After his wonderful letter to Lily Allen, Dan Bull does it again – this time an open letter sung to everyone’s favourite Pirate Finder General and Geffen-loving big corporate shill, Peter Mandelson.
G’day pardner! It’s all go at the ranch here, I’ve just finished a western-tastic video for Dunproofin’s excellent Pjanoo Dance mashup which mixes David Bowie’s ‘Let’s Dance’ with Eric Prydz ‘Pjanoo’. Well western via Australia, but the videos are surprisingly compatible and complement each other.
You can also download the 640×480 mov. I have this one at full PAL res so anyone wanting to play it out let me know. And of course I’ve added this to MutantPop TV which will always be live!
Shiny new post on a shiny new host, and something that’s been in my torrent download queue for ages – the film Steal This Film II – a great freely downloadable documentary about file sharing, information sharing in cultures (like teaching) and the social and legal issues within and looking at past technologies like the printing press and how a ‘pirate culture’ helped the French Revolution along.
It’s made by and for the people on the side of angels ie. the pirates so you won’t get a totally ‘balanced view’ (which usually means one biased to the mainstream media and corporates) but the MPAA and heads of Hollywood do get their say and their arguments countered. The strongest impression you get from this is how this struggle of information freedom and ‘piracy’ has been going on a very long time and is constantly on going; how the real fear of the major corporates is probably that the audience becomes the creators and cuts them totally out of the loop, and that the file sharing wars are pretty much lost despite setbacks after this film was made (Pirate Bay and the like).
It’s also much better than Steal This Film I which was a bit of a mish-mash (and out of focus in parts – ouch). Apparently they are expanding both bits into a full film, and then going for a release, which I’m hoping is still officially torrented, unlike RiP: A Remix Manifesto‘ which although very professional looking and interesting sadly seems to be going through the age-old Hollywood distributor/release model – requires different release dates for different world areas (apparently I can’t download it cos I’m ‘not in the US’ – DOH – no release dates for the UK either). Given the subject of that film, it is rather ironic – it may be about remix or online culture in the 21st century but that particular medium is most definitely not the message. Maybe it’s because the film is evolving they’re not officially torrenting it (someone else has put up an unnofficial torrent).
Anyway it has Girl Talk in it, in fact so much the whole film is basically a Girl Talk promo, and y’all know how I feel about him. The Brazil bits showing baile funk are really good, and Cory and Lessig are always brilliant, but it pretty much covers the same areas as Steal This Film I and II, but with more flashy animations/production.
It does have this great funny remix at the end pulled from YouTube seemingly uncredited, but I recognised the Eclectic Method logo:
For those wanting to get into the issues around musical remix/cutup I’d rather recommend Sonic Outlaws by Craig Baldwin, which was created about 15 years earlier and covers the same ground sans some of the later ‘Napster/bittorrent’ stuff covered in STF, some of the footage by/of Negativland is used in ‘RiP’! At the very least you then won’t need to look at a naked Greg Gillis…:-P
Anyway I think the model of Steal This Film and Sita Sings the Blues is the future though, torrenting your movie and letting the world see it in a donation model if they like it, or buying copies if they want them. To trot out my old phrase, they get it. They really do. Go support them.
Just thought I’d check in on a Radio Clash fave, Phil Retrospector, who I’ve not heard from for a while (totally my fault, I tend to forget to check back regularly with what people are doing!), and found this entrancing and beautiful mix of Leonard Cohen, Le Mystere de Voix Bulgares and Muse – good reflective post-weekend comedown Sunday evening stuff, even if I’m a little late coming to it
Also liking his use of video, and using sources that most others probably wouldn’t touch or know about – the likes of Kenneth Anger, and the films starring Leigh Bowery.
And in a similar mood, is his very melancholic and beautiful remix of Johnny Cash’s ‘Hurt’ with a very atmospheric black and white video after my own heart (I love using early cinema films, as well as found 50′s films, usually home movies or informational /teen exploitation movies)
New addition to MutantPopTV is a video for 10000 Spoons’ great ‘Astley Gone to Heaven’ mixing Pixies ‘Monkey Gone To Heaven’ with Rick Astley’s ‘Never Gonna Give You Up’ – part of his brilliant ‘Boot Up The Eighties’ mix – highly recommended – and I asked if I could do a video and he kindly sent me the full version.
Took bleeding ages to match the fuzzy arty B&W footage with the Astley video, but I think it was worth it Let me know if anyone wants the full downloadable 640×480 H264 MOV to play out, etc.
(Only posted on YouTube until my Vimeo account has space and before it inevitably gets pulled or something…get it while it’s hot! Or alternatively watch it as part of MutantPopTV below!)
More videos here at MutantPopTV – and I’ve just added a high-quality version of White Witch Dub video – previous versions were 320×240 only.
Let me know if anyone wants the full downloadable 640×480 H264 MOV to play out, etc.
