Dive into the archives.
- 2-4-6-8 who do you appreciate?
Photo: JENNIFER ZDON / THE TIMES-PICAYUNEI’m still getting my Michael tribute mix together, but in the meantime here are two amazing tributes released over the last couple days…
First is by DJ Jaycee, Ludacris’s man behind the decks. It’s focused mostly on MJ’s early years, Jackson 5 stuff especially.
DJ Jaycee - Michael Jackson: The Soulful Years
DOWNLOADSecond is by DJ Premier , the greatest hip hop producer of all time.
DJ Premier - R.I.P. Michael Jackson Tribute Mix
DOWNLOADWe want you back.
*AND IN ADDITION*
MJ Tribute NO Style:
VIDEO: Huge second-line honors Pop King Michael Jackson From the Times-Picayune
Popularity: 75% [?]
- VERY FEEL HD Clean-up Random Picture Post
I had to clear space on my hard drive the other day and amongst the huge amounts of forgotten and mostly worthless material (a PDF of Mein Kampf in German, THREE copies of the Pharrell album…), I found a bunch of images that somehow or another entered my life over the past few years. My guess is that most of them were sent to me and I wish I could remember the sources to give them proper thanks, since all the images that follow are awesome. 100%.
The world’s tallest man and the world’s smallest man. (Both Chinese)
The world’s tallest dog and the world’s smallest dog. (Both American)
Pharrell with a proud Jewish man.Popularity: 92% [?]
- Tokyo Subwwway
With the assurance that it represents the pinnacle of ‘internet nerd shit’, my friend Niek just put me on to this map that plots web trends according to the lines of the Tokyo subway. It’s made by Information Architects , an interactive design office out of Tokyo & Zurich. It’s updated regularly, and this is one is apparently the 4th edition. VERY FEEL is conspicuously absent, otherwise super tight. Click the image to enlarge. For the heavy duty 100% version click here. For an interactive version that let’s you check the sites, go here.
Popularity: 73% [?]
- The Sound of Stupidtelligence
Fresh on the heels of Birthday Sex, I got a great new mix from my homey and fellow Drunken Lion Sound System associate Jeruniverse AKA DJ Haas. The music is great, the mixing is tight, and it even has that rarest of rare mixtape qualities - a sense of humor. Listen up…
Haas - No Way!!! Stupidtelligence Mix
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right-click + save link as (mac) / save target as (windows)
Popularity: 72% [?]
- Pic of the Day
Found this today in a bunch of old photos. Pretty sure it’s Brooklyn. I think I should have it painted.
Popularity: 71% [?]
- The Boss
Last week my man Thijs told me a cool fact: Apparently, Robert De Niro’s often-imitated-never-duplicated “You talkin da me?” monologue from Taxi Driver was inspired by Bruce Springsteen. De Niro went to see him perform and I guess the audience was shouting for him or calling him Boss or Bruuuuuuce or whatever and Springsteen said, “You talking to me?” and the next thing you know….
Anyway, on the strength of that fact* I decided it was time to make a tribute to one of my favorite artists of all time - Bruce Springsteen AKA The Boss.
Now I know that The Boss is not to everyone’s taste. I actually remember him being heavily ridiculed in my elementary school for his over-earnest, testosterone-drenched performance in the “We are the world” video. But still, I’ve always loved and will always love him if for no other reason than he was my mother’s favorite singer all through the ’80s and so I’ve got a lot of warm memories of dinners and parties and car rides set to Born to Run, Born in the USA, etc.
But usually when I feel the need to try to convince a non-believer of the power of Bruce Springsteen, I lean on the advocacy of other, more articulate people. I don’t want to weigh this post down with a lot of text, but if you’re on the fence I recommend reading this article by Greg Tate, which describes how he came to be a fan after seeing Springsteen play a show in his native New Jersey. Here’s a taste:
To see Springsteen in a Jersey arena is to see Springsteen under a revival tent. It’s in fact where his blue-collar creed connects up with his all-American Confidence Man Carny Barker Televangelist shtick. So that you get band introductions being delivered as prophecy (”And the gypsy woman said you need looooove in your life! Introducing Patty Scialfa, ladies and gentlemen! And she said you need rhythm! Max Weinberg!”) and the man’s patented grandstanding on top of Roy Bittan’s grand piano being made into a forum for crowd-incitement that would give Robert Duvall’s Apostle a run for his money, or maybe even the Muhammad Ali of What’s-My-Name fame. Springsteen’s rapport with his folks staggers not only for the degree of adulation present, but for his ability to move them from vulgarity to deep thought in a heartbeat.
So I think then it only makes sense to get into some performance clips, of which Youtube offers many.
First, here’s short feature on Bruce from the local NY news in 1978. Even though this predates his most successful stuff, I think a lot of what makes him special as an artist comes through here, particularly in Joel Siegel’s keen observation that “Bruce Springsteen is to Rock & Roll what fireworks are to the 4th of July!”
Next, here’s a clip from the mid ’80s glory days. I think the combination of working class modesty and over-the-top, hammy exhibitionism that Greg Tate talks about is pretty clear here. Also this song is awesome.
I’m on Fire (Live)
Finally here’s a much more recent clip. I also think it’s important to make clear that The Boss isn’t just about goose stepping, jumping on top of pianos, and inciting Mexican waves. The man simply loves music and loves performing and he’ll do it anywhere, for instance on a street corner in Copenhagen, surrounded by curious, semi-believing onlookers and one of the happiest amateur folk singers in the history of the world.
The River (Live)
OK, so I suppose I should make it rain MP3-wise at this point.
Popularity: 73% [?]
- Jam of the moment
Cassie ft. Diddy - This must be love
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right-click + save link as (mac) / save target as (windows)I love this song. I’ve been playing this thing mercilessly for the past few days and, like a great piece of news or an airborn illness, I just can’t keep it to myself. This falls into that melancholy love family of R&B, over which Mary J Blige reins supreme. And this song fits well with Mary’s earlier ‘My life’ era music, which maybe makes sense since Puff Daddy was behind a lot of that and he’s behind Cassie too (wink wink). I gave it a little instrumental intro for greater mixability and because the beat (produced by Bryan Michael Cox) is so damn great.
Popularity: 71% [?]
