M Is FOR MASHUP - December 14th, 2011 (or so they say)
Genie Blinks At Mashups
By DJ Useo
Mashups can sometimes inspire a lot of comments. I've been at Soundcloud music hosting, for instance, & seen mashups with hundreds of comments. Written response to ones own site depends on the artist & set-up for comments, but mainly they appear to be regular but less frequent. But whether a deejay has his own shoutbox for peeps to praise in, or if they have the standard blog system for leaving words, the comments are nearly universally welcome. I remember getting one incredibly hostile comment among the hundreds of positive ones to my own gmail blog.
Mainly comments come from 2 groups of listeners. The first group are the lurkers, who generally are too timid to leave many comments. The latter group are the reliable listeners of mashups. The people who are familiar with bootlgs, mashups, remixes & qradips. They know where to find the tunes they like & whose ass to kiss to get more. Lol. In my experience, the rarest of commenters is the communicative newbie. Once in a while you see a comment from someone where it's their first forum comment & they gush over the newly-discovered music form that mashups can appear to be. 'Strangely familiar' is the shop expression for mashups. They make you say "Hey! That Jimi Hendrix sounds like the Hives!"
Under the above-stated circumstances, you can perhaps understand why the 'communicative newbie' is prized. I myself am delighted to have found a 'C.N.' in a friend who is not only communicative in word & expression, but also possesses no familiarity with mashups. She is no stranger though, to good music, & was generous enough to agree to supplying feedback to ten assorted mashups chosen by me & the Useoettes. I introduce you to citizen of Austin, Texas, Genie. Here, also is a link to stream or download the tracks she will now review. This of course allows you to listen & compare your own thoughts on the 10 tracks to hers.
Here's the link to the ten mashups.
( www.4shared.com/folder/qvIh-JE_/_online.html )
Let's begin.
01 - G3rst-Bloom To Me (Nirvana vs Koop)
" Sounded like it was too pop oriented. Didn't like the combination of tracks."
02 - Norwegian Recycling -The Pachelbel Mashup (ass't)
"Very good. Felt like yearning emotions, very peaceful. Felt like tenderness, very sweet. Could see a ballerina dancing."
03 - DJ Moule - Yes is Bad (Yes vs Michael Jackson)
"Didn't like it at all. Vocals seemed off balance, didn't care for the looping. Not mixed well enough with Michael Jackson's vocals. Bassline was too repetitive, not integrated well enough musically."
04 - The Tony Crackburn Orchestra - Road_Kill (Wolfmother vs Canned Heat vs Doors vs Frank Zappa)
"Musical masturbation. Too long, some elements too similar. The combination of Jim Morrison and Canned Heat was good, but needed more mixing."
05 - Wax Audio - Enter Me - (Stevie Wonder vs Metallica) (Mastertronics euro hip disco swingers techno rave mix)
"Did not know any of the tracks used here. Started out ho-hum, by the time it was over loved it. Stayed engaged thru the whole song, lots of detail mixed skillfully. Sounded woven, done very artfully, smooth."
06 - DJ Lobsterdust - Somebody To Praise (Fatboy Slim vs Jefferson Airplane)
"Hated it. Sounded very samey. The two tracks did not jell together well. The intensity of the vocals were not matched instrumentally."
07 - Zomamix - ZonaMix125c2
"This track was ok. Not great, but ok. The main song was not changed. Not too creative, less skillful than other mashes. The two different lyrics were not matched well, also the vocals were not a good fit for the instrumental. "
08 - The Reborn Identity - Where Did Kid Rock Go? (The Supremes vs Kid Rock)
" Liked this one. In my mind I saw a perfect little woman, like in a 60's diner, and then Kid Rock comes in like a wheel of fire. Very good mash."
09 - ElectroSound - Crazy Little Feel Called Love (James Brown vs Queen vs Fatboy Slim vs Beck)
"Skillfully mixed. All three songs together went great. Very clever and engaging. Well balanced musically."
10 - DJ Useo-Get Hellbent (New Order vs Kid Massive)
"Loved it! My favorite of all ten. Made me want to dance, and create a movement piece. Did not overwhelm my ears."
Now that is some fine commenting. Even if she didn't like it, she told you why. I just wish I'd asked her if she would go back for more after listening to the ten mashups. Instead, I think I'll ask you readers. Listen to the ten tracks in the file & write me at
useo8@yahoo.com. Let me know if you'd listen to more mashups after hearing those ten.
Big thanks to Genie for giving of her time. Have a Merle Christmas!
Mix Of The Week
DJ LeeKee's yearmixes are a yearly ritual for me. His new one,
DJ Leekee Dance Yearmix 2011 is a remarkable work. It mixes the best house of the year in a mix that you won't soon forget. Enjoy it
here
( www.djleekee.com/ )
Mashup Tip : Drink way too much coffee before you begin to mash.
Latest Useo Thing
'I Don't Remember Burning Down The House' (Talking Heads vs Peter Gabriel) is a new single mashup mix from me. You can stream it or download it for free here
( groovytimewithdjuseo.blogspot.com/2011/12/peter-gabriel-vs-talking-heads.html )
Podgornio, The Mashup Psychic Predicts
Mild & sunny mashups for the next three days, chappees.
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Harvard School of Public Health: Disease Risk Index (Harvard.edu)
Welcome to Disease Risk Index, the source on prevention. Here, you can find out your risk of developing five of the most important diseases in the United States and get personalized tips for preventing them.
Spike Dolomite Ward: 'Obamacare' to the rescue (LA Times)
A woman who felt President Obama had let the middle class down has changed her mind.
Tom Danehy: Tom takes on the Kardashians, RichRod, talking jocks and dumb parents (Tucson Weekly)
In an effort to avoid being accused of Scrooge-like symptoms, I have a few complaints to register before the start of the holiday season. I mean, it is Dec. 8; pretty soon, all the stores are going to have Christmas displays and stuff.
Ted Rall: Editors and Publishers, Heal Thyselves
Other editorial cartoonists, including Pulitzer Prize winners, have long been reputed to be serial plagiarists within the industry. We're not talking about accidentally regurgitating a gag you read elsewhere and thinking that you thought it up yourself. We're talking about tracing artwork on a lightbox down to the slightest detail. We're talking about intentionally repurposing a gag from another cartoon, changing it just enough to make it plausibly different, then passing it off as your own.
Charlyn Fargo: Staying Cancer-Free in 2012 (Creators Syndicate)
Here's something to think about as 2012 rolls in: strategies to reduce your cancer risk next year. Don't focus on just losing weight. Focus on what you can do to live a healthier lifestyle for the rest of your life. The UC Berkeley Wellness Letter offers 12 recommendations for reducing your overall cancer risk. … 1. Don't smoke or use any tobacco product. Cigarette smoking causes not only lung cancer but also cancers of the esophagus, larynx, mouth, throat, kidney, bladder, pancreas, stomach and cervix.
Hopi Sen: Obesity, battered sausage and me (Guardian)
For years, Hopi Sen consumed huge quantities of food - and got fat. Then one day, he stopped. So what changed?
R.U. Sirius: "Psychedelic Transpersonal Photography, High Frontiers & MONDO 2000: an Interview with Marc Franklin" (acceler8or.com)
Employing a uniquely personal and revealing photographic style, Marc went on to work on an amazing project photographing nearly all of the still-living psychedelic explorers in the 1980s and '90s. Now there is a gallery showing in Los Angeles that includes these photos - some of them blown up into 24' x 36? prints - as well as some very unique "nature photos" that add to the aesthetic of the presentation.
David Bruce: Wise Up! Books (Athens News)
Children's author Judy Blume loved books even when she was a little girl. In fact, she loved the picture book "Madeline" so much that after borrowing it, she didn't want to return it. Instead, she hid the book and then told her mother that she had lost it.
David Bruce has 42 Kindle books on Amazon.com with 250 anecdotes in each book. Each book is $1, so for $42 you can buy 10,500 anecdotes. Search for "Funniest People," "Coolest People, "Most Interesting People," "Kindest People," "Religious Anecdotes," "Maximum Cool," and "Resist Psychic Death."
wrote:
answered:
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
From The Creator of 'Avery Ant'
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Back to sunny, but brisk (for these parts).
Auctions Nude Sketch Of Lady Gaga
Tony Bennett
A nude charcoal drawing of Lady Gaga by singer Tony Bennett went up for auction on Ebay this week, with all proceeds going to both singers' charities.
The drawing is a charcoal sketch on watercolor paper, and features Lady Gaga reclining nude, signed by "Benedetto," the name Bennett signs all his art works with.
Bennett, 85, sketched the picture while Lady Gaga, 25, posed for photographer Annie Leibovitz for the cover of Vanity Fair magazine's January issue.
Currently, the highest bid is $6,700, and is expected to rise during the course of the auction, which will end on December 19, with all proceeds going to Bennett's Exploring the Arts charity and Lady Gaga's Born This Way Foundation.
Tony Bennett
Judas Stephanopoulos To Replace
Christiane Amanpour
George "Judas" Stephanopoulos is returning to Sunday mornings at ABC News, replacing Christiane Amanpour as host of the political talk show "This Week."
ABC said Tuesday that Stephanopoulos, who returns Jan. 8, will remain as host of "Good Morning America," although likely on a four-day schedule.
Amanpour, meanwhile, enters an unusual job-sharing role where she will become ABC's global affairs anchor, contributing to prime-time shows on world news, while also being host of a daily show on CNN International.
Critics wondered from the start whether the Iranian-born Amanpour, a veteran foreign correspondent for CNN, was a good fit for a panel show dominated by American politics. It hasn't budged from third place behind NBC's "Meet the Press" and a resurgent "Face the Nation" on CBS, with the ABC show down 1 percent in ratings from last year.
Christiane Amanpour
Hosting Independent Spirit Awards
Seth Rogen
Seth Rogen, who is better known for major-studio comedies than for indie films, has been named host of the 2012 Film Independent Spirit Awards.
Rogen's latest film, "50/50," is a Spirit Awards nominee.
Last year's Spirit Awards show was hosted by Joel McHale. British comic Eddie Izzard handled the gig in 2010.
Seth Rogen
Founding Contract Fetches $1.5 Million
Apple
The contract that established Apple as a corporate entity in 1976 sold at auction on Tuesday for $1.59 million, 10 times its estimated price, two months after the death of high-profile co-founder Steve Jobs.
The contract, sold with another document that removed one of the company's initial three partners after just 11 days, was the subject of fierce bidding by six people taking part in the auction over the telephone and online, Sotheby's said.
Eduardo Cisneros, chief executive officer of Cisneros Corporation bought the documents, which had only been expected to fetch up to $150,000 at its auction of books and manuscripts in New York.
Apple
Shaves Off Beard
Matisyahu
New York City-based Hasidic reggae superstar Matisyahu is on a new religious path, but it's unclear which one.
The Jewish singer shaved off his beard and posted the bare-faced photos Tuesday on Twitter. He says on his website he once felt the need for lots of religious rules so he wouldn't fall apart. Now he says he's reclaiming himself.
But it's unclear whether he's leaving Orthodoxy. He says he's still going to synagogue each day.
His spokeswoman says he isn't giving interviews.
Matisyahu
Picked Up For Fourth Season
"The League"
FX has ordered a fourth season of the fantasy football comedy "The League," now earning series-high ratings in its third season, the network announced Tuesday.
The show, produced by FX Productions, includes Mark Duplass, Stephen Rannazzisi, Nick Kroll, Paul Scheer, Katie Aselton and Jon Lajoie in its ensemble cast.
The series is currently averaging 1.7 million total viewers and 1.5 million in the 18-49 demographic, up 25 percent and 32 percent from season two. Season three has featured guest stars including Seth Rogen, Jeff Goldblum, Sarah Silverman, Ray Liotta, Will Forte and Eliza Dushku.
The series was created by the husband-and-wife team of Jeff Schaffer ("Curb Your Enthusiasm," "Seinfeld") and Jackie Marcus Schaffer ("Disturbia," "EuroTrip") who also serve as executive producers and directors.
"The League"
House On The Market
"American Horror Story"
For sale: Historical brick home in Los Angeles. Includes a grand ballroom, Tiffany light fixtures, six bedrooms, five baths -- and maybe a body or three in the basement.
The house where FX filmed its pilot for the creepy hit "American Horror Story" has been placed on the market, and for a cool-as-a-corpse $4.5 million it could be yours.
The three-story, 10,440-square-foot home, also known as the Alfred F. Rosenheim Mansion, boasts "a museum-quality set of Tiffany glass doors," six vintage tile fireplaces, and and a formal dining room with antique gold and silver-leaf hand-painted ceilings, among other amenities, according to its listing.
The house is a "one-of-a-kind residence" that "evokes the quality and grandeur of a bygone era," the listing adds.
"American Horror Story"
Quitter
T-rump
Donald T-rump says he is pulling out of a Republican presidential debate he had agreed to moderate in Iowa.
The real estate mogul announced Tuesday that he was stepping back in order to preserve the option of running for president in case he's not satisfied that the eventual Republican nominee can defeat President Barack Obama. The conservative website Newsmax was to host the debate Dec. 27.
But the debate has been in jeopardy ever since Mitt Romney signaled he would not participate. Other candidates bowed out. Only Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum agreed to take part.
Many Republican strategists warned that a presidential debate moderated by T-rump, star of "Celebrity Apprentice," would create a circus-like atmosphere that might diminish the candidates vying to challenge Obama.
T-rump
Emails Warned Jamie
Rupert
A British parliamentary committee on Tuesday published a sequence of e-mails which raised questions about the story News Corp's James Murdoch told to House of Commons legislators about what he knew about phone hacking allegations involving the now-defunct News of the World and when he knew it.
In the email sequence, dated Saturday, June 7, 2008, James Murdoch was advised by Colin Myler, then News of the World editor, that the paper's legal position regarding a legal threat from professional soccer union executive Gordon Taylor was "as bad as we feared."
Attached to this message was an email exchange between Myler and Tom Crone, the News of the World's principal in-house lawyer, in which Crone mentioned a "nightmare scenario."
Crone explained that this scenario related to the fact that "several voicemails" on an email addressed to News of the World reporter Ross Hindley were "taken from" a phone used by Joanne Armstrong, a lawyer for the Professional Footballers Association union, which Taylor led.
The email sent to Hindley, which, in a reference to the News of the World's chief reporter, was headed "For Neville", is regarded by investigators and lawyers as one of the first pieces of evidence to reach the public domain demonstrating that phone hacking was a practice which extended beyond a single "rogue" journalist.
Rupert
Panders To Fringe H8ers
Lowes
The conservative group that got Lowe's to pull its ads from a reality TV show about American Muslims has been fighting for more than two decades against gay rights, strip clubs and most anything else that offends evangelical Christians.
The leader of the Florida Family Association is David Caton, a 55-year-old family values crusader who left an accounting career to found the group in 1987. He said the association has 35,000 members who were urged to email Lowe's Companies Inc. to pressure the home improvement giant into dropping commercials during the TLC cable network show "All-American Muslim."
Several politicians called the Florida Family Association a fringe hate group, a title Caton shrugged off, saying the group aims to "defend traditional American biblical values."
Caton said he targeted the show because a recent poll on the group's website found that the spread of Islam in America was their No. 1 concern, more than homosexuality and pornography. About 1,800 votes were cast.
Lowes
Old Game Of Hardball
Nixon Library
During his five-year overhaul of the Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, Cold War historian Timothy Naftali won wide praise for transforming a much-ridiculed institution into a house of serious scholarship under the auspices of the National Archives and Records Administration.
Yet nobody was surprised that the private Richard Nixon Foundation - run by fierce loyalists of the former president - didn't honor Naftali when he left as director last month to join a think tank and write a book. The raw, unflinching Watergate exhibit he unveiled in March was, in the loyalists' view, deeply unkind to Nixon's legacy.
The foundation, which had run the library with private funds from its inception in 1990, had a chilly relationship with Naftali since he was appointed director in 2006 with the clear orders to make over an institution that seemed designed only to burnish Nixon's image.
Now, a fuller portrait is emerging of the campaign the loyalists waged and the tactics they employed - including the use of high-level political pressure - to thwart Naftali's efforts at the library.
Prominent in the effort to rein in the director was Ron Walker, 75, who worked as an advance man during Nixon's first White House term and now runs the foundation.
Nixon Library
Alabama Republican Leading Secret Life
Bill Johnson
A former top state official in Alabama has been discovered to be leading a secret life in New Zealand as a sperm donor for lesbian couples.
David Fisher of the New Zealand Herald unearthed the story of Bill Johnson, 52, who as recently as 2010, ran in the Republican gubernatorial primary and is the former state director of economic and community affairs.
Johnson has spent most of 2011 in Christchurch, New Zealand, working with the recovery effort following a earthquake that struck the region in February. The paper reported that Johnson has been using an alias to meet with women who were seeking help getting pregnant.
Even though Johnson has been helping lesbian couples become pregnant, one of his main gubernatorial platforms in 2010 was running against gay marriage.
Johnson's wife was not aware of his efforts, which have included at least nine recipients, three of whom were or are currently pregnant. Fisher first approached Johnson on Thursday where he was spotted at a restaurant where he had recently finished dining with one of the women he had impregnated.
Johnson said he planned to tell his wife, a former Mrs. Alabama, about his secret life after the children were born. "I've been trying to get my wife over here, my family over here ... so I can be around for these children," Johnson said, according to the Herald.
Bill Johnson
Website Hacker Arrested
Gene Simmons
A Connecticut man affiliated with the Anonymous hacking group has been arrested on federal charges for an attack on a website belonging to Kiss bassist Gene Simmons.
Kevin Poe, of Manchester, Conn., made his initial appearance Tuesday in federal court in Hartford, Conn., and was released on $10,000 bond. It wasn't immediately known if he had retained an attorney.
Poe was indicted in Los Angeles on two counts: conspiracy and unauthorized impairment of a protected computer. If convicted of both, he faces up to 15 years in prison.
Authorities say Poe and others linked to Anonymous conducted a so-called "denial of service" attack last October against Simmons' computer systems, sending tens of thousands of electronic requests designed to overload the server.
Gene Simmons
Razing More Palestinian Homes
Israel
Israel has stepped up its demolitions of Palestinian property in occupied land this year, razing double the number of homes and water wells from 2010, human rights groups said on Tuesday.
The statement endorsed by 20 organizations including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch further said Jewish settler violence against Palestinians had risen in 2011 and that Israel had sped up its expansion of settler enclaves.
They urged members of the Middle East peacemaking "Quartet" -- the United States, United Nations, European Union and Russia -- to put pressure on Israel to "reverse its settlement policies and freeze all demolitions that violate international law."
The statement, citing U.N. figures, said Israel had destroyed more than 500 Palestinian homes, wells and other structures in 2011, displacing more than 1,000 people, the greatest number in a single year since 2005.
Settler assaults on Palestinians, including deliberate damage to some privately owned 10,000 olive trees, have also risen to their worst level since 2005, with a 50 percent increase over 2010, and more than a 160 percent increase over 2009, the U.N. figures show.
Israel
US Throws In Towel
Dollar Coins
The US administration said Tuesday it was ending routine production of one-dollar coins in the face of consumer resistance despite a decades-old campaign to replace the paper bill with more durable metal.
Vice President Joe Biden said the US Mint would suspend the production of presidential dollar coins for circulation, noting that nearly 1.4 billion surplus dollar coins are sitting in Federal Reserve vaults due to lack of demand.
The Mint will still be required, by law, to continue to produce a relatively small number of the coins to be sold to collectors. But instead of producing 70-80 million coins per president, the Mint will now only produce as many as collectors order.
Circulating demand for $1 coins will be met through the Federal Reserve's existing stockpile, which will be drawn down over time. Overall, officials said this step will save at least $50 million annually over the next several years.
Dollar Coins
Prime-Time Nielsens
Ratings
Prime-time viewership numbers compiled by Nielsen for Dec. 5-11. Listings include the week's ranking and viewership.
1. NFL Football: N.Y. Giants vs. Dallas, NBC, 24.52 million.
2. "Sunday Night NFL Pre-Kick," NBC, 17.61 million.
3. "Two and a Half Men," CBS, 15.18 million.
4. "60 Minutes," CBS, 14.74 million.
5. "The Big Bang Theory," CBS, 14.02 million.
6. "Football Night in America," NBC, 13.26 million.
7. "The Mentalist," CBS, 13.04 million.
8. "2 Broke Girls," CBS, 12.75 million.
9. "NCIS," CBS, 12.73 million.
10. "Person of Interest," CBS, 12.661 million.
11. "Mike & Molly," CBS, 12.659 million.
12. "Criminal Minds," CBS, 12.41 million.
13. "NCIS: Los Angeles," CBS, 12.23 million.
14. "Modern Family," ABC, 12.2 million.
15. "Amazing Race 19," CBS, 11.72 million.
16. "Survivor: South Pacific," CBS, 11.59 million.
17. "The Good Wife," CBS, 11.56 million.
18. "How I Met Your Mother," CBS, 11.51 million.
19. "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation," CBS, 11.14 million.
20. "Hawaii Five-0," CBS, 11.01 million.
Ratings
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