Monday, February 28, 2011

Stones Throw's Podcast


Stones Throw, that consistently excellent record label outta Los Angeles, put out awesome podcasts. I used to be subscribed to a bunch of those things, but then I realized that I only really listened to Stones Throw's, so I got rid of all my podcast subscriptions except for theirs. First off, I highly recommend subscribing right nyuhh. You'll get each of their podcasts for free as they are released. Secondly, they've recently announced that they have archived most of their old podcasts, and are offering them as free downloads on their site once you spend $1 or more at their store.

Friday, February 25, 2011

Some pretty choice Charlie Sheen Meltdown Interview Quotes

I'm not one for starwatching or reveling in others misfortune. I have enough of that to deal with on my own. But I really like Charlie Sheen's recent catastrophic drug fueled meltdown. Here's a few of my favorite quotes pulled by NY Magazine from a recent radio interview.


On his power:
"I'm sorry, man, but I've got magic. I've got poetry in my fingertips. Most of the time — and this includes naps — I'm an F-18, bro. And I will destroy you in the air. I will deploy my ordinance to the ground."

On Major League 3:
"It's being directed and written by a genius named David Ward who, I don't know, won the Academy Award at 23 for writing The Sting? [Ed. He was 29.] It was his pen and his vision that created the classic that we know today as Major League. In fact, a lot of people think the movie's called Wild Thing, as they should. Whatever … If they want me in it, it's a smash. If they don't, it's a turd that opens on a tugboat."

On why he should be feared:
"There's a new sheriff in town. And he has an army of assassins."

Wait, what?
"Guys, it's right there in the thing, duh! We work for the Pope, we murder people. We're Vatican assassins. How complicated can it be? What they're not ready for is guys like you and I and Nails and all the other gnarly gnarlingtons in my life, that we are high priests, Vatican assassin warlocks. Boom. Print that, people. See where that goes."

No, seriously: What?
"If you love with violence and you hate with violence, there's nothing that can be questioned. People say, 'Oh, you'd better work through your resentments.' Yeah, no. I'm gonna hang on to them, and they're gonna fuel my attack. And they're going to fuel the battle cry of my deadly and dangerous and secret and silent soldiers. Because they're all around you. Sorry, you thought you were just messing with one dude. Winning."

On Alcoholics Anonymous:
"It's the work of sissies. The only thing I'm addicted to is winning. This bootleg cult, arrogantly referred to as Alcoholics Anonymous, reports a 5 percent success rate. My success rate is 100 percent. Do the math … another one of their mottoes is 'Don't be special, be one of us.' Newsflash: I am special, and I will never be one of you! I have a disease? Bullshit! I cured it with my brain, with my mind. I cured it, I'm done … you don't look like you're having a lot of fun. I'm gonna hang out with these two smoking hotties and fly privately around the world. It might be lonely up here but I sure like the view, Alex!"

On ex-presidents:
"I'm not Thomas Jefferson. He was a pussy."


Didn't I just blow your car the fuck up?

Me cyant wait until Breaking Bad returns this July.



The song they use in this ending scene/credits sequence is Didn't I by Darondo:



Some guy named Trishes made a edit/remix of this track:

Find more artists like Trishes at Myspace Music



He basically sped up the track and added the drums and, at the end of the remix, the violin work, from Rene Costy's track Scrabble.



All in all a pretty decent, if simple, remix. Now, pass the meth.

TGIMeme




Thanks to thedailywh.at I have been exposed to the best meme ever. This chicken tells all of my favorite jokes BETTER than I could ever dream.


Tuesday, February 22, 2011

The Day the Movies Died


The Day the Movies Died:

Then came Top Gun. The man calling the shots may have been Tony Scott, but the film’s real auteurs were producers Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer, two men who pioneered the “high-concept” blockbuster—films for which the trailer or even the tagline told the story instantly. At their most basic, their movies weren’t movies; they were pure product—stitched-together amalgams of amphetamine action beats, star casting, music videos, and a diamond-hard laminate of technological adrenaline all designed to distract you from their lack of internal coherence, narrative credibility, or recognizable human qualities. They were rails of celluloid cocaine with only one goal: the transient heightening of sensation.



Plutocracy Now: What Wisconsin Is Really About


The first is this: Income inequality has grown dramatically since the mid-’70s—far more in the US than in most advanced countries—and the gap is only partly related to college grads outperforming high-school grads. Rather, the bulk of our growing inequality has been a product of skyrocketing incomes among the richest 1 percent and—even more dramatically—among the top 0.1 percent. It has, in other words, been CEOs and Wall Street traders at the very tippy-top who are hoovering up vast sums of money from everyone, even those who by ordinary standards are pretty well off.


Second, American politicians don’t care much about voters with moderate incomes. Princeton political scientist Larry Bartels studied the voting behavior of US senators in the early ’90s and discovered that they respond far more to the desires of high-income groups than to anyone else. By itself, that’s not a surprise. He also found that Republicans don’t respond at all to the desires of voters with modest incomes. Maybe that’s not a surprise, either. But this should be: Bartels found that Democratic senators don’t respond to the desires of these voters, either. At all.


Read the full article by Kevin Drum at Mother Jones

if you don't know, now you know...

Recently learned about Wikipedia's list of common misconceptions from this xkcd comic:



Good stuff.

Monday, February 21, 2011

Prince Paul and the Aliens are right on time

Diary of Prince Paul from bricolagista! on Vimeo.



Just found two Prince Paul gems: a parody of MTV's Diary of... series and Resident Alien's unreleased LP "It Takes a Nation of Suckas To Let Us In".

Check MC Paul Barman making a damn fool of hisself dancing in the Diary of Prince Paul!

In 1990 Prince Paul had a production deal w/ Def Jam that gave him his own imprint, Dew Doo Man Records. The only act he signed that recorded anything (I can find) was Resident Alien, three of Paul's green card carrying buddies. They recorded this record in 1991 (after 3 Feet High and Rising but before De La Soul is Dead is my guess from the sound of Paul's production) and it's mostly about being a resident alien in America, and the trials and tribulations that follow. Def Jam didn't like it, though, and never released it. Thanks to the internet, we can all enjoy this leaked copy. Check their anthem for Dew Doo Man Records:



Gotta love that "just having fun" hip hop. I miss it.

Thursday, February 17, 2011

Give Up Day

I'm giving this up faster than a girl playing I Wanna Be the Guy. The well has run dry, yesterday's post wasn't even tangentially related to White Guilt. Somewhere along the way I forgot it was supposed to be about hating on being white with painfully overt irony, while sharing some of my favorite songs/sketches/clips. I'll leave you all with this, then:



Is there something wrong with me enjoying this type of shit, doc?

Day #7

White rappers are guilty of not giving good rap interviews. Name me one interview with a white rapper that comes close to such brilliance:

XXL interview w/ DMX

XXL: Are you following the presidential race?
DMX: Not at all.

XXL: You’re not? You know there’s a Black guy running, Barack Obama, and then there’s Hillary Clinton.
DMX: His name is Barack?!

XXL: Barack Obama, yeah.
DMX: Barack?!

XXL: Barack.
DMX: What the fuck is a Barack?! Barack Obama. Where he from, Africa?

XXL: Yeah, his dad is from Kenya.
DMX: Barack Obama?

XXL: Yeah.
DMX: What the fuck?! That ain’t no fuckin’ name, yo. That ain’t that nigga’s name. You can’t be serious. Barack Obama. Get the fuck outta here.

XXL: You’re telling me you haven’t heard about him before.
DMX: I ain’t really paying much attention.

XXL: I mean, it’s pretty big if a Black…
DMX: Wow, Barack! The nigga’s name is Barack. Barack? Nigga named Barack Obama. What the fuck, man?! Is he serious? That ain’t his fuckin’ name. Ima tell this nigga when I see him, “Stop that bullshit. Stop that bullshit” [laughs] “That ain’t your fuckin’ name.” Your momma ain’t name you no damn Barack.

XXL: So you’re not following the race. You can’t vote right?
DMX: Nope.

(there's a great parody of this interchange in the pretty perfect first episode of The Boondocks' 3rd season, see 05:25 - 06:00)

Ghostface Killah interview on Swedish radio



(He's referring to his rapping on the second track off Supreme Clientele, Nutmeg. You see what happened one time was he went to Africa...)

N.O.R.E. Interview with Life Sucks Die Magazine

(probably the best rap interview ever given)

Excerpts:

(On full steezies)
Life Sucks Die- Okay, moving on...Describe the average day in the life of Noreaga.
N.O.R.E.- Well , I like full steezies. Do you know what full steezies is?
LSD- You might have to explain that.
N- A full steezie is a bitch that will suck your dick in front of your peoples. She doesn’t
really care, she’ll suck your dick in front of everybody. She’ll suck all your niggas
dicks...that’s basically my everyday plan. I find a new full steezie...I’m being honest
with you, ‘cause I know this ain’t getting to New York, so...You know, I piss on bitches.
[laughter] It’s nothing. I love full steezies. And even I like the full steezies that won’t
suck everyone else’s dick, but they’ll suck your dick in front of your man. I like those,
too. I’m very uncivilized. Then you got the ones that’ll suck your dick behind closed
doors, all day every day. Those are cool, too. It’s all full steezies, but there’s different
ways of being full steezie. That’s my everyday life. I discover a new full steezie every
other day. And I like to smoke a lot of marijuana. You got marijuana?
LSD- Not on me.
N- How the fuck you ain’t have no marijuana?

(My personal favorite)
N- We call each other “Slime.” We don’t call each other “son”, we call each other
“Slime.” That’s what each and every one of our individual is. A person that don’t buy
weed but wanna smoke weed. A person that don’t buy cigarettes, but wanna smoke
cigarettes. A person that don’t buy no liquor, but wanna drink all motherfucking day.
That’s each and every one of our peoples. So we call each other “Slime.” And we’re
“Off the Yelzebub.”
LSD- What?
N- We don’t say off the hook, we say “off the yelzebub.” Like BUCK WILD! Off the
yelzebub. Like jumping in the crowd like I do. I’m ghetto. I’ll jump in the crowd and
suck a bitches titties and make her suck my dick after. It’s nothing. And that’s another
thing we say. It’s nothing. It’s nothing.
LSD- It’s nothing.
N- It’s nothing.
LSD- Okay, I’m gonna give a quick round of short-answer questions. It’s nothing.
N- It’s nothing.
...
LSD- Optimist or pessimist?
N-[Pauses] Thugginest.
...
LSD- Yeah, yeah. [dumb laughter] Your favorite place to get head?
N- In the whip.
LSD- While you’re driving?
N- Yeah, it’s nothing.
LSD- Have you ever had sex while you were driving?
N- It’s nothing to say I don’t do that. It’s nothing to say I’m not that good of a driver.
LSD- Do you have a driver’s license?
N- It’s nothing to say I only got a permit. [hysterical laughter] I only have a permit, you
know, so I don’t want to stretch it.

It's nothing for me to say this was posted early Thursday morning, 2/17/11. Still counts as Day #7 though, slime. Ya smell me!?!?!

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Day #6

Rach brought this video to my attention yesterday:



After I saw this I decided to go back to a spoken word record I've had lying around for a while, but never listened to all the way through: The Dialect of the Black American.

Side A

Side B

I mostly had kept this around in my iTunes library because it's where a bunch of the vocal samples in Anarchist Bookstore Pt. 2 by MC Paul Barman are from.

The narrator pulls the same "translate the ghetto slang" trick towards the end of Side A, something I've seen done quite a few times with humorous intent. The narrator, however, is making the point that when such translations occur, much of the "overtones of meaning" are lost. I agree, this dialect can often be more descriptive than Scholastic English, and can better illustrate feelings, situations, expressions, etc. in ways such English is unable to do.

It is his views of how this dialect is, and how he thinks it should be, treated and integrated with education that I like the most:

"Many white Americans as well as some blacks attach a stigma to the black way of talking, rather than considering it as a rich and patterned dialect of English, with its own well-established structure. Refusal to accept this as a legitimate mode of expression has long been the practice of many educational systems. The English teacher following this practice becomes the dedicated missionary of middle class values. His vehicle is the language, and the language means Standard English. There is no disagreement that fluency in Standard English is necessary for formal communications. But the black child from the ghetto simply isn’t learning it. Actually, the teacher is short-circuiting his own goals by rejecting the kid, his culture, and his language."


And later:

"Under no condition should the speaker’s use of the dialect be considered something inferior, bad, or an indicator of his intelligence. It should simply be considered something different, which is all it is. The important thing is to keep the ghetto child talking. Respecting the guarded language of his identity and survival will open the door to his learning something new."


And look, I'm not saying I don't find this stuff funny (shit, on my first post on this blog I linked to "A Charlie Brown Kwanzaa" for chrissakes). I just think the narrator makes some great points about the importance and substance of "the black dialect". Plus it's a fantastic spoken word record. Never fear, I'll get back to expressing White Guilt through The Boondocks or some shit now.

Hope you guys called up your old earths to tell them you love them yesterday.

Watson

So IBM's supercomputer and Jeopardy champion Brad Rutter were tied at $5,000 at the end of Jeopardy last night. As an information science student, I'm sure I could say a lot about it, but this video pretty much sums it up:

Monday, February 14, 2011

A Valentine for Blaze


Love, Rach

Arcade Fire wins Grammy, normal Americans freak out

I really thought everybody knew who Arcade Fire was. Didn't they get really famous and have all kinds of commercials (maybe just one real commercial?) and have their "Tunnel" song played everywhere? Am I living in a hipster enclave where they are way old news while the average Joes have really never heard of them? Really?
Weird.

So they won Best Album of the Year. That's cool. Good for them. A lot of people didn't like that.

I like this comment from thedailywh.at:

might be time to remind everyone

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...

that nobody in their right mind gives a damn..

Day #5/Valentine's Day Mix

On this day of passion and temptation, a word of caution from Kilo: Black people, don't you ride those white whores.



Valentine's Day Mix (megaupload)

Tracklist:
1) I Want You (I'm an '80s Man) - Prince Paul ft. Bimos
2) I Like It - DeBarge
3) Mood For Love - Prince Paul ft. Newkirk
4) Blam! - Barack Obama
5) The Look of Love - Isaac Hayes
6) My Number - Barack Obama
7) That's You My Love - Johnny Cool
8) I Luv U Girl - The Dix
9) Tonight is the Night - Betty Wright
10) Come Here My Dear (Remix) - Dudley Perkins ft. Sadat X & MED
11) You Should've Seen the Way I Made Love to You - Andy Bey
12) Big Girl, Skinny Girl - CX Kidtronik ft. Tchak Diallo
13) Do Ya Think I'm Sexy - Pentti Oskari Kankaan & Seinahullua Veljesta (ft. cookie monster)
14) Say You'll Be (edit) - Jerome Prister
15) Love (Can Make You Happy) - Mercy
16) Chocolate Lover - DJ Quik ft. Sexy Leroy & The Chocolate Lovelitez
17) Be Our Valentine - Prince Paul & Peanut Butter Wolf

Sunday, February 13, 2011

Day #4

How come, oh how come, oh how come (how come) we shot Martin Luther King?





Saturday, February 12, 2011

Day #3

WE'RE SORRY!



They couldn't make racism disappear, unfortunately. But if racism is here to stay, at least so is De La Soul

Friday, February 11, 2011

Skis > Wings

Day #2



What a coincidence, we also love black women and hate fucking crackers! I mean, just look at what they did to the black community:



What dickholes!

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

This is your amurica

Her performance was a disgrace to the anthum! I sat here in Dallas and knew as soon as she struck the stance that she did, sloughed to one side, opposite leg bent, that this was not going to be good. Did ya all see the lipstick on this pig?? Just acts like a $lut every chance she gets. She is a girl loving girl rhnking about girls and this is what you get from a pervert. This is what happens when you hire a former Disney miniwhore. Just because a person can sing loud doesn't mean sounds good. she was ad-lib-ing so much. Will someone please informer her that she is a white woman.
This is a comment on this post on foxnation, where regular normal Americans hang out to share their views.  Seriously. This is the average American citizen. Think about that. Then cry.

Monday, February 7, 2011

LOTTO!

The North American lottery system is a $70 billion-a-year business, an industry bigger than movie tickets, music, and porn combined. These tickets have a grand history: Lotteries were used to fund the American colonies and helped bankroll the young nation. In the 18th and 19th centuries, lotteries funded the expansion of Harvard and Yale and allowed the construction of railroads across the continent. Since 1964, when New Hampshire introduced the first modern state lottery, governments have come to rely on gaming revenue. (Forty-three states and every Canadian province currently run lotteries.) In some states, the lottery accounts for more than 5 percent of education funding.

Cracking the Scratch Lottery Code:

Mohan Srivastava had been hooked by a different sort of lure—that spooky voice, whispering to him about a flaw in the game. At first, he tried to brush it aside. “Like everyone else, I assumed that the lottery was unbreakable,” he says. “There’s no way there could be a flaw, and there’s no way I just happened to discover the flaw on my walk home.” And yet, his inner voice refused to pipe down. “I remember telling myself that the Ontario Lottery is a multibillion-dollar-a- year business,” he says. “They must know what they’re doing, right?”

(Via Long Reads)

Why Nic Cage is a blessing to cinema


Here's the pull quote from a pretty fantastic GQ article on my favorite awesome awful actor.

Befitting his status as the most gonzo star ever to take home a best-actor Oscar—he makes Jack Nicholson look like a Swiss banker—Cage has never been Mr. Choosy about which films to grace with his quasi-epileptic presence. Considering how drab most of them would be without him, maybe we should count ourselves lucky.

Let's keep beating this dead horse, no?

From this article:

"Final thought: Larry Drew became North Carolina's starting point guard by default two years ago. He never seemed worthy of the position, was finally demoted last month, and he quit the team last Friday even though his team was playing better than it had played in two years. In other words, he was fine when things were going OK for him even when the Tar Heels struggled, and not fine when things weren't going OK for him even when the Tar Heels flourished.

That tells me all I need to know about Larry Drew.

It's also why North Carolina is going to be better off without him.

"I think this team chemistry is at an all-time high," North Carolina sophomore Dexter Strickland said after Sunday's 89-69 win over Florida State, and Drew would be wise to read that quote again and again because it's a quote from one of his former teammates saying that things are better now that he's no longer around.

While he's at it, Drew should also understand that the Tar Heels are 5-0 since demoting him, and that his replacement, Kendall Marshall, dropped 16 assists Sunday, which begs the question: Why did Roy Williams take so long to demote Drew in favor of Marshall?

Answer: I have no idea.

But UNC is lucky he finally did.

As for Drew, his legacy is cemented.

He's the UNC point guard who wasn't good enough to play there or tough enough to face adversity.

That's a helluva way to be described or remembered.

But Larry Drew did this to himself."

Also this:

Sunday, February 6, 2011

You Don't Wan't to Let Fredrick Douglass Down, Do You?



realtalk: Frederick Douglass was an amazing freedom fighter who is unfairly maligned and ignored in American history today. I swear to one day name a beloved pet and/or black child after him.

Bonus points for the top-rated youtube comment:
I watched a documentary on Soul Train the other day. They interviewed Questlove and he said after this commercial he never let his fro look bad again. "Frederick Douglass didn't have to tell me but once."

Saturday, February 5, 2011

Great Article about Drewfus Twofus

from www.northcarolina.scout.com


CHAPEL HILL, N.C. -- Larry Drew’s midseason decision to leave the North Carolina basketball program concludes a tumultuous career rife with harsh criticism, transfer rumors and a recent benching, but most of all, it highlights a young man’s inability to fully connect with a program some 2,500 miles from home.


Drew struggled through his 17 starts as North Carolina’s floor general this season, averaging 4.6 points on 37.1 percent shooting (21.4 percent on 3-pointers) and a 3.7-to-2 assist-to-turnover ratio. Following UNC’s 20-point loss at Georgia Tech on Jan. 16, head coach Roy Williams inserted Kendall Marshall into the starting lineup at point guard and relegated Drew to the bench. 

There was legitimate concern that the move would damage the junior’s confidence, but Drew flourished in his new role, posting a 19-to-4 assist-to-turnover ratio while knocking down roughly 44 percent of his field goal attempts. On Tuesday night, Drew delivered a 9:1 assist-error mark in North Carolina’s 106-74 blowout victory at Boston College.

The Tar Heels did not practice on Wednesday due to a late arrival back into Chapel Hill that morning. Practice resumed on Thursday afternoon, and by all accounts, everything seemed normal.
And then Drew was gone.

Williams told reporters on Friday afternoon that he had received a message to call Larry Drew, Sr., the current Atlanta Hawks head coach and Drew’s father.

“I called Big Larry a little bit after 9am, and at that point, he informed me that Larry was leaving,” Williams said. “We had a long discussion – most of which should be kept private – and basically there was no arbitrating, there was no trying to see if we could rectify anything. It was that was the decision that was made. He thought it was in Larry’s best interest.”

No one saw this coming. Not Williams and certainly not Drew’s teammates.

Marshall admitted to reporters that he was upset to learn the news from Facebook instead of from Drew himself, adding, “It’s a decision he made – I wish him the best of luck in all of his decisions and where he ends up going from here.”

Marshall also expressed shock in the timing of Drew’s decision.

“If it was up to me and I’m sure 99 percent of the people in the world, we would have liked to have seen him wait until the end of the season,” Marshall said. “But Larry’s a grown man. He makes his own choices.”
North Carolina’s press release announcing the departure included quotes from Williams and the Drew camp that suggested the move was a family decision, but the eighth-year UNC head coach refused to be drawn into a discussion about parents’ roles and how that might affect his recruiting philosophy going forward.

Even so, it’s hard not to focus on the fact that four of Williams’s six California recruits while at UNC – Alex Stepheson, Travis Wear, David Wear and Drew – all left the program with family playing a significant role.
Larry, Sr., joins David Wear, Sr., as parents that broke the news of their children’s departure from UNC to Williams, who had still not talked to Drew II as of 2:15pm on Friday.

When asked if it was disappointing that he heard the news from a parent instead of the player, Williams responded: “I’m disappointed in the fact that he’s leaving – that’s the biggest disappointment. Everybody has different feelings and different ideas, but… That’s probably best to leave it there.”

Williams also had discussions with Drew I and Drew II following rumors last season suggesting the then-sophomore was considering a transfer back home. But while Drew denounced those rumors during and after the season, sources close to the situation indicated that some of his teammates didn’t expect him to return to Chapel Hill this season.

The UNC staff was also aware that Drew might leave after last season, as they were contacting the remaining uncommitted high school point guards in the senior class as an insurance policy. Furthermore, assistant coach Steve Robinson missed the NIT opening-round game against William & Mary to scout junior college prospects.

This season, Drew's parents were not happy with their son's current role and diminished playing time, according to sources close to the situation. But the vocal dissatisfaction and involvement goes back much further.

Sources confirmed to Inside Carolina that Sharon Drew, Larry’s mother, called the basketball office irate back in 2009 upon hearing news that Williams had a conversation with then high school senior John Wall right before the Final Four.

Mrs. Drew made news again last May. The L.A. Times reported that Landon Drew, Larry’s younger brother, was kicked off the Woodland Hills Taft High School basketball team due to Mrs. Drew’s involvement.
Taft principal Sharon Thomas told the Times a day later that the younger Drew could not be removed from the team for “adult behavior.”

"Mrs. Drew and [Taft head coach] Derrick [Taylor] need to work it out as adults. It's the most ridiculous thing," Thomas told the paper.

For his part, Drew has received criticism over the past two summers for returning to California to work on his game instead of staying in Chapel Hill to play pickup ball with his teammates. And that likely highlights the prevailing reason behind Drew’s decision to leave UNC – while his body may have been in North Carolina, it was as if his mind was always in California.

Multiple sources indicate that the knock on Drew from those close to the team is not that he was a bad teammate or that he maliciously undermined team chemistry, but rather that he wasn't fully invested. He was more of an absentee teammate than a bad teammate.

Sources also claim that the coaching staff expressed disappointment behind the scenes about Drew's commitment level - the lack of a gym rat's mentality to go the extra mile on his own time.
The absurdity of the situation is that by leaving the program in February, Drew loses the spring semester of eligibility and will have only one season of eligibility remaining. A transfer just four weeks ago would have allowed the junior time to find a new school and provided an opportunity to potentially play in two more NCAA Tournaments.

As it stands now, Drew will not be eligible to play Division I ball again until the ‘12-13 season after sitting out next year as specified by NCAA bylaws.