100% real talk 50% of the time.
- Strip Club Etiquette with Disco Rick
Today is Superbowl Sunday in America, and in a few hours the New Orleans Saints will be squaring off with the Indianapolis Colts down in sunny Miami. I’m in frosty, indifferent-to-football Beijing, but I didn’t want this great day to go by unacknowledged, so I want to pass on some wisdom that I found buried in local Superbowl news coverage. It’s a piece from the Miami New Times and the headline goes a little something like this: Super Bowl Strip Club Debauchery: Disco Rick Teaches You How to Politely Make it Rain.
An interview follows with Ricky “Disco Rick” Taylor, whom the paper describes as “formerly the leader of the pioneering Miami hip-hop group The Dogs. These days, he’s the ‘talent manager’ (read: stripper-wrangler) at the colossal King of Diamonds club in Miami Gardens, which caters to pro athletes and rappers, and features a basketball court and barbershop on premises.”
The grimey (and over 30) will remember Disco Rick’s classic “Wiggle Wiggle”:
So that’s his strip club credentials established right there as far as I’m concerned. Anyway, after the break you can read the full rundown of Disco Rick’s advice for enjoying what he himself describes as “the biggest weekend in strip club history in South Florida.” But here are some highlights:
“Do not come to the strip club if your baby mama’s dancing. That never ends well. We’re gonna throw you out and her out.”
“If you’re a customer and money falls on your head, just throw it to the ground. Or, to be courteous, throw it towards the dancers. If you put it in your pocket, I’ll cut the music.”
“If you got invited to the White House, would you light up a joint inside? So why would you light one up when you’re invited into my house? Nuh-huh. No fucking way. I’ll cut off the music.”
“Baked chicken, mashed potatoes, beans, and corn. Those are the things we can’t mess up. Meatloaf, if available.”
“We want you to behave like you was out with your parents.”
Popularity: 1% [?]
- More Keys
In the last couple days some beautiful people have sent me some beautiful music, none of which I’d heard before, all of which should’ve been on my piano mix… To quote Shakespeare, what’s done is done, and there’s no unmixing what’s already mixed, but I want to pass these jams on as a sort of encore.
Jelly Roll Morton - Dead man blues (Courtesy of Giulio AKA the Italian stallion)
DOWNLOAD
right-click + save link as (mac) / save target as (windows)Chilly Gonzales & 50 Cent - Many men (Courtesy of Niek AKA Dutch Schultz)
DOWNLOADGonzales (again) - Oregano (Courtesy of Aura AKA the Venezuelan Sarah Palin)
DOWNLOADPopularity: 1% [?]
- It’s Nathan Myhrvold’s world - you’re just visiting
Every once in a while I’ll be checking out Wikipedia, just click-click-clicking my way down the rabbit hole and stumble onto something that is truly amazing. Today was just such a day. Today I discovered an extremely doin it man named Nathan whose wikipedia entry impressed me/shamed me so thoroughly that I have to share it with you.
Nathan Myhrvold (born 1959 in Seattle, Washington), formerly Chief Technology Officer at Microsoft, is co-founder of Intellectual Ventures, which is seeking to build a large invention portfolio. He personally holds more than 18 U.S. patents and has applied for more than 100. His company is accumulating patents in software.[1][2]
There’s the basics: 18 patents, 100 applied, Microsoft CTO, etc.
Myhrvold attended Mirman School, [3] and began college at age 14.[4] He studied mathematics, geophysics, and space physics at UCLA (BSc, Masters). At Princeton he earned a master’s degree in mathematical economics and completed a PhD in theoretical and mathematical physics by age 23. He also attended Santa Monica College. For one year, he held a postdoctoral fellowship at Cambridge working under Stephen Hawking, studying cosmology, quantum field theory in curved space time and quantum theories of gravitation, but left to co-found a computer startup in Oakland, California. The company, Dynamical Systems Research Inc., sought to produce Mondrian, a clone of IBM’s TopView multitasking environment for DOS. Microsoft purchased DSR in 1986 and Myhrvold worked there for 13 years. At Microsoft he founded Microsoft Research in 1991.[5]
Educational and early professional life. Studied under Hawking. Nice. Hobbies?
Myhrvold is a prize-winning nature and wildlife photographer[6]. He is also involved with paleontological research on expeditions with the Museum of the Rockies. His work has appeared in scientific journals including Science, Nature, Paleobiology and the Physical Review, as well as Fortune, Time, National Geographic Traveler and Slate.
Cool…
He and Peter Rinearson helped Bill Gates write The Road Ahead, a book about the future that reached No. 1 on the New York Times bestseller list in 1995 and 1996.
Yup…
Myhrvold has contributed $1 million to the SETI Foundation for the development of the Allen Telescope Array, planned to be the world’s most powerful radio telescope.
And to top it off…
In addition to his business and scientific interests, he is a master French chef who has finished first and second in the world championship of barbecue in Memphis, Tennessee. He also works as an assistant chef at one of Seattle’s leading French restaurants.
Awesome dude, that’s all I’m saying. I realize it’s Wikipedia, but it seems fairly thoroughly referenced, and so I think you’ve got to give it up to this power nerd.
Here’s a piece partially on him written by Malcolm Gladwell for the New Yorker.
Here’s his talk from TED entitled “A Life of Fascinations” Be prepared though. In Gladwell’s words, “He is gregarious, enthusiastic, and nerdy on an epic scale.”
Popularity: 1% [?]
- Help Haiti, Support Art
My friend Josh just hipped me to a beautiful little project on MagCloud. It’s called Onè Respe, and it collects the work of several very good photographers to provide a reminder of what has been (temporarily) lost in the Haitian earthquake.
Several photographers, including the iconic photojournalist Mary Ellen Mark, have donated photographs to help create this special fund-raising collection of captivating images to benefit the people of Haiti. The title Haiti: Onè Respe comes from a traditional Haitian greeting meaning “honor and respect.”
Since MagCloud has generously offered to pay for the printing costs, your purchase price will be donated in full to the American Red Cross
International Response Fund for Haiti relief.Photographs by: Chet Gordon, Kari Hartmann, Mary Ellen Mark, Peter Pereira, Lindsay Stark. Edited by Lane Hartwell and Michael Biven
It’s only $12 and all proceeds go to the American Red Cross International Response Fund for Haiti relief. Plus you get a beautiful little book out of deal. Here’s a few sample spreads…
See more and BUY IT here.
Popularity: 1% [?]
- New Mix: Keys
Just made a new mix for the new year. It’s called Keys Open Doors - music from across time and space tied together by a common thread of piano. Lots of good stuff on here… soul, some hip hop, r&b, salsa, some Lilith Fair type of songs, minimalist classical, old school house, UK hardcore, all sorts… It’s the second in the Instrumentalist series. First horns, now piano. Hope you enjoy…
DOWNLOAD
right-click + ’save target as’ (windows) / ’save link as’ (mac)Tracks
Donnie Hathaway - A song for you
Bruce Springsteen - New York city serenade
Mobb Deep w/ Lil Kim - Quite storm
Masta Ace, Craig G, Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane - The symphony
El Gran Combo - Yo soy la muerte
Willie Colón - Calle luna calle sol
Alicia Keys - No one
Mary J Blige - For the record (I love you)
Eddie Henderson - Inside you
Reuben Wilson - We’re in love
Joni Mitchell - River
Fiona Apple - Love ridden
Philip Glass - Metamorphosis 2
Anja Lechner & Vassilis Tsabropoulos - Trois Morceaux aprés des hymnes byzantins II
Bill Withers - Liza
Prince Phillip Mitchell - If we can’t be lovers
Humberto Santacruz - Me has robado el corazón
Humberto Santacruz - Ay no se puede
Thom Yorke - The eraser
Atlas Sound - Walkabout
Ce Ce Rogers - Someday
Sterling Void - It’s allright
Liquid - Sweet harmony
Liquid - LiquidPopularity: 2% [?]
- The champ is gone.
Willie Mitchell, one of the greatest music producers of all time, died yesterday. I hate to start to the new year on a somber note, but considering how much pleasure I’ve taken from this man’s music, it would be borderline sociopathic for me to let this slide. I wish I had the time to get all the way into it, but for now (I hope) it suffices to say that I would not be the man I am today had I not come into contact with comforting challenge of Willie’s music. Since I first heard it as a young music nerd growing up, the sound that he generated as producer/arranger for Hi Records, has been (and will always be) a path to growth - emotional and sensual (+ spiritual, even visual). It is, in my opinion, the greatest soul music ever made.
Willie Mitchell - Groovin
For a few details on his passing and what he was getting up to recently, check this article. Better though is this interview from a very years ago. Best, is just to enjoy his amazing body of work, so let’s do it. Rest in peace Willie. Can’t thank you enough…
OV Wright - Motherless child
DOWNLOAD
right-click + ’save target as’ (windows) / ’save link as’ (mac)OV Wright - Let’s straighten it out
DOWNLOADAnn Peebles - I can’t stand the rain
DOWNLOADAnn Peebles - I’m gonna tear your playhouse down
DOWNLOADSyl Johnson - That’s just my luck
DOWNLOADSyl Johnson - I hate I walked away
DOWNLOADAl Green - Love and happiness
DOWNLOADAl Green - Simply Beautiful
DOWNLOADLast, here’s a nice little playlist put together by a Dutch music lover called spruitenpraat
Popularity: 2% [?]
- Happy New Year
Popularity: 1% [?]
- Super Scientifical 4: Space is the place
Image: X Prize FoundationThe American Museum of Natural History just released an amazing short film called “The Known Universe”. It was directed by Carter Emmart for the Visions of the Cosmos exhibition that just opened at the Rubin Museum of Art in New York City.
It starts out over Mt Everest and then pulls away, Powers of Ten-style, into deep space 9.
Here’s some more info provided by the AMoNH, and if you’re a space nerd like myself, I strongly encourage you to click the links provided…
The structure of The Known Universe is based on precise, scientifically-accurate observations and research. The Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History maintains the Digital Universe Atlas, the world’s most complete four-dimensional map of the universe. The Digital Universe started nearly a decade ago. It is continually updated and is the primary resource for production of the Museum’s Space Shows such as the current Journey to the Stars, and is used in live, real-time renderings for Virtual Tours of the Universe, a public program held on the first Tuesday of every month. Last year, some 30,000 people downloaded the Digital Universe to their personal computers, and the Digital Universe will soon be updated with a more accurate and user-friendly software interface. Digital Universe is licensed to many other planetariums and theaters world-wide.
Popularity: 2% [?]
- Xmas: Bad Xmas: Good
Merry Christmas everyone. I’m back in my hometown, where the Great Recession seems to have sucked the life out of most people’s favorite holiday. I’ve never been a big Xmas person, but I do think it’s never a bad thing to take a moment to count your blessings and get your life right. To that end, I want to post up a beautiful, terrifying feature from the latest issue of the New Yorker. It’s a piece of short fiction called ‘Diary of an Interesting Year’ by the British writer Helen Simpson.
DIARY OF AN INTERESTING YEAR
February 12, 2040. My thirtieth birthday. G. gave me this little spiral-bound notebook and a Biro. It’s a good present, hardly any rust on the spiral and no water damage to the paper. I’m going to start a diary. I’ll keep my handwriting tiny to make the paper go further.
February 15th. G. is really getting me down. He’s in his element. They should carve it on his tombstone: “I Was Right.”
February 23rd. Glad we don’t live in London. The Hatchwells have got cousins staying with them—they trekked up from Peckham (three days). Went round this afternoon and the cousins were saying the thing that finally drove them out was the sewage system—when the drains backed up, it overflowed everywhere. They said the smell was unbelievable. The pavements were swimming in it, and of course the hospitals are down, so there’s nothing to be done about the cholera. Didn’t get too close to them in case they were carrying it. They lost their two sons like that last year.
“You see,” G. said to me on the way home, “capitalism cared more about its children as accessories and demonstrations of earning power than for their future.”
“Oh, shut up,” I said.
March 2nd. Can’t sleep. I’m writing this instead of staring at the ceiling. There’s a mosquito in the room, I can hear it whining close to my ear. Very humid, air like filthy soup, plus we’re supposed to wear our face masks in bed, too, but I was running with sweat, so I ripped mine off just now. Got up and looked at myself in the mirror on the landing—ribs like a fence, hair in greasy rats’ tails. Yesterday the rats in the kitchen were busy gnawing away at the bread bin, they didn’t even look up when I came in.
March 6th. Another quarrel with G. O.K., yes, he was right, but why crow about it? That’s what you get when you marry your tutor from Uni—wall-to-wall pontificating from an older man. “I saw it coming, any fool could see it coming, especially after the Big Melt,” he brags. “Thresholds crossed, cascade effect, hopelessly optimistic to assume we had till 2060, blahdy blahdy blah, the plutonomy as lemming, democracy’s massive own goal.” No wonder we haven’t got any friends.
He cheered when rationing came in. He’s the one who volunteered first as car-share warden for our road; one piddling little Peugeot for the entire road. He gets a real kick out of the camaraderie round the standpipe.
—I’ll swap my big tin of chickpeas for your little tin of sardines.
—No, no, my sardines are protein.
—Chickpeas are protein, too, plus they fill you up more. Anyway, I thought you still had some tuna.
—No, I swapped that with Violet Huggins for a tin of tomato soup.
Really sick of bartering, but hard to know how to earn money since the Internet went down. “Also, money’s no use unless you’ve got shedloads of it,” as I said to him in bed last night. “The top layer hanging on inside their plastic bubbles of filtered air while the rest of us shuffle about with goiters and tumors and bits of old sheet tied over our mouths. Plus, we’re soaking wet the whole time. We’ve given up on umbrellas, we just go round permanently drenched.” I stopped ranting only when I heard a snore and clocked that he was asleep.
April 8th. Boring morning washing out rags. No wood for hot water, so had to use ashes and lye again. Hands very sore, even though I put plastic bags over them. Did the face masks first, then the rags from my period. Took forever. At least I haven’t got to do nappies, like Lexi or Esmé—that would send me right over the edge.
April 27th. Just back from Maia’s. Seven months. She’s very frightened. I don’t blame her. She tried to make me promise I’d take care of the baby if anything happens to her. I havered (mostly at the thought of coming between her and that throwback Martin—she had a new black eye, I didn’t ask). I suppose there’s no harm in promising if it makes her feel better. After all, it wouldn’t exactly be taking on a responsibility—I give a new baby three months max in these conditions. Diarrhea, basically.
May 14th. Can’t sleep. Bites itching, trying not to scratch. Heavy thumps and squeaks just above, in the ceiling. Think of something nice. Soap and hot water. Fresh air. Condoms! Sick of being permanently on knife edge re pregnancy.
Start again. Wandering round a supermarket—warm, gorgeously lit—corridors of open fridges full of tiger prawns and fillet steak. Gliding off down the fast lane in a sports car, stopping to fill up with thirty litres of petrol. Online, booking tickets for “The Mousetrap,” click, ordering a crate of wine, click, a vacation home, click, a pair of patent-leather boots, click, a gap year, click. I go to iTunes and download “The Marriage of Figaro,” then I chat face to face in real time with G.’s parents in Sydney. No, don’t think about what happened to them. Horrible. Go to sleep.
Read the rest here.
But, despite its historically high suicide rate, we’re not meant to spend the holiday season on the dark side, current or future, so here’s a ray of sunshine that we at the McGetrick house have been basking in for the past few days. Bob Dylan’s ‘Must be Santa’:
Fa la la la la… la la la la
Popularity: 2% [?]
- VERY FEEL feel good clip of the week: Your Father
Man I was just perusing Gawker’s collection of the 100 best viral videos of 2009 and found this 24 second ode to joy. I don’t know how I missed this, considering just how goddamn VERY FEEL this joint is…
Now, I don’t know anything about who this is or where it comes from. I don’t know if this is capturing one of those getting-ready-for-a-big-night early evening hype up showers and one of those just-got-home-from-a-big-night late morning afterglow showers. Or whether this dude is just living a 24-hour party life and this was filmed at like 2 pm on a Tuesday. All I know is that homeboy is bleeding joi de vivre and I salute him. Happy holidays!
Popularity: 2% [?]
- Listen up: DJ Haas - Bring the Rain
The newest/latest from my friend Jeroen AKA DJ Haas. I guess being a DJ is sort of like being a writer and for best results you should ‘mix what you know’. Haas is a native of water logged Holland, where it has apparently been raining for the past two weeks. Bring the Rain is his response and it is awesome. Check the tracklist to see what I mean…
DJ Haas - Bring the Rain
DOWNLOAD
right-click + save target as (windows) / save link as (mac)Tracks
1 - SWV - Rain
2 - Alexander O’Neil - Can you stand the rain
3 - Ashanti - Rain on me
4 - B.I.G. - Somebody’s gotta die
5 - Raekwon - Rainy Dayz
6 - Mary J Blige - Everyday it Rains
7 - Soul 4 Real - Candy Rain
8 - Orange Juice Jones - Walking in the rain
9 - Janis Joplin - I can’t stand the rain
10 - Ann Peebles - I can’t stand the rain
11 - Tina Turner - I can’t stand the rain
12 - Missy Elliot - I can’t stand the rain
13 - U Brown - The big licking stick
14 - Lee Scratch Perry - Rainy night dub
15 - The Dramatics - In the Rain
16 - 21st Century - Remember the rain
17 - Joe Chambers - Mind rain
18 - Freddie Hubbard - Here’s that rainy dayPopularity: 2% [?]
- VERY FEEL feel good clip of the week: RIP FotC
I just found out that one of my favorite TV shows, Flight of the Conchords is ending after just 2 wonderful seasons. I don’t know why or what its creators, Bret McKenzie and Jemaine Clement, will do next, but for now let’s just recognize the passing of another wicked show. There are so many hilarious clips floating around, but this one, ‘Part time model’ was the first I ever saw and for some reason is still my favorite.
And here’s a little bonus montage that I think demonstrates the show’s clever chit chat, an aspect that gets much less attention than it’s musical segments…
Pour some liquor.
Popularity: 2% [?]
- Portraits of Power
The New Yorker has a fantastic photo feature on their site right now. It’s called ‘Portraits of Power’ and features the work of Platon. Here’s the story:
This past September, when nearly all the world’s leaders were in New York for a meeting of the United Nations, Platon, a staff photographer for this magazine, set up a tiny studio off the floor of the General Assembly, and tried to hustle as many of them in front of his lens as possible. For months, members of the magazine’s staff had been writing letters to various governments and embassies, but the project was a five-day-long improvisation, with Platon doing his best to lure the likes of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Hugo Chávez, and Muammar Qaddafi to his camera.
A great concept, expertly executed. Even better, the feature is interactive and multimedia, complete with short clips of Platon describing the circumstances around every session. (Obama refused to sit, Berlusconi was loving it, Khadafi has ‘no eyes’.) Check it here.
There's 50 leaders featured in total, but here's one personal favorite, Mohamed Nasheed, President of Maldives, who Platon apparently photographed twice without realizing it. The Maldives is a collection of over a thousand tiny islands located in the Laccadive Sea off the coast of Sri Lanka. 80% of its islands are less than a meter above sea level, making Maldives the front line of climate change. Some estimates say that rising sea levels will make it uninhabitable by the end of the century.
To draw attention to his country’s plight, earlier this year Nasheed organized the world’s first underwater cabinet meeting.
In explaining his reasoning behind it, he issued my favorite quote of 2009:
“What do we hope to achieve? We hope not to die.”
More on that story here.
Thanks to lovely Lee for the link…
Popularity: 2% [?]
- VERY FEEL feel good clip of the week: Screamin’
This week’s installment features the legendary performative stylings of Screamin’ Jay Hawkins. Screamin’ Jay is one of those artists who was simply too freaky for his era. He never experienced much commercial success but his darkside flair and general don’t give a fuckness paved the way for Kiss and Alice Cooper and Marilyn Manson and all that stuff. This song is probably his most famous. The version in the clip above is different from the studio single, which is famously sampled and fucking classic. So I’ll put that up too…
Screamin’ Jay Hawkins - I put a spell on you
DOWNLOAD
right-click + save target as (windows) / save link as (mac)Popularity: 3% [?]
- Domus Interview 09: Mark Wigley
Here’s the latest in the interview series I’ve been doing for the Domus China. (I’ve put up a couple of the others here and here). It’s with Mark Wigley, author, curator, and Dean of Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture. The conversation focuses mostly on education and how he approaches things at Columbia.
At present, Mark is battling it out with Jemaine Clement for the title of Greatest Living Kiwi, and I like his chances, because the man knows his way around a soundbite. Here’s a few favorite quotes: “Architects’ gift is to produce a hesitation in the rhythms of everyday life”, “Massive incompetence is a kind of normative lifestyle”, “We have a kind of stupidity… and the mission is reduce the level of stupidity.”
+++++
BM: In this interview series we’re trying to get a sense of who the architect is by talking to the people closest to them. The hope that by filling in the area around the subject in great detail we can create something like a silhouette of a profession. I’ve been anxious to speak with you, because education is such an important part of understanding where architects come from.
MW: It’s a very interesting concept, and it immediately begs the question: what is an architect? For me, it’s quite simple: an architect is someone who doesn’t know what a building is. That is to say, someone for whom a building is a set of questions, rather than a set of answers. Almost everybody knows what a building is, but the architect is someone for whom the building is filled with mystery.
What’s interesting then about the school is that you’re training a group of people and what holds them in common is that they don’t know what a building is. So, actually, in a school you can’t simply deliver a set of information about what architecture is and a set of professional procedures for accomplishing that. I like your concept of the silhouette: in a way, what you can do is deliver the silhouette of the big questions, the big doubts. Interestingly, architects are not allowed to share that doubt in public. In fact, architects are called on to do quite the opposite, to produce images of certainty and security, stability, and so on. So that an odd assignment - you take the one group in society who sees objects as full of mystery and you ask them to invest those objects with the symbolism of certainty.
What that means is that there is a big difference between the public and the private in architecture. If you look inside an architect’s head, I think it’s pretty messy and yet the work they do is very clear. If you look inside an architect’s studio, it’s a mess, but when they present to the client it’s very clear. When you look inside an architectural school it’s pretty messy, but then you look at the publications and the website, and everything seems very clear. Publicly, architects are certain, sure, confident, precise; privately they really don’t know what they’re doing, how they’re doing, why, and so on. This is not to say that they’re ignorant. On the contrary, architects have been talking amongst themselves about what a building is for 3000 years in the west, 10,000 years in the non-west and so on.
Popularity: 4% [?]
