Closing Time

This blog has moved here: http://www.jo-shin.net/blog/

Music Piracy Law Changes

Well it's about time!

Lifted from my favourite music industry guru Christie Elizer:

* Consumers can transfer material from CDs to iPods, MP3 players and computers. But passing on copied material to others remains a breach of copyright.

* They can legally record TV and radio programs for one-off private viewing but not to be played in public.

* New measures to combat piracy will include on-the-spot fines, proceeds of crime remedies, a change in presumptions in litigation to make it easier to establish copyright piracy.

* The Australian Institute of Criminology will be asked to undertake research into the extent of piracy and counterfeiting in Australia and the best methods of responding to the problem.

* Copyright material can be used for parody or satire.

* Will remove the 37-year old statutory cap on licence fees paid by commercial radio broadcasters for using sound recordings. "There is no reason why a statute should determine what the rate should be for music played on the radio," Ruddock said.

Yes, previously the law did not allow you to make any copies of your CDs or legal MP3s! It's been coming for the better part of the last 15 years, and finally - the moment has arrived.

53rd Sydney Film Festival

So, it's that time of the year again.

The new look and program for the yearly festival was released today (in print; it was online on Friday). I've just read my program cover to cover and have talked myself into 22 of the films. Knowing what will happen though, I'll probably be lucky to see 10. Although, I do have sources that will probably be able to get me into my fair share of free films (*wink wink*) again this year.

Personal must-see's this year are:
Brick
Rampage
Feast of the Goat
Little Miss Sunshine
The Pervert's Guide to the Cinema

Other than Brick however, can't say I'm too over the moon. I'm sure it will be a surprising and mind-opening festival nonetheless. I may even have time to see many of them this year (not working for it and all), but I have got a Winter session class.

Here's to the festival June 9-25, 2006.

Nike Savvas vs. Sony Bravia

I know most people will have seen the Sony Bravia ads, but I only just discovered the dedicated website on the Bravia Advert. It's a great little website with lots of behind the scenes/making of information and video + all sorts of downloads and wot nots. In the making of, I actually found out the balls used weren't ping pong balls, but the kinds of balls you get as a child, out of those 20c-and-turn candy machines; they're plastic-rubbery, bouncey and colourful. And hundreds of thousands of them in real time (not slowed magestically like in the ad) are actually quite scary and dangerous...
As much as I adore the Sony Bravia ad however, I can't help thinking of the similarities it shares with Atomic: Full of Love, Full of Wonder by Nike Savvas. Savvas is one of Australia's most intriguing contemporary artists. Check out her exhibiton here at ACCA (2005). I was lucky enough to catch the exhibition in Melbourne, last year. It was one of the most amazing, playful and fun installations I've yet to see and remember. Brightly coloured ping pong balls in a gradient, subtly fanned to vibrate enough to play with your sense of dimension. Wicked trippy.

They were both created/released in 2005 - I've yet to come across anything mentioning the two.

Toilets, again.

Yes, I'm having one of those weeks. I started the week back at Uni by falling on my face on Monday night - no joke, I have the grazes and bruises to prove it. Basically, it was dark, I was getting off my skateboard, and my chin made contact with the pavement.
Today I had a General Education exam on Marketing - I don't think I failed, I'll probably get a Conceeded Pass. Not only that but I was late to the exam, and didn't realise it at the time, but started 5 mins faster than everyone else cos I had no idea what was going on. Farrrrrk.
All my final works are coming along crappily, photos are too dark and need to be reshot. The TV/video idea I had is in a shitty-shitty-bang-bang-space of nowhere.

Also, whoever said honesty is the best policy was a hippy on too many truffles. I got my first late warning from the resource centre cos I mentioned that I had something out for an hour longer than I had said. I thought this resource nazi was the cool one! Maybe I should have been a lawyer - and built up a repetoire as a doubled-faced evil ice person. Bah, hum bug!

Everything is falling apart - there must be some major karma re-adjustment happening, cos I'd hate to believe it's all bad from here on.

Depressed. But moreso, depressed about not having time to be depressed.

Toilets

Could this be the most useful website in Australia?
Well, maybe if it had SMS alerts when you needed it most...

More Randoms

Saw the most random and impressive thing in a long time, this week.
It was a guy on a penny-farthing! Straight out of the history books and into Parramatta.

Old School...

New School...

Break looks like fun too.

It'd totally be worth parting with, but I don't see it being a wise investment right now. Maybe if enough people were interested... *ahem*

TOUR DATES:*
Wed 21 - Sun 25 Jun - Comedy Theatre, Melbourne
Sat 8 - Thu 13 Jul - Enmore Theatre, Sydney
Wed 19 - Sat 22 Jul - Burswood Theatre, Perth

DIY LED ART

As you know, I quite like my street art and culture jamming.

Not that I've done anything, but "ooh" and "ahh" at other more talented (and game) people's work... But lately, I've discovered a more temporary "harmless" street art form in LED Graffiti.

I first saw it on Wooster, and was so amazed I checked out further developments, leading to me following internet instructions on how to make your own LED lights and "throwies".

Throwies (I guess the name kind of descends from graff "throw-ups"?), are small and very simple LED lights taped to a magnet on one side and a battery on the other. Just throw them up to a public magnetic space, and voila! A temporary graff piece in light!

Em and I trialed it about a week ago. Quite fun, but expensive to buy and "throw" away the batteries... The only thing we've found, is that Sydney buildings don't seem to use a lot of ferromagnetic paints or materials - which is what you need, and what appears in the GraffitiLab video.

We'll do a more fine-tuned version soon.

After completing a website I was working on freelance/for a friend, I'm up for a slightly narcsissistic e-adventure. I've copied Jess's blog (Demented Reality - see blog links) in doing this:

1. Go to Wikipedia and look up your birthday (but not the year).
2. List 3 events, 2 births, and 2 deaths.
I think I've already mentioned Tegan and Sara Quin, Jeremy Jordan all having the same birthday as me, so I shall pick others...

Events:

• 1893 - Women's suffrage: In New Zealand, the Electoral Act of 1893 is consented to by the governor giving all women in New Zealand the right to vote, beginning with the 1893 New Zealand general election.
• 1982 - Scott Fahlman posts the first recorded instance of the emoticon :-) to an online bulletin board.
• 2003 - Musician Elliott Smith plays his final concert at Redfest in Salt Lake City, Utah, only weeks before his suicide. damn!
  

Births:

• 1934 - Brian Epstein, English musical group manager (the Beatles) (d. 1967)
• 1949 - Twiggy Lawson, English model

Deaths:

• 1881 - James Garfield, 20th President of the United States (b. 1831)
• 2003 - Slim Dusty, Australian singer (b. 1927)

Take That!

*R'member to breathe Jo*

TakeThatmyfirstandalltimefavouriteboybandhavereformedandaretouring!

YAY!!!! Yes, I'm revealing my oh so vibrant true colours as a pop fanatic/groupie.

Bad news:
- Dates are only in the UK from late April to June.
- Tix are 75 pounds (not to mention airfare and accomodation)
- Robbie (Williams) is not there (except 1 show where he will appearently sing 1 song) - he's an ass anyway. Who needs him?
- The Pussycat Dolls are supporting them in Dublin (They epitomise everything that is wrong with women in pop culture today - I dun wana sound like a profeminist, cos I'm not and they annoy me too; but PCD are revolting. Harsh?)
- I've regressed to a state worse than the one I was in when the Backstreet Boys were here touring in January.

If you aren't familiar with who Take That are, let me enlighten you.
In the late 1980's, after the hype that was Bros., Wham! and New Kids on the Block et al died down, five strapping young lads from Manchester, UK were picked up in 1990 to form a new boyband that would set all kinds of music sales records (the latest being for the fastest selling tickets on their latest tour).

The boys in black. I know, I know...
This isn't the worst of it either!

Gary Barlow, Mark Owen, Jason Orange, Howard Donald and Robbie Williams would go on to become one of the biggest boybands in Europe since the Beatles, with millions of female fans to challenge that title as well. Their music would start out as a dance pop in the early 1990s, and their image unfortunately involved a lot of spandex and studded leather jackets. It would take a couple of years before they really make a serious crack at the competitive UK pop charts, and for the band to "find" themselves. Gary ended up writing a lot of their hits, with a few collaborations with Mark and Howard. Their trademark tunes would be ballads and "nice" songs. Although they never had a number one in the US., they did reach their peak there in 1995 with "Back for Good" at #7.

In the UK and abroad their hits included:

• 1992 Could It Be Magic #3 UK
• 1993 Why Can't I Wake Up with You #2 UK
• 1993 Pray #1 UK
• 1993 Relight My Fire (feat. Lulu) #1 UK
• 1993 Babe #1 UK
• 1994 Everything Changes #1 UK
• 1994 Love Ain't Here Anymore #3 UK
• 1994 Sure #1 UK
• 1995 Back for Good #1 UK, #7 US
• 1995 Never Forget #1 UK
• 1996 How Deep is Your Love #1 UK

Just before Robbie left. This was their "hippy" stage.
They grew their hair and got buff.

However, despite the dizzying popularity of the boys in 1996 (they were the biggest thing in the UK/European pop market still, Boyzone, Backstreet and East 17 could only dream to be that big back then.), Take That broke up not long after their youngest and most troublesome member Robbie Williams left to band and decided to hang out with the Gallager brothers on booze and drug binges.

Now 10 years after the break up they are back! Sure Mark was a hippie for a few years, and Howard went on to become a huge Ibiza DJ, Gary wrote songs for Delta Goodrem and Jason disappeared - but they're back!!!!

TT Today! (TTT!)

My favourite member always changed, but eventually I settled on Jason Orange. I liked him cos he danced and played guitar. Simple isn't it? And he went for the underdog footie team Man City, rather than Man U. odd, aye?

Here's to hoping they come to Australia, someday soon! However unlikely... :-( Sigh...