Beastie Boys are the center of the universe

Those of you who know me well are aware that much of my time lately has been devoted to editing a book on jazz, which has kept me from contributing much to Mic to Mic. I am happy to announce that I completed the book today and finally can give the blog some attention.

Let's get caught up with what's happening in the Beastie Boys universe!

In addition to being the Beastie Boys keyboardist, Money Mark is a member of the Omar Rodriguez-Lopez band and can be heard playing keyboards and synthesizers on Rodriguez-Lopez's upcoming album Calibration (Is Pushing Luck and Key Too Far) (N20 Entertainment), which is scheduled to be released on February 5, 2008. Visit the album's Myspace page to hear some songs from the album.

Among the special features on the Live Earth dvd set, released in December 2007, is an interview with Adam Yauch. No one on the Mic to Mic team has picked up this dvd yet, so we cannot confirm if the interview is 1 minute, 5 minutes, or an hour of Yauch talking about how much the environment means to him. If you purchased this dvd and can upload Yauch's interview to Youtube or DailyMotion for the fan community to see, please contact us.

Because we were busy with the Beastie Boys tour last year, we neglected to write much about Adam Horovitz' work with Northern State on their 2007 album Can I Keep This Pen? (Ipecac Recordings). Horovitz produced two songs on the album: "Oooh Girl" and "Sucka Mofo." ("Sucka Mofo" can be heard on Northern State's Myspace page.) Sprout from Northern State recently did a video conference with Beastie Boys fan Allan Baldwin and his music class in which she talked about Northern State collaborating with Horovitz. Baldwin intends to post the video on his Youtube account soon, so watch for it.

A video of the Beastie Boys 2006 concert in Lake Forest, California (aka the etnies GvR show), is currently being shared on the Beastie Boys Hub. Midzi is working on getting the video -- or at least part of it -- posted to our DailyMotion account for fans who do not have access to the hub. If you can assist us with this upload project, please contact us.

Tamra Davis has posted another recipe video on her cooking blog. This time she has whipped up some goat cheese, tomato, and basil baguettes for Mike and their two adorable boys to enjoy on the beach.

Beastiemania.com recently launched a new section at the site that documents the Beastie Boys television appearances. Kudos to Mark L. (aka 9th Beastie) for all the work he put into researching and compiling this section. Please check out the new TV appearance section and feel free to contact the Beastiemania.com staff with contributions to this new section.

Finally, this last bit of news is too weird not to report, and does make you wonder if Beastie Boys are indeed the center of the universe. Ben Lee, who released his first two solo albums on the Beastie Boys' Grand Royal label, is now engaged to Adam Horovitz' ex-wife, Ione Skye. Lee announced their engagement recently on his Myspace page.

Did we miss any news? If so, hit our inbox. With the band not doing much, we are now accepting requests to post video, audio, photos, what-have-you. Want something? Ask us and we'll try to make you happy.