944

Searching for something to do this Tuesday that includes incredible music, people, venue and more? Look no further than Mix for the Cure in the Murano Room at Scott’s Restaurant and Bar in Costa Mesa on March 29. Not only does it promise an evening of debauchery with an open Ketel One bar, the event benefits the Orange County and Inland Empire Leukemia & Lymphoma Society with a $20 donation. Hosted by Man of the Year nominee Brian Amlani, it’s a win-win-win evening.

A Riverside County native and Orange County media executive for DB&M Media, Amlani felt compelled to accept the nomination after watching a dear friend lose her father to Leukemia in 2009 and in the very same year watch the same friend's family support her 6-year-old nephew battle Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma (now in remission thanks in part to the research of LLS).

“Watching my friend go through this devastating experience hit home for me as I have two young children — Brian age 8 and Breanna age 5,” Amlani says. “I can't imagine what parents and families of children with blood cancers must go through or the thought of ever watching my children suffer or worse. This has fueled my passion to raise as much money as possible to find a cure for these diseases and to enlist the support of my friends and family to create awareness and inspire those around them to do the same.”

On March 3, the OC/IE Leukemia & Lymphoma Society began its 2011 Man & Woman of the Year Campaign. The LLS Man and Woman of the Year Campaign is a 10-week fundraising campaign in which every dollar raised counts as one vote and the candidate that gets the most votes not only wins the title but also plays a crucial role in supporting the LLS mission to raise funds to find a cure for blood cancers.

The first of Brian Amlani’s campaign events is Mixing For A Cure, which starts at 7 p.m. A $20 donation will be taken at the door, which will include a hosted Ketel One bar during the event. The evening is also hosted by Denver Bronco’s Stanley Daniels, VH1’s Luscious and Pam Rodriguez. Music includes DJ Drew (102.7 KIIS FM), DJ Ever (Power 106), Nick Nack (99.1fm KGGI), Epic Twelve (Power 106) and DJ Skream.

The Courtside For A Cure Celebrity Basketball Game will take place on Saturday, April 23 at Cal State San Bernardino (Coussoulis Arena). Doors open at 5 p.m., with the game starting at 6pm. More details are coming soon.

Individual and corporate donations can also be made to support Amlani’s LLS Campaign by visiting the website below using credit card or you can mail a check made payable to LLS. Checks should include the name Brian Amlani in the notes section. All donations must be received by May 12.

Mail checks to:
OCIE Leukemia & Lymphoma Society
Attn: Julia Cohen - Campaign Manager
765 The City Drive South, Suite 260, Orange, CA 92868

Watch his video here:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=9828QWvmOa0&feature=youtu.be


Written by: Katie Pegler

Sofia Coppola releases an exclusive video diary of the making of "Somewhere"

We love Sofia Coppola. More specifically, I love Sofia Coppola. I caught the Coppola bug after seeing "The Virgin Suicides," and became even more enthralled after the visual orgasm of a film about the infamous cake eater, "Marie Antoinette." So when this press release was so lovingly dropped in my inbox, I felt compelled to share it immediately.

In anticipation of the limited release of her new movie "Somewhere," Coppola created an exclusive video diary with behind-the-scenes footage, interviews with the cast directed by her mother, Eleanor, and more. Due in theaters December 22, "Somewhere" chronicles the bitter sweet life and times of worn out actor Johnny Marco (played so ironically by Stephen Dorff). The playboy seemingly drifts through a semi-charmed life of girls, cars and fancy hotels, until he suddenly is forced to care for his disenchanted daughter Cleo, cleverly played by Dakota Fanning's little sister Elle.

We're pretty sure this drama is set to be another win for Coppola. Below are clips from her special video diary and featurette of more behind-the-scenes footage. Enjoy.











The featurette:





For more behind-the-scenes videos, go to scsomewhere.com.
Written by: Michelle Parsons

Just like throwing 90's parties are the cool thing to do now, so are music labels making cassette tapes, apparently. In a recent article on NPR.org, at least 25 small labels are starting to produce cassette tapes rather than the regular CDR format.

They interviewed 23-year-old label manager of Patient Sounds, Matthew Sage, who says, "The work involved in dubbing the tapes, cutting the inserts, and making the tapes is half of the process for me." He goes on to say, "The tape is more an art object that also plays music (similar to vinyl) where the CDR is more a vessel for a piece of music."

NPR points out that while this guy and a few others see this as a kitschy art form, most labels and artists won't be wasting their time. And time, as it seems, is not in the efficiency category for making these nostalgic vessels. It takes three months to make 300 tapes, says article writer Megan Arellano.

Sage also says it's neither efficient nor profitable to make these cassette tapes, but he's doing it anyway. "They [tapes] are technologically regressive, less portable than an iPod and don't sound like digital music files ... But I think, generally speaking, the kitsch appeal of the tape, when matched with their affordability to produce, make them a perfect medium for artists struggling to happily release their art in an economy that is totally in shambles."

Well, he's got the shambles part right. So, let me get this straight -- in the cut-throat, endless struggle that is the music industry, where processed, auto-tune puppets are up to their ears in green and honest to goodness songwriters are endlessly working for peanuts and in most cases for free -- some 'indie' labels decide it's in the best interest for the band to spend their hard earned cash on a batch of 300 tapes most likely no one will buy? Because it's arty?

The last bit of info writer Megan Arellano shimmies into the end of the article is that 2009 was the worst year for cassettes sales since Nielson started measuring them.

While it's great a lot of bands have embraced an analog/lo-fi sound, that shouldn't mean the resurrection of impractical mediums. But then again, saying I haven't bought any vinyl in the past six months would be a total lie.

My suggestion for use of cassette tapes? Leave them on the intramural benches with the laser disk and 8-trak. Either that or what these people are doing with them: http://www.designboom.com/contemporary/cassettes.html



Now here's a solid band who's been making waves lately. I wonder if they make cassette tapes?









Written by: Michelle Parsons

I'm not really one for video games. I've played Rock Band exactly once, the last console I actually owned was the original Nintendo, and I'm about as ambidextrous on a Wii motion-censored remote as Stephen Hawking is at tennis. But, I received a press release in my Inbox the other day that had me schoolgirl giddy for some reason (and no, it wasn't the Britney Spears Glee episode, although it was pretty awesome). The epic hip hop label Def Jam has moved into video games -- well, one in particular called Rapstar, to be released on virtually every game console on October 5th. It features over 40 of the greatest hip hop and rap songs to date, including Busta Rhymes' "Put Your Hands Where My Eyes Can See," DMX's "Ruff Ryder's Anthem," Lil' Jon's "Get Low" and Ice Cube's "Today Was A Good Day." It works similar to the Rock Band games, but it includes an option to record your rap skills with the console camera and upload the video to a fully integrated Def Jam Rapstar community website. Let me reiterate -- you rap, you upload, we watch, we are filled with pure joy and giggledom. Now that's entertainment gold.

Deep down in my fumbling, stuttering soul, watching wannabe Lil' Rappers on the interweb is just too good of an idea to pass up. Will it be ugly? Will it be a train wreck? Will it be the most grotesque sight since the ass to mouth scenes in The Human Centipede? You bet. But will it be glorious? Oh yeah. The prospect of watching balding, pot-bellied suburban dads rapping "To the window! To the wall!" or bratty tweens throwing down to "What's a goon to a goblin? I'm muthaf**kin' ill!" -- it's almost too much funny to bear. So, with everyone's giggle factor in mind, I encourage you to make your own video and send it my way...and I may or may not post your video on this very blog. Just a suggestion.



See below for greatness:





For more information on the game including pricing, visit defjamrapstar.com.




Can't stop the bum rush,

Michelle Parsons
Dallas Managing Editor



Written by: Michelle Parsons

A few days ago I was at Kroger to pick up some ground beef for a spaghetti dinner later that night. I was pumped - my dad's delicious recipe is the best around, and in addition to the vermicelli noodles and secret sauce, the meat was crucial for said perfection. As I was perusing the frozen meat section (for all you vegans and vegetarians, you may want to skip this sentence), there was an magnanimous array of meat molds in tubes, in cubes, in skins, in sacks and in ripples that looked like crimped hair from an 80s brat pack flick. And to be honest, even as a meatatarian in this carnivore's smorgasbord, for some reason I was kind of grossed out.

But alas, I found my ground beef, threw it in my handy-basket and continued on my Kroger quest. And as I was contemplating the difference between Gillette Venus and Schick Quattro razor blades (besides the four extra chances I have at nicking the ever-loving bejesus out of my leg skin), a sudden question popped in my head about those meat molds. What else does the all-encompassing they do with left over meat products? What else is meat used for, or stuffed in? What inanimate objects we use every day consist of animal? I know these questions have been brought up lots of times, especially in the last decade, in documentaries, tell-all books, investigative reports, vegetarian sermons. But to be completely honest, I hadn't given it that much thought, and moreover a myriad of personal reasons and opinions too lengthy for this blog, it has been ultimately because I'm just not ready for the lifestyle change.

But for some reason in my spaghetti quest (one I've embarked many a time), the question went from a head-scratching afterthought to a burning, aching, itching, skin rash kind of query. I needed relief, and I needed it fast.

So, wanna know what I found that will invariably illicit oohs, aahs and no-ways! from the peanut gallery, and that fits easily in an online blog in eight itty-bitty minutes? Welp, see below for results even you tree-huggin' grass eaters will be flabbergasted by.





Told ya,

Michelle Parsons
944 Dallas Managing Editor

Written by: Michelle Parsons

With the Colorado fires, another BP oil spill, asteroids missing Earth by only 154,000 miles (that's closer than the moon), xenophobes in Florida burning Qurans, and Sarah Palin being, well, Sarah Palin it's hard not to let the weight of the world swallow you whole.

While I was watching a reporter on MSNBC interview preacher Terry Jones down in Gainesville about his little book burning ceremony in all its intolerant glory, I thought about coping mechanisms. Not the kind of coping mechanisms that tear cultures apart, but the ones that bring people together. I realized everyone has their own way of coping with the world's wonders and blunders, and most people share similarities in the way they let go of that stress. One of them is laughter. In times like these, if you don't laugh just a little at the Terry Jones' of the world, you will surely cry. Finding the humor in human behavior is certainly not to be confused with being ignorant to current events, sticking your head in the sand quite the contrary. Having a good chuckle about life's idiotic moments is an honest recognition of it, and being able to find the funny in our understanding of the basic human condition, whether it's good or bad or grotesque. And in this laughter brings a certain unspoken unity between the people it touches, and really, isn't that what peace is all about?

I think this is also why people get a kick out of observational humor and comedians like George Carlin and Bill Cosby, with more recent comedic geniuses like Seth MacFarlane, Chelsea Lately, Jon Stewart, Zach Galifianakis and Louis C.K.

So, by now at this point in your day I'm sure you've browsed the depressing headlines on CNN.com, and what better way to lighten the load on your psyche than a little shot of funny from me to you:


Tosh.0Weds 10:30pm / 9:30cTwisperswww.comedycentral.comTosh.0 VideosDaniel ToshWeb Redemption

Daniel Tosh is on tour now, with a stop in Dallas on September 30th at the Majestic.



And laughter isn't the only coping mechanism we share. For almost every single person living that has the ability to hear uses music as an auditory drug. Most people are painfully particular about what they like (by the way, just who, exactly, asked for the Creed/Disturbed reunion tour? It sure as hell wasn't me.) So with that said, here is a little post-punk band out of Brooklyn, New York that has recently captured my heart.



For all my fellow Dallasites, The Drums will be at The Loft September 24th.







Until an asteroid blasts our tiny planet to bits,

Michelle Parsons
944 Dallas Managing Editor






Written by: Michelle Parsons

Welcome, blog readers!

To be perfectly honest, as blogging goes, I'm a bit of a rookie. Facebook rants and MySpace (may ye rest in peace) posts aside, I've never had the privilege of airing my thoughts to the masses in this form (only tactile impediments on a glossy-page, of course). It's not that I don't read blogs I'm a big fan of Dallas Observer's Jim Schutze in all his passionate cleverly-worded discontent with city council. I am also a frequent peruser of more nationally relevant fare like Daily Candy and the music blog DayBowBow.

So, since I've decided to associate myself with the huddled blog masses, I first must figure out, to what subjects will I embark? Whom and what will I gush over? Whom will I declare online fisticuffs with? Because I'm just that cool, what music will you read about me listening to and who's bargain basement designer will I be wearing? And do you, my dear reader, even give two shakes of a lamb's tail what I'm doing?

Right now your answer is probably, "Meh." And to which my reply is ... fair enough. I must prove myself to you. So in the interest of gaining your loyalty with laughter, please watch some really cute Persian kittens below, then read on for information and a video for a band I think you (yes, YOU!) would be smitten over.




If you haven't heard of Menkena, now's the time to get educated. Video editor Steve Gaddis used vintage NASA footage to illustrate Menkena's dreamy, bombastic sound. During their live shows, the videos are projected on a screen behind them. Pay attention around the 4:26 mark you're heart will sink into your chest.







Until I find further inspiration,

Michelle Parsons
944 Dallas Managing Editor

Written by: Michelle Parsons

So stupid, but so funny. Thanks to my buddy Austin for turning me onto this ...

Written by: D.B. Mitchell

Why? Because a lot of people can make you look terrible -- and then put you on YouTube some day.

Written by: D.B. Mitchell

I appeared on CBS Better Mornings Atlanta and not only talked about 944 and the new Havana Club, but I also showed off (or not) my (limited) salsa skills...

Check out the clip: http://www.cbsatlanta.com/video/22576810/index.html


Written by: Isoul Harris

I'm about to get all 9th-grade biology class on you, but I honestly think this video is very cool.

Check it out ...


Written by: D.B. Mitchell

Jake Rosen of Sherdog.com is reporting that action star Jean-Claude Van Damme (well, he's kind of still a star, right? Maybe? Um ...) has told media that he has signed on to fight a Thai boxer. The catalyst for a man nearly 50 to take to the ring for the first time? A reality show, of course. According to Van Damme, a 36-episode show will be filmed while he trains leading up to the fight.

Read more about the rumor here: http://www.sherdog.com/search.php?SearchTxt=van+damme&SearchCat=all


Or, you can watch this and hope that Van Damme's show would as amazing as Steven Seagal's (you know, in that "Wow, that guy is a cheeseball but he can still kick the living snot out of me.").

Written by: D.B. Mitchell

Came across this wonderful and rough footage from an ABC Wide World of Sports episode back in 1976. It features legendary skateboarder Tony Alva in a slalom event (not exactly the X Games, is it?). A few highlights:

-Check out the sweet red Nikes in the opening sequence
-Those boards are scary small
-Alva takes a page out of the Evel Knievel book of fashion
-And the best part? This quote by the narrator at the beginning: "Skateboarding, remember how popular it was in '65? And then in '66, like the hula hoop, it folded and many thought never to be seen again."

Awesome.


Written by: D.B. Mitchell

Yes, this video is ridiculous. The Chargers' LaDanian Tomlinson dancing and acting a fool is, indeed, a wonderful thing. But the real stars? The completely random assortment of backup dancers.



I'm pretty sure this is a Nike viral video, so I'll work on confirmation. Written by: D.B. Mitchell

Yes, this is fake. I have no idea what it's for, but it's still fun to watch while thinking about how hard it would actually be to play ping pong with nunchucks. Yup, I said nunchucks. Enjoy



Via www.lostinasupermarket.com

Written by: D.B. Mitchell