Just got word I’ll be performing at the official nerdcore showcase at SXSW 2012! Hooray. 

Free download of the 3-track Adam WarRock - Parks & Recreation-inspired EP

I’m actually really proud of my guest verse on this Stevie D track 

I made a song about Jane Austen, over the beat to “Moves Like Jagger.” 

No, really…

1. As all good spy movies are, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is more a workplace drama, than it is a straight up spy flick. Old guard replaced by the cutthroat new, nostalgia for the way things used to be, a realization of the drones that the kings of the dominion have traded life, and very well humanity, to have power and prestige. It eschews the more noir-like elements that similar movies focus on, and brings with it a subtle surrender to the inevitability of betrayal and institutionalism, both in the grand and small scheme. It’s a quiet, reserved, tense, and airtight movie that says more with a look than many movies could say with reams of dialogue. It is simply a fucking fantastic movie, in just about every way I can imagine. 

2. When you have Gary Oldman, Colin Firth, Mark Strong, Benedict Cumberbatch and John Motherfucking Hurt on screen almost all at the same time, it’s really hard to say who really made this movie. 

3. The sequence with Peter in the archives towards the middle of the movie is one of the absolute best “did so much with so little” sequences in a movie that I may have ever seen. Tremendous, smart, and barely any tips of the hat. You have to care enough about most of the little things in this movie to get the full effect of some of the clues, and man, when it hits, it hits. 

4. The scene with Oldman speaking to an empty chair, reliving that one moment from his past, is so, so wonderful. I would see the whole movie over again just to see that one scene. 

5. See above. I loved this movie. 

Even some of the illegal usage was likely the kind of activity that approaches what I consider to be victimless piracy: people downloading stuff they already bought but lost, people downloading stuff they missed on TV and couldn’t find on Netflix or iTunes, people downloading stuff they didn’t like and regretted watching or hearing and never would have bought anyway, people downloading a Jonathan Coulton album…and loving it so much that in a year they decide to buy a ticket to a Jonathan Coulton show and walk up to the merch table and hand me $20. I know not everyone will think all of those things are victimless crimes, and even I can admit that some of them maybe kinda sorta have victims, but my point is that you can’t easily say that every illegal download is a lost sale, because it’s a lot more complicated than that. So when you evaluate the “damage” that a site like MegaUpload is causing, you have to think about these things too. The grand jury indictment against them says they’ve caused $500 million in damages to copyright owners. Given the complexity of actual usage on a site like MegaUpload, how can they possibly know that?

You should probably read the entire blog post by Jonathan Coulton about the MegaUpload shutdown and online piracy (link). It’s incredible. 

I really really love the movie No Strings Attached, and I don’t care who knows it. Like, having just watched it for the 3rd time, there really isn’t a part of this movie that I don’t wholeheartedly love. 

So fuck you if you have a problem with it. 

samhumphries:

It’s Great Expectations.

I made a song about how much SOPA sucks, in solidarity with the January 18 internet-wide protest. 

You can download it here (link)