Public Enemy v. Anthrax

Not a mash up as much as a collaboration that kind of shocks me. You can’t see more differences between two bands or fan bases. I like this song, don’t love it, but would take it any day over that harmless crap pumped out by some groups today. Plus, it’s fun to see Flava, Chuck D, and Scott Ian thrashing around on stage. I swear I see Ice-T in there at some point too.

I don’t think this one gets an “inspiration” tag, but it’s worth sharing. remember people, “Free your mind, and your ass will follow.”

Virtual Jam Session 2.0

So I found this little audio/video clip via Schema Magazine (Your Daily Dose of Ethnic Cool). Why is this interesting at all?

‘Cause in January, 8 people with 5 different instruments originating from 4 different continents, speaking 3 different languages were connected over the world wide web for a jam session, sharing with the world a brief 5 minutes and 58 seconds of collaborative musical wonder. The goal was to create a message of peace.

It’s an amazing application of technology to music, and a real ground-breaker as far as I can tell. Listen and watch now:

Jam Session 2.0 from Cain Mosni on Vimeo.

And if you like that first DJ/MC Dumfoundead then listen to this cut:
(just close the download now popup and hit play)
Different Galaxies

Navel gazing

“The trouble with navel gazing is that you’re likely to find lint where your soul should be.” – me

I’ve written a couple of posts recently that I’ve spiked for one reason or another.

I’m just not sure where I want to go with this blog. I note that most blogs I read and enjoy on regular basis (see links) seem to focus on a single area.

Although this started as a place to corral the wild and wooly thoughts on my mind, of late it seems just sort of aimless drivel.

So what should a responsible man of a certain age write about?

Based on the tag cloud, looks like I like to write about Music, Politics, and Inspiration.

MUSIC seems to be mostly mashups with some discussion of how music is key to health and well-being, and some loose ends about opera.

POLITICS seems to be actually where I started this who thing, commenting on the end of the Bush administration and the election, then on to the end of the Bush admin and starting to take a look at Canadian politics. Oh, and there’s a fair smattering of arts funding politics talk mixed in there too.

INSPIRATION seems to reinforce my belief that music is a core human need. This category seems to have a lot of cross-over with MUSIC.

Hmmm….so what should this blog be about?

Fifty Dangerous Things

From the Book: Fifty Dangerous Things (You Should Let Your Children Do)(Which is kind of foolish enough to list all 50 of them for free via the “Look inside” feature on Amazon)

1. Lick a 9-volt Battery
2. Play in a Hailstorm
3. Master the Perfect Somersault
4. Kiss Hello Like the French
5. Stick Your Hand out the Window
6. Drive a Nail
7. Drive a Car
8. Throw a Spear
9. Make a Bomb in a Bag
10. Play with the Vacuum Cleaner
11. Throw Rocks
12. Play with Dry Ice
13. Boil Water in a Paper Cup
14. Put Strange Stuff in the Microwave
15. Throw Things from a Moving Car
16. Drop from High Places
17. Burn Things with a Magnifying Glass
18. Walk Home from School
19. Stand on the Roof
20. Squash Pennies on a Railroad Track
21. Spend an Hour Blindfolded
22. Bend Steel
23. Break Glass
24. Construct Your Own Flying Machine
25. Look at the Sun
26. Learn Dramatic Sword Fighting
27. Make a Slingshot
28. Climb a Tree
29. Perform on the Street
30. Dam up a Creek
31. Go Underground
32. Change a Tire
33. Dive in a Dumpster
34. Deconstruct an Appliance
35. Go to the Dump
36. Poison Your Friends
37. Fly Your Homemade Kite in a Gale
38. Learn Tightrope Walking
39. Cook Somthing in the Dishwasher
40. Find a Beehive
41. Cross Town on Public Transit
42. Break the Recipie Rule Book
43. Whittle
44. Make a Rope Swing
45. Play with Fire
46. Super Glue Your Fingers Together
47. Melt Glass
48. Explode a Bottle in the Freezer
49. Sleep in the Wild
50. Your Project

Except for 9, 21, 36 I’ve done all these.
Some are not all that dangerous, and some are certainly not appropriate for very young children like mine. But most are good experiments to conduct.

Grammy Awards 2010

Hey, it’s been a year since my last Grammy commentary – which means this blog has been at it for at least a year. Now for my comments on the most irrelevant awards show on TV.

Trying to wedge lady gaga into the grammys is not a good idea,a nd pairing her with that old queen elton john makes no sense.

Nice of Beyonce to give a homase to both Janet jackson and Allison Morrisette or whoever. Loved the really awkward intro by the two sweet young mismatches hollywood dweebs.

Nicely done production for Pink. Loved it. Looked a lot like our last opera company fundraiser. she did put on a nice show, however.

Zak Brown Band is entirely made up of guys who look like Zack G. from the Hangover. M and I have dubbed the best new artist award “the kiss of death”. So, hope y’all who like country music got a kick out of them.

Hey, only in Canada is a hockey trade worthy of a news break. Love it.

Black Eyes Peas showing how neutered hip hop and rap has gained a place in mainstream music. Jesus, they look like the Village People.

Miley Cyrus, then Jonas Brothers, this show has gone to the dogs. Guess they gotta get the kids stuff out of the way before bedtime. Intro for some C&W Trio? Beats me. Yup, he just mentioned a shot of whiskey, that makes it a C&W song.

Yay for Steven Colbert.

What the hell was that Bobby Darin record of the year thing about? Please anyone but Taylor Swift M says. Oh, wow, Kings of Leon win. Wow. An actual surprise.

Hey, opera, jamie fox, t-pain. I’m lost. But I see Weird Al and Jayzee bouncing to the beat, so I guess that’s legit as you get. Hey! George Clinton in the house! Yay!

It’s all completely unintelligible, but seems quite spirited, I must say.

What’s the Keisha, Justin Beiber matchup? Do we care what Bon Jovi is playing? How do we care that they have never played the grammys? Maybe that’s a good thing.

I still think we should run an oepra ad saying “Auto Tune Free Zone”, or put signs in the lobby.

Katy Perry looks fabulous. Oh, by the way the Green Day musical, I’d love to see that. Nice plug for their show by the way, promotions people for the win.

Oh, they’re playing country music, that’s enough for me. Bye.

Gaaahhh!!! Stevie Nicks/Taylor Swift! Help me! My Ears! Aaach! mute button save me!

Ahhhh….

Gaaahhhh!!!! My eyes! Help me! Three D?!?!? Aaach! Celine Dion! Aaaagh! In 3 -D !!!! aaEEEEEKKK!!!!!! channel changer, save me!!!

Ahhh…Greta Garbo in Torrent. 1926 silent film US debut of Garbo as a young woman who ends up an opera diva. How coincidental on grammy night. Dude in the first scene I see is totally pimpin’ his outfit.

Enuffa dis grammy crap. I’m out for tonight. ‘Das enuf.

The Elephant Vanishes

It occurred to me that despite taking a name for this blog from my favorite Haruki Murakami novel, I’ve never posted a single thing about my favorite author.

I was introduced to his work in the 1990’s by a Englishman bookseller while I was working at my favorite job ever, a bookseller for Harry W. Schwartz Bookstores in Milwaukee, WI, a small, locally owned chain or independent bookstores.

A Wild Sheep Chase was the first book he gave me, in Vintage paperback with great artwork (reproduced above) that I wish I still had. It literally changed my reading habits and started me on a journey to explore, and eventually collect Japanese postwar fiction, principally the works of Murakami.

I have since read nearly all of his work and own most of it in first (english language) edition hardcover, which is in display in my office. I’ve gone so far as to get a collector’s edition of one of his works, Norwegian Wood from a UK collector, my first real collector’s purchase.

To explain his works is difficult for me, because I lack the vocabularly of literary criticism. Magical realism? Surrealist? Certainly postmodern. Kafkaesque seems appropriate. Certainly challenging and I find it engrossing.

For the first time reader, I suggest his collection of short stories called The Elephant Vanishes. If for no other reason than if you don’t like what you are reading, you can quickly bail out, try another story, or just quit. I don’t pretend for an instant that this kind of writing is for everyone. I’m not even sure I can say if you like “so and so” you’ll like Murakami. I’ve not had good luck with that. Kafka, Vonnegut, Robbins come to mind as possible comparisons. Maybe Beckett, Nabakov, Chabon?

I recommend reading his short storyOn Seeing the 100% Perfect Woman One Beautiful April Morning as the very first thing to read. If you like that, continue. Click the link and you can even read it for free. Right now. It won’t take you but 20 minutes to read.

I’ll wait.

Now you can back click I think from that link and read others. Once you’ve read the short stories and liked them, I’d recommend A Wild Sheep Chase . Part surreal detective story, part meditation on apathy, loneliness and metaphysics, it’s structure is that of a hard-boiled detective novel, only in this case the detective is tasked to find a sheep which may or may not actually exist.

The most challenging thing about Murakami novels? Trying to explain them to someone else. While each novel stands on it’s own generally, I do find it better to read them in order of publication, because his writing grows on you from book to book and you’ll appreciate the writing more if you do it that way, sort of like the films of Wong Kar Wai, who I’ll write about some other time, but who I think might have some similar themes explored in his work.

Here’s the Flash enabled Random House Site: HERE

Here’s his own site: HERE

And here’s his wikipedia entry: HERE

Happy Reading.

You Give Me Fever

I love this song. There’s a version for everyone. In my opinion it should be taken very slow and almost whispered. It is definitely a private song from one person to another. That’s why I love these little amateur covers:

This is the way you are supposed to do this song: On your webcam, for your boyfriend, with no ornamentation. Just do it straight, like she does. Is it the greatest version? Who cares? It’s personal and was clearly meant for someone in particular. I love the wink at the end.

she gets it. more than her band does, I’m afraid. I appreciate that she doesn’t “push it” on her top notes, but relaxes into them.

OK, this girl scares me a little bit, but I do so like her take on the song (and she just does an excerpt):

Oh, and there’s a great version in the film “Blue In The Face”, which you’ll have to find for yourself. There are no good samples online. It’s filmed as a private moment between a woman and her dressing table mirror which strikes just the right sexy, exhilerated mood of a woman for her man.

Happy Birthday to my One and Only

The very thought of you makes
My heart sing
Like an April breeze
On the wings of spring
And you appear in all your splendour
My one and only love

The shadows fall
And spread their mystic charms
In the hush of night
While you’re in my arms
I feel your lips so warm and tender
My one and only love

The touch of your hand is like heaven
A heaven that I’ve never known
The blush on your cheek
Whenever I speak
Tells me that you are my own

You fill my eager heart with
Such desire
Every kiss you give
Sets my soul on fire
I give myself in sweet surrender
My one and only love

The blush on your cheek
Whenever I speak
Tells me that you are my own
You fill my eager heart with
Such desire
Every kiss you give
Sets my soul on fire
I give myself in sweet surrender
My one and only love

My one and only love

~ performed by Sting, music and lyrics by Robert Mellin & Guy Wood

Chugwater!

There’s a great little blog that I’ve been following for some time now called Twelve Mile Circle. It’s about weird little places on the map, geographic anomalies and such that just tickle me to no end. I know that is strange, but if you’ve followed this blog at all, it should not suprise you.

Well today the unthinkable happened, Twelve Mile Circle actually featured some place that I have actually been! Chugwater, WY!

Read the blog here and go and visit them periodically to see what sort of weird and amusing things they have dug up from around the world. Lots of fun and cool stuff to dig into too, if you have never been there before.

The blog, I mean, not Chugwater.

Mo Mashups

Ting Tings v. Cheap Trick v. Toni Basil
Two groups that can always be mashed well: Ting Tings and Cheap Trick
Oh and Eurythmics, they always mash well too…

Daft Punk v. Justin Timberlake
I hate myself so much for liking this….

Wow, this one is really well done. I think there was a little more messing with the audio than usual.
Stevie v. REM

Pink Floyd v. NIN? Um, OK. It is one of my favorite Floyd songs, so why not give a listen…

Oh, now this is good. Black is Back. I’m so not the target audience for this, but me likes:

Found all these on Buzzfeed