a woman called jessica esposito is writing a paper on the influence of music.
“hey everyone im trying to do a research paper on war themes in music… is there anyone out there who really believes that music influenced their views on war? if so or if anyone has a comment on this let me hear it !! thanks!” to email her you know what to do with the [at] and the [dot], don’t ya?

here’s my response to her: [more]

true porn clerk stories

street art heroes galery

120 years of electronic instruments

10 worst album covers of all time

our favorite muppet song reworked by eclectic method —>

and these guys ARE to video what bootleggers were to music. its grandiose.

disinfo.com infor.. errr disinforms: “uncovered: the whole truth about the iraq war is a film by robert greenwald that has been the subject of incredible grass roots support, with nationwide screening parties attended by hundreds of thousands ofpeople. Presented by MoveOn.org and The Center for American Progress, the film is the clearest possible demonstration that our government lied to us about its reasons for invading Iraq.”
the film is available on dvd for $9.95 @ disinfo store and other good video stores.
-> moby “I don’t see how anyone, republican or democrat could even think about voting for bush after watching this documentary.”

why record labels’ threats will not work: “the british phonographic institute (bpi) claims that 92% of the eight million people in the UK downloading music are using illegal sites. The amazing figure is not the 92%, but the 8% of computers owners actually paying for tracks!” [via guardianunlimited.co.uk]

the first empirical study on the effects of filesharing on record sales [PDF download!]: “high selling albums actually benefit from file sharing.” [via boing boing.net]

[wow! this is quite impressive. great idea, even if some of the linx dont work]
by dr. menlo

Everything is easy in retrospect. It’s easier at least–what was wrong, what was right. No, wait, this always changes per age . . . hm, here is the truth: history both cycles and evolves. Hope springs eternal, baby.

Anyway–there has been one universal struggle going on–the power of man and his mind and his own, individual superb abilities to manage himself and his own affairs . . . against the tyranny of those who wish to control others solely for the purpose of furthering their own material advantage. This is the fight, traditionally, of the underdog vs. the giant. Of Robin Hood vs. the crooked rich. Of Socrates spreading the world and paying with his death. Of David vs. Goliath. As the women vs. the men who would suffer (suffrage?) them, as the blacks who were whipped and chained vs. their white American masters, as the powderkeg of the massive young getting together to just say no to 58,000 American kids killed for no good reason, not to mention all the Vietnamese and their neighborhood, too . . . and now, there is the greatest battle of all: the people of the world vs. the corporations and tyrannies who control it. It’s about globalism all right–about the globalism of the world by the people who live in it, rather than those who would exploit it.

This is the present state of the eternal revolution that has been going on since human society began. Not everyone immediately gets this. But they will. Be there first: Get there now.

It will not look like any revolution that has come before, as much as they tell you that. This is the newest–and it will be the greatest–nonviolent truly global revolution there ever was. (The people, anyway, would like for it to be nonviolent. The American/global police state has other ideas.)

So long as I presently know, the internet was first used to organize revolution in East Timor. Without the internet, the success in Seattle–nay, the birthplace nascent of this modern badass movement–would not have been so meta.

This learning curve will only improve. Support the open access movement: buy a friend a computer. More will happen in this direction. This energy is pure. It will win out, no matter how many heads they bash against the sidewalk, no matter how many people they beat up and jail, no matter how many lies the corporate media keeps turning over and over in their tacky glitterboxes to the world–this is the way our society will evolve: fighting for human rights, liberty and justice for the people and the ecosystems they live in all over the world, and goddamn well nigh beyond. Or die trying. Zapata: “I would rather die on my feet than live on my knees.” So would Patrick fucking Henry. And Thomas Jefferson, too?

But it doesn’t have to be like that. More likely, the revolution will take place behind that screen you’re presently looking at–and here’s to ya kid–sitting out there in the lone and reading your computer: the future of the universe is in your hands. And let me ask you this: what takes more intelligence, really–making a living offa fucking things up or producing a legacy out of creating something new that will leave your cerebral-powered birthmark on the ass of this mind-boggling metaverse we all now presently share? Time magazine–as much as it sucks–gave it’s man of the century award to Albert Einstein, not Ronald Reagan.

Be a genius, not a stomper of ants.

And log on to saving the world today.

[This manifesto was originally published in Andrei Codrescu’s Exquisite Corpse, as well as Jason Lubyk’s New World Disorder Magazine.]

lawrence lessig: free culture: how big media uses technology and the law to lock down culture and control creativity.

copyright “war” hero lawrence lessig’s new book is out now and can be downloaded for free under a creative commons licence.
prefer a short version? wired.

[via stay free newsletter]

i have mentioned BitTorrent a few times before here. but i cant seem to rave enough about this incredible peer-2-peer distributed network software. its really quite simple to run, the huge files = entire movies, tv series, ps2-games, music cd’s - are broken down into small bits, that get passed back and forth between users. you upload as you download. you download as you upload. software and all the info is found here.
torrentz.com is a good place to start looking for the torrents, which are the small executable files that will start the download.
here’s a BitTorrent FAQ

plucker claims to be “the only way to carry the web in your pocket” [seems true for now, at last till wifi’s will be more widely available and more content be readable on palm devices]. with plucker you can create channels of websites that get updated often and load these onto your palm device to read them offline. its as simple as synching yer palm with the pc. amazing! this is especially good when you, as me, happen to hang out in 56k hell… [thanx missie w.]

night of the living dead the classic horror movie from 1968 has been released under a creative commons - no rights reserved licence and can be downloaded here.
[via b3ta.com newsletter]

this is cute. its a cardboard laptop called lappi that contains a cd-rom with the chump’n'run video and audio tracks. sexy!

it can be ordered @ filewile.com