Fewer Chuckles; More House Music

I made a few modifications to the mix with the colloboration of my nephew, Yonadav. Here's the current mix (version 0.89) and tracklist:

• Merlot Warrior - Andy Caldwell vs Patton Oswalt
• Beginning People - Stockholm Cyclo
• Reality Check - Stigmato Inc
• If I Lost You [Michelle's Mix] - Michelle Shaprow
• Point of View - DB Boulevard
• A Stronger Man - Ben Watt/Sananda Maitreya
• Battle - Ben Onono/Tim Deluxe
• Didn't Mean To Turn You On - Colette
• Can’t Get Away From You, - Walk Drink, Mood II Swing
• K&M Feat. Joy - Pink Is The Colour - Hed Kandi
• Beautiful (jask's original mix) - Jask feat. Jocie
• The Realm And V - One Chance - Miguel Migs
• Let The Sunshine - Milk & Sugar
• Let The Sunshine inHair - Hair - Original Soundtrack

Refill the Flagon of Chuckles!

I am no longer ashamed of the mix I'm working on. You may as well download the current version because I'll be making some changes to it.

The following is the current playlist for Version 0.82. Just a few words about the format of the list. The name of the track is first, followed by the artist, the number of beats per minute (BPM) the time of the track and the album. Pay attention to the BPM. It's had too much influence on the song order of this mix, and I may play around with some of the track order. One of the changes I know I plan to make is to put "A Stronger Man" and "Battle" together. Then again, their beats will match well, and so do their themes. Unfortunately, the Afrobeat track will be cut in the next version. I like the track, but I have to come to terms with the fact that this is turning into a vocal house mix. I also need to figure out an ending to the mix. More notes follow the list.

• Merlot Warrior - Andy Caldwell vs Patton Oswalt - 112.4 - 4:38 - the mennu method remixes
• Beginning People - Stockholm Cyclo - 113.7 - 5:13 - Hed Kandi : Nu Cool - Lounge Grooves & Sassy Beats
• Reality Check - Stigmato Inc - 110 - 3:48 - The Sex the City The Music
• I Don't Feel Like Dancin' - Scissor Sisters - 108 - 4:48 - Ta-Dah
• Point of View - DB Boulevard - 128 - 3:25 - Escape St. Barth's
• Wakafrika - Manu Dibango - 120.1 - 4:48 - Afrobeat
• Didn't Mean To Turn You On - Colette - 123.9 - 4:06 - Destination Lounge: Las Vegas
• Battle - Ben Onono/Tim Deluxe - 125.3 - 7:05 - The Little Ginger Club Kid
• Psycho Killer - The Black Mighty Orchestra - 127 - 5:01 - Seriously Good Music: Cocktail
• A Stronger Man - Ben Watt/Sananda Maitreya - 125 - 6:46 - Buzzin' Fly, Vol. 1 [Bonus Disc] Disc 1
• If I Lost You [Michelle's Mix] - Michelle Shaprow - 124 - 5:02 - This Is What Radio Should Sound Like
• Ooh La La - Goldfrapp - 146.4 - 2:58 - Ooh La La - Single
• Can't Get Blue Monday Out Of My Head - Kylie Minogue - 125.8 - 4:05 - Love At First Sight
• Can’t Get Away From You, - Walk Drink, Mood II Swing - 125.9 - 5:50 - Base Ibiza 2003 CD1
• Where's My Merlot? - Patton Oswalt - 99.9 - 0:02 - Feelin' Kinda Patton
• K&M Feat. Joy - Pink Is The Colour - Hed Kandi - 126 - 4:45 - Summer Mix 2003

More notes about this list:

• The transition between "A Stronger Man" and "If I Lost You" is just awful. Good thing I'm moving the tracks around.
• Lisa Stansfield got cut. The sound quality was, really, way too crappy. And I never did find a jazzed up version of it. I suppose this is good. I've been in a bit of a rut with bad music. It all started when adult swim started running a Family Guy promo with Brian covering Rick Astley's "Never Gonna Give You Up." Then again, the song was initially lodged into my head when I heard it in the background of an episode of It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia...I think the one called "Charlie Has Cancer."
• I need some good cover art for the .wma file. I have an idea which involves bikini-clad women and a certain beach house.
• I redid Merlot Warrior. I cut out most of the clips and just left a few at the start and finish. I guess you can call it "The AA Remix." I'm still dissatisfied with the way the clips are laid out, particularly in the end. The beginning is OK.

Everybody's Free (To Wear Sunscreen)

I have a rather extensive music collection. I haven't even heard all the music on my hard drive, and each day I add more. Last night, I was working on a house mix until very late at night. In the morning, I wanted to burn an archive CD so I could review my mix on the way to work. My car stereo plays mp3 CDs, so I can always fit about 5-10 albums on a regular CD. Sometimes, I will add something from the hard drive that either I haven't heard before or haven't heard in a while. And thus, I filled space on my disc this morning with Baz Luhrmann - Something For Everyone. As I was reviewing last night's mix (the whole reason I burned the disc) I decided that it needs so much work, it's not worth listening to. I instead perused the rest of the disc to see what else was on it. And in that way, I stumbled across:

Baz Luhrmann - Everybody's Free [To Wear Sunscreen]

I was blown away by it. The words were so relevant to me. When I got into the office I did a little more research into the song. Wikipedia has a rather long entry about the song. Here's what I've learned:

The song started its life as an essay called "Advice, like youth, probably just wasted on the young" written by Mary Schmich and published in the Chicago Tribune as a column in 1997. In her introduction to the column, she described it as the commencement address she would give if she were asked to give one. The column soon became the subject of an urban legend, in which it was alleged to be an MIT commencement speech given by author Kurt Vonnegut in that same year (in truth, MIT's commencement speaker that year was Kofi Annan). Luhrmann read the speech and then had some real difficulty contacting Vonnegut's agent. After doing some web research, he learned that it was really by Schmish who was a fan of his movies, Romeo + Juliet and Strictly Ballroom. By the next day, the hired an actor in Sydney to read it, and the rest is history. There are a whole bunch of parodies of the song, but I think the original is great. Here's just a bit of it:

If I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be it. The long-term benefits of sunscreen have been proved by scientists, whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable than my own meandering experience.

I will dispense this advice now.

Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth. Oh, never mind. You will not understand the power and beauty of your youth until they've faded. But trust me, in 20 years, you'll look back at photos of yourself and recall in a way you can't grasp now how much possibility lay before you and how fabulous you really looked. You are not as fat as you imagine.

The rest is just as groovy. Click here for the original essay.

I would like to dedicate this post to all my Central Hebrew High students who just graduated. Mazal tov and stay in touch!

Sexy Poolside Groove

I'm working on a house mix: Something for people who walk around the pool as if it's a model's runway. You can donload a preview as one big .wma file, right here.

Nope! I removed the link. It sucks for a number of reasons:

• I need to use my old version of Mixmeister. Every time I need to download it again, it's become more expensive and I need to buy it again. Fie on you, Mixmeister! I don't need your free trial version software! And stop creating some kind of clutter files in my music directories! I was happy with version 3. Version 5 is awesome. But no! I'm not spending $169.95 so your "intelligent" software can beat match for me! Grr!
• Merlot Warrior: this was a great idea, and it was made in an afternoon with live mixing. However, I would like to redo this, with the samples distributed a little more sparsely. It's like when I made my first real dance mix "Smells Like Hot Dogs." It had a sample of Ralph Wiggum saying, you guessed it, "smells like hot dogs." At first I played the sample far too often for it to be good or amusing. It was just annoying so I had to remove most of them. The final version was subtitled "Lower Sodium."
• Lisa Stansfield - Been Around The World: The audio quality on the track sucks. Like, it really really sucks. And I feel like the song can stand to have a makeover. Isn't there a house version of this song? And if there isn't, shouldn't there be? Perhaps I can send an email to Frankie Knuckles; he'd know what to do.
• Manu Dibango - Wakafrika: I will get Afrobeat to fit into a mostly house mix.
• The Benny Benassi stuff: I am not Benny Benassi. I should not try to be. I will remove his stuff from the mix. It's a little too hard. Perhaps I'll add it to my advanced listening mix.

Playlist:

• Schpenster vs Patton Oswalt vs Andy Caldwell - Merlot Warrior
• Stockholm Cyclo - Beginning People
• Stigmato Inc - Reality Check
• Scissor Sisters - I Don't Feel Like Dancin'
• Lisa Stansfield - Been Around The World
• Manu Dibango - Wakafrika
• Colette - Didn't Mean To Turn You On
• Ben Onono/Tim Deluxe - Battle
• The Black Mighty Orchestra - Psycho Killer
• DB Boulevard - Point of View
• Ben Watt/Sananda Maitreya - A Stronger Man
• Deep House Souldiers - This Is Why We Dance
• Michelle Shaprow - If I Lost You [Michelle's Mix]
• Goldfrapp - Ooh La La (Benny Benassi Remix Extended)
• Benny Benassi - Satisfaction

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