Remade in the shade

And now for a shorter version of my "Made in the Shade" playlist from June 2018. Remade in the Shade focuses on the most mixable of the music from that playlist: A little bit of Poolside, a smidgen of Pino D'Angio, a soupcon of Silvetti, a big dollop of Stephanie of Monaco (because I can).

I think the DJs of the world have nothing to worry about. While some of my shorter mixes have attracted attention, what gets more noted and praised are my themed playlists--shortwave radio, Apartheid, things like that.

I don't have another theme in mind at the moment, at least not a fully formed one. But I'll get there. All in good time.

I hope you enjoy.

And, no, I have no idea why all the images I uploaded to MixCloud have suddenly disappeared.

Slow down and dance with me

Yet another summer project that I didn't get around to sharing sooner--my Summer Noir mixtape.

I can't tell you how many versions, revisions, and remixes I made to get this "right"--assuming that now it is indeed right. It is at least done!

This is another case of my going with a certain range of beats per minute-specifically 82 to 95 BPM. You'll hear some of my usual suspects: Some bossa nova, some dance, some pop, some R & B, some world music, and some disco, new and old school, with songs by Poolside, Pet Shop Boys, and Grace Jones, Jessie J, Kelis, Toni Braxton, Zuco 103, Glass Animals, Lisa Stansfield, Marvin Gaye, Skip&Die, Etienne Daho and Astrud Gilberto, the Style Council, the Minogue Sisters, Donna Summer, and more.

Is the mix a success? Well, I like it. I don't know that it has a point of view like my previous Cruel Summer Mix--77 Gaza Strip I posted two years ago. Other than being slow, simmering, danceable, and slightly sinister, which was my aim. But I had fun making it and tried out some tricks, such as overlaying tracks and even making a mashup, that seem to have worked pretty well. I think the world's DJs can rest easy, I'm not likely to steal their jobs anytime soon, but the point of all of this is to make mixes I would enjoy listening and dancing to. And hopefully at some point I'll make some mixes that others enjoy listening to as well.

My stats on MixCloud do not provide much hope in achieving this goal, however. With earlier mixes and podcasts, there have been listens, likes, and even a share or two. But of late, not much reaction. (Although I was all aflutter when someone recently liked my first mashup, "No More Sweet Lujon," which I think is one of my best.)

Admittedly, my topics for mixes can be obscure (The Songs of Shortwave Radio, parts 1, 2, and 3, anyone?), so a limited audience is to be expected. Nonetheless, it is frustrating: My blog gets views but few comments; my mixes may or may not get listens let alone likes; my Twitter posts are regularly unremarked upon; my Wikipedia contributions go mostly unnoticed and unrewarded.

So am I doing all this for me or for others? That's an age-old question for artists, I would imagine. I don't think I've done anything worthy of the artist label yet, but I would hope to. In fact, I'd like to think that when I'm done with doing what I have to do to earn a living, I might have a second career (non-lucrative but perhaps more satisfying) in writing, editing, public "thinking," and other ways to share my interests. This is work I would enjoy doing and work that I hope would find a supportive audience

Coz don't we all want to hear what an almost-55-year-old American expat thinks about history, culture, and current affairs . . . .

I have ten years until retirement, ten years to figure it out and find an audience. I suspect I'll always have a limited audience--my sense of humor and (self-) righteousness seems to go over better among my closer Facebook friends, anyway. But there's no time like the present and the immediate future to get going and make some noise. Consider this mix one more attempt to make something happen.

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The Summer Noir playlist

• Poolside - "Slow Down" 
• Pet Shop Boys - "Vampires" 
• Serge Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin - "Je t'aime (moi non plus)" (Dzihan and Kamien Remix) 
• Ahmad Soultan - "Ya Salaam" 
• Robyn - "Big City" 
• Odyssey - "Don't Tell Me, Tell Her" (perhaps my favorite track in the mix) 
• Etienne Daho and Astrud Gilberto - "Les bords de seine" 
• Kelis - "Hooch" 
• The Style Council - "Long Hot Summer" (extended version) 
• Jessie J. - "Price Tag" 
• Donna Summer - "La vie en rose" (remixed version) 
• Grace Jones - "La vie en rose" (album version) 
• Toni Braxton - "He Wasn't Man Enough for Me" (extended version) 
• Lisa Stansfield - "Time to Make You Mine" 
• Carlos Lyra - "Influencia do jazz" 
• Skip&Die - "La cumbia dictadura" 
• Zuco 103 - "Um coco" (possibly my favorite mashup, Skip&Die and Zuco 103) 
• Glass Animals - "Walla Walla" 
• Tom Tom Club - "Time to Bounce" 
• Olive - "This Time" 
• Kylie Minogue - "Automatic Love" 
• Marvin Gaye - "Sexual Healing" 
• Dannii Minogue - "More, More, More" (Winter Chill Mix

Smells like young adult spirit

Smells Like Young Adult Spirit by Montagsonfire on Mixcloud

It's always nice to have a day off and to spend it at home, doing those things you've been meaning to take care of for ages. Sleeping in. Doctors appointments. Napping. Gym. Resting. And podcasting.

Or maybe that's just me.

"Smells like Young Adult Spirit" is my latest upload to MixCloud, my preferred venue for mixtapes and podcasts. While it's copyright-conscious, it's not copyright-with-a-vengeance, meaning I can upload mixtapes and podcasts under my interpretation of fair use and feel reasonably relaxed in doing so. At least until further notice.

Obviously this isn't a new podcast; I recorded it a few years ago, in fact. After all, it was the 20th anniversary of the release of Nirvana's "Smells like Teen Spirit" in 2011, not 2014.

Nevertheless, over the last couple of years, I have discovered some new covers of "Smells like Teen Spirit" and have wanted to update the podcast for some time. And today was that day. I added two songs, wrote some new chapters for my script, recorded it on the fly (admittedly, I sound a little creaky in places, but the goal today was just to get it done), converted it into an mp3, uploaded it to MixCloud, and then "timestamped" the sucker, listing the tracks, artists, and timings.

My total effort clocked up to about 3 hours--and that's just today's work. If I included my original research, writing, and recording, I'm sure the total hours involved would be 10. Maybe even 15 or more. And that's 15 hours to produce a 1-hour podcast.

Needless to say, I don't do this every day. In fact, I don't think I've done a new podcast since 2012 or so, when things just got too . . . whatever they got. Not that you would necessarily know it from these digital pages, but it's been a rockin' and rollin' couple of years, some good, some not so good.

However, I still find the time to make mixes and mixtapes. I spent even more hours this past winter, spring, and summer on what became "Cruel Summer Mix - 77 Gaza Strip Edition." I made two mixtapes for my Mom and sis, for their annual journey from Kansas City to Santa Fe. (I'll post the track listings soon.) I even found time to make two mixtapes for my friend Psyche--impromptu homages to our mutual television obsession, Mad Men. (See what I mean when I tell you about how last night I dreamt that Don Draper loved me.)

So not dead yet, creatively speaking. Not dead at all, mentally, physically, emotionally, or spiritually either. Although there are days . . . .

I keep the emotional and spiritual too often just to myself. I keep saying that will change, and change it should. Baby steps. Putting my voice out there, my musical predilections, that's challenging enough some days. Nevertheless, now it may be time to challenge myself a little more, to share more of what makes me tick, not just what makes me talk.

So stay tuned . . . .

My simple art

My Simple Art Mix (version II--new and improved) by Montagsonfire on Mixcloud

This is what I do with myself when, after weeks of work and travel, I finally have a free weekend.

Enjoy--or be very worried over the amount of time I spend on not doing housework and exercise.

NYNY (New Year New You)

NYNY (New Year New You) Mix by Montagsonfire on Mixcloud

I finally have found an online home (one that's non-spazzy about copyright--at least so far) for my mixes and podcasts. Woo hoo!

After Apple shut down it's perfectly acceptable website for paying customers, converting everything to iCloud (which I still don't get), the many podcasts and mixes I'd done over the last couple of years were left homeless.

It may seem like something small to you, but it was a crushing blow to my limited creativity. I'm not a very artistic person, but I can talk reasonably intelligently, make a good playlist, and do some basic mixing with a wee bit o' flair. Podcasts and mixes became a way for me to express the frustrated DJ/radio announcer in me, something that's been a part of me since childhood, when I used to listen constantly to radio broadcasts, both domestic and foreign, and attempt to make my own using a reel-to-reel tape recorder.

Why I never went into media and communications, I'll never understand. I never thought I had the looks or the voice for it, I'm sure. Thanks all you bastards out there for beating a guy down.

I think my creativity has suffered a pummeling in other ways, too. People criticized my drawing, so I did it less, then not at all. People criticized my writing. Ditto. People criticized me. And, yeah, I hid various parts of me away from those who would judge me or who I thought might.

Mean people suck, but really, I should be less susceptible to them by now.

And I had been managing that with my mixes and podcasts, putting myself and my interests out there for the world to see--even though the audience for them was miniscule to nonexistent. But now perhaps through MixCloud and its "cloudcasts," I stand more of a chance to expressing myself to the wider world, their criticims be damned. Or at least not taken too much to heart.

* * *

Playlist - NYNY (New Year New You) Mix

• Kraftwerk - "Musique Non-Stop"
• 808 State featuring Bernard Sumner - "Spanish Heart" 
• The Pet Shop Boys - "Domino Dancing" 
• Queen - "Radio Ga Ga" 
• Serge Gainsbourg - "No Comment" (Dax Riders Remix) 
• Electronic - "The Patience of a Saint" 
• Poolside - "Just Fall in Love" 
• Daft Punk - "Da Funk" 
• Annie - "I Know Ur Girlfriend Hates Me" 
• Telex - "Rock Around the Clock" 
• Brazilian Girls - "Last Call" 
• Justin Timberlake and Timbaland - "SexyBack" 
• Hooverphonic - "Dirty Lenses" (remix) 
• The Shamen - "Make It Mine" 
• LCD Soundsystem - "Get Innocuous!" 
• Holy Ghost! - "Static on the Wire" 
• Kleerup featuring Titiyo - "Longing for Lullabies"