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DAN "THE AUTOMATOR' NAKAMURA
Is
“The Automator” part of the “Super Cool Asian Musical
Mafia? Nah – he’s just a person who loves any good music and
working with his friends. This ultimate musical connoisseur’s background
consist of a steady diet of classical violin, Kraftwerk, old school break
beats, R&B and rock and roll in the multi-cultural environment of
San Francisco.
His
music background provides him the ability to work as a collage artist
incorporating any creative ideas around him that has led to producing
wildly imaginative productions with an offbeat sense of humor while he
is composing, producing and/or arranging.
"The
Automator" has stated that "Playing the violin from ages three
to fifteen taught me all about structure and reading music. Pop music
has its verse/bridge/chorus, three chord, and circular progression. Classical
music has flats and sharps in every other measure and it creates different
moods; it's more linear, heading some place. I like to think of music
as heading some place."
His
influences range from Kool & the Gang and Earth, Wind & Fire to
Arthur Baker's remixes. It also includes early hip-hop, Afrika Bambaata
and Grandmaster Flash, but focused more of the mid-school, "The Show,"
"Needle to the Groove," "Fresh is the Word," and Boogie
Down Productions.
As
opposed to saying to artists that he is producing “Here’s
your track” – he is able to achieve a high standard of artistic
integrity that incorporates a true collaboration between the producer
and artist that has made him one of the leading figures in the underground
renaissance of alternative rap in the late '90s.
The
“Automator’s” music career of this classically trained
violinist (who can read, write, sample and play music) started as a club
DJ in the 1980s that cultivated his love of pop, soul and rap.
In
the 1990s, he was producing, mixing and remixing tracks for Mike D (the
Beastie Boys), Herbie Hancock, Depeche Mode, Cibo Matto, DJ Shadow, DeLaSoul,
Dust Brother Mike Simpson for Cornership, Blackalicious, Latryx, the Eels,
DJ Krush, Primal Scream, Del tha Funkee Homosapien, DJ Shadow, Kool Keith,
DJ Kid Koala, Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, DJ qBert of the Invisibl Skratch
Piklz, Stereolab, Sean Lennon, Damon Albarn of Blur, Wu-Tang Clan's RZA,
Brad Roberts of Crash Test Dummies, Peanut Butter Wolf and Money Mark and
Father Guido Sarducci.
“The
Automator” alter-egos include his slick suits and tongue-in-chic
appearances as Nathaniel Merriweather, half of Handsome Boy Modeling School
and named after a skit on the Chris Elliott cult TV program “Get
a Life.” In Deltron 3030, he was the Cantankerous Captain Aptos.
FEATURED
SELECTIONS OF MUSIC
In 1988, "The Automator" cut Music to be Murdered By; it was
the first record to incorporate break beats with noises to scratch with
for DJs doing battle on the wheels of steel. His experimental music contributions
at this time redefined how perceived how to use turntables in music.
IN
1996, his DJ Shadow album “Endtroducing” ended up at the top
of many critics’ “Best of 1996” lists. The album’s
success led to the Doctor Octagon ground-breaking album, Dr. Octagonecologyst,
with Kool Keith and DJ Q-Bert of the Invisibl Skratch Piklz that included
old-world strings, neo-Gothic synths and menacingly cool, dub-inflected
textures that propelled by Thornton's pornographic rhymes and mind-bending
meter
In
1998, he worked the board on the Bollywood sonic extravaganza, Bombay
the Hard Way (Motel).
1999
saw the release of So....How's Your Girl? By Handsome Boy Modeling School,
a collaborative effort between Automator and producer Prince Paul.
In
2001, Nakamura’s work in the cartoon band Gorillaz (collaboration
with Blur's Damon Albarn, artist Jamie Hewlett, Cibo Matto's Miho Hatori,
and former Talking Heads Chris Frantz and Tina Weymouth) went platinum
in the U.S. and produced his first hit "Clint Eastwood."
In
2002, Nakamura released his first-ever mix album, the well-received Wanna
Buy a Monkey?: A Mixtape Session.
In
2004, his Deltron 3030 project is focused on the concept that brings a
strange cohesion to an ambitious, eclectic and experimental album that
features supper-club jazz, drum/turntable duets, alt-blues balladry and
neo-industrial noise. Del the Funkee Homosapien, Kid Koala (a.k.a. Eric
San) and Nakamura produced, arranged, mixed and composed the synth-swept,
eerie and infectious sounds. Guests such as Sean Lennon, Damon Albarn
of Blur, Brad Roberts of Crash Test Dummies, Peanut Butter Wolf and Money
Mark back up the 3030 crew,
DUKE
PAOA KAHANAMOKU
As
a small boy, Duke learned to swim the Hawaiian way: His father and uncle
took him out in a canoe and threw him in the surf. The method worked,
for he became a fast swimmer. So fast that one day he'd become an Olympic
champion. People would call him "The Human Fish."
Duke
Paoa Kahanamoku was born in Honolulu on Aug. 26, 1890, when Hawaii still
had a king. He learned how to swim the Hawaiian way – his father
and uncle took him out into the ocean and threw him into the water.
He
was known as “The Human Fish” because of his skills on the
water where the waves gave him rides and its rough surf served as a trainer
that constantly tested his strength as a swimmer throughout his childhood.
Duke
was a muscular specimen who grew to being over 6 feet tall while becoming
the most skilled waterman among his peers. He became known as the first
Waikiki "beach boys." Their activities consisted of spending
their time swimming, paddling canoes, repairing fishing nets, singing
and while playing guitars/ukuleles. They were surfing well before it became
an international sensation. In 1900, when Hawaii became a U.S. territory
- Duke and the rest of the Waikiki “beach boys” caught the
attention of tourists that visited Hawaii.
In
1911, Duke started the process of becoming a swimming champion though
special flutter kick that he developed. William Rawlins, a former swimmer,
offered to be his coach after observing his swimming abilities. At the
Hawaiian Amateur Athletic Union’s first swimming and diving championship,
held in Honolulu Harbor on August 11, he beat the world record in the
100 Yard Freestyle by 4 second in the time of 55.4 seconds.
At
age 21, he qualified for the 1912 U.S. Olympic team. During the competition,
he took the time to turn around to check on the other swimmers and since
he was in the lead - he slowed down. Despite this “mishap,”
Duke still won by 2 yards and breaking a record he'd set in the heats.
A few days later the king of Sweden crowned Duke with a laurel wreath
and presented him with his first Olympic gold medal. He also won a silver
medal as part of the U.S. freestyle relay team.
Since
1820, Western missionaries and others discouraged surfing and many other
traditional customs while bringing diseases that caused the death of thousands
within the native population.
In
his youth, Duke made a 10-foot board to ride the bigger waves and perform
stunts such as jumping from one board to another, stand on his head and/or
carry riders on his tall, bronzed and muscular stature. Like the ancient
Hawaiian olo boards, they were made of thick solid wood, without a fin
or "skeg."
In
1915 he introduced surfing to New Zealand and Australia. He thrilled the
Aussies by surfing with an 8-foot, 6-inch surfboard he made out of wood
from their sugar pine. In 1916, Duke surfed in New Jersey's Atlantic City
Pier and becoming the first to do so on the Atlantic Ocean.
In
1917 he took off on a "bluebird," a rare gigantic wave that
rolled in from the horizon. "To be trapped under its curling bulk,"
he later
wrote, "would be the same as letting a factory cave in upon you."
He slid along the face of the monster for over a mile, stunning the brave
observers in Waikiki.
More
than any surfer of his time, Duke helped spread the popularity of the
sport around the world. For this he is called "The Father of Modern
Surfing
In
1920, at the age of 30, he won the Gold Medal in a record-breaking 100-meter
freestyle race and in the 800-meter relay as well.
In
1924, at the age of 34, he won the Silver Medal in the 100 meters at the
Paris Olympics. The 20-year-old Johnny Weissmuller (“Tarzan”)
finished first and his brother (Samuel Kahanamoku) won the Bronze Medal.
In
1965, when he was 75, Hawaii's most famous athlete was inducted into the
Swimming Hall of Fame. That same year he was also inducted into the Surfing
Hall of Fame in Southern California’s Santa Monica.
After
his death on Jan. 22, 1968, Duke was given a Waikiki beach boy funeral.
While crowds watched on the shore, his friends sang "Aloha 'Oe,"
the Hawaiian song of farewell. A flotilla of canoes, small boats and surfers
on their boards headed out toward the horizon. First Duke's ashes, then
dozens of flower leis were tossed into the ocean. It was the ideal resting
place for the man who once said, "I'm only happy when I'm in the
water, swimming like a fish."
