Thank you Miami New Times

Miami DJ-Producer Jesp Talks Political Science of Pop and Raging Through the Recession

By Matt Preira 

Pop music doesn't have to be supersmart. It's for out-of-control bouts of shouting, makeout sessions, and screaming along with when traffic on 826 is moving in slow-mo.

But Miami DJ-producer Joseph Espinoza (AKA Jesp) thinks that pop should be both fun and intelligent. In fact, his dabbling in ostensibly serious genres like punk and progressive rock has given birth to an appreciation for the structural composition of melodic, beat-driven party anthems and their function in society. Even further, Jesp has developed a soft-spoken party ideology that champions pop escapism as a legitimate response to constant global turmoil.

With the release of Espinoza's brand-spankin'-new EP, Step Into The Dark (now available on iTunes), Crossfade thought it would be a good time to pick the songsmith's brain on the impending a-pop-aclypse.

Crossfade: Where is modern pop music going? Who in modern pop do you draw influence from?
Current American Top 40 pop music can sometimes contradict what people are going through and the way people feel in 2011. There is uncertainty all around us. The saturation of "house" music and feel-good lyrics on the radio stems from the club where individuals most often go to escape reality. The original version of "It's About Time" is an attempt to fuse dance music with lyrical themes we see outside the club. The more instrumental EP edit takes the club feel a step further. It was created to challenge the listener, as most of my songs attempt to do.

In modern pop, I am inspired by the big cats: RedOne, The Cataracs, Stargate as well as more recently popular DJ-producers like Afrojack and Skrillex.

What do nightlife, desire, and the apocalypse have to do with one another and Jesp?
The dance-oriented pop music that has done well in the last year or two very often uses the word tonight, and for a reason. When it comes to clubbers, ravers, ragers, and festival-goers, this crowd is living for the moment. DJs and "DJs" are the new rockstars. Kids are going out and buying turntables and software intstead of guitars. There is a big influence of the club in all aspects of our modern society. Although nightlife may seem to have nothing to do with a recession or a loan default or a foreclosure or anything else we see going on in the news and our lives, it actually has a lot to do with it. There is a direct correlation between the darkness' of our future and the desire to party till the sun comes up.

How did you progress from punk to prog-rock and now dance music. Do you still take influence from your earlier genre experiments? 

I grew up listening to '80s electro, New Wave, and Power 96 freestyle/booty bass. Punk was my introduction to the profound impact of live music. When I was 14, I used to sneak out of my house and go watch Against All Authority at ['90s Miami punk haven] Cheers whenever they would play. I was fascinated by bands like Minor Threat, Husker Dü, Pennywise, and NOFX. When I started playing in bands, my taste for rock grew in complexity until I was introduced to Pink Floyd, Rush, King Crimson, etc.

By that time, I was studying music at Berklee and was able to interpret and analyze the music I loved with musical theory. At Berklee, I started using Digital Performer sequencing software, which opened my eyes to the limitless possibilities of sound design. I found myself slowly transitioning from a live performer into an electronic music producer. 





Jesp-Eat my heart (Sharks vs. mermaids) Remix   

        Featuring: Lauren Ann Wolfe

Was the plan always to produce and sing? Have you ever thought about teaming up with someone else and producing/writing for them or vice versa?
The plan was never to produce and sing as Jesp. As a matter of fact, this EP is a step away from my singing, as you will notice much more of an instrumental presence. I am a trial-and-error type of live performer. I like to play shows, and change things to make them better. This is the one thing that attracted me most to being a solo artist. My instincts were to always be a frontman. I soon realized that, in terms of this project, the emphasis should be more about the music itself than me dancing around on the stage.

Recently, I have embraced the DJ-producer platform (à la Skrillex and Deadmau5), which I find is much, much more impactful at my shows. This summer, I released a rendition of a track entitled "Eat My Heart (Sharks vs Mermaids Edit)," which I made with a good friend of mine, Lauren Wolfe, who I am working with more and more as a vocalist-lyricist in my most recent work.

To come full circle with pop: A lot of music on the radio, across genres, seems to be becoming increasingly digital. The indie underground has its own e-music variants - electro, dubstep, etc. What is your relationship to these allegedly alternative electronic music genres? Do you take more to traditional SoBe techno?Not at all. I am actually working on two dubstep/brostep tracks and one complextro track as we speak. I make music that is functional for the environment -- small club, big club, festival, radio -- and try to make it as original and cohesive as possible.

Step Into The Dark is the new EP from Jesp, available on iTunes. 

 

It is an honor to be working with such a talented musician. He follows his own sound waves, and creates a style of no other. With his vision for precise, futuristic synths and tunes, Jesp will continue to blow your mind with his corky, pop jams for decades.

As clear as winter ice.

Playing the keys of different kings 

"Slum Goddess" coming soon

http://yourlife.usatoday.com/health/story/2011-09-29/Magic-mushroom-drug-may-improve-personality-long-term/50602264/1

In new research that will almost certainly create controversy, scientists working with the hallucinogen psilocybin -- the active ingredient found in "magic mushrooms" -- have found that a single dose of the drug prompted an enduring but positive personality change in almost 60 percent of patients.

• 
  Robert F. Bukaty, AP
  The sun pokes through tall white pines to shine on a five-inch-tall mushroom at Winslow Park.

Enlarge

Specifically, tests involving a small group of patients in a strictly controlled and monitored clinical setting revealed that, more often than not, one round of psilocybin exposure successfully boosted an individual's sense of "openness." What's more, the apparent shift in what is deemed to be a key aspect of personality did not dissipate after exposure, lasting at least a year and sometimes longer.

"Now this finding is really quite fascinating," said study author Roland R. Griffiths, a professor in the departments of psychiatry and neuroscience at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore. "And that is because personality is considered a stable characteristic of the psychology of people. It's been thought to be relatively immutable, and stable across the lifespan.

"But, remarkably, this study shows that psilocybin actually changes one domain of personality that is strongly related to traits such as imagination, feeling, abstract ideas and aesthetics, and is considered a core construct underlying creativity in general," he added. "And the changes we see appear to be long-term."

Griffiths said it's possible psilocybin could have therapeutic uses. For example, he is currently studying whether the hallucinogen might be useful in helping cancer patients cope with the depression and anxiety that often accompany the disease, and whether it might help smokers quit the habit.

Griffiths and his colleagues discuss their findings, funded in part by the U.S. National Institute on Drug Abuse, in the new issue of the Journal of Psychopharmacology.

Working with 51 psychologically healthy volunteers, the study authors conducted baseline personality tests before engaging the participants in a total of two to five experiment sessions, each lasting about eight hours.

The researchers said that almost all of the study participants deemed themselves to be "spiritually active." Roughly half had completed a post-graduate education.

Not all the sessions involved psilocybin. In fact, the hallucinogen was administered only once, at a dose described as "moderate to high," and the volunteers were never told which session actually entailed drug exposure.

A minimum break of three weeks was allotted between sessions.

During each session, participants were asked to lay down while wearing both eye masks and headphones (with music piped in) to screen out their external environment and focus on their interior experience. Neither the participants nor the session monitors knew which session involved psilocybin use.

The results: repeated personality and so-called "states of consciousness" testing revealed that some critical aspects of the participants' personalities remained unchanged. In the key domains of neuroticism, extroversion, agreeableness and conscientiousness, psilocybin appeared to register little to no impact.

The exception: "openness." Not only did openness increase significantly in response to high doses of the hallucinogen, it also remained at an elevated level throughout a 14-month follow-up period.

"Certainly we want to underscore do not try this at home," Griffiths cautioned. "Because clearly there are several kinds of potential downsides. One is that personality changes are personality changes. Now, we don't have any reason to think that the changes we see are toxic in any way. It appears to be a change that people value in a positive way. But certainly more research needs to be done.

"And the other note," he added, "is that we've conducted our research under conditions where we've screened out people who are potentially vulnerable to adverse effects. And we've given the drug in a hospital setting with two people at their side throughout, so there's virtually no opportunity for the patient to do something dangerous. But we know that, shockingly, all the time people who use mushrooms recreationally sometimes end up getting into accidents or engage in homicidal behavior or suicide.

"So we certainly don't want to imply that there's not risk associated with these compounds," stressed Griffiths. "And we wouldn't want to be a reason for an uptick for non-medical, uncontrolled use of this sort of thing."

Dr. Stephen Ross, clinical director of the NYU Langone Center of Excellence on Addiction in New York City, said he viewed Griffiths' work as a "landmark" in the field of hallucinogen research.

"I say this because we think of personality as being cemented in your 20s, certainly by your 30s," he said. "So the fact that openness was increased, seemingly permanently, after a single experience of psilocybin is quite remarkable.

"But, of course, as interesting as the implications for future therapies from this might be, the message should be that people should not try this at home or in any kind of uncontrolled environment," Ross added. "This is preliminary research that needs to be replicated. And replicated in a carefully controlled treatment environment."

September 30. 2011

Making a scented candle with the smell of old books

“The Borghild-project – a discreet matter of the III. Reich”

by Norbert Lenz
  

The world’s first sexdoll – or ”gynoid” – was built in 1941 by a team of craftsmen from Germanys Hygiene Museum Dresden. The project  was supervised by the famous preparator and technician  Franz Tschakert. The ”Father of the woman of glass”, which happened to be the sensation in 1930’s II. International Hygiene-Exhibit, used his skills  and experience in order to create a kind of doll the world had never seen before.

The ”field-hygienic project” was an initiative of Reichsführer SS Heinrich Himmler, who regarded the doll as an ” counterbalance” (or regulating effect )for the sexual drive of his stormtropers.  In one his letters, dated 20.11.1940 he mentions the ”unnessessary  losses”, the Wehrmacht had suffered in France inflicted by street prostitutes.”The greatest danger in Paris are the wide-spread and uncontrolled whores, picking by clients in bars, dancehalls and other places . It is our duty to prevent soldiers from risking their health, just for the sake of a quick adventure.”

The project – called Burghild in the first place – was considered ”Geheime Reichssache” , which was ”more secret than top secret” at the time. Himmler put his commander-in-chief SS-Dr. Joachim Mrurgowsky in charge, the highest ranking officer of Berlins notorious SS-institute.

All members of the team – also Tschakert – ware bound to keep the secret.

In July 1941, when Hitler’s army attacked russia, an unknown but ambitious danish SS-Doctor Named  Olen Hannussen took over from Mrurgowsky. Perhaps he was the one who changed  Burghild to Borghild, which is nothing more than the danish equivalent.

Hannussen pushed everybody forward to make the project a success. The ”galvonoplastical dolls” – manufactured in a bronzemold – were meant to follow the Stormtroopers in ” desinfections-trailers” into the enemy`s land, in order to stop them visiting ”infection herds”  - linke front-brothels and ”loose women”. At least, this was Himmler ‘s plan. A psychiatrist Dr. Rudolf Chargeheimer , befriended with Hannussen and also involved in the project, wrote him a letter to clearify the difficulties.

”Sure thing, purpose and goal of the dolls is to relieve our soldiers. They have to fight and not be on the browl or mingle with ”foreign womenfolk”. However:  no real men will prefer a doll to a real woman, until our technicians meet the following quality standards-

1.      The synthetic flesh has to feel the same like real flesh

2.      The doll’ s body should be as agile and moveable as the real body

3.      The doll’s organ should feel absolutely realistic.”

Between June 1940 – 1941  IG Farben had already developed a number of ”skin-friendly polymers” for the SS. Special characteristics : high tensile strength and elasticity. The cast of a suitable model proved to be more difficult.

Borghild was meant to reflect the beauty-ideal of the Nazis , i. e. white skin, fair hair and blue eyes. Although the team considered a doll with brown hair , the SS- Hygiene-Institute insisted on manufacturing a ”nordish doll”. Tschakert  hoped to plastercast from a living model  and a number of famous female athletes were invited to come to his studios, among them Wilhelmina von Bremen and Annette Walter. In the process Tschakert realized it was the wrong way.  In a letter to Mrurgowsky he came to the conclusion: ”Sometimes the legs are too short and look deformed, or the lady has a hollow back and arms  like a wrestler. The overall appearance is always dreadful and I fear there is no other way than to combine.” While Mrurgowsky still favoured a ”whole imprint” of NS- diva Kristina Söderbaum, the Borghild-designer decided to build the doll’s mold in a ”modular way”. In Tschakerts view the doll should be nothing more than a” female bestform”, a ”perfect automaton of lust”, that would combine ”the best of all possible bodies”. The team agreed on a cheeky and naughty face , a look-a-like of Käthe von Nagy, but the actress politely declined to borrow her face to Tschakert’s doll. After Mrurgowsky’ s exit , Dr. Hannussen rejected the idea to cast a face from a living person. He believed in an ”artifial face of lust”, which would be more attractive to soldiers.

In his logbook he wrote:

”The doll has only one purpose and she should never become a substitute for the honourable mother at home... When the soldier makes love to Borghild, it has nothing to do with love. Therefore the face of our anthropomorphic sexmachine should be exactly how Weininger described the common  wanton’s face.”

Today Arthur Rink, born 1919, a master of art and student of Hitler’s favourite sculptor Arno Breker, is the only living eye-witness of the most discreet kept project of the III. Reich.

After a short practical training at ”Puppenwerk Käthe Kruse” he worked since 1937 in Tschakerts studio at the German Hygiene-Museum in Dresden. He joined the Borghild-team as early as 1940: There was on sculptor (rink), a varnisher, a specialist for synthetic materials (Tschakert), a hair-dresser , a lathe operator and  - in the beginning-  a mechanic from ”Würtemberg’s Metallfabrik” in Friedrichshafen. The first construction-document  showed that Tschakert had planned to use” a simple aluminium-skelleton”. But soon he changed his mind and decided to use Elastolin. The synthetic flesh was another problem. Rink: ” The material was not easy to find. Mr. Tschakert, an expert on plastics, had tried several materials based on rubber or butyl-rubber: All came from IG Farben or from the Rheinischen Gummi- und Celluloid Fabrik. One material was called Ipolex, it was extremly tearproof, but it developed yellow spots when cleaned with certain detergents.” At this stage Rink gave the doll‘ s torso  the finishing touch, working with plaster and a mixture of ”Schwarzmehl (?) and glue” Under Hannussens strict directions  ”ten wanton-faces” (Rink) were modelled, and used by Dr. Chargeheimer in psychological tests. Chargeheimer and Hannussen were convinced, Borghild’s success would depend in a major way on her ”facial expression”. Contrary to common believe , that men get only aroused through female sexual characteristics they thought it all would ”depend on the right face”. Rinks plasters were used to produce some model-heads in a showroom-factory in Königsberg. Varnished and hair-dressed they looked a bit like wigholders.

Purpose of this costly exercise was to find out what type of woman the soldiers would really fancy.  Or like Chargeheimer wrote to Hannussen – ”the idea of beauty harboured by the SS might not be shared by the majority of our soldiers.”  He even considered ”the vulgar could appeal to most ordinary men”. The results of  Dr. Chargeheimers tests at the barracks of Soldatenheim St. Helier  are not known.  Fact is, that at this time, Rink and Tschakert had already finished a complete model of the doll. Arthur Rink made a solemn declaration about what happened next.

”Three types of dolls were planned : Typ A :168, Typ B : 176, Typ C : 182 cm.

Typ B would be the first to go into serial production. The members of the project were divided about Borghild’s breasts. The SS favoured them round and full, Dr. Hannussen insisted on “a rose hip form, that would grip well” and he won the dispute. The first model of Borghild was finsihed in september 1941. She was exactely the “nordish type”.

The idea of our hairdresser to give the doll a “Schneckenfrisur”(earphones of hair) was rejected by Hannussen. He wanted her to have “a boyish hair-do” to underline that Borghild was “part of the fighting forces”– a field-whore and not an honourable Mother.

Borghild’s presentation in Berlin was a great success.  Himmler was there  and Dr. Chargeheimer. While the gentlemen examined her artificial orfices , Franz Tschakert was very nervous, but Himmler was so enthusiast that he ordered 50 Borghilds on the spot. It was considered to move to a special production facility , because Tschakert’s studio was too small to cope with the production of 50 dolls. In the face of more and more unpleasant  developments in the east Himmler dropped his plans one week later and cut instead our budget.

In the beginning of 1942, some weeks after Stalingrad, the whole project was put on hold. All construction-documents had to be returned to the SS-Hygiene-Institute. The bronze-mold  for Type B was never finished. I have no clue of whereabouts of the doll, but I presume, that she  - like all my plasters and studies  - was send to Berlin. If she was kept in Tschakerts studio in Dresden, it is most likely that she was destroyed in Februray 1945, when  allied bombers destroyed the city.”

Fact is: the bombs devastated the Hygiene-Museum . Two models of the woman of glass – Taschkert masterpiece were destroyed.

Photo subtitles:

Arthur Rink was kind enough to contribute the only photos left from the Borghild-doll.

“They are small contact-sheets: Facial study no2. Dominant and  Body Total, sideways. I found both photos in the bin of the museum‘s laboratory. I have no other pictures, because it was forbidden to take photos.”

Body Total,sideways shows the first Borghild-doll as presented in 1941 to Himmler at the SS-Hygiene-Institute in Berlin. The influence of Rinks teacher Arno Breker is evident. Breker‘s work is a hypertrophy of the natural bodys expression. The doll is aesthetical refined and  reduced to a max of sexual appeal. According to Rink the torso was meant to stay “without artifial hair”. It is possible that the reason for that, was a simple  consideration of the hygienic risks .

About the author:

Norbert Lenz, born 1966 in Hamburg, is a freelance-journalist contributing regulary to magazines like Stern, Max and  Focus.

The translation was provided by his wife Susanne Lenz.

EMAIL BORGHILD

Tinfoil Apparatus- Man of twisted intellect.

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A couple of fellows trying to make their way through time. 
Dear Friends with hearts that seek love. 
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 Writings of the deep soulful formula that creates the world around them.
Walking back from a sushi filled haze we sung in the ran and  flustered through the wind.  
Singing songs of deliverance and growing old.
Selling your soul to a blissful unknown.
He sings of being lucky to live, love, and grow old.




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Is it your bones that keep you cold?
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Your fortune turned to evil
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