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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 ...

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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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) ...

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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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.

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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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 ...

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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 ...

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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edHere is a short clip of an updated version of the song "Shells" by M.I.A. The speed has been adjust on this version so M.I.A.'s voice sounds normal. Her voice sounded like Alvin and the Chipmunks in the version of the song in my previous post.

This version still doesn't sound 100% perfect, but it's better. I can't wait to hear a high quality version of this song in its entirety.

Shells

M.I.A.

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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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This is kind of goofy, but I wanted to uploaded Louchie Lou and Michie One's song, "Rich Girl" (I think it is from 1994), to YouTube. I have posted this song on VOX before, but I wanted to add a video to it, and I thought the scene from the 1984 sci-fi/horror/comedy "Night of the Comet" where the girls raid the mall (since just about everyone else is dead) would be appropriate for the song. The two actresses in the movie are Catherine Mary Stewart and Kelli Maroney. Catherine Mary Stewart has been in a lot of stuff like "The Last Starfighter". I don't know as much about Kelli Maroney (she was in "Chopping Mall, though!), but I do know that she had a scene in the new HBO show, "True Blood", which I love. I didn't notice her in the scene (it was supposedly in episode 3), but IMDB listed it so I guess it's true. It said she played an envangelist so she must have been in one of the news footage scenes that they scatter throughout the TV show.

My sister and I used to watch this movie. It's definitely cheap and 80s, but it's pretty good, especially if you love all the post-apocalyptic themed movies like I do (think "Resident Evil", "Dawn of the Dead", and "28 Days Later").

The version of this song, "Rich Girl", is followed by a reggae rap song that is not part of it. I think the two songs have been fused together and were maybe part of a reggae continuous mix that I accidentally downloaded a long, long time ago. I like the last part of the song, and I recently realized that Cutty Ranks has a song that the sound must have come from called "Limb by Limb". Here is that song ...

Cutty Ranks - Limb by Limb

M.I.A. and Diplo's "Piracy Funds Terrorism, vol. 1" have a song called "M.I.A./Cutty Ranks" that samples the lyrics from the above song. Here it is ...

M.I.A. and Diplo - M.I.A./Cutty Ranks from "Piracy Funds Terrorism, vol. 1"

I have made a YouTube playlist for Piracy Funds Terrorism, vol. 1, but it is not complete, yet. Here is what I have so far ...

M.I.A. and Diplo - Piracy Funds Terrorism, vol. 1 YouTube playlist

In other news, I hope the debates tonight between Biden and Palin will be interesting. I would think that she would stumble because there's only so much prep work you can do to try to fake knowledge. I know Biden is very knowledgeable and will be able to back up his ideas with specific details. I think Palin will be flustered. I think Tina Fey should do the debate for her, but that would give the Republicans an unfair advantage. ;)

I have been listening to Radiohead a lot lately. I do this from time to time. I really need to start listening to new music just so I know what is out there. However, I don't discover any new music that I like that often. I do want the new Ladyhawke album as soon as it is available to download for the U.S.

Here is a Radiohead song that I have sort of rediscovered from "Hail to the Thief" ...

06 Where I End And You Begin (The Sky Is Fallin In)

Radiohead

I also really like this song from "In Rainbows" ...

10 Videotape

Radiohead

M.I.A. has a new song out there with Busy Signal and Rye Rye called "Tic Toc" (I think that is the right name). The song is not my favorite, but the "tic tic tic tic toc ... toc toc toc toc tic" sound in the background is pretty cool ...

Tic Toc

M.I.A. and Rye Rye

Another old song I have been listening to a lot lately is "The State We're In" by The Chemical Brothers and Beth Orton. However, you can't listen to "The State We're In" without listening to the following song on the album, "Come With Us", which is called "Denmark". The two songs are one in my ears. Here are the songs combined ...

The State We're In/Denmark

The Chemical Brothers

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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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