Benny Benassi: Hypnotica

Bring on the smut, I say.

He's sexy, trashy, trance-y ...and just plain addictive. I have no idea why, but I can't put this album down. One whole calendar year and the album Hypnotica by DJ Benny Benassi has been on high rotation non stop. According to my itunes ranker and Pandora, my favorite song is "Satisfaction." The throbbing beats are repetitive, the lyrics odd at best and robotic vocals are kind of creepy, and yet, I can't get enough of it.

Who's to say that house music is supposed to be profound anyway? When you think about it, this stuff is supposed to be played at high volumes in a crowded dance club: loud pounding beats even a rhythmless white boy can follow, sweaty bodies bumping into each other, friends screaming into each other's ears trying to carry on vapid conversation, and tons of alcohol pouring to and fro. This is the perfect album for that. You have to give kudos to his videos too which are just as over the top. *I* get turned on by power tools now...and I'm a girl!

Listen to:
"I love My Sex"
"No Matter What You Do"

Watch:
"Satisfaction" (smutty 2nd version)


"Satisfaction" (original version)


"No Matter What You Do" (one of my most favorite music videos of all time)



Visit:
DJ Benny Benassi's Official Website
Benny Benassi's Myspace
Buy Hypnotica at Amazon

Ballet Austin's Butler Center Grand Opening

T took a lot of amazing photos during the Ballet Austin Butler Center Grand Opening Festivities. The Butler Center is a community school devoted to dance education and the grand opening featured open classes all day yesterday as well as ongoing demonstrations. I took the hula and adult ballet and watched the pre-professional ballet, tap, jazz, Broadway fit and swing classes.

My whole body hurts now.

A lot.

Even my wrists hurt....and Hula dancing as soft and graceful as it is, is one hell of a work out, let me tell you!

So here are some pics we took. I especially like Darlin' Hubby's. He's a great photographer!

This is my favorite photo he snapped of the instructor and his reflection:


Cute one of my momma peeking into a classroom:





Cindy stretching:




Notice how crowded the studios were!






You can see people of all ages took that day:










The little red head is in my class at the Austin Conservatory where I study:


Kids hula dancing. Sooo cute:


This guy, who basically took every dance class offered was a hoot. I loved watching him. So exuberant and happy. Well coordinated and gosh darn cute.



The instructor for the Broadway jazz and tap classes really reminded me of Nathan Lang:


It's a shame that neither T nor I got a photo of the Hula teacher. She was drop dead gorgeous and super charming. In fact she introduced herself and shook hands with each of us before class started.

All in all, the building is really cool with multiple studios, a full theater and learning library. This allows them to have a much broader schedule with a vast variety of classes including some on Saturday. and I look forward to taking classes there in the future.

Mix CD Time: Some Favorite Tracks from my Birthday Gifts

(Let's see if hotlinkfiles.com works well as a file sharing host.)

It should be an obvious assumption that I got tons of music for my birthday. It makes perfect sense of course. Anyone who knows me well knows that a sure fire way to make me happy is to either give me music or feed me good food. Heh. In some ways, I'm a simple gal. :)

I also love getting mix CDs as well (and making them). You can read about my musings and rants surrounding that type of media here in a different blog post. I'm sure many of you have shared the same dilemmas.

To make up for all those weeks of non posting, here's a bunch of music for ya'll. This is by no means everything I got (I think in total, I got about 23 new cds and 10 mix cds), but it's what I've been listening to this weekend. If you like what you hear, click on the name of the artist for more information. If you like it, buy it. Nuff said.

Needless to say, my friends have impeccable taste.

In the Nursery(from Cassandra):
"Anatomy of a Poet"
"Motive"

Regard Extreme (from Cassandra):
"Manifeste"

Ministry (from Shawn):
"Yellow Cake"

Killing Joke (from Shawn):
" Invocation"

Shiny Toy Guns (from Shawn):
"Don't Cry out"

Los Cerveceros (from Eddie):
"As Long as There's Beer"

Ruthie Foster (from Belinda):
"Give You My Love"

Cocteau Twins (from Darlin Hubby Travis):
" Fifty-Fifty Clown"
" Fotzepolitic"

Mogwai (from Jay):
"Friend of the Night"
"Killin all the Flies"

Múm (from Jay):
"I can't Feel My Hand Anymore. It's Alright. Sleep Tight"

Eric Clapton (from JBro Johnny):
"Cocaine"

Combichrist (from JBro Johnny):
"This Shit Will Fuck You Up"
" Happy Fucking Birthday"

Colony 5: Fixed

Swedish band Colony 5 is an act that I discovered and instantly fell in love with thanks to the fantastic site Pandora Radio. If you're nostalgic for the sound of old school synthpop like New Order and vocal stylings of Erasure, are a fan of VNV Nation or CTRL, or just want to add more danceable tunes to your queue, you might want to check out this group.

The sound veers a little more on the dark side of synthpop/electronica but it's still very club friendly. Fixed is a solid album with a consistent sound and incredibly catchy hooks. Band members P-O Svensson, Magnus Kalnins do a fantastic job melding relevant lyrics with intense programming and good composition. Their website, chock full of media is well worth a visit.

Listen to:
"Plastic World"
"Fallen Star"


Visit:
Colony 5's Official Website
Colony 5's Myspace
Buy Fixed from Amazon.com


(promo shot from Colony5 wiki entry)

Disney Music is Evil...Russian Pas de Chat

I can't stand people who love Disney. I'm not including kids, of course, but I'm talking about functional adults who talk about Disney movies as if they're examples of quality cinema. In a whole other category unto itself are those who are immense fans of Disney music--those insipid ooey gooey tunes that most definitely manifest themselves as godawful earworms in the middle of the night.

So, you can imagine the horror I went through yesterday when my regular ballet teacher was replaced by the demonic amalgamated presence of Princess-what's-her-name-Cinderella-Snow White-Bell-Pochahontas-Ariel-Bambie creature dancing and prancing before me. Ah yes, this was a Disney lover at it's worst down to her sweet dimply smile, irritatingly squeaky voice and of course, poor choice in music.

Have you ever done plie's to "Chim Chimmeny?" I think not and no one else should ever be subjected to that sort of torture. What's next? The whole back catalogue of Brittany Spears while doing grand jete's in center?

I remember at one point, the CD player changing discs and all of a sudden a harpsichord version of Bach's Invention #13 comes on (oh, relief finally) and the gal keeped saying to herself "Now which movies is this from...I don't recognize it. Aristocats maybe? I guess I'll go back to Beauty and the Beast"

Needless to say, I was about ready to kill someone towards the end of class.

On a somewhat related note, look at me. Wheeee! I may be getting old and crickety, but I can still jump, damnit. Um, that's a Russian styled pas de chat by the way.