Rust In Pieces

Soundtrack: "Pony" by Far

First of all, I would like to send my condolences to David Carradine's friends and family.  His death has been a great loss for the acting community and he will be missed.

And, my condolences to the families who have been affected by General Motor's demise.  Many people seem surprised about everything that has been happening.  Layoffs, dealerships being cut, and now the bankruptcy.  But I think a majority of people realize that this has been a long time coming.  It all started with invention of "planned obsolescence".

What is planned obsolescence?  It is the process of a product becoming obsolete or non-functional after a certain amount of time as designed by the manufactured.  In essence, it is designing something to break.

On paper it might look good for some companies.  Design a car, build it to last five years, then every year introduce a better, more expensive upgrade.  After 5 years those upgrades add up to profit because people have no choice but to buy the newer, shinier model.  GM has been doing it for years, Apple is doing it, video game console designers have done it.  And it works... until people get tired of it.

Here's the deal: companies like Apple are going to end up like GM if they don't take a lesson from this.  Instead of building stuff to break, build stuff that can be upgraded.  Look at the Japanese; they mastered the art of upgrades through the import tuning market.  They figured out they could sell a well-built, inexpensive car that people could sink money into by adding options and after-market parts.  And if a third-party company wanted to get in on the profits they had to pay royalties in order to be a "certified" company.  It's an idea that has taken off, everyone is doing it, even companies like GM and Apple.  But if the companies who use planned obsolescence want to continue to function, they will stop jerking around these third party companies as well as consumers and start making things to last.

People have jumped on the "progressive" idea bandwagon and they are embracing ideas like sustainability and corporate accountability full-force.  I don't see a future where people throw their money and resources away on buying the latest shiny thing every five years.  That kind of thinking is dead.  If you don't agree with that, if you do not think GM is dead, you are fooling yourself.  They may continue with the same name, they may continue to make cars, but they are not going to be the same company.  It's a new world for them, but their future is about as dark and apocalyptic as it can get. 

Rust in pieces, indeed.

The Most Important Movie of the 21st Century

Soundtrack: Feed the Animals by Girl Talk

This afternoon, as I do every now and then, I was browsing through the film trailers on Apple's web site.  I ran across a trailer for a documentary about the American food industry.  It is called Food, Inc and it is probably going to be the most important film you will ever see in your life.

How and why do I feel qualified to make that assertion, you ask?  Because it is about something so simple that almost everyone has taken granted, yet it is one of the most basic of human necessities.

For as long as I've lived, just a tad over 28 years, my mom and dad strove to provide our fairly average family with nutritious food.  Even now that I've been out of the house for years she still goes out of her way to make sure my brother and I eat well.  It's one of the things that I have taken to heart, and I consider myself lucky because of it.  My eating habits could be healthier, but for the most part I avoid the things that I know are not good for me.  Saturated fats, high fructose corn syrup, chemical preservatives, etc.  And many of the people I know do the same thing.

But after seeing this trailer I have a feeling when I go to see this film it will completely floor me, and anyone else who watches it.  So please, do yourself a favor and go see it.  I have a feeling it will change your life.

You can see the trailer for the documentary here.

Fuck RIAA

Soundtrack: “Silencer” by In Our Failure

I am sure there is at least one or two people out there in internet-land who have noticed my absence. I apologize, but the well was dry and it was time for me to take a break and let my anger get the best of me.

And it has.

I have reason to be angry. Everyone does. The music industry is still being the greedy pen of pigs it has been for years. I know I have been saying that for as long as this blog has existed, just look at my last blog entry for cryin' out loud. So in lieu of repeating myself I would like to refer you to the best piece of writing I have read in a long time. Possibly ever. A dude named Rob Sheridan has a blog. He wrote an article about the changing face of the music industry. Please read it and follow his suggestions because it is the only way things will change.

Steal This Album

Soundtrack: “The Day The Whole World Went Away” by Nine Inch Nails

So it’s been a while, hasn’t it? I apologize for the downtown but I have been feeling largely uninspired lately. Life has revolved around searching for employment and video games but there is a light at the end of the tunnel friends.

I am of course a little depressed about the state of music and the music industry. It isn’t what it used to be back in the glory days. After watching great documentaries on stories like Stax Records makes me wish that it was still about the music any more. But it is not about the music for about 75% of the industry, or so says my egotistical opinion.

Nine Inch Nails has been touring Australia recently and last night they performed in Sydney at the Hordern Pavilion. He asked about the price of his CD. Now, for some background, in international markets it is often a practice of the record companies to hike up the prices for dubious economic reasons. Last time Trent was in Australia earlier this summer he discussed this practice and slammed it.

In his follow up last night he told the audience to steal his album, a practice that I am sure would give the greedy monkeys in Metallica a heart attack. “Steal away. Steal and steal and steal some more and give it to all your friends and keep on stealin'. Because one way or another these motherfuckers will get it through their head that they're ripping people off and that that's not right.”

This brings up a moral quandary. Is pulling a Robin Hood to bring down the big bad wolf of the music industry, an industry that peripherally employs hundreds of thousands, is that right? There is always going to be a need for certain jobs, so those who have some experience will be able to find new ones. At the same time, many of these people make spit in a bucket compared to what the executives make, and every year these executives raise the price of their product a little more so they can enjoy the latest Ferrari or Aston Martin or whatever it is that gets them off.

I've made my choice. I've worked in both sides of the industry, behind the scenes and retail, and I'm going to steal, steal, steal some more. But I am not going to steal for the sake of stealing. Along with that comes supporting the artist directly. If I download the new Nine Inch Nails album (an album that I purchased, actually), I will go to their concert and buy their merchandise and support the band through the concert ticket. I also buy music from the iTunes store in order to support alternative forms of distribution. So go out there and steal and shake things up. Just don't take down everyone. Some people still need to eat.

The Wonderful World Of Porn

Soundtrack: “Red Sky” by Thrice

I am putting this out here in hopes that someone can help. For a few months now an associate of mine has been fighting to get one of her images removed from the cover of a porn video.

Yes, you read that right.

Lara Jade, a young and amazingly talented fashion photographer from the UK, has been fighting TVX Studios over their use of a self portrait she took in 2004 at the age of 14. This is not only a copyright violation, but a violation of United States decency laws which state that nobody under the age of 18 may be associated with anything pornographic. That includes porn DVD covers. Not to mention the ethical quagmire this puts her in... being a porn covergirl might be fine with some people, but for someone like Lara who is trying to be a legitimate fashion photographer, this could be a big smear on her reputation.

The unfortunate thing is that she has been unable to do much about it since she lives in the UK. Which is too bad, because something definitely needs to be done about this. So I am passing this along in hopes that someone can help her out. You can find contact information as well as a ton of her awesome photography here.