M Is FOR MASHUP - April 1st, 2009
The Best Of The New Mashup Breed
By DJ Useo
There're a lot of fantastic bootleggers out there making mashups, so you'd expect it to be really tough going for newbies to the scene. That's not the case, though, as I hear at least 4 or 5 terrific new dj's every week. I remember a few years back when no one had even heard of BlueBottom ( bluebottomlol.com ),or DJ Smyrk ( www.djsmyrk.com ),or Tim & Thom, the Turntable Brothers ( www.timthom.com ). Now they're common names on the mashup scene, perhaps even more well known than label artists like Crowfoot ( www.crwft.com ) or The Perplexed ( www.wha??.com ).
To help you find the hottest new mixers, I've assembled this brief list.
1. DJ Fresno Phil (
www.fresphil.com ) claims to mash from sleep memory. Well, judging from the results, I don't care if he mixes with farm implements. His earliest track to gain attention was 'Smell The Cork Of The Crimson King' (King Crimson vs Spiltliquor) & with it's lurching tempos & heaving lyrics one can see the reason so many felt sympathy. Phil seemed to really gain steam with his first 'ep' 'Stego Sapien' with it's mixing of Iron Butterfly & 50 Cent. Branching out to videos, Phil won our hearts & our right-clicks with the haunting video 'Red Green Theme vs Spooks Theme'. I showed that vid to my cat & it went bald! More mashups soon from DJ Fresno Phil,as he's apparently managed to raise bail.
2. Sniffsmeller ( sniffsmeller.blogspot.com ) has managed to distinguish himself despite the handicap of being totally tonedeaf. Through the use of source tracks that contain no melodies, he's succeeded in a new sub-sub-sub-genre of bootlegs he calls 'Grink'. Well known as he's become through the release of tracks like 'Amy's Stryper Whinehouse' (Amy Whinehouse vs Stryper) & 'Tull Me All About It' (Torie Amos vs Jethro Tull vs Skinny Puppy) he expects to do even better after an upcoming ear transplant. With the addition of 2 ears (maybe 3), Sniffsmeller plans to branch out to other styles of bootleg. He Plans a renaissance in mashups with a combination of marching band & children's gospel he calls 'Gronk'. With so many ideas swelling out of his brain, it may be he has more problems than just a lack of ears.
3. The Turntable Enabler ( www.no.wai.rly.co.uk ) has brought his history of mixing live shows on cruise ships to the bootleg forums in a strong way. Through a combination of live dj decks & spliced reel-to-reels that he found in his Uncles' attic, The Turntable Enabler has created many tracks that delight people who get their kicks from hours of net surfing. Recently he made the #3 chart position on 'Jimmy's Mashup Charts For My Spacebook Contacts' ( mashupsforkids.com ) with his track 'CSS & The Sunshine Band'. The Enabler was featured recently at the Black Eyed Peas mashup festival in Skklorrn, Norway, where he was honored for mashing every BEP track from their 14 albums. A fascinating side note of the festival was The Enabler settled his long-standing feud with French Bootlegger Kid Phaser with a brutal arm-wrestling match over a pit of razor sharp Kelis pellas. More from him soon, I wager.2 falls out of 3 at least.
4. Finster Mental ( straitenedjacket.com ) may be only new to the scene by literally hours, but so far he's not damaged his fledgling reputation with his first track 'Blunt Buried In The Yard' (Snoop Dogg vs Rex The Dog vs Dorothy From The Wizard Of Oz). For a guy who posts about his tracks weeks before the actual release, he's not nearly as annoying as say, DJ Eyepoker. I have just received a last-minute note from Finster promising to have a track ready soon called 'Something Something Mellencamp' (The Beatles vs John Mellancamp vs the surviving members of Styxx). He also seems to be thinking of making videos soon. Now I've been handed a note that is seemingly from his wife. She writes 'Sure, he's going to make all those tracks, but does he ever lift a finger to help around here? We literally live in filth while Mr. Generous there wastes all his time making sure Joe Brit has his free mashup!' Nice to be able to include a quote from the article subject. :)
Mix Of The Week - The Beggar In Gold Robes ( longspit.blogspot.com ) has a new mix called 'Never-Ending Loop Mix'. It's over 40 hours (so far) of endlessly varying beats & squeals. I haven't figured out to stop the damn thing yet, or it'd be a hell of a lot shorter. Get yours now before it gets outlawed.
Mashup Tip : I already told you. Yes, I did. I did. I really did.
DJ Useo's Podcast
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
"Hiding Man: A Biography of Donald Barthelme" by Tracy Daugherty: A review by Lorrie Moore
When, within a year's time, both Raymond Carver and Donald Barthelme succumbed in their fifties to cancer (Carver in August of 1988; Barthelme that next July), it was as if the reigning president and vice-president of the American Short Story had suddenly died. Both were beloved by peers and acolytes, though they struggled for readers, and each, in separate decades, had revitalized a genre that since the invention of television has been continually pronounced both moribund and in a condition of renaissance (recovering from moribund).
BRAD LEITHAUSER: Family Feuds (nytimes.com)
There must have been occasional intervals, during the decade-long siege of Troy, when the Greek commander, Agamemnon, suffered pangs of self-pity. But for Agamemnon, in retrospect, the Trojan War (still, after all these millenniums, the most potent symbol we have for a seemingly endless conflict) was a cakewalk. His real problems began only after he returned home to his wife, Clytemnestra, who dispatched him almost before he'd had time to change his sandals.
Les Dennis: Unhappy days are here again! (guardian.co.uk)
Recession? Les Dennis has performed his way through three of them. He reveals how comedy gets us through the hard times.
The little fellow who ruled the world (guardian.co.uk)
Simon Callow is bowled over by a witty analysis of Charlie Chaplin's greatest stunt: making us care.
Germaine Greer: Women used to shrink from creating art. Now they're taking over. And I think I know why (guardian.co.uk)
When art escaped from the frame and descended into the real world, women artists were suddenly in their element.
Jordan Levin: Famed Portuguese fado star goes global (McClatchy Newspapers)
Fado is the music of Portugal, a haunting, emotional style intimately bound up with that tiny country's history and seagoing soul. Yet on her latest recording, Mariza, fado's greatest contemporary interpreter, ranges into Cuban jazz, sentimental American pop, Cape Verdean Afro-world music and flamenco blues.
Glenn Gamboa: Rock Hall of Fame induction - no fights this year (Newsday)
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is trying a few new things this year.
'There are too many whiny bands' (guardian.co.uk)
New York's favourite art-punk rockers Yeah Yeah Yeahs are now living the LA life. They tell Emma Forrest why.
STEPHEN HUMPHRIES: "An Eclectic Master Craftsman: An Interview with Steven Wilson" (popmatters.com)
The ever prodigious Porcupine Tree main man Steven Wilson talks at length with PopMatters about the problems with download culture, the inferiority of the MP3, his strong work ethic and the mysteries of the creative process.
Rick Bentley: 'Monsters' voice role a first for Reese Witherspoon (McClatchy Newspapers)
Animation offers a world of different challenges for actors. Tools like body movement, facial expressions and hand gestures are no longer available to sell a scene. At the same time, animation offers a world of opportunities: It is the film genre where animals can talk, toys come to life and even a petite Oscar-winning actress can become an all-powerful defender of the galaxy.
Aaron Barnhart: Conan O'Brien, the new mayor of late-night, meets and greets (McClatchy Newspapers)
As Conan O'Brien surveyed the scene, he couldn't resist telling a joke.
ATC (A Touch of Class): So Magical (youtube.com)
The Weekly Poll
The next Poll will be April 7th - BadToTheBoneBob's 'out state' on vacation.
Which arch-villain on the old TV series 'Batman' appeared most frequently?
Of all the villains, the Penguin appeared the most. He made 26 appearances during the show's run.
Sally said:
Reader Suggestion
playin the game
I sent the following to a NASA website sponsor:
It's so f'n easy to get around the current colbert connundrum if you only
use a little humor.
Simply call it "Colbert's Serenity" or some such, with the "Colbert" name
written in an outline fashion that is only 1/10 the size of its
"Serenity" partner, the possessive "s" in a slightly different color, and
the possessive " ' " (comma) as a "tailed" period with a very small
picture of an ironic-looking Colbert in the comma's circle.
If you really wanna' be nasty, simply use materials for the "Colbert's"
name that eventually fades away in the sunlight.
There!
DanD
Thanks, Dan!
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Sunny and pleasant.
Ruling Favors
Al Franken
Democrat Al Franken's bid for a U.S. Senate seat received a boost from a Minnesota court opinion on Tuesday limiting the number of votes still to be counted, but his Republican rival promised to appeal.
Norm Coleman's lawyer, Ben Ginsberg, said the three-judge panel's ruling to count up to 400 previously excluded absentee ballots next week meant it was a "long shot" that Coleman could overtake Franken's 225-vote lead.
Some Senate Republicans have vowed to keep the seat vacant until all legal avenues have been pursued. Senate Democrats have been cautious in seeking to have Franken seated.
Al Franken
Pushes Peace
Yoko Ono
Yoko Ono says she will always remember Montreal's skyline when she thinks about the bed-in for peace she staged with former Beatle John Lennon in a downtown hotel 40 years ago.
Ono was back in Montreal on Tuesday to open "Imagine: The Peace Ballad of John & Yoko," an exhibit at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts which traces the couple's life from their meeting in 1966 to the 1969 bed-in.
With its message of world peace, the bed-in was one of the iconic moments of the 1960s. It made headlines around the world and also saw the recording of "Give Peace a Chance," which became an anthem for the antiwar movement.
Yoko Ono
Childhood Home Dismantled
Jimi Hendrix
The childhood home where rock guitarist and singer Jimi Hendrix is said to have first discovered music has been dismantled after eight years of preservation efforts failed.
Barely a shell of the 85-square-metre house originally in Seattle's Central Area neighbourhood remains on a lot across the street from where Hendrix was buried. Owner Pete Sikov told the Seattle Times for a story Tuesday that parts have been saved and may be sold later.
The house is where Hendrix first picked up a ukulele that had one string and figured out how to strum the theme song from the television detective show "Peter Gunn," said Leon Hendrix, the late musician's younger brother.
The demolition of the home is the end of Sikov's fight to preserve it, beginning in 2001 when the original site was purchased for condominium development. Sikov paid more than US$30,000 to buy and move it to a city-owned site where he and the James Marshall Hendrix Foundation hoped to renovate it as a music centre.
Jimi Hendrix
Movie Screenings
New York Theatre Ballet
A series of New York Theatre Ballet performances will screen exclusively in select movie theaters nationwide beginning in August, under a deal that NCM Fathom, the alternative entertainment division of National CineMedia, has struck with MarQe Entertainment.
The ballet series will complement Fathom's existing opera schedule, offering audiences a "Season of the Arts," beginning in late summer and continuing into 2010.
The series will feature six performances of ballet classics, including a live performance of "The Nutcracker," broadcast live from New York in December. Each performance will feature exclusive segments that will be seen only by cinema audiences. Also on offer will be "Sleeping Beauty," "Cinderella," "The Nutcracker," "Carnival of the Animals" and "The Alice in Wonderland Follies."
The series will be offered across NCM's Digital Broadcast Network, with reaches nearly 500 movie theaters and performing arts centers nationwide.
New York Theatre Ballet
Summer Tour
Bad Company
After gathering for a one-off reunion last August, the surviving members of the original Bad Company -- vocalist Paul Rodgers, guitarist Mick Ralphs and drummer Simon Kirke -- will play a 10-show tour this summer.
The mostly East Coast dates, which kick off June 17 at the Seminole Hard Rock & Casino in Hollywood, Fla., will herald the release of Bad Company's "Hard Rock Live" DVD, which was recorded at the same venue in 2008. The DVD will be sold at this summer's concert, then released to retail on August 8.
Lynn Sorenson, the bassist from Rodgers' solo band, will step in for Boz Burrell, who died in 2006, while Howard Leese, the former Heart principal who also works with Rodgers, will play second guitar. The Doobie Brothers will be opening all but the final show in Atlantic City.
Bad Company
Compassionate Conservatives
Legionaries of Christ
Pope Benedict the Atavistic, defender of pedophiles, has taken the extraordinary step of ordering a Vatican investigation of the Legionaries of Christ, the influential, conservative religious order that has acknowledged that its founder fathered a child and molested seminarians.
The Legion revealed in February that its founder, the Rev. Marcial Maciel of Mexico, had fathered a daughter who is now in her 20s and lives in Spain. Maciel died in 2008 at age 87.
The Legion was formed in 1941 and became one of the most influential and fastest-growing orders in the Roman Catholic Church. Pope John Paul II championed the group, which became known for its orthodox theology, military-style discipline, fund-raising prowess and success recruiting priests at a time when seminary enrollment was generally dismal.
The Legion was partly insulated from criticism by prominent supporters of its work, including George Weigel, the American biographer of John Paul; former U.S. drug czar William Bennett; and Mary Ann Glendon, a Harvard University law professor who was a U.S. ambassador to the Vatican under resident George W. Bush. Legion leaders often vilified the order's critics as liberals who wanted to attack John Paul and the church.
But the group's reputation began unraveling in 2006, a year into Benedict's pontificate, when the Vatican instructed Maciel to lead a "reserved life of prayer and penance" in response to the abuse allegations. Nine men had told the Vatican that Maciel had molested them decades before when they were young adults studying for the priesthood.
Legionaries of Christ
Microsoft To Shutter
Encarta
Microsoft Corp.'s digital encyclopedia, Encarta, might have pushed its printed competitors off the shelves in some homes. Now Encarta itself has fallen victim to changes in technology, made all but obsolete by the likes of Web search and Wikipedia.
Microsoft said it will shut down the online version of Encarta in October and will discontinue sales of the PC software by June.
Encarta was first sold to computer users as a CD-ROM-based encyclopedia in 1993. Critics questioned some of Microsoft's editorial decisions, including the fact that Encarta's dictionary had a photo of Bill Gates and not one of John F. Kennedy. But the electronic knowledge base was an early example of the advantages of digital content over the printed word. Encarta was quickly searchable, and could pack more images, plus video and sound.
The company said customers with subscriptions to its premium Encarta service - which had cost $4.95 per month or $29.95 per year - will get a refund for fees paid beyond April 30. These users will still be able to access the content with their logins and passwords until the service goes off-line.
Encarta
Coordinated Lawsuits
Queen Latifah
A makeup artist and a fashion stylist claim in coordinated lawsuits that they got ugly treatment from Queen Latifah when she cheated them out of $1 million.
Celebrity cosmetology consultant Roxanna Floyd says she lost $700,000 when the rapper-actress failed to pay her for work she did between July 2005 and February 2008.
In a separate lawsuit, celebrity fashion stylist Susan Moses said she was cheated of $300,000 during the same period.
Queen Latifah
Sets Record
Global Box Office
Global box office receipts rose 5 percent to a record $28.1 billion in 2008, the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) said on Tuesday.
"Movies can still be counted on to boost people's spirits as well as the economy," said Dan Glickman, the chairman and chief executive of the movie trade group, in prepared comments for ShoWest, the industry's annual convention held in Las Vegas.
Glickman said the domestic box office, including the United States and Canada, continues to be strong in 2009, surging 11 percent in the first 10 weeks of this year.
In 2008, the domestic box office reached $9.8 billion, a 1.7 percent increase over 2007, and accounted for 35 percent of the worldwide total.
Global Box Office
Resurrection Exemption Clause
Ria Ramkissoon
Prosecutors agreed to some unusual terms to win a guilty plea from a former religious cult member charged with starving her 1-year-old son to death: If the child is resurrected, her plea will be withdrawn.
Ria Ramkissoon, 22, also agreed Monday to testify against four other members of the now-defunct religious group known as 1 Mind Ministries. All four are charged with first-degree murder in the death of Javon Thompson, whose body was kept in a suitcase packed with mothballs and fabric softener sheets long after he died.
Ramkissoon's lawyer said the resurrection clause Ramkissoon insisted on shows that she is still "brainwashed" and needs the psychological treatment that is planned as part of her sentencing.
According to a statement of facts, the cult members stopped feeding the boy when he refused to say "Amen" after a meal. After Javon died, Ramkissoon sat next to his decomposing body and prayed for his resurrection.
Ria Ramkissoon
Hidden Face Revealed
Nefertiti
Researchers in Germany have used a modern medical procedure to uncover a secret within one of ancient Egypt's most treasured artworks - the bust of Nefertiti has two faces. A team led by Dr. Alexander Huppertz, director of the Imaging Science Institute at Berlin's Charite hospital and medical school, discovered a detailed stone carving that differs from the external stucco face when they performed a computed tomography, or CT, scan on the bust.
The findings, published Tuesday in the monthly journal Radiology, are the first to show that the stone core of the statue is a highly detailed sculpture of the queen, Huppertz said.
The differences between the faces, though slight - creases at the corners of the mouth, a bump on the nose of the stone version - suggest to Huppertz that someone expressly ordered the adjustments between stone and stucco when royal sculptors immortalized the wife of Pharaoh Akhenaten 3,300 years ago.
Nefertiti
Prime-Time Nielsens
Ratings
Prime-time viewership numbers compiled by Nielsen Media Research for March 23-29. Listings include the week's ranking, with viewership for the week and season-to-date rankings in parentheses. An "X" in parentheses denotes a one-time-only presentation.
1. (1) "American Idol" (Wednesday), Fox, 26.02 million viewers.
2. (X) "American Idol Results Special" (Thursday), Fox, 23.1 million viewers.
3. (3) "Dancing With The Stars," ABC, 20.34 million viewers.
4. (5) "NCIS," CBS, 17.83 million viewers.
5. (8) "The Mentalist" CBS, 17.62 million viewers.
6. (5) "Dancing with the Stars Results," ABC, 16.12 million viewers.
7. (13) "Grey's Anatomy" ABC, 16.1 million viewers.
8. (10) "60 Minutes," CBS, 14.44 million viewers.
9. (11) "Criminal Minds," CBS, 14.36 million viewers.
10. (14) "CSI: Miami," CBS, 13.67 million viewers.
11. (16) "CSI: NY," CBS, 12.64 million viewers.
12. (28) "Amazing Race 14," CBS, 11.99 million viewers.
13. (20) "Cold Case," CBS, 11.86 million viewers.
14. (11) "Two And a Half Men," CBS, 11.15 million viewers.
15. (X) "CBS NCAA Basketball Championship" (Friday), CBS, 11 million viewers.
16. (28) "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition," ABC, 10.84 million viewers.
17. (X) "CBS NCAA Basketball Championship" (Saturday), CBS, 10.61 million viewers.
18. (X) "CBS NCAA Basketball Championship" (Thursday), CBS, 10.38 million viewers.
19. (20) "24," Fox, 10.37 million viewers.
20. (50) "ER," NBC, 10.36 million viewers.
Ratings
In Memory
Steven Bach
Former United Artists movie executive Steven Bach, who oversaw the 1980 debacle "Heaven's Gate" and later wrote a memoir about it, has died.
Bach, who spent the last decade teaching literature at Bennington College, died of lung cancer March 25 at his home in Arlington, agent Robert Lescher said Tuesday. He was 70.
Bach, a native of Pocatello, Idaho, studied at the Sorbonne and Northwestern University and taught American literature before moving to Los Angeles, where he worked in public relations, earned a doctorate in film at the University of Southern California and worked for a decade as a story editor.
In the 1970s, he was a partner in Pantheon Pictures and helped produce the thrillers "The Parallax View," which starred Warren Beatty as a reporter investigating a senator's assassination, and "The Taking of Pelham One Two Three," featuring Walter Matthau as a New York detective trying to save a hijacked subway car, before he moved to United Artists.
"Heaven's Gate," a western about land barons in 19th-century Wyoming, was supposed to be a US$7.5-million feature by director Michael Cimino, but it evolved into a $36-million boondoggle. The box office bomb starred Kris Kristofferson, Christopher Walken and John Hurt.
United Artists fired Bach after it, and in 1985 he told his side of the story in a memoir entitled "Final Cut: Dreams and Disaster in the Making of 'Heaven's Gate."'
Bach is survived by his companion, Werner Roehr.
Steven Bach
In Memory
Andy Hallett
An agent for 33-year-old singer and actor Andy Hallett says the former cast member from the vampire TV series "Angel" has died of congestive heart disease.
Hallett's agent Pat Brady says Hallett died Sunday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles after having problems breathing. Brady says he has battled the heart condition for the past five years.
Hallett was a fan favorite on the "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" spinoff as Lorne, a green-skinned good guy demon who runs a karaoke club and can read a person's aura when they sing.
Hallett, an only child, is survived by his father Dave Hallett and mother Lori Hallett.
Andy Hallett
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