The Null Device
2000/10/8
Cyber-rights and such: The EFA and Australian Library and Information Association are having a forum on censorware and content regulation, at the Village Roadshow Theatrette, State Library of Victoria, this Monday at 11am-1.30pm.
Poppy Dixon's Adult Christianity site has a fascinating page about the interplay between Christian history, fashion and fetishwear. (Btw, do Catholics really believe that the Virgin Mary was impregnated through her ear? I haven't heard that one before.) (via Rebecca's Pocket)
Insert Wayne Kerr intro here: If there's one thing worse than that bloody busker playing on the train, it would probably have to be an entire teenage grunge band playing on the train. Some genius at Connex had the idea that live bands would attract more customers, and so they recruited a bunch of teenagers who could almost play Smells Like Teen Spirit (they got through the intro before fumbling and going onto another song). Their drum kit and amplifiers were set up in the aisle; being a Friday afternoon, this made the rest of the carriage considerably more cramped; and never mind the oldies like myself who aren't into three-chord yoof-rawk.
The most amusing thing was the gaggle of teenage girls standing in the aisle, watching the band and carrying on. Obviously they were not groupies, but were pretending to be groupies, and having a lot of fun doing so. Oh, the hypermediated postmodernism of it all...
Speaking of that bloody busker, btw, he was on the train again this evening, and since there was only one carriage open, there was no chance of escape. Maybe next time he asks for requests I'll ask him to play something likely to be outside of his repertoire; at the moment it's a tie between Anarchy in the UK and I Should Be So Lucky.
A somewhat trainspotty Top 40 gripes about High Fidelity:
1. We've been rock critics. We've met rock critics. If any of them looked like Natasha Wagner, we would still be rock critics.
7. He also mocks that guy for wanting to buy "I Just Called to Say I Love You," but his supposed noise band does a really crap Marvin Gaye cover for the sake of a pat movie moment.
16. They changed the setting but didn't bother to change Hornby's character names -- Ian, a girl named "Charlie," Penelope . . . all good sturdy Midwestern monickers.
(via Pearls)