Rebecca Black

Aka "How I'm jumping on the bandwagon really really late just because I really should update this blog".

So I first heard about this song on Triple J. It was a talking point on the Doctor's show. And then I just learned that Simon Cowell likes her by which I assume he means he can see lots and lots of money because she is infamous.

So then I decided to watch the damn video. I did learn one thing, apparently Youtube updates likes and dislikes in real time since while I've been waiting for the video to load the number of dislikes went from 399,500 to 400,080 when I just looked at it then and it's still climbing. The number of likes is climbing very very slowly.

So what do I think of a 13 year old girls music video?

Well I'm more or less going to kind of liveblog this. The time stamps are where I pause the video.

0:45 One of the things I knew about this song was that Black didn't have anything to do with writing it, I also know that she's more or less been crucified for this song. Right now I think that Clarence Jey and Patrice Wilson should face charges of some sort for the lyrics. I get the feeling that this song is probably a violation of the Geneva conventions or something.

1:08. All the people in that car look like they are about her age. So how the hell did the boy get a license to drive this car? I'm probably over analysing this to keep my sanity.

Well it looks like the flash plugin broke while writing the above. I guess I now have to wait for it to load again. Current dislikes: 401,325

So while I wait I found an acoustic version that she sung on ABC News. Well, I'm going to go on record and say that I "liked" this acoustic version. By "liked" I mean I pressed the thumbs up button on the video. Perhaps my brain has melted from the minute of the other version but this version is at least 100 times better.

Having said that I would say that Black shows some promise as a singer.

1:16. Why are they driving around at night? Where are they going? Where can they go, and if they were going somewhere shouldn't they be there already? And isn't it dangerous to sit like that in a moving vehicle?

1:38 Why are you still deciding which seat to take? You're clearly in the back seat. It's where you've been since the first chorus. Didn't the ARK Music Factory director look at the words before filming this?

1:43 Why does California have so many under age drivers? What are the Police doing to stop this plague of under age drivers? And how the hell are they getting insurance for these cars?

2:26 Lyrics written by Cpt. Obvious. And I'm also a little confused. Should I be thankful that I don't have epilepsy or should I be cursing the fact that I don't because it would make this song end sooner.

2:36 What's with the black guy? And I had a mondegreen moment there. I though he was continuing a theme by pointing out that he was black. So I listened to that bit again. I then thought that he was saying that he was Rebecca Black. Turns out it was "R. B. Rebecca Black". In a way I wish that I didn't learn that, it would have made the song so much more enjoyable.

2:51 "We gonna have fun". That sounds creepy. Maybe he's one of those chaperone guys who's just a little too enthusiastic.

3:48 The song is over. Finally.

So what have I learned. Well that Ark Music Factory must have a pile of cheap songs that were written for entrants in the Eurovision, or the children's Eurovision. And continuing on the Eurovision theme that Black is like Sweden in 2009, she has talent but it doesn't fit with the song. Then again with those lyrics I can't think of a single artist that could turn them into anything remotely adequate.

And having said that I appear to be wrong. See when I wrote that it was about 1am yesterday. In that time I've found a pretty good fake Bob Dylan cover of this song.

Having had that time to think more about the song has let me draw the following conclusion. This song is hilarious. I personally think that it's something that is So Bad It's Good. Although of course Your Mileage May Vary.

I don't really agree with the whole "worst song in existence". There are plenty of worse songs out there. For example if I was forced between this song and anything by Justin Bieber then I'm going with "Friday".

So in conclusion:

1. ARK Music Factory really needs to invest in better songwriters.
2. Rebecca Black needs to find her own singing style instead of being forced into one that doesn't suit her.
3. It's hilarious because it's so bad.

Somebody to Love

If someone talks about the song "Somebody to Love" which band do you think of?

I think of Jefferson Airplane.

My parents think of Queen.

A few people I know would think of the Boogie Pimps, which was a cover of the Jefferson Airplane song. It's an okay cover, but the film clip did have Natasha Mealey in it.

Someone called Leighton Meester also wrote a song by that name.

Now if you typed in "somebody to love" into Youtube what do you think the first result is?

Well it's none of them.

It's Justin Bieber.

Justin. Fucking. Bieber.

Seriously, what the fuck is wrong with people these days? Jefferson Airplane was a pioneer in Psychedelic Rock. Queen is one of the worlds best selling artists.

Yet Bieber gets top spot on Youtube.

Dwell on that for a bit.

The Price Of Fundamentalism?

It's from an old episode of Trading Spouses, so it's not the latest news but it does raise a valid point.

I'm going to have to ask you to go and watch this video first. It's a little loud, and also somewhat bigoted.

From what I can gather, and from a vague understanding of those types of shows I think that the scene is the "homecoming". I'm sure that the family probably thought that it would be like all the other shows, the mother, Marguerite Perrin, would be all happy to be home and it would be all love and happiness and the like.

If you watched the video you know how it turned out.

Personally I can't help but feel sorry for the family. Looking at the faces it just seems that they've seen a side of their mother/wife that they either haven't seen before or was part of the "it wasn't that bad" sort of thing.

I suspect that other people have found, and still do find, it funny.

I don't, and I don't think I ever will.

This is a person who has become blinded by her "faith". I suspect that it's "faith" because it sure isn't faith. All we saw there was bigotry wrapped in religion. Nothing else.

But it's the loved ones in this case that are affected by this woman. She let her own prejudices blind her to everything that she loves and should hold dear to her and turn a moment that should have been nice go sour because of it.

But in a world where there are people who take their faith to such an extreme you have to ask how often do they let their "faith" hurt those that they love?

And why is it that for some people such "faith" is something to look up to?

What Are We Going To Do About VenomFangX?

Before I start, there will be many Youtube videos on this post, some of which you may have to watch. I will be sure to keep it at a reasonable amount though. The videos are provided for those that don't have a clue as to what I am going on about.

It all starts a week ago with this video:



VenomFangX (or Posterboy for Creationist Stupidity, PCS for short), decided to file DMCA claims against Thunderf00t because, as far as I can tell, Thunderf00t had the gall to use portions of VFX's videos for the purposes of education.

That falls under "Fair Use" of US copyright law, since we all know that the internet is under the jurisdiction of the United States. Actually I don't have a clue on legal matters and jurisdiction, I think it has more to do with where the webiste itself is and not the individual Youtube user.

At the time, Thunderf00t responded with the following video:



And then when more information came up this one:



The second video here is actually an important one. We learn that another Youtube user who filed a bunch of DMCA claims on VFX behalf actually said that Thunderf00t most likely wasn't breaking the law.

A couple of days ago Thunderf00t posted the following video:



Which outlines a case involving a guy called Crook, who had to read an apology for his actions online. It sounded like there wasn't going to be too much VFX and Thunderf00t facing each other in court, and more of VFX having to read an apology.

As a side note, he mentions a user called LiberalViewer, part 1 of his videos on him and Viacom can be found here.

This has divided people. There are people who want to see VFX fry and there are people who agree with Thunderf00t.

kurtilein3 is one of the VFX should fry group:



Now I do agree with much of what he has to say. He has a good point, VFX broke the law and he should be punished.

It also raises the good question of what is a foreigner supposed to do if their videos are DMCA'd. What exactly are we supposed to do? Do we have to hire a lawyer in the US or is there some provision in the DMCA for such a problem?

There are quite a few flaws with the DMCA, but I'm not going to get into that.

Essentially VFX deserves to face a punishment for willingly breaking the law.

themaskedanalyst, however makes a very, very good point:



At present I am swayed by his argument. (a response specifically to kurtilein3 can be found here.

In kurtilien3's case, he has been rather annoyed at the censorship that goes on at Youtube and their lax policy of actually determining whether a video is breaking copyright or not. Especially since ExtantDodo has been suspended again.

I don't know about the other VFX should fry people, but kurtilein3 seems to be of the opinion that DE was affected by the VFX DMCA spree (the linked video thinks Creation Sceince Evangelism, Kent Hovind's people who would be more likely be the culprits here).

However I am confused at the moment because of the lack of information regarding the Thunderf00t/VFX situation. Since we haven't actually heard anything from Thunderf00t, we don't know the details of the settlement at all.

I'm confused as to my course of action. I can't choose a side here.

There is one thing that I am certain of. I don't support the "flag the VFX apology video" idea from kurtilein3 without knowing all the details first. At present that is a stupid idea because we don't know enough about the settlement.

I agree that the video would be humbling, but I do want to see VFX answer to a court because of his actions.

The one thing that I do want to know about this apology is whether he will have to allow free commenting on that video instead of the moderation that he currently uses to censor dissent from his videos.

Scientology. Will You Ever Learn?

The first is that they tried to censor Youtube again.

The people whose videos were taken down sent a DMCA counter notice.

Long story short they failed, the Australian (WARNING: Anna Coren Alert, expect stupid segues) and German reports are back up. However the video entitled To Anonymous/Scientology isn't.

The interesting thing is this "American Rights Counsel, LLC". A google search (A search without "LLC") only gives links to people talking about it.

I, like many others, believe that this "American Rights Counsel" is akin to the "Citizens Commission on Human Rights". It's just another "Church" of Scientology front group that allows the "Church" to influence people without getting its hands dirty.

Before I get on to the next bit, an open message to Google:

Grow some bloody balls.

A lack of balls however is not Germany's problem (ha, segue!). Germany recently held a meeting called "This is Scientology! Reports from the USA".

Basically all I can say on this is that the OSA really has failed here. Considering all that they are supposed to know about their SPs and critics they didn't seem to know that the Americans there couldn't actually speak German.

Take that propaganda!

Crackergate

In case you don't know, it's finished.

On July 24, 2008 at 2:00 PM most likely PZ time, PZ Myers reported that he went through with his claim and desecrated a (blessed?) Eucharist, a Koran and a copy of The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins.

I guess it is really over. I've been wondering if it should be called "crackergate" and a Google search shows that others have used it.

I think the -gate suffix is so overused (cross reference Iguanagate) that I think that it should only be used when something stupid comes out of it.

PZ reported recently that Michael Edmonton, of "Beware the Believers" video fame created this:



So I think that enough stupidity has come out of this to call it "crackergate".

However I would like to express my outrage.

How dare PZ desecrate a copy of The God Delusion?

That's like desecrating a copy of the Koran, or, or, or a Eucharist.

I mean how could he, what does he think he is a fundie? A joker?

I hope he dies horribly.

Save xenutv1

Mark Bunker's Youtube channel, xenutv1, has been taken down.

Scientology decided that the Jason Beghe interview (a news story about Beghe leaving is here). Bunker would have been posting the video interview he had with Beghe on youtube soon.

Now that might not happen because Bunker, I'm guessing, has been suspended over "hate speech" because he decided to use the internet to spread his message which shows Scientology as it actually is, instead of the sanitised version that they want to show us.

If THE WOG BLOG is right, then hopefully even my email which was bounced by the spam filter for some reason is having an effect.

Hopefully we will see a repeat of the VenomfangX incident, where he was suspended for posting a bunch of anti-Islam videos, which really showed what a racist guy he was, where a concerted effort by Youtube users who believe in free speech chose to stand up for the rights of this racist person and get him back on Youtube. Except that instead of a racist guy, we are supporting an Emmy Award winning journalist.

Scientology is afraid, because the internet has become what Radio Free Europe, or even West Berlin, was for Communism. Scientology is trying to control the net so they can appear to be a "peace-loving, helpful religion" when in fact they are a power-hungry, subversive, totalitarian cult.

All I hope is that Scientology will, through their actions, get themselves another entry in their already long list in Operation Foot Bullet.

Must. Make. This. Viral.

Must make this viral.



Panda's Thumb said so.

Viralify it. Send it out as spam if you have to.

Lets test you Greedy Gentlemen

Found this on Youtube a while ago. It's described as a "Christmas carol for studio moguls from the writers on the picket lines".

I also want to try out video embedding.




Hopefully you will enjoy it as much as I did, it's from Gina Rene and Jonathan Clarke and features all the media moguls plus some guy who I can only think of as being the "token black" since I can't find out who he is.

As we enter into the 11^th week of the WGA strike. Soon it will be only a matter of time before someone caves, or the fans of Desperate Housewives go insane as the story abruptly comes to an end. And according to their blog (go there after reading this, or now, I can wait) their lovely ticker shows that Hollywood businesses have lost around $962, 742, 500 and counting.