In a nutshell, Mr. Granada, a noted Filipino singer-composer, voiced his sentiments against GMA Kapuso Foundation, regarding a jingle that he composed music for. According to Mr. Granada, GMA rejected his study for the jingle, but allegedly used his revisions for the lyrics (which was provided to him by GMA), and based the final tune on the musical structure of his study, all without attribution or pay. It would be best that you listen to the audio cast and hear it in detail and come up with your own opinions regarding the issue:

What makes this audiocast special, however, is the extent of Mr. Granada’s use of New Media — aka “Web 2.0″ — to detail his complaint, in a totally unprecedented manner, and against Mainstream Media to boot!

In the audiocast, he included a clip of his original study, the final product, and a detailed explanation on the musical structure of both, including the musical theory behind his gripes and a re-rendered tune comprising of his accompaniment and the tune used in the final cut of the jingle. To say that Mr. Granada maximized new media to explain his side is an understatement — he clearly understood that this is the best possible way to make people understand the situation in its fullest extent.

Myself being an amateur musician, I fully support Mr. Granada in this effort, and as an IT professional, commend him for this exceptional and well-considered use of new media and the web to air his side of the issue.

I wish him all the best.

• 7 hour flight delay
• A quartet of crying babies
• A staff that gives all kinds of excuses and lies
• No food
• No option to go back to the terminal and pick another flight

 
This is probably a valid reason to shout “I have a bomb!” just to be able to get out of the plane. Sure you’d get arrested, but at least there’s food in the jail, right? The plane feels like a prison when in this situation anyway.

I wonder if, in a similar situation, I could file habeas corpus charges against the erring airline?

On a similar note, a disabled, single mother from Beaverton, Oregan was incessantly harassed by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) over allegations that she illegally downloaded music from the internet. Their harassments never stopped even after an expert who examined her computer proclaimed that she didn’t have any illegal copies of music on her computer. The persecution even involved threatening to interrogate her 10-year-old daughter.

How did the harrassment stop? When the court ordered the RIAA to prove that she illegally downloaded music.

Andersen finally filed a motion forcing the recording industry to provide proof that she illegally downloaded music. Hours before the deadline to respond, the recording industry dropped its case. [OregonLive]

So the RIAA can harass people with intellectual property lawsuits without any proof? Sounds like the RIAA’s on a witchhunt, burning innocent customers at the stake.

Of course a lot of people aren’t happy about it.

Michelle Malkin sums it up in one nice question: Who’s anthem, who’s flag, and who’s country is it anyway?

I’ll give her a kneejerk “unsure” answer; the white man’s?

Personally I find it ironic when Americans close their doors to migrants. I’m willing to bet that half of these people’s ancestors that first stepped into the United States knew not a word of English and probably died without perfecting it.

Need I dare point out that the United States was built by people who did not speak perfect English? The United States was built on the sweat, tears and blood of African slaves and non-English European, Asian and Latin American migrants who have provided cheap or unfair labor for over four hundred years, and to this day they are still fulfilling that purpose.
I’m sure America would not be where it is today if it had made even simple passable English a prerequisite for migration.

And I’m quite sure a handful of Latinos singing the Star Spangled Language in Spanish does no damage to American culture and patriotism. In fact, I think it will contribute greatly to American patriotism and nationalism because it will make non-English speakers understand what the US national anthem is all about.

Certainly unlike the way US armed forces pillage the cultures of the countries they enter.

Eumir Deodato is a Brazilian-born musician that became an icon of jazz from the 70s to the 80s. I grew up listening to his funk and jazz, owing to my mother who loves his stuff. When his name was announced while we were having coffee at Greenbelt 3, my mother literally jumped off of her seat to see. And there he was…

Apparently GB3 was host to the 1st Philippine International Jazz and Arts Festival that day. What a nice coincidence.

I wouldn’t call Morales a complete loser however; at least he’s not a sore one. After the belt has been given to Pacquiao, El Terible approached him and gave him a congratulatory hug. Something that takes a lot of humility (and balls). Kudos to you, El Terible: that was a very honorable thing to do.

So who are the real losers? Here they are, in no given order:

• Ayala Center – I was there from 11 ’til 1 PM, and the place was, by Sunday afternoon standards, practically deserted. I mean, 3 people having lunch at the Yellow Cab at G1 when we couldn’t get a seat for at least 15 minutes on any other Sunday. McDonalds and Jollibee were both only half-filled.

• Bombo Radyo – 102.7 Star FM Bombo Radyo Philippines was almost a winner: ALL the shops that I entered in Ayala Center, whether catering to the A-B or C-D classes, were tuned in to them. Yes, even friggin’ Rustan’s. The problem is their broadcast of the Pacquiao fight was being commentated by Congressman Monico Fuentebella, who, aside from being a staunch supporter of Manny Pacquaio, knows nothing about boxing terms and couldn’t explain what was actually happening. He was also quite unobjective, and never gave credence to Morales’ moves.

• PGMA – Gloria Macapagal Arroyo once more rode on Pacquaio’s victory by making sure that her cellphone conversation with Pacquaio goes televised. That’s fine though: I’m sure nobody’s wiretapping her talk with Pacman. She’s still a loser though, for always riding on Pacman’s popularity.

• Solar Sports – For printing an ad that said their telecast of the Pacquaio-Morales fight would have no commercial breaks. You f_ing LIARS should go to hell!

• ABS-CBN – In as much as I root for Pacquiao in boxing, I hate it when Star Records makes people who shouldn’t sing sing. Pacman has an album through them. Great. Can we get rid of it the soonest possible time so that Pacman won’t be able to embarass himself, especially now that he had a great victory?

Congratulations, Manny Pacquiao!

And speaking of Jollibee…

I found a very interesting link of an American girl trying it out in California, here.

As for dieting:

While going on weight loss diet some people are complete winners and some are complete losers. It’s not because they can’t do a diet; it’s because they don’t do proper diet which is meant for them according to their blood group, weight and height. Like soup diet is not meant for every one; this diet is good for extremely fat people who want to lose lots of weight. Similarly grapefruit diet is good for bulky people who want to lose weight slowly and steadily.

“We have no malicious intent,” says vocalist and guitarist Clem Castro. “In fact, we’re not even aware that such songs already exist.”

Damn f. Now they’re denying that they even knew about the song? This is completely contradictory to their own statement in no less than two Manila Bulletin articles:

On October 5, Jamie Hipe of Star Records was quoted:

Yes, they wrote the melody and used ‘Chandelier’ as their peg

On October 16, the band itself was quoted:

You can say that ‘Chandeliers’ was the inspiration, the peg of ‘Pinoy Ako.’ But it wasn’t derived from that or any other song.

My thoughts about this excuse was summarized in the thread regarding this issue in Pinoyexchange, wherein user sgrebs stated exactly what I had in mind:

I think tama ang suspetsa ko kung bakit bigla silang nagdeny ng pangongopya – pag inamin kasi nila, the burden of proof is on them to show na considered fair use yung pagkopya nila, whereas kung todo deny sila, it’s up to the accusers to show na may foul sa ginawa nila.

Now I’m regretting I wasn’t able to watch Kontrobersyal on ABS-CBN last night. All my friends are saying that it’s a lame case of the network defending its own; they only aired the “expert opinions” of Laurence Dyogi, Mel Villena and the lyricist Jonathan Manalo, who all are involved with Pinoy Big Brother and of course, as stakeholders, could not be considered as credible experts in the issue.

If ABS-CBN wanted to really be objective about the issue, they should’ve at least referred to Jojo Panaligan and Kaye Villagomez of the Manila Bulletin, if not Giselle Roque, who was the music writer who blew the whistle on OnL and was interviewed by the Bulletin regarding the issue.

Now I’m wondering how this issue would all end up.

Related entries:
Orange and Lemons cry foul; a music writer rebutts
PBB’s Theme Song: Another Case of Plagiarism?

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Update:

Bryant has an excellent entry about this issue, which also includes other local bands’ songs in question such as Session Road’s “Garmonbozia” and Cueshe’s “Stay”, for all of you who are curious about other cases of local bands that are accused of ripping off foreign material.