blogacide: March 2007

Friday, March 30, 2007

rock, paper, scissors, gun: musical straightjacket

Rock, Paper, Scissors, Gun: Musical Straightjacket

I'll tag myself for this MEME, since Dionne didn't want to tag anyone. Seven songs/CDs on heavy rotation in my immediate world... and I'm on a major oldschool hip hop, downtempo, and soul kick right now, so be warned.

1) Slick Rick - Sittin' in my Car

Almost meloncholy, and dare I say pretty, uplifting, and happy-sounding until you listen to some of the lyrics. Even if you don't like rap, I bet you'll like the music in the background.

2) Shina Rae aka Fresh as I'm Is - Disposable

She's may not be a huge star (yet) but this cool cat from Houston has been featured on some of Jake Childs' recent jackin' funky house releases on uni.form and she also performs with Alexander East of Planet East Music (check my permalinks, he's got an amazing voice). I found this gem on her myspace page and I begged her to make it downloadable (which she courteously agreed to in a timely manner.) I love the bassline and the dubbed out vocals "everything's made to be thrown away..."

3) DJ Gunshot - Wheel n Deal

This early drum and bass record still gives me the chills. The vocals are sampled from either Chaka Khan's "Sweet Thing" (which I just found a small 45 vinyl record of in my collection! It came from the jukebox at the bar my father owned when I was a kid.) or the remake by Mary J. Blige. It's a gorgeous song that's full of energy.

4) De La Soul - Say No Go

Delicious sampling by the mind-expanding trio of word and beat masters. They sample Hall and Oates "I Can't Go For That" so cleverly. Almost too clever for their own good.

5) George McCrae - I Get Lifted

I came across this gem in a backwards manner. I have a very rare copy of Paul Johnson's "Welcome to the Warehouse/I Get Lifted" that I've seen on GEMM.com going for up to $350. I used to own three copies, but gave two to good friends who DJ. Anyhow, I always wondered where Paul Johnson sampled the vocal for "I Get Lifted" and my friend Stout told me to check out George McCrae. Paul pitched up the vocal and sped it up so I thought it was a woman singing, but the original is actually a man. Who knew? The original rocks just as much as Paul's version. Classic soul that turned into a dreamy, funky deep house jam.

6) Otis Redding - You're Love Keeps Lifting Me Higher

This classic is guaranteed to put a smile on my face.

7) The Beatles/Cirque du Soleil - Love CD/DVD

My mom went to Vegas recently and brought me back this CD which is a somewhat continuous mix of many Beatles songs. I love it, although A Day in the Life almost always makes my eyes get all watery, and when Paul starts singing in the middle section... "Woke up, fell outta bed, dragged a comb across my head..." well, that's just my favorite part of any song ever made.
This CD also reminded me how amazing "For the Benefit of Mr. Kite" and "Within You Without You" really are. I'm usually a vinyl purist when it comes to sound quality, but I will admit loudly that this CD sounds amazing. The sound engineering is top knotch, as is to be expected in the hands of George Martin and his son Nigel.

Wednesday, March 28, 2007

resize photos easily

for Windows click here then:

Go to the directory contianing your photos.
Right click on the photo you wish to rezise and select 'Resize Pictures'. Select the new image size and click 'OK'.

for Mac users click here then:

Run the 'Picture Resizer' application
Choose the files or folder that contains your images
Choose the destination folder for the resized images
Choose a size for your resized images (or simply use the default 1600)

People often call or email me asking how to resize photos. I've been wanting to upload some photos to my blog but wanted to add them in some kind of album-type layout, so I found this site called Bubbleshare that seems to be pretty easy to work with, as long as your photos are resized. The free webtools in the links above are from that site, too. Oh, and if you use these tools to resize sparkling glitter .gifs I will hate you a lot.

what's wrong with windows vista

i hate glittery gifs

PimpMyCodeSpace.com is your one stop myspace resource

Gifs that sparkle and are all glittery are one of the more annoying bi-products of teh interwebz.
They're like an updated version of those paper-framed mirrors with a Lamborghini, Twisted Sister, or Rose and Skull combo on a fake marbled background that you'd win at one of those you-know-they're rigged-but-you-just-can't-figure-out-how carnival games like "land the beanbag on the milkjug lip" or "pop the balloons with a dart" or "pick up the plastic floating duck with the blue paint splotch on the bottom."

They make me want to vomit. Contrary to what most myspace comment noobs may believe, they're not eye-catching. They belong in the 70's with Pet Rocks, feathered roach clips, Fantasy Island, Charles Nelson Riley, and the hand-drawn pictures of unicorns and the members of Journey that my sister used to draw while our babysitter listened to Cheap Trick LPs on our record player.

Glittery gifs are so freaking annoying

lumierevolution

http://lumierevolution.blogspot.com/

puke bush

Someone posted a Gore head puking little Gore heads on a message board , so I thought this was necessary. Enjoy.

Tuesday, March 27, 2007

robert anton wilson

Wavy Gravy once asked a Zen Roshi, "What happens after death?"

The Roshi replied, "I don't know."

Wavy protested, "But you're a Zen Master!"

"Yes," the Roshi admitted, "but I'm not a dead Zen Master."

from RAW's blog: http://robertantonwilson.blogspot.com/
--------------------

I just found out that self-proclaimed stand-up philosopher Robert Anton Wilson passed away on January 11th of this year at the age of 75.

He was a great man with an amazing mind. He was close friends with Timothy Leary, William S. Burroughs, and writer Tom Robbins. He wrote one of my favorite books ever, Prometheus Rising, which completely blew my mind. Here's a free pdf version of the entire book!

So here's a belated tribute to Robert Anton Wilson.

Monday, March 26, 2007

alphaudiomega

This is a found footage editing project I compiled and edited for Cindy Penter's film class at Cleveland State University. It played at the Cleveland Museum of Art for their Fast Forward event in the Spring of 2005.

AlphAudiOmega

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Sunday, March 25, 2007

loop assassins - inner circle (mnml fx)

Description: Sherry (Boompsie) and I took 4 random records on 4 turntables, playing the very inner circle of the vinyl (where the labels are). We played the crackle and pop sounds from all four through various effects processors and two mixers (one with a loop function and an Allen & Heath with filters).

LoopAssassins-Mnmlfx(InnerCircle)

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