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

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

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

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Night of the Comet (1984) vs. Louchie Lou and Michie One's "Rich Girl"

nobody@vox.com(Mark) — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 08:14:46 -0500

Night of the Comet vs. Rich Girl

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

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

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.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Portishead's "We Carry On" vs. scene from "To Russia With Love" (James Bond movie)

nobody@vox.com(Mark) — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 18:43:27 -0500

I really like Portishead's song, "We Carry On", from their album, Third. I have been listening to the album a lot more lately, especially when I have to drive to San Antonio for my job. Anyway, the sound of the song makes me think of a train (that ongoing, repetitive beat or sound effect or whatever you call it).

I was trying to think of a movie with a train scene in it. At first I thought of Alfred Hitchcock's "Strangers on a Train", but I thought the movements would be too slow for the song. Then, I remembered the scene from the James Bond movie, "To Russia With Love", where the bad guy opens up the wrong briefcase. I watched every Bond movie that would come on TV with my dad growing up so it's easy to recall scenes sometimes. I thought that scene could go with the song so here it is ...

Portishead's "We Carry On" vs. scene from "From Russia With Love"

YouTube lets you upload a close-captioned file for a video now, but I don't know how to make one of those. I am sure there is a program I could donwload to do it. I would like to add captions for what they are saying, mixed with captions of the song lyrics. That would be cool.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

T.A.G. - The Assassination Game

nobody@vox.com(Mark) — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 11:16:53 -0500

Every once in a while a memory of a movie will resurface, and I will do my best to research it through YouTube, IMDB, Netflix, torrents, etc. Well, this happened recently with the 80s movie, "T.A.G. - The Assassination Game". This is the only video I could find on YouTube about this movie ...

Linda Hamilton and Robert Carradine in a scene from T.A.G. - The Assassination Game

I remember watching this movie as a kid, and I also remember getting it mixed up with "Gotcha!", starring Anthony Edwards and Linda Fiorentino. I think "Gotcha!" did a lot better at the box office, and there are tons of videos and information on the internet about it.

Long trailer for 1985 movie "Gotcha!" starring Anthony Edwards and Linda Fiorentino

There is hardly any information on T.A.G., and I think it is a much better movie. It definitely has tons of pop culture embedded in it. Linda Hamilton, Robert Carradine, Michael Winslow, and Xander Berkeley (brief role) star in it. Everyone knows who Linda Hamilton is. Robert Carradine was a nerd with, coincidentally enough, Anthony Edwards, in "Revenge of the Nerds". Michael Winslow was the cop who made all the cool sound effects with his mouth in the Police Academy movies (he was also in Spaceballs, and a recent GEICO commercial). Xander Berkeley is only in the beginning of the movie. He was Virginia Madsen's character's cheating husband in "Candyman". He gets his comeuppance at the end of that movie. He also starred in "Terminator 2: Judgment Day" (small role), which could be described as Linda Hamilton's biggest movie ever (especially since she got all that press for developing her arm muscles).

The director of T.A.G.-The Assassination Game is Nick Catle (his famous father's name is Nick Castle, too). Nick Castle worked a lot with John Carpernter (who wrote the movie, "Black Moon Rising", starring Linda Hamilton). Nick Castle has directed a lot of well known movies, such as "The Last Starfighter", which is being remade for 2010. However, the most interesting fact about Nick Castle's career is that he is "The Shape" in Halloween, meaning he is the one in the William Shatner/Captain Kirk mask, walking around killing people in the movie. He is not the guy playing Michael Myers when Jamie Lee Curtis pulls off the mask ... that is Tony Moran.

OK, with all that history, here is the beginning of T.A.G. - The Assassination Game (the beginning is good, but the title sequence is so cheesy, like a TV movie) ...

Beginning and title sequence of "T.A.G. - The Assassination Game" (1982)

I will probably post another scene later today. This is another cool movie that is not available on DVD. I always find that very annoying.

Edit ... here is another scene where the killer in the movie takes the game way too far ...

T.A.G. - The Assassination Game scene where the killer takes the game too far

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

M.I.A. must be doing well because now she is being spoofed ...

nobody@vox.com(Mark) — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 19:07:23 -0500

This video is not that funny, but it's interesting that this guy wanted to spend so much time doing a spoof of her "Paper Planes" video ...

Spoof of M.I.A.'s video, "Paper Planes"

Also, I am making a YouTube playlist for Piracy Funds Terrorism, vol. 1. I have only have 6 of the 21 songs on it right now, but I will keep adding to it.

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

edit ... now I have 16 of the 21 songs on the playlist.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

M.I.A.'s "Paper Planes" at #5 on Billboard's Hot 100 chart

nobody@vox.com(Mark) — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 11:33:51 -0500

M.I.a.'s "Paper Planes" at #5 on Billboard's Hot 100

This is pretty significant. M.I.A.'s single, "Paper Planes", has reached #5 in Billboard's Hot 100 chart, which takes into account sales, radio airplay, downloads, etc., of singles. The song has been steadily rising (due to the "Pineapple Express" trailer, among many other reasons), but what is amazing is that the album, "Kala", which the song is on has been out for almost a year.

M.I.A.'s Kala album #45 on Billboard's Top 200 Albums chart

"Kala" has re-entered the Billboard Top 200 albums chart, which is even more impressive in my opinion. I am glad people are buying the album, too. "Paper Planes" is a great song, but people should listen to "Bamboo Banga" and "20 Dollar", too.

If you want to continue the rise of the album and the song, you can buy Kala at the following links ...

Buy Kala on Amazon's MP3 Downloads site (very easy, better quality and cheaper than iTunes)

Buy Kala on iTunes

Buy Paper Planes on Amazon's MP3 Downloads site

Buy Bamboo Banga on Amazon's MP3 Downloads site

Buy 20 Dollar on Amazon's MP3 Downloads site

Here are the three songs, again, if you want to listen to them ...

11 Paper Planes

M.I.A.

01 Bamboo Banga

M.I.A.

07 $20

M.I.A.

In other news, I started searching for all of my favorite video games on YouTube today. I wanted to go as far back as the days of a Texas Instruments keyboard/CPU that I would hook up to the back of an old TV to play games like "Hangman" and "Parsec". I found a video for Parsec, but I couldn't find a video for Hangman. The great thing about Hangman is that its theme song was the same theme song as Alfred Hitchcock Presents (the old black and white TV show ... there was an 80s version, too).

Here is the playlist (it is short right now, and I am only including games that I actually played ... I only solved a handful of them) ...

My favorite video games

I have another playlist that I have posted before of M.I.A.'s concert at the Hogg Auditorium at the University of Texas in Austin, TX on November 3, 2007 ...

M.I.A.'s Austin, TX concert on 11-3-2007 at Hogg Auditorium on UT campus

Here is another playlist I am going to be working on to provide an easy way to see all of M.I.A.'s videos ...

M.I.A.'s Music Videos

Another item I have been reading about is Yahoo!'s new "Fire Eagle" (Firefox's cousin?), which allows advertisers to know where you are. It kind of reminds me of the advertising in "Minority Report" ...

Minority Report Advertising

It sounds a little scary and Big Brother-ish, but I think something really cool will come out of it, and I think Google will take it and make it into something a lot better. I just want to be able to play with it on my Blackberry Pearl 8110. ;)

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

I don't feel like dancing ... without you

nobody@vox.com(Mark) — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 23:06:34 -0500

This Scissor Sisters song and remix is so old, but I have listened to it again recently. I love it when it says "I don't feel like dancing without you" over and over again. I think the song is actually kind of sad. I always imagine the song is being sung by someone whose love has recently died. I try to make the lyrics of songs darker than they really are.

Scissor Sisters - I Don't Feel Like Dancing (Linus Loves Dub)

I Don't Feel Like Dancing (Linus Loves Dub)

Scissor Sisters

The mp3 I have of the above song sounds a little messed up. Sorry about that.

Scissor Sisters - I Don't Feel Like Dancin' (Linus Loves Dub)

The remix of the song was done by Linus Loves, and he has another song on his MySpace that sounds just like Siouxsie and the Banshees' "Israel". He must have sampled it. His song is called "Rock Chk", and you can listen to it on his music player on his MySpace.

Listen to "Israel" here ...

Israel

Siouxsie And The Banshees

and here is Linus Love's "Rock Chk" for comparison ...

Rock Chk

Linus Loves

In other news, the new Harry Potter movie has a trailer out, and it looks great! I love the idea of Voldemort as a child ...

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince teaser trailer

My friend, Cristen, and I are supposed to go to the Dallas World Aquarium this Saturday. I am really excited because as far as I know we do not have anything like this in Austin, and it will be nice to be somewhere you can walk around indoors. There is also a rain forest that is connected to the aquarium, maybe ... I am not sure, but it sounds like it will be great. I love nature ... as long as I don't have to sweat to appreciate it.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Santogold (with Pharrell Williams and Julian Casablancas) in Converse commercial

nobody@vox.com(Mark) — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 22:11:11 -0500

This is one of the best commercials/music videos I have seen in a while. I love the special effects that look like something you would do in an arts and crafts class.

Converse commercial

You can download the song at www.converse.com (after some clicking).

Read and post comments | Send to a friend