30 April 2008

RIP Albert Hofmann



Jan 11, 1906 - Apr 29, 2008
Albert Hofmann, the man credited with finding the molecule known as d-lysergic acid diethylamide 25 has passed away at the delightfully old age of 102!
Thank you, Dr. Hofmann, for cleaning that shelf and for being a part of Sandoz before they became a part of the big evil known as the pharma industry!

29 April 2008

Roger Waters (& Obama!) continued...

"(The pig) emerged Sunday while Waters, a co-founder of Pink Floyd, played a version of the band's 1977 song “Pigs,” The Desert Sun reported. The pig, which was held above the crowd from lines held on the ground, displayed the words “Don't be led to the slaughter” and a cartoon of Uncle Sam with two bloody cleavers, according to the newspaper.

The underside of the pig read “Obama” with a checked ballot box alongside, referring to Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill.

A stunt during Waters' performance drew criticism. A small aircraft dropped small slips of paper confetti that read “Obama” with a checked ballot box over the crowd. The confetti managed to spread within a 2-mile radius and into the yards of dozens of homes in Indio and La Quinta, Indio police spokesman Ben Guitron said.

“I've been addressing complaints from residents all day,” he said. Guitron said Waters' management was responsible for the Obama confetti and not Goldenvoice, the company that produces Coachella Fest. “Goldenvoice although not responsible... has offered to help with the cleanup,” Guitron said. “I can tell you we (Indio police) will be addressing this issue with Roger Waters' management.”

Courtesy of the San Diego Union Tribune.

i love how much English musicians seem to care more about the outcome of our November election than a lot of Americans!!!

help find ROGER WATERS' PIG!!!!

it sounds like something eerily predicted in a Simpsons' episode...

Courtesy of NiPe of RED in New York...

27 April 2008

MUSIC: coachella part 2

MARK RONSON played nearly an entire set of some amazing music. god his horn section is so tight...and there is nothing like the sound of live horns in a stage setting like that!

Ricky Wilson of the Kaiser Chiefs sang on 'Oh My God' and KENNA, of course, sounded fantastic and got the crowd going with his version of 'Just'. turns out there the biggest surprise of the evening, for me ('twouldn't have been a surprise if i lived on the coachella forum cos they've been talking about this for weeks now...), was the Charlatans' TIM BURGESS' guest appearance for the 'Only One I Know'. he looks like he wears a wig now. kinda creepy. i'll look online for some video or something. i'll also try to post the setlist once i get it scanned.

sasha and digweed really sounded amazing, and the crowd was really really into it. unfortunately our tired butts only half-danced, half-sat during their set.

we suck. we didn't stay for prince. SO TIRED. and today, i'm sore.

26 April 2008

Freeland's DAFT OBAMA at Coachella 2008

MUSIC: coachella part 1 - freeland and obama

so far, here is the only photo, let alone video, i have been able to find of freeland's set in the sahara tent at the coachella music and arts festival.

he's a fantastic DJ, kickass remixer and a pretty good producer, but the thing i like the most about him is how politically aware he is. in fact, i feel he has used his production skills to gain his reputation for being a political dance music artist. anyway... i could say a lot about his set last night but the best part was when he segued from an anti-george bush portion in the music (pretty de rigeur for freeland) into an "O-B, A,M,A" tune that freaking rocked. after getting the entire crowd (mostly) to chant the letters, the music broke into a computer-similated voice, stating, "you are correct!". this was punctuated by an LCD ticker running under his turntable coffin, reminding everyone to vote, to vote at least for someone. awesome. pretty cool for a music artist to do, especially since he's English, but now living in L.A.

i wonder if he's a citizen now, and thus able to vote?

BTW the 'propaganda' caption is not mine...

23 April 2008

MUSIC: Juan Diego Florez sings first encore at Met Opera in 14 years

"Monday, 21 April 08, was an unusual night at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. It wasn't so unusual that tenor Juan Diego Florez dazzled the audience with nine high C's in a row in the aria "Ah, Mes Amis," from Donizetti's La Fille du Regiment. And it wasn't unusual that the crowd went crazy.

But then Florez did something that hasn't been done at the Met in 14 years—he sang the aria again. " (Courtesy of NPR Music)

if you listen to the encore, he's kinda running out of steam toward the final part of the aria but he still hits that beautiful high C at the end! it's weird but if you listen to the interview, you'll hear about all these weird rules the Met has discouraging encores of this kind. silly americans. now if only orange county audiences would stop applauding between movements at the symphony...

21 April 2008

if you still like that winehouse thing...


there's a girl, ADELE who has a super quirky voice, kinda that old-timey production (song Cold Shoulder was produced by Mark Ronson) and sounds like the real deal... her album is called '19' and i think i'm going to give it another listen.


if you know me, you know how much i dislike most female vocalists. this one, i don't.

i hate police and other tails

ack, i meant tales. or did i?
ok so some things happened this weekend i'd rather not talk about, but i also booked a couple to marry, on the spot at our meeting, so that is a GOOD thing.

we didn't go to the Long Beach Grand Prix this year.

ALSO the coachella scheduler thing is up: http://coachella.com/scheduler/scheduler.php
oh yeah, and we're going to see LOVE AND ROCKETS at the glass house tomorrow night!!!! i think PORTISHEAD is playing in l.a. as a warm up to coachella, but i still have no confirmation to the rumour. now, if only APHEX TWIN would play an off-show, our weekend would be complete. and i wouldn't be completely bummed for not getting in to Coachella.

19 April 2008

echochrome and ufc 83

the good news is, GSP won UFC 83!!!

the bad news is, ECHOCHROME is not available for wide release for the PSP in the US... i don't know what this means, exactly, for its release for the PS3, either...

if you know me, you know how much i hate traditional video games but i really, really dig party games, alternative interfaces and those brainiac types of games... echochrome was the one game i was so looking forward to!

17 April 2008

i don't know what art is

first, i was moved by the art of DAMIEN HIRST. then i found out he had killed a bunch of butterflies to make these crazy but beautiful stained-glass window-like pieces.

then, i heard about GUILLERMO VARGAS HABACUC. he supposedly starved a dog to death in an art gallery. digusted and shocked, i looked him up online to learn more about this guy. no, i didn't view any of the supposed live video on YouTube. but i did read a statement about how he was trying to raise awareness of the cruelty of leaving dogs to starve to death on their own in the streets of Honduras...or something like that. and i kind of agreed with him, that it's hypocritical of people to be outraged by his supposed treatment of this dog, when there are hundreds constantly dying on the streets themselves. and then, i read about how the artist actually cared for the dog and allowed it to run free for all but the three hours it was in the gallery.

god i hate how i jump to conclusions.

finally, i heard about ALIZA SHVARTS and her senior project for Yale Art school. seems like she supposedly artifically inseminated herself and gave herself abortive drugs. to make an art project.

nice.

oh yeah, that debate last night sucked.

15 April 2008

MUSIC: Dizzee Rascal


DIZZEE RASCAL's 'Maths & English' album came out last year on import, but i heard it this week for the first time. it's due out at the end of the month through DEFINITIVE JUX. Dizzee's second album 'Showtime' in 2004 was a disappointment, mostly due to its unsuccessful bling-bling gestures and lowest-common-denominator rap album tendencies. on 'Maths & English', Dizzee's unique delivery flows through some of the most original rap melodies in a decade. on top of that, the production is everything i love about UK grime, and it's a dirty electro freakout. plus, he rhymes "foie gras" with "murderer"!

flo rida, t-pain, jeezies young and old: you all can't touch this!

11 April 2008

MUSIC: Does It Offend You, Yeah?

ok just one more record before i forget...
if you know me, you know how much i hate long band names that sound like racehorse or boat names. (and if you know me, you know how much i love racehorse and boat names for being so un-namelike.) however, i heard a record this week that i really kind of dig, at least upon my initial two listens. they're called DOES IT OFFEND YOU, YEAH? and they've kinda got this 'Justice-like Parisian hard dance music - meets - bands i like like Bloc Party/Maximö Park' type of sound. meaning, they've got the electronics going on, but underneath it all is this music that reminds you of something you loved back in high school but hadn't heard for a while until recently.

MUSIC: the Sun Paulo

so now that myspace won't allow me to post the albums i am 'currently listening' to, i am experimenting with various ways of posting them on here. too bad blogger makes it a total freaking hassle.

anyway, the SUN PAULO is an electronic psychedelic parliament/funkadelic rock dance freakout from Japan. their album's released next month on the Malicious Damage record label.



07 April 2008

How to Use Furoshiki

at my house, we have a ton of furoshiki. i knew of their versatility but usually used them only as tablecloths and doilies.

NOW i know how to use one, and so do you. many thanks to my bro KeKi aka Kaze for this wonderful online discovery!

01 April 2008

Denied by VIRGLE

the web is full of great april fool's day pranks. GOOGLE and VIRGIN GALACTIC have one they've elabourately conspired on. so i thought, what the heck, i'll give their questionnaire a try. here's what i got once i pressed the submit button:

"Well, you're distressingly normal and could conceivably adjust to life as a deep space pioneer, though we recommend instead that you leave the Mars missions to the serious whack jobs who scored over 130 and instead finish year 3 of law school, tuck your toddler into bed, design Web 2.0 applications, run for Congress or do whatever other normal, healthy, middle-of-the-road thing you're currently doing with your normal, healthy, middle-of-the-road life. If you're determined to give Virgle a try, though, you can submit your video here. "

darn.
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