The Null Device
2000/9/15
There's a good history of 4AD over at AtomicPop; who, are selling most of the 4AD back-catalogue as MP3 downloads. (You probably don't get the gorgeous cover artwork, and it is MP3 encoded (which may sound OK or may sound like crap), but it's probably better than nothing.)
I just read in the local street press that a film crew are shooting a scene for Anne Rice vampire flick Queen of the Damned in Melbourne this weekend, and want as many young people in goth uniform as possible as extras. Hmmm; all those goths in one place... anybody got some AUM?
(If you're a goth, my condolences; anyway, you may want to grab a copy of InPress or Beat if you wish to join the seething mass of spookiness.)
Tanya has a go at Kraftwerk:
"I change my website every day
[doot-doot-doot-de-da-doot-doot]
My weblog is the perfect way
[doot-doot-doot-de-da-doot-doot]
My weblog serves me very well
[doot-doot-doot-de-da-da-doot]
I use Shockwave and XML
[doot-doot-doot-de-da-doot-doot]"
Not surprisingly, musicians will probably never see a dime of the huge settlement Universal won against mp3.com (in the name of artists); it will all go to the corporation's coffers. Which has Courtney Love pretty pissed off.
I'm disappointed that the random Smiths lyric generator doesn't actually generate new Morrissey-esque lyrics, but merely gives fragments of existing Smiths songs.
I am listening to the 3RRR talkback programme, who are talking about the S11 protest. There has been a rather disturbing call in, from a young woman who went to interview protesters for her student newspaper, and was beaten badly by the police and hospitalised. According to her, the police (who were from some specialist division and did not wear ID badges, for "safety" reasons, ironically) specifically targeted women and weak-looking demonstrators, holding them down and beating them repeatedly. The police allegedly also threatened demonstrators with physical and sexual violence. The caller was beaten severely, sustaining concussion, and was only saved when a black-balaclava-wearing "terrorist" group named the "Black Bloc" dragged her to safety. She is now in hospital, with severe injuries, one of about 40 demonstrators who were hospitalised.
A legal observer from the protest movement just called in, claiming that the police removed their badges on Sunday evening, preparing for a bloodbath.
Another demonstrator called in confirming that the police were beating unarmed, non-violent demonstrators, Meanwhile, the media has either ignored police brutality or (in the case of the Murdoch press) vehemently denounced the protesters as "Communists", among other things. The Labor premier of Victoria, Steve "the Smiler" Bracks, has denounced the demonstrations as "un-Australian", (What is Australian, then; sitting in front of the telly with a bottle of VB and letting the professional politicians and power-brokers decide what happens in the world outside?), and saying that the protesters deserved everything they got. (A view that sounds more in place in Pinochet's Chile than in a democratic country.)
If these allegations are true, it is very disturbing.
An Argentine entrepreneur has set up an online business, amorios.com, which (for a fee) will provide alibis for adulterers, including tickets to bogus conferences and handling of telephone inquiries. Wasn't there something like this in the US or UK as well?
Genes vs. memes: A piece on Salon on an interesting-looking book, titled "Mean Genes", about how we are genetically programmed for certain behaviours, and how we can subvert our programming.