- I have managed to avoid the new “We Are The World” but even Jay-Z thought it was a bad idea.
- Vote for this t-shirt on Threadless so it can get made and I can own it
- Did you see Christina Hendricks in New York Magazine? Wow!
- Get well, Jack Bauer!
- That said, Hitler hates Season 8 of 24 more than I do.
- These French AIDS prevention ads are a little extra. (NSFW)
- My new favorite website, Learn Something Every Day
- New promo for the second half of the first season of Glee
- Joss Whedon and Morgan Spurlock are filming a documentary about San Diego Comic-Con. It’s still one of my goals to attend one year.
- An amazing profile on Roger Ebert in this month’s Esquire
- A brief interview with the author of The Denzel Principle: Why Black Women Can’t Find Good Black Men. Yes, that is a real book
- A part of me wants this Adidas Darth Vader Track Jacket. Clearly, it’s the part of me that doesn’t want a girlfriend
- I kinda want this The Breakfast Club print
- I’d never thought I’d see the day when someone tried to defend Freddy Got Fingered
- Lesson of the day: Respect old men (especially when they are bigger than you and have a shirt on that says “I Am A Motherfucker”) (NSFW language)
- New Broken Social Scene song!!!!!!
- How cool is this? The world’s largest Dodgeball match
Posts Tagged ‘Jay-Z’
Links for the Week of 2/14
February 19, 2010Links for January 21-22
January 22, 2010Well, doing the daily links became too much so I’m just going to do my top 10 links at the end of the week but here are a few from the last few days.
- The 2004 BBC dramedy, NY-LON, starring Rashida Jones (Parks and Recreation) and Stephen Moyer (True Blood) is now available on Hulu. Highly recommended
- Marc Webb has been named the director of the new Spider-Man movie. How one goes from (500) Days of Summer to Spidey I do not know.
- U2 and Jay-Z Record Haiti Benefit Song. Why is Swizz Beats producing it?
- Part 1 of Chicago Tribune’s Maureen Ryan’s super-long interview with the producers of Lost, Carton Cuse and Damon Lindeof
- The New Yorker did a profile on one of my favorite writers ever, Neil Gaiman
- Who wants to buy me this t-shirt?
- NPR’s Monkey See Blgo explores the battle between buying single-issues of comics versus buying the trade collections. Personally, I can’t break my habit. My expensive, expensive habit.
- The 100 Cheesiest Movie Quotes of All Time
- Tom Caruana made this Wu-Tang/Beatles mash-up, Enter The Magical Mystery Chambers. It sounded like a horrible idea but turned out pretty good. Download before Apple Corp kills it.
- Slate has come with a great idea for a follow-up to MTV’s Jersey Shore. Massholes.
- The Onion’s AV Club has inducted Requiem For A Dream into its “New Cult Canon”. Maybe it’s time to finally rewatch that movie.
- The Wall Street Journal looks at creative decision to end Lost after six seasons.
Links for January 14th
January 14, 2010- NY Magazine’s Vulture thinks Simon Cowell is making the right choice going with The X-Factor over American Idol. I saw The X-Factor when i was in England last month and found it more interesting than I ever did American Idol.
- Jonah Weiner of Slate Magazine (over)analyzes Jay-Z’s video for “On To The Next One”
- A math genius in England put together a formula to figure our why he’s single
- Taylor Kitsch (Tim Riggins) is leaving Friday Night Lights
- The Ack! Attack lists Lost’s Top 10 Go-To Moves
- Wes Anderson accepted his Special Achievement Award from the National Board of Review for Fantastic Mr. Fox via stop-motion video
- I probably won’t buy it but this trailer for video game, Transformers: War For Cyberton, looks pretty awesome
- Check out the set for the new Pee-wee Herman Show.I wish I was out in LA to go to this.
- GQ reveals NBC’s new television line-up. Stop dissing, Chuck!
- Michael Ausiello says Greek might be in danger of being canceled. Maybe if more people heard “The Greek Rap”, they’d watch.
- Someone at The Onion’s AV Club watched G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra on purpose. Poor bastard.
- Jack Bauer hate Tom Brady
- Dave Letterman’s “Top Ten Messages On Jeff Zucker’s Answering Machine.”
- I never get tired of these. Hitler Learns Leno Is Moving Back To Late Night
- Judy Greer is going to guest-star on Modern Family as Phil’s ex-girlfriend. I love her.
- TV Squad previews 24 Season Eight. I’m curious to see how Agent Freckles has been corrupted by Bauer
- Jeff Fuc..Zucker is threatening to keep Conan off the year for the length of his contract according to Nikki Finke
Music Videos I Love: On To The Next One
January 8, 2010
Has no relevance to the song but the visuals are great.
2009: 15 Favorite Albums
December 31, 2009I had a tough time with the order of the top three. At any given moment, any of them could be number one. Again, I emphasize that these are in the order of my favorite albums of the year not the best.
15. Animal Collective – Merriweather Post Pavillion
14. Tanya Morgan – Brooklynati
13. Jay-Z – The Blueprint 3
12. The Swell Season – Strict Joy
11. St. Vincent – Actor
10. Raekwon – Only Built 4 Cuban Linx PT II
9. The Gossip – Music for Men
8. Dirty Projectors – Bitte Orca
7. Phoenix – Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
6. The Temper Trap – Conditions
5. Me’Shell Ndegéocello – Devil’s Halo
4. Tegan and Sara – Sainthood
3. Grizzly Bear – Veckatimest
2. Yeah Yeah Yeahs – It’s Blitz!
1. Metric – Fantasies
Mixtape For No One #4 – Best of ‘09 Part I
December 20, 2009Click here to listen
I’m going to revive the Mixtape For No One to showcase some of my favorite songs of 2009. These are the hip-hop/R&B tracks.
- “Never Forget You” by Noisettes (Wild Young Hearts)
- “The Power That Kisses Hold” by Eric Roberson (Music Fan First)
- “Cold” by Maxwell (BLACKsummersnight)
- “Fortune” by Little Dragon (Machine Dreams)
- “Successful” (Featuring Trey Songz And Lil’ Wayne) by Drake (So Far Gone)
- “Lola” by Me’Shell Ndegéocello (Devil’s Halo)
- “Kinda Like A Big Deal” (feat. Kanye West) by Clipse (Til The Casket Drops)
- “Casa Bey” by Mos Def (The Ecstatic)
- “House Of Flying Daggers” (feat. Inspectah Deck, Ghostface & Method Man) by Raekwon (Only Built 4 Cuban Linx PT II)
- “Maybach Music 2″ (feat. T-Pain, Lil Wayne & Kanye West) by Rick Ross (Deeper Than Rap)
- “Errbody Scream” (Featuring Keith Murray) by Method Man & Redman (Blackout! 2)
- “Tour Stories” by Souls Of Mischief (Montezuma’s Revenge)
- “So Damn Down” by Tanya Morgan (Brooklynati)
- “Thank You” by Jay-Z (The Blueprint 3)
My 50 Favorite Albums of the 00s
December 7, 2009This was much harder than the “My 50 Favorite Television Shows of the 00s” list. When I started the television list, I singled out 70 shows or so and cut it down to 50. It took me three days to come up with a first draft of albums and I ended up with 185! I was going to just do a list of 100 but I like consistency so I whittled the list down to 50. The closer I got to 50, the sadder I got as I had to delete albums I loved off the list. After how depressing it ended up being bringing this list down to 50, a) I won’t even try to single out a top 10 (although I think “Kid A” would be my favorite album) and b) sorry, Karen, I won’t even attempt a 50 Favorite Singles list.
A couple of notes:
- Just a reminder, I am not saying these are the 50 BEST albums in the last decade, these are the ones I am most fond of
- Apparently my best years for music was 2000 and 2002 as nine albums from each year made the list.
- Nothing released this year made the list and only two albums from 2008
- Only Jay-Z and Radiohead have more than one album on the list (unless you count Jenny Lewis twice for her solo and Rilo Kiley)
Melanism on Shuffle, Part I
July 22, 2009“Without a soundtrack, human interaction is meaningless.”
— Chuck Klosterman
The rules are simple. I’m going to put my iPod on shuffle and write about the first 10 songs that play. Some of these will be really stupid or have nothing to do with the song but hey, who doesn’t like to hear me go off on a tangent. Read the rest of this entry ?
Jay-Z Rehearsal Concert @ Nokia Theater
June 25, 2006
Well, that’s another one off “The List”…
So Bill IMs me on Thursday night asking me if I wanted a free ticket to this Jay-Z rehearsal show on Saturday to which I said “of course” (this may seem like a nice interaction but Bill asked me in a more dickhead-like way and, later, took one of my tickets away from me because he thought I was one of the people who he didn’t think was possible to get someone to go with them…in case you are wondering why I didn’t ask anyone to go to me).
So, Saturday, after I went to the movies (Click) with friends, I decided to make my way to the Nokia theater. Doors opened at 8:30 and I got there like 7:10. The line started forming but there could not have been more than 40 people ahead of me and I was like “Cool”. I put on my iPod and started reading some comic books.
Rule #1, 5 and 17 of Waiting on Line: If you don’t want someone to join you in line or don’t feel comfortable letting someone cut in line, no eye contact. That’s why I brought the comic books. Someone who joined me in line that I didn’t mind did not adhere to this rule which not only allowed 4 people to join us in line but those 4 people got in to the theater before us.
No matter, we got a really good spot at the stairway to the right of the stage.
Now that was 8:45 PM.
?uestlove had a really good DJ set where he played a lot of sampled soul records.
And that was cool.
For an hour.
Although by 2 and half hours later, I was ready to go outside and scalp my ticket.
When the show finally started at 11:15 (!), the curtains pulled back and there was Jay-Z, ?uestlove and the Illadelphonics and a fucking orchestra. Nice!
Jay-Z went through all the songs on Reasonable Doubt (celebrating the 10th anniversary of it’s release) and hit us with the sequel to “22 Two’s”, “44 Four’s”, which was really hot.
Memphis Bleek and Sauce Money (who has gained at least 125 pounds and should go by the moniker of “Extra Sauce Money” or “BBQ Sauce Money”) did their verses. I was expecting (hoping) that Mary J. Blige (“Can’t Knock The Hustle”) or Foxy Brown (“Ain’t No N!gga”) would come out for their parts or Nas would do the chorus of “Dead Presidents” (although he was in the VIP section) but it wasn’t to be. It was only a rehearsal (Genius idea btw, charge $100 dollars for tickets but by calling it a rehearsal you are not guranteeing the quality of the performance).
After he finished those tracks and the band and orchestra left the stage, Jay & Memphis Bleek did a good set of snippets of Jay-Z’s hits which got the crowd amped. He could have gone on all night long. The only thing that sucked is when he did your favorite song, he would cut it off and move quickly on to the next.
All and all, it was a great night.
Thanks for the tickets, ?uest…sigh…and Bill. Now if ?uest would just get good enough to be on Prince’s band so we can get some free tickets to his shows.
Two side notes:
- The only rappers who can do a show like this — i.e. number and quality of songs — are Jay-Z, Outkast, Run DMC (although DMC can’t perform anymore) and LL Cool J (but LL would probably ruin it by doing songs released after Mr. Smith). I’m sure I’m missing someone but I doubt it.
- Seeing Jay-Z Saturday took him off “The List of People I would Like to See Perform While They Are Still Relevant”. I’ve seen Prince, Omar, Lewis Taylor, D’Angelo & Me’Shell Ndegeocello. I’m going to see Fiona Apple on July 25th which would leave me with Outkast and Radiohead.
