Category Archives: LiveJournal Imports

BRITS!

From an interview with Sleazy, in regards to his recent move to Thailand from the UK:

More or less everything (food, rent, utilities, transport, but not Apple Macs’) is about a quarter the price of the West especially the UK, so a modest Coil income goes four times further.

There are some things in Thailand that present problems though. The main one for me is that in the UK it’s easy to be motivated to do a lot of work (or a lot of very expensive ‘play’) since there’s basically nothing else to do! In Thailand there are a million beautiful ways to pass the days, so motivating myself to get things done there is much harder.

The England that I grew up in, which was an inspiration to me for so long, has changed a great deal and I am no longer able to see any good side to it. […]

It seems to me that now virtually all artistic endeavour in the UK is actually regarded simply as a means to an end; a means of obtaining fame, a lifestyle, a flat-screen TV, an Audi or the right flowers in the right pot. I’m including people starting up as musicians, artists and fashion designers, the people who will shape the cultural identity of the country in years to come. Nobody seems to be doing these things just because they are driven to, any more. So their work is compromised.

[On Downloading Music]

The debate of the relative merits of ownership of special things vs. the possession of special information will never die. I prefer the latter but Jhonn the former. To be sure, the experience of holding an object, especially a hand-made object will not be equalled electronically for many years. I’d like to think Coil are weeks rather than months away from offering our work as downloads.

303

Dr. Phil is such a fucking idiot. It’s amazing, I’m flipping through the channels, and this man is able to make me so angry, so quickly.

If I lived in LA, I’d be on my way to smash his Ferrari right now.

More Filesharing Stuffs

I received this email today from Downhill Battle:

Hey everyone,

This is a very important heads-up to anyone who’s a musician, or who’s connected to running a record label. The Future of Music Coalition is running a survey now, in partnership with the Pew Research Center, of musicians’ attitudes towards the Internet. Within just a few months, we could see laws pass that would start sending people to jail for filesharing. The major record labels lie to the public that they’re doing this to protect musicians, so right now it’s vitally important that the public hear what most musicians really think. The Pew Research Center is a respected institution, and when they release a study like this it makes news; you’ve got an opportunity here to make your voice heard. Take the suvey, and please pass this on to all of your friends who play music:

http://websurveyor.net/wsb.dll/11719/Music.htm

THE DEADLINE FOR THIS SURVEY IS APRIL 15th. For more information about the study, and about the Future of Music Coalition, check out:

http://futureofmusic.org/research/musiciansurvey.cfm and
http://futureofmusic.org/manifesto/index.cfm

The survey isn’t especially good. There are lots of questions that are rather leading. For example: “Overall, do you think file sharing on the Internet poses a MAJOR threat to creative industries like music and movies, a MINOR threat, or that it poses no real threat at all?” They exclude the increasingly obvious answer: that filesharing is a good thing for the independent/underground side of the music business because it’s breaking the major labels’ monopoly. And they don’t ask the question: “Do you want to see working parents and students going to jail for sharing music?” –which is an important question to ask since it’s on the horizon. But try to work within the limited questions to get your message across.

And again, pass this around to your friends. We’ve only got four more days (’till Thursday)!

Stuffs

I’m putting together a playlist on WebJay, which is a where you can link to MP3s available on the web, and…make…playlists out of them.

Yeah.

Anyhow, this is the playlist I’m working on. I’m looking for suggestions of industrial/noise artists or labels that offer full-song downloads, so feel free to leave a comment or three.

Ryan Malcolm knows what’s up.

Federal Heritage Minister Helene Scherrer has spoken. Although Justice Konrad von Finckenstein ruled against CRIA, she has decided to take matters into her own hands.

“As minister of Canadian Heritage, I will, as quickly as possible, make changes to our copyright law.”


Canada to Helene Scherrer: Suck My Balls.

The problem with this, of course, is that Canadian copyright law has been going through a slow and thoughtful reformation process. Since the unveiling of A Framework for Copyright Reform in 2001, a lot of progress has been made in updating the laws to reflect the needs and concerns of content producers, and the public domain.

Now, however, it seems that all of this work will be bulldozed by Helene Scherrer, who declared her intentions at the Juno Awards last night. (Public interest and existing law be damned, we’ve got businesses to cater to!)

If this bothers you, please contact the Copyright Policy Branch of the Department of Canadian Heritage at (819) 997-5638. It’s your country too.

294

A beautiful view of the Himalayas from the International Space Station.


Oblique view of the Himalayas, looking south from over the Tibetan Plateau.

At first glance, one might think that the image looks like a picture taken from an airplane, until you remember that the summits of Makalu [left (8,462 meters; 27,765 feet)] and Everest [right (8,850 meters; 29,035 feet)] are at the heights typically flown by commercial aircraft. The full mosaic covers over 130 kilometers (80 miles) of the Himalayan front, and could never be seen this way from an airplane.

287

I’ve now unloaded the last of the restraint.org servers from my home computer. For FTP users, you can connect to geekhaus.kicks-ass.net instead of the address you were using previously.

Soon, I will be able to format with impunity.

Longhorn, here I come.

Come home, Trent, all is forgiven.

Ten years ago this week The Downward Spiral was released.

Remember when — Trent with Pigface, back when he had only sold 5000 albums:

Happy Birthday, TDS. Hope the years are treating you well. I know Trent’s been cheating on you with Dave Ogilvie and S.N.F.U., but he still cares. He’s just got other interests, now. You’re still important to him, I promise.

Send money,
Love Jairus

PS: Tell Trent to fire his crappy band.