said fi halla

my new youtube crush, said fi halla rocking the bendir and some serious vocals.


(slightly longer version here)

fuck yes... all he needs is a bucket to get down. :)



here, he opts for a more pricey korg keyboard.



he would also like you to know his telephone number ...



for the record, his email is saidfihalla@hotmail.com

streamable album with him, female vocalist "najat" and keyboards here
download the album (track by track) here
the first video is my fave, really.

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These are our weapons!

Yesterday in Madrid 500,000 people took to the streets in protest. Here is a video of a full orchestra playing Betthoven's "Ode to Joy" live at the protest. The chants they say at the end translate to "These are our weapons! These are our weapons!" Un. Real. :)



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUJ7s59aLSo

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MOAR juke (UPDATED with mp3s!)

i kind of can't get enough of juke. i'm playing a lot of other music right now, but what i want to listen to is juke.

i've been mining this stuff for a while and it's amazing... particularly the footworking stuff (the more abstract sub-laden tunes for the dancers more than the run-of-the-mill booty house tunes). it can be abrasive at times, but having seen it go down live i love the energy and i think the style is worth trying to appreciate... it could be compared to bmore club stuff, and has isn't that far off the more hyper dubstep tunes... but it's nearly 20 years old... and has a whole culture of dancing.

o.k. so... some links...

if you know nothing about juke watch this first... this track like many juke tracks features a short vocal sample cut and pasted into a main instrument sound (in this case, bob marley...)

pretty good juke/footworking mix (by µ-ziq!) - (don't bother if you don't have serious woofers hooked up. the bass in this shit is LOW LOW LOW...

via jeff macarthur, an endless thread on the style HERE - (quality videos, links to individual producers, etc...)

a very popular juke video compilation (which i've already posted in my big dance video post...) -

a good juke dancing battle... 1:15 is AMAZING -

chicago reader article (with some video and beautiful photos, including the one above...)

UPDATES:

AMAZINGLY informative Dave Quam article on juke... (his blog is good, too...)

DJ Rashad & DJ Spinn drop a mix for XLR8R & a mix for Fact Magazine.

dj rupture wrote a short post on juke, but more importantly upped THIS.

also... i packed up a few mp3s i found... mostly weirder footwork tracks... & not the straight juke stuff. the tunes are:

DJ NATE - "back up kid", "my heart" & "3peat"
DJ RASHAD - "teknitian" & "In Da Club Before Eleven O' Clock"
DJ ELMOE - "Where yo ghost at, Where yo dead man"
& a bonus Kill Frenzy remix that appeared on Kingdom's mix for low end spasm that has some juke vibes to it.

JUKE MP3s HERE!

feel free to send me more info, and more tracks! always down for more juke heat.

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the hood gang

local rock hoodlums, the hood gang, have a new song and video out. well done folks! i'm a tad late on posting it, but it was in honor of the year anniversary of the king of pop's death...



they're a real blast... definitely one of the highest energy shows you will ever attend. Sneaky Mike, their front-man is a party animal and spiritual force. also, my buddy miguel plays sick aux. latin percussion with them. he has a few projects of his own that are worth hearing too... anyway, the hood gang gets mad props from this (usually) non pop/rock fan...

remember, everyone's in the hood gang!

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real riot porn

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videomg

via boingboing


via masala


via pure moxie

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that veiled gazette #369

blogging is hard...

it's been a long time since the last digest... a lot of current events have passed, scandals, debates, triumphs, miseries... i'm not going to touch on most of them... but only share with you the fragments i collected in the meantime... just things i dragged into the ever-over-flowing folder of "blog ideas" on the bookmark bar... blogging has been a weird fit for my current efforts, and there has been much talk and some action on quitting the internet around me... BUT, i feel the flame hasn't died quite yet... and we'll see where this shrouded deer leads us next.

quality performance art...

ART, FASHION : fascinating article about faking a vermeer... old pal's art on boing boing video... dj ripley has been posting a lot of great jamaican fashion from her trip there. here, here, here, here, and here. flower mandalas and other decent new-agey art. speaking of new-agey (old-agey?) this celtic talismanic jewelry reminded me of calder's contour drawings of animals. this guys design is supercolorcleanskillz. subway mind fuck art. did you know that motorcycles used to look WAY cooler? here's good billboard mod. and more book sculpture.. this time a face. the results of this camera art are boring, but the idea is good. more pretty art on basic sounds... also, van gogh didn't cut off his ear... it was gauguin!

MUSIC: flute-boxing. daichi-boxing. woman-boxing. competition-boxing. music of colombia via geko jones. love this guy's tabla style. blue daisy sounds like flying lotus, burial and a nice hum. great new mellowish dubstep artists here, here, and here. afro punk interview. LOVED this 10 essential wiley tunes article. poppy music blog. lovin' this old school jam. wendy carlos interview (if you don't know about her, you need to read up...) a bonus for those who actually read these digests, i picked my favorite brian eno tracks off his first four pop albums and put them here. old buddy from college's remix site, remixin. skweee... get hip. oh, and can someone please toss me khalid's secret eq chart?... yeah, thanks.

90 degree angles get old quick...

ARCHITECTURE, ECO, DIY: holy shit, dangerous tea house! splendid, extensive collection of beautiful and bizarre houses... including the one above... great inspiration there for designing or remodeling buildings (both of which i've been doing recently)... i've posted before about art made with books, including shelves, but here's a cool upside-down book shelf design... LED lights can now do pretty much every color... some interesting eco work... saw it on the colbert report... ceiling porn. bottles and cob. laundry water greywater system. other bizarre houses and furnishings chronicled in dornob magazine.

one of many real angels...

SEX: i continue to be interested in finding a way to fit sex into this blog. i enjoy it being mostly family friendly... but there's something to the eroticism of brian's blog that helps counterpoint the brutal truths and mystic bliss. apparently obsession with sex goes back some ways. anyway, as erotica goes, mod fetish tends to be more artful and interesting than most, but is mostly just photos of naked women... i guess there's just a big part of me that would rather be naked at burning man... and that's about all the sexual openness i can muster for the moment.

ALEXANDRIA IS OPEN, GREATSITE, TECHNOLOGY : the pirate bay just got sold, but that's o.k. because google is the new pirate bay. it's a silly issue, because pirates buy more music than non-pirates. this is a nice collection of rainbow design tutorials, (including how to make lines like in the picture above). good source of high res photojournalism is the boston globe's big picture and the wall street journals photo journal. I always enjoy looking up words on the online etymological dictionary (try magic!), but the urban dictionary is indispensable for slang (try hyphy!) dig the voting process. yeah, yeah, change the internet forever... and phones. i'm up in the air about internet privacy issues, but this tool seems to make it simple to stalk. oh, and if you're going to waste time playing video games, this one helps map proteins...

BABYLON, POLITICS : the g20 is in pittsburgh soon, and that fucks with me... mostly because i have some outspoken anarchist youth using my first floor to feed people and have meetings, and cops love to fuck with innocents. grr. obama - he releases some important secrets, blocks other important secrets. i could do a whole post just on how complex my feelings are about obama and the new senate... among the issues are the "two" wars... the cronyism going on that he campaigned against, and the fact that the soldiers are still being told to "hunt people for jesus". (of course the bush era version of this was far weirder... really, really weird.) after 5 years, portugal's drug decriminalization has produced some seriously positive results. did you know that as many people are making their living from blogging as are from being lawyers? old bomb scars. face transplant successful (warning, graphic images) here. old castes in newly revealed maps... constant police brutality. how will the newspapers survive? there's no huffington post without the new york times, so can the grey lady stay alive by being a non-profit? REX84... yuck. and google beware.

WEIRD, SUFI: plants can recognize genetically identical cuttings... i'm a big fan of rumi... and never heard him weigh in on hallaj until reading this poem. great zen motivational poster from the great mojo1000. weird water properties. weirder other substances, including the ferro-fluids in the video above. earliest bible online for free. gurdjieff's long gone, but a movement technique not unlike his exists(youtube)... tap the wisdom of the crowd. it appears having religion is good for your health... remote viewing experiment - hey, you don't have to convince me. mentalist whoops master chess players(youtube). remember, death is milliseconds away.

seriously...

HUMOR: stephen colbert in iraq... i had profoundly mixed feelings about the whole thing, partially because apparently conservatives don't realize stephen colbert is joking (seriously!) laura and i were hurting from laughter watching this old snl thing. this may not be funny to some, but a lot of people got weirded out when amazon dropped all of it's search results for gay and lesbian books, but it may have just been one lone hacker making a "point" facial hair contestants. mark twain motivational posters. funny silhouettes. married to the sea.

VIDEO: parkour (first 7 seconds AMAZINGZOMGWTFAWESOMESOX)... free running... speed stacking... psychedelic yoooooouuuutube... and now witness a baby give a fiery sermon. it's not what you say, but how you say it, apparently:

PERSONAL, POINTSOFPROCESS: mixing dirty was named as a tie for mix of the year. I've got a brand new deejay night, which i'm gonna call "The Garden of Earthly Delights". Way more details (and previews of the gorgeous flyers i made) coming. as i've been blogging less, i've mostly been tossing little tidbits on facebook. i post compelling images in an album called "incarnations", and some art in an album called "art i like" Some links that probably aren't here are here on facebook. maybe i'd have more time to blog if i had a monkey babysitter. but seriously... kids are awesome. i love my son... he's such a joy... and we're having another in february. but then that's enough. two will do... i'm travelling now to take him to see his 6 grandparents... which is why i have the leisure to blog. pittsburgh too hot! i-man haffi cool out, up on the mountain top...

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how to dance to dubstep

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music from the solomon islands

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rest in peace, bill...

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more mohammed reza mortazavi...

"Green Hands" (Iran 2003) length: 15 Min. The multiple award-winning short film Green Hands, a film by the Iranian director Behrooz Gharibpour made in 2003, impressively visualizes M. R. Mortazavis artful play..."

skip ahead a bit... unless you are moving slowly on this day...

pt 1:

pt 2:

mohammed reza mortazavi previously on that veiled gazelle...

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pop urls zen

my (personalized!) recommended links from popurls today...

click this picture to view an incredibly detailed map of where the u.s. spends it's money...

also:

snow rollers?

viking myths!

pirate deaths :(

and this, maybe the weirdest video i've ever seen. warning, sappy songs!

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that veiled gazette #349

editor's note: sorry for the delay getting out this issue. i've been super busy, so blogging has been hard to get to, but admittedly i've also been a little geeked out on using facebook for the first time. finding old friends, writing letters, posting little things for them, becoming a "fan" of hummus, etc... for real though, it has been fascinating watching people from completely different periods of my life talking with each other. not that that doesn't ever happen here, but, well, it's a different audience. i love you both, and that veiled gazelle isn't going anywhere...

painter in bangladesh, via wall street journal's picture of the day

ART: the delicate special works of rachel sumpter. the composite (time not space!) photography of peter funch. the (street art blog) wooster collective truly continues to put out great stuff. check out sally's blue wall or this colorful wheatpaste. my old friend fran (thank you, facebook) documented a cool piece that involves ink drawing on walls and an air compressor. design is fun, but "hyperbolic bronnerism" is even more fun. it's a little hard to navigate, but the site neocha is a collection of independent chinese culture. also, check the vibrant, subtley pagan, mucha-like (mostly) nudes of svetlana valueva. also, while he's a bit miffed about watchmen (his work, originally...) that's o.k., because alan moore is a super-genius. witness video (direct link here):

MUSIC: wizards are better posts some good bassline & dubstep stuff (and some hipster crap). are you annoyed that pirating music takes so much time? take the wait out with skipscreen. blackdown makes a mind map on the origin of scenes. promotion services for world musicians. frieze article by dj rupture on the "decline" of digging. also, i hadn't heard about soul singer phyllis hyman, but she's got a nice voice (video) (and is from pittsburgh!) three more youtube music links here: kinsmen (indian jazz ensemble), carl craig classical remix, and some ethiopian heat. anyway, i've been posting A LOT of DUBSTEP. so here are seven songs that aren't:

(mp3) atom™ - "wellen und felder II" - bizarre, yet entrancing ambience from uwe!

(mp3) dinosaur l -"go bang" (walter gibbons mix) - classic arthur russell material

(mp3) amon tobin - "twelvses" - throwback gorgeousness, not two fingers style

(mp3) morteza - "morteza"? - weird iranian pop i was given for my nouruz gig

(mp3) isoleé - "a nightingale" (original mix) - abstract & beautiful tech-house

(mp3) hermutt lobby - "play" - twisted, wonky, slow glitch-hop type shiznit

(mp3) jakes - "swerve" - fun drum n bass track... with an mc! ~1996 style?

your's truly spinning at global beats march 2009. photo by carla.

TECHNOLOGY, SCIENCE, DIY: great rhyme writing resource in writerhymes. inflatable hood for sleepy travelers. do dumb shit to photographs with pikipimp. laura's always been a proponent for local currency... learn about algebra (i forgot all mine in art school...) create large wall posters with little printers. nice home-made picture frames out of jars. and for the record, artificial life could be created within 5 years, whatever that means...

ECO: meditate on the size of the earth and how lucky we are. 25 reasons why you should consider earth-sheltered technology. paris is grey, and sarkozy has a plan. another weird plan on the table for global warming issues. or is global warming all a hoax? i dunno, i'm not a scientist... something tells me that it's not a bad idea to act like it's real, if only because we might help with the bio-diversity problem. good soy milk recipe. candle-powered heat? i don't live in these cities, but: space in detroit. space in baltimore. i found some nice eco stuff on chelsea green, including this article on the case for "small" hydro-electric power.

british kid in thailand, via wall street journal's picture of the day

BABYLON, SCANDAL, POLITICS: you know about Carnivore and ECHELON, right? their giant spy networks that troll everyone's communications for these words, among others... well there is at least one more ghost-net recently discovered, this time in china. here's what you might look like to your government. there are some sneaky shenanigans in the obama copyright treaty... france is ready for rebirth of the "violent left"... that's a hilarious article, but to be fair, they have had some history of awesome riots (which in turn left us a lot of slogans.) there's been a tiny crack made in the travel restrictions to cuba, but then there's the wholeembargo thing. why? chomsky has some ideas on that... also an OLD scandal may be getting some light shed on it.

SUFI, WEIRD: perfect memory, anyone? bahauddin's book sounds pretty great. my friend found one of the (super rare) copies ofthis book in a junk shop... still haven't seen it yet. for free, an archive of female sacred poets. amazing horse dancing in pakistan (video... jump ahead for the fast parts.) the thousands of inscriptions are getting translated, finally. i'm starting to think i ought to learn a bit more about ramon llull. creationist science fairs... first prize in the high school division actually sounds pretty interesting... top ten secret scientologists. get your daily weird at the daily grail. finally, the sisters of perpetual indulgence celebrate 30 years.

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pretty french music

carla bruni via brian
translation of lyrics here...

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drum n rai

carlos sent over this hilarous yet awesome algerian music video by cheb mami. i'd bang this at the club for sure. what's hilarious to me is the suit and non-chalant nature of male arab singers in their videos. reminds me of the omar souleyman video i posted a while back. it's like, "yeah, this music's hot, but i'm in formal wear just doin my thing..."

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chain of transmission

ustad allah rakha, father/teacher of zakir hussain, who in turn taught rohan singh bhogal. first video is 8 min, second 4 min, last one 1 min. all of them are awesome... in different ways. evolution, yeah?

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my toddler doing yoga

my son river, aged 20 months, does some peacock/locust, some namasté hands (his version of the sun salutation) and some downward dog/forward bend here. he does a lot more, but this is the video his grandma shot of it...



the youtube page for this is here if you have trouble viewing the video...

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yes we can (can!)

the band. can. (wiki) jaki leizebeit's drumming in this track is hot. guy dancing in the grocery to it is hilarious.

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palestinian hip hop

i keep hearing great palestinian hip hop on democracy now. i've been hunting for tracks i like for a while. carlos pointed me to slingshot hip hop, a documentary on the scene... the website has this large collection of artist links. hyla sent me a link to checkpoint 303 has a nice set of descriptions of their songs (with accompanying mp3 downloads) on their site.

here's the trailer to slingshot hip hop:



the torrent is here.

the female rapper featured in the preview is called arapyat... this is her myspace.

i still haven't finished my analysis post on the israel-palestine issue (cause it's COMPLICATED!), but in the meantime, here's a rap track with both hebrew and arabic lyrics, which according to one source is

"a song with politically-charged lyrics in Arabic and Hebrew, urging the Israeli and Palestinian youth to distrust their respective leaders and look towards forging a new, peaceful future together."

(mp3) balkan beat box - "ramallah tel aviv" from "nu made"

i'll update this post if i find any palestinian (or israeli) hip hop i'm in love with... in the meantime i'd love it if anyone could translate the lyrics from this track...

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that veiled gazette issue #325

photograph of tinfoil i shot recently...

MUSIC, MP3, ALEXANDRIA IS OPEN: bolachas grátis is back! beat does it better (albums up for three days only). local (to pittsburgh) hip hop dj archives his tape collection... recently i've been downloading great stuff from torrentech... it's invite-only, but if you love electronic music and are cool with uploading to stay on (need to upload 30% of what you download...) email me for an invite. great research into some dubstep sample sources here (and right on time, apparently). and MUZAK FILED FOR BANKRUPTCY!!! anyway, here are this issues mp3s, all .zipped up on mediafire like usual...

(mp3) atom™ - "insulting the dj" - cheeky minimal banger
(mp3) lv - "takeover (dub)" feat. dandelion? - beautiful epic dub reggae
(mp3) dj mujava - "township funk" (radioclit remix) - funky hipster shit
(mp3) alarm will sound - "4" - 20-piece orchestra covering aphex twin

ANARCHY, BABYLON, POLITICS: i definitely believed some of these 5 myths about U.S. prison growth. pentagon hiding torture information from obama. speaking of obama, you can track how he's doing on his promises here at the obamameter. at least he's bringing back the FOIA. given that 8 in 10 corporations use off-shore tax havens, it's pretty cool that swiss bank accounts may not work so well anymore. iran's people are A LOT more moderate than their overlords. this article about french radicals is both hilarious and disturbing. confrontational graffiti on headless fuck-object advertisements. other people are pissed off at virgin mary fashion spreads and pron spreads. and did you know you are being lied to about pirates?

ART, ARCHITECTURE: the architecture of takis zenetos is profiled in bldgblog... fragile, desert dwellings and nice canyon turbine design there... i recently touted the art on basic_sounds, but if you haven't seen it check it out (albums there, too...) this art is sure to piss some people off, but the event that inspired it was one of the best performances of 2008. following the election... a group of people turned bush street in SF into obama street. incredible, colorful graffiti from guatemala. the designer's republic is dead, sort of. if you aren't familiar with their (mostly awesome design) work, you can see some here.


ECO, TECHNOLOGY: riding a bike is great for the planet, but it's a lot safer with a laser bike lane (pictured above). google's powermeter seems cool. this person seems to think it's better than wind and solar energy combined. also, 7 "green" daily show moments. the first video is classic, if infuriating. i've blogged about living buildings, but this may be easier to implement: living walls. i met solar cooking designer bart orlando at the oregon county fair... watched him boil water with the sun. there is a very non-eco side of me that loves insane research vehicles like the maximog and the unibox. btw, bush actually did something cool before he left office.

WEIRD, HUMOR: one of my favorite headfucks is telling people about the pagan origin of the days of the week. rufus is awesome at slingshot. far out lindy hop. terry pratchett becomes a knight. this woman clearly isn't afraid of scorpions. cracked occasionally has awesome content, like this "6 insane discoveries science can't explain". finally some potential justice for this weird tale of geronimo's bones. and of course, drunk pigs.

VIDEO: steal video off youtube with pwnyoutube. and here is great darbouka playing, great mouth playing and great editing... triple great!

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