The United States Government killed Iraqi citizens today.

My thoughts on mp3's: after noting that most artists make little or no money on record sales, I sincerily hope that the record industry dies - or is at least reduced in size exponentially. After that, there may or may not be a dark age of content. Pop music certainly won't be as lucrative as it is now. If artists need to make money but can't, then the culture of music consumption will have to respond, and pay for what they listen to.. but with two significant differences. First, music will cost less, but much, much more of it will go to the artist. And second, it'll be possible to pay small prices for music so easily that downloading will have to be restricted to those who have already paid, mostly because with so much music on the net, bands can't afford to not give their music away, with a few exceptions.

Think something different will happen? I'd love to hear about it.

Against Intellectual Property.

I've started work on a new issue of subtext. Submissions large and small are welcome, as always.

Yesterday, I went and saw Rififi, a French Film Noir made in 1955. The plot was ridden with sexism, and the subject matter was certainly clicheed to a certain extent, but all that was in the back of my mind, because this was one of the best pieces of cinematography I've ever seen. It made me consider filmmaking as a craft, and realize that while the glamour and special effects have increased, the perfect blending of visual metaphor, transitions, suspense, and other elements has really gone downhill.

How could it be that the film industry's grasp of their own medium has declined so much? It occurred to me that it might be a French thing, as the only other movie that I've seen that has such great cinematography was Cyrano de Bergerac, and attention to the exection of a film (not just the idea or worse, the FX and stars in it) is something that shows up in European films much more than in the Hollywood variety.

From the Rififi page at Film Forum:

"...a legendary 30-minute sequence with neither dialogue nor music - provided a usable blueprint for real-life professionals (causing outright bans in some countries)..."