putting the j in jjosh

It’s the future, when there are many videos made for a particular song, and none can claim to be the "original". I love it. This is so catchy and fun and reminds me of back when we didn’t have a video camera and had to go borrow one from Sean’s parents just to make a "film". And then we were trying to plug it into the VCR to dub it and add in some music by plugging in a tape player as well somehow and his dad’s camera starting smoking and yepo, we blew it up. Smelled like toxic melted plastic.

Crank this up, zen out and watch to the end. Feel good.

[via fluxtumblr. rules!]

Why haven’t I ever seen this before? It really iz the freshness. The intro especially is fantastic. I love that the Beasties are committed to being cool, but also to kind of messing around a little bit with your expectations. And then it’s fun to watch a turntable master go mental. Good stuff, sho nuff.

File Under: Spellbinding and I Don’t Know Why

2 tracks have been on my mind this week, so I thought I’d spin them like a college DJ, one after the other. Sidebar, I was packing up my old photo albums the other day and came across my college DJ FCC license…expired, but still official looking. Sidebar 2, I had a dream last night about running into someone who had the same (Bates) Jr. High yearbook I had, but that I didn’t know…weird…

Anyway, track 1 is one of my favorite tracks of all time. JG and i were talking about it earlier in the week, ‘cuz summer’s running out, and recently the sun has been on maximum good vibes. It’s an unreleased track from a Ghostface Killah album (he couldn’t clear the sample or something) and it is spectacular. Makes you feel good to be alive.

The second track is San Diego Zoo by Barbara someone-or-other, a track I was really into in college. It’s in my head because we’re heading to San Diego tonight for 5 days on a shoot. The great thing about this track is that I put it on a mix tape for my sister when she was living in Bolivia, and she subsequently digitized the tapes I made her into mp3’s. Laborious, I imagine, but I am so thankful as I know I’d never track down all these tracks…enjoy…

Hey nerds, get a job.

Or actually don’t, instead keep making stuff like this.

[via Waxy]

Hey remember when Hype Williams was all over MTV and his signature wide-angle style was every every everywhere? Maybe you don’t. For me, it coincided with sophmore year at college — a time of more TV watching than ever before, or since. His style got tiring pretty quickly, and the artists who he did videos for could sometimes be pretty weak (Puffy), but when he started out, the Hype style was mind-blowing. Especially when matched with rappers who were actually pretty weird, like Busta or Missy. I came across this video the other day and remembered how it made my eyes explode when I first saw it. Crank it up, it’s Monday!!!!

sometimes Pandora can surprise me…

Two things:

1. They have these great bagels where I’m working right now. In fact, these are the only bagels I’ve tasted while in NYC (admittedly a scant 2 years) that rival the bagels of our corner joint, Bagel World. Bagel World’s bagels are astounding. We pretty much only get them when we’ve got company staying, or are heading out on a road trip, or are taking them to M Devito. I can’t even describe how good they are.

But anytime I’m trying another bagel, I use Bagel World’s as my baseline. And no-one’s come close. Until I started working at this place Postworks in Soho. Their bagels are really good too. And they’re there every morning. I had to basically take a vow of chastity as far as eating them because lemme tell you, a bagel in the morning equals energy sugar crash at about 11am. But the point is, they’re good enough that I wanted to have one of those bagels and one of Bagel World’s right next to each other to do an A/B test to see which were better.

Now that the show I’m working on is beginning to heat up a little (our first deadline is Wednesday), I’ve been coming in early to get a headstart on the day (I owe that tip to JG from back at TVI). I burn out if I stay late, but coming in early is awesome. Nobody’s there, you can crank music if you want, you get the satisfaction of getting so much done before people even arrive.

Last week I came in really early, like arrived at 7:30am (ok, so it’s early to me, you farmers!), and there was a guy in the elevator with all these bags of delivery food. I figured they were for some meeting or something.

"That’s a lot of food…" I say.

"Yeah," he says in some kind of heavy accent, "and they’re all bagels!"

"Oh, you’re delivering the bagels that come every morning?"

"Yeah."

"Oh wow, I love those bagels." At this point the elevator has hit my floor (six). "Where are they from?"

"Oh you know hmwhafre plaza?" He says something totally unintelligble. The elevator doors open. I step out but hold them open.

"Where?"

"From the bagel place in hmwharfair plaza…"

At this point The elevator screams that it wants to move, and I can’t tell the guy that I STILL CAN’T UNDERSTAND HIM, so I go. I swear it sounded like "Warfare Plaza". I gotta find that place.

2. on the way in to work I listened to the Bonnie Prince Billy song "You Want that Picture", which I’ve always enjoyed as a really great duet and storysong. But this time I really heard the lyrics. So amazing. The chorus:

well it’s true that I cried
but then I went outside
and I stood very still in the night
and I looked at the sky
and knew someday I’d die
and then everything would be all right

it’s all right
and everything comes down to this
that everything there ever was
or will be
is all there is

Bonnie Prince Billy – You Want That Picture

Oh also remind me to tell you some time about Maxine & I seeing BPB at the Apollo and meeting him backstage afterwards and giving him a copy of our Musicwood DVD…

When we are lucky, we get to start our Monday off with a slice of pure unadulterated joy…thanks Avalanches…thanks Fluxtumblr…there are some wonderful moments in this vid… so jubilant…

This is awesome and gorgeous and psychedelic and retro and modern at the same time. I vote yes.

This is better than I thought it would be…

Wu-Tang Lego: Da Mystery of Chessboxin’ from davo on Vimeo.

(your basic world superpower)

Great bit on NPR yesterday morning about how conflict in the world political arena is mirrored by conflict in the rap world. A fun metaphor, and the guy who worte a paper on it just runs with it in a really smart and fun way, pointing out lots of parallels to how large powers deal with smaller upstarts and vice versa. Things to listen out for:

– the host’s extremely white chortle/guffaw at some of the parallels

– how excited the interviewee is about rap

– Kanye coming in as Europe at the end in a blink-or-you-miss-it metaphor extension that is so right!!!

NPR Morning Edition – Rap=World

Bonus points to NPR for having downloadable mp3’s of their stories.

Additional points to me for participating in a focus group years ago at NPR concerning their websites. I had just gone freelance, had some time off, and my friend’s husband was conducting studies for NPR on how to improve their website. I was filmed using their site and then asked questions about how the experience was. I told them some things were confusing, and everything should be able to be downloaded. Nice.

I have to say, I’m tired tired tired of all the MW boring tribute crap…

That said, I love Jay Smooth, and he uses MW’s death as a platform to meditate on camera awareness, brand management and what filmed images will mean to the future…and he does it really well…be sure to stick around for the end to see the woman dancing bit…

Chali 2na’s voice is just so amazing. I’ve got his other solo album, and I guess he’s got a new one coming out, and it’s all just kind of ok, with a handful of tracks veering into really good. But in Jurassic 5 he totally shines, as this voice that’s so powerful but so fun somehow — he brings it to most every track.

This video is pretty good. The guy who sings the chorus isn’t that good (plus, what’s with "watch us bubble"? that ain’t gonna be cool) and Talib Kweli shows up and doesn’t really do anything special (which is rare?), but Chali 2na is still awesome, and the video has some fun touches. The text is cool.

Also this is the first time I’ve been able to see the face behind that voice, and I have to say he…pretty much looks like I thought he would. The beat is also pretty sci-fi fresh. Dig it.

Chali 2na "Lock Shit Down" Ft Talib Kweli

Hey, did you guys know that one of my sister’s closest friends used to be the Celebrity Assistant for Al Franken? It’s true! One time my sister called me up and said "Guess what I’m doing?" and I’m all like "How the hell would I know?" and she goes "Well…I’m eating Al Franken’s ice cream!"

Which made me go "Wha?!"

It seems that Al was going on some kind of diet and had to get rid of all the ice cream he had in the house. He invited his assistant to eat it, and she, not being able to handle the quantity, called upon my sister to help. Crazy. KT, you correct me if I got that wrong. But I should say that if it is wrong, I’m still going to tell the story like that, ‘cuz it has a nice vibe to it…

I also remember reading a biography about Saturday Night Live and there was one great story about Al & his writing partner trying to come up with a sketch and taking LSD…both of them began imitating Nixon, making "V" signs and pretending they had tremendous jowls, and harrumphing. They did it all night long, two weird Nixons. What a weird image.

Plus don’t even get me (or Al) started on how much coke he’s reported to have done.

And now he’s Mr. Senator. And apparently he’s going to play it straight, but we’ll always know him as the ice-cream loving LSD-Nixon cokehead. And if we ever forget that that’s who he used to be, why we can just go to the videotape…