Web Kid Cinematography.

-  I was unaware that the cinematographer for Whedon’s Avengers flick is the same guy who did Atonement, Seamus McGarvey.  That is excellent news, considering how beautiful Atonement (a quite a bit of his other work) is.  He was nominated for an Oscar that year for cinematography.  Along with No Country For Old Men, There Will Be Blood, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, and The Assassination of Jesse James By the Coward Robert Ford.  What a year that was.  Yikes.  Very very pretty movies.  Anyways, there’s an interview that just hit the interwebs with Whedon, who talks about creating the iconic imagery necessary for a film like that without it feeling to contrived.

-  Interesting analysis of the modern whistle-blower.  From what they face socially and professionally, to the legislation surrounding them.

-  It must be hard to sell a yacht in this economical environment.  So hard, apparently, that ETAP Yachting is branding their product as unsinkable shelters for survivors of a coming-soon apocalypse.

-  “We, The Web Kids” by Piotr Czerski at Pastebin:

“The Internet to us is not something external to reality but a part of it: an invisible yet constantly present layer intertwined with the physical environment. We do not use the Internet, we live on the Internet and along it. If we were to tell our bildnungsroman to you, the analog, we could say there was a natural Internet aspect to every single experience that has shaped us. We made friends and enemies online, we prepared cribs for tests online, we planned parties and studying sessions online, we fell in love and broke up online. The Web to us is not a technology which we had to learn and which we managed to get a grip of. The Web is a process, happening continuously and continuously transforming before our eyes; with us and through us. Technologies appear and then dissolve in the peripheries, websites are built, they bloom and then pass away, but the Web continues, because we are the Web; we, communicating with one another in a way that comes naturally to us, more intense and more efficient than ever before in the history of mankind.”

Via Grinding.be.

-  Now Playing:  “Keep Warm… With The Warm Digits” by Warm Digits.  Old-school, 80′s style electronic music.  Bit of a Kraftwerk-ian feel to it: analog based, repetitive, happy.  At least, a lot happier than what I’m used to listening to.  They also employ a great bunch of live drumming.  Which is always refreshing.

-  I’ve got the MN High School Hockey tourney on today.  Always entertaining.  These kids hit hard, Jesus.

-Sonny

Blacked Out.

Today — as you probably know, if you’re reading this — is the day many websites are striking against SOPA and PIPA across the globe.  But especially here in the United States, where it was conceived.

Don’t take anyone’s word for it, though.  Do yourself a favor and read through the Bill yourself.  The bill would do all sorts of things to websites like this one, and user-generated based sites like YouTube, Flickr, SoundCloud, etc.  There’s a whole section titled “Streaming Copywrited Works In Violation of Federal Law”, which could have catastrophic effects in terms of marketing for artists: I don’t stream [Band A]‘s new song, 20 people don’t ever get into [Band A], multiply that by hundreds or thousands of sites like this one, [Band A] may take a big enough financial hit to not be able to make a living as musicians anymore.  The same goes for artists.

There’s a lot more going on here though than that one section, of course.  CNET posted an excellent article delving into a lesser known section of the bill which contains the language “prevent access by its subscribers located within the United States”… it’s referring to ISP’s (service providers), and what it’s preventing access to is the websites the bill deems as “piratical”.  This section very closely relates to the concept of “Net Neutrality”, the idea of keeping ISP’s out of their customer’s bit rates, traffic, and browsing history. (PIPA, a previous version, did not include this language)

They’ve also posted a good FAQ article for anyone new to what SOPA is.

Here, Mashable talks about the bulk of the bill: Section 102(a)(2).  It gives the Attorny General permission to take action against a website if “the owner or operator of such Internet site is facilitating the commission of [copyright infringement]“.  This is a problem because a massive amount of websites could be considered in this umbrella:

“Since copyright violation is ridiculously easy, any site with a comment box or picture upload form is potentially infringing. Furthermore, DMCA Safe Harbor provisions are no defense. You, as a site operator, become liable for copyright infringement committed by your users, even if you comply with DMCA takedown requests.“

Then there’s Section 103, so coded in leagalese that one would be hard pressed to understand it.  This helped me out quite a bit:

“Any site that allows users to post content is “primarily designed for the purpose of offering services in a manner that enables copyright violation.” The site doesn’t have to be clearly designed for the purpose of copyright violation; it only has to provide functionality that can be used to enable copyright violation.“

Here’s another Mashable article, an Op-Ed arguing against SOPA.

And here’s Google’s (they are vehemently against this, they even sponsored a petition) page on the Bill.

Go to this page to find out who’s supporting and opposing SOPA in your State/District.

-Sonny

 

X-Ray Nudes and Cliches.

Most of this stuff I stumbled upon via the Whitechapel “Around The Net” thread.

-  So at this French page there is a group of sexy X-Ray pictures.  Wondering what that would look like?  Here:

-  The Senate struck down the Udall Amendments 38-60 of the National Defense Authorization Act today.  The amendments would have “removed harmful provisions authorizing the U.S. military to pick up and imprison without charge or trial civilians, including American citizens, anywhere in the world”.  This is how they voted.

“The next opportunity to remove the harmful detention provisions from the bill will be when House and Senate conferees meet in conference committee next week.

If the conference committee fails to remove the detention provisions, President Obama should follow through with his veto threat. Today’s vote on the Udall amendment shows there’s more than enough opposition to these provisions to sustain a veto. Stay tuned for more information.”

-  FlavorWire has several visual representations of some of the most overused movie poster cliches in a neat little package.  Including this one (“There is only one color of dress for romantic comedies.”):

-  And here is 46 pictures from American cities in the 1970′s.  Pretty cool stuff in this gallery.  I like this one:

-Sonny

Roaring N’ Red: Addiction.

When I died it came like a Gatling gun, man. Rattling, right up my body to my skull. Once it happened, layin’ there onstage, I thought “you did it this time, Sonny…”. I shoulda never gotten involved with no drugs. I heard someone recently say about Johnny-Cole, “I only listen to the early Coltrane stuff, before he got clean. That’s his best stuff.” Maybe it was, maybe it ain’t. I only heard it through the walls of time and into the other side. Anything will be distorted, changed a little goin’ from one world to the next. Looking back, my playing didn’t elevate to some building top a perfection. Sure it made improvising a little easier maybe, but I wouldn’t really know anyways cause we never tried jammin’ clean.

Back then, the drugs were bad man. Real bad. In 19one-four everything opium or coca leaf based became illegal. And everyone from house wives to trumpet players was hooked on something. Cocaine was popular in homes, even sophisticated homes. You couldn’t be in a jazz band without being offered opium or morphine, no man. Yup, back then we had 4 or 5 drugs, and they was all terrible for everyone involved. Even for us. Drugs don’t make better music, justs makes you think it’s better music. But there was a limit to what you could find. Junk, upper, smokeables, or booze. That was about it.

I looked around today and ya’ll got drugs everywhere. Drugs when you sleep, drugs in the morning, drugs at night, drugs with dinner and lunch. Up drugs, down drugs, side drugs, back door drugs. Drugs in the basement and in the bathroom and in the kitchen. Sure it ain’t junk, and none of it’s as bad as those old 4 er 5. But the sheer amount, copious amounts, scares me as a child of the Turn of the Century. I saw what drugs do to folk, to me, saw it first hand. For years, some of it was normal. When I was a baby coke was normal, from Cocacola to the farm to the home. Now look at how it’s viewed by the public. Ur tellin’ me in another 100 ticks some a these drugs in this day ain’t gonna be questioned? Frowned upon? Made illegal?