The Pirate Bay Sold!

http://torrentfreak.com/the-pirate-bay-sold-to-software-company-goes-legal-090630/

According to gaming company Global Gaming Factory X, it is in the the process of acquiring The Pirate Bay for $7.8m (SEK 60 million). The acquisition is scheduled to be completed by August and will see the site launch new business models to compensate content providers and copyright owners.

You can follow the discussion on TPB here:
http://thepiratebay.org/blog/164

from comment 35:

“The listed software company, Global Gaming Factory X AB (publ) (GGF) acquires The Pirate Bay website, http://www.thepiratebay.org, one of the 100 most visited websites in the world and the technology company Peerialism, that has developed next generation file-sharing technology. Following the completion of the acquisitions, GGF intends to launch new business models that allow compensation to the content providers and copyright owners. The responsibility for, and operation of the site will be taken over by GGF in connection with closing of the transaction, which is scheduled for August 2009.

“We would like to introduce models which entail that content providers and copyright owners get paid for content that is downloaded via the site” said Hans Pandeya, CEO GGF.

“The Pirate Bay is a site that is among the top 100 most visited Internet sites in the world. However, in order to live on, The Pirate Bay requires a new business model, which satisfies the requirements and needs of all parties, content providers, broadband operators, end users, and the judiciary. Content creators and providers need to control their content and get paid for it. File sharers’ need faster downloads and better quality” continues Hans Pandeya.”

It sounds like TPB as we know it will be gone. It’s, naturally, with the trial and all that, understandable and probably inevitable, but it’s still sad!

There’s a pretty good discussion here:
http://www.engadget.com/2009/06/30/pirate-bay-acquired-by-global-gaming-factory-going-legit-like-n
Here’s a good point by Marty K.:

Its pretty sad how TPB blog is trying to spin this buyout as all ado about nothing. Statements like

“GGF intends to launch new business models that allow compensation to the content providers and copyright owners.”

and

“If the new owners will screw around with the site, nobody will keep using it. That’s the biggest insurance one can have that the site will be run in the way that we all want to.”

are very incompatible. I can’t fathom a scenario where this dichotomy of ideas can produce a business model that satisfies both TPB users and copyright owners.

Truly a sad day indeed. Like a Metallica tattoo, and for the same reason, I’m glad I never bought a TPB tee shirt.

There’s now a good discussion on Slashdot:
http://news.slashdot.org/story/09/06/30/1233213/Pirate-Bay-Announces-Sale-to-Swedish-Company-For-78-Million?art_pos=2

Coraline

A great new animation released on dvd (and p2p networks) that is incredible. The first review of it I heard was: “A dark animation that ISN’T Tim Burton.” That’s true! It has elements of Alice’s Adventures Underground (the flowers, the talking cat…). The soundtrack has great clarinet, tuba and deep dark cellos. It’s as surreal as it is entertaining.

Coraline on IMDB

(Concise) New Music Reviews: The Decemberists, Camera Obscura, Röyksopp

The Decemberists – The Hazards of Love

So, I’m a big Decemberists fan but to my dismay they’ve reproduced much of the hard electric-guitar-laden sound that made parts of The Crane Wife unlikable to me. I miss the accordion-laden Decemberists of yore.  On this album, I really only liked the interludes and the song Isn’t it a Lovely Night but there seems to be a self-consciousness in it; like maybe it reminds me too much of Lou Reed’s pomp in I’m Sticking With You, I don’t know.  This album certainly reminds me of The Tain but lacking the clever lyrics, the segues and the charm.

Camera Obscura – My Maudlin Career

So fun! I adore their pop-sensibility and lyric-imagery. Full songs with violins, triumphant ooohs and decent drum fills. Beautiful ballads and gorgeous vocals. Their style hasn’t changed at all really over the years (save a fuller sound), but that’s why it’s good.

Röyksopp – Junior

I’m enjoying this album.  At times it reminds me of the band aRTIST oF tHE yEAR and at times Air.  There is some great instrumentation on this: violins on Röyksopp Forever. I think I’ll listen to this alongside the new Telefone Tel Aviv album which I’ve also been enjoying.  Tricky Tricky features vocals from Karin of The Knife and it is nice and dark (and bouncy) like a song by The Knife.

So the lesson is:  Bands, stop changing your sound!!!!!!!

Ha, j/k.

Film Review – Waltz with Bashir

Having finally seen this after hearing so much about it (It was all over the Bremen press when I was there and it’s been in the recent weekly magazine here in Asheville), I am almost too-overwhelmed to write about it. One can’t help making a comparison to Waking Life. I know, I know, all animations aren’t the same, but I feel like the interview format and the obsession with cognition and memory are shared themes in the films.
Waltz with Bashir takes us with a man as he tries to uncover his part in a massacre during the Lebanese/Israel war of 1982.

Quote about the memories: “It’s not stored in my system.”

Spoiler questions (i.e. don’t read if you haven’t seen the film):
Why are animations like this so much more appealing? Is it because we can have little segues and quick surreal flashbacks? Because we can see the ferris wheel and hot air balloons in the background? What about this makes it more moving? Does the “real” footage make it more powerful for you?
When it’s an animation, I think, we pay more attention to the sideways glances and the pauses of the “actor”… if it was live acting, we would be aware that the actor is aware of the videocamera.

Here is the film’s IMDB page.

Eats, Shoots and Leaves

Having just a week ago finished Lynne Truss’s masterpiece Eats, Shoots and Leaves, I still find myself in punctuation chaos when I’m writing essays. Here’s a question:

Is it:
Having read Lynne Truss’ masterpiece…
or
Having read Lynne Truss’s masterpiece….

This site suggests that we use the first whereas this New Yorker article practices the second usage.

The first site suggests that the s’ is modern usage. When do we stylistically, grammatically decide to drop the apostrophe in ‘fridge or whether an Oxford comma is wrong or not? Do the style manuals decide these things?!

Anyhow, I was taught that ’s was correct because you pronounce the S.
Doesn’t it look better as well: Truss’s?

———–
EDIT:

I found this from Eats, Shoots and Leaves that properly explains it:

Current guides to punctuation (including that ultimate authority, Fowler’s Modern English Usage) state that with modern names ending in “s” (including biblical names, and any foreign name with an unpronounced final “s”), the “s” is required after the apostrophe:

Keats’s poems

Philippa Jones’s book

St James’s Square

Alexander Dumas’s The Three Musketeers

With names from the ancient world, it is not:

Archimedes’ screw

Achilles’ heel

If the name ends in an “iz” sound, an exception is made:

Bridges’ score

Moses’ tablets

And an exception is always made for Jesus:

Jesus’ disciples

–Lynne Truss

Music Review: Philip Glass – Glassworks (1982)

Why review aged albums? Because they are still breaking ground over twenty years since their inception.
This album still moves me. Every piece is perfect and it moves along sometimes slowly, sometimes frantically!
From ‘Island’ to ‘Rubric’ is my favorite part of the album. I’ve been much more into the somber “Works for Solo Piano” but I can’t stop listening to this today.
I’ve always found the term minimalism hard to grasp, this seems quite layered and intricate; the timing and everything go, at times, almost maddeningly out-of-4:4…. and I like to think that the songs are predictable but if you listen closely they are not at all.
Find this album and think about your life maybe.
Thanks for reading. More to come about Philip Glass. I’ve been obsessing about him and the Magnetic Fields lately.

Film Review: Religulous

I just finished watching Bill Maher’s new film Religulous. Part religious-biography, part Moore-style documentary filming, this film had me really laughing aloud at a few points. I’m a sucker for his dry and sarcastic wit. What made me want to write about it was some exciting quotes by the U.S.A.’s founding fathers at ~ the 30 minute mark:

“Lighthouses are more useful than churches.” -Benjamin Franklin

“This would be the best of all possible worlds if there were no religion in it!” – John Adams

“Christianity is the most perverted system that ever shone on man.” -Thomas Jefferson

One could see that there was a bit of Zeitgeist-style comparative religion (the premise being that the story of Horace, and other gods after it, the story of the virgin birth, dec 25th birthday, performing miracles, death and resurrection etc — this was then used as Jesus Christ’s fable too). It wasn’t done as well as Zeitgeist but perhaps it’ll reach a larger audience? Anyhow, I’d like to say that Maher had easy targets (and he did), but these people he interviewed were, for example, an owner of a Christian paraphernalia store, an Imam in Amsterdam, a U.S. senator (!), etc etc. These were people who should know their shit. And through selective editing and the power of reasoning, these people looked infantile in their beliefs/faiths. I agree with the premise of the film, that religion creates and sustains much of what is wrong with human relations in this world. It’s a social ill and the world would be better without it – and for that matter, the world would be better with more lighthouses.

Here is the film’s imdb.
The film may be bought using that link, or rented from Netflix, or easily downloaded using your favorite public or private torrent site.

Review: of Montreal EPs–> Gender Mutiny & Jon Brion Remix EP

Gender Mutiny

Gender Mutiny is a tour 7″ with the following songs:
A Back To School
B Subtext Read, Nothing New

Back to School is a Royal Trux cover, and Subtext Read, Nothing New is slow, groovey and guitar-solo-laden.
Meh.
————-
Jon Brion Remix EP

1 First Time High (Re/Deconstructionist JB Remix Of “An Eluaridian Instance”) (4:03)
Engineer [Additional Engineering] – Greg Koller
Remix, Performer [Additional Instruments] – Jon Brion
2 First Time High (Of Chicago Acoustic Version) (4:34)
Producer, Mixed By – Jon Brion
Vocals, Backing Vocals – Kevin Barnes
3 Gallery Piece (JB Remix) (3:54)
Remix – Jon Brion
4 Gallery Piece (Long Version) (8:16)
5 Gallery Piece (Instrumental) (3:54)

THIS EP IS GREAT! Firstly, the remixes of “An Eluaridian Instance” are so well-done. Just blast it from your speakers!
From your bike:

I guarantee that after a few listens you’ll be addicted! Also, rotate it with “We Are The People” by Empire of the Sun and you’ll be bouncing, no doubt.

The first version of First Time High is my favorite but the whole EP is good. The acoustic version is nice. The terribly complex and maddening Gallery Piece just gets drawn out and more maddening – talk about mixed messages!!!! Wonderful. I’m a terrible reviewer, sorry about that; I just like writing posi reviews of rad things! Enjoy the music!

from Gallery Piece:
“you see that sculpture on the hill? that’s where she queer’d me out.. forever”
“can you clap your hands? clap clap.”

tracklistings from discogs.com

New Music Review: Nico Muhly’s Mothertongue

This is going to be more just words of praise rather than a proper review. Please give the track ‘Mothertongue’ a listen at either his myspace or his proper site. This music is recommended if you like Philip Glass, Rachel’s and at times Ben Kamen, Fruit Bats and Sigur Ros. It’s powerful music, varying and unexpected. Thank you for making such music, Nico.

Democracy Now! has streaming live video

Time was when we had to wait til very late in the day to dl or stream DemocracyNow! from their servers. If you didn’t have progressive channels near your home that picked it up, or if you missed it, you were out of luck. You could always listen to outdated news and the pertinent but often depressing interviews the next day but meh…..
Now, Democracy Now! is streaming live from 8 a.m. EST. And you can still watch/listen to interviews from yesterday. The site has come a long way! Great interface on the video player that shows you how many folk are tuned in. 450 people yesterday were watching it with me!