Entry
Thirteen.
Friday 2002.12.13 9:28 PM CST.
Site
updates, Frou Frou remixes, and the holidays...
Happy holidays, kids.
Awww
yeah. Gotta love those holidays. After all, last year, my
girlfriend decided to dump me the night before Thanksgiving.
Gotta
loooooove the holidays. Really. It's, like, a law or something.
Anyway,
this year, I went through Thanksgiving with my family; they had their
turkey and I had my Tofurky™ (regardless of how it may sound,
it's actually very good). It went okay.
Since
I have a lot of stuff to catch you up on, it may seem like a lot of
the information is just a bunch of unrelated crap. Um...
Yeah, some of it will be. So, without further ado... Here's
a wide variety of unrelated crap!
REST
IN PEACE, JAM MASTER JAY.
[Note: Click here for the latest
news/info in my search for the RIP JMJ shirt.]
First and foremost, as I'm sure a lot of you probably already
know, Run-DMC's Jam Master Jay was recently murdered. I'm
not going to go into a big flowery memorial here; I didn't know much
about him personally, and I have no idea why anyone would want to kill
him. I think he was a very talented artist, and I always had a
higher level of respect for Run-DMC than I did for a lot of the rap
performers of their time and pretty much all of the current-day "popular"
rappers. I pray for harmony and peace to the family and friends
of Jam Master Jay, especially during what I'm sure will be a pretty
tough holiday season without him, and I hope that whoever was responsible
for his death is brought to justice and gets what they deserve as soon
as possible.
On
a related note, the massive, multi-artist tribute to Jam Master Jay
at the recent Billboard Awards was very impressive. I especially
liked the "RIP JMJ" shirts that the performers were wearing.
However, I've done extensive searching and I can't find any for sale
online. If anyone knows where I can purchase an official "RIP
JMJ" T-shirt, please e-mail
me and let me know. Thanks.
[Note:
Again, click here for the latest news/info in my search for the RIP
JMJ shirt.]
SITE
REVISIONS ARE IN PROGRESS.
If you're a regular visitor (I like to pretend that I actually
have some of those), you probably noticed a bit of a different look
when you came into the site. For instance, there's
a new link to the History area, which
will give you a subjective, roughly chronological, and (very likely)
overtly pompous list of various events that have shaped my life.
Enjoy it, and please don't use any of the information there to stalk
me.
There
will be a lot more changes coming in the future... stay tuned.
HAPPY
FREAKIN' BIRTHDAY TO ME.
This month, I got older. Yee-haw. Want to know how
old I am? Thirty-one. Yep, thirty-one years old. I
don't think I look thirty-one, and I'm not sure if I'm supposed to feel
the way I feel at thirty-one.
But,
yeah, I'm thirty-one. Try as I might, I can't stop it.
Interestingly,
the two main gifts that I received were DVDs of films that I highly
enjoyed 20 years ago this year. 1982 was a special year for me,
and the films Tron and ET: The Extra-Terrestrial
were both very big with me that year. (In fact, the "big
present" from my parents 20 years ago was the ET game
for the Atari 2600 - a system I still highly admire.) The DVDs
I got were the two-disc anniversary set of Tron and the really
massive (and exquisitely packaged) collector's edition 3-DVD/1-CD set
of ET. The two flicks brought back a lot of wonderful
childhood memories... So, the birthday was really quite cool.
IN
RELATED DVD NEWS...
I picked up the special edition box set of Stanley Kubrick's
Clockwork Orange. I was born the year it was released
at the theatres. It doesn't look thirty-one either. It's
a highly recommendable film, if you're old enough and don't mind some
very intense and potentially offensive subject matter in films.
NEW
CLOCKWORK WIZARDS AND DJ BADGER REMIXES!
One of the latest Sonic Foundry contests was for the song "Breathe
In," an unusual yet very catchy vocal number by a new duo called
Frou Frou.
I ended up working like crazy on three very different versions
of the song. The Clockwork Wizards High on Chai Mix is the best
one, in my opinion, served up as a very epic-sounding, bass-heavy downtempo
piece with some pretty cool scratching effects.
The Salty Vibe of A Happy Pimp is a more uptempo, twangy, funky
mix.
Finally, the Throwaway House Dub was originally created almost
as a joke - an attempt to just throw together a weak "sample soup"
type of track like so many DJs tend to appreciate.
Strangely, it didn't turn out too bad, even though I left out
half the lyrics and repeated parts over and over and over!
If you're curious, all three of them can be heard at ACIDPlanet
by following these links:
Frou Frou - "Breathe In"
Clockwork Wizards High on Chai Mix
Frou Frou - "Breathe In"
DJ Badger's Salty Vibe of A Happy Pimp
Frou Frou - "Breathe In"
DJ Badger's Throwaway House Dub
I
JUST CAN'T GET KYLIE MINOGUE OUT OF MY HEAD.
I promise I'm not turning into a mainstream-music-loving poseur
piece of crap, but I've found myself growing increasingly enamoured
of Kylie Minogue.
It's
with a light degree of embarassment that I'll admit that I really liked
her song "I Should Be So Lucky" back in the late 80s whenever
I started in the DJ business; perhaps I'll get some credibility back
by saying I wasn't a big fan of her remake of "The Loco-Motion."
Anyway,
when I first heard her single "Can't Get You Out of My Head"
way back in 2001, I immediately enjoyed it, but I didn't see it as being
something that would really catch on in the US, since Kylie had already
had her time in the sun, so to speak, in the US back in the 80s.
Well, as most of you know, the song became a big hit, and then her album
Fever sold tons-o-copies, etc., etc. I bought numerous
DJ-only remixes of her tracks, but I didn't buy the entire Fever
album.
Well,
I was discussing her work during a visit with DJ
TMJ recently, and he played Fever while I was there.
Um, wow. I must say that I was impressed. He and I agreed
that some of the music was highly reminiscent of Daft Punk, of whom
TMJ and I are both big fans.
So,
there's my latest recommendation. Buy the Fever CD.
That is, don't download all the tracks and act like you have
the CD. Actually support the artist and purchase the CD.
It's good stuff. There's also a DVD available of the Manchester
show from the Fever tour. Buy that too.
[Incidentally,
if Kylie Minogue sees this page and wants to travel to Oklahoma to personally
thank me for the free plug...
Well, Ms. Minogue, I'm available for dinner pretty much any
night. As in any night. If I have previous social
plans, I will break them. If something crazy happens
and I'm getting married that night, I will postpone it.
If I have to have major surgery to prevent a life-threatening
situaton, I will reschedule it.
If I'm booked for a gig... Well... We can negotiate.]
THE
FOLLOWING ARE OVERPUBLICIZED AND/OR OVERRATED:
The Osbournes.
Avril
Levigne's "Sk8ter Boi."
Jennifer Lopez' engagement to Ben Affleck.
Jennifer Lopez' singing.
Jennifer Lopez' acting.
Jennifer Lopez' looks.
Jennifer Lopez' entire existence.
CHRISTMAS
IS ON THE WAY... AND ONE MORE TRIVIAL ANNIVERSARY.
This
Christmas will be the 15th anniversary of the very beginning of my Depeche
Mode collecting. It was on Christmas 1987 that my parents
bought me dM's Music for the Masses as one of my Christmas
gifts. It's amazing the direction my life went after that point
in time.
I'm
not sure if I'll put up another Journal entry before Christmas, so if
you've read this far down, I hope that you and your loved ones have
a wonderful holiday season, unless you're an evil demon ex-girlfriend
with throat cancer, or one of a particular group of other people who
doesn't deserve happiness... Oh, they know who they are.
So,
for most of you out there...
Thanks for coming by the site and reading my goofy little
Journal entries.
Have a great holiday, take care of yourselves, and if you have the means,
do a little something for charity to help out those who aren't quite
as fortunate.
Thanks very much....
More later.
-
Badger.
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