Month: May 2008

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Ganstagrass

Ganstagrass

Ganstagrass: When bluegrass and HipHop collide.

Introducing block rockin’ honky-tonk, New American music for the 21st century, built with love in a little studio, hand crafted, running on inspiration and imagination and duct tape, calling on the spirit of Gram Parsons and Otis Redding and KRS-ONE and Dolly Parton and Nina Simone and Willie Nelson and Missy Elliott and Johnny Cash, to write about what we feel and play what our hearts tell us, because to make it happen is reason enough, and to share it with the world is all the reason you need, because we tell the truth with music and the truth is beautiful.

I’ve listened to the first few tracks and though I’m not a big hip-hop fan, the mixes are fun in that, “Hey, who knew those two seemingly incongruent genres would work so well together?”

Some lyrics may offend: You can take the gansta out of the Rap but he’s still going to swear like a pirate.

The Download link and the Artist Link.

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Excerpts from “Up Till Now”

Up Till NowI’ve grown out of my teenage fandom for all things Trek, but I found these excerpts from William Shatner’s new autobiography, Up Till Now, very interesting. They encompass a range of experiences from his time on Star Trek, where he confesses being the colossal jerk of legend, to his poignant recollections of the death of his third wife.

Within a few days of Nerine’s death I learned the National Enquirer was going to run a story asking, basically: “Did he or didn’t he kill her?”

I wanted to get the true story out as quickly as possible.

We called the Enquirer and offered them a deal: “Don’t run that story. Instead, we’ll give you the exclusive story of what happened that night.”

In exchange, they contributed $250,000 (£123,000) to what would become the Nerine Shatner Foundation, which helps addicted women.

I guess the question asked most often was why did I call 911 before diving into the pool to try to save her?
It took me years to fully understand, and even then it was only because of my fourth wife, Elizabeth.
Every year on August 9, Elizabeth and I would go up to the pool in the evening. The moon is in the same position, the lights are the same.

On one of those nights I suddenly knew. The water in the pool had been still.

And somehow I had known that whether I dived in and rescued the body and then called 911, or called 911 and then did so, it would have made no difference.

Honestly, I always assumed he killed her, but now I’m not so sure. Either way, I find this kind of bear-all openness, from a legend such as Shatner, riveting.

torrent

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Powerthirst

For best results, view at around midnight just after getting home from the first night of a weekend long stag party—otherwise your mileage may vary.


[Powerthirst – YouTube]

Good night; have a good weekend. I’m going to Fernie first thing in the morning.

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What We Australi-Are

Three years ago my brother moved down under to live a year on a work/travel visa in Australia. He got some great photos at many famous Ozzie locations including this one at Uluru (Ayres Rock) that he’s selling on iStock photo:

Jumping at Uluru

He messaged me yesterday to let me know he found out it’s being used in a political ad created by Paul Andersen and Adrian Elton, This is what we Australi-Are. The video is the winning entry in a contest to create television ads that promote a better, fairer, more progressive Australia. A friend of his from London recognized him.

Update: I guess the photo is no longer for sale. The Aussie government now requires a release for photos of Uluru.

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Beatles Remastered

My friend Kelli owns pretty much every Beatles album ever released, so when I decided to fill the gaps in my own digital Fab Four collection, she made it easy for me.

On Sunday while perusing the magazine rack at Chapters we came across a Rolling Stone article that may have me once again, updating my collection. It’s a short paragraph about a Beatles fan (or fans) who have created a fantastic do-it-yourself reissue of all of the Beatles recordings using a record player and original vinyl albums.

The Beatles’ albums came out on CD in 1987, but fans have long complained that the early digital technology used to remaster the recordings left them sounding hollow and thin — and that the official remasters are way overdue. That’s where Purple Chick comes in — a secretive fan (or group of fans) who has been quietly remastering classic discs like Revolver and A Hard Day’s Night, and releasing the digital files for free online. How is this possible? The Beatles’ CDs sound so bad that carefully digitized tracks from pristine vinyl copies are noticeably better — with crisper highs, a fuller soundstage, and more realistic reproduction of instruments and voices.

Check out Purple Chick Six plus three and the many megaupload links he’s posted for some of the highest fidelity digital recordings of the Beatles, ever.

I’ve compared them myself; the DIY remasters are noticeably different and in some cases better, but in at least one instance, (In My Life – Rubber Soul) the new file had the same audio in both the left and right channels, where my previous version was in true stereo. So your mileage may vary.

Also note, the files are in the open source format .FLAC and will need to be converted before they can be played in some players. (Audacity can do it).

Not Purple Chick, but 6plus3… Sorry about that Paul, and thanks for the clarifications in the comments.

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All Your Bases Are Belong to Us

The following video from ESPN is a testament to why we play sports and that there is hope for humanity. I’m not much of a baseball fan myself, but rest assured, if your heart is beating then you will enjoy this:

Hit play or watch at ESPN.

Here is the video on YouTube. It just goes to show, you can’t trust ESPN to keep their content online.