mikeymo's place

Where does one begin to review or summarize an album of this... epicality? Epicosity?  Epicness?
It's big. Thirty-four tracks big.  Over one hundred minutes of music big.  This ain't your father's EP.
The title is big.  Officially, it is Give Us Rest, or (a requiem mass in c [the happiest of all keys]). Coming from this band, none of this should be a surprise.  What should also not be a surprise is that the album is absolutely brilliant.

Built around the traditional form of the missa cantata Tridentine mass - literally "sung mass" - used from the mid-sixteenth century through the mid-twentieth. Specifically, Crowder uses the form of the Requiem Mass - the mass of the dead.  Thus, the piece is divided into the traditional parts like the introit, kyrie, gradual, agnus dei, etc...
Just as the catalog of the David Crowder* Band is an eclectic mixture of styles, so is their magnum opus; you'll find rock, pop/dance, neo-classical, electronica,  metal, choral...  even bluegrass.  The beginning of the album completely draws you in... a door opening, footsteps echoing across a floor, a voice speaking softly in Latin.  A piano, strings...  Oh, great God, give us rest/ We're worn thin from all of this/ At the end of our hope with nothing left/ Oh, great God, give us rest. It's chilling and welcoming at the same time, and an understandable lament from a band who has done so much to change the face of worship music over the past decade.

Throughout are woven traditional Crowder songs like the first single: "Let Me Feel You Shine," and "After All (Holy)."  Then the Sequences - a collection of varying pieces of vastly differing styles, numbered instead of named, sprinkled with Latin and drifting into the almost purely instrumental - that close out disc one.  Just like the mass itself,  the second half opens on the offering, travels through the agnes dei (Lamb of God), the Great Amen, Communion and finally the Pie Jesu - a Latin chant which translates as "Merciful Lord Jesus, grant them, rest."  Thus, we've come full circle, ending on the wonderful "Oh My God, I'm Coming Home."
As a coda, there are several tranditional-style hymns, song in a somewhat bluegrass style, but sounding very much like you might hear in a small country church in east Texas... "Leaning on the Everlasting Arms/ 'Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus," the original "Jesus, Lead Me to Your Healing Waters," and finally, beautifully, "Because He Lives."

The packaging of the CD is pure Crowder as well.  ( I still have my Remedy swag).  The insert opens up to a 9x9 perforated poster with liner notes on one side, and stylized versions of various DC*B album covers on the other which can be mixed and matched and shuffled and combined with two acetate film silhouettes - one of David and one of the "Crowder Asterisk."   Check it out here.

The album art itself is a marvel of metaphor.  The hummingbird is a creature that can move in any direction, yet it expends so much energy it must feed constantly. It will sleep so deeply that the only thing that can awaken it is the warm light of the sun. (Did someone say "Let Me Feel You Shine?")   I wonder if that is how Crowder views himself.  Scattered around the cover are various physics equations dealing with mass.  (Get it, mass?)  But a little physics knowledge will tell you all of these equations deal with mass at rest. This gets deep, but "mass in c" might be a roundabout reference to a time of transition.

All in all, an amazing piece of work and a fitting capstone to a brilliant (and altogether short) run as one of the most innovative Christian bands out there.   Get it, find a nice road to drive by yourself for a little over an hour  and a half, and pop this puppy in.

The first one is a big stick.  The AG can choke off a website's income, without notice to the website owner.  So basically, a copyright owner or their agent (like RIAA or MPAA - an we know how careful they are) files a claim, and without investigation or verification, the site is flagged as infringing.  Ad money stops coming in, and so does traffic.  The site owner can file a "counter-notice" - but in order to do so they must submit to US jurisdiction (if offshore), file the notice "under penalty of perjury" (a felony) and open themselves up to a lawsuit by the copyright holder.  If they fail to respond to the lawsuit, or they lose (and they will), the copyright holder has the right to seize ownership of the website and domain. 

THAT DOESN'T EFFECT ME, DOES IT?

Still doesn't sound bad, right?  Except that under SOPA's vague language, virtually every website is a potential infringer.   Not only that, but SOPA basically throws out the safe harbor provision of the DCMA, which protects websites that honor takedown notices.  Not only sites like YouTube or Wikipedia, but every blog, forum, or website that allows users to create content, post comments, add photos, or provide links.  So, basically every website out there.  Websites that accidentally or unintentionally infringe may be seized and shutdown with out so much as a notice.  

Church websites are particularly vulnerable.  Church folk tend to be good people, but not too wise when it comes to intellectual property laws.  Post a video of your youth dance team or a clip from a service that happens to have had some recorded music playing in the background and BAM - shut down and sued. 

It gets worse according to SOPA, criminal copyright infringement is defined as "...at least 10 copies or phonorecords, or at least 10 public performances by means of digital transmission, of 1 or more copyrighted works, which have a total retail value of $2500."  So, of that background song sells on Amazon for 99 cents, and you get 2526 hits or more on that video, then congratulations, you are now a felon. 

THE RESULT

The irony is that SOPA and PIP will not stop piracy.  The big offshore bittorrent sites do not derive revenue from US-based ads.  Internet blocking us usually limited to DNS blocking which means you can still get to the website if you know its IP address, and most of the big pirate sites are moving targets anyway.  

So who are we protecting at whose expense?  SOPA is largely driven by the MPAA - Hollywood.  Hollywood (by some estimates) contributes about $10billion annually to the global economy.  That's a pretty  hefty number.  But the internet is estimated to contribute upwards of $8trillion annually, and is responsible for as much as 21% of the growth of the global economy.  Basically, some Hollywood fat cats are upset that no one wants to by a DVD of their lousy remake-of-a-remake, and want to make everyone else pay for their lack of creativity and inability to understand the marketplace.  Ditto for the recording industry.  

More importantly, SOPA and PIP are a slap in the face of the free exchange of thoughts and ideas.  

WHAT HAPPENS NOW? 

Many websites are taking a stand.  There are many, many people writing in opposition to SOPA, including this excellent opinion piece on Mashable.  (which I used as a resource, please don't sue me or shut me down, Chris Heald!  Please!) Websites like Google, Mashable, Reddit, Yahoo! and others are giving prominent positioning to articles and banners fighting SOPA.  Mozilla has replaced it's landing page with a call to action. Wikipedia - the third busiest site on the internet - has gone as far as to actually go dark for 24 hours today.  The graphic at the top of this post is what any Wikipedia page looks like today.  Boing Boing did the same below. Imagine an internet where every site looks like that. 

THIS STINKS!!   WHAT CAN I DO? 

Do what Hollywood does!  Lobby!  Write to your congressional delegation.  Let people know what's going on.  Raise awareness.  Share this post or the Mashable post (or any other post) Use the hashtags #SOPA and #StopSOPA.   The power is in our hands - let's not waste it.