The Null Device

2001/5/22

Find of the Day: At JB HiFi in the city today, I found (for $6.99) a copy of the Doug Anthony Allstars' Dead and Alive live album, recorded in London in 1993 or so. It's very amusing. They should still have some copies.

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More press on the Universal takeover of MP3.com. WIRED says that MP3.com will continue operating as "an independent website". Mind you, the article also statest that Universal will fold independent-label MP3 seller emusic.com into its FarmClub.com venture. A look at the FarmClub website's terms of service reveals that artists' submitted tracks become the property of FarmClub, much like Recording Racket standard practice. Meanwhile, MP3.com's damage-control flacks have been putting out fires with a FAQ designed to allay fears; however, the mood in MP3.com's forums is one of gloom.

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UK General Election update: Following in the footsteps of anarchist funsters Chumbawamba and Marxist-Castroist popsters Manic Street Preachers, Welsh pop act Catatonia have approached the protester who egged the Deputy PM last week -- and asked him to star in their video. Meanwhile, the Monster Raving Loony Party have launched their manifesto, which is blank. Their reported policies include the usual silliness (moving school desks closer together to reduce class sizes), as well as thought-provoking ideas (such as turning Britain into a tax haven), in the finest Sutchian tradition.

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Recently, that font of Solomonic wisdom, the National Arbitration Forum, ordered AIMster to hand aimster.com over to AOL, as apparently AOL has the exclusive right to anything beginning with "aim". You see, when people see 'aim', they inevitably confuse it with AOL Instant Messenger, and allowing anybody other than AOL to use those letters would be a grievious injustice. In response, the people at The Register have claimed all domains ending in -ster.

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I went to Splodge tonight; they showed a number of films, all connected to either the Sydney or Melbourne Luna Park. Highlights were Fantasies of a Starving Artist, a psychedelic mid-70s piece about an artist named Martin Sharp, and Shirley Thompson Vs. The Aliens, a 1971 B-movie satire about a young widgie (i.e. Australian 1950s rocker chick) who is contacted by aliens, entrusted with a message of world peace, and ultimately committed to a mental institution by the local pinks. I get the feeling that the latter film's creators listened to a lot of David Bowie.

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