Cogs can think.

Why I’m proud to live in a welfare state.

I’d rather have a few people that don’t deserve/need it get my tax money, than having people who deserve/need it not get my tax money.

Paying taxes sucks ass, but at the same time, I know my money goes mostly to people that need it, and that makes me proud.

I just love this song. It’s also one of the few songs where Nina really lets her voice lash out - and send shivers down your spine. Normally, she’s all bedroomy and sleepy sexy (she’s SO beautiful), but this is one of those songs recorded after drinking 5 cups of coffee. Refreshing.

If you’re one of those few cocky and arrogant chocking-the-eagle Americans, there’s a lesson in here.

Darling, darling
The moon went out tonight
And I’m caught like a doe in your headlights
Oh yeah, alright
I’m yours to knock around
I’m a little too starstruck to wanna fight

Oo-e-oo-ee, it’s a cold-hearted world
Oo-e-oo-ee-oo, I’m gonna be your girl
It’s a little too late to cry
You’re my America

Not quite snow white
It came down all night
And put a filter of ash on the sunrise
Oh yeah, alright
Move a little bit closer
Lay your big dirty hands on my innocence

Oo-e-oo-ee, it’s a cold-hearted world
Oo-e-oo-ee-oo, I’m gonna be your girl
It’s just a little too late to cry
You’re my America

Ooh, heaven laughs at us now, baby
But we’ll be shooting it down, honey
It’s a little too late to hope and pray for a miracle
You’re my America

Hey Rock star!
You’re my America

Dick move by Creative.

On the box: YES, DIGITAL OUT!

In the box: …BUT YOU HAVE TO BUY THIS MODULE AT 40 EUR!

Assholes.

I’m no longer much of a football fan - I used to be, but I lost interest in the sport right around the time I developed my brain and realised just how much of a sham it all is. And it doesn’t have brooms.

Still, that doesn’t make it any less insanely cool that the club from what is basically my hometown Alkmaar (born, but not raised, did spend most of my teen years there, and my high school is there) is now the national champion - AZ Alkmaar has won the Dutch Premier League championship, breaking the endless hegemony of the “big three”, Ajax, Feyenoord, and PSV Eindhoven. Before this season, AZ was also the last to break that hegemony, in 1981.

AZ is only a very small club, which makes it all the more impressive. I’m very happy for them, as well as all their fans. Congratulations!

Shirley Manson, frontwoman of one of my favourite bands (Garbage), has released the first demo of her solo project. You can find it here, titled “In The Snow”.

I’m blown away. A very distinctive sound, but obviously with Manson’s instantly recognisable voice. I love it.

Sadly, her record company, Geffen, has turned down her demoes because they considered it “too noir”. Well, boo-fcuking-hoo, what else did they expect? Have they even listened to Shirley’s work with Garbage and Angelfish? Shirley’s lyrics are always very moody, dark, and depressing. That’s her style, it’s why people like me like her lyrics. They are always complicated, full of layers and deeper meanings. It’s not one-two-pop nonsense, it has never been.

Manson had this to say about it:

I had taken some of my solo music into the record label. They didn’t really care for the direction I was moving in and I found it really disheartening. They wanted a pop hit, which I understand in terms of making money. I get that. But what they were going to ask of me was something I wasn’t prepared to deliver and I felt kind of trapped. I just stopped writing. I just stopped. It was stifling.

Manson and Geffen then decided to part ways, and she’s now working without a record deal. This story bears remarkable resemblance to the Fiona Apple saga with Sony, where Sony also turned down her work because it wasn’t marketable.

This is exactly why I want the big media companies to just fcuk off and die. I don’t care about pricing or other restrictive policies they might enforce - I care about the art, and these media companies are hindering the production of art because they let themselves be guided by dollar signs. For all I care, the media companies charge 40 EUR for each album, I’ll still buy it - as long as they stop hindering the production of art.

The Pirate Bay case, summed up.

Music:

Old World: we want to put you through the trouble of going to a store, and buying overpriced CDs, because it benefits the artists us.
New World: we’re lazy, and we want the easiest way possible to get our hands on music, but we are willing to pay for that (iTunes).

Film:

Old World: we want you to buy a DVD ten million yeas after the film’s release, filled to the brim with unskippable warnings about how you are a pirate and a criminal and will go to hell - all on a legally purchased DVD.
New World: we’re lazy, and we want the easiest way possible to get our hands on films.

Seriously, I don’t give a rat’s ass. I buy all my music Old World style (.mp3 sucks ass), and when it comes to film (TV series in my case), I download first, and buy later. This is because most of the series I like aren’t even broadcast and/or sold in my country, so I’m forced to go the way of the pirate. Even if a show does appear on TV here, our local companies fcuk it up by having irregular broadcasting schedules, and we’re always two to three years behind. I see downloading TV shows as the solution to stuff not being broadcast here. If the show is good, I’ll buy it on DVD (BSG, Dead Like Me), and if it isn’t (Lost), I don’t. Hey, just like real TV!

It doesn’t matter fcuk anyway over here. In The Netherlands, you are allowed to download whatever content you want, copyrighted or not.

Sometimes, the internet is just AWESOME.

quote:
Originally posted by stanrich:
“Blu-Ray???

A dead-end technology so why would Apple bother to offer it?

Figures M$ would be touting it.”

At some point in the future, Apple will offer built-in Blu-Ray drives. Of course, by that time the story will be that the dead-end technology has been resurrected and that Apple did the smart thing of abiding their time. And then a few years later, the Mac fan’s history will have been revisioned such that it was actually Apple entering the market that forced everybody else to pick up Blu-Ray support, and thus rescued Blu-Ray and turned it from a disaster into a great success.

And a bit further down:

Hmm, I think this insightful and engaging discussion is omitting a key point which out to be more adequately considered. Lisa is cute. I’ll believe anything she tells me.

Like, totally. My first thought was… Well, let’s just say that whenever I need to leave town (and thus drive past the school) I make sure it’s at either 12:00, 13:00, or 15:30. Do the math.

Last week, I just couldn’t take it anymore. I stopped watching last week’s Lost episode somewhere midway. It was so remote-snappingly bad.

I also know why I’ve had it up here with that overrated piece of junk: there’s absolutely no character development. Sure, there’s character building through the corny flashbacks, but have you ever noticed that the characters in Lost haven’t changed at all over the course of years of in-universe time? Even the group dynamics are exactly the same as during the onset of the series!

Please explain to me how people can go through hell like they have, all the weirdness and hardships and death they’ve experienced - and they’re still exactly the same? They haven’t learned anything? They still all respond to one another in exactly the same predictable way? I haven’t been surprised by any turn of events or any line said by anyone in like 20 episodes. Everything’s so utterly predictable.

In addition, they’re dragging everything on and on and on; the story should’ve been told in four seasons, tops - at least then it’d have decent pacing.

Add to that the cheesy “just-in-time” time travel plot device, and you’ve got yourself a show that started out rather promising, but has since degraded into mediocre bite-sized Hollywood soap opera Americanised flatness.

I didn’t even bother to finish last week’s episode, and didn’t download this week’s. They lost a viewer.

Even though I’m a royalist through and through, that doesn’t mean I don’t see the ridiculousness of it all. Never has that ridiculousness been put into words better than in “The Crowning”, from the brand new A Camp album, “Colonia”.

Coincidentally, this applies just as much to republics, of course. And fits in nice with Obama’s inauguration.

Brighten the corners and clear out the room
Colour the flowers in rose and maroon
Light up the fires and season the swine
We’re gonna party like it’s 1699

Slaughter the rabbits,
the doves and the boars
And lay all the tables and open the doors
The crème-de-la-crème will be waiting
on one guest of honour

Oh, up go the curtains
And down go the virgins
Oh, no, mothers are crying
Ladies of virtue will stand to accuse you of heartbreak and theft

Bells are gonna ring
Birds are gonna sing
Let the people begin
The crowning of your big head

Young drunken girls in a hideous dance
Sing a heartfelt lament
of the death of romance
Beautiful boys turn and offer their cheeks
Preening and prancing,
the outcome looks bleak

Good times are rolling
but outside these walls
Our houses will crumble, the city will fall
But a few broken pawns don’t mean nothing
to our guest of honour

So let’s raise our glasses
to murderous asses like you
May you sleep soundly
Once we have laughter,
you got what you’re after
Oh, you wear it well

Bells are gonna ring
Birds are gonna sing
Let the people begin

Hear how their hearts are pounding
We’re all witnessing the crowning
Of your big bleeding head

Bells are gonna ring
Birds are gonna sing
Let the people begin

Hear how their hearts are pounding
Your rise - nothing but astounding
We’re all witnessing the crowning
Of your useless, ruthless head

Awesome, just awesome.

Public service announcement: I’m no longer available on the AIM/iChat network. The amount of spam IM messages is getting ridiculous; about 25 every day. I advise everyone else to do the same, and move to proper IM networks like Google Talk or MSN Messenger.

That is all.