So, I’m trying to kick this bottle of Cabernet while the Fam was fast asleep and I was listening to iTunes when by chance, my old 80′s MegaMix Volume set came up. Damn.. Shite sounded good. It seemed like a good as time as any to repost and relive the days of past, turning another year older and all today.

BENNY BLANCO® : 80s MEGAMIX VOLUME 1 : BDCD_09
FIRST IN A SERIES OF RETRO DJ MIXES

1 FRANKIE GOES TO HOLLYWOOD | WELCOME TO THE PLEASURE DOME (TREVOR HORN REMIX) | ZTT
2 HEAVEN 17 | LET ME GO (EXTENDED) | BEF
3 YAZ | STATE FARM (EXTENDED VERSION) | MUTE
4 HOWARD JONES | NEW SONG (EXTENDED VERSION) | ELEKTRA
5 DEPECHE MODE | NOTHING (ZIP-HOP MIX) | MUTE
6 MINISTRY | EVERYDAY (IS HALLOWEEN) | WAX TRAX
7 DEPECHE MODE | EVERYTHING COUNTS (IN LARGER AMOUNTS) | MUTE
8 THE HUMAN LEAGUE | LOVE ACTION (I BELIEVE IN LOVE) | VIRGIN
9 BLANCMANGE | DON’T TELL ME (EXTENDED VERSION) | ISLAND
10 CETA JAVU | SITUATIONS | ZYX
11 ABC | THE LOOK OF LOVE (USA REMIX – DUB VERSION) | MERCURY
12 STEPHEN TIN TIN DUFFY | KISS ME (ORIGINAL VERSION) | CAROLINE
13 DEPECHE MODE | GET THE BALANCE RIGHT! (COMBINATION MIX) | MUTE
14 REAL LIFE | SEND ME AN ANGEL (EXTENDED MIX) | CURB
15 TALK TALK | IT’S MY LIFE (EXTENDED VERSION) | EMI
16 SPANDAU BALLET | LIFELINE (DUB VERSION) | CHRYSALIS
17 THE HUMAN LEAGUE | DON’T YOU WANT ME (EXTENDED DANCE MIX) | VIRGIN
18 ART OF NOISE | DONNA | ZTT

DOWNLOAD AGAIN!
Smiles

Wife and child joined. The wait wasn’t too bad here at 7:15 am.
Vibe was mellow and chill.

Go Do It if you haven’t yet.

Anyway, the cop was pretty cool and I got my ticket and was on my way. I wasn’t really looking forward for a $300 ticket, but what are you gonna do? I got my notice in the mail back in nyc a few weeks later and had the option to take driving school to ensure a point would not be added to my driving record.

I searched through some 30 odd driving schools approved for San Diego county provided with my notice to appear in court and narrowed it down to the one I choose. Safe 2 Drive.

https://www.safe2drive.com/

The course was $12.95 plus $6.95 to do online I.D. verification through Equifax. This was one of the cheapest course costs as well online verification costs I came across. Other schools were charging 9.99 and higher most of the time. When I finally got to payment part of the course (at the very end after you have passed all course material), there was a field for Promotion Code. I did a quick google search and the first entry delivered this code below.

Code: 1FAF1
Discount: 10% off

It worked like a charm and deducted an additional 3.00 off for “Family and Friends”. Total price was $16.90. The reason why I choose this course was mainly based of the site’s design. It was one of the cleaner and more professionally designed sites I came across. Some of the driving schools were so crappy in design, I only would have considered them if the price was even cheaper. Anyway… I had a pleasing experience and got through 5 chapter course in about 3.5 hours total broken into 2 sessions at my computer. You take a 10 question quiz at the end of each chapter. Pass with 80% or more and you can move on to the next chapter. After going through all course material, you then can enter the payment flow, i.d. verification online (if you choose that path) and then onto a 25 question test. The funny thing is, there is nothing to stop you from keeping course material or the internet for finding answers to questions on the test if you need it. I ace the test 100%, but probably because the stuff I had just read and ran through was still fresh in my head.

Bottom Line, if you get a speeding ticket in san diego county and you qualify for driving school. I’d recommend this school for cost and design. The only crappy part of the site’s design is that there is no way to quickly navigate to say Chapter 1 from Chapter 4. You have to hit Prev/Next buttons for each slide/page to get there. Locked in the linear navigation. If you can deal with that… there you have it.

So even if it’s a LOW Warbly Distored Bass Drum Kick to hear of Tim’s passing, it is to my excitement, that tapes are starting to surface as they get digitized. These memories encoded in these programs reflect back on fun and personal times of probably everybody’s lives as to what they were doing back in the early ’90s. (smiles)

At the time, I never taped Tim’s shows… I just listened, because I think I passed my ‘taping’ the radio days at that point. It was my arrival to Boston in 1989 to attend Berklee College of Music where I discovered the program, Diego’s ‘Moods For Moderns’ show on WFNX on Sunday Nights. This show started to shed light and just scratch the surface of the burgeoning Techno Music Scene that was about to explode in a big way.

Luckily, Old Boston Techno Head, David McMahon (DJM) captured some of Tim’s finer moments and is the first to have brought some tapes to light.. and to the land of digital, and I’m honored to host these recordings as a piece of Boston Music History.. Tim soooOOOOOoooo helped shape many of our musical paths to the Left of what most would consider ‘normal’ music, but for us.. this became.. our Normal music.

So, Tim, Thank You and even though we have to say good bye today, we can also come back to visit you whenever we’d like, with these recordings. (I hope that we can get more on the server for all to enjoy). Our receivers are still tuned.

the first set to emerge is from the Hard Wired program on WZBC.
Tim Haslett_WZBC_Hardwired_6-9-92-SideA.mp3

Tim Haslett_WZBC_Hardwired_6-9-92-SideB.mp3

2 More from DJM, from the following week:
Tim Haslett_WZBC_Hardwired_6-16-92-SideA.mp3

Tim Haslett_WZBC_Hardwired_6-16-92-SideB.mp3

Just added: (01.02.09)
Got a few more from an anonymous fan

WZLY_2-13-1990.mp3

Tranquility_Bass_WZBC_10-9-1990_Side_A.mp3

Tranquility_Bass_WZBC_10-9-1990_Side_B.mp3

WZLY_1-26-1992_Side_A.mp3

WZLY_1-26-1992_Side_B.mp3

If anyone has any more recordings they’d like to contribute, i have no problem hosting them, just get me the goods and email me where I can pick them up.
benny blanco®

I’m hi-jacking some links to other posts about Tim here:
Michigan State University Newspaper:
http://www.statenews.com/index.php/article/2008/03/msu_graduate_student_found_dead_friday

Moodmat:
http://www.moodmat.com/?p=692

Friendster Profile:
http://profiles.friendster.com/298943

Negrophonic:
http://www.negrophonic.com/2008/here-today/

Weekly Dig Tribute:
http://www.weeklydig.com/blogs/dayvidday/tim-haslett-rip

Lemmingtrail Boards:
http://board.lemmingtrail.com/t.php?id=123431

Hua Hsu:
http://www.people.fas.harvard.edu/~hhsu/blog.html

Beat Research Tribute:
http://wayneandwax.com/?p=298

Mashit:
http://www.mashit.com/2008/03/19/rip-tim-haslett/

Squar3.com
http://squar3.com/2008/03/20/tim-haslett/

Boston Magazine:
http://www.bostonmagazine.com/blogs/boston/2008/03/19/tim-haslett-found-dead/

Changs Place:
http://chang3002.livejournal.com/121359.html

Universal Hub:
http://www.universalhub.com/node/13522

WZBC Bloggy:
http://wzbc.blogspot.com/2008/03/tim-haslett-1966-2008-tim-haslett.html

Getting a lil You Tube happy this week with some home vids I had sitting around… enjoy the “ya . ya. ya. ya. yasss”

Tyler, DJ, Ya Ya. Goo Goo Gaa Gaa

so, shot this one morning and thought it was funny and that I should finally throw it up here, on the ol’ you tube.

Tyler Wai-Ho Folder Freakout!

was working at a small agency called Creative Priority since the beginning of the year. But, as the summer wained on, business started to move to a crawl and i was growing a lil grumpier day by day. Two weeks ago, i go into work on a monday morning expecting business as usual, and i was called to go into the conference room to have a lil talk. I was informed that I had to be let go.

I wasn’t too fazed about it.

20 minutes later, when I was out on the streets a free man, I called up my buddy, Merv, who had informed me of a freelance gig at the company he works for, Dennis Publishing. The makers of such fine newstand mags like Maxim, Blender & Stuff. By 11 am, I had an interview and by 1 pm of the same day i was let go from CP, i was informed that i’d start work on Wednesday at Stuff Magazine! word! Well, i’m still there for the time being. Hoping to max out the gig as best i can. I’ve never worked at a magazine before and i must say, it’s pretty damn cool to work Pop Culture Content for a change.
Next week, i’ll see if i can leverage some work on the interactive side. *crossin’ fingers* So, thanks again Mervert for the hooksups. Even if don’t last, the experience here is way cool and useful and another thing to add to my list of, done thats.

Check out the masthead for October’s issue:

So, aside from the day gig thingy.. i’ve been regularly dj’in up a storm as you most likely already know if yer subscribed to Blancospam. Depth Charge Thursdays & Moving Fridays I run with my partner and friend, Mark Flynn .
here are some of the images for this week’s events:

I also have been semi regularly playing at an Irish pub on the Upper West Side of Manhattan called the Parlour. Not so much my scene, but, the staff there is wicked and oddly enough, i’ve had my best AND worst gigs in NYC there. We’re suppose to start a regular Saturday gig there, Goin’ Down, where I offered to make a full color flyer, but then, they cut back to just makin some cheapo black and whites ones. Whatever, we’ll see if this gig EVER really gets going. For now, I’m good for their purposes when they need a dj for private parties. They Pay well.

Last night at Mr. Dennehy’s for the weekly Moving Fridays Party, we tried something a little different.

We changed the location of where we put the dj rig. We setup in one of the booths where people normally sit to eat meals. it’s a little pearch in the back part of the ground level floor. You can peer all the way to the front of the bar now. It’s pretty cool I must say.

Now, a little review for last night, I started dj’in around 10:15 pm and rolled out the 80′s remixes and singles to ease the transition from satellite radio to house/techno jammin later on. Around 11 pm, i had transitioned over to the housier grooves and allowed one of the guest dj’s for the evening, Markus Mehta, get warmed up on the decks. My girlfriend, Sheri, showed up with her dinner posse already pre-sauced and hung out til 1 am or so. Markus played til around 12:30 am and after a brief catch up with Dylan Drazen, placed Dylan on the throne to take control of things. Eva and Co. came down to hang out and converse and consume, just hangin’ out for Dylan and Markus’ sets. Around 2:30 am, Dylan ran out of easier listening house and had to stop. His boy fans were starting to cramp in on him anyway. One interesting notable is that this one Fan of Dylan’s, Amid, traveled all the way from Boston to hear Dylan play. He’s never met him either. Just a fan… wanted to come down to see him play! ‘ardcore! love it. i bought him a Blanco Blammo as a very small token of appreciation. I think his day was really made when he finally met Dylan and Dylan ended up hooking up with a free Mix CD. Amid was talking so fanatically about dylan and how he had downloaded all of his online mixes. Props.

So, Dylan packed up and rolled on home and Markus and I were instructed to keep the party rolling, even though there were very few remaining real customers still around. Redboy and lady friend, Connie, showed up as the transition was taking place and fell into a drinking session of shots and beers and megamixed concotions that i have no idea what they were. Manager Victor and Bartender Sean were ready to party and blow off some steam themselves. Redboy cued up a few tracks on iTunes’ party shuffle mode while I made wisecrack and Markus laughin it up. Eventually, Markus and I got back up on the decks and traded tunes back and forth on Miss Pinky unitl 4:15 or so. The lights came up and we sent Redboy & Connie home while the rest of the crew packed things up to call it a night.

Great Party.

next week, we got some nice Guiness giveaways and Betsy the Housekeeper joining me on the decks.

now playing:
B1 Setup (bushwacka!) from the album “12″” by Tokamak

To those boston friends of mine who may remember that I played at the Phoenix Landing last Super Bowl Sunday when the Patriots beat the Rams in 2002, I recorded the events that took place at the END of the night.

Some of you that were there have been hounding me to digitize the Immortal words of owner Kevin Trainer and of course Blake Courtney (sonic solutions). DJ’s Mike Walsh, Dave Skye and myself provided the soundtrack to a winning night. the link that proceeds contains some profanity… so, if you easily offend, DO NOT DOWNLOAD. for those of you that remember this historic night in Phoenix Landing history, check this funny shit out.

THE PATRIOTS ARE THE SUPERBOWL CHAMPIONS OF THE WORLD

the recording is about 20 minutes in length and 34 MB or so in size.
I take no responsibility for what was said. I just happen to capture the mood of a fantastic evening.

for $14 a month paid in 6 month chunks, i get a GIG of disc space, mad bandwidth, tons of other features. basically, i wanted more disc space with a good admin tool on the site for managing things. they do a pretty good job. The lil tech support i’ve had to use has been pretty quick to respond as well.

I also had to figure out how to set up a MySQL server too. so, it’s been yet another learning experience. I’ve also done a movable type blog import too from my previous blog. worked without a hitch. i think i’m running at 99% now.

now playing:
apologize_11.28.03 from the album “Apologize @ Sullivan Room NYC 11.28.03″ by benny blanco®

here are a few geek shots of the damn thing.

i haven’t set everything up on it yet, but looks to be working well at least in my home with nice signal. let’s hope that this new device suits me kindly.

In other events, over the weekend, went to Avalon NYC to check out Mr. Peter Hook (from the infamous band, New Order) play two tracks with the uk outfit, Hybrid. It was pretty cool to see him standing mere inches away from us. Redboy almost got clocked by his bass. The other funny thing about this show was this one ol’ geezah. He was just a total freak. Dancin’ like a fool with all these hand and arm gyrations. he was just missing some glowsticks. He seemed out of place here, but it was amusing to see nonetheless. I wish we had pics of that one. Props to Fedor for getting us in hassle free. I still hate $7 coronas at any bar!

now playing:
benny blanco®’s set from apologize_11.28.03 this past weekend

A quick recap.

Apologize party for Halloween set was totally kick ass. Laptop performed flawlessly to a packed house which has resulted in an immediate re-appearance for November, day after Thanksgiving. Saw 2ManyDJs for the first time on Nov.1 with redboy & sheri. got mad mad sweaty. Nov.11, celebrated a b-day with some fine sushi, some Hooters and some drinks with an un-blissful hangover and interview the following day. The weekend of the 15th brought b-day celebration party part duex with friends gathering at the ny comedy club and then on to open air for some house music and more drinks and dancin and foolin around.

that brings it up to date. i’ll try to be more regular and up some more fun once again…..