This blog is essentially a collection of posts I used to write on Facebook combined with my travel blog and expanded to make a very public forum of my thoughts regarding Pop Culture, The Interweb, Cartoons, Comics, Ultimate Frisbee, Absurdity, Life, Travel and whatever else captures my attention long enough to write about it...

Enter at your own peril!

30 May 2011

Things and Stuff

I haven't written for a while, and sure as hell don't feel like doing assessment stuff at 11pm so I thought I'd jump on here and have a play around.

So I had a look at the stats for this thing and apparently people still view it (I dunno about reading it, but they view it). Unsurprisingly the majority of page views come from Australia (artificially increased by this 'puter and my desktop... especially from when I want to link to Greg or Max's much more interesting blogs) but second place is the US, that's a little odd... Norway comes in at 7th (unsurprising given I started this thing properly when I was there) but 3rd through 6th are a MYSTERY... Slovenia comes in just behind the US with a BIG margin over the 4th place Germany... Now I've been to Germany, written posts for this blog in Germany and blogged about German things here, so I can see why German computers might link here... But Slovenia? WHY? I've never been there, never written about there and to the best of my knowledge never even met a Slovenian... The closest thing I can think is I've probably bad mouthed their Eurovision entries a few times... This is born out by the fact that of the 290ish views from Slovenia 200 were this month (surpassing my Australian audience by over 2 views to 1)
Next up is even MORE of a mystery... IRAN... WHY? SUPER WHY? How is there any content on here that would even come up for google.iran? Close behind that is Russia... Sorry boys you can't get my credit card details from here

Rereading some of my older posts though I worked out why people managed to find my blog by searching "White Rabbit Dynamite" before I made that a tag (because I couldn't work out why people would find me that way). That was the name of the band I saw on my pub crawl in Berlin (interestingly the "alternative berlin" tours I did and then blogged about are another way people find this... btw if you're ever in Berlin, google "alternative berlin" and do their pub crawls/walking tours).

Anyway to give this blog post some content (other than the bollocks about stats) I thought I'd talk about the lego digital designer and the things I've made with it

For those not in the know, Lego Digital Designer (or LDD for short) is a program that lets you build lego on the 'puter and if you do it in the right mode you can then buy said model complete with custom box and instructions... Needless to say I've spent a LOT of time on it and built some quite bizzare things. I've got 43 models of various sizes and themes

Anyway here was one of my first (and to date most excessive) creations
1500+ Pieces, near on $700 and a build guide of over 400 steps... It would probably top out at 60cms tall...

Bigger isn't better though... some of the smaller scale things I've made look much nicer

It "almost" looks like a realistic castle

As opposed to these



I don't just do castles though, I do other weirder things


The Dragonfly Copter

The Spider Bot
 The Copter Boat
 
Whatever this is...

I tried making a normal house once... I ended up with this

In fact this is the most "normal" model I have
(It's a space station btw)

And this is to just prove I can use real lego too


Love, Hugs and Kisses
ANt

16 May 2011

Who want's to go to Moldova with me?

(or lets go watch Moldovan Idol)



I've had something of a love affair with Moldova since my first glance at the country (outside of a cryptic reference from Prince Vigo in Ghostbusters 2) with their opening Eurovision performance in 2005 with Bunica Bate Toba (the first year they entered)... Zdob si Zdub are apparently a completely legit (even if their name means nothing and their website doesn't work) band based in Chişinău (the Capital) who have opened for some big name acts... These guys were also the entry for Moldova in 2011 with So Lucky.





Anyway their discography is follows
  • 1996 – Hardcore Moldovenesc (Moldovan Hardcore) [honestly I'd probably buy an album called that if I saw it for sale]
  • 1999 – Tabăra Noastră (Our camp)
  • 1999 – Zdubii bateţi tare (Zdub Guys Beat It Hard) [SOOOOOO many jokes to be made]
  • 2000 – Remixes
  • 2001 – Agroromantica
  • 2002 – Рок Энциклопедия (Rock Encyclopedia)
  • 2003 – 450 De Oi (450 Sheep) [Sheep... right...]
  • 2006 – Ethnomecanica
  • 2010 - Белое Вино/Красное вино (White Wine/Red Wine)
And this isn't mentioning the interweb hurrah over last years Moldovan Entry by the Sunstroke Project and Olia Tira called Run Away (aka "saxman"). Hell Saxman became something of a thing briefly... (hell just google "Epic Sax Guy)



Other Moldovan entries include a brittney spears impersonator in 2006, a semi decent violin powered number in 2007 with flags, a terrible dropping of the ball in 2008 (but picking up of a teddy) and in 2009 the prancey back up dancers were all that saved it...

Anyway Moldova is completely landlocked surrounded by Romania (whom they were a part of in between the wars and stole their flag off) and the Ukraine (so guess who they vote for/with in the Eurovision?). It's apparently one of the poorest countries in Europe, would dearly like to join the EU (But isn't allowed because it's so poor) and had the distinction of being the first country to vote itself a communist president (in the post soviet period).

Trawling the CIA database I did find it amusing that there are only 11 airports in Moldova, with only 5 of them even having sealed runways...

I did seriously think about trying to get into Moldova last year on my trip, but given there are painful visa proceedures and not a lot to do unless you're big on corruption, organised crime and communism I gave it a miss... Apparently it's a big source for people trafficking. A post soviet collapse lead to a lovely little civil war that isn't completely resolved too...

Wikipedia gives it a long write up from the middle ages to today and what travelly type info I gathered can be limited to this
1) Moldova does wine
2) They have a museum
3) Monasteries
4) More wine

Wikipedia also has mention of surprising growth in the popularity of rugby union in Moldova... go figure

So turning to the "experts" on travel... The lonely planet website... the following arises
  • The language is confusing... from the actual language to whether or not it is even different to Romanian
  • Just getting there is a pain in the ass if you aren't in Romania, The Ukraine or Hungary already and you can't get a visa at the border when you arrive by train (my fav method) leading to you getting turfed at the border or arrested. PLUS Australians need a letter of invitation...
  • Street crime however is low (because there aren't enough visitors for this to be a legit occupation... nice to know) 
  • A direct quote probably sums up the organised crime point... "In Chişinău fleets of BMWs and Mercedes dominate traffic, while fashionably dressed youths strut down boutique-lined avenues and dine in fancy restaurants. How did this excessive wealth find its way to the capital of one of Europe's poorest countries? Answer: you don’t wanna know and we ain’t asking. The stunning contrast between rich and poor is only overshadowed by the conspicuously bold acts committed by individuals who are clearly above the law and shamelessly conduct themselves as such."
I guess all considered I might not be getting there any time soon... I'll just buy the album =P
Love, Hugs and Kisses
ANt

15 May 2011

The Eurovision Song Contest 2011 Final

So Blogger is up and running so I can tap away as it's on

I'm going to say from the start that whatever entry wins tends to spawn a few copycats in the years to follow (Hell Germany sent the same girl)... so if Ireland win I'm going to be fairly grumpy...

The opening was pretty interesting, the guy can certainly play, but I still don't like him... But Anke is has grown on me massively

Onwards to the contest... same as last year I'll only add something for countries I've written about previously if I think of something new

Finland- "Not quite Lordi"... Well put Julia ( I do *heart* Julia too)

Bosnia-

Denmark- Shouldn't be called Friend in London, should be called "Stupid Haircut 5ive"

Lithuania- "That's right! She's the one that gets older the closer the camera goes" thanks Steve

Hungary- Michael Bolton

Ireland- The Irish equivalent of a Red Cordial overload... If they win I will hold Ireland solely responsible for the absurdity of next years competition

Sweden- Dark Horse

Estonia- I didn't notice the magic tricks last time...

Greece- [insert joke here about stereo mike being a stupid name too]

Russia- The jackets didn't spell his name in the semi

France- Something something something Yoann, Corsican Opera... Bit of a change of pace from every other Eurovision entry. The Backdrop of the Sun coming out was pretty cool... Beats the hell out of Piss off Jedward

Italy- First time I've ever seen an Italian Eurovision entry... Better than I thought they were going to be. I'd go so far as to say I quite liked this

Switzerland-Clearly she doesn't have to concentrate on the lyrics that much

UK- I wonder if it upsets the UK that countries that clearly don't want to win get more points than them... They always appear to be trying so hard, yet they suck so much every single year... Not quite as shit as last year, but that was amazingly bad

Moldova- These guys are a legit Moldovan band that supports BIG name bands... Oh god I wish I could see what the Moldovan live music scene was like... And then the finish with the monocle

Germany- "taken by a stranger" is it about rape? Such an odd accent she sings in, especially after you hear her speak. I like Lena, not as good as last years but she's pretty cool... And the Australian host guy is clearly on the turps and funny

Romania- Sometimes I love Romania, sometimes it's meh... this year it's all downhill after the pants... Their like the pants from Christopher Walken's suit in Batman (which is one of my all time fav suits)... The act doesn't live up to the promise of the pants...

Austria-

Azerbaijan- The guy looks kinda like a bad ricky ponting impersonator and the whole song is a bit skeevy

Slovenia-

Iceland- Complete with spontaneous kiss on the cheek... "we don't use banks anymore"

Spain- Don't try and don't care... I think they're actually really scared of winning it and then having to pay for hosting it next year... They've even stolen half of the safety dance...

Ukraine- One needs to wonder what will be copied from this entry next year if they win/do well

Serbia-

Georgia- "Out Turkeyed Turkey"... Good call

That suit worn by the vote collating entertainment dude was AMAZING... But I think there is something sinister happening with his teeth. And then Anke needed to be carried around by that dickwit...

VOTING TIME

Oh how I love voting... I called Sweden at home as a potential winner based on the fact it was dancey and annoying but not over the top like Ireland
12 points from Netherlands for Denmark? Nearly as surprising as 12 points from Cyprus to Greece...
Wow, Finland didn't vote for Denmark, but Norway still voted for Sweden and Finland...
So block voting is back... But at 12 rounds in without a clear winner is a bit unusual...
21 rounds in and it's still kinda close with Ukraine/Azerbajian/Sweden up there...
At least Ireland and the UK are crashing out...
30 rounds in and it was still pretty close with Azerbaijann looking solid over the Ukraine and Sweden... Azerbaijan was creepy and sucked I'm not happy
Towards the end of the voting Azerbajian was pretty solidly in front with Sweden lagging behind and Italy coming out of nowhere to be 3rd, that's nice... But Azerbaijan still sucked massively

Azerbaijan suck... but Italy to pip Sweden for 2nd on the last vote was a pretty impressive return to eurovision

But just one last time... Azerbajian was creepy and sucked

Love, Hugs and Kisses
ANt

The Eurovision Song Contest 2011 Semi Finals

Now normally I'd try and divide these two events into seperate blog posts and write them as they go on/just after they finish... However blogspot was being lame and not letting people log in... So I had to write my notes in word and paste them up here once I could log in. So here is my views of the semis in one hit

Countries named in bold are through to the final

Semi Final One or, "Jah ist funny Jah"

First up, that chick in purple, the "comedian" is batshit insane... And the Germans having a comedian? And they’re going to try and be funny? This could be rough... I'm filled with dread

Poland... Well she had pretty eyes and was kinda hot I guess, but clearly there’s a distinct relationship between backing singerness and pantslessness.

Norway... Entering in Swahili... I didn’t pick that, even if every second street corner has a Nigerian selling weed. I can't decide between what my dear "cousin" Eirik said "She's a wonderful representative of the multiethnicity of Norway. But the people of Eastern Europe don't like black people, so that's why she's out, at least that's my theory" or possibly what Øystein said "She can't sing. That's my theory"

Albania... Female ballad with creepy fingernails... and shit

Armenia... WTF? Boxing? Maybe there’s more in the translation? Or did Rocky only just make it to Armenia? Oh and they made a boxing ring... still one needs to wonder why

Turkey... It's a Turkish entry so someone needs to take their clothes off. He’s a bit sinister... Looks a bit like a Jackie Chan bad guy. And there was a nude lady in cage standing on her own head... then turned the cage around and she turned into a bird

Serbia... I guess the 60s just hit Serbia, but every year I hate the Serbians... this year less than others... but never mind I’m over this entry too

Russia... A Russian boy band fronted by a dancing with the stars on wood and ice winner... Totally a Russian Luke Perry, Alexi must be the Russian version of the name Dylan 

Switzerland... Ukulele! That is all

Georgia... That’s a costume... And rap sucks... But I think that they think they’re hardcore, someone should correct that... “Go back to the 90s and take Vanilla Ice with you!”... thanks Steve

Finland... They’re just copying the Belgians from last year... but even lamer... I appreciate an environmental message probably more than the next guy... but seriously lame

Malta... what perfectly plucked eyebrows, that is all

San Marino... Yes I do mind, go away... Ballads suck

Croatia... The man in the hat... Oh dear... He’s touching people... and no surprise she runs to another stage after he touches her. I’m definitely concerned about that man

Iceland... That’s one of the biggest adherents to the low bass school I’ve seen for a while

Hungary... That’s quite a ring... and a dress/toga. Plus I find heels so huge the singer can’t move amusing

Portugal... What a most glorious moustache. The Iberian peninsula does not give a shit... They’re not even trying anymore... It’s like a kids band... except for that guy on the end in camo... suspect much? And the construction guy... not much better

Lithuania... Ballad... LAME

Azerbaijan... Shit... and the male lead looks like a potential kiddie fiddler... And God is crying tears of fire

Greece... Every year the Greeks appear more and more out of control... “Stand back! I have a hat and I’m surrounded by funky people”...  Rap still sux though

Quick host interlude... seriously that guy hosting is an absolute TIT... and the comedian a bit out of control and just isn’t funny, but at least she’s recycling her jokes... recycling is good...
The drum group where quite cool, and WAY german...  Vy are you climbing zee man? Zer is nothing up zere! Get off zee drums! Zee drums are not for valking!

But there's a different Eurovision man in charge... awww

Semi Final Two or "the comedian host is growing on me... that guy is still a tit though

And she changed her dress from that one armed sail number, then she snorted when she laughed ... She's not so bad... but that guy is a tit
And every time I see that circular shot of the singer on stage I remember that it's actually done by a little man running onto stage with a camera... hilarious

Bosnia... Look look a triangle and an old man... The Balkans are weird

Austria... Ballad... Lame... The Austrian entry was my favourite for years based on the insanity... then they left and the Ukraine and Moldova (oh Moldova <3 ) took the role of most insane country. Now Austria is back and being serious and lame... disappointed

The Netherlands... I can’t help but notice there are more than 3 of them... I never  like the Netherlands

Belgium... Impressive that it was entirely vocals... and quite a haircut on the beatboxer... that is all... Should've done better I think

Slovakia... Yeah in and out I feel that the Slovakians choose their entries based on looks... The song sucks

Ukraine... Always mental and always an entry I look forward to... And a sand artist, interesting idea for a song contest... I'd be tempted to go there based solely on their Eurovision stuff

Moldova... My other favourite country... Not just because they seem to love ska but every single year they are out of control and this year is no change...Those hats are up there with the devo flower pot hats... And a unicycle! And a monocle! On that note, is there a Moldovan Idol? I would totally watch that

Sweden... Still smarting from last years failure to qualify for the first time ever Sweden has poured a shitload of money and gay onto their entry... And as observed by my brother that’s the first time I’ve seen an odd number of sleeves in a boy band

Cyprus... Every year the Cypriot entry sucks balls... that is all

Bulgaria... They’re a bit backwards, to quote Lister “they’re Bulgarians, they have very simple tastes”... Nothing about this stands out to me

FYR Macedonia... always sux... No change from that trend... I have a megaphone and a microphone, together they cancel out to make a normalphone

Israel... “Is this the transvestite again?” “Yes Mum” “That’s lucky for her then”

Slovenia... Clearly she won Slovenia Idol... Listen to her range

Romania... Each year it seems to be a 50-50 on whether or not I like them... But a fantastic pair of pants and fedoras makes feel they don’t suck as much as they apparently do suck

Estonia... No comment, bubblegum and lame... If it gets through go get ice cream or something

Belarus... I Love Belarus, well that’s a lie... I love Moldova

Latvia... Never a standout... Boring as usual

Denmark... Stupid hair and a boring band number... Not quite Wild Stalyns battle of the bands winning

Ireland... OMG Jedward is their TV show? And two guys singing a song called lipstick? 8 shoulder pads between the two of them? Oh Dear... and this is one of the favourites? Oh Double Dear... “Next season of the tv show should be called STFU jedward”

The we had some classical breakdancing... Much better than to Rap and our comedian host is totally not german, she tries to be funny and seems to be actually enjoying herself...

Well at least moldova made it through
Love, Hugs and Kisses
ANt

5 May 2011

The worst story known to man

So a couple of days ago Mel posted a link to the 56 worst analogies of high school students (in America). It was speculated if you could use them all in a single story... The answer is yes, but not a good one... The blue bits are the quotes

Enjoy (or not)


Bob blinked, the revelation that his marriage of 30 years had disintegrated because of his wife’s infidelity came as a rude shock, like a surcharge at a formerly surcharge free ATM.
“But why?” he asked as his thoughts tumbled in his head, making and breaking alliances like underpants in a dryer without cling free.
“I’m unhappy” Mary answered. This was true, she was as unhappy as when someone puts your cake out in the rain, and all the sweet green icing flows down and then you lose the recipe, and on top of that you can’t sing worth a damn. Of course she couldn’t say it like that because her vocabulary was as bad as, like, whatever.
Bob was as perplexed as a hacker who means to access T:flw.quid55328.com\aaakk/ch@ung but gets T:\flw.quickaaakk/ch@ung by mistake. “so you’ve been cheating on me?”
“Just the once” she answered with a lie, because in reality she was as easy as the TV guide crossword. “But that was just because you’re lame and you smell”. Oooo, he smells bad, she thought, as bad as Calvin Klein’s Obsession would smell if it were called Enema and was made from spoiled Spamburgers instead of natural floral fragrances.
“At least that’s true” Bob though, he already knew he was as lame as a duck. Not the metaphorical lame duck, either, but a real duck that was actually lame. Maybe from stepping on a land mine or something. He was bald as one of the Three stooges, either Curly or Larry, you know, the one who goes woo woo woo Bob took one last look at her as she stood up to leave the table, .her pants fit her like a glove, well, maybe more like a mitten actually. Her eyes were shining like two marbles that someone dropped in mucus and then held up to catch the light. Her eyes were like limpid pools, only they had forgotten to put in any pH cleanser, her lips were red and full, like tubes of blood drawn by an inattentive phlebotomist.
As Mary left she reflected on what had just happened. It was unlucky that her husband had interrupted her on that date, especially given the date wasn’t that memorable in any other way. Her date was pleasant enough, but she knew that if her life was a movie this guy would be buried in the credits as something like “second tall man”.
“What I really need” she thought “is someone to find that baseball player I had a fling with, for me”. She remembered when she first saw him, the baseball player stepped out of the box and spit like a fountain of a Greek god that scratches itself a lot and spits brown, rusty tobacco water and refuses to sign autographs for all the little Greek kids unless they pay him lots of drachmas. His name was Jason McBride, that’s when it clicked with her, Bob’s friend John was a private eye who could find anyone for anyone. John and Mary had never met. They were like two hummingbirds who had also never met. But John and Bob had met, they were friends, they were as good friends as the people on “friends”. Maybe John could help.
So that’s how she met me, John the Private Eye. Interrupting my lunch . She walked into my office like a centipede with 98 missing legs. She caught you eye like one of those pointy hook latches that used to dangle from screen doors and would fly up whenever you banged the door open again. Her eyes were like two brown circles with big black dots in the center, her face was a perfect oval, like a circle that had its two sides gently compressed by a Thigh Master. She had a deep, throaty, genuine laugh, like the sound a dog makes just before it throws up. The plan was simple, like my brother-in-law Phil. But unlike Phil, this plan might just work. She was going to pay me to find her long lost love Jason McBride the Baseball guy. I looked at my lunch and my desk lamp, the sardines were packed as tight as the coach section of a 747, the lamp just sat there, like an inanimate object. So I agreed to the job.
3 Days later I found Jason watching the sunset in a park complete with a pond and a single dandelion, the sunset displayed rich, spectacular hues like a .jpeg file at 10 percent cyan, 10 percent magenta, 60 percent yellow and 10 percent black. But it was cold, you know how in “Rocky” he prepares for the fight by punching sides of raw beef? Well, yesterday it was as cold as that meat locker he was in. And today was even colder than that. At first Jason was unconvinced, he didn’t want any more heartbreak, he spoke with the wisdom that can only come from experience, like a guy who went blind because he looked at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it and now goes around the country speaking at high schools about the dangers of looking at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it. A little bit of persuasion from me however and she grew on him like she was a colony of E. Coli and he was room-temperature Canadian beef, and then eventually he fell for her like his heart was a mob informant and she was the East River. It was a beautiful moment, The dandelion swayed in the gentle breeze like an oscillating electric fan set on medium and the little boat gently drifted across the pond exactly the way a bowling ball wouldn’t.
The arrangement was that they would meet at the ballet, it was Mary’s idea, her artistic sense was exquisitely refined, like someone who can tell butter from I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter. As Jason and I walked into the ballet we looked to the performance where the ballerina rose gracefully en pointe and extended one slender leg behind her, like a dog at a fire hydrant. Realising that Mary wasn’t inside we left to wait for her at the park nearby. That is where Jason and Mary saw each other, long separated by cruel fate, the star-crossed lovers raced towards each other like two freight trains, one having left Cleveland at 6.36 pm travelling at 55mph. the other from Topeka at 4.19 pm at a speed of 35mph. She looked at him, he was as tall as a 6’3” tree “Oh, Jason, take me!” she panted, her breasts heaving like a college freshman on $1-a-beer night. He was deeply in love. When she spoke, he thought he heard bells, as if she were a garbage truck backing up.
They moved in together and they lived in a typical suburban neighborhood with picket fences that resembled Nancy Kerrigan’s teeth. The red brick wall the colour of a brick-red Crayola crayon.
And that’s where the story could have ended happily ever after, if it wasn’t for Bob’s revenge. It was an American tradition, like Fathers chasing kids around with power tools. Bob asked to borrow my Grandfather’s revenge book to summon a revenge monster, a dicey proposition because even in his last years, Grand Pappy had a mind like a steel trap, only one that had been left out so long, it had rusted shut.
A full moon later and I heard a knock at the door. It was a stormy night, the thunder was ominous-sounding, much like the sound of a thin sheet of metal being shaken backstage during the storm scene in a play. The hailstones leaped from the pavement, just like maggots when you fry them in hot grease. It was McBride and Mary, soaking wet, her hair glistened in the rain like nose hair after a sneeze. Jason told me he felt like he was being hunted down like a dog, in a place that hunts dogs I suppose. This is obviously different to fishing, fishing is like waiting for something that does not happen very often.
Suddenly from the attic came an unearthly howl. The whole scene had an eerie, surreal quality, like when you’re on vacation in another city and Jeopardy comes on at 7.00pm instead of 7.30. Then I realized that Bob must’ve summoned the fighting politician monster from the revenge book. It came down the stairs looking very much like something no one had ever seen before. I felt nameless dread. Well, there is probably is a long German name for it, like Geschpooklichkeit or something, but I don’t speak German. Anyway it’s a dread that nobody knows the name for, like those square plastic gizmos that close your bread bags. I don’t know the name for those either. It was a young monster with a gun and a knife too. The knife was as sharp as the tone used by Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Tex.) in her first several points of parliamentary procedure made to Rep. Henry Hyde (R-Ill.) in the House Judiciary Committee hearings on the impeachment of President William Jefferson Clinton. The young fighter had a hungry look, the kind you get from not eating in a while. Shots rang out, as shots are wont to do and I was hit. It hurt the way your tongue hurts after you accidently staple it to the wall. Then it hit McBride up through the roof high into the air, so high that McBride fell 12 stories, hitting the pavement like a Hefty bag filled with vegetable soup.
Mary screamed and ran to Jason’s aid, and I looked on in terror, but with Bob’s revenge complete the politician was gone but unnoticed, like the period after the Dr. on a Dr Pepper can.

Then End

Love, Hugs and Kisses
ANt

1 May 2011

File Sharing... or Big Record Labels should Shove it up their Ass

This is just a quick one... years after the issue has been debated to death but I was thinking about it last night...

I fail to see how music sharing on the interwebs is going to kill the music industry. Now I'm not the most piratical file sharer ever (to be honest I can't work the damn programs) but I've got a (i'd imagine) single digit percentage of songs on my ipod that have been given to me by friends and I don't know their sources. All the stuff I've loaded up has either come from cds I've bought (the majority), stuff I've downloaded legit (things like unearthed rock).
That being said the biggest issue I have with file sharing is I'm an absolute label nazi when it comes to my ipod... everything needs as much song title, track number, artist, star rating, date, artwork and whatever other info I can get (artist and song are ESSENTIAL however and I will agonise over star ratings). This sort of data nazi-ing is not compatible with file sharing shit where people fill out data incompletely (if at all) or even worse put the wrong info on there...

But that's an aside, basically last night I was reflecting on the death of the music industry due to piracy (apparently it's the end of the world)... and that's pretty bullshit... There will always be music, it's not going to go away. The kids I was watching last night (The Royals and Kujo Kings go and listen to them/see them play) are not going to stop playing music any time soon... And to be honest they would bust their ass as much for a crowd of 10-20 mates as a packed out soulless venue. File sharing won't affect that in the slightest... if anything all the digital music crap probably helps... I've lost track the number of people I've linked to their websites and stuff (it's "everyone" I think).
As many/some/a couple/that one guy will know one of my favourite bands is (was? they've split now) Tsunami Bomb and their public policy was "we don't care about file sharing, send our stuff to everyone... if it makes them hear us/come to our shows we're happy... plus we make no money from cds, just our merch" (they had shitty label issues)

As far as I can tell, filesharing and whatnot won't affect people making music, they're not going to ever stop... But it might make it harder for record labels to make big money with those 5 bands everyone is told to like by the radio. That's not a bad thing... less shitty mass produced music by the marketing department, less insane profits for a company/5 bands and a wider spectrum of stuff getting played... None of that is bad...

And to be honest, if I hear a song online I like the sound of I will go see that band live (if I can) and more often than not I'll then buy their cds and see them again (and again and again)... That's how i got into Tsunami Bomb, The Lillingtons, Teenage Bottlerocket, Action Design and more... Although I did ban myself from buying tshirts a few years ago... So they're better off than they would've been trying to get anyone uploading music for free executed...

So in summary, Mass Produced big label stuff is shit and bad for the soul, if you hear a good band share their stuff with your friends and then go pay the $10 and see them play live at a pub... you'll have more fun than anything you will see from row XX52c at the fucking entertainment centre...

I think that's enough ranting

Love, Hugs and Kisses
ANt