Need

You need to restart your computer.
(You fool).

Well, since we all know that Macs never crash it must be some need that the user has. The user probably thinks he needs to carry on working on his computer, but in fact he needs to restart his computer. Apple says so.

The television stations in the UK constantly repeat programmes about cars and car chases in order to cheer us all up from worrying about climate change caused in part by cars and car chases. One of them is a budget job that recycles old police video tapes of bad drivers and fleeing criminals. Employ a former newsreader to shout over the top and you have a programme. A recent one contained the following declaration.

“THE DRIVER NEEDS TO BE CAUGHT”.

Surely the driver needs to get away? The police need to catch him. No? Hmmm.

Perhaps it is too easy to ascribe needs to others when really it is our own desires and competencies that are the issue. Anyway, Cathy Gilliat needs to make another record. That’s what we reckon.

NASA gets out the big marker pen

NASA answers the question about climate change: Global change: How do we know?

Of course, many internet forums are still packed with Right Thinking Patriotic Consumers who will fight what they see as being an iniquitous UN plot to raise taxes… and no wiggly orange line will worry them, whatever it shows. But most of the rest of us should not feel too righteous either, as we shuffle about in the same old ways, awaiting reassurance and directions from above.

Pointed Pop

Although we at Earthrid occupy ourselves producing some quite outlandish music, that doesn’t mean we are averse to a good bit of pop music now again. “Pop”. It’s a quaint old term but one which is still useful for summing up pithy prosody packaged and preserved within the parameters of polished, programmatic populism.

“Pop” is succinct.

‘I Know Your Girlfriend Hates Me’.

MOV file via Antville

Information wants to be fixed

It would be nice if the leeches who run lyrics sites could spare some time from copying content from each other to run a spell-checker occasionally. And does Google need to index all of them, since they are practically mirrors of each other?

Maybe we are being unfair. Maybe songs do contain words such as “watchibg” and the people who work on lyrics sites are the only ones with hearing acute enough to realise, so naturally they all end up with identically strange accounts of lyrics. Surely they wouldn’t just copy other sites’ content in order to attract revenue from advertising? Surely not.

Perhaps they have the same kind of ear wax build-up, or arthritis of a very unusual kind that contorts fingers into mistyping in quite predictable ways.

We should not jump to conclusions and instead think the best of people. However, we will keep watchibg for clues.

The economics of “true fans”

The Technium gets ambient musician Robert Rich’s thoughts on “The Reality of Depending on True Fans”. He raises some interesting points.

The following is mentioned in passing:

Companies can use demographic models and track people’s search patterns to pander to their initial tastes and to strengthen those tastes, rather than broaden their horizons.

We are definitely more interested in new horizons and get puzzled by otherwise reviews (of our releases or anyone else’s) that say that a recording is perhaps “not for everyone” - as if anything other than air can be (that’s “air” with a small “a”, not “Air” the (French) band of course). Well, anyway, Robert Rich is a “big name” from where we’re standing but apparently even he won’t always get more than 30 people to turn out to his gigs. Bear that in mind the next time someone starts ranting that musicians should (sic) survive on T-shirt sales and playing live…
Another quote:

I feel in retrospect like I snuck in under the collapsing framework of independent distribution, at a time where small companies could cast a medium-sized fishing net, to catch the interest of listeners who would otherwise never have known they liked this type of music.

So, the Robert Riches of tomorrow should not give up the day job, since they will need it to support their musical activities.. but for those who can find the time outside work, there is unprecedented musical freedom since pandering to an audience is no longer a requirement. Of course, having basic consideration for some sort of audience (real or potential or hypothetical) is polite and a precaution against total self-indulgence. Well, read that article if you haven’t yet - it’s more interesting than this!

“modified soya produces 10 per cent less food than its conventional equivalent”

From The Independent: Exposed: the great GM crops myth:

Genetic modification actually cuts the productivity of crops, an authoritative new study shows, undermining repeated claims that a switch to the controversial technology is needed to solve the growing world food crisis.

read more… and certainly read this:

Last week the biggest study of its kind ever conducted – the International Assessment of Agricultural Science and Technology for Development – concluded that GM was not the answer to world hunger.

Professor Bob Watson, the director of the study and chief scientist at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, when asked if GM could solve world hunger, said: “The simple answer is no.”

Will they now stop this insanity? No. Because it never was to do with feeding the hungry. It’s about control. Control over the very nature of the world we live in, absolute control over us all.

Roland gear

Spotted on eBay:

Beauty Pageant boss denounces “witchcraft” on behalf of God

Along with other Toronto newspapers, The Star * runs the story of a beauty pageant winner, Stephanie Conover, who was allegedly told by another pageant’s director that her presence as a judge would not, after all, be welcome after she told them that her hobbies included interests in reiki healing and tarot cards. The director is quoted as writing:

“Our board of directors has eliminated her as a judge as tarot card reading and reiki are the occult and is not acceptable by God, Jews, Muslims or Christians. Tarot card reading is witchcraft and is used by witches, spiritists and mediums to consult the dark world”.

It gets funnier (in a “dark world” kind of way, you might say) so have a look at the article; and it’s probably best to laugh at the ludicrous nature of what appears to be an astonishing case of ignorance and intolerance.

Asked if her group is a religious one, Murray replied, “We adhere to God’s principles. We’re God-fearing. I wouldn’t say we’re religious”.

Ms Conover eloquently explains her position in this video on YouTube.

* You may or may not find significance in that.

MPs accused of breaking their own demonstration law

Mark Thomas attempts to put Gordon Brown in prison for it. 

Any law about demonstrations that doesn’t define the word “demonstration” does indeed seem to have been hastily drafted.

Are we bothered?

“CCTV is in operation throughout Birmingham City”, warns the poster, threatening “Big Bother” for troublemakers.

At first the poster seems baffling. It seems to be comparing the use of CCTV cameras in public places to the totalitarian state warned of by George Orwell in his novel 1984, in which, you will recall, “Big Brother is watching you”.

But the key is, you might not recall that at all. Or at least, the designers of this poster campaign might not recall that, or maybe they consider it unlikely that vandals have read much Orwell. No, the assumption is that an association will be made with the television series Big Brother, which, of course (of course?) took the name of 1984’s venerated Leader, along with his desire to monitor all.

Now, the efficacy of surveillance cameras as a means of fighting crime is questioned by many sources, but you can look into that yourself by typing “cctv crime” into your favourite search engine. If you can be bothered. But for the moment, let’s just note that in Britain the public can apparently be safely assumed to be ignorant of such archaic phrases as “a Big Brother society” and therefore largely oblivious of the civil liberty issues that might be involved. After all, such issues require some thought, and watching Big Brother is less bother.