October 26, 2007

Let’s Get Scared with Spooky Halloween Mashups

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Mashing PumpkinsHey, look at that, Halloween is next week, and your best chance for spooky revelry is probably this weekend. Is it just me or did that kind of sneak up on us? I haven’t even decided whether I should be Wolverine again. I haven’t been growing my muttonchops so it’s probably moot. Anyway, some of my cohorts in the pointless world of putting songs with other songs have produced a whole compilation’s worth of Halloween-themed mashups, perfect for your costume party or, uh, erotic ball. Called Mashing Pumpkins (and not to be confused with the Irish tribute band), the album had to endure some unexpected popularity after getting mentioned on Boing Boing, and their original website crashed or got overwhelmed or just shut down by unsympathetic web service providers. Now that’s scary. But both Boing Boing and Mashup Town rushed to the rescue, archiving the tracks and offering them for free download; the latter even has the super scary artwork.

Party Ben recommends:
Track 5 – “I Want My Mummy”
A cheeky upbeat combo of The Who, Steve Martin, and some mummy-oriented clips from LA’s Mr. Fab.
Track 6 – “Snap Yo Specials”
While the Specials’ “Ghost Town” seems only tangentially Halloween-related, Lil’ Jon’s growly raps flow perfectly over the top.
Track 10 – “Bad Moon Werewolves”
You can’t go wrong with “Werewolves of London,” and the fact that the UK’s Cheekyboy got “Bad Moon Rising” to fit over the top is nothing short of miraculous.

So is it time for the Christmas-themed mashup albums yet?

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We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

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Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

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