Bed-Stuy PUNK

The Roots Ticket + 3 Vinyls + #6 DJ Lesson

{$103.80/$297.88}

In about a month, I have to perform a 6 track mix set in front of our class. We could

use Serato. However, I wanted to do it Old School Style. I went to Earwax Records

in Williamsburg, Bleecker Bob’s Golden Oldies Record, and Turntable Lab, but found

only 2 of the 6 Vinyls I need. Here are the two vinyls.

I also got the RATM remix by Sebastien.

^

In class today, we learned how to EQ Mix. This technique was widely used by House

DJs. Listening to 2 sets of bass drum from one speaker is not a pleasant experience.

To have a smooth transition from one song to the other, the bass drum must not be

too heavy. This is why as you slowly introduce your new song, start removing the

bass of the old song. This sounds easy, and it is easy, but every song has its own way

of entering. Practicing until it sounds perfect is the way to go for this.

^

My current mix is a vocal intro following It Ain’t Love by MSTRKRFT. As the first

song starts to end, the clock sound from Warp 1.9 comes in. As soon as the first song

ends, Warp starts at the 1- 2-Whoo-Whoo part. This sounds amazing.

^

On this same day, I went to the  Roots concert at Highline Ballroom. Racially diverse

crowd, Genre diverse music, with a bit of dancing made the whole night relaxed. I

was very disappointed at Amanda Diva’s performance. But The Roots pulled it all

together at the end.

I grew up listening to Offspring, Green Day, Rancid, and etc. But I never knew how all of this PUNK movement started. This is why I decided to buy this book.

Please Kill Me (the uncensored oral history of Punk)

{$9.92/$194.08}

Overall, I’m disappointed in PUNK. But I’m satisfied. The PUNK I know is all about

giving the finger to the BIG MAN. You know you can’t beat the BIG MAN, but you

want to do something about those pigs who rip you off. So that started PUNK! I hate

how you are doing things, and I know anything I do won’t change a thing, but this is

how I feel and the only way I know how to express my anger at you.

^

The musicians who first started this sort of movement, The Velvet Underground, was

well tutored by the famous Andy Warhol. After the first generation of pioneers, things

just got bad. Punk stars became junkies and useless. The movement started to be an

act of self destruction. England saw this act of self destruction and magnified this to a

new level of Chaos, and it died.

^

Danny Fields: “…this punk thing wasn’t viable. That they were meant to self-destruct

and so what’s the point in investing in any of them? Why build an audience for the

Ramones or the Pistols or the Clash? Why institutionalize them if they’re just

going to be destroyed, if it’s their nature to destroy others and to destroy

themselves?”

Legs McNeil: “Now that it was here, I didn’t want any part of it. Overnight, punk had

become as stupid as everything else. Punk wasn’t ours anymore. It had become

everything we hated.”

^

POWER ANGER DIY were the things good about PUNK. Let’s leave it at that.

He doesn’t know how to knock you down with the one inch punch. He didn’t practice

dim mak. But he is the 12th United States Secretary of Energy.

Check Out The Daily Show Interview

As the Secretary of Energy, Steven Chu promotes the Cap & Trade of carbon dioxide.

He believes this will start a new revolution similar to the industrial revolution. I

don’t have a strong opinion about Cap & Trade. But I do have a high interest in

Steven Chu.

^

The interview with Jon Stewart and Steven Chu was very refreshing to me. He

understood how to be on The Daily Show. He sent his message very clear, and

handled Jon Stewart’s joke very well. I felt like as if my uncle was talking about

baseball to me. His Down to Earthness and chill composure caught my

attention, but I realized later that this dude is the Secretary of Energy for the

US of A.

^

I was very disappointed in Obama’s selection of his cabinet crew. Rahm seems to piss

everyone off. Tim seems to give money away to his old pals. And why were so many

candidates for the Obama cabinet not paying their taxes? But then comes a long

Steven Chu. He has a Nobel Prize in Physics he can whip that out to catch everyone’s

attention. I believe Stven Chu can speak over Obama when it comes to Energy and

Science. This comforts me a lot. When it comes to Global Warming, I want a

scientist to fix it. Not a politician.

I’m sure Steven Chu is a great scientist and professor. But it’s too early to know if he

is a great Secretary of Energy. He did suggest the idea of putting tax on gas, which

got shot down by Obama. I’ll be putting an eye on him. As far of now, he is a great

role-model for the American people.

I can’t listen to the Scratch DJ Academy LPs anymore. The bass and snare on that LP

is draining out my brain. Oh someone please help me.

Another A-Trak Monkeyboy Breaks Vinyl at Fat Beats + #5 DJ Lesson

{$63.08/$184.16}

Now I can finally try beat matching with these two vinyl. We learned how to beat

match two different songs. The first step is to know the BPM of the two songs you are

trying to mix. If the leading record is about 90 BPM and the following record is about

87 BPM, you know you have to increase the pitch of the following turntable. Now that

you know which one to increase, put your body in motion with the leading record

beats. This lets your body count while your mind is listening to the

following record to beat match. Once you think you got the beats matching pretty

well, drop it on the one again and repeat beat matching for fine tuning. Laura at

Scratch Academy told me, she does it 5 times.

^

It took me 4 tries to get the second A-Trak Monkeyboy Breaks. On Friday, the dude

in front of me took the last copy, but another shipment was suppose to come on

Monday. I went there on Monday, but at 6 PM. I went there at 6PM and he told me

he needed to organize the vinyl to sell. So I came back at 7:30 PM, on finally got my

second A-Trak Monkeyboy Breaks. What a journey…

^

Fat Beats is a hip-hop orientated record store, with weekly live DJ spins. On Monday,

DJ Spinna was spinning. I don’t know him much, but HE WAS ILL. A true

master at work.

I hope one day I’ll be spinning in front of a live audience.

PRACTICE PRACTICE PRACTICE

If you read the DAILY BEAST or any form of UK media bashing the US (Guardian) for

a good couple of month, you know Bush increased the funding for abstinence

education. And no one in America is having sex before they get married. If

Bush had a third term, he would of increased the research funding to find Noah’s Arc.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported teen pregnancy

“rose sharply.” And this comes to NO surprise to me. As an ex-teen, I didn’t want

to listen to anybody. I listened from whoever I wanted to. And if they made me listen,

I’ll just piss them off by doing exactly what they told me not to do. This is Teen

Psychology 101. Bush missed this class during his time in Yale. (unconfirmed)

Because sex is a prerequisite for pregnancy + teen psychology + government

abstinence campaign = teen pregnancy “rose sharply.”

^

Although this is a slowly exploding time bomb, we know government can’t do things

right. This is why they apologize for their mistake, fix it, and try to make the best out of

it. But the abstinence-education advocates did not go through this cycle of apology.

They followed the Palin way and made a renegade statement. The advocates stated that

the curriculum did not fail, but failed due to the lack of money they had.

Bush gave you the most money in history, and teen pregnancy “rose sharply.” I say lets

take away all the money and see what happens.

^

Abstinence is an idea thrown around in many religions and non-religion. In America,

this became a political issue for Christians. When I was a strong Christian, I was

indulged with the idea of abstinence. But that never gave me the right to think of my

other classmates, who had sex, wrong or sinful. And this is where Christians in Politics

got it wrong. They seem to have a HARD time figuring out what relies on

personal decision, and what relies on social responsibility.

^

We have no business what goes on in bedrooms or sex swings. It’s your decision who to

fuck. But there is more going on than penetration. You could be the father or mother of

a child. A child must have parents who will teach them about the world they are going

to live in. Are you ready to be a mentor about LIFE? If so, please proceed. If you are

not, discuss this with your mate. Use a condom, or cum outside to prevent pregnancy.

If you do cum inside, let your mate know and try to find a solution. Don’t ignore it. If

you don’t want STDs, get to know your mate before you fuck’em.  Last but not least, we

live in a society full of people just like you and full of people just NOT  like you. To you,

sex might be nothing. To someone, sex might mean a lot. Open up that conversation

and make sure you’re not breaking another person’s heart. Be responsible for your

actions!

Unwanted pregnancy, and STDs are the problems we need to focus on. According to the

Old Testament, I think it’s about time God comes down with his wrath and wipes out

everyone. But we all know this is not going to happen. So let’s stop looking at the church

for solutions to REAL problems. Let’s start researching the behavior of teen sex.

Interview people with STD, so that we know what thoughts are going through.

^

God doesn’t even have a dick. That’s why Mary was a virgin. Sex problems shouldn’t

be discussed with a dickless God.

This is Your Brain on Music by Daniel J. Levitin {$15/$121.08}

The author used to be in a band, but fell in love with the BRAIN as well. If you’ve been

listening to music more than a decade this book will be very interesting for you.

Just like most cognitive study related book, we learn that we are not who we think

we are. The songs we listened to in the past will affect the music we listen to in the

future. This is because our brain records and stores data of each song we listen to.

If we listen to Britney and Jonas Brothers for 10 yrs, we will listen to the sortof crap

for 50 more yrs. If you train your listening skills to be more diverse, every

song will be pleasant for your ears.

^

The type of songs you listen to during your teenage year will affect you the most.

Because teenage years are when you ask the serious questions in life. Who am I? What

am I good for? How do I steal money from my mom’s purse? Except for the last question,

all questions are related to finding who you are as a person. The music you listen to

during these years will impact how you are as a person.

^

Out of many components of music, for example rhythm, scale, melody, and beat, the

author argues that timbre, the type of instrument you are playing a note, has the most

distinguished taste out of all the components. Shifting the chords, changing the

rhythm, has all been done before. But in the late 20th century and the 21st century,

the type of instrument you play with is the most differentiating factor of them all. I

agree with his statement! Look at electronica music these days… its amazing what

kindof sound they can produce!

For your future music listening entertainment,

I highly recommend this book.

The Conscience of a Liberal by Paul Krugman

Paul Krugman is a famous economist who won the Nobel Prize for Economics.

The  book promotes narrowing the gap between the rich and poor class.

The book is all about REPUBLICAN PARTY BASHING. In a society like ours, we have

the rich, the poor, and everyone in the middle. The narrower the income gap is, the

society as a whole is more stable. But what are the forces needed to keep this gap narrow

as possible? This is where government comes in. The government has the power to

narrow this gap, or let it widen as much as the free market wants it to.

^

The book looks at union organization and welfare history in the US. Since the 70s,

unions got harder to organize and the amount of money put in welfare decreased.

Following this was the increase in income gap. The Obama administration is setting

policies to increase welfare, and campaigning for a strong union organization. These

policies are in-sync with Dr. Krugman’s research.

^

I believe a society AS A WHOLE must develop and grow. We’ve seen amazing

developments over the past few decades. But were we marching on forward together?

I do not believe this is the case. The richest in the nation were getting obese, fat, and

stuffed while the poorest had to get their second job, or maybe third job. I admire

those who work three jobs, just to get food on the table. However, I’m disgusted about

the situation. Nobody should be working three jobs, just to get food on the table. So

what is an indication of my opinion? The minimum wage in this country does not

increase that much compared to the economy. I’m not sure about the idea of putting

an income gap on the rich, but I do believe we have to increase the minimum wage.

My philosophy is that, if the country is getting wealthier, the people of the

country needs to get wealthier at the same time.

Republicans were destroying unions, and welfare for too long.

Now is the time for a new change!