Mark’s blog

Here is a "remix" of the video from my last post ...

nobody@vox.com(Mark) — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 17:53:50 -0600

Vote for M.I.A. at Fuse.tv!

You can still vote here ... http://www.fuse.tv/music/best-of-2008

Also, here is a video by Radicarl, a German DJ who does a lot of cool music and remixes. This is his remix of Paper Planes ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-HeUBzmDxWo (the video cannot be embedded for some reason)

Here is his Bucky Done Gun remix ...

M.I.A. - Bucky Done Gun (Radicarl Remix)

http://www.myspace.com/radicarl
http://tunabomber.blogspot.com

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Video to encourage people to vote for M.I.A. on Fuse.tv

nobody@vox.com(Mark) — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 23:18:31 -0600

I wanted to encourage people to vote for M.I.A.'s "Paper Planes" video on the Fuse.tv contest so I made this video ...

Vote for M.I.A.'s "Paper Planes" video at Fuse.tv!

Here is the link to vote ... http://www.fuse.tv/music/best-of-2008

The song playing is the DFA remix of "Paper Planes".

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Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Center

nobody@vox.com(Mark) — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 20:32:29 -0600

I went to the Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Center in South Austin with a friend yesterday. I took a whole lot of photos. Some came out crappy, but a couple of them came out well. Here are my two favorites ...

IMG_2134

IMG_2156

The top one looks really cool if you click on it once, and then once more to get the full size. The purple part of it is in focus, but the rest is blurry, which I think creates a cool effect. The coneflower picture on the bottom just came out great overall compared to the rest of the photos. I wish I had an expensive camera. I would take up close detail shots all the time.

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Vote for M.I.A.'s "Paper Planes" video at Fuse.tv

nobody@vox.com(Mark) — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 11:33:40 -0600

Vote for M.I.A.'s video, "Paper Planes", here ...

http://www.fuse.tv/music/best-of-2008

You have to scroll down a little to see the image of her ...

Vote for M.I.A. today on Fuse.tv!

Click on here name on the image above, and then you have to click again to vote on the video that pops up ...

Click on "VOTE" by M.I.A.'s name to vote for the video, "Paper Planes"!

This will be good exposure for M.I.A. so people will buy Kala and get to hear all of the other cool songs on the album (especially 20$).

Vote today!

http://www.fuse.tv/music/best-of-2008

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Tegan and Sara - Call It Off

nobody@vox.com(Mark) — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 05:21:59 -0600

This song plays on the music station at my job all of the time so I just had to post it (since it is in my head a lot now) ...

Tegan and Sara - Call It Off

Here is a remix by DJ Tiesto of their song, "Back In Your Head" ...

01 - Back In Your Head [Tiesto Remix]

Tegan And Sara

Tegan and Sara - The Con (album with "Call It Off" on it)
Tegan and Sara - Back In Your Head (DJ Tiesto Remix)

In other news, the latest episode of Ugly Betty mentioned M.I.A. and played the Ladyhawke song, "Paris is Burning". Not bad!

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Barack Obama, M.I.A., Diplo, Santogold, and Esau Mwamwaya

nobody@vox.com(Mark) — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 13:18:22 -0600

A friend of mine and I went out last night for dinner for my birthday and for election night. We were excited that Barack Obama would actually win the presidency. I was still very cautious. I am glad he won. I am glad the Democrats have the majority in the House and Senate. However, they may not get their 60-seat filibuster-proof majority in the Senate, but they still did well. I am glad a lot of red states went to Obama.

Austin, TX and Travis County always go to Democrats, and it definitely went easily to Obama this time around. However, it kills me that Texas, as a state, has to be so backwards and go for McCain. If you look at an electoral map, you will see that the large urban areas (where most of the people live) all went to Obama.

Results of 2008 presidential election in Texas (from CNN)

Prop 8, which bans homosexual marriages, will probably get passed in California if the current results are correct. That is disappointing, but I guess that will just take time for people to get over their hangups about same-sex couples. I still believe that time heals all wounds, but that's not true if you run out of time.

The positive perspectives from around the world about Obama as the new president are very nice. I like the idea that the rest of the world may like America again. I always think globally. If I had enough money, I would live in a different country every month.

In other news, there is a lot of good music out there right now. Here is a mixtape that became available on the M.I.A. Fans message board today (http://miafans.co.uk) ...

http://fairtilizer.com/radioclit/the_very_best.zip

The music definitely has a "world music" sound to it. Esau Mwamwaya is featured heavily on the mixtape. He has done his own versions of "Paper Planes" and "Get It Up". I have posted his songs on here before. M.I.A. also put some vocals on a demo of his song, "Rain Dance". I think I have all of that right. The mixtape is also available on MySpace here ...

http://www.myspace.com/theverybestmyspace

I think Radioclit is the main force behind the mixtape.

M.I.A. has a new song (download it) and video with Blaqstarr that is very good. It is called S.U.S. (Way Down The Hole) ...

M.I.A. and Blaqstarr - S.U.S./Way Down in the Hole/Save Your Soul/Save Ur Soul

As you can see the song has appeared under many different names. "Save Ur Soul" is probably the correct name.

One of the clubs/bars my friend and I went to last night was RAIN on 4th, and I was very happy that they played the song and video of M.I.A.'s "Paper Planes". Everyone seemed to really like the song, and they all seemed to know the lyrics to it already, which they should since it has been out forever now. I just wish they would play songs like "Bamboo Banga". That would be more fun for a club.

The restaurant we went to was a great Italian restaurant called Primizie Osteria. It is located on East 11th St. in Austin, and it is probably one of those restaurants that is not getting as much business as it should because people do not know about it. I am probably going to do a Yelp review for it, but it already has a ton of positive Yelp reviews. Here is the website for it ...

http://www.primizieaustin.com

I got this Rigatoni with Italian Sausage dish that was really good, but I think the best part of the meal was the torta di limon dessert ...

Torta di limon

I think that is the correct picture. The shiny structure sticking out of the dessert is sugar that you can eat.

My favorite mixtape to listen to right now is "Top Ranking" from Diplo and Santogold. I have posted some of the songs from the mixtape here already. You can download the entire mixtape by doing a Google search for it. Here are two of my favorite songs from the mixtape ...

04 -I'm a Lady (Diplo Mix ft Amanda Blank)

Diplo/Santogold

02- Late Night (Unstoppable Mix)

Diplo/Santogold

For some reason, my iTunes calls this mixtape "Top Rated". Weird!

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Another version of M.I.A.'s "Shells" ...

nobody@vox.com(Mark) — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 22:58:41 -0500

This version of "Shells" has M.I.A.'s vocals slowed down, but the beat is still fast.

Shells (slowed down vocals, fast beat)

M.I.A.

Here is a new song by Bjork called "Nattura". The video is a compilation of a lot of Bjork's videos, and I think it came out pretty cool ...

Bjork - Nattura

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"Take me away from all this death!"

nobody@vox.com(Mark) — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 23:20:53 -0500

It's not a very scary film (I always watch it as a love story), but here is my favorite scene from "Bram Stoker's Dracula" just in time for Halloween ...

Mina and Dracula hanging out

This movie is hated by many, but I love the romantic side to the story, and the score is great. I own the soundtrack, and I think it stands on its own. The line, "Take me away from all this death!", is one I sometimes think of when there are too many things going on around me, and I just want everything to stop.

In other news, a person from this blog slowed down M.I.A.'s song "Shells" (which you can download from iTunes now) so that is doesn't sound so "Alvin and the Chipmunks" anymore. Here is the slowed down version, which I kind of like ...

M.I.A. - Shells (slowed down version)

Shells (Slow)

M.I.A.

Download

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Obama in Red and Blue (on YouTube)

nobody@vox.com(Mark) — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 19:23:33 -0500

I decided to upload an incomplete version of my little Obama video to YouTube just so it could get more views. I really want Obama to be our next president, and I get a little worried that people will think he is going to win and feel like they do not have to do anything to support him. I hope he does win, but I will be holding my breath until election night. I just hope everyone goes out and votes! I think the better the turnout, the better chances he has to win.

Here is the incomplete video of Obama in Red and Blue ...

Obama in Red and Blue (incomplete)

It is incomplete because YouTube videos can only be 10 minutes long, and the song, "Rhapsody in Blue", is longer than 17 minutes.

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Dutty Six Pack from Top Rated (Diplo and Santogold's "mixtape")

nobody@vox.com(Mark) — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 17:55:21 -0500

I have been listening to this song a lot lately in my car. The title is "Dutty Six Pack". It sounds very reggae to me. I don't know who sings it, and I have a feeling it is an old reggae song that has just been updated a little for this mixtape, "Top Rated", but I could be wrong. Anyone know who sings this, and if there is a longer version?

Here is the song ...

13 - Dutty Six Pack

Diplo/Santogold

Edit ... I think this is Cutty Ranks. I did a Google Search on "Dutty Six Pack", and all the links said Cutty Ranks so that makes sense. I like the song "Limb by Limb" by Cutty Ranks, too, but I have read that there are a lot of anti-gay lyrics in this kind of music. I don't know how accurate or how offended I should be by that, but I still like the song.

Cutty Ranks - Limb by Limb

Limb by Limb

Cutty Ranks

Here is an article about the Dutty Six Pack song ...

http://blogs.laweekly.com/play/diplo-santogold-cutty-ranks-re-1/

The song samples Black Flag's "Six Pack" ...

Black Flag - Six Pack

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