I just found a copy of some video of me shot around 1999 for an early Internet video program called PepperScott Television. It's a bit dated, but an interesting take on myself at the time, what I had done, and where I was going.


MENTAL FLOSS - TORONTO INTERNET TELEVISION

Well it's happening again, I'm playing at the annual Harvest Festival and it should, as always, rock. In fact the logo above has a shot of the tent stage I'll be playing in.

If you've never been, but live in the area, consider going. It's always filled with my favorite DJs of the area, is nice land and features good sound systems. I also ordered a new soundcard to DJ with, so either my set will sound awesome, or or it'll be silent while I figure out Why I Fail So Hard.

Hey all, this is a bit of a request.  I've become a bit of a technical spokesperson for Tucows Inc, and I kind of want to get out to interesting things around the city a little more.  It'll help give me ideas and broaden my knowledge in general. I've always wanted to check out some of the cool nights, but now I'm really kicking myself To Do It, damnit.

Can anyone suggest to me (and other surfers) what are some good social technology/geek/code nights in Toronto?  I'd like to get out to ones that have a seminar each gathering around a certain topic, maybe even ones in an office where we can practice or be taught on computers, just anything that's fun, really. 

I'm mostly interested in Ruby (even On Rails), MySQL setup and maint, shell use and scripting (esp. bash and tcsh), content management, writing/doc systems, project management, Windows/Mac/Linux system info and maint,  something cool and techy, or anything you think might be snazzy.  Anything demoscene or tracking/.MOD related would be especially cool to know about, as a different taste...

Individual evenings or pages that list events are welcome, though I really want what YOU think is cool and have been to.  If you're involved with the night itself, and could use some nice conversational music to be DJ'd, give me a shout -- all I need to bring is my laptop and my DJ controller.

Sandy McCallum - my Great Acting Uncle

Just wanted to post a note about my gret uncle Sandy who passed away last week.  If any of you saw Death Race 2000 made in 1975, he was The President.  The only interesteing image I could find of him was a web writeup that you see displayed here -- looks like that's where my brothers and I might have inherited our knack for making faces.  :) If you click the image, it should link to the official online writeup.

My dad sent me this Guest Book for him after I first posted this article.

So on April 5th somehow I was hit by a train.  Pretty much damage is just to my skull.  And my ego.  I literally "woke up" only 3 weeks ago.

I think I was walking and didn't hear it coming, but I can't remember anything.

Well, looks like it's going to be a busy weekend for me; playing two awesome events in the city.  A little late to post on the site, but consider signing up to the mailing list.




The first is Toronto's WinterCity festival from 6:-7:30pm in the Lodge with some downtempo, curving to some uptempo.  It's a large tent in Nathan Phillips Square in front of city hall.  It's a nice family-oriented event with lots of stuff to do and look at.   Definitely explore through the links to find out all the cool little things going on.




The second event is Luminescence put on by a bunch of folks including Newmindspace, the group responsible for a lot of great spontaneous public space events like Pillow Fight, Light Saber Battle and Capture The Flag. My set starts at 1:30am, spinning breaks.

I had the opportunity to play at a Boreal canoe trip to Moon River the other week, and Andy Johnson was kind enough to record a good chunk of the set.  Thanks be to Andy!

Boreal's generally a yearly (or twice yearly) canoe trip for 150 people organized primarily by Justin/Alieninflux who also does Harvest Festival, with assistance from a core group friends and all of us campers. 

It's a good mix of some minimal/dub techno, house and stuff in-between, and the crowd freakin' rawked!  Completely prepared to have a good time and very appreciative of all the music for the night. 

You can use the player below for instant gratification, or download it for your iPodding pleasure.

Just a heads up that I'll be playing at re:Treat, this year's gathering for old friends/new friends of the OM Sumer Solstice Festival.  I'll be arriving early this year on Thursday, so will probably play Thursday or Friday sometime.   I have to leave Saturday this year because of previous commitments :(  Come track me down at the festival for more specifics - it's always kinda fluid that way...

I'm happy to be playing the first Promise Cherry Beach Sunday this coming weekend. There was some fear that they might not be able to continue but all's good. Come out and chill in the sun!   more »

For those in Guelph, here's a nice little event out on a farm with a bunch of friends from the OM Festival.   more »

To anyone who's in Ottawa or has friends there, I invite you to come check out Spore, a fundraiser for the Mushroom Kingdom art project destined for Burning Man this year.  Note that you'll have to commit to it early, so drop them an email if you'd like to come out.
 

I'm pretty bad about recording my sets whenever I play  -- I usually have a recorder with me, but in the crazyness I never remember to hook it up.  A friend commented that it was  

 a shame that none of the stuff was archived, which got me thinking that it was about time I actually did put out a mix since it had been 7 years since November Leaf Beats.  This turned into a much bigger project called "A Week's Worth Of Floss", where I'm essentially attempting to own your ears for an entire week. 

The mixes cover all sorts of different genres, and I've preened over them extensively (about 8-16 hours per mix), so toss them on your iPod and hopefully you'll have something for every mood. I'm hoping to follow up with another 7 mixes to cover the rest of the types of music I play, but these days it's primarily music to get people dancing like house, breaks and techno.  This set of mixes is a little more uppity as a result, and the next batch should be a bit more laid back. 

If you want to find out about the next batch, consider subscribing to the mailing list or the RSS feed for the site.

               

Funky Techno - Download TRENTEMOLLER - Polar Shift Apendics Shfuffle - track 4 Billy Dalessandro - Come With Me Burnski - Expresso (Maetrik remix) Dave Clark - What was her name (LFO Remix) Adam Beyer - Kinky Dapeyk Solo - Take it Back Fraktion - BNKL Jeff Samuel - HeB GBz Guido Schneider - Oh my buffer Tigerskin - You want it Alka - Mifa (John Tejada Remix) Heinrik B - Untitled Alexander Kowalski - Days of the liar (Joris Voom Tribalicious Mix) Double X- Hesitant Alexander Kowalski - Delicious DINKY - Acid in my Fridge (Tobi Neumann Remix)	House & Breaks - It's Groovy Music, Baby- Download Leftfield - Chat of a Poor Man (Mighty Quark Remix) Groove Armada - Chicago Mr. Scruff - Get a Move on DJ Gregory - Tropical Soundclash The Stone Roses - Fools Gold (Rabbit in the Moon Remix) Chicken Lips - He Not In (Club Mix) Akufen - Deck The House Cassius - Feeling For You Fatboy Slim - Retox Lexicon - Sexy Thang Sarah Vaughan - Fever (Adam Freland Remix) Martin Solveig - I'm A Good Man (Mousee T. Breakbeat Mix) Deception - Le Tigre (DFA Mix) Scissor Sisters - Comfortably Numb (Fatboy's Extended Mix) The Lose Cannons - Superstars (Boris Dlugosch & Michi Lange Vocal Mix)
Drum'n'bass - May contain traces of heavy metal- Download Massive Attack - Risingson Beck vs. Black Cabbage - Sex Laws Are Rude Breakbeat Era - Ultra Obscene + Roni Size - Beatbox Roni Size - Visiting Angels Teebee - Corpse Ram Trilogy - Mind Overload Bill Laswell - Nico (no-u-turn) Drifter - She Gives Me Forever Ed Rush and Optical - Bad Company Rmx Nasty Habits - Liquid Fingers (Goldie Remix) Aphrodite - Twilight (Remix) Red - Paradise Concord Dawn - Raining Blood Kiko - Ronin (Feat MC. Mecha) Cause 4 Concern - Rumors Matrix - Sleepwalk Photek - The Lightening Decoder - Vapor Dub Bad Company - Trick Of The Light Atom - White Car	Rock'n'Roll - Kawkin' Out While Rawkin' Out - Download Otis Spann - Pretty Grils Everywhere Ellen McIlwaine - Higher Ground Cake - You Part The Waters The Soggy Bottom Boys - I Am A Man Of Constant Sorrow (radio station version) The Birds - No Good Without You Baby Big Sugar - I'm A Ram Tom Petty - Runnin' Down A Dream The Hives - Hate To Say I Told You So Liam Lunch - United States Of Whatever Eagles of Death Metal - I Only Want You Hives vs. Guess Who - Die American Woman, Alright (El Barto & Liam B.) John Spencer Blues Explosion - Fed Up And Low Down Primus - Jerry Was A Race Car Driver Big Sugar - Girl Watcher The Flies - I'm Not Your Stepping Stone Goldfrapp vs. Normal Greenbaum & ZZ Top - Ohh La Grange In The Sky (DJ Zebra) Placebo - Pure Morning Eagles of Death Metal - Speaking in Tongues The Poets - That's The Way It's Gotta Be
Breaks - Breakin' - Download The Smashing Pumpkins - Perfect (Perfecto Remix) Hyper vs. The Hives - Coz I Wanna Gorillaz- Feel Good (Boot Inc remix) Alter Ego - Rocker (Stanton Warriors mix) Goldfrapp - Utopia (Tim Write Remix) Plump DJs - Plumpy Chunks Apradan - Strut (Dub mix) LCD Soundsystem vs. Scissor Sisters - FIlthy Inflitrator (Dunproofin`) Stereo 8 - I Can`t Stop The Wizeguys - Start the Commotion Hustle Athletics - 2 Blackstreet - No Diggerty (We`re not from London remix) Def Inc. - Acid Rock Madonna - Frozen (Flashpoint Breaks Mix) Ils - Requiem Pharoahe - Oizo (Fuck Beat) Cut N Run - King of the Bongo Tricknologist - What time is love (K boy`s 2ci dub) Adamski - In Tha City (Breaks mix)	Breaks - Breakin' 2 - Electric Boogaloo - Download John Creamer & Stephane K - I wish you were here (PMT Mix) Meat Katie and Elite Force - Ju Ju Unkle - Have you passed through this night Unseen Force - 2 Be Your 1 (Evil 9 remix) Adam Freeland - REality 3D Sly Fidelity - Whole Lotta Sly The Cult - She Sells Skantuaray X Men vs. The Beach Boys - God Only Nose Ils - Cherish (Freeland Mix) False Prophit - Pixie Boot (Gouge Away) Spincycle - Shoryuken Radiohead  - Everything In It`s Right Place (Hybird Remix) Hybird - Fatal Beating Deejay Punk Roc - Blow my mind (Plump DJs remix) Breakneck - Halfpipe Rennie Pilgrem & Dub Species - The Sermon Dee Kline, Nubreed, Ransom & Phil K - Bushpig Freaq Nasty feat. Phobe One - Boomin` Back Atcha (Freq`s Nu Skool mix) Vigi & Flip - Freak Frequency (Unbalanced mix) Tricknologist - Groove Krafty Kuts & C5 - Joyriders - Take It
Beatboxin'- Download Luke Vibert - Plug in the Head Phones Dust Junkies - Beatbox Wash (Rinse It Remix) T Love - QMS Dynamic Symcopation feat Mass Influence - 2 Tha Left Flowetry - Flowetic Rahzel - Southern Girl Kid Beyond - Deep Inside A Forest Mighty Black - Everything (Freakniks Fremix) Fatboy Slim - The Journey DJ Shadow - WAlkie Talkie Beyonce vs. Brainbug & Muppets - Mupp It Out (Alex H) DJ Format - Here Comes The Fuzz Rahzel - Rahzel vs. The Roots Spike Jones - William Tell Overture DJ Food - Do We Lamb - Trans Fatty Acid (K&D Remix)

I keep forgetting to post this but check out the performance my brother David gave the other week.  He's been into live sampling and on-the-fly manipulation for the past few years, and found out he could use the microphone on his Mac's webcam as input and manipulate the feedback. As an added bonus, he could simultaneously freak out the audience with his massive face projected on the wall.

He recently was promoted to Editor of the long running Canadian music magazine Musicworks.  Congratz, bruddah! 

For years and years I had a jazzy drum'n'bass remix floating around in my head for Aphex Twin's beautiful ambient track Blue Calx.  When I sat down to write it one sleepless night, somehow it lost the jazzy bit. Still, it didn't turn out too shabby, though a bit ravey.  No loops used -- all sequenced from the ground up.  

You can listen to the track right now using the player below, or download the entire mp3 here.

Just posting about a fundraiser I was fortunate to be a part of.  More details can be found on the site for Raise.  There's also a video below to give you an idea.

Hey it's that time again, and Harvest Festival is upon us, and I'm glad to be back playing!  This year should be a bit different style for me, though likely won't be playing any of the techno/  house / breaks I've been doing lately.  Here's the official info:

SEPTEMBER 16th & 17th 2006

ITB : techno

• NOAH PRED (metapath / fukhouse)
• MIKE GIBBS (alienInFlux)
• ERIC DOWNER (sensor / fukhouse)
• HALI (netmusique.com)
• TIM PATRICK (5th sun, catalyst recordings)
• ADAM MARSHAL (minimal)
• JAMIE KIDD (stratagem-musik, xanuradio)
• IAN GUTHRIE (fukhouse)
• TOM KUO (foundation music)
• ALI BLACK (heebar, livin' large)
• BRENDAN LAWLESS (independent lawless ent.)

ITP : downtempo & broken beats

• SHEN - LIVE (native state, GSC)
• PRIMAL - LIVE (drum collective)
• YOSHI & CHIE - LIVE (kaminari)
• KINDER ATOM - LIVE (nice & smooth)
• MARZ (BLA)
• ANDREW McCALLUM (mentalfloss)
• CHOCOLATE & PATRICK ROOTS (scratchfree)
• LEX & REW (legion of green men)
• GABOR (IBS productions)
• DMS (baselinestudios.com) :: guelph
• AIA (listenableMusic.com)
• OWEN (psyence project)
• ROLLIN CASH (sumkidz / hotpierecords.com)
• NATE WIZE (dubmatix.com)

ITT : trance

• BASILISK (ektoplazm / metamystiks)
• LEXICON (metamystiks)
• YEB (coldgroove.ca, bla)
• QUIVERING VIRIGN (coldgroove.ca, bla)
• TENZIN (techsafari) :: montreal
• REPTILIAN (geomagnetics records) :: ottawa
• PLAN B (shakti collective)
• SEB (mandala sound) :: montreal
• decorations by JULIEN (coldgroove.ca)

ZERO GRAVITY CIRCUS PERFORMANCE

ADVANCE MEMBERSHIP

$46 + canned food donation at the gate

Toronto

• Shanti Baba (546 Queen St. W)
• Odyssey (557 Queen St. W)
• Moog Audio (442 Queen St. W)
• 2thebeat (S/E corner Queen & Spadina)
• SpyLab (247 Queen St. W)
• White Lodge (4 St. Patrick)
• Style Bomb (676 Yonge St.)
• Play De Record (357A Yonge St.)

Kitchener

• Shakedown Street (276 King St. W)

Guelph

• Baseline Records (31 Wyndham St.)

Hamilton

• Cottage 13 (224 King St. W)

Oshawa

• Velvet Elvis (221 King St. E)
  

Peterborough

• The Spill Coffee Bar (414 George St. N)
  

WEB

http://harvestfestival.org

CONTACT

INFO info@harvestfestival.org

* * ABSOLUTELY NO GLASS, PETS OR FIREWORKS (it’s a working farm)
**  NO ARRIVALS BEFORE 2PM SATURDAY  **

Just arrived back from my 3rd burn, and decided to try and shoot video this time around rather than stills.  Okay, it's the backup plan after my Nikon broke.. argh..

At any rate, enjoy the 5 minutes of fun and music.  The subtitles get hard at some points but you can usually find a frame where it's clear enough for each word.

update: This seems to be doing pretty well on YouTube -- already got in the top 20 Travel Videos for the week I posted, and top 100 for the month.  Not bad for 7 hours of work and little bits of footage.

If you can see this article, then Writely rocks! Writely is an online text editor (almost a replacement for Word), recently acquired by Google, and it comes with built in hooks to publish to blogs like Blogware or Blogharbor.

Hey folks,

Have a small cozy gig that people might be interested in coming out to
on a nice patio tomorrow (or today, depending on when you're reading it)

I've heard a set from Target before and he rides a pretty good line
between techno/house and progressive trance (without getting cheezy).  
Adam Winick has been around _forever_ in the techno scene and I'm not
familiar with his current techno but he tends to like the hawd beatz, so
if you're into thumpier techno definitely check him out.

I'm playing first at 10:30pm (though I'll likely bug them to start early
if I show up :) so it'll likely be warmup music in the tek-house vein.

Here's info from the flyer:

Hello Friends. We welcome you back to the sweetest rooftop patio in the
city. Come and Support the Toronto Electronic Music Community

After 4 weeks of thursdays we are back for the 5th week. Join us on
Thursday August 3rd as we celebrate Transmits 5th week live to air on
xanuradio and the extremely tasty $3 SPECIALS... Each week we select new
artists to rock the patio for your outdoor enjoyment.

This Weeks Lineup: Thursday August 3rd

ADAM WINICK (Live Pa)
Format,Kickmagazine,Tools

TARGET (Dj Set)
xanuradio.com http://xanuradio.com

ROOZBEH (Dj Set)
partialsound.com http://partialsound.com

MENTALFLOSS (Laptop Performance)
omfestival,xanuradio.com http://xanuradio.com

LOCATION: 222 Richmond St.W Rooftop Patio 2nd Floor Upstairs
$5 before 12:00am
$3 SPECIALS ALL NIGHT LONG!!!!!!!!!!!!
Smoking is permited on the Patio..
http://www.xanuradio.com/transmit for free
guestlist before 11:30am