Mashin of The Christ

May 5, 2004 5:35 PM

The Mashin of The Christ "Earlier this month a hacker broke through Negativland's UMN mainframe firewall and stole the final version of Negativland's top-sacred for-internal-use-only "Mashin' of the Christ" video project. Negativland prayed that their in-house project would not make it into the hands of the unsuspecting public, but we all know how hard it can be to stop those "peer to peer" criminals from illegally sharing the property of others."
posted by bob sarabia (37 comments total)

This is the latest project from Negativland, and until now it hasn't gone live. An official download site hasn't been set up yet, but you can download all the torrents here in mpeg, avi, and mp4 format
posted by bob sarabia at 5:36 PM on May 5, 2004

hmm i left the main page, here.
posted by bob sarabia at 5:37 PM on May 5, 2004

Bizarre. Is this some kind of attempt to save themselves from legal liability? Or just to save bandwidth? Or, then again, maybe it's just a stunt.
posted by reklaw at 5:40 PM on May 5, 2004

well, this IS Negativland we're talking about here. :)
posted by 40 Watt at 5:42 PM on May 5, 2004

If you run linux, you probably know what to do.

So true...
posted by togdon at 5:53 PM on May 5, 2004

getting it now--thanks! I bet it's great.
posted by amberglow at 5:56 PM on May 5, 2004

i found it a little strange really. negativland and all. as for those torrents, i'm the only one seeding them right now so they're going to be pretty slow. also, if anyone can seed once you get it, that would kick ass
posted by bob sarabia at 5:59 PM on May 5, 2004

i'll keep it up for at least a day or two.
posted by amberglow at 6:05 PM on May 5, 2004

Glad to see Negativeland doing their thing still.
posted by Eekacat at 6:36 PM on May 5, 2004

If it finishes downloading before I get to work I'll sftp it over there and seed from work. Mmm... insane bandwidth we can't really afford!
posted by substrate at 7:58 PM on May 5, 2004

Is this negativland's way of making an unlicensed illegal video based on the "Passion of the Christ" and they saying, "Crap! Some evil doer stole it from us - we can't be held legally responsible" ?? What the heck is a mainframe firewall anyway?

Cool.
posted by rks404 at 8:35 PM on May 5, 2004

I thought torrents were supposed to be fast? My experience proves otherwise.
posted by ashbury at 9:05 PM on May 5, 2004

Is this some kind of attempt to save themselves from legal liability? Or just to save bandwidth? Or, then again, maybe it's just a stunt.

Lest there be any further doubt expressed on this point -- for I don't think I could bear to read it -- yes, it is all the above. I don't think it's meant to be difficult to guess that. It's a legal barrier whether it's obvious or not.
posted by sfenders at 9:14 PM on May 5, 2004

After watching this, I quickly came to the realization that Christianity is stupid, that I should give up and that Communism is good. That is all.
posted by fatbobsmith at 9:15 PM on May 5, 2004

I love negativland.

Thanks for posting this, I'll seed for a couple days after I get it.
posted by leaveok at 9:16 PM on May 5, 2004

I thought torrents were supposed to be fast?

see above. the more people you have with completed files and the more people sharing, the faster it is. My burst client says that 29 people are sharing and only 1 is complete, thus slowness.
posted by bob sarabia at 9:34 PM on May 5, 2004

godamnit. that link should go here
posted by bob sarabia at 9:38 PM on May 5, 2004

Thanks bob. It's not just this torrent (actually, this is the fastest one I've ever had which was cruising along at 45 kb/s) but most of the others that crawled so slowly that I had to put them out of their misery. I realize that the more people there are sharing, the faster it goes - I guess because it's still relatively new few people have the programs.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to seeing this.
posted by ashbury at 9:55 PM on May 5, 2004

Is this negativland's way of making an unlicensed illegal video based on the "Passion of the Christ" and they saying, "Crap! Some evil doer stole it from us - we can't be held legally responsible" ?? What the heck is a mainframe firewall anyway?

Hell, it worked for Ford and their advertising agency, didn't it?
posted by antimony at 10:00 PM on May 5, 2004

Plausible deniability... I love it! Keep on truckin', Negativland!
posted by Down10 at 10:05 PM on May 5, 2004

From 5 o'clock in the morning, 'till 10 o'clock at night! Give up! Give up!

Michael Jackson! Look what you've done!

Oh! I feel better already. Gonna have to break out the 409 on that one.
posted by loquacious at 12:18 AM on May 6, 2004

And yeah, it's a stunt. Just like the one they did that went something like "Our music has nothing to do with this!"

Was that Columbine? Can't remember. Just play the record. Play the fuckin' record already. Fuck snuggles.
posted by loquacious at 12:22 AM on May 6, 2004

Right here on the station you grew up with, Music Radio 1-3-8 -- oh, fuck.
posted by Vidiot at 12:29 AM on May 6, 2004

Thanks bob. It's not just this torrent (actually, this is the fastest one I've ever had which was cruising along at 45 kb/s) but most of the others that crawled so slowly that I had to put them out of their misery. I realize that the more people there are sharing, the faster it goes - I guess because it's still relatively new few people have the programs.

Odd. I regularly get over 300kb/s on the torrents I download.
posted by Jairus at 12:57 AM on May 6, 2004

I regularly get over 300kb/s on the torrents I download.

Me too. I'll grab a copy and start to seed as soon as I get home.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 2:03 AM on May 6, 2004

Pulling more than 300K/s right now. Torrent is teh rock.
posted by cortex at 9:33 AM on May 6, 2004

i'll keep it up for at least a day or two.

Wow. Do you need a prescription for what you're taking?
posted by ZenMasterThis at 10:47 AM on May 6, 2004

Copyright infringement is your best entertainment value.
posted by Hlewagast at 11:33 AM on May 6, 2004

Wow. Do you need a prescription for what you're taking?


Sure...like that ad about the guy with a "new confidence and outlook" and "a spring in his step" ; >
posted by amberglow at 12:41 PM on May 6, 2004

I feel a bit daft here. I got the torrent, but I can't break past the "Couldn't open the file because it is not a file that QuickTime understands" firewall.

Is this one of those newfangled divx things?
posted by mosch at 1:08 PM on May 6, 2004

previous post no longer neccessary. local geek hooked me up with vlc.
posted by mosch at 1:14 PM on May 6, 2004

i'll keep it up for at least a day or two.

Wow. Do you need a prescription for what you're taking?

I think it's called Cialis and yes you need a prescription
posted by leaveok at 2:18 PM on May 6, 2004

Is this one of those newfangled divx things?

it's avi....try mplayer if you're on a mac.
posted by amberglow at 3:32 PM on May 6, 2004

To get your DivX on in QuickTime, install this little sucker raht here. You might have to run your movies through DivX Doctor to get sound... ah, f-it. Local geek was right about VLC. But MPlayer would probably work too.

I can't believe I found out about a new Negativland item through MeFi. For the record, that means [this is good].
posted by britain at 3:38 PM on May 6, 2004

Sigh. I was expecting something a little more pointed than this - instead, it's a rehash of "Christianity Is Stupid" mated with a jumble of Jesus movie scenes and communist newsreels with no discernable purpose in mind. This is a real case of been there, done that for them. It doesn't even manage to be offensive visually.

Sorry, but I think this is just so-so.
posted by pyramid termite at 3:55 PM on May 6, 2004

I don't know--i think it made some good visual parallels.
posted by amberglow at 3:59 PM on May 6, 2004

Yeah I thought it was pretty lame too. But then, not everything can be dispepsi.

Well, and the braceheart clip at the end was hilarious, other than that though: meh.
posted by kavasa at 4:57 PM on May 6, 2004