Songs #25: Show me the way to go home.

One of the best minutes in movies. Also, hang overs suck a lot of balls. But they're funny, too, like when you reach for the towel on the rack and you fall out of the tub onto your hands and face and you can't stop laughing. Too bad there's not a youtube of that. Next time, next time. --RWK

Live from London: "Stretch a Canvas"

As this fucking city is somehow eons behind in broadcasting american TV shows and films, I've gone and done some searching for their local brand of awesomeness. This, so far takes gold. He;s called the Fonejacker and he's on point.

Canvas Stretcher


Internet Providings


Hilarious African character, "George"


"Doovde"


and Terry Tibbs


Sorry for not posting in ages, all you readers out there! ha.

>> cB

Encounter #107: What I'm working with.

Yes, I wrote that. Look at more of my kitchen in all its grime, and the little space I'm afforded, by clicking this link. It's been time to move for a while. --RWK

Encounter #106: T-Pain on drums.

Dude's got some skill, too. However, as with most live rap events, the sound is shit. So this video is at its best when Faheem solos over an instrumental. He's the boss, not Ross. --RWK [via the supervillian]

Songs #24: Swagger Like Us

The M.I.A. sample (already?!) is actually pretty dope, altho they ride it too much, and everybody's coming pretty hard to match that bassline. But Kanye's on some new autotune tip that I can quite endorse (it's no surprise that Wayne's version works a lot better) but I get the whole syntheti-chic thing their going for. And, is it really that shocking that T.I. does the best? He rides these cinematic beats better than most current rappers; plus, his bluster is micro compared to his track mates, which is appreciated. Understated mugging? Is that possible? It's something about his voice, and how he actually sounds angry. By contrast: Kanye sounds like he phoned that verse in from the mansion of insularity that his life is, that you can see on full display on his blog; Jay's funny, at least, with his opener about skinny jeans, but his singing is, well, hilarious for a different reason; Wayne is pretty gorgeous on most tracks, and this breezy "just playin" style is typical, great, slight. It boils down to this, though, for me: T.I. talks about his dad! --RWK [via Discobelle]

T.I. feat Kanye, Jay, Wayne - Swagger Like Us (zshare)

[Pix from a "hip-hop" movie that can probably stand in as some kind of "black all star" flick. But I probably shouldn't go and say things like that for obvious reasons, like, sweeping generalizations are dumb.]

Genius Marketing #31: CineMetal

The other day I realized I've successfully eliminated all band shirts from my wardrobe. Then I thought, well, I could see wearing a Rain Dogs shirt. Then cinetrix posted this, and I scoffed. Today she posted a follow up with links and I actually dug the look of this Béla Tarr T. Especially dig the tag line: "Long slow takes. Short fast songs." I can't say I ever, or ever will again, listen to Black Flag, but I probably won't watch Satantango again, either, when it comes down to it. However, I would quite possibly sport this shirt. See more at CineFile Video. Get ur nerd on. --RWK

What Community? #52: Little League MGMT

This is one of those things I wish I'd've posted before the post just below this because this is a trifle and that one is kinda serious. But, hey, this is just for fun. And the fact that whoever made this video likes little league baseball and MGMT is pretty great. Or, you could assume that person just has a crush on Karl Ravech from his earlier BBTN hall of fame personality. I do. Those were the days, when Harold and PG flanked Ravy, not lumberjack idiots like Kruk and this fool, Orestes Destrade. Altho, to be fair, Orestes can probably throw down hard in the club. All along the Western front... --RWK [via Tirico Suave]

What Community? #51: Paradise?

Bill sent along this link with this sentiment: "I want to change people's lives." It's a pretty awesome documentary about the roots of Larry Levan and Paradise Garage and the whole beginnings of dance culture. Yes, it began as a haven for (primarily black and Latino) gay dudes. But it was more about feeling free than anything. What's weird about the dance scene now, or at least the SF dance scene, is the emphasis away from that communal spirit towards supreme partying and fucking and money. Not that that didn't happen then. And maybe it's just a sign of the world's changes. But I get a way different vibe at joints like Blow Up or Lights Down Low. Everything's become packaged, a sign of cool, instead of just something cool. The cool kids are probably the biggest posers/actors, too. Bill and I were talking about that a bit, too, the other day: we don't dress hip, nor do we only dress like bums, nor do we take a simplicity stance towards hipness; we definitely exist in the middle ground, which works against you in a place like SF, and fits the East Bay a lot better. Something about a holdover punk ethos. And, you know, neither of us has a job. Although that will be changing quite significantly soon enough. Both of us need jobs now more than ever (in the past two years). The point of all this is that Larry Levan changed people. Dance music can change people. And with a little luck Bill and Carlton and Stevie Fresh will change the East Bay and its (mostly stupid) perception of dance music. Berkeley house parties were the first step. Look for the Husky Boys brand to expand to Oakland (and beyond, like Thailand) through the fall. We may not be able to start the next Garage but we can definitely start something. And we can always dance. I hope I can take some pictures. More later, soon. --RWK [To watch the full doc, just follow the links; I know you can do it.]

Encounter #105: Kobe's just like you, nerd. (Not!)

I'm waiting for the day when we hear about how Zen Master got Kobe to read something goofy like Alan Watts or how when he retires he plans to sit down (maybe treadmill it?) and really read Truth and Method. (He loves the Continent, right?) Until then, here's a story about Kobe buying comics after hours for his plane ride to China. (Yup: this is timely shit.) In any event, since my basketball blogging is strictly parasitic for the time being (and probably will remain so), I should again announce that I'm of the camp that, asshole or no, Kobe is fucking fascinating; singular in a way no other superstar has been. It's kind of similar to what makes Chris Bosh so cool (on the surface: they have personalities!) but Bosh's youthful enthusiasms are charming whereas Kobe's odd trajectory to now makes him more enigma than a known entity, a mamba with all kinds of crazy fighting inside that only shows up in how ferocious he plays. Here's where the Gadamer comes in: what is play for this dude? I've seen him laugh, I've seen him jump over things on youtube with a smile, I've seen him arm in arm with teammates and trophies; I've rarely seen him smile on the court, in a game, and when I have it was during some broadcast-muted trash talk with the other team's luminary. I guess plenty of athletes are intense and fierce competitors. But, and here comes that cliché, there's something else in how Kobe attacks, and how Kobe walks away from, the basket -- even a fade away is cut-throat for him -- that makes him so good and so ruthless and so compelling. I mean, he said, "I like that dark shit," when asked what comics he likes, and I think there's other stuff going on there, too. The idea of Preacher appealed to him. And apparently he's a big fan of 100 Bullets, too. That's some down right abject mess. Maybe Kobe will read Georges Bataille instead of Gadamer. Hyuck, hyuck. --RWK

[Pic 1, stolen from the original post, of Kobe with Lee's Comics' intrepid reporter slash employee Taio Iwado; Pic 2 stolen from Tirico Suave]

Encounter #104: This is fandom. Or something. (Mostly? A waste of time.)

Remember when Nicole Richie was kinda fat? Yeah, I forgot about it, too. It's a laugh. She's a weirdo, all skinny now, and apparently pregnant again (because we want to turn this into a celeb gossip site, clearly), despite not looking like she can support her own weight, much less the life of yet another parasitic embryo; oops, I mean baby. In any case, through the power of internets, I found this awkward, stupid video -- from when I don't know, for what reason I don't know -- that gets cut short by Tool Type 1A just when things start to get interesting. First reaction? I dig how she just says what a lot girls (and some guys) at sporting events are thinking: these guys are primal, buff, macho meat on next to full bodily display. This isn't beach volleyball, of course, nor swimming, but there's plenty of guns (and calves? collar bones? what's the focal point?) to relish. Plus, you know, ballers are tall, with big feet. Makes sense why she'd marry (and spawn twice with) a lame white wannabe punk rock douche with no neck, right? All kinds of different ideas of funny and gross and right-on apply. --RWK

Encounter #103: "One ugly muddafucka."

The Ratatat shtick is getting a little tired but this video is pretty good, even if it falls into the same traps that cripple their music. Repetition is all well and good in a pop song but when shit's this synthetic it only gets grating. They make their point and then hammer at it, hammer at it, drive it deep. Except it's not that deep, just kinda cool. I like how goofy their whole deal is but after a while I want something new (or newer): they should do more hip hop remixes. Selfish, I know. While we're here: Predator is awesome, by the way. A real gem of trashy 80s action cinema; it revels in tacky color-characters with such self-awareness that it's hard to take seriously, or get turned off, and real easy to enjoy. --RWK

Genius Marketing #30: Tiger 2.0, or Tiger is really from Nazareth

Look at Tiger (or Team Woods, or EA, or whatever firm): he's not just Jesus, walking on water, he's all Web 2.0, too. His new EA ad riffs on youtube and you can watch the add on youtube, setting up a dizzy turtles-all-the-way effect. I can't wait for the time when somebody just keeps filming themselves watching themselves on youtube to the point where it's just a long line of deferrals inside frame after frame after frame, a jagged line of shrinking perspective. But I'm way too lazy to do that. I'd rather just think about it. Maybe I'll search for it. In any event, it starts here. Somebody's got to film themselves watching Tiger's ad, which watches another clip, and then keep layering. It should resist sense, the sound clamoring and clipping and fighting itself. Somebody, do it. Please. --RWK [via all kinds of sports blogs, which I seem to be reading more and more; meaning, of course, that I'm reading less and less film blogs]

Songs #23: Jockin Jay-Z (Not me.)

What the fuck is this? I know Kanye just guested on an "Everybody Nose" remix but doesn't he know he can't beat The Neptunes (or Count and Sinden) at their own game? Doesn't he know he got bigger than big for sampling soul? I'm sick of this fad crap. Make something that might last. And this isn't even getting to the verses Jay offers. He was Mims before Mims popped up but, still, for somebody as respected as he is -- as a rapper with smarts and style -- this is flat, phoned-in, smug. You're cool cuz you hate the pleebs? It's devolved to that? Really? Fuck that mess. But it'll probably make money, just cuz it can. As he says, "It's too easy..." Feeling yourself is one thing but this kind of under-the-covers fooling is boring and dumb. And hateful. --RWK

Jay-Z - Jockin Jay-Z (zshare)

[Pic is from a movie about paranoid solipsism, and consequent devolution. No spuds here. Just ugly. And, by the way, the movie is, like, a billion times better than this song.]

What Community? #50: The future is now. In Dubai.

In the space of 17 years (pix from 1990, 2003, 2007), Dubai has become not just significantly developed but developed to the point of sci-fi parody. Follow this link to see more of the crazy stuff already built and planned to be built. I feel like I have to research this now. And possibly go there. There should be some kind of document besides still photographs. I don't want to say any more before I know more. But, shit. This is like Blade Runner with less fires and androids. Except, of course, there are plans for automated systems galore, too, like a subway system larger than NYC's MTA all run by machines. Good luck not getting killed by a train that won't stop because you've got your stupid foot caught in a door. Also: Dubailand? All kinds of blasphemy. Who the fuck live there? Who the fuck will move there? To work at Dubailand? Understatement: This is wild. --RWK

Songs #22: Way Down In The Hole What Community? #50

Inspired by MOMI's "Making The Wire" week, I thought I'd go ahead and post mp3s of the five different versions of "Way Down in the Hole" used for each of the five different seasons' opening credits. Unfortunately, I didn't find mp3s of all five. However: I did find my two favorites, from the first two seasons, by The Blind Boys of Alabama and Tom Waits. And, in lieu of mp3s, I found youtube clips of each season's credits, sans narration by Andrew Dignan (which you can check out every day this week at MOMI's website). I've said elsewhere that I thought the series picked up steam as it went along through its first four seasons, only to kinda-sorta falter under its own ambitions in its final, fifth season, so I don't need to dive into that again. But it's worth noting, I think, how each version constitutes my relationship to each season, beginning with Steve Earle's cover, for that fifth season, that plays the harshest (and whitest), although kinda groovy, which added to my distaste for that season's misfires (and occasional bits of brilliance). By contrast, Tom Waits' elegiac original fits the mood of the docks really well: all those years of toil for nothing. The Neville Brothers' jazzy third season opener makes a nice compliment to the Blind Boys, which makes me think of the dueling East and West sides of B'more starting to come together, or at the least how they interact, starting with Stringer's negotiations in that season. DoMaJe had the honor to grace the show's greatest chapter, the fourth, and their plaintive march through varying genres, with time for odd samples and a nasty guitar solo and a grimey in-the-round vamp, speaks to the corner boys' close-knit texture, riffing on one another, trading insults and love equally. But, lemme get out of the way already. I'll leave the comments from here on out to Mssrs Dignan, Seitz and Lee. --RWK

Season One
The Blind Boys of Alabama (zshare link)


Season Two
Tom Waits (zshare link)


Season Three
The Neville Brothers


Season Four
DoMaJe


Season Five
Steve Earle

Encounter #102: W is such a tease.

TWO MINUTES LATER UPDATE: Teaser trailer has been taken down. Such a tease. I was right.

Cuz it's bound to be everywhere, talked about my everyone, and cuz Josh Brolin is tight. Also, Jeffrey Wright and Richard Dreyfuss. I still hope the film itself is parody and not earnest, despite this marketing ploy. At that rate I may laugh. Otherwise...it'll just be a pain, and boring. --RWK

What Community? #49: Baseball breeds brains, crazy.

First we have Shane Victorinio inventing a new turn of phrase that makes my brain fart a big "Whu?" Or: "Wait, wait, wait. Wait a second. You don't ask the questions? Or you won't tolerate the questions? Huh?" If this catches on with the likes of Stuart Scott and Neil Everett I'll definitely get Ed Abbey and kill my TV (but not my precious internet).

Next we have Orel Hershisher's Joker impression. Since The Sports Hernia Blog had me LOL'ing (it's one of those dreary days), I'll just copy what they've got to go along with these pictures that I've stolen:

ESPN's Sunday Night Baseball was already off the charts tonight with their new 'bathroom stall' camera feature, but the stunning presence of a completely insane Orel Hershiser, proud new owner of the greatest Joker portrayal to date, simply stole the show.

Did John Miller forget to wear pants? Did Steve Phillips suddenly go back to his part-in-the-middle look when the camera panned away? Did Elaine give him the Uncle Leo treatment and paint angry eyebrows on his face? Whatever it is, this normally mild-mannered individual wants to kick the living shit out of everyone.

At this point Hershiser has the entire nation mentally crippled in a highly uncomfortable and paranoid state, yet John Miller thinks the guy is an absolute ray of light, like he's making god damn balloon animals and handing out cotton fuckin' candy.

What happened to this dude? If an alien tears out of his stomach and hops on Miller's head to act as an unflattering toupee, we won't exactly be surprised.

I can say no more. --RWK [both via The Sporting Blog's Morning Constitutional]

Encounter #101: Momma's Boy

Take a hike, Aha. Too bad this song is so short. I coulda dug on this video for a while longer. --RWK

What Community? #48: Lots of high pick and roll plays, lots of dunks, lots of boards.

Chris Mullin paid Andris Biedrins. Same contract length as Monta means the W-men have a core. A very young core. Young and developing, happy to play together, all kinds of superlatives can be thrown at these two. I'm still not convinced Monta will be a true point, nor if that will totally work for Nellball, but I do like how he feeds Fast Andy. And Fast Andy can grab a lot of boards if he's out there on the floor more than 27.4mpg. If he's allowed to start all 82 (providing he stays healthy, of course), and he's allowed to play more than 30 minutes per, then Fast Andy should totally be among the league leaders in rebounding, proving a lot of critics wrong that the W-men have no inside presence. Maybe. I mean, there's B-Rite, too, to gobble some minutes along with Mr Energy, Ronny Turiaf. I'm still waiting to see how this group coheres, or not, so I'll keep saying that this is the oddest group assembled in the NBA right now. They'll undoubtedly be an offensive force, and a team to watch, but I don't know if they'll make the field of eight. It just doesn't seem possible. It does seem possible, though, that they can continue to develop their pair of long, rangy types while losing more games than they'd like this season. I'm guessing B-Rite will develop with more of a defensive mindset than Randolph so they can probably play off Fast Andy in cool, different styles depending on the game and the situation. For instance: I bet Randolph sees more minutes against a team like the Hornets and B-Rite sees more minutes against a team like the Lakers (to pick from the top). Either way they've got an intriguing premise for a real nail-biter season, and a few seasons to come.

A late aside: I'm thinking of writing a weekly basketball column next season. Or, simply, a series with numbers. I don't know what form it will take, but my inclination is to deviate from this strong Warriors bias and look across the league like those prototypical liberated fans at joints like Free Darko and Ball Don't Lie and Hardwood Paroxysm. Any ideas for titles for this series? Right now I've got these terrible ideas:
--Fires Pale, Ballers Fly
--The Week in the NBA
--Ry's bball eyes
--B-Rite's pinky
--I don't know shit
--24 is after 23
--Numbers don't mean shit, or, Fuck numbers
--Dunks and blocks and dimes
--Steve Nash is old
--No more guns

Encounter #100: 6 years, 66 million.

Read about it here if you want. The other news is they matched Kalenna's offer from the Clippers. But, hear now: know that those are the same numbers that the A's gave Eric Chavez. I hate that my mind went directly there. But, hell, it did. Otherwise: sweet. Dude is fast. And, you know, young and shit. We'll see how he adjusts to this whole point guard thing next year. My prediction: no better than 6(maybe 6.5)apg for the season. But he'll still score 20ppg. And, being fast, he'll always be better than the ever-loathed Jamal Crawford because he does seem to like to pass and play with other people despite all his slashing and lane killing and ankle breaking and hang time scoring prowess/tendencies. As the roster is shaping up, the W-men seem like a mid-level team in the conference with no defense, really, and a lot of potential for balls out offense. They may not make the playoffs (hell, odds are squarely against it at this point) but they'll probably become everybody's favorite new Suns replacement. And, who knows, maybe they'll continue their bonding magic and skate into that 8th seed again on sheer enthusiasm. (I'll try not to get my hopes up now, nearly three months before the season starts. Shit, somebody can always get hurt. *knock knock*) How's this for a prediction? Anthony Randolph will be third in ROY voting. (Nah, he can't stop my boy, B-easy, from killing the field with smiles and stomps through the paint. Plus, you know, that Oden guy will be playing.) That projection may be a little high given he'll most likely be coming off the bench, but I just like his fierceness and his skill set that much. I'm guessing Nellie will, too. Can't wait for the first fast break he runs with Monta. Should be something to look forward to for a while to come. --RWK [video via FTB]