Friday Five (Leap Day Edition)

Definitely not a feature you can rely on. Surely not a weekly offering. Not even close to an original concept. Here you have it. This is our Friday Five.

1. Playing RC Pro Am and a TON of other 8bit games right here on m'browser. This is the sort of website that makes people take days off of work (or get fired). Seriously, check it. Thanks to Justin at Heroes vs Villains for this.

2. I'm a short story type of a guy. I have a tendency to fall asleep shortly after laying down with a book so the shorter the better these days. I am currently enjoying a collection of short stories called Dogwalker by Arthur Bradford. Where is a good place to find other interesting short stories, essays, etc of the same calibur? Oh, then I'd suggest The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2007.

3. Bike Snob NYC. If you got into riding fixed gear a few years back like me and then started noticing how the trendiness of it all started to get real out of hand and overtook the actual principle of it and were wondering who the spokesman would be to make fun of us/them, here he is. The entries are rarely quick jabs at boys on Pistas, but more of well crafted uppercuts. Ouch.

4. Going to hockey games. Best sport to go see in my opinion.

5. Google Reader. I'm pretty addicted. If you're a gmail user I'd suggest taking advantage of it.

Ants and Spiders

I started putting this together because I was incredibly bored. Then it turned into a total project. Total job. A good way to spend a few evenings. Enjoy.

Ants and Spiders : Mixed by Mike Downey (zShare)
75.95 megabytes

Data Collection

These are actually quiet times. I figured I'd be Mr. Talkative while back in the States but I haven't really felt it. I have been living a quiet life in Atlanta: working, walking, watching movies and maybe some other stuff that starts with the letter W that I can't think of at the moment.

Last night my coworker and I, after catching some Champions League on TV, took a soccer ball out to the park out of lack of anything better to do (and being a little fired up after the game). Now I like soccer, a lot, and I used to have some mad skills (honestly) but lack of practice had nearly cleared my memory banks of most of my juggling skill. However, I could still do a rainbow. In fact, nearly perfectly a number of times in a row. I am sort of happy about that.

Something else I'm happy about. I purchased a pair of Adidas Sambas the other day. I used to wear the crap out of these shoes in my athletic prime. They are so utilitarian and maybe that's why I dig them. Felt good to break them in last night, even if it was on the rain-starved grounds of Piedmont Park and not on the astro turf they were designed for.

Lack of stuff to do brings out the movie buff in us all. I recently peeped some documentaries: The King of Kong and Air Guitar Nation. I'm telling you, if you haven't seen either and are up for some insanely funny and well-made docs you have got to find these. Highly recommended! And thanks to AJ Naito for turning me on to them.

Man what else. Oh, I've also recently watched Spies Like Us and Real Genius. You can't deny the classics.

So in just about 2 weeks I'll be flying back to Stockholm to my newly painted and furnished apartment which I barely had time to get used to before shipping off and to m'bun-in-the-oven-sweet who would like it much better if I was around.

I've been working on a little mixtape that I'm pretty happy with. Hopefully I'll be able to share that with you in the nearish future. Until then...

Hold Horses

Hold Horses is out now
You can download it via iTunes eMusic Amazon

"Location is Nothing" and "Rains and Pours Rain" are available for free download here.

If you are interested in remixing either of the two above songs, please visit my remix page for details.

All of the artwork, liner notes and lyrics are in this pdf file. Jason Pierce's mperfect design is the reason I look good.

Thank you for reading and listening.

Mysterious sounds from the past

This is interesting. I did a remix last summer for a Swedish guy named Johan who calls himself Familjen. I happen to absolutely love his album, singles and live show. Anywho, I did a remix (at my request, I emailed him and he kindly sent me remix files) of the title track off of his debut Det Snurrar I Min Skalle. I sent the remix off to him and then it made its way over to his record label and a couple of my pals in Stockholm. A few nice emails were sent back and people said they liked it and I sort of liked it but then that was sort of it.

I had a revelation right after I did the remix and decided I was not a floor-filler remix-type of guy so why should I do remixes like this. I dunno, there are so many other people that are a whole lot better at that sort of thing. So I stopped. I will continue to stop making remixes like this (while continuing to do remixes on a truer plane, can you dig that?) But that doesn't mean you shouldn't keep reading. What you will get is an audio snapshot of me at a certain time in a certain place.

This remix is out now to my surprise. I really did think it was shelved. Remixes are such a novelty and I like that about them. You can get the remix (for free) over at www.detsnurrariminskalle.com. Oh, make sure you check out the video over there to. It's a great video and won the Swedish Grammy for best video of the year actually.

The remix will also be a part of a Familjen remix full length called Huvudet I Sanden that is coming out soonish. I've heard it and it's a nice companion piece to Familjen's output. More on how to you can get that when I have the details. The artwork will look just like this:


3 Scandinavian labels are teaming up on this release: Adrian Recordings / Hybris / Tellé. People really enjoy Familjen in my other part of the world. (I have been in Miami the last couple of days and Stockholm feels like light years away). But now I'm just talking about the weather and that's reserved for phone calls home.

*****Update Feb 21*****
There is a track by track write-up of the upcoming Huvudet I Sanden album on the Adrian Recordings site.

Piece.