mrblack.co.uk weblog

Not sure if anybody has noticed in the past few years there has been an increasing number of anti-piracy measures put in place at the local multiplex, including the threat of prosecution if you were caught with a video camera filming. This is understandable in order to protect the intellectual rights of movie creators and the entire industry. However one thing I do dislike is those FACT warnings preceding the movie. It states that piracy funds terrorism and organised crime, again all true, to a point. File sharing on the internet however doesn’t fund anybody, it doesn’t fund terrorism or organised crime, unless they downloaded the movie and mass produced DVD copies. So it could be argued that if more people had access to file sharing networks that they are less likely to buy a dodgy DVD from that guy in the pub, because they can download it for free. As more people have access to broadband in the UK the occurrence of film piracy will undoubtedly increase. Anybody else seeing the similarities between the Film industry and the music industry? Wonder how long it will take for the film and TV industries to come up with the idea of iFilms or iTele?

/RANT

London is a busy place, with lots of people running around for no particular reason, think they are paid extras. I am still amazed at the underground network, perhaps my country-bumpkin self just can get used to a usable public transport system. Had a great time down there, highlights included a visit to Tate Britain. It is a truly interesting place and well worth the 0 pounds entrance fee, even if it is just to giggle at the modern art and pictures of nude women, not me of cause I am a man of culture *sniggers at boobs*

The way back was however a bit scary, I was three cars behind a crash on the M6 which I expect shut down the motorway for a time. Two cars hit each other at speeds around 70mph. From where I was I could see a wrecked car fly towards the hard shoulder, the other, a black BMW, stayed virtually stationary in-between the second and third lanes. Once I had come to a controlled stop (yes I was impressed too) I saw people emerge from the wreckage of both vehicles, they were all ok, amazing really. I drove by once the dust had settled and a luckily placed fire engine began to tend the smouldering machines. It shook me up, seeing cars flying into barriers really makes you think about driving and how alien it is for humans to do. Have I learned from this? Well, it showed me that although you can be a really safe driver, some other fucker can always smash into you. Its true when my driving instructor said ‘you are in control of a lethal weapon’, just wish that everybody took that into account when taking to the roads.

Anyhow … Tomorrow sees me travel back to Keele University to start my mRes, or at least to fill out the mountains of forms relating to it. Cant wait, good old shlongleton is getting stale.

The former front man of The Libertines, Pete Doherty has returned to his parents to help him recover from his ‘problems‘. Hope he gets better, at Leeds festival you could tell that the band wasn’t the same, singing his songs without him. The single ‘can’t stand me now’ was particularly strange to watch. Bit like seeing The Beatles without John Lennon. I don’t like all the pressure that he and the rest of the band are facing though. The NME is doing what it normally does, hype them up far too much. Yes they are good, yes they could prove to be something very special, but pressure like this is just wrong. Hopefully the music press will give Pete some space to recover, but for some reason I doubt it.

Get well soon Pete.

Leeds rocked! So i have slapped some photos up. There is also some video footage of a midget jumping over a fire, and the end of the Darkness firework display.

Fire Jumping 1
Fire Jumping 2
Darkness 1
Darkness 2 (with fireworks, yay!)

I decided to gut the website to give a cleaner look. It now also works in Internet Explorer, but kids please think about moving to Mozilla Firefox its faster, safer and displays websites correctly. Thanks to Hannah for the Birthday card, it arrived a month late, but hey it was a nice surprise :).