Haven't written in a while

But so be it... I am a busy bee...

Politics

I am enraged at all the fake enragement lately...

This deficit/debt bullshit is ridiculous now as house republicans play chicken with our national credit rating...

Enter The Grid

The DJ Show- MRO

So tonight, marked a special event, in that a friend that runs a media company decided to have a discussion with me on DJing. Which is to say very near and dear to my heart. I have been a DJ in spirit for quite a long time, although as of late I would have to admit that I am not currently playing anywhere.


Sad really. I miss DJing quite a bit. Moving a crowd is an amazing experience. playing music, performing, have always been a source of great enjoyment for me, so who knows. Maybe I should start gigging... Anyway I digress, lets review the show...


First of all here is a playlist of every track that was played throughout, in case you were wondering...


Chemical Brothers - Block Rockin' Beats
Uberzone - 2Kool4Skool
Chemical Brothers - In Dust We Trust
Chicane - Stoned in Love
Icey - Da Rythm
Dynamix II - Ignition(Remix)
Pink Floyd - On The Run
DJ Alligator Project- Lollipop (Clubstar Mix)
Oakenfold - A Lively Mind
Paul Van Dyk In Between
Tiesto - I Will Be Here
Icey - We Did It Like That
BT - Flaming June (Chicane Remix)
Hybrid - Symphony (Original Mix)


Bet you didn't realize all those tracks were in there... Indeed they were; most were favorites, while others just seemed to support the overall conversation and fill in some gaps. I took the liberty of providing the soundtrack under the surface to give some context to what we were talking about. Now onto the show and where it came from.


The whole idea behind this show was to take someone, (Don) whom had never been interested in this stuff and give him a sort of primer, or looking glass, if you will into the world of the modern DJ. I use this term loosely because while I consider myself to be one, I am not actively playing out every week. AS it turned out, I think I was successful in bringing him up to speed on some basics, and hopefully inspiring some curiosity.


DJing is an incredibly diverse musical culture these days. While operating in a global theater, it is still very much a home grown, local effort. The DJs I mentioned all started locally and worked their way to the highest echelons of the global scene, which was a little lost on Don as he was totally unaware of most of the artists I talked about. This is understood though as DJing as it were is mostly thought of as easy, or unimportant by many people.


I set out with one simple message, that hopefully got across in that DJ's are artistically motivated, and contribute to music just as any band does. The skills that have evolved with the advent of digital music, and the latest in technology are nothing short of mind blowing from the pro to the casual observer. Whether the DJ be a Mashup Wizard, a Turntablist, or a live performance producer, there is always some bit of magic employed to induce a seamless set of floor shaking, heart stopping beats and rhythms. Many DJ's have perfected this art and gained notoriety in a number of ways. Of all the DJ's we talked about during the show, The DJs mentioned during my "Top Five" range from the fairly popular, to complete rockstars-


1) Hybrid
2) Above and Beyond
3) George Acosta
4) Chicane
5)DJ Icey


Icey is a Florida institution and deserves a top 5 slot from any DJ that hails from this area. There are so many great DJ's from the central Florida area the list could go on for miles, Magic Mike, Baby Anne, and Icey make up the most famous of this group but many others have come up through the area in the last decade that left a mark like Jackal and Hyde, Mike and Charlie, Rick West, DJ Santana, Chris Craze, Malicious Mike, Tony Puccio, again, it could go on and on...


Chicane really brought Progressive House to the front of the pack of records for me. When I used to go to the local record shops and stand around for hours listening to and buying records for that evening's set, I would get hung up and his stuff and wind up not skipping around, favoring the layers of music and arrangements. Ultimately, this led me to trance music.


Acosta is a miami grown world famous producer/remixer/ trance DJ. He is on Satellite Radio weekly with Lost world. Everytime I turn i on I lose complete track of time, it is so enveloping...


Above and Beyond... These guys are a UK band that I found years ago, when I found a track named " Clear Blue Water" by Oceanlab. As time went on, they were involved in many remixes I wound up loving, and I try and catch Trance Around The World as much as I can.


The Number One spot, had to go to Hybrid. Producers/Remixers from Wales. Though they are not as well known as they could be, and if you have never heard of them, I assure you, you have heard their work in movie scores like Man on Fire, or Wolverine. The final track in the show was Symphony, a track they released in 1996 but is still relevant some 14 years later. Go pick up "Wide Angle" you will be impressed.


In the end, my top five can change on a whim, really. I tend to shift, depending on my mood. In example, while pulling and ripping music for this show, I wound up recording several old breakbeat albums just because I hadn't heard them and now I am considering the possibility of making a mix of them.


Overall the discussion was good. throughout some gaffes, and maybe a little bit of embellishing I think I gave Don, and maybe some listeners some insight, and curiosity. The end result I hope is that it will inspire those of you that were curious, to go out check out some of this stuff, and find your own little niche. start at beatport- sort of an iTunes for all things electronica. click around the genres and take a good listen, I bet you find something you like.


Thanks for listening, and check out Across The Pond weekly on manchesterradioonline.com.


Across The Pond 4/24/2010 by Brese1200

Manchester Radio Show

I am working up a post for those who have come here looking for some more info. I will put up the playlist from the show, and give some links and details about some of the stuff we talked about. Stay tuned, more to come in a about an hour.

Ethic-AL

This class I am taking has me questioning if I was right to go into IT.

As it stands I am pretty good with a computer, but I am much better arguing...

Should have been a lawyer even though my barometer is off. I was reviewing a case for discussion thinking "well this is pretty screwed up" and as it turns out I was wrong.

This guy (black) goes to a bank and asks for a loan. They turn him down for the initial request but offer him a much lower loan amount. The loan officer and veep of loans talk it out before they send the rejection and discuss the fact that the guy might be overextended, and feel the risk is too great, and he might just claim discrimination...

Well he does. when he finds out that during a board meeting a conversation about his loan request is brought up and the members, of the BOARD of this bank make racial slurs and jokes about how he doesn't deserve to get a loan because he's black. The conversation is publicly played out to the affect that a black board member resigns his position in protest.

There are so many things wrong with this situation its ridiculous, and so I side with him thinking "here we have a clear cut case of top down discrimatory philosophy that manifested itself in the day to day decision making operations of this bank, cloaked in a thinly veiled approval/denial process that can't obviously be impartial... RIGHT?"

Wrong. Court finds for the defendent citing the plaintiff was indeed given a counter offer, and could not establish that there was a pattern of discrimination because he couln't demonstrate any other same race applicants of commisurate credit and loan requirements, that were also denied.

I know... you think well this is like back in the 70's or something right Al? Back before we had protection under EOCA... Right?

Filed in 2002...

Well regardless of whatever his honorable happy pants decided and the appellate courts after, I still disagree. Discrimination is discrimination, whether it is a KKK jerk in front of city hall, or a bunch of good ole' boys that don't want any more blacks showing up at their old man country club denying loans based on their wink wink, approval process its wrong.

And I 'm not even going to get into the discussion of generational poverty as it relates to race, and how this is simply a continuation of "Financial" Gentrification. That is whole other argument.

Ahhhh Alabama.

Macadam

Just put your head on the pavement man
It feels good, nice an cool, just ignore the sand


That dirt ain't nothin at least its free
Have a drink or two keep from thinkin too


Life took that turn it might have been for the worse
But here I sleep, on this cracked bed of macadam
All the things I have seen, all the things that seem


Life took that turn and why look back
The people I left behind wondering where I'm at.


Drink a little more the pain goes away
People, faces, places they all become a haze


How, or why did that turn come along
Lifes not moving and I've fallen from it all.


Life took that turn, it hurts more and more
But I can't stop ignoring the situation anymore


Fallen invisible from the rest of the world
A shadow of the person I was once before


I have nothing left, and I am totally free
But I went to a place I never thought I'd be


Life took that turn for better and for worse
I sleep on this crack bed of macadam
Not knowing why feeling anything has to hurt.

Read On

I am not ignorring this thing...


No really.

Modern Living

Chuggin Along...

The time is far between posts...