Digital technology for public services and communities

Excellent article on how technology can be harnessed to serve society in more a democratic way.

A dispatch from the trenches....

As you probably can tell I am pretty anti intellectual property law - at least in their current format. But just to show you I am not wholly biased I thought I would re-post something which is doing the rounds on the internetz at the moment. It is a blog by the front man of the alternative indie (in the true sense of the word - as opposed to the 'indie-Topshop-Carling TM' of the Killers and Kings of Leon) 'Future of the Left'. Which has, in turn, been turned into an advert and stuck in the Guardian this week by UK music.

Hats off to Falco: he raises some good points and is self-depricating - and genuinely funny - enough not to come across like Mr. James Metalicock Hetfield. I suppose it also has something to do with the fact that he is unlikely to actually make millions from his music - songs with titles like 'Fuck the Countryside Alliance' and 'Throwing Bricks at Trains' tend not to attract chart success - as well as the sense of genuine disapointment and frustration that one is able to detect in his open letter.

There is a part of me that does feel empathy for his position. Art simply does not pay for the vast majority of Artists. And so, when, as in 'the Future of the Left's case, their shiny new album and collective hard work has been wrestled from them and offered to all, for nothing, I can understand that you would feel like you had been robbed - and just to add salt in to the wound - by those closest to you (ie. fans who perhaps otherwise would have bought the record).

Addmitedly, ny criticism here from myself is probably misguided, this was simply a rant - an anomously addressed letter to nobody and all that has somehow become national news. But nonetheless, I am tempted to wage that all along it was a letter addressed to all rather than nobody. And so like a purloined letter it has reached its true destination.

It is this dialectic between nobody and all that I suppose on a very philosophical level all art addresses. Art is at once and the same time a purely subjective statement a compulsion that the artist feels and also a social offering in the fact that it is nothing if not heard by an other. It cannot escape this dialectic. If we return to intellectual property then I can't help but see this social dimension is ignored or at least chained to the shadowy index of market price. It is particularly revealing that half of the letters anger is directed at the fact that although it was ready, Falco didn't want to give it away yet. I suppose this is another one of the anonomlies that IP creates. Although all art is necessarily social it tries to limit or put a price on this socialness/ity. What the internet and, dare I say modernity today, discloses is ultimately the impossibility and absurdity of this.

Where does this leave us then? Well it obviously raises problems. Artists should neither live in poverty nor be considered something of a charity. At the same time we cannot handcuff Art to a conservative/rationalistic notion that it has a true value stemming from the cost of CD production. Similarly we should not settle on a romantic view of an artist as someone content to simply create for their own satisfaction. This leaves only one choice. That it can only be in the Social sphere where it is decided. All genuine progress in intellectual property has to be able to harness, or at least accept that this is it's determining element and where the future of the left really lies.

From tomboy schoolgirl to poker queen

I don't know why I even started reading this yesterday, perhaps because she was on Charlie Brooker's 'You Have Been Watching' and I couldn't work out if I loved or despised the woman. Regardless I should have been put off by the title (the admittance of a rather irksome middle class identity problem) and the subject (somebody with enough money, gambling and winning even more). But I read it and about half way through without realising i was absoutedly engrossed. By the end I was in tears. This is such a beautifully written true story, perhaps something of a modern day fairy tale even. Even though the story focuses on Poker, it's safe to say, its not really about Poker. It's about taking risks, grabbing opportunities. It's about when to be heartless and big hearted and about finding a line and sticking to it. It's about knowing where you come from and realising its importance. Most of all it's a remarkable tale which suggests a kind of fatalism but one sustained not by passivity but, rather, by making the right choices.

Girls - Lust for Life

Shiiiit. Can this band get any better. Just heard their new single. Probably the coolest fucking band in the world right now. Listening to this makes me feel like i'm 18 again and have just discovered the Strokes after 10 years of listening to Britpop on repeat. They are playing SWN as well. So Fuck Yerrrr!

My Plight

Sir Patrick Moore On Pop....

I watched 'The Sky At Night' a couple of weeks ago. I hope am like Sir Patrick when I grow up. He's interviewed by the Quietus on Music and Space right here.

My highlight is his views on Spiritualized

Sir Patrick says: "This was awful. Ha ha ha!"

What would be the long-term effects on the human body of living in zero gravity?

"Well, they're not too sure about that. Over a short period, it's all right. Astronauts have been on the space station for over a year and they're perfectly all right, but of course muscles are bound to deteriorate. That's one of the great dangers. If we ever went to Mars, people would be in space for many weeks and there are no hospitals up there. I don't know how our muscles would react. Over a short period, it's harmless, but the trouble is that we won't be able to find out until somebody tries it."

Do you regret never having gone into space?

"Me? Ha ha ha! It would take a very massive rocket to launch me."

Girls - Hellhole Ratrace

Single of the year.

Blakfish - Champions

On the topic of albums, just seen this is on Spotify too. Look past the terrible nu-metal local band name (also see my post below) and listen to the shred! 'Ringo Starr - second best Drummer in the Beatles is a tune'.

The Wrens - Meadowlands

You know when you forget quite how amazing an album is? Yeah, I have been totally doing this. I was looking for inspiration for my new musical project (yup another one, which I'm one song into) and found this on my Itunes. They sounds a bit like a poppier, happier, more endearing National being produced by Robert Pollard. Spotify HERE

Roberto Saviano

One of my favourite films last year was the Italian Gangster film Gomorrah. It was based on a book by Roberto Saviano's which uncovered the workings of the Camorra - one of the biggest criminal organisations in the south of Italy. He had to go into hiding after the book was released and now has 24 hour state protection because of the threats made to his life. This week he wrote an article for the Times about his life in hiding. It's one of the best things I've read recently - honest and introspective, it is a beautifully sad portrait of the changes he has had to go through and the difficulties he now faces. The little story about snow at the end of the article is particular heart-wrenching.

Intellectual Property and the Law - Fingers and the Dam

More ridiculous legal cases. Have judges had all traces of Mill and Locke erased from their memories!?!?

Now a judge in the US has ruled that DVD copying software is actually illegal. What may prove a landmark case claims that the software is in breach of copyright law. As a result an injunction has been raised attempting to stop the sale of the software with nearly immediate effect.

The key question is what does this really mean? First, I cannot see it having any real effect other than on RealNetworks' balance sheet. There are a million other programs out there - the majority open source, free/donationware on the internet which will be impossible to stop. Second, the legal ruling is purely aimed the software side of things. It does nothing to stop the existing right of consumers to make copies or backups of discs they own. In fact, a specific aim of the judgement was to ensure it is stil

"fair use for an individual consumer to store a backup copy of a personally-owned DVD on that individual's computer"

Again, in a weird and circular way, the law cannot get its head around Intellectual Property. Will this even make a mark on numbers of downloaded and shared DVDs? Absolutely not. It is merely putting a finger in the dam only to find a leak elsewhere!

Intellectual Property - Joel Tenenbaum's Trial

Joel Tenenbaum has been blogging on the Guardian.co.uk about his now famous trial for illegally downloading music (31 -mostly awful- songs). Apart from being a wonderfully written personal account of his own thoughts and experiences it offers great insight into several issues regarding intellectual property and the American Legal system.

Several issues strike me as particularly interesting about the case. Firstly it was not primarily a case that disputed 'the crime' that Joel Tenenbaum committed. He admitted to downloading the music, as well as to having a basic grasp of how it was potentially in breach of copyright law. Secondly, the case occured due to a snowballing effect which set in after Tenenbaum refused to initially settle the few thousand dollars the record companies requested. As a result the trial effectively wasn't to determine Tenenbaum's innocence/guilt but rather the precise costs and value of intellectual property. So, where as the record companies had to show a selection of costs that they incur for policing, protecting and holding on to music as intellectual property, the defence had had the task of proving that a previous model of copyright was now outdated, or irrelevent due to the industry advances and technology as well as show that is reality the costs/damages were -next to- nothing.

In terms of damages the defence main point was that Joel Tenenbaum wasn't, what is called, 'a seeder' - I.E. the music he downloaded wasn't again shared to others - he was merely a downloader. So, within what the RIAA views as an epidemic of global proportions, what really is the difference between the "1,000,000th and the 1,000,001st copy of Come as you Are being on Kazaa"? In these terms the question shifts: they asked, even if intellectual property was possible what was its maximum value. I.E What was the value of the theft? The answer is actually two-fold. As Tenenbaum in his blog suggests:

To them, millions; to me, 99 cents.

As such the damages that Tenebaum caused then can only be considered alongside the question whether it was he who was on trial or P2P networking!

Much more ambitiously to almost show that it is impossible for P2P networking and networkers to be on trial, the defence took aim at the very heart of intellectual property rights arguing that they are unconstitutional in their very nature. They argued, whereas stealing a CD IS theft, being able to listen to a song is in reality impossible to quantify. As Tennenbaum elegently argues:

imagine teaching intellectual property to kids. Teaching them that this song that you sing, which has no physical means, is property; that you can own a song

Leak of the Week..... #4 Wild Beasts - Two Dancers

I'm Back! First post for quite some time (blame banks, cricket and a relapse into laziness). I thought I would return with the weekly column that never was and whilst this is technically not a leak any more - it came out last Monday - it is certainly worthy of every inch of virtual ink this brilliant album has inspired.

The first thing that should be stated is that Wild Beasts are still the same band in terms of sound and song writing. Two Dancers offers refinement rather than overhaul. That said the album is more accessible, more complete than Limbo, Panto. From start to finish each song is linked by a common musical thread. Uber-clean, spangly guitars, muted drums and purring bass give the impresson of expanse and space; a landscape created with subtle reverbs and delay. The effect is total submerssion: it is an album that works terrificly well as whole, an album far beyond merely a collection of songs.

Within this landscape familiar the touchstones remain. There is delicate seduction next to camp contradiction and an impression of the theatrical as a mask for depth and emotion. Lyrically it is closest to Morriseys at his best and Queen at their most sombre. However what is brilliant in this album is how these influences are transformed by the new perspectives that Wild Beasts offer.

In terms main stream indie this is as good as it gets. An album that probably won't sell but will be on every critics list at the end of the year! Yup! Damn Good! Listen Here!

The Antinomies of Liberalism.......

INDIEBOYZ!!!1!1!!

Gossip in Academia....

Ian Parker's edited book on the work of Slavoj Zizek was the academic equivalent of a kick in the balls. All but two, maybe three, of the articles within were what can most accurately be described as rather cheap shots - they criticisied everthing from his scholarly validity and his style to his politics and even mental state. I have to admit, I was a little embarrased reading them and the frankly hilarious and fuming reply by Zizek himself which followed as the epilogue to an otherwise rather disappointing book.

Somebody said to me afterwards, when i was moaning about the book, that one of Zizek's favourite literary/philosophic devices was, what he labels, 'the short circuit'. This, in effect amounts to putting two conflicting/irreconcilable elements together and watching the (theoretical) sparks fly. Anyway, it made me reconsider the book slightly and become more open to the idea that, (PERHAPS!!) no holds should be barred when talking about philosophy and politics.

Ian Parker seems to have gone further to fully accept this method recently. Sometime last week this leaked (can academic articles leak!?!?!) on to the internet. In it he accuses Zizek of being a Communist informer in the dying days of the Communist regime in Yugoslavia, as well as a pretty jealous and self obsessed kind of person. It has caused something of a stir in the blogosphere. And everyone has been trying to work out if they are ironic lies, half truths, or just devices to mimic Zizek's own love of not letting the truth stand in the way of a good story. To make it all the more juicier Zizek has got all serious and posted a reply here.

Anyway, it entertained me whilst the football was boring me. Also if anyone is interested Parker's article is actually a very insightful critique of Zizek, although one I don't entirely agree with. Too late for that now though, i have to go to bed, so i can get up and then work for a bank. LOL!!!!11!1!

Breakfast at Sulimays

fuck pitchfork. fuck DiS. I got these guys.

..fanks Stereogum

Leak of the Week..... #3 The Field - Yesterday and Today

yeah, yeah, yeah 'i missed a week' blah blah blah 'this is already out' etc etc. Give me a break! I've been playing loads of cricket and i also went to the Great Escape for the weekend. Plus the only leak i got hold of last week was the Manic Street Preachers album. Which i couldn't write about because nobody wants to read about a shit album that sounds like 3 grown men desperately trying to remember what they were good at and why they were actually pissed off in the first palce.

This on the other hand is exactly 75294.302 times better than Richey Edwards half baked suicidal scribblings. Lots has been made of the Battles drummer's appearance, and although in a couple of places the addition of noticeable live beats does grab your attention it is in many ways very much a continuation and a natural progression from ...Here we Go Sublime. This however is in no way shape or form a bad thing and although it is slightly more obvious and less obscure than the first album it still has all the perculiarities and idiosycrisities that made me love Wilners music previously.

Great Escape Count Down!

Less than a week to go! Want to get excited? Listen to this. Spotify 'innit!

......thanks DiS!

Leak of the Week..... #2 Passion Pit - Manners

It seems like five minutes since the Chunk of Change EP spread across the blogosphere faster than swine flu across the globe. Yet somehow for Passion Pit (aka Michael Angelakos) this has been time, long enough, to write and record an album as accomplished as Manners. Whilst Chunk of Change EP, was something of a revelation - mainly due to Sleepyhead - I have to profess that I had the nagging feeling it was something of a one off. I'm not sure why, perhaps because the rest of the songs sounded a little too influenced by Postal Service. Whatever. I was wrong. Manners stands confidently on its own two feet. Yes you can still hear the Postal Service, but this is alongside New Order, MGMT, The Pet Shop Boys and - more importantly - the talent of Angelakos. Track recommendation? Folds In Your Hand. Sounds like it's been produced by FrankMusik.

Leak of the Week..... #1 Jarvis Cocker - Further Complications

I got home from work today (yes! I now have a job) and was immediately a little confused of to what I should be doing. Last week was a rather odd one. It flew by and I could barely keep up with it. Then, all of a sudden, everything returns to normality and I'm searching for stuff to do. Okay, I've got cricket tomorrow, dinner with a friend Wednesday, drinks Thursday and stag-do Friday, so it really is just something to fill this kind of boring Monday evening. So, as it rhymes and i've been wanting to do something like this for aaagggeesss, here is the first column (can i call it that, i'm not sure?) of my Blog. Leak of the Week.

Jarvis Cocker - Further Complications (Released 18th May 2009)

I loved Pulp, I loved Jarvis. Unsurprisingly I also love this. Brilliant, dry and cutting lyrics with that darkly humorous delivery that JC is famous for. The music is admittedly closer to his last solo album than anything Pulp ever released, so think heavier guitars, a bit blues, a bit punk. If you have to listen to one song get 'Caucasion White Man Blues'. Also best opening line to an album ever: "I met her in a museum of paeleantology, i'll make no bones about it...."

It's a shit business.......

Check this out. I love how stupid the music industry can be. Pay to play gigs. Pay to feature websites. Promoters who don't promote. The music biz' seems to have a disturbing habit to veer towards this kind of uninventive and desperate types of fishing scams. Yeah, it's a big pond, and yeah, there's evidently a lot of stupid small fry. But still, I'm not sure how magazines can act like this. It's like robbing from a church collection. Shame on you, Playground Magazine.

.....Thanks Viceland.com

#feminismfail

1. Art?!?!
2. Proud?!?!
3. WTF?!?!
4. LOL
   

....thanks to thrashhits.com for this....

Out of the Crowd Festival

Just got back from being driver/crew/skivvy to those Minnaars boys. Had a rollickingly good time despite some terrible weather and some of the most over complicated and confusing road labelling a bureaucratic goliath has ever been able to muster. Srsly! Most of the roads have three names and it seems that any one of those can change indiscriminately at any time.

The festival was good. Well looked after. Some awesome bands. These particularly.

Volcano!

Loved their two albums (spotify here and here). And they were phenomenally good live. Also, they have two of the best songs ever written (always helps). Check out Africa just Wants to Have Fun (it's like TVOTR doing Afrobeat and taking the piss out of Paul Simon) as well as Fire Fire (what Radiohead would sound like if they decided to spaz out).

Blakfish

I feel a little like i'm cheating the band by putting songs up on here because there live show is just something else (Not that their recordings are in anyway bad - just check out that Ringo Starr song on there myspace). You know those bands that when you watch they just have got something else. Yeah, these are one of those. One of the best live shows i think i've ever seen. Incredibly tight, incredibly energetic.

They are also responsible for this.....

...lulz

Matt Jones

I found out this morning that a really close friend of mine died in a accident last night. I'm pretty devastated and can't help but think about the futility of something like this happening. Apparently there's a press release somewhere, but i don't really want to read it because I'm sure it's as cold and sterile as a term like 'road traffic accident' suggests. I just hope he knew as little as possible about it and that he's somewhere better now.

I will always remeber Matt. I have so many memories of him permenantly etched into my past that it would be impossible to do otherwise and I feel genuinely honoured that many are the kind of that are reserved by the priveledge of friendship alone. Thanks for the priveledge Matt.