Still no big screen TV, still plenty of full frame movies to watch. The choice of the night, In Old Chicago. This film is basically a dramatization of the characters involved in starting the Chicago fire. Although not much of the story really ties to the great fire other than a family member has a bar in area that burned. The story starts with a family headed to Chicago to make a new life. The father passes away on the trip leaving a mother and her two sons. Upon arriving in Chicago, Mrs. O’Leary opens a laundry mat, while there is a sibling rivalry brewing, with one brother opening a saloon and the other running for mayor, and trying to  clean out the saloons and dance halls. Of course everything culminates with the big fire….didn’t think I was giving away anything surprising there, yep Chicago burns.

Of course the best performance comes from Alice Faye (Alexander’s Ragtime Band), who won the supporting actress Oscar for role as Belle. (The side note on her Oscar is she was unable to attend the Oscar presentation, and when her name was called, an imposter went up, accepted the award and was never seen again. Unfortunately she passed away before the Academy could get her another one.) She was wonderful, full of attitude, and being able to show off as a great singer didn’t hurt a bit either. The Brothers are played by Tyrone Power (The Mark of Zorro, Alexander’s Ragtime Band) and the great Don Ameche (Cocoon, Alexander’s Ragtime Band, Coming to America). Their performances are decent, but not anything to write home about . Ameche seemed to be saddled with playing the “good” brother which didn’t lend to much drama in his character. Power of course was the debonair gentleman who gets the girl. His character is at least a little more interesting since he is in what was then a shady business, a saloon owner.

Overall, I was entertained by this movie. It wasn’t one that I would watch over and over, but worth a look once in a while. The one thing it did make me want, was a modern movie about the Chicago fire. With today’s special effects, I would love to see a detailed story of what happened and all the steps that everyone went through and the strategy for trying to put the fire out.

Boy, am I ready to watch a widescreen movie with lots of explosions!

“Did You Hear About the Morgans?”
a review by Darby O’Gill

Did You Hear About the Morgans? No? Well, they suck. But you didn’t need me to tell you that. One look at this trailer, and you should have known it was bad news from the start. Now, I realize that there are people out there that enjoy these kinds of movies, but come on. How many more of these stupid “comedies” do we need? And, I say comedies sarcastically. Look, I’m all for a great romantic comedy, but don’t just churn some piece of shit movie out just for the sake of a piece of shit movie. There are some really great writers out there. When are studios going to stop wasting their money on these talent-less hacks, and invest in some writers with some real talent?

In Did You Hear About the Morgans?, Hugh Grant plays Paul Morgan, who wants to get back together with his estranged wife Meryl, played by Sarah Jessica Parker. He gets his wish when the couple witnesses a murder, and ends up being placed in the witness-protection program together. Don’t think it can get any hokier? Well, it does. The New York city slickers get relocated to a small town in Wyoming. The comedy just writes itself, doesn’t it? I really need to stop watching movies like this. I don’t know what else to say… I usually enjoy Hugh Grant, but he’s horrible in this. Well, that’s not totally fair to him. You can only do so much with the material you’re given. Sam Elliott and Mary Steenburgen give decant performances, but I’m truly grasping at straws here. The one thing I did learn from sitting through this movie is that Wilford Brimley isn’t dead. I know! I thought he was dead too! I guess Quaker Oats and Liberty Medical really do help with your diabetes. Either that, or Cocoon was a based on true story, and Wilford Brimley returns to Earth to make movies from time to time. Okay, the wheels have officially come off this review. The movie sucks. Don’t see it. End of story.

Rating:

After dealing with the boom of Facebook, MySpace and twitter, I find that blogging may actually be the only thing that meets my needs. I needed an outlet to share my faith and life in a way that can be heard, enjoyed and processed.

Many people think being a Christian is rules and regs, Bible thumping and no enjoyment of life. My hope is that this blog will open the awareness of how people live in a world so different from their faith.

I love butterflies, I love their beauty and ability; but most of all I love their miracles. Butterflies are one of God’s greatest little miracles:

A man found a cocoon for a butterfly. One day a small opening appeared, he sat and watched the butterfly for several hours as it struggled to force its body through the little hole. Then it seemed to stop making any progress. It appeared as if it had gotten as far as it could and could go no farther. Then the man decided to help the butterfly. He took a pair of scissors and snipped the remaining bit of the cocoon. The butterfly then emerged easily. Something was strange. The butterfly had a swollen body and shriveled wings. The man continued to watch the butterfly because he expected at any moment, the wings would enlarge and expand to be able to support the body, which would contract in time. Neither happened. In fact, the butterfly spent the rest of its life crawling around with a swollen body and deformed wings. It was never able to fly.

What the man in his kindness and haste did not understand, was that the restricting cocoon and the struggle required for the butterfly to get through the small opening of the cocoon are God`s way of forcing fluid from the body of the butterfly into its wings so that it would be ready for flight once it achieved its freedom from the cocoon. Sometimes struggles are exactly what we need in our life.

If God allowed us to go through all our life without any obstacles, that would cripple us. We would not be as strong as what we could have been. Not only that, we could never fly.

This blog will be a window into the life of a 21st century single Christian woman and how she works at making it glorify God.

Like a moth to a flame

I walk in the warmth of whispering winds,
whispering words wanting to comfort
and it cools down this heat that I feel.

Like a moth to the flame,
I get closer and closer,

I know what awaits, I feel danger
as my surroundings get stranger
and it contains a certain appeal.

Like a moth to the flame,
I get closer and closer,

I walk on ice cold coal cast aside,
creating crescendos of warnings
and it heats up this fear, so very real.

Like a moth to the flame,
I get closer and closer,

I fear what awaits and I fear the danger,
my surroundings are getting less stranger
I’ve been here before, here I’ll never heal.

Like a moth to the flame,
I got way too close and my wings
are no more

So again I spin my cocoon of silk,
and I hide away till maybe one day
it would be a butterfly that emerge.

Holly Golightly taking out the weekly trash for the bin men?

What on earth is the team behind Chanel thinking? This range of bags is officially the ugliest range from the house of Chanel. If Chanel is thinking about venturing into the home ware market, then these bags may serve as bin bags.

Poor Lily, modelling for such a crap line of products will not do any good for your image, especially if you want to appears grown up & elegant. Tiara & trash = disaster.

I have seen cocoons and haloes and twisters before when roaming through art yarn techniques books, but I had never really liked them – well, had never really thought of a reason to put them into a yarn except “just cause” and that rarely does it for me.

Then I watched the Sit-n-Spin dvd I got for my birthday. Her cocoons and haloes were a bright warm orange.  The back of my brain combined this with the Fiber Friday theme “Octopi” and suddenly I had a reason to try these techniques! Everything is better if it’s representational!

From Spinning

I set up a sample, first, to see if everything would look good together (and to practice the techniques!) The goal was to have some wholly visible octopi, some swimming away from you (so only tentacles visible), and some swimming towards you (heads visible.) This would allow for varying tentacle numbers as I practiced my joins. I think it would be awesome to have a hat or cowl full of 3-D octopi.

From Spinning

From Spinning

Yes, so definitely I need more practice, but overall I am quite pleased with the idea and will continue.  To fix for next time:

• more twist!
• thinner orange sections of more consistent thickness for the twisters
• more crisp and tight cocoons – I am amazed at how little fiber it takes to make a distinct bump. I never predraft anymore and here I am having to make strips of fiber that are barely visible.
• thicker aqua single with perhaps a thinner plying thread. This is #10 crochet cotton as the #20 tatting cotton was more expensive…

From Spinning

 The singles.

The ocean base yarn is Targhee top in ’Blue Raspberry’ from Hungry for Handspun. I had to try targhee because it was featured in a Connie Willis novel, but I love it – it’s substantial. It’s bouncy and squooshy but there’s something there, unlike say a superwash merino.  I think in the next attempt I’ll try to get the Targhee single thicker and the ply thread thinner so you can better appreciate the elasticity of the wool.

From Stash

The orange is a huge bag of Louet merino/silk in ‘Golden Hibiscus’, from my orange kick this spring. I am glad there is so much to practice with!

A man found a cocoon of a butterfly, that he brought home.

One day a small opening appeared he sat and watched the butterfly for several hours. It struggled to force its body through that little hole. Then it seemed to stop making any progress. It appeared as if it had gotten as far as it could and it could go no farther.

So the man decided to help the butterfly. He took a pair of scissors and snipped off the remaining bit of the cocoon. The butterfly then emerged easily, but, it had a swollen body and small, shriveled wings. He continued to watch the butterfly, he expected that, at any moment, the wings would enlarge and the body would contract. Neither happened!

In fact, the butterfly spent the rest of its life crawling around with a swollen body and shriveled wings. It was never able to fly.

The man acted with well-intentioned kindness but he didn’t understand the consequences. The restricting cocoon and the struggle required to get through the tiny opening, were nature’s way of forcing fluid from the body of the butterfly once it achieved its freedom from the cocoon.

Sometimes struggles are exactly what we need in our life. If we were to go through life without any obstacles, it would cripple us. We would not be as strong as we could have been and we could never fly

So the next time you are faced with an obstacle, a challenge, or a problem, remember the butterfly. Struggle a little – then fly!

On our website and blog we talk about Cocoon protecting you from drive-by malware infections, but what exactly are they?  In the not too distant past to get a computer virus, you had to do something, open an email from some you didn’t know, download an executable file from a suspicious website, etc. Viruses didn’t just happen because you didn’t wash your hands or someone forgot to cough into their elbow – it took some action by you to infect your computer. Back in those good old days the annoyed look you got from the IT guy was because you likely had done something stupid. Not so anymore.

Now you can get a virus, malware or spyware from visiting and just viewing a website as innocent as msnbc or facebook (not to defame them – my point is it can happen anywhere).

The malware is not the fault of the website itself, but instead can happen for a number of reasons. One, a web server hosting this content hasn’t been updated with newer software or patches – Google reports 38% of common but older versions were outdated. Or two, the advertising on the website may be delivering malware infections – and these infected ads may be provided via a sales syndication network, so the website doesn’t even know who the ad owner is.

Yes there are still stupid things we can do to get infected – like clicking on a suspicious popup ad or opening every attachment that is emailed to you. But just avoiding the obvious will not keep you safe. So what can you do? Well, Cocoon will protect you once it’s available, but we’ll also talk about other options in our next post.

Well – they might be sitting down in a rocking chair, but there’s is certainly no Grand Dad House over the production methods of Tiefschwarz.

Fresh from their summer mammoth feast of “Trust” featuring the equally large Seth Troxler – Tiefschwarz – are back with yet another juggernaut for Sven Väth’s Cocoon label.

“Fall In” presses the same stripped buttons as you’ve come to expect from Tiefschwarz with its solid percussive groove coupled with a rolling bassline to lock you into the body-sonics. The drop itself features a rather intriguing crowd-sample which acts as nice gimmick before procedings presses on.

It’s not quite on par with the stellar production performance of “Trust”, but as a bridging tool towards A and C, it does the job more than what’s expected.

Mp3: Tiefschwarz – Fall In

Movember is coming to a close … how is everyone doing on their moustache?

Got a double dose of some proper Cocoon-approved techno last weekend and some days before that as well… Dubai was lucky enough to be graced by Phil Kieran (at Alpha) and then Frank Lorber (at Rooftop). So so so good. I can’t exactly go into much detail about what was played as my knowledge of techno lately is fucked … been disconnected from Techno for a while as I went on a soul/funk discovery mission and then immersed myself in the world of Dubstep as you’ve probably all noticed.

it's about damn time ...

Well I must say, especially Phil Kieran was just such a good time it took me back to the European days and daze. My feet started to move again in a way they hadn’t moved since probably late March … well enough about my weekend.

Music! It’s such a fucking awesome thing, this gift we call music. I can’t find other subjects I would rather talk about so let’s start off again with some new shiat for you all to check.

Phil Kieran @ Alpha (look there's me!)

Well, let’s begin with Phil Kieran’s release “Shh” which he was out here promoting, I haven’t heard many tunes off it in full but what I gather from the previews and my recollection of the night I’d have to say the stand out tracks are “Dirt” a filthy, tech-house, bamboozler of a tune or the more experimental Techno based “R.E.S.P” which actually has what I consider to be some traces of Electro when it comes to the bassline but it fits in nicely with the droney siren like sound and random shouting in the background.

Look for Phil Kieran’s “Shh” {Cocoon} on all good digital music shops, cds where available (aka not Dubai) and of course Vinyl .

Shh

Moving along at a cross roads between genres we come to a remix genius a man I talked about a little bit a couple of weeks ago as the guy who’s going to be all the rage soon enough and well it seems like he’s headed down that path.

Joy Orbison

Again featuring on the Mary Ann Hobbs show last week and pointed out in the comments by petepete, we’re talking here about Joy Orbison. Just recently he’s put his hands into a few remixes and well its easy to see just why he’s such a hot ticket at the moment. Check the two previews below: firstly his remix of Jose James’ “Blackmagic” and then “Love Cry” originally by Four Tet. Both of those just recently off the press so grab it if you find it … Pete … go back to the fucking shop NOW.

Jose James – Blackmagic (Joy Orbison Reconstruction) {Brownswood}

Nevermind the anime you see in the video look for this artwork in stores or online (beatport etc)

Jose James - Blackmagic Remixes {Brownswood}

Four Tet – Love Cry (Joy Orbison Remix) {Domino}

Look for this artwork and not the random picture of Joy Orbison …

Four Tet - Love Cry Remixes {Domino}

Finally, on an unrelated note I’ve got one more picture for you. It’s related to the big news yesterday about the state of Dubai’s finances.
I kept saying this about the billboards and well someone finally heard I guess and took some initiative

Indeed... {from Today's 7Days}

Have a stupendous sunday thanks to everyone who reads!
Enjoy,
D.

Loops Live @ Cocoon goes Amsterdam – The Powerzone – Amsterdam [24-10-2009]

Cover of Björk's Homogenic (One Little Indian, 1997); image courtesy of slantmagazine.com

Cover for Björk's Vespertine (One Little Indian, 2001); image courtesy of harmony-korine.com

When I began conceptualizing this blog in the ol’ brainspace, one of the first sections I came up with was “Records That Made Me a Feminist.” I knew Björk was going to get at least one entry. Homogenic and Vespertine each played a vital part of shaping my politics. So, I figured out I’d probably have to write about them together.

Pairing albums for this section of the blog is something I originally wanted to do this when covering Erykah Badu’s Mama’s Gun, which I started listening to around the same time as PJ Harvey’s Stories From the City, Stories From the Sea. I liked the idea of dialoguing seemingly dissimilar work by female artists with one another, but I feared covering those two albums together would short-shrift the artists who made them. However, talking about two distinct pieces of work by one woman seemed easier. And essential. So here we go.

I must admit that covering Björk’s 1997 and 2000 full-length releases present its own political challenges that makes me think critically about how I understand and practice feminism. Both of these albums made me a feminist largely because of the boys I was preoccupied with at the time.

But while my initial reception and resulting connections to them were tied up with potentially normative feelings around romantic angst and heterosexual coupling, I feel the albums speak to my development at the time as well as transcend it. In other words, Homogenic and Vespertine may remind me of boys I used to date, but they speak to larger, more overtly feminist issues as well.

Of course, being a feminist doesn’t mean you can’t like boys or be hung up on them from time to time, so long as you don’t let them run your life. Which I don’t think Björk endorses in either of these records, even though she herself has an ambivalent relationship with feminism (though not with calling out the music industry’s sexist practices of attributing male engineers and instrumental songwriters).

Importantly, as both albums were prescient to my development, they also went over my head when I first listened to them. Debut and Post were more accessible and, as a result, I liked them almost immediately. It was hard for 10-year-old me not to fall for the girl dancing through New York City on a flatbed in the music video for “Big Time Sensuality.”

But Björk’s next two albums took more time to process. Both albums mark advances in the artist’s production sensibilities, approaches to music-making, and interest in electronic instrumentation. Thus, just as Björk had to evolve as a musician before creating these albums, I had to mature a bit as a person before liking them as a fan.

So, Homogenic came out just as I was starting high school. I don’t exactly remember when I bought it, but I think it was sometime toward the end of junior year. I completely ignored it at the time. Or rather, I listened to it once, went “ooh, so angry!” and put Post back on.

The particulars I’ll keep to myself for the sake of decorum. Suffice it to say that I dated someone for a little while, fell in love, we broke up, and I spent a little over a year trying to get us back together. It didn’t work out. Eventually I got over him and whatever I thought we were, but not without some pain and denial and then serious personal re-evaluation. The healing process involved some righteous anger, loud parties, several bottles of wine and other goodies, and burgeoning feminist development. After a rough start, 19 turned out to be a pretty okay year. Homogenic was its soundtrack.

Now, I have no problem acknowledging that this guy was a total jerk to me. But feminism isn’t only about recognizing and calling out chauvinistic bullshit. It’s also about self-empowerment, personal accountability, and un-learning heteronormativity and patriarchal co-dependence. It isn’t always just the guy’s fault, even when it is.

Thus, I also have to own up to being really needy and delusional at the time. I pinned my worth on whoever I was dating without questioning whether being with them was actually good for me. So I projected my own big feelings and insecurities on someone who clearly didn’t want to be with me. I was ignoring the reality of the situation and, as a result, my own well-being. I finally recognized what I was doing when confronted with the lyric “How could I be so immature to think he could replace the missing elements in me — how extremely lazy of me.” 

Kinda appropriate that a break-up record got me over mine, no? Apparently, Björk made the album after breaking up with drum’n'bass musician Goldie while they were working on their own project. Hence lines like “So you left me on my own to complete the mission, but now I’m leaving it all behind.” But it pretty much hit all the right notes of melancholy, indignation, rage, and feisty recovery for me. I’m a quarter Norwegian on my mother’s side, so even the line ”I thought I could organize freedom — how Scandinavian of me” in “Hunter” applied.

Attention must be paid to the album’s sound and how it marked a musical departure for Björk. Post was an eclectic mix that boasted songs like “Army of Me,” “Enjoy,” and “Headphones,” that opened up her sound to include state-of-the-art aggressive digital distortion and serene electronic minimalism.

While this was evident in the production work Tricky and 808 State’s Graham Massey did on Post, it wasn’t the focus. It would come to define the artistic work she began doing with producers like Mark Bell on Homogenic and would continue to do with Matmos on Vespertine. But I’d hedge that most casual listeners just remember Post’s ”It’s Oh So Quiet,” which was produced by Björk’s then-mainstay, Nellee Hooper, the man responsible for all the production on her breakthrough Debut. He was also responsible for “Hyperballad,” which I’d argue suggests the artist’s shift, which is fully evident on her next album.

Man, I wish I could post the music video, but WMG has apparently disabled the audio. All the more reason to check out Michel Gondry’s Directors Label DVD, or any of the other myriad DVD titles that have documented her videography.

So Homogenic marks a transition from being a pop star to an artist who challenges her listeners’ ears and expectations with each release. By 1997, we also heard alternative pop stars like Beck and Radiohead establish themselves similarly with Odelay and OK Computer. We would hear Radiohead do it again in 2000 with the mind-blowing Kid A, where they really demonstrated their love for electronic instrumentation and experimental production techniques.

Björk was already on this path in 1997, but while Radiohead looked outward toward the fallabilities of modern life, Björk looked inward at the seductive pleasures and wobbly peculiarities of domestic life and partnership on her next record, rapturing at her voice’s clicks and finding percussive possibilities out of shuffled decks of cards. I don’t think these innovations went unnoticed when Radiohead went to work on In Rainbows. To me, Vespertine’s influence is all over a song like “Nude,” which was originally an outtake from OK Computer. This is further confirmed by the band’s rendition of Homogenic’s ”Unravel” as a tip of the hat. As if lead singer Thom Yorke’s backing vocals on “Náttúra” aren’t enough.

Hmmm. Maybe at some point, I’ll consider Yorke’s duets with Björk and PJ Harvey. Yorke is one of my favorite vocalists, a fact confirmed by a recent revisit of Hail to the Thief. If one of my friends ran a blog on male masculinity and music culture, I’d pen a guest entry in a second.

But I was afflicted with a troubled mind when Vespertine first came out. In addition to boy heartache, I was going through some considerable familial strife. I was also starting my first semester of college, so a tackier person might blame 9/11.

After seeing the music video for “Hidden Place,” I dutifully bought the album, along with My Bloody Valentine’s Loveless, another at-the-time inscrutable release, at the Tower Records by campus. I listened to the album a few times, but my head was not in the right place for it. It was too contented and quiet. I couldn’t hear it. And then for a little while all I could hear was Homogenic at full volume.

Stills from the video that convinced me to buy "Vespertine"; image courtesy of unit.bjork.com

To be blunt, Vespertine didn’t really make sense to me until I started having sex. Critics like Ryan Dombal would seem to concur. I remember seeing her performance of ”Cocoon” on Jay Leno and thinking that it was really quiet, but totally not getting how micro-embodied intimacy is the song’s entire purpose. While I had a good understanding of mechanics and had engaged in related activities before going into my first listen, I don’t think a song like “Cocoon” makes sense to a person unless they’ve experienced it, to speak euphemistically, in a corporeal sense.

BTW, yes that is Bill O’Reilly adjusting his tie. If he was actually listening to the song, I’m sure he’d be appalled by how delightfully, defiantly sexual this song is and that it was performed uncensored on network television. Watching it now, I can’t believe I wasn’t really listening. Maybe I should have been leaning into the television.  

Again, the particulars here aren’t really important. I was a week or so into being 20 and, frankly,  didn’t want to be a virgin anymore. The guy was someone willing, it was fun, and didn’t last very long.

In short, the romanticism and emotional connectedness that is often built into such an experience was not there, nor do I regret that it wasn’t. I would find that later, which would make my understanding of those aspects of Vespertine more profound and further develop my feminist principles.

I bring sex into the discussion because I, to borrow briefly from Arrested Development’s George Michael Bluth, find Vespertine’s complex eroticism one of its most key contributions to what made me a feminist. Though perhaps a stretch and certainly not without its own distinctions, I tend to think of this album in accord with Audre Lorde’s wonderful essay “Uses of the erotic: the erotic as power.”

And while I don’t know if this entry’s subject has read the essay, something tells me that the same woman who identifies as bisexual and recognizes the erotic potential in mundane activities would concur with much of the theorist’s thesis.

Of course, feminists must also have the wherewithal to recognize that eroticism, even ephemeral evidence like orgasms, are luxuries to some women and girls. Not everyone is given a space, a country, or a political system that allows them the safety and freedom to enjoy and explore these possibilities.

But eroticism isn’t about cataloging who did what to whom for Björk. As David Fricke gestured toward in his review of the album for Rolling Stone, it might be everywhere, at once tangible and theoretical.

This is where I think it’s important to consider the album’s production sensibilities and Björk’s particular uses of her voice. In addition to non-conventional practices like sampling and turning seemingly non-musical domestic items into instruments, the singer’s voice is the album’s real focus. Because of how closely she’s miked, you can hear every tic, breath, whispered turn of phrase, and any other sound coming out of her mouth. As a result, her voice becomes a varied and vital instrument, an idea she has continued to develop and that has continued to stay with me.

La noche del próximo 5 de diciembre los dj´s chilenos Luciano y Ricardo Villalobos, dos de los mejores dj´s latinoamericanos, enseñaran lo mejor de su maleta de discos en una noche que se promete inolvidable. La oportunidad de bailar al ritmo de esta pareja de ases llega con la celebérrima fiesta Cocoon, que cada verano hace las delicias de los más exigentes en Ibiza, y que ahora aterriza en la madrileña sala Fabrik. Con esta excusa realizamos un repaso a la trayectoria de estos dos gigantes de los platos.

Creo que en el futuro se podrá realizar una tesis doctoral entre el exilio y la introcuccón de la música electrónica en sudamérica. Quizás desde Europa se tenga la impresión de que en Latinoamérica no se escucha más que salsa, merengue, reggueton o “el condor pasa”. Nada más lejos de la realidad. Desde hace unos años irrumpen con fuerza músicos latiamericanos que se refugian detrás de unos platos y una aguja para hacer bailar a miles de personas en todo el mundo. Son artistas que de niños marcharon de Chile hacia una exilio europeo que propició su contacto con la música electrónica y que han influido notablemente en la construcción de una escena electrónica latinoamericana. No hace falta más que ver la agenda de los próximos meses del dj chileno Ricardo Villalobos para hacerse una idea de las horas que pasa dentro de un avión reventando pistas, pies y zapatillas.

Y es que desde que Villalobos iniciara su carrera como dj profesional y posteriormente sorprendiera a propios y extraños con su  disco, Alcachofa (2003), no ha parado de ser reclamado en las mejores salas y los mayores festivales. De hecho, un servidor puede dar fe una épica sesión de cierre en el Sónar 2008 (Vídeo. 2´54´´) que dejó exhaustos, y con ganas de más, de mucho más, tanto a las miles de personas que le rendían pleitesía con sus bailes como al propio dj que se marchó del escenario a regañadientes.

Ricardo Villalobos en acción

De origen chileno pero criado en Alemania tras el exilio de sus padres al triunfar el golpe de Estado de Pinochet y el derrocamiento del gobierno de Allende, este dj y productor llamó la atención de la industria gracias a su mezcla de sonidos de percusión suramericanos, house, techno y minimal. De hecho, según sus propias palabras, “la música electrónica tiene mucho en común con la música americana. Por ejemplo con la samba puedes bailar durante horas; y con la electrónica la gente se desvive con la misma euforia”. Además Villalobos siempre se ha mostrado independiente a modas y a estereotipos dentro de la música electrónica.Y muy prolífico. Ha editado discos con diversos pseudónimos (El Hombre Ojo, Ric y Martin, junto a Dandy Jones..).

Luciano

Villalobos no está solo como exponenete de una música electrónica seria hecha por latinoamericanos. Luciano Nicoleti es habitual colaborador y también estará presente en la noche del día 5. De hecho, no es raro verles compartir mesa y platos…(Video.4´18´´) También chileno, Luciano es uno de los responsables de que en el Chile haya una efervescente cultura electrónica. Su mezcla de elementos electrónicos, melodías pegadizas y sonidos orgánicos triunfa allá donde va. Al igual que Villalobos, huye del “divismo” del que sufren muchos dj´s, “autoensalzados” al Olimpo de fiestas privadas, famosos y jet set. Sin embargo, Luciano se muestra receloso de este punto y afirma que el mejor sitio para pinchar es aquél “donde no hay VIP.  entonces todo el mundo esta al mismo nivel. Da lo mismo que seas Puff Daddy o Juanito Perez. Eso equilibra y armoniza la fiesta”.

Parafraseando a Tony Wilson, precursor de la música electrónica en los años ochenta, “la beatificación del beat”, del ritmo, está llegando a Latinoamerica. Pero ya no suena a flauta de pan o a charango, si no bajos y baterias a muchos bombos por minutos.

Regine Grammlich stellte am 29.10. im Rahmen unserer Jahrestagung “nachhaltige Medienproduktion” den FSC-Kalender 2010 vor. Wir freuen uns, Ihnen diese Präsentation hier zeigen zu können:

Was wäre ein Video ohne einen Director’s Cut… Sehen Sie hier, was Demian Bern von EXPedition, künstlerischer Leiter des Projekts FSC-Kalender 2010, über den Kalender zu sagen hat:

Cocoon _ Ukulélé Session (from lesoir.be) _ Chupee+ Hummingbird + Owls

Three of the Cocoon’s songs that we played a lot last summer with my sister and my brother. Lots of differents tabs on the web. I play them that way:

Cocoon_ Chupee

Verse

G       4232        Em   4432
Bm   4222         D7    2223

Chorus

C     0003         Am  2000
G                        Bm  (Bm7)

Cocoon _ Hummingbird

Bb  (3)565
F      2013
C      0003
Dm  2210

Cocoon _ Owls

Verse:

Gbm 2120         A 2100
E 4442               B 4322

Chorus:

F#m 6654             E7 4445
B 4322

You probably know already how a butterfly transforms itself from a cocoon to a fully majestic creature. Maybe you can even recite at the top of your head, one by the one, the stages of the metamorphosis. It has been a cliché to use what butterflies undergo to describe great transformations, victorious developments and successes. But little we know, butterflies can teach us more about life, success and freedom.

Do you know that an adult butterfly’s body is ten times the weight of its wings? Imagine now the load that they carry while they wander around the garden and flaunt their splendors. Even if you look closely, you won’t see a tinge of heaviness nor hardship. You might probably need to know why.

According to scientists, butterflies experience excruciating pain (the maximum they can handle), during the process of getting out of the cocoon. As they struggle for freedom, a liquid from their veins are pumped out to their wings making those paper-like wings strong and hard. As they go through that severe suffering, they become tougher. As they go through that needlepoint-like passageway, they reach their maximum potential.

This only proves that all, even those beautiful creatures that seem to have no cares in the world, carry their own shares of load. It’s just that they are strong enough not to notice the heaviness anymore.   However sometimes, in real life, the load might get a bit heavier and harder to carry. But you can always make yourself tougher, like the butterflies. You can take hardships as avenue to make yourself bigger and better so you can carry the everyday weight of taking responsibility of your life. You can carry the weight with ease if you arm yourself with the right attitude and perspective. You can choose to take actions to get out of your cocoon.

I experienced the same struggle when I decided to join Create Abundance core team. Through the process, the coaches didn’t help me get out of my cocoon. Instead, they empowered me so I’ll become tougher. I’m glad of the choice I made; I am now enjoying the garden of abundance and starting to flaunt my own splendor.

How about you? Are you already flying or still stuck in your cocoon?

If you want to learn business, investment and wealth from zeron contact me: 09154142208 or email me at jomarieabayon@yahoo.com.ph

EMS-design, som vi har skrevet om ved flere anledninger, har sendt oss nok en oppskrift de gjerne vil dele med våre lesere. Denne gangen er det miniskjørtet Daisy, strikket i Nanuk og Cocoon.

EMS-design kommer til å fortsette å legge ut oppskrifter for salg på sine nettsider, så legg til et bokmerke og følg med for flere fine design fra den kanten.

Har du en oppskrift du har lyst til å dele med oss? Ikke nøl med å sende en e-post til kaja [dot] marie [at] dustorealpakka [dot] com. (Bytt ut [dot] med et punktum og [at] med en alfakrøll).

There is only one word you need to know about as a club-head in London : Matter.
Simple as. The heavyweight contender to be the best club in London. Packed out with the best audio/visual equipment that has ever been seen on the circuit and pulling out the best club nights with the biggest residencies in the game such as Ram Records, Hospitality, Cocoon. Need proof… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G29rwyuKVQ0

Tell me, what venue in London could pull that off?

GO : http://www.matterlondon.com/

Yo Yoooo!! On Thursday I worked with Traffic the online music magazine and re:tweak the record label. I’ve been super excited about that day, basically I’m chuffed that I’ve managed to actually get in with what I like which is music, this scene rules, yes it is the best, it’s sociable, chilled, exciting and lacking in boring numptys!!

Whoop whoop, Matt Richards the creative director there better known as M.A.T.A  has atleast 160 gigs of music, the man became almost godly for a split second!!

Anyway what I loved most about the day was… woah, I’m stuck!!

Listening to ace tunes like ALL day was more than a brucey little bonus, researching was far from a bore as I educated myself on so much more and it widened my knowledge on other genres that I don’t tend to listen to very much.  If you love music it’s good to appreciate other genres, there’s nothing more annoying than when you meet someone who really slags off your tastes, I apprecaite ther skill that goes into  track, even if it’s not my forte one should be able to stand back and understand why it’s liked. I love tech, electronica, minimal, anything that can take you away to somewhere amazing where you can feel the energy surge around your body with excitement and lose yourself in so many different emotions. It’s nuts how music can have so much control over a person, how it can influence your mood or sooothe your inner thoughts hence advertisers being super cheeky and using this to absolutly benefit themselves…ah why not we’re the fools that fall for it everytime!!

So I got to compare my other placement at Paskett PR with this type of work,  It’s crazy how different the environments are, things are much more formal within Paskett PR as the people that are being dealt with are completely different to that of people who have a love for music…TECH!! I feel lucky that I am able to experience these two different sectors, I feel it will make me more adaptable in the future, they are both at opposite ends of the scale.

It’s alot more like friendly chat with re:tweak and traffic, anything too formal and people may actually be turned off so to speak!!! Thats NOT part of the plan, we need to give it to them just how they like it!!Mwahahahaaaa!!

 Oh yes I for got to mention I took lots of prrrofessional (plz curl the ‘r’!!) pictures at Cocoon and Uber last week for Soonnight.com, about 30 got published , more than I expected as I may have swallowed a few too many shots!! I was taken back for a moment as I hadn’t realised how hard it is to actually take a good photo, photographers are just soo dammned snappy about things, they make it look like piece of cake, well I suppose it is when you have been doing it for a while!! hobviously I have far to go. Here are some links to photos I took, next time my name or signature code will be attached, it was my first time and I hadn’t registered an account!!

http://uk.soonnight.com/index_popup.php?p=soon_night/diaporama/diaporama2.php&id_soiree=225756&idRubrique=&popup=1&page=25

http://uk.soonnight.com/index_popup.php?p=soon_night/diaporama/diaporama2.php&id_soiree=225756&idRubrique=&popup=1&page=26

http://uk.soonnight.com/index_popup.php?p=soon_night/diaporama/diaporama2.php&id_soiree=225756&idRubrique=&popup=1&page=29

http://uk.soonnight.com/index_popup.php?p=soon_night/diaporama/diaporama2.php&id_soiree=225756&idRubrique=&popup=1&page=42

http://uk.soonnight.com/index_popup.php?p=soon_night/diaporama/diaporama2.php&id_soiree=225756&idRubrique=&popup=1&page=43

http://uk.soonnight.com/index_popup.php?p=soon_night/diaporama/diaporama2.php&id_soiree=224736&idRubrique=&popup=1&page=25

and my fave of the night http://uk.soonnight.com/index_popup.php?p=soon_night/diaporama/diaporama2.php&id_soiree=224736&idRubrique=&popup=1&page=72

Anyway got t0o go now, persuasive communication is calling me!!!! Yes I’m being sucked in!!!! nooooooooooooooo

Desperatley clinging on for dear life.

É uma dupla francesa que toca um folk tranquilinho, com piano, violão, xilofone e ukulele (eu também não sabia o que era um ukulele), e melodias que me lembram muito The Magic Numbers.

Se depois de ouvir “Tell Me” você não tiver vontade baixar os 45MB de “My friends all died in a plane crash”, melhor nem perder tempo olhando o website oficial, MySpace e Last.fm da dupla.

Como sempre, recomenda-se aos que chegaram aqui pelo Google uma olhada rápida nos outros álbuns de folk e música alternativa que já passara por aqui.