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| Hey everyone,
I have decided to start posting on xanga again, mostly because Chris Hartman uses it over myspace. Anyways, just to let you all know, I have become one of the swim captains, and I hope to make state this year...The U.S. Military Academy is going to come out and watch me swim. That's another thing, I am working on getting into the U.S. Military Academy. If I do get in, I am going to need a lot of support from everyone if possible, it would be most appreciated. If I don't get in, I have Army ROTC in the bag at Texas A&M, I am thankfully set for college, so I have decided to shoot for more, and become the over-achiever in our family.
Mike Estes
P.S.: Good luck to both Chris and Dan Hartman, you are both both brother's to me, and I will support you guys...even though you guys are air force, and I am going army. And good luck to my brother Dan in rugby, if you make the team, you will get a lot of respect from me, don't hurt yourself too bad. | | |
| Howdy,
Mike Estes is back from Texas, and he has brought TECHNO!!! With this techno comes fun family fun, for the whole family. Now since you all are intrigued, I will give a brief historical lesson on techno and such.
Techno is a form of electronic music that emerged in the mid-1980s and primarily refers to a particular style founded in America with influences from Germany and developed in and around Detroit and subsequently adopted by European producers. The term "techno" is often used in North America and Europe to describe all forms of electronic dance music.- from Wikipedia.com.
History
Techno was primarily developed in basement studios by "The Belleville Three", a cadre of African-American men who were attending college, at the time, near Detroit, Michigan. The budding musicians – former high school friends and mixtape traders Juan Atkins, Derrick May, and Kevin Saunderson – found inspiration in Midnight Funk Association, an eclectic, 5-hour, late-night radio program hosted on various Detroit radio stations including WCHB, WGPR, and WJLB-FM from 1977 through the mid-1980s by DJ Charles "The Electrifying Mojo" Johnson. Mojo's show featured heavy doses of electronic sounds from the likes of George Clinton, Kraftwerk, and Tangerine Dream, among others.
Though initially conceived as party music that was played on daily mixed radio programs and played at parties given by cliquish, Detroit high school clubs, it has grown to be a global phenomenon. High school clubs such as Snobbs, Hardwear, Brats, Comrades, Weekends, Rumours, and Shari Vari created the incubator in which Techno was grown. These young promoters developed and nurtured the local dance music scene by both catering to the tastes of the local audience of young people and by marketing parties with innovative DJs and eclectic new music. As these local clubs grew in popularity, groups of DJs began to band together and market their mixing skills and sound systems to the clubs under names like Direct Drive and Audio Mix in order to cater to the growing audiences of listeners. Locations like local church activity centers, vacant warehouses, offices and YMCA auditoriums were the early locations where the underage crowds gathered, and where the musical form was nurtured and defined.
The music soon attracted enough attention to garner its own club, the Music Institute. It was founded by Chez Damier, Derrick May and a few other investors. Though short-lived, this club was known internationally, for its all night sets, its sparse white rooms, and its juice bar (the Institute never served liquor). Relatively quickly, techno began to be seen by many of its originators and up-and-coming producers as an expression of Future Shock post-industrial angst. It also took on increasingly high tech and science-fiction oriented themes.
The music's producers were using the word "techno" in a general sense as early as 1984 (as in Cybotron's seminal classic "Techno City"), and sporadic references to an ill-defined "techno-pop" could be found in the music press in the mid-1980s. However, it was not until Neil Rushton assembled the compilation Techno! The New Dance Sound Of Detroit for Virgin Records (UK) in 1988 that the word came to formally describe a genre of music.
Techno has since been retroactively defined to encompass, among others, works dating back to "Shari Vari" (1981) by A Number Of Names, the earliest compositions by Cybotron (1981), Donna Summer and Giorgio Moroder's "I Feel Love" (1977), and the more danceable selections from Kraftwerk's repertoire between 1977 and 1983.
In the years immediately following the first techno compilation's release, techno was referenced in the dance music press as Detroit's relatively high-tech, mechanical brand of house music, because on the whole, it retained the same basic structure as the soulful, minimal, post-disco style that was emanating from Chicago, Illinois and New York City, New York at the time. The music's producers, especially May and Saunderson, admit to having been fascinated by the Chicago club scene and being influenced by house in particular. This influence is especially evident in the tracks on the first compilation, as well as in many of the other compositions and remixes they released between 1988 and 1992. May's 1987–88 hit "Strings Of Life" (released under the nom de plume Rhythim Is Rhythim), for example, is considered a classic in both the house and techno genres. At the same time, there is evidence that the Chicago sound was influenced by the Detroit Three — allegedly, May loaned Chicago-based house musician Keith "Jack Master Funk" Farley the equipment to make the classic track "House Nation"; early Detroit techno records reportedly sold well in Chicago; and Atkins believes that the first acid house producers, seeking to distance house music from disco, emulated the techno sound. [1]
A spate of techno-influenced releases by new producers in 1991–92 resulted in a rapid fragmentation and divergence of techno from the house genre. Many of these producers were based in the UK and the Netherlands, places where techno had gained a huge following and taken a crucial role in the development of the club and rave scenes. Many of these new tracks in the fledgling IDM, trance and hardcore/jungle genres took the music in more experimental and drug-influenced directions than techno's originators intended. Detroit and "pure" techno remained as a subgenre, however, championed by a new crop of Detroit-area producers like Carl Craig, Kenny Larkin, Richie Hawtin, Jeff Mills, Drexciya and Robert Hood, plus certain musicians in the UK, Belgium and Germany.
Derrick May is often quoted as comparing techno to "George Clinton and Kraftwerk stuck in an elevator". For various reasons, techno is seen by the American mainstream, even among African-Americans, as "white" music, even though many of its originators and producers are black. The historical similarities between techno, jazz, and rock and roll, from a racial standpoint, are a point of contention among fans and musicians alike. Derrick May, in particular, has been outspoken in his criticism of the co-opting of the genre and of the misconceptions held by people of all races with regard to techno.
In recent years, however, the publication of relatively accurate histories by authors Simon Reynolds (Generation Ecstasy aka Energy Flash) and Dan Sicko (Techno Rebels), plus mainstream press coverage of the Detroit Electronic Music Festival, have helped to diffuse the genre's more dubious mythology. The genre has further expanded as more recent pioneers of the scene such as Moby, The Zombie Hunter's Guild, Orbital, and the Future Sound of London have made the style break through to the mainstream pop culture.
There you go now I will tell you now take good notes, there is a final exam on techno coming to you all on Thursday.
Until next time,
Mike Estes | | |
| Hey guys,
Well I feel much better that I don't have to stand up to my issues alone. I am glad I have friends like you guys namely: Chris, Dan, Joey, Justin, Ryan, and even you Leah. Thanks guys you don't know how much I am touched by you guys.
Anyways, I have decide I am only gonna post things that are opinions of mine. Even if they piss people off, but since I am kind of out of ideas because nothing has really happened, I will take this week off.
Hey Justin, I plan on joining whatever is is that I am supposed to join, don't worry I won't be the fickle human being eating soft-serve ice cream, partially because I am kind of lactose intolerant. That's a fun fact for you all. Another one is Chris Hartman wears penguin pajamas to bed. HA HA. So anyways. I am kind of out of things to say. I will be chillin at David's crib this Friday, and I plan on staying for like a week, sorry Mrs. Speer, I don't wanna leave, you can't make me. 
Well all of you all have a blast doing what ever you all do.
Mike "The Hammer" Estes | | |
| Hey there everybody,
I have changed the song, again, this time it is Freebird by Lynyrd Skynyrd. This song has the greatest guitar solo ever. (Don't you dare comment about this Chris Hartman.)
Anyways, I am kinda pissed off right now, at a lot of people, and at myself. I will admit to you all that I drink occasionally, and I do it because I am really depressed. I feel that God has rejected me and all my closest friends. This makes me want to reject him. The only way I really am able to get this feeling out of my system is by drinking, by listening to music, and by strenuous exercise, usually running, swimming, or lifting weights. It really helps. Anyways, that's what I am stuggling with, if you haven't noticed, I haven't acted the same as I did back in eighth grade, or even last year. I have been more quiet and more to myself, I am sorry to all of you I have hurt, because I have gotten angry and irritated lately. All of this hasn't gotten me anywhere, but in a deeper hole, questioning my faith, my faith in God, questioning whether or not God even exists. I mean, if he existed, why would he let me feel this way, and why would he bring all of these troubles on the families of my friends. It just doesn't make sense.
I honestly think I may suffer from depression, and I don't know where to turn. I shouldn't feel anymore depressed than my friends, but I do. I mean all of these problems aren't happening to me, but I still feel bad about what is going on. Also on top of all of this, I can't keep a steady relationship. The average for a girl to go out with me is about four weeks, I don't get to know anyone in four weeks, it isn't fun, and it hurts me inside.
I am also pissed off at some people in our youth group, the group of people that I should be able to turn to, they spread rumors about me, and tear me down. HOW THE HECK AM I SUPPOSED TO GET HELP FROM ALL OF YOU HYPOCRITES. I hope you all know who you are, most of you kinda help me out, namely the Hartman's. Thanks guys, I don't know where I would be without you guys, and I know Joey is there for me also. Thank you.
Anyways, sorry for taking you through my tormented mind.
Mike Estes | | |
| Hello everyone,
I have been told that some mothers are visiting my site, I really don't care, but what you reply will be read, I respect your opinion, and I did enjoy how all of you put them, but just try and watch what you say.
Mike Estes | | |
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