the @merican coffee shop - cleo's [Creativity of the Ordinary #3]

the @merican coffee shop - Cleo's

In the shadow of Dunkin Donuts lies a little coffee shop called Cleo's. Nestled in the heart of Highland Park NJ, this quaint little coffee shop qualifies as a certified time-porn portal for the java enthusiast, genericidal anarchist and independent thinker alike. Sporting a panalopy of chachcas and an individual aesthetic all its own this bakery/coffee shop/internet cafe is a far cry from the mindless flock indulgence of repetitive commercialism (I mean how many circular poetry spiral laiden tables bearing the same message do we need to see before we realize that big 'ol green&white is cashing in on making you believe in mass produced originality?)
The random creativity inherent in a place like Cleo's earns itself a place among my collection of @merican coffee shops. Unfortunately, Cleo's does not seem to have regular expressive / performance events in its' schedule. It used to host open mic poetry and others, but the java-vultures (people who hang out w/o contributing or buying) picked the place clean of the economic viability that such events are meant to inspire.

Regardless, we who value expression and creativity, who seek to protect the principles of originality must protect places like Cleo's from falling under the heel of big business. Establishments like Cleo's are the kinds of places that I want to conjure up in my mind when I think of the word "coffee shop," rather than the commercializactive (commercial minded reaction) images of Starbucks appearing. This resistence to the generification of Starbucks/Dunkin Donuts' as the idea of coffee shop, does not really fall under the accepted notion of genericide, but the function is quite similar.

Hence, through this series our mission becomes two fold: (1) protect the integrity of the little establishments by sharing our favorite ones and telling a bit why they are special, and (2) coming up with a term/concept for when an idea merges with mainstream, commercial manifestations of that idea (i.e., coffee shop = Starbucks). Perhaps a starting point would be calling it, "identistream: the automatic mental process of associating or identifying a general idea with an intentional market induced manifestation of that idea."

T'shuva/Crane Philosophy part 2 of 3 [Kung Fu Expressions #2]

2. “Returning to the Source: T’shuva and the Lessons of the Crane – Part 2 of 3”

Often, beginners are more adept at hard, strong and heavy movements of the tiger rather than light, quick and precise movements of the crane. Why is this so? One reason may be that beginners have little experience in moving their bodies in diverse ways, so they are more apt to be hard and heavy. Another reason could be that the crane runs contrary to the natural idea of what power is, because it is light rather than hard. Most beginners do not have the confidence in their own ability to trust their strike. I would like to offer a third possible reason that ties in to the Jewish concept of T’shuva (returning to or discovering the source of spirituality) mentioned in the previous post.

The crane represents the element of wood. To the martial artist wood has the quality and function of balance. The sounds that we use in performing wood movements are tied to the organ of the liver, which regulates many physical, emotional and mental functions of the body. Some of these include “coursing” (keeping continuous flow of chi and blood in the body) and “draining” (purging stagnation from the digestive functions of the stomach and spleen), maintaining mental well being and stimulating the upward and downward flows that assists digestion. (see http://www.itmonline.org/5organs/liver.htm).

We see that the benefits from the crane conserve the essence of the martial artist by keeping the body within harmony. It is said that white cranes can live past the age of 80 years old, a feat for animals and humans alike. Thus the way that the crane lives and interacts with the world conserves its essence and allows it to live a long life. When it has to fight for survival or expend energy in hunting for food, the crane always returns to a restive position, no matter how far it extends itself for survival. From this we learn that no matter how much we exert ourselves, in combat, life or training, we must return to the source and find a restive place so that we may continue our intended quest.

In the next and final installment of this chapter of Kung Fu Expressions we conclude by exploring the T’shuva and crane mindset through a personal experience of the author.

The Value of Free Stuff [Creativity of the Ordinary #2]

2. The Value of Free Stuff - do people value free content less than pay content?

(Original picture found at: http://www.nedshaw.com/images/hackers.jpg)

Before we run headlong into our continuing feature "the @merican coffee shop," I would like to address a thought that has been on my mind this evening. Namely, does free content attract people the way pay content does? This question is most pertinent as we freely read each others ideas on the millions of blogs published every day. The plethora of information and content that awaits our fingertips' simple key strokes in a Google search or hyperlink opens us up to a world a plenty to choose from. My IP professor is in the habit of highlighting various websites that one can get free content from, such as Internet Archive and the Internet Public Library. Whatever it is we cannot deny that lots of free stuff is out there for the taking, but do we value it?

Sam Vankin, P.h.D. discusses this topic in his free web article, "Does Free Content - Sell?". Dr. Vankin discusses two schools of thought: the viral school and the intellectual property school. In contrasting the two schools he says that neither one is certainly better than the other or more effective and provides nine factors to be used in evaluating the effectiveness of either school (nature of the info and audience, timing, "the U curve", "frills and bonuses", "credibility", price/value and fixed prices). Overall, other factors such as culture, technology and trends can also have an ultimate effect on the consumer as well.

For the viralists, free content is seen as a means to an end in that it can create a "buzz" about a subsequent pay product. I found this phenomenon to endure very well in my own purchase of a recent videogame, Condemned: Criminal Origins for the XBox 360. In this great teaser of a website, Sega produced an interactive prequel, that allows the user to use mouse clicks to advance a back story that explains some of the strange happenings in the game. This free content, which Sega arguably could have included in a "Condemned Collectors Edition" for an extra $10 per unit, definitely had an impact on my personal decision to buy. In utilizing the viral school of thought Sega successfully created a buzz about their new videogame franchise, and it has led to solid sales, a movie deal in the making and surely countless derivative works sequals.

On the other side of the coin are the intellectual property-preneurs. According to Dr. Vankin, this breed of content provider finds that giving free content creates an expectation that it all should be free. Just look at the Napster contraversy and what has happened to digital music. Others would argue that the IPOD and Itunes have created a market where once there was a glut, but they cannot deny that many potential customers still look for ways around these financial barriers to content. The IP-preneur says that the bundle of rights that exist with creator must be paid for and preserved lest those with the ideas will not be incentivized to create new content.

Here at the Artist and the IP Lawyer it is our duty to explore such issues together. Will the artist be de-incentivized should the lawyer be unable to protect his creations? Or can free content, even if pirated lead to greater dissemniation and thus more demand? In my own expreience, I have found that free content allows me to listen, watch and participate in expression that I might not have otherwise engaged in if I had to plunk my money down blindly for it. Now I am not saying that everything I have liked for free has immediately inspired me to go out and commit money to it. But the availability of free content has made me a fan of things that I otherwise would not have one of, and once I am a fan of something, the actual packaged and priced work of the artist becomes more desireable than some bootleg copy. While this does not answer the general question, it provides us a launch pad for future discussion. With that, I must go finish my Fair Use Doctrine homework for this week.

Legal Rights of Bloggers [Creativity of the Ordinary #1]

1. Legal Rights of Bloggers - you've got to type for your write to party

In these days of subtle rights curtailment and technological advancements, the realms of expression find themselves in a dichotomous landscape of possiblity. On one end we have tools like Podcasts, Blogs, Video Casts and more, which allow even the most amateur artist to participate in public creation. On the other side is the need to protect this content explosion should the creator so wish to so. With the bundle of rights that a creator of conventional expressions receives, the new technology gives us a chance to adapt existing protections, as well as pioneer exciting new legal doctrine.

As the artforms evolve and we test the boundaries of possibility we see ways to reach our audiences that may have seemed out of reach only two or three years ago. Blooks (books based on blogs) are becoming very popular. There are even awards shows that celebrate the best of this new media, and simple online publishing processes (see Lulu) should one want to make the jump from blog to blok to book.

The EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation) makes it their mission to ensure that creators of online and other digital content that want to protect that expression are educated about what their rights are. They provide free information, as well as lists of resources to turn to should you need to protect that which you have created. In this first installment of our ongoing feature Creativity of the Ordinary I find it pertinent to put power into your hands. Yes dear readers, know that as we improve upon what once seemed silly science fantasy and we become connected even closer in our ability to share, you do have rights. To hear from some of the experts click on the banner below.

Read EFF's Legal Guide for Bloggers

In the the next installment of Creativity of the Ordinary we will look at a topic that I have been passionate about since I first started writing poetry at the teen angst tender age of 15: "the @mercian coffee shop." Consider this our mini-feature within a feature. For chapters of "the @merican coffee shop" we will be discussing the value of individuality in these establishments by featuring posts of local coffee shops with that bit of character that makes them so special. In doing so I hope to explore the dangers of genericide should "Starbucks" or "Dunkin Donuts" become part of our substituted lexicon for the "coffee shop," much the way "Xerox" or "Cleanex" have done to the "photocopier" or the "tissue." Until next time...

Networking [Misadventures of an Evening Law Student #2]

Original picture appeared in:
Singing, Breath and Scalenes
by: Paul Ingraham

2. Networking for Summer Associateships

There comes a point in every law students' life where they must face the proverbial plunge into the profession of practicing law. As one of my fellow evening students put it, "you have to make a decision to take the leave the job you are working in and break into the field." While this is a natural and likely easy step for someone working part time or in a temporary field such as waitering or house cleaning, it is a much more difficult proposition for someone who has built a career. By all reason, those of us proffies (professional folk) do eventually hope to follow that evenstar of borrealis legalis into the glorious profession of legal practice, much like our sister jobbers (part time folk). But most of us assume that such a starry night will fall somewhere between the summer before our last year in school or after graduation. We sleep, perchance we dream of trading our current unsatisfactory positions for a first year job in the high pentadollaric to low sextadollaric range. N'er does our ambition lie with a $20 per hour clerking position w/o benefits or an unpaid intern/externship in lieu of our comfortable current positions.

That is what today's blog is all about: comfort zone. I believe that in order to succeed I must be willing to work outside of my comfort zone and take risks. This is not easy to do. In my own experience, I have put off extending myself on a voluntary and neophyte basis into the legal community for many reasons, and not all of them have to do with my 401K and benefits at my present position. There are also the personal concerns, such as having a wife to provide for and rent to make (mommy and daddy stopped paying a long time ago). Perhaps the biggest obstacle, in all honesty, was fear.

I can say that the balking I've done in September, then in October, again in November and lastly in December at sending out and interview for Summer Jobs had everything to do with fear. Since I am not at the top of my class (in fact, I just barely make the top 1/3), I felt intimidation at having to justify a 3.0 grade average to my potential employers. Also, I did not have any clue of what practice area I wanted to pursue. Regardless, I let these uncertainties deter me from taking any action whatsoever. The result: it is now the end of January. I have positively decided that I am passionate about Intellectual Property law and I am scrabbling to network and secure a job by any means necessary (even this blog).

Just to reflect, I want to highlight fallacy in what I did back in September: nothing (never a good option). In fact, I lost faith in law school, becoming a lawyer or succeeding at all. This did me no good. It generated even more fear in me. Some would even call this neurotic: my solution to the anxiety of not getting a job was to not send out for any jobs, and not sending out for jobs actually caused me more anxiety and fear. When the solution is worse than the problem you need a change. I'd like to say I realized this in a reasonable time frame, but I didn't. In the back of my mind I had the nagging suspicion that I was not on track. I pondered questions such as would law school be another foregone opportunity that I allowed to have a minimal present impact in my life? Would I let fear enboldened by rationalization keep me from that which I had set out to accomplish? I had done that already with an acting career, and I still miss performing to this day.

Then it hit me: "I am not my fu*king khakis," oh the wisdom of Fight Club. I am not my law job. There is nothing keeping me from the career I want to pursue except myself. Rejection and failure is a natural part any experience and neither are to be feared or considered as final judgments. That privilege and responsibility belongs only to G-d himself. A missed opportunity b/c I wouldn't even show up is worse than showing up and being told that I am not right for the job. These thought pervaded my consciousness and raised my spirits. I felt a new power flow in. So what if I send out 1000 resumes and cover letters and not one of them garners a job? So what if I call every contact I know and they all tell me where to go? So what if I go into my 4th year of law school w/o a job in sight?
The truth is that "if I follow my bliss I will come to bliss." My undergrad, freshman year English Comp teacher used to say it to us all the time and the lesson has only recently become apparent to me. It doesn't matter what my career looks like to others, it only matters that I make a decision, show up and work at it with a vigor and a passion unmatched by what I've done before.

I want to work in the Intellectual Property field. Specifically, I want work with copyrights and trademarks, mostly focusing on Entertainment Law issues. They tell me this is a nigh impossible area of the law to break into. I must find a way. I have no idea what is in store, but I plan to use this space to deal with it all, keep my memory green and perhaps even generate possibilities that I had not considered before.

(In the next entry, Solutions in Law Student Networking - what has/is worked/ing for me and what hasn't)

T'shuva/Crane pt. 1 of 3 [Kung Fu Expressions #1]

Returning to the Source: T’shuva and the Lessons of the Crane – Part 1 of 3
(Originally featured in Yee's Hung Ga Kung Fu Acadamy Newsletter)


There is a concept in Judaism called “T’shuva,” which means to return to the source. Often it is used in the context of a person coming back into a religious way of life after some absence, or finding a religious life after having previously never lived one. Thus T’shuva describes a discovery of dedication for both the beginner and the practiced person who has lost their way. This idea, however, is not limited to religious life for we see similar manifestations of it in Hung Ga Kung Fu discernible in our movements, chi gung and philosophy.

Hung Ga is a system of kung fu based on the five animal philosophies of the tiger, crane, leopard, snake and dragon. Each one of the animals is manifested in various external hand shapes and movements, as well as, internal processes and chi development. Early on in the journey of the martial artist, the animals serve as a concrete image to direct the focus of training. One such animal, which tends to be a difficult for new martial artists to grasp, and which is relevant to our discussion of T’shuva, is the crane.

The first formal introduction to the crane of Hung Ga comes from the form Fu Hok Seurng Ying Kuen (Tiger/Crane Double Pattern Fist). Although crane concepts appear in early stance training, sinking the essence to the dan tien using Yee Gee Kim Yeung Ma (crane stance), Fu Hok is the first training exercise that emphasizes the Hok Ying (crane shape), which consists of eight specific crane techniques. These techniques all condense the jing (essence) through concentrating the spirit, relaxing the arms and transporting the chi, thus training the bing ging (whipping power).

This proper use of the crane is usually very hard for the beginner to understand and perform well. A technique such as Hok Jui Chum Jong (Crane Beak Sinking Elbow), where one hand hooks a strike while the other hits the eye is a perfect example of the complex subtlety of the crane, because it requires the martial artist to relax their body completely, shoot their fingers out to a precise point on their opponent, and quickly retract their extended strike, sinking all energy back down to the source of power.

In the next installment of this story we explore the significance of T’shuva and the crane in physical health concerns.

The personal story of a cynical optimist [Misadventures of an Evening Law Student #1]

1. The personal story of a cynical optimist

Law school is a love hate relationship. Many people I have spoken to can't exactly pinpoint why they ultimately felt compelled to go. Who would honestly want to put themselves through the rigors of voluminous reading, infamous tradition and Socratic exercise that seem like verbal manifestations of mutual mental masturbation? And yet there are more law students currently enrolled in U.S. law schools than there are lawyers (or jobs for that matter). Are we that litigious or just plain sadistic?

Perhaps there is no real answer to the query of why law school" or what type of person you would have to be in order to enjoy it. In his last will and testament Marcus De Sade said of himself: "Imperious, choleric, irascible, extreme in everything, with a dissolute imagination the like of which has never been seen, atheistic to the point of fanaticism, there you have me in a nutshell.... Kill me again or take me as I am, for I shall not change." What a great description of the law student; even more so in the case of that strange animal known as the Evening Law Student.

evening law student pronunciation key: (ev'ning) (lô) stood'nt)
n.

1. One who is enrolled in classes,beginningg in the period of decreasing daylight between afternoon and night, to study the application of rules of conduct or procedure established by custom, agreement, or authority as defined by the U.S. legal system; usu. in conjunction with full-time employment during the period of increasing daylight between morning and afternoon and somesemblancee of a life.

2. A sick bastard in need of help.

This definition is in no way authoritative. It merely serves to illustrate the outer boundaries of Evening Lawstudenthood and all it'sitinerantt suffering. It is my sincere hope that this series Misadventures of an Evening Law Student, can provide for readers a slice of insight to this wonderland of academic paradox (whether it be informative or identificative - yes I made that word up along with "Lawstudenthood) and myself with a slice of sanity. May all ye who enter abandon reasonableness, despite what duty of care dictates you demonstrate.