The Beat's 12 Days of X-Mas: Day 1 - Run DMC - "Christmas In Hollis"

Merry Christmas y'all!
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"The Beat's" 12 Days of X-Mas: Day 3 Bing Crosby/ David Bowie "Little Drummer Boy"

David Bowie used to scare the hell out of me as a child. This helped soften him up a bit when I first saw it.
One of the oddest holiday pairings of all-time. What would today's equivalent be?
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"The Beat's" 12 Days of X-Mas: Day 4 - John Denver & The Muppets "12 Days of Christmas

By law, I had to put this one up. I'm down (with The Muppets) by law.

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LA MC Dumbfounded knocks out opponent in battle

File this under "You got knocked the f--- out!" category. LA battle cat Dumbfounded gets shoved during a battle and promptly returns the favor with a swift kick to the dome.
Not sure if this was real or staged, but who cares. That was a well-executed round house kick. This takes "I'm styling on ya" to a whole new level.
As a disclaimer, stop the violence, increase the peace. One.
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12 Days of Christmas: Day 5 (Throwback Sunday Edition) - Snoop & Co. "Santa Claus Goes to the Ghetto"

Death Row - "Santa Claus Goes Straight to the Ghetto"

This song is so wrong yet so right. Classic Death Row, with Snoop, Daz, Kurupt, Tray Dee and Bad Azz providing the rhymes and Nate Dogg on the hook.
However, I love this song for the sample. Isaac Haye's "Do Your Thing" is one of those old school soul essentials. Gangsta soul, if you would.
In a nod to my fellow/fellow blogger and all around good girl Rebecca Haithcoat, I'm making this a Throwback Suneday edition, with "Do Your Thing" after the jump. (You can read Rebecca's super cool blog here.)
Ho, Ho, Ho, snitches!

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"The Beat's" 12 days of X-Mas - Day 6: Stevie Wonder "It's Christmas Time"

It's Stevie Wonder. It's Christmas. It's a great song.
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"The Beat's" 12 days of X-Mas - Day 7: Band Aid "Do They Know It's Christmas"

Missed a day, so we're getting caught up with a two for one today.
Band Aid's "Do They Know It's Christmas" has always been a favorite of mine. Great song, and with a lot of great 80's talent. Long live the 80's!


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"The Beat's" 12 days of X-Mas - Day 8: Jim Jones "White Christmas"

It kind of boggles my mind that Jim Jones and Dipset have done not one, but a few Christmas albums. And this song isn't half bad.
Bonus: Juelz interpretation of "Jingle Bells" after the jump. Dipset!



Juelz Santana & Starr "Jingle Bellz"

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"The Beat's" 12 days of X-Mas - Day 9: Johnny Cash, Momma Cash and Friends "Silent Night/Little Drummer Boy"

That's really Johnny's momma, Carrie Cash, on piano. Very cool.
J.C. Cash and Carl Perkins are in there as well. Can you name the rest?
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"The Beat's" 12 days of X-Mas - Day 10: Timberlake & Samberg "D--- In A Box"

The holiday classic:)
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Download: Lil Wayne/Eminem "Drop The World"

This is making the rounds on the blogosphere pretty quick right now. Wayne kinda sorta goes in on this. Em, well, he's Em.
This is supposed to be on Wayne's rock album "Rebirth," but who knows really. This is a rough, rough, demo track, but definitely worth a listen. Link after the jump.

http://usershare.net/wqjagjpc6ku3

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"The Beat's" 12 days of X-Mas - Day 11: Jackson 5 "Sant Claus is Coming to Town"

You can't go wrong with the Jackson 5. 11 days until Christmas y'all (and I haven't done any shopping:0 ).

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"The Beat's" 12 days of X-Mas: Outkast "Player's Ball"

Outkast - Player's Ball
Uploaded by jamms. - Watch more music videos, in HD!

We're starting a new tradition here @ The Beat: The 12 Days of X-Mas. Part Christmas Countdown, part best of Christmas jams, all leading up to the redeemer's big day.

Hard to believe, but 'Kast's first single, "Player's Ball" was originally a Christmas song, released on the holiday album "A LaFace Family Christmas." The song has plenty of holiday references, but it's also a hustler's lament: it's Chrstmas time, snowing, and the d-boys are still serving the fiends. A cold world, indeed.

Happy Holidays y'all!
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Live: Ice Cube @ The Catalyst

Caught Ice Cube last night @ The Catalyst. One thing about a Cube show: you are forced to throw the W up at least once, if not several times throughout the night (my middle finger and fore finger were in a perpetual knot for most of the show).

Above is a brief clip from the show. Hard to make out a lot of it, but it's the best I could do given the rocking going on around me. Enjoy!
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Cold Flamez tonight at The New Planet Gemini

So-Cal jerkin' boys Cold Flamez perform their radio hit "Miss Me, Kiss Me" and other songs tonight at The New Planet Gemini. Flyer below after the jump.

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CSUMB TAT students Rodrigo Ojeda- Beck and Robert Machoian accepted to Sundance Film Festival

CSU-Monterey Bay will have some representation at the biggest independent film festival in the United States — The Sunset Film Festival.
That's where CSUMB alumni Rodrigo Ojeda-Beck and Robert Machoian will have their short film "Charlie and the Rabbit" screened in the dramatic shorts category at Sundance, which takes place Jan. 21-31 in Park City, Utah.

The short film program compromises 70 films from the Unites States and international film makers, selected from more than 6000 submissions.

Machoian is a 2007 graduate and Ojeda-Beck a 2009 graduate of CSUMB's Teledramatic Arts ant Technology (TAT) department. "Charlie and the Rabbit" is about a 4-year-old named Charlie who loves Bugs bunny and decides to hunt a rabbit of his own. (More after the jump).

"(The story of) Charlie has to do with choice," said Machoian, who was born and raised in King City. "We have to make choices constantly."

TAT department chair Enid Baxter Blader said the alumni success is proof that her department is among the best in the nation.

"This is more evidence that CSUMB has one of the leading film and video programs in the country, said Blader, who helped initiate the pairing when both were TAT students under her tutelage.

On Blader's suggestion, Machoian began working with Ojeda-Beck on a school project. Soon after, the pair began cranking out short movies at a furious clip, creating 13 total a four-month stretch.

One of those films was "Ella and the Astronaut," the first in a short-series that the pair dubbed "Youth Without Youth." That film was selected to several film festivals in 2008.
"Charlie and the Rabbit" is the second film in that series. Machoian said they recently completed the third and final film in the series.

"Charlie and the Rabbit" will premier at Sundance, then make the rounds through several other film festivals over the next two years. A stipulation of acceptance into the Sundance Film Festival is they cannot distribute it independently during that time period.

"The film has a two year life span on the film festival circuit," said Machoian. "The Sundance Film Festival and other film festivals are the only way to view the film."

Blader said she was proud of her students accomplishment and pleased with their overall production.

"Their work uses a careful approach to image and pacing," she said. "It's able to reach wide audiences and resonate with people all over the place."

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Alex Lee/Le Vice featured on "America's Next Top Model"; New Le Vice album to drop Feb. 16

Good friend/staff favorite of "The Beat" Alex Lee and Le Vice got some prime time coverage recently. The song "Do It Big" was featured in the recent "America's Next Top Model" season finale. You can view the clip above ("Do It Big" drops at the 4:13 mark, with a nice cue to boot).
Lee text me that she has new music up on and streaming, and you can directed to it at www.levicemusic.com. The new album is set to drop Feb. 16.
I'll update this post with some streaming tracks of the new stuff for those of you too lazy to click the link.

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12/12 "Real Recognize Real" B-Boy competition relocated to Marina Community Center

Just got word that the "Real Recognize Real" B-Boy competition scheduled for 5-9 p.m. Saturday has been moved to the City of Marina Recreation & Cultural Services Dept: Marina Teen Center, 211 Hillcrest Avenue, Marina. Billed as a positive hip-hop event, the show features hip-hop b-boy competitions, live performances from Realization, Joint Venture, Grown Folks, Solis Cin and Poetic S and more. For information, click here
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Download: Ghambit "Put It In The Air 2" Mixtape

The boy-boy Ghambit of Ineffable Music Group has released his latest mixtape, "Put It In The Air 2" just in time for the holidays. And it's free. You can download it at
http://www.filefront.com/15087025/GHAMBIT---PIITA2.zip

Season's greetings y'all.

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Jamielee Darley comes a close second in Victoria's Secret Model Search

The path to Victoria's Secret runway supermodel stardom was cut short for Jamielee Darley, as she came in second during the Victoria's Secret runway model search, part of the 2009 Victoria's Secret Fashion Show.
Darley was featured prominently during Tuesday night's broadcast despite her second place finish to winner Kylie Bisutti. During one photo shoot, a photographer marvelled at her well endowed figure.
"She had a good sense of how to manage that," commented the photographer.
"I'm living my dream" said Darley.
Darley even got to practice her walk on the runway, during the broadcast. During the live show, which was taped Nov. 19 in San Diego, Darley got a chance to walk on the runway. Her appearance was included in the national broadcast.
After the jump is a press release statement from Jamielee Darley following up the fashion show broadcast.

Press Release for Jamielee Darley, Victoria's Secret finalist

As many of you know Jamielee, made it to the top two finalists in the Victoria's Secret Model Search.
This competition started out with over 10,000 young women from all over america, and only a few of them were lucky enough to make it to the top 10. Jamielee, then made the cut from 10 to 5, and then to the final two finalists.
If you tuned in to the Victoria's Secret Runway show tonight on CBS, you are aware that Jamielee did not win the competition. However, she would like to thank all of those who supported, voted, and watched all the publicity leading up to the finale. Without all of america's votes, she wouldn't have stayed in the competition for all of this time.
Jamielee has been in the ride of her life, with the whirlwind of the last three weeks, and being a part of the Victoria's Secret competition. She has witnessed and taken part in one of most sought after fashion shows in the world.
What an honor it has been to take part in this ride, and learn from some of the best in the business. She wishes to thank america for all their support, what an honor it has been to be apart of this amazing opportunity.

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Interview transcript: Zane Lamprey of “Three Sheets”

Zane Lamprey is a comedian and host of the television show “Three Sheets” on the Fine Living Network. Without sounding short, Lamprey gets paid to travel around the world and drink. A lot.
His show consists of him traveling to places like Belize, Newcastle, Las Vegas and Jamaica, soaking in the local drinking culture and capturing it all on film. He has a lot of fun doing it, with a breezy personality that isn't above self-deprecation.
His live show “Drinking Made Easy: Alcohol Appreciation” premiers Thursday night at The Catalyst in Santa Cruz. Show starts at 8 p.m. Lamprey spoke with “The Beat” for a feature story in advance of the show. Here is the inter view transcript with more after the jump.

On doing “Three Sheets” and the evolution of his new live show:
We shot the (“Three Sheets”) pilot in late 2005. I've done over 50 episodes of it, traveled around to more than 45 countries. And I also just finished a book. I wrote a book called “Three Sheets” for Random House Publishing which comes out in spring.
During all this, I became sort of an accidental expert on alcohol. I'm a comedian first, a drinker second and then an alcohol expert third or even farther down the list.
I really wanted to go out on the road and do stand up. I figured the best way to do that was to tie that into “Three Sheets” and the alcohol knowledge. But with the drinking and it being a stand up tour, we're sort of like Al Gores' presentation of “An Inconvenient Truth” if he was drunk. Because the show is also drinking games, but people are gonna learn things.
I'm funny and and entertainer, and then the education is cursory to that. It's going to be a fun show above and beyond anything.

On the shows “Alcohol Appreciation” angle:
In doing “Three Sheets” and all this stuff, I've learned about alcohol. I've learned so much about alcohol that now I appreciate it for what it is, for what it's made from, and some of the histories and facts about it. Where as before, maybe I just appreciated alcohol because it made me drunk. Now, I have all this information and it's made me appreciate alcohol.
The sub title for the show is ”Alcohol Appreciation” and it's basically like I'm covering beer wine and liquor and I'm breaking them all down and talking about distillation and fermentation and where they're from and what role the barrels play. But it's all tongue in cheek, it's all comedic. It's not like anyone's going to sit there for a minute without a smile on their face. This thing is a show and people are encouraged to drink along.

On the drinking game rules for the show:
There are rules for the show. That is, if you want to play along, you drink along with the show. Whenever I drink, you have to take a drink. Whenever I talk about my buddy Steve McKenna, you take a drink. Anyone who knows the “Good Burp rule” that I learned in Belgium, that comes into play.
It's gonna be a fun show and people will walk away having learned something and maybe if people take it to heart, they will actually start to further their appreciation of alcohol. I'm not giving people enough information that they all of a sudden
know what they need to know about things, but if they're intrigued about what rum is made from, or some of the history of tequila or stuff like that, then they might then leave the show and go off and begin an affinity with tequila or with vodka or with certain kinds of beers.
If I'm out there talking, my presentation is an hour long, there's a q&a at the end. I'm talking about beer for 20 minutes, wine for 20 minutes and liquor for 20 minutes. There's only so much information I can get out there.
Basically, I figured out what information there was that I wanted to convey. So when I begin my writing, I said here's what I want to cover. Because fermentation or distillation can be daunting to people. It's like, well wait. The word, I dont' even want to know what it is, it's just too much, but no, not really.
Fermentation is one of the most simple physical and chemical processes on the planet and distillation is just as simple. It's boiling alcohol. And once I break it down with some animation, I talk about stuff like how barley and hops and yeast become beer. Those are the pieces of information that I want to get out, and then the jokes tie the whole show together. And with the animation,it's some funny stuff.

On how often he gets to go on the road and co stand up:
I don't. I've been so busy with everything for the last five years. I do my parties, like — my friends give me a hard time for this — but I do “Zane Patrick's Day,” “Zanetoberfest” and “Zaneto De Mayo.” We have these parties in cities around the country. I get up on stage and do my stuff up there. But this is the first time I'm going on stage with written material and an objective, with rehearsed material I want to get out there. I really haven't (had a chance).
This will be my first stand-up tour, period. You guys are my first stand-up show.

On his favorite drinks:
The best tequila shot I ever took, it wasn't a shot. It was a sipping tequila and it was from the private reserve at Jose Cuervo down in Mexico. It was from this barrel in their basement. I want to say it was about 30 years old.
It's amazing when an alcohol gets to be sitting in a barrel that long. It really mellows out. When you have a 30 year old rum, tequila, scotch, they all start to taste really similar, because they're really taking on the flavor of the barrel. So that was a really nice, mellow easy sipping tequila, not like the stuff we do at spring break.
The best ale I've had? It's really like, that's a question (I get a lot), but you're asking it in a good, more specific way. When I'm in a country and drinking their beer, take Ireland. The best example is if I'm in the pub, it's 41 degrees outside, I'm sitting inside by a fire, there is nothing I want in my hand more than a pint of Guinness.
Usually, you'll get , for example, if you go to Jamaica and it will be more of a lager, you'll want something more light and refreshing on a cool day. So you'll have like a Red Stripe. Or, I was in Mexico two weeks ago and as far as beer, all I drank was Corona.
It's just what I feel like I should be drinking out there, and (in Mexico) I was not interested in a Guinness, even though Guinness sells a lot of beer in a lot of warm places. But to me, I always felt that was a cold weather beer. But then I had a beer in Maui, it was a coconut porter by the Maui Brewery Co. and it was a unique flavor. I really liked it and I usually have a few of those in my fridge.

On getting requests for public appearances:
What I got more than anything, even though people send me private messages on MySpace, but the page on Facebook doesn't really work out like that. Sometimes on Twitter, I get so many messages I really can't look at them. What I really was getting a lot of, once very few weeks, my agent will send over a wedding invitation.
They say, “Hey we're having a wedding. We'd love for you to come to our wedding, you won't pay for a drink the entire time you're here.”
So, first of all, it's hard enough to make it to my friend's wedding, but you're asking me to get on a plane, pay for a hotel, but then you're telling me that when I get there the $50 of drinks is going to be free? And I'm not going to know anybody when I get there? That's my own private hell right there.

On his show personality:
I am just a regular guy and I think that's really the point. When I do my show, the last thing I want to be is cool. I'm a dork and if I ever tried to be cool, on my show, people would destroy me. I'm a guy who's lucky to have the job that he has. I make fun of myself whenever possible and I just like to have fun. I'm definitely a fun guy to have a beer with, just because I'm a comedian who likes to drink. But what comedian doesn't like to drink?

Being on “The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien”:
I was appreciative to be there. Doing stand up would have been interesting, but it was probably less stressful sitting at the chair with him. It was still a very surreal experience.
Conan, he is the man. I was also on Carson Daley's show, and I'm extremely impressed with him and what he has turned his show into.
Conan came back to my dressing room before hand and rapped with me, and he came back to the dressing room afterward, and it was great. Such an amazing experience. It was definitely an extreme privilege to be there.

On keeping it together when he's spent 10 hours straight drinking on the show:
It's the illusion of television. I might be someplace ... for instance, Newcastle. I had just come form Iceland, and we got in around 3 in the afternoon, got settled. I went to the gym, had dinner.
I woke up the next morning, the crew went out and scouted locations, and I had to be at a bar by like 4 p.m.. Then I went to another bar at about 7 p.m. or 8 p.m., and then I was done.
Then the next day I went to a brewery and another bar, and the day after that, all we did was play soccer. The day after that we went to a few more places. And the guy I was traveling around with in Newcastle, I was with him about 4 days. So what seemed like one crazy day was closer to four.
It's cool, it will be difficult to tell the story being presented over 4 days, so it's more fun to have it take place over one (during a regular episode). That way, it's more of “Don't mind the man behind the curtain.”

On his own drink recipes:
I created one when I was in Vegas called the “Zanetini.” It was cognac and Brut champagne, and it sounds very hoity toity and and sophisticated, but it was a horrible drink. You want cognac, get cognac. You want champgagne, get champagne. But two good things together don't necessarily make a good thing. So don't do it.

I've learned so many drink recipes of cocktails during the show, but if I go out, I'm going to have... let's see. Last night I had to go to my buddy's party. I had a scotch, a Corona and a red wine. So there you go.

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