M Is FOR MASHUP - March 18th, 2009
Cast Your Pod Unto The Masses
By DJ Useo
Wow, do I ever enjoy listening to the worlds' premiere mashup podcast, Scott Johnson's RAMDOM THOUGHTS. Week after week he displays the hottest new bootleg mashups & bootleg remixes in a manner that has built a LARGE audience. He keeps a more reliable schedule than any TV show I know, & the quality stays high. Occasionally, he needs a short respite to attend other duties & that's when he calls upon DJ assistants to keep the show coming to a demanding audience. Now the time has come when in the circle of RAMDOM THOUGHTS that the guest hosts step in.
Colatron (www.colatron.com/) just thrilled many with his guest-hosting on Mr.Johnsons' podcast. This right off his tremendous success on the The David Lynch mashup album (www.mashedinplastic.co.uk/) that so many found a treat. Colatron even had an exclusive long bootleg mix that he played in his show. Now it was my turn to try & fill in for the host with the most. It was clear to me that with the many full bootleg comps of late that I should feature them. Gives people a great overview in a crowded field.
The Podcast I hosted is available now at www.ramdomthoughts.co.uk/ I was fortunate enough to attend a live playing of the show on www.sound-unsound.com/ where it is broadcast every Sunday night at 7 pm gmt. It went over so nicely, a sizeable group stuck around & listened to it again in an encore show. I got to speak live with peeps in the shoutbox on Sound-Unsound & they sure told me they liked it. As you can imagine I was thrilled. The RAMDOM show was my opportunity to play all the new tracks I love to an audience far beyond my modest regulars. I even got to play a track from my new mashup album (groovytimewithdjuseo.blogspot.com/2009/02/contact-new-useo-dance-mashup-album.html), the bootleg pairing,'Pussycat Get Around' (D3 D4 vs Oakenfold feat Brittany Murphy).
So many incredible mashup albums have come out recently, it made for a very strong show. I had tracks from SFreeman's 'Fidget Freeman', DJ Clive$ter & Mash-up Industries' 'Café Del Mash Volume One', Tizwarz' 'Hits Of Tiz', LeeDM101's 'Medicine Eyes - LeeDM101 (2006-2008), & DJ MOrgoth's 'New Wave Of German Heavy Mashup Tour'. The unlicensed tunes kept on'a flowing! Big thanks to Scott for allowing me to guest host RAMDOM THOUGHTS. Scott,you are one of the great ones.
The excitement does not let up, though, as I get word that the next show will be hosted by Rising Star OSCAR TG (sound-unsound-media.com/otgmusic/?cat=4) is up next Saturday, March 21. Then DJ Petrushka returns to guest-host again the Saturday after that, March 28. Hold onto your hats after that as Scott returns to slam you into submission with more finestkind tunage from the mashup scene.Spa Fon!
Mix Of The Week - Budtheweiser has done it again with a mix of the best bootleg tunes joined by an experienced hand & mind. The Tony Crackburn Orchestrated mix (budtheweiser.blogspot.com/2009/02/tony-crackburn-orchestrated-mix.html went over so well with Tony himself that he posted it on his site. Nice 1, Budtheweiser. Don't overlook Budtheweiser's new 4-hour masterpiece 'HOFFTASTIC'.(budtheweiser.blogspot.com/2009/03/hofftastic.html) It's enough music to stun an ox, all mixed by The Ale Man himself.
Mashup Tip : Don't try to mix the Grateful Dead with Phish. The contact high alone is not worth it.
DJ Useo's Podcast
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Diane Dimond: "Tax Time Dangers: Cyber Thieves Are Licking Their Chops to Steal Your Info" (Huffington Post; Posted on alternet.org)
When you finish up this year's tax return do yourself a favor. Delete it from your computer.
What Does Less Antman Have to Say NOW? (andrewtobias.com)
Less ANtman: "You might as well expect the best: optimism is the only realism. Save, invest, diversify, wait. And find a hobby other than watching the news."
Christy Rodgers: "Strange Loves, Magic Christians, and So Much More: An Appreciation of Terry Southern" (dissidentvoice.org)
The 20th century, perhaps uniquely in history, produced at least two distinct periods when artists and writers felt emboldened to declare that anything is possible, and everything is permitted.
PAUL CONSTANT: "A Fan's Notes: I Love James Morrow (and You Should, Too)" (thestranger.com)
This is, and has to be, a personal story. Years ago, as a boy in Maine, my Aunt Madeleine would give me a $10 gift certificate to Bookland for my birthday.
Charlie Brooker: If videogames are to become as popular as TV they need to exploit our humblest fantasies (guardian.co.uk)
The most compelling character in a videogame is you. And who gives a toss about you?
MIKE RUBIN: This Band Was Punk Before Punk Was Punk (nytimes.com)
ON an evening in late February at a club here called the Monkey House, there was a family reunion of sorts. As the band Rough Francis roared through a set of anthemic punk rock, Bobby Hackney leaned against the bar and beamed. Three of his sons - Bobby Jr., Julian and Urian - are in Rough Francis, but his smile wasn't just about parental pride. It was about authorship too. Most of the songs Rough Francis played were written by Bobby Sr. and his brothers David and Dannis during their days in the mid-1970s as a Detroit power trio called Death.
20 QUESTIONS: The Bacon Brothers: Kevin & Michael (popmatters.com)
The Bacon Brothers (yes, that Kevin of the silver screen and yes, that Michael, the composer for film and TV) meld their lyrics and musical compositions into gritty rock with a touch of Philly soul, and for PopMatters 20 Questions, they compose their responses in brotherly harmony.
STEPHEN HOLDEN: FILM REVIEW; You Wanna Be Sedated? Not With These Tunes (nytimes.com)
To lead the rock 'n' roll life may be to drink deeply from the fountain of youth, but the rigors and temptations of that life often point to an early death. Take the Ramones, the seminal punk rock band whose history is traced in exhaustive detail in Michael Gramaglia and Jim Fields's absorbing documentary, ''End of the Century: The Story of the Ramones.''
Roger Moore: Paul Rudd and Jason Siegel continue their 'bromance' in 'I Love You, Man' (The Orlando Sentinel)
They met, and as the poets say, the sparks flew.
Bill Gibron: Blow Up the Outside World - An Interview with 'Gap' Writer/Director/Star Paul O'Callaghan (popmatters.com)
"Yeah, a lot of the issues raised in the film are beliefs I hold personally," O'Callaghan explains. "Not literally, but in general. I think society is going in the wrong direction. I think people, especially young people, are influenced by a media that feeds them nothing but garbage."
Roger Ebert: THE GLEANERS AND I (2001; 4 stars; An Overlooked DVD)
In our alley we see men searching through the refuse for treasure. "The Gleaners and I" places them in an ancient tradition. Since 1554, when King Henry IV affirmed the right of gleaning, it has been a practice protected by the French constitution, and today the men and women who sift through the dumpsters and markets of Paris are the descendants of gleaners who were painted by Millet and Van Gogh.
David Bruce: Wise Up! Public Speaking (athensnews.com)
Crawford Goldsby, aka Cherokee Bill, was an African-American outlaw in the Wild West who murdered as many as 36 men. He was so feared that a town council passed a law mandating that whenever he came to town, no one was to do anything to bother him. At his public execution on March 17, 1896, a guard asked the 20-year-old outlaw if he had any words. Cherokee Bill replied, "No. I came here to die - not to make a speech."
Ramones News at the New York Times (nytimes.com)
The Weekly Poll
New Question
The 'Shared Sacrifice' Edition
The New York Times, in an article Sunday, Administration Is Open to Taxing Health Benefits - NYTimes.com , reports that the Obama Administration is open to the idea of taxing certain employer provided health benefits as a way to help finance health care for the uninsured. Would you support such an approach?
Send your response, and a (short) reason why, to
As of 2008, at 20 years and 633 episodes, what is the longest-running American prime-time drama TV series?
wrote:
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Sunny and warmer.
Rolls Out Welcome Wagon
Calgary
More than 100 protesters chanted "war criminal" and flung shoes in Calgary on Tuesday, angry that former U.S. President George W. Bush was in the Canadian city to give his first speech since leaving the White House.
At least two demonstrators were hauled away by police after brief skirmishes, as 1,500 business people in the oil patch city waited outside a convention center for an hour to pass through tight security and enter the C$400-a-plate ($315) luncheon.
Media were barred from covering the invitation-only event, during which Bush had been expected to reflect on his eight years as president.
The luncheon crowd was friendlier than the one outside.
"He is a war criminal who fought an illegal war, and there are some who say he was never elected democratically, so there are some who say he should be arrested as soon as he comes here," said a woman dressed as a Guantanamo Bay prisoner, who called herself Ivana Nomobush.
Calgary
Looking For New Sponsor
Newport Jazz Festival
The Newport Jazz Festival is in the market for a new sponsor.
Jazz impresario George Wein, who founded the iconic festival in 1954, said Tuesday that the event's 24-year relationship with the JVC consumer electronics company has ended.
Wein said JVC told him it couldn't sponsor the festival again because of the recession.
Wein sold his production company in 2007, but announced earlier this month that he would step in and produce the show again after the new producer, Festival Network, ran into financial problems.
Newport Jazz Festival
Spanish Winery
Antonio Banderas
Hollywood heartthrob Antonio Banderas has joined a growing number of celebrities whose passion for wine has led to ownership of Spanish vineyards, his winery co-owners say.
Banderas, 48, who has appeared in the "Legend of Zorro" and as the voice of Puss in Boots in several "Shrek" movies, has bought 50 percent of a state-of-the-art winery on the banks of the Duero River in northern Spain, the winery says.
The 230 hectare (570 acre) property, called Anta Banderas, makes red and rose wines from Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and local grape Tempranillo, the winery said Tuesday in a statement.
Antonio Banderas
Skiing Accident
Natasha Richardson
Tony-winning actress Natasha Richardson, part of the Redgrave dynasty of British actors, was flown to New York on Tuesday after apparently being injured in a skiing accident.
IrishCentral.com reported that the wife of Liam Neeson was in critical condition with a head injury.
In Los Angeles, a person close to the family, who asked not to be identified because of the sensitivity of the matter, confirmed that Richardson landed in New York after leaving Montreal's Sacre-Coeur hospital in the afternoon, where she was treated after falling during a private lesson Monday at the famed Mont Tremblant ski resort.
Richardson, 45, is the elder daughter of Oscar-winning actress Vanessa Redgrave and the late director Tony Richardson, and belongs to the British acting dynasty.
Natasha Richardson
Baby News
Baby Boys Ortiz
Retired adult movie star Jenna Jameson and her mixed martial arts fighter boyfriend Tito Ortiz welcomed their twin sons into the world on Monday at California's Newport Beach hospital.
Jenna's representative said: "The babies are in very good health. Both Jenna and Tito are delighted, they couldn't be happier."
Despite her delight at starting a family with Tito, Jenna - who was previously married to porn star Brad Armstrong and adult film studio owner Jay Grdina - has no plans to walk down the aisle.
Referring to actress Angelina Jolie, who raises six children with her partner Brad Pitt, Jenna said: "I think I'm going to stay unmarried and just go for the babies! I'm following in Angelina's footsteps!"
Baby Boys Ortiz
Building A Bridge To The 14th Century
Pope Benedict the Atavistic
Defender of pedophiles, Pope Benedict the Atavistic said condoms are not the answer to the AIDS epidemic in Africa and can make the problem worse, setting off criticism Tuesday as he began a weeklong trip to the continent where some 22 million people are living with HIV.
Benedict's first statement on an issue that has divided even Catholic clergy working with AIDS patients came hours before he arrived in Cameroon's capital - greeted by thousands of flag-waving faithful who stood shoulder-to-shoulder in red dirt fields and jammed downtown streets for a glimpse of the pontiff's motorcade.
In his four years as pope, Benedict had never directly addressed condom use, although his position is not new. His predecessor, Pope John Paul II, often said that sexual abstinence - not condoms - was the best way to prevent the spread of the disease.
The Catholic Church rejects the use of condoms as part of its overall teaching against artificial contraception. Senior Vatican officials A group of supposedly celebate men have advocated fidelity in marriage, abstinence from premarital sex, and virgin children as key weapons in the fight against AIDS.
Pope Benedict the Atavistic
China's Last Eunuch
Sun Yaoting
Only two memories brought tears to Sun Yaoting's eyes in old age -- the day his father cut off his genitals, and the day his family threw away the pickled remains that should have made him a whole man again at death.
China's last eunuch was tormented and impoverished in youth, punished in revolutionary China for his role as the "Emperor's slave" but finally feted and valued, largely for outlasting his peers to become a unique relic, a piece of "living history."
He had stories of the tortuous rituals of the Forbidden City, Emperor Pu Yi's last moments there and the troubled puppet court run by the Japanese during the 1930s. He escaped back to the heart of a civil war, became a Communist official and then a target of radical leftists before being finally left in peace.
He died in 1996, in an old temple that had become his home, and his biography was finally published in English this year.
Sun Yaoting
Pissy Neighbors
Bob Dylan
A family living near 67-year-old folk and rock icon Bob Dylan's house in the posh California beachside community of Malibu have complained to city officials about an outdoor portable toilet, which is apparently used by guards on Dylan's compound.
Cindy and David Emminger say the toilet wafts fumes from waste treatment chemicals, and that the smell carried by breezes from the Pacific Ocean makes their family feel ill.
But Malibu Mayor Andy Stern said other neighbors report smelling nothing from the toilet, and that he has left the matter to the enforcers of the city's code on objectionable odors.
"I really have not involved myself in Bob Dylan's toilet, and by the way I haven't involved myself in anyone else's toilet in Malibu," Stern told Reuters.
Bob Dylan
Maximizing Profits
'American Idol'
"American Idol" fans will soon be able to trade Carrie Underwoods for Danny Gokeys.
"Idol" production company FremantleMedia and trading card publisher Upper Deck are launching a new line of trading cards featuring images of past and current contestants as well as the judges and host of the Fox singing competition. The 138-card line is set to debut April 21.
Six special cards autographed by past "Idols" will be randomly slipped into the five-card packs. Regular cards will feature rejected hopefuls such as William Hung and Nick Mitchell, past winners like Ruben Studdard and David Cook, and popular finalists including Adam Lambert and Jennifer Hudson.
'American Idol'
Alarmist Recommendation
Children's Books
Could a vintage, dog-eared copy of "The Cat in the Hat" or "Where the Wild Things Are" be hazardous to your children?
The Consumer Product Safety Commission has raised that possibility in urging the nation's libraries to take children's books printed before 1986 off their shelves while the federal agency investigates whether the ink contains unsafe levels of lead.
Few, if any, libraries are complying, and many librarians are ridiculing the recommendation as alarmist. Even the nation's premier medical sleuths, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, say any danger from lead in children's books is slight.
"We're talking about tens of millions of copies of children's books that are perfectly safe. I wish a reasonable, rational person would just say, `This is stupid. What are we doing?'" said Emily Sheketoff, executive director of the American Library Association's Washington office.
Children's Books
In Memory
Coy Watson Jr.
Coy Watson Jr., who appeared in Mack Sennett comedies and other silent films before abandoning acting for a long career as a newspaper and television news photographer, has died at 96.
Born in 1912, Watson made his film debut as a baby. He was one of nine siblings who all went into the movie business, as did his father, Coy Sr. The family was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1999.
His father was a cowboy who lived on the edge of downtown Los Angeles when that area was still rural, and he rented horses to the makers of some of Hollywood's earliest Westerns.
Coy Jr. recounted in his memoir, "The Keystone Kid," how Sennett once blew up his family's porch for a scene in a "Keystone Kops" film then rebuilt it for them, adding a new kitchen and bedroom.
In addition to Keystone Kops movies, young Coy appeared in films of such stars as Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle, Mary Pickford, Jackie Coogan and Douglas Fairbanks Jr. In 1925, he played the heroine's little brother in the original film version of "Stella Dallas."
Watson moved behind the camera, working at Acme News Pictures, which had been founded by his uncle, George Watson, the first full-time news photographer at the Los Angeles Times. Among young Watson's assignments was covering the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics.
He also took pictures for local newspapers and was later active in television news, filming for Los Angeles stations and for the early celebrity news program "Hollywood Reel."
Coy Watson Jr.
In Memory
Millard Kaufman
Screenwriter Millard Kaufman, who co-created the cartoon character Mr. Magoo, was nominated for Academy Awards for his screenplays for "Take the High Ground!" and "Bad Day at Black Rock" and won a cult following as a first-time novelist at the age of 90, has died, a spokeswoman said. He was 92.
Kaufman's writing credits also include "Never So Few," "The Warlord," "The Klansman" and "Convicts 4," as well an episode of the TV series "Police Story" and the TV movie "Enola Gay."
In 1949, he wrote the screenplay for the short film "Ragtime Bear," which featured the first appearance of Mr. Magoo, a short elderly man voiced by "Gilligan's Island" actor Jim Backus who gets into constant trouble because of his terrible eyesight, which he refuses to acknowledge. Kaufman later co-wrote the 1950 Mr. Magoo short film "Punchy de Leon."
He was nominated twice for an Oscar - in 1953 for the story and screenplay of "Take the High Ground" and two years later for the screenplay of "Bad Day at Black Rock."
Born in 1917 in Baltimore, Kaufman graduated from Johns Hopkins University in 1939. After college, he worked as a reporter for Newsday and New York's Daily News before joining the Marines in 1942 and later serving in World War II. After the war ended, Kaufman moved to Los Angeles with his wife, Lorraine, and began his screenwriting career.
Kaufman served two terms on the board of the Writers Guild of America, West.
He is survived by his wife of 66 years, their three children and seven grandchildren.
Millard Kaufman
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