Lifted again

Awww shit. Petrol is up again.
Although Europe pays through the tooth for petrol per litre, New Zealand ain't far behind. Who has the cheapest petrol? Robert did some digging.

So to turn a negative into a positive, being lifted is a good thing, especially if its a feeling.

This song always reminds me of driving across the Kaimai ranges toward Tauranga back in 1997. I left the drive show on The Breeze 89.8 Waikato to work 10-2 on Triple X 99FM Tauranga. As I was driving, I tuned into my new station with an air of excitement and this was one of the first songs I heard. Hearing this song today always reminds me of the feeling of heading toward a new challenge, a calm excitement. Refreshed.

Enjoy.

Lighthouse Family - Lifted ogg/1.9Mb/1996

*pick it up before April 10, 2006

Moderate Impact

Thats the warning on the front of Sean Pauls album "Trinity", and fairly accurate if I am to describe its effect on me. Impressive. Moderately impressive.

Sean Paul at least has a 'thang', being Jamaican and consistent with his heritage, plus the dutty rock groove is very infectious. I like it - just not all the time.

I would like to think that there are a pool of people in Jamaica that sit around all day, that just 'kick it' during the day running a music shop, or braiding stall who make up chur-as phrases on a daily basis, then a young boy would take the daily scrolls, get on his pushbike and take it to Sean Pauls' dutty mansion on de hill for inclusion into his lyrics, which when each new album is released, acts as a megaphone for the new lingo, so the rest of the world can adopt it into their own. Life in Jamaica huh?

"Bless up, dere aint no stress up"

Sean Paul - Never Gonna Be The Same ogg/1.7Mb/2005
Sean Paul - Send It On ogg/1.6Mb/2005

*get Oggs before April 5, 2006

A bit predictable

Jamie Foxx was an awesome baker in "Toys", he was an awesome Ray Charles. Now he is set to star in the remake of Miami Vice (uh oh).

Its nice when you're a little predictable dude. Take your album for example...

Jamie Foxx - DJ Play A Love Song (Feat. Twista) ogg/2.1Mb/2005
Jamie Foxx - Love Changes (Feat. Mary J. Blige)
ogg/2Mb/2005

*get Oggs before April 5, 2006

Biggies back... again

Yep - everyone is present, except the star. Its produced by Diddy (and Biggie somehow), co-executive produced by mum Voletta Wallace, widow Faith Evans, Harve 'Joe Hooker' Pierre, Mark Pitts, Wayne Barrow, and by associate executive producers Mister Cee and Conrad 'Rad' Dimanche.

When Biggie was killed, friends say he had 5 albums worth of lyrics in his head. You'd think that would be enough to protect your craft, by putting it on paper AFTER you've recorded and released it. I really wonder how many of these recordings are left inthe vaults at Bad Boy Entertainment.

Anyway, here are a few tracks I took particular interest in, from the album "Duets - The Final Chapter". Put on your Homburg.

The Notorious B.I.G - Living The Life ogg/2Mb/2005
The Notorious B.I.G & Bob Marley - Hold Ya Head ogg/1.2Mb/2005
The Notorious B.I.G & Korn - Wake Up ogg/1.6Mb/2005

*get Oggs before April 5, 2006

Believe the hype

I thought id point you to The Hype Machine again.

It's a great mp3 blog aggregator, which of late has been servicing excellent musical escapades. mp3 Bloggers are theming a lot of posts these days.. wether it be covers of Nirvana tracks, or, how many people can you think of who have recorded the song 'Body & Soul'. I especially enjoy mp3 bloggers who write a personal take on a band, or artists career around a certain era. Jefito's Blog does a lot of that.

Check out The Hype Machine. I have placed a 'top 10 downloads' link in my sidebar, so you can see whats hot, at a glance. Despite the addition of a ton of advertising, its a great website to spend 30 minutes browsing.

Theres a lot of hype out there, and best of all, its not generated by the record companies, its by the listeners.

Speaking of hype, anyone buying a new Xbox 360 at 1 minute past midnight tonight?

Whats in my head?

I spent 30 minutes or so today at the Mt Eden Officemax store with two guys from my team. I was investigating workstation desks. As exciting as that really sounds, it was actually a lot of fun trying out massive 'CEO designed' desks, and sitting in 'waiting chairs' next to a mannequin was fun too. The guys also got a great snap of themselves with the mannequin where they... ahh I'll leave that there.

Instore, there was a cameraman filming some guy, talking into the camera - likely for a corporate video or something, so we obligingly walked past in shot behind the presenter. Look out for us (if they keep us in) next time you watch an Officemax Products video presentation.

As we were exploring the different characteristics of two particular workstations, the tune "Happy Birthday IBM" suddenly hit me, and played in my head.

Its a song by Australian band Models, which came out in their early days just after they had done a show with The Ramones. Models are much better known for their big radio hits* of '84 and '85, 'Barbados' and 'Out Of Mind Out Of Sight', respectively. In Australia, 'Barbados' reached #2 while 'Out Of Mind Out Of Sight' reached #1. What you may not know, is that Eddie Rayner (Split Enz) produced their song 'Atlantic Romantic', or they had Buster Stiggs (The Swingers) in the band around the time they got signed to A&M records after supporting The Police in 1981.

'Happy Birthday IBM' is one of those tunes that really scream 'corporate furniture shopping', and little in the way of computing. Well, in my head anyway. Take a listen.

Models - Happy Birthday IBM ogg/1.8Mb/1980

*pick up this Ogg before March 28, 2006

Running

At what age do we stop running to get anywhere?

I remember as a kid, I would run to the shop, run to school, run over to my friends house, run to the tv on saturday mornings, then running to the toilet.
These days, I do not see anyone running, except for fitness purposes or because they're late (or running to the toilet).

Is running too dangerous around the office? Probably.
Is running not fashionable? If you work around Ponsonby Road wearing a suit.
Is running as an option, not an option anymore?

Poor Forrest Gump ran for 3 years, 2 months, 14 days, and 16 hours.

Collective Soul - Run ogg/1.8Mb/1998
Jackson Browne - Running On Empty ogg/2Mb/1978
*get oggs before March 22, 2006

MC Hammer (16 years on)

I dont know if you noticed, but I linked MC Hammers blog. I have no idea what he was singing about back in '90 nor do I now, but hes a funny guy, obviously much more spiritually centered, and has a family now (check out some pics of him and his son, Jeremiah).

I stay about ten days from show ready, so working out and staying fit is a must plus I love it! I train specifically for dancing. I do full body days. Three days in a row. I work my chest and lower back and abs a lot. No heavy weight. I have to be able to explode and be quick and fast with my hands and feet.

He still does his exercise regime, he takes a crapload of pictures, and seems to really enjoy life these days. Considering the man was declared bankrupt in the mid 90s, and last year he sold off the rights to a couple of his songs (including a 50% share in "U Can't Touch This", which he netted in February), you can tell he's feeling back on top. He's got a new album to promote I guess. You can even watch him on video. He even posts audio blogs.

It's quite funny listening to his voice - its been years since I actually listened to anything this man had to say, or, rap. My favourite MC Hammer tracks from back in the day, were "Turn This Mutha Out", "Dancin' Machine" and "Have You Seen Her", but I will give you this one, coz it seems fitting.

MC Hammer - Too Legit To Quit* ogg/1.6Mb/1991

*get it before March 17, 2006

The Kirk Lick

I just watched that appalling "Trading Spouses", and although the fitness mom was so bloody irritating [read comments about her here], it was the Montana womans "fisherman husband" who really, really, REALLY got me and my flatmate screaming 'EWWWWW!'.

His name is Kirk and when he first met the fitness mom at the airport, when his jaw was not hanging near the ground, he would lick his lips, in a quick lizard type swipe. Then on the trip back to his place *lick*, then throughout the entire episode, anytime you saw him comment, it would quickly be followed by a *lick*. We were so disgusted by this... EWWW!

Uggghhh. Not as bad as the "crazy christian lady" [video]

Dudes, if you ever find yourself doing this - chapped lips or not - stop immediately. Thats just nasty nasty stuff.

Sirius TV

Yep, but TV for the car. I'd heard initially it will be kids programming for the back seats. Thats genius. No more 'are we there yet'...

Now, here comes the music

Or soon, shall I say?

I topped out my Woosh bandwidth mid Feb, and have to wait until the next month anniversary for it to get back up to the pitiful half a meg they supply. Make or break in 2006 Woosh, make or break.

Don't Fuck With Stress
When I take on a new challenge, I feel great about it. Excited. Only so often these challenges prove to be overwhelming. It looked okay from a distance, but once you get into the grit, you really wish you hadn't dipped yourself in its paint. Im currently in this situation, and to be fair I have been coping with the workload, but with stress being the byproduct, its knocked me off my feet. I've been ill for almost a week now. Last saturday I slept for a cumulative 18 hours, and another 12 on Sunday. Down to 10 over the week, and now im back to 8. I've also had a sinus headache with a complimentary tickle-me chest cough, so thats been really lovely to deal with. Don't fuck with stress. It will win.

I guess the upside, is that my voice is really deep, almost like Don. Hmm I was thinking last night about our New Zealand corporate voices. Robert 'Bert' Taylor, John Sweetman, Mark Perry, Michael Keir-Morrissey, John Callen, Warren Thomas, Daniel Wrightson.. even my mate Dan Bernstone has been heard on TV2 recently, and whatever happened to Gavin Comber? Anyway, I thought it would be a cool idea to have a reality show called Voice Off, where these big voices would take part in an array of weird and wonderfully funny things to say; like tricky lines, movie scripts, bizarre TV ads, radio liners, and dumb words like lollypop or bananarama. That would be funny watching them all sink their teeth and reputation into it. Winner gets a new limousine.

Another broadcaster joins the blogger club, to bare his soul to you curious monkeys. Check out Smartys blog. Maybe he'd appreciate my writeup on nightjocks diet?

I'll be back here after March 5 with music, so maybe some light reading from the archives would suffice. Theres plenty of good stuff there. Sadly, Google being clever bastards, they are yet to optimize the blogsearch box (top left of this page), so keyword search results are poor, but I hear its on their fix it list.

Hey, speaking of keywords, do you find the TVNZ 'keyword' thing a bit of a joke? I was watching Mitre 10 Dreamhome the other night (it was an accident), and the way the host plugged the website was difficult to swallow:
"Just log on to tvnz dot co dot nz and enter in the keyword, mitre ten dream home". Would it not be easier for the show to have its own website, and links to the TVNZ website that way? Shame the Reinventing TVNZ blog has shrivelled up. They really need to send ex TVNZ bosses to Redemption Hill, not teenagers. Geoff Steven is now doing good.