New Media versus Reality

As a long-time fan of Coverville, I was disappointed to learn there'd been some kind of kerfuffle at the Coverville 500 concert being held to celebrate 500 episodes of the podcast. The most common story on the Internet about it is that Richard Cheese, a cover artist who specializes in lounge-style covers (and whose first few albums are fucking fantastic) told the audience not to record his performance, grabbed a dude's camera, threw it at him, and spat at someone else. What a dick, right? Except as usual, the Internet is not so good with nuance. Or details. The whole incident is being blown out of all proportion, and it kinda sucks.

But the real thing that's astonishing me is that all these "new media" "superstars" think that just because they have a blog/podcast/YouTube channel/whatever, they're somehow special snowflakes who can do whatever they damn well please and fuck everyone else. I have news for you - you're not special, you're not an exception, and if you're going to keep recording a show after the performer has told you repeatedly not to, don't be surprised when he gets shitty at you. Don't be a fucking tool. Being in "new media" doesn't make you untouchable. And you commenters on these blog posts about it - you're even bigger no-nothing fuckholes with no grasp of reality for flipping your lids about how Cheese has somehow infringed your "right" to do whatever you want. Reading those comments is like reading YouTube comments with marginally better grammar.

But then again, Internet lol.

And full credit to Dick for trolling an entire audience, Clifton-style. I may've thought Silent Nightclub was ass, but this is proving you're still class.

Bah Humpig

I feel for any of you who're stuck with watching Western media over Chinese New Year, because their bullshit is grating already. First is CNN's constant reference to the "Golden Pig" year being "rare" - bullshit it's rare. It's no more rare than October 10, or any other date or time you can predict 100% accurately in advance and that happens regularly, once per cycle. In this case, it's exactly the same time every 60 years, just like every other combination of zodiac and element in the Chinese system. Is April 3 "rare" because it only happens once every 365 days?

Second is their harping on this. Yes, it's definitely a superstition in these parts - and people are retarded superstitious - but here's a reality check on all that "Golden Pig babies are destined for good fortune" - people born during the last Golden Pig year include:

• Tom DeLay, for whom life must look REAL rosy.
• William S. Burroughs Jr., who despite being born into quite the family managed to fuck it right up.
• Marian Hobbs.
• A fair proportion of the up to 43.5 million Chinese who died in the Cultural Revolution and Great Leap Forward.
• And Subhash Kak, who just has a funny name.

And that's just getting into the K's. Destined for good fortune my comically oversized ass.