*Michelle's Mental Clutter*: February 2007

Mashuped Michelle!

Anybody who's bothered to talk to me about music over, say, the last year or so knows that I'm mad over mashups!

There are a huge number of compilations out there at the moment (which - cuz of the genre - may just not be out there the next, like "Best of Bootie 2006" at right!) Snap 'em up with you can!!

I'm particularly likin'em while working out these days. Both, sooner or later, give you the sublime moment! As they say down under and over at Mashuptown,

You are about to have what I call a "Mashup Moment". It's kind of like when you see a beautiful woman from away.....you're not too sure if this Sheila is a winner.... but you eventually get close enough to say to yourself "Wow - there is a God" (please reverse gender if you are female, or a gay male). Now with Mashups it's a bit different. You see the artists involved in the track and think to yourself "hmmm this might be interesting - I dig those bands" but you are still a bit skeptical. Then you start the track. Familiar beats and hooks give ya the warm fuzzies. Familiar memories rush in and take you back in an instant to a time and place in your life that bring back good time feelings. And then.... you get blown away. The track just keeps getting better and better. You think to yourself "How on earth could these tracks be mixed together to sound so amazing?" "How is it possible for someone to poses that much brilliance and talent to be able to figure out and calculate the endless mixing permutations to make the music sound as one?" In an instant your life is better. Your mood is enhanced. You think to yourself 'Life is Good'. And you can't wipe that f*cking smile off your face. That my friend is what I call the Mashup Moment. It is the reason we do what we do here at Mashuptown.

And, yes, there is a God! Mashuptown is my daily purveyor of musical miracles, keepin' me stocked and keepin' me stoked!! :-)

Keep up the jammin' work, blokes!!!!

Newsflash - "Tiny duckling has rare mutation: 4 legs"

I've got just one word for you... CONFIT!! :-)
Plus, the "teabag quote of the day":

Wisdom steeps in youthful moments. - Numi Organic Teas

Different people have different guiding principles... For example, one of my favorite individuals is personally beholden to "harmony". For myself, if there's any such principle for me, it'd be love. Life is too short not to love all you can... That's why this is one of my favorite days of the year!

Maybe the more cynical might think though that it has more to do with this quote from Robert Frost than anything else: "Love is an irresistible desire to be irresistibly desired."

But I think Shakespeare summed it up best!

Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O no! it is an ever-fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.
Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle's compass come:
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.

Newsflash: Mega-Concert this summer in Venice!!

"NEWS. On Thursday, 8 February, the tenth edition of the Heineken Jammin' Festival, the most important rock music festival in Italy, was officially announced in Milan. This year, the event will take place from 14 to 17 June at S. Giuliano Park in Mestre, facing Venice's northern lagoon. The programme will include famous rockers such as Iron Maiden, Pearl Jam, Aerosmith, Smashing Pumpkins, as well as Italian performer Vasco Rossi. Attendance is expected to reach 250,000 people from the whole of Europe. "With this kind of event," Mayor Cacciari said, "we wish to show that the notion that Venice is a dying city of no interest to young people is completely false. The festival is not only important musically but culturally, as well." (via Buongiorno Venezia)

Stuck on "Stuck in Customs"!

Okay, I admit it... I don't handle obstacles well. Or maybe I do... I guess it all depends on your perspective!

First, I "work the problem," then I "overwork the problem" and finally, barring any success from that, I just go ahead and bulldoze any remaining roadblocks. :-)

Case in point, this morning: I've just discovered a wonderful travel photoblog called "Stuck in Customs," and I wanted to add a slideshow of its breaktaking images to my sidebar here at MMC. Easier said than done! Two hours later I had to strike a compromise... the sidebar proved too much for me, so now it's at the bottom. (Scroll down and click through!)

The photographer, Trey Ratcliff, specializes in High Dynamic Range photography. He writes,

HDR enables the photographer to create a color and light palette that goes beyond the normal aperture and shutter speed of the basic shot.In my judgment, a well-executed HDR image is evocative of the actual scene itself. When a human eye is actually on location, it is constantly moving, adjusting the pupil size, allowing in more light in some areas, less in others, and the visual cortex actually works to build a patch-like vision of the scene. That is what we remember in our mind’s eye: an idealized super-realistic memory of the scene. HDR appeals to those people that actually see the world like this.

HDR normally involves multiple exposures of a scene at different stops (i.e. +4, +2, 0, -2, -4). These images are then processed and tone mapped for contrast and luminosity settings in sort of a techno-custom-software-darkroom until a light balance is achieved.

Technobabble? No, it's pure magic! Just wait until you see the results!!

I first discovered "Stuck in Customs" because it's been nominated for one of the 2007 "Bloggies" Awards. Best of luck, Trey!!