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Banksy print update

Some people have been searching for “banksy prints” to find my post about “free banksy prints” and I noticed that, in addition to the free stuff changing every so often, this message has popped up on the site: “Banksy does not sell photos of street graffiti or mount exhibitions of screenprints in commercial galleries” Seems like good information to know if you’re interested in obtaining some of his work.

there’s also has some interesting new video in the Banksy film page.

OiNK is dead, R.I.P. OiNK

I have no words to describe how the death of OiNK makes me feel, so I will share what some others have said:

Paraphrased Wikipedia: Copyright agencies described Oink as an online pirate pre-release music club; former users described it as one of the world’s largest and most meticulously maintained online music repositories. There were around 180,000 members at the time of closure and all of their avatars had to be cute.

“If you’re not familiar with Oink, here’s a quick summary: Oink was was a free members-only site – to join it you had to be invited by a member. Members had access to an unprecedented community-driven database of music. Every album you could ever imagine was just one click away.”

[Read the rest on: When Pigs Fly: The Death of Oink, the Birth of Dissent, and a Brief History of Record Industry Suicide.]

…and it wasn’t just me:

What do you think about OiNK being shut down?

Trent Reznor: I’ll admit I had an account there and frequented it quite often. At the end of the day, what made OiNK a great place was that it was like the world’s greatest record store. Pretty much anything you could ever imagine, it was there, and it was there in the format you wanted. If OiNK cost anything, I would certainly have paid, but there isn’t the equivalent of that in the retail space right now. iTunes kind of feels like Sam Goody to me. I don’t feel cool when I go there. I’m tired of seeing John Mayer’s face pop up. I feel like I’m being hustled when I visit there, and I don’t think their product is that great. DRM, low bit rate, etc. Amazon has potential, but none of them get around the issue of pre-release leaks. And that’s what’s such a difficult puzzle at the moment. If your favorite band in the world has a leaked record out, do you listen to it or do you not listen to it? People on those boards, they’re grateful for the person that uploaded it — they’re the hero. They’re not stealing it because they’re going to make money off of it; they’re stealing it because they love the band. I’m not saying that I think OiNK is morally correct, but I do know that it existed because it filled a void of what people want.

[the rest of the interview is on: Trent Reznor and Saul Williams Discuss Their New Collaboration, Mourn OiNK]

Disney cartoons, pretty girls, fair use and free culture?

How one Walt Disney Cartoon was made:

(Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs behind-the-scenes)

Here are a couple quotes from the documentary:
“…the thousands of pencil drawings go to the inking department. Here, hundreds of pretty girls…”
“The inked celluloids next go to the painting department where more pretty girls apply the final colors.”

Damn…Walt Disney was a bigger genius than I ever realized. Unfortunately, to some degree, we also have the Disney Company to thank for possibly being detrimental to cultural diversity. One can argue that a rich, continually replenished, public domain is necessary for continued artistic creation. Disney as we know it wouldn’t exist if the current copyright laws were in place years ago because many of Disney’s animated films are based on Nineteenth Century public domain works, including Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Cinderella, Pinocchio, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Alice in Wonderland, and The Jungle Book.

There has never been a time in history when more of our ‘culture’ was as ‘owned’ as it is now. And yet there has never been a time when the concentration of power to control the uses of culture has been as unquestioningly accepted as it is now. (pg. 28 of Free Culture)

Free Culture is a book about the social dimension of creativity: how creative work builds on the past and how society encourages or inhibits that building with laws and technologies.

get a digital copy of the book for free

 

And here’s a humorous, yet informative, review of copyright principles delivered through the words of the very folks we can thank for nearly endless copyright terms:

A Fair(y) Use Tale

the work that must have gone into this…woah.

13 most “important” 80s LPs of all time (according to mistersplice)

Because Jimi’s top 80s LPs of all time post has been getting so many hits lately I decided to share some of my eighties opinions. These are definitely not my favorite albums from the 80s though…I’m saving that for later.

These are the 13 albums from the 80s (listed in chronological order) that I think are the most “important”: the ones that were the most influential and had the biggest impact on pop culture. Feel free to point out anything that I may have missed…because I’m sure I missed something. And share your thoughts if you don’t agree.

AC/DC – Back in Black (1980)

Journey – Escape (1981)

Rush – Moving Pictures (1981)

Pink Floyd – The Final Cut (1983)

The Police – Synchronicity (1983)

Madonna – Like a Virgin (1984)

Metallica – Master of Puppets (1986)

Run-DMC – Raising Hell (1986)

Guns N’ Roses – Appetite for Destruction (1987)

U2 – The Joshua Tree (1987)

N.W.A – Straight Outta Compton (1988)

R.E.M. – Green (1988)

Pixies – Doolittle (1989)

(a response to Jimi and Christin. Also…I might have cheated with a few of these, but they didn’t seem to fit into my real “best of” list.)

Marry, Boff, or Kill?

My new work schedule doesn’t allow me much time for updates at the moment, so I thought I would share something that will help you pass the time between posts.

I first encountered this game on 30 Rock so I will mention their version first:

the 30 Rock game (and the original clip)

Watch the clip, but don’t expect much from the game. The choices are too limited and unfairly balanced…although it did seem like a calculated effort.

another version

This one distracted me for a while, but they really need to add more people. It created more groups of three that were tough decisions than any of the other games from the FMK wiki page.

The Encyclopedia of Life

“Comprehensive, collaborative, ever-growing, and personalized, the Encyclopedia of Life is an ecosystem of websites that makes all key information about life on Earth accessible to anyone, anywhere in the world. Our goal is to create a constantly evolving encyclopedia that lives on the Internet, with contributions from scientists and amateurs alike. To transform the science of biology, and inspire a new generation of scientists, by aggregating all known data about every living species. And ultimately, to increase our collective understanding of life on Earth, and safeguard the richest possible spectrum of biodiversity.”

And it all starts now. With you.

 

 

Another Giant Leap: Back to the Moon

One of the things that I’ve not yet mentioned on this blog is the fact that I’m currently working on several fiction writing projects. One of those projects is set in the near future after we’ve established some kind of base on the moon.

NASA has released a trailer of sorts that outlines their plans to return to the moon again. They’re really trying to make it as exciting as possible…it’s kinda neat:

The newest NASA animation about the constellation program.
The NASA Lunar Exploration Trailer in higher resolution.

Drugs: The Tripper, Shrooms and…Severance?

Severance | the Tripper | Shrooms

Psychedelic drugs already have a terrible reputation and it seems like the new trend for horror writers is to make it even worse. It’s bad enough that in some movies the characters hallucinate cartoon birds when they take cocaine, just to use one example. Unrealistic portrayal of drug-use is essentially lying and can only hurt society in the long run. The most dangerous drugs are already legal anyway, and demonizing the drugs that have the most potential to help the people of the world can’t possibly be a good thing. Maybe this is a new tactic in the war on drugs, but hopefully not…since the similarities with Prohibition and the futility of the drug war are apparent even to former narcs and police. (Sorry that I’ve gone a little link crazy with this post, but the topic has been a pet peeve of mine for quite some time now.)

(edit: this seemed too official to pass up-> Was Timothy Leary Right?)

 

Severance trailer

Severance starts out with a harmless enough drug trip, but the fact that horror-type things happen afterwards makes it almost like a Friday the 13th approach to sex…if you know what I mean. I liked the film overall and there was one scene (that they just about ruin in the trailer) involving Laura Harris (from season 2 of 24) with a shotgun that I thought was excellent, but a lot of the rest seemed like stuff I had seen before. The reviewers seem to like it a bit more than I did though: and why did they change the poster?

 

The Tripper trailer

Okay…I don’t know much about this one except the basic idea that “a Ronald Reagan-obsessed serial killer targets a bunch of hippies who are heading to a weekend-long concert”, but it seems to be continuing the thread I mentioned before. It’s David Arquette’s directorial debut though (and he supposedly did some “research” at Burning Man), so maybe the message won’t be totally counterproductive…and the fact that Jason Mewes is in it gives me even more hope.

 

Shrooms trailers (russian site)

I know even less about the movie Shrooms, but supposedly “a group of college students encounter tragedy while on hallucinogenic mushrooms” and with a premise like that it’s easy to imagine associations being made between tragedy and mushrooms (and if I’m sure of anything it’s that those two things should never go together.) The tagline, however, is “Get Ready to Get Wasted” and I have to admit…that’s pretty clever.

 

To continue the drug theme in this post I will leave you with something that I think is completely awesome: Kirsten Dunst believes the world would be a “better place” if more people smoked marijuana. I wish more people in prominent positions around the world had the guts to speak their minds when they disagree with the current system. I’ve already stated that cannabis is not my thing, but I think people should have the option if they want it. Besides…illegalizing nature just doesn’t even make sense.

Stardust

Stardust: official trailer | Stardust: casino implosion

exclusive HD trailer for Stardust

Stardust trailers on Apple.com

Stardust might very well be my favorite Neil Gaiman (text-only) book (I’ve not yet read Anansi Boys or Coraline) and I was originally excited that they were going to make it into a movie. That excitement has faded…from what I’ve seen so far it looks like the magic will be drained from the story in much the same way that I felt like it was drained from the first Harry Potter movie. I also don’t understand why they’re using some of the bigger names in the cast. I’ve never really cared for Michelle Pfeiffer (even in a catsuit!) and I can’t imagine that Robert DeNiro was very cost effective, but I guess I’m okay with Angela Chase Claire Danes and Rupert Everett.

 

Stardust Hotel and Casino

Meanwhile, in Las Vegas, there was a completely different Stardust that lasted from July 2, 1958 until March 13, 2007, when it was imploded. I might be biased, but WhileLasVegasSleeps.com has a complete video of the implosion and I think it’s the best one that I’ve seen. The actual event was way more amazing than the video could capture (the entire fireworks segment was like one huge finale) and you really just have to be there to feel the explosions, but click through for the next best thing.

Coincidentally, in the movie Casino, Robert Deniro portrayed the head of the Stardust, but the name of the casino was changed to “Tangiers” for the film. (We know it was really the Stardust though, don’t we?)