Happy Birthday, Yamaarashi-chan!

[elfs]

Yamaarashi-chan officially turned eight yesterday. Sicne I only had a few hours with her, we took her out to her restaurant of choice, Red Robin, where she ate corn puppies and fries and a big ol' birthday sundae, had the waitresses come over and give her a big birthday song that didn't require ASCAP payments (don't they realize how much good will they lose with that stupid policy?).

Omaha and I presented her with one of her gifts, a beautiful hair-tie that she's coveted every time we pass by the store where they're sold, although both Omaha and I struggled to figure out how to put it into her hair.

I also gave Yamaarashi-chan a collection of invitation cards, one for each of her friends at school. Since she doesn't live with us I only know the names of her school friends, and when I asked her mother for phone numbers or email addresses she said she didn't know any of them. The school wouldn't give out private information like that to just some guy over the phone, so this was my best shot at making that list. If just one calls, I can maybe start to collect contact info for the rest of them. But it all depends on Yamaarashi-chan remembering to take the invites to school.

She was very cuddly and joyfull, and I feel happy to have such wonderful kids.

It was raining total buckets when we finally dropped her off at her mother's house. By the time I got home, I could feel a headcold coming on hard over the indigestion I had because of my meal. I slept okay, but this morning I still am congested and low-powered. Bleah.

Comments

[creepingcrud.livejournal.com]

a big birthday song that didn't require ASCAP payments (don't they realize how much good will they lose with that stupid policy?)

Are you referring to ASCAP charging business for singing its members' songs to their customers, or the restaurant not shelling out for ASCAP?

[elfs.livejournal.com]

ASCAP charging businesses for singing its member's songs.

[creepingcrud.livejournal.com]

Ok. Does that bother you in general or for that song (which I will admit feels to be thoroughly in the public domain due to its ubiquity) in particular? The idea that a composer should be compensated for performances of his/her works seems reasonable to me, whether it's a single artist or a group of them acting together.

[elfs.livejournal.com]

Just that song in particular. Mildred Hill has been dead for 89 years, yet because her younger sister retained and repeatedly renewed the copyright (on a song she did not write), we're still living with the copyright implications. It's hard to argue that TimeWarner (which currently owns the copyright) is really still making a significant buck off of it.

They could win a whole generation's approval and good will by releasing it 25 years prior to the (extended and unnatural) end of its copyright (which was going to be this year until Walt Disney paid Sonny Bono a lot of money and got it extended for 25 years further, out to 2030).

But this is TimeWarner. They're motto is not "Don't be evil."

[creepingcrud.livejournal.com]

Ok, fair enough. I'll confess that I'm not too familiar with the legal history of the song; what you describe sounds fairly disagreeable, though. That said, I don't think most people would really notice it in terms of ASCAP or TimeWarner, as opposed to just thinking, "Hey, those restaurants that used to sing crappy versions of 'Happy Birthday' sing it properly now. Cool."

[mathochist.livejournal.com]

Why won't the school give you the numbers? They always give them to me -- for anyone who has consented to be in the school directory, which is pretty much everyone. Did you even CALL the school?

[omahas.livejournal.com]

Yes he did *call* the school. It would have been nice if you would have given us the information from the directory that you apparently have. But I guess it was easier for you to say no.

[mathochist.livejournal.com]

No, as I told him before, I don't *have* the directory, I lost it early in the school year. I've just called the school when I needed the numbers. The only one I had on hand when he asked was Kayleigh's, and he said he had that one. And I don't see why I should call the school and get the numbers to pass on to him, when he could just as easily call them himself.

I don't know why they wouldn't give him the numbers, they've never had a problem giving them to me.