Le blog du Baron

ABSOLUTELY LENNY

Here is the recipee for a very cool promotion: you take a big rock star, convince him to write an exclusive   track, get a few talented DJs to mix alternative versions, design a sleek website.

And that's it ! You've got AbsolutKravitz. Lenny has teamed up with the famous vodka brand to make a brand new song available in multiple mixes on the net.

Here is the original:

Out of the various mixes, here is one of my favourite by Nikko Patrelakis.

And one last for the road: the version of Latinsizer:

Check the others here.

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GETTING PSYCHED UP ?

I'm a sucker for cool guitars and I would not hesitate for a second in trading my great-uncle's Chinese stamp collection for a few vintage beauties. Here is the new Hendrix Psychedelic Flying V that Gibson have brought out.  

  Sweet, ain't it ?

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NEWS FROM THE FRONT LINE

Following foreign press, I'm sometimes under the impression that France is on the verge of another civil war. True, it is difficult to understand this strange obsession that the French have with the idea of going out into the streets and start their very own revolution.

There was a very interestingt article in Le Monde recently whose conclusion was that France is simply a country where you cannot do any significant reform. That is probably the most worrying: I'm against the CPE, partly because of its content but even more because of the way in which the French government is trying to impone it without any debate. It really show how little things have changed since Louis XIV: we are still living under the authority of a Prince.

At the same time, I'm not sure how long the French society can keep its head in the sand and avoid tackling the real issues. Let's wait to see today what the Conseil Constitutionel has to say about the law itself.

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MUSIC RISING TOUR

Last year the Edge teamed up with producer Bob Ezrin and guitar maker Gibson to launch Music Rising, an initiative to raise funds and replace the instruments lost by musicians when hurricanes Rita and Katrina hit the south of the US.

Acoording to Bob Ezrin: "to date, 1,100 musicians have received at least $1,000 worth of stuff, whether it's an instrument or gear that they lost, things that made it possible to go out and ply their trade". And the project has since then led to a full-blown US tour with 80 dates across the country and more than 60 acts including Nine Inch Nails, Queensryche, Ben Harper and so on.   

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SHOOT TO THRILL

An interesting spin on how musician can fight against war and violence. The Colombian musician Cesar   Lopez and the guitar manufacturer Luis Alberto Paredes have invented the "escopetarras" which is a combination of gun ("escopeta" in Spanish) and guitars ("guitarras").

The Colombian vice-president Francisco Santos gave them last month 2 AK47 from former paramilitaries which will be transformed. If my Spanish is correct, one of them is planned for Shakira.

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CHAPLIN IN HAMBURG

Once again, I'm behind on my posting. La Contessa and I are just back from a week in Hamburg where we attended a couple of antics fairs (officially to give a hand to one of her aunts but I was secretly hoping to find someone who would be interested in this stupid armour - no such luck).

Between 2 dusty cupboards it was also the opportunity to see 2 very good exhibitions: first at the Kunsthalle, a small but well documented exhibition on Edward Munch, and then a brilliant series of photo on Chaplin at the Haus der Photographie.

A reminder of how much of a genius he was.

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RADIOHEAD ALL JAZZED UP

I've been a big Radiohead fan for some time now. And I guess I'm not the only one. So have a listen to this piano version of "Exit music for a film" from OK Computer by my great friend, web-guru and jazz maestro Ouriel.

And since you are here, feel free to check his blog.

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DIGITAL GUITAR & OTHER COOL STUFF

Let's get back to music for a little while, shall we ?

Guitar-making legend GIBSON are launching the first Ethernet-based Digital Guitar. The Les Paul HD6X-Pro uses a new technology called Media-accelerated Global Information Carrier, or MaGIC. They claim it "enables devices to carry multiple channels of high-fidelity audio over a standard Ethernet network connection".

I think I get it but don't ask me to explain this to anyone. Whatever ! It sounds cool.

And checking Gibson's website I also came upon this really brilliant photo from Yohann Fournier.

It won  their contest recently and I can see why. Very, very nice.

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ANOTHER THING TO REMEMBER

On March 20th, 1933 Himmler creates the first concentration camp in Dachau, initially for political prisonners. Opposants to the Nazi regime, communists and social-democrats most of them, will soon start to be sent there. 250 000 persons will be transfered to Dachau between 1933 and 1945. 70 000 will die there.

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DARK SIDE OF INDIA

2 days after I wrote my post on Raghav Mahato, highlighting some of the qualities I like so much in the India spirit, 5 persons were publicly beheaded in Assam for alledgely practising witchcraft.

Quite disturbing I have to say.

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