Zak Rockstar: May 2006 Archives

Though I have never been a big pirate of the digital movies, I have been a supporter and occasional reader of The Pirates Bay website in Sweden.
They have been a huge advocate and dumping ground of all things copyrighted and downloadable - usually illegal activities under our leagal system, not so much under theirs.
The reason I even know about them is that the sites founder has had an ongoing dialog with Hollywood studios lawyers about the cease and desist orders they keep filing against him. His responses (which are usualy posted on his site) have been hilarious - they usually end with him telling the lawyers that they are in way over their heads trying to fight a vaporous cyberentity like the Pirates bay. His quick lessons in the autonomy of countries and the boundaries of legal systems have been a thorn in the movie industry's side, not to mention the proverbial egg on their faces.
Alas, today the Pirate bay got raided and shut down.
The action is unfolding as I write this, but believe me I will keep us posted on this. It should prove to be a zoo of a trial.
Much more entertaining than Saddams trial.

story 1

“They appear to have persuaded police who are incompetent in IT that the servers in question are full of copyright-protected material. This is a gross misuse of taxpayers’ money.”

“This is the greatest infringement. The Anti-Pirate Bureau has clearly fooled the police into closing down its antagonists, The Pirate Bureau.”

“We are very upset that the film industry doesn’t dare to have a debate , and chooses instead to trick politicians and the police into criminalizing their opponents and a large portion of the Swedish population.”

The Pirate Bay is a BitTorrent tracker, which enables people to download large files such as movies from other users.

story 2

a little Pirate Bay history

In case anyone has forgotten, this is reason number one why David Hasselhoff is a world-renowned entertainer:

Good Lord!
What the hell is that all about?
That video doesn't make sense on so many fronts and yet I could sit here and watch it all day.
I kinda get the sense that David Hasselhoff was given creative license -- a license which was revoked upon completion of the video -- and a weekend in front of a bluescreen for that video.

I was reminded of this video because of the insessant coverage of the american Idol winner over the weekend and this clip that kept on showing up on the news:

I have never seen American Idol, but because of the round-the-clock media coverage of the thing I could tell you quite a bit about that final show, including what the winners names were, who performed on the show and, of course, that David Hasselhoff was crying in the front row.
I don't understand the popularity of this GAME SHOW. Watchers of the show seem to think they are actually choosing something important, that they are particpating in a noteworthy event, when really they are paying to tell some record company which flavor of crap - A or B - they would like to have shoved down their ear holes for the next year.
Things are going to be different when I'm king.
And many, many people responsible for putting american idol together will be the first to feel my wrathful, smitting hand of justice.
And then I will turn my attention to the Hasselhoff.

I was just thinking about Evel Kneivel the other day, and then a huge Sports Illustrated article comes out this week letting us know what the Great One is up to.
The last time I checked in with Evel he was crying about an ESPN ad that called him a "pimp." He completely missed the fact that they were complementing his awesomeness and instead tried to sue them for defamation. And now this sports Illustrated article comes out:

The man who survived 300 perilous motorcycle jumps and once climbed into a rocket-powered cycle to fly over a canyon, now stays close to an oxygen tank, ingests 50 pills a day and sucks on lollipops that deliver fentanyl, a heavy-duty painkiller.

Painkiller Lollipops? That's f---ing brilliant!
That's too bad about Evel though. Evel was my hero growing up. I did a book report on him in about fourth grade that involved my mom making me an Evel Kneivel Star-spangled suit (complete with cape - it takes a real man to wear a cape, especially on a motorcycle).
You hate to think of your heros withering away in Burbank sucking the pain away with medicated lollipops.
He shoulda gone out in a Rocket Car like he wanted to.

Here's a good tribute to 100 years of Harleys.

Guess who's going to be sleeping a little easier once this baby shows up!
I can think of about ten reasons right off the top of my head why a bed-mounted holster might not be a wise thing to have. Most of them involve me taking a slug to the foot in a midnight bathroom-related injury.

Guess who's playing denver tomorrow night?
My new favorite band that I've been aware for about three days now.
Tickets are cheap, we'll see you there.
(Click on the album cover above to get a big version of it. It cracks me up everytime I look at it. It is easily the crappiest hand-drawn 70's rock album knock-off I've ever seen, and believe me, for some reason I have seen more than my fair share of crappy fantasy art.)

I've been meaning to post this gallery of tricked-out japanese trucks.
It's an interesting mix of roadwarrior meets the carnival.
I guess this is as untranslateable across cultures as american low-riders are. If you don't believe me, try and explain why people make low-riders to a European.
Could you imagine a group of those trucks pulling up behind you on a Tokyo freeway?
Oh, that reminds me, on my way home last night I was passed by a Vespa Scooter gang. There must have been 20 of them. I can't say I approve of the whole scooter mentality, but like with everything there is power in numbers.

1 lone dude on a scooter = pretty lame
20 dudes riding in a scooter group = something to behold

It wasn't awe-inspiring, take-your-breath-away stuff, it was more like "huh, there's 20 people riding around together on scooters like some kind of under-horsepowered motorcycle gang. That's interesting."
Alright, now I'm rambling.

Remember, this flat piece of plastic is "Not Available in Stores!"
Apparently at one time in our history Gretna, Louisianna was the countries hub of innovative breakdanicng supplies.
I would venture to guess Gretna is now just a pathetic shell of what it once was during the Break Board boom days of 1986. The "salad days" of breakin', if you will.

Don't forget 6/6/06 is just around the corner and some enterprising young soul has dubbed it National Day Of Slayer.
Pretty much all of the suggested festivities involve playing Slayer at full blast everywhere you go that day.
What day does Pantera get?

Someone at work just turned me onto this band: Wolf Mother.
This isn't their best song (and it talks about "Unicorns", that'd be a big rock n' roll no-no in my book) but this video rocks.

I invented a new word this week: Pricket.
It's for when some a-hole leaves a hand scrawled note on your car telling you what a crappy job you did parking or some other inane observation that serves only to piss you off rather than improve your parking skills in the future.
Use in a sentence:

Some jackass left a Pricket for me on my car! I'd like to hunt him/her down and kick his/her ass!

I didn't actually get a Pricket. I got a real ticket from the parking authority telling me that my license plate has to be mounted to the front of my car rather than wedged in the window (where a cop had told me it was just fine to put it since the mounting brackets on the plate don't fit my car).
I figured this is pretty similar to a pricket -- some a-hole giving me an aesthetic observation about my license plate -- except this ticket cost me $30.
Since when was the parking authority given law-enforcement capabilities?
Will I be fighting this with every ounce of my law skills that I've honed from television's Law & Order ? Yes.
In fact don't be surprised to see this whole scenario play out as a plot on a Law & Order at a future date.