Archive for 2010
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[ Comments Off ]Posted on December 3, 2010 by admin in Best of 2010
Friday, December 3rd, 2010With the first Best of 2010 lists appearing as early as June this year, we’ll be looking forward to the Best of 2011 lists around January 1st. Plus: FluxBlog’s 2010 Survey Mix with a “buy” option, and some thoughts on bittorrents.
Yes, it’s that time again. Only this time, it’s that time earlier. A long time ago, Dr Science outlined the problems that would arise if the speed of light were sixty miles an hour, pointing out, for instance, that people would always be speeding in an attempt to stay young. I think we’re experiencing a similar relativistic effect recently, thanks to the ever-increasing amount of information we’re trying to process at higher and higher rates. While it used to be that it was generally agreed that you couldn’t decide what the best things in a given year were before it was at least eleven twelfths over, it seems the ground rules have changed. One of the earliest offenders this year was Time, posting their first Best of 2010 way back in June. Not to be outdone, we of course offered up the Dissociated Press Best of 2010 a few weeks later. And as of this writing, a google search for Best of 2010 yields 1,360,000,000 results! Clearly, someone besides Santa has been busy making lists. Over the last few years, one of the only “Best Of” lists that I personally looked forward to with any eagerness was the “Pitchfork Media Best Albums” lists. They would save me an incredible amount of time when looking for cool new music to listen to. We would even reformat their lists with torrent and Amazon links here on Dissociated Press But this year, I’m much less interested in Pitchfork’s lists, and in a strange turn, even less interested in torrenting music. And here’s why: First of all, I wasn’t especially taken with Pitchfork’s list last year; in spite of remaining an awesome resource as a site in general, I think their “staff picks” have gotten a little self-indulgent and gone askew of a more broadly agreed upon “Best Of”. But more importantly, I feel that the indy market has developed in a way that makes it so easy to find, preview (which was the only legit reason for torrenting) and buy the artists’ music that it seems almost inexcusable to not use the channels available and put some money in their pockets straight away. It’s easy to find collections like FluxBlog’s 2010 Survey Mix and download 10 hours of the year’s music without spending a penny. FluxBlog even throws in a side note that says “Please buy the records from the artist if you like what you hear“, but here’s a challenge I’ll throw down. Given the choice of doing that or buying the same songs with the links below – which will provide both me and the artist with revenue – which would you do? No judgment here; enjoy some great indy music either way. And in any case rest assured that we’ll be back with more opportunistic and offbeat Christmas gift ideas, as well as a round up of the more amusing “Best of 2010″ lists as they roll out. Feel free to share any you know of and we’ll consider them for inclusion. Links for the FluxBlog compilation below.
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BankRun 2010 – Take The Money & Run On December 7
[ 1 Comment ]Posted on December 2, 2010 by admin in Lifestyle & Culture
Thursday, December 2nd, 2010Money talks, bullshit walks. In a circle. With a hand-painted sign. Maybe an intentional run on the banks could send a message that actually gets results.
 A bank run? There’s an app for that. |
With all the all the Commie Central Liberals, Tea Party Wingnuts, and Rand Paul Conservatives running rampant in this country, waving signs and shaking fists at whatever Glenn Beck and Keith Olbermann point their fingers at, and with so much excitement about the Palin/Quayle 2012 campaign that marines are getting Sarah tattooed on their bums, it’s surprising that the BankRun2010 movement hasn’t gotten more press traction on this side of the pond. If you haven’t heard about it, it’s a grass-roots movement inspired by this video clip (also below) in which French ex-footballer and deodorant model Eric Catona suggests that when a person takes part in conventional protests, they’re really just “swindling themselves”, since they’re using their time and perhaps money to engage in an act that is likely to have little real impact. His idea? An intentional run on the banks. His argument is that since banks hold all the real power in the world, the only way to change the system is by bringing down the banks. To that end, December 7 is the day that has been suggested as a day that we all withdraw our money for a day. Because what, after all, is a wealthy, smug, morally decrepit banker, with no money in his bank? Probably a less smug, morally decrepit person. As a borderline collapsitarian myself, I have to say I think this is one of the best protest ideas since the Gandhi era. On the purest level, there is absolutely nothing wrong with briefly taking your money from the clearly corrupt hands that hold it, simply to remind the bankers attached to those hands that the power is not theirs, it’s ours. In my (obviously opinionated) view, any argument against this as a rational form of protest is predicated on the idea that the banking system as it exists today is somehow of intrinsic benefit to humanity, and must be protected for the good of us all. And is most likely to be presented by the bankers themselves. It will be interesting to see what kind of turnout there really is; a protest with similar motives in Chicago last year had some brief momentum but ended up being a blip in the media. After the videos below, we’ve compiled a list of active Facebook pages for “BankRun 2010″ by country. Read the rest of this entry »
15 Inexpensive Christmas Toy Gift Ideas For Dystopians
[ 1 Comment ]Posted on December 1, 2010 by admin in Holidays
Wednesday, December 1st, 2010This Christmas, why not think about some gifts that will prepare your children for the seemingly inevitable dystopian and gender-confused future that awaits them? We’ve rounded up some affordable toys to help you do it.
WikiLeaks’ Julian Assange: Suicide By Spook?
[ Comments Off ]Posted on November 30, 2010 by admin in Editorial & Opinion
Tuesday, November 30th, 2010Although some aspects of what WikiLeaks’ Julian Assange is doing are admirable, given his arrogant and self-aggrandizing approach, one can only wonder how long he will remain free or even alive. No matter how things turn out, I nominate Julian Sands to play him in the movie.
 Rumor has it that there’s a movie in the works, with another Julian starring as Assange |
Earlier today I joked with a friend that if Julian Assange wants to live, he should get in touch with Osama Bin Laden’s people; they seem to do a pretty good job of keeping the US government off their tails. So it was with a certain glee that I read that Sarah Palin went all fuzzy in the head again, demanding we hunt Assange down like Bin Laden. I guess meaning “in a fashion that never leads to his capture”. Assange is often referred to as being in an “undisclosed location”, a place made famous by another narcissistic freak, Dick Cheney. Although in Dick’s case, he had the benefit of a global superpower’s intelligence agencies to undisclose him. Assange’s undisclosed location is England, which I personally wouldn’t refer to as particularly undisclosed. The fact that Interpol is gunning for him doesn’t bode well for his future either. Although some would argue that Assange and the Swedish legal system deserve each other, the fact that the case was brought forth once, dropped, and then brought forth again to coincide with the release of more documents smacks of the kind of spy-novel intrigue one would expect in a situation like this. In an era when White House staff members out our own spies for domestic political revenge, it would be naive to assume for certain that the rape allegations are legit. Unfortunately, in spite of the many possible virtues of what Assange is doing, many – including a co-founder that has run a “purer” version of what WikiLeaks is doing at Cryptome.org – agree that he’s going about it all wrong, letting money and his own celebrity damage the integrity of the information. Even his key tech people left en masse just a couple of months ago. I personally believe that the essence of what Assange is doing is crucial at this point in history; the age of nation states with their legacy of smiling mutual deceit and spy vs. spy charades is approaching its obsolescence. A new world order probably is in the works, and I don’t think we want it defined by the likes of any of the people being exposed in the recent diplomatic cables. I honestly just wonder how long Assange will remain free, or even alive. I hope long enough to take down a few banks. I also think it’s about time someone got to work on the movie; given Julian Assange’s foppish dislikeableness, it could easily be a career-reviving role for Julian Sands.
Thomas Dolby’s Oceanea & Eno’s Seven Sessions On A Milk Sea
[ 1 Comment ]Posted on November 29, 2010 by admin in Music
Monday, November 29th, 2010Two pop legends succeed at being themselves musically, and even seem to sort of get the hang of that whole “internets” thingy, with lots of barnyard puppet sex and nocturnal urban hillbilly parkour. And the Dick Flash interview with Eno.
I have some compassion for the Thomas Dolby and Brian Eno fanboys of the world today. In fact, I might have to confess (as I did back in May with He Blinded Me With Silence) to being one of them. Both artists were a major influence on my early songwriting and recording work, and coincidentally, both announced special releases today. Brian Eno, with his “Seven Sessions On A Milk Sea”, and Dolby with “Oceanea”. Eno’s release is actually a series of videos of live sessions playing music from his release “Small Craft On A Milk Sea” (available for download on iTunes or as vinyl, CD, or download
