Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Reactions to Tha Carter IV

"He is our strangest hip-hop superstar, and maybe the last antiaspirational one: he’s the one who won’t harp at length about his watches and cars, the one who still thinks it’s acceptable to record a rap-rock album (last year’s “Rebirth”), the one who became more famous the more he rapped about turning into a Martian.

In retrospect, Lil Wayne’s dizzying mixtape output from 2006 to 2007, when he was at his most bizarre, most confusing and most prolific, set an almost impossible standard, one that he has failed to live up to for the last couple of years."



"During his Untouchable Era-- from the December 2005 release of Tha Carter II through 2008's Tha Carter III, with several classic mixtapes in between-- Wayne was The Best Rapper Alive because he said he was, and then rhymed his brain off to prove it. He doesn't claim that world-beating title once on Tha Carter IV."

Pitchfork (Ryan Dombal) - "Lil Wayne - Tha Carter IV"

"Wayne was a great king, a transcendent artist, and a totem. He's allowed to not be The Guy anymore. Think of him like The Simpsons, a once essential and enduring cultural institution operating past its expiration date (sometimes a gag sticks; mostly you skip it, unless there's a good guest). We won't hold Tha Carter IV against Lil Wayne. He remains a compelling artist and a standard-bearer for a generation of endlessly productive rappers. But nothing lasts forever. Weezy is dead. Long live Weezy."


Spin (Sean Fennessey) - "Lil Wayne, 'Tha Carter IV' (Young Money/Cash Money)

Burning Man



The 26-year-old festival is taking place this week in Black Rock Desert, NV. Although the New York Times has the above photos from past year's events, photos will not be allowed this year. (?)

"The annual arts festival whose attractions include colossal art installations, all-night dance parties, marathon kite-flying sessions, off-kilter fashion shows, and classes where revelers can learn things that range from Hula Hooping to playing the ukulele to making absinthe."


New Era Part 4


"912, it's for rich people."

TDK = The Bush years


"...from Heath Ledger's lethal spin on Osama bin Joker to the divided, fairly chilling hero's resort to the extralegal black ops to save the day, TDK is so obviously the defining movie of the Bush years that everybody gets the gist."

Saturday, August 27, 2011

Drive (Pretty in Pink with Violence)


Drive seems somewhat commercial.

RG - "I wanted to make Pretty in Pink with a head-smashing."

With a head-smashing?

RG - "Yeah. I wanted to make a violent John Hughes movie. Because John Hughes movies are perfect. Or almost perfect. They just need a little violence. You need blood and cotton candy. So that's what we tried to make."


Also,

The Sitter and 50/50


The Sitter coming out December 9.

50/50 comes out September 30.

Friday, August 26, 2011

Live reaction to the East Coast Earthquake

The Rum Diary


Johnny Depp will star in his second movie adaptation of a Hunter S. Thompson novel. The Rum Diary, takes place in 1950's Puerto Rico. Movie coming out October 28.

Bon Iver & James Blake - "Fall Creek Boys Choir"



The two singer/songwriters link up for this song. A joint album or maybe just another song, Enough Thunder, coming in October?

Monday, August 22, 2011

David Foster Wallace on true art


"And there was this -- I know I'm taking a long time to answer your question. There was this way in which I all of a sudden realized that the point of being post-modern or being avant garde or whatever wasn't to follow in a certain kind of tradition, that all that stuff is B.S. imposed by critics and camp followers afterwards, that what the really great artists do -- and it sounds very trite to say it out loud, but what the really great artists do is they're entirely themselves. They're entirely themselves. They've got their own vision, their own way of fracturing reality, and that if it's authentic and true, you will feel it in your nerve endings. And this is what "Blue Velvet" did for me."

Attack the Block


Who was the first person to milk a cow?

Sunday, August 21, 2011

Saturday, August 20, 2011

1995 Source Music Awards


"The ideology of what I considered "real" hip-hop died at the 1995 Source Awards. I was literally at its funeral-- I sat three rows behind Nas. In the audience, the Bad Boy camp was on the far right, all the West Coast and the Southern rappers were in the middle, and on the far left were all the New York underground rappers like Wu-Tang, Mobb Deep, Nas, Busta Rhymes, and us. That was the day when Suge called out Puffy, and there were fights in the audience. I felt like a bomb was going to detonate.

Nas' body language that day told the whole story of where we were about to go. The more he got ignored for Illmatic, I literally saw his body melt in his seat. Almost like he was ashamed. He just looked so defeated. I was like, "Yo, he's not gonna be the same after this shit." None of us were the same after that day. I feel like the true underground lost its oxygen that night."

Artist - TrustCorp

New York City street artist collective TrustCorp has been replacing ads and subway signs with messages of their own.


Friday, August 19, 2011

The Weeknd (Free Mixtape)

Toronto's Abel Tesfaye a.k.a. The Weeknd released his second free mixtape last night, "Thursday." Download it here.

Weather on the Map



This is great. I'm surprised we didn't have this before.

Thursday, August 18, 2011

The Classical



Writers from Freedarko and just about every other major publication are raising $ to launch this sports site.

Watch the video and if inspired, click here to donate.

Photographer RJ Shaughnessy


RJ Shaughnessy



Interesting Trailer


Pro Wrestler Names


Click here to see poster zoomed in.

Monday, August 15, 2011

Outside Lands Day 3


Saw Grouplove, !!!, Major Lazer, Little Dragon, The Decemberists, Deadmau5 and Arcade Fire perform.

Above, Major Lazor performing (Switch on left, Diplo is on right). Below, a backstage view of Deadmau5.


Sunday, August 14, 2011

London Riots Photoshopped

More photoshopped images can be found @ Photoshotlooper.





Banksy in San Francisco

The pictured works were done in March/April 2010. The above work lives in Chinatown, SF (Commercial and Grant) and as you can see is protected by plexiglass.

Below is another Banksy work at Howard and 9th.

Covered by plexiglass or high enough that the average person can't reach, sadly, may be the only way to protect the art. The "No Trespassing" Banksy Indian was painted over.

Outside Lands Day 2


Saw StrFkr, Ok Go, Old 97s, Arctic Monkeys, The Black Keys, The Roots, Muse and Girl Talk perform.

Above is the Choco Land forest and below is The Roots performing on the Twin Peaks stage.

Watch the Throne Maybach

The luxury Maybach that was taken apart/altered for the "Otis" music video directed by Spike Jonze is on display in Soho, New York City today @ 201 Mulberry St. MTV reports that there is a strict no photo/video policy (why?).

The "Mad Max-ed" Maybach is being auctioned off with the proceeds going to be donated towards the East African drought disaster. MTV reports that the vehicle cost $350,000 and the altercations could have cost as much as $150,000.

Saturday, August 13, 2011

Outside Lands Day 1

Hung out with Dave Chapelle. He ran up to me when the crowd was booing and said "this is my cue" (Big Boi was very late for his set; never did perform; DJ missed flight, went to the wrong stage, and when he finally got there his MacBook battery died), Big Boi was throwing pounds, promised he'd play "Elevators," invited me in his group's prayer circle. Saw Collie Buddz, Phantogram, Foster the People, MGMT, Ellie Goulding, Phish and The Shins perform.

New MoMA Tower Blueprints


"At only 1,050 feet, it would no longer rival the Empire State Building on the skyline but instead share a midtown profile with the likes of the Chrysler Building, Rockefeller Center and the MetLife Building. Still, even in a downturn brought on by bombastic overbuilding, real estate has a way of persevering in New York. "

Friday, August 12, 2011

New York Stadia


There's a heavy bias in this sports stadium analysis / critique of recent New York stadia (the Jets/Giants New Meadowlands, new Yankee and Mets ballparks and the new Brooklyn Nets arena), but I think it's pretty on point.



"How can the former architectural capital of the globe (the Chrysler Building; Frank Lloyd Wright's Guggenheim; that black cube balancing on one of its corners down on Astor Place in the East Village, ...erect three buildings so irrelevant in design that they were greeted by a collective, global yawn — when they were greeted at all?

Because, I suspected, the architecture of most of our national stadiums is now, officially, an afterthought. The revenue jones has reduced design to irrelevance — even though a killer, eye-opening edifice, in the long run, is worth its weight in publicity gold."

'Otis' Music Video


Jay-Z & Kanye West - "Otis"

Directed by Spike Jonze

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Hip-Hop's Richest


1. Jay-Z: $37 million

2. Diddy: $35 million

3. Kanye West: $16 million

4. Lil Wayne (tie): $15 million

4. Birdman (tie): $15 million

6. Eminem (tie): $14 million

6. Dr. Dre (tie): $14 million

6. Snoop Dogg (tie): $14 million

9. Akon: $13 million

10. Ludacris: $12 million

11. Wiz Khalifa (tie): $11 million

11. Drake (tie): $11 million

13. Pharrell Williams: $10 million

14. Timbaland: $7 million

15. Swizz Beatz (tie): $6.5 million

15. Nicki Minaj (tie): $6.5 million

17. Rick Ross (tie): $6 million

17. 50 Cent (tie): $6 million

17. Pitbull (tie): $6 million

20. T-Pain (tie): $5 million

20. B.o.B (tie): $5 million

From Jon Caramanica's review of Jay-Z and Kanye West's album, Watch The Throne,

"This isn’t excess for excess’s sake. It’s the state of being so rich you forgot where you put all your nice things, being so rich you lost sight of which stuff is actually nice and which stuff you bought just because you’re used to buying things. Meaningful references — the abundant James Brown samples, the use of Redding and Mayfield — are all jumbled with irrelevant ones."

Sunday, August 7, 2011

Watch the Throne Countdown


I completely agree with Nation's sentiment.


"As someone who grew up on The Blueprint, movies like Fade To Black and who still listens to all 12 minutes of “Last Call”,"

Clever Ad

Thursday, August 4, 2011

"Getting Bin Laden"


Highly suggest this read -

by Nicholas Schmidle (a graduate of American University)

I'd pull a quote from the article, but don't want to ruin the experience of reading the story.

Monday, August 1, 2011

Randy Moss


My all-time favorite football player. Randy Moss inspired me to play and love the game as a young 10-year-old.

"If he is retired, let me tell you he’s one of the five greatest players I ever played with. That means that he’d be right there next to Warren Moon, Reggie White, Randall McDaniel and John Randle.

Like he is the best wide receiver talent wise that I’d ever seen. And I’ve worked with every wide receiver that’s been in the NFL the past 25 years and none of them compared to Randy. None of them could do what Randy can do on the football field with his mind and his body and he wanted to do it Randy Moss is is. I’m a say this, for me to play with him it was surely a pleasure. I’ve never seen a man do what he could do. So if is this end, what an unbelievable career.”

-Cris Carter talking about Moss on Sportscenter today