I know best, apparently? (It's not true, though.)06/11/2009
The Soupy Twist, Episode 11: ‘Conscious’ Hip-Hop
I wanted do this week’s episode on that grossly misused and somewhat patronising term for “smart” rappers known as “conscious hip-hop”. All the songs I’ve chosen have in way or another tried to comment on the state of hip-hop and its accepted role within music. Whether it’s by addressing political concerns, attacking superficial glitz, or expressing humanism, these songs beg for more than “guns, bitches, and bling”. These songs are a celebration of lyrical word play.
For more information, visit my podbean.
Audio posted at 18:18
Terry Gross interviews Tracy Morgan (10/23/09)
I finally listened to the podcast of this Fresh Air interview, and it was definitely one of the stranger interviews I’ve ever listened to, on NPR or anywhere else. You almost feel sorry for Terry Gross, she keeps trying to figure out if Morgan is joking or not (and certainly his TALKING EXCESSIVELY LOUD A LOT sounds jokey), and when she finally realizes he is serious, she has to figure out how to proceed with the rest of the interview as an almost therapy-like session.
“It’s emotional. It’s emotional for me. It is, and I’ve got to be honest with thyself. I’m funny. I still turn the funny on. The funny bus is still sitting downstairs. Yeah, the funny bus - I’ve got a whole truckload of funny downstairs.”
I am so bringing this up when I interview Terry tomorrow!
Audio posted at 18:05
02/11/2009
» My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2009-11-1)
- Ólafur Arnalds (38)
- Yeah Yeah Yeahs (32)
- Blackalicious (9)
- The Agnostic Mountain Gospel Choir (5)
- Simon & Garfunkel (4)
Imported from Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz
Link posted at 16:00
01/11/2009
Photo posted at 21:28
Radical Face - Wrapped in Piano Strings
Few words could open me
But you knew them all
[…]
Now I just sleep beneath your floor
My ghost just tries to keep you warm
I like this notion of a ghost functioning as a memory, a reminder of what was.
Audio posted at 20:36
30/10/2009
The photograph attached was taken by the crew on board the Columbia during its last mission, on a cloudless day. The picture is of Europe and Africa when the sun is setting. Half of the picture is in night.
In the middle of the Atlantic you can see a home from my past, the Azores.
Photo posted at 16:48
"Thank you, and write when you can."
As a writer, illustrator, printer, papermaker, bookbinder, and FAU employee, John Cutrone’s sincere and varied collection of works never ceases to impress me. Working alongside Seth Thompson, the two run a letterpress and bookbinding workshop located “beneath an old mango tree” in Downtown Lake Worth.
“It was an amazing sight for a little boy in a little town on the edge of the Atlantic on a peninsula that seemed to dangle so far away from the rest of the country. Music, and dancing, there on that stage, in his own little town. What a great place to live.”
— John Cutrone, The Convivio Dispatch (Oct. 30th, 2009)
The Convivio Dispatch is an occasional email newsletter John and Seth use for keeping in touch, celebrating language, and sharing stories. The emails continually encourage me to look beyond south Florida’s immediate blandness and uncover a community of “quirky folks in this Old Florida [place] we call home”. The insightful plots and wholesome characters are fictional, but the settings mirror our familiar cities of West Palm and Broward county. It’s like having our very own A Prairie Home Companion.
To learn more and view their catalogue of handmade books, visit Convivio Bookworks.
Text posted at 16:23
29/10/2009
Kant, Critique of Pure Reason (1787)
Quote posted at 09:58
(I apologise for the repost, but I just learnt how to embed my show on tumblr!)
Songs of New York City
I played another nice and varied selection of songs from Jim Henson, AD/DC, Sufjan Stevens, Bob Dylan, Jaco Pastorius, Simon and Garfunkel, Harry Nilsson, and Herman Dune to name just a few. All songs are about, pertaining to, or inspired by NYC.
A full playlist and details can be found on my podbean.
Audio posted at 08:12
Blackalicious - My Pen and Pad
Back on the journey again, tool is the pad and pen
Cool is the fan as the wind, soothin’ you after I send
True inter vision risen and driven while givin’ you my
‘Isms of intuition while niggaz is livin’ a lie
Syllables spill and I fly, high as a pittacle rhyme
Not to belittle a fool, but try to get into you my
Lyrics inherited form awareness somewhere in the sky
Clearly you’ll give them merit and cherish ‘em better wit’ time
There is none ever and on like rivers, so clever I shine
Verbal ambassador travel in this endeavor of mine
Never a anti-gangster, the ghetto is still on the mind
If I was, not rappin’, a nigga might be up inside
All of you terraces, stealin’ wallets and necklaces, I
give hella gratefulness for the blessin’ share this and fly
Everywhere people outside the culture now try to define
What it is, but it is mine, such it is, love with blind
Vision but no division is vivid we livin’ inside
Vicious vindictive and mental prisons from within the mind
I sit and find stillness from minutes is written the rhyme
Gettin’ you smitten wit’ it, particularly if you’re a prime
Listener, listen up, twist it up like the lyrics was lime
Vintage is instant, so give it up when you hear it recited
Recite it at attention, relivin’ tension and bendin’ yo’ spine
Sendin’ you signals to get yo’ internal system aligned
Lyrical pittacle, situation is critical
Syllable after syllable, Give It To You, deliver you my -
Intervals, sendin’ you through dimensions who didn’t know
Hidden in you, within you, when you get in the begin into it
Sentiments internets, couldn’t send you yet signals you get
Rippin’ through skin and through tissue, fix you elixirs that might
(lift your peripheral vision, the mystical wisdom that tends
to go into the infinite system of livin’ and this is the ending
As well as the beginning of the Gift and his prime)
Mission the bliss is divine, Christen it, isn’t it fine?
Listen and dissin’ it, that’s the incident innocent
Men and women hit, lyrics is killin’ niggaz, they shivelin’
The predicaments thick, and it spills the wig of the ignorant lyricist, puttin’ fear in their spirit…
Yo, that’s my time!
I was hesitant to take up so much space by posting all the lyrics, but I’d be otherwise regretful. The speed, rhymes, rhythm, and content on these two minutes leaves me in awe.
Audio posted at 07:36
And my grammar is subpar!
