May 24, 2005
England

I'm in London, England for business this week.

This is my first trip to Great Britain and here are my initial thoughts.

  • You don't use Euros in England, you need pounds.
  • There aren't many TV channels.
  • What is called a Milky Way here is really a Three Musketeers.
  • Posted by michael at 09:54 AM
    May 19, 2005
    Star Wars

    It's 3:30 in the morning and I just got home from seeing Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith.

    It's good.

    Much light saber fighting and most story issues are neatly wrapped up. No big suprises, but it has everything that people will expect.

    Posted by michael at 03:30 AM
    May 17, 2005
    Priceless

    What I did this weekend:

    Posted by michael at 05:34 AM
    May 11, 2005
    Weblogs & America

    Before the blogosphere echo chamber shatters itself with hype, perhaps those frothing over the impact of blogs on society should take a deep breath and read about how most Americans have never heard of them.

    A tidbit to entice you -> "But as of late February, when this poll was conducted, only 3% of Americans said they read blogs every day. Fewer than one in six, 15%, read blogs at least a few times a month."

    Let the flames begin!

    Posted by michael at 08:38 AM
    May 04, 2005
    Pun of the day (and only today)

    Occurred today at the office:

    Will: Hey Mike, happy Star Wars day.
    Me: Star Wars day?
    Will: Yes, May the Fourth be with you.
    Me: Doh...

    Posted by michael at 06:37 PM
    Confiscated Knives

    My father, who collects Victorinox Classic knives, will probably be spending my inheritance on confiscated knives.

    For more airport security confiscated stuff, try this eBay search.

    Linkage via Boing Boing

    Posted by michael at 07:38 AM
    May 02, 2005
    Remix Culture

    I love mashups and I love mixes. The only thing I could possibly love more is a mix of mashups!

    For those that don't know, a mashup is the mixing to two songs to intertwine. Like the music from one song mixed with the lyrics from another song. A mix is the blending of two songs into each other.

    On the local radio station Indie 103.1 is a weekly show called The Smash Mix, which is a half hour long mix of mashups. DJ Paul Vhas been doing a great job for the last several weeks with the Smash Mix and keeping it entertaining. His mix on April 15th for Tax Day was brilliant.

    The mix airs on Fridays at 5:30-6:00pm and repeats at 9:30-10:00pm on Indie 103.1. They have a good streaming feed, so even non-Angelenos can listen in. Personally, I record it weekly with my Griffin Radioshark.

    The best place to find the mix is at CultureDeluxe under DJ Paul V. You can also find the mixes at FleetwoodMash, scroll down to DJ Paul V.

    There is even a Smash Mix podcast feed at Alohadude.net, for those podcastingly inclined.

    I wrote to DJ Paul and asked how he made the mixes, I assumed it was all produced in a digital audio workstation software package. It's not, it's mixed LIVE. Here's DJ Paul's reply:

    I guess I should let people know this more: All Smash Mixes are made & mixed live - CD deck to CD deck (usually 4 decks tho). I'm not mixing them live on the air, but I pre-make them during the week.

    But there's no audio software involved at all. I might take a stab trying Cool Edit soon, but I haven't even installed the program yet.

    I kinda like that there's a live and real DJ element to the mixes, even if they could be perfected using software.

    Ciao for now....PV

    To me, this is the remix culture I love. Sure translating speeches into different languages via Creative Commons licenses is a cool idea, but it a bit dull compared to rocking out to tunes by a great DJ...

    There are those that don't like Indie 103.1 because it's owned by Entravision and has ties to Clear Channel, but I love it. This is some real creativity and great radio pumping out on Indie.

    If loving the Smash Mix on Indie 103.1 is wrong, I don't want to be right.

    Posted by michael at 06:01 AM