M Is FOR MASHUP - March 19th, 2014
Mars Needs Mashups!
By DJ Useo
"More Mashups From Outer Space"
Supakon and I ( w/ CMP ) put out a full album collection of Sci-Fi mashups back in 2007. It's still available, and remastered, to boot! ( pun intended and indented! )
I was talking to him a few months ago, and we agreed to pursue a 2nd volume. Well, it came out this last weekend, despite never having a set deadline. It also delayed the project that one of the major contributors had massive computer failure, and was also robbed at knifepoint ( whilst driving his suburban cab ) of his more personal Apple devices. Vital items for his professional and personal needs . . he was essentially thrown back into his very own stone-age!
( www.indiegogo.com/projects/drive-to-stay-alive-an-atoz-telethon )
As things go, those major impediments were not insurmountable given time, and the final results are most pleasing. The entire comp contains only mashups that adhere to the Sci-Fi theme. They come from a variety of mixers including G3rst, Chocomang, AtoZ, Funkorelic, DJ Petrushka, oki, and me. The styles vary from the irresistible Duran Duran vs Barbarella mix from G3rst to the all-encomposing Star Wars vs Star Trek vs The Police track from AtoZ.
As sadly transpired on the first volume, this sequel contains no mixes from Supakon. Offline matters, you know. Supakon's vibe, and concept remain stamped on the final results however. I imagine he's somewhere now, gazing into his crystal ball, and nodding approvingly. He'll be back with more of his mixes soon.
I do like to do these projects with a partner, and who better to step up and supply the perfect replacement than DmR of AtoZ. He had lots of interference ( as you can read in the first paragraph link ) yet he supplied exclusive themed art for the covers, three dynamite tracks, and also astonishing videos for each. Links for the videos are included in the zip file, but here they are for extra ease -
AtoZ Video for "War Trek of The Stars" --
( www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jd1aakEnTuc )
AtoZ Video for "It's True (( AroOo ))" --
( www.youtube.com/watch?v=TI9bqFAvaa0 )
AtoZ Video for "May The Force Be Within You" --
( www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZkN2IUa1hvk )
He did many more helpful things for the record, too. I couldn't get him to make coffee, though. Lol.
I can't really call him Igor to my Dr. Frankenstein tho' . . . as I basically said "I like these tracks, I will now master them into audio equality", and then AtoZ took it from there, assembling the whole package and readying it for digital release.
That he did this while struggling on a 10 year Macbook connected to an external clone of his HD while every single app had to be force-quit and restarted every 3 minutes . . well, this is testament to his perseverance.
( and possibly my charming persuasiveness as well? )
For those who prefer it, ( the majority, so far ) there's also a long, single-track version ( also from the seemingly tireless AtoZ ) with extra samples contributing to the funky flow, for to
stream on Soundcloud
( soundcloud.com/dmr-of-atoz/the-vinyl-frontier-vol-2 )
and to download via Mediafire
( www.mediafire.com/listen/b2o2hwdwrq7x88b/The_Vinyl_Frontier_-_Vol._2_Single-Track.mp3 )
Whether you dig mashups, Sci-Fi, or both, these tunes will please you and transport you to realms beyond modern understanding.
Remember, the name is "The Vinyl Frontier : Mashups From Outer Space volume 2".
( www.groovytimewithdjuseo.blogspot.com/2014/03/mashups-from-outer-space-volume-two.html )
Volume 1 is still available here
( theinstituteofbootleggers.blogspot.com/2013/05/bbi-vinyl-frontier-mashups-from-outer.html )
Our official slogan is "Mashing Sci-Fi On Your Wifi . . . since 2219 !" .
Mix Of The Week
DJ Forge's "Jungle Life" is a live Dj mix taking inspiration from the late '90's jungle sound. You'll hear the best of the genre mixed proper with tunes from Koop, Acen fairbrother, Luccid, and many more.
Full playlist, and large cover are with the stream and download link here
( soundcloud.com/dj-forge/jungle-life )
Mashup Tip
Play your tracks for a few pals before you release them. What's the harm?
Latest Useo Thing
I couldn't let the Annual Austin music festival
South By South West
( SXSW )
go by without making a mashup for it, so here's '
Feel Me Truth' ( The Black Cadillacs vs Sweater Beats ) ( SXSW 2014 Mix )
( soundcloud.com/dj-useo/black-cadillacs-vs-sweater ).
Both bands are here in Austin for the SXSW festival. I hope they can get a hotel room, and a cab when they need them. It seems like everyone in the world came here this year. I even got a call from the city reminding me how difficult it is to travel around during the hub bub. Lol.
Podgornio, The Mashup Psychic Predicts
I'll find the fool who took my crate of white-label 12" records last night, and they'll regret it big time!
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
How ghost gazumping is haunting London housebuyers (Guardian)
The latest nefarious practice besetting the overheated housing market features sneaky sellers failing to honour their agreements in the right spirit.
Sadhbh Walshe: "The right's poverty plan: shame poor kids and the vaginas that birthed them" (Guardian)
Conservatives want to make low-income Americans feel bad about babies and diets to cut birth control and food stamps.
Emma Brockes: The shopping mall is dead. Long live wandering aimlessly around the mall (Guardian)
For the space of an afternoon you are strolling and talking with someone uninterrupted. You are not half-listening while staring at a screen. You are not trying to get anywhere in a hurry, except, perhaps, the food hall, where you can eat as grossly as you want because that's all there is. If that's not quality time these days I don't know what is.
Kristi Harrison: The 5 Most Realistic TV Show Families of All Time (Cracked)
Whether we're watching The Simpsons, The Sopranos, or The Duck Dynasties, we can't help but find ways that TV families mirror our own home lives. I don't have a studio audience laughing uproariously every time I deliver my catchphrase ("You got it, Jude!"), but I don't need a laugh track to relate to the families on cornball sitcoms. That's because every one of those shows has a kernel of realism to them if you look hard enough.
My Husband's Stupid Record Collection (Tumblr)
Where I listen to my husband's record collection, one record at a time, and tell you what I think.
Charlie Jane Anders: This Scene from the French Version of Buffy Will Make Your Day (io9)
Seriously, the French answer to Buffy the Vampire Slayer, called Bloody Mallory, is just so jolly and campy, it's guaranteed to fix your Monday blahs. Just watch this clip where demons are trying to sacrifice the superhero Vena Cava, until her friends free her and she gets her awesome blue wig back.
Charlie Jane Anders: Is The "Young Adult" Boom Dwindling In Books As Well As Movies? (io9)
There's a lot riding on Divergent, which comes out this Friday. Studios are hoping it'll show there are still audiences for young-adult films other than Hunger Games, after the dismal performance of several other films. But also, says the Wall Street Journal, there's hope it'll rescue the struggling young-adult book market.
EricBanks: Walter Benjamin's Afterlife (Chronicle of Higher Education)
"Fame comes in many sorts and sizes, from the one-week notoriety of the cover story to the splendor of an everlasting name." When Hannah Arendt wrote this sentence 46 years ago in the pages of The New Yorker, she was reflecting on the newfound halo of attention atop one of the most versatile men of letters the 20th century had known, Walter Benjamin.
David Bruce's Amazon Author Page
David Bruce's Smashwords Page
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David Bruce has approximately 50 Kindle books on Amazon.com.
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Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
From The Creator of 'Avery Ant'
from Marc Perkel
BartCop
Hello Bartcop fans,
As you all know the untimely passing of Terry was unexpected, even by
him. We all knew he had cancer but we all thought he had some years
left. So some of us who have worked closely with him over the years are
scrambling around trying to figure out what to do. My job, among other
things, is to establish communications with the Bartcop community and
provide email lists and groups for those who might put something
together. Those who want to play an active roll in something coming from
this, or if you are one of Bart's pillars, should send an email to
active@bartcop.com.
So - to let you know what's going on, the guestbook on bartcop.com is
still open for those who want to write something in memory of Bart.
I did an interview on Netroots Radio about Bart's passing
( www.stitcher.com/s?eid=32893545 )
The most active open discussion is on Bart's Facebook page.
( www.facebook.com/bartcop )
You can listen to Bart's theme song here
or here.
( www.bartcop.com/blizing-saddles.mp3 )
( youtu.be/MySGAaB0A9k )
We have opened up the radio show archives which are now free. Listen to
all you want.
( bartcop.com/members )
Bart's final wish was to pay off the house mortgage for Mrs. Bart who is
overwhelmed and so very grateful for the support she has received.
Anyone wanting to make a donation can click on this the yellow donate
button on bartcop.com
But - I need you all to help keep this going. This note
isn't going to directly reach all of Bart's fans. So if you can repost
it on blogs and discussion boards so people can sign up then when we
figure out what's next we can let more people know. This list is just
over 600 but like to get it up to at least 10,000 pretty quick. So
here's the signup link for this email list.
( mailman.bartcop.com/listinfo/bartnews )
Marc Perkel
Thanks, Marc!
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Got to buy a new fuel pump today. Sigh.
Settle Lawsuit
Beastie Boys
The Beastie Boys have settled a legal battle with GoldieBlox for an undisclosed amount over the toy company's viral video ad parodying the group's 1987 song "Girls."
"The lawsuit between the Beastie Boys and GoldieBlox concerning GoldieBlox's use of the Beastie Boys song 'Girls' has been settled," a spokesperson for the company tells Rolling Stone. "That settlement includes (a) the issuance of an apology by GoldieBlox, which will be posted on GoldieBlox's website, and (b) a payment by GoldieBlox, based on a percentage of its revenues, to one or more charities selected by Beastie Boys that support science, technology, engineering and mathematics education for girls."
GoldieBlox specializes in engineering and construction toys for girls, and in the ad for the "Princess Machine," three young girls built a Rube Goldberg machine and sang the Beastie Boys track with altered lyrics to reflect the company's mission ("Girls to build a spaceship / Girls to code the new app / Girls to grow up knowing / That they can engineer that").
When the Beastie Boys responded, they did voice their support for GoldieBlox's message and efforts, but noted: "Make no mistake, your video is an advertisement that is designed to sell a product and long ago, we made a conscious decision not to permit our music and/or name to be used in product ads. When we tried to simply ask how and why our song 'Girls' had been used in your ad without our permission, you sued us." The group's claim was bolstered by a stipulation in late member Adam Yauch's will that read "in no event may my image or name or any music or any artistic property created by me be used for advertising purposes."
Beastie Boys
Tour Called Off
Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones have called off their tour of Australia and New Zealand following the death of singer Mick Jagger's girlfriend L'Wren Scott in Manhattan, a statement from the group's publicist said on Tuesday.
"The Rolling Stones are deeply sorry and disappointed to announce the postponement of the rest of their '14 ON FIRE' tour of Australia and New Zealand following the death of L'Wren Scott," the statement said.
"Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Charlie Watts and Ronnie Wood wish to thank all of their fans for their support at this difficult time and hope that they will fully understand the reason for this announcement," the statement said, adding that the group hoped to reschedule the shows at a later date.
Rolling Stones
1st Production Model For Sale
Fender Stratocaster
George Gruhn's guitar shop in Nashville is a kind of mecca for fine, vintage musical instruments, but even Gruhn is blown away by the latest addition to his inventory. He says it's the very first production model Fender Stratocaster ever made.
You can own it for a cool quarter million dollars.
"This is special," Gruhn told The Associated Press. "It's not special as memorabilia because it was owned by anybody special. But it is special because this is effectively like having the right Rembrandt or Van Gogh or Da Vinci. It's special because of what it is and who did this. Not because of who owned it."
The sunburst-finish Start bears the serial number 0100. Although some Strats have lower numbers that begin with 0001, Gruhn says they actually were manufactured later in that first year of production. He says the number-one Start was sold to an amateur who evidently took good care of it.
The Fender Stratocaster, first produced in 1954, has been described as a guitar that changed the world. When it first arrived, its streamlined, space-age contours seemed strange and perplexing to some. But the kids knew what to do with it. Buddy Holly played one. So did Jimi Hendrix, when he transformed the psychedelic experience into sound a decade later. Bob Dylan chose a Stratocaster for his revolutionary electric set, when he fired a defiant shot at tradition during the 1965 Newport Folk Festival.
Fender Stratocaster
Drug Quality
India
Some U.S. doctors are becoming concerned about the quality of generic drugs supplied by Indian manufacturers following a flurry of recalls and import bans by the Food and Drug Administration.
India supplies about 40 percent of generic and over-the-counter drugs used in the United States, making it the second-biggest supplier after Canada.
In recent months, the FDA, citing quality control problems ranging from data manipulation to sanitation, has banned the importation of products from Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd, Wockhardt Ltd and, most recently, Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd.
"I'm just beginning to realize the gravity of the problem," said Dr. Steven Nissen, head of cardiology at the Cleveland Clinic. "It's terrible and it is starting to get a lot of traction among physicians."
Generic drugs account for nearly 85 percent of medicines prescribed in the United States and the government is relying on them to help rein in healthcare costs.
India
NFL Demands $16.6 Million
M.I.A.
As The Hollywood Reporter revealed last September, the NFL has been secretly pursuing M.I.A. in arbitration in the aftermath of Super Bowl XLVI on Feb. 5, 2012. During the event, watched by nearly 167 million TV households, the Sri Lankan singer-rapper extended her middle finger during a performance of "Give Me All Your Luvin' "
M.I.A. wasn't paid for the event as is the custom of the league. But nevertheless, the NFL spent the first two years of arbitration demanding $1.5 million for allegedly breaching her performance contract and tarnishing its goodwill and reputation.
Now the NFL has added an additional claim, seeking $15.1 million more in "restitution" as the alleged value of public exposure she received by appearing for an approximately two minute segment during Madonna's performance. The figure is based on what advertisers would have paid for ads during this time. "The claim for restitution lacks any basis in law, fact, or logic," say M.I.A.'s response papers, filed on Friday.
The music superstar tells the arbitrator that the "continued pursuit of this proceeding is transparently an exercise by the NFL intended solely to bully and make an example of Respondents for daring to challenge NFL."
M.I.A.
Gets 10-Year Prison Sentence
Kevin Trudeau
A federal judge on Monday sentenced TV pitchman Kevin Trudeau to 10 years in prison for bilking consumers via infomercials for his best-selling weight loss book.
U.S. District Judge Ronald Guzman blasted the 50-year-old Trudeau before the sentencing, saying that for decades he "steadfastly attempted to cheat others for his own personal gain." Guzman called Trudeau "deceitful to the core."
Minutes before, Trudeau apologized to the court and said he was a changed man. Trudeau has been jailed since November, when jurors convicted him of criminal contempt for defying a 2004 court order barring him from running ads about the book. Despite the order, Trudeau aired the infomercials at least 32,000 times, according to prosecutors.
Prosecutors had said they could think of no comparable case of someone cheating people so brazenly, and they had said Trudeau deserved a sentence of at least 10 years. Defense attorneys said Trudeau deserved no more than two years.
Kevin Trudeau
New Snowden Document
NSA
The Washington Post is reporting that the National Security Agency has been sweeping up all of a foreign country's telephone calls, then rewinding and listening to the conversations up to a month later.
At the request of U.S. officials, the Post said it withheld details that could be used to identify the foreign country.
The program is the latest revelation from a trove of classified documents that former NSA systems analyst Edward Snowden leaked to certain news organizations last year. Most of those documents have described the U.S. collecting massive amounts of data and text. This program, called MYSTIC, is different in that it captures massive amounts of audio recordings.
NSA
Ad Featuring Hipster
GOP
Democrats apparently do not have a monopoly on scraggly-bearded hipsters.
To prove the point - whether intentionally or not - the GOP released a 26-second long online commercial featuring a hipper-than-thou Republican pumping gas into his Audi.
No matter what your political persuasion, we think you'll agree that the ad is easily mockable. The man, Scott Greenberg, is dressed to the nines in hipster gear, oversize glasses, and a stubble beard. He also comes prepared with indignation and an inability to read cue cards with any amount of subtlety.
Comments on YouTube were rather negative. One person writes, "Sorry GOP, 'looking' like a hippster [sic] won't work on us. Try harder." Another writes, "finally a hipster driving an audi."
Another writes, "Wow, now I've seen a guy who looks like my great aunt's idea of how my friends dress giving a poor delivery of flawed economics tinged with class warfare, I am sooooooo voting GOP! You guys with me?...Guys?"
GOP
Pipeline Leaks In Nature Preserve
Sunoco
A major oil pipeline owned by Sunoco Logistics Partners LP leaked thousands of gallons of crude oil into a nature preserve in southwest Ohio late on Monday.
Between 7,000 and 10,000 gallons (26,000-38,000 liters) of sweet crude leaked into the Oak Glen Nature Preserve about a quarter of a mile from the Great Miami River, according to early estimates from the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency.
The leak, which occurred on a line operated by Mid-Valley Pipeline Co, a division of Sunoco, was discovered at 8:20 p.m. EDT on Monday (0020 GMT Tuesday). The company shut the line, which helped reduce the pressure of the leaking oil, an EPA spokeswoman said, but it was unclear if oil was still spewing from the pipe.
Some oil reached a wetland a mile away and on Tuesday, clean-up crews were preparing to vacuum the wetland, located 20 miles north of Cincinnati.
The pipeline is part of Sunoco's mid-west system that runs about 1,000 miles from Longview, Texas to Samaria, Michigan, providing crude oil to a number of refineries, primarily in the U.S. Midwest.
Sunoco
Subsidize Professional And College Sports
Cable Subscribers
The pay TV system is broken. Over a 100 million US households face subscription rates increasing at twice the rate of inflation. To obtain programming we wish to watch, we are compelled to buy an elephantine bundle containing hundreds of channels we have no interest in watching. Sports TV is the largest cause of increases that are expected to drive the average monthly bill from $90 to $125 over the next few years. In desperation, some consumers are cutting the cord and resigning themselves to broadcast TV and the Internet for video programming. The choice is a tough one because, except through pay television, much popular programming is unavailable or offered only on a time-delayed basis.
The source of the problem is that programmers who control access to popular programming all insist their channels, even their scarcely watched channels, be included in the expanded basic bundle subscribers purchase. Programmers do this because they can and because it is highly profitable. The more widely a channel is distributed, the more the programmer receives in subscription fees and advertising revenues. Time Warner Cable is using the popularity of its Dodgers baseball channel to force other Los Angeles area distributors to include the Dodger channel in the expanded basic bundle, an inclusion likely to raise the viewer's monthly cost by roughly $5 a month. That's fine if the viewer wants to watch the Dodger games. But for the roughly 80% of viewers who have no interest in watching - this is a $5 tax forced upon us without any right to vote.
Precisely the same tactics that the Dodgers and Time Warner Cable are using are employed by professional teams and leagues in all regions of the country. All subscribers to the expanded bundle pay ESPN roughly $5 a month. There is no choice in the matter. Then there are the college teams. Take the Pacific 12 conference. The members are ten prominent public universities, many with worldwide reputations as preeminent educational institutions, and two very distinguished private universities (Stanford University and the University of Southern California). Both the public and private universities receive substantial tax-payer support in various forms. Now they are also getting a subsidy from pay television subscribers throughout the West where the Pac-12 television network is charging every subscriber to the expanded basic bundle an additional $2 a month. Is this collective exploitation of the broken TV delivery system tolerable behavior from our nation's elite and publicly supported educational institutions?
Cable Subscribers
Prime-Time Nielsens
Ratings
Prime-time viewership numbers compiled by Nielsen for March 10-16. Listings include the week's ranking and viewership.
1. "The Big Bang Theory," CBS, 17.34 million.
2. "The Voice" (Monday), NBC, 13.79 million.
3. "The Voice" (Tuesday), NBC, 13.51 million.
4. "The Walking Dead," AMC, 12.87 million.
5. "Blue Bloods," CBS, 11.68 million.
6. "60 Minutes," CBS, 11.26 million.
7. "Resurrection," ABC, 11.25 million.
8. "The Bachelor: After the Final Rose," ABC, 10.97 million.
9. "NCIS," CBS, 10.9 million.
10. "Criminal Minds," CBS, 10.74 million.
11. "Believe," NBC, 10.56 million.
12. "The Millers," CBS, 10.53 million.
13. "American Idol" (Wednesday), Fox, 10.27 million.
14. "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation," CBS, 10.15 million.
15. "The Bachelor," ABC, 10.1 million.
16. "NCIS: Los Angeles," CBS, 9.73 million.
17. "Survivor," CBS, 9.66 million.
18. "Hawaii Five-0," CBS, 9.53 million.
19. "Two and a Half Men," CBS, 9.43 million.
20. "Modern Family," ABC, 9.39 million.
Ratings
In Memory
Clarissa Dickson Wright
Clarissa Dickson Wright, a vivid and outspoken British television personality who found fame as half of the food-loving duo "Two Fat Ladies," has died at the age of 66.
Clarissa Theresa Philomena Aileen Mary Josephine Agnes Elsie Trilby Louise Esmerelda Dickson Wright grew up in an affluent London family, the daughter of a brilliant surgeon who was also a violent alcoholic.
She worked as a lawyer until her own alcoholism put an early end to a high-flying career. After giving up alcohol she worked as caterer and ran a cookery book store before being talent-spotted by the BBC for a new series.
In "Two Fat Ladies," Dickson Wright and Jennifer Paterson travelled Britain in an old Triumph motorcycle and sidecar, cooking lavish meals inspired by local tradition and trading quips about life, love and food.
The program became a big international hit for the BBC and ran until Paterson died of cancer in 1999, aged 71.
Patricia Llewellyn, who produced the show, said Dickson Wright was "a marvelous cook and hugely knowledgeable about food and food history."
Dickson Wright went on to make other TV series and wrote books including "A History of English Food" and a memoir, "Spilling the Beans."
Clarissa Dickson Wright
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