Ang Lee is hands down the master of making films heavy on the drama and weak on the plot, characters, and dialogue, but, in his defense I might have thought this was a good film if I didn't keep hearing how awesome it is.  Unfortunately, due to all the (undeserved) hype I think I was expecting something more than gay cowboys eating pudding.

hi jon, great couple of podcasts these last two! especially todays.  
all the best for 2006 and thanks for all the music in 2005. I recall  
listening to your podcasts for the first time (in their entirety) on  
my iPod flying over the north atlantic to toronto july 2005,  
realising that podcasts were going to change my (music) life forever!  
sounds dramatic I know, but it has proven to be true. I've  
'discovered/ been introduced to' over fifty new artists (if one only  
counts them by CD purchases that is, since that epic flight of  
discovery...ha ha
thanks again


Thanks for listening.  I can tell by looking at server logs how many people are downloading the Podcast but I can't tell who's actually listening.  Thanks for the note and I'm glad at least one person takes the time to write!

After reading your great article last week on the dire state of the music
industry in relation to the consumer I came across this :
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/4596228.stm

 The BBC have got together 4 supposed "experts" on the industry in relation to
digital media and are going to get them to answer questions submitted by
readers.  I thought it would be interesting to get as many people as possible
asking them the real hard questions which you brought up in your article.
Already they are getting a lot of questions about DRM, artist's royalties and
copyright extentions.  I believe the question submission ends on the 24th.

Thanks for the note, but looking at the panelists is disturbing. Once again the media only recognizes the major labels as being "the music industry."  They're gravely mistaken and complete assholes for feeding the fallacy.  The thing that irritates me most is the fact that the major labels and their lawyers are writing the laws that effect the bands and businesses they have NO REIGN over.  These assholes will all be out of work soon with any luck.

Do you ever play any Schloss Tegal, SPK or Lustmord? Do you take requests? This
is really a great idea and I enjoy your broadcasts. Thanks for the great work!

The Podcasts are restricted to the bands and labels with websites hosted at brainwashed.

Finally on DVD, this features Bauhaus' two most complete video compilations that were circulating around since the 1980s. I always thought each of these video programs were named what the other should be, as Shadow of Light is a collection of nine promotional music video shorts, some taken from live performances and some with decent sized budgets, while Archive is a 10-song performance film with live shots interspresed with footage of non-band members running around some old English town.

The returns are in, and, according to this article from Reuters, the music industry has hit an eight year low for sales.  Among corporate labels, there is much fretting and wringing of hands.  Reuters, however, fail to recognize the non-major label music industry, who don't seem to be pissing and moaning.  Major labels are a dying breed due to their own avarice, and nobody's gonna cry when they die.

Let us make it clear right off the bat: Meat Beat Manifesto is not on a major label, however, a commissioned remix, "What Is Hip (T.O.P.R.M.X.)," by Jack Dangers, which appeared on the compilation What Is Hip? Remix Project Volume One has been nominated for a Grammy!

This video documentary, produced and originally released in 1993, has a ton of great footage and interviews from all members of the band from their inception through 1993's Tabula Rasa. 

The box cover depicts what could be a strange retro-digital flower with Buddhist temples pictured in the background. The writing is entirely in Chinese, with something which loosely translates as "electronic prayer machine" on the spine and on the back a list of good things about buddhism (being nice to others, not killing, etc,...) and the all important "Made in Hong Kong."

Our kindergarten teachers always told us how we should be sharing, but the RIAA would have you believe otherwise.  Looking at any recent major label release, the packaging is pretty much destroyed now with big blocks of text, an FBI symbol and a warning.  Unfortunately, monster megalith Sony BMG isn't out to warn the consumer or provide any information that they're illegally loading "malware" (malicious software) onto unsuspecting machines. 

Truman Capote elegantly described the brutal murder of a family in the midwest through his famous book In Cold Blood.  The book birthed a genre: the "nonfiction novel" by means of poetic license: making a very cold, dark story something captivating enough to win the affinity of the public, and that's exactly what Bennett Miller does with his movie Capote.

Intone, the current umbrella record label Richard H. Kirk (of Cabaret Voltaire) releases music under, has announced fortcoming releases for 2006 including Chapter Two - Live in the Earth by Sandoz in Dub, URP 4 (Unreleased Projects 2003-2005), and an as yet untitled EP for the label Dust Science. 

Consider yourself fortunate.  Since you're reading these words you have access to a computer, the Internet, and an endless repository of film, music, art, and culture.  It wasn't always this easy.  In the 1930s, Henri Langlois founded the Cinémathèque Française, both an archive and a theater, holding on to every film he could get his hands on under the notion that all film had some value to society.

Boston residents can tune into Brainwashed peeps Jon Whitney and Nick Feeley every Monday morning now from 7-10 [EDT] (Jon) and 10-12 (Nick) on 90.3 FM.  Remote residents can tune in online to WZBC by clicking here (it should open in your iTunes or WinAmp).  It's commercial free and it's live!  Request lines are now open! (Remember to add 5 hours if you're in the UK and subtract 3 hours if you're in California!)

We all know by now how the major labels fuck all their artists over and fuck all their customers over but now they're trying to fuck over their promotional outlets!