Today is Downhill Battle’s 2nd birthday. It has actually been two years since we put up this page and jumped into the fray. Nick put up a splash page to mark the occasion (all my RSS people have a look) but I think I’ll procrastinate on further reflection and instead jump into telling you about the present we got…

It came from Google, of all places.

Google the words “trapped in the closet” and you’ll be taken to our blog. There, the tidal forces of teen R Kelly opinion have found a little tidepool in the comment thread. “Aw guys, I think I see a horseshoe crab!”

This present didn’t cost the Big-Internet-Spirit-in-the-Sky much, but it’s the thought that counts.

So the stars are aligned, the wind’s in our favor, and the grade not too steep (in you-know-which direction). Throw parties, go to shows, have a blast, and DON’T buy major label music.

A New York law firm representing some victims of the major labels’ lawsuit campaign just started a blog on the subject:

Recording Industry vs. People

It looks like it might not be updated super-frequently, so add their RSS feed to your feed reader if you have one.

Halsey Burgund’s “I’m a musician and I support filesharing” project got a write up in the Boston Phoenix. You can read about the project and put in your recording here.

The public radio show Open Source (with Christopher Lydon) is looking for Creative Commons licensed instrumental music. So get your music on the air.

PCF did a pretty good thing today — we released a Mac Beta version of an internet television video playing platform, coded DTV. Right now, DTV will work on Mac OSX 10.3+ (We’ve been working on this thing since January – whoah!). You can go to the PCF site to download your very own DTV video player and try it out. A Windows version is coming in a few weeks. This thing downloads using http or bittorrent, manages video RSS feeds, plays videos, and has a simple iApp-inspired interface that’s built for non geeks. It’s completely open source, open access, free and non-corporate.

DTV comes out of our activist drive to create the tool that people need to pry open mainstream media channels and let in independent creators. And we do hope this will be big, starting with this baby Beta and some good videos. Right now, there are some deep-dark-good channels, like the Some Pig channel made by artists in Providence and sweated over by video artist, Peter Glantz. My personal favorite is the Pancake Mountain channel, which is a local DC channel that puts out highly-synchronized children programming with bands like Fugazi and Thievery Corporation. We also helped to make an independent music video channel, called Telemusicvision with videos from Saddle Creek, Kill Rock Stars and V2 records. Check it out if you’re indie head.

You can help these cool things along by adding RSS feeds/websites of video to the DTV Channel Guide. If you help, people can find out about good videos and start turning their attention to internet TV, where all the fair and democratic media action is.

Our friend Michael Bell-Smith, musician and video artist, synced up all 5 videos of R Kelly’s ‘Trapped in the Closet’ series into a single movie. The result is pretty astounding and very enjoyable. Here it is: Chapters 1-5 of R. Kelly’s “Trapped in the Closet” Synced and Played Simultaneously. Check it!