M Is FOR MASHUP - July 26th, 2016
A Portrait of Useo in July
By DJ Useo
Yes, it's incredibly hot. In addition, I'm packing to move in a week. There're also lots of other matters consuming my time, as is the case with all of us. Yet, I've still managed to fill my Groovy Time blog with a good batch of July goodies. Let's review the current posts.
01 - The month began in strong fashion with another new episode of my bi-weekly podcast "
Mashup Showcase". With tracks chosen as always by the featured guest, this programme features Mash2Mix, a wonderful, established bootlegger from the Netherlands. Listen for 30 minutes of the best mashups available.
( groovytimewithdjuseo.blogspot.com/2017/07/mashup-showcase-68-mash2mix.html )
02 - "Mashup MP3 Melt" ( 3 Tracks Left in the Sun ) Once 3 mashups, now fused into 1 by leaving them on the dashboard in the sun. Certainly not your typical bootleg track. Listen if you're brave.
( groovytimewithdjuseo.blogspot.com/2017/07/mashup-mp3-melt-3-tracks-left-in-sun.html )
03 - "Wicked Starlight" ( Muse vs Chris Isaak vs OMD ) Modern alt rock vocals vs 80s pop.
Stream or d/l here - groovytimewithdjuseo.blogspot.com/2017/07/muse-vs-chris-isaak.html
04- "This Ain't The Hawaii Tattoo" ( Blue Oyster Cult vs Martin Denny ) Classic rock vocals meets Pacific Steel guitar.
( groovytimewithdjuseo.blogspot.com/2017/07/blue-oyster-cult-vs-martin-denny.html )
05 - "Dream Drum" ( Depeche Mode vs Beastie Boys vs The Shamen ) Includes Ken Nordine & screaming goats samples. I actually made this for Summer Booty 2017 The Summer Mashup Album, but ran out of room.
( groovytimewithdjuseo.blogspot.com/2017/07/depeche-mode-vs-beastie-boys-vs-shamen.html )
06 - Mashup Showcase w/ DJ Useo Number 69-DAW-GUN. A half hour of his self-mixed faves from NY bootleg star, DAW-GUN. This series is numbered so you can collect them all. ( & you should! )
( groovytimewithdjuseo.blogspot.com/2017/07/mashup-showcase-69-daw-gun.html )
07 - "Agartha Sunset" ( The Kinks vs Hollow World ) Classic rock vocals meets modern metal. Short, but sweet.
( groovytimewithdjuseo.blogspot.com/2017/07/kinks-vs-hollow-world.html )
08 - "Uncontrollable Zarah Contact Tomorrow" ( The Beatles vs Big Audio Dynamite vs Nina Hagen vs Devo ) Music vs other music. Meant to be appealing, yet wild!
( groovytimewithdjuseo.blogspot.com/2017/07/beatles-vs-big-audio-dynamite-vs-nina.html )
09 - Psychedelic Sixties Shindig July 2017 long mix (1:16:04) Here's a killer batch of authentic, 60's psychedelic garage rock. All tracks are quite rare, & required extensive remastering, re-equilization, & noise-reduction.
( groovytimewithdjuseo.blogspot.com/2017/07/psychedelic-sixties-shindig.html )
10 - "She Comes In That Old Black Magic" ( Inspiral Carpets vs Esquivel ) Madchester 90's vocals meet 60's easy listening lounge jazz.
( groovytimewithdjuseo.blogspot.com/2017/07/inspiral-carpets-vs-esquivel.html )
11 - "Gasoline Machines" ( Halsey vs Modern English ) Modern pop vocals meet 80s new wave music.
( groovytimewithdjuseo.blogspot.com/2017/07/halsey-vs-modern-english.html )
These may seem like a lot, but keep in mind that I mix far in advance of posting. Also note that there's a lot of different styles involved. I don't expect people to like every post, although I actually hear many do. Views on my blog vary from 300-800 a day depending on who knows? lol!
I should have 2 more posts up soon. One new track is Sugarhill Gang vs Killing Joke, & the other is Kermit the Frog vs some modern dubstep. I consider it a fine healthy month of posts. May your July have been fruitful as well.
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Michele Hanson: If the government takes no notice, what is the point of government inspections? (The Guardian)
A new report into the desperate state of youth jails brings to mind similar findings of studies 30 years ago. Yet, nothing has changed ...
Hadley Freedman: Why Muslim supermodels Bella and Gigi Hadid are powerful weapons against Trump (The Guardian)
For a new generation, the names 'Hadid' and 'Malik' bring to mind a heart emoji and not 'Ugh, terrorist'. In her weekly advice column, our style expert suggests this can only be a good thing. Plus, are shorts acceptable in the office?
Stuart Jeffries: "When good TV goes bad: how Game of Thrones became a throng of dire old vice" (The Guardian)
When you tackle said contest, you win or you die - or you churn out scenes of sexual exploitation until you become creatively bankrupt.
Andrew Tobias: My One-Star Reviews
Okay, so this is about as self-indulgent as it gets . . . but I went over to the afore-mentioned Amazon recently to buy someone a copy of my investment guide - way easier to click for $8.51 than to actually have to put one in a jiffy bag, find stamps, and all that - and noticed a bunch of one-star reviews. This is a little disheartening, so - being shallow and thin-skinned - I went to check them out. My favorite, from G. Belmonte this past April 4th: "Book is great - however i received with the front cover torn….very disappointment." One star out of five. (Don't judge a book by its torn cover?)
Edward Helmore: "'We found it rolled up in a tube': Alice Cooper discovers Warhol classic after 40 years" (The Guardian)
The rock star Alice Cooper has found an Andy Warhol masterpiece that could be worth millions "rolled up in a tube" in a storage locker, where it lay forgotten for more than 40 years.
Gavin Haynes: Caravaggio in the attic? The ultra-valuable treasures stuck in storage (The Guardian)
Alice Cooper has turned up a rare Andy Warhol silkscreen that he forgot he owned. He's not the first to stumble on such mislaid riches.
Daniel Dockery: 5 Classic Characters Who Should Have DIED, DIED, DIED! (Cracked)
Main characters are all the rage in movies right now, am I right? They're the focus of their films, the posters, the shitty tie-in video games. They have their bodies melted and contorted into eternal positions of agony when they're featured as Kellogg's fruit-flavored gummy snacks. They also don't die when they should. That's a bummer.
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Presenting
Michael Egan
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
Bonus Links
Jeannie the Teed-Off Temp
Reader Comment
Current Events
After receiving extraordinary, tax-payer-funded health care, how great of John McCain to fly across the country, give a hypocritical speech about his values, and sell out millions of Americans by voting his party's line. May he soon have the chance to explain his actions to the maker he purports to believe in.
And what a ghoul Mitch the Bitch is, knowing that even dragging McCain off his death bed, he only had 50 votes and thus could count on Putrid Pence to finish grabbing the 30 pieces of silver.
Linda >^..^<
We are all only temporarily able bodied.
Thanks, Linda!
from Marc Perkel
Patriot Act
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
"PLASTIC, FANTASTIC LOVER."
THE PROMISE OF FREE COLLEGE EDUCATION.
WHAT AN ASSHOLE!
THE CONSERVATIVES FART AND BURP ON THE SENATE FLOOR.
WHAT A JOKE!
THE RADICALS WERE RIGHT.
"THIS KIND OF EXTREMISM COMES WITH A BODY COUNT."
Visit JD's site - Kitty Litter Music
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
And so we start the 17th year.
FWIW, I wouldn't be insulted if anyone sent a 'birthday present' via
Biggest Weekly Win Ever
Stephen Colbert
"The Late Show With Stephen Colbert" scored its biggest margin of victory in total viewers ever thanks to the CBS late-night show's "Russia Week" for the frame ending July 21.
The week of shows covered the host's recent trip to St. Petersburg and Moscow. It won the week in viewers by its largest margin since the show's premiere in September of 2015, according to Nielsen live-plus-same-day ratings, with an average of 2.87 million viewers per episode. The show topped "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon" by 450,000 viewers for the week, with the "Tonight Show" averaging 2.42 million viewers per episode. "The Late Show" was also up 14% compared to the same week last year.
Colbert and Fallon have been battling it out in the ratings for months, with Colbert's total viewer numbers surging ever since Donald Trump's (R-Buffoon) election.
Back in May, Colbert officially beat Fallon in total viewers for the traditional September-May television season. Colbert's victory marked CBS' first late-night win since the 1994-1995 season, excluding 2009-2010 when NBC replaced Conan O'Brien with Jay Leno midway through the season. "The Late Show" was also the only late-night program to post year-to-year growth in total viewers. However, Fallon beat Colbert in adults 18-49.
Stephen Colbert
Netflix Announces New Show
Matt Groening
Netflix has ordered a new animated adult comedy from "The Simpsons" mastermind Matt Groening, the streaming service announced Tuesday.
"Disenchantment" will take viewers to the crumbling medieval kingdom of Dreamland, where they follow the misadventures of hard-drinking princess Bean, her feisty elf companion Elfo and her personal demon Luci.
Along the way, the trio encounter ogres, sprites, harpies, imps, trolls, walruses, and lots of human fools.
The voices will be provided by Abbi Jacobson ("The Lego Ninjago Movie"), Nat Faxon ("Sex Tape") and Eric Andre ("Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping"), with animation from Rough Draft, the studio behind Fox's "Futurama," also created by Groening.
Netflix has ordered 20 episodes, the first half of which will premiere next year.
Matt Groening
Hits Back At Cancellation
Richard Dawkins
Richard Dawkins wants "a public apology" from a California radio station that cancelled an event with the scientist because of his "abusive speech against Islam".
The influential academic and writer was scheduled to speak about his memoir A Brief Candle in the Dark at an event organised by Berkeley's KPFA Radio next month.
But KPFA has now cancelled the talk, citing his "hurtful speech" against Islam.
Professor Dawkins responded to the radio station in an open letter published on his website, saying he had lived in Berkeley for two years and had appreciated KPFA's "objective reporting and humane commentary".
"It was therefore a matter of personal sorrow to me to receive this morning your truly astonishing 'justification' for de-platforming me," he wrote.
Richard Dawkins
Will Return As James Bond
Daniel Craig
After shooting the last James Bond film, a weary Daniel Craig was asked if he would ever make another. "I'd rather break this glass and slash my wrists," he said, with a nod to his double espresso.
"If I did another Bond movie," he added, "it would only be for the money."
Now it seems that the draw of playing the world's most famous spy, and perhaps the multi-million pound payday that comes with it, has tempted him back.
The 25th Bond film will be released in November 2019, it was announced this week, and reports coming out of the US suggest that Craig is a "done deal" to reprise the role.
The actor will be 51 when the film comes out - a grand age for an action hero, but younger than both Sir Roger Moore and Sir Sean Connery when they made their final outings as 007 (they were 57 and 53 respectively).
Daniel Craig
Sells MAGA Merchandise Through Canadian Company
T-rump
Hypocritical is an easy word to throw around when discussing politicians, but it's been especially so during the Trump administration. For practically every move Donald Trump (R-Crooked) makes, there seems to be at least an old tweet espousing the opposite position, from his golfing habits to his stance on Medicaid cuts. Trump's latest bit of hypocrisy comes by way of the president's "buy American, hire American" online merchandise store, which has a Canadian company managing its sales, the Daily Dot reports.
Venture over to Shop.DonaldTrump.com, and there you'll find everything from the classic Make America Great Again hats to a MAGA hat golf club cover to a mug that reads, "I Love Waking Up and Remembering That Donald Trump Is President." Open the site's source code, and you'll find that the store is powered by Shopify, an Ottawa-based e-commerce company founded by two Germans in 2004. According to Fortune, the company facilitated purchases by over 100 million online shoppers in 2016.
If the president's proclamations are to be taken at face value, one would think he would make an effort to hire an American company to manage purchases of his patriotic merchandise. A linchpin of both his campaign and presidency has been the idea of keeping money in America. Earlier this month he held a "Made in America" week that included an event at the White House in which American-made vehicles were parked along the estate's driveway. Trump climbed into the fire truck and pretended to drive it.
Also during "Made in America Week," Trump's Mar-a-Lago club applied to hire 70 foreign workers this fall, claiming it could not find qualified Americans to fill the necessary roles.
This isn't the first time Trump's merchandise has been criticized for going beyond America's borders. Trump's line of menswear was made overseas, as were many of his other products. Earlier this year, it was revealed that his daughter Ivanka's clothing line, which is sold through the Trump Organization, is manufactured in Asia.
T-rump
Your Tax Dollars At Work
Pruitt
Records show the head of the Environmental Protection Agency spent weekends in his home state during his first three months in office, frequently flying to and from Oklahoma at taxpayer's expense.
EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt's (R-Ethically Challenged) expense reports from March, April and May were released following a Freedom of Information request filed by Environmental Integrity Project, a non-profit watchdog group.
The records show Pruitt traveled home at least 10 times, typically leaving Washington on Fridays and returning on Mondays. Pruitt was either in Oklahoma or on trips that included stops there for nearly half the days encompassed in the three-month period, costing more than $15,000.
Pruitt, a Republican, served as Oklahoma's attorney general prior to his appointment by Donald Trump (R-Corrupt) to lead EPA. Married with two children, Pruitt owns a home in Tulsa, Oklahoma. There were a couple of occasions where Pruitt traveled on a trip for EPA then paid out-of-pocket to fly to Tulsa before returning to Washington at government expense.
Pruitt
Workers Demanding Higher Wages
Facebook
Over 500 cafeteria workers at Facebook's Menlo Park, California headquarters have unionized and are demanding higher wages because they can't afford to live in Silicon Valley.
The workers are employed by Flagship Facility Services, one of the contractors that Facebook uses to fill positions for roles like janitors and security personnel.
San Francisco has been rated as the most expensive city in the world to rent property, and tech companies like Facebook with campuses outside of the city have made the cost of renting skyrocket in surrounding areas as well. The Guardian interviewed two Facebook cafeteria workers who are married and live in a two-car garage with their three kids.
A Facebook spokesperson told Business Insider that the company didn't try to oppose the union, but declined to say whether it would reevaluate the minimum wage of $15 per hour and 15 vacation days per year it requires its outside vendor partners to offer.
Facebook
Massive Fish Species Just Discovered
Mola tecta
Researchers regularly remind us that the world's oceans are still hiding some truly remarkable secrets, but when we imagine new species of ocean life it's usually tucked away in the crushing depths, or so tiny that we somehow didn't notice it up until now. An all-new species of ocean sunfish was just discovered that throws those expectations completely out of the window, weighing in at over two tons and making regular trips near the surface in order to keep warm, but it's a remarkable find nonetheless.
Researchers led by Marianne Nyegaard of Australia's Murdoch University discovered the new sunfish species after looking closely at over 150 DNA samples from various sunfish. After matching three of the DNA samples with known species, the team realized that the fourth was completely new and undocumented. They subsequently nicknamed it the "hoodwinker sunfish" thanks to its ability to remain hidden for so long.
But despite having DNA samples that proved the presence of an unknown species, nobody knew exactly what it looked like. After hunting for a specimen that matched the DNA for a year, Nyegaard got a tip that four sunfish had washed up on a beach in New Zealand, and it was at that point that she finally found what she had been searching for.
Like the other members of the ocean sunfish family, the new species - officially named Mola tecta - is absolutely huge. Its massive, disc-shaped body is punctuated by large fins on its top and bottom, and its bony structure pushes its weight over the two ton mark.
The hoodwinker sunfish has since been spotted in several different places, including the waters off South Africa, Chile, Australia and New Zealand.
Mola tecta
Prime-Time Nielsens
Ratings
Prime-time viewership numbers compiled by Nielsen for July 17-23. Listings include the week's ranking and viewership.
1. "America's Got Talent" (Tuesday), NBC, 12.57 million.
2. "Game of Thrones," HBO, 9.27 million.
3. "60 Minutes," CBS, 7.36 million.
4. "World of Dance," NBC, 6.91 million.
5. "The Big Bang Theory," CBS, 6.49 million.
6. "NCIS," CBS, 6.49 million.
7. "The Bachelorette," ABC, 6.22 million.
8. "Big Brother" (Wednesday), CBS, 6.19 million.
9. "Celebrity Family Feud," ABC, 6.02 million.
10. "Big Brother" (Sunday), CBS, 5.98 million.
11. "Big Brother" (Thursday), CBS, 5.95 million.
12. "Little Big Shots: Forever Young," NBC, 5.82 million.
13. "American Ninja Warrior," NBC, 5.78 million.
14. "Big Brother" (Friday), CBS, 5.45 million.
15. "Bull," CBS, 5.36 million.
16. Movie: "Descendants 2," Disney, 5.33 million.
17. "NCIS: New Orleans," CBS, 5.325 million.
18. "The Wall," NBC, 4.95 million.
19. "Phelps vs Shark," Discovery, 4.78 million.
20. "Blue Bloods," CBS, 4.67 million.
Ratings
In Memory
Barbara Sinatra
Barbara Sinatra, the fourth wife of singer Frank Sinatra, died on Tuesday at the age of 90, her representative said.
Born Barbara Blakely, she was a former model and Las Vegas showgirl who married the famed singer and actor in 1976. She had been married to him for 22 years when he died of a heart attack in 1998. She had previously been married to Zeppo Marx, the youngest of the Marx Brothers comedy team.
It was the longest of Frank Sinatra's marriages, which included unions with actresses Ava Gardner and Mia Farrow, and teenage sweetheart Nancy Barbato.
Frank and Barbara Sinatra founded the Barbara Sinatra Children's Centre in Rancho Mirage, near Palm Springs, in 1986. The centre counsels physically, sexually and emotionally abused children.
Barbara Sinatra
In Memory
Snooty
The world's oldest manatee has died in a "heartbreaking" accident at his Florida home a day after celebrating his 69th birthday.
Snooty, an intelligent and highly sociable male manatee, appears to have died on Sunday after getting trapped in a maintenance hatch he shared with three young rescued manatees.
According to the South Florida Museum, a panel door leading out of the underwater tank which is normally bolted shut had been knocked loose.
Snooty was born in captivity at the Miami Aquarium and Tackle Company in 1948 and was the first recorded birth of a manatee in human care. Known by his nickname of "Baby snoots", he came to the South Florida Museum in Bradenton the following year.
Snooty, who celebrated his birthday with a cake made of fruit and vegetables a day before he died, was on record as the oldest manatee in captivity. He has been the official mascot of Manatee County - a region of Florida - since 1979.
Snooty
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