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.

Virtual Reality - Pt 1: The Digital Age

It seems that our lives are becoming increasingly more virtual. Not in the all-encompassing way of films like The Matrix or Lawnmower Man (although its no great stretch of the imagination to envisage a world like that in the future), rather a virtual reality that we have a detachment from that keeps us in the real world. Digital technology has replaced the need for physical items in many aspects of our lives, most prominently entertainment. For many of us our computer has become central, integral even, to our daily business. As consumers, many of our favourite "possessions" exist on our hard drives, likewise a great proportion of our social lives are spent online.

If we look at music, the days of having physical collections of CDs or records taking pride of place in their rack, shelf or strewn about the place possibly not in their correct sleeves are gone, instead replaced by some sort of organised system found in the My Documents folder on your computer. The only physical space required for an extensive music collection is the hard drive itself, which we measure in terms of Gigabytes rather than metres (or feet). The way we acquire music has changed similarly, virtual stores like iTunes or Beatport have replace the traditional record shop providing convenience (instant downloads, pick the tunes you want, no disappointment of finding out the record you want is out of stock) at the cost of the record shop experience (the excitement of looking through the artwork on the way home, the personal touch of talking to the staff and receiving recommendations).

For movie lovers, downloading the latest Hollywood titles, and watching them on your PC connected to a TV or decent monitor, is often better than renting movies from the likes of Blockbuster or LoveFilm, only to find that when its finally in stock the disc is scratched and ends up skipping at the best bit. Again, the convenience of instant downloads comes at the cost of the personal touch of dealing with the film-lovers working at your local rental store. Although the sheer size of movie downloads can also take the "instant" out of the download process.

Keeping up to date with the latest news is even easier now with the multitude of websites that provide breaking stories almost immediately. The need to sit down and flick through pages of crap and adverts in newspapers that tell you what happened yesterday is effectively gone.

MySpace, Facebook, YouTube and the millions of forums and other social websites provide ways of communicating with each other that were practically impossible only a few years ago. We can talk with people all over the world at any time with costs and timezones practically irrelevant.

These are just a few examples of the sort of virtual reality that exists in our lives. Of course, we still exist in physical reality, we still need physical goods, we all need to eat, we all need a roof over our head, our computers, TVs and stereos need manufacturing and the electricity required to power them has to come from somewhere. Watching a film at home is not as good as going to the cinema, listening to music at home is a completely different experience to going to a concert or club event, reading a newspaper on the train to work is often more practical and convenient than surfing the net on a laptop. And of course, social networking sites are no substitute for real socialising and spending time in the company of your friends and loved ones.

Not everyone in the world has access to the technology that we do, while the internet is not exclusively for the rich, it is nevertheless a luxury only available to those who can afford it. For much of the world, this kind of virtual reality is the stuff of fantasy.

The subject of piracy is the root of many debates, with a great deal of differing opinions. The virtual world, not being bound by scarcity in the same way that physical items are, leads many to change the way in which they value the virtual items they "own" (in many cases we own nothing now, instead we merely purchase a license to use). In the virtual world money is not necessary, or at least not in the way it is now. Infact it is only the needs of the physical world that require any sort of financial costs to be applied to digital products. While virtual money exists, and has the same value as its paper companion, the vast amount of legitimate free music, information and software shows that the monetary system as we know it is rapidly becoming outdated.

These last points i will expand on and investigate further in my next post. For now though, i think we can see that while our relationship with the virtual world is more detached than that of the "virtual reality" concept, it is certainly true that the need for physical items has largely been removed in many aspects of our lives, instead replaced by a digital universe (webiverse even) through which we can not only satisfy many of our needs but also achieve so much more than we ever could in the real world alone.

Snow!

Well, apparently Britain descended into chaos yesterday, brought about by that great influence on us that is the weather. Or so the BBC would have us believe (here is one of many stories from their website).

I don't want to sound like i am downplaying this, but when serious weather hits us like this there is nothing we can do but accept it, Britain is perfectly well equipped to deal with rain, we get enough of it, but snow, forget it. In fact it seems that the real problem here is not the weather itself but the fact that people couldn't get to work, and i suspect for many they chose not to go to work instead enjoying the only thing that makes cold winters worth enduring.

The BBC repeatedly asked the question "could anything have been done?", while showing footage of some Londoner complaining that the roads weren't gritted and likening the situation to being in a third world country (about 30 seconds in to this video). With much public transport unable to operate, the only way for anyone to get to their oh-so-important jobs was to drive themselves through hazardous conditions. No wonder then that there was a large number of road accidents and injuries.

The way i see it, much of this chaos could have been avoided if everyone just took the day off. All the workers for big corporations who actually contribute very little to society should not put their lives and the lives of others at risk just so they go into the office and attend their apparently important business.

Ok, i'm not saying everyone should stay at home, doctors and medical professionals are needed more than ever in cases like this, similarly people still need to eat. But in times like this, people need to shift their priorities and think about each other, think about their community, their friends and family. Apparently the snow cost our economy £1.2 billion. I don't know how they work this out but in the current economic climate thats not the worst day we've had.

I'm not claiming to be an expert on the things that the BBC addressed, i have a very basic understanding of economics at best. I just can't help thinking that if our priorities changed a little, yesterday could be seen as an exceptional day with exceptional weather, rather than some sort of small scale natural disaster as it seemed to have been reported. Life goes on, tomorrow the snow will be gone and everything will return to normal, yesterday could have been fun for everyone. I think the kids had the right idea.

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.

Genres And Categories

Whenever i talk about my music, i'm forever being asked to define it in some sort of narrow bracket. I guess everyone likes to categorize things, especially where music is concerned.

In my case though i generally think its not that easy, i'm sure it has something to do with my own perception of my music and the fact that i genuinely don't want to fit into any category but i really dont think that my music fits into one. Sure, i can call it Electronica, aside from being a slightly pretentious sounding American term it probably fits my style better than anything else through simply being vague. Breakbeat is another label that kinda fits my stuff but in many ways this kinda implies that its like all the other Breakbeat/Nu Skool Breakz stuff that forms a well-defined genre in itself these days. For my third category here on MySpace i have struggled to choose between Industrial, IDM and Experimental yet none of these fit perfectly as i think they all suggest different things (and for some reason MySpace wont let me change it anyway). Other sites i have found ask for just one or two genres, which makes it even more difficult for me.

Of course i understand why these labels have to be here, it makes it a lot easier to find something if you narrow your search down to criteria such as genre, the internet is a very big place. But in day to day life it kind of annoys me the way i have to try to explain my sound instead of being able to say something simple like "i make dubstep". No disrespect to those that make music to fit one genre, but that idea just bores me now.

This whole thing with genres and categories happens everywhere in life. Kids express their "individuality" by dressing the same as their peers and idols then call themselves Emos or Chavs or whatever they wanna be known as. TV, film and literature again have categories, yet its the films or books that aren't so easy to define which (in my opinion at least) stand out from all the generic crap. Not to forget all the other categories people are (usually) born into like class, race, religion etc.

It seems that no matter how different or individual people like to perceive themselves as being, we all have a tendency to want to belong, to want some sort of order in our lives. Liking one particular genre of music over another helps us to create an identity for ourselves, its gives us a common interest with other people of similar tastes, it helps us decide the sort of clubs we want to go to or the forums we visit online, it helps us to predict whether we like an artist based on whether they make music that fits a genre we like. The problem is that it creates a sort of exclusion for anything else that doesnt fit. And that makes it harder to break away ourselves so we end up sticking to one thing.

The conclusion i've come to in myself is to be more open-minded in my tastes and to be less restricted in the music i make. I know i'm not alone in thinking like this, there are many others like me, its just there really isn't a simple label for people like us.

The Quest For Perfection

What is perfect? Is it something that can be easily defined? A series of checkboxes that once ticked will attain the ideal status of perfection.

Nobody's life is entirely perfect, it could be that someone is stuck in a dead-end job struggling to pay bills, perhaps they are alone and unhappy, or their health is far from ideal, or they simply just don't like the way they look (and while we are at it, lets not forget the billions of people in this world that live and suffer in poverty). There are so many ideas of perfection that persist in our society, all of which exclude the vast majority, and when combined exclude everyone.

In some respects, the pursuit of perfection can be a good thing. Like an artist spending his or her life trying to create that masterpiece, or the idealist dedicating his or her life to achieving a world of equality. But at what price does perfection come?

Pedigree dog breeders spend much of their lives trying to breed the perfect dog, according to a set of rules that define perfection explicitly. Whether it be the practically non-existent nose of a pug, the stumpy little legs of a dachshund or the frankly offensively named furnishings (loose wrinkly skin) of a bassett hound or many other similar breeds. In their quest for the perfect dog, breeders have brought about all sorts of health issues for these animals, unsurprisingly including breathing problems and mobility problems alongside hundreds of other common canine ailments. Yet, in the world of dog shows perfection is defined purely cosmetically, the way the animal looks when compared against this ideal is the only significant factor, whether that be to the detriment of its health or not. It is a sad fact that many perfectly healthy dogs are put to sleep (killed!!) simply because they do not look "right".

The idea of perfection as a rulebook prevails in many other places. The perfect pop song will feature a verse-chorus-verse structure, a common predictable chord progression and lyrics about joy and love. The perfect movie will have action, special effects, a love interest and an able-bodied good looking male hero. While these perfect songs and films will often be successful and top charts most would agree that they are, ultimately, shallow and forgettable. While the true classics are those that dare to be different.

This brings us back to our own perceptions of ourselves and our world. While we continue to judge each other and ourselves in relation to that which we believe to be perfect we can never be completely satisfied. Instead we should marvel at the wealth of diversity that exists in the world around us, we should see that it is these imperfections that ultimately make us who we are and we should learn to redifine what it is that we consider to be perfect.

There is nothing wrong with wanting to improve, but we need to understand the true costs. We need to realise that true happiness does not come from changing ourselves to fit with some mythical construct of perfection, but instead from changing the way we perceive ourselves and each other. There is no such thing as "perfect", none of us will ever be "perfect". We can only be the best that we can be. Surely thats good enough.

Which truth to believe? Some thoughts on conspiracies

I dont wish to get into all the conspiracy theories here, that is a matter of debate in itself and, unfortunately, to many people the apparent absurdity of certain aspects of some theories can devalue the fundamental point about not believing everything we are told to believe. For the record there are a number of good videos on youtube or similar sites providing compelling evidence that the "government" has lied to us about a great number of things in order to slowly create an orwellian dystopian state. I personally dont believe everything i see, and am fully aware of the power of misinformation in EVERY aspect of the media, but it certainly is worth researching this subject, with a film called Zeitgeist - The Movie being an essential introduction to Conspiracies and some of the many lies perpetrated throughout history and even to this day.

The question still exists, is there really any truth in these theories?

Well, anybody who believes everything they are told in the media is obviously a fool, tabloid newspapers clearly have an agenda and motivation to lie/distort the truth. Surely this is common knowledge. But theres a difference between sensationalist headlines designed to sell papers and increase profits, and the sort of lies the governments are alleged to have spun for years/decades/centuries.

Is it really plausible that 9/11 was orchestrated by some highly influential families pulling the strings behind the US government? Surely the fact that an idiot like George W is "in charge" is suspect enough. Those attacks were clearly a good motivation for war and the gradual removal of a great number of our civil liberties. Inside job or not, 9/11 has been used to the governments advantage ever since. In the last decade we have been fed anti-Islamic propaganda on many levels while lately the public opinion of China's communist state has become a popular subject in the media, reminding us how lucky we are to have our own (ever-dwindling) freedoms. Is the timing of the olympics really a coincidence?

Religion, of course, is a major part of all good conspiracy theories, and for good reason. Alongside money (the other great evil of the world) religion is historically the most powerful tool ever conceived for controlling the masses. Religion has encouraged both love and hatred equally, forgiveness and intolerance are both huge factors in all the worlds great monotheistic religions. The contradictions are obvious. All based around the fundamental questions of what happens to us after we die and why we are even here in the first place. God's name is used to justify so many human actions both good and bad, which coupled with his alleged ultimate power over us for eternity means that for a significant proportion of the worlds population, the fear of disagreeing with God's word is so great that the only conceivable option is to comply. The fact that religion is "inherited" and thrust upon the impressionable minds of children makes the brainwashing even easier.

Regardless of whether there is any real truth in spiritualty of any sort, anyone with half a brain should be able to see the dangers of organised religion.

So do the government/illuminati/bankers really benefit from creating these lies and controlling us in this way? Well if they are lying, it seems to be working, the rich and powerful get richer and more powerful while the majority of us remain poor and apathetic. The mainstream media continue to shape our opinions of the world and the conspiracies remain underground and, suspiciously, censored or deleted where possible.

Somewhere between the extremes the real truth exists, it is only through an awareness of all the different viewpoints that we can begin to see it and make our own decisions and, if the time comes, we can be prepared for the worse.

Say what you like, like what you say!

Nobody can truthfully say they have lived a life without regrets, but as mature adults we can accept responsibility for our actions and learn from our mistakes. In the real world memories fade and life goes on but online we leave behind a (near) permanent record of our every virtual movement. We post our thoughts and feelings on blogs, forums, chatrooms etc and communicate in ways that we never could in the real world, confident in the anonymity of a non-face-to-face medium.

And then sometimes, we look back at what we said and wish we hadn't, perhaps we have dropped our reserve and said something that could compromise our carefully constructed image or maybe we have let rip about something we feel strongly about but normally bite our lips rather than risk offending people. Who hasn't woken up hungover and thought "did i really do that?"

But, when it comes to talking about the things that matter to you there should be no regrets, if you have strong opinions on certain subjects it is only right to express those opinions regardless of whether everyone agrees with them. It is through challenging the ideas and norms that circulate within our society that our culture and collective knowledge evolves.

Take my own opinions on religion for example, should anybody really be offended by anything i post when the underlying message is that of tolerance and respect? Yet, all over the internet we find (religious and non-religious) examples of bigotry, hatred and ignorance. Surely no-one can truly take offense to me. So i will continue to post my thoughts on the things that matter to me, and if that means i lose a few potential fans, well i guess they don't understand my music fully anyway.

I encourage everyone to take pride in themselves and what they have to say. If your opinions matter to you then they will surely matter to the people that know you, perhaps you could be the one to spark the next big debate. Perhaps your (real or virtual) voice will help to sow the seeds of change. Its all too easy to be apathetic and quietly accept things, but in this era of the www its really not hard to speak up and be heard.

The internet provides us with the closest thing to free speech that exists in this world, unfortunately that freedom means not everyone will like everything that gets said but we have to accept that and exercise our freedom to challenge that which is wrong. Then, maybe, we can move toward a better world.

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.

Shitty Internet Explorer

So, i've bin somewhat neglecting my myspace for a while now. Probably got something to do with the time i had the misfortune to be using internet explorer for some web boredom. what the fuck is wrong with my page on it? All the colours are the wrong way round, black n white negatives and shit!!!! The transparency is all wrong too.

Internet explorer is shit! I dont wanna get all techy geeky about this but its true, the fact that the vast majority of people suffer this browser on a day to day basis is a real shame. I dare say that a number of people are unaware of the alternatives (i wont bother mentioning Safari beyond this point cos Macs are a completely different subject that i may well complain about another day).

At the risk of sounding like i'm after some kind of sponsorship deal i have to emphasise how great a program firefox is. Fully customaizable, and 10 times more secure. But thats enough blatant plugging.

I cant help but feel the problem is to do with the shitty commercial capitalist nature of society. By some degree of laziness and ignorance the really good quality programs get ignored in favour of the "industry standard" corporate crap fed to us by the likes of Microsoft and a load of equally bad companies. Firefox is a perfect example of a FREE program that is ignored by the masses happy to have there day-to-day choices decided for them by the establishment. How many of you lot have got Norton on your PC? Another piece of shit commercial application, that not only drains a big chunk of your CPU but can replaced by better quality FREE alternatives.

Theres another attitude that exists aswell, if its free it must be crap! Like the quality of something directly relates to its price. Or worse still, if you aint heard of it it must be crap, like the advertisers never lie!! Lurking behind all the corporate bullshit that dominates the www, there is a massive community of people that make programs and share programs freely, simply because they want to. I'm not talking about cracked copies of overpriced software on piratebay. Im talking about genuine free stuff, made by people who do it for the love. Heres another good site for free bits of techiness: snapfiles

Enough of this advertising on my part, not that i get anything out of this except the pleasure of possibly making someones internet experience better. My point being that we shouldnt just settle for the crap thats fed to us by the corporate industry, the internet offers a place for everyone to be free of that shit, and its not hard to find. Free software is only a small part of this, look at all the good music people are sharing happily online without the all the bullshit of the music biz.

This aint a "Fuck the Establishment" rant, just a little encouragement for people to delve a little deeper online and see whats going on behind the scenes, cos thats where the best stuff is.