LMFAO rips off MSTRKRFT?

So I was listening to some MSTRKRFT remixes on Sad Steve and in one of them I came across a beat that seemed very familiar. Take listen to the "Element of Danger" MSTRKRFT remix (2006) on Sad Steve and decide whether you think LMFAO's song "I'm in Miami" sounds like they just stripped down the beat added a few chirps and then rapped over it? This isn't really a horrible thing; there's been tons of sampling and recycling going on in hip-hop, rap, and electronic music for a long time. I think it just gets to the reason why I could never totally get into LMFAO. There's no originality; it's just catchy club beats with womanizing lyrics.

Anyway you should all check out MSTRKRFT on Sad Steve. I'm not a a huge fan of their original compositions (though "Heartbreaker" with John Legend is really good), but their remixes are generally original (not just the same song with a club beat) and catchy. The D.A.N.C.E. remix is great.

Stadium 110/The Ocho: A Mistake? A Loveable Bastard Child?

I spent my evening yesterday enjoying homemade pizza, good conversation, and a game of Mad Gabs (!) with a few other Carls in St. Paul. It was an enjoyable evening and I left feeling full and content. One of the most notable occurrences of the evening was when one person commented that all of the "Stadium 110 Boys" love each other so much. That being the case, I did not deny it. However, since I am funemployed and have plenty of time to think, I thought about said assertion for a quite a while. What I will now speak of is what I concluded:

The Ocho was a Loveable Bastard Child, a Cherished Mistake, a serendipitous rooming situation, a fortuitous outcome from a confluence of (at the time) not-so-fortuitous events. Our 2008-2009 school year would not have happened as we know it but for a series of individual events that occurred and that because of which we are better off (does this count as a hanging preposition?).

As you all may recall, we entered room draw as a fragmented set out eight. If I remember correctly, Mark, Ted, and Elliot wanted to live together. John and I wanted to live together. Nonberg, BK, and Toto were planning on living together. We all are vying for Sevy, and planning on combining groups as was sensible at the time. While many enter senior year room draw with a battle-plan and a sure idea of what would happen, we "hadn't the foggiest". We weren't really helped by the draw either, as group after group snatched up Sevy quads and quints, and we were left scrambling.

John and I would not have even been at room draw had John not decided to go off campus winter term. As you may recall, John and I were about "this close" to living above Erbert and Gerbert's. Had that happened, there would have been Six. Maybe Stadium 202 would have occurred (is that the Sextet?). But, where would Alfredo have fit in all of that? We'll never know.

What if one of the Sevy rooms had been open? I believe they are almost exclusively quads. Nonberg had the lowest number, so he would have drawn BK and Toto and... who else? That would have left me, John, and two of Elliot, Ted, and Mark. I have a feeling Mark would have been fucked because, well, he was a freshman and in his words he "didn't really have any say at all" because of that. If Nonberg had opted for Sevy, John and I had taken Erbs and Gerbs, that would have left presumably two of Ted, Elliot, and Mark out in the cold. Elliot and Ted had terrible numbers. Burton double?

When Elliot, John, and I were picking our triple, we picked 203 almost randomly. I remember standing there and being like "Oh, which is bigger? Hmm I don't know. Okay we'll take 203." Surprisingly, we didn't think about proximity to 110 at the time, and to this day, I'm not sure why. Furthermore, we must consider that Stadium 110 dropped incredibly low in the draw. It should not have gone that late. Those triples usually go fairly quickly too. Yet, they didn't. Was it meant to be?

So many things occurred senior year that would simply be unthinkable without the existence of The Ocho. We didn't plan The Ocho. The Ocho was a mistake. Yet it was the best year of our college lives. Funny how that works, right?

Sober blogging

Hey guys. I think it's my turn to do one of those "It's been too long posts."

I got a chance to catch up with some of you, but there are still lots of things for me to blog about, so I'm just going to go James Joyce stream-of-consciousness on this bitch.

Like Mark, I've been thinking about the decade we just left behind. I actually thought about doing a post a month and a half ago but decided it was too soon. Now it's too late. Oh well.

Anyway. I think we'll all remember the Aughties better, or differently at least, than any other decade in our lives. After all it was the decade in which we lived the most formative part of our lives. I know it shaped my worldview quite a bit.

To me the 90's feel like a decade of comfort. And when you look back on them they certainly were pretty simple and comfortable. The 00's on the other hand were clearly pretty turbulent and, I want to say, complex. 9/11, two wars, two recessions, global warming, Katrina, we all know the stories. In many ways, things really went south in the Noughts. But I certainly had many good times in the past decade as well, so I have a lot of mixed feelings about the decade. Also, the 2000's saw the rise of the internet, which, while it was certainly around in the 90's, but not like it is today, not as ubiquitous. In general this has been a good thing, though sometimes more ambivalent. (Sidenote: those Evony ads have gotten pretty ridiculous haven't they?)

I was thinking about signs of the decade to come. I thought it would be interesting in the theme of the whole Father-Time/Baby-New-Year thing to look at the notable deaths at the end of each decade (babies generally don't do anything notable, so births probably wouldn't give any insight).

In December 1999, there was Scatman John and just 33 hours before the year 2000 oldest living person Sarah Knauss. The death of Scatman John was truly saddening and probably marked the end of nineties music, oh how I loved thee. And could it have been an omen of things things to come that the oldest living person didn't hang around to see the new millennium? Maybe, but probably not, 119 is really fucking old.

In December 2009 there was evangelist Oral Roberts, wide-receiver Chris Henry, and actress Brittany Murphy. I have no idea what these mean.

I've sort of lost my train of thought. This is what comes out when I try to do stream of consciousness. I don't think I'm doing it right. I was going to also include some life updates, but I've been writing long enough.. I'll have to post again soon.

Drunk Blogging 201: The ultimate Drunk Blog

How many of us are in grad school; the answer is a lot.

Right now I am at my gf's house at an undergrad party....I am mot sober. This is a curcuial fact in what is happening in my life right now. Whereas many of my firneds here like to think they are cooller than anyone else by not partying with undergrads, I embrace it. I heard Ted and Tim were nto at calreotn today..what bitches..............that's a lot of periods........i can't believe how drunk i am....i lvoe tim and ted so much... Iwish I was in the ocho. oke bye