21st Century Trawling

by Greg Levrault

Well, this is it for 21st Century Trawling. It's been fun, but not quite enough. I'll explain it in a list, since everybody likes those:

FIVE THINGS THAT MADE FILE-SHARING WORTH IT:

1) BEN FOLDS FIVE AT KCRW STUDIOS

From Napster on down, my first search has always been for Ben Folds material. I've got all his albums, I saw him play live four times last year, I'm probably going to name my son after him. So it was a treat to discover recordings of a radio show featuring the Ben Folds Five with a backing orchestra. I still haven't heard anything about these recordings being released for sale anywhere, and I never would have found them without the Internet.

If two people in the world believe that a song or a performance is worth saving, that's enough to keep that work alive in the cultural subconscious: the live concert performance of "Freebird" by the alterna-rock band Superdrag; Wayne Coyne and a piano "Waiting for Superman"; the night Aretha Franklin stepped in for Luciano Pavrotti at the Grammys and hit it out of the park; the Dave Matthews Band "Lillywhite Sessions"; Robin Williams singing "Blame Canada"...

2) REAMONN - "SUPERGIRL"

My second search, consistently, is for songs about Superman, who I'll probably name my second son after. And I'm consistently amazed at how many songs about Superman there are. That's how I found that Five For Fighting song six months before it was all over the radio; then there's Eminem, Goldfinger, Crash Test Dummies, Flaming Lips, Shaquille O'Neil, REM... Anyway, the best song of the bunch was actually called "Supergirl", by Reamonn. Why have you never heard of Reamonn? Because they're from Germany (but they sing in English). Because of the track, I discovered their first album: catchy as Matchbox 20, dressed in black turtlenecks.

That's another thing that file-sharing did, gave me the chance to find new voices: Straw, Drunken Tiger, Badly Drawn Boy, Krystal Harris, Volovan, Steve Forbert... Okay, so Steve Forbert isn't new, but when was the last time you heard "Romeo's Tune" on the radio?

3) SIFL N' OLLY

Y'hear that new song "United States of Whatever" on the radio? It's a catchy tune by Liam Lynch. If it charts, it'll be the first time a sock puppet had a hit song since Kermit sang "Rainbow Connection". "United States of Whatever" was one of the most popular songs on "The Sifl n' Olly Show", back when MTV had people writing comedies. It lasted two seasons; the third was supposed to come out in Europe or their website. But it would have languished in oblivion if not for rabid fans and file-sharing networks.

Plenty of cult shows are floating around exclusively on the Internet, because not everything goes into syndication.

Is your favorite episode of "Mystery Science Theater 3000" not on video?

Do you remember "The Ben Stiller Show" or "The State"?

Do you miss She-Ra?

Try a file-sharing network; there's probably someone who misses it as much as you.

4) BATTLE ROYALE

One of Japan's biggest movies in 2001, "Battle Royale" will never hit U.S. theaters for one reason: Columbine. "BR" is a satire where an island of kids kill each other off for the chance to get into the right college. And I never would have seen this genius flick, if not for Kazaa. When you know what to look for, you can find some genuine cinematic treasures on the Internet.

"The Ring" was a big Hollywood movie last Halloween; the original Japanese version "Ringu" was better.

"Kabhi Kushi Kabhi Gham" showed me that there's an entire continent full of "Moulin Rouge"-style musicals.

And as for the unreleased Mr Show movie "Run Ronnie Run" starring David Cross and Bob Odenkirk, all I can say is SEE IT. KEEP IT ALIVE.

5) MORE THAN TOAST - "UNDERGROUND"

Like I said, I'm a big Ben Folds fan, but he's never had a great video. Until I discovered the More Than Toast production for "Underground" (I wrote about this last issue). MTT opened me up to this entire world of fan-made videos and music.

Type in "anime music video" or "AMV" and look at the endless list of mixtape mashnotes featuring your favorite characters from Dragonball Z or Sailor Moon.

Type in "fanvid" to find video clip tributes to Xena, Smallville, Buffy, Roswell, and the odd star attraction (somebody out there wants to drive Natalie Portman home.)

Try "mashup" to find bastard pop videos by artists like Eclectic Method and Cartel Communique (except for the Frank Sinatra video. If you consider yourself a patriotic American, it might not be your cup of tea.)

Those are the treasures I'm managed to find in my time. Now you know the names, and you can look for them yourself.

Another list:

FIVE REASONS I'M SWEARING OFF FILE SHARING

1) WORK

Three of my four current jobs require my computer. There's a certain degree of security that my workstation has to have now. Being connected with a P2P network, being potentially connected with thousands of anonymous computers simultaneously, open to spyware and Trojans... that's a bad setup. So I have to let it go.

2) LEGALITIES

I've wrote about this, and so has Parker. My big argument for file-sharing has been that it provides access to media I can't simply buy. But the Internet shuts that argument down. Even if you can't get what you're looking for down the street, you can probably purchase it on the Internet.

In the first week of April, the RIAA filed lawsuits against three college students that allowed their classmates to trade music files through their hard drives. That concerns me, as well.

3) THE WELL'S GOING DRY

Are connections slowing down? Are people clearing out their hard drives? Are people just leaving the services? For whatever reason, I'm finding the same collection of music and movie files.

At the same time, I'm finding new stuff just by Googling around, lurking through chat boards and stuff. The stuff that really excites me, the artists that create their own works for Internet consumption don't rely on file-swapping services; they work out of their own websites.

4) THE SMUT FACTOR

I already know about R. Kelly. I don't need to see the proof. And it's not just the porn, although there's way too much of it. There's so many wannabe Jackass stunts, and deaths caught on videotape, and kids videotaping themselves smoking pot, and way too many shots of the World Trade Center towers falling... and UFO sightings. All these things appeal to the baser elements of humanity, and I'm just not interested in it. It seems to be all that I find lately, however.

5) SILENCE

I'm writing this last paragraph, not knowing if anyone'll actually read it. This column has felt progressively irrelevant to me, like writing about the latest hairstyles to hit Sikeston's beauty parlors. Maybe it's just the mood of the nation. Maybe I just want to go outside. But I'm through.

If you have any thoughts you'd like to share, I'm djelvis@sbcglobal.net