taking down websites through DNS blocking, ending access to online ad networks for infringing sites, forcing search engines to de-index whole websites with even one piece of infringing content, and sending ordinary end users to jail for streaming copyrighted material they havn't paid for.

I oppose the Stop Online Piracy Act, but that's not why I'm making this video.  I'm making this video to share my story about one of SOPA's co-sponsors, my congressman Rep. Mark Amodei (R-NV2), and how he won his election by STEALING my content, and to explore for his benefit exactly what would happen to HIM if this bill were to become law. 


In 2008 and 2009 I was the videographer for the Douglas County Democratic Central Comittee; I voulenteered for almost two years making videos of our candidates for this YouTube channel.  One of those candidates was Nevada state treasurer Kate Marshall, who went on to become Mark Amodei's opponant in a hotly contested special election for Nevada's 2nd district in Congress last year... And that's when things got REALLY strange: I tuned into my local TV station and saw THIS attack ad:
The footage you see in his attack is of Kate Marshall is from TWO of the YouTube videos on the DouglasDemocrats channel.  Proof? Here's an exerpt from the video it was taken from... (Click the annotation to see the whole video in context.)

As you can see, this is a simple crop and filter of my videos.  Between Representative Amodei and his supporters in the National Republican Campaign Comittee my two videos were used to make over 10 attack ads.  I was mortified, so I filed a claim with YouTube under the Digital Millenium Copyright act on the NRCC video.  YouTube promptly took down the videos I flagged, and the NRCC did not choose to appeal to a court of law because they didn't want to spend the resources; and they also took down ALL the videos that had my footage in them.

I didn't bother filing takedowns on the videos that remained up on Mark Amodei's channel because the election was over by that time and I wanted at least SOME proof of what he'd done up on the internet so my blog post about it would still make sense.  What I didn't know at the time was that now-representative Amodei was going to go on to be the co-sponsor of of the most draconian copyright law ever proposed, the Stop Online Piracy Act.

Now, I'm sure you've all seen the ads on DVDs that compare illegally downloading a movie to shoplifting.  Well, if streaming a song you could've paid 99 cents to own is the copyright equivilant of shoplifting, then spending 3/4 of a million dollars to broadcast footage you don't own and have no liscence to use is the copyright equivilant of bank robbery!

So, let's take a look at what would've happened to Representative Amodei and the NRCC if the Stop Online Piracy Act had been law when these videos were made.  As the copyright owner, I could complain to the justice department that 10 different videos spread across 3 YouTube channels on two websites used my footage without my consent, and they would then be able to seek a court order to do the following:

1. Order that the offending videos be removed from YouTube
2. Order Google and Bing to COMPLETELY remove Mark Amodei and the NRCc'S websites from their directory
3. Force the Domain Name Service to de-list MarkAmodei.com
4. and YOUR ISP to do deep packet inspection to make sure you aren't visiting those websites.
5. Order Visa and Master Card to cut off ALL online donations to both the Amodei campaign and the NRCC
6. Perminantly ban both sites from EVER participating in an online ad network
7. Send Mark Amodei to prison for up to 5 years, making him a felon who can't run for office or vote
8. And even shut down YouTube's WHOLE SITE if they're ruled to be abetting infringement.

Now THAT'S power!  But my pleasure as a partisan at the thought of being able to do this to my enemies is tempered by my absolute horror as a free citizen and social media user at the MANY ways this could be abused. 

Ask yourself, if this was the law, how long could sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter stay online before somebody abused the process and took them down?  And if they could stay up, how different would these sites be?  Could Twitter still provide real-time results if they had to hand-censor each and every link?  Would anyone dare to post a birthday party video to YouTube if they'd go away for 5 years for infringing the copyright to "Happy Birthday"?  Would anybody even WANT to watch a YouTube scrubbed clean of things like auto-tunes, independant news commentary, and video game reviews? I don't know.  And that's why I think SOPA is a terrible bill.

Don't get me wrong, as someone who's made most of the money he ever made off of intelectual property, I DO believe that piracy is a serious crime that should be punished; but having filed a DMCA claim and had it honored by YouTube when NONE of the TV stations I contacted would pull the ad without a lawsuit, I can say that the current law is more than sufficient to adress this kind of stealing on YouTube and other US based sites.  US Customs already shuts down hundereds of websites every year for selling pirate videos and counterfit merchandize, including over 150 of them last Super Bowl Sunday.  As such, I believe that current US law is more than sufficient in this respect.
I don't dispute that we badly need copyright reform, but we must choose a path of reform that protects the rights of copyright holders without stifling free expression, banning "fair use", breaking the basic archetecture of the internet, or placing an undue burden on the innovative companies that make the internet go. 

Mr. Amodei, if you're watching; I want you to know that as a voter I do "Judge you by what you do" and I'm especially watching your stand on this issue.  If you worry there might be a chance of your own website getting taken down, it's only self interest to vote against the bill.  And if you really believe that copyright holders deserve to be paid for their work, PAY ME my due for making the videos that (indirectly) helped get you elected.
For more information about SOPA, please check out somke of these excelent videos:

• WTF is SOPA? from Total Halibut
• Chris Pirillo and guests explain the Stop Online Piracy Act
• Mike Mozart explains Viacom's hypocricy in pushing SOPA when they are abetting infringement themselves

Click here to sign the petition to oppose the Stop Online Piracy Act

January 2011 concerts: NOFX, Headphone Union, Adam Gontier

Click Here for the Playlist.
January 3  - NOFX  Feat. Old Man Markley and Punk is Dead @ Montbleu pre-meet @ Rojos
  Open recruitment night for Tahoe Derby dames @ Khale community center
January 5  - Tyler Lewis and Molly Taylor @ Rojos
January 6  - Headphone Union @ 7800
  Andre Nikatina w/ Mumbls, The Jacka, and Mike P @ Cal Neva
  Acorn Project @ Crystal Bay Club

January 7  - Hollywood Stones @ Harrah's
  5th Annual Alpenglow sports tournement @ Alpine Meadows
  Revolver (RAge Against the Machine tribute) w/ G.O.A and Death of Wisdom @ Rojos
  Hightop Kicks w/ Philharmonic @ Crystal Bay Club
January 10 - Chix Pack, Flexx Bronco, and Beer Can @ Whisky Dick's
January 12 - "Illusion Fusion" magic show w/ Alex Ramon @ Montbleu
January 13 - "Friday the 13th" w/ New York Taxi, The Ghostwrite, Brett Lucia @ Rojos
  Dead Winter Carpenters @ 7800
  Moondog Matenee @ Crystal Bay Club
January 14 - Manzarek-Rodgers Band @ Harrah's South Shore Room
  New Monsoon, Nickelulinjous and Hailstorm @ Crystal Bay CLub
January 15 - March 4th Marching Band w/ Diego's Umbrella and Buster Blue @ Crystal Bay Club
January 17 - Protohype w/ Bin Tim @ Crystal Bay Club
January 18-21 Tahoe SNOWCIAL 2012 @ Heavenly Village
  Cooking w/ Gasoline, Ninja Slaughterhouse and Anti Panti @ Whisky Dick's
January 19 - Cali Love tour feat. Zoo Effort, Abstract Rude, Shames Worthy Winstrong @ Mo's Place
  Desporado (rapper) @ Rojos
January 20 - Beats Antique @ Montbleu
  Gift of Gab (of Blackalicious) w/ DNAEBEATS @ Crystal Bay Club
January 21 - Lucinda Williams @ Montbleu
  Young The Giant @ Harrah's
  Micky Heart @ Crystal Bay Club
January 22 -  "Nuclear Winter" 775 Grind time freestyle rap tournement @ Mo's Place
January 25 - Long Beach Rehab @ Mo's Place
January 28 - Fitz and the Tantrums @ Harrah's
  Karl Denson's Tiny Universe plays "Sticky Fingers" @ Crystal Bay Club
January 29 - Sweatshop Union feat. Def3 and Pigeon Hole @ Mo's Place
January 31 - Martin Sexton w/ Adam Gontier (of 3 days grace) @ Crystal Bay Club
February 4 - Whitney Cummings @ Montbleu

Karaoke at Rojos Every SUNDAY AND TUESDAY
Raggae night every TUESDAY at Rojos
Dubstep DJ Billy Wonka every THURSDAY at Whisky Dick's
Karaoke at Lakeside Inn every FRIDAY
Karaoke at Horizon's Aspen Bar every FRIDAY AND SATURDAY

January 2012 playlist

Use this direct link if you're on a mobile device that dosn't support embedded playlists.