- Last night I made the mistake of beginning to watch the Lance Bangs Pavement documentary “Slow Century”. A mistake because I should have known it would’ve been too fascinating to turn off, no matter how late the hours got. If you’ve got the time, here it is:
- Sage Francis has resurrected the Tumblr Hello There, Racists after an apparent shut down. I think it’s outrageous to say it isn’t fair to publicly chastise these people, knowing full well that Twitter and Facebook are publicly viewed domains (they’re basically the 21st Century “public square”). It also serves to remind us of some very important things, two of which: you’re not invisible on the Internet, and if you want to say outrageous shit you’d better damn well be posting anonymously (then again anyone with half a brain can trace an IP address), and yes… racism definitely still exists. Some of this shit is just disgusting.
- Very interesting article, that very well might go over your head a little (went over mine at least), on the nature of dark energy. Is it static or dynamic in its existence. If it’s dynamic… yeesh, the philosophical implications of such a thing are astronomical; a form of matter whose density and composition and structure changes as it shifts though space time??
While hypothesized dark energy can explain observations of the universe expanding at an accelerating rate, the specific properties of dark energy are still an enigma. Scientists think that dark energy could take one of two forms: a static cosmological constant that is homogenous over time and space, or a dynamical entity whose energy density changes in time and space. By examining data from a variety of experiments, scientists in a new study have developed a model that provides tantalizing hints that dark energy may be dynamic.
The results are still far from conclusive, but the scientists hope that future data might narrow down the models with greater accuracy. They hope that observations by the Planck spacecraft (launched in 2009; first data available in April 2013) and the Euclid spacecraft (launch date is 2019) could help pinpoint the dark energy models that most closely describe our expanding universe.
- Great piece of street art (graffiti, if you prefer that term; I really could care less what it’s called) from GOIN, who I believe works out of the UK:
“The New Aesthetic concerns itself with “an eruption of the digital into the physical.” That eruption was inevitable. It’s been going on for a generation. It should be much better acculturated than it is. There are ways to make that stark, lava-covered ground artistically fertile and productive. Lush, humanistic, exotic crops will grow from that smoking, ashy techno-rubble of ours, someday. I live to think so. I’m all for that prospect. It’s exhilarating to see such things attempted, especially in a small auditorium before the straights catch on.
What’s more, I rather like the trend-line there. I’ve seen some attempts along this line before, but this one has muscle. The New Aesthetic is moving out of its original discovery phase, and into a evangelical, podium-pounding phase. If a pioneer village of visionary creatives is founded, and they start exporting some startling, newfangled imagery, like a Marcel Duchamp-style explosion-in-a-shingle-factory… Well, we’ll once again be living in heroic times!”
“3D printed objects, or “physibles” are an incredible example of the mundane aspects of future-weird. They are glitchy-as-fuck, but their shapeshifting effect on our cultural space will inhabit the same metaphysics of street graffiti— appreciated by only a few, truly understood by even less.
A physible is simple. Download a file with information about the shape of an object, or component parts of an object. Use a 3D printing machine that squirts molten plastic, metal or other material to pour you that object, without needing a mold. Or, send the file to a company who will do that for you. These machines simplify the process of fabbing an object, by using a single machine to create parts of nearly anything. Previously, specific injection molds had to be created for each piece, or a welder had to attach pieces by reading a diagram. Now the machine can build the entire piece in one run, with basically zero set-up investment. The investment to produce a single object is nearly nothing— all it takes is the design, and one of these universal printing machines.”
“Nestled amid the sagebrush along the California side of the U.S./Mexico border is a small DIY drone airfield. Makeshift and unkempt, devoid of pavement and infrastructure, it is unremarkable in the absence of the gathered assemblies of amateur pilots, planes, and spectators for which it is intended. One might well overlook it, yet perhaps in some way it serves as a model of sorts, a harbinger of airports to come: a preview of what drone airfields might look like, writ large, in their absence of traditional control platforms and optical infrastructures. Much like this one, the unmanned airport would contain no centralized control tower presiding over the runway and no lighting tracks reflecting its contours. There is no need for a commanding view from above. “
Gots to get going soon. But here’s some brilliant Banksy for your prying eyes:
- Also, some words of wisdom on the United States’ current political structure/climate:
My view of contemporary US politics, which is that of an outsider and obviously incomplete (and possibly faulty, and subject to change) is as follows:
1. The USA is already a functional oligarchy. (Or, more accurately, a plutarchy.) It has been functioning as such for some time — since 1992 at the latest, although the roots of this system go back to before the Declaration of Independence — it’s a recurrent failure mode. Historically such periods last for a few years then go into reverse. However, this time the trend has been running since 1980 or even earlier. What we’re now seeing are the effects of mismanagement by the second generation of oligarchs in power; the self-entitled who were born to it and assume it to be the natural order of things.
2. It’s impossible to be elected to high office without so much money that anyone in high office is, by definition, part of the 0.1%; even if they’re an outsider to start with, they will be co-opted by the system (or neutralized — usually before they are elected).
3. Public austerity is a great cover for the expropriation of wealth by the rich (by using their accumulated capital to go on acquisition sprees for assets being sold off for cents on the dollar by the near-bankrupt state). But public austerity is a huge brake on economic growth because it undermines demand by impoverishing consumers. Consequently, we’re in for another long depression. (The outcome of this new long depression will be the same as that of the first one: the main industrial power — then it was the UK; now it’s the USA — will lose a lot of its remaining economic lead over its competitors and be severely weakened.)
- The latest BLACK LANTERN MUSIC release is by Krowne, called “Distorted Thoughts”. It’s a clever bastard of an EP where Electro numbers swoop up out of nowhere and make your ass and hips move.
The opening guitar lick on “No Kings” is oddly similar to the Frank Ocean produced first song off Kanye and Jay’s “Watch The Throne”, this is more significant than it seems. Now, by no means is NK a “rebuttal” record to the supposed crowned kings of current Hip-Hop. Although I do find it strange that Sims — in the record’s opening verse — mentions: “You’re so vain you probably think it’s about ya/Well it is, and it ain’t… and it ain’t, but it is.” By the time fiery Mike Mictlan steps up to the mic — on the record’s second verse — you know what type of people you’re dealing with: a group of people, or family… a crew, who would just as soon cast away the predetermined laws of the world to shape their own lifestyles and art.
“No Kings” is aptly titled. The album’s themes and content all oddly tie into that meme, even the more surreal passages. And quite a bit of the lyrics are surreal. I’m not talking Aesop Rock level imagery here, but as a whole the group isn’t pointing the listener at any certain topic or philosophy, more like a general direction (North, for Minnesota… Haha). They tackle the rap world at times: not to call anyone out, not to bitch, not to lecture. To say: “This is how you all do it? Well, we don’t really care. This is how we do it.” Not to look down on other rappers, not to start trouble, just to play by their own rules, and to do it from the heart. Some of the imagery hearkens back to the past also, a time when the culture’s movement wasn’t weighted down by what one is “supposed” to do; no doubt a product of producer/MC Cecil Otter who has quite a bit of influence here throughout.
Cecil gets credited on helping create a large portion of the music, so do P.O.S. and Lazerbeak. The beats vary a little, but there’s a cohesive sense to the production that is probably a result of all the producers working together collaboratively, rather than going off into a room and coming back with a fleshed out beat. Lazerbeak (who once fronted The Plastic Constellations and makes incredible solo material) likes to blast punchy horns and booming kicks and snares, just give “Hand Over Fist” or “Bad Time Zoo” a try and you’ll know what I mean. That punchiness is toned down a little on “No Kings”, with most of the tracks feeling like contemplative pieces, not party music (besides, ironically, the 5th track titled “Punch-Out”). Even the beats Lazerbeak produced by himself. P.O.S. brings his signature percussive sound to the table, but this also is toned down a bit to add to a more cohesive whole. All this results in — from a production standpoint — an album that is very self-aware and calculated. It works well for a crew record (each member can, after all, unhinge their style a little more with each successive solo release).
The vocal performances mirror that sense of calculation. By this point each member has worked on a number of solo albums and tracks, so they’re all comfortable with what they do. It’s like they know when and how to strike, to add to the whole rather than distracting from it. Dessa enters swiftly and calmly: sometimes singing, sometimes rapping, sometimes both. She often bridges the gaps in songs, giving transitions just the right touch and latching onto previous themes to reinforce their weight. P.O.S., for my money, is one of the best rappers today. He’s just good on anything he does (and I’m assuming he’s going to blow up even more with his next solo record). Cecil Otter, like I mentioned, holds more influence over almost anyone else on this album both lyrically and musically. Due to his style, he’ll likely never have that mass appeal of a guy like P.O.S. — or even Dessa — but he deserves any sort of success he gets. Honestly though, I was most surprised with Sims and Mictlan’s verses. I’m not sure if it’s because they’re being used in a better way (at the right times?), or if they’re both refining their styles more and more; whatever the case, to me they are the standouts when it comes to rapping.
The greatest compliment “No Kings” can receive though is that it truly feels like an “album”. Quite the feat for a group of 7-ish people who all sound starkly different when creating their own work. Again, this is probably a result of the collaborative sense that went into making it. When you’re renting a cabin in Northern MN (or WI) and shutting out the rest of the world, that is bound to happen. If you can’t tell, I’d reccomend getting this. Especially anyone who is really into Hip-Hop and wants to try something new. There is talent to boot, but the best thing about “No Kings” is the lack of rules. And that is refreshing. Maybe Jay and Kanye would actually dig this? Although, I gotta admit, drawing the “No Kings” symbol onto the cover of the golden shine of “Watch The Throne” would be awesome.
I was walkin across the river last night with my case and a gasper. It was late, the high hats and the drunks and even the junkys were in. I don’t sleep too well sometimes… well, most of the time. I was doin what I do, taking a stroll with Mable, stopping to play from time to time when the mood struck, exploring this massive city… I haven’t found an end to it yet. There are no limits. On the bridge, I seen some kid down below. He was scurrying back and forth in the darkness, on the embankment. And there was this… rattling. I never saw anything like it, not in my previous lifetime or this one. It took me a while, I sat down on the edge of the bridge hangin my feet off the edge. I finally realized he was painting. Painting his name. The embankment was at least… oh I’d say fifty, sixty feet high, slanted upwards away from the river but still flat enough to balance on. His name took up the whole thing. There it was, even in the darkness of the night, screaming at the city around it. “Here I am!” It said “OVER”. Over must be the kid’s name. Or at least what he calls himself. Then he saw me watchin him. I stood and waved, I thought he’d run. But his painting wasn’t finished. So I took out Mable, up there overlooking him below, mopped her once or twice, and played. I played and he drew. We developed somewhat of a call and response. Blind Lemon taught me call and response when I met him here for the first time. He’d swoop his can of paint and I’d blurp out a phrase, the aural version of what he was doin. And vice-versa. I played through the night, until he was finished completely. By the end the light was barely stretching over the horizon but the sun was still hidden. I never got close enough to make out his face. He dipped soon as he was done. I wanna meet this kid.
Not exactly hot off the presses. It went live over the weekend. But still. Just a basic hip-hop mixtape here, though it does have a theme: graffiti. As you might expect, there are a ton of hip-hop songs about graffiti and graffing. There should be. Lots came out of the 90′s, people were talking about graffiti much more then, although there has been a small resurgence in recent years. This is the track list:
1. Madlib – Distant Land
2. Artifacts – Wrong Side of the Tracks
3. Madlib – Mystic Bounce
4. Mr. Lif – Wanted
5. The Literates – Graff Life
6. Atmosphere – RFTC
7. MF Doom – Mandrake
8. KRS One – Out For Fame
9. Lupe Fiasco (ft. Ghostface Killah and Mike Shinoda) – Spray Paint and Ink Pens
10.Typical Cats – The Manhattan Project
11.Hand Over Fist – LA Raider’s Hat (Instrumental)
12.Skyzoo – Krylon
13.Raydar Ellis – Graffiti Rock
14.Panacea – Vandalism
15.Tommy Tee – Aerosoul
I’m working on a new mixtape. I’m gonna call it “Mildstyle”, a riff on a very famous form of graffiti called “wild style”. I’m having a little trouble finding enough material that’s specifically about graffiti that fits in well enough and I like, but I’m getting there. I try to make mixtapes that (…well, this would only be my second) flow well, are one continuous piece of music, and have clever and crafty transitions between songs. Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong with slapping together a group of songs that flow well together and just putting them back to back to back, without any tinkering or meddling with them, without any turntablism, etc. But for me — for him — that just isn’t going to cut it. It isn’t enough.
Anyways hopefully I’ll be done with it next week sometime.
This piece of art realllly caught my eye this morning:
The boy – young man perhaps – lived in a sub-village of Qakilik, western China. He used to spend his summers in the deepest parts of Lop Lake, imagining a time when it was full of water.
White cranes swoop down, skimming the surface with tailed wingtips, releasing crystallized droplets into the hot air. The mist spreads outwards until his face becomes awash with it. An orange fish swims to the surface. It says, “this is no longer my country”, in his dead Grandfather’s voice.
The Kunlun range sways to the South. When he turned 13, he spent 9 days and nights in a tiny cave atop Ulugh Muztagh. His family’s ancient religion, nearly extinct by the time he was born, only deemed followers official members once the isolation cycle was complete. The prehistoric founders of the tribe – the Muztagh – excavated the cave themselves. The walls are covered with petroglyph’s detailing the consumption of the Muztagh culture millions of years before it happened. They were slaughtered not unlike the Neanderthals. Few survived. He was one of the few remaining descendants. Thinking back to the cold dampness of that cave, creatures squirming in the darkness, he felt shame. Not of that experience… of the now.
In the middle of the night he snuck out of his folks’ modest home. The wind gracefully rushed between the neighboring houses at his back as he checked his watch. The night sky sparkled with points of light, majority man-made and moving. He made his way to the Qakilik courtyard, where SmartSoft had installed the town’s only ultra high speed T-17 terminal for public use some years ago. A simple 3rd generation cable connection had been installed in the majority of the homes; “Not fast enough, I’m afraid”. Each connection trickled into the Earth to the main line which ran through western China like an electronic version of the Great Wall. The PRC government kept it very close to the chest; the expansion of Internet to the badlands of the State proved financially valuable but culturally volatile.
Depending upon which version you’re watching, the Simpsons couch-gag from this past Sunday by infamous British street artistBanksy has been viewed anywhere from 1 million to nearly 3 million times on YouTube. And, depending upon where you chill on the web, chances are you’ve seen the thing embedded in about 13 blogs and Facebooks and Twitters and whatnot. It’s everywhere right now. One guy I know — who actually I respect quite a bit — said it was “the best thing the Simpsons have done for a long time”. I first learned of the bit from one of my favorite websites/bloggers John of SuperPunch.
It’s ballsy. I’ll give Matt Groening and co. that much. If you haven’t seen it (I’ll provide the link again), the end showcases the famous 20th Century Fox as a sort of barbed-wire internment camp. But since the mid-90′s — when the show absolutely owned the ratings — the Simpsons have been making cracks about the evil that is NewsCorp. A clip compilation from that time would work well to Springsteen’s “Glory Days”, wouldn’t it? I guess I’m saying this is nothing new. Sure, the inclusion of a guy like Banksy is… a street/graffiti artist who’s shit has been painted over time and time again from the streets of London to Bejing… but the concept itself is much more like the 2010 iteration of the show: stale, tired, and more self-parochial than self-deprecating.
The unicorn and panda bears are what really twists the knife in the ribs with this bit. By including those, the gag goes from a serious indictment of the way the global economic machine works (and not just NewsCorp, the system in general) to a over-the-top laugh factory who’s laughs are also manufactured somewhere in India. If you’re gonna go this route, go balls to the wall. Don’t go half-way, then pull back the curtain to reveal abused unicorns and panda bears hauling wheel-barrows full of Bart Simpson dolls. You can’t have it both ways: either be hated and feared by your bosses, or don’t go this way at all anymore.
I mean, I get it. It’s Banksy we’re talking here and the trademark dark-humor of his pieces needed to be on display. I still think the unicorn and panda bears destroy the gag. Speaking of Banksy, if you look up any of his street art you will rarely, if EVER, find his name overtly obvious in the piece. Maybe he signs in the corner, but a piece of Banksy graffiti is recognizable enough without him signing. So, I thought it was incredibly lame (maybe this wasn’t his idea, I don’t know) that his name had to be so obviously splattered all over a Springfield billboard for all the world to see. You wanna get paid by a massive international corporation, and one as shady as NewsCorp? Fine. I ain’t even gonna call you a sell-out or lose respect (trust me, enough people already do and have). Get paid. But don’t be the guy who cashes in a check from a corporation (as a “socially conscious” street artist) and also say, “oh, and in case you didn’t know, this is ME doing this” for the publicity on top of the check. Especially when your regular art doesn’t do that to begin with.
I dunno. Like I say, it is ballsy perhaps… but the entire thing just don’t sit right with me.
I was introduced to an ironic toy company called SUCKADELIC TOYSby, guess who/where, SuperPunch. I tried finding their website to link to it, but apparently they don’t have one. Which is too bad, cause they do some awesomely awesome stuff. And I’ve been babbeling about serious (kind of) things too much lately. So here’s a few examples of what Suckadelic does with Star Wars items. Ok- found the site and it’s posted up there now. Apparently this all started with a guy who made a mixtape entitled “Star Wars Breakbeats”, which I’d love to get my grubs on. They started making toys around 2001. I’m fairly certain most of their stuff is Star Wars themed. Check it:
An AT-AT Walker (which apparently is never even uttered in Empire Strikes Back. So I’m not sure how anyone knows what it’s called. Extended Universe, I guess. Never knew how far EU’s reach actually is) tagged as heck with graffiti I’m assuming from Mos Eisley…
Here’s a version of Boba Fett crucified onto an un-foiled “in attack position” X-Wing, around a celebratory display which reminds me of 1920′s America, specifically the Roman Catholic processions featured in The Godfather II. See, Jesus, Star Wars bounty hunters, mafia movies, history, it all connects somehow…
And this is exactly what it looks like, a “Stormtrooper DJ”:
