Monthly Archive for November, 2006

Russia under fire - for illegal downloads

From the Results of Bilateral Negotiations on Russia’s Accession
to the World Trade Organization (WTO)
, November 19th:

The United States and Russia have agreed on a binding blueprint for actions that Russia will take to address piracy and counterfeiting and improve protection and enforcement of intellectual property rights (IPR), both stated priorities of the Russian Government, starting immediately. This agreement sets the stage for further progress on IPR issues in Russia through the next phase of multilateral negotiations, during which the United States and other WTO members will examine Russia’s IPR regime. This binding agreement is an integral part of the United States – Russia WTO bilateral market access agreement, and implementation of the commitments on IPR will be essential to completing the final multilateral negotiations on the overall accession package.

And then, a few paragraphs farther down:

The United States and Russia agreed on the objective of shutting down websites that permit illegal distribution of music and other copyright works. The agreement names the Russia-based website allofmp3.com as an example of such a website.

Now, with former Russian secret agents getting killed in Western Europe, countries like Chechnya being ruled by Russian puppet politicians and a blatant disregard of freedom of the press (or even worse than that) in what reminds some of the old Soviet Union, a website selling music for less than the services approved by the RIAA is of course the biggest problem of all of mankind. Or the multi-national corporations who are actually the only ones gaining from a cut-throat organisation like the WTO.

Read a bit more about the issue here.

Little One

The good thing about washing machines is you don’t have to use a wash board anymore.

The bad thing about washing machines is that sometimes you actually should use a wash board. Or read the fucking instructions printed inside the laundry you plan to give a good washing to.

Ah well, another 20 Euros wisely spent.

Understanding

Today I got a letter from our cable company. Inside, there was a laconic message that went something like this:

“We ask for your understanding that starting next month, the monthly fees for our services will be raised by 30 Euro-Cents.”

Now, usually I’m really quite an understanding person. I understand it when someone decides to leave Austria to start life as a scuba-diving instructor somewhere in the Maldives (mainly because the Maldives are said to be a really great place…why anyone would want to instruct others doing something like diving is actually beyond me).
I understand it when people don’t have cars in Vienna, because having a car in Vienna is expensive and to a certain extent really quite pointless.

But I don’t fucking understand why they suddenly need to charge more for our cable. And you know why? BECAUSE THEY DON’T ACTUALLY GIVE A SINGLE REASON WHY! How should I be understanding, when all they tell me is the fact, but not the circumstances that led to that very fact.

I’m sure customer relations must be a really difficult job, and explaining things to customers not even middle management understands must be really draining. But hell, why not simply dream up some reason that’s a bit more convincing than just NO REASON AT ALL.

How to be fucking awesome, Pt.II

Apparently, for some people the phrase “fucking awesome” is just a bit too ambiguous.

Karl Fluch, music critic at the Austrian daily “Der Standard”, may be a nice fellow not least because of his admiration of everyone’s favourite yellow people, but his writings about music are worth shit.

If you want to read his review of Sunday’s Tool concert here in Vienna, it’s here (in German).

The whole review is filled with factual inaccuracies, and while I’m not surprised, with Fluch having a certain history of knowing next to nothing about Tool but still writing about them, I’m a bit disappointed they sent him. After all, there must be at least one critic on their staff who can keep his pretentiousness at bay, at least until he’s done describing the set-list or the number of people who actually did not leave the concert before it was over.

It’s one thing to slag off a band for shoddily produced sound or a boring presentation, but criticising a concert on the basis that the songs are not your typical 3 minute pop-songs is not just stupid, it’s really fucking stupid. Especially when each of the musicians on stage played a flawless set.

In the end I do have the suspicion, that the only reason Fluch is allowed to write about Tool is a bet he made with the rest of the staff that he would mention Henry Rollins in each and every piece about them. No matter whether he’s got anything to say or not.

How to be fucking awesome!

Here’s a little tutorial on how to be fucking awesome:

* Be a fucking awesome band!

* Play a fucking awesome concert!

* Have a fucking awesome lights and visuals show!

* Play not only new songs but also the classics! The fucking awesome classics, I should add!

* Make sure grown men start weeping at the end of the show, because it was just so fucking awesome!

* Turn usually literate people into ones that can’t think of any other description than “fucking awesome”!

Here’s a link to the photos I took with my cameraphone, because, well, real cameras were just not fucking awesome enough for the venue!

The ticket




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