Rhymefest Vs Charles Hamilton

It is rare that a song actually makes me LOL, but some of the references here are classic. Especially to comparison to Lamar from Revenge of the Nerds. Hilarious, and even a bit accurate.

Rhymefest will always win this one. He won me over when he made this record with my neighbor Cope.  Rhymefest seems to have a perspective that a youngster like Charles Hamilton hasn’t quite developed.  In time… in time.

Relevance in an Obama World

After a day and evening of watching Obama coverage, reactions, appearances, and of course, the amazing speech this morning, I eventually found myself flipping through the channels tonight. I found a mix of US-based news coverage and even quite a bit of coverage from international news sources, all of which was simply incredible.

On a side note, I confirmed that I am particularly touched by huge crowd reactions. Words are certainly powerful, but the message is amplified exponentially for me when those words are followed by a massive crowd reaction. I guess I am just happy to see that in such a fragmented world, filled with poor leaders, pseudo-celebrities and equally lame real celebrities, that there are still individuals that can inspire such huge positive responses. Really huge responses.

But back to my channel surfing… After a day filled with such hope and inspiration, for some reason very little of what I saw on TV seemed relevant in the Obama world. From the bottom of the barrel with Vh-1 and MTV shows like Rock of Love, Daddy’s Girls, The City, Real Chance of Love and Tool Academy, to personalities like Pete Wentz, Ashlee Simpson, Hayden Panatwhatever, Ashton Kutcher, Demi Moore, and even my beloved Kanye West – each seemed as if they have no place, less voice, less importance and in some cases, no audience in the Obama world (fingers crossed).

I am not so naive to think that I am the only one that had the same thoughts, and for that reason, I have hope for change across our pop culture landscape. Don’t get me wrong, I will shoot myself if everything ends up looking like Extreme Home Makeover, but I am hopeful that our country’s collective tolerance for pop culture shallow-ness will be significantly reduced.

I love the shallow. I am a huge advocate for it. Mindless fun is a necessity. But in my perfect world, we would all get our fix of the shallow while getting completely goofy with friends on some dingy dance floor listening to meaningless 80s jams or hip-hop. Communal shallow-ness. We don’t need 5 hours of it seared into our brain via television every night.

So go edit your DVR list, tune-out, and make plans for the weekend. And no, you don’t need bottle service you wanna-be ballers.

Thanks for reading!

What Obama Wore to the Inauguration

The day is here…. will he take the Chicago route?

Terry Kennedy – Supra

I typically try to keep my blog posts positive, so I promise to spin this one in a positive manner as well. Supra is an interesting brand for me. I have never owned a pair, and it is highly likely that I never will. And this is really more of a personal commentary on the Supra brand. I subscribe to the ‘gut feeling, emotional response’ definition of a brand, and based on that, I am not a fan of the Supra brand. No need to elaborate, but it is the case.

And despite my feelings on the brand, I must give them huge props for their ability to create shoes that are definitely ‘on trend’. I am sure they have done this to great financial success, and I am confident that there are many small retailers that pay their bills off the Skytop. They nail it every time. The new shoe from Terry Kennedy for Supra is an absolutely perfect example of this. To the point where the shoe seemingly forgoes any of the typical parameters or expectations of a skate shoe, instead opting to pursue more fashion-driven trends that will no doubt fly off the shelves. They claim it is totally skate-able, but I would imagine you will see just about as many of these on skateboards as you do Muskas – in other words… TK may wear them.

For a particular segment of the market, I am sure Supra is seen as innovative and trendsetting and inspire that feeling in young kids. That is great. The miles of kids walking down Broadway everyday embody this. When I saw these sneakers, I thought… wow, nice job. But in reality, they just did a superb job of riding trends. Make that money. Job well done.

Jaydiohead – Minty Fresh Beats

This one of the tightest in a long line of Jay-Z mash-ups albums, but when will it end?

I like this one because every track doesn’t have the annoying call sign for the producer and it sticks to the Grey Album formula.  Viva La Hova was pretty much ruined with the make-your-skin-crawl, constant “The Commisioner” drops.  Awful.  But this one is tight.  Real tight.

Here are a couple of the ‘hits’:

I love the absurdity of conspiracy theories, so here are mine…

• The abundance of these mash-up records pairing Jay-Z with a groups like Weezer, Coldplay, and now Radiohead is part of a major label strategy to draw more iTunes-loving suburban soccer moms and dads into hip-hop, since that group has a high concentration of members that actually buy their music.
• The pairing with Radiohead is an attempt to garner some music snob love, and perhaps even steal some of the love that Clipse has so easily monopolized within the Pitchfork community.
• This was recently elevated to Step 3, on the list of Ten Steps to Getting Noticed as an aspiring music producer.

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly – Opening Credits

When I was a kid, and I would stay home from school sick (usually once or twice a year), I would watch VH-1 and MTV all morning long, and watch The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly in the afternoon on VHS.   It was a twice-yearly tradition.   The VH-1 and MTV part is probably obvious if you are a regular reader, but I thought I would share one of the other reasons I loved missing school every now and then.

Here is a great live performance of the classic song.  The original version has a little more edge to it (electric guitar or something), but I love when shit kicks in at the 1:50 mark.  There is something so special about seeing 75+ people come together to perform one piece of music like this.

The Killers – Goodnight, Travel Well

One of the highlights from the new Killers album is their Sigur Ros tribute/cover/impersonation called “Goodnight, Travel Well”.   I picked it at random when making a cd for my rental car, and it ended up being one of my faves.   Check the crazy ass fan video above.  Somehow, I love it.

Having a Bad Day?

It could not be worse than this poor lady. What the hell is going on here?

Two of My Favorite Artists: Louboutin & Zanotti

and

Their creations have been known to inspire irrational behavior in women.

Call Me a Pleasure Delayer

This movie is showing less than 100 yards away from my apartment. Why have I not seen it?

And how hot is this version with Nick Drake’s “Know”?  View it.