3.29.2004
If Your Bracket's Looking Strong - HYPHY!
It's great living a few blocks from a candy factory, especially on a nice, breezy day like this one. I need more Tootsie air in my life.
When it comes down to it, I'm not a huge fan of either 9th Wonder or Memphis Bleek. But this is pretty good.
Any San Francisco Giants fan familiar with the imperfect play of Marvin Benard knows that this sponsor speaks the truth. (Coincidentally, Tony Yayo's real name is Marvin Bernard.)
Today's Random Keith Hernandez Tidbit: Manager Whitey Herzog traded Hernandez to the last-place Mets for journeyman relief pitcher Neil Allen in mid-1983 after becoming convinced that Hernandez was using drugs. When Herzog defended the trade by hinting as much, Hernandez threatened a libel suit, but the 1985 Pittsburgh drug trials revealed it was true.
The Federation's "Hyphy" sounds like about a dozen recent rap hits stitched together haphazardly, with cheap Cokeland synths, a weird Cookie Monster effect on the hook, and E-40 blim-blamming over the top. Yeah, it's over the top. The video is ici. Man, I miss the Yay.
When it comes down to it, I'm not a huge fan of either 9th Wonder or Memphis Bleek. But this is pretty good.
Any San Francisco Giants fan familiar with the imperfect play of Marvin Benard knows that this sponsor speaks the truth. (Coincidentally, Tony Yayo's real name is Marvin Bernard.)
Today's Random Keith Hernandez Tidbit: Manager Whitey Herzog traded Hernandez to the last-place Mets for journeyman relief pitcher Neil Allen in mid-1983 after becoming convinced that Hernandez was using drugs. When Herzog defended the trade by hinting as much, Hernandez threatened a libel suit, but the 1985 Pittsburgh drug trials revealed it was true.
The Federation's "Hyphy" sounds like about a dozen recent rap hits stitched together haphazardly, with cheap Cokeland synths, a weird Cookie Monster effect on the hook, and E-40 blim-blamming over the top. Yeah, it's over the top. The video is ici. Man, I miss the Yay.
3.22.2004
2 White 2 Get Hyped
Finally, all pretenses have been disposed of and we can get down to what March Madness (along with damn near everything else in this country) is all about: RACE!!!
Trife Rife!
Candidates faking assasination attempts? Mystery bullet casings? Dirty money? The threat of armed conflict with China? Taiwan is crazy right now. This wikipedia entry is just what you need to baby-step (but not Blake Stepp, ha ha) up to speed.
3.21.2004
more
Tim Brando: "Bring the house down, Mohammed!"
Since Xavier bounced my boys from 'Ssippi State, this remains topical: Xavier forward Romain Sato's personal website. Check out his collection of flowery shirts.
Since Xavier bounced my boys from 'Ssippi State, this remains topical: Xavier forward Romain Sato's personal website. Check out his collection of flowery shirts.
3.20.2004
"FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK"
"Should a baseball player be banned from playing because he has a bionic eye?"
"Next up is Kansas and the University of Illinois-Chicago. UIC is a great story...uh...a bunch of street kids from Chicago."
"Next up is Kansas and the University of Illinois-Chicago. UIC is a great story...uh...a bunch of street kids from Chicago."
3.18.2004
RANDY DUCK DOWN!
Maybe it's because I came of record-buying age while living in Berkeley, or maybe it's because I lived in Berkeley so long ago that I still remember Alfred Grigsby and Prentice McGruder. Whatever it is, I'm beginning to feel more and more out of touch with how "today's youth" relate to objects of music. Album sleeves. Liner notes. Artwork. Pre-drag/click mixes. Heck, even jewel cases and digi-paks. Songs as pieces of (or metonyms for) entire albums vs. songs as free-floating and free-associating.
(Sidetrack: A friend in high school suggested how great it would be if we had a machine that could retrieve any song we wanted, any time. [It seemed outlandish at the time. This was back when email addresses were un-memorizable and dense with numerals.] After futher consideration, though, we concluded that there was some valor, or sublime thrill, to the pursuit of these things. His Elastica 7-inch wouldn't have been so special if there wasn't this sense of danger or potential loss; if we let our obsession with "Stutter" possess us, what would we do if/when the little record wore itself out? Or worse yet, got scratched up? No, we had to be careful. Ditto a brief fling with Suede's "Metal Mickey," which I could only hear by watching a Beta videotape of 120 Minutes. But I digress...)
My contrived ice-breaker earlier this semester involved asking students in my sections to offer the last piece of music they bought (NOT DOWNLOADED). A few students remembered buying a song or two on iTunes. One girl had bought some LPs after Elliott Smith's death. But most of them didn't remember the last time they had done anything approaching "buying" music. They scoffed! They laughed! They tsk'd and pfft'd me into old age.
I'm not sure any of this matters. I've downloaded stuff here and there, and I love a blog with a good free mix or MP3. Perhaps I'm investing too much touchy-feeliness in the process of obtaining music. Maybe I'm confusing artwork for art, or placing too much import on names on a piece of paper. I'm not sure what any of this means. I guess there are a few angles of this that strike me as strange.
If your relationship to music is defined by iTunes or desktop folders, I can really understand why you don't have hang-ups with limitless downloads. The trappings of the music (context, band photographs, liner-note Thank You's) aren't there and you might think in terms of "playlists" rather than "albums." Desire for music becomes a desire for raw materials, data -- I have 9000 MP3s on my iTunes and it's up to me to figure out what stories I want to tell myself, how I want to rearrange my loosies and strays. What's strange to me is that all of this has yet to destroy the notion of celebrity.
I need to go to sleep.
(Sidetrack: A friend in high school suggested how great it would be if we had a machine that could retrieve any song we wanted, any time. [It seemed outlandish at the time. This was back when email addresses were un-memorizable and dense with numerals.] After futher consideration, though, we concluded that there was some valor, or sublime thrill, to the pursuit of these things. His Elastica 7-inch wouldn't have been so special if there wasn't this sense of danger or potential loss; if we let our obsession with "Stutter" possess us, what would we do if/when the little record wore itself out? Or worse yet, got scratched up? No, we had to be careful. Ditto a brief fling with Suede's "Metal Mickey," which I could only hear by watching a Beta videotape of 120 Minutes. But I digress...)
My contrived ice-breaker earlier this semester involved asking students in my sections to offer the last piece of music they bought (NOT DOWNLOADED). A few students remembered buying a song or two on iTunes. One girl had bought some LPs after Elliott Smith's death. But most of them didn't remember the last time they had done anything approaching "buying" music. They scoffed! They laughed! They tsk'd and pfft'd me into old age.
I'm not sure any of this matters. I've downloaded stuff here and there, and I love a blog with a good free mix or MP3. Perhaps I'm investing too much touchy-feeliness in the process of obtaining music. Maybe I'm confusing artwork for art, or placing too much import on names on a piece of paper. I'm not sure what any of this means. I guess there are a few angles of this that strike me as strange.
If your relationship to music is defined by iTunes or desktop folders, I can really understand why you don't have hang-ups with limitless downloads. The trappings of the music (context, band photographs, liner-note Thank You's) aren't there and you might think in terms of "playlists" rather than "albums." Desire for music becomes a desire for raw materials, data -- I have 9000 MP3s on my iTunes and it's up to me to figure out what stories I want to tell myself, how I want to rearrange my loosies and strays. What's strange to me is that all of this has yet to destroy the notion of celebrity.
I need to go to sleep.
3.17.2004
Wild Skiles
I saw a white guy on the subway the other day wearing a Florida A&M hoodie and I knew it was meant to be. They upended Lehigh tonight, next up is King Tubby and Kentucky. Wildcats, duck down!
Speaking of a different kind of Long March, Cineaste has an interview with Chen Kaige up. It's a little bulletpointy--and Together was booty without the licious--but I'm not mad.
Am I lowbrow for wanting to listen to "Mustapha Dance" (the dub of "Rock the Casbah," nerds) after seeing Battle of Algiers. Which, incidentally, is a nearly perfect movie.
Am I surprised he had it in him? Mario Van Peebles has written and directed a fine (and by fine, I mean Paid in Full-fine, not Battle of Algiers-fine) film about his dad called Badass. Coming to a Chinatown pushcart near you soon.
Isn't it about time someone made a film about the 1990 Loyola Marymount Lions? Still brings a suggestion of a possibility of a hint of a tear to my eye. Bo Kimple shooting those freethrows left-handed with his eyes closed? Token white scoring machine Jeff Fryer? Terrell Lowery, a so-so guard with a name screaming for placement on a Hall of Fame plaque? I was so into March Madness that year that I wrote a poem about it for school. R.I.P., Hank Gathers.
Is it possible for me to have an Asian fetish?
Lastly, does anyone know how to change the template settings for Blogger? I'm looking to class this operation up and I want to change the font to one avec serifs.
Speaking of a different kind of Long March, Cineaste has an interview with Chen Kaige up. It's a little bulletpointy--and Together was booty without the licious--but I'm not mad.
Am I lowbrow for wanting to listen to "Mustapha Dance" (the dub of "Rock the Casbah," nerds) after seeing Battle of Algiers. Which, incidentally, is a nearly perfect movie.
Am I surprised he had it in him? Mario Van Peebles has written and directed a fine (and by fine, I mean Paid in Full-fine, not Battle of Algiers-fine) film about his dad called Badass. Coming to a Chinatown pushcart near you soon.
Isn't it about time someone made a film about the 1990 Loyola Marymount Lions? Still brings a suggestion of a possibility of a hint of a tear to my eye. Bo Kimple shooting those freethrows left-handed with his eyes closed? Token white scoring machine Jeff Fryer? Terrell Lowery, a so-so guard with a name screaming for placement on a Hall of Fame plaque? I was so into March Madness that year that I wrote a poem about it for school. R.I.P., Hank Gathers.
Is it possible for me to have an Asian fetish?
Lastly, does anyone know how to change the template settings for Blogger? I'm looking to class this operation up and I want to change the font to one avec serifs.
3.16.2004
Keep it Rumeal
some names to watch this week as march madness pops off:
austin ainge
d.j. strawberry
reggie rambo
royal ivey
scooter sherrill
hans gasser
demon brown
kevin (butter) johnson
boo wade
guillaume yango
silver laku
also, hit me up if you want me to take your money, I mean, get down with a friend's NCAA pool.
austin ainge
d.j. strawberry
reggie rambo
royal ivey
scooter sherrill
hans gasser
demon brown
kevin (butter) johnson
boo wade
guillaume yango
silver laku
also, hit me up if you want me to take your money, I mean, get down with a friend's NCAA pool.
3.15.2004
TO ALL MY REAL(ONE) LIVE NINJAS
Okay, it's actually Quicktime. If you have Quicktime and a fast connection, run-don't-walk to the TV Carnage website and check out some of dude's clips. As Jeff J explains, it's as though someone edited together the worst, worst, worst things that have ever appeared on TV. it's sincerely funny.
Also, Chappelle's Show is kinda on fire, and they too offer clips for those of us without cable.
Know that somewhere out there, a track with Quannum and E-40 is materalizing. (Kweli and E-40 has already happened.)
Also, Chappelle's Show is kinda on fire, and they too offer clips for those of us without cable.
Know that somewhere out there, a track with Quannum and E-40 is materalizing. (Kweli and E-40 has already happened.)
3.12.2004
Help Yeah!
I love Jeff Johnson's NFL predictions for McSweeney's. (I'm sure they're linked somewhere on his site. They rarely have anything to do with football.) I have a cameo verse on his site right now; cyber-discourse began after Jeff's Sam Lipsyte contest and my baseball thoughts are up on his page now. They have very much to do with baseball, and when they don't, they have something to do with mustaches.
Sending out an S.O.S. - Does anybody out there have any photographs from the Project Blowed/Good Life heyday? Hit me up! I may have something very cool to offer you in return.
The new version of the new Dead Prez album is the same as the old version of the new Dead Prez album, with one forty-second exception: Jay-Z. It's not even the blistering verse you hope for, but it still makes all the difference in the world.
Another funny thing about Dead Prez: M1 recently started a production collective with a motley crew of unrelated New York musicians. One among them is our dear piano-playing friend Vijay Iyer, who finds himself deep in the liner notes next to "S. Carter" as "Vijay Ire." Of unintentional misspellings on an angrily 4-Q! record, the Iyer/"Ire" slip is pretty fantastic. Radical, even!
Sending out an S.O.S. - Does anybody out there have any photographs from the Project Blowed/Good Life heyday? Hit me up! I may have something very cool to offer you in return.
The new version of the new Dead Prez album is the same as the old version of the new Dead Prez album, with one forty-second exception: Jay-Z. It's not even the blistering verse you hope for, but it still makes all the difference in the world.
Another funny thing about Dead Prez: M1 recently started a production collective with a motley crew of unrelated New York musicians. One among them is our dear piano-playing friend Vijay Iyer, who finds himself deep in the liner notes next to "S. Carter" as "Vijay Ire." Of unintentional misspellings on an angrily 4-Q! record, the Iyer/"Ire" slip is pretty fantastic. Radical, even!
3.08.2004
Two States! Red and Blue! A House Divided!
When I was young and clay-like, I went along with parts of Samuel Huntington's "clash of civilizations" thesis -- we were, after all, coming out of that enormous tangle of military build-up, bottom-down-and-back-up paranoia and shitty alliances known as the Cold War, and my pubescent self probably pumped a fist and chalked up a win. By the time I got to college, I understood why he wasn't nearly right, and now that I'm even older, I can safely say that Sam needs to get off the crack. More on this later, once my heart rate settles back down to its reasonable quiver.
3.05.2004
gasfacerefill
My gigs of late have yielded few complaints--the money's been okay, the dancers have been well-fed, the occasional playing of "Bucktown" has kept our hardcore constituency intact and fewer requests for "that birthday song" have kept us DJs happy. I remain positive about our chances in this upcoming season. However, as open-minded as I am--I'm open-minded, cotdamn--any requests for us to "Mix that shit up, that funk and old-school shit with some techno, I mean I like techno music--Oakenfold--you got any Oakenfold?--Oakenfold, Sasha, Digweed. Just mix that shit up (makes motion with hands that suggests 'mixing shit up') with what you're playing now, I mean is this making you happy? Look out there (screams) nobody is dancing! Nobody! Maybe--MAYBE--if you played something someone had heard of--some REAL shit--we'd be dancing. Like if you mixed up this with some OakenfoldSashaDigweed, I've seem people here do that and people go crazy dancing. Or do you have that Elvis song from Ocean's 11? That remix? What? You've never heard it? Wait--you've never heard of Ocean's 11? With Brad Pitt? Fuck you--you've never heard of Ocean's 11 or Brad Pitt? Fuck you...(drops glass, stumbles out of the DJ booth)..."? Those requests get the gas face.
Labels: ACTUAL CONVERSATIONS
3.03.2004
more soup for you
I envy scientists. A researcher at the University of Illinois set out to prove that obesity in America is directly related to large restaurant portions, so he devised this brilliant experiment involving a neverending soup bowl.
w.c. williams to america: let's go crazy!
I was looking for a copy of William Carlos Williams' wonderfully insightful To Elsie, or The Pure Products of America Go Crazy online and came across this instead. It's heartening to know that some people care about politics enough to do things like this, even if all the items don't get the full knee-slap.
3.01.2004
Sheep Ass Ninja
THIS IS THE GREATEST THING EVER. IF THIS WERE REAL LIFE AND NOT THE INTERNET, I WOULD BE YELLING THIS IN YOUR FACE. you already waste your time tooling around on dub selector or trying to beat my high score on the penguin thing, so why not spend your hard-earned minutes on something that brings together the joys of both?
