Rotwang

Is it IKEA Benno? I have that too, but in a different colour.

The DC shooting?

I agree. The problem is, they tried. Seen it. Good animation indeed, but the stories didn't do much for me.

Sorry for the lack of response, there aren't so many fullon listeners here I'm afraid. I think it's a good tune, though. Lots of different sections, some of which I like more than others (the dubsteppy bit in the middle is my favourite). Maybe it could even be split into several different tracks and the different ideas could be expanded upon.

But nobody asked them if they wanted to be "liberated" from the matrix, either, so how is that any better? For that matter, nobody asked any of us if we wanted to be born - does that mean we're somehow less free than if we had never existed? And if it does, why is this a problem? Sorry, I don't see it. And I disagree with it, strongly. But the film, as far as I can tell, agrees with it. It portrays Morpheus, Neo and the rest sympathetically, and it portrays Cypher as the villain. It makes the audience root for bad guys, with no hint of ambiguity or irony or self-awareness. That's what I object to: the film is wrong.

But none of that answers my question. Surely most people who've been in jail would agree that life is better outside jail, both in terms of comfort and freedom, and I could easily list ways in which you and I are more free than people in jail. But how are people outside the matrix more free than people inside it? The power structures that determine the ways in which people are and aren't free in the matrix are identical to the ones put in place by real people in the real world in 1999. Why would anyone think the society that humanity would create in a post-matrix world would be any better than the one in the matrix, even ignoring the many evident ways in which the standard of living would be worse? Bear in mind that any such society would be founded by people like Morpheus, who sees no problem with murdering you and your family so he can impose his vision of freedom on the world, and consider how societies created by those kind of people usually turn out.

What kind of "freedom" is living outside the matrix? What are people free to do outside it that they aren't free to do inside it?

Care to expand? It didn't seem like the point of the movie to me.

Sorry to be a downer, but I have to disagree. The philosophical ideas in the movies were old and well-known and IMO the films' sophomoric pontification on those subjects added nothing of value. The first film had a plot that made no sense (How the hell is using humans as a source of energy more efficient than using the stuff you're feeding those humans as a source of energy? Yes, I know they said they fed humans food made from other humans - that wouldn't work, as anybody with a GCSE in physics will be able to tell you. Why didn't the machines just set the matrix in a time before the information age, thereby removing all the humans' means of leaving it or fighting back? Why are Neo and the rest fighting to destroy the matrix when living in the matrix is obviously preferable to living in the ruined present eating slop? Cypher was the good guy, damnit!). Worse than the plot, though, was the disturbing overtone of Nietzschean superiority which enabled the film to portray Neo et al as the heroes while they murdered dozens of innocent people. But I was willing to overlook those failings because they seemed like a necessary hook on which to hang the film's brilliant visual style and innovative action sequences; it was ultimately a dumb action movie (and I don't mean that in a derogatory way) with a daft excuse plot. I would have liked the sequels if they'd been dumb action movies too, but they weren't. They took the ridiculous plot and philosophical pretensions and turned them up to eleven.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O8b5Ru-XUww

Because he's ill, see here for example.

The persistence argument doesn't apply as much as it used to, though, since these days the major online shops like iTunes and Amazon keep a permanent record of your purchases and allow you to redownload anything you've paid for. I guess it's possible that one of those services will go out of business in our lifetimes but I reckon that's less likely to happen than me losing my CD collection to fire/robbery/etc.

+1 As one of the 30-somethings who's still attached to physical media whom mars mentions, I'm very grateful that there are people like mars and Anoebis who are still putting the money and effort into releasing CDs.

I prefer the Orbital track that sampled it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1yJ7t0Y254

You should totally listen to that Axis Mundi album if you haven't already, it's great.

Hello, exit_eternity. I see you've just recently joined Psynews. How's the weather in Stockholm?

Ha, cool.

Very nice.

Sounds great.

^ Ishkur sucks.

Who doesn't like Children?

Check out my post above. I'll also recommend another of their Noel Gallagher collaborations, mainly because it has one of the best music videos ever made: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5FyfQDO5g0