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 You could always listen to outdated news and the pertinent but often depressing interviews the next day but meh…..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!

The Pirate Bay turns 5 years old!

The World’s Largest BitTorrent Tracker, The Pirate Bay (.org) turned 5 this month!

The blog which announces the birthday
The legal threats page
Hooray!!!!!!!!!

Ever wonder what it would be like to surf the web in China?

Well now you can! Check it out; with this firefox plugin you can use a Chinese proxy and experience what it’s like behind the Great Firewall!
FUN!

From Gizmodo:

It’s no secret that the Chinese government censors web content, but what’s it like to actually be a citizen trapped inside the Great Firewall of China? A new FireFox plugin called China Channel can show you. It reroutes your IP through China, allowing you to look like any other digital Chinese citizen from anywhere in the world. Click on a banned site and BAM! You lose your browsing privileges for 15 minutes. But luckily, in this version, you can just reopen the browser with a newly assigned IP.

Get the Firefox plugin here:
http://www.chinachannel.hk/

The first image is when a particular site gets blocked.

A reminder: It may be a good idea not to log into insecure sites or use instant messengers. And it may be wise to stop your filesharing applications before using the proxy.

OpenLibrary.org Project! ‘One Web Page for Every Book’

This is a project that is working closely with libraries around the world to catalogue EVERY book that’s been published!  Take a look.  And you can even read the full text of some books:

(eg  Peter Kropotkin’s Mutual Aid) (my very favorite book ever written!)

OpenLibrary.org

and it is a project of Internet Archive.

new sigur ros video

http://www.last.fm/music/Sigur+R%EF%BF%BDs/+videos/16158783

hosted on last.fm

i like some of the live shots and in particular the violinists!

2600 – Last H.O.P.E. videos online

Some of the talks from this year’s 2600/Hackers On Planet Earth conference are online at:
http://hopetracker.donthax.me/

Particularly good was the Rambam talk, so do download and keep seeding!

What Capitalism Was – Songs for East German Accordion

Hey! I’ve just finished up an accordion EP! There is a cover of a Squirrel Nut Zippers song and also Mr. Sandman with only accordion. Help yourself to downloading it and do pass it on to your accordion-obsessed friends!
heart,
john catfish

Here is a link so that you may download it for free!
rapidshare

If you enjoy the album please consider donating whatever you feel appropriate to: catfish at riseup . net (no more than $3)

THANK YOU!
and if you want a tangible cd, drop me a line and I can send you one on the cheap.
xoxo

Happy Int’l KeyTar Awareness Day!

Yes, it’s a special day. It happens to fall on Memorial Day every year. But Happy Keytar Awareness Day! Today you may listen to Steely Dan or Asia patriotically at full volume and shamelessly purchase yourself a keytar on eBay.

Just be aware, that’s all we ask.

Review, Praise: MC Chris

Did you know there was a hip-hop genre called Nerdcore?

MC Chris has self-released a new album: MC Chris is Dead.
Besides being incredibly hilarious with segues, his style is super-smart.
It’s full of zombies!!!!!!!!!
and adult swim references!!!
This album has such pop-sensibility and dance-beats.
Every time he says the world “zombie” a creepy organ plays in the background.
Go and buy this album!!!!!!!!!!!!
He’s touring the northeast U.S. right now…
His sound is like a hip-hop Atom and His Package…