Thursday, March 31, 2011
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
2001 Kanye West Beat CD
A 2001 Kanye West Beat CD (26 beats) can be streamed here. Another CD will be released 4/4.Background story:
“Last week I was stumbling through my garage, searching through old storage bins, when I came across some old beat CDs from my days as a signed Interscope rapper. I was shocked to find that two of them, both given to me in ‘01, had the name Kanye West on them. These two CDs, which I believe are the oldest Kanye beats ever released, now celebrate their 10 year anniversary.
- Jensen Karp of The Hypemen
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
MLB Opening Day
Thursday.
"It's Christmas but, Santa has a black beard and delivers presents nobody wants"
Paris Hilton Interviews Lil' Wayne
Paris Hilton interviewed Lil' Wayne for the newest issue of Interview Magazine.HILTON: I had to do 24 nights in solitary. [Hilton was held in a separate cell as a safety precaution.]
WAYNE: Oh, so you know how it is.
HILTON: Yeah, I know how it is.
Lil' Wayne also did an interview with Angie Martinez of New York's Hot 97. Visit Nah Right to listen.
Sidenote, Wayne admits his love for the Jersey Shore in Part 3 of the Hot 97 interview.
Monday, March 28, 2011
Should college players get paid?
Tomorrow night on PBS.
"[FRONTLINE] takes a hard look at the economics of the annual NCAA tournament—a cash cow for amateur athletics that generates enormous dollars for everyone except the players themselves, raising basic questions of fairness that are now leading a handful of influential figures to challenge the way the NCAA operates."
- Athletic departments get a generous supply of sponsor's products and apparel. For example, Nike’s allowance to supply Alabama is valued at $2.3 million per year.
- Colleges get an average 10-12 percent royalty on sales of co-branded apparel and merchandise and local media and advertising
- Perks. Michigan got a $6.5 million signing bonus from Adidas after being lured away in '07 from Nike. Teams and coaches get first class hotels/air travel, expensive club memberships, etc.
- Performance bonuses. These can amount to millions a year for tournament wins, championship games, coach-of-the-year titles, etc.
"A Congressional Budget Office (CBO) report released in 2009 warned that the NCAA was endangering its tax-exempt status as a voluntary educational organization because of the exploding commercialization of NCAA Division I college sports. The CBO estimated that 60 to 80 percent of the money made through NCAA Division I football teams came from just commercial deals and crossed an educational line."
Tarantino's Next
News reports today, Quentin Tarantino's next film to be a "Southern."
"I want to explore something that really hasn’t been done. I want to do movies that deal with America’s horrible past with slavery and stuff but do them like spaghetti westerns, not like big issue movies. I want to do them like they’re genre films, but they deal with everything that America has never dealt with because it’s ashamed of it, and other countries don’t really deal with because they don’t feel they have the right to."
The above QT quote from a couple years ago.
Saturday, March 26, 2011
The Fab Five
If you have a spare 90 minutes and $4.99, go to itunes and download, the Fab Five ESPN documentary.A Michigan writer from The Grand Rapids Press describes the film as "youthful nostalgia that must be felt by a whole generation"
The New York Times described the film as a "flashback to a time when baggy basketball shorts, hip-hop music and black shoes were considered controversial and an affront to hoops purists."
The Greed
Take a moment to read the New Yorker article linked below.
"With the possible exception of the members of OPEC, N.F.L. owners have pretty much the coziest business arrangement imaginable: they’re effectively members of a cartel—able to limit competition, enhance bargaining power, and hold down costs. Instead of competing against each other for TV money, the owners share it, reducing risk and guaranteeing steady revenue regardless of how well they run their teams."
"You might say that that’s capitalism—those who provide the capital for an enterprise deserve to reap the profits. But the N.F.L. isn’t capitalist in any traditional sense. The league is much more like the trusts that dominated American business in the late nineteenth century, before they were outlawed. Its goal is not to embrace competition but to tame it, making the owners’ businesses less risky and more profitable."
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
New Justice
French electric group Justice (of D.A.N.C.E. fame) debuted their first single of their second LP, due April 4, earlier today.The new single, "Civilization" debuted in Adidas ad, "Adidas is All in" featuring Lionel Messi, Derrick Rose, Katy Perry and B.O.B. among others.
Monday, March 7, 2011
Friday, March 4, 2011
Arthur
The 1981 film has been re-made with Russell Brand as Arthur Bach and Helen Mirren as the nanny.
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
New Bill Simmons' website
ESPN's Sports Guy Bill Simmons is working with ESPN to create a non-ESPN branded website dedicated to 70% sports, 30% pop culture.
Word has it that author Chuck Klosterman and New York Magazine's Lane Brown will both be involved.
We can expect the site to debut "later this spring."
Info from the press release below.
- The graphic style of the site, designed by renowned magazine designer Walter Bernard, will be simple and elegant, in order to set it apart from the daily rush of sports news.
- The site will host Bill’s columns and podcasts, but unlike Page 2, it will not be based on the sports events of the day or the current sports calendar.
- In addition to Bill’s works, the site will include columns and essays about sports and pop culture from leading journalists.
- Bill is building a team of lesser-known, talented young writers and editors to capture new voices and commentary on sports and pop culture.
- We anticipate some edgy topics and writing, but such content will remain the exception.
- About 70 percent sports, 30 percent pop culture, with less video than other ESPN sites.
- Bill sees the site functioning with limited fan interaction, including a selection of about 300 fans with exclusive access to comment on the site and interact with contributors.
Jordan almost signing with the Knicks
Story from Jay-Z's book, "Decoded."
"The first time I met Jordan was at St. John's University, where he was giving the keynote address at their graduation one year. We talked briefly, but didn't really chop it up. A couple of months later, in Chicago, I went to his restaurant at his invitation to have dinner with him. I had Ty-Ty and my friend Juan with me and I told Jordan that if I was going to sit and break bread with him, I'd have to be able to ask him anything. I meant anything.It was so perfect that I had Juan with me because he's a die-hard Knicks fan, and as much as he respected Jordan, he hated the way Jordan personally sat the Knicks down every year in the Eastern Conference play offs. Juan is a real sports fan; he'd be sick for a week, I'm talking depressed - he wouldn't leave the house - after his team lost. That night he had to sit there and dine with his nemesis. Jordan told Juan the story of how he almost came to the Knicks. He said he was a second away from closing the deal, he was packing his bags to come to New York, when Jerry Krauss called and matched the Knicks' offer at the last minute. Juan looked like he was going to cry."
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