M Is FOR MASHUP - RERUN - from January 27th, 2010
What To Mash?
By DJ Useo
It's a fascinating subject to me deciding what music to mash up. I've been told I'm the Frank Zappa of bootlegging because of my sometimes 'eclectic' choice of artists to mix. Not a bad thing to be called, in my mind. I don't think too many other mixers would like that comparison,though. Mainly they want to be referred to as being likened to Go Home Productions, Soundhog, or Frenchbloke, three dj's who helped trailblaze mashups in general. I've often noticed a tendency of the scene is to instruct you to do as they do. For me that's not remotely possible. Through the combination of my instruction in classical music production & my personal tastes range to the adventurous & less commercial, I'm driven to just go my own way & damn the mainstream.
Still, there's a warped part of me that finds some appeal in top forty tunes. I reckon it's because of my Mother giving me her collection of 45's when I was about 8 years' old. There were twist records, surf music & a good handful of R 'n B mainstream among those vinyl goodies. It led to me going from singing silly versions of 'On Top Of Old Smokey' to memorizing the latest Moody Blues & Beatles. I quickly went through the glam scene & then into punk rock where I was happy as der clam. Would'a thunk I would even give techno/dance a second glance, but soon the sheer creativity of that style also held me rapt. Among all the really good music I also aquired a new penchant for novelty music like The Bonzo Dog Band, Martin Mull, & Devo, a band that was novelty & not.
When I got into the world wide web, I found an expanded amount of all the types of tunes I liked. I was searching online for novelty tracks when I first found a wild mix of the Monkees & the Beatles by Go Home Productions. It struck me funny, yet also was clearly one of the best pop gems I'd ever heard. Soon, I found there were more people working in this new vein of rhythm & melody. Mashups really hooked me in & soon I overcame my view of them as novelty. When I'd hear a mashup it might be any kind of music combined from The Stone Roses vs TLC vs Tears For Fears, to The Stranglers vs Electric Six to Chemical Bros vs Righteous Bros. If you want to sample some of the early mashups I found, check out this podcast of mine - Mashups 2003 Podcast ( djuseo.podomatic.com/player/web/2009-11-24T23_23_00-08_00 )
I got a very supportive response to even my earliest mashups like 'Do You Love V-2 Schneider' (The Contours vs David Bowie), 'Hate Me Radio Dub' (Nas vs Members), & 'Mighty Pink' (Ghostface Killah vs The Fabulous Poodles) so I continued mixing & posting. Every so often I'd hear from some rare voice say to me "you need to make more accessible, mainstream mashups", but I didn't agree. Yet, somewhere along the way I did start popping out tracks that used more mainstream-y artists. I even quit posting the silly mashups I'd make regularly, instead, I only played them in my QRADIPS SHOW weekly radio hour.( qradip.blogspot.com/ ) Check out the past archive & you'll see tracks like 'Wow They're Coming' (Napoleon XIV vs Front Office), 'Nobodies Mountain King' (Marilyn Manson vs Lawrence Welk & His Orchestra) & 'Bounce 2 Hardstyle Bubbles In The Wine' ( The Lawrence Welk Orchestra vs Dj Alligator vs Blutonium Boy). I plan to release a couple compilations soon collecting those goofier mixes. I'll let you know when they appear.
In the most recent days for me I think you can see a good tight-rope walk between the mainstream & the not with tracks like 'Viva La Emergency' (Coldplay vs Wolfgang Gartner), 'Groove Times Two' (Madonna vs Deee-Lite vs Daft Punk), & 'Tax Machine' (The Beatles vs Pink Floyd). Many is the masher reliant on whatever a'capellas & instrumentals are available. I thank mixers like MP3J & Tizwarz who urged me to learn to cut & loop my own instrumentals & learn software to extract my own a'capellas. Thanks to those mixers & methods I can make tracks with just about anyone I like. Currently, I'm working up an albums' worth of GOTH vs GOA I call 'DARK DEADLY DEATH'. Look for the release of that in the next few months. I certainly don't think of those mixes as anything near mainstream. lol.& yet I still make very accessible mashups like 'Get Sexy Chick' (Sugababes vs David Guetta f/ Akon) which combines 2 tracks that were both in the UK top ten at the same time. Look for that mashup on 'Culture Bully 2009 Mashed' ( www.culturebully.com/2009-mashed ).
I recently got an invite to contribute a new track to a SEX-themed mashup album, so I mixed up '(I'm A) Sexeater' (Berlin vs Dubatech). It turned out very accessible I think. You tell me when it comes out shortly. In the meantime, feel free to write me if you want to hear some particular artist mashed. I enjoy hearing from y'all. Thanks for listening.
Mix Of The Week
Hear some of my more left-field mixing in 'Music To Imbibe To', a new long mix found on the excellent BMBX website. It's full of appealing weirdness, & people tell me they like the set. Find it here - ( groovytimewithdjuseo.blogspot.com/2010/01/music-to-imbibe-to-long-mix.html )
Mashup Tip : Change your DJ name every so often to avoid being pigeon-holed.
DJ Useo's Podcast
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
FRANK RICH: It's a Bird, It's a Plane, It's Obama! (nytimes.com)
NOT since Clark Kent changed in a phone booth has there been an instant image makeover to match Barack Obama's in the aftermath of his health care victory.
Susan Estrich: The Right to a Lawyer (creators.com)
If you were charged with a crime, would you rather be rich and guilty or poor and innocent?
Connie Schultz: Newspapers Should Start Naming Names (creators.com)
I look forward to the day when news organizations start to ban anonymous comments on their Web sites. Maybe that's the foolish optimist in me, but I want to believe that we will finally admit - to ourselves and to the public at large - that allowing people to hide behind anonymity has not been good for our industry, our culture or our country.
Froma Harrop: 'Doing Better' Than One's Parents (creators.com)
If the new federal program to help homeowners pay their mortgage bugs you, read a Wall Street Journal article titled, "Bank of Mom and Dad Shuts Amid White-Collar Struggle." It will make you even madder.
Is self-discipline the key to success? (guardian.co.uk)
Even a committed hedonistic life requires plenty of self-discipline, says Oliver Burkeman. You need it actually to book that flight to Bali, after all.
Robert Leighton and Cate Plys: Let's Read Two (slate.com)
Babe Ruth's whores, Pete Rose's pills, and other stuff you never read about your favorite players when you were a kid.
"Textura: Valencia Street Art: by Luz A. Martin: A review by Mason Riddle
There are, of course, endless reasons to go to Valencia. After all, it is in Spain, a country seared through with extraordinary food, wine, art, architecture, and humanity. But a center for street art? Who knew? Apparently, Valencia native and photographer Luz A. Martin knew.
Drew Fortune: "Maybe You Do Want to Grow Up After All": An Interview with Bernard Sumner (popmatters.com)
When asked about how he feels about the term "icon", Bernard Sumner tells PopMatters that "I don't think I'm a legend. I think I've just got an interesting history." This, his time with Joy Division, New Order, and new band Bad Lieutenant are all a part of this epic interview ...
Irene Lacher: Sunday Conversation with Lily Tomlin (latimes.com)
Playing the wife of a Bernie Madoff-like character on 'Damages' has been a thrill for the actress, who is a huge fan of the series.
Ellen Page: 'I'm totally pro-choice. I mean what are we going to do - go back to clothes hangers?' (guardian.co.uk)
The young star of 'Juno' talks to Lisa O'Kelly about abortion, learning to roller derby with Smother Theresa, sexism in Hollywood and going green to Halifax.
DAVID BRUCE: Wise Up! Acting (athensnews.com)
In the movie "Marathon Man," a character played by Dustin Hoffman is tortured by a character played by Sir Laurence Olivier. On the day the torture scene was to be shot, Mr. Hoffman showed up looking very, very bad. He explained that in order to get ready to shoot the scene, he had stayed up two days and two nights without any sleep. Sir Laurence smiled, then said to Mr. Hoffman, "Why don't you just try acting? It's so much easier."
David Bruce: Free Mark Twain Anecdotes: Large Print Edition (lulu.com)
Download: FREE
The Weekly Poll
New Question
The 'Banning the Burka' Edition...
Belgium may be the first European country to ban the full-covering Islamic veils from being worn in public... The Belgian parliament's home affairs unanimously backed a proposal to ban the so-called burka and niqab, two forms of the Muslim veil covering the entire body and face. If the law is enacted, women who wear this in public would be fined 15-25 euros and may face a jail sentence of up to seven days.
EUobserver / Belgium moves towards banning the burka
Would you support or oppose such a ban here in the US? (and why?)
A.) Support ______
B.) Oppose ______
C.) WTF? I gots more important things to worry about, dagnabbit! _______
Send your response to
said:
From The Creator of 'Avery Ant'
Reader Request
CBS Poll
Marty
A friend sent this to me. I thought it was of interest.
CBS Poll of President Obama's first year. It is shocking to see how the folks who dislike everything he does have overly influenced the poll results, giving him "F"s in all areas.
The hate groups have managed to give OUR PRESIDENT an F average. We can counter that, please vote, Let's see if we can turn this around as we have done before. We know why, they have already told us they want his presidency to be his waterloo. They want him to fail despite the fact that if he fails, we all fail. Let's show them we have power, too.
This is a CBS poll on Obama's first year performance....
Everybody go vote. When you finish voting, a screen will pop up so you can see all the results.
This takes about 30 seconds and the poll results are very telling ...
Here's your chance to grade the President!
I am surprised CBS put this up and
even more surprised they keep it up !
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Still sunny and on the cool side.
Loses Key Ruling On Internet `Neutrality'
FCC
A federal court threw the future of Internet regulations into doubt Tuesday with a far-reaching decision that went against the Federal Communications Commission and could even hamper the government's plans to expand broadband access in the United States.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled that the FCC lacks authority to require broadband providers to give equal treatment to all Internet traffic flowing over their networks. That was a big victory for Comcast Corp., the nation's largest cable company, which had challenged the FCC's authority to impose such "network neutrality" obligations on broadband providers.
Supporters of network neutrality, including the FCC chairman, have argued that the policy is necessary to prevent broadband providers from favoring or discriminating against certain Web sites and online services, such as Internet phone programs or software that runs in a Web browser. Advocates contend there is precedent: Nondiscrimination rules have traditionally applied to so-called "common carrier" networks that serve the public, from roads and highways to electrical grids and telephone lines.
But broadband providers such as Comcast, AT&T Inc. and Verizon Communications Inc. argue that after spending billions of dollars on their networks, they should be able to sell premium services and manage their systems to prevent certain applications from hogging capacity.
Tuesday's unanimous ruling by the three-judge panel was a setback for the FCC because it questioned the agency's authority to regulate broadband. That could cause problems beyond the FCC's effort to adopt official net neutrality regulations. It also has serious implications for the ambitious national broadband-expansion plan released by the FCC last month. The FCC needs the authority to regulate broadband so that it can push ahead with some of the plan's key recommendations. Among other things, the FCC proposes to expand broadband by tapping the federal fund that subsidizes telephone service in poor and rural communities.
FCC
Sales Strong Despite Price Hike
Movie Tickets
U.S. moviegoers are showing few signs of balking at higher ticket prices, which means a gamble by theater chains to raise revenue, especially on 3-D films, could pay off.
It has been less than two weeks since higher prices were introduced at many theaters, including locations operated by AMC Entertainment Inc, Regal Entertainment Group and Cinemark, owned by Cinemark Holdings Inc.
A survey of 10 theaters in different U.S. cities conducted by analysts with BTIG found that tickets had increased an average 8.3 percent for 3-D screenings, with tickets going to $14.73 on March 26 from $13.60 on March 24.
The increase was less for 2-D showings, whose prices rose more than 4 percent to $10.73 from $10.30 during the same time period, BTIG said.
Movie Tickets
Announce Split In Tweet
Jim Carrey & Jenny McCarthy
Jim Carrey and Jenny McCarthy have taken to Twitter to announce their breakup.
The two actors each tweeted Tuesday that they have ended their relationship after five years. Publicists for Carrey and McCarthy confirmed the split.
The 48-year-old Carrey says on the social networking Web site that he wishes her "the very best!"
The 37-year-old McCarthy tweeted that she "will always keep Jim as a leading man in my heart."
Jim Carrey & Jenny McCarthy
Postpones Concert
Whitney Houston
Illness has led to a brief postponement of Whitney Houston's European tour.
The singer had been due to kick it off in Paris on Tuesday. But a statement released Monday by her representative says an upper respiratory infection is forcing Houston to bow out of that show on doctors' orders.
The statement says Houston "deeply regrets having been forced to postpone the show." The tour will start in Manchester, England, on Thursday. She plans to make up the Paris date.
This is the latest problem for Houston on her world tour for her platinum comeback album, "I Look to You." Some earlier performances have been negatively received by some fans and the media, leading to concerns about her health. But Houston has said she is in great shape.
Whitney Houston
Sues Producer
Nicollette Sheridan
Nicollette Sheridan, the actress who played a divorced real estate agent in ABC's "Desperate Housewives" filed suit Monday against the show's creator and producer alleging assault and wrongful termination.
In the lawsuit filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, Sheridan claims that producer Marc Cherry hit her in the face on the Wisteria Lane set in September 2008.
Sheridan had asked Cherry about a line in the script, and he "took her aside and forcefully hit her with his hand across her face and head," the suit said. After she stormed off to her trailer, he came to "beg forgiveness."
When she reported the incident to ABC, Cherry retaliated by killing off her character, Edie Britt, in the popular series, Sheridan claims.
Nicollette Sheridan
Seeks Leniency For Convicted Grandson
Kirk Douglas
Kirk Douglas has asked a judge to spare his drug-dealer grandson a harsh prison sentence, saying he hopes to see him turn around his life "before I die."
The film legend made the appeal in one of several letters of support filed Friday in federal court in Manhattan on behalf of Cameron Douglas.
Other letters were penned by his celebrity stepmother, Catherine Zeta-Jones, NBA executive Pat Riley and longtime friends who described their despair over watching him waste his talent as a budding actor. He had roles in movies including 2003's "It Runs in the Family," starring his father and grandfather.
The son of Academy Award winner Michael Douglas pleaded guilty earlier this year to charges he dealt methamphetamine out of a trendy Manhattan hotel.
Kirk Douglas
Prison Time For Art Scam
Kristine Eubanks
A woman who sold $20 million in phony artwork she claimed was by Picasso, Dali and Chagall to thousands of people through a semiweekly televised auction has been sentenced to seven years in federal prison, prosecutors said Tuesday.
Kristine Eubanks, 52, of La Canada Flintridge pleaded guilty in 2007 to conspiracy and tax evasion and was sentenced Monday.
She and her husband, Gerald Sullivan, conducted an art auction show twice a week on DirecTV and The Dish Network from 2002 to 2006.
The couple ran Fine Art Treasures Gallery, which sold fake and forged lithographs, prints and paintings purportedly found at estate liquidations around the world to more than 10,000 victims, U.S. attorney's spokesman Thom Mrozek said.
Kristine Eubanks
Chips In $20M More
Meg Whitman
Former eBay chief executive Meg Whitman on Monday gave her campaign for the GOP gubernatorial nomination another $20 million, bringing her contributions from her personal fortune to $59 million in what is expected to be the most expensive governor's race in California history.
Whitman has already spent more than $46 million in her quest to beat state Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner in the June Republican primary, paying tens of millions to blanket television and radio airwaves with ads introducing herself to California voters.
Recent polls show her with a 40- to 50-percentage point lead over Poizner and neck-and-neck with presumed Democratic nominee Jerry Brown in a presumed matchup in next November's general election.
Whitman's campaign has said she is willing to spend as much as $150 million of her own money in the race for governor.
Meg Whitman
Rolling The Rubes
Marcellus Shale
Like many rural towns, Wellsboro in northern Pennsylvania, is getting rich from the rush to develop the Marcellus Shale, a formation stretching from New York to West Virginia that contains enough natural gas to satisfy U.S. demand for 20 years or more, experts say.
It is expected to become the most productive of America's shale gas fields.
The boom has also transformed the lives of some local farmers who, after struggling financially for years, now find themselves with six- or seven-figure checks from the gas companies in return for leasing their land for drilling.
Energy companies are paying around $2,500 an acre -- a lump sum of about $375,000 for a typical 150-acre farm, he said. And more money will also flow into local economies from gas royalty payments, which are yet to be paid in significant quantities.
Marcellus Shale
British Conference
Vampires
A British university is to hold a conference on Vampires in an effort to counterbalance the "Americanization" of the fictional genre.
Delegates to the University of Hertfordshire's "Open Graves, Open Minds: Vampires and the Undead in Modern Culture" conference to be held on April 16-17 will have their food served to them out of coffins as part of a mission to encourage students of all ages to study literature.
English lecturer Sam George, who has just launched a Master of Arts degree in vampire fiction at Hertfordshire, said the most famous vampire narrative of all, Dracula, was written by Irishman Bram Stoker and set in London and Whitby in Yorkshire, but that now with the "Twilight" saga and "True Blood," modern vampires have become Americanized.
Panel topics during the two-day event will include "Dracula Lives," "Appetites of the Undead," "Undead Victorians," "Undead Teens," "Politics of the Undead," "Undead Romance," "The Gay Undead," "Undead TV," "Undead in the New Media," "Identity, Legality and the Undead" and "Gendering the Undead."
Vampires
New Species
Forest Monitor Lizard
A dragon-sized, fruit-eating lizard that lives in the trees on the northern Philippines island of Luzon has been confirmed as a new species, scientists reported on Tuesday.
Hunted for its tasty flesh, the brightly colored forest monitor lizard can grow to more than six feet in length but weighs only about 22 pounds (10 kg), said Rafe Brown of the University of Kansas, whose team confirmed the find.
"It lives up in trees, so it can't get as massive as the Komodo dragon, a huge thing that eats large amounts of fresh meat," Brown said by telephone. "This thing is a fruit-eater and it's only the third fruit-eating lizard in the world."
Discovering such a large vertebrate species is extremely rare, Brown said. The lizard, a new species of the genus Varanus, is skittish and able to hide from humans, its primary predators, which could explain why it has gone undetected by scientists for so long.
Forest Monitor Lizard
In Memory
Wilma Mankiller
Former Cherokee Nation Chief Wilma Mankiller, one of the nation's most visible American Indian leaders and one of the few women to lead a major tribe, died Tuesday after suffering from cancer and other health problems. She was 64.
Mankiller, whose first taste of federal policy toward Indians came when her family ended up in a housing project after a government relocation project, took Indian issues to the White House and met with three presidents. She earned a reputation for facing conflict head-on.
As the first female chief of the Cherokees, from 1985 to 1995, Mankiller led the tribe in tripling its enrollment, doubling employment and building new health centers and children's programs.
Mankiller met snide remarks about her surname - a Cherokee military title - with humor, often delivering a straight-faced, "Mankiller is actually a well-earned nickname."
Born at W.W. Hastings Indian Hospital in Tahlequah, Mankiller moved with her family to San Francisco in the 1950s when their farm failed. The pledge of opportunity turned out to be poverty in a housing project. She married and had two daughters, Felicia and Gina.
In 1969, she got what she called "an enormous wake-up call" and took her first step into Indian activism by participating in the 19-month occupation of Alcatraz Island.
Seventy-nine Native Americans took over the site of the former federal prison to protest a policy that terminated the federal government's recognition of tribal sovereignty and the exclusion of Indians from state laws. The policy was based on the belief that Native Americans would be better off if they assimilated as individuals into mainstream American society.
Mankiller moved back to her family's land in Oklahoma after getting divorced in 1975. A decade later, she succeeded former Chief Ross Swimmer, who had tapped her as his running mate because of her business savvy. During her re-election campaign, she pledged to improve the tribe's economic interests.
Mankiller decided not to seek re-election in 1995, and accepted a teaching position at Dartmouth College in Hanover, N.H., where she held an honorary degree. Among her other honors was a Presidential Medal of Freedom - the nation's highest civilian award - presented in 1998.
Wilma Mankiller
In Memory
April Stirton
A 28-year-old television stuntwoman is dead after she fell off her motorcycle and was hit by another vehicle while driving to a set in Los Angeles.
The Los Angeles County coroner's office says April Stirton was riding her motorcycle west on U.S. Highway 101 Tuesday morning when she attempted to pass a tow truck.
California Highway Patrol Officer Jose Nunez says Stirton was going about 55 mph when she lost control, fell off her bike and was struck by the back wheels of the tow truck. She died at the scene.
Missy Reynolds, who runs a stunt service agency and worked with Stirton, says Stirton was an up-and-coming performer who worked as a stunt double on TV shows, including "True Blood" and "CSI," and as an acrobat in live shows.
April Stirton
In Memory
Craig Noel
Craig Noel, the founding director of the Old Globe theater in San Diego's Balboa Park, died at his home. He was 94.
The Old Globe theater was built for an international exhibition in 1935. Noel helped the community troupe based at the temporary structure grow into an internationally known theater that staged Shakespeare plays and sent new dramatic work to Broadway.
He joined the group as a 22-year-old actor, started directing two years later and took a brief break to serve in World War II.
Noel was named resident director in 1947 and made the Globe the first professional Actors' Equity theater on the West Coast when the San Diego National Shakespeare Festival debuted in 1949.
Noel directed more than 200 works and produced 270, helping guide several productions to Broadway, including Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine's "Into the Woods," August Wilson's "The Piano Lesson," and Neil Simon's "Rumors" and "Jake's Women."
In the 1960s, Noel introduced modern playwrights like Samuel Beckett and Eugene Ionesco to the Southern California theater scene at the La Jolla Museum of Contemporary Art.
Craig Noel
In Memory
Corin Redgrave
Corin Redgrave, a member of a British acting dynasty that includes his sisters Vanessa and Lynn, has died at the age of 70.
The Redgrave family said the actor died Tuesday after falling ill at home on Sunday. His wife, Kika Markham, said he died in a London hospital, "surrounded by his family."
Corin Redgrave was less famous than his sisters, but still had success on stage and screen, appearing in dozens of television shows and movies, including "A Man for All Seasons," and "Oh! What A Lovely War" and "Four Weddings and a Funeral" - in which he played Hamish, the hapless groom of wedding number three.
Known also for his radical political stands, Corin Redgrave was a Marxist who protested against the Iraq War, campaigned for the closure of the Guantanamo Bay detention camp and spoke out in defense of political dissidents. He was a longtime member of the tiny Workers Revolutionary Party, and along with his sister Vanessa in 2004 founded the Peace and Progress Party, which ran several candidates in the 2005 national election.
Corin Redgrave was born July 16, 1939, the son of matinee idol Michael Redgrave and Rachel Kempson, a famous beauty who also had a long theater and film career.
Corin Redgrave is survived by his wife, sons Luke, Harvey and Arden and a daughter, actress Jemma Redgrave. Funeral details were not immediately available.
Corin Redgrave
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