January 28, 2012

Took this pic at Brandon’s crib in LA, top of the year.

Yankee by heart/borough, Sox because of my personal uniform.

Video chatting with Katrina in Vegas.

Chad and Elizabeth aka “bro”.

Droptop Camero ss pit stop in the desert. Spent 4 days before the new year in Vegas then the first 11 of the year in LA. Did all types of stuff including rock climbing. 

Me picking up a pumpkin, Chad, Bro, MP, and Gee.

Entourage

Krista and Sophie dancing at Drais in LA.

Took this picture of the car I rented for the 11 days I was in LA because I thought it was going to get towed based on where I parked it, but I didn’t feel like moving it to a real space. 

Donnis x Donnis’ bottles at Drais. 

Driving back to LA from my meeting in Santa Monica.

Me and Gee.

Coldplay - Paradise (official music video)

This video was directed Mat Whitecross and was filmed in South Africa and London.

I got the chance to meet Chris Martin backstage at x-factor in London a few months ago. He was singing to his daughter Apple walking up a staircase towards me and I was later formally introduced to him by Jay Brown. I freaked out a bit.

(Source: shiv)

Mike x Mike >

January 27, 2012

Let Love Rule

[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]

Michael Jackson - Got To Be There (Stripped Mix)

This song is 40 years old and no other child singer has been able to deliver like this. Not to mention people use auto tune and stuff like that nowadays.

The arrangement of lead and background vocals on this record is amazing, and whoever was vocally coaching Michael Jackson when he was a kid was incredible. Listen to his technique and control, going from falsetto to full voice/occasionally using vibrato, doing everything so effortless and gingerly, and still making you believe the words he’s saying - even though he’s a kid.

Also, imagine going to the studio and hearing an original “beat” like this. Aside from the bass line and guitar parts, the string arrangement and harp parts are ridiculous. I can only imagine that insane amounts of team work went into making these old records. There were groups of super proficient musicians, producers, arrangers, engineers, writers and singers. plus everything was analog so pretty much, people had to do one take passes as opposed to the punching, looping, copying and pasting that we do nowadays. 

Such a beautiful composition!

January 26, 2012

Smyth Hotel

Sarah Frost installation at the James Hotel, NYC. A wall full of keys from computer keyboards

ABC Kitchen. 8 courses, 5 star dining.