Michael J. Epstein and Sophia Cacciola

If you pay to have me see your posts on Facebook, I will unlike your page.

2012-05-31T12:27:00.003-04:00

Pages will now see this option for each post

Boycott sponsored posts
It's official, you can now buy space in my "social networking" stream. No thanks. In fact, the idea is so irritating to me that I am inclined to take action to help stop it from becoming an accepted part of Facebook. How? If you sponsor a post, I will unlike your page. Paying for my eyeballs will result in you losing my eyeballs. I hope everyone will join me in doing this as it's the only way to stop this from happening. Yes, I am calling for a boycott of "sponsored" posts.

Pages don't actually reach people
Watch this disgusting video justifying this practice because currently pages are crippled and don't actually show your posts to the people who like the pages. Most users expect that their posts will reach their friends/fans/likers/etc. As it turns out, Facebook has some proprietary algorithm that already prevents what you post from being seen by most people. Now, we're potentially going to be cluttered with a feed full of paid advertising. I'm not too interested in that. If posts on my page don't actually reach people, why should I spend energy getting people to like my page? This is a great article about how Facebook is holding our fans hostage.

...but Facebook should be allowed to make money
Agreed, but an essential feature of social networking - in fact the only essential feature - is the democratization of content prevalence. Any individual needs to have the same chance of being heard. The result is that interesting posts from interesting people rise up. The content has value because it is selected in this way. Paying to get content to the top, while other content that you've explicitly subscribed to is hidden, is THE fundamental destroyer of social networking.

Facebook is censoring already
Whether it's intentional or not is unclear, but many of us have been blocked from posting things or received warnings about posting links that are deemed "spam" incorrectly.
http://www.pcworld.com/article/255101/facebook_spam_filter_catches_some_by_surprise.html
Even worse is the idea that somehow, Facebook is deciding whether your individual posts should be viewed by others in an undemocratic manner. The inclusion of sponsored posts worsens this.

What can you do?
1. Unlike any page making a sponsored post.
2. More importantly, let them know that you are unliking them because they made a sponsored post.
3. Understand that Facebook is not a good way to reach your audience and that each communication you make reaches only a small percentage of the people who have expressed interested in hearing what you have to say. Keep an e-mail list!

How will I know a post is sponsored?
From the Facebook info page, here is an example image showing the "sponsored" label.|

Join me! Feel free to leave a comment below or pass this along if you are with me!

Running of the Bride: my sister's book that I star in (...or maybe I am just mentioned in 2 sentences, but either way...)

2012-05-29T21:20:00.000-04:00

I've mentioned before that my sister was writing a book about her crazy wedding experience involving a proposal on the set of the Sex and the City movie and two reality shows (Say Yes to the Dress and Rock the Reception). I'm mentioned in it a few times, you know, as the greatest brother in the world and stuff like that.

Well anyway, now the book is here! It is published by Skirt! Books, an imprint of Globe Pequot Press. The glowing reviews have been pouring in (1, 2, 3, 4, 5)! Get yourself a copy for some insight into my family (not my fault). Also, Jodie Sweetin (Stephanie Tanner on Full House) likes it!

Amazon - Barnes and Noble
Powell's - Other

[Rachel Eddey's Web Page] [Facebook] [Twitter] [Contact Rachel]

“Funny, smart, and an excellent writer, Rachel Eddey gives Jen Lancaster a run for her money as she races with sarcastic wit and whine all the way up to the altar. … She holds her own, though, with her own style, a little bit sweet and a little bit sassy. She paints one vivid satirical vignette after another … Completely hilarious.” —A Frugal Life

“A funny, breezy romp through Manhattan wedding mania.” —Susan Shapiro, author of Five Men Who Broke My Heart

“A laugh-out-loud peek into the mind of a crazed bride. . . . Truly a great read!” —Jodie Sweetin, Full House actress and author of unSweetined

“From the very first page of her hysterical memoir, she keeps us in stitches.” —Amber Benson, Buffy the Vampire Slayer actress and writer/director

“A fast read, full of funny and often heart-warming moments. . . . Compelling.” —Dan Konopka, drummer for OK Go

“Hilarious … I couldn’t put down this heartfelt story of learning how to have it all.” —Carley Roney, cofounder and editor in chief of TheKnot.com

When Rachel’s handsome studio exec boyfriend proposes on the Sex and the City movie set, she can’t fathom the dizzying adventure ahead. Accepting a once-in-a-lifetime venue deal helps their budget but puts them on a crash course to get married in just four months—and time isn’t their only challenge. They battle a wacky host of vendors, including a hair stylist who fakes a car accident and a makeup artist channeling Marilyn Manson, all while testing their love amid tastings and tulle.

Using her nervous energy productively, Rachel enters every contest she can find, winning diamond earrings, a honeymoon, a photographer, and two wedding gowns. Her pop culture obsession lands the wedding party on two hit reality TV shows. There’s just one problem as the clock ticks down: Her staunch perfectionism and fear of dancing threaten to derail everything. She has to redefine perfect and embrace the mistakes—or risk losing it all.

Please take your seats. The wedding is about to begin.

While Rachel is the latest in my family to get her work published, my father and mother are both published authors as well. In fact, Rachel's book almost as much of a page-turner as my books, Invasion of the Burrowers or I'm Getting Sweaty in Here! (or other embarrassing things from our youth)!!!

Los Locos Manos: a film for the 48 Hour Film Project 2012 Boston by The Michael J. Epstein Memorial Library

2012-05-23T19:52:00.003-04:00

Los Locos Manos
full film, created for 48 Hour Film Project Boston 2012

LOS LOCOS MANOS!!! [Facebook] [Web]

"Los Locos Manos" screening happened:
Kendall Square Cinema
Group E Screening Thursday, May 24, 7 PM
(this is the family-friendly screening group - PG-13 or lighter)

with:
Brietini Productions, The Brownie Theater (full film link), Cinemasolo, Evolution, First Thursday Films, J - movie,
Moose Films, North Shore Players (full film link), PDPsi, Talent Tools, Vaudeville Pictures, Wax Idiotical Films, YTeens Productions

Teaser/Trailer

I'll give a detailed breakdown of the script with spoilers at the bottom for anyone interested.

About the 48 Hour Film Project

Susannah as Ivana Wright.
Photo by Tanya Palit.

I don't have a whole lot of filmmaking experience, but I had heard about the 48hfp a couple of years ago when a friend of mine participated and Sophia and I had discussed doing one ever since.

The premise of 48hfp: groups are assigned a film genre, a character name and occupation, a prop, and a line of dialogue. The groups then have 48 hours to write, film, edit, and render/encode a final product that is between 4 and 7 minutes long (plus a flexible additional minute of credit roll).

Earlier this year, The Michael J. Epstein Memorial Library made a silent film based around our music. We will be premiering that film at a show at TT's on June 15th! I had such a good time working with the band on it that I asked if they'd be interested in trying it again for the 48hfp and they all agreed! We decided that we would do a musical in whatever genre we were assigned and would write all the music for our film on Friday night, shoot all day Saturday, and leave Saturday night and Sunday for editing, etc.

How we spent the 48 hours

Photo by Jane Allard

In advance, we prepared the clearance and record documents required by the 48hfp, everyone cleared their schedules as much as possible for the whole weekend (planned to sleep over), and I started to study narrative approaches in short film. Although we had no idea what story we'd tell, I wanted to make sure we had some ideas about putting a succinct, but complete story together. I creeped the band out by making them listen to some Miranda July pieces, for example. We made the rough schedule...and I hoped that we wouldn't get comedy, which was the only genre I really had no interest in. We kind of had a running joke about the phrase Los Locos Manos for a few months and had hoped we could find a way to work it into our movie, despite its lack of grammatical accuracy. We ended up using it as the title and incorporating it in a fun way.

Friday 5:30 - 7 - All of the 48hfp Team Leaders met at Boston Beer Works and were assigned our genre and other info. We were released and the 48 hours began at 7 PM. Here's a video of me drawing our genre, "Thriller / Suspense."

All of the teams in Boston for 2012 were assigned the following other items:
Character Name - Ivan or Ivana Wright
Line of Dialogue - "You're making a big mistake."
Prop - Chocolate

Photo by Jane Allard

Friday 7 PM - drove home to Somerville to meet team at 7:30.

Friday 7:30 - 9 PM - We collaboratively wrote the plot, planned how we would approach the story, assigned roles - particularly singing and speaking roles. We sat around the table, ate pizza, and figured this all out as a group, which is a challenging task. Rachel Leah Blumenthal took on the job of Production Manager and mostly excused herself from appearing in the film to perform that task, to act as a 2nd camera, and to shoot some photos of the production. Because we decided to do the whole thing as a musical, we knew we could skip doing live sound and while there would be a big frontload of work with getting the audio recorded and ready (dialogue, vocals, and cue music), it would be easier during shooting in some sense. The tricky part, of course, is that the performances then required lip-syncing rather than just freestyling the delivery of the lines.

Rachel Leah Blumenthal (production manager) describes the script after we finish the draft on Friday night.

I wanted to appear in the movie, but not really appear in it (a la Alfred Hitchcock). Hitchcock had some clever ways of doing this for films that made no sense for him to do a walkthrough (e.g., Lifeboat), by appearing in a photo or a newspaper ad. So, for my appearance, we used a painting that Sophia had made of me based on this photo.

Friday 9 PM - Saturday 6 AM - We wrote songs, recorded songs, split into groups to handle different aspects. Rachel and Susannah took over as kind of "music directors" for the cues and styles, ensuring that the music for each scene fit the tone and that the tones varied throughout the film. We very intentionally decided to work with the uncomfortable contrast between creepy and almost humorous (in a dark comedy sort of way). I was inspired to consider this approach by the masterfully balanced darkness and humor of Twin Peaks. I knew this would require a lot of shooting work as well - changes in lighting, angles, etc., but was ready to give it a shot, despite my limited experience.

Interviews with cast/crew:

Saturday 5:27 AM - Susannah (Ivana Wright) records vocals and Lisa (Chocolateer [sic]) records bass (plus other recording behind-the-scenes videos).

Saturday 6 AM - 9 AM - Various members of the team started going to sleep around 3 AM with tiered amounts of sleep from 6 hours down to 0 hours. I myself got to bed at 6 AM, while Rachel did production planning/management work (shotlists, prop lists, etc.) straight through the night.

Saturday 9 AM - Shooting is scheduled to begin and recording resumes to finish up the final bits that we didn't quite get to during the night. I start to freak out because we actually don't have any of the stuff we need for any one shot, so we are at a standstill until we locate a bunch of small items. I may or may not have been yelling at people at this point in my panic. We call stores frantically looking for items, send people running errands to buy erasable chalk for the wall, surgical masks, chocolate rabbits (we couldn't quite find what we wanted in the end even), etc. Everyone gets ready to start shooting while we await necessary prop arrival.

Preparing for shoot, Susannah (Ivana Wright) has fake eyelashes put on.

Saturday 11 AM - Actual shooting begins - we start with a scene that ultimately gets cut - Ivana's reaction to doctor coming at her with the drill. The doctor shot ended up being creepier without it, so I decided to omit this one. I worked hard to not shoot anything extraneous during the day, but as things always go, a few shots got cut for time, quality, or flow reasons. As props all arrive, we shoot all the scenes we can before 3 PM when we were planning to go outside and play the Somerville Porchfest. Why? Partly because we are insane and partly because I screwed up and booked both.

Photo shamelessly stolen from Jade Sylvan

Saturday 3 PM - It's a perfect time to take a break from shooting as we realize that we didn't remember to dump all the audio from the computer. The interrogation scenes use the same music, but have different dialogue. In our exhaustion, we only dumped one of the three tracks. We run outside and are shocked to find about 10 people waiting for us to start playing. We thought we might go out and play a few songs to no one and call it a day, but by the time we got rolling, we accumulated about 50 people throughout the course of our 45 minute set. It was kind of a nice treat. We didn't have time to don our normal librarian outfits, so we just threw on some funny hats, wigs, or whatever we could grab. For continuity purposes, Susannah kept her drilled head wound on while playing, inspiring some questions about whether she was okay. We had a blast! (Huge thanks to everyone who stopped by!)

Saturday 4 PM - shoot resumes. We need to wrap by around 8:30 to let Susannah go. Others started getting sent home starting around 5:30 as we finished shooting with them. We decide last minute that Lisa's character didn't have enough screen time to make clear what her purpose was, so we add an extra scene of Susannah (Ivana) receiving her secret instructions from Los Locos Manos while being watched by a chocolate-eating Lisa. I later cut this scene to imply that she was mailing the letters as I didn't think the receipt shot worked. It was particularly hard to shoot because it was outside and required no one else to be in the shot. As it was Porchfest, there was a lot of activity on the streets, making it impossible to get a clean shot in the brief time we had. The mailing shot required less isolation.

Susannah (Ivana Wright) burns the Los Locos Manos code page:

Saturday 5 PM (approximately) - Boston 48hfp organizer Ben Guaraldi (a brave soul for dealing with 86 teams doing this!) and photographer Brian Fife visit our shoot. Some photos at: http://bluesock.org/~brian/photos/48hfp2012/mjeml/index.html

Saturday 9 PM - shooting wraps - we cut some shots that aren't totally necessary. We simplify others to get them done on time. I work to ensure that story is not harmed by these cuts and changes.

Photo by Holly Collins

Saturday 9 PM - Rachel, Sophia, and I go grab dinner at Veggie Galaxy.

Saturday 11 PM - I begin editing and mixing all of the music.

Sunday 4 AM - I am done with music, I pull it all into the Adobe Premiere session, build the basic structure of the movie and then go to sleep around 5 AM.

Sunday 9 AM - I wake up and begin cutting
I cut as fast as I can. Color correction, lighting correction. - make sure shadowed out, lighting tells the right story - consistent for shots

Sunday 3 PM - editing complete. attempt to export fails. No idea why, but something went wrong. I retried. Same error. I freaked out a little and rebooted. Then, there was a cascading comedy of errors in which I opened the wrong session, freaked out that I had lost an hour of editing, and then started editing it again before realizing the wrong session was open. Once I realized that, the export worked.

Sunday 4 PM - I now had an export in MP4 (which is what I would usually export for a movie I worked on), but now I needed to make it an MOV or DVD. I frantically tried both. It didn't work out so well for a while.

Sunday 4 - 6 PM - I spent two hours fighting to figure out how to make MOV or DVD (keeps failing in Quicktime, DVD comes out with damaged aspect ratio, SNAFUs left and right). Finally, I realize I can run MP4 to MOV conversion on my ProTools Mac in Quicktime. I do that despite the fact that it offers no options about bitrate, etc. I get a file that isn't quite the size I want, but looks adequately good, so we roll with it.

Sunday 6 PM - We leave the house to deliver final product.

Sunday 6:30 - 6:45 PM - We drop off the movie! I feel relief. No tears are shed.

Technical Details
The entire film was shot on a Panasonic HDC-HS900K with no lens attachments (I do own a few lenses, but given time constraints, I didn't mess around).
Backup shooting was done with a Nikon D7000, but none of the footage was used due to time constraints.
All of the audio was recorded on ProTools 9 with an RNP and an Oktavamod NT1 modified mic. Normally, I'd use a variety of microphones for tracking different instruments, but we were in a big hurry, so we just used one mic for everything except the bass was tracked directly from the output of a Hartke HA-3500 amplifier.
Editing was all performed in Adobe Premiere Pro CS5.

Photo by Tanya Palit

The Script/Story/Songs (spoilers)

Here's an inside look at our quick work.
-Shotlist and props list with rough script
-Schedule
-Lyrics and "final" script (collaboratively written and edited by numerous people, so it's not consistent in form):

The full Los Locos Manos Soundtrack is available for free download or you can listen via this player:&amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://music.michaeljepstein.com/album/los-locos-manos-2012-48-hour-film-project-entry-soundtrack"&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;Los Locos Manos (2012 48 Hour Film Project Entry) Soundtrack by The Michael J. Epstein Memorial Library&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;gt;

Photo by Jane Allard

An outline/some thoughts on the script (BIG SPOILERS):

We kind of favored making Ivana Wright a spy. The original idea was to leave it open to the audience to decide if she was really a spy or it was a matter of mistaken identity, but we thought it would be more clever (or perhaps easier) to allow the audience to know things that the characters did not and to watch (hopefully in suspense, as is our genre assignment) as the story unfolds and we learn more about what is and is not known by the interrogators.

The film opens with her functioning as a decorator until she sees something that scares her, and she is immediately kidnapped. She wakes up in a medical setting to find that her head is being drilled. We wanted to do a musical, so we threw in an aphasic head injury as a plot device to explain why there was singing happening in the interrogation, which is the main piece of our film. The interrogation itself was an opportunity to allow for flashbacks to include many characters and a contrast between the words and the visual accompaniment. Ivana sings about helping decorate houses while we see tangentially related images of her performing spy activities.

This also allowed for dark, foreboding songs for interrogation and light, bouncier songs for the flashbacks (which are all shown in black and white). That is, until the final flashback when something goes wrong and Ivana (who we learn is living under an alias) tries to expose Los Locos Manos and escape.

We decided to have Ivana recount her tales of interior decorating work for suspected agents as innocent in lyric, but obviously not innocent in visual presentation. I thought this was a particularly interesting contrast of tone that I had seen done very well in Twin Peaks and done disturbingly well as a musical in Dancer in the Dark.

Photo by Lisa Battiston

We wanted a "big reveal" at the end. I am not sure the reveal is as surprising as we had originally planned, but I like it anyway. We inserted our assigned line of dialogue, "you're making a big mistake," as many times as we possibly could. We even wrote a song in which both the interrogators and Ivana accuse each other of making a big mistake. The stylistic contrast across songs, particularly the interrogation vs. the innocent claims of interior decorating, are perhaps my favorite element of what we came up with.

Additionally, Sophia and I are particularly obsessed with The Prisoner, so I enjoyed going down the path of not revealing too many details (and calling her "unmutual") about who she worked for (or works for), who she is, who had her in captivity, etc. We don't know her real name or identity. We don't know what it is that Los Locos Manos is doing or what her instructions were that caused her to react so strongly. We also leave the ending a little bit open to interpretation, although I think there is a clearly implied finality.

Perhaps someday we'll make a prequel or sequel to the story.

Until then, beware Los Locos Manos...

Darling Pet Munkee at Mondo Thursdays 5/17/12

2012-05-16T16:54:00.001-04:00

You've already been told by The Boston Globe and Boston Band Crush to check out this month's installment of Mondo Thursdays, but we thought we'd remind you once more...

May 17, 2012
The Plough and Stars
Mondo Thursdays presents:
Sarah Blacker
Darling Pet Munkee
21+ / $5

&amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://sarahblacker.bandcamp.com/album/perfectly-imperfect"&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;Perfectly Imperfect by Sarah Blacker&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;gt;

&amp;lt;a href="http://dpm-music.donotforsake.com/album/glows-in-the-dark"&amp;gt;Glows in the Dark! by Darling Pet Munkee&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;

Strange Vids Featuring TMS: Young woman grows a mustache to "I Grew A Mustache"

2012-05-10T01:22:00.003-04:00

I support the growing trend of women finding ways to grow mustaches. This innovative young woman has apparently developed an elixir for just the occasion. One sip of the elixir plus a few rounds of calisthenics and her lip is warm all winter long. Even better, she performs this feat to the sound of The Motion Sick's "I Grew A Mustache" from Novelty Songs: Volume One.

&amp;lt;a href="http://music.themotionsick.com/track/i-grew-a-mustache"&amp;gt;I Grew A Mustache by The Motion Sick&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;

Darling Pet Munkee - "MONSTER S-I-Z-E MONSTERS" music video shoot wrapped - video coming soon!

2012-05-09T16:43:00.000-04:00

Poor Frankenstein's monster (Frank, from here on in...) just can't catch a break. He turns to online dating and goes on a series of bungled dates...until he finally meets the one...

We hope to release this video and the video for "Genuine Soil From Dracula's Castle" as a "Creature Double Feature" in early July!

HUGE thanks to the awesome women (and Phil Opitz) who participated in the Darling Pet Munkee video shoot this weekend. As you can see from the photos, this is going to be a lot of fun! EXTRA HUGE thanks to Sarah Wait Zaranek and Emily Diggins for dealing with the two most unpleasant scenes. Huge thanks to Jane Allard, Melissa Zeigler, Kristen Scioli, and Linnea Herzog. Also double extra thanks to Porcelain Dalya, and Rachel Leah Blumenthal for both dating ol' Frankie and helping with the production. It means a lot to us that you helped out with this. We couldn't make these things without you!!!

&amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://dpm-music.donotforsake.com/track/monster-s-i-z-e-monsters"&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;MONSTER S-I-Z-E MONSTERS by Darling Pet Munkee&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;

Check out some of Frank's affairs in this fine photo set by Rachel Blumenthal.

Sophia and Michael cameo in Hallelujah the Hills "Get Me In A Room"

2012-05-09T12:19:00.001-04:00

In addition to making some of our own music videos, we always have fun appearing as extras in other people's videos. Here's Hallelujah the Hills' video for "Get Me In A Room."

&amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://hallelujahthehills.bandcamp.com/track/get-me-in-a-room"&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;Get Me In A Room by Hallelujah The Hills&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;gt;

DNFMOMD: Won Local Band of the Year from Salem WMWM 91.7!

2012-05-08T18:42:00.000-04:00

We were very honored to win 'Local Band of the Year' from WMWM 91.7 Salem! We love thier initiative to support the local music community and are thrilled to be part of it all! Thank you WMWM - and especially Eric Roberts, Nicole Freeman, and John Robinson at the station!

MJEML: PROJECT A.M.Y.L.E.E. Part 2 - "Amylee" Music Video documents our battle with the evil space dolphins

2012-05-08T13:11:00.001-04:00

The Michael J. Epstein Memorial Library’s “Amylee” music video has arrived! The "Amylee" music video is part of 2012's 12-part PROJECT A.M.Y.L.E.E. for which we will present various versions of "Amylee" including covers, remixes, and session recordings!

Most people are well aware that the Mayans prophesied the end of the humanity on Earth in 2012 via massive dolphin takeover. Few realize, however, that the dolphins of Earth shall be joined by their space dolphin relatives in two-pronged attack on the human race.

The Government has already decided to declassify enough information about the Dolphinspiracy/Dolphinpocalypse 2012 (i.e., the dolphins' 2012 takeover of Earth, as predicted by the Mayans) to reveal that The Michael J. Epstein Memorial Library has been recruited as a think tank to lead the battle against the dolphin invaders from space during their synchronous space/land two-pronged attack. The CIA, NASA, Homeland Security, NATO, and the United Nations have all teamed up to determine how to stop these invaders and to create as much documentation of the successes and failures of "PROJECT FLIPOFF." We have recruited documentary filmmaker Dan St. Germain to document our progress on the space front. We are delighted to reveal that the threat against humanity has been temporarily averted by an ally agent from the depths of the ocean.

The Michael J. Epstein Memorial Library Double Ticket Deal with bonus, limited-edition DVD and new song!

2012-05-03T16:40:00.001-04:00

A still from A Brief History of Flight

The Michael J. Epstein Memorial Library has two very exciting shows coming up! We've decided to offer a special, limited-edition package ticket deal.

Here's what we're offering:

A ticket to each of the two shows (see videos and other previews of these bands below):

-June 15th at TT's w/ Tallahassee (featuring former New England Patriot Brian Barthelmes), Cask Mouse (2012 Rock 'N' Roll Rumble Semi-Finalists), Velah (featuring former members of Static of the Gods and The Acre) - $10 / 18+

-July 13th at Church opening for the soon-to-be-huge He's My Brother She's My Sister (currently touring with Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes and opening for Neko Case the night before this show) w/genre-defying The Doctors Fox - $10adv / $12dos / 21+

...PLUS a limited-edition (only sold via this presale) DVD containing the MJEML short film "A Brief History of Flight," our yet-to-be-made 48 Hour Film Project film, and the dolphin-battling music video for "Amylee," plus other bonus video goodies.
...PLUS a CD copy (and/or download) of our new EP, Faith in Free
...PLUS a digital download of the film-soundtrack single, "The Violinist"

All for $20! [We are also offering tickets to either individual show plus Faith in Free and "The Violinist" (DVD not included) for $10.]

Some more details on our film premiere and some videos from our billmates...

A Brief History of Flight - public film premiere!
We held an experimental private performance in which we played partial live musical accompaniment to a short, silent film that we shot over the course of two days. Now, the grand public premiere of the final cut with full-band performance! It is also our only scheduled live performance of the work.

Photo by Justin Moore
via http://www.flickr.com/photos/bdjsb7/6794578947/in/set-72157629112699755/

Wiretap Wednesday: May 2, 2012 recap featuring Lainey SchoolTree

2012-05-02T10:27:00.000-04:00

April's Wiretap Wednesday is here!! This page ( http://bit.ly/wiretapwed ) will be the location of the livestream and time listings for performing acts.

Lainey SchoolTree is our feature performer this month!

Arts at the Armory
191 Highland Ave.
Somerville, MA

All Ages! Free! (Logistical Details)

Also, connect with us on Facebook.

Lainey SchoolTree (our feature):

Video from May 2nd's performers!

Lou Susi
P.A. Trick (PAT VIDEO 2)
Betty Widerski (BW VIDEO 2)
Valentin Prince (VP VIDEO 2)
Paul Watts
Justin Drew
JR Huffman
Gideon Bautista
Zack

Space Balloons: Welcome to Balloononia OUT TODAY

2012-05-02T01:04:00.002-04:00

Welcome to Balloononia by Space Balloons was officially released today! Which means you can find it anywhere and everywhere online!

While napping after a
particularly hearty meal of grapes, Balloononians
Admiral Sophia (Sophia Cacciola), Navigator Joe (Joe Kowan/J-Krafty) and Science Officer Mike (Michael J. Epstein) drifted a bit too far off course in their balloon spaceship. Now they wander the galaxy in search of their home planet Balloononia while spreading the customs and culinary interests of their society in song.

Space Balloons' debut Welcome to Balloononia features 13 tales of Balloononian life, culture, and cuisine.

&amp;lt;a href="http://spaceballoons.michaeljepstein.com/album/welcome-to-balloononia"&amp;gt;Welcome to Balloononia by Space Balloons&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;

The Michael J. Epstein Memorial Library holds a _Swap Meet_ with Golden Bloom

2012-05-01T15:30:00.000-04:00

As The Michael J. Epstein Memorial Library sets forth on our (now annual? - see last year's adventure) East Coast run with Golden Bloom and Neutral Uke Hotel, we present to you a project celebrating the years of collaboration that we've had with the fine fellows of Golden Bloom (and Neutral Uke Hotel) with a 4-song split for which The MJEML covers two Golden Bloom songs and Golden Bloom covers two MJEML songs. You're welcome!

Here's what Green Light Go has to say about it!

...
"After touring last year with Golden Bloom, we all had their songs stuck in our heads, so after nights and nights of suffering with those catchy tunes keeping us awake, we set off to ritualistically remove them from our psyches by using the ancient art of recording covers," says Epstein. "It didn't work to expunge the pop demons, but we had fun doing it anyway."
...

&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://music.michaeljepstein.com/album/golden-bloom-and-the-michael-j-epstein-memorial-library-swap-meet"&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;Golden Bloom and The Michael J. Epstein Memorial Library: Swap Meet by The Michael J. Epstein Memorial Library&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;
Those of you who are older might also remember that awesome time that The Motion Sick did a split 7" with Golden Bloom...ah, the good old days!

The Dolphinspiracy/Dolphinocalypse 2012: Iceland is first! Who is next!?!?!?!

2012-04-30T19:27:00.000-04:00

While we fight the space front against the evil dolphin conspiracy (dolphinspiracy 2012), things here on Earth are looking grimmer each day...

Beginning in 2008, Iceland suffered from near complete economic collapse. In fact, the largest banking collapse (proportional to economy size) of any country in economic history. The banks were nationalized and pulled from hands of citizens and given to an unknown, shadowy, puppet government controlled by...you guessed it, evil dolphins.

Just look at the clear warning they gave us in the currency...

The dolphins used fear to get the people to give up their nation: "There [was] a very real danger ... that the Icelandic economy, in the worst case, could be sucked with the banks into the whirlpool and the result could have been national bankruptcy."[2] The dolphins also stated that the actions taken by the government had ensured that the Icelandic state would not actually go bankrupt.[3] At the end of the second quarter 2008, Iceland's external debt was 9.553 trillion Icelandic krónur (€50 billion), more than 80% of which was held by the banking sector.[4] This value compares with Iceland's 2007 gross domestic product of 1.293 trillion krónur (€8.5 billion).[5] The assets of the three banks taken under the control of the FME totaled 14.437 trillion krónur at the end of the second quarter 2008.[6]

The financial crisis had serious consequences for the Icelandic economy. The national currency fell sharply in value, foreign currency transactions were virtually suspended for weeks, and the market capitalisation of the Icelandic stock exchange dropped by more than 90%. As a result of the crisis, Iceland underwent a severe economic recession; the nation's gross domestic product (GDP) dropped by 5.5% in real terms in the first six months of 2010.[7] The full cost of the crisis cannot yet be determined, but already it exceeds 75% of the country's 2007 GDP.[citation needed] Outside Iceland, more than half a million depositors (far more than the entire population of Iceland) found their bank accounts frozen amid a diplomatic argument over deposit insurance. German bank BayernLB faces losses of up to €1.5 billion, and has had to seek help from the German federal government.[citation needed] The government of the Isle of Man will pay out half of its reserves, equivalent to 7.5% of the island's GDP, in deposit insurance.

Who's next?!?!?

Gibraltar!!!

At least Australia is on our side...for the time being.

DNFMOMD: Ryan's Smashing Life TV Show Trailers

2012-04-27T11:08:00.000-04:00

Ryan Spaulding of the awesome music blog, Ryan's Smashing Life has been working on a TV Show for some months now, and has just released a compilation of the many trailers for it. They really capture the vibrancy of the Boston music scene (and he even interviewed Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling about our Arrival video!). We will update when they have a release date for the show!

here's the description from youtube:
"What started as a simple experiment from a journalist (a hopeless music devotee) in 2006 has endured and changed lives as a true labor of love. Music blogger Ryan Spaulding http://twitter.com/theRSL has shared Boston with the world on http://rslblog.com and helped uncover great indie bands around the globe. (He's made fans everywhere!) Now, with a shoestring crew of devoted music lovers and with help of the musicians appearing on the program - the show is coming on-air in 2012."

To free or not to free: I am begging you to listen to my music, but only because you want to...???

2012-04-25T23:46:00.002-04:00

Courtesy of local music scene satirist Richard Douche-ard. Used without
his damn permission. Try and stop me!

To free or not to free?
I've been having a series of conversations on Facebook (1 - 2) about various components of the value of music and, much like other aspects of life (stupid Hollywoodized rules for dating for example), we're caught between...

1) a stereotypical "please please" listen to my music form of begging...

...juxtaposed with...

2) "I'm being cool about it and I'll let you buy my music and check it out because it's what you want to do" aloofness designed to maintain value and mystique.

Truth: I want to just give away my music.*

I really do. It's nice to make back some money selling it as it costs a lot to keep a band going, but the most important thing to me is that the most people hear it and enjoy it. So, I should just give my music away to everyone who will take it? I say, at least mostly, no. (Lots of others do too or maybe they don't.) The reasons are complex and I am still trying to navigate them and come to a conclusive decision. I'd really love to figure out how. This post is my initial thought-dump on free distribution of music. I hope it opens up more conversations and more avenues of thought, and that it helps me find an optimal working method for my own work.

*That said, if you want any of it, just ask me and I'll gladly send you download links...but you have to ask. I won't offer it to you. Huh?

There are numerous articles about the difference between price and value. There is a famous (and probably ongoing) debate about whether people in high-risk areas for malaria are more likely to use mosquito nets that they are given for free or that they paid a small amount for (1 2 3). The situation for musicians is, however, is not much like mosquito nets. There are huge numbers of people creating music. If we look at one arbitrary metric, iTunes has more than 20 million songs available! When I write a song, I am pretty sure the world doesn't really need it. There isn't a supply shortage. I write my music for myself, but then at least some part of me yearns for justification by having it reach others.

I'm begging you to listen...

While I don't know the answer for everyone, I can speak about my experience for context. I can only assume an average person operates similarly, but I have no idea. I don't think people value music they are handed, and, even worse, they start with a baseline "this music is bad" mentality when they begin listening. Most music is bad. Tons of musicians are vying for my attention, begging for me to listen to their music, handing me CDs, e-mailing me tracks, spamming me on Facebook...and I don't even have any real power or clout to offer them. Even if I love their music, I can't really do much of anything to help them succeed.

When people ask me to listen to their music, I almost never do. I don't have time and I don't have interest. If you hand me a CD, it will take me some 15 minutes to open it, put it into my computer, rip it (and probably type the stupid track names in because most people handing me a CD haven't bothered to put their disc into freedb), and then open the files. Chances are, it's just not going to happen. I don't mean that as a personal slight to anyone, I just won't do it. If you send me a download link to your music (on bandcamp or something similar) after I've had a conversation with you, the chances are greater. If you are on Spotify, the chances are actually very high. I've been storing a "music to listen to" playlist and the time/risk/cost of adding your music to that is extremely low and I won't forget about it. Sure, that playlist contains thousands of songs at the moment, but I do seem to be making pretty regular digs into it. I listen to tons of new music, particularly local music - almost 100% because I regularly hear about or read about bands. I trust when someone tells me they like a band that they have no stake in. I check it out. Still, I have far less time to do this than I have music I'd like to check out.

If you send me an unsolicited link via e-mail and we haven't met or talked and I have no context for you, there is less than zero chance that I will listen. In fact, I will probably actively avoid listening to your music forevermore. Why? I don't know. It sounds mean and awful, but there is some kind of social wall that I feel is being eroded when I get these messages. Unless I know you pretty well, I will probably unfriend you or block you on Facebook if you post a link on my wall to your music or event. Again, I hold some value in my private (public) space. I also cannot keep you as a friend on Facebook, but block you from posting on my wall. I don't care if you invite me to a million events because I can block you from inviting me to events (and I just pretty much block everyone from inviting me to events as matter of making the site usable - this way, I can use the events system to actually track events). I never look at messages on Facebook, so I also don't care if you spam me there. I will never see it.

When you do all these things (or when I do all these things), the message is: this music has no value...so much so that I not only offer it for free, but essentially put time, money, and resources into begging you to listen to it.

Does that mean you should never "beg" people to listen to your music? Well, the line blurs between begging and promoting...

Possible successful "begging" techniques for giving away music for free:

SPIN

1. Get someone with a reputable name to give away your music for free

People perceive someone else talking about your music very differently than when you talk about it. The divide widens when it's someone with a reputation. Recently, we gave away a new The Michael J. Epstein Memorial Library track on MAGNET. When I post that you can download our song on MAGNET (vs. our site), everyone is far more likely to perceive the song as being good (just by virtue of someone else offering it) and everyone is far more likely to share in the vicarious excitement of the song (by someone they know or follow) being touted by someone else that they've heard of. I am not sure that a ton of people who follow MAGNET will download the file, but I am sure that way more of my friends and followers will download it than if I just sent them to my website. Sadly, "reputable" endorsement seems to be the most powerful of movers. I'd love to say quality is the prime mover, but I don't think it is.

TIME

Tangent: when The Motion Sick appeared in SPIN prior to ever playing a single show, we were immediately taken seriously and it became easy to book shows at venues that would never be attainable to a new band with no connections. As it turns out, being in SPIN sold fewer CDs (and downloads) than we sold on numerous good show nights throughout the years, BUT it made everyone we personally know take our band a lot more seriously. Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling's recent appearance over at TIME had a similar effect in justifying our existence to friends and family. The music doesn't change just because SPIN or TIME writes about it, but the way people perceive it absolutely does. Most of these things won't break you with huge new audiences, but they will strengthen your ties to your existing audience.

LIMITED-TIME OFFER!!!!

2. Offer it for a limited time

This week only, download our song. No one wants to miss out on a limited-time offer.

Caveat: The problem is, our music is always available on Bandcamp in streaming form (we don't get paid for that) and Spotify (we do get paid for that). So, I am not sure I can ever offer a limited-time offer unless we remove that, which brings forth other problems and concerns.

For fan club members only!!!

3. Offer it to a select group of people who are engaged in a special way

Believe it or not, people are EXTREMELY reluctant to be on an e-mail mailing list. They are far more likely to "like" a page on Facebook or follow someone on Twitter than to sign up for their e-mail list. From my perspective, my e-mail list is the only way to reach people that is in my control and has at least moderate reliability. So, I've been rewarding my list subscribers by providing a free sampler of my music every month that usually includes unreleased tracks or other special items that ONLY people on the list receive. The key here is that most e-mail list subscribers view being on the list as a deeper connection than say, following a band on Facebook.

Downloading a track for free in exchange for an e-mail address also works, but is a little bit tricky. Bandcamp presently offers this option (and I use it regularly), but I am afraid that the users feel kind of like they've been duped when they see "free" and then ultimately have to enter their e-mail address and get added to your list!

4. Pay-what-you-want?

This is the one I've been struggling with the most. It actually makes the most sense logically from my perspective, but I think it acts as a pretty serious deterrent when it's happening under scrutiny, which it is when we are collecting e-mails and other data. People don't want to feel cheap. They don't want the onus of deciding the value of the music placed on them.

In one case that I am aware of, The Lights Out, used an unobserved merch case (with cash box lockdown) allowing people to drop money into the box and collect merch at any price they felt fair. My understanding is that this has been a very successful approach and doesn't not make the buyer feel that they are under surveillance or being judged.

UPDATE: Here's a video tour of The Lights Out's merch case:

So where does that leave us?

Should we forget free?!?!?!?

I think we can't ignore free. That is, a consumer probably should not be expected to directly pay money in exchange for your music at the instance of consumption any longer (or much longer) - see rant below. Does that mean artists make no money? Not necessarily. We need to shift paradigms. More importantly, we need to present value to consumers without cost. Of course, we're all still trying to figure out how! We're in an in-between space at the moment and it's a very difficult one to crawl through...

My rant on the future of consumption below, but first...

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE check out my music! I am begging!

&amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://music.michaeljepstein.com/album/volume-one"&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;Volume One by The Michael J. Epstein Memorial Library&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;gt; &amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://music.donotforsake.com/album/questions-are-a-burden-to-others"&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;Questions Are a Burden to Others by Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;gt; &amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://dpm-music.donotforsake.com/album/glows-in-the-dark"&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;Glows in the Dark! by Darling Pet Munkee&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;gt; &amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://spaceballoons.michaeljepstein.com/album/welcome-to-balloononia"&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;Welcome to Balloononia by Space Balloons&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;gt;

My rant from Facebook: I think musicians have to stop pretending that music has much consumer value and stop expecting that people are going to pay historical prices for it. The giant corporate conglomerate market control and price fixing has ended. Now, music is so overwhelmingly available and has become virtually worthless as a commodity. We need to accept it. Does that suck for musicians? Yes, it does. Is it the reality? Yes, it is.

I view music purchasers as "supporters of the arts," if you will. They are not doing it to get the commodity; they are doing it to encourage the artist to keep doing what they are doing. It's turning more toward patronage, it's not consumerism anymore (or it won't be for very much longer I believe). We have a culture that does not value art very much financially. Thus, art has little monetary value. You can throw a tantrum about that, but it's not going to change the facts. While I don't support piracy in a general sense, I think we need to acknowledge that the value of music was faked for so long and that the modern consumers demand music for free (or pennies). Again, sucks for musicians, but it's how it goes. No one has a right to make a living being an artist. Artists need to stop demanding that right if the market doesn't support it. We can come up with a million reasons why our music should sell for as much (or more) than it does now, but those reasons are simply not relevant to market value. I realized that the fastest and best way I could lose less money making music was not to sell more or sell it at a higher price, but rather to stop spending money. Do my recordings sound as good as they would if I spent a lot of money on them? No. Would I sell more if I had spent more? Also no.

I think artists will ultimately benefit the most from subscription model payouts once statutory rates for streaming are set (and hopefully are somewhat reasonable). It also rewards people that make good music that gets listened to a lot and removes rewards for overmarketing terrible music. I think that the end of music selling in favor of paying per stream will ultimately save the art. Write bad songs, get no plays. Write great songs, get plays. First thing we need to do is abandon the idea that people are going to be willing to pay $10 for an album. That concept doesn't have much life left in it. I say kill the pirates by meeting consumer demands, not passing imbecilic laws. Spotify is a piracy killer. Sure, the payouts need to be worked out still, but that is where the focus of legislation should be - how can we shift to a streaming, on-demand model that can work for everyone? Artists are, of course, going to lose out in this shift, but it's inevitable.

A lot of this applies to movies, television, and other media as well. We need to figure out how to shift models instead of just trying to stop a cultural tidal wave with useless laws. These models will require a rethink of how content is produced and how much money is put into it. I think this is ultimately a winning proposition. It's actually the real stage at which there is market equality.

Show Recap: Darling Pet Munkee at Store 54

2012-04-25T23:00:00.006-04:00

Back in March, Darling Pet Munkee played a really fun show at Store 54. Store 54 is an awesome store filled with vinyl and vintage furnishings and clothes - definitely wanted to buy half the store!

We played with The New Frustrations who were awesome, video:

here's a bunch of video from our performance culled from several audience cameras!

Our next engagement is an interview/performance on WZBC Mass Ave and Beyond on Friday 4/27 5:00PM-7:00PM! Then we'll be at Plough and Stars (camb, MA) for Mondo Thursday on 5/17!

The Michael J. Epstein Memorial Library played The Somerville Library

2012-04-25T22:36:00.006-04:00

The Michael J. Epstein Memorial Library was honored to have been invited to play at The Somerville Library to help celebrate their Somerville Reads program (here's their recap)

About: "Somerville Library celebrates its third “one city, one book” campaign, Somerville Reads 2012, a project that promotes literacy and community engagement by encouraging people all over the City to read and discuss books on the same theme. This year’s theme is food—local, sustainable, and delicious! We’ve chosen two books for discussion: Farm City: the Education of an Urban Farmer by Novella Carpenter and Seedfolks by Paul Fleischman. "

Here are some photos taken by Johnny Anguish (and son!) from Daykamp Music,

from Daykamp: "We got there a little late. The band was already playing. The PA wasn’t working properly, but this may have been a blessing in disguise. Michael and his bandmates were able to deftly balance their levels with good old fashioned playing dynamics. It made for a folksy performance that suited the songs well. A song like “Lymph Nodes” is made all the more rousing by voices moving air without any amplified assistance."

and a live video of our song "Amylee" shot by Andy Estabrooks:

Quiet Desperation Act 3 Episode 1 - Sophia and Michael visit Rob at the Brighton Wellness Center

2012-04-24T22:21:00.000-04:00

Quiet Desperation Act 3 is here! We've made some cameos in episodes of Quiet Desperation previously, but the latest one includes Sophia and I visiting Rob at the Brighton Wellness Center, trying to cheer him up by bringing him his favorite action figure, Admiral Ackbar, and singing him a little song.

The Michael J. Epstein Memorial Library "Amylee" music video release - our final stand against space dolphins May 5, 2012 at Arts at the Armory with Eliza Rickman

2012-04-22T19:57:00.000-04:00

This revelation will be presented at Earthfront headquarters:
The Somerville-based Arts at the Armory
May 5th, 2012 at 2000 (8 PM for you civilians).

We will be sharing the presentations for the evening with Earth-supporter Eliza Rickman, who will be releasing a CD of songs recorded by humans.
http://www.artsatthearmory.org/Events/EventsCalendar/tabid/80/vw/3/ItemID/514/d/20120505/Default.aspx

The Government has already decided to declassify enough information about the Dolphinspiracy/Dolphinpocalypse 2012 (i.e., the dolphins' 2012 takeover of Earth, as predicted by the Mayans) to reveal that The Michael J. Epstein Memorial Library has been recruited as a think tank to lead the battle against the dolphin invaders from space during their synchronous space/land two-pronged attack. The CIA, NASA, Homeland Security, NATO, and the United Nations have all teamed up to determine how to stop these invaders and to create as much documentation of the successes and failures of "PROJECT FLIPOFF." We have recruited documentary filmmaker Dan St. Germain to document our progress on the space front. We are delighted to reveal that the threat against humanity has been temporarily avert by an ally agent from the depths of the ocean.

In addition to the film presentation, we will be presenting our songs in raw, acoustic form and revealing the true stories behind them (and possibly how they connect with the impending dolphin takeover).

Here is a preview of the film about our battle:

&amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://music.michaeljepstein.com/album/volume-one"&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;Volume One by The Michael J. Epstein Memorial Library&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;gt;
&amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://elizarickman.bandcamp.com/album/o-you-sinners"&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;O, You Sinners by Eliza Rickman&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;gt;

DNFMOMD: Sophia nominated for Best Female Vocalist in the Boston Phoenix!

2012-04-20T15:26:00.000-04:00

Sophia is very honored and excited to have been nominated for 'Best Female Vocalist' in the Boston Phoenix! Please vote for her!!

and here she is in action:

&amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://music.donotforsake.com/album/questions-are-a-burden-to-others"&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;Questions Are a Burden to Others by Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;gt;

&amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://music.donotforsake.com/album/the-new-number-2"&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;The New Number 2 by Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;gt;

&amp;lt;a href="http://music.donotforsake.com/album/music-begins-where-words-leave-off"&amp;gt;music begins where words leave off by Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;

DNFMOMD: Arrival Video wins award at SENE Film Festival

2012-04-20T14:24:00.004-04:00

photo by Theodore Cormey

Our music video for "Episode 1: Arrival", directed by Theodore Cormey just won "Best Regional Music Video" at the SENE Film Festival. SENE is based in Rhode Island - The SOUTHEAST NEW ENGLAND FILM, MUSIC & ARTS FESTIVAL(SENE) is a dynamic five-day event in the heart of the American Northeast.

MJE performs in one day of 28 Seeds: A Sci-Fi StreamCRUNK musical by Liars & Believers and Walter Sickert & The Army of Broken Toys

2012-04-19T02:13:00.002-04:00

I am thrilled to say that I am serving as a one-day substitute mustache/player during the run of Liars & Believers and Walter Sickert & The Army of Broken Toys' 28 Seeds. I spent the last two days at rehearsals and, now having seen it multiple times (plus I am going today to the actual opening), I definitely recommend seeing it...and probably recommend it most on a day when I am not subbing...but if you want to see me playing 3 different stringed instruments and doing a tiny, tiny bit of what some call "acting," 4/29 is your day! Most importantly, go see this sometime...and then go see it again! It has a very talented cast and crew and just about anything you could want in a StreamCRUNK musical - great music, sci-fi apocalyptica, a visit to the Den of Debauchery, and of course, cannibalism!

28 Seeds - a Sci-Fi SteamCRUNK musical

SHOWS:
April 19 - May 12
Wednesdays/Thursdays at 7:30pm
Fridays/Saturdays at 8:00pm
Sundays at 4pm

An experimental theatre company and a steamCRUNK band blend live rock show, science fiction, dance, and multi-media to bring to life the story of how human greed and ignorance trigger the apocalypse, for a one-of-a-kind theatrical experience you won't soon forget.

Youtube channel

Tickets Online: http://bit.ly/28seedstix
Phone: 617-933-8600
In person: BU Theatre Box Office, 264 Huntington Ave, Boston, MA
or Calderwood Pavilion Box Office, 527 Tremont St, Boston, MA

&amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://armyoftoys.bandcamp.com/album/28-seeds-the-soundtrack"&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;28 Seeds (the Soundtrack) by Walter Sickert &amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp; The Army of Broken Toys&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;gt;

The Dolphinspiracy/Dolphinocalypse 2012: Dick Clark

2012-04-19T01:04:00.002-04:00

Notice what appears right now on
Ryan Seacrest's web site under his
Dick Clark tribute!

We bring you another entry in our continuing series on the Dolphinspiracy/Dolphinpocalypse of 2012. As the dolphins move closer and closer every day toward the destruction of humanity, we continue our fight on the space front. I can now reveal the classified information that The Michael J. Epstein Memorial Library leads Earth's army against the alien dolphins' space assault.

Few people realize that Dick Clark was not only the face of countless media entities, but was also a staunch human supporter in the battle with the dolphin invaders. Here below, Mr, Clark shows his commitment to the LAND part of the U.S. in this pro-land-creature support television fundraiser special.

In recent years, however, his support had already been compromised by known dolphin-supporter Ryan Seacrest. SEA-CREST! Just look above at what appears on his website at this very moment!!!

Ryan is long affiliated with dolphin co-conspirators. He serves as the executive producer of a show featuring the dolphin-loving Kim Kardashian. Here she is with two different dolphins:

A few years ago, Ryan was, unsurprisingly, attacked by a shark (more) one of our few allies in this war.

Ryan Seacrest is an anagram of "Scare Nets Ray" - Rays of course, are closely related to sharks and are another known enemy of dolphin invaders.

I hope the authorities plan to take another look at Dick Clark's "heart attack."

The Michael J. Epstein Memorial Library plays at Somerville Library Saturday!

2012-04-18T15:20:00.000-04:00

Saturday, April 21st, The Michael J. Epstein Memorial Library is very excited to be playing in an actual library! Join us from 1-3 at The Somerville Library at 79 Highland Avenue, Somerville MA!

Free RSVP here!

It's part of their Somerville Reads! program:

"Somerville Reads Celebration! Saturday, April 21, 1:00-3:00 PM

To celebrate our discussion of Farm City and Seedfolks we're having a potluck, so bring one of your favorite dishes to share (please include a list of ingredients.)

photo by Kelly Davidson,
taken at The Somerville Library!

We'll also hold a vote on the potluck's best dishes, and the winning cooks will receive gift certificates donated by local restaurants, including Dave's Fresh Pasta, Guru, Highland Kitchen, India Palace, and Sherman Cafe.

The music for this festive event will be provided by the incredible Michael J. Epstein Memorial Library - we're really looking forward to hearing them in our usually quiet Library!

Lastly, you'll be able to buy copies of our new community cookbook, with proceeds to go toward future Library programming. We hope you'll be able to come!"