Alison Neubauer
Jrn 400
Issues Story
1975
The reason University of Illinois freshman Edgar Solomonik couldn’t get onto the Internet one day in early fall of 2009, was because Warner Brother’s had caught him illegally downloading the movie Watchmen on the campus network. Solomonik said he knew it wasn’t a big deal but he had to have a meeting with the Associate Dean of Students before CITES would reconnect him to the network. This is routine and Solomonik is one of hundreds that get caught each year.
The Associate Dean of Students, Brian Farber said that he gets one to two notices in his email every day about students who have been caught. Last year, at the University of Illinois about 1,200 students were caught downloading illegal files, according to Chief Privacy and Security Officer Mike Corn. Corn works for the Campus Information Technologies and Educational Services Security Office. CITES provides the campus with email, online course management systems, file storage, web publishing and telephone services. The security office handles all campus security dealing with computers. Corn’s problems range from viruses and hacked programs to insuring information privacy.
“We do not do any active monitoring,” said Corn, in regards to catching illegal downloaders.
Illegal downloading is an issue all over the world and the Motion Picture Association of America and The Recording Industry Association of America are organizations that work to protect the property rights and First Amendment rights of artists. They work to catch people who are downloading copyrighted material for free. These organizations, along with other copyright agencies, are the ones who catch students and then notify the school where the offense took place.
These notifications are first sent to the security office who forwards them to Farber at the Office of Student Conflict Resolution. Conflict Resolution responds to conflicts and crisis on campus dealing with student discipline, mediation and responding to acts of intolerance. Illegal downloading falls under student discipline.
“We talk with them about it and give them a formal sanction, usually a reprimand for the first offense. We ask them to remove all copyrighted material from their computer and have them sign off on it on an acceptance of case disposition form,” said Farber.
Once the University gets a notice about an illegal download, CITES checks network traffic logs to verify that the complaint is valid. If it is, like in the case of Solomonik, CITES removes that student from the network immediately until the student meets with the Associate Dean. Farber then contacts the copyright agency that sent the notice to tell them that they are disciplining the student and having them remove the material from their computer. According to Farber, this keeps good relations with the agencies and keeps students or the University from getting sued.
In 2007, 78 students at Northern Illinois University were caught illegally downloading copyrighted material. When NIU refused to give the names of the students to the RIAA, NIU was told that either they give them the names of the students or they would sue NIU. So NIU gave the names. All except 34 settled out of court and cost each about $3,000-$5,000, according to an article in the Northern Star, NIU’s newspaper.
“If you were caught, your Internet wouldn’t let you on and somehow they would have a message from the Information Technology Services saying that you needed to go in and see them,” said Victoria Stanton, sophomore majoring in Psychology and Education at NIU. “You had to bring in your computer and if they found you had been downloading illegally they would make you delete all your stuff and possibly pay fines.”
Stanton’s roommate was caught and she knows that she had to delete all of her illegal programs but she doesn’t know if she was fined. Now that Stanton lives in her sorority house and isn’t on the campus network she downloads illegally.
“I have Limewire. I’m pretty sure it’s illegal,” said Stanton.
“If we didn’t respond in the way that we did I could cost you $3,000 that I could take care of with a conversation,” said Farber. “The RIAA look kindly on us.”
According to Corn, the security office gets notifications of copyright infringement from copyright agencies and the University takes discipline action from there. According to Farber, the minimum disciplinary sanction for the first offense is a university reprimand which stays on the student’s university disciplinary file for one year. After one year it is wiped off the record. More serious consequences occur if a student commits more offenses.
“It doesn’t happen often that people get caught again,” said Farber. If a student is caught again, though, they could be put on censure or conduct probation. If a student receives censure the offense goes on their record until they graduate and only if the student signs a release can others view the record. If a student receives conduct probation, the offense goes on their transcript until they graduate and if the student makes one more mistake it could result in removal from the University. Solomonik got a reprimand.
Corn explained the bandwidth limitation for downloading in residence halls. It is also outlined on the University’s housing website.
Whether a student is downloading illegally or not, “In a 24 hour period, you’re only allowed to download a certain amount. When you reach that limit your internet speed slows greatly to the point where it isn’t even useful,” said Corn. The limit depends in the restricted class the download falls under. There are three classes. The unrestricted class has no limits, unrestricted class A has a limit or 2 GB and unrestricted class B has a limit of 5 GB.
Solomonik, a major in Computer Sciences, was caught downloading the movie Watchmen in the Siebel Center and was caught once in his dorm, Illinois Street Residence Halls, when he changed his MAC address. MAC stands for media access control and is used for identification.
“I reset my MAC address three times in one day and I guess they noticed,” said Solomonik, laughing.
Solomonik said that Warner Brother’s had emailed the school and CITES disabled his Internet for a couple days until he met with the Dean. He got an email notice for both offenses. Solomonik said that he thinks that the University’s policies are fair.
“They made me sign a thing that I would delete all my music and movies,” said Solomonik, laughing, “like I’d delete all my music and movies.”
Kara Kopija, a sophomore majoring in communications at the University of Illinois, has been illegally downloading music and movies for nine years. She has almost 8,000 songs and 100 movies but doesn’t see her actions as illegal or wrong.
“I really don’t see it as illegal, I see it as file sharing,” said Kopija. “File sharing is just the same as back before CDs and DVDs and digital copies. People used to make mixed tapes on cassette tapes and people would copy movies on VHS and record TV shows. It’s the same concept, copying movies then was a copyright law violation but nobody cared because it was on such a small level.”
Kopija said that she would never download a movie, copy it to a DVD and sell it because she sees that as wrong. To get around bandwidth limitations in the dorms she changed her IP address specifying that she wasn’t hiding but rather just getting around the limits. She also said that she doesn’t know anybody who has been caught for copyright violations and all of her close friends download illegally. She learned how to download illegally from Google.
“I’ve never hacked anything. I wouldn’t even know where to start. But learning how to use and find hacked programs, I Googled it,” said Kopija. “You just Google it and it explains how to do everything. That’s how I learned to use torrents,” said Kopija. Torrents are file sharing protocols that are used to distribute data between computers, according to Wikipedia.org.
Despite knowing that there are consequences if caught illegally downloading, students still do it.
The Copyright Law, as stated on the RIAA’s website says “the Federal law provides severe civil and criminal penalties for the unauthorized reproduction, distribution, rental or digital transmission of copyrighted sound recordings. (Title 17, United States Code, sections 501 and 506). The FBI investigates allegations of criminal copyright infringement and violators will be prosecuted.” This means that making unauthorized copies of copyrighted material is stealing and breaking the law and the person could be held legally liable for thousands of dollars. The RIAA states on its website that piracy is stealing from song writers, sound engineers and label employees. On a global scale piracy costs $12.5 billion dollars of economic losses each year and there have been 71,060 U.S. jobs lost.
An analysis for the MPAA said that major U.S. motion picture studios lost $6.1 billion to piracy. Piracy of hard copies such as DVD’s cost 62% of the $6.1 billion and 38% was from Internet piracy. Most of the pirating was done outside of the U.S. being highest in China, then Russia, and Thailand. The report also said that the typical pirate age is between 16 and 24, is male and lives in an urban area.
Pirate Bay is a Swedish based website that is one of the largest BitTorrent trackers on the Internet. They were found guilty Friday April 17, 2009 of making copyrighted material available on their website and assisting in copyright infringement, according to the article on Digital Journal. They reported that the four members of the Pirate Bay team have been fined over $3.6 million, will spend one year in jail and it was ruled that it is illegal to use BitTorrent at the Pirate Bay site. People all over the world use this site and other similar sites such as Mininova and Isohunt to find torrents that allow them to download music and movies for free online. Downloading copyrighted material for free online is theft and therefore illegal.
Not only is this a federal law but it is also in the University’s Student Code so when a student is found guilty of illegally downloading content they have broken the Student Code.
The Student Code can be found on the University’s website. Section 1-302.n.6 states “abuse of computers where the university community’s interest is substantially affected, including but not limited to: the use of computing facilities and resources in violation of copyright laws.”
Student Legal Services said students can protect themselves by checking to see if the site has a restriction on use or an explicit notice of copyright before downloading. SLS also said that the RIAA and MPAA specifically target college students.
CITES’ website explains the three basic models for file sharing that students can get caught using. One model is called the system-native which is built into a person’s operating system on the computer for sharing within a local network. A second model is the most common. It is called the client-server. The content is stored in the server and sent to each user separately. A third model is the peer to peer. This is two users exchanging data directly between each other.
Farber stressed that illegal downloading is taken seriously on campus but is not a big priority. There are more urgent problems on campus which are on the forefront.
“We have honest- to- God dangerous problems, real physical emergencies. This is a white collar crime, like drinking a beer at Kam’s,” said Farber. “But we are educators. We want people to make good decisions. It is theft.”
Sources
Mike Corn
mcorn@illinois.edu
1-217-265-0588
Brian Farber
bfarber@illinois.edu
1-217-333-3680
Kara Kopija
Kkopija2@illinois.edu
1-815-207-3309
Edgar Solomonik
Edgar.solomonik@gmail.com
1-312-213-2943
Victoria Stanton
ensaladera@yahoo.com
1-847-431-5506
RIAA’s Website
http://riaa.org
MPAA’s website (statistic)
http://www.mpaa.org/leksummaryMPA revised.pd
Northern Star
http://www.northernstar.info/article.php?id=6519
Digital Journal
http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/271091
CITES
http://www.cites.illinois.edu/security/filesharing/
Student Code
http://www.admin.uiuc.edu/policy/code/article_1/a1_1-302.html
For torrent and MAC address definitions
http://wikipedia.org/
Monday, May 4, 2009
Saturday, April 25, 2009
court memo
Alison Neubauer
Jrn 400
Court memo
Court is very formal. People have to be dressed nicely, be quiet, no hats, no gum and no food. When the judge walks in everyone has to stand up. He leads and nobody talks unless he speaks to them. It’s very orderly and easy to follow but the language is new. They take attendance. For a class 3 felony you get a prison sentence between 2 and 5 years, a fine up to 50,000, and a year of supervision after leaving prison. A class 3 felony is something along the lines of having enough drug with intent to deal but not too much where it’s a large distribution. If you steal a considerable about of money, over 10,000 dollars it’s a class 2 felony. The sentence for that is 3-7 years in prison, up to 25,000 dollar fine and 2 years of supervised leave. A class A misdemeanor is something like attempt theft or endangering a life and the sentence is up to one year in jail, and up to 25,00 in fines. Maybe some community service. Every day there are arraignments at 1:30 p.m. That is the person first appearance in court where they hear what could happen. The circuit clerk is the keeper of the files. If you want a case you go to them with the number. They also put the schedule up online and it’s by court room. There is a docket sheet which is just an overview of what happened. A discovery is the exchange of information between the prosecutor and the defense. The courthouse is designed so that prisoners don’t mingle with the public. One half of the building is where the holding cells are and where courthouse workers go and the other is for the public. This is because it wasn’t very safe before. To find people and cases you can look it up on the circuit courts website.
Jrn 400
Court memo
Court is very formal. People have to be dressed nicely, be quiet, no hats, no gum and no food. When the judge walks in everyone has to stand up. He leads and nobody talks unless he speaks to them. It’s very orderly and easy to follow but the language is new. They take attendance. For a class 3 felony you get a prison sentence between 2 and 5 years, a fine up to 50,000, and a year of supervision after leaving prison. A class 3 felony is something along the lines of having enough drug with intent to deal but not too much where it’s a large distribution. If you steal a considerable about of money, over 10,000 dollars it’s a class 2 felony. The sentence for that is 3-7 years in prison, up to 25,000 dollar fine and 2 years of supervised leave. A class A misdemeanor is something like attempt theft or endangering a life and the sentence is up to one year in jail, and up to 25,00 in fines. Maybe some community service. Every day there are arraignments at 1:30 p.m. That is the person first appearance in court where they hear what could happen. The circuit clerk is the keeper of the files. If you want a case you go to them with the number. They also put the schedule up online and it’s by court room. There is a docket sheet which is just an overview of what happened. A discovery is the exchange of information between the prosecutor and the defense. The courthouse is designed so that prisoners don’t mingle with the public. One half of the building is where the holding cells are and where courthouse workers go and the other is for the public. This is because it wasn’t very safe before. To find people and cases you can look it up on the circuit courts website.
Monday, April 20, 2009
profile story
Alison Neubauer
Jrn 400
Profile story
1922
Mark Rubel arrived at Rosfest in Phoenixville, Pa. to find this annual progressive rock festival behind schedule by 3 hours. Despite his delayed flight, he hadn’t missed anything except for a long line of angry fans and workers waiting for the lighting man to show up. Star Castle, a progressive rock band from the 1970’s, were the headliners supporting the album Gary Strater, musician, worked on for ten years. Strater died of Pancreatic cancer 3 weeks after he finished recording it 2004. Rubel promised Strater he would help him finish and put out the record. A promise that by 2007, he kept. Now Rubel was front row at the concert in support of his best friend’s last album. Things did not go as smoothly as planned. The lighting man, who was bringing necessary equipment to run the show, was 3 hours late.
“The sound people were cool, the recording people were cool, the lighting people were good and the lighting guy was drunk,” said Rubel. The light show is an important part of a progressive rock concert. After trying to communicate with him, Rubel just gave up realizing that this man could not understand how he wanted the light show to be.
“They go on. The band is fine, the P.A. is fine, everything sounds great and it’s the worst lighting show in the world,” said Rubel, but they just dealt with it until the man started disrupting the performance.
“So they start to play this song, nice, calm acoustic guitars and stuff and I hear this sound from the lighting guy. He’s singing. Wait, he’s chanting. No, he’s swearing. He’s decided he’s angry at the band. So he’s yelling profanities over the music and throwing things at the band while they are playing. And I’m thinking this is the part of the show where I have to vault over the amps and wrestle this guy to the ground and end up on You Tube,” said Rubel. He didn’t have to do that because 8 cops came and arrested the lighting man on stage while the band continued to play. That put an end to the light show.
“That’s one of my favorite stories and I have a million others,” said Rubel.
Soft yellow light gently falls over antique microphones, new and old instruments, recording magazines, records, an analogue sound board, large shelves holding books, magazines and music and a large variety and quantity of sound equipment that has been collected over the years, decorating Mark Rubel’s recording studio on Taylor St. in Champaign. Pogo Studio has been around for twenty-five years. It’s couches, warmth, original equipment, comfort, and homeliness contrasts the majority of studios which are usually “frigid, air conditioned and just feel like outer space,” said Rubel. He is the chief engineer, the studio owner, the studio president, an accountant, a producer, a full time teacher at Eastern University, and a part time teacher at Parkland College. He writes articles for recording magazines, plays bass in a rock band, and is involved with many panels, committees and organizations. He has run art councils, been a booking agent, works as an expert witness for law firms and trials, is working on a new curriculum for music business and audio technology at Eastern and is on the producers committee for the Grammy’s. His free time is filled with work.
“I like to hang out with my wife on the rare occasion that I get to see her and the cats. And you know, go out and eat and occasionally see friends and family. But it’s a very hard working lifestyle and I’m really working 7 days a week, eighteen to nineteen hours a day, day in and day out, year in and year out. I don’t take vacations. I don’t have hobbies, but it’s something that happens when your passion is your living,” said Rubel.
Fifty years ago in Princeton, N.J. Rubel was born into a world of creativity. A majority of his time was spent in Champaign-Urbana, Ill. where he sticks close to his roots to this day. His father was a mathematician at the University of Illinois, his mother was a journalist from Denmark, his sister is a painter and graphic artist, his wife is an artist and animal rights worker and his half brother is a TV producer.
“I haven’t grown up but I’ve gotten older mostly in Champaign-Urbana,” said Rubel. His father went on sabbatical so they lived in France for a year when Rubel was 8. There he learned French almost fluently. They spent another year in New York, one back in New Jersey, a summer in California, a summer in Montreal, and lived briefly in Holland and Denmark. After graduating from University high school he got an English literature degree from the University of Illinois in 1979. Since he was twelve years old Rubel has been a musician, playing the bass guitar.
“I started this silly band called Captain Rat and the Blind Rivets as a joke in 1980 and we decided to keep doing it as long as it’s fun. It’s been almost thirty years and it’s still really fun,” said Rubel. “When you start a band when your twenty-two you don’t expect to be in the band long enough for the members to become grandfathers.” Captain Rat and the Blind Rivets just booked their annual gig at the Atlantis Resort in the Bahamas. They used to play 200 gigs a year but now they play about once a week.
Being an audio engineer hadn’t even crossed his mind as a possible career until he ran across a guy who was getting a team to put his studio back together and run it. Rubel had previously been working as a manager of this local arts council but when the offer to build the studio arose, he took advantage of it. The ramshackle white house sat twenty feet from active train tracks and for one hundred dollars a month, they had a studio.
“We took the minimal equipment that we had, wired it together and called it a studio,” said Rubel. “The 6 or 8 others involved were mostly electrical engineers that had jobs. I was a liberal arts guy and didn’t. I was playing in the silly rock band so I got elected to sit behind the council and run the studio.”
Having no training in audio engineering, Rubel learned everything by doing it or from reading about it. In 1983 he left this studio to start Pogo Studios in the same place it is today. He named the studio after his dog. Since then he has worked with mostly regional and local bands but also does projects for relatively well known people and major labels. He has recorded musicians such as Alison Krauss, Adrian Blue, Rascal Flatts, Ludacris, and Fall Out Boy. He produced Hum for RCA Records, Poster Children for Warner Reprise, Menthol for Capitol Records, various projects for Sony Records, the music for the 1988 Olympics and Jay Bennett from Wilco. He did live sound for Toby Twining so he was able to travel.
“I really like being able to travel and see other places. That seems to be where a lot of the memorable times come from. All these Bahamas gigs are great. That’s my vacation actually. I think if I had time and money to do it I would never go to a fancy resort with a casino. But this way I can rationalize it, I’m being paid. I have to be there, so I’m getting better at learning to be lazy,” said Rubel.
Aside from running the studio and being an audio engineer, Rubel is a teacher at Parkland College and Eastern University. He is finishing building a new studio and creating a new curriculum for a music business and audio technology program at Eastern. Dr. Tim Schirmer, a professor and the program director for music at Parkland, became friends with and boss of Rubel when he met him at Parkland in 1987. Rubel has recorded most of the projects Schirmer has done.
“He is wonderful, pleasant, helpful, meticulous, and a patient person interested in the world at large, and he is an excellent engineer and musician,” said Schirmer. “He has a real knack for making a tense environment very relaxed and always keeps his focus on getting the best result possible. He is a very nice guy.” Rubel has been at Parkland for 22 years.
The first word that comes to Stephen Fonzo’s mind when he thinks of Rubel is “nice“. Considerate, open-minded, talented and always busy follow. Fonzo is the media training advisor for the Independent Media Center in Urbana and read about Rubel before moving to Champaign from Virginia in 2006. Fonzo was transitioning to a new town. Rubel was from Champaign, knew everyone, helps the IMC by loaning them equipment and helped Fonzo meet people.
“That’s an aspect I’ve always been interested in, community. I’m kind of defined by a series of communities. I guess one of the things I’ve done that’s unusual for people in my area is I’ve stayed in a small Midwestern town and had a whole career staying in the town I originated from,” said Rubel. According to Rubel, he tries to encourage and help the musicians, advise, lend gear, help with WFT and IMC and anybody else. He is also part of a community of engineers/producers.
Rubel attends the annual Tape Op conference where engineers and producers get together. He meets many people from different places there. Greg Norman, recording engineer and electrical technician at Electrical Studios in Chicago, is one of those people. Rubel has also recorded sessions at Electrical Studio and stops by whenever he is in Chicago.
“He always has a new story to talk about but doesn’t waste time or air on small talk. He genuinely pays attention to people and is thoughtful in what he does and how he responds to people,” said Norman.
After recording with him and seeing Rubel at major recording events, Norman learned that Rubel’s creativity and layed back personality contributes to the positive mood in a recording session but also that he doesn’t steer the session.
“He allows people to do their own thing and he gets the best out of that,” said Norman. Norman visits Rubel whenever he is in Champaign.
“It’s really important for there to be a studio like Pogo in Champaign-Urbana. He has a variety of very nice equipment and he knows how to use them. It’s a place where people can record the old way with really good microphones, amplifiers and the space designed,” said Fonzo. “It’s an inspiring place.”
Inspired by his parents, Les Paul, Steve Albini, artists, musicians and writers, Rubel became a well known producer and engineer, instead of enlisting in the Army, with few regrets. If he has time he wants to get MBA, possibly go to law school, write a couple books, and travel all while keeping the studio running.
“If I had realized I was going to be doing this I would have wanted more training, taken more music theory, studied architectural acoustics, physics of acoustics, music history, studied abroad and researched. I would have been more hands on, doing stuff earlier, and been more self promoting earlier. You have to inspire confidence in people by having confidence in yourself. I would have taken more opportunities that came along. I should have taken every gig that came along,” said Rubel. “One thing I don’t regret is that I’ve stayed here. It’s been great.”
Sources
Mark Rubel
217-351-8155
pogostudio@sbcglobal.net
Tim Schirmer
217-373-3740
Tschirmer@parkland.edu
Greg Norman
773-539-2555
Greg@electrical.com
Stephen Fonzo
502-475-9289
fonzo.stephen@gmail.com
Jrn 400
Profile story
1922
Mark Rubel arrived at Rosfest in Phoenixville, Pa. to find this annual progressive rock festival behind schedule by 3 hours. Despite his delayed flight, he hadn’t missed anything except for a long line of angry fans and workers waiting for the lighting man to show up. Star Castle, a progressive rock band from the 1970’s, were the headliners supporting the album Gary Strater, musician, worked on for ten years. Strater died of Pancreatic cancer 3 weeks after he finished recording it 2004. Rubel promised Strater he would help him finish and put out the record. A promise that by 2007, he kept. Now Rubel was front row at the concert in support of his best friend’s last album. Things did not go as smoothly as planned. The lighting man, who was bringing necessary equipment to run the show, was 3 hours late.
“The sound people were cool, the recording people were cool, the lighting people were good and the lighting guy was drunk,” said Rubel. The light show is an important part of a progressive rock concert. After trying to communicate with him, Rubel just gave up realizing that this man could not understand how he wanted the light show to be.
“They go on. The band is fine, the P.A. is fine, everything sounds great and it’s the worst lighting show in the world,” said Rubel, but they just dealt with it until the man started disrupting the performance.
“So they start to play this song, nice, calm acoustic guitars and stuff and I hear this sound from the lighting guy. He’s singing. Wait, he’s chanting. No, he’s swearing. He’s decided he’s angry at the band. So he’s yelling profanities over the music and throwing things at the band while they are playing. And I’m thinking this is the part of the show where I have to vault over the amps and wrestle this guy to the ground and end up on You Tube,” said Rubel. He didn’t have to do that because 8 cops came and arrested the lighting man on stage while the band continued to play. That put an end to the light show.
“That’s one of my favorite stories and I have a million others,” said Rubel.
Soft yellow light gently falls over antique microphones, new and old instruments, recording magazines, records, an analogue sound board, large shelves holding books, magazines and music and a large variety and quantity of sound equipment that has been collected over the years, decorating Mark Rubel’s recording studio on Taylor St. in Champaign. Pogo Studio has been around for twenty-five years. It’s couches, warmth, original equipment, comfort, and homeliness contrasts the majority of studios which are usually “frigid, air conditioned and just feel like outer space,” said Rubel. He is the chief engineer, the studio owner, the studio president, an accountant, a producer, a full time teacher at Eastern University, and a part time teacher at Parkland College. He writes articles for recording magazines, plays bass in a rock band, and is involved with many panels, committees and organizations. He has run art councils, been a booking agent, works as an expert witness for law firms and trials, is working on a new curriculum for music business and audio technology at Eastern and is on the producers committee for the Grammy’s. His free time is filled with work.
“I like to hang out with my wife on the rare occasion that I get to see her and the cats. And you know, go out and eat and occasionally see friends and family. But it’s a very hard working lifestyle and I’m really working 7 days a week, eighteen to nineteen hours a day, day in and day out, year in and year out. I don’t take vacations. I don’t have hobbies, but it’s something that happens when your passion is your living,” said Rubel.
Fifty years ago in Princeton, N.J. Rubel was born into a world of creativity. A majority of his time was spent in Champaign-Urbana, Ill. where he sticks close to his roots to this day. His father was a mathematician at the University of Illinois, his mother was a journalist from Denmark, his sister is a painter and graphic artist, his wife is an artist and animal rights worker and his half brother is a TV producer.
“I haven’t grown up but I’ve gotten older mostly in Champaign-Urbana,” said Rubel. His father went on sabbatical so they lived in France for a year when Rubel was 8. There he learned French almost fluently. They spent another year in New York, one back in New Jersey, a summer in California, a summer in Montreal, and lived briefly in Holland and Denmark. After graduating from University high school he got an English literature degree from the University of Illinois in 1979. Since he was twelve years old Rubel has been a musician, playing the bass guitar.
“I started this silly band called Captain Rat and the Blind Rivets as a joke in 1980 and we decided to keep doing it as long as it’s fun. It’s been almost thirty years and it’s still really fun,” said Rubel. “When you start a band when your twenty-two you don’t expect to be in the band long enough for the members to become grandfathers.” Captain Rat and the Blind Rivets just booked their annual gig at the Atlantis Resort in the Bahamas. They used to play 200 gigs a year but now they play about once a week.
Being an audio engineer hadn’t even crossed his mind as a possible career until he ran across a guy who was getting a team to put his studio back together and run it. Rubel had previously been working as a manager of this local arts council but when the offer to build the studio arose, he took advantage of it. The ramshackle white house sat twenty feet from active train tracks and for one hundred dollars a month, they had a studio.
“We took the minimal equipment that we had, wired it together and called it a studio,” said Rubel. “The 6 or 8 others involved were mostly electrical engineers that had jobs. I was a liberal arts guy and didn’t. I was playing in the silly rock band so I got elected to sit behind the council and run the studio.”
Having no training in audio engineering, Rubel learned everything by doing it or from reading about it. In 1983 he left this studio to start Pogo Studios in the same place it is today. He named the studio after his dog. Since then he has worked with mostly regional and local bands but also does projects for relatively well known people and major labels. He has recorded musicians such as Alison Krauss, Adrian Blue, Rascal Flatts, Ludacris, and Fall Out Boy. He produced Hum for RCA Records, Poster Children for Warner Reprise, Menthol for Capitol Records, various projects for Sony Records, the music for the 1988 Olympics and Jay Bennett from Wilco. He did live sound for Toby Twining so he was able to travel.
“I really like being able to travel and see other places. That seems to be where a lot of the memorable times come from. All these Bahamas gigs are great. That’s my vacation actually. I think if I had time and money to do it I would never go to a fancy resort with a casino. But this way I can rationalize it, I’m being paid. I have to be there, so I’m getting better at learning to be lazy,” said Rubel.
Aside from running the studio and being an audio engineer, Rubel is a teacher at Parkland College and Eastern University. He is finishing building a new studio and creating a new curriculum for a music business and audio technology program at Eastern. Dr. Tim Schirmer, a professor and the program director for music at Parkland, became friends with and boss of Rubel when he met him at Parkland in 1987. Rubel has recorded most of the projects Schirmer has done.
“He is wonderful, pleasant, helpful, meticulous, and a patient person interested in the world at large, and he is an excellent engineer and musician,” said Schirmer. “He has a real knack for making a tense environment very relaxed and always keeps his focus on getting the best result possible. He is a very nice guy.” Rubel has been at Parkland for 22 years.
The first word that comes to Stephen Fonzo’s mind when he thinks of Rubel is “nice“. Considerate, open-minded, talented and always busy follow. Fonzo is the media training advisor for the Independent Media Center in Urbana and read about Rubel before moving to Champaign from Virginia in 2006. Fonzo was transitioning to a new town. Rubel was from Champaign, knew everyone, helps the IMC by loaning them equipment and helped Fonzo meet people.
“That’s an aspect I’ve always been interested in, community. I’m kind of defined by a series of communities. I guess one of the things I’ve done that’s unusual for people in my area is I’ve stayed in a small Midwestern town and had a whole career staying in the town I originated from,” said Rubel. According to Rubel, he tries to encourage and help the musicians, advise, lend gear, help with WFT and IMC and anybody else. He is also part of a community of engineers/producers.
Rubel attends the annual Tape Op conference where engineers and producers get together. He meets many people from different places there. Greg Norman, recording engineer and electrical technician at Electrical Studios in Chicago, is one of those people. Rubel has also recorded sessions at Electrical Studio and stops by whenever he is in Chicago.
“He always has a new story to talk about but doesn’t waste time or air on small talk. He genuinely pays attention to people and is thoughtful in what he does and how he responds to people,” said Norman.
After recording with him and seeing Rubel at major recording events, Norman learned that Rubel’s creativity and layed back personality contributes to the positive mood in a recording session but also that he doesn’t steer the session.
“He allows people to do their own thing and he gets the best out of that,” said Norman. Norman visits Rubel whenever he is in Champaign.
“It’s really important for there to be a studio like Pogo in Champaign-Urbana. He has a variety of very nice equipment and he knows how to use them. It’s a place where people can record the old way with really good microphones, amplifiers and the space designed,” said Fonzo. “It’s an inspiring place.”
Inspired by his parents, Les Paul, Steve Albini, artists, musicians and writers, Rubel became a well known producer and engineer, instead of enlisting in the Army, with few regrets. If he has time he wants to get MBA, possibly go to law school, write a couple books, and travel all while keeping the studio running.
“If I had realized I was going to be doing this I would have wanted more training, taken more music theory, studied architectural acoustics, physics of acoustics, music history, studied abroad and researched. I would have been more hands on, doing stuff earlier, and been more self promoting earlier. You have to inspire confidence in people by having confidence in yourself. I would have taken more opportunities that came along. I should have taken every gig that came along,” said Rubel. “One thing I don’t regret is that I’ve stayed here. It’s been great.”
Sources
Mark Rubel
217-351-8155
pogostudio@sbcglobal.net
Tim Schirmer
217-373-3740
Tschirmer@parkland.edu
Greg Norman
773-539-2555
Greg@electrical.com
Stephen Fonzo
502-475-9289
fonzo.stephen@gmail.com
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
profile exercise
The familiar grey crutches lay on the carpet next to the couch where the high school senior wrestler, Steven Neubauer, rests. He is recovering form his second hip surgery in 2 years. His buzzed blonde head stares blankly at the T.V. Sleep, T.V. and food will make up the next 6 weeks of his life. His mom brings him a try of food and without batting an eye, politely says "thanks."
Monday, April 13, 2009
Alison Neubauer
Jrn 400 lab
3rd beat article
828
Faint sounds of fast guitars, thunderous bass, thrashing drums, and a clamor of voices conversing or singing to their favorite songs seep up and out through the walls of the white house at 700 Illinois St. in Urbana. Through the weathered wooden cellar doors at the back of the house, down the creaky wooden stairs, a crowd of fans enjoy live bands in a small, intimate basement. Andrew Hajduch hosts punk shows here regularly, once every month.
The Copyrights from Carbondale, IL, who are currently signed to Red Scare Records, are returning to Hajduch’s this year to headline the upcoming show on April 24th. The Knock Down from New York, The Kobanes from the Chicago suburbs, Teenage Martians from Champaign and Kid Tim from Champaign form the rest of the lineup. The show costs $5 and doors are at 9 p.m. Fans of all ages are looking forward to another entertaining night.
“That show is going to be awesome. They did that last year too,” said Chris Li, junior at the University of Illinois. Li has attended almost every show at Hajduch’s since he began hosting shows in 2007.
Andrew Hajduch, a senior at the University of Illinois, uses his basement as a venue for local and some national punk bands. When looking for a house to rent, Hajduch said that he specifically looked for a house that had a suitable basement for his bands to practice in and to hold shows in.
“House shows are fun. I like picking the bands that play. I like to pick bands that I like, bands that I’m friends with, bands that I want to see and bands that I want to play with,” said Hajduch. According to Hajduch, the shows are for fun and to promote the bands.
“I try to keep the genre consistent. Punk shows. Mostly local, sometimes out of town,” said Hajduch.
Tim Janis, guitarist for local band Dizzy Chair Time, acoustic guitarist for his local solo project, Kid Tim, and senior at the University of Illinois, plays shows in Hajduch’s basement and likes the laid back atmosphere. He said that he likes having the chance to play with new bands and that it’s fun making new friends.
“I like Andrew’s place because there’s always something interesting going on, whether it’s that someone lost their porn or there’s a big fight,” said Janis. “There’s not a bunch of dick bags telling you when to play, what to play or where to play.”
In comparison to a larger more traditional venue, Li said that in Hajduch’s basement the sound quality is worse and there’s barely any space or ventilation but that’s the fun part. It’s a bunch of friends getting together, playing music and making inside jokes.
“It’s hilarious,” said Li, laughing. “You don’t get that at a large venue.”
According to Li, the biggest difference is that at Hajduch’s, people don’t have huge egos, it’s just friends.
“There’s a big difference between going to a Green Day concert with a bunch of 12 year old kids and their moms and going to Andrew’s and getting beer spilled all over me,” said Li.
There’s not much space to move, people scream to hear each other, it’s so cramped that the sweat on you isn’t just your own, somebody lights a cigarette as another stumbles through the crowd, beer in hand. Hajduch quit smoking and doesn’t sell liquor at these shows but he doesn’t mind what people do. He said that there are basically no rules.
Hajduch said that the shows usually last from 10 p.m. until 1 or 2 a.m. and an average of 50 or more people come in and out throughout the night. The cops haven’t been called yet this year, the neighbors and roommates don’t mind, according to Hajduch.
“It’s not like it’s going all night,” said Hajduch. “One roommate stays in his room the whole time, but they don’t complain.”
Hajduch, band members, and friends walk around town posting handmade flyers on coffee shops and venues. They also post announcements on Myspace and opening bands.com to get the word out about the next show.
By hosting these shows, Hajduch is not only able to promote bands that he likes or that he’s friends with but he’s also able to promote the four bands he is currently in. Those bands are Dizzy Chair Time, Fourth Grade Rats, Social Defiance and Teenage Martians. He said that he will continue to play in bands after college and keep music as a hobby but isn’t sure he wants to book bands for a living. Right now, Hajduch is the only person in the area who hosts these types of shows regularly.
“Andrew’s house is a big part of the Champaign-Urbana scene. Bands come to play and have fun and that’s something you need in a budding music scene,” said Janis.
Sources
Andrew Hajduch
Ahajdu2@illinois.edu
847-3617573
Tim Janis
Tjanis2@illinois.edu
847-609-7582
Chris Li
Cli20@illinois.edu
973-420-8243
Jrn 400 lab
3rd beat article
828
Faint sounds of fast guitars, thunderous bass, thrashing drums, and a clamor of voices conversing or singing to their favorite songs seep up and out through the walls of the white house at 700 Illinois St. in Urbana. Through the weathered wooden cellar doors at the back of the house, down the creaky wooden stairs, a crowd of fans enjoy live bands in a small, intimate basement. Andrew Hajduch hosts punk shows here regularly, once every month.
The Copyrights from Carbondale, IL, who are currently signed to Red Scare Records, are returning to Hajduch’s this year to headline the upcoming show on April 24th. The Knock Down from New York, The Kobanes from the Chicago suburbs, Teenage Martians from Champaign and Kid Tim from Champaign form the rest of the lineup. The show costs $5 and doors are at 9 p.m. Fans of all ages are looking forward to another entertaining night.
“That show is going to be awesome. They did that last year too,” said Chris Li, junior at the University of Illinois. Li has attended almost every show at Hajduch’s since he began hosting shows in 2007.
Andrew Hajduch, a senior at the University of Illinois, uses his basement as a venue for local and some national punk bands. When looking for a house to rent, Hajduch said that he specifically looked for a house that had a suitable basement for his bands to practice in and to hold shows in.
“House shows are fun. I like picking the bands that play. I like to pick bands that I like, bands that I’m friends with, bands that I want to see and bands that I want to play with,” said Hajduch. According to Hajduch, the shows are for fun and to promote the bands.
“I try to keep the genre consistent. Punk shows. Mostly local, sometimes out of town,” said Hajduch.
Tim Janis, guitarist for local band Dizzy Chair Time, acoustic guitarist for his local solo project, Kid Tim, and senior at the University of Illinois, plays shows in Hajduch’s basement and likes the laid back atmosphere. He said that he likes having the chance to play with new bands and that it’s fun making new friends.
“I like Andrew’s place because there’s always something interesting going on, whether it’s that someone lost their porn or there’s a big fight,” said Janis. “There’s not a bunch of dick bags telling you when to play, what to play or where to play.”
In comparison to a larger more traditional venue, Li said that in Hajduch’s basement the sound quality is worse and there’s barely any space or ventilation but that’s the fun part. It’s a bunch of friends getting together, playing music and making inside jokes.
“It’s hilarious,” said Li, laughing. “You don’t get that at a large venue.”
According to Li, the biggest difference is that at Hajduch’s, people don’t have huge egos, it’s just friends.
“There’s a big difference between going to a Green Day concert with a bunch of 12 year old kids and their moms and going to Andrew’s and getting beer spilled all over me,” said Li.
There’s not much space to move, people scream to hear each other, it’s so cramped that the sweat on you isn’t just your own, somebody lights a cigarette as another stumbles through the crowd, beer in hand. Hajduch quit smoking and doesn’t sell liquor at these shows but he doesn’t mind what people do. He said that there are basically no rules.
Hajduch said that the shows usually last from 10 p.m. until 1 or 2 a.m. and an average of 50 or more people come in and out throughout the night. The cops haven’t been called yet this year, the neighbors and roommates don’t mind, according to Hajduch.
“It’s not like it’s going all night,” said Hajduch. “One roommate stays in his room the whole time, but they don’t complain.”
Hajduch, band members, and friends walk around town posting handmade flyers on coffee shops and venues. They also post announcements on Myspace and opening bands.com to get the word out about the next show.
By hosting these shows, Hajduch is not only able to promote bands that he likes or that he’s friends with but he’s also able to promote the four bands he is currently in. Those bands are Dizzy Chair Time, Fourth Grade Rats, Social Defiance and Teenage Martians. He said that he will continue to play in bands after college and keep music as a hobby but isn’t sure he wants to book bands for a living. Right now, Hajduch is the only person in the area who hosts these types of shows regularly.
“Andrew’s house is a big part of the Champaign-Urbana scene. Bands come to play and have fun and that’s something you need in a budding music scene,” said Janis.
Sources
Andrew Hajduch
Ahajdu2@illinois.edu
847-3617573
Tim Janis
Tjanis2@illinois.edu
847-609-7582
Chris Li
Cli20@illinois.edu
973-420-8243
issues budget line
Alison Neubauer
Jrn 400 lab
Issues story budget line
Shelley Smithson
I’m going to explore the issue of illegal downloading of music and movies on campus and how authorities of U of I deal with the situation if the deal with it at all. I want to know roughly how many people illegally download on campus and how many are caught and if they are caught, what happens to them. I’m going to find out how they catch people. What the actual rules are about downloading. What the consequences are and do they differ depending on circumstances. I want to know who does the monitoring and who does the disciplining. I want to find out what the worst case scenario has been so far and what the standard situation is. I need to talk to people who have been caught and been punished, people who have been caught but nothing really happened to them and people who haven’t been caught. I want to talk to the people who monitor and catch people, people who do the discipline, find out about the federal law by going to the Urbana federal court, and maybe find out about how high university authorities feel about the situation. Is it even a big deal?
Jrn 400 lab
Issues story budget line
Shelley Smithson
I’m going to explore the issue of illegal downloading of music and movies on campus and how authorities of U of I deal with the situation if the deal with it at all. I want to know roughly how many people illegally download on campus and how many are caught and if they are caught, what happens to them. I’m going to find out how they catch people. What the actual rules are about downloading. What the consequences are and do they differ depending on circumstances. I want to know who does the monitoring and who does the disciplining. I want to find out what the worst case scenario has been so far and what the standard situation is. I need to talk to people who have been caught and been punished, people who have been caught but nothing really happened to them and people who haven’t been caught. I want to talk to the people who monitor and catch people, people who do the discipline, find out about the federal law by going to the Urbana federal court, and maybe find out about how high university authorities feel about the situation. Is it even a big deal?
Monday, March 16, 2009
thoughts about portraits of grief
In Portraits of Greif, the obituaries were basically written in the same style. They were short, to the point and aimed to sum up a persons life in about 200 words. What set each apart was what the author chose as their main focus about the person, the quotes and how they chose to use their words. My two favorite portraits out of the first 20 “N” were “Mildred Naiman: Thumbed Her Nose at Age” and “Peter A. Nelson: A Marriage Proposal.” In each of these stories the writer chose his words in a way that I really felt for the person and his family or I admired how the person lived their life.
In “Mildred Naiman: Thumbed Her Nose at Age” The writer chose to write about how Mildred loved to travel and get out and do things despite her age. I see a little of myself in that. It makes me think about how even though she died in an awful way before her time she still lived to be 81 and was still having the time of her life doing what she loved. It makes me look up to her. If I make it that far I too want to still be as energetic and enthusiastic as her. She didn’t die necessarily in a bad state of mind which is what makes this story lighter and a little easier to handle.
“Peter A. Nelson: A Marriage Proposal” made me think about how you have to take advantage of situations as they come because you never know what’s going to happen later. The way the story was ironic left me in a state of disbelief and grief. The very way he was saved the first time was how he ended up dying. It makes you wonder. The quotes used show how he would have been a loving father and the ending line leaves you speechless. Leaves you heartbroken that that he never lived to meet his daughter and how the first time she saw her father was at his funeral. The words choice really strikes a nerve.
What really makes the story are good quotes and words choice and arrangement. And if that isn’t great then a person with a really interesting story would catch my eye. Each person has a different story but it’s the writer that really captures their essence.
In “Mildred Naiman: Thumbed Her Nose at Age” The writer chose to write about how Mildred loved to travel and get out and do things despite her age. I see a little of myself in that. It makes me think about how even though she died in an awful way before her time she still lived to be 81 and was still having the time of her life doing what she loved. It makes me look up to her. If I make it that far I too want to still be as energetic and enthusiastic as her. She didn’t die necessarily in a bad state of mind which is what makes this story lighter and a little easier to handle.
“Peter A. Nelson: A Marriage Proposal” made me think about how you have to take advantage of situations as they come because you never know what’s going to happen later. The way the story was ironic left me in a state of disbelief and grief. The very way he was saved the first time was how he ended up dying. It makes you wonder. The quotes used show how he would have been a loving father and the ending line leaves you speechless. Leaves you heartbroken that that he never lived to meet his daughter and how the first time she saw her father was at his funeral. The words choice really strikes a nerve.
What really makes the story are good quotes and words choice and arrangement. And if that isn’t great then a person with a really interesting story would catch my eye. Each person has a different story but it’s the writer that really captures their essence.
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