Alan Lodge's Blog

Mac, camera, action!

Following the lead of one of Hollywood’s biggest names, Ben Hammersley produces his debut film – on a laptop

Thursday September 5, 2002

The Guardian

It’s hard to resist the temptation to go old-school with the new toys. Steven Soderbergh certainly can’t. The award-winning film director habitually makes small art-house films between his big studio blockbusters. It’s a form of relaxation for the man whose last few – Traffic, Ocean’s Eleven and Erin Brockovich – have had the large casts, complex crews and expensive equipment expected from a Hollywood blockbuster. For his latest film, however, Soderbergh decided to try something different: shooting the whole thing on equipment you can buy in the high street.

The film, Full Frontal, now on release in the US, was shot on consumer-range MiniDV cameras, and edited with off-the-shelf editing software on a standard Apple Mac. It took only a few weeks, cost relatively little and, in the words of the producer, Scott Kramer, “was an opportunity to get back to the roots of why we all (cast and crew) became involved with movies”. Which is all very well, but surely raises an awkward question. If some fancy Hollywood director with years of experience and a cupboard full of awards can do it, can we? So, in the best Online tradition, we set out to do it.

First up: the gear. MiniDV cameras have been around for years. Most commercial camcorders use the format, recording the video digitally on to tapes a little smaller and fatter than an audio cassette. The cameras range in price, depending on the quality of the lenses, and the number of CCDs. CCDs, or charge-coupled devices, are the light sensors that actually take the pictures.

The more you have, the better the picture quality: cheaper cameras have one CCD, while the more professional use three. Canon lent us a three-CCD XL-1S, the same camera Soderbergh himself used in Full Frontal.

For our second camera, we used my three- year-old, now out-of production Panasonic camcorder. Even its single CCD, however, the picture quality is very good. With three, and good lighting, it’s better than celluloid. When Soderbergh came to transfer everything to film, he added artificial grain to give a less perfect look.

We were just glad ours was in focus. What these two cameras have in common, and the thing that makes digital film making all the easier, is the IEEE 1394 plug, which is the official standard name for a data-transfer technology created by Apple known more commonly as FireWire.

It allows data to be transferred to and from cameras at speeds of up to 400Mbps – fast enough to allow digital video to be played to, and recorded on, a modern computer. FireWire is an Apple trademark. Other manufacturers make compatible equipment, but often call it something else. IEEE 1394 is a bit of a mouthful, so look for such names as “iLink”, or “DV in”.

FireWire is not just for video cameras, either. Many portable hard drives use FireWire, as well as MP3 players, such as Apple’s iPod. Once you have your film on tape you can use the FireWire link to capture it. Depending on your machine, this is either very simple or quite tricky.

Soderbergh used an Apple G4 PowerMac, and we used my Apple PowerBook laptop. You are not restricted to Apple products, as many Windows machines – some from Sony, for example – come with FireWire, too. You can buy FireWire-compatible PCI cards to install in your machine if it does not have one already. But with Windows, you will need to install the correct drivers. Your editing package will most likely have capture software built in.

So, cameras in hand, and laptop gently warming in the study, we went out to make some art. This is not the forum for a breakdown of our filming expertise, and suffice to say that if you were in Kensington Gardens one sunny Saturday afternoon a couple of weeks ago, and three dodgy-looking blokes came up to you with a camera, asking you to talk about

“Shirts and their place in modern society”, we are truly sorry, but your contribution to the genesis of Shirts! The Movie cannot be underestimated. With just 20 minutes of footage, we were already tired, my crew was grumpy and we decided to go and watch the cricket instead. Soderbergh, however, didn’t tire so easily. During the three weeks of production of Full Frontal, he shot more than 50 hours of footage.

This is another of the advantages of making a film in this way. Digital video is not only cheap to use, process, store and edit, but the cameras can roll for far longer than your average celluloid setup. For both the Hollywood master and the west London apprentice, this means a far higher chance of getting something worth watching. Which is what we did next. Getting the pictures from a camera on to a computer is called capturing, and used to be an arcane art, especially with analogue cameras and older, slower, hard drives.

Data from the camera would be coming at such a speed that the slow computer could not keep up, especially if it had to do the tricky analogue-digital conversion. Nowadays, the speed of the average hard drive, and working with digital info at source means the problems of dropped frames and dodgy sound are long-gone. Nevertheless, digital video takes up a great deal of space.

We got around this by using an Iomega portable hard drive to give additional storage.

There are many on the market, using either USB or FireWire as their connection. FireWire drives are very popular in the professional film-editing world, as they can send and receive data much faster than the USB 1.0 versions, which, when dealing with video, is all important.

With a FireWire setup, capturing the film is simple: you plug the camera in, and the computer takes control of it. You fast forward to the start of the section you require, and call that the “in-point”, and then spin on to the end of the section, and call it an “out-point”.

Hitting the magic button rewinds the tape and plays it, saving the section you have marked out as a file on your drive. Do this for every scene and you have a big directory of movie files to play with. Editing is a similar process, and works in basically the same way as all film-editing software.

We, in common with Soderbergh, used Final Cut Pro, Apple’s professional-grade editing package, which recently won an Emmy award for its services to the film industry, but Macs come with the simpler iMovie built in free. Windows machines have their own range, too, with Adobe Premiere being one of the more powerful.

Windows XP also comes with a free low-end editing package. Editing a film is basically a job of shuffling the scenes around, and digitally trimming bits out of them. Of course, within that phrase, I’ve just belittled years of film-making experience of a professional Final Cut Pro operator, or exaggerated the easy-as-pie home movie-making of iMovie, but you get the idea. A bit of experimentation, and you have a finished film.

We burnt ours on to a CD-RW, to watch as a VCD, and will be putting it on the web. Soderbergh transferred his film on to celluloid, and it will be opening in the UK later in the year. We won’t be making any money from Shirts! and, factoring in the beer I had to buy the crew, I actually made a loss.

Full Frontal, on the other hand, is already turning a profit. With the additional marketing and printing costs, Miramax, which distributes the film, needed to make $3m to break even.

Foreign rights sales doubled this immediately. It is perhaps this aspect that most pleases the movie studios. This brand of low- cost, high-art film-making now allows professionals and amateurs alike to make movies they could never have afforded, with a picture quality and ease-of-working never before available, and allows them to be profitable.

There’s a lot of talk about how new technology democratises everything, allowing ordinary people the tools to compete with the best, and this is no exception. This stuff allows for experimentation, and the breaking of new talent. Aspiring film-makers need only spend a few thousand pounds to have the gear necessary to compete for little risk. Despite the difficult subject and tricky script, we were never going to lose our shirts making Shirts!, and, because of that, we’re off to make another. Look out London: it’s time for Shirts! II.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/online/story/0,3605,785874,00.html

Friends, Families and Travellers

Friends, Families and Travellers (FFT) is a national voluntary organization which serves the whole spectrum of the Traveller community – both traditional and new, settled or on the road. They have been around a little while now, but have only just begun a re-vamp of the services offered to this community. This includes an update of their website recently. http://www.f-f-t.demon.co.uk/

Contact:

Community Base, 113 Queens Road, Brighton, E. Sussex BN1 3XG

Tel: 01273 234 777 fft@gypsy-traveller.org

also

Young Gypsy-Traveller website, currently in its first test phase. Together with the work of the Travellers’ School Charity [Skool Bus] http://www.travellers-school.org.uk/. The uses of the internet, for such a dispersed and unsettled community are obvious. Check out some of their work at: http://www.crystalis.net/young/index.htm

Guardian Unlimited: Best British Blog Competition

This is the first competition to find the best British weblog. The winner will receive a cash prize of £1,000 and five runners-up will receive £100 each.

Details at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/weblog/bestbritishblog/

Have just entered. Deadline for entry is shortly on friday 6th Sept.

Send you application to weblog@guardianunlimited.co.uk

Welcome to Guardian Unlimited’s competition to find the very best British blog.

Britain’s bloggers are invited to send in both serious and frivolous blogs, covering any subject from news and politics to the author’s life. Our panel of judges will assess each blog in terms of design, the quality and personality of the writing, and the originality of the links.

To enter, download this entry form, fill it in and email it back to us at weblog@guardianunlimited.co.uk, with Best British Blog Competition in the subject line, before the deadline of Friday 6 September. The winner will be announced in September.

**************

ENTRY FORM (please fill in ALL fields)

Your name: ALAN LODGE

Your postcode: NG3 4JT

Your postal address: Woodborough Road, Nottingham. NG3 4JT

Your email address: tash@gn.apc.org

Your contact phone number: 0115 911 3804

The URL of your blog: http://tash_lodge.blogspot.com/

The title of your blog: ONE EYE ON THE ROAD – Tash’s Blog!

When you launched the blog: 2nd July 2002

Anything else you’d like to tell us:

I am a photographer with a special interest to document the lives of travelling people and those attending Festivals, Stonehenge etc, what the press often describe as ‘New Age Travellers’.

With my photography, I have tried to say something of the wide variety of people engaged in ‘Alternatives’, and youths’ many sub-cultures and to present a more positive view.

I have photographed many free and commercial events and have, in recent years, extended my work to include dance parties (‘rave culture’), gay-rights events, environmental direct actions, and protest against the Criminal Justice Act and more recently, issues surrounding the Global Capitalism.

Further, police surveillance has recently become a very important subject for me!

In recognition of this work, received a ‘Winston’ from Privacy International, at the 1998 ‘Big Brother’ Awards. The citation reads: “Alan Lodge is a photographer who has spent more than a decade raising awareness of front-line police surveillance activities, particularly the endemic practice of photographing demonstrators and activists”.

I have been maintaining a blog, covering many of these subject, integrated within my main website. Seems to me to be a convenient way of working.

**************

Terms and conditions

1. This promotion is open to residents of the UK only. Under 16s should obtain permission of a parent or guardian to enter.

2. Only one entry per person will be accepted.

3. The competition will close on Friday September 6, 2002.

4. Winners will be announced on or after Thursday September 19, 2002 and contacted by email.

5. A first prize of £1000 will be awarded to the winning entry.

Five runners-up prizes of £100 will also be awarded. Winners should allow 28 days for receipt of prizes.

6. The decision of the judges is final

7. Not open to employees and families of Guardian Newspapers Limited or anyone else connected

with the creation or administration of the competition.

8. There is no responsibility taken for entries lost, delayed or incomplete.

9. Guardian Newspapers Ltd. is not responsible for incorrect e-mail or postal addresses.

10.The names of winners will be posted online at Guardian Unlimited and published in the Guardian newspaper.

11.A full list of winners will be available by writing to “Best British Blog’, Guardian Unlimited, 3-7 Ray St,

London EC1R 3DR

12. Promoter: Guardian Unlimited, 3-7 Ray Street, London EC1R 3DR

Ecstasy Experiences Questionnaire

Dr Harry Sumnall Post-doctoral researcher, Department of Psychology, University of Liverpool (UK)

http://www.liv.ac.uk/Psychology/Participation/Ecstasy/Ecstasy-Experiences.htm

This is a copy of the research questionaire .pdf http://www.liv.ac.uk/Psychology/Participation/Ecstasy/E-EXPpap.pdf

Ecstasy Testing Kit Questionnaire

http://www.liv.ac.uk/Psychology/Participation/Ecstasy/testing.htm

Dr Jon Cole

Department of Psychology

Eleanor Rathbone Building,

Bedford Street South,

Liverpool,

L69 7ZA

Telephone: +44 (0) 151 794 2175

Fax: +44 (0) 151 794 2945

Email:j.c.cole@liverpool.ac.uk

http://www.liv.ac.uk/Psychology/DeptInfo/StaffProfile/JCole.html

I found a discussion of all this, in article in the Daily Mirror.!!! Quite suprising really.

Ecstasy is not dangerous!!! From the Daily Mirror

IT is a little white pill which causes brain damage, an early onset of Alzheimer’s Disease and, occasionally, a toxic reaction leading to a slow and agonising death.

At least that is the accepted view of ecstasy in the UK. But the reality is proving to be different, with people statistically more likely to die taking paracetamol, or eating a peanut.

Three leading psychologists provoked outrage by claiming ecstasy may not be dangerous and many of its dangers are imagined.

Dr Harry Sumnall, of the University of Liverpool, said previous research was flawed. He said: “The current methods do not let us make cast-iron statements about whether it is dangerous or not.”

The psychologists said studies of ecstasy users were riddled with errors and researchers guilty of bias – with some minimising the impact of data which suggested ecstasy had no long-term effects.

They said the supposed long-term effects may be iatrogenic, meaning symptoms could be put into the mind of the patient after suggestion by a doctor.

Around two million pills, costing as little as £1 each, are taken every weekend in Britain.

It is believed more than 90 per cent of clubbers regularly take the drug – even though last year there were reported to be 40 ecstasy-related deaths, ranging from allergic reaction to severe dehydration.

Leah Betts was one of 72 people who died between 1993 and 1997 after taking the drug.

During the same period, around 275,000 people died from smoking or alcohol-related illnesses.

Danny Kushlick, director of the drug charity Transform, said: “Yesterday’s report is a breath of fresh air in a policy area that is morally and politically muddied.

“What happened to Leah Betts was a tragedy but people are more likely to die from eating peanuts than ecstasy. If you see someone dying from an allergic reaction it is unbelievably awful, just as Leah’s death was.

“It leaves you with two choices – you either shock people into not taking it or you control it and make its use as safe as possible.

“The first option hasn’t worked because millions of people in Britain take it every weekend. The second idea is, I believe, the best.

“Make no mistake, I believe ecstasy can be dangerous but that is why it should be legalised.

“We need sensible debate. People aren’t dying necessarily because they take ecstasy, they’re dying because they are ignorant of its effects and the Government is hiding its head in the sand. Debate is stifled and it costs lives.”

In 1999, 26 people died after taking ecstasy, compared with 754 from heroin or morphine, 267 from paracetamol and 87 from cocaine.

Roger Howard, 40, chief executive of the charity DrugScope, agreed that the number of deaths could be reduced if ecstasy was decriminalised and controlled. He said: “This research underlines previous opinion that much of the evidence around ecstasy is not as reliable as it could be.

“It reinforces the need for the Home Secretary David Blunkett to refer the classification of ecstasy to the experts on the advisory council on the misuse of drugs.”

But campaigners have criticised the psychologists’ report.

Leah Betts’ father Paul said: “It has been proven beyond any shadow of a doubt that every single ecstasy tablet destroys parts of the brain.

“The main thing it destroys is serotonin and depression follows on from serotonin depletion. It has reached such epidemic proportions in America that they talk of Suicide Tuesday.

“That’s because people who have taken ecstasy at the weekend are feeling so suicidal by Tuesday that they kill themselves. If you study experiments around the world the evidence against ecstasy far outweighs anything else.”

And Dr Robert Lefever of the Promis Recovery Centre said: “People need to be aware that any mood-altering chemical has the potential to cause damage.”

By David Edwards Daily Mirror.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/allnews/page.cfm?objectid=12167396&method=full&siteid=50143

A few days ago, I meantioned the Cambridge University report, that pointed out that mice developed ‘problems’ and some died after being injected with speed, and forced to listen to dance music. Well, fancy that. More at: http://tash_lodge.blogspot.com/2002_08_25_tash_lodge_archive.html#80869872

CYBERBUSS

Cyberbuss will be making its 6th trip to Burning Man this year. It is well rested after a year off last year.

Cyberbuss / Burning Man Shockwave slide show: http://www.cyberbuss.com/cyberwestern/takeaction0.htm

Cyberbuss / Burning Man 2000 Shockwave slide show: http://www.cyberbuss.com/bman00/bman2000.htm

Cyberbuss Photographic Documentary: http://www.cyberbuss.com/bus.htm

There is nothing like being here inside the Blue Burning Ham (CYBERBUSS sister buss), 26 miles from the closest town out in the vast Black Rock Desert with steaming, hot, bubbling geysers just a four minute freezing cold walk away. These geysers blow continuos hot steady streams of steamy water into the cold dry air. The water trickles down natural steps into muddy pools. Day and night us fREaKy, muddy buss people tip toe across frosty rocks and plunge our naked bodies into hot mud baths surrounded by eternal fields of cow dung.

We take cover back in the buss where fantastic meals are cooked to perfection, we shuffle around one table where you can hear the constant clatter of plastic cooking gear and embarrassing old, hard-to-tell stories that stream from us like the hot steamy water spraying from the colorful geysers.

In this clean, simple, pure Nevada environment we live largely. All the luxuries in Reno could not surpass our bussy comforts. The fluid, jazzy sounds of Chet Baker, Stan Getz and anonymous Bossa Nova tapes fill the cozy air.

At night we are greeted by a low rising spooky moon and whimpering, whiny howls of a far off coyote pack. The stars stare down on us in a strong, bright fashion exempt from city haze. Yes its wonderful to be on the buss.

c y b e r sAM

Cyberbuss Desert Panorama :

After leaving San Francisco the Cyberbuss crew camped at a lake overnight before heading over to Burning Man. Here they are in the morning.

http://wrybread.com/gametone/burningman/2000/lake.shtml

On the Cyberbuss :

http://wrybread.com/gametone/burningman/2000/ondabuss.shtml

Global Film and Arts Project

I would like to invite you to participate in a Global Film and Arts Project :

One World One Minute http://www.OneWorldOneMinute.com

One World One Minute is a unique and ground breaking project aimed at creating a thought provoking feature length documentary for theatrical release and it

invites YOU to participate.

The concept of the project is a simple one, but offers huge scope for all concerned. We aim to have participants in EVERY country around the globe record, simultaneously, ONE MINUTE of their lives, one minute of our world.

The minute can be recorded in a wide range of forms, and on practically any medium, from stills photography to video, sound cassettes, written word or even drawings, any form at all. We then aim to compile this material into a feature length documentary which shall seek to capture that one minute of our existence.

The finished piece shall explore the rich diversity that is both humanity and our world, whilst allowing a voice to all people regardless of nationality, religion, race, political viewpoint, gender or age. The rich diversity that is Humanity shall be there for all to see and perhaps too, through all our differences, we shall also see that which is inherently human, that which is common to us all.

As for the timing of this event :

All recording take place at GMT 12:48 September 11th 2002. Yes, one year after the attacks on the twin towers. We feel that this project is an appropriate artistic response to both those events and their repercussions. However, this in no way means that all recordings directly address those events. To quote Marshall McLuhan.. “the medium IS the message”, and in our case, the very creation process itself is our message and surely there can be no more appropriate time for an international collaboration that is about communication, co-operation and sharing.

This is the concept behind One World One Minute . We hope that you will see both the potential and the worth in this project and choose to participate. This is an opportunity for people to share a moment of their life, their world, with others. An opportunity to both talk to and listen to the world, to join with others around the globe and create a truly unique record and experience.

Participants :

One World one Minute currently has over 700 participating contacts representing well over 1000 individuals who shall be actively recording for this project. Many of our participants come from the world of film making, media, art, N.G.O.’s and education.

Some (brief) examples of our participants include :

Malcolm Harper C.M.G. – UK Director of the United Nations Association, and UK representative for the World Federation of United Nations Associations

Mindshare Institute and Foundation (USA) – Creators of the World Anthem (featuring the Prague Symphony Orchestra).

Cecelia Betancourt (Switzerland) – artist who regularly exhibits internationally, with solo exhibitions ranging from Mexico to Paris.

Francesco Paladino (Italy) – Award winning film maker & artist behind titles such as “Il Mago dei Pioppini”, “Caro Nonno…”, and “The Village” amongst others.

Azerbaijan Volunteers Union – N.G.O. group providing volunteer aid in refugee camps.

KRITI (India) – international development group working out of Delhi.

ADORIJA (Latvia) – Film production company.

Malaria research Dept – L. Pasteur Institute, Paris.

Media Factory (Romania) – Film / TV production company.

New Zealand Board of Education – listed One World One Minute as a recommended learning resource for all NZ students.

The International Film & Broadcast Academy (Nigeria)

NET25 (Philippines) – satellite broadcaster specialising in news and culture.

Young Iranian Film Makers Association.

The above list is only the briefest of glimpses of our participants but we

hope it shows the breadth and scope of those involved in One World One Minute

Some of the regions currently contributing include :

Alaska, Albania, Algeria, Argentina, Australia, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Belgium, Brazil, Cameroon, Canada, Chile, China, Congo, Cuba, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Eritrea, Estonia, France, Fiji, Finland, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Hawaii, Holland, Honduras, Hong Kong, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Italy, Iran, Ireland, Israel, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Kashmir, Kenya, Korea- South, Latvia, Lebanon, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Malawi, Malta, Mexico, Moldavia, Morocco, Namibia, Netherlands, Norway, Nepal, New York City, New Zealand, Nigeria, Pakistan, Panama, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Singapore, Serbia, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Syria, Taiwan, Tanzania, Thailand, Togo, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States (many states), Uruguay, Zambia, Zimbabwe.

What shall the finished piece look like ?

Whilst a production such as this is very organic by nature, we do have a general template for the films overall structure :

Introduction –

A brief section featuring text explaining the background of the project played over satellite images of earth.

Context –

Here we set the scene. A journey around the world… from dawn in central America, through mid-day in Europe, afternoon in Africa and Eastern Europe through to evening in the Far East.

Diversity-

An exploration of the diversity of life. Throughout this section we shall seek to explore and celebrate diversity but also explore how it may lead to misunderstanding and resentment. Techniques used shall include various split screen formats to emphasise the simultaneous nature of the world, and colour

adjustment techniques to emphasise the contrasts in life. As we move through the section the tempo shall rise, the visual contrasts grow…

Outcome-

From the hectic pace of the final section of “diversity” we shall abruptly cut to Ground Zero and the one minutes silence. This shall be a challenging minute as we propose to offer the audience one minute of utter silence to accompany the images.

Common Humanity-

We shall now seek to explore that which is common to all humanity as well as challenge the audiences perceptions of people with extensive use of various compositing techniques. Here we shall explore our perceptions, challenging them and offering an insight into the thoughts and wishes from people around the world. Perhaps it is here that we shall find that which is common to us all, that which is innately human.

This is only a brief (or not so) outline of our production. If you believe that film does have a role in responding to events, does have a role in social and cultural issues, then we would hope that you choose to participate. After all… it only takes One Minute… less time than it took to read this no doubt.

If interested, further details can be found at http://www.OneWorldOneMinute.com

Yours..

Ian Thomas McLean

One World One Minute

2/1,

5 McIntyre Place,

Paisley,

Scotland, PA2 6EE

tel : +44 (0)141 889 2411

IanMcLean@oneworldoneminute.com

Pinhole Camera Project at Burning Man

Yet more photography of interest at this event …….

These folks at http://www.pinholecamp.org/ have produced some interesting work, that is deserving of a look. Check out their gallery at: http://www.pinholecamp.org/gallery.html where they display work form the 1999, 2000, 2001 &2002 events.

and, they have produced some plans of the device. Here is their constuction description in .pdf form at: http://www.pinholecamp.org/camera/camera.pdf

Here are a few more interesting Burning Man 2002 links

Burning Man Opera http://www.burningmanopera.org

Internet at Burning Man 2002 http://www.eugeneweb.com/~bm/ibm.html

The Civilized Explorer Burning Man 2002 Alerts http://www.cieux.com/bm/2002alerts.html

Playa Chicken http://www.playachicken.com/index.asp

RC at BurningMan 2002 http://www.netwiz.net/~ben/rc/bman/

Wizzard Burning Man 2002 Projects http://www.wizzard.com/bm2002/

Google Search: Burning Man 2002 http://www.google.com/search?q=Burning+Man+2002

So, if all goes to plan, we can watch the burn webcast at http://www.burningman.com/ tomorrow, Sunday. So far though, trying to find details and comms from all this, seem to be really hard. Well, bearing inmind were they are, and what they’re doing, not so supprising eh?

A past archive of previous Burning Man Events, can be seen at http://www.zpub.com/burn/

A Brief History of Burning Man: http://www.zpub.com/burn/bm-history.html

and for completeness, here is a link to stuff on events added earlier:

http://tash_lodge.blogspot.com/2002_08_25_tash_lodge_archive.html#80686796.

and the Cyberbuss contibution to all this at: http://tash_lodge.blogspot.com/2002_08_25_tash_lodge_archive.html#80686821

Burning Man 2002 – Webcast from Black Rock City

The Burning Man 2002 Webcast is (supposed to be) available at the following URL:

http://dogme.burningman.com/webcast/

‘Direct Link’ to stream, using QuickTime.

rtsp://steam.burningman.com/live.sdp

QuickTime Player is required. Have yet to have it connect (keep getting server not found errors or, the latest RealPlayer wants to try to play it.)

Spyware Trojan sends info back, on internet activity on a ‘target’

“eBlaster records their e-mails, chats, instant messages, Web sites visited and keystrokes typed — and then automatically sends this recorded information to your own e-mail address,”

Here’s a piece of software that will make any decent human being vomit. Proudly marketed by spyware outfit SpectorSoft, it’s a lowlife Trojan called eBlaster which you can e-mail to anyone in the world and log their keystrokes, and force their POP mail and Hotmail and Yahoo Web mail accounts to copy to you, everything going on at the target machine.

http://www.spectorsoft.com/products/eBlaster_Windows/

“eBlaster records their e-mails, chats, instant messages, Web sites visited and keystrokes typed — and then automatically sends this recorded information to your own e-mail address,” the company proudly states.

It’s marketed as a ‘tool’ for over-protective parents and savvy employers, but it’s basically a script-kiddie toy which can be delivered surreptitiously to a victim. The potential for abuse is extraordinary, but the company makes no mention of that. They merely warn that if you don’t own the computer you infect with their Trojan, you’re violating their terms. Surely that stern warning should discourage the malevolent well enough. [yea right].

It’s all part of a growing, set piece where the private communications of human beings is seen as ‘abuse’ on the job.

Wot Free Festivals? A further rant, from Tash

Personally, I come from a free festivals and travelling background. New Age Travellers etc. A number of sayings have helped guide my life over time. Like….

Bring what you expect to find?

If no you, who?

If not now, when?

If not here, where?

In sum, this means self-reliance. It means gigs are ALWAYS better, when people attending don’t just attend , but are a main part of the act. It is obvious to all those there, when this magic happens.

This is actually where I came in. 1972 Windsor, Stonehenge etc….. These were my motives then and remain so now.

Of course the authorities have difficulty with a system that means they are not in sole charge, hence all the law and violence since the Beanfield etc……

Over time, I have been involved I raising awareness about the law changes and their implications to us all.

· Public Order Act 1986

· Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994

· Noise Act

· Barry Legg MP: Places of Entertainments (Increased Penalty) Act

· Security Services Act

And now all the Acts that have been going through parliament – with the words:

“conduct by a large number of persons in pursuit of a common purpose” being a new definition of serious crime!!!

With the new definition of serious crime, that enable the use of some ‘heavier’ police departments to be applied against us. And will be the end of all the RTS and similar gigs.

Shame eh?

Now, in ‘rave mode’, I have spent time with the Velvet Revolution and All Systems gigs, I had written ‘Sound Advice’ and the ‘Right to Party’ – to try and raise these matters in peoples minds.

Well, we have lost each of the matters I’m on about here. Whoever you vote for, the government gets in!

What I am absolutely positive about though, is that people involved in the scene,

DID NOT DO ENOUGH ABOUT ANY OF IT AS IT HAPPENED AND NOW IS STILL GOING ON.

People have to realise that self-interest and their own immediate happiness ( hedonism?), is not enough to make a festival, party rave, traveller site, gathering.

Important, but not enough.

Some folks on reading this will have been too young, to have had any objection to these changes as they have happened over recent years. But many others of you will have been there, and should have been ‘able’.

The way parties are now organised, between those trying to conform with some pretty onerous conditions, (ie half to 2/3 of a ticket price to ‘self-police’ and pay for your own public order management and drug search.!) and those involved with the ‘free’ end of things but at continued ‘personal’ rather than ‘sheared’ risks.

This division is of course orchestrated by the other side.

This old hippy / raver? Is now of the opinion that folk have now got the party they deserve.

Discuss……..

‘BlogThis’ Right-click and IE6 browser

When i first set up blogger, was invited to enable ‘Right click – Blog This!

However, using Internet Explorer 6, have always found that the right-click version of BlogThis gives you a script error everywhere except at www.blogger.com. The un-Official Blogger FAQ has a fix. http://archives.blogspot.com/#7766906

More discussion at: http://www.diaries.com/digiboy/discuss/msgReader$15

This service is now updated, so, you don’t have to mess with the registry as this lot describes. Download the auto-fixes from here:

http://www.philringnalda.com/blogthis/

Have tried all this since, and it’s wonderful. Works for BlogQuote also.

:: SchNEWS :: Peat Alert Mass Trespass

This is all happening now ….!

Peat Alert are continuing to take action against the extraction of the world’s best existing carbon sinks – peat bogs. There will be a mass trespass of a peat moor near Doncaster on the 25th August, transport available. And another Peat Action Camp from 28 August – 1 September, with talks, actions and nails in the coffin of Scotts (the peat extracting company). For details tel: 0778 778 2259

Cambridge clubs mice

“Researchers” at Cambridge university play dance music to mice on speed. BBC News story Shock! Horror! Some of them died after getting down to some Prodigy.

They weren’t let into the little chill out rooms, and all the water taps in the toilets were hot. To set this all in perspective some other mice were forced to listen to Bach, on speed too. Well… they died too. Who knows what sort of music mice get into and what they would listen to by choice whilst doing class A’s.

The experiment in which mice were killed with loud dance music after being given amphetamines has been attacked by the Home Office.

Cambridge University scientists involved in the study have received an official reprimand, it was revealed on Monday.

However, anti-vivisection campaigners have described this as a "slap on the wrist", saying that the team should have been prosecuted for animal cruelty. The experiments, led by Dr Jenny Morton, involved 238 mice, some of whom were given the drugs and then exposed to music from the dance group The Prodigy at high volume. Seven died, and some others were left brain damaged. Some others who were exposed to the classical composer Bach instead also died.

Now really!! Where does this get us, in any further understanding ???

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for art reasons …… ……. …… !

While the Countryside March is in town on September 22nd ? new ‘Digger’ Events.

some discussion of ‘doing a digger’, while the countryside alliance are in town. Thought you might like to see, some of my work from the Digger anniversay bash at St Georges hill on Saturday the 3rd of April 1999, to commenerate Gerard Winnstanley and the 350th Anniversary of the Diggers (1st April 1649). http://tash.gn.apc.org/diggers_350.htm

Adding to discussion on the Yahoo ‘Counter-Culture’ Group.

http://uk.groups.yahoo.com/group/CountaCultureUK/message/206

You may be aware that the so-called ‘Countryside March’ is due to take place in London on September 22nd. I hear a group of folks are planning a response to this invasion of the land snatchers in the form of a piece of direct action aimed at one of the Countryside Alliance’s prime movers. It is intend to move onto his estate on the same day he and his toff chums are stomping through London. Once there, to establish an autonomous community in the spirit of Winstanley and the Diggers.

As well as providing the politically appropriate moment to make such a gesture, the occasion of the march gives us a unique window of opportunity; i.e., while the toffs and their army of vassals, gamekeepers and forelock-tuggers are away, we can play!

Had initially assumed that we were the only ones to have this brilliant idea. It now seems that we were somewhat misguided in this conceit. Without being specific, it has come to our notice that other activist groups have also decided to take advantage of the enemy’s absence by organising a number of independent actions aimed at reoccupying our stolen common treasury.

Anyway, all of this has got us thinking and here’s our latest brilliant idea: why not take the May-Day Monopoly concept and apply it to the entire country? Multiple independent actions carried out in a variety of locations across the country by unconnected affinity groups are likely to be easier and far more effective than they ever were within the heavily policed confines of London. The vast (and empty) acres of the countryside on Sept 22nd will provide a fertile environment for autonomous action.

So if you really want to stop the Alliance, don’t go to London to yah-boo them, they’ll be expecting that and they’ll have their police to protect them anyway; no, get out into the countryside and hit them where it really hurts -in their own back yard! If you’re not already involved in something, why not get together with your friends and form your own local action group? After all, you’re not likely to have to travel very far. A huge percentage of the UK is still ‘owned’ by these parasites, there’s bound to be some of them near you.

When planning your demo it is imperative that you avoid falling into the trap of making a generalised attack on the countryside and country folk. To do so would be to do the Alliance’s work for them. Their whole strategy is based on maximising the division between town and country and thus obscuring their real objectives (the maintenance of privilege and land enclosure) by mixing and confusing them with other issues over which many ordinary country dwellers feel real and justified anger. Rather, your action should be aimed at highlighting how the class interests of this minority are opposed to the rest of society. Regardless of whether you’re a farm labourer or an urban factory worker, you have nothing in common with someone who is a millionaire because his ancestors stole his wealth and position for him for him. Small farmers are struggling because of the monopolistic practices of supermarkets, the concentration of subsidies into large farms and the imposition of vile systems of animal husbandry that have led to the catastrophes we are all familiar with. Such people don’t have common interests with the toff who takes the rent. The breaking of this false alliance should be should be the main thrust of our action and should inform everything we do.

A Parrot in the Pepper Tree

Chris Stewart’s A Parrot in the Pepper Tree follows the lives of Chris, Ana and their daughter, Chloe, on their farm, as they get to grips with a misanthropic parrot who joins their home, Spainish school life, neighbours in love, journalists beating a path to their door…and the shock that their beloved valley might once more be under threat of being engulfed by a dam. It’s also looks back on Chris Stewart’s former life – the hard times shearing in midwinter Sweden (and driving across the frozen sea to reach island farms); his first taste of Spain, learning flamenco guitar as a 20-year old; and his illustrious music career, drumming for his school band Genesis (sacked at 17, he never quite became Phil Collins), and then for Sir Robert Fossett’s circus.

A Parrot in the Pepper Tree is the BBC Radio 4 ‘ Book of the Week ‘, this week.

Episodes 1 – 5 [ Real Player required ]

1 2 3 4 5

These links available for you to listen to whenever you like: the reading will be available here for seven days after broadcast.

Well, gosh, hello. It’s me, friendly Chris, the bloke who wrote that book about moving to Spain. It did so well, you know, that my publisher reckoned I should have another go.

So what can I tell you this time, then? Not so long ago I went up to do some sheep shearing in northern Sweden and my car broke down. I could have frozen to death, but luckily I didn’t as a mechanic was able to fix it.

Domingo, my neighbour in the valley, married a Swedish sculptress and he has turned out to be a pretty good artist himself. Not bad for a shepherd, eh?

It’s weird, you know, the more I get into this writing lark the less I feel like doing chores around the farm. I even paid Manolo to help out, and I felt terribly guilty when he’d been slaving for four hours and all I’d done was type a chapter heading.

A couple of years ago, we all got telephones in the valley for the first time, and it felt really strange to be able to talk to people back home without seeing them. The telephone also caused loads of hilarious misunderstandings at first.

“There’s a man calling,” shouted Ana, my wife. “Says his name is Leaf of the Male.” It turned out that it was actually William Leith, one of the Mail on Sunday’s top reporters, who wanted to interview me about my first book. What a hoot!

Leith turned up several hours late and drank all my beer, but he turned out to be a good bloke and asked some really searching questions. “What’s your name?” he slurred. “How many times have you been burgled here? And what’s all this about you playing for Genesis?”

Yes, it’s true. I was the original drummer for Peter Gabriel’s band at Charterhouse. I got kicked out before they became famous and Peter gave me £300 not to make a fuss. What a nice bloke. I later went on to play the drums for Bob Fossett’s circus.

How am I doing? Ah, you’re still awake, but don’t worry, not long to go now. I went to Spain to study flamenco when I was young and I’m still very keen on it.

One winter it rained a lot and we didn’t have much money but we were still very happy. By the way, we’ve got frogs in our swimming pool. Chris Stewart

Can buy it from Amazon: A Parrot in the Pepper Tree

Dave Gorman’s Important Astrology Experiment

Dave Gorman [he of ‘My Name is Dave Gorman’ fame], is returning for a new series. I went off about this chap in my blog, month or so ago now. He is one of the funniest man have seen in a long while. Timing and delivary, splendid!

New series starts this Sunday on BBC2 at 10.40pm and runs for 6 weeks

Short Preview on BBC: ‘Improvisation, lets you dance away from trouble’.

From Dave Gorman

I trust this finds you all well and happy. I’ve just returned from a brief trip to Edinburgh. From the e-mails I’ve received, it seems many of you were there too.

But this is just a reminder that the new series – Dave Gormans Important Astrology Experiment – starts this Sunday at 10.40pm and runs for 6 weeks.

The advance reaction seems to be really good with Time Out making it the cover of their TV section, a Critic’s Choice and giving the show a very flattering listing while Heat have given it 5 stars and says, “As stale formulas increasingly govern the schedules, it’s a delight to see something so fresh”. Basically, the mood in the camp is good.

There’s a page of information about the show on my website at: http://www.davegorman.com/dgiaep2.html and there’s some more on the BBC’s webpages, including a short clip from one of the shows at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/previews/

I need some sleep now.

cheers,

Dave http://www.davegorman.com

Dave Gorman’s Webcam

Burning Man Calendar of Events

To remind, the dates are: August 26 – September 2, 2002

This pages, gives an idea of what they’re up to on a daily basis:

http://www.burningman.com/calendar/playa/day.php

Time Lapse of the Burning Man Events

A Timewave Panorama of Burning Man 2002 Showing the Rise and Fall of Black Rock City

Folding-Time http://www.folding-time.com/ making preparation for a time-lapse series of photography of the event.

Installation and Technology: Technology Link Burning Man Time Navigators have installed a highly sophisticated yet ruggedized computer controlled, time-lapse photography system to capture the rolling waves of growth and destruction that are the essence of Black Rock City. Four different views capture a significant portion of citizen activity of every hour of every day for up to four weeks.

Folding-Time Video: Once recorded and edited, we will see within one hour the civilization organism emerge, grow and teem with inhabitants, and then disappear without a trace. We will see the sun and the darkness, buildings and events, storms and dust, night lights, fires and The Burn.

Folding-Time will provide spectacular and moving footage for future media use as well as an interactive artistic component that would allow Black Rock citizens the opportunity to interact and participate in Folding-Time.

With the chap doing the panoramas, I think I’m inspired! http://tash_lodge.blogspot.com/#80690505