M Is FOR MASHUP - RERUN - February 18th, 2015
What Home Producers Think About Mashups
By DJ Useo
I have a Facebook account solely to contact people who want to interact about mashups. Many has been the time I felt like closing my account, but the people I know there are what keeps me staying. I was thinking about the assembled bootleg knowledge my contacts possess, & I got an idea to invite them to offer their wisdom on the subject. They delivered & more. Here's the thread containing what my Facebook contacts think about mashups.
Voicedude - It's apparently been a huge waste of my time…. ;)
Jarod Preston - Why listen to one of your favorite songs when you listen to two of them at the same time.
Boris Bolo - don't like the music in em, but the videos are pretty good. :)
Ryan Nellis - Becoming decreasingly creative (myself included). Is it because the more we mash, the less material we feel is usable?
Scott Cairo - why not?
AtoZ - That the above comments reveal a discernible wave of "why do we do this decreasingly fresh or enjoyable thing ?" Useo is chagrined to have exposed a Ghostbusters II river of discontent flowing under Mashtown !
'cept Me, who's still reaching thriving peaks (( and wid videos too plus as well !! ))
Matthew Kavanagh - Even though I now understand its a matter of matching key and timing, I still feel the magic making these today, as I felt listening to mashups on the radio 10 years ago.
AtoZ - You open an insightful window ( to a door ... which leads to a view ... of this ! ) ... Key & Timing match are crucial, but not if it's rigidly mechanized and "computery". Feel and happy-axledents keep the naturalness of life within it, and a bit a' dissonance is better than sounding too auto-crooned !
As far as "still feeling the magic 10 years on" that cuz the true artistes ( even weary Joel-Steven Voicedude ) are evolving. Just think of music 1962 vs 1972 ! (( damn !!, I just conceived another freakin' compilation .))
oki - mashups are a fun and creative hobby for the entire family.
Mistah Pok - Mashups are dead and locked in my basement.
ToToM - The quickest and most satisfying way I found to express myself through music and always a pleasure to listen to although I've become more difficult to please as ever.
Jeremy Girard - I enjoy music of all genres. However, I can only hear my own favorite albums so many times before I long for something fresh. Likewise, I can only listen to the radio looking for new sounds so many times before the same 20 songs are repeated.
Ah, but in the wonderful world of Mashups I can hear my old favorites mashed with the new! Old favs with other old favs, new with new, and I can even credit them for introducing me to artists that I may never have heard at all!
And now, so many producers have joined in the craft that one could literally find a new mashup at any given moment. Some new combination that has just been completed, fresh for your ears! It is a never ending world of musical discovery that brings together decades and genres that you would never think to enjoy at the same time, but once you do, you can't imagine it any other way.
Jared Slaff - I still love mash-ups, from the day I heard my first one in July 2004 (Chris Isaak v. CeCe Peniston). Although lately, due to its popularity, there haven't been as many quality choons (onslaught of EDM v. EDM, etc), but there are some gems that still come out of the woodwork. Sadly, Genre Clash has been put on the back burner compared to years past.
But when the songs that come out now are also down in quality, it can make it that much harder. As a fanboy (and having made a couple meh-shups also), I have a big appreciation of the hard work these DJ's/producers put in for so long..!
Eddie Pedalo - It's over. Move on.
Jarod Preston - Because it NEVER gets old -
and the possibilities are endless...
....unlessss you use the same hip hop and r&b vocals over and over again.
Sam Haynes - Need more biggie pellas.
Dave Davis - Common themes seem to blend effortlessly. However, I know there is some major work done to accomplish them.
Voicedude - It's a shame that the biggest haters of the genre are from within the genre. How will anything survive that dynamic?
AtoZ - 1- You don't mean you see "haters" in this thread right here, do ya' ? Seems like cheekiness, or contrariness at worst. You must mean other mash-sites, like how GYBO used to was ?
2- As for surviving that dynamic -- seems to be working so far ! Grist for the mill, maybe ? Certainly motivation.
I haven't seen anywhere, including well outside of mashery, that doesn't attract nay-sayers / wiseasses / & plain ol' troublemakers . . .
Voicedude - No. But I think that self-hating attitude / dynamic is unique to this genre. Plus that attitude IS why I have nothing to do with Mashstix any longer and is, I believe, what helped kill GYBO... We used to be a community of fellow artistes who would compare and occasionally critique each others work (and ended up LIFTING each other up) - like a public park where we all set up our latest pieces.
But it BECAME something else: imagine your easels all set up and the very first 'peer' that comes by whips it out and takes a piss all over it. Now, there it sits. - dripping - so THAT is the first takeaway any future person sees. Now I do NOT expect fawning over every track I release - far from it! - but NO ONE expects THAT kind of reaction.
Especially when someone who ISN'T a musician starts lecturing me on how OOK ( "out of key" ) it is, particularly when I know it isn't. It's also just plain disrespectful to another who is JUST LIKE YOU, for one. Today, especially online or in other social media contexts, too many fall into SNARK as a 'go to' response, as if being an asshole is a 'right' or something. All it takes it one turd to spoil the soup, so these reactions take away all that LOVE we referred to previously that got us into this to begin with. Just imho, btw...
AtoZ - Wow, Voicedude, all eloquently said, sir. I just had a variation on that my own self :
I spent the last couple weeks on one a' own I was super, >never-did-better< Proud of . . but I ran it by a couple genuine Mash-pals cuz I went back and forth on a couple vocal phrases being "possibly" off just a squeach.
You know . . . one day ya' love it --- next day you're not sure.
( I hesitate to ask You about "nearly dones" cuz your bracingly honest assessments are so bracingly honest . . heh-heh )
Once I felt as confident as one can be, and had endorsements filling my sails, out it launched unto the whirled . . .
It got some of the most enthusiastic reactions I've yet garnered, especially getting a "Like" from Mark Vidler! ( the gosh-darn Patron Saint of Mashters ! ) . . . . but ONE damn guy said 'something' like "pitch-matching vocal from "The Word" is a waste here". And don't `cha know it . . there's the turd in That soup !!
Oh! . . should I reference the track?
Sure, then you can chase around that turd with some drippy piss!!
heh-heh
';'
Voicedude - You're talking one man's opinion amongst a bunch of favorable reviews. I'm talking the very first comment is Snark - sometimes incorrect Snark. Recently, on my Guardians Of The Galaxy mashup on one of the sites, this very thing happened. What he referred to I was somewhat aware of but not concerned with. Yet, still my work was there, dripping with piss.
But I did not respond; I did not take the bait. Instead, the song maxed out my 100 D/L in record time! Clearly the rest of the crowd disagreed with him, but there stood my work, dripping anyway... Should we care about what our peers say about our work? Well, in a word: yes. But not if we're going to act like jerks about it; in that case, who cares what you think!
AtoZ - But back on The Overall Non-Specific topic here, folks ! . . . We need to keep this all in mind from a more historical perspective :
Mash-Ups have been around, in a widely known and accepted way, for going on 15 to 20 years now ?
Eras change . . . it was in the late 80's that everybody in commercially released music was gettin' all 60's on us.
Right now, there seems to be a lot of fondness or at least references to the 90's. Mashers may fear we've hung around too long and gone "out of style", but give it a couple years and the culture will be digging out their "mash-hats", and "mash-pants" again. Oh my . . . there'll be blogs about how "Mashing is Back !"
Except, as so beautifully pointed out above in this resonant thread, mashing exists in all times and genres as a fundamental construct . . so we're in / out / and beyond fashion at all times anyway.
So stick That in your app and Mash it!
Thanks to all my pals, & contacts for all the expressions concerning mashups. I'll be back next week with more writing about mashups!
Podcast Of The Week
DJ Rudec presents the awesome "DJ Rudec - Jazztamash Vol 1 @ GenErik & Friends podcast". DJ Rudec says "Needed to recover from the pure awesome that was superstar Ralph Myerz exclusive podcast. Back with something a leeetel different this time: An hour of jazzy mashups. Some truly mind-blowing work here from DJ Rudec. Jazz standards x Pop Standards? Nu-jazz and lounge versions of your favourite songs? It's all here."
( soundcloud.com/generikmashups/dj-rudec-jazztamash-vol-1 )
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Joe Scarborough: Stop mourning, Democrats (Washington Post)
But many Democrats campaigning across the United States understand that now is no time to panic. Instead of being distracted by those electric flashes of light created by Trump's perpetual motion machine, they are knocking on doors, reaching out to neighbors, making Facebook friends and organizing teams to drive their supporters to polling places. For those still distracted by the latest cable news calamity, remember the words of a union activist wrongly executed in 1915. Before his death, Joe Hill sent a friend instructions: "Don't waste any time mourning. Organize!"
Paul Krugman: Trump's Taking Us From Temper Tantrum to Trade War (NY Times)
Unlike children in cages, angry allies can and will retaliate.
Deb Reichman: Fears Grow Over Deceptive 'Deepfake' Videos Made To Sway Elections (AP)
Hey, did my congressman really say that? Is that really President Donald Trump on that video, or am I being duped?
Jonathan Chait: Michael Cohen Apparently Flipping Is Extremely Bad News for Trump (NY Mag)
More significantly, ABC reports that Cohen is ending his joint defense agreement with Trump, which is what Michael Flynn did before flipping. What would it mean for Trump if Cohen turns on him? The short answer is, it would be extremely bad. A somewhat longer list of reasons why:
Jonathan Chait: Trump Calls His Supporters 'Elite,' Doesn't Understand How Populism Works (NY Mag)
Trump: "We have more money and more brains and better houses and apartments and nicer boats. We are smarter than they are. They say the elite. We are the elite. You are the elite." This is not, of course, how populism works. It trades on either cultural or economic grievance. One's enemies possess all the privilege, and we the people must take it back. Once you have declared that you already possess the privilege, the whole basis for it disintegrates.
Andrew Tobias: If You Can't Trust Putin And Kim Jong-Un, Whom CAN You Trust?
Putin, through Trump, has ended the American century. And the Republicans in Congress - who once called him a pathological liar - simply cower. Not the sort of July 4th one would have wished for. (But have a great one.)
Arwa Mahdawi: Why write a novel about a brutal female rapist in the age of #MeToo? Amber Tamblyn explains (The Guardian)
The poet, Hollywood star and Time's Up co-founder releases her debut novel Any Man this month, and it is already causing a major stir. She talks about why men's empathy is essential.
David Bruce's Amazon Author Page
David Bruce's Smashwords Page
David Bruce's Blog #1
David Bruce's Blog #2
David Bruce's Blog #3
David Bruce's Lulu Storefront
David Bruce's Apple iBookstore
David Bruce has over 80 Kindle books on Amazon.com.
Presenting
Michael Egan
took the day off.
has returned to semi-retired status.
In memory.
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
David E Suggests
Flags
David
Thanks, Dave!
Bonus Links
Jeannie the Teed-Off Temp
Reader Comment
July 4
some guy
Thanks, Guy!
from Marc Perkel
Marc's Guide to Curing Cancer
So far so good on beating cancer for now. I'm doing fine. At the end of the month I'll be 16 months into an 8 month mean lifespan. And yesterday I went on a 7 mile hike and managed to keep up with the hiking group I was with. So, doing something right.
Still waiting for future test results and should see things headed in the right direction. I can say that it's not likely that anything dire happens in the short term so that means that I should have time to make several more attempts at this. So even if it doesn't work the first time there are a lot of variations to try. So if there's bad news it will help me pick the next radiation target.
I have written a "how to" guide for oncologists to perform the treatment that I got. I'm convinced that I'm definitely onto something and whether it works for me or not isn't the definitive test. I know if other people tried this that it would work for some of them, and if they improve it that it will work for a lot of them.
The guide is quite detailed and any doctor reading this can understand the procedure at every level. I also go into detail as to how it works, how I figured it out, and variations and improvements that could be tried to enhance it. I also introduce new ways to look at the problem. There is a lot of room for improvement and I think that doctors reading it will see what I'm talking about and want to build on it. And it's written so that if you're not a doctor you can still follow it. It also has a personal story revealing that I'm the class clown of cancer support group. I give great interviews and I look pretty hot in a lab coat.
So, feel free to read this and see what I'm talking about. But if any of you want to help then pass this around to both doctors and cancer patients. I need some media coverage. I'm looking for as many eyeballs as possible to read these ideas. Even if this isn't the solution, it's definitely on the right track. After all, I did hike 7 miles yesterday. And this hiking group wasn't moving slow. So if this isn't working then, why am I still here?
I also see curing cancer as more of an engineering problem that a medical problem. So if you are good at solving problems and most of what you know about medicine was watching the Dr. House MD TV show, then you're at the level I was at when I started. So anyone can jump in and be part of the solution.
Here is a link to my guide: Oncologists Guide to Curing Cancer using Abscopal Effect
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
"LET MY PEOPLE GO."
IS THIS HOW CHRISTIANS ACT?
"SOUND AND FURY-BUT SIGNIFYING NOTHING."
"TRINKETING!"
Visit JD's site - Kitty Litter Music
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Really running late - ran outta gas last night and redefined 'crashed & burned', sitting up, while putting the page together.
The Difference Between 'Pour' and 'Pore'
J.K. Rowling
J.K. Rowling just gave President-for-now Donald Trump (R-Dottard) some writing advice.
Trump defended his tweeting style on Twitter Tuesday afternoon and admitted that he took pride in his writing ability. However, in the same sentence which called out the "Fake News" for searching for typos- he made a typo.
"After having written many best selling books, and somewhat priding myself on my ability to write, it should be noted that the Fake News constantly likes to pour over my tweets looking for a mistake. I capitalize certain words only for emphasis, not b/c they should be capitalized!" Trump tweeted.
Instead of "pore over," which means to study carefully, Trump wrote "pour over."
Rowling apparently found the original tweet hilarious, repeatedly typing "haha" in three successive replies. In one, the Harry Potter author sarcastically called him the "Gratest Writer on earth." And she also gave Trump the correct spelling of the word.
J.K. Rowling
Fire Sale
SCOTUS
President-for-now Trump (R-Deluded) will announce his nominee for the next U.S. Supreme Court Justice this Monday and already outside groups from both sides of the political aisle are committing millions of dollars in advertisements surrounding what is expected to be a lengthy and rancorous confirmation battle.
Two groups, the conservative Judicial Crisis Network and the liberal Demand Justice, have both pledged over $1 million in their respective fights to either encourage support or encourage opposition to whoever emerges as Trump's nominee to replace Justice Anthony Kennedy, who announced his retirement from the bench last week after over 30 years of service.
Judicial Crisis Network's ad is part of a seven-figure national cable and digital campaign, and praises Trump's list of 25 potential nominees for the court, before going on to decry "extremist" Democrats who they claim will "lie and attack" the President's eventual nominee.
"Don't be fooled, President Trump's list includes the best of the best, and with your help, America will get another star on the Supreme Court," the ad continues.
The conservative group One Nation ran a $100,000 issue advocacy digital ad campaign targeting the 10 states President Trump won in the 2016 elections where Democratic senators are up for re-election in 2018: Florida, Indiana, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and West Virginia.
SCOTUS
Target Of Fake News
Maxine Waters
A quote purportedly uttered by Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) has gained momentum on social media and radio ? even though she never said the words.
A Facebook account that supports President-for-now Donald Trump (R-Flaccid) posted a doctored photo that appeared to show Waters on CNN and a banner that read:
"Waters: SCOTUS pick should be illegal immigrant."
The image made its way to Twitter. And even though there were plenty of tweets indicating that the quote was fake, other Twitter posts called Waters "unhinged" and an "imbecile."
According to the fact-checking website Snopes : "On 28 June 2018, the 'Trump Nation' Facebook page posted what appeared to be a screenshot of a CNN interview with Waters, above a chyron reading 'WATERS: SCOTUS PICK SHOULD BE ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT' and a ticker seemingly quoting Waters as stating that 'It's the only way the Democrats can ever win again.' The 'Trump Nation' post was accompanied by the comment '… and this is why WE don't watch CNN… They are bat shit crazy! SHARE if you agree …'" Media Matters for America said the tweet was shared by many people, including a co-anchor of Los Angeles' soon-to-be-owned-by-Sinclair TV station KTLA, Daily Beast correspondent Jamie Kirchick, FoxNews.com contributor Stephen L. Miller, New York Post writer Kirsten Fleming, a deputy director at the conservative think tank Hudson Institute and the chairman of Young Americans for Freedom.
All of them later deleted their tweets.
Maxine Waters
Walmart Removes Clothing
'Impeach 45'
Walmart is pulling its "Impeach 45" merchandise aimed at President Trump, after a Twitter campaign to boycott the retailer.
The clothing, which includes T-shirts, sweatshirts, football jerseys, and baby clothing, was first spotted by Ryan Fournier, chairman of the coalition Students for Trump, who tweeted Tuesday, "Walmart, why are you selling Impeach 45 baby clothes on your website????? What kind of message are you trying to send?" He included a photo of a $16.95 onesiewith a one-star review.
The company also sells "Make America Great Again" (MAGA) items, including baseball caps and mugs.
In the fall, facing similar pressure, Walmart pulled T-shirts that read, 'Rope. Tree. Journalist. Some assembly required." As noted by Ad Age, the phrase was not new, but when a Trump supporter was spotted wearing the shirt at a rally for the president, it created a backlash.
In 2016, Walmart pulled T-shirts bearing the phrase "Bulletproof - Black Lives Matter" after the National Fraternal Order of Police charged the retailer with "profiting from racial division."
'Impeach 45'
T-rump Continues Attacking
Maxine Waters
President-for-now Donald Trump (R-Grifter) is continuing his attacks against Maxine Waters, calling the California Democratic representative "crazy" and saying her behavior will "make people flee the Democrats."
Trump and Waters have been sparring since Waters encouraged people at a Los Angeles event last month to make Trump administration officials uncomfortable if they spot them in public. "If you see anybody from that Cabinet in a restaurant, in a department store, at a gasoline station, you get out and you create a crowd," Waters said. She later said on MSNBC that people are "going to protest, they are going to absolutely harass" Trump staffers.
Waters made the comments amid heightened political tensions over the Trump administration's "zero tolerance" immigration policies. They also came after a number of Trump officials, including Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, were accosted or denied service at restaurants.
Waters said that she had received several death threats in the days following her first comments. Addressing a rally in Los Angeles on Saturday, she addressed those threats, saying "all I have to say is this, if you shoot me you better shoot straight, there's nothing like a wounded animal," The Hill reported.
Waters appearance at the rally came after she had had to cancel two other events planned for the weekend in Texas and Alabama after receiving what she described as "one very serious death threat." Waters has said that she has received more threats than before since the President claimed on June 25 that she "called for harm" to his supporters, concluding "be careful what you wish for Max!"
Maxine Waters
Sparked Global Warming
Earth's First Animals
What do humans have in common with the first animals that appeared on Earth? We're both responsible for global warming events (though, human-driven climate change is unfolding - and accelerating - over decades, rather than over millions of years).
About 520 million to 540 million years ago, life began booming in Earth's oceans, with diverse marine creatures digging busily in seafloor sediments and munching up organic matter. But as they did so, they were unwittingly sowing the seeds of a global climate crisis, according to a new study.
Little did these early animals know, but over the next 100 million years their burrowing habits would drive a major buildup of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide (CO2) in the planet's atmosphere. Scientists recently used mathematical models to link these animals' emergence to a significant global warming event millions of years later, which caused mass extinctions just as animal evolution was getting started, the researchers reported.
The first burrowing animals on Earth appeared during the Cambrian period, about 540 million years ago, and the creatures tunneling into sea sediments at the time were comparable to the worms, mollusks and arthropods inhabiting the ocean floor today, lead study author Sebastiaan van de Velde, a doctoral candidate with the Analytical, Environmental and Geochemistry Department at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel in Belgium, told Live Science in an email.
During the millions of years before these diggers evolved, the ocean floor was topped with thick, undisturbed mats of microbes. Burrowing creatures changed all that, recycling the microbes and mixing them up within the seafloor sediment, Van de Velde explained.
Earth's First Animals
Weekend Box Office
Ratings
Prime-time viewership numbers compiled by Nielsen for June 25-July 1. Listings include the week's ranking and viewership.
1. "America's Got Talent," NBC, 11.3 million.
2. "60 Minutes," CBS, 7.06 million.
3. "The Big Bang Theory" (Thursday, 8:30 p.m.), CBS, 6.28 million.
4. "World of Dance," NBC, 6.08 million.
5. "Little Big Shots," NBC, 5.96 million.
6. "The Big Bang Theory" (Thursday, 8 p.m.), CBS, 5.92 million.
7. "The Bachelorette," ABC, 5.79 million.
8. "Code Black," CBS, 5.74 million.
9. "NCIS," CBS, 5.69 million.
10. "Blue Bloods," CBS, 5.39 million.
11. "Big Brother" (Wednesday), CBS, 5.34 million.
12. "Big Brother" (Thursday), CBS, 5.14 million.
13. "Big Brother" (Sunday), CBS, 4.78 million.
14. "Bull," CBS, 4.7 million.
15. "Celebrity Family Feud," ABC, 4.59 million.
16. "Instinct," CBS, 4.51 million.
17. "Mom," CBS, 4.4 million.
18. "Hawaii Five-0," CBS, 4.39 million.
19. "American Ninja Warrior," NBC, 4.21 million.
20. "Ellen's Game of Games," NBC, 4.18 million
Ratings
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