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2013

  • in music
  • 1 min read

Best of Bootie 2013 Released!

Best of Bootie 2013 is out! And just in time for Christmas, too!

Featuring 22 of the year’s best mashups from some of the best DJs currently in the business, Best of Bootie 2013 is available as one big MP3 file or 22 tracks in one convenient zip file. Curated by A Plus D, aka DJs Adrian & Mysterious D, founders of Bootie, they didn’t just stop with their 22 favorite mashups – there are also 10 bonus mashups available for download, too.

I’ve been listening to the Best of Bootie albums since 2005 – it’s my go to music for running and working out and pretty much the only introduction I get to pop music these days. Give it a spin at the Soundcloud link above or download it now – you’ll love it. (Don’t wait either – songs have disappeared due to takedown notices. Get it while it’s hot!)

Another Reason Why I Love The Current

I vividly remember the day Rev105 changed formats. My wife and I were leaving work and climbed into the car in the carpool lot. Turning on the car, Van Halen was playing. I was surprised, but I’ve always been a Van Halen fan, and dug that they were playing it. Rev105 was the most eclectic radio station I’ve ever listened to, and while I was surprised to hear Van Halen, it wasn’t out of the norm from some of the things they played. And then another hard rock song came on, and another – and they announced the new call letters, X105. And just like that, my favorite radio station was dead.

The latest Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees were announced a week and a half ago. To celebrate, 89.3 The Current played a number of the inductees, including:

  • Hall and Oates
  • Linda Rondstadt
  • Cat Stevens
  • Peter Gabriel

Mary Lucia was driving to work when they played the above artists and missed Barb Abney’s introduction to the set list. Her reaction was hilarious, along with the voicemail she left to Jill Riley, co-host of the morning show on The Current:

I FREAKED out! Not another format change! This isn’t happening again! I was convinced we had flipped formats overnight and this was my way of finding out I no longer had a job at the Current.

I know this sounds overly dramatic, but friends, this has happened to me before in my radio career: One day I have a job, and the next day we are playing Scorpions and Nazareth. BOOM! “Thanks for all of your hard work, now who needs a box to pack up your [stuff]?”

Hit the link to read her reaction, listen to the voicemail and the Twitter reactions by people around the Twin Cities.

Kudos to The Current for sharing this – it brought a smile to my face.

  • in EFF
  • 2 min read

Ten Years of Giving to the EFF

EFF Proud Member

This year marks ten years of charitable giving for me to the Electronic Frontier Foundation. The EFF is by far my favorite charity that we give to each year and I can’t stress enough how important the work they do is.

A number of years ago my wife framed my letters and stickers I’ve received from my favorite non-profit organizations (pictured above) including the EFF, Creative Commons and Minnesota Public Radio.

Who is the EFF and why is it important? From their About page:

When our freedoms in the networked world come under attack, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is the first line of defense. EFF broke new ground when it was founded in 1990—well before the Internet was on most people’s radar—and continues to confront cutting-edge issues defending free speech, privacy, innovation, and consumer rights today. From the beginning, EFF has championed the public interest in every critical battle affecting digital rights.

While most of America was shocked at Edward Snowden’s revelations this year about the NSA spying, EFF supporters have known about the NSA’s taps on the internet for years – it was in January, 2006 when Mark Klein became a whistle blower, sharing with the EFF information about the NSA internet taps at AT&T. (The full timeline of NSA spying is staggering).

This is just one of many important projects that EFF works on to protect our digital rights. Check them out with the full list:

A few examples:

Their work is important. Support them and support your digital freedom.

  • in Books
  • 3 min read

Larry Elmore: The Complete Elmore Artbook

The Complete Larry Elmore

If you played Dungeons & Dragons in the 80s, read the Dragonlance novels published by TSR or played Everquest, chances are you have seen artwork by Larry Elmore.

Just about a year ago Mr. Elmore launched a Kickstarter to publish most of his painted art from the last 40 years, and it was successfully funded on New Year’s Eve of 2012.

Imagine my surprise yesterday when the US Postal Service rang my doorbell and delivered my Kickstarter package. The Postal Service delivering on a Sunday?! (My wife is guessing that our local Post Office is running behind this year and may be working overtime to deliver on Sundays to catch up).

The book is absolutely gorgeous. Almost coffee table sized, I was expecting just his artwork, but it’s thankfully not. Filled with stories, remembrances, backgrounds on some of the paintings, and more.

The Complete Elmore Kickstarter

Also included were the stretch goals: a Black and White Sketchbook (pictured above) and a number of 8Ă—10 reproductions of the original Dungeons & Dragons box set and Dragonlance book covers (pictured below).

The Complete Elmore Kickstarter Stretch Goals

I’ve only had a chance to briefly flip through the book, but I’m looking forward to spending some quality time going through it in more detail. This was $49 well spent and in his last Kickstarter update, Mr. Elmore has hinted at a future Kickstarter featuring a matching hardback of his black and white art:

I am planning other Kickstarter Campaigns later on, some special books, like a NEW color Snarfquest graphic novel, and we are working on card games and board games, which I am greatly involved in. One of the most important projects, that may go up on Kickstarter next year, will be a large hardback black and white book. I wanted to get all my black and white work in this book, but there was no way…the book would be TOO thick. So, I want to do another hardback of all my black and white art, pencils and inks. The black and white book will be a matching book to this hard back color book. If you have purchased this color book and you purchase the black and white book, you will have a matching set of hardback books that cover around 95% of my life’s work.

I’ll definitely be buying that one, too.

Amazon’s Frustration Free Packaging

Amazon's Frustration Free Packaging

“Certified” to be frustration free. Especially when they tape over the easy open pull tab when you’re trying to get to your new shiny vinyl record.

(It’s Volcano Choir’s first album, Unmap, if you were curious.)

All Things Blade Runner

Over thirty years later, Blade Runner still remains one of my favorite films (as I’ve previously blogged about).  It was only six weeks ago that I sat down and watched it again – it is easily one of the movies I can watch over and over and still enjoy with a sense of wonder.

I’m not the only one who shares a passion for Blade Runner, as fans have paid tribute to the classic film in a few ways in 2013:

Blade Runner: 8 Bit Cinema – here is the film re-told as a classic video game.  If only this was a real game! (Via Gizmodo)

[//www.youtube.com/embed/OM6z9czN318]

Moments Lost: Music and Art inspired by Blade Runner. This is an IndieGoGo campaign to create a full length soundtrack using Vangelis’ original recording equipment. (Vangelis did the original soundtrack to the film). It will also include 8 stories and 8 illustrations as part of the fundraising campaign.

[//www.youtube.com/embed/PFCnJ-R33jw]

Lastly, here is Blade Runner done as 12,000 hand painted water color paintings.  As Rob Beschizza of Boing Boing wrote:

The absolutely stunning work of Swedish artist Anders Ramsell, who painted each frame as a 1.5 x 3cm work of art. It’s taken him a while to complete the epic job; Pesco wrote about the first three minutes last year. The end result runs about 30 minutes, which is exactly how long Blade Runner should be.

 

[//www.youtube.com/embed/SLwmlMezS3U]

  • in Cooking
  • 2 min read

Time for Macaroni & Cheese

2013-11-03 10.19.32

Fall is here in Minnesota and the mornings are crisp and the leaves have turned. Living here in the winter may be awful, but I can see why fall is my wife’s favorite time of year.

After taking our black lab for a 3 mile walk this morning, it was time to warm up with one of my favorite comfort foods. Using a recipe from Hilah Cooking, it was time to make my first batch of macaroni and cheese of the year. This recipe will definitely warm you up – it calls for 4 jalapeños or a can of green chili peppers, giving some kick to the macaroni and cheese. This was perfect as I had 5 jalapeño peppers left from the last CSA box.

Hilah’s recipe is pretty straight forward – watch the video below for how to make it, and she will teach you how to make the roux and béchamel on your way to the finished product. I was worried that four jalapenos would be too much and it would be way too spicy – but it was just right. It warms you all the way through, both the heat of the peppers and the warmth of the mac and cheese. I did dice all of my peppers and did not leave strips as you’ll see in the video. I like my mac and cheese with a crispy topping, so I added some Panko bread crumbs and baked it for just over 10 minutes. Baking it will reduce how creamy it is, so it’s up to you on the tradeoff.

Macaroni and Cheese

What I love about Hilah’s recipes and cooking channel is the recipes are not complex, great for someone like me who is learning the ins and outs of cooking – but the end result is always tasty. Check out the video below and subscribe to her channel.

 

 

[//www.youtube.com/embed/2SSZsiHvKWk]

  • in General
  • 2 min read

Zombies don’t have a chance versus Nature

Zombies Invade San Francisco!

We all love zombies. The Walking Dead is one of the most popular TV shows currently on. A new zombie movie seems to come out every year.

But a real zombie apocalypse? Nature would never let it happen.

BoingBoing has a great essay up by National Wildlife Federation naturalist David Mizejewski on how nature would deal with a zombie outbreak. From birds to mammals to bacteria, zombies wouldn’t stand a chance:

Ultimately, it’s not the North America’s mega-fauna that pose the most threat to zombies. In nature, there are a whole host of tiny creatures whose main purpose is to feed upon and break down the flesh of the dead: the decomposers. Zombies, with their rotting flesh, are obviously not immune to these decomposers (what do you think causes the rotting effect?), many of which are too small to see with the bare eye. Bacteria, fungi, molds, insects such as fly maggots or flesh-eating beetles, and other invertebrates, all make up nature’s diminutive clean-up crew. And it can obliterate a dead body in surprisingly little time. The clumsy undead wouldn’t have the dexterity to pick off these decomposers, even if they could see or feel them. It would just be a matter of time. Stripped off all soft tissue, including brains, the zombies would be reduced to hollowed-out skeletons.

Now you can rest easier at night.

(Via BoingBoing) Photo by Laughing Squid under a CC-BY-NC license