In the last half decade, magic—normally deemed entertainment fit only for children and tourists in Las Vegas—has become shockingly respectable in the scientific world. Even I—not exactly renowned as a public speaker—have been invited to address conferences on neuroscience and perception. I asked a scientist friend (whose identity I must protect) why the sudden interest. He replied that those who fund science research find magicians “sexier than lab rats.”
Here’s a rundown on the best albums that came out in 2012, in no particular order.
Westwinds – The Real McKenzies
Every song by this band makes me want to hold a drink up high in one hand, wrap my other arm around your shoulders and sing along at the top of my lungs. It being the end of the year, a time for a reflection, check out The Real McKenzies’ ode to MLK, The Message. Here is a gift for you to keep. There’s a message you can hear all over the world if you only try. To all those who worry about this troubled world, we can change it all today.
Uno / Dos / Tre – Green Day
Really three albums, but they might as well as been a three-disc release. Putting aside the claim by some of my friends that Green Day ripped off the Mr. T Experience sound, these guys keep making music I can listen to on repeat. Everyone in the family enjoys it, which makes it good roadtrip music. Plus, the ElSob world view matches up pretty close to MTZ: Well I don’t want to be an imbecile. But Jesus made me that way… I think X-Kid might be the best track, but The Forgotten was the name of my teenage punk rock band. I can’t bring myself to share the video since it has all these distracting scenes from the last Twilight movie in it.
Rebirth – Jimmy Cliff
I knew this album would be great after last year’s Sacred Fire EP. His version of Guns of Brixton might be better than the original.
Acoustic Volume Two – Tony Sly & Joey Cape
It certainly was a terrible loss when Tony Sly passed away this year. I was looking forward to many more years of his music. Visit tonysly.org for more info about him and donate to help support his family if you can afford it.
S/T – OFF!
Keith Morris is 57 years old. You are probably younger and not rocking as hard. What do you have to say for yourself?
Here’s a new tradition for East Bay families. Christmas fishing.
The state Department of Fish and Game this month is releasing thousands of trout into more than a dozen Bay Area lakes to the delight of local anglers.
The department announced it would release more than 30,000 pounds of rainbow trout in Bay Area lakes during the month of December. Some of the fish weigh as much as two pounds.
The guys who produced the Minecraft documentary, available tomorrow to buy on DVD, just released a torrent of it on Pirate Bay. Kudos to them! It’s a powerful demonstration of freedom, and I’m sure it will be a huge success.
This is 2 Player Productions here, and we hoped we could be the first to upload our new movie “Minecraft: The Story of Mojang”. We’ve never uploaded a torrent before so hopefully this isn’t all screwed up.
We wanted to come here first because we knew the movie would end up here eventually, and the best thing to do seemed to be opening a dialogue. Torrents and piracy are a way of life and it probably won’t be going anywhere anytime soon. There are many people that want to punish you for that, but we have a more realistic outlook on things.
We’ve been there. We’ve all needed to do it at some point. Maybe you don’t have the money. Maybe you want to try before you buy. Maybe you’re pissed at us for premiering the movie on Xbox Live. These are all fine reasons. But if you feel that piracy is, in Gabe Newell’s words, “a service problem,” please consider that we are selling DRM free digital downloads that you can watch in whatever manner you please.
We’re just three guys trying to make a living doing what we love. We love the world of video games, and we love making it real. If you buy the movie, you support those efforts. The reason we Kickstarted this movie in the first place was that we didn’t have enough money to make it ourselves, and even then, we still put A LOT of our own money into it. Not to mention nearly two years of work.
Watch the movie. Hopefully you’ll like it, and understand what we’re trying to do. Please consider supporting us by buying the $8 DRM-free digital download of the movie at www.theminecraftmovie.com, or the $20 DVD from www.fangamer.net.
We’ve worked with a lot of amazing people in the games industry and had the incredible fortune to make some great films the way we wanted to make them. Please consider helping us continue on this path. The best has yet to come.
Log into mc.intangir.org from Minecraft and you’ll find a world kept free of authoritarian psychopaths. The kids and I have essentially been doing the same thing with our private server where the motto is “Be peaceful and fill in holes”. It’s been a great tool for us to practice non-violent communication and generally how to cooperate.
There have been opportunities for conflict that lead to intense discussions and then to peaceful resolutions. Likewise, we’ve worked together on several large projects.
I’m looking forward to introducing this public server to my kids.
Q. What is the Voluntaryist website for? A. This site is intended to promote the philosophy of voluntaryism as it might apply in both the game of Minecraft, and also in real life. This site is also intended to promote Intangir’s Voluntaryist Minecraft server where this philosophy is strongly encouraged and nurtured.
Q. What is Voluntaryism?
A. Voluntaryism is a philosophy which states that all interactions in society should be mutually voluntary, and those actions which are not (coercion) should be abolished. It is a clarification on the concept of anarchy which recognizes that abolishing rulership must necessarily also prohibit the means of rulership: initiation of aggressive force. This concept is used to avoid the assuption that most people jump to upon hearing the word anarchy, which is chaos. A true anarchy (voluntarism) is one which recognizes that all attempts to rule, initiate force, or coercion are violations of human rights and have no place in peaceful civilized society. A simple idea with far reaching implications!
