I have found a link to the full resolution version of Mashin' of The Christ. Someone should make a working torrent of this available.

Update: Working torrent at Demonoid: http://www.demonoid.com/torrents/details/80043/

The Mashin' of The Christ, MPEG2 [168M]

This April a hacker broke through Negativland's UMN mainframe firewall and stole the final version of Negativland's top-sacred for-internal-use-only "Mashin' of the Christ" video project. Negativland prayed that their in-house project would not make it into the hands of the unsuspecting public, but we all know how hard it can be to stop those "peer to peer" criminals from illegally sharing the property of others.

And what exactly did these hackers steal from Negativland??

"The Mashin' of the Christ" was/is Negativland's top-secret-not-for-viewing video response to the number one film in America. Negativland decrypted, downloaded and mashed up the most violent religious film ever made along with over 27 other Hollywood portrayals of Jesus to create their own vision of the last moments of Christ's life... all in four minutes and 14 seconds. Is Christianity still stupid? Is Communism still good? Negativland hoped that no one would ever find out for sure.

But that hope was dashed on Easter Sunday, 2004, when the video project was stolen from Negativland's hard drive, and then, just last week, released onto P2P networks worldwide. Negativland's friends and lawyers who had seen "The Mashin' of the Christ" had strongly advised against a public release ever occuring (the "anti-circumvention" provision of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act says that doing this sort of decryption to make collage is illegal), but since God is said to see all secrets, only the public is left to be surprised by this unauthorized birth from Negativland. Voracious pirating of this work has spread across the Net and in the last few days high-resolution versions of "Mashin'" have even been appearing on P2P networks disguised as a complete copy of "The Passion of the Christ."

This was recommmended to me and I thought I would pass it on.

'The Mashin' of the Christ'

Trudeau has finally gotten around to addressing the passing of HST in Doonesbury. Check the comic before the linked one as well.

Doonesbury - Uncle Duke's head explodes

This Canadian television show is more funny then anything currently airing in the states. It follows a group of guys who live in a trailer park community as they go about doing crimes in the style of a fake reality show.

Trailer Park Boys

... so I joined the NSA. Life is a game of patterns and chance. Be the craziest. Triple triple.

Eight minutes of flash you will enjoy.

God Speaks To Me Through Scrabble...

A quick, entertaining piece. What M.C. Escher would do with flash.

The Zoom Quilt: A collaborative art project

] The event was a "table read," when the cast of "The
] Simpsons" gathered with a roomful of writers, producers
] and guests, using their imaginations to conjure up the
] animated family with the distinctive mustard hue.

] Actors, producers and writers sit at a massive conference
] table littered with water bottles and note pads. Invitation-
] only visitors ring the table. (Noticeably absent are the
] network executives who always haunt rehearsals; "The
] Simpsons" has a rare stipulation, won by executive
] producer James L. Brooks, limiting Fox meddling.)

] "It's sort of the hottest ticket on the lot," said Yeardley
] Smith, who voices young Lisa, the wise Simpson daughter.

] After all these years, Jean has developed his own script
] shorthand: a check mark for a joke that gets a laugh, an
] "X" for one that falls flat. "Something that's sweet but
] doesn't necessarily get a huge laugh will stay in," Jean said.

It would be interesting to see a store with more detail that follows the script creation process.

The making of a Simpsons episode

[Not Work Safe] ... Unless you work at an ISP or a net company where these things are considered fact, or at the very least valid commentary on most people's internet usage.

Supposedly this is the funniest song from Avenue Q. I see no reason to dispute that, but after pulling up the song list for Avenue Q's sound track on iTunes I get the impression its far from being alone.. Click through to the discussion for more links.

The Internet is for Porn

] President Bartlet (Martin Sheen): I like how you call
] homosexuality an abombination.
]
] Jenna Jacobs: I don't say homosexuality is an
] abomination, Mr. President, the Bible does.
]
] President Bartlet: Yes, it does. Leviticus.
]
] Jenna Jacobs: 18:22.
]
] President Bartlet: Chapter and verse. I wanted to ask you
] a couple of questions while I have you here. I'm
] interested in selling my youngest daughter into slavery
] as sanctioned in Exodus 21:7. She's a Georgetown
] sophmore, speaks fluent Italian, always cleared the table
] when it was her turn. What would a good price for her be?
] While thinking about that, can I ask another? My Chief of
] Staff Leo McGarry insists on working on the Sabbath.
] Exodus 35:2 clearly says he should be put to death. Am I
] morally obligated to kill him myself or is it okay to
] call the police? Here's one that's really important
] because we've got a lot of sports fans in this town:
] touching the skin of a dead pig makes one unclean.
] Leviticus 11:7. If they promise to wear gloves, can the
] Washington Redskins still play football? Can Notre Dame?
] Can West Point? Does the whole town really have to be
] together to stone my brother John for planting different
] crops side by side? Can I burn my mother in a small
] family gathering for wearing garments made from two
] different threads? Think about those questions, would
] you?

The West Wing has some great writers.

The West Wing

There is something about the gallery sales model that is very broken.. It just kinda hit me, (again) last night^Wmorning, when I was trying to get to sleep.. You can't really put a price tag next to something you have to experience to know the value of.

When I see an art gallery, and there is a price tag.. I always look at the tag. And after, I always realize that was a real dick thing to do. But one cannot really be a lover of art and not be a lover of information. (I think so anyway..) When presented with them both at the same time, it presents an odd conundrum for markets of art (and maybe all information). I have not seen an answer to this problem.

Walking back from the market.. The really big one that has everything cheaper but is farther away then the corner stores that have most of the stuff I need. The one I go to when I'm not in a rush.. The friend I was walking with noticed a little tucked away gallery of rock fountains on the walk back. Great place for it. We ducked in. I gave a quick look at all the pieces, and there were tags.. So I looked at them. Every expensive, first thing I think. Immediately I'm judging these rock fountains like pieces of rock.. Wondering about materials and time.. Shit like that. Wrong chunk of the brain kicks in.. I'm not in a gallery, I'm in Home Depot. The thought process is more then happy to roll on its path, starbucks triple venti latte in hand.

Now, I'm also the last person to be buying a rock fountain. I'm sure that plays in. I definitely don't have the bling to drop on anything like that right now, or a place to put it.. I think the key to all art, is feeling/finding a connection with either the artist, the process of making the art, the process of getting the art "out", or at the very least getting what the art has to say. Its certainly not a well placed display with prices alone. That will only create a more of a market for commodity products.. Not something deeper. The ground we wish to walk on isn't as solid as it appears.

Hmm.. In certain contexts each piece of art is a one-item thing. Its not like music or movies where the entire process is pushed in a the directions of making each viewer of the art pay. Movie tickets, CDs, performing rights tracking, etc.. With these things, its possible to construct a market, I think. And eventually we will. However, the rock fountain people, DougZ, and many others I know will still have a problem.. There is no market for artists. Just product.

These are old thoughts.. Others have pounded the same points. I know, I've read it all somewhere before.