Tag Archives: Op-Critical

Team Kimberlin Post of the Day

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Eleven years ago today, I posted about #BretKimberlin’s Online Music Reviews.

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If someone goes online to find out about your music, they’ll first find reviews by a blogger who doesn’t have much sympathy for you or your “art,” your PR strategy has failed.

Justice through music blogging.

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This morning, I did the same search using DuckDuckGo.The site has no comments and hasn’t been maintained since 2013. However, I did find the Home page amusing—especially its last sentence.Heh.

Team Kimberlin Post of the Day

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After over a decade of brass knuckles reputation management via lawfare and flailing around with dozens of websites, Brett Kimberlin can add these unpopular Internet domains to his list of failures.These are the lowest rated sites on the offshore server hosting most of Kimberlin’s web presence.

There’s probably not enough traffic on jtmp dot org and protectourelections dot org to justify their upkeep. It’s been suggested that not-for-profits with loose accounting can be used to launder offshore funds via donations. Perhaps an audit …

Actually, opcritical dot com doesn’t even have an active website.

And Brett Kimberlin is still the Speedway Bomber.

Team Kimberlin Post of the Day

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Op-Critical was the house band that Brett Kimberlin fronted for Justice Through Music Project. Some time ago, the opcritcal dot com web site went defunct. However, it the domain is now being hosted on the same offshore server as most of the other Kimberlin-related domains, but there’s no public website.

Team Kimberlin Post of the Day

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Op-Critical was Brett Kimberlin’s house band at Justice Through Music Project. It’s been defunct for several years now, but some of its music videos survive on YouTube. The band’s Myspace account is still live, but none of the songs were playable when I checked last night, and the op-critical dot com website is gone.We can put Op-Critical down as one of The Deadbeat Performer Kimberlin’s faliures.

Team Kimberlin Post of the Day

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Although Brett Kimberlin has had several sock puppet accounts on Twitter, he actually has one with his name on it. Here it is with both tweets that have been posted.Op-Critical was the house band associated with Kimberlin’s Justice Through Music Project not-for-profit. Like almost everything else he’s undertaken, the band was a flop—and so was his attempt to promote a song onto an album associated with one of the Twilight movies. The only tweets on this account point to the YouTube video for that song.

Say, I wonder why he was so interested in promoting a song aimed and young girls?

Team Kimberlin Post of the Day

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While tidying up some loose ends, I took an inventory of the Kimberlin-related websites that are still running. The following sites are no longer accessible.

op-critical dot com
indictbreitbart dot org
alightymedia dot org
occupyforaccountibility dot org
americancrossroadswatch dot org

The apparent reason is that there is no hardware connected to their IP address. These sites first went dark several months ago when their name sever was taken down. Now the server hosting them is gone.

Op-Critical’s account on MySpace (yes, MySpace still exists) appears unused and doesn’t seem to have links to any of the band’s music. At least some of their videos are still on YouTube.

Team Kimberlin Post of the Day

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Brett Kimberlin has failed at almost everything he’s tried. He got caught smuggling drugs. He got busted as the Speedway Bomber. He’s failed as a pro se litigant.

The TKPOTD for six years ago today dealt with one of the instances of his failure as a musician.

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Gentle Reader, do you ever wonder what the Dread Pro-Se Kimberlin does when he isn’t involved in vexatious lawsuit? He’s got himself a rock-and-roll band called Op-Critical. One of the sca … uh … promotions he’s attempted for the band was trying to get a performance by Op-Critical included in the soundtrack of the Twilight movie Eclipse.Op-Crit TweetsEar-plugsIt shouldn’t surprise anyone familiar with Op-Critical’s body of work to learn that Twilight Angel isn’t on the album. You can listen to The Dread Performer Kimberlin singing Twilight Angel on YouTube, but I don’t recommend doing so. Normally, folks with TDPK’s level of talent are advised not to give up their day jobs, but I’m not sure which causes more harm in Kimberlin’s case.

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Almost all of Kimberlin’s business entities show some sort of paperwork deficiency when you run checks on them. One exception is Actup Enterprises Inc. On 17 July, Kimberlin took the steps necessary to restore it to good standing status with the State of Maryland. Actup has variously referred to itself as an artist representative and as a record label.

The Actup Enterprises web domain is gone, but while it was active, it only listed one performer as an artist—Kelsie Kimberlin. BTW, her recent music videos appear to have ben produced in Ukraine.

Team Kimberlin Post of the Day

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The Dread Deadbeat Pro-Se Kimberlin has failed at a great many more things than his attempts to use lawfare to silence people who have written truthful things about him and his activities. He’s tried to make a go of using music as a tool for left-wing activism, and failed as The Dread Deadbeat Performer/Producer/Promoter/Protester Kimberlin as well. Consider this post from seven years ago today titled Justice Through Music Project, Soooper Promoters.

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Gentle Reader, I’ll bet you didn’t know how critical having their music on the Justice Through Music Project has been for so many recording artists. What follows is from a press release dated in 2006. The subject of Craig Gillette’s PR release was the work JTMP was doing to promote a Neal Young album. I really liked this bit:

Justice Through Music has been a pioneer for the past five years in using famous bands and artists to promote civil rights. More and more artists are coming to JTM to get out their political message, including recently, Pink, Eminem, the Dixie Chicks, and many others.

JTMP’s incorporation papers show a start up date in 2003 but I suppose that Brett Kimberlin could have be operating the organization as an unincorporated entity for a couple of years. He was released from prison in 2001.

And I’m gratified to know how JTMP was so helpful to struggling acts like Pink, Eminem, the Dixie Chicks. Who knows? Maybe one day Brett Kimberlin will put that same powerful soooper promotion behind his own musical career.

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It’s been over a year and a half since there has been any new material posted to the Justice Through Music Project website. Indeed, when Kimberlin put up a post promotion the most recent music project he’d been associated with, he published it on his Ukrainian site empr dot media.

Perhaps Justice Through Music and the band Op-Critical are now abandoned failures.

Team Kimberlin Post of the Day

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A commenter to yesterday’s TKPOTD asks if Lobotomy, the song in the music video referenced in the post, is a recycled Op-Critical tune. I believe so. Here’s a song list from op-critical dot com, the website for what used to be the house band for The Dread Deadbeat Performer Kimberlin’s not-for-profit Justice Through Music Project. Lobotomy is one of the titles listed.That website doesn’t appear to have had any maintenance for several years. All of the links are broken.

Team Kimberlin Post of the Day

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One of the most persistent wastes of Internet bandwidth inflicted on the Universe by Team Kimberlin is the op-critical dot com website that allegedly promotes The Dread Deadbeat Performer Kimberlin’s band Op-Critical. Seven years ago, I posted #BrettKimberlin and Op-Critical which noted … oh, I’ll let it speak for itself.

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Tuesday night, I posted a review of the CD released by Brett Kimberlin’s previous band Epoxy. His most recent music group is called Op-Critical. The band has a website, a rather stale one that doesn’t appear to have been updated for several years.

While nosing about the site, I found these lyrics as part of a song called Fork—

I am losing all control and I just don’t know what to do …

Yep, we are controlling transmission. If we wish to make it louder, we will bring up the volume. If we wish to make it softer, we will tune it to a whisper. We will control the horizontal. We will control the vertical. We can roll the image, make it flutter. We can change the focus to a soft blur or sharpen it to crystal clarity.

You have gone past the outer limit of what you might have been able to control, but the truth will bring clarity. But clarity may not be your friend.

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Yep. The result of The Dread Deadbeat Pro-Se Kimberli’s lawfare campaign of brass knuckles reputation management was that he lost control of his public persona.

Oh, and as for the op-critical dot com website, it doesn’t seem to have been updated since my post was published in 2012. Here’s a snapshot of it from yesterday evening.

Team Kimberlin Post of the Day

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This appeared in my Twitter Notifications yesterday—I went over to MySpace (yes, it’s still on the web) and checked out the Op-Critical (Brett’s most recent band) songs posted there. While I was able to see the web pages for them, I couldn’t get any of them to play. All were posted during the 2003 to 2012 period supposed to be affected.

BTW, the times played listed for every one other of the songs I checked were all the same. Karma seems to be catching up with The Dread Deadbeat Performer Kimberlin.

Team Kimberlin Post of the Day

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Lying liars gotta lie, and that explains the bulk of the nonsense that The Dread Deadbeat Pro-Se Kimberlin has put out in support of his lawfare. The TDPOTD from four years ago today cataloged this set of lies.

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Here’s an interesting claim from one of Exhibit 7 of The Dread Pro-Se Kimberlin’s omnibus opposition to the motions to dismiss his Kimberlin v. The Universe, et al. RICO Madness. ECF 231 EX7-9The SAC (that’s the second amended complaint) alleges that the mythical RICO enterprise began picking on Brett in August, 2010, although it doesn’t mention any specific acts occurring until October. So what sort of “social causes” was The Dread Performer Kimberlin “highlighting” before August, 2010? Well, in March of that year he was promoting teenage love with werewolves.Op-Crit Tweets

As for TDPK’s claim that he was unable to produce songs and videos after August, 2010, Freakin Frackin was posted to YouTube on 12 January, 2011; Occupy Music Video: Anonymous was posted to YouTube on 17 June, 2011; Coal Miner’s Family was posted to YoutTube on 5 December, 2012; and that’s not a complete list of TDPK’s work published online since 2010.

The most amazing things about Brett’s lying is how clumsy he is with it. You’d think that after all those years of practice, … oh, never mind.

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The Twilight Angel video is still up on YouTube. I don’t recommend listening to it unless you have a large quantity of industrial-strength weapons-grade ear bleach available.

The Gentle Reader who is familiar with The Dread Deadbeat Performer Kimberlin’s background may draw his own conclusions about why Op-Critical might put out a music video related to a movie targeted at underage girls.

Team Kimberlin Post of the Day

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As part of a continuing search to find a relevant cause that would motivate donors, Justice Through Music Project got involved with the anti-fracking movement. the TKPOTD from five years ago today dealt with part of that effort.

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Justice Through Music Project has posted another music video on YouTube. It’s a sorta/kinda cover of John Prine’s Paradise. It’s an anti-natural-resource-extraction propaganda piece aimed at the Keystone XL pipeline. In fact, the band calls themselves the Keystone Pipeline Kops instead of Op-Critical.

Now, if I were Brett Kimberlin, I would avoid having anything to do with any song from John Prine’s first album lest I remind listeners of other songs from that album that might have unfortunate references to drug dealing, porn, etc.

Sam Stone: “There’s a hole in daddy’s arm where all the money goes.”

Your Flag Decal Won’t Get You Into Heaven Anymore: “While digesting Reader’s Digest in the back of a dirty book store …”

Illegal Smile: “Won’t you please tell the man I didn’t kill anyone …”

Just sayin’ …

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The failure of The Dread Deadbeat Performer Kimberlin’s music career sounds like a real Dear Abby.

Team Kimberlin Post of the Day

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One of the claims that The Dread Deadbeat Pro-Se Kimberlin has made in his LOLsuits is that all of us bloggers writing truthful things about him have hurt his ability to write and produce his songs and music videos. As this post from five years ago demonstrates, some folks might view a reduction in The Dread Deadbeat Performers output to be a good thing.

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Brett Kimberlin fancies himself a great musician. (H/T, Kimberlin Unmaksked)

The term “delusions of adequacy” comes to mind.

UPDATE—Here’s a statement made by a Justice Through Music Project spokesman (not Brett Kimberlin) about the time this video was released:

We want videos that have staying power, that make a cultural statement, and that have an emotional component to them so that they will influence youth. Politicians spend hundreds of millions if not billions of dollars on ads to influence middle class America, and they basically ignore young people totally; and we feel like the music videos are like the cultural statements or the ads for young people, so we hope to get them involved and influence them to make the right decision in November.

Uh, huh.

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Kimberlin and Op-Critical really ought to do a cover of I Fought the Law (And the Law Won).

Team Kimberlin Post of the Day

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Here’s an interesting claim from one of Exhibit 7 of The Dread Pro-Se Kimberlin’s omnibus opposition to the motions to dismiss his Kimberlin v. The Universe, et al. RICO Madness. ECF 231 EX7-9The SAC (that’s the second amended complaint) alleges that the mythical RICO enterprise began picking on Brett in August, 2010, although it doesn’t mention any specific acts occurring until October. So what sort of “social causes” was The Dread Performer Kimberlin “highlighting” before August, 2010? Well, in March of that year he was promoting teenage love with werewolves.Op-Crit Tweets

As for TDPK’s claim that he was unable to produce songs and videos after August, 2010, Freakin Frackin was posted to YouTube on 12 January, 2011; Occupy Music Video: Anonymous was posted to YouTube on 17 June, 2011; Coal Miner’s Family was posted to YoutTube on 5 December, 2012; and that’s not a complete list of TDPK’s work published online since 2010.

The most amazing things about Brett’s lying is how clumsy he is with it. You’d think that after all those years of practice, … oh, never mind.

Team Kimberlin Post of the Day

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Gentle Reader, do you ever wonder what the Dread Pro-Se Kimberlin does when he isn’t involved in vexatious lawsuit? He’s got himself a rock-and-roll band called Op-Critical. One of the sca … uh … promotions he’s attempted for the band was trying to get a performance by Op-Critical included in the soundtrack of the Twilight movie Eclipse.Op-Crit TweetsEar-plugsIt shouldn’t surprise anyone familiar with Op-Critical’s body of work to learn that Twilight Angel isn’t on the album. You can listen to The Dread Performer Kimberlin singing Twilight Angel on YouTube, but I don’t recommend doing so. Normally, folks with TDPK’s level of talent are advised not to give up their day jobs, but I’m not sure which causes more harm in Kimberlin’s case.

Taking Sides

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I support Israel in its existential battles with enemies dedicated to its destruction. Israel is the only country in the region that is recognizable as a democratic state. It is at war with totalitarian thugs. In such a struggle, I support the democracy against the thugs.

Some folks seem to favor Hamas. Over at the Justice Through Music Project website, they’re headlining a video by Op-Critical called My Eyes.

In 2010, JTMP teamed up with musical-activist band Op-Critical and made the music video “My Eyes” criticizing the use of disproportionate force the Israeli Defense Force always uses against innocent Palestinian civilians. Four years later in 2014, the video still is relevant and needs to be reposted in light of the hundreds of civilians recently being killed by the IDF in the Gaza Strip. … Watch “My Eyes” below, and contact the Israeli embassy in DC and tell them to stop responding with such disproportionate military force in civilian areas.

If you can stomach the singing, you can watch the music video on YouTube.

Hamas has brought about the situation in Gaza. I’ve been amazed by the restraint the Israelis have shown. If I were going to call their embassy, it would be to offer my support.

Weaponized Music

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A Canadian industrial rock band called Skinny Puppy has sent an invoice for $660,000 to the U. S. Department of Defense. The band says its music has been played at the Guantanamo Bay Detention Center during the interrogation of detainees, and it is now demanding compensation. The band disapproves of its music being used for “torture.”

Here we have a example of foreigners doing a job that should have been filled by Americans. Why couldn’t Op-Critical’s music have been used?

On Copyright Infringement

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Some people seem to think that just because they can write a set of lyrics that fit the melody of an existing piece of music that that are entitled to use someone else’s tune. A parody of the original work might qualify under the Fair Use doctrine, but using the tune for the purpose of parodying something or someone else is a clear violation of the songwriter’s  copyright.

For example, Justice Through Music Project has posted a music video called Happy Springtime (Bush is Over). The music is clearly ripped off from John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s Happy Xmas (War is Over). Now it may be that permission was obtained from Lenono Music and Ono Music, the copyright holders, to use the tune. OTOH, I doubt that those music publishers would have agreed to the copyright notice placed on the video:

Music by
John Lennon
Lyrics by
Brett C. Kimberlin
Copyright 2007
BrettSongs / Innocent Music

The plain reading of that notice is that BrettSongs / Innocent Music claims a copyright on John Lennon’s tune.

Another example, would be some of the songs that have recently appeared on RadioWMS. I doubt that The End Of Music, Mj Twelve Music, or Primary Wave Tunes, the copyright holders of Smells Like Teen Spirit granted permission for use of the tune by Bill Schmalfeldt in Smells Like Groundswell.

Neither of these examples is a parody of the original song involved. When that’s the case, permission is required from copyright holder in order to produce a derivative work. I can’t find the words “Used by permission” on anything associated with those two examples. If the copyright holders were to take notice and legal action, the results could be very, very expensive.

Team Kimberlin Post of the Day

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Over the past decade, Brett Kimberlin has raised a couple of million dollars that have flowed through Justice Through Music Project and Velvet Revolution US. What has really been accomplished with those assets? Just how much impact do Brett Kimberlin and his “charities” have in the real world?

As we saw a couple of days ago, the Justice Through Music Project’s online petition drive against the Keystone XL pipeline is a dud. Has any JTMP petition ever had a net positive influence on a decision maker?

He doesn’t seem to have much of an effective web presence either. Here are the Alexa traffic stats for his main websites:dpk_sitestats_201305His site with the most traffic hasn’t been updated since 23 April. Even a bush league site like Hogewash! has significantly more traffic.

Velvet Revolution US has offered huge rewards for information concerning nonexistent crimes allegedly committed by Karl Rove and the NRA. Nothing has ever been paid out. Of course.

Op-Critical, the JTMP house band, has made a bunch of almost-but-not-quite mediocre music videos that lurk on YouTube; the most viewed of them is probably Exile which stars Brett Kimberlin reprising his imagined role as a political prisoner.

When Brett Kimberlin threatened “CPAC maggots” with a massive demonstration at BlogBash this past March, the best he could produce was one guy with a camera.

So how has any of this brought about change in the real world?

This is not to say that Brett Kimberlin and his cronies have had not any effect. Their lawfare and online thuggery have been bothersome to some people and devastating to others. One wonders how much of that two million dollars has gone into funding those activities.

We may begin to find out soon.

Stay tuned.

Team Kimberlin Post of the Day

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cameramanThe Justice Through Music Project house band Op-Critical has been putting out covers of old hits fondly remembered by baby boomers, For What It’s Worth and Paradise most recently. Now that they’ve got footage of a process server and cops that they can use, maybe they will favor us with their version of Indiana Wants Me. One of the members would be a natural for the lead vocal.

frontporch

Team Kimberlin Post of the Day

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Justice Through Music Project has posted another music video on YouTube. It’s a sorta/kinda cover of John Prine’s Paradise. It’s an anti-natural-resource-extraction propaganda piece aimed at the Keystone XL pipeline. In fact, the band calls themselves the Keystone Pipeline Kops instead of Op-Critical.

Now, if I were Brett Kimberlin, I would avoid having anything to do with any song from John Prine’s first album lest I remind listeners of other songs from that album that might have unfortunate references to drug dealing, porn, etc.

Sam Stone: “There’s a hole in daddy’s arm where all the money goes.”

Your Flag Decal Won’t Get You Into Heaven Anymore: “While digesting Reader’s Digest in the back of a dirty book store …”

Illegal Smile: “Won’t you please tell the man I didn’t kill anyone …”

Just sayin’ …