I love today's pic of the day from wikipedia.

David Iliff's beautiful shot of the New York Skyline:

You know a star is big when his death cripples the internet. These figures from valleywag are pretty amazing:
 

•       Leading news websites saw traffic surge to 4.2 million visitors per minute from around 2.75 million visitors per minute, according to Akamai.


•       CNN's traffic grew fivefold in one hour and the site clocked 20 million pageviews.


•       Twitter had its biggest spike in traffic, to 5,000 tweets per second, since Barack Obama's election as president, according to co-founder Biz Stone.


•       Facebook status updates tripled.


•       AOL Instant Messenger went down for 40 minutes.


•       TMZ, which broke the news of Jackson's death, crashed several times amid a surge of traffic.


•       The LA Times, which got early confirmation of the death, went down, as well.


•       For about half an hour, Michael Jackson queries weren't working on Google News.


•       Wikipedia froze amid an edit war on Jackson's page.

And while all the pedophile/bubbles/giraffe/neverland jokes orbit this sad occasion, I find solace in a lovely read by deepak chopra, who knew him personally, and gave me some insight into his world, and who he may have truly been:

"Considering the monstrously exaggerated value our society places on celebrity, which was showered on Michael without stint, the public was callous to his very real personal pain. It became another tawdry piece of the tabloid Jacko, pictured as a weird changeling and as something far more sinister."

I don't have the words to describe MJ's contributions to dance music, except to say that it wouldn't be the same without him. His music continues to be sampled and remixed over and over by producers and artists worldwide. I don't think that you can say that about many other artists. I won't go into a long anecdote about getting the 'Thriller' album, or watching the jackson 5 on TV.


I will say that I bought a 45 single of 'Off the Wall' as a kid, and that I loved 'Serious'. I will also say that he helped show me the way to my current love of dancing and dance music, and for that I'm truly grateful.

Thanks Michael.

22:57 Is that hair gel I smell? I must be in Irvine. House night at the Ilounge. The shiny shirt posse is representing in force.

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We talkin' about practice.

Andy Hughes of The Orb died on Friday. Rest in Peace Andy, your work changed the world.

00:23 Having a crazy night in the studio..insane sounds coming out of gear. Way way fun times.

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Cool cassette tape art.

13:15 Working on business paperwork, buying vinyl as a tax write off? I'm loving that!

14:09 I'm now on the wefollow.com twitter directory under: #music #dj #producer

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What with summer coming on...here's a little lego fun by smokebelch over on flickr.

15:16 Supah-Groove: Revenge's remix of the classic "Dancing In Outer Space" by Atmosphere on Wolf Music.

15:29 testing twitterflickr... flic.kr/p/6vTmUR

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16:07 Just joined a twibe. Visit twibes.com/DeepHouse?v=0 to join

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12:59 Counting down the hours Until I can get back in the studio... Remix deadline looming.

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the caption says it all.

12:07 Still working on a remix project due friday. It's june in LA, and it's raining. Gloom Sucks.

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16:34 Hot Track: A banger by Craig Hamilton - "Funky Soul" on Blockhead Recordings; Stepping around fierce in the office today.

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Back at work after a pretty fun weekend.

Friday - Saw Bassnectar at the Henry Fonda Theater in Hollywood and saw a slice of culture I hadn't seen before; the burner/indie crowd. They weren't burners, not indie, but somewhere in the middle. An interesting demographic to say the least.

Saturday - Spent time in the studio with djrisc, working on a remix project.

Sunday - took some quality downtime, re-adjusting to life Post OODE; watched some hockey, and installed some new audio filter apps for the production computer.


Movie Reviews in One Sentence:

-- Star Trek:  J.J. Abrams delivers a hot young and sexy star trek.
-- X-Men Origins: Wolverine: Another X-men flick on par with the original.
-- Monsters Vs. Aliens: Nice Dreamworks animation with great performance by Reese Witherspoon; good flick!
-- Terminator: Salvation: A great summer blockbuster film, lots of action, and a plot that holds up.
-- UP: Pixar doesn't make bad films; strait up, the best movie of the year so far.

Blatant Promotion:
I'm taking a quick second to pimp my brother's beer blog... if you take your beer seriously, it may be worth a read.

New Mixes:
I've posted some new sets up on my mix page:
Poolside 2009 -- deep/tech house for your summer lounging needs
Sawtooth Symphony -- A collection of this and that with an uptempo electro feel.
Enjoy.

20:21 Friday night sushi at one of my favorite spots. Headed to see bassnectar tonight. Weekend looking very good.

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post is friends only...

00:00 Finishing up my post OODE reflections at my favorite hookah bar. Getting ready for another crazy weekend. Check blog for details tomorrow.

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21:43 Post Oode decomp gathering at kennedy school in PDX. Epic weekend: check.

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