IDN
posted by Unknown at 12:12 PM
Tuesday, November 30, 2004
Monday, November 29, 2004
jeansnow.net
jeansnow.net: "Thrills, chills, and happy pills from the Tokyo front."
posted by Unknown at 8:05 PM
Retro Kink Swinging Japan
cover: "the title translates roughly to 'young person's sexual song-with-animal-legs'. Sorry, I couldn't translate that last kanji. (1/15)"
posted by Unknown at 7:59 PM
Sleaze Science Fiction Covers
Sleaze Science Fiction Covers: "1976 The Year Of Terror
Busy Bodies
Coming Of The Rats
The Day The Universe Came
Father Of The Amazons
Flesh
The Mating Cry
Odd John
Pagan Passions
Sin In Space
Starship Intercourse
Time Trap
Those Sexy Saucer People
Virgin Planet
A Woman A Day"
Busy Bodies
Coming Of The Rats
The Day The Universe Came
Father Of The Amazons
Flesh
The Mating Cry
Odd John
Pagan Passions
Sin In Space
Starship Intercourse
Time Trap
Those Sexy Saucer People
Virgin Planet
A Woman A Day"
posted by Unknown at 7:57 PM
Rollin Japan
Rollin Japan: "I love POGURI, a one-page strip by Nakagawa Isami that appears in every issue of TOKYO WALKER. Remember to read from right to left."
posted by Unknown at 7:56 PM
Strong Bad Emails - 3 Disc DVD Set
Strong Bad Emails - 3 Disc DVD Set: "
AVAILABLE NOW!!! AVAILABLE NOW!!!
* A handsome boxed set containing three full DVD's featuring the first one hundred Strong Bad e-mails, with all of the hidden scenes and other easter eggs intact!!"
AVAILABLE NOW!!! AVAILABLE NOW!!!
* A handsome boxed set containing three full DVD's featuring the first one hundred Strong Bad e-mails, with all of the hidden scenes and other easter eggs intact!!"
posted by Unknown at 3:17 PM
Stash, the Monthy DVD Magazine of animation, VFX and motion graphics for advertising and broadcast
posted by Unknown at 11:34 AM
lacunae: announcing NaSoAlMo!
lacunae: announcing NaSoAlMo!: "announcing NaSoAlMo!
Yes, it's time for NaSoAlMo: National Solo Album Month.
November is NaNoWriMo--National Novel Writing Month, an exercise in writing a 50,000-word novel in the space of a month. Some of you may remember that I did it in 2001, and had a great time. So this year, with apologies to Chris Baty, I'm declaring that November is also National Solo Album Month: those brave souls who are up for it will write and record an entire solo album in the course of its 30 days."
Yes, it's time for NaSoAlMo: National Solo Album Month.
November is NaNoWriMo--National Novel Writing Month, an exercise in writing a 50,000-word novel in the space of a month. Some of you may remember that I did it in 2001, and had a great time. So this year, with apologies to Chris Baty, I'm declaring that November is also National Solo Album Month: those brave souls who are up for it will write and record an entire solo album in the course of its 30 days."
posted by Unknown at 10:04 AM
Crap Art: Album-A-Day
Crap Art: Album-A-Day: "Album-a-Day is a Crap Art project. That means that it's a set of constraints (the rules below) which are meant to help you be creative. There are no special requirements to participate, and no expectations of quality. Departing on the Album-a-Day project is a significant commitment of time, but I've found that it's pretty fun and rewarding!
To create an Album-a-Day, you record a piece of music following these rules:
# It must be written, performed, recorded, post-produced, etc. all in one contiguous 24-hour period (preferably with no sleep break in there).
# It must be at least 20 minutes or 30 songs. (many short songs tend to work better than long songs which drag on forever, trust me.)
# Your band may have multiple participants, but they should not work on different songs simultaneously. (So just one song being worked on at a time.)
# No ideas from before the chosen day! This means covers or reinterpretations are not allowed.
# No out-takes! If you start a song, finish it and put it on the album."
To create an Album-a-Day, you record a piece of music following these rules:
# It must be written, performed, recorded, post-produced, etc. all in one contiguous 24-hour period (preferably with no sleep break in there).
# It must be at least 20 minutes or 30 songs. (many short songs tend to work better than long songs which drag on forever, trust me.)
# Your band may have multiple participants, but they should not work on different songs simultaneously. (So just one song being worked on at a time.)
# No ideas from before the chosen day! This means covers or reinterpretations are not allowed.
# No out-takes! If you start a song, finish it and put it on the album."
posted by Unknown at 10:04 AM
Strange Horizons Fiction: The Great Old Pumpkin, by John Aegard
Strange Horizons Fiction: The Great Old Pumpkin, by John Aegard: "You must know, Doctor, that I did not choose to seek psychiatric help. I have no faith that I shall exit this room a healed man; I know now that I have been destined for the asylum since childhood. No mere conversation with you can steer me clear of that fate. That said, let us proceed with this court-compelled farce before my mad prattle provokes your crabbiness further."
posted by Unknown at 10:02 AM
How to never miss an episode with BitTorrent and RSS (pealco.net)
How to never miss an episode with BitTorrent and RSS (pealco.net)
I’m bad at watching TV. I always miss my favorite shows like The West Wing and Enterprise. I can never remember when they’re on and when I do, they’re already three-quarters through. My solution thus far has been to go to Suprnova and download the torrent. This, of course, requires that I remember that to do that, and then I have to wait three hours. Wouldn’t it be better if the morning after the show aired a high quality copy of the show sat sitting on my hard drive waiting for me to watch it? The answer is yes, yes it would.
I’m bad at watching TV. I always miss my favorite shows like The West Wing and Enterprise. I can never remember when they’re on and when I do, they’re already three-quarters through. My solution thus far has been to go to Suprnova and download the torrent. This, of course, requires that I remember that to do that, and then I have to wait three hours. Wouldn’t it be better if the morning after the show aired a high quality copy of the show sat sitting on my hard drive waiting for me to watch it? The answer is yes, yes it would.
posted by Unknown at 9:50 AM
Hack your way out of writer’s block
Hack your way out of writer’s block
I recently had occasion to do some…errr…research on writer’s block. Yeah, research. That’s what I was doing. Like a scientist.
I found lots of great ideas to get unstuck and wrote the best ones on index cards to create an Oblique Strategies-like deck. Swipe, share, and add you own in comments.
* Talk to a monkey - Explain what you’re really trying to say to a stuffed animal or cardboard cutout.
* Do something important that’s very easy - Is there a small part of your project you could finish quickly that would move things forward?
* Try freewriting - Sit down and write anything for an arbitrary period of time—say, 10 minutes to start. Don’t stop, no matter what. Cover the monitor with a manila folder if you have to. Keep writing, even if you know what you're typing is gibberish, full of misspellings, and grammatically psychopathic. Get your hand moving and your brain will think it’s writing. Which it is. See?
* Take a walk - Get out of your writing brain for 10 minutes. Think about bunnies. Breathe.
* Take a shower; change clothes - Give yourself a truly clean start.
* Write from a persona - Lend your voice to a writing personality who isn’t you. Doesn’t have to be a pirate or anything—just try seeing your topic from someone else’s perspective, style, and interest.
* Get away from the computer; Write someplace new - If you’ve been staring at the screen and nothing is happening, walk away. Shut down the computer. Take one pen and one notebook, and go somewhere new.
* Quit beating yourself up - You can’t create when you feel ass-whipped. Stop visualizing catastrophes, and focus on positive outcomes.
* Stretch - Maybe try vacuuming your lungs too.
* Add one ritual behavior - Get a glass of water exactly every 20 minutes. Do pushups. Eat a Tootsie Roll every paragraph. Add physical structure.
* Listen to new music - Try something instrumental and rhythmic that you’ve never heard before. Put it on repeat, then stop fiddling with iTunes until your draft is done.
* Write crap - Accept that your first draft will suck, and just go with it. Finish something.
* Unplug the router - Metafilter and Boing Boing aren’t helping you right now. Turn off the Interweb and close every application you don’t need. Consider creating a new user account on your computer with none of your familiar apps or configurations.
* Write the middle - Stop whining over a perfect lead, and write the next part or the part after that. Write your favorite part. Write the cover letter or email you’ll send when it’s done.
* Do one chore - Sweep the floor or take out the recycling. Try something lightly physical to remind you that you know how to do things.
* Make a pointless rule - You can’t end sentences with words that begin with a vowel. Or you can’t have more than one word over eight letters in any paragraph. Limits create focus and change your perspective.
* Work on the title - Quickly make up five distinctly different titles. Meditate on them. What bugs you about the one you like least?
* Write five words - Literally. Put five completley random words on a piece of paper. Write five more words. Try a sentence. Could be about anything. A block ends when you start making words on a page.
I recently had occasion to do some…errr…research on writer’s block. Yeah, research. That’s what I was doing. Like a scientist.
I found lots of great ideas to get unstuck and wrote the best ones on index cards to create an Oblique Strategies-like deck. Swipe, share, and add you own in comments.
* Talk to a monkey - Explain what you’re really trying to say to a stuffed animal or cardboard cutout.
* Do something important that’s very easy - Is there a small part of your project you could finish quickly that would move things forward?
* Try freewriting - Sit down and write anything for an arbitrary period of time—say, 10 minutes to start. Don’t stop, no matter what. Cover the monitor with a manila folder if you have to. Keep writing, even if you know what you're typing is gibberish, full of misspellings, and grammatically psychopathic. Get your hand moving and your brain will think it’s writing. Which it is. See?
* Take a walk - Get out of your writing brain for 10 minutes. Think about bunnies. Breathe.
* Take a shower; change clothes - Give yourself a truly clean start.
* Write from a persona - Lend your voice to a writing personality who isn’t you. Doesn’t have to be a pirate or anything—just try seeing your topic from someone else’s perspective, style, and interest.
* Get away from the computer; Write someplace new - If you’ve been staring at the screen and nothing is happening, walk away. Shut down the computer. Take one pen and one notebook, and go somewhere new.
* Quit beating yourself up - You can’t create when you feel ass-whipped. Stop visualizing catastrophes, and focus on positive outcomes.
* Stretch - Maybe try vacuuming your lungs too.
* Add one ritual behavior - Get a glass of water exactly every 20 minutes. Do pushups. Eat a Tootsie Roll every paragraph. Add physical structure.
* Listen to new music - Try something instrumental and rhythmic that you’ve never heard before. Put it on repeat, then stop fiddling with iTunes until your draft is done.
* Write crap - Accept that your first draft will suck, and just go with it. Finish something.
* Unplug the router - Metafilter and Boing Boing aren’t helping you right now. Turn off the Interweb and close every application you don’t need. Consider creating a new user account on your computer with none of your familiar apps or configurations.
* Write the middle - Stop whining over a perfect lead, and write the next part or the part after that. Write your favorite part. Write the cover letter or email you’ll send when it’s done.
* Do one chore - Sweep the floor or take out the recycling. Try something lightly physical to remind you that you know how to do things.
* Make a pointless rule - You can’t end sentences with words that begin with a vowel. Or you can’t have more than one word over eight letters in any paragraph. Limits create focus and change your perspective.
* Work on the title - Quickly make up five distinctly different titles. Meditate on them. What bugs you about the one you like least?
* Write five words - Literally. Put five completley random words on a piece of paper. Write five more words. Try a sentence. Could be about anything. A block ends when you start making words on a page.
posted by Unknown at 9:38 AM
Crown Dozen
Crown Dozen
I’ve got a crush on the work of Yumiko Kayukawa.
Her paintings have an immediate appeal- candy-coated colors, the playfully erotic poses of her subjects, the striking kanji text and the inclusion of random members of the animal kingdom amidst it all are a formula the eye cannot resist. These images have incredible staying power as well; the bright colors and simple lines burn into your retina, and Yumiko’s characters become fixed in the mind, unshakable. Her mixture of pop fashion, punky attitude, and manga sensibility form a dreamy kind of brilliance that is hard not to fall in love with. I’m not alone in my crush. To date, Yumiko has produced over 100 paintings and has sold every single one of them. Even now, buyers are lined up around the block, hoping to bring home a taste of sweet Yumiko.
I’ve got a crush on the work of Yumiko Kayukawa.
Her paintings have an immediate appeal- candy-coated colors, the playfully erotic poses of her subjects, the striking kanji text and the inclusion of random members of the animal kingdom amidst it all are a formula the eye cannot resist. These images have incredible staying power as well; the bright colors and simple lines burn into your retina, and Yumiko’s characters become fixed in the mind, unshakable. Her mixture of pop fashion, punky attitude, and manga sensibility form a dreamy kind of brilliance that is hard not to fall in love with. I’m not alone in my crush. To date, Yumiko has produced over 100 paintings and has sold every single one of them. Even now, buyers are lined up around the block, hoping to bring home a taste of sweet Yumiko.
posted by Unknown at 9:31 AM
Sunday, November 28, 2004
Blog Torrent - Simplified bittorrent by Downhill Battle
Blog Torrent - Simplified bittorrent by Downhill Battle: "Blog Torrent
A greatly simplified bittorrent experience from Downhill Battle.
Donate!
Downhill Battle is a non-profit organization. We need support to keep working on Blog Torrent: fixing bugs, adding features, managing the project, and improving the interface. (See our priority features below.)
Note: You don't need a paypal account to donate with a credit card.
Develop!
Join the Blog Torrent developer team. Check out the sourceforge page and get on the mailing list.
Nov 23: Preview Version 0.8 Released
Download Blog Torrent - For any website with PHP (help).
How it Works - A quick intro for techies & non-techies.
Live Demo - Try it out. If you've got Windows, the 'upload' feature is what it's all about. Seriously, try it!
What is Blog Torrent?
Blog Torrent is software that makes it much easier to share and download files using the bittorrent protocol. Blog Torrent is easy to install on your website: we don't use MySQL so installation is as easy as uploading a folder to your web host, and all administration happens in the web interface. Blog Torrent is easy for users: even if they don't know what bittorrent is, they get an installer that downloads the file they want. But most of all, Blog Torrent makes publishing with bittorrent painless. Just click 'upload', pick a file, and you're done. This is our preview release and it has a lot of bugs and rough edges... but we're smoothing them out for the next version, so stay tuned.
Why does Blog Torrent matter?
Making it easy to blog large video files means that people can share their home movies the same way they share their photos or writings. It lets people create vast networks of truly peer-to-peer video content-- video that was made by individuals and shared with individuals, no bandwidth budget or distribution deal needed. Does this mean that we can do for television what blogs have done for news? Let's find out...
Why use Blog Torrent on your blog or website?
1. It lets you post video or other large files as easily as you post text.
2. Installing Blog Torrent is as easy as uploading a photo to your website or blog.
3. Blog Torrent is the one bittorrent tracker that won't confuse your users.
4. It publishes an RSS feed of all your torrents.
Why use Blog Torrent on your computer?
1. Lets you publish large files to your website or any other Blog Torrent site.
2. It's hands-down the easiest way to publish using bittorrent (normally a huge hassle).
3. Because you have no idea what the hell bittorrent is, but you clicked on a link and the file you wanted started downloading right away.
Why help develop Blog Torrent?
1. Because it needs to get smoother and prettier.
2. Because we really, really need a Mac version (join the blog torrent mac dev list).
3. Because it's awesome.
Developer Links
Sourceforge Page
Project Files
CVS
Mailing Lists
Upcoming Feature Priorities
Our goals are simplicity and integration. These are the highest priority features that we want to add as we move to version 1.0 and up:
1. Mac version. A high percentage of the best bloggers, video artists, and filmmakers use macs. It is crucial to make a mac version of Blog Torrent.
2. Multiple downloads in the same window-- the client interface needs to be simpler and prettier.
3. Initiate seeding from the client side. A simple feature, but something that makes sense for many serious bloggers, who typically blog from clients.
4. CMS integration. Integration with Wordpress, Moveable Type, Drupal/Civicspace are big priorities.
5. 'Super seeder' settings.
6. A beautiful blogtorrent.com website, because we want to get this out to everyone."
A greatly simplified bittorrent experience from Downhill Battle.
Donate!
Downhill Battle is a non-profit organization. We need support to keep working on Blog Torrent: fixing bugs, adding features, managing the project, and improving the interface. (See our priority features below.)
Note: You don't need a paypal account to donate with a credit card.
Develop!
Join the Blog Torrent developer team. Check out the sourceforge page and get on the mailing list.
Nov 23: Preview Version 0.8 Released
Download Blog Torrent - For any website with PHP (help).
How it Works - A quick intro for techies & non-techies.
Live Demo - Try it out. If you've got Windows, the 'upload' feature is what it's all about. Seriously, try it!
What is Blog Torrent?
Blog Torrent is software that makes it much easier to share and download files using the bittorrent protocol. Blog Torrent is easy to install on your website: we don't use MySQL so installation is as easy as uploading a folder to your web host, and all administration happens in the web interface. Blog Torrent is easy for users: even if they don't know what bittorrent is, they get an installer that downloads the file they want. But most of all, Blog Torrent makes publishing with bittorrent painless. Just click 'upload', pick a file, and you're done. This is our preview release and it has a lot of bugs and rough edges... but we're smoothing them out for the next version, so stay tuned.
Why does Blog Torrent matter?
Making it easy to blog large video files means that people can share their home movies the same way they share their photos or writings. It lets people create vast networks of truly peer-to-peer video content-- video that was made by individuals and shared with individuals, no bandwidth budget or distribution deal needed. Does this mean that we can do for television what blogs have done for news? Let's find out...
Why use Blog Torrent on your blog or website?
1. It lets you post video or other large files as easily as you post text.
2. Installing Blog Torrent is as easy as uploading a photo to your website or blog.
3. Blog Torrent is the one bittorrent tracker that won't confuse your users.
4. It publishes an RSS feed of all your torrents.
Why use Blog Torrent on your computer?
1. Lets you publish large files to your website or any other Blog Torrent site.
2. It's hands-down the easiest way to publish using bittorrent (normally a huge hassle).
3. Because you have no idea what the hell bittorrent is, but you clicked on a link and the file you wanted started downloading right away.
Why help develop Blog Torrent?
1. Because it needs to get smoother and prettier.
2. Because we really, really need a Mac version (join the blog torrent mac dev list).
3. Because it's awesome.
Developer Links
Sourceforge Page
Project Files
CVS
Mailing Lists
Upcoming Feature Priorities
Our goals are simplicity and integration. These are the highest priority features that we want to add as we move to version 1.0 and up:
1. Mac version. A high percentage of the best bloggers, video artists, and filmmakers use macs. It is crucial to make a mac version of Blog Torrent.
2. Multiple downloads in the same window-- the client interface needs to be simpler and prettier.
3. Initiate seeding from the client side. A simple feature, but something that makes sense for many serious bloggers, who typically blog from clients.
4. CMS integration. Integration with Wordpress, Moveable Type, Drupal/Civicspace are big priorities.
5. 'Super seeder' settings.
6. A beautiful blogtorrent.com website, because we want to get this out to everyone."
posted by Unknown at 9:51 PM
Neography 2.o�-�Nothing to see here...
Neography 2.o�-�Nothing to see here...: "More Japanese Commercials
Here's another batch of amazing fun-filled Japanese commercials for you! This batch includes Nintendo, Sony, Rena Tanaka, Waka Inoue, Hikaru Utada, and more! See this page for reasons I think these commercials are interesting and perhaps important, not just entertaining. There are lots more commercials for your enjoyment here, here and here!
A special welcome to boingboing readers! Please note that you're allowed a max of 2 simultaneous downloads per IP. Living in Japan affords me as much bandwidth as any minor deity but I discourage mass leeching. Take as much as you like, but no being greedy ok? ALso, share! First up, some new game ads."
Here's another batch of amazing fun-filled Japanese commercials for you! This batch includes Nintendo, Sony, Rena Tanaka, Waka Inoue, Hikaru Utada, and more! See this page for reasons I think these commercials are interesting and perhaps important, not just entertaining. There are lots more commercials for your enjoyment here, here and here!
A special welcome to boingboing readers! Please note that you're allowed a max of 2 simultaneous downloads per IP. Living in Japan affords me as much bandwidth as any minor deity but I discourage mass leeching. Take as much as you like, but no being greedy ok? ALso, share! First up, some new game ads."
posted by Unknown at 9:48 PM
Monday, November 22, 2004
Cool Stuff Toys and Video
Cool Stuff Toys and Video: "Welcome to Cool Stuff! Thanks to everyone who has supported us here on the web for the past 7 years. And a bigger thanks to all those who have been loyal customers for the past 12 years- before the web site!"
posted by Unknown at 9:14 AM
Cold Fusion Video Review: Jack and the Witch
Cold Fusion Video Review: Jack and the Witch: " For years now, I've been haunted by a memory of an animated feature I saw during the Christmas holidays one year in my early childhood -- I remember the house we were living in, so it could not have been later than the year I was seven, and probably was earlier. All I could remember concretely was that there were pale little gnome-creatures in tunnels, and at one point the hero or heroes were thrown down a pit to a machine which would also transform them into gnome-creatures, while all the little puds chanted, 'Into the machine! Into the machine!'"
posted by Unknown at 9:13 AM
Sunday, November 21, 2004
Saturday, November 20, 2004
Friday, November 19, 2004
Wired 11.02: PLAY
Wired 11.02: PLAY: "Bastard Pop music
As Joy Division's 'Love Will Tear Us Apart' starts up, you nod with recognition. Eight bars in, the bass line persists, but Ian Curtis' croon is replaced with Missy Elliott's sexy rasp from 'Get Ur Freak On.' Don't be alarmed - it's a mash-up. Inspired by the cannibalistic craft of bands like Negativland, bastard-pop artists are laying the vocals of one song over the music of another. While some musicians respect copyright - 2manydjs cleared all 45 songs on its 62-minute CD - others post mash-ups online without approval. Much to the ire of the RIAA, the fad has taken off. Want to get in on the action? A slew of software apps makes it easy.
- Kevin Seal
Step by Step
How to make the Coup's Boots Riley rap over Judas Priest
1. Get your hands on the Priest instrumental 'Battle Hymn' (from the Painkiller album). Next, hunt down the vocals. An a cappella version of the Coup's '5 Million Ways to Kill a CEO' is available on 12-inch vinyl, or search for it digitally at Get Your Bootleg On (gybo.proboards4.com/index.cgi?Board=acapellas). If you find both, skip to Step 4.
2. Can't find the Coup a cappella? Make it from the album version and an instrumental cut (often a Google search away). Use an audio-editing app like Peak or WaveLab to set the album track's vocal normalization to 100 percent and the instrumental's to -100 percent. This cancels out the music, and you're left with just vocals. Go to Step 4.
3. If you can't find the Coup instrumental online, use Peak or Cool Edit Pro to strip out the music from the album cut. Use a few measures without words to set the noise reduction parameters, then apply to the entire track. It's tedious and leaves artifacts, but it does the job.
4. Launch mixing soft-ware such as Pro Tools Free or Audacity. Place the Coup vocals alongside the Judas Priest music and edit as appropriate, tweaking for length, tempo, and pitch. Congrats, you've made a mash-up!
Some Inspired Combinations
Christina Aguilera ('Genie in a Bottle')
Sonic Youth ('Dirty Boots')
4trak.net/dsico/
Beastie Boys ('Sure Shot')
Prince ('1999'/ 'Kiss'/'I Wanna Be Your Lover')
www.contradict.co.uk/boot/
Destiny's Child ('Bootylicious')
Nirvana ('Smells Like Teen Spirit')
www.stervis.co.uk/eMS/
P!nk ('Get the Party Started')
Black Sabbath ('Supernaut')
www.soundhog.org.uk
Public Enemy ('Bring the Noise')
M ('Pop Muzik')
falco.kuci.uci.edu/~brianm/lancelockarm
Tools of the Trade
Peak LE 3.0 (mac)
www.bias-inc.com
$99
WaveLab 4.0 (pc)
www.steinberg.net/en/
$549
Cool Edit Pro 2.0 (pc)
www.syntrillium.com
$279
Pro Tools Free (pc / mac)
www.digidesign.com
Free
Audacity (pc / mac)
audacity.sourceforge.net
Free"
As Joy Division's 'Love Will Tear Us Apart' starts up, you nod with recognition. Eight bars in, the bass line persists, but Ian Curtis' croon is replaced with Missy Elliott's sexy rasp from 'Get Ur Freak On.' Don't be alarmed - it's a mash-up. Inspired by the cannibalistic craft of bands like Negativland, bastard-pop artists are laying the vocals of one song over the music of another. While some musicians respect copyright - 2manydjs cleared all 45 songs on its 62-minute CD - others post mash-ups online without approval. Much to the ire of the RIAA, the fad has taken off. Want to get in on the action? A slew of software apps makes it easy.
- Kevin Seal
Step by Step
How to make the Coup's Boots Riley rap over Judas Priest
1. Get your hands on the Priest instrumental 'Battle Hymn' (from the Painkiller album). Next, hunt down the vocals. An a cappella version of the Coup's '5 Million Ways to Kill a CEO' is available on 12-inch vinyl, or search for it digitally at Get Your Bootleg On (gybo.proboards4.com/index.cgi?Board=acapellas). If you find both, skip to Step 4.
2. Can't find the Coup a cappella? Make it from the album version and an instrumental cut (often a Google search away). Use an audio-editing app like Peak or WaveLab to set the album track's vocal normalization to 100 percent and the instrumental's to -100 percent. This cancels out the music, and you're left with just vocals. Go to Step 4.
3. If you can't find the Coup instrumental online, use Peak or Cool Edit Pro to strip out the music from the album cut. Use a few measures without words to set the noise reduction parameters, then apply to the entire track. It's tedious and leaves artifacts, but it does the job.
4. Launch mixing soft-ware such as Pro Tools Free or Audacity. Place the Coup vocals alongside the Judas Priest music and edit as appropriate, tweaking for length, tempo, and pitch. Congrats, you've made a mash-up!
Some Inspired Combinations
Christina Aguilera ('Genie in a Bottle')
Sonic Youth ('Dirty Boots')
4trak.net/dsico/
Beastie Boys ('Sure Shot')
Prince ('1999'/ 'Kiss'/'I Wanna Be Your Lover')
www.contradict.co.uk/boot/
Destiny's Child ('Bootylicious')
Nirvana ('Smells Like Teen Spirit')
www.stervis.co.uk/eMS/
P!nk ('Get the Party Started')
Black Sabbath ('Supernaut')
www.soundhog.org.uk
Public Enemy ('Bring the Noise')
M ('Pop Muzik')
falco.kuci.uci.edu/~brianm/lancelockarm
Tools of the Trade
Peak LE 3.0 (mac)
www.bias-inc.com
$99
WaveLab 4.0 (pc)
www.steinberg.net/en/
$549
Cool Edit Pro 2.0 (pc)
www.syntrillium.com
$279
Pro Tools Free (pc / mac)
www.digidesign.com
Free
Audacity (pc / mac)
audacity.sourceforge.net
Free"
posted by Unknown at 1:41 PM
Jay-Z Construction Set - Tools
Jay-Z Construction Set - Tools
* Mash-up Resources
* Core Tools
o Audacity
o GIMP
o BitTorrent
* Useful Software
o Media Players
o CD ripping, burning
o File sharing
o Encoding
* Notes
Mash-up Resources
All these Black Album remixes didn't drop from the sky. There's a storied past to the practice of remixing and bootlegging hot tracks. These examples of contemporary pop pastiche are prescient jams going largely unheard. If major labels like EMI continue to try to stymie creative growth, this enormous wealth of new music will likely never make it to the ears of potential fans. Below are some jumping-off points on the web to get you started in joining the fray.
* BoomSelectionExtra
o UK-based portal and archive to contemporary bootleg/mashups.
* Get Your Bootleg On (GYBO)
o Central messageboard for bootleggers worldwide.
* Dsico
o HQ for prominent mash-up producer. Solid starting point.
* Boom Selection
o While we may not feel their view on the Grey Album, boomselection is still an invaluable resource for info on the bootleg/mashup world.
* beatmixed: Tutorial Archives
o Walkthroughs for many different aspects of creating mixed-up tracks.
* How to mix it up or (Jumpin' on the bootleg wagon - its like so Sept 2001)
o Dsico tutorial on getting started.
* How to Part 2. - D.I.Y ACAPELLAS
o Another Dsico tutorial on making acapellas.
* 9th Wonder Interview (re: Jay-Z remix project)
o Shoptalk with the kid that set off the full-album remix craze with his God's Stepson remix of Nas's God's Son in 2001.
* MixTapesUSA.com
o Crazy huge list of mixtapes/CDs for sale cheap online.
* Sandbox Automatic
o Oldest online retailer of hiphop vinyl, CDs, books, and gear. Solid "listen before you buy" policy.
^top
Tools
As any producer will attest, there is no definitive set of tools when you're working with music and graphics on a personal computer. Below, we've listed a couple well-known freely available programs to get you started working on your own Jay-Z remix album. Don't hesitate to skip this section entirely and forge on a head with the tools you're used to using in your home shop.
^top
Audacity
Audacity is a cross-platform audio editor being developed by a team of volunteers under the open-source model. Multitrack recording, timestreching, and editing in various formats (including MP3 import/export with the LAME encoder.) Additionally, Audacity supports VST plugins so users can introduce industry standard effects previously available only to folks with expensive proprietary software.
On the Web:
* Audacity homepage: http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
o Get the most recent version of the software, tutorials, plug-ins, and the latest info on the project development.
* An Audacity Tutorial, Daniel James
* K-v-R VST repository
o Ground zero for open standard audio plugin information and downloads.
^top
GIMP
The GIMP is a freely distributed piece of software suitable for such tasks as photo retouching, image composition and image authoring. It is an extremely capable piece of software with many capabilities. It can be used as a simple paint program, a expert quality photo retouching program, an online batch processing system, a mass production image renderer, a image format converter, etc.
On the Web:
* The GIMP homepage: http://www.gimp.org/
o Get the most recent version of the software, tutorials, plug-ins, and the latest info on the project development.
* A GIMP Basics Tutorial
o Get started using the GIMP. Check this list of GIMp tutorials for other places to get started.
^top
BitTorrent
The BitTorrent is a peer-to-peer file transfer protocol that is based on the idea that all clients should be uploading simultaneously as they are downloading. As a result, as the popularity of a file increases, so does it's availability scale upward. BitTorrent is implemented through the web unlike other filesharing environments such as Kazaa or Soulseek that exist largely in isolation. As it is particularly well-suited to large files and archives, we have chosen BitTorrent as the online distribution method for the Jay-Z Construction Set.
On the Web:
* The BitTorrent homepage: http://bitconjurer.org/BitTorrent/
o Ground zero for latest info on the project development from the initial developer's lips.
* burst!
o burst! is the preferred client right now for Windows users. Please see: Where can I download the BitTorrent program? for a full list of available clients.
* TorrentSpy
o An application that allows you to query a tracker for specific information on different torrent files. (This terminology will make sense after you read Brian's BitTorrent FAQ and Guide.
* Brian's BitTorrent FAQ and Guide
o A thorough read on all aspects of BitTorrent implementation, function and operation.
^top
More Tools
* ProTools- Free Trial for Mac OS9 and Windows ME/98.
o Popular audio editor.
* Pure Data
o Cross-platform, freely distributed real-time graphical programming environment for audio and graphical processing.
* Fruity Loops - free trial for Windows
o Piano-roll style sequencer with MIDI and VST support. 9th Wonder is known for using this on his Black Album track for Jay-Z.
* Paint Shop Pro 8 - Free Trial for Windows
o Layered photo-editing and image manipulation.
* Buzz
o Modular software synthesizer that works on a graphical "machine" model.
* Sony Media Software Downloads
o Free trials of Acid and SoundForge. Popular looping/mixing and editing software.
* Ableton Downloads
o Free trials Ableton Live mixing software.
* Mix Meister 5
o More mixing software. This has native mp3 support.
^top
Useful Software
Media Players
* XMMS - considered the best media player for X-windows/Linux systems.
* WinAmp - extremely reliable standard player for Windows.
* iTunes - remarkable software developed by Apple for synching its iPods with PCs.
^top
CD ripping, burning
* CDex - open-source Windows program for ripping and converting large amounts of digital audio from CDs.
^top
File sharing
* Konspire - a decentralized, broadcast-style system for distributing information over large numbers of people.
* Freenet - decentralized, cross-platform, encrypted, anonymous P2P network. The future!
* Limewire - popular client for the Gnutella P2P network. GPL, cross-platform and open-source.
* Soulseek - the best file-sharing network for finding rare tracks.
* Kazaa - the most widely publicized network. Filled with dummy files, RIAA spies, ad-ware, and run on sketchy business practices. Use with caution.
* KDX - proprietary client/server "BBS"-style networking software for Mac and Windows. (Linux/Unix in development.)
* Hotline - client/server "BBS"-style networking software for Mac and Windows. (Parallel GPL'd, open-source development by OpenSprings.)
^top
Encoding
* Vorbis.com - links to many different softwares supporting the patent-free OGG compression scheme.
* LAME - Lame Ain't an MP3 Encoder. A highly evolved MP3 encoder, with quality and speed able to rival state of the art commercial encoders.
^top
Notes
This CD-ROM conceived and executed by Claire Chanel and Scary Sherman, February 2004.
Reproduce and distribute widely.
* Mash-up Resources
* Core Tools
o Audacity
o GIMP
o BitTorrent
* Useful Software
o Media Players
o CD ripping, burning
o File sharing
o Encoding
* Notes
Mash-up Resources
All these Black Album remixes didn't drop from the sky. There's a storied past to the practice of remixing and bootlegging hot tracks. These examples of contemporary pop pastiche are prescient jams going largely unheard. If major labels like EMI continue to try to stymie creative growth, this enormous wealth of new music will likely never make it to the ears of potential fans. Below are some jumping-off points on the web to get you started in joining the fray.
* BoomSelectionExtra
o UK-based portal and archive to contemporary bootleg/mashups.
* Get Your Bootleg On (GYBO)
o Central messageboard for bootleggers worldwide.
* Dsico
o HQ for prominent mash-up producer. Solid starting point.
* Boom Selection
o While we may not feel their view on the Grey Album, boomselection is still an invaluable resource for info on the bootleg/mashup world.
* beatmixed: Tutorial Archives
o Walkthroughs for many different aspects of creating mixed-up tracks.
* How to mix it up or (Jumpin' on the bootleg wagon - its like so Sept 2001)
o Dsico tutorial on getting started.
* How to Part 2. - D.I.Y ACAPELLAS
o Another Dsico tutorial on making acapellas.
* 9th Wonder Interview (re: Jay-Z remix project)
o Shoptalk with the kid that set off the full-album remix craze with his God's Stepson remix of Nas's God's Son in 2001.
* MixTapesUSA.com
o Crazy huge list of mixtapes/CDs for sale cheap online.
* Sandbox Automatic
o Oldest online retailer of hiphop vinyl, CDs, books, and gear. Solid "listen before you buy" policy.
^top
Tools
As any producer will attest, there is no definitive set of tools when you're working with music and graphics on a personal computer. Below, we've listed a couple well-known freely available programs to get you started working on your own Jay-Z remix album. Don't hesitate to skip this section entirely and forge on a head with the tools you're used to using in your home shop.
^top
Audacity
Audacity is a cross-platform audio editor being developed by a team of volunteers under the open-source model. Multitrack recording, timestreching, and editing in various formats (including MP3 import/export with the LAME encoder.) Additionally, Audacity supports VST plugins so users can introduce industry standard effects previously available only to folks with expensive proprietary software.
On the Web:
* Audacity homepage: http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
o Get the most recent version of the software, tutorials, plug-ins, and the latest info on the project development.
* An Audacity Tutorial, Daniel James
* K-v-R VST repository
o Ground zero for open standard audio plugin information and downloads.
^top
GIMP
The GIMP is a freely distributed piece of software suitable for such tasks as photo retouching, image composition and image authoring. It is an extremely capable piece of software with many capabilities. It can be used as a simple paint program, a expert quality photo retouching program, an online batch processing system, a mass production image renderer, a image format converter, etc.
On the Web:
* The GIMP homepage: http://www.gimp.org/
o Get the most recent version of the software, tutorials, plug-ins, and the latest info on the project development.
* A GIMP Basics Tutorial
o Get started using the GIMP. Check this list of GIMp tutorials for other places to get started.
^top
BitTorrent
The BitTorrent is a peer-to-peer file transfer protocol that is based on the idea that all clients should be uploading simultaneously as they are downloading. As a result, as the popularity of a file increases, so does it's availability scale upward. BitTorrent is implemented through the web unlike other filesharing environments such as Kazaa or Soulseek that exist largely in isolation. As it is particularly well-suited to large files and archives, we have chosen BitTorrent as the online distribution method for the Jay-Z Construction Set.
On the Web:
* The BitTorrent homepage: http://bitconjurer.org/BitTorrent/
o Ground zero for latest info on the project development from the initial developer's lips.
* burst!
o burst! is the preferred client right now for Windows users. Please see: Where can I download the BitTorrent program? for a full list of available clients.
* TorrentSpy
o An application that allows you to query a tracker for specific information on different torrent files. (This terminology will make sense after you read Brian's BitTorrent FAQ and Guide.
* Brian's BitTorrent FAQ and Guide
o A thorough read on all aspects of BitTorrent implementation, function and operation.
^top
More Tools
* ProTools- Free Trial for Mac OS9 and Windows ME/98.
o Popular audio editor.
* Pure Data
o Cross-platform, freely distributed real-time graphical programming environment for audio and graphical processing.
* Fruity Loops - free trial for Windows
o Piano-roll style sequencer with MIDI and VST support. 9th Wonder is known for using this on his Black Album track for Jay-Z.
* Paint Shop Pro 8 - Free Trial for Windows
o Layered photo-editing and image manipulation.
* Buzz
o Modular software synthesizer that works on a graphical "machine" model.
* Sony Media Software Downloads
o Free trials of Acid and SoundForge. Popular looping/mixing and editing software.
* Ableton Downloads
o Free trials Ableton Live mixing software.
* Mix Meister 5
o More mixing software. This has native mp3 support.
^top
Useful Software
Media Players
* XMMS - considered the best media player for X-windows/Linux systems.
* WinAmp - extremely reliable standard player for Windows.
* iTunes - remarkable software developed by Apple for synching its iPods with PCs.
^top
CD ripping, burning
* CDex - open-source Windows program for ripping and converting large amounts of digital audio from CDs.
^top
File sharing
* Konspire - a decentralized, broadcast-style system for distributing information over large numbers of people.
* Freenet - decentralized, cross-platform, encrypted, anonymous P2P network. The future!
* Limewire - popular client for the Gnutella P2P network. GPL, cross-platform and open-source.
* Soulseek - the best file-sharing network for finding rare tracks.
* Kazaa - the most widely publicized network. Filled with dummy files, RIAA spies, ad-ware, and run on sketchy business practices. Use with caution.
* KDX - proprietary client/server "BBS"-style networking software for Mac and Windows. (Linux/Unix in development.)
* Hotline - client/server "BBS"-style networking software for Mac and Windows. (Parallel GPL'd, open-source development by OpenSprings.)
^top
Encoding
* Vorbis.com - links to many different softwares supporting the patent-free OGG compression scheme.
* LAME - Lame Ain't an MP3 Encoder. A highly evolved MP3 encoder, with quality and speed able to rival state of the art commercial encoders.
^top
Notes
This CD-ROM conceived and executed by Claire Chanel and Scary Sherman, February 2004.
Reproduce and distribute widely.
posted by Unknown at 12:42 PM
Thursday, November 18, 2004
Merge complete DVDs to one disk - DvdReMake Pro how-to guide
Merge complete DVDs to one disk - DvdReMake Pro how-to guide: "Starting with v 2.6 DvdReMake Pro can be used to merge 2 full dvds. This means FULL - keeping original menus, languages, everything.
Procedure is completely automated, you simply import disks you would like to merge, go to 'Tools\Merge DVD...' menu and select projects to be merged. As a result you will get a new project. Export it and you have two disks merged to one DVD.
When played this disk will show a start up menu asking what disk you would like to go to; after that selected disk will play as if it is the only one on the DVD. At any time during playback pushing 'title menu' on the remote will take you to this start up menu."
Procedure is completely automated, you simply import disks you would like to merge, go to 'Tools\Merge DVD...' menu and select projects to be merged. As a result you will get a new project. Export it and you have two disks merged to one DVD.
When played this disk will show a start up menu asking what disk you would like to go to; after that selected disk will play as if it is the only one on the DVD. At any time during playback pushing 'title menu' on the remote will take you to this start up menu."
posted by Unknown at 11:24 AM
Girlfriend's lap pillow :: TechJapan :: English news on technology from Japan
Girlfriend's lap pillow :: TechJapan :: English news on technology from Japan: "A pillow called the 'Lap Pillow' will be released. It is a pillow imitating a woman's legs made from urethane foam.
Just like I'm sure you understand as you look at the picture, this product has quite an impact. Although it's a pillow, it's wearing a skirt. Not just any skirt -- a tight miniskirt, even.
I went to ask the seller of this product, Trane Corporation (translator's note: not related to Trane of America, famous for air conditioners), why and how this product was created.
-A lap pillow o�n the reception table
Without warning, there was a lap pillow o�n top of the reception table as if to say 'welcome.' I took a business card that was next to the lap pillow. This is a first for me.
Just looking at this 'Lap Pillow' made my heart race, but touching it made my heart race even faster. The sensation of softly sticking to the skin-like texture...the polyester tight skirt. It's real.
'Damn...'
About a minute passed while thinking about those things. That's right, I have to do an interview.
-The Troublesome Details
...What's your aim with this product?
'Well, not o�nly a toy for children, but we wanted it to also be a product for adults.'
It was aimed at males from their late teens to early twenties, but it seems like there has also been quite a reaction from males in their 30s to 50s or 60s. Or at least that's what I thought.
...What were some problem points?
'There's a small notch in the leg part; the plastic construction for this was quite difficult.'
It's because of this notch that you can take the skirt o�n and off.
'The people at the plant asked me why we couldn't simply just cover it up with a flared skirt, but I couldn't agree to that.'
This product is trouble. Surely there are some other troublesome details.
'Our opinions were divided between thinking it would be better to make the stomach fat or thin. We decided o�n making it fat.'
That's right. I answered completely based o�n my personal preferences.
...Wait a minute, can't you see the panties?
'Not from a normal angle.'
Right, that's because I'm peeking inside.
-It's for healing
One thing Mr. Ikarashi wanted to appeal to me was the healing powers of this product.
'Not 'it's nasty,' but 'it's pleasent.''
According to a survey collected by Mr. Ikarashi himself, the image associated with the lap pillow is 'relief.' Not excitement.
The 'Lap Pillow' is an ultra-fine healing good."
Just like I'm sure you understand as you look at the picture, this product has quite an impact. Although it's a pillow, it's wearing a skirt. Not just any skirt -- a tight miniskirt, even.
I went to ask the seller of this product, Trane Corporation (translator's note: not related to Trane of America, famous for air conditioners), why and how this product was created.
-A lap pillow o�n the reception table
Without warning, there was a lap pillow o�n top of the reception table as if to say 'welcome.' I took a business card that was next to the lap pillow. This is a first for me.
Just looking at this 'Lap Pillow' made my heart race, but touching it made my heart race even faster. The sensation of softly sticking to the skin-like texture...the polyester tight skirt. It's real.
'Damn...'
About a minute passed while thinking about those things. That's right, I have to do an interview.
-The Troublesome Details
...What's your aim with this product?
'Well, not o�nly a toy for children, but we wanted it to also be a product for adults.'
It was aimed at males from their late teens to early twenties, but it seems like there has also been quite a reaction from males in their 30s to 50s or 60s. Or at least that's what I thought.
...What were some problem points?
'There's a small notch in the leg part; the plastic construction for this was quite difficult.'
It's because of this notch that you can take the skirt o�n and off.
'The people at the plant asked me why we couldn't simply just cover it up with a flared skirt, but I couldn't agree to that.'
This product is trouble. Surely there are some other troublesome details.
'Our opinions were divided between thinking it would be better to make the stomach fat or thin. We decided o�n making it fat.'
That's right. I answered completely based o�n my personal preferences.
...Wait a minute, can't you see the panties?
'Not from a normal angle.'
Right, that's because I'm peeking inside.
-It's for healing
One thing Mr. Ikarashi wanted to appeal to me was the healing powers of this product.
'Not 'it's nasty,' but 'it's pleasent.''
According to a survey collected by Mr. Ikarashi himself, the image associated with the lap pillow is 'relief.' Not excitement.
The 'Lap Pillow' is an ultra-fine healing good."
posted by Unknown at 8:36 AM
Tuesday, November 16, 2004
EMOL: Webcasting Resources and Links
EMOL: Webcasting Resources and Links: " This is the next generation of the Internet- merging computers, modems and the broadcast industry. Many large and small radio and TV stations are hooking themselves to another delivery system- online. Although video is choppy and slow depending on your Internet speed and CPU (28.8k or higher and more than 100MHz CPU works, but 56k provides better delivery), faster computers will be able to deliver cleaner 'real time video.'
Soon, there will be a common Internet video streaming standard. There are several video and audio streaming products, like RealAudio and RealVideo, but competing products are making it necessary to have all the streaming programs installed on your computer to see and hear every site.
Besides mainstream radio and television stations hosting live and archived feeds online, the Internet is spawning a new generation of broadcasters and 'webcams' programming solely for the Internet.
This page will be continuously updated as new links and information is discovered. While this new technology is still in its infancy, it does have a long way to go before people will choose to watch TV over their PC.
But, in the meantime, remember the days of searching for radio stations over the short wave? Well, here's today's version...
"
Soon, there will be a common Internet video streaming standard. There are several video and audio streaming products, like RealAudio and RealVideo, but competing products are making it necessary to have all the streaming programs installed on your computer to see and hear every site.
Besides mainstream radio and television stations hosting live and archived feeds online, the Internet is spawning a new generation of broadcasters and 'webcams' programming solely for the Internet.
This page will be continuously updated as new links and information is discovered. While this new technology is still in its infancy, it does have a long way to go before people will choose to watch TV over their PC.
But, in the meantime, remember the days of searching for radio stations over the short wave? Well, here's today's version...
"
posted by Unknown at 1:49 PM
Beeline TV - Watch Online Television - Free Internet TV Stations
Beeline TV - Watch Online Television - Free Internet TV Stations
This page is worth it, just for the links to So-Net and So-Net2! Gotta try to grab those streams!
This page is worth it, just for the links to So-Net and So-Net2! Gotta try to grab those streams!
posted by Unknown at 1:34 PM
International TV Viewing List - Trancefuel
International TV Viewing List - Trancefuel: "If you did not already know, there are hundreds of live TV streams taking place 24hrs a day, 7 days a week, right here on the net. Have you ever been interested in viewing TV shows in other countries? Well, i have, so I almost purchased an international TV satellete dish. Then I thought, wait a minute, I have DSL service, might as well get my money's worth. So i spent a good 6 hours strait scavenging the internet for these streams and catagorizing them."
posted by Unknown at 1:33 PM
NEWSTRAN - Streaming TV - International News Videos Online Television Arabic English Spanish Russian French German streaming videos Italian Portuguese
posted by Unknown at 1:20 PM
Live Radio and Television from Japan
Live Radio and Television from Japan: "Watch Japanese television and listen to radio broadcasts from Japan. A a wide selection of streaming audio and video broadcasts from Tokyo and other cities are available. Transmissions are provided in RealAudio, RealVideo and Windows Media Player formats.
If you require streaming audio and video computer software or if you would like to provide live TV and radio broadcasts from your own website, please select the 'Help' option on the site navigation box at the top of this page."
If you require streaming audio and video computer software or if you would like to provide live TV and radio broadcasts from your own website, please select the 'Help' option on the site navigation box at the top of this page."
posted by Unknown at 1:20 PM
I-Mockery.com | 3 Dev Adam!
I-Mockery.com | 3 Dev Adam!: "3 Dev Adam loosely translates to '3 mighty men' or 'Captain America and Santo (the Mexican wrestler) vs. Spider-Man.' Still, it could easily mean '3 people have seen the movie (including family members, myself, and pets)' or '3 actors you'll never see again because they were rightfully stoned to death shortly after the release of this film.' Regardless of what the name of it means, I can assure you that it's absolute madness. For whatever reason, a huge thing in Turkey was to create horrible rip-offs of popular American icons. They've done it to Star Wars and Star Trek among other things (and yes, I'll probably review those atrocities at some point in the future too) but this one takes the cake. You see, somehow the Turkish people got the impression that good ol' Spider-Man was a SADISTIC EVIL VILLAIN. That right there, combined with the fact that there are no subtitles for this movie whatsoever, should give you an idea of what you're in store for with this review. I'll do my best to do explain just what in the hell is going on, but again... I don't speak Turkish. Then again, I don't think Captain America does either, so who gives a shit."
posted by Unknown at 12:31 PM
Monday, November 15, 2004
Animation: Akif Pirincci's FELIDAE
Animation: Akif Pirincci's FELIDAE: "'Humans tried to make them obey, to force them into submissive surrender since the age of the caveman. But the felines don't lose their pride, instict and heart at all. Cats never forgot who they are, remaining the way they were supposed to be. The cats are still that way today. And these days, a series of brutal murders bring fright and pain to one city. Every day reveals bloody corpses!
The one and only who can uncover the secret about the mysterious psychotic murderer: Francis, the most well known cat detective in the world among his kind in freedom. Doing his dangerous researching and investigations for the cruel murders, the sleek cat detective sinks more and more into a misty web of passions, sex, dreadful sect activities and computer bytes...'"
The one and only who can uncover the secret about the mysterious psychotic murderer: Francis, the most well known cat detective in the world among his kind in freedom. Doing his dangerous researching and investigations for the cruel murders, the sleek cat detective sinks more and more into a misty web of passions, sex, dreadful sect activities and computer bytes...'"
posted by Unknown at 1:18 PM
Friday, November 12, 2004
Kenji Suzuki Laboratory
Kenji Suzuki Laboratory: "Long-term target: Subjective Computing
In the near future, the research phase on information engineering will enter a new stage of computing based on the subjectivity in the human perceptual process regarded as Subjective Computing. A modeling taking insights from the human subjectivity and individual preference is the main issue of this basic research. This includes the terms of individual emotional resonance, comfort and satisfaction. This approach differs from a conventional evaluation based on objectivity and logic used in physics or mathematics. The subjectivity and individual preference should be treated as psycho-physiological interrelationship. The short-term research targets include the following themes."
In the near future, the research phase on information engineering will enter a new stage of computing based on the subjectivity in the human perceptual process regarded as Subjective Computing. A modeling taking insights from the human subjectivity and individual preference is the main issue of this basic research. This includes the terms of individual emotional resonance, comfort and satisfaction. This approach differs from a conventional evaluation based on objectivity and logic used in physics or mathematics. The subjectivity and individual preference should be treated as psycho-physiological interrelationship. The short-term research targets include the following themes."
posted by Unknown at 3:19 PM
Cable Access TX?
table
Sniffles(sniff!)(Fort Worth,TX) - This is the only one that will have any level of
detailed information since it is afterall, my show. It is in the sketch comedy vein,
typical of amateur tv shows.
Extranet TV - Online TV station where you can view many public access shows such as Sniffles(sniff!).
Sniffles(sniff!)(Fort Worth,TX) - This is the only one that will have any level of
detailed information since it is afterall, my show. It is in the sketch comedy vein,
typical of amateur tv shows.
Extranet TV - Online TV station where you can view many public access shows such as Sniffles(sniff!).
posted by Unknown at 1:37 PM
The Hypnotic Eye
The Hypnotic EyeThe Hypnotic Eye
I haven't seen this show but it won the Best Cable Access Show award in the September 25-October 1, 1997 edition of The Dallas Observer. This is what they had to say about it:
The Hypnotic Eye is an addictive, giddy mixture of cult movie clips, trailers, toy commercials, weird music videos, and puppet high jinks. This brilliantly edited show (yes, we know it's on cable access, but we mean that just the same) is hosted by a giant eyeball and features such madness as William Shatner's cry-for-help rendition of Elton John and Bernie Taupin's "Rocket Man." Producer-editor-director Joe Riley doesn't merely wink at the audience-his reverence and sincere appreciation for pop culture shines through. This is one of the best hours on television, public access or otherwise.
The Hypnotic Eye comes on Friday and Saturday at 11 p.m. on Channel 25B.
I haven't seen this show but it won the Best Cable Access Show award in the September 25-October 1, 1997 edition of The Dallas Observer. This is what they had to say about it:
The Hypnotic Eye is an addictive, giddy mixture of cult movie clips, trailers, toy commercials, weird music videos, and puppet high jinks. This brilliantly edited show (yes, we know it's on cable access, but we mean that just the same) is hosted by a giant eyeball and features such madness as William Shatner's cry-for-help rendition of Elton John and Bernie Taupin's "Rocket Man." Producer-editor-director Joe Riley doesn't merely wink at the audience-his reverence and sincere appreciation for pop culture shines through. This is one of the best hours on television, public access or otherwise.
The Hypnotic Eye comes on Friday and Saturday at 11 p.m. on Channel 25B.
posted by Unknown at 1:34 PM
Gravedigger Culture Jamming
Gravedigger Culture Jamming: "GRAVEDIGGER EYE POLLUTION VOL. 1 (2001), delightful party tape full of shorts and bits culled from the Gravedigger archives: Pony Express Pizza, Bring Me the Head of Charlie Brown, Apocalypse Pooh, Blue Peanuts, Archie Pistols, Metallica Drummer, The Reagans Speak Out on Drugs, The Nightmare, David Benoit--Family Survival, Michael Jordan Porn, Schmitts Gay Beer, Robert Williams, Father Yod, Schenectady City Council, Mary Hart Epilepsy, Lansingburgh Bazaar Rumble, Schroeder Short Film, Lansingburgh Fire, 3-Legged Jeans, Italian Gold, Musicians for Free-Range Chickens, Acid Queen, Grateful Dead Drugs, East Greenbush Pot, Donahue Racial Clips, Stevie & Zoya, Cohoes Bust, Mary Hart Epilepsy, Colonie Occultist, Vermont's Biggest Pot Dealer, Drive-In Collapse, Hemp Cigarettes, Fanzines, Adirondack Haunting. (2:00, C/B) 0051
VHS"
VHS"
posted by Unknown at 12:37 PM
Thursday, November 11, 2004
FlipBook 2D PC animation software from DigiCel
FlipBook 2D PC animation software from DigiCel: "FlipBook
DigiCel's 2D Animation Software
Regular visitors know that I'm a fan of inexpensive software that gets the job done elegantly without costing an arm and a leg. FlipBook may be the next entry onto this list if it fulfills its promise as it moves from development to shipment. As it has done in so many areas, technology is democratizing animation. What used to require a million dollars and a million hours of work, may soon only require the work."
DigiCel's 2D Animation Software
Regular visitors know that I'm a fan of inexpensive software that gets the job done elegantly without costing an arm and a leg. FlipBook may be the next entry onto this list if it fulfills its promise as it moves from development to shipment. As it has done in so many areas, technology is democratizing animation. What used to require a million dollars and a million hours of work, may soon only require the work."
posted by Unknown at 2:13 PM
the TAB | Paperless 2D Animation Software for Web Designers and Broadcast | Home Page
posted by Unknown at 2:12 PM
3d software made in japan (1/4)
3d software made in japan (1/4)
I would like to thanks a lot Mr. Takaya Satoshi from Kyoto (Japan), who have reply to my many questions about japanese 3d software, and for this reason he have made possible this article/mini-tutorial.
Mr. Satoshi have a good site that you can visit:
thank you very much! :)
...ok let's go!
Gianluca Panebianco
I would like to thanks a lot Mr. Takaya Satoshi from Kyoto (Japan), who have reply to my many questions about japanese 3d software, and for this reason he have made possible this article/mini-tutorial.
Mr. Satoshi have a good site that you can visit:
thank you very much! :)
...ok let's go!
Gianluca Panebianco
posted by Unknown at 11:44 AM
Flash Filmmaker
Flash Filmmaker :: | Table Of Contents Page
This is what I've been looking for. And the prospect of a small studio doing animated cartoons is a big possibility with the resources provided here!
This is what I've been looking for. And the prospect of a small studio doing animated cartoons is a big possibility with the resources provided here!
posted by Unknown at 11:09 AM
Tuesday, November 09, 2004
Monday, November 08, 2004
Indiantelevision.com's Animation 'xpress !! - Stay tuned to know all about the Indian animation and gaming scenario
posted by Unknown at 11:55 AM
Thursday, November 04, 2004
Dell Latitude Cpx LapTop PIII/650/128/20 - DVD - WiFi - Notebook (Refurbished)
Dell Latitude Cpx LapTop PIII/650/128/20 - DVD - WiFi - Notebook (Refurbished): "The Dell Latitude CPx ranks as one of the leading notebooks in its market, striking a good balance between size and power. The 6.8-pound CPx has a front drive bay that can accept any one of eight different removable devices, including an optional CD-RW drive as well as a secondary battery. The CPx comes with both a touch pad and a pointing stick, and each pointing device has its own set of mouse buttons, which also serve as scroll buttons in Windows applications that support scrolling. Performance is well above average. You are getting a powerful, reliable plus good looking laptop without the steep price. This laptop originally sold for more than $3000 when it was brand new, but it can now be yours for much less. "
posted by Unknown at 1:56 PM
For Your Viewing Pleasure, a Projector in Your Pocket
For Your Viewing Pleasure, a Projector in Your Pocket
By ANNE EISENBERG
T takes squinting and guesswork to make out the details of postage-stamp-size snapshots displayed on cellphones and digital cameras. But researchers are working on pocket-size projectors so that one day people will be able to see a high-resolution slide show right out of a camera, a cellphone or an organizer.
In the future, the miniprojectors may also be attached to DVD players, so people can watch a movie with a TV-quality picture on a nearby wall.
Most standard digital projectors are bulky. Even the trimmest video projectors used for office presentations have the dimensions and the weight of a telephone book. But prototypes of a new generation of miniprojectors, including ones only slightly thicker than a credit card, have been developed, some based on light-emitting diodes, others on lasers.
"There will probably be two or three different technologies for miniprojectors that will coexist," said V. Michael Bove Jr., who has developed a prototype. Dr. Bove is director of the consumer electronics research project at the Media Lab at M.I.T.
"The important point is that whatever the technology, there are going to be significant differences from present office video projectors and projector TV's," he said.
For example, future miniprojectors designed to be embedded in other devices may be used to cast images like control panels or maps onto a car dashboard.
"They are going to radically alter the way we work with projectors when you can download a map onto a phone and point the projector at a surface to get a higher-resolution image," Dr. Bove said.
There are still problems to solve before inexpensive miniprojectors the size of sugar cubes roll off the assembly line. "It's going to take a while to make the projector design efficient," he said. Power consumption is an important issue since in many cases the projector would draw power from the cellphone or whatever device it is coupled to.
At present, Dr. Bove said, projection TV's and video projectors can use hundreds of watts of electricity, but only a couple of watts at most will be available when they are powered by batteries in hand-held devices.
Because of the challenges, Dr. Bove predicted that before the projectors are fully miniaturized, the earliest versions would appear as attachments to laptops. "There's more room and power on a laptop," he said. "Eventually, though, they will find their way into hand-held products."
At Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories in Cambridge, Mass., Ramesh Raskar leads a group that has demonstrated a pocket-size projector meant one day to attach to cellphones, digital cameras or organizers.
Lumileds Lighting, a company based in San Jose, Calif., that makes extremely bright light-emitting diodes, has also developed a prototype for a compact projector. Steve Paolini, director of business development, said it was meant not for big-screen displays in meeting rooms, but for personal uses. "Our initial goal was a screen the size of a piece of paper," he said, "with the size and brightness of a laptop screen."
The Lumileds projector is not for sale; it was built, Mr. Paolini said, to demonstrate the power of light-emitting diodes. "But there's no technical reason why pocket projectors can't be built now," he said. "It's a market issue."
Lasers rather than L.E.D.'s are the basis for a hand-held projector in development at Light Blue Optics, a company in Cambridge, England. "We want a device that you can download films to, press a button and see a huge screen projection," said Adrian Cable, director of the company.
The large projections are produced holographically. "These are not the three-dimensional holographic projections of Princess Leia in 'Star Wars,' " Dr. Cable said, but instead two-dimensional ones produced by an optical process different from standard projection.
Dr. Cable, who has a doctorate in holographic optics from Cambridge, said the basics of projecting video holographically have been known for 20 years. In it, light is forced to propagate not in straight lines but through small gaps that force it to diffract. Precise control of this diffraction can produce holographic images.
"Historically, images projected holographically have tended to be grainy and poor in quality," Dr. Cable said. And even when the images were acceptable, the computational problems involved in calculating the holograms were time-consuming. "It used to take 20 minutes to calculate the hologram for one video frame," he said.
But the Cambridge group's work has resulted in improvements in image quality and processing speed, he said. "It's much simpler to form an image holographically," he said. "You need smaller and fewer lenses, leading to a smaller projector."
At Mitsubishi Electric, Dr. Raskar and his group have developed several methods to demonstrate how people will interact with projector images in the future. For example, they have developed a method to stabilize the projected image so that once it is fixed on a wall it will not move with subsequent hand movement. Then they developed a way to click and drag items within the projected image from one place to another, using a game of tick-tack-toe projected on a wall as an example.
"Now you can actually interact with the projected contents," he said. "You point where the piece is, and then drag it to where you want it to go."
Mr. Paolini of Lumileds also thinks that game playing is in the miniprojectors' future. When he took one of the prototypes home, he said, his son started playing with it on his bed, aiming it at the walls.
"Think of it," Mr. Paolini said. "You can play games on the ceiling."
E-mail: Eisenberg@nytimes.com
By ANNE EISENBERG
T takes squinting and guesswork to make out the details of postage-stamp-size snapshots displayed on cellphones and digital cameras. But researchers are working on pocket-size projectors so that one day people will be able to see a high-resolution slide show right out of a camera, a cellphone or an organizer.
In the future, the miniprojectors may also be attached to DVD players, so people can watch a movie with a TV-quality picture on a nearby wall.
Most standard digital projectors are bulky. Even the trimmest video projectors used for office presentations have the dimensions and the weight of a telephone book. But prototypes of a new generation of miniprojectors, including ones only slightly thicker than a credit card, have been developed, some based on light-emitting diodes, others on lasers.
"There will probably be two or three different technologies for miniprojectors that will coexist," said V. Michael Bove Jr., who has developed a prototype. Dr. Bove is director of the consumer electronics research project at the Media Lab at M.I.T.
"The important point is that whatever the technology, there are going to be significant differences from present office video projectors and projector TV's," he said.
For example, future miniprojectors designed to be embedded in other devices may be used to cast images like control panels or maps onto a car dashboard.
"They are going to radically alter the way we work with projectors when you can download a map onto a phone and point the projector at a surface to get a higher-resolution image," Dr. Bove said.
There are still problems to solve before inexpensive miniprojectors the size of sugar cubes roll off the assembly line. "It's going to take a while to make the projector design efficient," he said. Power consumption is an important issue since in many cases the projector would draw power from the cellphone or whatever device it is coupled to.
At present, Dr. Bove said, projection TV's and video projectors can use hundreds of watts of electricity, but only a couple of watts at most will be available when they are powered by batteries in hand-held devices.
Because of the challenges, Dr. Bove predicted that before the projectors are fully miniaturized, the earliest versions would appear as attachments to laptops. "There's more room and power on a laptop," he said. "Eventually, though, they will find their way into hand-held products."
At Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories in Cambridge, Mass., Ramesh Raskar leads a group that has demonstrated a pocket-size projector meant one day to attach to cellphones, digital cameras or organizers.
Lumileds Lighting, a company based in San Jose, Calif., that makes extremely bright light-emitting diodes, has also developed a prototype for a compact projector. Steve Paolini, director of business development, said it was meant not for big-screen displays in meeting rooms, but for personal uses. "Our initial goal was a screen the size of a piece of paper," he said, "with the size and brightness of a laptop screen."
The Lumileds projector is not for sale; it was built, Mr. Paolini said, to demonstrate the power of light-emitting diodes. "But there's no technical reason why pocket projectors can't be built now," he said. "It's a market issue."
Lasers rather than L.E.D.'s are the basis for a hand-held projector in development at Light Blue Optics, a company in Cambridge, England. "We want a device that you can download films to, press a button and see a huge screen projection," said Adrian Cable, director of the company.
The large projections are produced holographically. "These are not the three-dimensional holographic projections of Princess Leia in 'Star Wars,' " Dr. Cable said, but instead two-dimensional ones produced by an optical process different from standard projection.
Dr. Cable, who has a doctorate in holographic optics from Cambridge, said the basics of projecting video holographically have been known for 20 years. In it, light is forced to propagate not in straight lines but through small gaps that force it to diffract. Precise control of this diffraction can produce holographic images.
"Historically, images projected holographically have tended to be grainy and poor in quality," Dr. Cable said. And even when the images were acceptable, the computational problems involved in calculating the holograms were time-consuming. "It used to take 20 minutes to calculate the hologram for one video frame," he said.
But the Cambridge group's work has resulted in improvements in image quality and processing speed, he said. "It's much simpler to form an image holographically," he said. "You need smaller and fewer lenses, leading to a smaller projector."
At Mitsubishi Electric, Dr. Raskar and his group have developed several methods to demonstrate how people will interact with projector images in the future. For example, they have developed a method to stabilize the projected image so that once it is fixed on a wall it will not move with subsequent hand movement. Then they developed a way to click and drag items within the projected image from one place to another, using a game of tick-tack-toe projected on a wall as an example.
"Now you can actually interact with the projected contents," he said. "You point where the piece is, and then drag it to where you want it to go."
Mr. Paolini of Lumileds also thinks that game playing is in the miniprojectors' future. When he took one of the prototypes home, he said, his son started playing with it on his bed, aiming it at the walls.
"Think of it," Mr. Paolini said. "You can play games on the ceiling."
E-mail: Eisenberg@nytimes.com
posted by Unknown at 1:17 PM
CULT FILM SITE: Animated Films
CULT FILM SITE: Animated Films: "Koko the Clown
Nine Max Fleischer cartoons from 1915-1927. $19.95
Lotte Reiniger Compilation
Animated fairy tales from the great German animation artist. 'Cinderella,' 'The Frog Prince,' 'Hansel and Gretel,' 'The Little Chimney Sweep' and 'The Three Wishes.' Also featuring a short subject on Reiniger. $19.95
MAD Magazine TV Special
Rare halfhour animated program (never aired) from the 1970s. Features The Automobile Manufacturer of the Year, Academy Awards for Parents, X-Ravings, The Oddfather, A Peek Behind the Scenes at a Hospital, Spy vs. Spy and more. $19.95"
Nine Max Fleischer cartoons from 1915-1927. $19.95
Lotte Reiniger Compilation
Animated fairy tales from the great German animation artist. 'Cinderella,' 'The Frog Prince,' 'Hansel and Gretel,' 'The Little Chimney Sweep' and 'The Three Wishes.' Also featuring a short subject on Reiniger. $19.95
MAD Magazine TV Special
Rare halfhour animated program (never aired) from the 1970s. Features The Automobile Manufacturer of the Year, Academy Awards for Parents, X-Ravings, The Oddfather, A Peek Behind the Scenes at a Hospital, Spy vs. Spy and more. $19.95"
posted by Unknown at 12:27 PM
Censored Looney Tunes: "The Censored 11"
Censored Looney Tunes: "The Censored 11": "'The Censored 11' are eleven cartoons that are considered 'racist' or 'too politically incorrect' by today's standards. This list was created in 1968 by United Artists (then owners of the A.A.P. library) and is of cartoons withheld from distribution by the current distributor. Ted Turner refused to allow any of them to be transmitted on television or released on home videotape or laser videodisc."
posted by Unknown at 12:26 PM
BLACK TOONS 1930s-1940s - Buy it on DVD! - Swing Wedding Voodoo In Harlem
BLACK TOONS 1930s-1940s - Buy it on DVD! - Swing Wedding Voodoo In Harlem: "BLACK TOONS 1930s-1940s
U.S. cartoon shorts. Offered as an historical document. Very racist with nasty stereotypes. Some wild rhythm & blues, jazz groups and music parodies. In 'Swing Wedding' a wild eye'd hipster 'shoots-up' with his trumpet valve as a hypo while Fats Waller, Bill 'Bojangles' Robinson, Ethal Waters and the Mills Brothers are impersonated!! These cartoons are not for children (or some adults)! Titles include 'Coal Black and De Sebben Dwarfs' (1943), 'Uncle Tom's Bungalow' (1937), Mighty Mouse in 'Eliza on the Ice' (1944), 'It Happened To Crusoe' (1941), 'Voodoo In Harlem' (1938), 'Uncle Tom's Cabana' (1947), 'Pop-Pie Ala Mode' (1945), 'Swing Wedding' (1937). Bonus Selection: Weird cartoons from the 30s-50s."
U.S. cartoon shorts. Offered as an historical document. Very racist with nasty stereotypes. Some wild rhythm & blues, jazz groups and music parodies. In 'Swing Wedding' a wild eye'd hipster 'shoots-up' with his trumpet valve as a hypo while Fats Waller, Bill 'Bojangles' Robinson, Ethal Waters and the Mills Brothers are impersonated!! These cartoons are not for children (or some adults)! Titles include 'Coal Black and De Sebben Dwarfs' (1943), 'Uncle Tom's Bungalow' (1937), Mighty Mouse in 'Eliza on the Ice' (1944), 'It Happened To Crusoe' (1941), 'Voodoo In Harlem' (1938), 'Uncle Tom's Cabana' (1947), 'Pop-Pie Ala Mode' (1945), 'Swing Wedding' (1937). Bonus Selection: Weird cartoons from the 30s-50s."
posted by Unknown at 12:25 PM
Skwigly Animation Magazine, Online, News, Interviews, Reviews, Business, Technology and Entertainment - UK based
posted by Unknown at 9:35 AM
Jim Hill Media.com : Another Monday M�lange (9/13/2004)
Jim Hill Media.com : Another Monday M�lange (9/13/2004): "Today's story comes from Mouse House insiders who are working up in Vancouver on the set of that 'Love Bug' remake, 'Herbie: Fully Loaded.' And -- given the way that the film's star, 18-year-old Lindsay Lohan has reportedly been partying after each day's shooting has wrapped -- Disney may come to regret tacking the phrase 'Fully Loaded' onto this particular film.
'So what's the problem with Lohan?,' you ask. Well, the word from the folks familiar with this situation is that Lindsay has been hitting Vancouver's club scene awfully hard. Virtually every night, even. Which -- given that Vancouver's legal drinking age is 19 -- means that the star of this family friendly comedy is engaging in illegal behavior.
Which Disney might be willing to overlook. IF Lohan's after-hour activities weren't having an obvious negative impact on Lindsay's performance in the picture. Which they are allegedly are.
Which is why studio execs supposedly read the 'Freaky Friday' remake star the riot act earlier this month. Reportedly warning Lohan that if she didn't cut back on her partying Disney would be forced to recast this role and then send Lindsay packing.
So the story goes ... Lohan allegedly heeded the Disney Studio's executives' advice for just a couple of days, then reportedly reverted to her old hard partying ways. Which is why -- late last week -- the film's director, Angela Robinson supposedly pulled Lindsay aside for a quiet chat.
'Have you noticed that we haven't been doing a lot of close-ups lately,' Robinson reportedly asked Lohan. Lindsay allegedly indicated that -- yes -- she noticed that 'Herbie' Fully Loaded' 's director had been concentrating on long shots lately and was wondering why Angela was doing this.
Robinson supposedly then told Lohan that she was doing this on orders from Disney. That -- should the studio be forced to replace Lindsay -- that they then might still be able to use some of the film's footage that had been shot from a distance.
Then Angela allegedly dropped the real bomb shells. That -- back in Burbank -- Mouse Execs are reportedly already casting about for a replacement for Lohan. 'And who's on that short list?,' you ask. The very same tween star that Disney had hoped to snag for 'The Muppets Wizard of Oz,' Hilary Duff.
Will this last word of warning from 'Herbie: Fully Loaded' 's helmer be enough to scare Lindsay straight? Time will tell. But -- for now -- the folks working on this 'Love Bug' sequel are walking on pins & needles. Wondering if there'll soon be a new sure-to-appeal-to-girls-between-10-and-13 star climbing into Herbie's drivers seat."
'So what's the problem with Lohan?,' you ask. Well, the word from the folks familiar with this situation is that Lindsay has been hitting Vancouver's club scene awfully hard. Virtually every night, even. Which -- given that Vancouver's legal drinking age is 19 -- means that the star of this family friendly comedy is engaging in illegal behavior.
Which Disney might be willing to overlook. IF Lohan's after-hour activities weren't having an obvious negative impact on Lindsay's performance in the picture. Which they are allegedly are.
Which is why studio execs supposedly read the 'Freaky Friday' remake star the riot act earlier this month. Reportedly warning Lohan that if she didn't cut back on her partying Disney would be forced to recast this role and then send Lindsay packing.
So the story goes ... Lohan allegedly heeded the Disney Studio's executives' advice for just a couple of days, then reportedly reverted to her old hard partying ways. Which is why -- late last week -- the film's director, Angela Robinson supposedly pulled Lindsay aside for a quiet chat.
'Have you noticed that we haven't been doing a lot of close-ups lately,' Robinson reportedly asked Lohan. Lindsay allegedly indicated that -- yes -- she noticed that 'Herbie' Fully Loaded' 's director had been concentrating on long shots lately and was wondering why Angela was doing this.
Robinson supposedly then told Lohan that she was doing this on orders from Disney. That -- should the studio be forced to replace Lindsay -- that they then might still be able to use some of the film's footage that had been shot from a distance.
Then Angela allegedly dropped the real bomb shells. That -- back in Burbank -- Mouse Execs are reportedly already casting about for a replacement for Lohan. 'And who's on that short list?,' you ask. The very same tween star that Disney had hoped to snag for 'The Muppets Wizard of Oz,' Hilary Duff.
Will this last word of warning from 'Herbie: Fully Loaded' 's helmer be enough to scare Lindsay straight? Time will tell. But -- for now -- the folks working on this 'Love Bug' sequel are walking on pins & needles. Wondering if there'll soon be a new sure-to-appeal-to-girls-between-10-and-13 star climbing into Herbie's drivers seat."
posted by Unknown at 9:32 AM
GOBLINKO: CULTURE�FACTORY
GOBLINKO: CULTURE�FACTORY
GOBLINKO HELLO
The Goblinko Culture Factory began in 1999 & is run by Sean & Katie Aaberg. We make fine Designer Plush Grunions, accessories, zines, comics & other cultural products. Take some time to explore this gigantic website!
GOBLINKO HELLO
The Goblinko Culture Factory began in 1999 & is run by Sean & Katie Aaberg. We make fine Designer Plush Grunions, accessories, zines, comics & other cultural products. Take some time to explore this gigantic website!
posted by Unknown at 9:08 AM
Wednesday, November 03, 2004
Boing Boing: What Would a Dumbass Republican Do?
Boing Boing: What Would a Dumbass Republican Do?
Wednesday, November 3, 2004
What Would a Dumbass Republican Do?
Eric Lawrence sez: "My friend Rich Malley, creator of Thot4ThDay (a daily humor email, over 8 years and running), sends these dead-on thoughts:"
"WWADRD?
Dear Friends:
If the shoe was on the other foot, What Would a Dumbass Republican Do?
Get depressed?
Get down?
Feel defeated?
Go away?
Refrain from being an obnoxious pain in the ass, 24/7?
Temper his sense of righteous entitlement?
Mute his howls of indignation?
Question his convictions?
Hell, no!
Here's what a Dumbass Republican would do:
Act like a winner in a world full of deluded losers.
Refuse to let the "facts on the ground" deter his belief in what he's got coming.
Drown out polite civil discourse by braying his unshaken beliefs like a stuck pig.
Refuse to shut the fuck up.
Refuse to go away.
Wrap himself in the flag and impugn the patriotism of any who would question his moral superiority.
Wear a big shit-eating grin that gives the other side just a moment of pause as they lay their heads on their pillows at night.
Have a glint in his eye that says, "I may have a shit-eating grin on my face, but I'm just waiting for an opportunity to slip this knife in."
See this not as a defeat, but as an inconvenient mistake.
Friends, join me.
Do not accept.
Do not waver.
Do not shut up.
Do not give comfort with your distress.
Be an unrelenting irritant.
Be a dumbass.
Right now, attitude is everything.
Together, we can help each other bear the present while shortening the time - and it will come - when we prevail."
Wednesday, November 3, 2004
What Would a Dumbass Republican Do?
Eric Lawrence sez: "My friend Rich Malley, creator of Thot4ThDay (a daily humor email, over 8 years and running), sends these dead-on thoughts:"
"WWADRD?
Dear Friends:
If the shoe was on the other foot, What Would a Dumbass Republican Do?
Get depressed?
Get down?
Feel defeated?
Go away?
Refrain from being an obnoxious pain in the ass, 24/7?
Temper his sense of righteous entitlement?
Mute his howls of indignation?
Question his convictions?
Hell, no!
Here's what a Dumbass Republican would do:
Act like a winner in a world full of deluded losers.
Refuse to let the "facts on the ground" deter his belief in what he's got coming.
Drown out polite civil discourse by braying his unshaken beliefs like a stuck pig.
Refuse to shut the fuck up.
Refuse to go away.
Wrap himself in the flag and impugn the patriotism of any who would question his moral superiority.
Wear a big shit-eating grin that gives the other side just a moment of pause as they lay their heads on their pillows at night.
Have a glint in his eye that says, "I may have a shit-eating grin on my face, but I'm just waiting for an opportunity to slip this knife in."
See this not as a defeat, but as an inconvenient mistake.
Friends, join me.
Do not accept.
Do not waver.
Do not shut up.
Do not give comfort with your distress.
Be an unrelenting irritant.
Be a dumbass.
Right now, attitude is everything.
Together, we can help each other bear the present while shortening the time - and it will come - when we prevail."
posted by Unknown at 9:33 PM
Bilderberg - mirrored at www.bilderberg-mirror.org.uk - The High Priests of Globalisation - Transatlantic Power Elite policy makers and related resear
posted by Unknown at 12:04 PM
George W. Bush, John Kerry, Skull & Bones occultists and the Mausoleum they're based in at Yale University
posted by Unknown at 12:02 PM
Telegraph | Arts | I was a brain-eating zombie&
Telegraph | Arts | I was a brain-eating zombie&: "As the scary season descends, Nick Holdsworth recalls his experiences as an extra on a zombie movie in Romania
The massive lens of the Moviecam 35mm camera is just inches from my grotesque and bloody latex nose and director of photography Tom Callaway is not far behind. My heart is hammering, but there's little chance that I will forget my line when he shouts 'Roll camera, action!' The cue comes and I bellow my line: 'Brains! Brains! Brains! Brains!' Director Ellory Elkayem, a laconic New Zealander not given to raising his voice, whispers: 'Growl.'"
The massive lens of the Moviecam 35mm camera is just inches from my grotesque and bloody latex nose and director of photography Tom Callaway is not far behind. My heart is hammering, but there's little chance that I will forget my line when he shouts 'Roll camera, action!' The cue comes and I bellow my line: 'Brains! Brains! Brains! Brains!' Director Ellory Elkayem, a laconic New Zealander not given to raising his voice, whispers: 'Growl.'"
posted by Unknown at 10:17 AM
Small Press Swapmeet
Small Press Swapmeet: "Read, Understand, and Agree to This: SmallPressSwapmeet is a listing service, not a retailer. Think of it as being similar to the classified ad section of your local newspaper. Unless otherwise noted, individual product listings are not being sold by the Small Press Swapmeet, Joey Manley, Modern Tales, or any other person or entity except for the seller listed specifically on the individual product page of any particular product. When performing PayPal and other transactions through this site, be very careful to check the actual Internet address (URL) of any page asking you for payment information (such as the PayPal website, for example -- never provide your PayPal username and password to any site whose URL does not begin with https://www.paypal.com). We assume no responsibility for making sure that you receive goods and merchandise you have ordered from this site. As with Ebay, your local newspaper's classified ad service, or any other listing service, you are purchasing directly from the seller of the merchandise in question (in this case, the small press cartoonist or publisher who has chosen to list his/her products here). If you feel that a seller has failed to live up to his/her obligations in any transaction, or has misrepresented his or her product, please let us know: subscriptions@moderntales.com -- we will make every reasonable effort to delete and block fraudulent sellers from using this site, or any of our sites. Any use of this site signals that you specifically understand and emphatically agree to these terms. If you do not understand or agree to these terms, you are not permitted to make any use of this website."
posted by Unknown at 10:04 AM
Michael Ventura in Focus
Michael Ventura in Focus
The Solutions to Everything
It's happened once too often. Somebody says or writes to me, "You talk about what's wrong but you don't offer solutions," or "My girlfriend - boyfriend - lawyer - therapist says you should suggest solutions, not just talk about bad stuff." And maybe they're right. Maybe to detail one's visions and let readers take it from there is they feel like it just isn't enough. Maybe there are solutions, and maybe I should know them.
So I sat down and thought real hard, and here, numbered for your convenience, are my solutions to everything.
00. Indulge in secrets. Without one or two major secrets, your life will surely fade. (If you're over forty and don't understand this . . . you're in big trouble.)
A conundrum: secrets aren't lies--they're mysteries, havens, passageways. Lies wreck your life; secrets can save your life. But sometimes you have to lie to keep the secret. Ugh oh.
1. Make mistakes. As Coleman Hawkins said, "If you don't make mistakes, you aren't really trying."
2. Stop lying about yourself. To yourself. To your friends. To your family. To your business associates. Maybe even to your enemies. (Your enemies oppress you as much by your fidelity to your own lies as by anything else.)
3. Stop tolerating in your leaders what you wouldn't tolerate in your friends. But...
4. Tolerate impurity. Trying to be pure about anything is a way of setting yourself up to fail. Asking other people to be pure is a way of setting them up.
5. Read one book a month--a book that you didn't find out about in a magazine or newspaper. Browse an independent bookstore and wait till some book says, "Read me" and read it.
6. Listen to the voices. The wee inner voices. Even if they don't speak, even if they only breathe a little, like dirty phone calls. Do anything they tell you to do except rape, kill or pillage. (The voices make mistakes sometimes, but they don't make boring mistakes.)
7. Leave people alone when they tell you to leave them alone. If they mean it, they need it. If they don't mean it, they're trying to manipulate you, so fuck them. (Note: This rule applies to grownups only.)
8. Don't make the "sophisticated" error of thinking that a negative voice is automatically smarter than a positive voice.
9. Eat real food but don't be a fanatic about it.
10. Don't be a fanatic about anything.
11. Do only exercises that take you somewhere. Walk, ride a bike, roller-skate, swim. All other exercise is ego- and/or fear-driven, and if you listen to ego and fear you will drown out the voices you most need.
12. Don't run. Really, don't. American likes to run because running from (fill in the blank) is what we do best. Everybody who runs is running down an alley away from something terrible. Stop running and find out what's behind you.
13. Don't dye your hair unless you're a woman over forty and you dye it the color of my obsessions. Even then, don't cover up all your gray. Gray is gorgeous. And if you're a man, then really don't dye to cover gray. Dig it: EVERYBODY KNOWS. And they talk about it in a snide way behind your back. I'm not kidding.
14. Eat Italian food. Italians went from being oppressive Romans to being the inefficient, wonderful Italians they are today. It's probably the food.
[15. No longer applicable.]
16. Given that you're living in a city where driving is necessary, learn to drive. You may think you know how, but my experience of the way you drive is that you probably don't. So here's how:
Drive for space, not for speed. Space in front of you is the safest thing you can have with a car. Darting in and out of traffic doesn't change anything, it just makes you older. You can't beat the average traffic flow on any given street or freeway by more than five minutes, which only makes a difference if you're having a baby. And don't you feel like an idiot when you've passed six cars and they pull up beside you at the next light? They're laughing at you. And they hate you. Which isn't good for you. Drive for space.
If the move ain't smooth, it ain't right. There's no excuse for a jerky turn, stop or acceleration. It's hard on the car, it's hard on the other passengers, it confuses other drivers, it's not aesthetic. Such moves are for emergencies only.
Ninety percent of the time you drive with your habits, not your head, so figure out what your bad habits are--gunning it through yellows? not signaling? tailgating? Your worst habit will turn into your worst accident. So stop it. Drive for space. End of lesson.
17. Dance. Jesus said, in one of the Gnostic gospels, "He who does not dance does not know what happens."
18. Don't worry so much about being fat. Fat feels great in bed.
19. Have at least one other living thing in your abode. Rhododendrons, for instance, are fantastic creatures. They give much, ask little, have marvelous names, and they don't shit where I walk.
20. Look into people's eyes when you talk to them.
21. Call your parents by their real first names the very next time you see them. Try it. Watch their faces. Then do it at least half the time you talk to or about them from now on. (If people all over the world did this, nations would cease to war.)
22. Have candlelight in your life. (If you should get into rituals, it'll come in handy.)
23. No matter how rushed your schedule is, spend at least five minutes in the morning quietly in bed with your loved one just being gentle together. Perhaps drinking tea.
24. Tell your mother and father, individually--and your children, if you have children--what you really think. Once a year, minimum. If more people did this, it would save more lives than arresting drunk drivers.
25. Do not avoid the eyes of the homeless.
26. If you think something's wrong--at work, in your family, in your self, in your country--agitate for change. If you won't do that, it doesn't matter how tan you are.
27. As regards No. 23: Assuming that you want a loved one but don't have one, my bet is it's not because you're fat, ugly, crazy, old, a failure, a drunk, a ninny or a clod. Lot of fat ugly crazy older failing drunk ninnying clods have loved ones. Lots who don't have lovers want one, and would probably even put up with you. So there's some lie at the heart of your loneliness; being with someone would reveal the lie, and you don't want that.
28. Tape this to your bathroom mirror:
One can only face in others what one
can face in oneself.
--James Baldwin
29. Work is a sacrament. Don't despise anyone's.
30. Don't talk down to kids.
31. Don't chicken out about sex. Given that you're with a consenting adult, do whatever you fantasize. This is much more important than quitting smoking.
32. Watch at least one black-and-white film per month.
33. Regarding No. 6: Entertain the notion that there are . . . voices. Some come from within, some from the plants and objects and such around you, and some come from what I call, for shorthand purposes, the Infinite. If you don't listen for them, you life will be more difficult than it has to be.
34. Pay more taxes--and insist that those taxes, and the taxes you already pay, go for education. Giving the young a lively, thorough, truthful education is the most important environmental issue today, even more important than acid rain, tropical rain forests and ozone holes.
35. Let me make that a lot clearer. Recycling and shopping ecologically are almost pointless when one-third of California's high-school students drop out, and most who graduate can't read much and have no skills to speak of. How can these people inherit a world? Even if we give them a greener world, are they equipped to keep it that way? You want a solution, so here's a solution: Take to the Streets for the Education of the Children.
36. Pray.
37. Stop looking for other people to supply the solution. You're the solution. If you're not, there is no solution.
38. Be aware of the Network. We live by a network of connections and links. Your connection to yourself, to your intimates, to your place, to the collective, to the planet, to the Infinite. (Each is a distinct connection.) Equally powerful are the collective's connections to you (not at all the same as yours to it), to groups of intimates, to itself, to the planet, to the Infinite. Finally, the connections of groups of intimates to one another, to the collective, to the planet, to the Infinite. All these levels and connections interweave. All are equally important.
All the links or connective points of this network (call them the acupuncture points of our universe) both take and generate energy. Any link out of sync weakens the others. (The West, for instance, has concentrated too much on the individual; the East, too much on the collective; both approaches have been catastrophic on every level of the network.) This network, from you all the way to the Infinite, is a living whole, ceaselessly changing. Some of these changes take millions of years. Some happen instantaneously.
May the links of the network shine.
The Solutions to Everything
It's happened once too often. Somebody says or writes to me, "You talk about what's wrong but you don't offer solutions," or "My girlfriend - boyfriend - lawyer - therapist says you should suggest solutions, not just talk about bad stuff." And maybe they're right. Maybe to detail one's visions and let readers take it from there is they feel like it just isn't enough. Maybe there are solutions, and maybe I should know them.
So I sat down and thought real hard, and here, numbered for your convenience, are my solutions to everything.
00. Indulge in secrets. Without one or two major secrets, your life will surely fade. (If you're over forty and don't understand this . . . you're in big trouble.)
A conundrum: secrets aren't lies--they're mysteries, havens, passageways. Lies wreck your life; secrets can save your life. But sometimes you have to lie to keep the secret. Ugh oh.
1. Make mistakes. As Coleman Hawkins said, "If you don't make mistakes, you aren't really trying."
2. Stop lying about yourself. To yourself. To your friends. To your family. To your business associates. Maybe even to your enemies. (Your enemies oppress you as much by your fidelity to your own lies as by anything else.)
3. Stop tolerating in your leaders what you wouldn't tolerate in your friends. But...
4. Tolerate impurity. Trying to be pure about anything is a way of setting yourself up to fail. Asking other people to be pure is a way of setting them up.
5. Read one book a month--a book that you didn't find out about in a magazine or newspaper. Browse an independent bookstore and wait till some book says, "Read me" and read it.
6. Listen to the voices. The wee inner voices. Even if they don't speak, even if they only breathe a little, like dirty phone calls. Do anything they tell you to do except rape, kill or pillage. (The voices make mistakes sometimes, but they don't make boring mistakes.)
7. Leave people alone when they tell you to leave them alone. If they mean it, they need it. If they don't mean it, they're trying to manipulate you, so fuck them. (Note: This rule applies to grownups only.)
8. Don't make the "sophisticated" error of thinking that a negative voice is automatically smarter than a positive voice.
9. Eat real food but don't be a fanatic about it.
10. Don't be a fanatic about anything.
11. Do only exercises that take you somewhere. Walk, ride a bike, roller-skate, swim. All other exercise is ego- and/or fear-driven, and if you listen to ego and fear you will drown out the voices you most need.
12. Don't run. Really, don't. American likes to run because running from (fill in the blank) is what we do best. Everybody who runs is running down an alley away from something terrible. Stop running and find out what's behind you.
13. Don't dye your hair unless you're a woman over forty and you dye it the color of my obsessions. Even then, don't cover up all your gray. Gray is gorgeous. And if you're a man, then really don't dye to cover gray. Dig it: EVERYBODY KNOWS. And they talk about it in a snide way behind your back. I'm not kidding.
14. Eat Italian food. Italians went from being oppressive Romans to being the inefficient, wonderful Italians they are today. It's probably the food.
[15. No longer applicable.]
16. Given that you're living in a city where driving is necessary, learn to drive. You may think you know how, but my experience of the way you drive is that you probably don't. So here's how:
Drive for space, not for speed. Space in front of you is the safest thing you can have with a car. Darting in and out of traffic doesn't change anything, it just makes you older. You can't beat the average traffic flow on any given street or freeway by more than five minutes, which only makes a difference if you're having a baby. And don't you feel like an idiot when you've passed six cars and they pull up beside you at the next light? They're laughing at you. And they hate you. Which isn't good for you. Drive for space.
If the move ain't smooth, it ain't right. There's no excuse for a jerky turn, stop or acceleration. It's hard on the car, it's hard on the other passengers, it confuses other drivers, it's not aesthetic. Such moves are for emergencies only.
Ninety percent of the time you drive with your habits, not your head, so figure out what your bad habits are--gunning it through yellows? not signaling? tailgating? Your worst habit will turn into your worst accident. So stop it. Drive for space. End of lesson.
17. Dance. Jesus said, in one of the Gnostic gospels, "He who does not dance does not know what happens."
18. Don't worry so much about being fat. Fat feels great in bed.
19. Have at least one other living thing in your abode. Rhododendrons, for instance, are fantastic creatures. They give much, ask little, have marvelous names, and they don't shit where I walk.
20. Look into people's eyes when you talk to them.
21. Call your parents by their real first names the very next time you see them. Try it. Watch their faces. Then do it at least half the time you talk to or about them from now on. (If people all over the world did this, nations would cease to war.)
22. Have candlelight in your life. (If you should get into rituals, it'll come in handy.)
23. No matter how rushed your schedule is, spend at least five minutes in the morning quietly in bed with your loved one just being gentle together. Perhaps drinking tea.
24. Tell your mother and father, individually--and your children, if you have children--what you really think. Once a year, minimum. If more people did this, it would save more lives than arresting drunk drivers.
25. Do not avoid the eyes of the homeless.
26. If you think something's wrong--at work, in your family, in your self, in your country--agitate for change. If you won't do that, it doesn't matter how tan you are.
27. As regards No. 23: Assuming that you want a loved one but don't have one, my bet is it's not because you're fat, ugly, crazy, old, a failure, a drunk, a ninny or a clod. Lot of fat ugly crazy older failing drunk ninnying clods have loved ones. Lots who don't have lovers want one, and would probably even put up with you. So there's some lie at the heart of your loneliness; being with someone would reveal the lie, and you don't want that.
28. Tape this to your bathroom mirror:
One can only face in others what one
can face in oneself.
--James Baldwin
29. Work is a sacrament. Don't despise anyone's.
30. Don't talk down to kids.
31. Don't chicken out about sex. Given that you're with a consenting adult, do whatever you fantasize. This is much more important than quitting smoking.
32. Watch at least one black-and-white film per month.
33. Regarding No. 6: Entertain the notion that there are . . . voices. Some come from within, some from the plants and objects and such around you, and some come from what I call, for shorthand purposes, the Infinite. If you don't listen for them, you life will be more difficult than it has to be.
34. Pay more taxes--and insist that those taxes, and the taxes you already pay, go for education. Giving the young a lively, thorough, truthful education is the most important environmental issue today, even more important than acid rain, tropical rain forests and ozone holes.
35. Let me make that a lot clearer. Recycling and shopping ecologically are almost pointless when one-third of California's high-school students drop out, and most who graduate can't read much and have no skills to speak of. How can these people inherit a world? Even if we give them a greener world, are they equipped to keep it that way? You want a solution, so here's a solution: Take to the Streets for the Education of the Children.
36. Pray.
37. Stop looking for other people to supply the solution. You're the solution. If you're not, there is no solution.
38. Be aware of the Network. We live by a network of connections and links. Your connection to yourself, to your intimates, to your place, to the collective, to the planet, to the Infinite. (Each is a distinct connection.) Equally powerful are the collective's connections to you (not at all the same as yours to it), to groups of intimates, to itself, to the planet, to the Infinite. Finally, the connections of groups of intimates to one another, to the collective, to the planet, to the Infinite. All these levels and connections interweave. All are equally important.
All the links or connective points of this network (call them the acupuncture points of our universe) both take and generate energy. Any link out of sync weakens the others. (The West, for instance, has concentrated too much on the individual; the East, too much on the collective; both approaches have been catastrophic on every level of the network.) This network, from you all the way to the Infinite, is a living whole, ceaselessly changing. Some of these changes take millions of years. Some happen instantaneously.
May the links of the network shine.
posted by Unknown at 8:51 AM
Nancho Gospels: Ventura's PRIMER ON REVOLUTION I
Nancho Gospels: Ventura's PRIMER ON REVOLUTION I: "There is no alternative but revolution. There is never a day when revolution is not needed. Not anymore. Because there is never a day anymore when millions of us, most of us, are not faced with the loss of our liberties and power, the loss of dignity, the loss of community, the loss of livelihood--the loss, in every sense, of a today worth living and a tomorrow worth caring about."
posted by Unknown at 8:48 AM
REVOLUTION: A PRIMER
REVOLUTION: A PRIMER
(Letters At 3am)
BY MICHAEL VENTURA
There is no alternative but revolution. There is never a day when revolution is not needed. Not anymore. Because there is never a day anymore when millions of us, most of us, are not faced with the loss of our liberties and power, the loss of dignity, the loss of community, the loss of livelihood--the loss, in every sense, of a today worth living and a tomorrow worth caring about.
The questions are: What kind of revolution? By whom? Against whom? How? And toward what end? Every term must be redefined, every tactic must be conceived anew, every assumption must be questioned. The old "isms"--socialism, capitalism--must be left behind. The capitalist countries have proved that basing a society solely on profit leads eventually to social breakdown: the demise of the socialist countries proved that excluding individual profit also leads to chaos. These can't be the only two possibilities.
And yet there isn't time to theorize much about a third, or fourth, or fifth possibility. Too many people are working too hard for too little, and all for the profit of too few. Their choices erode every day. They are too discouraged by broken promises, and haven't the time or energy to dream anymore about some ideal state. We need something different, and we need it now, and nobody's going to do it for us. We must do it on our own. Which is what revolution is all about. To accomplish the needed change ourselves, and not to delegate that task to others-- this is the essence of revolution.
But before the word "revolution" can inspire us again, another word must be dealt with, one often coupled with revolution: "violence".
To equate revolution with violence, to accept violence as part of the necessary struggle in any way, dooms the future to repeat the past. To kill people you don't know, who have done you no personal harm, for an idea, a goal, or a cause is the madness that has perverted human history--and is no different, in function or result, from killing a lover for jealousy or a storekeeper for money. All such killing assumes that your desires are worth another's life. That assumption is the root of all oppression. To advocate violence is to announce that if you achieve power then you, too, are willing to oppress. No one needs that kind of revolution again.
Tactically, in today's United States, violent revolution is suicide. The military forces that will array against you are overwhelming. But the tactical considerations pale beside the moral. Morally, killing destroys not only those it kills, but also the soul of the killer and the validity of the killer's ideas. To kill for a cause is to kill the cause.Even if you win by killing, you will have corrupted your humanity so deeply that you will be incapable either of justice or of the mercy without which justice withers-- and "Justice or Chaos" is the moral imperative of our time.
In a system maintained by both direct and indirect threats of murder, imprisonment, and hunger, the fundamental revolutionary act is to abandon those threats. The means never justify the ends. We are what we do, not what we want.
But no revolution is possible without direct action. Violence won't work, so what might? To figure that out, you have to first identify what a new conception of revolution must attack.
There is no point in attacking the federal government. If we define our intended system as "government of the people, by the people, and for the people", then we don't have a national government anymore. What we have now is an enormous bureaucratic political buffer between the people who control money and the people whom money controls. With rare exceptons, politicians always follow the money. Appeals to this "politics" merely set you up to be sold out. For it's possible that our government isn't incompetent at all; it's likely that the government they're giving us is the government they intend for us. Money keeps pouring into the politicians' coffers, so somebody is certainly benefiting. Under the guise of mediating between corporate interests and the people, our elected representatives give what I call The Corporate Web (the interlocking powers of immense business concerns) more and more, while the citizens get less and less. This theft is their object, and it is accomplished under the rule of law -- law made and administered by officials who owe their office and livelihood to those who finance their campaigns. (Is this what you believe that law should be? Is this a concept of law that you feel bound to respect? Your choice.)
It is not important who the politician is anymore, or what beliefs he or she fights for. If they call themselves "Republican" or "Democrat", and they work within those party organizations and rules, they are valueless. The good ones are hopelessly outnumbered, and the rest are not good--they are bought and paid for, and they obey their keepers. At this moment in history, those few politicians with integrity are either unable to face the consequences of their powerlessness or too cowardly to take on the task of forming a third (and fourth, and fifth) party.
Voting for independents, or for virtually any conceivable third party, is today almost a revolutionary act in itself. It is not nearly enough-- only direct action has a chance, but anything that weakens the Republican/Democratic stranglehold on the national agenda can't be all bad.
Voting, in itself, is not useless. In a truly representative republic, voting would be essential. But it's useless to vote for Republicans and Democrats. Given the steep descent of our nation on all levels in the last 20 years, anyone who gets distracted by the present Republican/Democratic monopoly is pretending that what has done such harm will somehow, magically and suddenly, be beneficial. Anyone telling you to vote for such people is selling you out. Whether or not the sellout is intentional is, by now, beside the point. Because voting for party politicians, on a national level, is worse than a waste of time. It is a waste of belief. A waste of possibility.
What possibility? The possibility of direct action against the forces usurping our freedoms and threatening our livelihood. What belief? The belief in ourselves--which is the belief that government of the people, by the people, and for the people shall not perish.
It is not easy to take direct action against the economic forces that threaten us, but it is easier than rebelling against the federal government. The federal government has the military, the police, the FBI, the CIA, the IRS. The corporations don't -- not directly. The corporations have to manage those forces through their pet politicians, an unwieldy and slow precess that must take place (at least partially) in public. So the strategy of a new revolution must be to bypass the federal government entirely. Stop being distracted by the middlemen (and middlewomen) who exist as players in a kind of spectator sport meant only to distract. Go to the source of the problem: the corporatism that has clocked itself in the trappings of what used to be Western democracy
Corporations are vulnerable because they exist only to make money. Money is, literally, their blood. In the new revolution, depriving corporations of money is the historical equivalent of shedding blood. Even a small drop in profit can cause enormous internal turmoil within corporations -- can alter decisions, can even alter the corporate decision-making process. This isn't idealism, it's a matter of record. In small ways, you can read about it in the Wall Street Journal every day.
The Corporate Web makes its money from what we buy. This gives us enormous collective power. There is no law that says we have to buy any particular thing.
This fact is the precious key.
To underestimate this key is to give up what may be our last chance at equality, dignity, self-governance. It is to give up the possibility of fruitful work that both sustains the present and creates a hopeful future. Direct economic action, coupled with nonviolent civil disobedience, is the key to a possible revolution. Not futile rebellion against a government that functions merely as a buffer between The Corporate Web and our discontent; but a slow, certainly painful, yet possible reclaiming of our birthright -- a birthright which is nothing less than the freedom to enjoy the fruits of our labor, and the power to decide what that labor truly consists of, how it's used, and what it's worth.
(Letters At 3am)
BY MICHAEL VENTURA
There is no alternative but revolution. There is never a day when revolution is not needed. Not anymore. Because there is never a day anymore when millions of us, most of us, are not faced with the loss of our liberties and power, the loss of dignity, the loss of community, the loss of livelihood--the loss, in every sense, of a today worth living and a tomorrow worth caring about.
The questions are: What kind of revolution? By whom? Against whom? How? And toward what end? Every term must be redefined, every tactic must be conceived anew, every assumption must be questioned. The old "isms"--socialism, capitalism--must be left behind. The capitalist countries have proved that basing a society solely on profit leads eventually to social breakdown: the demise of the socialist countries proved that excluding individual profit also leads to chaos. These can't be the only two possibilities.
And yet there isn't time to theorize much about a third, or fourth, or fifth possibility. Too many people are working too hard for too little, and all for the profit of too few. Their choices erode every day. They are too discouraged by broken promises, and haven't the time or energy to dream anymore about some ideal state. We need something different, and we need it now, and nobody's going to do it for us. We must do it on our own. Which is what revolution is all about. To accomplish the needed change ourselves, and not to delegate that task to others-- this is the essence of revolution.
But before the word "revolution" can inspire us again, another word must be dealt with, one often coupled with revolution: "violence".
To equate revolution with violence, to accept violence as part of the necessary struggle in any way, dooms the future to repeat the past. To kill people you don't know, who have done you no personal harm, for an idea, a goal, or a cause is the madness that has perverted human history--and is no different, in function or result, from killing a lover for jealousy or a storekeeper for money. All such killing assumes that your desires are worth another's life. That assumption is the root of all oppression. To advocate violence is to announce that if you achieve power then you, too, are willing to oppress. No one needs that kind of revolution again.
Tactically, in today's United States, violent revolution is suicide. The military forces that will array against you are overwhelming. But the tactical considerations pale beside the moral. Morally, killing destroys not only those it kills, but also the soul of the killer and the validity of the killer's ideas. To kill for a cause is to kill the cause.Even if you win by killing, you will have corrupted your humanity so deeply that you will be incapable either of justice or of the mercy without which justice withers-- and "Justice or Chaos" is the moral imperative of our time.
In a system maintained by both direct and indirect threats of murder, imprisonment, and hunger, the fundamental revolutionary act is to abandon those threats. The means never justify the ends. We are what we do, not what we want.
But no revolution is possible without direct action. Violence won't work, so what might? To figure that out, you have to first identify what a new conception of revolution must attack.
There is no point in attacking the federal government. If we define our intended system as "government of the people, by the people, and for the people", then we don't have a national government anymore. What we have now is an enormous bureaucratic political buffer between the people who control money and the people whom money controls. With rare exceptons, politicians always follow the money. Appeals to this "politics" merely set you up to be sold out. For it's possible that our government isn't incompetent at all; it's likely that the government they're giving us is the government they intend for us. Money keeps pouring into the politicians' coffers, so somebody is certainly benefiting. Under the guise of mediating between corporate interests and the people, our elected representatives give what I call The Corporate Web (the interlocking powers of immense business concerns) more and more, while the citizens get less and less. This theft is their object, and it is accomplished under the rule of law -- law made and administered by officials who owe their office and livelihood to those who finance their campaigns. (Is this what you believe that law should be? Is this a concept of law that you feel bound to respect? Your choice.)
It is not important who the politician is anymore, or what beliefs he or she fights for. If they call themselves "Republican" or "Democrat", and they work within those party organizations and rules, they are valueless. The good ones are hopelessly outnumbered, and the rest are not good--they are bought and paid for, and they obey their keepers. At this moment in history, those few politicians with integrity are either unable to face the consequences of their powerlessness or too cowardly to take on the task of forming a third (and fourth, and fifth) party.
Voting for independents, or for virtually any conceivable third party, is today almost a revolutionary act in itself. It is not nearly enough-- only direct action has a chance, but anything that weakens the Republican/Democratic stranglehold on the national agenda can't be all bad.
Voting, in itself, is not useless. In a truly representative republic, voting would be essential. But it's useless to vote for Republicans and Democrats. Given the steep descent of our nation on all levels in the last 20 years, anyone who gets distracted by the present Republican/Democratic monopoly is pretending that what has done such harm will somehow, magically and suddenly, be beneficial. Anyone telling you to vote for such people is selling you out. Whether or not the sellout is intentional is, by now, beside the point. Because voting for party politicians, on a national level, is worse than a waste of time. It is a waste of belief. A waste of possibility.
What possibility? The possibility of direct action against the forces usurping our freedoms and threatening our livelihood. What belief? The belief in ourselves--which is the belief that government of the people, by the people, and for the people shall not perish.
It is not easy to take direct action against the economic forces that threaten us, but it is easier than rebelling against the federal government. The federal government has the military, the police, the FBI, the CIA, the IRS. The corporations don't -- not directly. The corporations have to manage those forces through their pet politicians, an unwieldy and slow precess that must take place (at least partially) in public. So the strategy of a new revolution must be to bypass the federal government entirely. Stop being distracted by the middlemen (and middlewomen) who exist as players in a kind of spectator sport meant only to distract. Go to the source of the problem: the corporatism that has clocked itself in the trappings of what used to be Western democracy
Corporations are vulnerable because they exist only to make money. Money is, literally, their blood. In the new revolution, depriving corporations of money is the historical equivalent of shedding blood. Even a small drop in profit can cause enormous internal turmoil within corporations -- can alter decisions, can even alter the corporate decision-making process. This isn't idealism, it's a matter of record. In small ways, you can read about it in the Wall Street Journal every day.
The Corporate Web makes its money from what we buy. This gives us enormous collective power. There is no law that says we have to buy any particular thing.
This fact is the precious key.
To underestimate this key is to give up what may be our last chance at equality, dignity, self-governance. It is to give up the possibility of fruitful work that both sustains the present and creates a hopeful future. Direct economic action, coupled with nonviolent civil disobedience, is the key to a possible revolution. Not futile rebellion against a government that functions merely as a buffer between The Corporate Web and our discontent; but a slow, certainly painful, yet possible reclaiming of our birthright -- a birthright which is nothing less than the freedom to enjoy the fruits of our labor, and the power to decide what that labor truly consists of, how it's used, and what it's worth.
posted by Unknown at 8:16 AM
Monday, November 01, 2004
VINTAGE STAR WARS KENNER TOY COMMERCIALS DVD - Yahoo! Auctions
VINTAGE STAR WARS KENNER TOY COMMERCIALS DVD - Yahoo! Auctions: "This auction is for a DVD-R of 65 Original Kenner STAR WARS Toy Commercials. Over 30 Minutes of Vintage commercials from the Vintage Kenner Star Wars Toy Line! (1977 -1983) See the action of the creature cantina with greedo and Han! View the ice creature Wampa in a rage to capture Luke and his Taun Taun! See the Death Star Playset! The Millenium Falcon Spaceship! The send away figures! The micro collection! C-3PO introduce the 'new ' Kenner line for 1983 and much MORE! Then enjoy newer POTF Kenner Commercials too! (1995-97)'Han Fruit Loops' mail in figure, Shadows of the Empire with awesome computer graphics! More! And even More Star Wars related commercials! C3POs cereal, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, & Energizer Batteries! Also included: A special look back at the phenomenon of the Trilogy throughout the years with Star Wars The Magic and The Mystery! Plus an incredible tour through the Lucasfilm archives! The Star Wars Bar with Richard Pryor! Plus the never before seen movie trailer for 'Revenge Of The Jedi'!!! And many more extra surprises you won't see anywhere else! 2 Hours of Collectible video on Hi-Quality DVD-R Video. Picture and sound is good to very good with everything ranging from 7 to 9 on quality. Make sure your DVD player is DVD-R compatible before buying. Buyer pays $3.00 shipping. Ships as soon as payment is received. We take Paypal,Paydirect,Money Orders and Cashiers Checks. Happy Bidding and MAY THE FORCE BE WITH YOU!!! "
posted by Unknown at 9:41 AM
Buy Famicom DVD: 20 Years Precious Memories - Always in stock!
Buy Famicom DVD: 20 Years Precious Memories - Always in stock!: "It's been 20 years since the birth of FAMICOM. We are proud to present a special DVD filled with your precious memories.
Enterbrain's latest DVD with the name 'Famcom: 20 Years Of Your Precious Memories' features the best 100 Famicom games, the legendary Game King show (Takahashi expert VS Mouri expert 1986!), interviews with the big guys of the Famicom ages, many Famicom TV commercials (CMs) and lots more. As a bonus BOSE (also know from the FamitsuWaveDVDs) and his crew get to work with all the extraordinary game controllers released almost 2 decades ago (Glove Controller, anyone?)."
Enterbrain's latest DVD with the name 'Famcom: 20 Years Of Your Precious Memories' features the best 100 Famicom games, the legendary Game King show (Takahashi expert VS Mouri expert 1986!), interviews with the big guys of the Famicom ages, many Famicom TV commercials (CMs) and lots more. As a bonus BOSE (also know from the FamitsuWaveDVDs) and his crew get to work with all the extraordinary game controllers released almost 2 decades ago (Glove Controller, anyone?)."
posted by Unknown at 9:39 AM
Kaiju Big Battel DVD - Rabbit Valley - Furry and Anthropomorphic Comics
Kaiju Big Battel DVD - Rabbit Valley - Furry and Anthropomorphic Comics: "Planet Earth is in peril! Scattered throughout the glove are a horde of giant intergalactic insects, a mad scientist with a legion of city-crushing monsters, a group of thuggish Rogues, and a band of Heroes determined to protect humanity. When these rival groups clash, citiscapes crumble, bystanders are crushed, and monsters fight to the death... or at least until Referee Jingi declares a winner!
Terebi Sento captures four epic Kaiju Big Battels beginning with a classic culinary confrontation between Kung-Fu chicken Noodle and Club Sandwich. Then bitter rivals Los Plantanos and Team Space Bug vie for the coveted Golden Banana Award for Tag Team Excellence. Terebi Sento takes a soap-operatic twist when the three-way Battel between American Beetle, Mung Wun, and Dusto Bunny is interrupted by the first ever mid-Battel birth! The Kaiju action reaches its climax as the nefarious Dr. Cube takes on the equally evil Uchu Chu in a Championship Battel full of surprises. Plus, DVD extras including Kaiju commercials, a video from indie-rock favorites Piebald, character bios, live event trailers and more!
For more information about Kaiju Big Battel, visit kaiju.com or pick up Kaiju Big Battel: A Practical guide to Giant City Crushing Monsters, also available at Rabbit Valley Comics."
Terebi Sento captures four epic Kaiju Big Battels beginning with a classic culinary confrontation between Kung-Fu chicken Noodle and Club Sandwich. Then bitter rivals Los Plantanos and Team Space Bug vie for the coveted Golden Banana Award for Tag Team Excellence. Terebi Sento takes a soap-operatic twist when the three-way Battel between American Beetle, Mung Wun, and Dusto Bunny is interrupted by the first ever mid-Battel birth! The Kaiju action reaches its climax as the nefarious Dr. Cube takes on the equally evil Uchu Chu in a Championship Battel full of surprises. Plus, DVD extras including Kaiju commercials, a video from indie-rock favorites Piebald, character bios, live event trailers and more!
For more information about Kaiju Big Battel, visit kaiju.com or pick up Kaiju Big Battel: A Practical guide to Giant City Crushing Monsters, also available at Rabbit Valley Comics."
posted by Unknown at 9:38 AM
DVD; Classic Automobile Commercials Vol 1
DVD; Classic Automobile Commercials Vol 1
From the Mild 50's to the wild 60's. VW 411 with King Kong, Ford Econoline with Buster Keaton, VW Squareback + much more. 60min color/b+w . . EWA Ref.No. DVDNF595 Author. DVD Year - n/a; 403% qa%
Item DVDNF595
From the Mild 50's to the wild 60's. VW 411 with King Kong, Ford Econoline with Buster Keaton, VW Squareback + much more. 60min color/b+w . . EWA Ref.No. DVDNF595 Author. DVD Year - n/a; 403% qa%
Item DVDNF595
posted by Unknown at 9:36 AM
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