Mark’s blog

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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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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Jay-Z's remix of M.I.A.'s "Boyz"

nobody@vox.com(Mark) — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 11:25:39 -0500

Two new remixes of M.I.A.'s song, "Boyz" from Kala have come out recently. Both of the remixes just add vocals to the song, and they both mention Barack Obama.

Jay-Z's remix seems very anti-war, which is fine with me. M.I.A. also has some additional vocals on this version of "Boyz" ...

Boyz (Jay-Z remix)

M.I.A

Wale added some vocals to "Boyz", too. Here is his version ...

Boyz (Wale remix)

M.I.A.

Here is another version of the song, "Get It Up" by Radioclit, featuring M.I.A. and Santogold. This version has vocals by Esau Mwamwaya instead of a rap by Gorilla Zoe (which is on the other version, here).

Get It Up (with vocals by Esua Mwamwaya)

Radioclit featuring M.I.A. and Santogold

Here is a clip of the song, "Shells", which M.I.A.'s fans have been waiting on for a long time. The song was supposedly done by M.I.A. and Diplo (I think), and it sounds like a lot of fun.

http://84.45.101.210/mp3/XLCD281X-N.mp3 - you have to download it because it is a stream of music, not an actual mp3.

The problem I have with this clip is how sped up the vocals are. I hope that is a mistake because I don't like sped up vocals like that. However, the song is fun to listen to. "Shells" will finally be released on the re-released version of Kala, which is already available on some sites, I think.

In other news, Britney Spears has a new expensive video for her song, "Womanizer". The video looks very slick so that's good for her. The song is catchy enough. I am amazed at how many remixes of Womanizer are already floating around the internet.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-23EToh43M

I am sure there will be a higher quality version of the video above soon, but that's all I could find for right now.

For all the latest M.I.A. news, go to the M.I.A. Fans message board at http://miafans.co.uk.

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Obama in Red and Blue

nobody@vox.com(Mark) — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 15:38:13 -0500

I decided to make a little video with an image of Barack Obama that I have always really liked. I used the song "Rhapsody in Blue" by George Gershwin to go with the image. I think it came out of kind of cool.

Obama in Red and Blue

I am still going to try to upload it to YouTube, but there is a 10 minute rule so I don't know if that is possible.

The image in this video is called a Shepard Fairey image. Shepard Fairey's website is called Obey Giant.

Here is the image ...

Barack Obama - Hope and Progress

You can donate to Barack Obama's campaign here ...

http://my.barackobama.com/page/outreach/view/main/markinaustin

You can also watch the video at Viddler ...

Obama in Red and Blue

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Make sure you're registered to vote ...

nobody@vox.com(Mark) — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 14:50:44 -0500

You can go to this website to make sure you are already registered to vote, or you can use the website to register ...

http://www.voteforchange.com

Also, donate to Barack Obama's campaign if you have some extra cash!

http://my.barackobama.com/page/outreach/view/main/markinaustin

You can also go to http://barackobama.com and donate that way, and I think you will get a shirt.

Vote, baby, vote for Barack Obama on November 4th!!!

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Saturday Night Live and YouTube

nobody@vox.com(Mark) — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 17:35:31 -0500

The season premiere of Saturday Night Live is on tonight. Michael Phelps is hosting. Tina Fey may make an appearance as Sarah Palin, and Barack Obama may make a cameo. It should be good.

In other news, my YouTube account got deleted once again due to me uploading a song from "Piracy Funds Terrorism, vol. 1" by M.I.A. and Diplo. The song called "Baile Funk Two" featured a sample of Prince's song, "When Doves Cry". Prince and his management/record label will come after you if you have any of his music/video on your website, YouTube, etc., so beware!

I am in the process of uploading all 77 videos that I had under the name "existentialrainbow". My new name is "phoenixrising113". I will eventually update my YouTube links.

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Jon Stewart's Double Standards clips on The Daily Show

nobody@vox.com(Mark) — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 09:02:40 -0500

This is a recent video clip from The Daily Show, where Jon Stewart showed how Karl Rove, Bill O'Reilly, Sarah Palin, Dick Morris, and Nancy Pfotenhauer contradict themselves when talking about Sarah Palin, Barack Obama, and Hillary Clinton. Bill O'Reilly's part comes off really bad, I think. It's very funny.

Jon Stewart shows the hypocrisy of Republican talking heads on The Daily Show

This video was featured in this post from The Huffington Post ...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/09/04/jon-stewart-hits-karl-rov_n_123852.html

You can also watch this clip on YouTube (where all video clips should be in my opinion) ...

Jon Stewart shows Republican hypocrisy on The Daily Show

You can download the complete episode of The Daily Show for 9-5-08 here. (It's a link to a torrent file at The Pirate Bay, but it's safe.)

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Donate to Barack Obama's campaign and get a neat shirt ...

nobody@vox.com(Mark) — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 18:32:07 -0500

I just got this email from Barack Obama's campaign that said you could get this shirt ...

Obama/Biden shirt

if you donated $30 or more. That's not bad. Anyway, you can go to this link if you want to donate money and get the shirt ...

https://donate.barackobama.com/08tshirt

or you can donate money to Obama's campaign using my fundraising page ...

http://my.barackobama.com/page/outreach/view/main/markinaustin

Every dollar counts!

Here is Obama's speech from the Democrat National Convention (last Thursday night) ...

Barack Obama's speech at the DNC in Denver last Thursday night

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M.I.A., Barack Obama, and John McCain ...

nobody@vox.com(Mark) — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 16:30:00 -0500

M.I.A. posted a little mix she did (I think) of all her Kala songs. The mix is fun to listen to. Here it is ...

M.I.A. - Kala Mini Mix (from M.I.A.'s MySpace)

Kala Mini Mix

M.I.A.

The guy in the photo with M.I.A. is Benjamin Brewer who is in a band called The Exit. His dad is Chairman and CEO of Warner Music, Edgar Brofman Jr. M.I.A. is supposedly engaged to him. The photo came from Bonafide-Hustler.com.

Barack Obama will definitely be the Democrat nominee for the general election so that is very nice. Here is his speech from Tuesday night ...

Barack Obama's speech in St. Paul, MN

Here is a video of a very awkward speech John McCain gave on the same day. The video shows reactions from lots of news pundits that agree he was not at his best when it came to the delivery.

John McCain's awkward speech in Kenner, LA

Here's my link again for anyone who wants to donate to Barack Obama's (general election) campaign ...

http://my.barackobama.com/page/outreach/view/main/markinaustin

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Tree Hugger

nobody@vox.com(Mark) — Mon, 26 May 2008 22:19:48 -0500

I watched something on TV about various beneficial effects trees have on a city, and it was really fascinating how much trees can do to help a city. Here are some of the things they do ...

http://www.americanforests.org/graytogreen/energy

I think the above link just talks mainly about how trees can lower a city's electric bill, but the special I watched on TV that time showed a lot of other ways trees can help and improve a city (well, they are nice to look at for one).

Anyway, I looked up tree-planting programs in Austin to see if there were any programs in place, and of course there are (Austin is pretty nature-friendly). One that caught my eye was Tree Folks.

http://www.treefolks.org

Tree Folks helps plant trees in Austin and the surrounding area. They do other stuff besides that, but that was enough to make me want to donate some money to them. If you live in Austin, and you want to keep seeing signs of nature downtown and throughout the area, you may want to donate some money to them.

http://www.treefolks.org/store_donate.asp

I don't have that much money to donate, but I try to give a little here and there. I also donate to the Alzheimer's Association and Barack Obama's campaign.

Here is a Tori Amos song that I was listening to today. It's pretty cool (and old). The ending of it is the beginning of the song, "Horses", from her album, Boys For Pele (which was the first Tori Amos album I ever bought).

Tori Amos - Fire-Eater's Wife/Beauty Queen (demo)

Fire-Eater's Wife/Beauty Queen (demo)

Tori Amos

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