Greetings From Shitsville.... London

Lets cut straight to the chase here, I FUCKING hate London!!! It stinks, its depressing, its far too overcrowded, no-one seems to have any respect for each other, its quite possibly one of the loneliest places in Britain, if not the whole world.

For some almost unfathomable reason, people actually seem to love the place. Brits flock there in search of all the excitement and opportunity that our nation's capital has to offer. People from all over the world move to London in search of a better life. Tourists and travellers are constantly drawn to the place, wanting to experience what they perceive to be the pinnacle of British culture.

There's an old cockney sing-song that goes something along the lines of "Maybe its because I'm a Londoner that I love London town." I can see no legitimate reason why anyone would love London unless that's all they've ever known, or their life outside of London is so completely and utterly shit that the "Arse-end of England" is actually an improvement. I guess there are worse places in the world to be, but there are certainly a great number of better places too.

Its true that to some extent London is the pinnacle of British culture, there are things I love about this country such as the cultural diversity, the music, the arts, our great number of scientific advancements and achievements. London has all of these things taken to extremes. You only have to take a walk along Camden to see the more alternative side of British culture in full effect, to some it looks a lot like a freak-show, but for many of those that frequent the place its the perfect location to express their individuality.

On the other hand, London is also the epitome of everything that is wrong with Britain and for that matter much of western culture. Its the hub of big business and corporate industry. A city built upon a capitalist foundation, where the only way to survive is to work hard, spend hard, conform and consume. Wherever you go in London you are bombarded with advertising of some sort. Everyone wants your money, whether that be for the latest product, fast food, memorabilia or useless tat that serves only to feed our indoctrinated need to keep spending, those that sell are unrelenting in their constant pursuit of custom.

Often its obvious and unavoidable, many times its far more subliminal. The voiceover at the mall by Victoria station constantly repeats the same refrain: "Hungry? Thirsty? Why not try one of our delicious refreshments?" (correct me if I'm wrong on the exact wording but the message is principally the same). Do people even notice it anymore? Businessmen with their laptops, mobile phones and other great technical accessories send out a clear message that social status is directly connected to the gadgets they carry around, endorse and rely upon. Adverts on the tube trains declare that the average Londoner wakes up 44 minutes earlier than the rest of the UK (6:04 am) like that's something everyone there should be proud of, a prime example of the degree of dedication only found in the capital, while the rest of Britain is populated by lazy part-timers destined to under-achieve and ultimately fall behind in our modern fast-paced hi-tech society.

Traveling at peak time on the London Underground is possibly one of the most unpleasant experiences known to man. Millions of wage-slaves packed, squashed and compressed into dirty, underground stations and dense, sweaty trains. Everyone eager to get where they've got to go with no regard or respect for anyone else. All just cogs in the great big corporate machine. No-one smiles, no-one talks, every day our self-respect and dignity is reduced little by little until we all passively accept that our lives are ultimately worthless and miserable, so we conform.

Control is such a huge part of London, through advertising, routine and misery everyone is forced to adapt to the system. London's other great weapon is intimidation, if ever there was a prime example of Britain turning into an Orwellian, dystopian, police state then London is it. The law is everywhere, the minute you step off a train at Paddington the welcoming committee is there in full uniform with sniffer dogs. What sort of enforcement is this? Are they there to protect the individuals, or simply to search and possibly arrest otherwise innocent people, guilty only of smoking a joint before they left home in the morning? In a city that brings everyone down on a daily basis, the law is there to ensure that no-one dares to consider such an illicit pleasure while attempting to lead a "normal" life.

The police presence is only one part of the authoritarian nature of London law enforcement. CCTV is in abundance throughout the capital. Cameras are everywhere, there is no privacy. Whatever we do, we are always being watched. Security in London is big business, don't believe that these cameras are passively recording you for your own protection. They exist to control and intimidate, just like the police, just like the advertising, just like the underground.

Someone visiting from one of the more civilised areas of Britain may find that people in London are rude, disrespectful and to some extent unpleasant. Its not the fault of the individual, everyone's just trying to adapt as they go about their daily business. This is the lifestyle they lead, for many that's all they've ever known. I could imagine that many Londoners would find the somewhat more laidback pace of the rest of the country dull or boring. Its a sad shame for those people. For the tourist visiting England, London offers many things to do and sights to see. It does not offer a true representation of the country. The North of England is vastly different, the Westcountry is far more relaxed and laidback. London is what it is, but it isn't the be-all and end-all.

The idea that London is the place to be is a self-propagating myth. Many talk about the music scene in London to the extent where it is the only city in which great success can be achieved, for the most part this is true, but it can also be where the greatest failures occur. Spend too long in London and one may very well lose all motivation and love for music, maybe even the will to live.

Once again, I FUCKING hate London. I could never live there, nor would i ever want to. Its a truly horrible, miserable place. For the millions of people that call it home, i have great sympathy. There's a lot of things wrong in this world, London is one of them.

Some More Thoughts on Piracy

Considering the recent verdict on the Pirate Bay trial, the subject of piracy is one of much debate currently. I'm taking a break from the Virtual Reality series to look more closely at piracy and how ridiculous this whole verdict is.

The first thing I think needs to be mentioned is that the “victory” for the music industry is not a victory for musicians, nor is it a victory for copyright protection as many of us perceive it. I seriously doubt that any artists will see a penny from this, even if the fine does get paid it will end up in the pockets of record labels and publishers, the businessmen who have been controlling the industry for too long. That's what the music industry is, a very big and until now hugely profitable business.

The whole case has been clouded in this idea of morality, that copyright needs to protected for the sake of the artists, piracy is theft and anyone who actively partakes in piracy is not only a criminal, but a hugely immoral person. No decent person wants to steal from their friends, or indeed anyone they respect, the industry has tried to convince us that we are stealing from the artists we respect and admire, and we should be ashamed of ourselves. As I demonstrated in the previous post here, piracy as a form of theft is very different to stealing a physical item from your mates.

I'm not saying that artists are not suffering as a result of file-sharing, they are. There is a lot of independent music on small labels (or even self-financed) that can be downloaded illegally. These aren't successful pop stars, or big corporate labels, these are skint people just like you or me, struggling to make a living out of something they love. But this verdict has done nothing for them, no-one has been defending their rights, or trying to seek compensation for their losses. Like I said, this is about the big corporate side of the music industry.

Artists have been getting shafted by record labels and the like for too long. You think when you go out and buy a CD you are supporting the musicians involved? The small percentage of royalties the artist is entitled to only goes toward paying off the debt that artist owes to the label who loaned them the money to record the album in the first place. That debt is re-coupable only from record sales, if no-one buys the album, the artist doesn't have to pay it back. Axl Rose's Chinese Democracy cost Geffen $13m to record, it will never sell enough to pay back that debt. But Axl has lost nothing whether you buy it or copy it. That money could have been spent on better things (although I actually do like the album), but nevertheless I have to admire Axl for turning the tables on his label like that.

Rarely do successful artists “own” their music, the label owns the recordings, the publisher owns the copyright of the songs. Artists are tied to contracts forcing them to compromise their own artistic integrity just to meet deadlines and help the big boys make money. If you ask me, its about time for the whole system to change. Radiohead and NIN have recently proved that giving away music can be good for both artist and fans. If and when this greedy capitalistic music industry does collapse I for one will shed no tears.

Its time for the artists to regain their power, advancements in technology have made it possible for high quality professional studios to be set up in bedrooms and garages, the internet has opened up many new methods for inexpensive distribution and promotion. Music is art, not business. The need for major record labels is not so great any more. Fat-Cats getting rich off the talents of others should start to worry. Nothing could liberate music and musicians more than the death of this industry.

So, was this really a victory? I don't think so. Its just Napster all over again. Nothing changes, people will continue to share information freely just like we always have done. Artists will have to think differently if they want to be successful, embrace the future and learn from the past.

Music fans should support the artists by going to more gigs, buying merchandise, donating money if they can. Request your favourite Radio Djs to play your favourite up n coming artists, not the same old manufactured rubbish. Try to pay for underground music on independent labels via their own websites when you can (digital shops often take a large cut). But most importantly love the music you download, whether you have paid for it or not. Ultimately, any genuine artist does this because they enjoy it and they want other people to enjoy it too.

Pirate Bay may be the latest scapegoat for an industry that values its shareholders pockets over its artists livelihoods, but this industry's days are numbered. Don't fall victim to these capitalist lies and dubious claims of morality. The Pirate Bay are not the villains here, record labels were ripping off artists and stealing music long before file-sharing came about, and they'll continue to if we let them.

Virtual Reality - Pt 2: Digital Thieves

Something of a late follow-on post here, due in no small part to the various real world pressures that have a great deal of control over my life.

We previously looked at some examples of the ways in which our lives have become "virtual", how much of our consumer needs are now found in digital form, as opposed to the physical existence of the past. This has a huge impact on how we value these things. Our economy is essentially based upon scarcity, we can apply a value or worth to physical items as there is always a finite amount of them. However, as the old saying goes: time is money, as workers living in a monetary system we necessarily have to apply a value to time.

Digital goods are effectively nothing more than information. Music, films, software, all of these things we consume are ultimately binary code. Information has been exchanged freely for as long as mankind has been able to. Whether that be early man using basic forms of communication to share hunting/gathering info with his kind or a group of friends discussing their various thoughts and ideas on any subject they care to talk about. Of course, we also pay for information in the form of books (physical items) or education (time-based), but no-one can deny us our right to share the information in our heads (non-physical) with anyone we see fit.

This leads us into the subject of piracy. If your MP3 collection is ultimately non-physical information then surely it is your right to share it as you see fit. On the other hand a great deal of time and money went into the recording of those MP3s, which surely should be reimbursed. And this is where the dilemma lies. Its a simple fact that most people do not see piracy as theft. But theft is not so black and white, it has many shades. No-one can deny that there is a massive difference between stealing from a big corporate shop and stealing from your friends, likewise robbing a bank is not the same thing as robbing a granny. There are many different types of theft, each with their own moral and legal status.

Piracy is a form of theft, albeit very different to the others. To put it into perspective, if i go round your house and take your new U2 CD, then the result is i will have it and you won't, even though you payed for it. On the other hand if i go round your house and copy your U2 CD, then you have lost nothing. Clearly these 2 situations are different. However, while you may own that U2 CD that you payed for, you do not own the music within it, nor do you own the right to copy it (that of course belongs to the copyright holder). Essentially all you do own is the otherwise worthless piece of plastic that the music is stored on.

Now if we remove that mostly insignificant physical element of the album, we are left with just the information. As consumers, when we "purchase" and download an MP3 we don't own anything. Even the artists rarely own their music, publishers own the copyright and record labels own the recording. Believe it or not artists make very little from the actual sales of their albums, regardless of format. Music piracy harms the music industry more than it harms the musicians, and as we have seen there is a huge difference between stealing from a corporation than stealing from a person. For unsigned artists, or those signed to independent labels, it can be a bit different, certainly as far as the morality is concerned.

By no means am i trying to advocate piracy, as a musician myself i would obviously prefer people to pay for my music which i have spent a lot of time making (my only release to date is available as free download but thats not to say future releases will be). I am certain that without the needs of the physical world and the associated costs most musicians would be happy to give their music away, but unfortunately our society is not like that. It costs money to feed ourselves, it costs money to keep a roof over our heads and musicians should be paid for their work.

Nevertheless, piracy exists. It is not a new thing, but the semi-virtual nature of our world has made file-sharing so easy and huge that piracy is no longer contained to friends taping each others music. There is in principle no difference between a legal MP3 from iTunes and an illegally-sourced MP3 from PirateBay, infact often the DRM-free tunes from the latter make for a better "product" from the consumers perspective (i know Apple have dropped DRM, but that doesn't help the millions who have paid for tunes they can't even make copies of for themselves).

Has piracy devalued music? No. Has the digital/virtual nature of our media consumption devalued music as a product? Arguably, yes. These are just my opinions, but they are based on the way i see the world around me. Piracy is a big concern for the music industry, an industry that has been ripping off artists and music fans for too long. Piracy is an issue for the artists stuck within an industry that is rapidly collapsing. The "illegal" distribution of music through file-sharing is nevertheless an example of people taking back their rights to share information freely.

The monetary system has been around for a long time, it was conceived to manage the exchange of physical goods and services. Digital goods and virtual products cannot be valued in the same way. There is potentially an infinite availability of any MP3 or digital file, while the value of money is based upon its finite quantity. Clearly this leads to an imbalance. For the sake of this argument i have focused on music, quite simply because it is the industry that is being affected the most by this new digital age. You can find pretty much anything you want online for free somewhere, but this is of course limited to virtual goods or digital information.

In part 3, i want to look further at how the principles of the monetary system cannot be applied in the digital world. For now though, i would like to hope that the collapse of the music industry is the start of something newer and better, the opportunities for artists and musicians to empower themselves have never been greater. Whatever the future holds, people will still want to listen to music and musicians will still want to create it. Until now, huge corporations have controlled music and its consumption, but digital downloading has changed everything. The future may be unclear but the potential is great.

Preaching to the Converted

We are all drawn to the things that interest us, we are all drawn to people that share the same interests and views as ourselves. As a musician, I spend a fare bit of my time online reading music forums and industry news. But there's more to me than just music..

As an atheist, I am generally interested in the subject of religion, yet there's only so much I can put up with the scaremongering that pours out from the vast majority of religious propaganda. Warnings of eternal damnation and hell-fire quickly bore me, I've heard it all before... A lot!! Yet, I seemingly never tire of hearing the same atheist arguments against science over superstition.

I don't doubt that people of any given faith find themselves in a similar situation, preferring instead to listen to a preacher of their beliefs constantly re-affirm their faith, rather than hear that “same old atheist argument” about us being related to monkeys.

On a similar note, its not uncommon for a group of weed smokers to sit around debating amongst themselves about how pot should be legal and that everyone would get on better if they were all stoned all the time. These “debates”are of course completely one-sided since invariably everybody there at the time agrees.

Herein lies the problem, much as I love listening to atheists defending our reasoning, I am already of the same opinion so in a sense these arguments are of no real consequence for me, although I still enjoy reading/watching/hearing them. If you read my blog and already share my opinions then I wonder whether it will be as thought-provoking as I hope it is. Of course, if you read this because you like my music then perhaps that's a different story.

For those of us who like to be vocal about our thoughts and share our views with the world, we need to think about our audience. Its all good and well voicing our opinions to the people that agree with us, but essentially we're just preaching to the converted. To challenge the preconceptions of those that blindly follow popular opinion, to encourage individual thought within people who may never have questioned the world around them, these are the goals I hope for here.

Music can unite people in ways that nothing else can, and once there is a mutual interest or common ground this can lead the way to healthy debates among different people with contrasting views. It doesn't have to be music, all sorts of arts, sports or hobbies can be a vehicle for discussion about anything else.

There's nothing wrong with sticking to the things you like and staying within your own (online or real world) community. But its always good to be open to different ideas, to form independent opinions based on both sides of the argument. If nothing else, you may learn something new and knowledge is always good.

Get a Job?!

In much of the "developed" world people define themselves and each other by their job. How many times have you met someone down the pub and they've asked you what you do, like your job is the perfect representation of your personality. The fact that most of us hate our jobs doesn't seem to matter.

Of course there are a number of people with careers that are important to them, a professional doctor for example should take pride in his (or her) career. I know that if i was actually earning a living from my music i would be proud to call myself a musician when asked that question. The fact that i don't earn money from my hobby for some reason seems to devalue it in terms of "what i do". Yet the reality is that musician is a better description of my personality than anything work based.

The concept of work is a major factor in our society, if someone doesn't work, and theres a lot of people that can't for one reason or another, their social status is automatically devalued. I put this down in part to jealousy as most people would rather not be doing their jobs, but a lot of the stigmas come down to that sense of worth that comes from being a part of the system. If you don't work, people assume you are some sort of layabout living on benefits paid for by the taxes of those that do work. Yet those that can't work due to physical or mental illness are often the people who actually want to contribute the most to society.

On the subject of this idea of "worth", i can't help but feel those people temping or working in factories for £6 an hour are selling themselves short. Can anyone really say that their lives are worth so little as to spend so much of their waking time doing something that they either hate or at the least have no personal attachment to. Factoring in the time involved for travelling and everything else directly associated to work the average persons life is pretty much dictated by their job. Even what little free time they have at the weekend is spent drinking and trying to achieve that feeling of release before the pressure of Monday morning.

Unfortunately, the vast majority of people end up having to sell themselves short for a low wage just to be able to pay their bills and feed their family. A life without work is not the most prosperous career, the system forces us to comply and conform here.

The real benefits are for those at the top of the social heirarchy, far more than the average person. You earn minimum wage working for some big corporation, your money gets taxed before you've even seen it, then you spend whats left on goods made by and sold by big corporations, all subject to further taxes, not to mention the interest you have to pay on your loans/credit cards and mortgages. Every single employee of a big company is nothing more than a cog in the corporate machine, moving money from one fat shareholder to the next one.

The only way to be even remotely free from this is to avoid the whole work thing altogether, get yourself some benefits (you've paid for them in taxes all these years) and go and do something worthwhile, learn about things you want to know (education is always valuable), do a bit of charity work or spend a bit of your free time doing something for the community. There are loads of voluntary organisations out there that always looking for help. There are people less fortunate than you who need help, it might not pay well but its rewarding in a different kind of way.

Money is not the most important thing in life, it will cause you more pain and suffering than it will help you. Next time someone asks you what you do for a living, ask them why it matters. Tell them what you do for fun instead. If you want to work for a living, train yourself, get a skill or a trade, find something that you want to do that pays. Ask yourself how much you think you are worth, don't settle for less.

I know that life ain't that easy, we all have to do things we don't want to do. If you really do have to work in a dead-end job, then so be it, but never stop believing that you can't improve your life. If, for whatever reason, you don't or can't work for the system, don't feel like you are any less of a person, whatever anyone says. Instead make the most of your time, because its a luxury most people can't afford.

Arsehole Security At Festivals

I understand that the moral majority with their ignorant lives find it hard to understand youth culture. I understand that for many the idea of 15000 people getting wrecked in a field listening to loud repetitive beats is such an alien concept that it may actually appear threatening or dangerous. I understand that for the neighbouring villages of large outdoor music events the increased traffic and noise can probably be considered a disturbance.

I can understand these viewpoints, but that doesnt mean to say i think they are right. When an event costs £125 a ticket, its fair to expect a certain amount of freedom, after all decent people go to these places to enjoy themselves, to get away from the endless monotony of day to day life. In this particular case i am referring to Glade Festival but this could apply to any number of similar events.

What i find hard to understand is the logic that security at this festival need to be as bad as they are. Upon arriving at the site we were engulfed by a gang acting like hustlers clearly intent on trying to see what they could confiscate. The fact that we ended up haggling over how much of our beer they were going to take only made the whole situation even worse. I use the word "gang" here intentionally because thats exactly how they behaved, not like the reasonable responsible agents of the law they are surely meant to be.

So what kind of logic goes into this decision? I know its not the organisers idea to employ these wannabe thugs, they know as well as we do that the best people for the job are the sort of people that attend these events. Clearly some sort of authority has decided that tougher security is required. I just cannot understand how anyone smart enough to be in a position of authority could really think that security like that should placed in such a role.

Worse still, though was the sheer number of security guards wandering around the place Saturday night, no doubt looking to see what else they could confiscate and how much force they could use in the process. All those hi-vis jackets (once a classic piece of raving attire) create a real feeling of tension and paranoia at the event.

Well, clearly at festies, clubs, free-parties etc there is a lot of activities that are (unfairly and wrongly) illegal. I'm not going to get into a discussion about the law here. But the powers at be make a lot of money out of taxes and licenses through these events, even (albiet indirectly) through free-parties, so they are in no great hurry to stop them happening. But by treating us this way, the message is clear:

WHAT WE ARE DOING IS ILLEGAL AND WRONG!!!!

These thugs are employed for one real purpose, to try and spoil our weekends. They are there to remind us that the system is more powerful than us, that we must ultimately conform and that the few pleasures we allow ourselves to indulge in should be avoided in order to fit in with society and the system.

Every time a free-party gets shut down, every time another noise restriction gets put in place, every time another mind-enhancing substance gets criminalized, we are reminded that we are the outcasts, the outlaws. Freedom only really exists for those that do not want us to be free.

However, we can still challenge the system, many of us do every day in our own little way. Morality is the only law that really matters in this world and i know myself and many people like me are on the right side of it.

Internet Privacy... Or Lack Of

Funny, just as i was feeling like i wanted to talk about this subject i couldn't help but notice MySpace's disclaimer here:

Warning - Please be aware that MySpace is accessed by thousands of users every day; since you do not know every user on the MySpace site, excercise caution when posting personally identifiable information.

In light of recent events this warning could not be more important. I'm talking about the recent court ruling in favour of the TV corporation Viacom having access to all of YouTube's information regarding what EVERY user has viewed, and their IP addresses.

So basically if you have used YouTube to watch an illegally uploaded recording of a TV show or movie then they will know about it. Whether you will be prosecuted is highly unlikely (unless you were the one who uploaded it in the first place), but you may well find yourself, or your computer at least, on some sort of database of unlawful viewers.

The reality, as far as i can see, is that in this one case alone we dont have any real worry about anything on an individual level. What is of serious concern is the blatant abuse of our rights that is the result of this ruling. This is surely the first stage in what could well become a Big Brother situation whereby we have no privacy online. If our every virtual movement is logged and can be seen by anyone with the appropriate power (governments, corporations etc) then can we ever be truly free online?

I dread to think how many different databases have my details, think about forums, shops, mailing lists, even MySpace itself. So many organisations know my name, address, date of birth, answers to secret questions etc. The whole world potentially can find out my opinions on stuff just by reading these blogs or other forum posts. I've always been careful not to incriminate myself because every word i type into these sites could well form a permanent record of my life.

There are a lot of people oblivious to this though, social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook are used as a means for people to record their life for anyone to see. We are told that we should be careful, after all there are all manner of undesirables online that prey on potential victims through sites like this. What we are not told is that these undesirables could very well include governments and corporations.

If this latest ruling is anything to go by, we could find that in the future our privacy online will become practically non-existent.

On a similar note there are more and more people being prosecuted or at the very least receiving warnings for filesharing. Without wanting to get into a discussion about the morality of filesharing, again i can only see that there is a point when the privacy of the individual becomes compromised, and for many it already has.

So what can we do? I'm sure, if there isn't already, there will be a number of online petitions against this ruling however "signing" one of these is just another case of putting yourself on a database. Lets not forget how anti-terrorism laws are being created all the time solely to deny the people the right to protest. By no means am i suggesting we should passively sit here in silence, i would encourage anyone who has a view on this subject to make it known. If there are petitions, make sure you know fully what you are signing.

Search Google for more information, after all this stems from a lawsuit AGAINST Google. Most importantly think before you type, especially on here and Facebook. There are a lot of good, honest people whose lives are not entirely legit, there are a great number of laws that are unfair and do not serve the public. The internet is built upon free speech, by no means should we let this ruling become a form of censorship, but we do need to be smart. Big business has become threatened by the shift in balance the internet has given the people. Money is all-powerful, but the world is changing, the music and film industries are changing. The outcome of these changes is, as yet, unknown but the corporations won't go down without a fight.

Maybe i have just incriminated myself with this blog, but i refuse to sit here in silence, i can however choose which words i use.