Two Trails at Brandywine Creek

So, after numerous weeks/months of being too worn out from partying the night before working, I actually got back on the trails on Saturday!

I decided to head over to the park that is closest to my location, that being Brandywine Creek State Park, which is about a 10 minute drive from where I live. The falls leaves were out in splendid color, and the air was brisk, but with a nice bright sun. Perfect for a quick hike in the woods! I decided to do two trails, the Indian Spring and the Hidden Pond (at 1.9 and 2.0 miles, respectively). I know the deadline for completing all the trails is fast approaching, and now the majority of the trails left for me are a good 2 hour drive from home, so it's going to take a little more pre-planning and dedicated timing to get them done- even if i have to do them in the snow!

Both the Indian Spring and the Hidden Pond start at the visitor center and cross some of the same terrain before splitting off, then coming together again from different directions, allowing you to experience the same areas from different angles. I finished the Hidden Pond loop first, which brought me back to the Visitors Center (good thing, too, because I totally missed where the Trail Challenge punch was and had to get mine done by the nice folks at the Visitor's Center.)

Then, I continued on and did the same beginning portion for the Indian Spring Loop, which allowed me to take on the rather steep (yet, quite beautiful!) hill overlooking the river. I found the punch for this one soon after, and now have just the Rocky Run trail to do at a later date.

Now, you won't see this view from any of the Trail Challenge trails, but it's worht a short drive up the hill to see this:

Till the next Trail,
Tim

Sampling, Copyrights, Drum'n'bass and MySpace

So, as the Philadelphia Phillies were wrapping up their amazing win over the Tampa Bay Ray's last night, I grabbed the digitial camera and captured the last minute of the game on video.

I got the last 3 strikes, the crazy celebration, the replay and the pure elated madness of it all. In typical, Tim fashion, I drop this into my PC, cut it up, drop some effects on it and dig up an incredible tune by Future Sound of London to serve as the soundtrack. It's a cool 5 minute piece and fits perfectly with the build-up, suspense and then emotional release of the situation.

After finishing the video, I upload it to Myspace only to see a message appear that it has not been made public, but rather witheld because of a copyright violation and that my upload privledges on MySpace have been revoked.

I need to read a page-long explanation of the official MySpace copyright rules and mark a checkbox to get my upload privledges back, and need to submit a Protest Form if I believe my video has been blocked in error.

Per the explanation from MySpace, my video was blocked due to a copyright flag from the musical group Dead Can Dance.

Weird, since I've certainly heard of Dead Can Dance...I own plenty of Dead Can Dance albums, but certainly did not use any Dead Can Dance track in my Phillies video!

So, I complete and submit the Copyright Protest Form, then instantly switch over to YouTube and upload the exact same video on their site (succesfully!) and then post that video on my Myspace.

Issue Resolved.

However, 6 hours later, MySpace returns to me with a message that my Protest Form submission has been denied and that the video has been permanently removed, and that my entire MySpace account may, in fact, be in jeopardy.

Odd, seeing that my given reason for the protest was (and I quote): "The stated copyright protected track was not present anywhere in the uploaded video in question."

Investigation Continues.

I'm sure you've guessed it by now...given the genre and general sub-culture of the music I grew up with and continue to listen to.

That's right, The Future Sound of London used a sample of Dead Can Dance's "Dawn of the Iconoclast" track as core elements in their 1992 track "Papua New Guinea".

So here I am, trying to share a video of my own creation for zero-profit whatsoever, and I'm getting hassled while FSOL has made untold thousands of dollars of profit on their "Papua New Guinea" track, which is arguabley their most recognizable and most famous track on their discography.

To quote FSOL:

"In this day and age there's a creative use of sampling and a non-creative use", says Cobain. "That's what I think is so good about 'Papua New Guinea' — I think it's familiar but it's also totally exotic.

If it was only totally exotic I don't think it would have been so successful, whereas the final product proved to be fast food for hungry dancefloors. You see, in those days there was very much a fast food mentality. There was so much stuff pommeling the raving, dancing masses that sometimes there needed to be something a little bit familiar.

If you're going to take somebody on a journey, there should be something familiar, so to a certain degree we were all playing the game of getting something familiar and then warping it.

The whole ethos of that was you can travel far and wide and be very exotic without going anywhere. We could sit and sample the sounds that had been collected for documentaries and use them in a different way. That was the revolution of sampling. It was an amazing time.

"What an incredible thing, to be able to pull together all these weird sources, to take a Dead Can Dance sample, put it against a Papua New Guinea nature documentary with some tribal percussion and bring it to some dance beats that were lying around.

It was fantastic. You had punks and bohemians and ravers and poets and romantics all gathered in the same space, and that was before the music industry got hold of it and the greed of the people who were making it ruined it.

At that point it ended up being as negative as everything else — it was as lazy as jazz, as lazy as rock, as lazy as indie eventually, and that's where it is now, but for a while it was revolutionary."

The sampling arguement is tired.
MySpace is now involved.
Times have changed.

Here's my Video:

Drum'n'Bass , Trance, Breaks and Techno Return to WVYC!

Tim Wingert & Hope Heiderscheidt
Purveyors of Fine Electronica to the York, PA airwaves!
WVYC Studios, circa 1998

It was fantastic to be back in the studios of WVYC again!

Although, it was certainly not the same without my partner in crime, Hope
(aka DJ Rage), who, unfortunately, was unable to make the show at the last
minute. I tried to include a good selection of everything that represented the
wide range of electronica we played during our years of Saturday night
broadcasts (The Fourth Floor, Tricked Out and Zero Gravity)

A lot of good memories from these tracks! Thanks to all the current WVYC
faculty and students who helped us alumni get up and running with the new
board and other gear!

Cheers to all our listeners and to all the participants, promoters and DJs of the
New Energy and Zodiak venues here in York, PA from 1996-1999. Each one of
you is responsible for creating a life-changing environment for myself and
many of my close friends. Your involvement with the local music scene and
rave culture is very much appreciated.

Keep it Real.

The following is the playlist from the Reunion Show. You can listen to and/or download an mp3 of the 2-hour broadcast here. The recording is a bit hot
and distorted at times, due to the recording software and compression levels.
The letters in parenthesis indicate which chunks of the show were
pre-produced and mixed beforehand.

If you would like to have any of these tracks or produced pieces in hi-fi wave
or mp3 format, just e-mail me at tw711@hotmail.com

Thanks to all!!

Special Thanks go out to Tom Gibson, Drew Carter, Abbey Fisher, Hope
Heiderscheidt, Lauren Edelstein Henry, Dan McGinnis, Doug Miller, Kevin
Anderson & Brian VanOrnum

Tim (DJ Wolf, WVYC, 99.7 FM)
York College 1995-1999

1. Intro: DJ Force & The Evolution: “Ruffer” (“Are You Lost, Sweetheart?”) (a)
2. The Prodigy: “Rat Poison” (Includes samples from the “Big Dramatic Intro” vocals
by Tim) (a)
3. The Crystal Method: “Keep Hope Alive” (a)
4. Cirrus: “Abduction” (My Daddy Never Let me Play Outside) (a)
5. Makai: “Beneath The Mask” (Ghost in the Shell) (a)
6. Kaotic Chemisty: “Drumtrip II” (Do it Now Kid) (a)

7. WVYC FM Legal ID
8. Big Dramatic Intro: “Frequency Scan”/”Dull Yellow Eyes”/Tim’s Vocals

9. WVYC FM Legal ID
10. Intro: Adam F: “End of Days” (b)
11. Omar Santanta: “Raver’s Damnation” (b)
12. DJ Technique: “My Definition” (b)
13. Seamus Haji: “Last Night a DJ Saved My Life” (b)

14. WVYC FM Legal ID
15. Intro: Dieselboy “Substance D Warning Label” (c)
16. 88.3 “Wishin’ on a Star” (c)

17. Intro: "A Part of All Things" (d)
18. Three Drives on a Vinyl “Greece 3000” (d)
19. Concord Dawn: “Take Me Away” (d)

20. Jamie Myerson: “Rescue Me” (d)
21. Fingers, Inc: ‘My House” played over “????” (f)
Faithless: “God is a DJ” with Fingers, Inc: ‘My House” excerpts at the end (f)
22. Evol Intent: “The Foreword” (Things are Bad”) (f)
23. Cleveland Lounge: “Drowning (AK1200 remix)” (f)

24. WVYC FM Legal ID (F’ed up that one…)
25. Intro: Adam F: “Last Dayz” (e)
26. Faithless: “Insomnia” (e)
27. Anomaly: “Calling Your Name” (e)
28. Sarah McLachan: “Silence (J Majik Remix)” (e)
29. Dumonde: “Human (Ill Skills Remix)”
30. Styles of Beyond: “Subculture”

31. Arrakis….
32. Big Dramatic Intro: #2: Lost Tribe: “Gamemaster (Michael Woods Remix)”
33. Freestylers: “B-Boy Stance (Grooverider Remix)"
34. Brooklyn Bounce: “Contact”

35. WVYC FM Legal ID
36. Elena: “Turn it Around”
37. DJ Fresh: “The Immortal” (The Turning of the Stars)
38. Human Resource: “Dominator"(I’m Bigger and Badder and Rougher and Tougher)
39. Nalin & Kane: “Beachball” (People Get Ready, Get Ready to Flow)
40. Propellerheads: “History Repeating”
41. Praga Kahn: “Injected With a Poison”
42. Baby D: “Let Me be Your Fantasy”

For Whom the Music Matters

There's almost a 100% probability that the individual that this post refers to will never read this, however it's important enough for me to post regardless.

I'd like to give some major thanks and kudos to a one DJ LickA Shot.

In a depressing, half-under-construction artificial city a million miles from Nowhere DC, an upscale lounge and nightclub on the top floor of a disgustingly wasteful and overdone $960 million building plays host to a well-paying pharmaceutical company on the final night of their 4-day convention.

In amongst the dozens of LCD screens, crystal chandeliers, white leather couches, open and flowing bar, the buffet tables of light-bite fare and the wall-to-wall interactions between drunken co-workers, stands a guy who just wants to dance (me).

The DJ providing the tunes tonight has graced the decks of such venues as Velvet in Miami, Fluid in Philly, Cargo in London and has opened for R-Kelly & Jay-Z. But tonight, for his crowd of mostly white, mid-40's and balding sales reps, middle managers, CFOs and Team Leads, the quality of his mix is nowhere near as important to them as the color of their bullet points in their PowerPoint presentations.

He could have easily phoned it in with an automatic wedding reception playlist of "Footloose", "You Shook Me all Night Long" , "YMCA" and "Hollaback Girl" to which his audience would have just as well shuffled and shimmied around the club while holding their Heinekens and hitting on fellow employees.

This guy, however, was not about to slack off even given the lack of musical education of his audience tonight. He played the requisite songs ("We Are Family", "A,B,C", etc) needed to get that crazy group of girls out on the floor, dragging their embarrassed and awkward male co-workers, franticly downing their Red Bull & Vodka's to adequately dismiss of their inhibitions, but mostly he gave us real material that we could actually use (referring to myself in the plural- sort of weird, but it feels right).

Stuff like Madonna's "4 Minutes", Rihanna's "Disturbia", Usher's "Yeah!" and Flo Rida's "Ayer".

Nothing to be said about any deep lyrical content or creative song structure, but all great, backbeat-driven, easy-to-step-to tracks. All work well with my special blend of lock'n'pop, liquid and make-it-up-on-the-spot footwork.

So, I'm having a pretty good time.

But then, this drops in from out of nowhere:

Nightcrawler's "Push the Feeling On".

There was absolutely no reason for our DJ to drop in this track (even for short 45 seconds that he had it spinning).

It's not a track to get people off their seats or out from the bar onto the floor.

It won't make girls wiggle, bounce or shake anything in particular and I guarantee no one on the floor recognized the tune from any other club or wedding experience and perked up.

But for myself and others who've enjoyed the electronic music scene for quite some time, it's a classic track. It's a landmark tune, one that I remember exactly where and when I heard it for the first time. Tonight, I heard that classic Robin S-esque organ and those vocals come fading in, a big smile came across my face.

I knew the music was in the hands of a professional.

None of the pharma attendees would ever put any meaning into the nonsensical, chopped up vocal track. He didn't even play it for me, because I didn't request it (and I wouldn't have even thought to).

He played it because the music mattered.

Thanks to DJ LickA Shot for creating a fun and energetic atmosphere the other night. Thanks to the club management for not kicking me out when I was the only one in the VIP section taking control of the light-up glass floor (although that is sort of freaky - dancing out on the edge like that). And thanks to those members of the convention who personaly acknowledged the skills of the DJ and yours truly.

PS. DJ LickA Shot is on MySpace

Trail Time, or The Lack Thereof

It's now September.

This and the next 3 months are the busiest part of the year in the industry that pays my bills. Weekends may be hard to come by and finding time to do trails for the Delaware Trail Challenge will be even harder.

I'm not worried though. It's not that much to hike, and you can always do them in the snow, right?

I was planning to do some trails close to home tommorow, but we are now leaving for our D.C. show Saturday afternoon. There's laundry to be done. And tonight...well, read the previous post.

Drum'n'bass Deliciousness tonight.

When I win that 5 day/4 night stay in a fully-equipped cottage that sleeps six in a spectacular natural setting in an Ohio State Park, plus $1000 for travel expenses when I finish the challenge, I'll be sure to have a contest to see who comes with me!

See you then!

An Adventure in Beats and Bass

So, there was no trail hiking going on last weekend. We had a visitor in town.

Not me personally, but in a move remininscent of the Platinum weekly events of yore, Philadelphia nightclub Fluid invited Mr. J Majik of the U.K. to their intimate, yet emotionally explosive venue just off of South Street.

Now, if there's anything that defines me just as much as the great outdoors and photography, it's the sound of hard-hitting, sub-smashing, bassline-booming, dancefloor-filling, soul-flying drum'n'bass.

It's been in my blood for about 15 years now- from collections like The History of Our World by DJ DB to A Soldier's Story by Dieselboy to Disturbance by Concord Dawn. (and I was able to capture this moment of drum'n'bass-fueled nature's lightning show at Starscape 2008.

I'm not as up-to-date on the new stuff these days, but when you hear that an artist like J Majik is coming to town, you drop everything and throw yourself into the vibe.

Which usually means cancelling all physical activities the morning after.

I danced myself sick. And so did alot of others. Congratulations to Defcon, Circle Management and Fluid for throwing a great party! The days of Thursday night Platinum events with Dieselboy, Dara and AK1200 are gone, but thanks to these guys and sites like Philly D'n'B.com it looks like the Philly scene is still very much alive.

Friday, September 12th, 2008. This is, again, not to be missed. Calyx is one of the new guys I've been turned on to. His "Follow The Leader" track from '05 is a tech-step masterpiece. It's got a growling bassline that takes no prisoners.

See you on the Trail (or on the Dancefloor).

A Trail Story of Another

Here's an account of a Delaware columnist's adventure on both the Sensory and the Swamp Forest Trails at Lum's Pond.

To follow up with my story, I still have not yet contacted Columbia regarding my massive boot failure in the middle of last week's hike. It's on my to do list, I promise.

This Saturday looks like great weather, although I can't do a big drive because of plans later in the afternoon. Maybe a shot at the Brandywine Creek trails? I'll have to look into it.