There is a high-quality version courtesy of video.google.com if you follow the link, look for “watch in high quality”, I couldn’t find a way to link to that directly.
Source: YouTube
Bonus:
Jermaine Clement’s lips
The New York Times:
“Flight of the Conchords is funny in such an understated way that it is almost dangerous to make too much of it. It’s much slighter than HBO’s big production comedies like Curb Your Enthusiasm and Entourage. It’s also a little sweeter, less a satire of show business than wry self-parody.”
New York Post:
“A fantastic flight. Something new and hilarious, and completely different. Unlike anything else I have ever seen before.”Variety.com:
“Hardly a great show…It’s all pretty standard stuff, shot on a dime against grungy New York backdrops…the show isn’t much to look at, but thanks to those music videos, there are moments when it sounds like a gem.”Chicago Tribune:
“The charms of this series are subtle, but only grow over the course of the first few episodes. Clement and McKenzie, perhaps because of their upbringing in the most polite nation on Earth, are well suited to understated, self-deprecating comedy, and their fertile imaginations are usually up to the task entertaining the short attention span of the YouTube generation.”Source: NZ Herald
Whenever I read about or watch video about Scientology I come away feeling particularly unwell. As an organisation they strike me as becoming very media savvy and well-versed in tactics to distort information as or when it appears in mass media. I find more than most things Scientology makes me afraid. The way they practice the same marketing speak as large corporations means they understand it is not what you’re saying, but how you’re saying it. If you look confident and sound convincing, we the audience will often just roll with it. Which is why you have to give Scientology credit for latching on to the historical notion of the church, “The Church of Scientology”, it quickly places them as just another religion “doing good things”.
Janet Reitman’s article Inside Scientology (Google cache, archive.org) is a good read. You can watch MSNBC interviewing Janet Reitman about her Scientology article on YouTube. Since Reitman’s article, the BBC Panorama program looked into Scientology [video.google.com]. This is a fascinating episode, not just because BBC reporter John Sweeney loses his cool in a big way near the end.
As Russell Brown noted, it doesn’t end there. Video is available on YouTube shot by the BBC Panorama team showing prior aggression from a Scientologist. Scientology appears to have responded by posting videos on YouTube: BBC reporter losing it!, BBC Reporter John Sweeney’s “excuse” for losing it. In the description of the videos there is a recommendation users visit BBC Panorama-Exposed. This website is run by the Church of Scientology and contains a professionally-edited response to the BBC Panorama episode. As becomes clear, John Sweeney does himself no favours, allowing for Scientology people to post various videos.
It was hopping through Google Video and YouTube I came across an intense video shot by a guy called Mark Bunker from XenuTV.com. In it he films what appears to be three Scientologists repeatedly questioning him “What have you done?” “What are you afraid of?” and telling him “you’re a little gnat”. It is compelling viewing.
I think it takes some guts to stand up in mainstream media and question something like Scientology. Given their history of pressuring and discrediting people who will do that, you would be forgiven for thinking that there might be stories out there easier to cover.
The internet is custom-built for an organisation like that of Scientology. Unlike more traditional media i.e. books, newspaper, etc, often there is no quick way to tell if something is legitimate or faked on the web. Audio can be chopped up and put back online as “unedited transcripts”. People can comment on YouTube or edit an Wikipedia article and what is written can be quickly picked up and spread as fact. An organisation like Scientology which relies on the public taking things at face value would appreciate the power the internet gives them. Got a negative video about Scientology on internet? Create your own video discrediting the video.
One issue that the computer game industry is having to face up to is the reality of paid surfers who artificially promote a game or service, for example a person being paid to visit online computer game forum’s and post “X computer game is awesome, it’s all I’m playing at the moment!”. The same person may be paid to find online negative comments about the same game and post seemingly honest contrary positions “I don’t think X computer is that bad, I’m playing at the moment and IMHO it’s pretty good”. Using the slang and language of the online community brings legitimacy to your actually-fake posts. This is where Scientology could use the same tactics, subtlety but falsely influence the tone of online conversations simply by using large numbers of seemingly legitimate user accounts to post comments.
LINKS (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED)
The Shrinking World of L. Ron Hubbard
Scientology: “Speaking Freely” Tory Christman [video.google.com]
(Updated 2007-05-30: Fixed links, tightened up two sentences on last paragraph)
(Updated 2011-02-09: Updated the link to the Reitman article as the URL has sinced changed)
Cheers to Sheldon for the link.
Source: Dead-Frog
It’s hard to pick how the humour will go down with American audiences. What do others think?
CONCHORDS ROUNDUP:
Source: Minuit on Flickr
Minuit (pronounced “Min-wee”) is French for the middle of the night but also means cracking good kiwi electronica. Minuit is husband & wife Paul Dodge & Ruth Carr along with Ryan Beehre (also of FunknSloCuts). Minuit hail from Nelson and have been around since 1998 but became more well-known through the release of their debut album The 88, released in 2003. The 88 includes the breakout tunes “Boy With The Aubergine Hair” and “Species II” along with gems like “Except You”, “Menace” and “Body-Shaped Box”.
In 2003 they were nominated for Breakthrough Artist of The Year at the NZ Music Awards but lost out to Brooke Fraser. Over 2003 – 2005 tracks from The 88 appeared on compilations by LOOP Recordings, Antenna Recordings and Universal Music, among others. The follow-up album was delivered in 2006, The Guards Themselves. One of Minuit’s big tracks “I Hate Guns” appears only on the Guns EP (2005) and not on either of their albums.
Minuit have remixed Pitch Black and also did a remix for the LOOP Recordings CD Music For Nature Documentaries.
Musically Minuit is clever breakbeat/rock electronica made into songs, songs with personality. Vocalist Ruth Carr is a delight and her lyrics are reminiscent of Karl Hyde from Underworld’s “slice of life” lyrical style. Ruth Carr comes across as a real kiwi chick, down to earth and up for it. She names The Prodigy’s Fat of the Land and Tricky’s Maxinquay among albums that have made her life fun (nzgirl). Ruth Carr actually worked as a builder over the course of making a lot of their music.
Having toured the UK, Europe and Australia recently, Minuit will soon be back on New Zealand’s shores for an August tour. Overseas their single “Fuji” has been played all over Europe including Radio 1 in the Czech Republic putting it in their HitParade for the Breakbeat Conference (meaning the top 5 new tracks). Their latest single is “Suave As Sin”.
LINKS
DB saw Minuit live in March, 2006 [db.rambleschmack.net]
Source: Nick Andrews
The Crystal Method is Ken Jordan and Scott Kirkland, an electronic/rock music duo from Las Vegas who showed up in the boom time for electronic dance rock and big beat in the mid-nineties. I’ve often thought of them as the USA’s equivalent of The Prodigy, just without the stage presence of guys like Keith Flint and Maxim.
The Crystal Method have released three “studio” albums Vegas (1997), Tweekend (2001) and Legion of Boom (one Grammy nomination, 2004), three video game soundtracks and one film soundtrack (London, 2005) which by the reviews I read was a very missable movie. They have completed two mix albums, Community Service (2002) and Community Service II (2005), these albums take their name from the radio show Jordan and Kirkland host in Los Angeles on Indie 103.1 FM. They have produced, collaborated and remixed many, many tracks over their career and inevitably these make their way into their live shows.
Most recently the Method have put together a 45-minute mix of 10 songs called The Crystal Method Drive: Nike+ Original Run for Nike which is only available from the iTunes online store (The Crystal Method Drive: Nike+ Original Run on iTunes, requires iTunes to be installed). Being a Nike project, the mix has a warm-up section, it builds and then has a warm-down section and is considered by The Crystal Method as “an official new album” (pe.com).
It is no surprise to see The Crystal Method getting involved with this kind of project, as they have admitted themselves, people seem to really like working out to their music. I can personally attest to this, just listening to ‘High Roller’ reminds me of running laps around my high school soccer field. Good times.
Sometimes commenting a band’s sound has remained consistent over their career can be a slight, suggesting they have not progressed their sound and remained stuck in a style or era. I think in The Crystal Method’s case their heavy electronic beats infused with synths and vocals has become their signature and remains their passion. Their progression is evident, moving into genres and formats that are electronic music’s natural home and continued involvement in the scene. They foster the next generation through their radio show and have worked with the Grammy Awards to publicise electronic music.
In 2004 Ken Jordan said:
I like the concept of the Grammys, artists and people in the industry recognizing each others’ work. But we’ve started this electronic music advisory panel because basically electronic music is a big part of music in America. There’s a Billboard chart for it. But there’s no Grammy for it. They have a Grammy for f—–g polka music. They have a Grammy for American Indian music. They have Grammys for the most smallest, tiny, zero-fraction of music. But at the same time they’re not recognizing the music I make, and that’s really upsetting at this point. So I’m trying to get involved and change it. But it’s going slow.
Source: internetdj.com
In 2005 The Crystal Method were nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Electronica/Dance Album.
Source: coutant.org
Keynote from Edward R. Murrow at the RTNDA Convention in Chicago, USA, October 15, 1958. I highly recommend reading this keynote in full.
Read the full transcript
(web.archive.org)
(Google cache)
Excerpt:
I do not advocate that we turn television into a 27-inch wailing wall, where longhairs constantly moan about the state of our culture and our defense. But I would just like to see it reflect occasionally the hard, unyielding realities of the world in which we live. I would like to see it done inside the existing framework, and I would like to see the doing of it redound to the credit of those who finance and program it. Measure the results by Nielsen, Trendex or Silex-it doesn’t matter. The main thing is to try. The responsibility can be easily placed, in spite of all the mouthings about giving the public what it wants. It rests on big business, and on big television, and it rests at the top. Responsibility is not something that can be assigned or delegated. And it promises its own reward: good business and good television.Perhaps no one will do anything about it. I have ventured to outline it against a background of criticism that may have been too harsh only because I could think of nothing better. Someone once said–I think it was Max Eastman–that “that publisher serves his advertiser best who best serves his readers.” I cannot believe that radio and television, or the corporation that finance the programs, are serving well or truly their viewers or listeners, or themselves.
I began by saying that our history will be what we make it. If we go on as we are, then history will take its revenge, and retribution will not limp in catching up with us.
We are to a large extent an imitative society. If one or two or three corporations would undertake to devote just a small traction of their advertising appropriation along the lines that I have suggested, the procedure would grow by contagion; the economic burden would be bearable, and there might ensue a most exciting adventure–exposure to ideas and the bringing of reality into the homes of the nation.
To those who say people wouldn’t look; they wouldn’t be interested; they’re too complacent, indifferent and insulated, I can only reply: There is, in one reporter’s opinion, considerable evidence against that contention. But even if they are right, what have they got to lose? Because if they are right, and this instrument is good for nothing but to entertain, amuse and insulate, then the tube is flickering now and we will soon see that the whole struggle is lost.
This instrument can teach, it can illuminate; yes, and it can even inspire. But it can do so only to the extent that humans are determined to use it to those ends. Otherwise it is merely wires and lights in a box. There is a great and perhaps decisive battle to be fought against ignorance, intolerance and indifference. This weapon of television could be useful.
Source: rtnda.org
More: Good Night and Good Luck, and Murrow speeches online [boingboing.net]
Source: Peter Stuckings
Groove Armada is the music stylings of Andy Cato and Tom Findlay who together make electronica infused with funk, soul, house, disco, dub, dancehall…it’s a long list. Famous first for their tuneful track ‘At The River’ which got thrashed by a bunch of bland chillout albums and featured on their first album, Vertigo (1999). Vertigo is a fantastic album, when it came out Elton John famously bought 1000 copies to give to all his friends. Groove Armada then had a short stint as Elton’s opening band.
The evolution of Groove Armada’s sound can be best summed up by the name of their second album, 2001′s Goodbye Country (Hello Nightclub). It was clear the Armada had worked out their crossover appeal from lounges to dance floors would not only work (witness Fatboy Slim’s reworking of ‘I See You Baby’) but would also pay quite handsomely.
If, like me, you thought Groove Armada disbanded, you would be wrong. They are back with an album this year, Soundboy Rock and are playing Auckland venue the St James this coming Tuesday night the 27th of March. Those attending can expect an uplifting, adrenalised live show with a bigger emphasis on playing live than you get from a lot of electronic acts. Unusually, I read on their blog Tom Findlay discussing how these days he goes on tour but doesn’t actually join the band on stage saying there’s no need for it “…the visuals are so spectacular and the band are so cool that I just don’t feel it’s necessary”.
Talking about Soundboy Rock Groove Armada said recently “It’s the best one we’ve done, no question” [sonybmg.com.au]. Which perhaps they are always going to say but judging from a tune on their myspace page from the album, a downbeat track called ‘Paris’, the Groove is on.
Iranian Holocaust claims rebutted
…Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad opened a two-day conference yesterday to question whether the Holocaust took place … Ahmadinejad has called the Holocaust a myth. At his initiative, the Iranian foreign ministry’s institute for political and international studies is hosting a conference that has drawn 67 foreign delegates from 30 countries. Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said the objective was “to raise various opinions about a historical issue.”
“If the official version of the Holocaust is thrown into doubt, then the identity and nature of Israel will be thrown into doubt,” Mottaki said.
Via TheStar.com
…As a child growing up in Saudi Arabia, I remember my teachers, my mom and our neighbors telling us practically on a daily basis that Jews are evil, the sworn enemies of Muslims, and that their only goal was to destroy Islam. We were never informed about the Holocaust.
Later, as a teenager in Kenya, when Saudi and other Persian Gulf philanthropy reached us, I remember that the building of mosques and donations to hospitals and the poor went hand in hand with the cursing of Jews. Jews were said to be responsible for the deaths of babies and for epidemics such as AIDS, and they were believed to be the cause of wars. They were greedy and would do absolutely anything to kill us Muslims. If we ever wanted to know peace and stability, and if we didn’t want to be wiped out, we would have to destroy the Jews. For those of us who were not in a position to take up arms against them, it was enough for us to cup our hands, raise our eyes heavenward and pray to Allah to destroy them.
Via LATimes.com
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