GONE FISHING

Taking a break for 2 weeks from computers and life in general. You know the deal.

Lameway 2012 line-up induces mass coma.

The line-up for Laneway 2012 (Auckland) has been announced and I have already sent away for a brochure from a cryogenics lab. I plan to put my body placed in a freezer next to Walt Disney’s head and unfrozen the day after Laneway – when is the date again? I’ve forgotten already and planned to cut the lawns instead. I mean it’s not hard to be under-whelmed is it? After trolling down the performers list I was half expecting my sons Cathedral Choir to feature (no bull my son sings in a choir) Aussies Soundwave Concerts have the likes of  Marilyn Manson, Limp Bizkit, Cobra Starship. Laneway has blankets for the crowd so they don’t get all goose-bumpy cold listening to Gotye and Feist. Cripes my 13 year old daughter is into Feist, as well as large doses of the Disney Channel. With  the ‘High School Musical’ feel to it Laneway 2012 can no longer a bonefidi rock concert in the traditional sense of the term, parodying summer concerts you get in vineyards with bands dragged from the same freezer I’m going to be stored in. The sad thing is the most interesting artist on the line-up is our own Shane Carter. If you want cutting edge forget Lameway 2012 plan for a big day in the garden.  

  

THE SOUNDS OF SCIENCE

More from these guys by typing 'Symphony of Science' into You Tube.

On this theme more of my fav's:

IS MYSPACE DOOMED?

Once upon a time, a distant era in internet terms, 2 years ago every band under the sun had a myspace site. In a crude hark back to the infancy of social networking bands would accrue as many ‘friends’ as possible on myspace as some badge of coolness. “Wow are they really mates with The Buzzcocks?” Well no, not exactly – just some geek who set up a fan site run out of his bedroom in Birmingham. Visually myspace had a look of a Salvador Dali painting, cluttered, but bands put up with its flaws like slow-loading  because it was the place to be seen and heard. The process of being heard and connecting with fans has now well and truly been superseded by Facebook and Twitter, so myspace is left pushing the immediacy of the artists music. Behind the scenes myspace was a friggin’ nightmare for those who hadn’t studied computer science at varsity or those over 30. Music fans can now by-pass myspace and go to Bandcamp, listen and download music which has a much more traditional web-site format. Unlike myspace bands can also upload and sell their music and sundry merch over Bandcamp – so artists prod their Facebook fans off to Bandcamp to listen to the latest single in the hope 1 in 10 buys a copy. Many new bands now by-pass myspace altogether and set up a Bandcamp site. Without tempting a letter from Rupert Murdochs lawyers in its current format myspace is doomed to wilt away. 

                 

CAN MUSIC MAKE BIGGER BRAINS, CURE CANCER?

In my experience per head of population Kiwi’s are amongst the most frequent uses of anecdotes. Seemingly Every 2^nd person believes in ghosts, argues the ethicacy of horoscopes, herbs treat Aids, magnets cures the loss of a limb, the benefits giving birth in a 2 metre ocean swell with whales etc. Alarmingly Kiwi’s consistently embrace trends which defy common sense. Enter from stage left, the one with its own hippy commune, ‘The Mozart Effect’ which according to my wife’s good friend “increases ones intelligence”. I was too nice to point-out the fact it hadn’t worked on her. The general spiel here is listening to classic music purportedly increases the temporal areas of ones brain, resulting in an increase of brain-power, higher IQ’s. Gullible parents are playing Mozart’s Piano Concerto’s to their brats, in the same fashion as no doubt Mr and Mrs Hitler did and the world saw what great results they got for young Adolf with his love of the Austrian composer. Like most crappy trends the birth-place of The Mozart Effect is The United States of America – that in itself should ring alarm bells. A minor, later totally discredited study in a second tare medical publication was latched onto by an uncritical mass media and grows legs on its own. Before someone in the scientific community points out “it’s a load of crap” it’s too late and tea-cup anecdotes become fact. Undeterred at these wishy-washy scientific facts its proponents, the ones selling tapes and books, now seize their market advantage and embellish their unfounded claims by saying it can cure cancer as well as making bigger brains. Conveniently these spruikers fail to mention Mozart himself died at the ripe old age of 35 as well as suffering from depression, renal issues and enough medical ailments throughout his fleeting life to fill a bucket full of leeches. By the way the other rumour that “Rap music kills brain cells” is entirely true. You read that fact here first.