My weeked...

Pretty laid back weekend. To wet to go anywhere really.

The rain is good for the farmers though I suppose.

My weekend pretty much consisted of going through my music collection and burning a heap of CDs to my hard drive and copying them to my iPod.

I discovered quite a few CDs were missing unfortunately =(

But I did re-discover some old music, as well as grabbed a heap of stuff I have on vinyl in digital form.

I also bid on a heap of cheap CDs on ebay.

Also played a shitload of Luxor2 on my Xbox360.

It's like a breakout clone but a million times better and more addictive.

OK... so it's *almost* done

OK, so my page has been re-arranged and made more readable and "user friendly".

I've added some cool things like my LAST.FM player, so you can listen to the music I listen to!

I've added the feed from MySpace and IGN where I blog about games and music respectively. I sometimes double up, but deal with it ;)

I've also got a Skype Button so you can see if I'm available for a chat.

I'm eventually going to rearrange FunkyJ.com and update it with my latest interviews as soon as I can. That takes a little more work as the CMS and Word don't play well together, and I've got to convert all my word docs to text, then cut and paste, then format them all... Yes, icky I know!

I'm thinking of changing to a whole new CMS, so if you've got any suggestions post them in the comments!

Ch..ch...ch...changes!

OK, I'm finally changing a few things about my blog and website over the easter break!

Hopefully everything happens without trouble!

Knut the cute polar bear

Remember that story about those horrible animal activists who wanted to have that mega cute little polar bear called Knut put down?

For example THIS STORY



The cute little fella was even in the Colbert (or should that be Colbear?) Report!

Well, the whole story is a fiction. A lie*.

There's a bear called Knut, and that's about the extent of the "truth" behind this story.

Thank the world for mediawatch!


But I just wanted to bring this up to say that journalists never do their jobs correctly. I know the reasons for this - lack of funds, lack of time, publishing deadlines - but I don't CARE about them.

In any other industry, if something similar happened, the people who took this story as truth and reported it from the AP feed would all be sacked.

Yet I'm betting in 90% of newspapers and websites you won't even see a correction, let alone an apology to all involved.

It's utterly disgusting that these people go about their lives, after ruining the lives of others, without any feelings of guilt or remorse after reporting a story so badly. The media has totally screwed this up, and are unapologetic about it, and it makes me so angry!

Please, to all my readers, all 3 of you, can you link to this post, to the mediawatch page, blog about it, email about it, just spread the word about this, and get the media to admit their mistake and apologise to the men whose lives have been threatened with violence because of this poorly researched story.




*I'd go further and say it's a dirty smear campaign against Animal Rights and those who support them, and then by extension the Leftist and Green movements, but that would make me seem paranoid...

Future Music Festival

I must admit I was a bit dubious when I first heard about the Future Music Festival. Dance music festivals organised by out-of-towners tend not to do as well as our home grown shows like Enchanted and Stardust. People not from Adelaide tend not to recognise Adelaide’s fickle musical nature.

There were quite a few attractive women

Sure, the line up was huge, but other events, Two Tribes for example, had impressive line ups and yet never attracted too many people in Adelaide. Add the fact that it was on the same weekend as the Fringe Opening and Womad, and one could be excused for thinking that it might not do as well as it would in other states.

However, I am more than happy to report that Future Music Festival was an absolute success. The set up at the Garden of Unearthly delights was excellent, one of the best set ups I’ve experienced in Adelaide. I’ve heard varying reports about the numbers, from between 4 and 6,000 people, but the place was busy and bumping from the moment I got there. There was even a line up to get media passes!

MC Conrad

First up was dnb maestro LTJ Bukem, and there is nothing better than listening to MC Conrad’s dulcet tones wax poetically over Bukem’s cruisy dnb on a nice, sunny day. Although Bukem’s label Good Looking Records hasn’t released an album in years, Bukem plays new stuff unlike any other dnb DJ on the scene today. The crowd were really enjoying it, with most dancing on the slight incline of the park, and a few kicking back under the shade.

MPK & Patch

Being a breaks lover, I spent the rest of my time in the So Co Cargo area. Patch and MPK played a wicked set of harder dancefloor dnb to an eager home crowd, playing Pendulum and other crowd favourites; although I thought it was unfortunate that the only 2 dnb acts on for the day clashed.

Ali B

Ali B stepped up, and started playing some bass heavy breaks. He had some sound problems, apparently his monitor wasn’t working too well, but that had little effect on his mixing. I didn’t know many of the tunes, although I spotted some Stanton Warriors, Bassbin Twins and Drumattical Twins in there. Towards the end of his set he got a little funky, playing Slyde amongst others, and this seemed to fill the room a little more.

JDS

JDS stepped up next, and I didn’t know what to expect. I’m not a fan of his signature tune ‘Purple Funky Monkey’, but his set consisted of much harder, more dancefloor breaks orientated tracks that just grooved along. If I knew only a few of Ali B’s tracks, I knew even less of JDS, but that doesn’t bother me and didn’t seem to bother the crowd either. I’d much rather hear new music and find out what it is after the fact.

Princess Superstar

During this time I wandered about, and caught a bit of Princess Superstar on another stage. I actually enjoyed what I heard her play, but I’m sure I heard one of the tunes she played at least 3 times on that stage during the entire day as I wandered past. Maybe I’m just getting old and it’s all starting to sound the same to me.

Rex The Dog

Much to my disappointment, Rex The Dog wasn’t a synthesizer playing German shepherd, but instead a rather first-class (but merely human) performer playing on synths and turntables. He played lots of really cool, techno-electro breakbeat driven stuff which the crowd really got behind. Chris Lake followed and there was barely breathing space in the small So Co Cargo area, but that made Chris’s bump and grind techno funk even more enjoyable.

Chris Lake

But if there was a crowd for Chris Lake, there was a horde for Carl Cox! One of the biggest names in dance music for the last 10 years, Cox always goes off in Adelaide and this was no different. Playing off a Mac notebook on what I assume was either Serato or Final Scratch, the big man of the music scene simply smashed it!

Carl Cox

I was simply too smashed to continue the night (I had been at Womad all weekend too) but the Future Music Festival was a huge success, and the promoters did an amazing job. The sound was clear and crisp wherever you were, and although there were many people, it never felt claustrophobic. I look forward to next years event!

More cuties

More photos at inthemix.com.au

Huge weekend! Updates soon!

Had an absolutely HUGE weekend this weekend!

Womad on Friday night and Saturday afternoon, Grif's birthday and Marissa's wedding on Sunday, Future Music Festival on Monday...

All with about $50 to my name, so I didn't drink excessively (except at the wedding reception) or do anything else that involves spending money...

I'll update soon with photos and fuller reviews later this week.

Also have to look into this Picasa thing... apparently it's been integrated with blogger for better photo blogging, which will make things a little easier, but with Ringo, Flickr and my own gallery (neither wich has been updated in months!), do I really need another photo site???

I have no PC at home!!!

A couple of Mondays ago I turned on my PC and both drives failed. My main drive, and the raid back up, both came up "degraded".

So, for the last week I've only had access to the net at work, and I've been so busy at work that I've had no time to blog, or even comment on other's blogs.

Should be getting it all back next week, but 2+ weeks without a PC shows me how reliant I've become on computer technology.

Big Day Out 2007

Another year, another big day out, and another disappointing Boiler Room line up. Sure, all the acts that played this were top notch, but I don’t know, maybe the all-dance events like Good Vibrations, Field Day and Parklife keep scoring all the crowd pullers, but I wasn’t too impressed with the Boiler Room this year and spent a good deal of my time seeing bands.

Having said that though, the Herd were the first band I saw, and testament to the draw of hiphop, especially in Adelaide, they had the Boiler Room packed and pumping in the early afternoon. They have such energy and vitality on stage, and bringing John Schuman out for their cover of Redgum’s “I Was Only 19” was a very pleasant and welcome surprise.

The floor thinned out considerably for Digital Primate, which was a shame because he was really good. Playing his own tunes, with his rappers jumping up next to him and kicking some delicious rhymes, he was better suited for a later time slot. Also at this time I decided to get a drink. What a farce that was! Lining up for 30 minutes in the hot sun just to get tickets to go line up again for a drink? From a logistics perspective I can see why they did it – only a few places that deal with cash so no money goes missing from the bars, but from a punters point of view the idea is almost as stupid an idea as trying to prevent people wearing the Australian flag.

Spank Rock surprised me. I knew MC Spank Rock was a no show, but I expected the Spank Rock DJs DJ Devlin and DJ Darko to be far more hiphop orientated than they were. They only did a couple of their own tunes and played a lot of dance orientated stuff in mashup style, mixing up Mylo and AC/DC and the Rocky Theme, with Pacerock hyping the crowd rather than rapping to the music. They reminded me of the Nextmen or Z-Trip, and I really wonder how different they would have been if Spank Rock had made it.

I went for a wander after this, managing to catch My Chemical Romance, who, I grudgingly admit, were rocking the crowd far beyond my expectations. I’ve never really listened to them, and what I’ve heard on the radio I can’t say I like them, but I didn’t run away with my fingers in my ears screaming “You Suck!” at the top of my lungs like I have to other bands in the past.

Making my way back to the Boiler Room for Peaches, I was not disappointed by her on stage shenanigans. Sucking water out of fake boobs during Shake Your Dix, ripping off her tight black jumpsuit to reveal porn style electric pink underwear, she dominated the audience with her sexy style and on stage presence. And I love how many instruments they swap for every song – I much prefer to see people playing samplers on stage than relying on DAT backup tape.

Needing a rest, I wandered over to the Lilly Pad, and managed to catch King Kapisi, New Zealand’s king of hiphop. I don’t care what people say about Scribe, King Kapisi wipes the floor with him. Better rhymes, better attitude, just simply better.

After Kapisi came Afra & the Incredible Beatbox Band. And my word, they are aptly named! Beginning with the Shadow’s Apache, made famous by Michael Viner's Incredible Bongo Band, the proceeded to box out various beats from Michael Jackson to James Brown, and classic hiphop like ‘Let Me Clear My Throat’. The Japanese rapping was pretty cute too, and these guys are the best beatboxers I’ve seen to date. Although I’m seeing Rhazel next weekend, so my opinion is open to change.

After Afra, I went and checked out the Streets, who played far too much of their slow stuff, so I went to see Jet instead. I must admit in the past I’ve not liked Jet, thinking them to be too derivative, but seeing them live really made me appreciate their sound a little more.

Speaking of sound, Muse blasted some awesome rock, but not knowing too much of their stuff I sought out something I knew and could bop along to. Enter You Am I, another Australian band I have never given much credit to, but on the smaller Green Stage they seemed much more intimate and comfortable than last time I saw them.

Tool kicked off their set with probably the only Tool song I could identify as them, but I stuck around for a while and enjoyed the heavy rock, until hunger got the better of me and I went to grab some food. Here I was subjected to the wailing of Her Latest Flame, which made me glad I don’t go out to see local bands anymore. I understand you’re an angry teenager, but do you have to scream about it? Listen to the other bands on the line up – Tool and Muse didn’t produce eardrum busting yelps!

After dinner, it was time for the Violent Femmes, and I was happy as a pig in mud dancing and singing along from the first note of ‘Please Don’t Go’ to the last I heard, ‘Add It Up’. I loved the fact they played ‘Country Death Song’, one of my all time favourite Femmes tunes, and Brian Ritchie was great on the Xylophone for ‘Gone Daddy Gone’.

Leaving the Femmes before the end of their set was a heart wrenching decision, but I had a job to do. I had to go see Crystal Method to see if they’d disappoint me for a fourth time. In the past they’ve been average or simply downright crap. The ease I got into the Boiler Room confirmed my suspicions that the Crystal Method aren’t as popular as past BDO closers, but I grudgingly admit they played an alright set. Recognising their own remixes of Prodigy, New Order’s ‘Blue Monday’, along with their own ‘Born Too Slow’, and capping off with their squealchy and tough ‘Keep Hope Alive’, they exceeded my expectations, but my expectations were pretty low.

All in all it was another great Big Day Out, but there was nothing absolutely mind blowing this year, like two years ago when I heard Wolf Mother for the first time.

To see the bigger versions of these photos, go to www.ringo.com

All in all it was another great Big Day Out, but there was nothing absolutely mind blowing this year, like two years ago when I heard Wolf Mother for the first time.
To see the bigger versions of these photos, go to www.ringo.com

Happy New Years!

Happy New Years!

My resolutions are pretty simple - Get fitter, eat heathier, save some money, work on my mixing more, and get paid for more of my writing.

Oh, and the usual, get my license and get laid more, neither of which happened last year.

James Brown is Dead: Long Live the Godfather of Soul!

RIP James Brown 1933-2006

"The pope told me that I should never come to church, because I can do more out there (on the street)… Music is the soul of the people. That’s why I’m the Godfather of Soul. I wouldn’t want to be anything else — wouldn’t want to be a king, or an emperor. I just want to be with the people." - James Brown

James Brown was a musical genius and his influence is found in all genres of modern music; without him there wouldn't be any music worth listening to.

A consummate performer and prolific artist, his music will live on through soul, funk, and hiphop, all which owe their success to this wonderful artist!

I'm so, so glad I went and saw him earlier this year in Melbourne, and although I've only got a few blurry photos, his stage presence, even at 73, will live with me forever.

Blogger Update

So, I've gone ahead and updated this blog to the new blogger software, and editied previous posts and removed the tags and used the blogger software itself to tag my posts.

So far I like it.

The "labels" should be called "tags", but for now I'll let that pass.

I'll have some kind of "tag list" or "tag cloud" up and running as soon as I figure out how to do it.

I'm also looking at getting the RSS feeds from MySpace and IGN into this blog too.

Christmas Gift Idea #25

Want to buy me a Christmas Present and don't have any idea of what to get me?

I really want a new radio, and this one is great for Boob lovers! (and really, who isn't a lover of boobs!)

This battery operated radio is AM/FM and uses the rubber feel nipples for tuning & volume control.

It is a a definite "Turn On"!!!!

I'm TIME's Person of the Year!

Time Magazine's Person of the Year is You!



Yes, You. And me, and everyone who has published online.

I think it's a fantastic idea, although the idea of putting a mirror on the cover is strangely reminiscent of the Dude from the Great Lebowski film.



However, in Crikey, Christian Kerr, a media journalist, hits out at them.

He claims that TIME is running scared of 'new media', which crikey counts themselves as, and this is a way to get people to buy the magazine.

He says the idea of having a mirror on the cover was stolen from some 1970s band's record cover - and fair enough, it's not a new idea, but come on, can he be a little more 'new media' and use a popular culture reference most of us will know, like for instance, the Big Labowski?

Anyway, I sent them a letter, and it got published. Here it is:

Re. "Old media needs to take a look in the mirror" (yesterday, item 17).

OK, I know it was a Monday, but why is Christian 'need to change my first name to Wayne' Kerr so cranky about the Time article?

Sure, the "traditional" media is under threat, but they also do have a point, although technically they're 3-5 years too late.

As someone who has been involved with the Net since its fairly early days in the early 90s, I have noticed that the utopia of a free media and information promised in early scholarly articles hasn't come from wanker academics or journalists like Kerr, but from ordinary slobs like myself.

I was the one responsible for leaking the Ratbag sellout of Midway* to the major news sources via my blog. I was the one who got the Hilltop Hoods recognised by Melanie Safka (my review is on her website).

Sure, it may not be uncovering Howard's illicit liaison with Bob Hawke's wife or anything mindblowing like that, but it DID get international attention, something impossible ten years ago.

And that's Time magazine's point.

If Kerr is too up himself to accept this, maybe he should write his own blog in his own time and with his own money like the rest of us, instead of riding the coat-tails of an organisation that has to beg for subscriptions to a newsletter full of pompous asses and half truths!

* sellout as in buying us out then closing us down

New Mix Online!

New Mix Online!

Here's the MP3 of a mix I did the other weekend.

It's called "How I Rock", which isn't me blowing my own horn (Ok, well maybe a little ) but actually came about after I mixed 'The Smiths Tune' (which samples 'How Soon is Now') with 'When I Rock'.

It's a little less hard than I normally like to play, but I've been playing a lot of early night sets recently so have adjusted my style to suit the crowds. And this sound is tending to go off in Adelaide at the moment.

The recording is a bit dodge. It's not too bad in quality - so I thought I'd upload it and give you'll a listen - but it could be a lot better.

As to my mixing, well, I would be lying if I said I couldn't be happier, because I can always be happier with a mix, but to date it's one of my best and cleanest mixes. It's pretty damn good if I do say so myself!

Here's the Track Listing:

Slyde - That's It
Stanton Warriors - Dip & Get Low
30hz & Baobinga - Know Ya
Plump DJs - Soul Vibrates
General Midi - Good To Go
Cut & Run - The Smiths Tune
Split Loop - When I Rock
Stanton Warriors - Hope Time (Rogue Element remix)
Jay Cunning & Smithmonger - Never Stop (Split Loop remix)
Drumattic Twins - Pumped Up Funk
Azzido Da Bass - Dooms Night (Stanton Warriors remix)

Download "How I Rock" now!


And now I've finally hooked up my old PC to my dex, providing I can count on the audio card (it's a bit dodge but think it's a driver / software issue) I should be able to record more of my mixing and post it online.

So Bolt doesn't Like Borat

So, Andrew Bolt and some wanky socialist don't like Borat?

Here's my response:

I confess I haven't seen the movie, but I have seen enough of Cohen's Shows to realise what this movie will be.

If people are too ignorant to get the joke, to know about Cohen and Borat because they can't be bothered thinking about anything outside their own little window, sucks to be them.

His act simply wouldn't work on people who weren't ignorant. But there's so many people in the world who are so shallow and close minded that his act will continue to work for many, many years.

Maybe if we had a better education system, better global outlook, and a better society overall, Cohen's humour would be what you claim it is - cruel and manipulative.

But the fact so many don't question him, don't challenge him when he's being racist, sexist and homophobic - enough people to get a successful series and movie made - is the really sad part of his act.

If you have trouble recoginsing the predudices of people in the film, maybe it's because it's your own predudices coming into play.

You claim it is 'courteous people' being made fools - no it isn't.

These people go along with him - for whatever reason - and never once do they say "hey, you're out of line" or "stop doing that" or "I don't give a fudge where you come from, stop insulting those people". Never once do they challenge him, and many go along with him. That's worse than fooling people in the first place. Who is more fool?

The Nazi's killed millions because people refused to speak up against what they knew was wrong, and Cohen is pointing out even many years later people are just as ignorant, even with our internet and globalization.

Hopefully Borat will make people more aware of what they do and how they act. Then Cohen has done what he wants to achieve, and that's a damn better outcome than feeling warm and fuzzy because of portaloos.

Oh, and those "Frat Boys" aren't the innocent fools you make them out to be...

"While Cohen and his production team certainly have a knack for finding and taking advantage of the, shall we say, socially questionable citizens of the "U.S. and A," it's hard to imagine that this suit has much merit. First off, a quick look at Seay's Myspace pictures suggest that "gettin' drunk and havin' a good time," are pastimes he regularly engages in -- not behaviors that the producers likely duped him into. Second, he, along with everyone else in the film, signed an agreement relinquishing any rights to take action. Third, the scene in question is so despicable (even though Seay appears less awful than his two frat brothers) that it's hard to imagine any judge or jury feeling sympathetic to his cause." (link)

Save the Glass House

Personally I'm not a great fan of the Glass House, but I find it incredibly strange thatthe ABC axed it given the amount of viewers it attracted week after week.

In the current government climate, I think shows that send up news, politicians and celebrities is important.

This show was NOT a news program, so it doesn't need to be "balanced or unbiased".

If you think it's unfair that the Glass House has been taken off air, there's a petition online to save it...

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/savetheglasshouse/index.html

Funny comic

Pretty much sums up the way I'm feeling at the moment...

How real are the commentators?

I was thinking about something whilst looking at Andrew Bolts blog today - How many of those people are REAL people with real desire to know more and debate the issues Bolt puts forth, and how many are news corp stooges and cronies?

Likewise with the AdelaideNOW blog, which is full of praise for the new layout?

I don't like the new page because the stories are different from the Advertiser, meaning if I want to read the front page I have to go buy the paper, which I refuse to do. I'm not paying for one or maybe two stories. Also, you used to be able to read the paper and stories from up to a week previously, but I can no longer find that functionality on the website.

Sure, I can go online and read other sites, but when Adelaide only has one news source, it kind of makes it a little hard to find stuff about us from an Adelaide perspective. But that's besides the point.

Anyway, on Sunday there was a story by Amanda Blair, an ex Adelaide radio jock, about how DJs and radio hosts are aware that most callers to the station are fake.

And it got me thinking... how do we know these blog commentators aren't fake?

The posts are moderated anonymously, and there's nothing to tie people to their posts like other sites like Kotaku or even a web forum.

I added a comment to the AdelaideNow website, and hopefully Rod, the editor, can answer...

Hey Rod,

Just like to get your opinion on something...

Given that the fake radio caller thing has been blown wide open by the Sunday Mail (well, for those listeners too stupid to realise the truth beforehand anyway), I'd like to know what guarantees do we have that people responding to these blogs aren't just newspaper people posing as 'concerned readers'.

Because the posts are moderated before we see them, I feel that this is very open to abuse, much like the Radio calls.

Surely a registered user database would be better than anonymous posting coupled with anonymous moderating.

Adelaide Now Sucks Even More

Can Adelaide's newspaper get any worse?

Top story on "Adelaide Now", the web portal for our newspaper, The Advertiser, is Top tipster admits it's all for Show, the story of six year old Henry Stevens being the top of not his class, not his sport, but of the footy tips.

The fucking footy tips!!!

He's a headline for you. FOOTY TIPS ARE BULLSHIT!

Sorry to burst little Henry's bubble, but there is absolutely no skill involved in being on top.

How do I know this? How can I make such a bold claim?

Because in both my footy tipping competitions I'm (on or near) top and I THOROUGHLY DISLIKE footy! Click HERE to see the ladder if you don't believe me...

I don't watch it. I don't follow it. I don't support a team. I don't know any players' names and every week I have to try and remember which team is on top and what colours they are.

I'm all for feel good stories, but come on Advertiser... there's so much else which is newsworthy in this state that the story of a six year old kid who wins footy tips should NEVER be the leading story.

Another day, another wanker... This time it's Piers Ackerman

What is it with these so-called journalists? When I can do a quick two minute google search that basically tears their stories and opinion to shreds, it really makes you question how the fuck they got employed in the first place...

I DO like the fact that they are willing to have their albeit idiotic thoughts opened up to people to comment on, and wish more would partake in the fun.

Piers Ackerman has yet another jab at the ABC over of all things Playschool. Maybe they should have a Playschool for fat, old journalists.

Here's my reply to him... a bit more vehement than my response to Bolt, so less likely to be published.

It says on your blog page that you're one of Australia's best journalists. If this is the case then God help the media!

You're simply an idiot. This has got nothing to do with the ABC and everything to do with your pathetic and on going ABC bashing. When will you stop beating a dead horse?

This change has been happening in ALL children's programs, and isn't just a leftist change. Take a look at how Sesame Street has changed.

A simple search on google will find that it's being used to spread pro-American propaganda through Muslim countries (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/3200699.stm) to the changing of cookie monster to promote healthier eating by singing "Cookies is a sometimes food" (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/4432415.stm)

But then a simple google search is probably beyond your capabilities.