M Is FOR MASHUP - November 4th, 2008
The Very Latest News In Bootlegging
By Count Konrad Useo
(That You Missed)
There's so much going on with bootlegging & mashups nowadays that it's literally impossible to keep up with all that's going on. Actually, that makes bootlegging even more like the regular music scene as who can keep up with the incredible variety & frequency of the latest musical releases. Just like there's genres of tunes like country & rap, mashups sprawl across a huge stylistic palette. From the stunning direct pop/rock mashups of DJ Moule to the dance world of Party Ben to the metal mashes of DJ Schmolli there's a world of mixed music waiting for you.
Ok, obviously you missed the 72 Get Together Thursday October 29th at the
Loom Bar in London
( loombar.co.uk/events/ ). I got'ta tell you about it anyway as something like that never happened before. They had a dj free-for-all with around 20 bootleggers playing 3 tracks each & then passing the decks to the next mixer. With names like Osymyso, Freelance Hellraiser, Bush no.10 & Lee Spoons, you know it was an amazingly fine show. I talked to a few of the playing dj's but none remembered much about the night before. lol. A sure sign of a good time having been had. :) Lee Spoons posted the exclusive tracks he did at the show
here -
( 10000spoons.co.uk/?p=148 )
There's tracks using The Darkness, Deadmau5, Christina Aguilera & more.
Next up is a fantastic solo art show by Mark Whoboy, the graphic artist of the
Who Boys
( zen8003.zen.co.uk/ ). The Who Boys may be retired from the bootleg scene, but the quality of craft they exhibited in their tunes is evident in the hand-done drawings of Mark WhoBoy. I've been granted the gift of seeing private posts of his 2-dimensional creations & let me say, the person with fine art appreciation will savor the experience. With a wealth of mood & a cornucopia of ability, Mark is destined for big things.& that's after making some of the best original & bootleg tracks of the last few years. The Who Boys releases are all still posted. Don't let life end for you without hearing classic Who Boys tunes like the original track 'Man With Python In Pants', or the proper mashup 'Scarborough Clocks' (Coldplay vs Simon & Garfunkel). The art show was yesterday in the foundry (by old street tube station) Tuesday November 3rd from 8pm. Sorry you missed it.
I won't insult you by acting like you don't know about BOOTIE, the traveling mashup party, but I hope you made it to Halloween Booootie in San Francisco this last Saturday. It's the best bootleg barrel of fun happening in the world. There's BOOTIE shows in many great spots in the world, like Berlin, Paris & Boston. Go to the next one! I understand flights are cheap at 50 krupniks a seat. If you don't make it in person, they have you covered anyone with the
live streaming webcast
( dnalounge.com/webcast ). Find out more about the incredible BOOTIE
here -
( bootieusa.com/ )
Maybe you won't miss the next one. For those of you who aren't sure, here's the super-swell
BOOTIE top 10 tracks for October, all played at the live shows
( bootieusa.com/blog/2009/10/bootie-top-10-october-2009.html ).
Recently posted, but still fresh as all get-out is G3Rst's Mashstix Alternative Episode 2 . A super podcast with all alternative mashups selected & hosted by bringer Of cheese & destroyer of worlds, G3Rst. The show is available for download & dissemination for devoted diehards of mash
here -
( mashstix.com/ This 2nd show not only features dynamite tracks like DJ Topcat's 'Body Movin Frankenstein' (Beastie Boys vs Edgar Winter Group) & ToToM's 'Smells Like 2 Songs' (Nirvana vs Blur) but there's an interview with Phil RetroSpector who you might recall if you read
last week's M IS FOR MASHUP column.
Aside from hosting the mashup show, G3Rst regularly posts some of the cleverest & most-appealing mashups heard. His newest track 'Everlink' (Foo Fighters vs Zelda) goes where few mixes have before. Check them out or yourself
here -
( g3rst.com/ )
There's lots more you missed, but luckily for you, almost all of these events & more post the mp3's afterwards.
Have fun with the links here, & come back next Wednesday for more with M IS FOR MASHUP.
Man will live you better.
My own mix 'USEOCORE' is ready for consumption
here at the B00mb0x
( bmbx.org/2009/10/useocore/#comments ) It's recorded live with no tweaks & is over an hour of very mixed electro & fidget. You weren't there when I did it live, but you can experience every beep & buzz over & over with the generous B00mb0x link to the mp3.
Grab yours now before it becomes outlawed to have fun.
Mashup Tip - Claiming the copyright to a mashup is like setting your own pants on fire.
DJ Useo's Podcast
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Scott Burns: The Square of 3 Billion (assetbuilder.com)
But Huxley said that if entropy exists, so does its opposite. It is possible to create order. He called it negative-entropy. It is possible to take things to a higher state. As an example, he worked through a series of equations to show the order implied by the connectivity potential of a telephone network. Building transferable knowledge and connectivity--- negative-entropy--- is what human beings are doing, he told us. And the information potential of a network grows faster than the number of connections. It grows exponentially with the number of combinations.
"The Fires of Vesuvius: Pompeii Lost and Found" by Mary Beard: A review by Joy Connolly
Visit the ruins of Pompeii today, stroll to the famous "Villa of the Mysteries," and you will discover a room of enigmatic frescoes gleaming in the dim light, their crimsons and golds seeming as rich and resplendent as if they were painted yesterday.
BETH GREAVES: "How Far Is Too Far?: Navigating the World of Young Adult Fiction" (popmatters.com)
In the world of "edgy" young adult fiction, there's a tendency to either bury real world consequences, or exploit the darker material for all it's worth. But where does that leave the young readers grappling with the content?
Jean Hannah Edelstein: Martin Amis's problem is not Katie Price, but women (guardian.co.uk)
The attitude revealed in his remarks about the celebrity novelist is one of the reasons she sells more books than he does.
The fictional world of Charlotte Grimshaw (guardian.co.uk)
Richard Lea meets a writer who is acutely conscious of the tension between fact and fabrication.
Owen Vaughan: "Mr Marvel: the secret origin of Stan Lee" (timesonline.co.uk)
The creator of Spider-man and the Fantastic Four has a twinkle in his eye as the company he helped build reaches 70.
EVAN SAWDEY: "20 QUESTIONS: Old Canes" (popmatters.com)
Stealing Kurt Vonnegut books? Getting choked up during M*A*S*H? Appleseed Cast frontman Chris Crisci talks about all of these things and more as his folk-affected side-project releases their second album.
Michael Deeds: String Cheese alum Bill Nershi finds his mountain music roots (McClatchy Newspapers)
There were a couple of big reasons why the String Cheese Incident parked its tour bus for good in summer 2007, halting a decade-long run for one of the jam-band scene's biggest bands.
David Bruce: Wise Up! Scientists
While searching for dinosaur fossils in the Gobi Desert, Roy Chapman Andrews had little success at first. However, one day he had trouble pitching his tent and thought he had hit a rock. The "rock" turned out to be a dinosaur fossil. He kept trying to pitch his tent, and he kept discovering dinosaur fossils. Eventually, he pitched his tent - after discovering over 50 dinosaur bones!
David Bruce: The Most Interesting People in Movies (lulu.com)
Print: $9.95; Download: $1.25. This book includes 250 anecdotes about movies, including this one: When she was a little girl, actress Samantha Morton attended drama club with other little kids. For one lesson, she was supposed to improvise a scene with another little girl. The two girls stood in front of the group, and the drama teacher whispered to little Samantha the theme of the improvisation: "The other girl's stolen your hamster." Samantha responded by improvising in her own way. She says, "I beat the crap out of this girl, and they didn't ask me back."
The Weekly Poll
New Question
'The Devil is in the Details' Edition...
We all have had to make difficult decisions, from time to time, that involve compromises that can be distasteful. Such as...
A.) Would you take your dream job that has great pay and benefits, but you would have to relocate to an area that you'd loathe (such as Oklahoma)?
or...
B.) Would you live in an area that you've always wanted to but at a minimum wage, hand to mouth, subsistence level existence with no chance of improvement?
It's either A or B... No in between... Choose! Choose now! Ha Ha!
Send your response to
Results Tuesday
From The Creator of 'Avery Ant'
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Sunny and warm.
My eyes feel brined.
Co-Hosting Oscars
Steve Martin, Alec Baldwin
Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin will co-host the Oscars.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences says the two Hollywood veterans will share hosting duties at the 82nd Academy Awards ceremony.
Telecast producers Bill Mechanic and Adam Shankman said in a statement the two actors are "the perfect pair of hosts for the Oscars."
The 82nd Academy Awards will be presented March 7, 2010, at the Kodak Theatre.
Steve Martin, Alec Baldwin
Family Donates Proceeds
John Lennon
John Lennon's widow and two sons are donating the proceeds from the 40th anniversary release of the hit "Give Peace a Chance" to a U.N. peacebuilding fund used to help countries emerging from conflict, the fund announced Tuesday.
Chile's U.N. Ambassador Heraldo Munoz, who chairs the U.N. Peacebuilding Commission which oversees the fund, praised Yoko Ono, Sean Lennon and Julian Lennon for their decision to celebrate "the uniting spirit" of the "universal anthem" by contributing to global efforts to help countries through the difficult move from war to peace.
Starting Tuesday, iTunes will exclusively offer the single's special anniversary single for download purchase, with new proceeds benefiting the U.N. Peacebuilding Fund through Dec. 31, he said.
Munoz told a news conference at U.N. headquarters that Lennon's widow and sons, partnering with EMI Music and Sony/ATV Music Publishing, were making the first private donation to the U.N. Peacebuilding Fund, which has raised $315 million in voluntary donations from U.N. member states since it was established four years ago.
John Lennon
Hollywood Enlisted
President's Committee on the Arts
The White House is enlisting "Sex and the City" star Sarah Jessica Parker, Forest Whitaker and others from Hollywood and beyond to help push President Barack Obama's arts initiatives.
On Tuesday, Vice President Joe Biden will install 25 new members of the President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities.
Parker and Whitaker are among the most famous names, along with actors Edward Norton and Alfre Woodard and cellist Yo-Yo Ma. The list also includes "Vogue" magazine editor Anna Wintour and philanthropist Teresa Heinz, wife of U.S. Sen. John Kerry.
The committee will be led by George Stevens Jr., executive producer of the Kennedy Center Honors and founder of the American Film Institute, and Broadway producer Margo Lion.
President's Committee on the Arts
Avoiding AP Next Week
Tribune Co
Tribune Co., owner of The Chicago Tribune, the Los Angeles Times and several other news outlets, will not use most Associated Press content next week to test whether the financially struggling company can do without it, according to a story on the Chicago Tribune's Web site.
Tribune said it will use some AP material such as sports statistics and stories it considers vital. The Chicago-based company said it is trying to determine whether severing ties with the news cooperative next fall is a viable option.
The company's television stations and newspapers' online editions will not participate in the experiment. Tribune also owns 23 TV stations, The Baltimore Sun and other dailies.
Tribune newspapers' print editions will rely on Tribune staff and several other news sources including Reuters, The New York Times and GlobalPost next week. Not all the sources are normally available to Tribune papers, according to the company.
Tribune Co
Wins Damages
Kate Winslet
Oscar-winning actress Kate Winslet accepted libel damages of 25,000 pounds ($41,000) on Tuesday over allegations she publicly lied about her exercise regime.
The star, who won a best actress Academy Award for her role in "The Reader," was not at the High Court for the settlement of her action against Associated Newspapers, the Press Association reported.
Winslet, 34, sued the company over an article published in the Daily Mail newspaper in January called "Should Kate Winslet win an Oscar for the world's most irritating actress?"
The article had disputed Winslet's assertion that she did not attend a gym but exercised for 20 minutes or so each day at home, suggesting that the actress must have worked harder on her figure.
Kate Winslet
Selling Off
Mel 'Sugar Tits' Gibson
Russian-born tycoon Len Blavatnik has acquired a British cinema distribution business from Hollywood star Mel 'Sugar Tits' Gibson, Russian business daily Vedomosti reported on Tuesday.
Blavatnik's Access Industries bought Icon Group, which owns rights to around 500 films including the Oscar-winning "Dances With Wolves", the newspaper reported without specifying the value of the deal.
Blavatnik previously bought 50 percent of Russian film production company Amedia for $45 million in 2005.
Access has bought "more than a controlling stake in Icon UK" from Gibson and partner Bruce Davey, the head of Access Industries business in the CIS, Alex Genin, was quoted as saying by the newspaper.
Mel 'Sugar Tits' Gibson
Returns To British Courts
Stormtrooper Battle
The George Lucas empire struck back Tuesday against a British prop designer who sold replicas of the iconic Stormtrooper uniforms from the "Star Wars" movies.
Designer Andrew Ainsworth has fought a long legal battle against Lucasfilm Ltd., which sued him over the replica suits and helmets he sold through a Web site.
Ainsworth sculpted the Stormtrooper helmets for the first "Star Wars" movie in 1977 and later sold replicas of the molded white uniforms, worn in the films by warriors of the evil Galactic Empire.
The case ended ambiguously at London's High Court last year. A judge ruled that Ainsworth had violated Lucas's U.S. copyright, but rejected a copyright claim against him under British law, saying the costumes were not works of art.
Stormtrooper Battle
JP Quits
Keith Bardwell
A Louisiana justice of the peace who refused to marry a couple because the bride was white and groom was black resigned Tuesday.
Keith Bardwell, who is white, quit the post with a one-sentence statement to Louisiana Secretary of State Jay Dardenne and no explanation of his decision: "I do hereby resign the office of Justice of the Peace for the Eighth Ward of Tangipahoa Parish, Louisiana, effective November 3, 2009."
Bardwell refused to perform the ceremony for Beth Humphrey and Terence McKay because they are of different races.
Keith Bardwell
Movie Franchise On Auction Block
Terminator
The bankrupt company that owns the rights to the "Terminator" movie franchise is preparing to auction the rights next year and is already seeing strong interest, an advisor to the company said on Tuesday.
Halcyon Holding Group acquired the rights to the Terminator franchise in 2007 for about $25 million. The rights include revenue from future films, games, DVDs and television for the series, but the company has no or limited rights to revenue from the first three films.
Halcyon, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in August, is a production company that produced the latest movie about the iconic robot from the future, "Terminator Salvation".
It is looking to conduct a sale of its assets in January, according to Kevin Schultz, senior managing director at FTI Capital Advisors, who is helping the company explore its strategic alternatives.
Terminator
Suit Settled
Ex-Miss California
The legal war between former Miss California USA Carrie Prejean and pageant organizers is over.
A joint statement released Tuesday says Prejean and the organizers of the pageant reached a confidential settlement on dueling lawsuits.
Prejean sued Miss California USA organizers in August for libel, slander and religious discrimination. She accused them of telling her to stop mentioning God even before her controversial remarks against gay marriage.
Prejean was fired in June after pageant officials accused her of missing events, an allegation that she denied. The pageant countersued Prejean last month.
Ex-Miss California
Out Of Italian Schools
Crucifixes
The Vatican on Tuesday denounced a ruling by the European court of human rights that said the display of crucifixes in Italian public schools violates religious and education freedoms.
In a decision that could force a review of the use of religious symbols in government-run schools across Europe, the court ordered Italy to pay a euro5,000 ($7,390) fine to a mother in northern Italy who fought for eight years to have crucifixes removed from her children's public school classrooms. The Italian government said it would appeal.
Vatican spokesman the Rev. Federico Lombardi said the crucifix was a fundamental sign of the importance of religious values in Italian history and culture and was a symbol of unity and welcoming for all of humanity - not one of exclusion.
The court said secular, state-run schools must "observe confessional neutrality in the context of public education," where attendance is compulsory.
Crucifixes
Not Appealing
Jim Nantz
A Connecticut judge has ordered CBS sportscaster Jim Nantz to pay his ex-wife $916,000 a year in alimony and child support.
Monday's ruling comes after Nantz and his ex-wife, Lorrie, testified about the breakdown of their 26-year marriage. Bridgeport Superior Court Judge Howard Owens concluded neither was at fault.
Nantz must pay $72,000 monthly in alimony until he dies or his ex-wife remarries, and another $1,000 weekly in child support for their 15-year-old daughter, Caroline, for the next two years. Lorrie Nantz will get their six-bedroom home in Westport.
Nantz's attorney says Nantz will not appeal the decision.
Jim Nantz
Prime-Time Nielsens
Ratings
Prime-time viewership numbers compiled by The Nielsen Co., for Oct. 26-Nov. 1. 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. (X) World Series Game 4, Fox, 22.76 million viewers.
2. (X) World Series Game 1, Fox, 19.51 million viewers.
3. (X) World Series Game 2, Fox, 18.90 million viewers.
4. (X) World Series Pre-Game, Game 4, Fox, 17.82 million viewers.
5. (3) "Dancing With the Stars," ABC, 17.38 million viewers.
6. (1) "NCIS," CBS, 16.70 million viewers.
7. (18) "The OT," Fox, 16.61 million viewers.
8. (7) "The Mentalist," CBS, 15.53 million viewers.
9. (X) World Series Game 3, Fox, 15.40 million viewers.
10. (8) "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation," CBS, 15.24 million viewers.
11. (12) "Dancing With the Stars Results," ABC, 15.20 million viewers.
12. (10) "Desperate Housewives," ABC, 14.08 million viewers.
13. (4) "Grey's Anatomy," ABC, 13.74 million viewers.
14. (16) "60 Minutes," CBS, 12.94 million viewers.
15. (21) "Survivor: Samoa," CBS, 12.19 million viewers.
16. (12) "CSI: Miami," CBS, 11.52 million viewers.
17. (12) "Two and a Half Men," CBS, 11.41 million viewers.
18. (24) "Amazing Race 15," CBS, 11.22 million viewers.
19. (5) "NCIS: Los Angeles," CBS, 11.09 million viewers.
20. (16) "The Big Bang Theory," CBS, 10.86 million viewers.
Ratings
In Memory
Francisco Ayala
Francisco Ayala, a novelist, sociologist and one of Spain's leading scholars, died Tuesday at age 103 after outliving the dictatorship that led him to flee into exile.
Ayala won many prestigious prizes in Spain, from the Cervantes award - considered the Spanish-language equivalent of the Nobel for literature - in 1991 to the Prince of Asturias in 1998.
His life as a young man turned into a flight from the horrors of the Spanish Civil War and the ensuing dictatorship of Gen. Francisco Franco, which ended after Franco died in 1975.
At the outbreak of the conflict in 1936, Ayala was in Buenos Aires on a lecture tour. He returned to work for the Spanish Republican government but, three years later, as Franco's troops entered Barcelona and the war was all but over, Ayala took the route of many Spanish intellectuals - exile in America.
In Buenos Aires, he taught sociology and founded the literary and cultural magazine "Reality," publishing works by Argentine and Spanish writers such as Jorge Luis Borges, Julio Cortazar and Juan Ramon Jimenez.
He then moved to Puerto Rico in 1950, where he founded the respected cultural magazine, "La Torre."
In 1955, he began a 20-year stint in the United States, working at Princeton, Rutgers, New York University, Bryn Mawr College, the University of Chicago and New York's City University.
Ayala, who settled back in Spain in 1975, the year Franco died, delved into ways of reconciling individual conscience with society and applying ancient moral values to modern times.
He is survived by his second wife, Carolyn Richmond, and a daughter from his previous marriage.
Francisco Ayala
In Memory
Claude Levi-Strauss
Claude Levi-Strauss, widely considered the father of modern anthropology for work that included theories about commonalities between tribal and industrial societies, has died. He was 100.
The French intellectual was regarded as having reshaped the field of anthropology, introducing structuralism - concepts about common patterns of behavior and thought, especially myths, in a wide range of human societies. Defined as the search for the underlying patterns of thought in all forms of human activity, structuralism compared the formal relationships among elements in any given system.
During his six-decade career, Levi-Strauss authored literary and anthropological classics including "Tristes Tropiques" (1955), "The Savage Mind" (1963) and "The Raw and the Cooked" (1964).
Born on Nov. 28, 1908, in Brussels, Belgium, Levi-Strauss was the son of French parents of Jewish origin. He studied in Paris and went on to teach in Sao Paulo, Brazil, and conduct much of the research that led to his breakthrough books in the South American giant.
Levi-Strauss left France during as a result of the anti-Jewish laws of the collaborationist Vichy regime and during World War II joined the Free French Forces.
A skilled handyman who believed in the virtues of manual labor and outdoor life, Levi-Strauss was also an ardent music-lover who once said he would have liked to have been a composer had he not become an ethnologist.
He was married three times and had two sons, Matthieu and Laurent.
Claude Levi-Strauss
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