The Day the Internet Cried, or Dear Govt.: Don’t Censor My Fucking Internet Please

Editor’s Note:  I Threw this up in about two hours, and this is my first post in months. Don’t judge me.

Also Bahamut Six isn’t meant to be a political blog, but since SOPA/PIPA directly affects the future of this blog, I can’t exactly stay quiet about an issue that could have severe ramifications on how this blog would normally operate.

It’s been a while, folks. Haven’t completely abandoned the blog world, but real life has had a hand in more or less putting it waaay on the back burner. It happens. Working 6 days a week continuously and all of that other so-called fun stuff in the hodgepodge us humans call adulthood tends to do that.

And then some event will always drive me back to ranting via the keyboard…

I happen to make a comeback on a day when some of the heavy-hitters on the internets are taking a Rageshit-en masse in response to the legislation of two proposed bills in the US Congress, the House Bill, H.R. 3261, the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and its cousin in the Senate, Senate Bill S. 968 The Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property Act of 2011, otherwise known as the PROTECT IP Act, or the cute and not-so-offensive-sounding name of PIPA (aww).

These bills, drafted with some massive lobbying and influence from the Record, Television and Film industry giants in the United States (who else?), would if passed, expand the power of the US Department of Justice (DOJ) to enforce its ability of the law to protect the interests of Intellectual Property Holders (IPH), specifically those of said Record, Television and Film industries by (supposedly) curbing the illegal downloading and streaming of media online, particularly to websites out of the reach of US jurisdiction. It would place the burden of “policing” potential infringing content squarely on intermediary services such as Internet Service Providers (ISP’s), by effectively BLACKLISTING any website for any content that the IPH deems infringing … even if it’s supposedly protected by Fair Use Standards, or If it’s even the IPH’s own content, because companies like Warner Bros. didn’t even give enough of a shit to bother to check.

00 Movie OST to be Released Next Month

A 2 Disc set containing music from the film Mobile Suit Gundam 00 The Movie: A Wakening of the Trailblazer will be released on 9/22.

Est. MRSP is ¥ 3,360.

Pre-Order here.

Also of note, UVERworld is releasing “Qualia”, another single releated to the movie on 9/15.

Lastly, the other singles releated to the movie,  UVERworld’s “Change” and “Tozasareta Sekai (Closed World)” by the The Back Horn are out now.

New 00 Movie Trailer

Guess who’s back.

Pic From Toy World Forum

Over 5000

Bahamut Six has hit 5000 hits just in time for it’s  upcoming 1 Year birthday.

Thank you readers!

Let’s celebrate with some John Williams epicness!

New 00 Movie Chara Designs (i.e. Graham & Patrick)

From the usual sources…
Pics are scans from the July issue of Newtype.

Clockwise (Not Counting Setsuna) : Graham Aker (Uniform & Pilot Suit), Kati Mannequin (Colasour), Patrick Colasour, Billy Katagiri & Andrei Sminov.

- The Federation uniforms have been redesigned. Billy is wearing a variant.

- Graham’s unit is called the “Solbraves”.

Silent Voice: Teddy Pendergrass

Song: Wake Up, Everybody
Artist: Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes
Album: Wake Up Everybody

As many know, Teddy Pendergrass, former member of Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes and one of the front men of the “Philly Sound” passed away last night after battling Colon Cancer.

Pendergrass, orignally from South Carolina, moved to Philly sometime in his teens where he went to the old Thomas Edison High School. After dropping out to go into the music business, he would become the drummer for Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes.

After scoring several hits with the group including the song above, Pendergrass would embark on his solo career after a failed attempt to rename the Blue Notes after him. Pendergrass would release a string of successful albums and a string of singles that would make him one of the forebearers of “Baby-Making Music”.

On March 18, 1982, Pendergrass was involved into an accicdent on Lincoln Drive which left him paralysed from the waist down.  Despite the injury, he would return to the recording studio in 1984. Pendergrass would make a return to public performing at the famous Live-Aid concert. He would continue to record and release albums throught the 80′s & 90′s.

Pendergrass also founded the The Teddy Pendergrass Alliance, a charity designed to support and educate individuals with Spinal Cord injuries.

The song for today, “Wake Up, Everybody” is not necessarily one of my favorites, but I have a soft spot for it. It’s socially conscious lyrics are backed by Teddy’s powerful vocals. It was one of those songs that is uniquely Philly. 

Rest in Peace, Teddy.
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Giant Robot News Tommorow.

And Now For Something Different…

Song: “If You Really Love Me”
Artist: Stevie Wonder

This Blog is supposed to have a focus on music too, right? Guess I forgot.

Anyway, “If You Really Love Me” is a single from Stevie Wonder’s 1971 Album ”Where I’m Coming From”.

The Album is notable for a couple of reasons: It was Stevie’s last album from his first contract at Motown (He would return to the Tamla label a year later, kicking off his “Classic Period”) and it was his first full length album where he was given complete artistic freedom.

I really liked the way he overdubbed his vocals throughout the chorus, as they helped give weight to the melody. The ballad is pretty good, too, but not as strong as his later works from his classic period.

Overall, a good song and good exapmle of overdubbing.

The Mos Ecstatic release of the Year…

I finally copped The Ecstatic last night.
One thing for sure, the Mighty Mos Def is back.

After the more experiemental releases of The New Danger and True Magic, many fans, including myself were wishing a return to style of his 1999 debut, Black on Both Sides. After a two year wait from True Magic, The Ecstatic delivers the witty delivery and creativity that has made Mos Def a standout in Hip-Hop.
The Ecstatic also features a reunion between Mos Def and Talib Kweli on “History” and a cameo from Slick Rick on “Auditorium”.
Production is handled mostly between Oh No, Preservation, Mr. Flash and Madlib, with a track each from Chad Hugo of the Neptunes (Twilite Speedball”), Georgia Anne Muldrow (“Roses”) and the late J Dilla (“History”).
Although, it’s a little short (Coming in just over 45 Minutes), The Ecstatic is easily a contender for Hip-Hop album of the year.

Related: Sneak Peak: Mos Def - The Ecstatic

Remembering that Tuesday

Well today of course, is September 11, a day eight years ago, that changed how I looked at the veiw of world around me.
It was a goregous, cloudless day and I was a freshman in college in class when the news broke.
The whole time in class I had an uneasy feeling about what was going there in Lower Manhattan. Part of my feelings wanted to shrug it off as an accident, as a small aircraft hit one of the towers in the 70′s. But when I finally got to my dorm and turned on the TV, I knew then and there that it was anything but an accident, and nothing was going to be the same. For the rest of the night, I was filled with a mosaic of emotions, from horror to rage…
Eight years later, the skies are gloomy and rainy, and the atmosphere can’t be more symbolic. Despite everything that has changed, in my life, and in the lives of all of us on this small planet, I have to remind myself that life does indeed go on, in spite of tragedy, but only if we choose make it happen.
Today, should mark as a day of service, volunteerism and good will for those who need it the most. I feel this is the best way to honor the people who lost their lives and the people who gave their lives trying to save them.

Changing the main subject, despite all that happened that day, something good did happen that day, and that was the release of one of the better albums in my collection, Jay-Z’s The Blueprint.
Around that time Jay-Z was in trouble with law (he had two cases against him) and was engaged with with fueds with Nas and Mobb Deep.  The Blueprint was released on that day to combat piracy. The album was cut in two weeks, with Jay-Z penning the lyrics in two days.
The Blueprint eschewd the Pop-Rap oriented sound that he made popular for a more vintage Soul vibe, using samples from Jackson Five, David Ruffin and Al Green songs. Except for a guest spot with Eminem and guest vocals from Q-Tip, Biz Marke and Slick Rick (On “Girls, Girls, Girls”), the album is devoid of any cameos.
In the Hip-Hop world, The Blueprint shook the world. It galvanized Nas to make one hell of a comeback, and helped Kanye West and Just Blaze boost their careers as producers.
 Overall, The Blueprint is a great album.

Worth goin’ through the Stax…| Other Junk

ED. NOTE: This post sucks. Skip over it. The moral of the story is, don’t post when your laptop battery power is under 12%.
And auto apologies to any students of the School of Rock.

Stax Music Academy: From Soulsville to Italy is a 2007 Documentary that follows the first ever Summer Soul Tour of the Stax Music Academy.
The music academy is a state-of-the-art facility at the Memphis museum of the legendary Soul Music label which mentors at risk youth through music education.  The first tour, which took place in 2006, took several of the students at the academy abraod to Italy where they performed on a  month long concert tour.
The documentary, which was produced by Memphis station WKNO, won a National Telly award in 2008. The documentary itself is very entertaining and I couldn’t help but get swept into their wonderful talent. There may beat the School of Rock, but does it have STAX’s soul?

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Buckshot and KRS-One will be at the Center City FYE (Broad & Chestnut Sts, Center City, Phialdelphia.) to promote thier new Album, Survival Skills on the 16th. I will be there.

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Lastly, there is a new Inuyasha TV series that is set to premiere, probably by the end of the month that will finish the last volumes from the manga.