Polaski on Polaski. Either Gay sex with my twin, or an interview with myself.
I was lucky enough to get the chance to sit down with Jason Polaski for an interview. He usually doesn’t give interviews, but it helps that we’re the same person. I have indulged in the ultimate act of arrogance. I have interviewed myself, and the really sick thing is that I actually enjoyed it a lot, I babbled on to myself for quite a while. The interview’s below. Jason asks the questions, Polaski answers them.
Jason. So, how bout you introduce yourself.
Polaski. This is stupid as shit. Its a gimmick.
Jason. Yeah, but its your gimmick, so why don’t you go ahead.
Polaski. This is a goddamned stupid thing to do, but ok. I’m Jason Polaski, I go to college at the university of Connecticut, and I’ve started a bblog.
Jason. Speaking of that, what’s up with the blog anyway? Whose going to read it?
Polaski. That’s what I’m trying to find out. You hear about these guys who get millions of hits every day, and they aren’t even famous or good looking, at least, they weren’t famous before they had a blog. Its just Joe shmow, or Jill Shmill, for that matter, and they decided to post about begonia’s or there yeast infection or politics or books or whatever and suddenly they have this huge following. I wanted to see if starting from absolutely nothing I could achieve something like that, or at least modest success.
Jason. So what’s the blog about.
Polaski. Search me.
Jason. No, seriously.
Polaski. Seriously, I have no idea. The title of it is Pages and Rages, because I read a lot of books and get pissed off about a lot of stuff, and because those two things are the most prevalent things in my intellectual life, I figured it was a natural starting point. But honestly, if I spend more than fifteen minutes thinking about it, I’ll probably end up posting it. Whatever occupies my interest will be blogged about which cuts down on the blog’s coherency, but will keep me amused.
Jason. So what’s the reaction been like so far?
Polaski. Shit. Seriously, I’m about to pull a Phoebe Prince.
Jason. Right. So lets get to the personal stuff. You got any religious views.
Polaski. Yeah, but they aren’t flattering.
Jason. Can you elaborate on that?
Polaski. Its all shit. Its all just a big mythology, doesn’t matter what the religion is.
Jason. So you hate religious people.
Polaski. Not at all, some religious people are nice, some of them are friends of mine. I just view the entire thing… Like model trains. Some people go nuts over model trains. They have entire countries of model trains, schedules, different engines. They go down to the basement and tinker with the things. When they ask me if I want to take a look, I do, but just a look. I’m not going to go look at model trains all the time, because that’s not my thing. I respect there interest, even if I think its a little weird, but its just a part of there life I don’t really care to be involved in. That’s basically how I feel about religion.
Jason. OK, political views.
Polaski. Somewhere between a rightward leaning fiscal conservative and a leftward leaning social democrat. I hate the moral majority, hate the socialists claiming to be democrats. Its complicated. Sort of libertarian, but some libertarians are also crazy. Economically, I’m pretty conservative, I want low taxes, free markets, that kind of thing, but socially, I want really the same thing. The government to allow any action that doesn’t hurt anyone. I’m for legalization of pot, guns, abortion the death penalty and I really hope that smoking indoors is brought back before next winter.
Jason. So sort of libertarian.
Polaski. Yeah, in a lot of ways. The government should stay out of a lot of things. Mairage, for example. Its not the governments business who marries who, or whose fucking whom. It shouldn’t be a concern. I also think the government shouldn’t be fucking about with companies too much. Corporate taxes should be low, and regulations should be made to address a need, not to craft policy. Companies shouldn’t be allowed to hurt people, by poisoning the environment or starting monopolies, but they shouldn’t be gelded just to appease the spirit of Ted Kennedy. But I also think a lot of spending is extremely vital in certain area’s like defense and education, which a lot of libertarians will disagree with. I think the government should be very involved in some things, and really leave other’s alone.
Jason. Got a favorite brand of cigarette?
Polaski. Anything without a filter, or newports. I smoke a pipe, cigars, and hookah. Really, if it burns and has nicotine, I’m down.
Jason. Favorite drink?
Polaski. Beer, either Coors or Guinness, anything cheap on tap. Gin and tonic, good red wine. I hate shots of straight liquor, but always end up pounding them anyway.
Jason. What do you like for music.
Polaski. Mainly shitty rap. I love going to clubs and listening to awful rap music, it sets the perfect atmosphere for what I’m looking for.
Jason. And what’s that?
Polaski. No comment.
Jason. Any other music you’re into besides rap?
Polaski. I’m really digging a lot of classical lately. Bach’s the shit, can’t go wrong with anything by Bach. Vivaldi, similarly is great. Beethoven is also solid. Handle, Montiverty, and lately I’ve been listening to a lot of misorski.
Jason. OK, so part of your blog is about books, what do you read?
Polaski. Honestly, I’ll read anything. Its a matter of what I can get my hands on. I was stuck reading books written before 1950 a year or so ago, so I read them. But if have my choice, a lot of science fiction and fantasy, and a lot of biography and history. Some mystery, some other random stuff that doesn’t necessarily have a category.
Jason. Any final remarks?
Polaski. Read the blog. Tell your friends. Make me rich. I’m on twitter as Jasonpolaski, follow me there for pithy updates
Jason. Thank’s for the interview.
Polaski. Shut up, jackass, this is the beginning of multiple personality disorder. It creeps me out.
Pages & Rages 
The problem with Internet Piracy. Its too easy
Lets have a race. Lets see which one of us can get a copy of any movie that’s been in theaters longer than two weeks, any album that’s going to come out within the next three months, and any season or episode of any TV show as long as its kept a fan base after cancellation.
I’ll win. I don’t know where you’ll go to buy it, but I’ll steal it and win.
Well, I won’t really steal anything, but I easily could.
If you go to sites like thepiratebay.org and type in whatever the hell you want, be it music, TV show or movie, within less than ten seconds you’ll be downloading it. If you wanted to get a free copy of every pink floid album ever from now until the first bit came to your hard drive would be about the time it takes you to open a new tab and type ten words.
If
http://thepiratebay.org/ doesn’t have what your looking for, go to Google and type the title in plus the word torrent, and, within ten seconds you’ll have it.
This is the problem facing the entertainment industry today. They’re stupid.
The reason they’re stupid has to do with why people steal media. Partially, of course, its that it saves one a lot of money but the other, and much more significant reason is that its so easy!
Its easier than doing almost anything else. Its two in the morning. I can’t sleep so I’m lying in bed writing this post. It’d be easier and faster for me to download the new Snoop Dogg album than it would be for me to get up and get a drink of water.
Its been this way for almost ten years. And the big media companies are still years behind when it comes to getting it. They remind me of dinosaurs.
Companies such as Hulu, Spotify and Netflix are a start, but they are hobbled by lack of content. Because what I can steal on the Internet is, well, basically infinite. Almost any piece of entertainment published since Charlie Chaplin with no commercials.
Stealing is not made any less wrong by how easy it is, but this is easier than taking candy from a baby with no hands. This is like not taking money someone’s waving under your nose. Its like falling into a fifty foot deep pool of cash and coming out of it as broke as you went in.
I’m making a prediction. Its general because predictions are too often wrong for me to get cocky. Within the next ten years we are going to see an easement on the ways in which we get content.
The way TV ratings are gathered is quaint. Random people are asked to participate. They are given logbooks and are supposed to write down what they watch. At the end of certain periods all this is collected and then from this sample neilson decides how many people watched a certain show.
But it is becoming increasingly irrelevant who watched what last night on TV, because if they missed it last night they can steal it today, or, they could have tevoed it or they can look it up on Hulu or Netflix or wait and buy it on DVD.
What I don’t understand is why these businesses have been slow to react.
Congress shares some of the blame. Watch this. I’m about to write some anti-piracy legislation. “the web site
http://thepiratebay.org/ is a criminal organization purveying billions of dollars a year in stolen content. It flouts copyright law with contempt and hereby shall be blocked entirely by all Internet providers in the united states.” Don’t get all civil liberties on me, we do the same thing for kiddy porn.
Other web sites would replace thepiratebay the minute after the legislation was passed, but when the top album torrents on the site are almost going gold, the only excuse congress has is… Well, that its congress and is only good at blaming others and sitting on its ass.
Free content is out there, and its probably not going away. Even if we cracked down hard on torrent sites there will be blogs that share content and private networks which will grow through word of mouth. And even if we could eliminate Internet piracy there are still cd burners. Remember those? Way back in the late 90’s and early two thousands, when I still knew how much a CD cost, me and my friends would go to the store, we’d each buy a cd, and then that day we’d burn them all for each other. Technology makes media easy to disseminate.
The only thing the media companies can do is to outslut the pirate bay and the other sites exactly like it. People don’t mind watching commercials, and don’t mind paying reasonable prices for the content they love.
Hulu is a mockery of its illegal competitors because it offers less content at higher prices. People can steal shows, films, and albums they can’t buy. Unreleased projects leak, and thepiratebay doesn’t give a shit about problems with licensing. Netflix should be larger. I should be able to go on Netflix and watch whatever I want whenever I want. I should be able to pay by the episode or watch it free with advertising.
The reason people don’t steal coffee and bagels from your favorite breakfast place is because its easier to ask the guy behind the counter for “one onion with a large decaf with skim,” than it is to try and run into the kitchen and take it.
Well, right now that’s reversed in the entertainment industry.
I don’t know who you guys are that run these big companies, but I can tell your old. Well, let me tell you something. Everyone under about twenty-five knows what I’m talking about. Stealing is easier than everything except breathing and until you guys figure that out and adapt to how the world is you’ll keep losing money and looking stupid and culture will continue to suffer through its devaluation which your lack of twenty-first century savvy precipitated.
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