11.30.2006

Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots
............it's funny when an album goes to the center of the media world and then falls away. this album still evokes emotion, even if it is cheesy, sort of bathetic. "evil robots win?" oh yoshimi.
Polish Town
........................I was somewhere in brooklyn, fort greene or williamsburg, and this drunk man came up to me and screamed, "This is Polish town!" then we spoke about john coltrane and polish saxophonists that try to ape his style. somehow that conversation felt significant.

11.29.2006

Cameron Indoor Stadium
..................I've never been to a KKK rally but I can now say i have been to Cameron Indoor Stadium. rich white people screaming at the top of their lungs, cheering on a predominantly pasty white team to defeat a predominantly black team (Indiana U). those people were wealthy! it was also strange because cameron feels like your high school gymnasium, wood seats, small concessions, long line for a tiny men's bathroom, commentators almost seated with the fans in the rafters. you almost expect when they win for everyone to start writhing on the parquet floor in a seething mess of naked white bodies, limbs.
"chickenheads be clucking when big be bucking". mack 10 with the chrome handling. you know what i mean. i'm sitting here bugging out. no, not really, someone is saying this and i'm transcribing it. there are multiple layers of affects and things, things indescribable, girls hiking up their shorts, where am i? it's hard to tell, east coast overdose, girls trundling luggage through the library, reading kafka and joyce, who knew? but still the people are coming for me, coming to take away my library card and return me to the coffeeshop where i deserve and belong. you know? that's all, and that's the way it is. wish it was another way (the back of my hand). fantasies.

11.28.2006

Global Warming
............................A couple of mild winters in a row and everybody is saying that global warming can now be legitimated as a reality (icebergs falling, trees budding at the wrong time, migration patterns disturbed). I agree with "them". we are not going to have enough rainfall to produce enough grain to feed all the people on earth. start preparing now. got some friends that have gone back to nature. can't be too bad.
Like a Velvet Glove Cast in Iron
........this is a legitamately scary comic. don't fuck around with this until you are ready. Dan Clowes, writer of _Ghost World_, had some dark shit on the brain when he started this in 1989. you might think it is incoherent, but it is the jumps in narration, the mix of dreams and reality that make it unnerving. i don't particularly like a "good scare", but if we are going to talk about art in the graphic novel form, this is it.

Big Dig (Re-)Construction

...................................................I find this unbelievable. 10 years in the making, the construction companies fuck up, a woman is killed, people are forced to sit in traffic for months more, government employees and bechtel make out like bandits, taxpayers dollars going to this shorter route to the airport so that the rich can fly while the poor sit in traffic, sit on buses..................where is the equity?

11.26.2006


Classics (Ratatat)
..................................Talk about mediocrity.......no that's kind of harsh......not wonderful but not stellar....ratatat is so listenable.........but not deep. deep is asking too much. not repetitive. i hear they give a good concert. make-out music? wildcat has a nice sample. kind of like a one-note samba, you know what i mean? put a tiger on your cover in silouette.........come on people, somebody really challenge the mold and make some music...........i got to get a studio so i can commission some stuff............we need new music for the people, to motivate the love and happiness neverending.......................i would say listen to this if you are stoned. but don't be satisfied.

Jessica Simpson Selling DirecTV
............................................................watching football totally depressed by this ad, won't even link it (also laziness),,,,,,,i understand that sex and bodies sell but i was having a dry-heaving reaction watching simpson sell directv via her tits to some football-loving american goober. who really masteurbates to Playboy anymore?

The Outsider (DJ Shadow)
.................................................i really wish this was better. some great instrumentals. but the fact is that bay area hip hop is just on some unlistenable nerd tip. respect to too $hort, rasco and other acclaimed artists to come out of oakland/SF/northern cali, but you simply cannot listen to this shit more than twice unless you have the recall of a burnout. dj shadow has had a fetish for this quannum crap for his entire career, helping out these guys that are living in a simulation of rap reality. i mean, they can't flow, they have nothing to say, and if they do, it's "klever"/witty, nothing that will stand up to feed my seeds. favorites song is david banner's "seeing thangs", unapologetically political, nice hook, starry chorale supporting on the chorus. like i said, the instrumental tracks are good, but don't attempt the depth of arrangement that i enjoyed on private press or endtroducing, a couple of A+ samples as usual. what would an outkast/shadow collabo sound like? why does every schmo have Kid A in their Itunes library? because they're waiting for a shadow album that could top it. weird mix of slow jamz (a la "6 Days") and hyphy here.........buyer beware.


GNARLS BARKLEY
..........................................this thing is overrated. crazy is a catchy song. the whole album is entirely listenable but there is a reason why it has not caught on. if your training is in mashups / cut & paste jobs, you may not be able to acheive a consistent sound...............shadow himself has a hard time putting an imprint on his whole series of work. cee lo is great, lacks depth, his falsetto is great backup, would like to see him team up with outkast again. "do you remember when?" i think the single is a nice testament to a country whose inhabitants are going insane.
wondering how all has been. _____ her softly, i wanted to _____ her softly..........a song for two perhaps in paris, _______ on the couch slow..........peace be unto her and all the parisians, wondering what i am doing with my time, hurting her over and over again, buying mixed drinks, gin and tonics, being nice to bartenders, trying not to smoke, living life like it's golden, magnificent chinese blondes on my shoulder, hard to keep, always going going going doing the next thing, screaming at the top of their lungs when you fuck up, gotta make that cash to keep everybody happy, willing it with skills.

11.22.2006

SPIT YOUR GAME / TALK YO SHIT

take me to mardi gras please? (trombone). hey, hey,

sunset over marshmellows toasting in a fire, __________, _____, _____.

SHE'S MY NEIGHBOR!

11.20.2006

what would it mean to erase everything?
"hot like cajun". what is it about jay-z that is so awesome? he is pure, so pure, pure notes. "hot like cajun". the lyrics are not amazing. his tonality does not shift as swiftly as biggie's. but it doesn't matter. the mad hatter. chesire cat, alice in wonderland. wonder boys. wonderland. land of wonder. florida, hot as hell, bar, drinking vodka-tonic, straight out of russia, crazy motherfcuker named sean connery. "hot like cajun". robert mccloskey. ______ place. "hot like cajun". creole. new orleans. etuffe, crawfish. girlfriend getting sick. you know (the stee-lo). king stampede. i could write for the spam-bots. how would you like that? "hot like cajun". e.e. cummings. he knew what was up, tree poems. kerouac, the mind, the mind's eye, printing, yes. shout out to the random ones. all the editors and editoresses, fine dresses and goblet necklaces and charms on the wrist, little pianos and hardtack cases for emergencies, silver spoons dipping for sugar and kafka in the unholy hotels, getting haircuts at port authority, ny, waiting for people endlessly to arrive bringing books of philosophy from jail, harlots waiting waiting waiting for the time.

11.18.2006

______________. __________________. brain is totally clear, totally ____. _______________. "my bed-stuy flow's delicious". "hot like cajun". "keep your hands high". what happened when your girl rolled up?

11.16.2006


The Ghost Face
This says nothing about Ghost Face. You don’t need to know who Ghost is order to get this fun play-on-words. Which is exactly what makes it the most simplistic dumbed-down t-shirt on the market right now. You get no points for cleverness, you dorks! The North Face will be suing your asses immediately! Perhaps when you dig yourself out of a couple Gs of legal bills you will realize that cleverness goes the way of roadkill foxes. North Face/Ghost Face……….I love it…………..idiots!

Breaktionary
........................................You got to get this ish. DJ Q-bert unearths the classic breaks from his library and plays them back to back to back to back. Real diggers, hot butter on what say what the popcorn. Bass beats, drums beats, over 250 in all. Difficult to listen to repetitively. Like owning the number pi out to a million digits. Q-bert is legend.

11.14.2006

white leather. good morning to the mailman. caravan. birdman. word. what is absolutely and entirely positive? circles.

Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs
.............................Apocalyptic children’s book. Terrifying and humorous. What if the sky starting falling food and people had to escape Earth with sails made of jumbo pizza slices? They don’t make ‘em like this any more. Read it (to your children) just for the pat-of-butter-on-the-mashed-potato-sunset page.

11.13.2006

absolute and straight positivity. triple sevens. bubbling to shooting up explosions akira-style.

Hachet
.......................Every young boy and girl should read this book. Independence. Nature. Danger. Peregrine falcon. Making fire. Running away. Living in a hollowed-out tree.

11.11.2006

what is good, no what is really good? i'm working on it. straight and unbelievable positivity. joyce-like. rising out of the mist. only the positivity. listen to the brain talk. the wonderful curvature. what is positive? girls coming up to me with mugs of hot cocoa. it is all blessed. scratches rising to the stars.

11.10.2006


Demolition Squeeze Pumpkin Muzik
...........................................................................This is the classic (1994). Originally called Style Warz as far as I knew (from an illicit download in 2001), this ish was re-released 2 years back in CD form. I can't really put into words how seminal this ish is. It will go down with Endtroducing as one of the biggest musical accomplishments of the 1990s. It's interesting how BIG and Tupac were doing their thing and at the same time turntablist projects were also blowing up. Were the dual forms influencing each other? "Are you ready for your prime time workout"? Cinematic. Q-bert, like the scratch incarnate, creating sublime moments to twist your ears up and make you double over, listen again and again, respect.

The Blues Brothers
.........................................What do you get when you put two white guys in dark suits and sunglasses and then have them show-up a host of black people in their own cultural tradition? Fuck White Stripes. Fuck Eric Clapton. Fuck Monster Mike whateverthefuck. It’s called Cultural Imperialism, and all y’all that enjoy this movie for the song-and-dance routines of Cab Calloway, Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles, John Lee Hooker, and James Brown – y’all should have your heads examined. “Four Fried Chickens and a Coke?” The only sweet spot is riding up the Cook County Assessor’s office elevator while “Girl From Ipanema” is playing on the elevator muzak – that’s funny. John Belushi died a dog’s death, and Dan Ackroyd’s funniest shit is still from the 70’s – this movie is totally Soul Plane 1980.

11.09.2006



................................On the Road is an ugly beautiful song. Kerouac figured out how to touch the root shakra of his soul through some automatic writing techniques, getting close to how the soul speaks to itself. With a bunch of editing from travel notebooks he created “On the Road” in 1957. I would recommend On the Road to people who need to get out of their own head. Just don’t fetishize him. Learn automatic writing…it may be one of the best lessons for a blocked writer.

11.08.2006



Akira
................................Why is Akira huge? Blown-up body without organs shooting in every dimension. It’s what happens when you bury things. Motorbikes? Conspiracy? Small sickly children? Destruction.



Illmatic
............................“Time is Illmatic keep static like wool fabric” – “Life’s a Bitch…”. Not much to say on this one. Nas will hold up and Jay-Z will not. Illmatic gets more full record spins than Reasonable Doubt. You can’t compare singles and radio play between the two. Look at how already, 10 years in, Big gets more spins than Tupac… (“separate the weak from the obsolete” (“Who Shot Ya?”)) despite more single radio play back in the day from Tupac, the cleaned-up cute Thug instead of the “heart throb never, black and ugly as ever” (“One More Chance”). All I got to say is, fuck you Jay-Z, prick.