|
|
|
|
|
|
Internet-guru, Wyoming cowboy, and sometime Greatful Dead lyricist John Perry Barlow chatted with ZineZone on the evening of Wednesday, Feb. 3, 1999. Hear what he had to say about songwriting, cyberspace, and more.
Event: ZineZone - John Perry Barlow
Date: Wednesday, Feb.3, 1999
Time: 6:00 - 6:45pm PT
Transcript
OrCCCa: Welcome Everyone! The Talk City Network (tm) and Zinezone.com (tm)welcome you to chat tonight with John Perry Barlow. Raised on a Wyoming cattle ranch and educated in a one-room schoolhouse, Barlow earned an honors degree in Comparative Religion at Wesleyan University
and went on to become a lyricist for The Grateful Dead. This winding road eventually led to a new frontier - the Internet. Together with Mitchell Kapor, Barlow founded the Electronic Frontier Foundation, an organization which promotes freedom of expression in digital media. Ever striving to make the world a better place, Barlow is currently working with the MIT Media Lab on Nation 1, a project designed to create a global nation where the world's kids could design the future they want to live in.
OrCCCa: John Perry Barlow, welcome to ZineZone & Talk City!
SueDM says: Thanx for allowing us to drag you out of the recording studio to join us. What have you been working on all day?
JohnPerryBarlow: Well, actually what we've been working on all day is
reconsolidating the work we've done in the last week and a half. I've
been doing some songwriting. It's an outgrowth of the Grateful Dead, the band called Ratdog. It's leader is a guy with whom I've been writing songs since the 70's, Bob Weir.
Sherclout says: So you wrote for the Grateful Dead. How did you get hooked up with them in the first place?
JohnPerryBarlow: I got in trouble when I was a kid and sent away to
prep school with someone who was going to turn out to be a rock and roll star. It turned out to be Bob Weir, the resident guitar player of the Grateful Dead. He and I became one another's immediate best friend, and have been ever since.
_boo_boo_bear says: Who are your infuences in song writing and why?
JohnPerryBarlow: Gosh! My primary influence has been the Grateful Dead, because I was writing songs for them. I live in Wyoming, and all I get are country and western. If I was just starting out now, I'd probably be in Nashville. I listen to it almost exclusively now.... well.... wait, I do listen to just about everything. When I get a rental car, I look for the two best country western stations, a jazz station ...and then set the dial. But that's just me!
GClef says: What gear do you use to write music? (software, etc.)
JohnPerryBarlow: My head! My voice! Generally a legal pad. I sing ...
gr8fulded says: Have you been working with The Other Ones?
JohnPerryBarlow: Not to this point, but I've just spent the last ten
days working with most of the members of that band...so ... I guess so.
vanity` says: Are you a hippie?
JohnPerryBarlow: Absolutely!!! I'm unreconstructed !
Joeturk says: What's the Electronic Freedom Foundation all about?
JohnPerryBarlow: First of all... it's the Electronic Frontier Foundation. It's all about preserving human rights in cyberspace, whether they be rights of privacy or expression. Whatever human beings
might want to have sacred in that new social space.
Jamie35 says: Isn't it true that before any medium could flourish - be it TV, radio, movies - it not only had to grab the attention of the public but also attract sponsors? Perhaps if the net were a little more regulated - and thus more secure - it would attract more sponsors, commerce would grow faster, and the medium would develop even freedom is a nice thing - but perhaps it has its price? Do you agree?
JohnPerryBarlow: No. It has sponsors, I hate to say it ...but it's a foolish question. It has plenty of sponsors and growing exponentially . It has since the beginning. I can't imagine why this was asked.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
