Hey Jude

Are you ready for the weekend?   This kid is:

The Art of Tony Bones

I had a lot of questions come in response to my post of this year’s Valentine’s Day gift to the lady. Today when I was walking out of the apartment, I remembered that the painting above was her gift last year. Ronda and Robby as interpreted by Tony Bones.

Ironically, we found this painting at the end of our block here in Brooklyn. No doubt the work of Mr. Bones, during his time spent here in NYC.

“Bitchassedness”

Or is it:

“bitch-assedness”

or

“bitchass-edness”

or

“bitchassed-ness”

Regardless, I rank #1 for the term in Google, for now.  Thanks Diddy. Now we have a new word. I still like ‘tornadic‘ better.

How to Pronounce Comme des Garçons

Agenda, Inc. has scored another superb find, especially for all of you streetwear kids looking to make the luxury crossover in 2008. In a bizarre, yet totally appropriate use of YouTube, the IMHC, a hotel management school, is using small video files posted online to help their students ’say it right’.  Saying ‘Supreme’ is easy you chumps.  Too easy, unfortunately.  Go learn how to say ‘Jaeger-LeCoultre‘.

Hear them all!

The Party – Dallas (and a trend emerges)

A few months back, I mentioned what I felt was sure to become a new trend – the video party flier.  Now my favorite party crew from back in Texas, The Party, is not letting me down with their rendition above.

Estelle’s “American Boy” Will Save Hip-Hop!

I was fully expecting to not like this song, but I absolutely love it. At some point, I will officially get off Kanye’s jock, but I believe this song could actually save hip-hop record sales. Here is my rationale, and I am only half-way joking here. Of all of my friends, the people with the largest – entirely paid for – music collections are my gay friends that are over 40. These are people clearly not buying hip-hop right now, so they are a completely untapped audience. The only music that even remotely resembles hip-hop in their collection is Blondie! But this song has such an M People meets hip-hop feel, that it may just be the most culturally significant song in years! This is entry level hip-hop for gay listeners. It starts here, then they buy Graduation, record companies identify the trend, and start cranking out loads of this gay friendly hip-hop. Problem solved!

JUSTICE – Phantom II

According to my favorite purveyor of interesting shit online, DJ Skeet Skeet,  this is rumored to be created by a fan, or as us marketing dogs would call them, a consumer.   In my best Wes Bentley:

“Sometimes there’s so much consumer generated creativity in the world I feel like I can’t take it, like my heart’s going to cave in. “

Born Too Late!

Ever think you were born too late?  Even at the old-ass age of 32, I still somehow missed this boat.  Damn!

Here are today’s kids doin’ it up right.  If you can do this, you can do anything!

Hip-hop, Acoustic Guitars and JawKneeYeah

I have this theory about hip-hop and acoustic guitars. Back in the old days, kids learning to play guitar would spend hours trying to strum out songs like “Stairway to Heaven”, “Dust in the Wind” or “Hotel California” and later anything by Nirvana and Smashing Pumpkins for days. Well kids are still picking up guitars, but now there is this hugely pervasive and inescapable influence in their life – hip-hop, or for the purists, let’s refer to it as hip-pop. I am sure just about everyone has the Dynamite Hack – NWA acoustic track from way back when, and we all loved it for its novelty. But there is a small explosion of kids picking out hip-pop songs on their acoustic guitars, probably for the same reasons previous generations… ladies will always love guitar players.

But back to my theory… I think kids today find it just as fun to dive right into playing hip-pop songs on their guitars and probably have no issues at all passing on the acoustic -friendly songs that their parents probably loved. They are winning high school talent shows by playing the acoustic version of ‘In da Club’. The trend will no doubt continue, and guys like this dude below are leading the charge. JawKneeYeah is just another reason to love YouTube. Hip-pop, asian stereotypes, creative use of a webcam, and lots of laughing out loud. Listen for his hilarious tweaks to the lyrics. I want this guy at my next party! By my rough count, he appears to have pulled in about 3 million or more views of his videos, which pretty much makes him a star by today’s standards.

Soulja Boy

T-Pain – Buy U a Drank

Timbaland – The Way I Are

Justin Timberlake – What Goes Around

Sean Kingston – Beautiful Girl

The Wells Residence

Google finally added the rough streets of Oak Cliff in Dallas to the Street View feature of Google Maps.  Awww, the Wells Residence:

And Brooklyn (in Red), aka Sesame Street: