By Jonathan Freedland
Wednesday May 30, 2007
The Guardian
So the Washington journalist who warned me 10 years ago that the internet was doomed, that it would collapse under the weight of all those pages, was wrong. The internet is here and changing everything, the way we work, shop, communicate, even fall in love. But what of society itself? The industrial revolution changed politics completely, leading to universal suffrage, as well as modern socialism, communism and fascism. What will the internet revolution do for the politics of our own age?
Last week the revolutionaries were in town, as Google's high command came to London for a major think-in, led by the CEO, Eric Schmidt. He had to fend off accusations that Google poses a threat to society, storing up information on everyone who uses it. He was hardly reassuring when he said the company's ambition is to know so much about us all, it will be able to answer the question: "What should I do tomorrow?"
He had yet gloomier news for politicians. First, they will have to be even more guarded than they are already. Thanks to Google-owned YouTube, any careless remark will now be caught on camera (probably built into a phone) and distributed round the world in minutes. That did for Republican senator George Allen last year, when he used a racial slur at a rally and promptly found himself an internet TV star.
Nor is your past any longer the past. David Cameron and George Bush should give thanks they were students before the age of Facebook; otherwise the wild excesses of their youth would have been thoroughly documented, available for all to see years later. Thanks to the internet and easy search, we live in a permanent now, when any mistake, any reckless remark, even some past teenage ramblings on MySpace, are just a click away.
The politician of the internet age has to admit all errors in full and early: they'll only emerge anyway. Factual slips are forbidden, too. Bloggers will find you out and, if they don't, Google hopes its own algorithms will soon be sophisticated enough to detect "falsehoods". No wonder Schmidt says, smiling: "Google's going to drive these politicians crazy."
There's a bright side. Current technology gives politicians campaigning tools they never had before: witness the 62,000 Barack Obama supporters gathered on Facebook without the candidate lifting a finger. Meanwhile, a website offers a way to reach limitless numbers of voters with an unfiltered message at virtually no cost. What's more, the internet can provide detailed knowledge of the electorate. If Amazon can rank the top-selling books every hour, then why not the five most important issues on voters' minds, constantly updated? Read the full article here.
I think the article makes a really good point, especially later on when it talks about how MoveOn.org grew so rapidly and has become such a fulcrum of political action, based completely on the web. On the other hand, the Internet could eventually reduce the idea of a collective society. What are your thoughts?
The Unintended Consequences of Hyperhydration
[Credit: New York Times]It’s easy to find, in the mightily expanding iconography of American waste, the monumental (a ziggurat of flattened cars), the sinister (ocher sludge foaming on a riverbank) and the sublime (a plastic bag fluttering in a Japanese maple). The empty bottle and crushed aluminum can are none of these. They are almost too commonplace to notice, too dreary to evoke anything at all. Foundered on a roadside or slumped in a bag of spent Chinese takeout, the can without its Mountain Dew and the bottle without its Bud are unremarkable things. They’re just trash: something we once wanted and now can’t be bothered with.
Eleven states — California, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, New York, Oregon and Vermont — give this valueless stuff a value, however. Typically we pay a nickel when purchasing a container and get the nickel back if we return the container for recycling. It’s a deposit, a contract binding us to our garbage. Though these days, that nickel may elicit only the faintest twinge of regret as we toss the empty into the trash and rejoin our busy lives. More than three decades since it was first legislated, the transaction that the so-called bottle bill sets in motion — pay a nickel, recoup a nickel — is the same as ever. The world surrounding it, though, is almost unrecognizable. [READ MORE]
MUSIC
Former VHS or Beta and Boom Bip members form People Noise. Debut album Ordinary Ghosts coming this June. Band continues never-ending tour of the US.
“...a shoegazey-reverb-heavy-fuzzout.” – My Old Kentucky Blog
“There’s so much lost time to cover,” former VHS or Beta member Zeke Buck said in a recent interview with his hometown paper, The Louisville Eccentric Observer. “Basically, I’m trying to start anew.”
And that’s exactly what Buck is doing. After a successful 10 year run in VHS or Beta – which included a national arena tour with Duran Duran – Buck now devotes his time and talent to People Noise, the band he started with good friend and ex-Boom Bip member Matt Johnson.
The new act received a very warm response from the hometown crowd when it opened for TV On The Radio in Louisville, and now fans are catching on all throughout the US as the group continues to criss-cross the country in support of its upcoming debut album Ordinary Ghosts.
With Johnson on drums and Buck on, well, everything else, these Louisville natives have produced a unique and psychedelic rock sound that cites influences from Black Sabbath to Bjork. For its live shows, Johnson and Buck are joined by Rahman McGuinnis on guitar, Woody Woodmansee on keyboards and Mike DuFresne on bass.
People Noise Live:
06/05 Columbus, OH Skullys
06/08 Belleville, IL The Ground Floor
06/09 Chicago, IL Hideout Life During Wartime Party
06/11 Hamtramck, MI The Belmont
06/12 Grand Rapids, MI The Breakroom
06/14 North Manchester, IN The Firehouse
06/15 Doylestown, PA Siren Records
06/16 Washington, DC The Red and Black
06/17 Philadelphia, PA The Khyber
06/19 New York, NY Fearless Music TV
06/19 Brooklyn, NY Luna Lounge
06/20 Boston, MA Harpers Ferry
06/23 Buffalo, NY Broadway Joe's
06/24 New York, NY Mercury Lounge
06/27 Nashville, TN The End
06/28 Memphis, TN Hi Tone Cafe
06/29 Lexington, KY The Dame
06/30 Louisville, KY Headliners Music Hall
07/03 Athens, GA Tasty World
07/07 Orlando, FL Backbooth
07/09 Jacksonville, FL Jack Rabbits
07/10 Tallahassee, FL The Beta Bar
07/12 Delray Beach, FL City Limits
07/13 Miami, FL Churchill’s Pub
07/14 Gainesville, FL The Atlantic
07/18 Little Rock, AR Sticky Fingerz Rock-n-Roll Chicken Shack
07/19 Lafayette, LA Grant Street Dance Hall
07/21 Austin, TX Beauty Bar
07/30 Boulder, CO The Trilogy Lounge
07/31 Denver, CO 15th Street Tavern
08/17 Boise, ID Neurolux
09/26 Durham, NC Duke Coffeehouse
People Noise - "The Killing Fields"
People Noise - "A Million Lives"
People Noise at Myspace
Featured Artist: Save Macaulay
Save Macaulay is the musical endeavor by 19 year old Nashville native Caitlin Rose.The album is being produced by Joel J. Dahl of De Novo Dahl and Jeremy Ferguson (Be Your Own Pet, Hands Down Eugene, Forget Cassettes) and is being recorded at Ferguson’s Battle Tapes Studio in East Nashville.
The Save Macaulay release will also feature the talents of many East
Nashville musicians including members of Hands Down Eugene and De Novo Dahl.
"This album will be another great example of diversity for the label", explains Aaron Hartley, owner of theory 8 records. "Caitlin is a very talented writer with an amazing voice that is uniquely her own. I am very excited to be a part of this and look forward for fans of the label to hear Save Macaulay."
Visit Save Macaulay's myspace for songs from the upcoming LP set for a tentative Fall 2007 release.
http://www.myspace.com/savemacaulaytheband
Featured Artist: Phoenix Foundation
The gents from the Phoenix Foundation land in the States this week to promote their debut album, Horsepower, as well as the film Eagle vs. Shark, for which they wrote the score.
Eagle vs. Shark just so happens to star that crazy guy from Flight of the Conchords (the same comedy troupe from New Zealand whose series is premiering on HBO this summer). The movie was also directed by another New Zealand celeb-ish person, Taiki Waititi. Want to catch them on tour? Phoenix Foundation-ers are playing some dates on the east coast with The Veils.
YouTube video of "Going Fishing" from the Phoenix Foundation, off the upcoming film Eagle vs. Shark.
The Phoenix Foundation Sched:
Weds May 30: Bishop, CA – The Masonic Temple
Fri June 1: The Seattle Film Festival
Sat June 2: Seattle, WA – The Crocodile w/ Voxtrot
Sun June 3: San Francisco, CA – Amoeba Records In-Store Performace
Mon June 4: Los Angeles, CA – Spaceland
Tue June 5: Los Angeles, CA – The Echo
Weds June 6: Santa Barbara, CA – Velvet Jones
Thurs June 7: New York – The Veils @ Mercury Lounge
Fri June 8: NY – The Veils @ Union Hall
Sat June 9: Boston – The Veils @ Great Scott
Mon June 11: New York – ‘Eagle V Shark’ premiere party
Tues June 12: Philadelphia, PA – Flight of the Conchords After party @ World Café
Eagle Vs. Shark Screening Sched:
Thurs May 31: Seattle (Seattle Intl Film Festival)
Fri June 1: Seattle (Seattle Intl Film Festival)
Sun June 3: San Francisco
Mon June 4: Los Angeles
Tues June 5: Los Angeles
Weds June 6: San Diego
Thurs June 7: Chicago
Sat June 9: Vegas (CineVegas)
Mon June 11: New York (Premiere)
Weds June 13: Boston
Thurs June 14: DC