I’m on a mashup kick as of late, much to Heidi’s annoyance on road trips. When I get to run the radio, it’s all Girl Talk lately and she hates that stuff. Anyway, I found two more artists over the last few days. Both guys have their stuff on their web site for free.
The video above is using a mashup called Sweet Home Country Grammar which is a mashup of Sweet Home Alabama and Nelly’s Country Grammar. So far, it’s just about my favorite discovery of the past few months. The mashup is by DJ Mei-Lwun. You can download this track along with several others at his web site (click his name in the previous sentence). I also really love his mashup of Kanye West’s Jesus Walks and AC/DC’s Back in Black. The mashup is called Jesus Walked Back and He’s Black. It works really well.
The other artist I found has also been doing the mashup thing for a while. His name is Party Ben and he also has an extensive collection of his tracks on his web site. My favorites right now are Galvanize the Empire, a mashup of the Chemical Brothers’ Galvanize and the Empire March from one of the Star Wars movies, and Rehab (Can’t Help Myself), which mashes up Amy Winehouse’s Rehab and the Four Tops’ Can’t Help Myself. So good. Check out his web site, you can preview and/or download a whole ton of stuff there.
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Easy funny:
You can see it right there, science doesn’t lie. The correlation is clear as the Los Angeles haze — countries that educate women are dumping carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Now, unless you’re crazy enough to think that it’s the CO2 that is causing all those girls to go get themselves an education, I think the implication is obvious: feminism is destroying the planet.
When I was last in Boston, I had dinner with Eric and his girlfriend at CPK at the Pru. As usual, we had the hour wait and spent time wandering around Barnes and Noble to pass the time. As we were walking around the various bookshelves talking about books and politics and such, we walked by the women’s studies section where I saw the most unexpected book: SuicideGirls. This is a book for the eponymous porn site.
I’ve never belonged to SuicideGirls, but because they advertise on some of the bigger blogs, I’ve heard of them. They get a lot of good press too because their models break the Playboy-style artificiality. These models are “real” and people geeks and hipsters might be interested in. Say, for example, BoingBoing’s crowd of users. Or Xeni Jardin fans (co-editor of BoingBoing). They also get credit for being a site that “empowers” their models and gives them some control over how they’re presented on the site. The models have blogs on the site, talk to users, etc. It sounds like what a non-exploitive porn site should be.
Anyway, my point is that it’s kind of odd to see them in the women’s studies section but at least it’s understandable. I got home and mentioned it to Heidi. I defended SG a little, saying that pretty much what I’ve said above (better than the rest, might even be a morally “good” porn site in their business dealings).
Well, based on a new article in Wired, it seems I may have to take back what I’ve said above. From the article:
Talk about piercing the veil.
A group of angry ex-models is bashing the SuicideGirls alt-porn empire, saying its embrace of the tattoo and nipple-ring set hides a world of exploitation and male domination.
The women are spreading their allegations through the blogosphere, raising the hackles of the SuicideGirls company, which has until now enjoyed a reputation as porn even feminists can love. It offers burlesque tours, clothes and DVDs in addition to a sprawling online library of naked punk and goth women.
…
Two of the ex-models say they were attracted by the empowerment message, too. “I liked that you had a journal and voice, you had the chance to make your own (photo) sets,” said “Dia,” a 30-year-old former model who doesn’t wish to be identified because she now works outside the porn business in Northern California.
“I looked forward to making great art,” added Dia, who has unsuccessfully tried to get her photos off the site.
She and other models say that contrary to its image as a women-run operation, SuicideGirls is actually controlled by a man — co-founder Sean Suhl. They accuse him of treating women poorly and failing to pay them enough. (According to the site’s FAQ, SuicideGirls models get paid $300 per photo set.)
As usual, Amanda Marcotte over at Pandagon steps back and takes a look at the broad picture here.
I don’t think the fact that a man owns it really makes it any less of a female empowerment enterprise, but control over the images seems important to me as does ongoing revenue sharing. Promoting a band and all that… meh.
