Kill The Noise live in MPLS June 2nd

I just stumbled upon some exciting news today. One of my favorite electro DJs, Kill The Noise, will be DJing at The Entry in Minneapolis on Tuesday June 2nd as part of the Scion Metro Tour. What's even better is that this event is free if you RSVP at the website! KTN will be accompanied by another great artist by the name of Klever as well as a few DJs I have not heard of before, DJ Haul and Rob Wonder. It isn't very often that my fave DJs come to these parts so I am definitely trying to head to this show, especially since it is free. If you are not familiar with the venue, The Entry is attached to First Avenue, a popular club and bar on first avenue in Minneapolis. As a result, this event is strictly 21+ which in my opinion makes it even better. If you are interested in going I recommend RSVPing here as soon as possible and show up early the night of the show because your RSVP does not guarantee entry if capacity is reached.

BRO!

My buddy showed me this video last night and I thought it was hilarious. I'm always a sucker for a good "bro" joke and this took it to the next level, literally! The guys that made this video have a lot of good stuff on Youtube so I will share some other faves with you. They make some really random comedy so if you don't like random humor then you might not appreciate these.






They have way to many good skits so check out their other videos here because I had a hard enough time narrowing these down.

Summertime!

Summer is finally starting to feel like summer and I couldn't help but think of Will Smith's classic "Summertime" (above). I love this song, it is so laid back and smooth and it fits my mood perfectly today. I am really loving how things are panning out so far since school ended. I have been able to keep in touch with good friends, meet up with a few of them from out of town, hang out with old friends I had not seen while I was away at school, and I finally started working again. I am even close to terminating my lease soon! That was the biggest stress factor I was facing for the summer being that I would have been paying rent for a place I wasn't even going to live in... it's complicated.

All in all I am glad I can finally start to relax and enjoy myself with minimal worries. It was a fun spring semester, I was able to experience a lot and meet a ton of great people. By the looks of things now, this summer has some major potential to be amazing, just in time for me to leave for England in August. I suggest playing the above video on "HQ" and turning it up. I would even advise repeating the process a few times in a row while enjoying the company of friends and the refreshment of a cold drink. Happy summer!

Think before you eat

I am a big fan of "going green" regardless of the varied opinions on the issues surrounding it.  I feel that there is no negative side to going green so we should all take part in it in one way or another.  Our nations food industry is one of the heavy hitters in this cause, specifically regarding the way that the industry's practices impact consumers and the environment.  If you are not familiar with the dark side of what we eat and why it is one of the most important social and environmental issues right now then check out this trailer for an upcoming documentary called Food Inc. This film will show you the hidden truths of our food system and the subsequent outcomes that we don't always take into consideration.



One of the points made in this film is the extensive use of corn in so many of our foods. A good documentary about that topic in itself is King Corn.  It is pretty interesting to learn just how much corn we consume.  It is literally put into just about everything.  If you're at all interested in becoming more educated about our environment and how our food industries impact it, I suggest looking into these documentaries.  King Corn is available now and Food Inc. will be released June 12th.

Money Money MONEY

The economy is awful, it is old news now.  Regardless, I still can't help but stress constantly about money, bills, and daily living expenses.  I haven't been as broke as I am now in years and what's worse is that I have been busting my butt to find work or save money with minimal success.  My connections in the work place are barely pulling through and continue to go back and forth with complications.  I still don't know if and when I will be hired at my old job.  I am also facing the burden of paying four months of rent this summer for an apartment I am not even living in.  I am sitting on a dwindling savings account and an uncertain fate with employment, or the lack thereof, so I have no idea how rent will pan out.  On top of this and other financial issues, my main goal for this summer was to save up enough money to afford some good travel time while studying abroad in England this Fall.

Everything is so up in the air right now and the only thing that is constant is the steady decline of my bank account.  I would be more accepting of these circumstances if I were just lazy and made no attempts to get anywhere but I have been doing the complete opposite for months now.  It is no longer a matter of not being able to afford "wants" but it is now an issue of barely being able to afford "needs".  Can anyone relate or am I just wasting a blog post with unnecessary complaining?  Sometimes I wish money didn't "make the world go 'round".  I know things could be A LOT worse but for how much energy I am putting into things, they could be better still.  I am grateful for what I have and what I have accomplished as well as for the people in my life so I know one could argue that I have no right to complain but I guess I just needed a minor digital release.  Moving on.

The demise of MTV, VH1 and our generation

I have finally reached the breaking point and can no longer contain myself.... MTV and VH1 utterly disgust me. They have disgusted me for years now but I finally snapped tonight. I rarely watch TV at all anymore but I flipped through the channels tonight and mistakenly came upon the duo-force of mind rotting filth known as VH1 and MTV. All I saw was 15 seconds of New York's face and I had to change the channel. I pressed the "up" button on my remote only to find that The Hills was being (over)played again on MTV. It seems like every time I find myself on these two channels I am faced with horrible programming either staged or "real" that does nothing more than corrupt the minds of its viewers. We are brainwashed to assume that what we see on these programs is what happens in real life. Now to be fair, I won't deny that some of the issues and behaviors depicted on these channels do actually happen in real life but not on the large scale in which these stations portray them. Being a "tool" on Tool Academy is not something to be proud of, nor should you have the chance to be a TV star.  You are immature and embarrassing and that should not be considered entertaining.

The endless amount of seasons devoted to "I love this/I love that/I Love Money, etc." along with Rock of Love and other distasteful contests for "love" or other rewards are ridiculous.  Nobody is going to find love on these shows and subjecting yourself to humiliation for money is just sad.  Why viewers see this as entertaining is unknown to me.  We gain very little, if anything at all, from these shows and at most they are dumbing us down and filling our heads with unrealistic expectations on how life should be lived and how people should act or be treated.  Also, drama amongst spoiled ignorant California 20-somethings is not entertainment either. You are not going to learn anything of value from Heidi, Spencer, Audrina, Lauren or any other character on The Hills and they are not good depictions of how you should live your life.  What is so interesting about seeing these people go out to eat and get mad at each other over the most idiotic of reasons?  Enjoying this kind of drama isn't a good quality to have.

It is extremely upsetting to me that so many of my peers and others devote time to such disgusting television.  I don't even know why MTV is still called Music Television when so much of their block is taken up by programming that is completely unrelated to music.  VH1 should change their name to "False Reality" since they devote so much energy to these "reality" shows.  Many of you may not understand or agree with my point here but if nothing else, think about what you're actually watching when you flip to these channels.  Take a moment to utilize your brain and analyze how beneficial these programs really are rather than just letting them suck you in.  If nothing else, don't conform.  Just because it is on TV doesn't mean what you see is a depiction of how you should live your life.

E.T. Chrome home

Google recently released their Internet browser Google Chrome and I must say, I am definitely a fan. I have never been one of those people who hated Internet Explorer, I honestly rarely had issues with it. I have also never been a huge fan of Fire Fox like most people. If I had to choose a favorite browser it would probably be Safari but I don't have my own Mac yet so that doesn't really apply too well. I decided to give Chrome a shot the other day and I am already really impressed. It is clean, fast, and up-to-date with competitors. When you first open the browser it shows your most viewed websites a well as recently visited favorites among other things. It makes browsing the web quick and easy and more enjoyable than I thought it could be. I have only been using it for a few days now but I have not had any issues whereas Internet Explorer has decided to freeze or close out on a regular basis for me now. Give Chrome a try, it's free and downloads really fast from the Google homepage.

RiP: A Remix Manifesto

One of the biggest issues in our society these days is piracy and the overwhelming amount of "illegal" downloading taking place online. Alongside this issue is the corporate fight against it as studios, record companies, labels, etc. attempt to get back at consumers who download music, movies, and other products illegally. This is a pretty interesting topic to me especially in regard to music production, sampling, and the music industry itself among other things. I stumbled upon a documentary called RiP: A Remix Manifesto, a film detailing the above issues and heavily starring the popular mash-up artist, Girl Talk. It is an interesting documentary about copyright and remix culture and you can download it for the price of your choice here.

The Science

Interesting new video from Murs. I like the style of the video and the song in general kind of makes you think. This is definately not cookie-cutter rap.

Graphic design gold

Justice has an amazing video for "DVNO" which shouldn't be new news to you but I stumbled on a really interesting article about it today. If you notice, the video is comprised of numerous graphics and logos, many looking similar to actual TV channel logos or company logos from the 80's. This article at The FontFeed dissects nearly every scene/logo of the DVNO music video offering explanations of font styles and references to real logos. There is a lot of graphic design and typography jargon in this article so if you're not into graphic design technicalities just ignore it. What's really cool is seeing each logo from the video and the comparison that follows. They even offer Youtube links to some of the comparisons including some of my favorite references to the old HBO ident and Stephan J. Canell Productions. I highly recommend watching the video first below and then reading the link, not only is the video amazingly crafted but it's more fun to read the analysis when you have seen the video rather than relying on still shots in the article.

Justice - DVNO from Freedom Record on Vimeo.

Check out an interview with Justice in this link as well if you're curious about the concept behind DVNO.