Why Corporations are Assholes: Reason 4957

One final old man moment for now...

I grew up with Pearl Jam, and a fair few images I could directly site the as influences for early in my career. It's good to know the people over at AT&T corporation are keeping us safe from their lyrics. Of course, mainstream media won't ever cover things like this going on. Would be nice though. There's nothing that I hate more than censorship.

Bear in mind this corporation says "Trust us" when it comes to net neutrality and on censorship issues.

Direct from Pearl Jam:

LOLLAPALOOZA WEBCAST: SPONSORED/CENSORED BY AT&T?

08.08.07

After concluding our Sunday night show at Lollapalooza, fans informed us that portions of that performance were missing and may have been censored by AT&T during the "Blue Room" Live Lollapalooza Webcast.

When asked about the missing performance, AT&T informed Lollapalooza that portions of the show were in fact missing from the webcast, and that their content monitor had made a mistake in cutting them.

During the performance of "Daughter" the following lyrics were sung to the tune of Pink Floyd's "Another Brick in the Wall" but were cut from the webcast:

- "George Bush, leave this world alone." (the second time it was sung); and

- "George Bush find yourself another home."

This, of course, troubles us as artists but also as citizens concerned with the issue of censorship and the increasingly consolidated control of the media.

AT&T's actions strike at the heart of the public's concerns over the power that corporations have when it comes to determining what the public sees and hears through communications media.

Aspects of censorship, consolidation, and preferential treatment of the internet are now being debated under the umbrella of "NetNeutrality." Check out The Future of Music or Save the Internet for more information on this issue.

Most telecommunications companies oppose "net neutrality" and argue that the public can trust them not to censor..

Even the ex-head of AT&T, CEO Edward Whitacre, whose company sponsored our troubled webcast, stated just last March that fears his company and other big network providers would block traffic on their networks are overblown..

"Any provider that blocks access to content is inviting customers to find another provider." (Marguerite Reardon, Staff Writer, CNET News.com Published: March 21, 2006, 2:23 PM PST).

But what if there is only one provider from which to choose?

If a company that is controlling a webcast is cutting out bits of our performance -not based on laws, but on their own preferences and interpretations - fans have little choice but to watch the censored version.

What happened to us this weekend was a wake up call, and it's about something much bigger than the censorship of a rock band.

The complete version of "Daughter" from the Lollapalooza performance will be posted here soon for any of you who missed it. We apologize to our fans who were watching the webcast and got shortchanged. In the future, we will work even harder to ensure that our live broadcasts or webcasts are free from arbitrary edits.

If you have examples of AT&T censoring artist performances around political content, it's a good thing for everyone to know about. Feel free to post examples on the official Pearl Jam Message Pit.

Why Corporations are Assholes: Reason 4956

Continuing my angry old bitter man rants... ( after reading this you will understand )

Legal fight over red cross symbol



Medical firm Johnson & Johnson (J&J) is suing the American Red Cross, alleging the charity has misused the famous red cross symbol for commercial purposes.

J&J said a deal with the charity's founder in 1895 gave it the "exclusive use" of the symbol as a trademark for drug, chemical and surgical products.

It said American Red Cross had violated this agreement by licensing the symbol to other firms to sell certain goods.

The charity described the lawsuit as "obscene".

And:

Copyright moves ignite coffee controversy

The Australian coffee industry is furious at news that coffee giant Nestle is trying to get the exclusive rights to images of coffee in a coffee mug.


If Nestle is successful coffee roasters, sellers and even cafes risk breaching copyright if they use images similar to Nestle's

Jamie Hewlett does Vibrators.

Pretty much, yeah.

I mean, what's there left to do now?

Currently crashing in a hotel room, more soon.

Templesmith in America 17: NYC

Well, I came, I saw, I drank, I did the biz, and I left.

Well I tried to leave. New York flooded this morning. Subway knocked out apparently so every human being ( as well as a few other things ) were trying to catch a cab this morning.

The wait on a private car was one hour.

Fuck it then.

We only got a taxi thanks to carpooling abilities and a really nice driver from somewhere close to Ghana. Easiest $140 he's probably made, but good luck getting back into the clusterfuck that is NYC.

Oh, and they lied to me. New York is sleepy as hell. All the big places shut on us just as were always getting hungry. The bars were open however, but even I need something other than alcohol sometimes.

So now, my flight is delayed by 30 mins to an hour, thanks to the backlog of air traffic they have to get through and I'm sat here at the gate wating to go to longbeach on JETBLUE.

If you fly within America ( yes, it's shit at the best of times from my experience ) then please for the love of god ( or whatever other deity you hold to be true ) fly JETBLUE. They got some bad press recently but frankly, they're the best airline for domestic US travel I've ever had. At least, please don't ever tell me you've flown on the maggot blown corpse that is DELTA. I hate them with a passion.

Anyways. JETBLUE. Huge amount of legroom. 36 Channels of Satellite TV and even better, FREE WIRELESS IN THE SHITTY JFK AIRPORT.Oh, and they like to fly direct. Yes, you now don't have to visit Buttfuck, Texas, just because some asshole airline needs to fly through there to get from one side of the continent to the other. I have a 6 hour flight of tv and writing to look forward to...no stops.

This place reminds me of india. ( If I'd ever been to India.) Huge number of people crowded into a shitty old building, sweating their asses off with lots of strange noises, old men hacking up lungs, babies crying...all very pleasant on a day it gets "hot" here on the east coast at a mere 100 degrees. ( which is a warm summers day where I'm from...not that I like it. )

California, I miss you.

Can you tell I'm bored? I have 45 minutes to go.

And I'm turning into an old man. I have grey hair now. Colostomy bag is in the planning stages.

It could be worse. Last time I left NYC, it was an hour before the big blackout. I think I'm pretty damn lucky.

Update with pictures coming soon as I find my bloody camera hookup cable.

Templesmith in America 16: Bollocks.

It started yesterday, but I think whatever it was some people got from the con ( my wife included ) has apparently now decided to take a swing at me now. I feel like arse to be frank, and the sore throat is probably a taste of what is to come.

This will make my trip to Utah fun for sure. I leave in a few hours.

But the title of this post is bollocks, thus, it requires actual balls. And I found some while we were on the freeway. I've never seen truck bollocks before, but I can only guess that the trucker has some sort of statement to make about testicular issues.


If it gets too bad, don't expect a few postings for awhile.



Real truck bollocks.

Look Familiar?

A bit of an homage to my vampire concept designs... the "Templesmith look" heh. By Scott Conner for a short film called "I am Legend" though apparently nothing ever came of it. Check his work out further here: www.illusionmanfx.com. Thanks for showing me Scott!

Templesmith in America 15: My Comic-con Finale

Ok, so after the usual convention stuff, I got whisked away to a greenroom upstairs where people go to prepare for press stuff and bigger official appearances.

Stan Lee was up there. ( Yes, he's still alive ) Liv Tyler was there. Robert Downy Jr was there and so was Ed Norton among others.





Apparently this means Disney employees may only drink warm shitty coke, as opposed to everyone else who gets coffee, tea, water, you name it, on the other side of the room.



After waiting around in the green room, I got taken out to a line of reporters and cameras, all basically looking for a sound bite and asking the same questions about the 30 Days of Night film. I did maybe 9 of those things.

Then it was out of there and into some print journalist press conference, with Josh Hartnett, Sam Raimi, David Slade, Ben Foster, Steve Niles and myself. The questions were much more intelligent and people got to speak a lot more indepth. Sam was incredibly nice and cited my artwork as a big reason for wanting to turn 30 Days into a film. The audio for the interview can be found here.



Then it was of to the big hall, for the public panel and sneak peek at the film. Here's backstage.



And then, we went out there and did the thing.



There weren't many people, as you can see.



Here's a couple snippets where I was vaguely relevant to actually being on the panel. Most of the questions were for Sam. Important things like what his favourite icecream was. Um, yeah.







Then, it was off backstage again for some kind of group shot.



And then it was off to a signing with all of us scribbling on posters. I did a little vamp sketch on basically every single one. Maybe one or two people who got posters had ever read the comic. Ah well.



Then, it was sleepy time. David and I were effing knackered. And that brought the whole thing to a close. We went to dinner and crashed.

Templesmith in America 14: Tuesday Comic-Con Recovery Pt2

Ok, so here's basically what I got up to on the Saturday. My busiest day. Basically it was taken up with a huge signing at IDW Publishing, for which I have no pics as I was so busy and signing of movie posters at the Gentle Giant booth ( who are doing some amazing busts of the movie characters among other things ) and then off to some press stuff and a panel with 7000 people in a gigantic hall as big as Paris Hilton's ego. Ironically, the number of people it holds is also the number of STD's she's contracted over the years too. But more on that in the final Comic-con update I have.

The beginning of what is usually the busiest day or Comic-con. The Saturday. ( Though I didn't see much difference with the Sunday this year. )



Not sure if it was part of the Gentle Giant Booth but hey, who cares? A giant Jabba and Princess Leia slave girl posing. White Slavery is apparently, still kinda cool. Many little girls posed with the model. Truly we have come a long way as a civilization.



This was, perhaps, a mistake.



Jabba. You don't get better than Jabba.



biggest board my name is ever likely to be on I think.

Templesmith in America 13: Tuesday Comic-Con Recovery

Before I get to the final big updates on what I got up to at Comic-con, just got sent a link to a rather extensive article on me, the movie and my other work here.

Heading to IDW today so might not get a chance to update properly until I return from the trip.



Yes. He's a Never Nude.

Templesmith in America 12: A Chat with David Slade

Friday afternoon was the meet up with David Slade, director of HARD CANDY and 30 DAYS OF NIGHT, who was down for the con for a couple days. David is a truly nice bloke, and amazingly wanted to interview me for my spotlight at the con, all about little ol' me, since I was a special guest this year.

Apparently it went ok. People considered us rather funny and humourous, which is good and after awhile I actually got into it. Good crowd too. Well over 100 people. Thanks to those who showed up!








On the way out of the spotlight, we spotted the Redneck Jedi. We couldn't really resist and had to sk him a few questions...





Ahem...after that, we had to head out for a special meeting. David had business, and I was able to tag along and got properly introduced to Grant Morrison and his lovely wife before the Sci Fi party kickstarted. ( hopefully I'll have some interesting news that comes from that one later on! ) I also got to chat with Don Murphy, of Transformers fame among other things.



Sci Fi party...before the Sci Fi party.



Then it was off to the Gentle Giant/Dark Horse party. Among others I got to chat with Mike Richardson about the project we're always threatening to do together and Jeff Henderson, the storyboard artist for 30 Days.



Then off to the William Morris party, which was bloody hard to get into! Still I finally got to have a decent chat with Matt Fraction, rather than a couple of "hey, how are you's" which was super nice. Thought Warren might be there but no dice.



For some reason, a large cauldron with firey stones is apparently cool to have around drunk people.



Convention center on the rooftop at the William Morris party.

Courtesy of David Slade using my camera properly.





More on the con next update.

Templesmith in America 11: Monday Recovery Part 3. Age of Insects

Another booth I did signings at was "Age of Insects". I've done covers for their book 1 and 2 of the same name. Sparky the author thought up an interesting way to get some attention. Drape a girl in cockroaches. Below is some of the results. Check the website for more details, and here to buy the first book.

Templesmith in America 10: Monday Recovery Part 2

Alrighty, here's a few more images from the con. This basically all takes place before the Friday spotlight I did and the big stuff I did on Saturday for 30 Days of Night the film.


Yes. She is a real amputee. This is either very cool, or very sad depending on how you look at it.


Busy. The stench of Nerd Pheromones near overwhelmed me. Even I nearly geeked out.


Recognize this little chap? San cigarette but more on a possible limited edition Wormwood: Gentleman Corpse bust coming soon.









Templesmith. Grr. Arg.

Thanks to Rene for sending me this pic.



Later that night. IDW party. Yes, that guy's back is rather sweaty. Mmmmm, lovely man sweat. The most common element, like hydrogen, in the universe of Comic-con.



3am outside the Hyatt bar. We are among the last to leave.

Templesmith in America 9: Monday Recovery.

So the nerdgasm that is Comic-con is over for another year.

Thank Satan's hairy nutsack.

Today the brain is mush and the body aches. I am surprised to learn Warren Ellis is still alive. I told him so on Sunday too. Hope he's having fun in Arizona now.

What follows is a roughly chronological ejaculation of how it all went down, at least for the wednesday and thursday, before the real fun stuff began which I'll touch upon later. And yes, I did attempt to use the word "ejaculate" in a sense other than the one intended.

Before I say anything else though, I want to give a huge shout out to everyone that came out to meet me, either for a chat or to get books signed. I don't get many chances to meet the peeps who buy the books I do, so it means a lot you guys took the time to make it over to San Diego.



Yeah.



Drinking before signings is recommended at Comic-con. As early as you can fit it in basically.



Drinking with me, was none other than Brett Weldele, an amazing artist who is available for work! Nudge nudge, wink wink. We swapped war stories while in the field of battle.



Back in the con, I was beginning my annual dash between booths...I think it was about 7 this year I had people to meet at and sign at that I've done work for. Quite insane. Frank Beddor and Liz Cavalier for Hatter M, ( with a beautiful new hardcover volume out collecting our Hatter M miniseries ) was one of the first I stopped at and did some signings.



After all that, I did manage to fit in some of the more important activities however. Though amazingly, I think this was one of my more sober years and I had even more fun.

Alrighty, off for some recovery breakfast, then later some of the bigger news of my Comic-con survival experience.