a few days at “The Spot”

djp7222/4/2008

yesterday {monday 21st april 2008} and for a few scattered days over the next 2 weeks i will be doing some workshops and hanging out with the kids at The Spot.
my first introduction to The Spot was a couple years ago when my man Charlie T; “the educator” from the winnie coopers was working up here and i came up with him to check it out… now my mate Warren M; “Rezadent” from the hip-hop duo Fortune - is the co-ordinator at The Spot for the “Get Ready For Work” programme. and for the next couple of weeks the spot’s in house designer is on his honeymoon, so i’m there to give the kids a fresh perspective and do some photography with them… it should be interesting.
it is also interesting having to travel to “work” as someone who has worked from home for the last few years, it is a big hoo-har to have to co-ordinate with benita and juggle our one car. i’ll keep ya updated.
anyway, here are some shots from day one at The Spot: {taken with my phone and the spot’s beat up canon 300D}

Posted in 005] friends, 010] photography, 040] music, 041] hip-hop, 090] thoughts, 099] everything |

the {best of} song chart “meme”

djp7210/3/2008

there is a “meme” floating around the net - that is: there is a silly idea being talked about by web nerds and geeks…
THE SONG CHART.
here is the group on flickr.

basically you take a song and make a nerdy chart/graph/screenshot of it in action.

for example, here is what some consider to be the original:

that is Kelis’ horrible song “my milkshakes” chorus displayed in a graph.
got it?
ok.
here are my favourites, see if you can work out the artist and song.

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

and here are some honourable mentions, they are brilliant too.

reflex

where it is at

sweet dreams

vanilla ice

solsbury hill

quest

long short

things you gotta know

and one of my all time favourites: robert smith’s iCal

---

so what are your favourite ones?
can you come up with one?
i’m trying to think of an original idea….
i’ll keep ya posted.

Posted in 040] music, 041] hip-hop, 070] geek, 099] everything |

bump mustard empire tracks on thesixtyone.com

djp729/1/2008

i knew there was a good reason i had so much love for the sixty one dot com!
you can embed songs!
woot!!

Posted in 005] friends, 040] music, 041] hip-hop, 070] geek |

in love with: part four: deeprock drive

djp728/1/2008

moving right along to the fourth stop on this super love highway…
let me introduce you to DeepRockDrive!

here’s what they say about themselves on their website:
DeepRockDrive is a new music experience… Fans help create setlists of songs that’ll be played, create their own version of the show with an assortment of camera angles and feeds, and beam feedback directly to the stage during the show… fans vote in artists, create their own calendar of live performances, partner with artists to virally promote shows, and decide what songs are performed…. Every single fan enjoys the same access to their favorite artists. The smallest of garage bands has exactly the same ability to create and reach a community of fans as a mega-group. All shows at DeepRockDrive are the same low price for everyone and because DeepRockDrive harnesses the power of the Internet, every seat is even better than the front row.

the skinny:
Live Music + Social Website.
these dudes have an incredible live stage/studio set up out in Las Vegas, they invite bands to come and play live at their HQ, often to a pretty empty studio, and they film it with 4 or more cameras and stream the show LIVE to their website. as you watch the show you can send shout outs/messages that display LIVE on a massive screen that the band can see. you can also switch to different camera angles live too. the picture quality is really good and the sound has been spot on.
on the website end this is a slightly socially interactive site where you create an account and then find artists you like or ones that sound interesting, and vote on them. if you have a favourite artist and they are not listed on the site, you create a artist profile and a petition to get people to vote, once an artist get’s around 1000 votes- the team behind DRD goes to them and convinces them to play live in their funky set up in Las Vegas…
tickets are around $7 bucks USD for the shows, so it’s nice and cheap to see your favourite artist “live”…

here is the main welcome screen - simple and clean interface with the standard all about us video:

below is what you’ll see when you sign in- all the stats and news.

“my petitions” next are the current four petitions that i have going… {more on that coming below}

here is the page you will see to create a petition- all the steps you go through-

here is a petition to see the one and only king of pop- {i love the fact that the picture is from the “BAD” era of Michael Jackson, which is my favourite Michael}

and here is a page displaying an upcoming show, and for all my aussie friends, yes, seriously shannon noll will be the first aussie to rock out on deep rock drive! {rolling eyes}

here we have the “DIGIPOSTERS” that you can create to promote your petition for your favourite artists- you can create different sized posters {as you can see below} you can also create desktops for your computer {?} - these digiposters are embedable and also downloadable as a jpeg, the embedded ones are links back to the artist page…
so here is my petition for everyones favourite Texan rapper: {3×2 horizontal}

my petition to see Tracy Chapman: {2×3 vertical}

my banner style {they call it “leaderboard”} petition for Robert Smith & the cure:

and my most popular petition- the greatest living artist today; Bjork.

so what are you waiting for?? go ahead and click one of those digiposters above and sign up and vote for my artists on DeepRockDrive!!

*** note - my much loved homeboy Jon Madison is one of the programmers for this start up, he got me on to this ages ago in the beta and thanks to him i’ve had the privilege of seeing a bunch of free live test shows…. but seriously, even though my man works for these guys, and the company’s success will feed his beautiful family, this has not influenced my take on the site at all… if i didn’t love it, i would never have mentioned it…. so if you wanna be a hater to new awesome ideas in live music, go ahead, and while you are at it, why don’y you snatch the food off the table from jon’s gorgeous little children!!

{i kid! i kid! - DeepRockDrive friggin rocks}