Dorjezigzag
20th September 2013, 17:29
Rent in London is so high, along with various stealth taxes it has become unliveable; apparently it is the second most expensive in the world after Monaco which is a tax haven for the super-rich,.
There used to be a whole culture of squatting but this is now been made illegal for residential properties. There is a legal way to have decreased rent by guarding properties, which sounds great in theory but of course even this has become corrupted by those just interested in profit and not the welfare of the residents.
Any way I have been involved in just such a scheme and the downside is that you can be frequently moved around with little notice and where you are placed can be a bit of a lottery. Sometimes you are lucky and get amazing places in great areas, with celebrity neighbours (maybe not always a positive!), other times you literally fall of the property ladder.
Anyway I was in a really nice place and got my marching orders, at the time I was working on a song with a friend, from words I had written some time before. The song was about the whole reality T.V. culture and how we are all, without our consent, becoming a part of this culture, as where ever you go there are surveillance cameras, either Govt ones or those of your friends, who want to plaster your life on Facebook or other social media.
The place I was to move was one of the many Govt buildings that have been shut down for cuts, which I was quite pleased about as it would have lots of space for me to do my Art work. Anyway the particular room I was to move into was still full of junk, which actually put me in a really unsafe situation, so I had to move into another Office.
I could not believe it when I found out that this building was the former CCTV office for a certain London Borough. There was a huge server in one of the rooms that emitted an annoying hum and I thought about pulling out the plug, thinking that there was no way that this could still be the central server, but about a week later a frantic man arrived at my place, sweating and in a state of panic carrying heavy duty masking tape and he proceeded to tape the plug into the socket and told me that I should not under any circumstance remove this plug as it was still functioning and he also taped a big note to this effect.
My friends found it hilarious knowing my views and history that I was living in a former CCTV office whose server was still operational and the synchronicity gave us the incentive to finish the song that I was working on. It is so ironic that a song drawing attention to the evils of surveillance culture was partly written in a CCTV office .
The song remained unproduced and had just been played live, but with all the recent Edward Snowden revelations, whereby even mainstream media are now accepting that virtually nothing is private anymore, we thought we would try and develop it further as I thought it could be a great song that expresses this concern but in a fun way.
So below is where we are now, there has been some really talented people that have worked on this, I am sure they would be fine about me revealing their names, but seeing as I currently choose to go incognito it would be unfair at this stage to reveal theirs.
It is a unique fusion of Jazz, classical and pop, but it is definitely not bubble-gum as it has some edge. I think most on this site will get the video.
Personally I think there can be good music in all genres but I know a lot of people on this site have different musical tastes, with a lot of rock fans but please have an open mind about a song that is trying to express a genuine concern, without being too earnest, about the direction of current culture, or vulture culture.
Enjoy!;)
qttB6JN4488
There used to be a whole culture of squatting but this is now been made illegal for residential properties. There is a legal way to have decreased rent by guarding properties, which sounds great in theory but of course even this has become corrupted by those just interested in profit and not the welfare of the residents.
Any way I have been involved in just such a scheme and the downside is that you can be frequently moved around with little notice and where you are placed can be a bit of a lottery. Sometimes you are lucky and get amazing places in great areas, with celebrity neighbours (maybe not always a positive!), other times you literally fall of the property ladder.
Anyway I was in a really nice place and got my marching orders, at the time I was working on a song with a friend, from words I had written some time before. The song was about the whole reality T.V. culture and how we are all, without our consent, becoming a part of this culture, as where ever you go there are surveillance cameras, either Govt ones or those of your friends, who want to plaster your life on Facebook or other social media.
The place I was to move was one of the many Govt buildings that have been shut down for cuts, which I was quite pleased about as it would have lots of space for me to do my Art work. Anyway the particular room I was to move into was still full of junk, which actually put me in a really unsafe situation, so I had to move into another Office.
I could not believe it when I found out that this building was the former CCTV office for a certain London Borough. There was a huge server in one of the rooms that emitted an annoying hum and I thought about pulling out the plug, thinking that there was no way that this could still be the central server, but about a week later a frantic man arrived at my place, sweating and in a state of panic carrying heavy duty masking tape and he proceeded to tape the plug into the socket and told me that I should not under any circumstance remove this plug as it was still functioning and he also taped a big note to this effect.
My friends found it hilarious knowing my views and history that I was living in a former CCTV office whose server was still operational and the synchronicity gave us the incentive to finish the song that I was working on. It is so ironic that a song drawing attention to the evils of surveillance culture was partly written in a CCTV office .
The song remained unproduced and had just been played live, but with all the recent Edward Snowden revelations, whereby even mainstream media are now accepting that virtually nothing is private anymore, we thought we would try and develop it further as I thought it could be a great song that expresses this concern but in a fun way.
So below is where we are now, there has been some really talented people that have worked on this, I am sure they would be fine about me revealing their names, but seeing as I currently choose to go incognito it would be unfair at this stage to reveal theirs.
It is a unique fusion of Jazz, classical and pop, but it is definitely not bubble-gum as it has some edge. I think most on this site will get the video.
Personally I think there can be good music in all genres but I know a lot of people on this site have different musical tastes, with a lot of rock fans but please have an open mind about a song that is trying to express a genuine concern, without being too earnest, about the direction of current culture, or vulture culture.
Enjoy!;)
qttB6JN4488