Brad Barrish

New Jay-Z video for “99 Problems” is Fantastic. Rick Rubin in da house!

I wouldn’t know anything about this because I was inside all day, but WOW.

I moved to Los Angeles a little over 7 years ago. One of the main reasons I decided to move here was the ocean. Thing is, I’ve never lived very close to the ocean. For the last several years I’ve been living in a two bedroom/two bath. I had originally moved to a large place so that Holly would be comfortable and I would have a little more space for an office and all of the crap that I had been accumulating. I’m a former pack rat. Alright, so maybe I haven’t cleansed myself as well as I could, but I got rid of so much shit when I moved into this new place by the beach. It’s a pretty small place, but I have the ocean two blocks away, which means cool ocean breezes and relatively clean air. I skateboard around town on the weekends and it finally is starting to feel a bit like home.

I actually moved four weeks ago, but because I had to place stuff in storage, sell a few large items, have friends go through stuff I was going to toss or donate and the fact that I had thirty days to complete the move, I took every single day. It literally dragged on and I never felt like I was done until this weekend when I did the final walk-through with my previous landlord, loaded the last bit of stuff into my car and drove off. I was kinda sad about leaving my old hood and all the great neighbors I had, but I have new ones and change is good. I may not always be able to enjoy the change as I am going through it, but at some point I look back and it all seems worth it.

I have some lingering space issues. I can’t put up all of the artwork I own. I only have room for 10,000 Maniacs to Rage Against The Machine. I have a box of books with no shelves to put them on. I have a box of stuff I haven’t unpacked yet. I hate the ideas of getting rid of music, but it may come down to that. I can part with a lot of the books. I usually only read them once anyway, save for a few reference books or nice coffee table books.

I’ll get everything worked out. There’s plenty more to work out…

We were given an assignment at work. I was dreading it, if for no other reason a lot of my CDs are still in boxes and I don’t have room to unpack them. Yesterday I started at 6pm and ended at 12am this morning. 64 songs and I could only choose 12. It was a pretty difficult task, and I don’t really think it could ever be set in stone. I thought I would share. I’m thinking about sorting out the others. They are not in order of importance, but rather sequenced so as to make the mix flow. It’s what I was feeling last night. I’m not gonna put much more energy into this. Books have been written on this sort of thing. It could drive me crazy. It could…

01 The Who - Baba O’Riley 02 Led Zeppelin - Immigrant Song 03 The Kinks - You Really Got Me 04 The Beatles - Eleanor Ribgy 05 Nirvana - About A Girl 06 The Replacements - Unsatisfied 07 R.E.M. - So. Central Rain 08 The Beach Boys - I Just Wasn’t Made For These Times 09 Jeff Buckley - Last Goodbye 10 Marvin Gaye - Let’s Get It On 11 The Beastie Boys - Shake Your Rump 12 Michael Jackson - Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough

We the undersigned pledge our support for freedom of speech and expression on our airwaves, print, the Internet, broadcast, cable and satellite.

While we realize that the government has an obligation to protect our children, surely there needs to be a limit to what is regulated. Adults and parents are capable of making decisions about what to watch, read or listen to and are certainly capable of turning off or putting down anything that may offend them or their children.

As voting citizens, we ask our elected officials to consider your actions in attempting to further regulate television, radio, cable, satellite, print and Internet content.

We consider further censorship attempts to be unconstitutional and we will fight these actions by voting for a politician who cares about our rights as Americans.

Please sign the petition.

In case you were wondering, there’s science behind who will save rock.

I love The Smoking Gun.

[UPDATED] Howard Stern has been taken off “suspended” from the air by Clear Channel. Not because of him doing anything more outrageous or offensive than usual, but because of pressure from the FCC as a direct result of the Janet Jackson halftime show. Whether you are a fan of Howard Stern or not isn’t the issue here, it’s about freedom of speech and the fact that right-wing conservatives are trying to dictate what is appropriate and what is offensive. It’s Unamerican. Plain and simple. I urge everyone to read up about the issue and take some action. Take 5 minutes out of your day to write some emails.

Yahoo article Forbes article AP article Reuters article Hollywood Reporter article Clear Channel press release on new decency standards

Let Clear Channel know what you think and then let the FCC know what you think.

Thank you to Jason for pointing me to the real answer about whether or not to shake a Polaroid picture.

I finally picked up a copy of iLife ‘04 for my Mac. I had been reading so much about GarageBand, that I had to give it a try. The result is a simple down-tempo techno tune called “Wheel Me Downstairs.” It’s the first song I have ever done. It took me about three hours and I’m most definitely not finished, but it’s a start. One of the rather funny things about someone like me trying to make electronic music is that I just can’t seem to fight the urge to make it a three-minute pop song. How many three-minute electronic songs do you know? Well, here’s one for you.