Mike Browne’s Blog

And I mean it too… I can’t stop replaying this. I’ve gone completely mental… Up Butt Coconut… ‘Tis this year’s Hamster Dance. Remember that little gem from 1999? How can we forget?

Link stolen from Presurfer. Animation by Nathan Mazur ~ music by Parry Gripp. Check out Up But Coconut to leave them a message.

Wah wah wee wah! We watched this live last night. Too funny. I’m glad to see he won. Borat was awesome.

If you like this, check out Monkey Farm Frankenstein’s debut album on Some Bizzare Records, available at www.hmv.co.uk – search for MFF.

The MFF vs The Evil Dead is composed of over 200 audio and video samples taken from the following films: The Evil Dead, Evil Dead 2, and Army of Darkness. NO OTHER ELEMENTS WERE USED.

From YouTube

I dislike DRM in all it’s forms. If Hollywood had it’s way your DVD’s would most likely self destruct after 3 uses and you’d have to buy another copy for three more uses and so on.

What about fair use you ask? Ha ha! Laughs Hollywood. That just may go the way of the dodo bird. At least here in Canada anyway. Perhaps its time to get active and sign the online petition against Bill C-60. I have.

These entertainment corporations are there only to make money. They are NOT watching out for the artists nor do they care about the consumer other than how to push our buttons and lead us toward buying their products. Here’s an article talking about just that:

Privately, Hollywood admits DRM isn’t about piracy

In a nutshell: DRM’s sole purpose is to maximize revenues by minimizing your rights so that they can sell them back to you.

Son of a …

Along the same lines, if you want to see a fantastic film on just what the ultra-mysterious MPAA (Hollywood Ratings Board) is really up to check out This Film is not Yet Rated. Carol and I watched it this past weekend. Eye opening is an understatement.

Star Wars scenes redubbed with various James Earl Jones movies. That was 9 and a half minutes well spent. Thanks to the geniuses at akjak.com for this gem.

It’s Hockey Day in Canada again. What does that mean? It means 13 hours of bliss for a rabid Canadian hockey fan like myself. Not all of the games are in HD this year so we don’t get to bask in hockey clarity all day long. The important game (Canucks @ Leafs) is, but the other two are not. Boo CBC! That really sucks. You can get HD cameras to Nelson, BC for the yackety yack crap but not to Ottawa and Calgary for the games? What’s up with that?

Anyway, here’s the schedule:

Hockey Day in Canada 2007 TV Schedule (in PST)

09:00-11:00 – HDIC live on location (Nelson, B.C.)
11:00-13:30 – Montreal @ Ottawa
13:30-15:00 – HDIC live on location (Nelson, B.C.)
15:30-16:00 – Saturday Night (HNIC pregame show)
16:00-19:00 – Vancouver @ Toronto (Go Canucks Go!)
19:00-10:00 – Edmonton @ Calgary
10:00-10:30 – After Hours (Calgary and Camrose, Alta.)

So we’ll be hearing the Hockey Night in Canada theme many times today. Due to overly enforced copyrights and some other legal problems surrounding Canada’s second national anthem the only legal link to said theme is from CBC’s site and in the rarely used Real Audio. If you have realplayer you can listen to the much loved and oft’ heard Hockey Night in Canada theme [.ram]. However, if you don’t have Real Player and want to listen you can download it or you’re SOL. I’d love to post an MP3 version of the Hockey Night in Canada theme song here however it wouldn’t be long before I’d get an email from CBC’s legal folks asking me to remove it. Sorry folks.

Maybe one day CBC and the theme song’s author will settle their differences and Canadians will be able to listen to and share this theme whenever we like.

We miss you already James Brown. Still not buried but no longer on tour.

Shadow Company is a timely documentary about mercenaries by Canadian filmmakers Nick Bicanic, Jason Bourque and Remy Kozak. Jason and Remy spoke to me about this when we were working together on Daingerfield. As well as the traditional one on one interview, cameras were given to mercenaries themselves in various global hot spots. Also featured is a favourite of mine, the fearless Robert Young Pelton of the World’s Most Dangerous Places books and TV series.

Not unexpectedly, the film appears to be getting some buzz from high places.

Here are a few quotes:

“Takes a thorough and balanced look at the use of private security forces in Iraq and raises serious policy questions,”
U.S. Senator Ted Kennedy (D-MA)

“Shadow Company is a must-see film for anyone who is concerned about our military and our security being privatized.”
Jan Schakowsky (D-IL)

”In addition to being extremely well-executed, I thought its even-handed tone was particularly sophisticated – encouraging an audience to consider the complexity of the issue, rather than the more exploitative depictions with which the subject is usually treated”
Edward Zwick – Director of “Blood Diamond”, Glory, Legends of the Fall

There’s also a review of the doc by writer John Defore in The Hollywood Reporter.

Way to go guys! I can’t wait to see it myself.

There are a few more clips after the jump.
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RAW Data: RAW Essence … Robert Anton Wilson dead. Fnord.