M Is FOR MASHUP - RERUN - November 13th, 2013
Rock 'N' Mash 'N' Killer Tunes
By DJ Useo
A couple months back I was feeling the urge to mix. I'd been enjoying Robert Plants' "In The Mood", so I cut and looped an instrumental, leaving most of the Plant vocals on the floor. The first acapella ( vocals only ) that struck me as a worthy pairing to the great Plant song was Yes's "Leave It".
I also liked the idea of mixing two tracks that were from the same time period. I'm certain that neither song has ever been mashed before. So for a short time each session over three days I adjusted the mix to make it tighter and glow to the ear.
It was a Thursday when I finished. The next Friday morning I was online chatting with a pal and he mentioned Gerhard Frohmann was putting together a rock-oriented mashup album. I didn't have a clue whom else was doing tracks for the collection, but if this particular online pal was endorsing it, that was good enough for me. I rolled the dice, & sent my new Yes / Plant mix to Herr Frohmann.
Man, was I happy when he accepted my mix. I had no idea how much happier the finished release would please me. "TheMashup.org
( themashup.org/ )
Presents ROCK 'N' MASH"
( http://www.themashup.org/portal/themashup-org-present-rock-n-mash/ ) was released a couple weeks before Halloween, and with all my planned Halloween BARTCOP E articles, I didn't get to writing about it till now. That just made me love the release more, as by now I am so much more acquainted with the full collection. When it appeared for download, I was stunned at the other mixers on the record. It was the biggest, best mashers in the world. In addition it was a GREAT collection of inspired mixes chock full of skilled production.
Sometimes lately, after ten years of mashing and bootlegging, I've felt like moving on to other endeavors. It happens to nearly everyone, and to many long before ten years have passed. I looked at the final playlist for "TheMashup.org Presents ROCK 'N' MASH", and felt well-pleased. Over the next few days, as I played the release more and more, I just kept getting more of a kick out of it. I always get to be on records with beloved, talented folk, so that wasn't really new, but to be included among the BIGGIES had me reassessing my own mixing abilities. I must be better at this than I realize, I found myself thinking.
So that's the framework within which I present this super assortment of rock tribute mashups.
Check out the full playlist
( www.themashup.org/portal/themashup-org-present-rock-n-mash/ ) and see the names that have people satisfied all around the world. There's mixes from Fabulous Beatmashers, DJ's From Mars, DJ Schmolli, Jimmy Klok, Mashup-Germany, Loo and Placido, and so very many others who rule with their mixes. Listen for the strangely familiar as they revise your past rock faves like AC/DC, Billy Idol, Motorhead, Nirvana, Queen, and others against the modern sounds that provide great genre clash.
Gerhard Frohmann over at TheMashup.org has other past collections available as well, plus more like "TheMashup.org Presents ROCK 'N' MASH"
( www.themashup.org/portal/themashup-org-present-rock-n-mash/planned ) . I hope to be a part of each release. I find the levels achieved from being on a great album very inspiring. I'm well over feeling like quitting mashups now. Thanks, Gerhard!
The main lesson I learned out of this matter was to ALWAYS LISTEN TO ROBERT PLANT! ;)
BTW: Here's the page to hear my YES/ Plant mix.
( soundcloud.com/dj-useo/yes-vs-robert-plant )
Podcast Of The Week
"DJ Useo MASHUPS BY THE NUMBERS Podcast November 2013" is my monthly podcast of killer mashups. This episode features mashups from past and present mixers like Soundhog, Fettdog, Miss Frenchie, and a great lost ten minute show closer from Osymyso. All great classic tracks you'll love hearing. Only a few of which are actually still available as single tracks. Join the growing audience of
DJ Useo podcast listeners here
( www.groovytimewithdjuseo.blogspot.com/2013/11/mashups-by-numbers-podcast.html )
Mashup Tip
Mashup Tip - Don't mash on Pikes' Peak. The Yetis hate the noise!
Latest Useo Thing
'Run For Your Moonage Daydream' (
David Bowie vs Beatles vs Jimi Hendrix ) Listen as Bowie sings over the Beatles while Hendrix loops swirl in and out.
Stream or
d/l from this link
( hearthis.at/vXMfxz7w/run-for-your-moonage-daydream-david-bowie-vs-beatles-vs-jimi-hendrix/ )
( www.groovytimewithdjuseo.blogspot.com/2013/11/bowie-vs-beatles-vs-jimi-hendrix.html )
Podgornio, The Mashup Psychic Predicts
Popular Korean masher TaTa will provoke his nations ire by refusing to mash the new Psy single.
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Alison Flood: JK Rowling's plot regrets cause outrage among Harry Potter fans (Guardian)
Author's freshly-revealed doubts about pairing Hermione with Ron, rather than Harry, cause storms among devotees.
Alison Flood: Philip Roth insists 'I have no desire to write fiction' (Guardian)
'I did what I did and it's done', novelist tells interviewer, explaining that these days he's keener on swimming and watching baseball.
Russell Brand: my life without drugs (Guardian)
Russell Brand has not used drugs for 10 years. He has a job, a house, a cat, good friends. But temptation is never far away. He wants to help other addicts, but first he wants us to feel compassion for those affected.
Xan Brooks: Philip Seymour Hoffman was the one great guarantee of modern American cinema (Guardian)
In two decades of faultless performances, Philip Seymour Hoffman proved that his particular talent was to take thwarted, twisted humanity and ennoble it.
Hadley Freeman: What a woman does with her pubic hair should be beyond the rule of fashion (Guardian)
Bikini waxes may be on the wane, but it's no business of the style police if someone still wants a Brazilian.
Eric Levenson: Jeopardy's New Game-Theory Devotee Is One to Keep an Eye On (The Wire)
Meet Arthur Chu, Jeopardy's latest and greatest star, who has used Jeopardy game theory to become nightly must-see TV. But his unorthodox methods - though correct by the numbers - have made him a polarizing figure in the Jeopardy community.
Katherine Trendacosta: Infographic shows the most common problems in screenplays (io9)
Last year, a scriptreader read 300 scripts for 5 studios, all the while taking notes on the problems and trends he saw. The number 1 problem? The story started too late in the script.
What speed do you read? (Staples)
Compare your reading speed to the national average.
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Last Night
Mostly sunny but on the cool side.
Chases 'Puppy Bowl' Up Ratings Tree
'Kitten Bowl'
Hallmark Channel scored with the debut of its "Kitten Bowl," which drew 3.2 million unduplicated viewers during the competition's Super Bowl Sunday premiere.
The first run of the cable network's newest annual tradition aired from 12 p.m. - 3 p.m. Counting the telecast's three encores, the "Kitten Bowl" reached a total 6.1 million viewers P2+. The program, part of the network's advocacy campaign "Pet Project," outperformed the timeslot average from a year ago in households (41 percent); adults 25-54 (39 percent); and women 25-54 (14 percent).
"Kitten Bowl" brought Hallmark Channel its highest total audience ever in the time period on Super Bowl Sunday.
The "Kitten Bowl" was hosted by Beth Stern, TV personality, national spokesperson for North Shore Animal League America and Howard Stern's wife, with commentary by New York Yankees announcer John Sterling. Special appearances included Regis Philbin, Hoda Kotb, Rachael Ray, Lisa Vanderpump, Rocco Dispirito, Nicky Hilton, Chuck Nice, Bob Harper, and more.
'Kitten Bowl'
TiVo's Most Re-Watched Super Bowl Commercial
Seinfeld
Now that the Super Bowl XLVIII is in the books, it's time to crown the other victors from last night's competition - TiVo has just released a report that pulls together the most re-watched commercials from the night. Perhaps unsurprisingly, a clip of the Jerry Seinfeld / Jason Alexander episode of Seinfeld's Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee web series, which aired during halftime, ranked number one. This was probably the most public stage in which Seinfeld, Alexander, and Wayne Knight as Newman reprised roles from the seminal sitcom - though a much more extensive meta-reunion took place during Curb Your Enthusiasm's seventh season, HBO's reach can't quite compete with the Super Bowl.
Other top rewatched spots included Budweiser's heart-melter "Puppy Love" spot in second place, with GoDaddy's "Bodybuilder," Doritos' "Cowboy Kid," and Toyota's "Terry Crews and The Muppets" rounding out the top five. Despite the massive blowout in the game itself, it looks like viewers stayed tuned in for the commercials - three of the top five spots aired during the fourth quarter.
The new trend of advertisers and brands showing off their commercials ahead of the Super Bowl appears to only be driving buzz. For the second year in a row, nine of the top 10 most-rewatched commercials actually were released and promoted ahead of the big game. In a perhaps less-surprising trend, the halftime show was watched by more people than the game itself - the fourth year in a row that was the case. Of course, it's worth noting that this data comes specifically from TiVo households only - though the kind of DVR you're using probably doesn't have a huge influence on what commercials you want to watch.
Seinfeld
Is Expanding
Adult Swim
The big developments in late-night television are not all happening on NBC this week. Adult Swim, the network that is, in many ways, the new force in late night, has some significant news, too: It is expanding again.
Though its programming usually draws far less media attention than, say, the changing of the guard on NBC's "Tonight" show, Adult Swim has amassed enviable viewership numbers: Among the audience groups many advertisers want most to reach, Adult Swim beats just about everything else in late night.
On Tuesday, the network will announce that it is adding another hour of programming to its schedule, moving further backward into prime time. Starting March 31, Adult Swim - a mix of animated and live-action shows, replete with the kind of irreverent humor that has been the stock-in-trade of late-night television for half a century - will offer programming from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. every day. It is claiming that hour from the Cartoon Network, which occupies the same channel space in the daytime hours and is also owned by Turner Broadcasting.
In the late-night period, from 11 p.m. to 1 a.m., the network dominates in the youngest end of that competition. With the exception of recent viewership numbers for Jay Leno, who has been racking up steady wins as he prepares to end his tenure as "Tonight" show host this week, Adult Swim has beaten all late-night competitors in the 18 to 49 category. Over the last 12 months, it has been No. 1 with that group, averaging 1.15 million viewers a night to 1.05 million for Mr. Leno.
Adult Swim
Back To The Future
Alaska
A measure that could make Alaska the third U.S. state to legalize recreational marijuana use after Colorado and Washington has enough valid signatures to be put before voters in August, state officials said on Tuesday.
If voted into law, the Alaska initiative would allow adults aged 21 and older to possess up to an ounce (28 grams) of marijuana and grow up to six pot plants, and would pave the way for creation of a system to tax and regulate pot sales.
Recreational use of marijuana currently exists in a legal gray area in libertarian-minded Alaska. The state supreme court ruled in 1975 that individuals have a constitutional right to possess modest quantities of the drug at home, on privacy grounds. Pot remains illegal under state statute, however.
In addition to legalizing marijuana possession, the Alaska measure would require the state to create rules for regulating recreational-use pot stores within nine months of enactment.
If passed, it would also impose a $50-per-ounce tax on marijuana at the wholesale level to bring in revenue to the state.
Alaska
Top Targets
Leno
Jay Leno's top targets for jokes during his time at the "Tonight" show, through Jan. 24, as compiled by the Center for Media and Public Affairs.
1. Bill Clinton - 4,607 jokes.
2. George W. Bush - 3,239 jokes.
3. Al Gore - 1,026 jokes.
4. Barack Obama - 1,011 jokes.
5. Hillary Clinton - 939 jokes.
6. O.J. Simpson - 795 jokes.
7. Dick Cheney - 673 jokes.
8. Michael Jackson - 505 jokes.
9. Monica Lewinsky - 454 jokes.
10. Bob Dole - 452 jokes.
Leno
'Miming' at the Super Bowl
Red Hot Chili Peppers
Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea has issued an explanation for why it looked like his bass wasn't plugged in during the Super Bowl halftime show: It wasn't. Photos hit the internet yesterday on Vulture showing that the bassist's instrument was not connected to his amp during the group's performance of their song "Give It Away" with main halftime performer Bruno Mars. Today, Flea published a 931-word open letter that said he had chosen to do that on purpose.
"When we were asked by the NFL and Bruno to play our song 'Give It Away' at the Super Bowl, it was made clear to us that the vocals would be live, but the bass, drums and guitar would be pre-recorded," he wrote. "I understand the NFL's stance on this, given they only have a few minutes to set up the stage, there a zillion things that could go wrong and ruin the sound for the folks watching in the stadium and the T.V. viewers. There was not any room for argument on this, the NFL does not want to risk their show being botched by bad sound, period."
He explained that usually the Peppers would not do "any sort of miming," ever since they were thrown off the U.K. show Top of the Pops in the late Eighties because, as Flea wrote, "I played bass with my shoe." He said that the times the group mimed songs for MTV "always was a drag" and that the group takes its playing seriously. "It is a sacred thing for us, and anyone who has ever seen us in concert (like the night before the Super Bowl at the Barclays Center), knows that we play from our heart, we improvise spontaneously, take musical risks, and sweat blood at every show," he wrote.
The band ultimately chose to go ahead with the Super Bowl miming after soul-searching, conferring with friends and embracing that they "all love football too." So the group recorded a version of the track to play with Mars.
Red Hot Chili Peppers
Open Talks on New Contract
Writers Guild
It's one day of talks down - and time will tell how many to go - for Hollywood's movie producers and TV networks and the Writers Guild, who began negotiations Monday on a new overall contract.
The two sides met for a full day at the Association of Motion Picture and Television Producers headquarters in Sherman Oaks, Calif. It's presumed they exchanged opening proposals and set guidelines and a time schedule for the talks, though neither side would confirm the substance of the opening session.
The WGA's current deal with the AMPTP expires on May 1.
The last contract talks between the WGA and the producers in 2011 lasted a little more than two weeks. Those came after the Directors Guild of America and the Screen Actors Guild has already signed off on deals, however.
The Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists are expected to open talks on a new deal once the WGA bargaining is concluded. Their deal expires June 30.
Writers Guild
Plan For Museum Rejected
George Lucas
The stewards of national park land at the base of San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge rejected a museum proposal by "Star Wars" creator George Lucas.
The Presidio Trust's seven-member board voted unanimously on Monday against Lucas' plan and two others that were under consideration for an 8-acre site overlooking San Francisco Bay, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. The site has been leased to a sports retailer, the Sports Basement, since 2004.
The trust, however, said it would work with Lucas to find another site for his museum within the park.
Lucas wants a showcase for his collection of popular art, including illustrations by Norman Rockwell and Maxfield Parrish, and he had pledged $700 million to build and endow the museum.
Lucas's proposal had high-powered supporters, including Gov. Jerry Brown, San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee, U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi.
George Lucas
Internment Camp Forgotten In China
'Empire of the Sun'
No public memorial marks the former Shanghai internment camp made famous by JG Ballard's novel "Empire of the Sun", where more than 1,800 foreigners were held by the Japanese during World War II.
Ballard's fictionalised version of his experiences in the Lunghwa camp was published 30 years ago, followed in 1987 by the Steven Spielberg film starring a young Christian Bale as Jim Graham, a boy who comes of age on his own in the facility.
The site is now an elite government-run school in Shanghai's southern suburbs, where Chinese students are unaware internees once slept in their grey classroom buildings.
The only reminder is a small, easily-ignored display in a private campus museum, and Shanghai High School graduate Lucy Zhang said: "When I studied here, I was not aware of this part of history. It was not mentioned in class."
The Chinese government is embroiled in a territorial dispute with Tokyo and regularly publicises Japanese atrocities against its people from the 1930s to the end of World War II.
'Empire of the Sun'
1st Fish Taken Off Endangered List
Oregon Chub
A tiny minnow that lives only in Oregon backwaters is the first fish ever taken off U.S. Endangered Species Act protection because it is no longer threatened with extinction.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service was to announce Tuesday that the Oregon chub was recovered, 21 years after it went on the endangered species list. The agency will monitor the fish for nine years to make sure populations continue to grow.
"We're not saying it won't need management," said Paul Henson, Oregon director of Fish and Wildlife. "But they can leave the hospital and get out to be an outpatient."
The fish had practically disappeared from Oregon's Willamette Valley as the swampy backwaters and beaver ponds it depends on were drained to control flooding and create farms and cities over the past century and a half. Those that survived the habitat loss became easy prey for bass introduced from the East.
Unlike Pacific salmon, the Oregon chub was relatively easy to save because it inhabits small places and does not get in the way of huge economic forces, such as logging, hydroelectric power and farming, said Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife biologist Brian Bangs, who since 2005 has supervised recovery efforts.
Oregon Chub
Prime-Time Nielsens
Ratings
Prime-time viewership numbers compiled by Nielsen for Jan. 27-Feb. 2. Listings include the week's ranking and viewership.
1. Super Bowl: Denver vs Seattle, Fox, 112.19 million.
2. "Super Bowl Post-Game Show" (Sunday, 9:55 p.m.), Fox, 93.38 million.
3. "Super Bowl Post-Game Show" (Sunday, 10:03 p.m.), Fox, 65.78 million.
4. "New Girl" (Sunday, 10:23 p.m.), Fox, 26.3 million.
5. "The Big Bang Theory," CBS, 19.05 million.
6. "Blue Bloods," CBS, 12.93 million.
7. "American Idol" (Wednesday), Fox, 12.73 million.
8. "NCIS," CBS, 11.74 million.
9. "The Millers," CBS, 11.5 million.
10. "American Idol" (Thursday), Fox, 11.42 million.
11. "Hawaii Five-O, CBS, 11.24 million.
12. "How I Met Your Mother," CBS, 10.81 million.
13. "Mike & Molly," CBS, 10.67 million.
14. "Elementary," CBS, 10.34 million.
15. "The Black List," NBC, 10.17 million.
16. "2 Broke Girls," CBS, 10.05 million.
17. "Super Bowl's Great Commercials," CBS, 9.64 million.
18. "Mom," CBS, 9.58 million.
19. "Undercover Boss," CBS, 9.21 million.
20. "Two and a Half Men," CBS, 8.86 million.
Ratings
In Memory
Richard Bull
Richard Bull, who played shopkeeper and put-upon spouse Nels Oleson on TV's "Little House on the Prairie," has died. He was 89.
Bull died Monday at the Motion Picture & Television Fund's hospital, fund spokeswoman Jaime Larkin said. The actor, a resident of what was once known as the Motion Picture and TV home, died of natural causes after being hospitalized with pneumonia, Larkin said Tuesday.
"Everyone loved him so much," said Bull's "Little House" co-star Alison Arngrim, who played his daughter, Nellie, and remained close to him. "People are posting (condolences) in six different languages on my Facebook page."
Bull "was as Nels Oleson as you'd possibly want someone to be. He was calm, rational, sensible," Arngrim said.
The Illinois-born character actor appeared in a wide range of TV shows, from "Perry Mason" in the 1950s to "Mannix" in the 1960s to Kelsey Grammar's "Boss" in 2011. Bull played opposite his wife of 65 years, actress Barbara Collentine, in several projects.
Among the movies he appeared in were "High Plains Drifter" and "Executive Action," both in 1973.
Bull and Collentine, also 89, moved to the Motion Picture & Television Fund home from Chicago in September 2012, Larkin said.
Another resident there was Scottie MacGregor, who played Oleson's difficult wife, Harriet, on "Little House," according to Butler.
After Bull's death, Collentine and MacGregor had dinner together and agreed "they had both lost a wonderful husband," Butler said.
Richard Bull
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