[Sponsored Post] BMW 3 Series Goes on a Great British Drive

The new BMW 3 Series Touring drives across the Evo Triangle from Liverpool to Wales.

[Sponsored Post] Ellie Goulding: Figure 8 – Live at O2 Academy Brixton

“Ellie Goulding live at O2 Academy Brixton performing ‘Figure 8’ in December 2012. Watch this incredible performance and for more live videos with Ellie Goulding don’t forget to subscribe to O2 Academy TV. “

[Sponsored Post] The Xperia™ Z Sony Smartphone

The best of Sony in a smartphone – the Xperia™ Z. Check out this video showcasing the latest Sony Xperia handset, as unveiled at CES on 7th January 2013. Funnily enough, actually heard this phone mentioned on the news on CBC Radio One this morning. As you can see from the video, it’s waterproof! Take that, team iPhone!

[Playlist] Different Kitchen – November ’12 Picks

This is latest incarnation of something I used to do on the old blog. Back then the ‘The Hot Ish’ was a post rounding up links to my favorite songs or albums I had posted about for the previous month. We started off slow at the beginning with only six picks over three months at the end of 2003 when I had just started the blog but had gotten up to sixteen picks by time I did the last one in 2005. Well it’s 2012 and the technology and tools for blogging and music discovery have grown by orders of magnitude since I was hot-linking wma audio snippets from Turntable Lab and streams from Hipghopgame.com!

Nowadays I’ve become an active proponent of streaming options like soundcloud and bandcamp and use them frequently here at The Kitchen which regularly readers will be more than aware of. I’m also a huge fan of the streaming music service, RDIO. Full disclosure: I do some work with RDIO as part of my day hustle but that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t use the service even if I didn’t.

If you go back just a few years I and I think others were still tied to the concept of having to ‘own’ our music which meant having a tangible, physical object that we could call ours. Many let go of that concept and became comfortable with buying digital copies of songs and albums but moving a couple times over that period and having to pack up 50 boxes of vinyl and thousands of CD’s has disavowed me of that ‘romantic’ notion and I am fully on board with concept of ‘renting’ music via streaming services like RDIO or Spotify. The plus: no more of those moving nightmares and being able to live in smaller apartment but actually having more living and breathing space not choked up with racks of CDs and records. The other plus: access to way more music than you could ever have physical copies of. But if I love a record that much or just want to support the artist with a purchase, I can always still do that and do. Now though, I only buy the albums that I really love and am still playing months after their release because I know those are album I’ll probably still continue to play in the future.

So anyway, the final plus of RDIO is that it allows you to create custom playlist and share/embed them on your website and via social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter so I’m resurrecting The Hot Ish concept and will be posting playlist of the best, most notable or my favorite tracks each month in RDIO playlists. Above is the first one. Check in every month for the follow-ups. And follow me on twiiter or RDIO to get these first. Also, drop a note if you have any comments, positive or negative, on my selections. Finally, dig RDIO? Then sign up for the service HERE.

[CONTEST] Win Tickets for the Stevie Wonder Tribute Party >WONDER-Full (XIV) w/ DJ SPINNA in NYC this Sat (5.12.12)

My NYC folks: I ain’t forget about you either….

Shame Bobbito is not involved still in this legendary party (why??!) but Spinna is a beast on the 1s and 2s and this still one of the highlights of the New York club and party calendar and The Kitchen got a pair of tickets to give away courtesy KeiStar Productions. Tweet the message: ‘I want the tickets for the @KeiStar WONDER-Full XIV party w/ @DJSpinna show at @lprnyc in NYC on May 12′ and I will select a winner at random this Friday (May 11) at 12 noon.

If you don’t win the tickets, you should still consider going to this. Peep the science:

It’s That Time Of Year Again! KeiStar Productions Is Proud To Bring You “The Not To Be Missed Event”… WONDER-Full™ (Part 14) An Annual Tribute To The Wonder Of Stevie With The Incomparable DJ SPINNA!

Academy Records (NYC) 415 East 12th Street (Btwn 1st Ave & Ave A) 212.780.9166

Follow Online: KeiStar Productions | DJ Spinna