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Friday, February 27, 2004
Server goes up, server goes down...
So it seems that the vanmega ftp server went down for a few days this week, leaving the site crippled with stale content and no updates what so ever. Just like us, I'm sure you're gonna sleep easier knowing teh vanmega is up and running. Just to bring you up to speed, here's what we've been up to during the server crash.
Falling in love with Neighborhoodies.com ...
Are you kidding me?!?! Neighborhoodies.com lets it's customers design their own custom made hoodies, complete with lettering and such. The end product isn't some cheesy Cafe Press-esque tacky, unattractive, bulky garment - but rather totally hip clothing you're be proud to wear. Think of it as the next Rocket T's. I'm seriously about 4 seconds away from ordering an asphalt skii hoodie with "Kitsilano" or "vanmega est. 1999" written across the chest. Now... who's with me?!?
Being narcissistic to the max...
All week I've received a steady flow of emails bundled with pictures from last Saturday's fancy dress birthday party. Seriously, you'd think we had the poparatzi on our asses. I have now updated the Gong & Bubbles birthday party photo gallery, we now have 100 photos online (of the 130 I received). Think about this... we were at The Coil for all of 4 hours, and we took 130 photos (that's an average of a picture taken every minute and a half). Theoretically, we really should get over ourselves. But that clearly isn't our style. Thanks to Wendy, JL, Julie, and Sock for the latest pics.
Screaming out loud as we watch the tv show '24'...
Did anyone else - until last week - think the more recent episodes of 24 were a bit lack luster and not living up to the standard of awsumness that the cast and crew of 24 delivered in the previous 2 seasons? I was thinking this... but then all of a sudden they've pulled up their socks and totally redeemed themselves. I seriously find myself holding my breath during the final 2 minutes of the show each week. That's not even slightly healthy.
Driving around at night alone, listening to music, trying to figure life out...
Ok... maybe it's just me who's driving around contemplating the little nuances of living, but still... because of the driving, I've gotten so absorbed with some CD's as of late. You should check them out too. Late night driving rules when any of the following is cranked: Ryan Adams - Love Is Hell Volume 2 (makes volume 1 look dumb), Probot - Probot (so scary, in a good way), Kayne West - College Drop Out (yes, I'm shocked too), The Darkness - Permission To Land (wonderfully tacky), The Stills - Logic Will Break Your Heart (listen to the entire cd here)
Compiling the latest mixtape, for your consumption...
As always the latest mixtape is dope. I purposefully included the song "Do you realize??" by The Flaming Lips as the first track. Why? I suspect that many readers will recognize the song as the music played during that Mitsubishi Gallant commercial where that little kid repeatedly waves out the car window. What many might not realize is that "Do you realize??" is one of the most majestic and pleasing songs ever made. The song alluringly deals with subject of one's own mortality, and celebrating those in your life... and somehow Mitsubishi marginalizes it to sell a fucking sedan. I could go on a rant about it, but instead, I'm just gonna advise you to check out the song, and fall in love with it, and then cringe like me everytime you see that dammed commercial.
also
Happy birthday, Hotter! | Larry & Willy | The Coast
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Tuesday, February 24, 2004
A hot dose of daily gossip...
It would appear that the cliche-laced adage about "the only constant during your 20's is change" is actually true.
I don't think any of us have chatted with the sole member of vanmega's Las Vegas business unit, Zeb, in a while.
I finally caught up with Zeb on messenger tonight. Apparently, the Z-Child has packed up his things, moved away from vegas and over to Chicago - taking on a fancy-pants corporate role for a company he worked with back in the silicon valley days.
Even more interesting is that the time between Zeb randomly finding out about the available position and the time he was presented with a job offer was less than 3 days - and all of this took place about 2 weeks ago.
Despite the fact that we're all loosing the free couch space to crash on, when in vegas. I'm super, super, super pumped for Z. There's nothing better than when good things happen to good people. And as we all know, Zeb is the dictionary definition of "good people". Hell, he's the king of cool, and all that jazz and junk.
So congrats, Z! Go fourth, kick ass, and leave a trail of on-lookers behind you. The best part of this new job and all the change that will follow is that you now have ZERO excuses for not regularly visiting Canada again. On behalf of team vanmega, I'm blowing the dust of your honorary Canadian Citizen certificate... oh, and putting some Sleeman's on ice.
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Sunday, February 22, 2004
vanmega FAQ:
Question (via email): Seriously, do you vanmega guys ever throw a party or event where no less than 70 of your closest friends from all over the country show up?? When you're at these parties or events, do you ever not wear totally over-planned costumes, which probably took weeks to make and buckets of dollars to buy??
The answer is no. We're specializing in the fine art of going overboard around here. It's what we do, and we do it well.
This weekend was, of course, no exception. Bubbles and Gong's birthday party at The Coil went off with out a hitch. Everyone was dressed up in cliched pimp 'n' ho styles to the max! Carpet wins an award for best costume hot-orange pants, and Sock wins an award for most horrific use of a mini skirt.
Also a word of advice, no matter how tempting it was seem at 2 in the morning. Do not buy and then consume a hot dog from 7-11. The reprocussions are hellish at best. How I know this is neither here nor there, but just trust me. Kthanks.
picture gallery: Bubbles and Gong's birthday party
also
There were a few comments about the punta cana photo journal taking forever to load. I resampled the background images, so they'll now load a bit quicker. Check out the sun-soaked punta cana all-inclusive photo journal again, for the very first time.
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Thursday, February 19, 2004
Yes, it is a retraction.
I'd like to apologize to the boys from Jet. I'm sure they're avid readers of vanmega.
A few months ago I wrote a quick review of Jet's "Get Born" CD. I had only heard it a few times, and said that "I'm not really feeling it".
Let the record show, I'm now completely feeling the latest Jet CD.
Fuck it... I'm in love with the CD.
If you've read vanmega for a while, you've most likely realized I get consumed by artists who create these intensive epic, think piece, CD's... rich in statement and content. And then I gush and gush and drive you nuts.
This isn't the case with Jet. Jet isn't rich in statement, thier CD isn't epic. They only have one function in my CD collection: To do the rock and roll thing blindly and with wreckless abandon. It's wonderful, their sound is primal and loud. Yeah they obviously play on the formula of rock bands of the past, but who cares? When I put the "Get Born" CD on, I don't sit and try to figure out the deep meaning behind their lyrics, I don't try to figure out what elements of their persona is image and what elements are based in substance. All I do is throw in the CD, and jump to a track like "Take it or leave it", crank it up - and much like an 80's 'banger in a fire red camero - play a mean air guitar or air drum accompaniment as I drive about town.
This is pure bliss, friends.
elsewhere
the Leftnutt demo | cord magazine | Master Andy snaps up Wil
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Wednesday, February 18, 2004
Jay-Z vs The Beatles
As you may or may not know, indie hip-hop darling DJ Danger Mouse accidentally released a CD called the "The Grey Album". The premise is super simple, take the accapella vocal tracks from Jay-Z's "The Black Album" and mix it with the music from The Beatles "The White Album"... resulting in a CD way better than I had ever imagined. I'm totally thrilled with "The Grey Album".
Yes, the premise is a bit obvious. But according to this article this CD was never supposed to be released. It was more of an experiment for the sake of experimenting in DJ Danger Mouse's home studio. There are less than 3,000 copies of the actual CD in circulation.
What most reviews and articles won't explain to you is how complicated and precise the sampling and, in turn, the beats are on the "The Grey Album". When I first heard the disk, I expected the music to be pitched up or down, with the tempo simply matched to the accapella track.
Not so.
The musical elements on the CD are not straight-forward Beatles instrumentals, but rather complex loops, built using fragments of multiple Beatles tracks at once. Some of the Beatles samples are so chopped up and so tiny, they're barely even recognizable. The resulting is a totally alternative hip-hop soundscape with just enough electronic elements to keep things interesting.
What makes this CD work even further is the fact that one of the big marketing points of Jay-Z's original "Black Album" was that each track was produced by a bankable, big name, hip-hop / hip-pop producer (Timberland, Neptunes, etc). Obviously, "The Grey Album" kills the songs original sound and sentiment... leaving Hova's (or whatever the hell he's refering to himself these days) lyrical work forced to stand on its own merits. This is a good thing.
The interesting thing about the "The Grey Album" is that the buzz has turned the disk into an overnight must-have, resulting countless instances of file sharing of the CD online. However, EMI (who owns the rights to The Beatles recordings) has sent out cease and desist letters to everyone who's tried to sell or post copies of the disk. From what I understand, Danger Mouse's management team offered to pay EMI royalties for each CD sold, but EMI still wants this disk killed and removed from the shelves. There's a huge street buzz for the product (which took no time and no cost to create), and the CD has garnered heaps of critical acclaim. There's a lot of easy money to be made here, and it appears the label is turning it away. I've said it before, and I'll say it again: The recording industry is so fucked.
Of course I've got my ear to the ground, and have come across a copy of "The Grey Album" in mp3 format available online. You're able to download, and judge all the hype yourself. Yes, you are welcome:
Download: DJ Danger Mouse: The Grey Album
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Monday, February 16, 2004
Whomp, there it is. I need to start thinking of better titles...
Ok kids... while you were enjoying your holiday monday, I was planted squarely in front of the computer, rocking out all afternoon to KEXP FM, as I organized 150+ pictures from the big trip to the Dominican Republic.
I was going to write up a massive post detailing the trip and all of my oh-so-witty and unique observations, but I figured an easier (and more popular) way to explain the awsumness of the week in the Caribbean would be to create a tony pierce-esque photo journal. So I did just that:
Click: photo journal | punta cana - the all-inclusive
Once you finish the journal, you'll be lead to a full gallery of all the sun-soaked pics. There's a lot of content, you might need cancel your morning meetings at the office. As always, give each page a few seconds to load, and set your screen resolution to 1024 x 768. A big huge thank you goes out to Mr. Gong Show who took and supplied us with heaps of pictures from the trip.
elsewhere
"Life as a looser" takes a tropical vacation | rob 2 does Costa Rica
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Saturday, February 07, 2004
Greetings from far away.
Things are pretty cool here. I had plans of writing an uber-witty post detailing the last 5 days of our all-inclusive adventures, but I'm writing you from a hut on a pc with all kinds of strange and archaic keys on the keyboard. I just don't think it's in the cards.
I'll bring everyone up to speed when we head home later in the week. For now know this: I'm about 2 hours away from watching my sister get in-laws, I have the biggest sun burn ever (which until now, we though was technically inpossible), the sand on the beach is white and has the consistency of flour, bubbles won't stop wearing a man-skirt, Carpet lost the comforter blanket from his bed in the carribiean sea.
Good times, indeed.
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Thursday, February 05, 2004
Outtie 5000
Incase you haven't heard the constant boasting and self-congratulations - a few of the kids of vanmega are temporarily running away for a few days and escaping the snow, trading in thier snowpants for boardshorts, and getting super-silly. Oh... and 2 of them are getting married.
Not bad for an idle February weekend.
So the posts won't be flowing on the front page for a few days (except for fruity drink induced updates). I'm sure this is the most productive thing to ever happen to your at-work career, but if you're looking for ways to keep entertained here are a few choice web based things to do:
- post babble.
- read the most wonderful novel ever written.
- download a mixtape of righteous grooves.
- try and find a blog not talking about Janet Jackson's right boob.
- learn more about the newest and greatest thing to happen to the Canadian music scene.
- realize how stupid hip hop has become.
- listen to 60 minutes of hip hop from when it wasn't stupid.
- get into Rob 2's blog - he lives in Costa Rica now.
- bootleg the junior senior cd. It's happy music. A sound clash a la basement jaxx meets the beatles... or something.
- play the penguin game
- check out tony pierce's lick magazine.
- get into John Vanderslice. He's dope.
- buy your valentine sweetheart the best gift. Ever.
That should keep you busy. Email me if you actually go through all the links. I'll award you a gold star or a handful of jelly beans or something.
WhurdUpByeIMissYouAlready.
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Monday, February 02, 2004
What in the hell?!
Why is it I can't go one single day of my life with out hearing an AC/DC tune played somewhere? Seriously, this must stop. Thier material is painful at best, and in this day and age comes across as a bad joke. Here's a list of places I've reciently heard at least one AC/DC song played over some form of PA system:
- the gym
- the mall
- in some jack-ass's passing car (usually an Ranchero)
- at the bar
- at a convince store, whilst I purchase a slurpee
- over the phone, as I wait on hold
Obviously, the source of most of these AC/DC moments is a radio station of some sort. Seriously, who are these people who constantly call up and requesting this unique brand of outdated formulaic AC/DC drivel?!? I realize that some people consider AC/DC to be "classic" rock, but I mean... come on...
Who has the BURNING NEED to hear Thunderstruck or You Shook Me All Night Long right this moment??! Who sits around and thinks to themselves, "Damn... I'm feeling good, I need to crank up Highway To Hell, just to let everyone around me know how bad-ass I feel!"?? Or are the people placing the requests actually self-proclaimed hipsters requesting the AC/DC crap-rock ironically??
Either way, these people are seriously making me consider driving my car into a tree.
Hey, I'm all for music diversity and varying tastes... but becuase of the dominance of baby-boomers, classic rock is becoming far too celebrated and in turn getting far too much air time. Classic rock should be approached like getting your car engine shampoo'ed: it should be partaken in no more than once a year.
There are lots of inspired bands from decades past. AC/DC wasn't inspired. AC/DC followed an obvious formula with every single song they produced. They're like a yester-year Nickleback, but with marginally more street cred. Here's the formula:
1. take simple guitar riff - make it louder than everything else recorded in the song.
2. take volume level of the song and make it rapidly jump back and fourth between a roar and completely silent - but - only for the first 30 seconds of the song.
3. pepper the entire song with obvious sexual allusions. Try and focus on the balls / testicles comparison motif.
4. before the chorus, stop all music and say the title of the song.
5. the remaining part of the chorus should be the title of the song, repeated no less that 648 times. Backing up the lead vocals should be the remaining band members chanting the song title. Be sure that the chanting sounds like a beat up, drunken, Australian rugby team.
6. during the outro of the song, the main verb in the song title should be sung over and over. Occasionally, mix in the words "you" or "baby".
Keep in mind they followed this horrific formula, and put out 26 CD's. If you really need to hear this stuff, don't screw up my day by requesting it on the radio... just buy a CD or download it. Kthanksbye...
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