Category: toreview

“these strange college students with their funny jargon and nerdy ways did more to start the computer revolution than any silicon engineering team. naturally curious, these mit students had devoted their lives to intellectual tinkering. they believed in a co-operative society and imagined themselves living in a utopian world in which people shared information – sometimes without regard to property rights.”

Stephen l Kent – the first quarter (talking about the creators of the first video game, spacewar).

what Stephen Kent talks about here is the start of not only the arcade game revolution, but also the attitude which was later to form the basis of the morals of the internet. A world where the right to speak, the right to own is paramount, over any international boundaries, over and above any laws. If it could be obtained through the internet, whether sound, image or text, it has been exchanged. As such, this had led to use by groups finding themselves outside of the law, in the case of pornography and music, or outside of law and morality, such as paedophiles and terrorists.

in recent years, groups who feel that they have rights over information have started to lay their claims more strongly. The music companies have taken Napster to court, and at this moment in time look close to preventing exchange through that means. However it is very likely that by cutting the head off “the monster”, this will only serve to cause many more heads to grow back in its place. This again seems to be part of the nature of the internet.

the latest step forward in these technologies is file sharing between fabbers. fabbers are industrial devices for creating objects from material, normally plastics. They follow a set of instructions to carve or mould (amongst other techniques) a wide variety of things. Now one of the companies involved in this process are proposing sharing these sets of instructions online. There could come a time where fabbers are compact and available in the home. If you want to buy sometime, you could download the file for it and create it at home. Or potentially, pirate the instructions and create it at cost solely of the materials, just the same as burning a CD from MP3s you’ve downloaded.

since the internet has “arrived”, it has brought a slackening of the corporate control over property rights, which could potentially lead to a change reversing the industrial revolution, with many consumer products actually created in the home.

So I just caught the train. Which train, I’m not entirely sure. But it seems like the right one. Everyone else seems to think so too, but we won’t know for sure until it leaves, and they tell us where it is going.

Bill Drummond was in “Big in Japan”, a late 70’s pop group. They had a hit record which I think was called “Big in Japan”. Japan was exotic but mysterious in the 70’s, a bit like Sweden was the sexiest place in the world at that time.

He then became manager of two Liverpudlian groups, Echo and the Bunnyman, and The Teardrop Explodes. His ego clashed with that of Julian Cope, lead singer with the latter. Cope hates Drummond, Drummond seems more benevolent, without actually respecting Cope.

Later he got back into making music himself, being part of The J.A.M.M.S. and The KLF. The KLF were an Art Terrorist Music Collaboration. Everything reeked of theft and cheapness, but with a great font and the best beats money could buy.

Bill Drummond is, to me, the Jushin “Thunder” Liger of music. They both “Con through beauty”.

The train is going where I hoped, incidentally.

Wrestling is all about fakery. Fakery has been a proud tradition in wrestling for well over a hundred years. All but the true fan invokes voluntary suspension of disbelief to achieve their enjoyment.

I love Wrestling, but know that very few matches will be great matches. In truth, most fans of anything know this. No one goes to a football game to see a nil-nil draw, no one goes to a baseball game to see it won one to nothing in the bottom of the third, no one goes to a Rothko exhibition to see a load of paintings that look the same. You go to see a 5-4 victory, a 10-9 won in the bottom of the ninth, an installation which is so vast and brooding you can barely move, but it is still easier to be convinced.

Wrestlers, good ones, act their hearts out. They so want for you to believe its real. There tends to be two different ways they achieve this. One is the intensity match, where two great wrestlers pit their wits, matching every hold, achieving dominance, losing it, regaining it, until all the knowledge the audience has of who should win is lost, and they are lost in waiting for the final move which might clinch it.

The other method is to stun the crowd through an act of insane bravery and stupity. Allowing yourself to be thrown off a twenty-five foot cage to break through a desk certainly fits this category. I’ve seen this done by Mick Foley. A good wrestling fan will have a “Foley is God” sign in their collection, such is the notoriety and fame he achieved through this single act.

Jushin Liger is a different matter. He dresses as a character from a japanese comic book, a mask with three horns. He is tiny but athletic, gracious and spectacular. For years I only read about his exploits. Then one day I bought a tape from a trader, the underground network of wrestling fans. Dodgy copies of copies of matches from all over the world, Japan, Mexico, America

He was everything I expected and more. He could tell a story with the way he wrestled, never the same match. Moves that won the week before would be blocked, so he would use a new offense each time. But the final match on the tape had the most spectacular of them all, the Shooting Star Press.

He threw his opponent out of the the ring. As they staggered near the ropes, he ran towards them at speed and hit a slide under the ropes. This knocked his opponent over the ringside barrier, sprawled across the crowd. Jushin stood on the edge of the ring, holding the top rope. He looked quickly behind him, and then jumped up on the top rope. And then flew.

Backwards, he flipped through the air, arching upwards, then falling, over the barrier, and onto his opponent. It looked further and higher than Bob Beamon jumped in Mexico. Simply stunning, but it wasn’t the end of the match. It should have been. It should have been the end of his career. It didn’t in reality hurt him that much. B ut in my world he would have been carried away on a stretcher, waving to the crowd like Evel Knievel, and never wrestled again. It would have made that moment all the more magnificent.

But a few minutes later both he and his opponent were back in the ring. I can’t quite even remember if he won the match or not. At a moment like that, despite the fakery, you forget that and simply lose yourself in the beauty of the moment.

The KLF told you their music was stolen (KLF stands for Kopyright Liberation Front), almost to the extent that they want you to hate them for it. But they made something beautiful from the pieces. Their appearences on Top of the Pops were chaotic, surreal and comic. Adverts in national newspapers alerted you to their actions, normally a record release or media stunt; enigmatic statements (unless you recognised the font). A lways promising the event that would end or change the world, never quite right, never quite achieving what they or you had hoped for, but even in failure they achieved their own form of beauty.

Julian Cope once penned a sweet little pop song called “Bill Drummonds Dead”. I’ve met Julian Cope, stood outside Brixton Fridge after a gig. When he turned up, I was writing in my diary. I got him to sign beneath the last word I’d written. I took it back and carried on writing. He was very friendly, and chatted to the assembled few whilst his heavily-pregnant wife waited in their 2CV.

Bill Drummond wrote in his book “45” that he wanted to write the story of how The Teardrop Explodes should have been. They would have ended up in South America, unknown there, playing small bars, but writing brilliant music. They would mail tapes back to Bill Drummond to release to the Western world. After a few years, he would seal their greatness by flying out to meet them, going off alone with Cope, and shooting him in the head. Tragedy would add the final ingredient, and make them one of the greatest bands of all time.

I’ve just read “45”. It is a great book. Within its pages Drummond hints quite heavily at his daily routine. He doesn’t live far away from me. I think I may be able to track him down.

I pondered what I might do if I met him. It occured to me that I could seal his greatness. I could meet him, mine him for ideas, and then shoot him in the head. I could then go and meet Julian Cope (I have a pretty good idea where he lives too). We could record a tribute single. Ideally it would get to No.2, behind a remixed version of “What Time is Love”. Drummond 1 Cope 2. I think he would like that.

But I won’t. If I do meet him, I’d rather thrust a chaotically-typed version of the past few pages into his hand, and walk away. I might spraypaint something onto a nearby wall to commemorate the occasion. Perhaps:

“What the fuck just happened? 2002”

or

“Flotsky wants his moment of beauty”

or

“Art for the individual. Make it. Look at it. Destroy it. Start over”

But it will probably be:

“Bill Drummond met Flotsky Bruce near here (insert date). Drummond read (not dead), Bruce walked away”

The dark cove rose far above them, so tall it almost blocked the sky from view. There was no sand, just earth brown rock, gnarled and rippled like a bark from a tree.

David lost his footing, slipping on the sodden rock. He plunged into the icy water, which firmly pulled him away. A hopeless battle ensued, limbs desperately grasping for a hold which would never be found.

His brother was watching the vast swarms of seagulls circling the rock stack. The constant screams of the birds almost silenced the sea as they washed to and fro.

Sarah screamed, and her brother raced down the rocks. By the time he was at the water’s edge, David was far off in the distance. She shouted down to him not to go in, the waves were so fierce. She ran off to get help. David’s brother saw that she was right, there was no way of getting to him. He slowly lowered himself to the rock and waited.

He could see David bob further and further away, arms waving, appearing to shout. The sea swallowed his noise. Piece by piece he was disappearing from view. First the chest, then the head and finally the limp arms were devoured by the hungry ocean.

He focused hard on the spot where David had sunk, willing him to reappear. But nothing came, bar the low thud of an approaching helicopter. For hours it circled, trying to find the glimpse his brother was willing. Eventually, with a shrug, the speed of the blades picked up, and the helicopter was gone.

Still he sat, waiting. Night fell but not his gaze, fixed firmly on that precise location. None of the coast guards or policemen could break it. Finally the warm arms of Sarah willed him away, and limply they left the rocks.

The noise of the family’s grief was so loud it took a day or so to hear the silence. David’s brother hadn’t uttered a word since the drowning. He had just stared straight ahead continuing his vigil. His parents were racked with guilt when they noticed. It wasn’t their fault. Grief is selfish, so all-consuming.

“You tell us when you want to talk, we’re here for you”. They respected his silence, gave him his space. But they just seemed like giant listening machines, primed for any utterance. At first he hadn’t noticed, but as his parents became more and more understanding, all he could see was how large the ears in his family were.

The realisation slowly came that David wasn’t going to emerge from the waves. The pain was huge, the tears were wrenched through every pore. Visions swirled into view. Some were just replays of what had happened. In a strange way they were easier to come with, as they were the reality. But sometimes vast vacuums and turbines sucked and chopped David’s body, turnin the ocean a vivid crimson. Or that he was a giant, striding through the waves, only to find that even his huge fingers couldn’t grip the tiny fish-like David.

It was too much. He ran down to the living room, flung open the door and with all the power in his body rasped “Murrr…”. No words came, just air. Sound refused to emerge from his throat. He fell to the floor agonised at this latest discovery. It seemed as if, as well as David, the sea now had his words.

His mother held him tight until the tears began to subside. She rolled with every flinch and spasm, desperately searching herself for the right words. Nothing could comfort him yet, she needed to wait for just the right moment.

A few days later she came into his room with an exercise book and pen. “If you can’t say what you want to, maybe you could try to write it.” He nodded gently and moved slowly to his desk.

All the words had built up in his mind as if trapped, and he couldn’t get them down on paper fast enough. There was so much to say. How he missed David, how he blamed himself for not being able to rescue him, how the torture of seeing his brother die had only begun with his death. He refused to stop until he had had his say. The first book was handed back to his mother with a request for another one. No sleep was possible. He wrote night and day for forty-eight hours until he slumped across the desk, pen in hand, masking the last page of his fourth book.

His mother cried as she turned each page, not just fro the grief at the loss of her son, but also with the joy of the birth of another. Before she had only heard the inquisitive voice of a young boy, but now on paper that voice seemed to break and take on a deeper tone. She felt the rare sense of privilege for a parent of insight into their child’s perception of the world.

The vivid light spilling into the bedroom confused him, the clock said eleven pm, but his room was lit with golden rays. As he sat up he was greeted by the sight of the fullest moon he had ever seen, he could make out every rise and crater on its surface. It was as if his room was in orbit around it, he felt so close.

The horror dawned along with his familiarity. This was the moon that had risen when David was finally taken, the moon which controlled the tide that had swallowed him up.

A scream formed but never came. Nothing in the room could hide the glare. He froze upright in bed, held tight by its pull, and hauntedly observed its passage across the night sky.

His mother soon had blackout curtains fitted to encourage him to sleep. But it was always there, and at some point in the night he would find himself drawn to the window to make sure.

Dark crescents soon formed under his eyes. The attempts to get him back to school failed, as he would find himself sleeping through each lesson, drained by his nocturnal vigil. Confined to his bed, he would watch the sun as well, waiting for the return of its evil partner.

Desperation overtook him one evening. He wrenched his body away from the bed, flung open the curtains and whispered ” Go away, leave me alone”. And as he did, it slipped away.

The eclipse started surprisingly quickly, a huge bite of moon revealing the death that was to come. Simon stared open-mouthed. He knew he could speak now, but there were no words to say. The darkness washed smoothly over it, gradually devouring it all. A ring, a last glimpse, and then it was swallowed whole.

It didn’t matter that it would return, Simon had now the satisfaction of viewing its slow demise, and that seemed revenge enough.

Simon talked about it occasionally in the months and years that followed, but he wrote a lot more. That voice was stronger than ever.

Married life had not been kind to Samantha Stephens. Even her worst nightmares at least had more excitement than this. She was just not born to be a cleaner, a dishwasher, a cook (not a chef, Darin’s ulcer did not allow for any sophisticated food) and a whore. Sometimes her housebound existance led her to spend whole days in a nightdress. There was no point in getting dressed; only husband or daughter would potentially see her, and sometimes she barely registered with either anyway.

The drugs were the key to her survival. Always acid, obtained in bulk at cost price due to a special arrangement with the chief of police. She gave up her body once a month, in return for her steady no questions asked supply.

When Darin left on a morning, she would drop a tab or two, and do the essential chores whilst she came up.

” I remember the first time so vividly. It was a sumptuous hot day, and I was stretched out in the garden, feeling the sun-rays dance across the surface of my skin. My body melted with the heat, and the sun’s magnetic field lifted me off the ground, pulling me in.

“Mother’s voice rang out beneath, asking how I expected to keep the perfect man if I spent all my days lazing in the sun. When I rolled over, she was stood towering over my body. For some inexplicable reason, she was clad in full witches garb, pointy hat et al. Whilst she was harranguing me, I found myself able to detect the sub-text to what she was saying, just like it were a bassline in one of those psychadelic rock band’s songs.

” One of us; born with the power. Try it out, unleash your force.”

” And quite how do you propose I do so?”

” Just wiggle your nose.”

I did. I felt a slight tingle in my face, but nothing happened.

“Now you must focus on what it is you desire to achieve. And for your power to be at its most effective, you must rhyme your words.”

Steadily I pieced the tattered fragments of my mind together, concentrating on what I truely wanted at this moment in time.

“Mother on this beautiful day, please just get the hell away”.

My mystic nose swooped across my face. Bells rang out, an endless chime that struck at my core. When I was able to pull my eyelids apart, she was gone.

I positively glowed. It was as if a light had been turned on in the darkness of my soul. I had a reason for being, no longer just the slave of man and child. I swept across the garden, creating new blooms wherever I pointed my nose.

And then a wicked thought crossed my mind. Well, it had been since Tabitha for me and Darin, he was just too stressed to even consider it. Don’t even mention the Chief of Police, that never lasted long enough for me to ever contemplate whether I enjoyed doing that or not.

I went up to my room, and with a swift twitch, two Nubian warriors had me pinned to the bed. Since that day, it has been my magical powers that have kept me going. Nothing else makes the day go quicker, gets rid of the hundrum of making dinner for Darin’s boss, or of surviving a tupperware party.

I set my mind down, knowing that this is bound to be lost.

I don’t have a place yet. No home, no town, no strong familiarity to call my own.

No girlfriend, no wife, no loved one, no child.

They are all a statement of fact.

I have decided on my place, Oxford. Its not mine yet, but it will be.

I can’t explain why it will be, its like dowsing. I’ve stepped all around the lines, and the sticks didn’t cross. As soon as I step in here, they twitch like crazy, and I’ve no idea why.

Maybe its an element of weariness, having moved so much, travelled so long, feeling a need to set down the roots. But I sense its something stronger.

Shut away in its rooms, experiencing not through watching, talking or seeing, but through typing. The carcophony of millions of fingers typing millions of words, pause, the chattering of keys and space bars as a low thump. Hours sat facing a glowing screen, quite often in darkness. Life lived through your fingers. They wonder what virtual reality is like. We have the first evolution of it now. Except more of the creation is being done in our minds, like returning to a word created by words, by radio. So much more to imagine, so much of the spirit like the noble earnest intentions of early American radio to entertain and educate in equal measures. Take people around the world for the first time, take them to events live as they happened for the first time. Took them to war for the first time. Every person being called upon to visualize to picture in their minds, things beyond their normal understanding of their own world. This is the spirit that has come back with the Internet. Certainly it can be twisted and exploited and exploitative, and often is. But the original intention is still there sometimes. You can look at spaceships, you can look at local government, you can find out things you thought you knew about. Things are made clear, things become understandable. We haven’t quite missed out on the pioneer spirit, its around a little while longer.

Hitch-hikers Guide meets the Net.

A vision of a future under the influence of the internet

The Nets vision with a fuck deal less pomposity

TECHIE STUFF

Your IP address is your DNA string.

Computers Far more powerful when the silicon chips are positioned under a perfect pyramid

DNA editors available, hard to do, so SKY offer 3453 channels and a pre-programed dick enlargement if you take the sports channels.

Microsoft’s final demise comes about on ‘Cold Sunday’ when an upgrade to their American operating system turned the entire population into fridge freezers for fourteen days. The rest of the world only noticed when their news broadcasts started to feature foreign reports.

Similar thing to Hitch-hikers, take someone from now and displace them to another place, in this case 70 years in the future.

World is full of experience surfers. You have complex programs which edit your nerves quickly and slightly so you feel sensations.