sunday's to relax

I got a digital camera this weekend. Ready to take this here thing to new heights!

BTW, Wedding Crashers is outrageous funny. I expected it to be good, but not that chock-a-block with zingers. The jokes come fast and furious for the better part of 90 minutes. Vince Vaughn in rare form. Highly recommend.

keep your marketing off my body

I can't quite put my finger on it -- and I've got some long ass fingers, whoop, whoop! -- but just about everything about American Apparel rubs me the wrong way. I'll admit the whole thing was brilliantly concocted and perfectly executed: they've completely tapped into the contemporary hipster/urban aesthetic, and I think they've actually begun contributing to its direction. And while I find the CEO really creepy (and not in just some knee-jerk, 'you're treading on my values'-way), I think he's playing his cards superbly: ad campaign, PR plan, branding, key messages, company positioning, expansion strategy, etc.

All that notwithstanding, the whole thing is too proactive/in my face.

First off, fuck LA.

Second off, maybe it's my proximity to this whole world, but I find it unsettling to feel so marketed to. I really can't hate, because again, it's all been very well orchestrated...but it's relatively akin to the feeling I get when I see politicians on Sunday morning talk shows. I'm in awe of their command of the practice -- and that's precisely what freaks me out.

Third, this shit is spreading like wild fire and instead of looking distinct, it's becoming the new quasi-hipster dress code. Man, the interconnectedness of things (now) is a trip. Like when seersucker hit in May. It went from the pages of GQ and Stuff to the shoulder blades of every aviator glasses wearing dork in a matter of 15 days. American Apparel has been around since '97, but the velocity with which it's hitting critical mass (true, I live in this bubble called New York) is off-putting.

Anyway, this whole discussion is probably too 'inside baseball', but it's on my mind, so I'm sharing.

Oh, also, BUY A COPY OF MY NEW MIXTAPE.

support, bitches!

Greasy Kid Incorporated Presents: djs applesauce and pancakes In the Sunshine. Available now.

w.a.t.g. VI

more porn, robbery and forlorn hot dogs

Only in Manhattan could this be a big deal. I was at a party this past weekend, and it was a topic of conversation on par with the 7/7 bombings, travelling in Europe and #gasp# Hollywood movies in IMAX's format!

how would jesus frame this shot?

Man, this shit is really hitting critical mass. Studios hiring "Christian consultants" to make sure they aren't pissing off jeebus freaks while everything is getting blowdsed up on the screen? Dub has galvanized these folks for real. Yikes.

This is also the latest in a series of troubling articles I've recently read on the christianists return to prominence. GQ reported on a group of secessionists who are recruiting fundamentalist bible thumpers to move to South Carolina, so they can begin taking over the local government, county by county. Their goal is to establish a majority, overturn Roe V. Wade, outlaw gay marriage, etc. The New Yorker had a profile about a month ago on a conservative college not far from DC that courts home schoolers and grooms young politicos to lead tomorrow's Christian right.

Color me frightened.

coming soon

Featuring tunes from: brand nubian, scarface, the beatnuts, digable planets, organized konfusion, the arsonists, natural resource, casual, souls of mischief and others.

Shipping July 24.

Brooklyn represent, buy the album when i drop it.

What kind of crap can you all put on a bunny's noggin before he snaps?

This guy is a helluva sport.

go back to jersey/conn/li

This piece is a little heavy handed and over generalizes at times, but it's pretty much dead on. A good friend of mine used to live in the nexus of this whole scene and I would get the willies just walking down 3rd heading to his place. So happy to be out on The Planet and away from these fucks. Credit to quarter life living for the link.

down with hegemony

First off, what is Willie Nelson doing making a reggae album?? Second off, Wal-Mart can eat the dick cookie. Crumbs.

w.a.t.g. V

What about this guy? Something kind of unsettling about dude.

the best media trend of 2005 (so far)

Jessica Alba is EVERYWHERE this year. Like nearly ubiquitous. They even had this sexy spread of her in American Way magazine, which I peeped on the way back from Chicago the other day. You're the tops, chick -- keep it up!

the cotton club

This is what I was talking about yesterday when I cited going to shows as a way of contributing to white co-option of hip hop. As a white person, this is none of my business; as a hip hop fan, I've found it troubling for many years.

Brother Ali lends an interesting vantage point to this article. My favorite quip: "white chitlin circuit of underground rap music."

On a side note, the Perceptionists' Black Dialogue is one of the better indy hip hop releases of the year so far. Worth a listen.

the culture thieves

"Ex-Beatle Paul McCartney was also a Shrine regular during the 1973 recording of his Band on the Run LP at EMI studios in Lagos. On one occasion he was reportedly moved to tears by the power of Fela's afrobeat, to which he had been introduced by fellow countryman Ginger Baker. However, McCartney's first evening at the Shrine ended unpleasantly when Fela privately accused him of coming to Lagos to steal African music. Although McCartney refuted this accusation, he reportedly resisted the impulse thereafter to infuse his music with African elements."
--Michael Veal, Fela: The Life and Times of an African Musical Icon

The idea of cultural thievery is something that has always been especially interesting, repugnant and dear to me, and this passage from the book on Fela I'm reading really struck a chord. Thankfully, I didn't have to get called out by Common Sense on the south side of Chicago to put the mic down -- I just kind of knew it was the "right" thing to do. I fully acknowledge that both blue-sky idealists and pro-black activists may find that sentiment completely offensive, but I'm a realist, so that's the currency I'll trade in.

What's kind of interesting is that my fears were unfounded and my decision unnecessary (to this point, anyway). It's been nearly thirty years, and though whites still disproportionately profit off hip hop, we certainly haven't misappropriated it the way we did jazz or blues. For argument's sake, you can posit that Em is Paul Whiteman (he's not even close, BTW), but who's Benny Goodman? Dave Brubeck? Glen Miller?

However, this also begs the question of how we define theft. At the same moment I decided to stop emceeing, I also made a conscious decision to keep on deejaying, because somehow that felt "ok". I wasn't worried about being a displacing element on the dj circuit. I also kept participating in the subculture in other ways, like going to shows and critiquing albums. You can make a hypothetical case against any of these activities...or a realistic case for every one.

Anyway, I find this shit all rather compelling and significant. Sasha Frere Jones began exploring some tangential ideas in a draft he worked on for the recent EMP conference. It spurned a relatively substantive thread over on ILM. I don't know that any of it -- including this post -- is anything but food for thought. So eat, honky!