Merry New Year!

Here’s to another year of snobbery, cynicism and pretension! Have a great 2011 everyone!

The Flat Plug by Min Kyu Choi.

When someone can take everyday objects and not only redesign them in a way that is more efficient but more aesthetically pleasing to the eye, that person gets my total respect. That’s design on the highest level. After watching this, you just get the feeling that this guys great, great, great grand kids will be set for life.

The Show Goes On By Lupe Fiasco.

N.E.R.D., then Ye and now Lupe? In such close proximity of one another? Nice. As much as I herald and praise Kanye’s latest effort, I need something that packs a little more punch lyrically and I think Lasers will be just what I need. I can’t believe I didn’t notice it before but the hook on this is taken from Modest Mouse’s hook on “Float On”. I felt stupid for not catching that sooner. Old age will do that to you.

Happy Holidays!

This was my Christmas song of last year for a myriad of reasons but despite all of that, I still and always will love this song. C’mon, Wham + Christmas = A win for all of the world.

I nominate this song for the “A Christmas song most people haven’t heard but when they hear it for the first time, they fall in love with it.” award.

Ugh, this song is so good it hurts. So good I almost wish it wasn’t a Christmas song. So I don’t seem weird listening to this song heavy in like the middle of July or something.

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6s8t_tlc-sleigh-ride_music

I remember taping this song off of the radio.(102.5 to be specific) This song is very much a product of it’s time and hasn’t aged all that well but I still like it. R.I.P. Left Eye.

Can we burn all recordings of “This Christmas” other than the Donny Hathaway version, please? Thanks.

Oh and my nephew has been going through some rough chemo therapy and apparently it hasn’t been going so well. He’s been holed up at the hospital for a week and went home just yesterday on Christmas eve. I got a text from my cousin informing me that he’s going to be on the local news this very Christmas morning. So here’s to him. And to my friends and family and anyone who has ever visited this site, have a safe and happy holidays.

Now leave me alone while I spend the day watching NBA Basketball. I should get some sleep though as I’ve been up all night. Oh and for what its worth, I have Chicago, Orlando, LA, OKC and Golden State all winning today. Let’s hope I can stay awake to watch them all.

Reformed Sneaker Heads.

In my early to mid 20’s I was a bit of a sneaker collector. I had amassed about 70 pairs, more than half of them unworn. My friend Von was also a collector and so it was not uncommon to find us talking for hours about shoes. What our favorites were, what shoes we remembered from out past, what new pairs were coming out and which ones we would actually line up for. Now Von and I have lined up countless times for various early morning releases. He was my kicks partner in crime, my Nike war buddy. If a new pair of retro Jordans were coming out, we were there. No matter how early we had to wake up, no matter what the weather was like, no matter how far we had to drive. All of it, simply for a chance to get a pair of sneakers. Nearly 1/3 of the time, we would end up empty handed, but that’s the nature of the beast.

About a week ago, a pair of reformed sneaker collectors(now in our 30’s) had gotten together for dinner and reminisced about our days of sneaker hunting. We looked back and laughed, shaking our heads at our former selves and remorseful on how much money we spent in those days. In retrospect, it’s the memories from that era that I look at fondly instead of the actual shoes I bought.

He shot me a text message a few days ago about the then upcoming release of the Cool Gray Air Jordan XI’s which came out earlier today to much fanfare and I thought I’d share it.

Ramblings about Kanye on the radio

Both of the official singles from My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy “Power” and “Runaway” are as far from anything on Hip Hop radio stations as you can get. Kanye is the biggest rap artist in the world right now and so he’ll get on the radio by default, but from what I understand stations aren’t spinning his latest offering as much as previous Yeezy hits. This is the most critically acclaimed album he’s released. One where it’s a near unanimous opinion that this is his masterpiece and mainstream radio is rejecting it. But who cares? This sort of thing seems to matter less and less these days anyway. The least radio play Kanye has ever gotten in his career, and you know what? I couldn’t be happier.

Oh and “Monster” even with it’s inclusion of Hov, Rick Ross and Nicki Minaj(all of whom aren’t unfamiliar with radio play) won’t change things either. Have you seen the damn teaser for the video? It’s the most disturbing, unsettling looking rap video I’ve ever seen. Yes, even more disturbing than “Summer Girls” by LFO. I know, it’s hard to believe right?

Of course if Kanye releases “All Of The Lights”, just strike this blog post from the record. Forget I ever wrote it if you haven’t already.

Oh and while I’m at it, I might as well get all Kanye posting out right now instead of multiple Yeezy posts which focus basically on the same subject. I don’t troll message boards anymore but I was searching and came across a post that went like this(Unedited for your pleasure):

“Yeezy on the other hand will make sure the beat is dope, he changes the pattern of the beats, picks artists to bring out the song NOT cuz their hot & will make him hotter, alters the mood for artists (raekwon, beiber, cyhi da prince, nicki minaj, beyonce, rza, charlie wilson, jay-z), he’s not out to “out-do” niggas on his shit & wont give u an entire album about how much coke, jewels or guns he shot. lets be real here, most artists who use MAD collabos dont do it like Kanye does (even wen Jay tried it w/ the Blueprint 2 creatively that shit was a dud). Hell even wen yeezy did the autotune that shit was hotter than most niggas albums.

Its one thing to have collabos but got dayum do it & be creative w/ it atleast. switch it up, play w/ the beats, select good artists for the song NOT for ur career. These days niggas just throw on a beat, get wayne on it or his whole posse & package it as a “street song” while some ass of a DJ is shouting out 100 shit on there n u cant even hear the track or feel it. No thanks. When Ye do it he does it w/ class & finesse. Nigga is like a conductor or Maestro. How many ppl bought a DJ Khaled album & could play it till their tape popped ? how many niggas bought a Luda or Diddy album & had 10+ pages in a thread on how hot that shit was production-wise, lyrically, breaking down what niggas said in the song & having arguments over who had the best verse ? How many niggas did that & brought u something new ? bridging the gaps w/ Justin Beiber, G-Unit or had u searching Youtube for Cyhi Da Prince & Pusha T tracks….

ok then…. I REST MY CASE SMH.”

-sionb55

Now that’s a quote! I agree with this guy 100% and would make the exact same argument. Okay, I would’ve changed a few words here and there. Cleaned up my punctuation and grammer a tad but I’m with this dude completely.

Monocle

Monocle is one of the two resources I use to get my news. Basically it’s just the Associated Press RSS feed and Monocle. I try to stay as far away from American televised news as I can. Monocle represents the complete opposite of the in-your-face, scare tactics, yellow press journalism we’ve been sadly grown accustomed to here in the states. Monocles reporting is a breath of fresh air as it slows things down and takes a calculated, well thought out approach to stories that seem minutely irrelevant to most but works for a attention-to-detail geek like myself.

When I read Monocle, simply holding an issue is satisfying in itself due to a single issues sheer heft. It’s completely dense and packed with enough content to easily last you until the next volume. The magazine has fantastic paper stock, smells incredible and design wise always has a cohesive style and tone to it. It’s magazine execution at its finest.

While we continue to see numerous magazines die off on a monthly basis. Not only are they one of the few subscription based publications to stay afloat during the slow rise of digital media’s inevitable takeover, they manage to flourish.

Monocle

Urinating On The Game

I don’t care how many underage girls Kells pisses on, one thing that won’t ever change is that black people will always love and support him, period. R. Kelly completely shuts the place down. One of the best performances I’ve seen this year.

December 9th 2010

John Lennon was assassinated 30 years ago today. Pay your respects to the most important musician of the 20th century. And try not to laugh at the band pretending to play the instruments live in this performance. Especially the bass player.

W+K Japan: More With Google

I have a new rule and it’s one I should’ve implemented a long, long time ago. If it’s by Wieden+Kennedy, I’m posting it.