Halloween music
Halloween is a week away so to set the mood, I’ve got some music to share. First is a music video from 2005 by an organization called the North American Hallowe’en Prevention Initiative, for a song entitled “Do They Know It’s Halloween?” This song was released by Vice Records as a UNICEF fundraiser and is the result of an idea thought of by dudes in that band The Unicorns. Finally, recruited a lot of famous-ish weirdos including Buck 65, David Cross and Elvira, Mistress of the Dark. The result an amazing song that, while citing Bob Geldof as an obvious inspiration, makes this sort of cause accessible to the bar-going set. Hilarious too.
Now, here are two mixes that should give you an excellent song choice for this week leading up to the big day. The first is VHS Halloween Party 2008 mix by Evil Nine. I don’t know too much about this duo from the UK but as the title suggests, this 55-minute mix is loaded with 80s horror flick music. Tonnes of stuff from the Living Dead movies, some John Carpenter and Goblin stuff for good measure and even songs by The Cramps and Eagles of Death Metal. Play this for your kids as they fall asleep. They’ll hate you forever.
The second mix originally came out last year (when More Cowbell jokes were still funny) but still, this rules. This time, it was produced by an Ottawa DJ Chris Rockwell. A lot shorter than the first, Rockwell’s Phantom Sound Halloween Mix 2007 runs just over 25 minutes but it’s a lot denser and beat-oriented. In this one, you’ll find a pretty ecclectic collection including remixes of the Ghostbusters theme and Monster Mash and then some Rob Zombie and Alice Cooper too. Even an Addams Family/New Order mashup!
Don’t fear the reaper. Baby, take my hand.
PS: I added some photos to my website!
PPS: Kitsune Noir released a pretty dope mix called Hellaween mixed by Punchy two days ago. Not so keen on the ODB radio edit but it has pretty good flow overall so be sure to rep it.
Mad Decent!
Diplo, Boy 8 Bit, Jokers of the Scene, Abe Vigoda, Telepathe.
Last night was crazy.
Photos!
Piece of Innocence photos for sale!
Alright! There’s been a lot of talk about my dealings in Kenya but up until now, the 16 photos that are on display at the Department of Foreign Affairs in Ottawa until October 31 have never been seen online. That is changing RIGHT NOW. I’m pretty excited about this. Are you?
Each photo is also being auctioned on eBay. If there’s one that interests you, you should click on it. This will lead you to the auction page where you can learn more about the individual photograph and place a bid!
The auctions will run until the end of the exhibit on October 31.
Proceeds from the sale of these photos will go back towards youth projects in Western Kenya which is pretty awesome. This is a unique opportunity for you to play a part in making a difference in the lives of Kenyan children!
To photographers who post photos to Facebook…
This is sort of old news but as more and more photographers start creating Facebook groups or pages to promote themselves, I think it deserves mentioning. The main idea of this post is that if you use Facebook to promote yourself, do it in a way that drives traffic to your own website. Also, make sure your website is easy to use and look at.
Long story short, according to the user agreement, whenever you submit content to Facebook, you are granting them a license to do whatever they want with the images. Wired even did a story on people’s profile photos ending up in online ads. It all reminds me of when a band from Ottawa got their music used during a Super Bowl broadcast because they consented to this type of thing simply by posting their songs on MySpace.
Here’s the bit from the user agreement:
“…you automatically grant … an irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, transferable, fully paid, worldwide license (with the right to sublicense) to use, copy, publicly perform, publicly display, reformat, translate, excerpt (in whole or in part) and distribute such User Content for any purpose, commercial, advertising, or otherwise…”
Generally, I like what Facebook provides but I can’t stand behind the idea that an ad-supported, for-profit entity might use my images without working out a deal with me first.
Solution? Don’t post images or post only watermarked images. For a long time, I didn’t like watermarking but given the amount of uncredited photos that float around online, now, I’d almost prefer more images to be watermarked so that if I see one I like, I can at least know who took it and find more work by that same photographer. I mean, watermark or not, I don’t plan on printing enlargements from photos found on the Web… Does someone’s name or logo really deter from the work that much? Thoughts?
More info:
Facebook Terms of use
A Visual Society
Wired
DJ Huggs & Straight Goods crew
Jokers of the Scene are on tour so Drastik and Straight Goods filled in with DJ Huggs from Montreal/L.A.
Next month, DJ Sega comes back. Diplo somewhere in there too.
Upcoming exhibit of photos captured by Kenyan orphans
If you’ve been reading this since June-ish, you know that I spent five weeks this summer in Kisumu, Kenya. Well, we’re just days away from launching a major exhibition called Pieces of Innocence in the lobby of the Pearson Building (Foreign Affairs headquarters at 125 Sussex Drive in Ottawa). The exhibit will be open to the public from Monday, October 6 to Friday, October 31, 2008.
For more info on the exhibit, you can check out the event page on Facebook.
It would also be super cool if you joined the Tumaini Children’s Project Facebook Group!
If you feel like contributing but know you wont be able to make it to the exhibit in October, I still have some of my own prints for sale on Etsy. The kids’ photos will also be available for sale. More details on this soon…
I also want to say thank you, asante sana (Kiswahili) and ero komano (Luo) to some of our major supporters including MoreTimeMoms, GPC Labworks and Michelle’s Frame Maker and Gallery in North Bay. Michelle was completely stupendous and provided an overwhelming contribution in framing supplies for this exhibit. A lot of other businesses in North Bay supported the project too. Thanks to everyone for their generosity.
That’s it for now, I think. More to come later. Leave a comment if you have any questions!
THIS JUST IN… two preview images of some photos framed and matted.
Walking at the primary school. Christopher Omondi (Age 10). 12”x18”
Boy against a wall. Blaise Omondi (Age 12). 12”x18”
Trude
Recently, I featured my friend Iain on here but today, I want to talk about another friend doing awesome creative stuff. Meet Mathieu Trudel.
I think we first official met at the local punk bar, the Dominion Tavern sometime in summer 2001 shortly after I returned from my second trip to Nunavut. What an impressive first impression he made. There aren’t many of us francophones in Ottawa who are into rock and roll and to meet Matt was a special moment. For example, this was a dude that helped start a classic hardcore radio show called Shouting to be Heard on the University of Ottawa’s CHUO 89.1 fm. I also quickly learned that he had worked for John K’s Spumco
For a long time, I saw his work as a harking back to a mid-century animation aesthetic but now that he started using computers, I find his style has evolved a lot and while you can still see where he goes for inspiration, the form and colours Matt uses allows for rather unique results.
What inspired me to post this is that Exclaim and Pitchfork both picked up the story that Matt illustrated at 15-page colouring book for an upcoming King Khan and BBQ 7″ coming out on Fat Possum Records.
Since the record isn’t out yet, we have no examples of the colouring book. In the meantime, take a gander at a poster he created using one of my photos.
Also worth noting is that the photo included in the Exclaim article was most likely taken by one of the people in the second photo of my story about garage rock in Israel. On October 10, the guy on the far right of that photo will play with King Khan and BBQ on the same stage as The Mummies in Valencia, Spain too! Small world.
It amazes me everyday to think about how much creativity surrounds me. Sometimes things just fall into place like that.
James Nachtwey
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