Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Mashup Madness

SO.....SOMEOME DIDN'T LIKE ME GIVING LINKS TO THEIR WORK AND BLOGGER PULLED MY BLOG UNTIL I REMOVED THE LINKS. HERE'S THE POST AGAIN, SANS LINKS. [I KEPT THE LINKS TO THE DJS WEBSITES IN.....IF THEY OBJECT TO WEB TRAFFIC FROM MY BLOG, THEY CAN KISS MY A$$]


I've really been on a mashup kick lately. I've been surfing from site to site and occasionally posting links to mp3 files on facebook when I ran across a mashup I liked. So, in an effort to spare my facebook friends a million mashups in their newsfeed, I've decided to post the links here and then just post the link for my blog on facebook. See the logic? One million links in the facebook newsfeed have just been condensed to one!

I'd really like to save my favorite mashup until the end of the blog, but I want EVERYONE to hear this one, so I'm going to put it first. This master mashup is by Mad Mix Mustang.

I've Got More Than a Feeling -
Boston-More Than a Feeling vs. The Black Eyed Peas- I've Got a Feeling.

The rest of the mashups aren't in any particular order. Some of them I like because of the simple genius behind combining 2 songs so seamlessly, some are here because the mashup contains an artist I normally wouldn't listen to but the mashup makes me like the song and some are here just because they make me smile. Enjoy the music mashups!

SpacemanOnFire (mashup by Lasso the Moon)
Kings of Leon- Sex on Fire
The Killers- Spaceman
with snippets of T-Rex- Bang-a-Gong

4 Minutes to Mix the World (mashup by Chris Fletcher)
Fletcher uses 50 different songs in this mashup! See how many you can hear. You can find a complete list of tracks used on his website

Brooklyn Rocks (mashup by Lobsterdust)
Beastie Boys-No Sleep Till Brooklyn
Joan Jett- I Love Rock and Roll

Dance Dreams (mashup by Divide and Kreate)
Lady GaGa- Just Dance
Eurythmics- Sweet Dreams

Pink Wedding (mashup by Go Home Productions)
Pink- Let's Get this Party Started
Billy Idol- White Wedding

If I Were a Free Fallin' Boy ( mashup by DJ Earworm)
Tom Petty- Free Fallin
Beyonce- If I Were a Boy

Don't Stop Believin' In Planet Rock (mashup by A + D)
Journey- Don't Stop Believin'
Afrika Bambaataa- Planet Rock

Reckoner Lockdown (mashup by DJ Earworm)
Kanye West- Love Lockdown
Radiohead- Reckoner

Enter You (mashup by Wax Audio)
Metallica- Enter the Sandman
Bryan Adams- Run to You

Touch My Girlfriend (mashup by Titus Jones)
Mariah Carey- Touch My Body
Avril Lavigne- Girlfriend

And......I leave you with mashup by DJ Earworm. Annie Lennox asked him to make a killer mashup of songs from her solo career. Not only did he make a stellar mashup, but he also spliced together snippets of all the videos to make a mashup video as well.

Backwards/Forwards

Monday, October 19, 2009

A Confession (of sorts)

My name is Heather and I'm a book-a-holic.

I've been addicted to books and reading for as long as I can remember. It started at a very young age.......


Having been born third of four children probably helped form my addiction because by the time I arrived, my parents had already amassed a fairly good portion of what would become a sizable collection of children's books. [Please don't think I'm blaming my addiction on my parents, although they fully enabled and encouraged all of us to read quietly as often as we wanted.]

By the time I started first grade, I was well on my way to becoming a bibliophile but something happened which would impact my life so profoundly and cement my future as an addict.

I learned to read.

I remember the exact day, too. Seems simple enough, doesn't it? But for me, that day changed my whole life in an instant and the memory of it is still so vivid in my mind. I was so excited the day reading actually "clicked" for me. I don't know.....maybe my excitement stemmed from the fact of being the baby girl with 2 older sisters who could already read and my competitive, Virgo nature just wanted to catch up with them. Nevertheless, the day I learned to read (seriously, that very day), I marched straight to the library after school and announced to Mrs. Neighbors, the librarian,

"I can read! I need a library card!"

Looking back, I'm sure it thrilled Mrs. Neighbors' book-loving, librarian heart to see a 6 year old so excited about books and reading, but I was oblivious to any of that because I was soaring above the clouds, heady with my own sense of triumph!

Mrs. Neighbors lovingly typed up a library card for me. It read,

Cook, Heather
First Grade, Mrs. Jordan

After the card was prepared, she helped me select my first book for check out. When the transaction was complete, I headed for home with "A Fine Meal". I remember taking the book out of my bag and rushing to show my mother. When I close my eyes, I can see it as if it were yesterday. She and I, sitting on the edge of her bed, my feet dangling and the book perched on our laps; the front cover on her leg, the back cover on mine. I pointed to the words as I read them aloud. At then end of each 3 or 4 word sentence I would pause, look up at my mother and exclaim my astonishment, "See mom, the letters make WORDS" I said, as if I were revealing the secrets of the universe to her.....or at least a great truth she had yet to discover.

Few things in my life have been so earth-shakingly profound as that day of discovery. To realize the alphabet I'd been reciting since kindergarten held such wonder and power within it! It's no wonder I was almost instantly addicted.

Throughout my childhood, my parents eagerly fed my addiction. Summers were spent with weekly trips to the library where I would participate in the summer reading program. It was as good as candy to me! [To this day, I love the crunchy sound of the cello-wrapped books as you open them and the smell of the pages, too!] In addition to my weekly trips to the library, my father would purchase a youth summer book club subscription for me. Once a month I would receive a cardboard box, addressed to me which contained 2-3 hardcover books. I'd also get a canvas bag with each summer's subscription.........it was absolute heaven for me! I'm sure my father would have enrolled my sisters had they shared even the slightest bit of my enthusiasm for books and reading, but he knew I would share my books (but only after I'd read them).

By the time I was in junior high, I owned so many books my shelves had reached critical mass. In an effort to feed my need for books but not collapse my shelves, I discovered a second-hand book shop where I could bring in books I'd already read to trade for others I hadn't yet read! I'm sure it seems as if checking out books from the library would be a sensible option, but to any true bibliophile, owning the book is part of the addiction.

In 2000, I started a 7 year stint as Community Relations Manager for Barnes & Noble. One of the perks of the job were ARCs (advanced reading copies) and review copies of books. Just imagine putting a chocoholic to work at Hershey's and then telling them they get free samples of all the chocolate! Needless to say, during my employment at B&N my library more than quadrupled in size. I moved to a 3 bedroom home just so I could have a room to turn into a library!

I decided to confess my book addiction to you all because this Friday is the Norman Friends of the Library sale. It's not as big at the Oklahoma City Library Book sale, but what they lack in size, they make up for in quality! Every year I find at least one treasure and several things on my list of books I've been wanting to read.

I will come home Friday night with the spoils of a book lover's victory, spread the books beside me on the bed and examine them all, carefully deciding which book will gain the honor of being the "first read". I will read until I fall asleep with the book in my hand, waking up the next morning with a glorious book hang-over!

My name is Heather and I'm a book-a-holic.

Sunday, October 4, 2009

Another One Bites the Dust!

I don't recall if I've blogged here about a certain quartet of men who have made hasty choices where marriage is concerned. BUT, if you're friends with me on Facebook, you've certainly seen frustrated posts about it there.

Here's the scoop. Within 4 months, all 4 of these men have either gotten engaged or married to women with whom they constantly fight and complain about their psycho ways. The first one to marry, stayed in that marriage only 2 months before realizing he had made a huge error and decided to cut his losses and leave. The second to tie the knot revealed this week he'll be doing the same.............sheesh! What compels men to marry these psycho-bitches?!? The third has just recently married, so I'll give it a generous 9 months before it implodes.

And, the 4th......well, he isn't married yet. I'm holding out hope for him. In fact, I'm thinking of staging an intervention. I mean, honestly, I just don't understand why this happens!

I have all sorts of theories about why this happens, but I don't want to throw them out for public consumption, yet. I just needed to vent and get it off my chest...........and lest you think I'm placing the blame on the men, go up to the search field at the top and type in "psycho girl theory" to read my rant about the behavior of some women.

Here's one thing that's certain: If I have to act crazy and throw fits to keep a man, COUNT ME OUT! There have been plenty of times I could have cut some other girl's game by starting drama, but I'm far too practical and SANE to do anything like that.

This madness has to STOP!

Friday, October 2, 2009

What I know to be Certain

I've been going through a lot of transition over the past year and a half. I don't for an instant think it's over, but at least the majority of it is.

Someday I'll write about what I call the "Pendulum Effect" which always happens when one decides to make changes in one's life. I've written a lot about my non-traditional views on relationships and about how I was making some changes in that area and I've also written about my concerns that my non-traditional views are so ingrained in my being I wouldn't be able to make the changes. I have spent the last year, and more specifically, the last 6 months on a totally different path and I've learned a lot about what I want and what I know to be true and certain.

I'd rather be wanted than needed.
I'd rather be loved than tolerated.
I'd rather know the painful truth than to be placated.
I'd rather walk away from someone I like than to be in something one-sided.

Maybe my virgo ways make me too analytical, but if I've learned anything it's that I have to be true to myself. I learned many, many years ago that I can't live my life to make someone else happy. Life is all about the choices we make and I'm choosing to follow my heart, regardless of how unconventional that path may be.

As I've said before, the Starlight Manifesto covers it all:

It is what it is;
We are what we are;
I can only by myself