country hip-hop

i went to a nutty bar/nightclub called the high forty in the "dry" county of russelville, arkansas. the racial tension was palpable. one minute a live band would be playing "every rose has it's thorn" and 60 cowboys would be slow dancing on a huge, circular, fence in-cased dance floor straight out of coal miner's daughter. the next minute a dj would play some little john song and the cowboys would clear to the bar while black and white "thugs" alike would get jiggy with the young women. needless to say i did quite a bit of people watching...

the mid-west is a strange place..

oh canada!

there's been a number of disturbing g-20 videos but this one seems especially irrational..

jamm on..

usa. consider yourself jammed.

so i got into l.a. late last night thus completing the cross-country drive. i stayed with some friendly friends and had a grand ol' time. i got sick of my cd's about 4 hours into the drive so i spent a lot of time scanning the fm and am dials. sometimes i'd get lucky and find a college station playing good music or hear a particularly irrational diatribe from someone like limbaugh but mostly a good find would be a clear n.p.r signal or something like ac/dc - thunderstruck...

still, through most of the mid-west, the music selection consisted of either country or baad top 40. i think if hear even a second of that terrible katy perry song i'll vomit uncontrollably..

but the worst song, without question, that kept finding its way through my speakers was this:

quote of the day

"We have to have a little back-and-forth every once in a while or this place would be boring as hell." —Republican Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah on why he interrupted Kagan during hearings.

theres nothin wrong with a little glam

quote of the day

“The only time in my life I smoked angel dust was by accident and it was on a double date with Andy Warhol and Michael Jackson.”
-Mark Mothersbaugh

The Third Depression

Recessions are common; depressions are rare. As far as I can tell, there were only two eras in economic history that were widely described as “depressions” at the time: the years of deflation and instability that followed the Panic of 1873 and the years of mass unemployment that followed the financial crisis of 1929-31. Neither the Long Depression of the 19th century nor the Great Depression of the 20th was an era of nonstop decline — on the contrary, both included periods when the economy grew. But these episodes of improvement were never enough to undo the damage from the initial slump, and were followed by relapses.

We are now, I fear, in the early stages of a third depression. It will probably look more like the Long Depression than the much more severe Great Depression. But the cost — to the world economy and, above all, to the millions of lives blighted by the absence of jobs — will nonetheless be immense. And this third depression will be primarily a failure of policy. Around the world — most recently at last weekend’s deeply discouraging G-20 meeting — governments are obsessing about inflation when the real threat is deflation, preaching the need for belt-tightening when the real problem is inadequate spending.

Why the wrong turn in policy? The hard-liners often invoke the troubles facing Greece and other nations around the edges of Europe to justify their actions. And it’s true that bond investors have turned on governments with intractable deficits. But there is no evidence that short-run fiscal austerity in the face of a depressed economy reassures investors. On the contrary: Greece has agreed to harsh austerity, only to find its risk spreads growing ever wider; Ireland has imposed savage cuts in public spending, only to be treated by the markets as a worse risk than Spain, which has been far more reluctant to take the hard-liners’ medicine. It’s almost as if the financial markets understand what policy makers seemingly don’t: that while long-term fiscal responsibility is important, slashing spending in the midst of a depression, which deepens that depression and paves the way for deflation, is actually self-defeating.

And who will pay the price for this triumph of orthodoxy? The answer is, tens of millions of unemployed workers, many of whom will go jobless for years, and some of whom will never work again.

Krugman
Full NYT Article

Damn. Krugman hasn't exactly been the most positive commentator for the last, well, two yeas, so let's hope he's overreacting a bit. I don't want to have to live abroad for the next decade. (Everyone will still want to learn English even after the Western economies collapse, right?)

animal collective-guys eyes

say what you will about AC, but this video and song rulllllee real hard. who doesn't like vintage surfing/skating/girl videos? and layers of vocals and sweet music?

check it

zomby-helter skelter

more creepy dawn of the dead music,
this is their only good song
everything else is way to dub-step,
but if you live in tahoe you'll probably love it...

especially if you live in a giant dome that plays anime on repeat

rangers-out past curfew

RANGERS "OUT PAST CURFEW" from OLDE ENGLISH SPELLING BEE on Vimeo.

sick song, sick band
love old psyche type electronic stuff
kind of sounds like the music from dawn of the dead

The Murder of Oscar Grant

Since I've been living in Oakland I have been hearing about the murder of Oscar Grant by a group of demented BART police. I finally looked up the footage online... Its pretty staggering, especially considering how it was done in plain site and if you watch closely one little piggy puts his knees on the cuffed Oscar while the other draws his gun an shoots him in the back. What the fuck? Apparently after the shooting there was some rioting, but I have a feeling the cop is gonna get out of it and the Oakland pig pen is gonna burn...

BP preparing to drill off Alaskan coast

The future of BP’s offshore oil operations in the Gulf of Mexico has been thrown into doubt by the recent drilling disaster and court wrangling over a moratorium. But about three miles off the coast of Alaska, BP is moving ahead with a controversial and potentially record-setting project to drill two miles under the sea and then six to eight miles horizontally to reach what is believed to be a 100-million-barrel reservoir of oil under federal waters.

All other new projects in the Arctic have been halted by the Obama administration’s moratorium on offshore drilling, including more traditional projects like Shell Oil’s plans to drill three wells in the Chukchi Sea and two in the Beaufort. But BP’s project, called Liberty, has been exempted as regulators have granted it status as an “onshore” project even though it is about three miles off the coast in the Beaufort Sea. The reason: it sits on an artificial island — a 31-acre pile of gravel in about 22 feet of water — built by BP.

The project has already received its state and federal environmental permits, but BP has yet to file its final application to federal regulators to begin drilling, which it expects to start in the fall. Some scientists and environmentalists say that other factors have helped keep the project moving forward. Rather than conducting their own independent analysis, federal regulators, in a break from usual practice, allowed BP in 2007 to write its own environmental review for the project as well as its own consultation documents relating to the Endangered Species Act, according to two scientists from the Alaska office of the federal Mineral Management Service that oversees drilling.

The environmental assessment was taken away from the agency’s unit that typically handles such reviews, and put in the hands of a different division that was more pro-drilling, said the scientists, who discussed the process because they remained opposed to how it was handled.

“The whole process for approving Liberty was bizarre,” one of the federal scientists said. The scientists and other critics say they are worried about a replay of the disaster in the Gulf of Mexico because the Liberty project involves a method of drilling called extended reach that experts say is more prone to the types of gas kicks that triggered the explosion on the Deepwater Horizon.

“It makes no sense,” said Rebecca Noblin, the Alaska director for the Center for Biological Diversity, an environmental watchdog group. “BP pushes the envelope in the gulf and ends up causing the moratorium. And now in the Arctic they are forging ahead again with untested technology, and as a result they’re the only ones left being allowed to drill there.”

Full NYT Article
Rolling Stone
Really?

fuck bp! fuck that asshole heyward too...

tobacco.

"chill-wave" is the worst genre name i've ever heard but this small black remix is quite palatable. if that makes sense..

tim and eric influence anybody?

don't forget about tony clifton..

mayor menino.

how in the hell such a bad public speaker could be elected mayor to a city the size of boston is beyond me.

i like the cut of his jib though...

the strife aquatic.

haven't seen much of the daily show lately but this had me chuckling..

gasland.

this seems like a pretty big deal..

sonny smith!

awesome.

check sonny and the sunsets - "lovin' on an older gal" aka the best song ever. or my favorite song of last month...

but i still love it..

reeeeaalllyyy cool vid to another sonny song too...
(not one of those, "yeah man, i watched it, it was cool.." even though you never watched it.. it's better than cocaine without crystal meth in it)

raekwon.

hot new track produced by alchemist? well, more of a re-hashed breakbeat but those never get old..

i'm not sure what rae is getting at here but i'm down with the program..

general Stanley McChrystal everybody..

the interview that everyone's talking about..

it's a good article that can give both spectrums a podium to argue on.

i still think anyone who backs rumsfeld's claim of "stuff happens" regarding the looting of precious artworks and general rioting following the u.s.'s unlawful invasion of iraq can't be that smart.

but i'm also a pussy who thinks war and red corvettes are for rich people with small dicks.. fukk it.

The Damanhur

My roommate has a few back issues of a fascinating quarterly that goes by the name "Cabinet." In the "Underground" themed issue, (as in physically under ground... not exclusively hip) I learned of this contemporary spiritual group called the Damanhur that constructed this incredible temple shown above, deep in the Italian Alps. The cause for the Temple is fairly archetypal... In 1978 a falling star fell from the sky apparently striking the point of the entry to the temple, but the subsequent construction effort is like something out of ancient Egypt. Over the next 14 years a small but expanding group of followers dug 45 meters into the side of mountain in complete secrecy, until a dissident member informed the Catholic church and the group was found out. Here is an excerpt from the article describing the first non-Damanhurian reactions to the temple:

"In 1992, the government prosecutor Bruno Tinto arrived at Damanhur. He had procured more complete documentation of the sect’s activities from an unidentified source and demanded to be taken to the underground temple. He threatened to drill the mountain out of existence if the Damanhurians did not cooperate. Realizing he had no other option, Falco acceded and led the prosecutor and four policemen into the mountain. An hour later, they reemerged. The prosecutor led the group, his head bowed down. The local chief of police was sobbing: he’d never seen anything so beautiful in all his life."

Here is a link to the whole article... read it and check out many of the other fascinating shit on the site.

http://www.cabinetmagazine.org/issues/30/bartas.php

game 7.

it all comes down to scal.

just 3 boyz.

at 3:50 could be the best tim and eric song ever constructed. and that's saying something...

brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

i know this an old bit but hitler always makes me laugh.. as does shitting on the vuvuzelas..

world cup protests.

"Get out Fifa mafia!" chanted the crowds in a Durban park, their ranks swelled by stewards who were involved in clashes with riot police on Monday after protests over their wages.

Monday's protests triggered walkouts by other stewards, which have led South Africa's police to take control at the World Cup stadiums in Cape Town, Port Elizabeth, Johannesburg and Durban.

Ever since it was awarded the staging rights, South Africa's government has faced accusations it should not be spending hundreds of millions of dollars on stadiums when about 40% of the population lives on less than $2 a day."

..

the south african government is also asking citizens to curb their electrical use:

"We urge our communities and the public at large to continuously reduce their consumption of electricity, and thus ensure that Eskom and other role-players are able to keep the lights on,” Energy Minister Dipuo Peters said.

The minister expressed satisfaction that the stadia hosting the games have not experienced any electricity disruption so far."

FUCK COPS.

the catalyst for this confrontation? the douche cop tried to arrest somebody for jaywalking. jaywalking.

greatest trailer park boys scene ever?

fuck i love ray. way it goes..

go celts!

classic celtics/lakers circa 2002.

even though the outcome could be debatable it's still fun to watch 'toine bank in a three and watch him run his mouth.

i actually really liked that '02 eastern conf. finals team looking back on it. 'snipe and i booed a lot of opposing players that season.

that team would've also given the lakers a way better series than the shitty nets who of course got swept...

you make the call.

conspiracy? or just some unemployed, uncharismatic, obsenity-charged-with go-getter who, not only never even put a sign up in terms of campaigning, but managed to muster the $10,000 candidate declaration fee and then beat a heavily campaigning, four time state senator incumbent...

this whole thing just stinks but i'm still waiting to see how it all shakes out...

War ended by Trillion dollar discovery?

According to the NY times they have discovered mineral deposits in Afghanistan that could be worth $1 trillion. These resources include the next demand of our modern unsustainable society, lithium. As we all know, no 'civilized' person can function without a blackberry or iphone. This is actually quite good news that could potentially do great things for an economy whose main source of income is opium. It can also potentially bring our brothers and sisters home. But, look forward to a US attempt to exploit these minerals in a manner that might just send troops back after mining begins.

Classic UK new wave (The Rezillos)

I love this

Wikipedia

Apparently, or unfortunately, in 1998 two members also worked on this
world cup gem that once again proves how freakin connected
everything is, since I was reminded of this band shortly after
watching the english goalie choke like he doesn't chew his steak.

bp is pathetic.

but upright citizen's brigade is funny.

designated driver.

such a great bit. you can find all four parts on youtube..

at 1:01..

whoomp there obama is! i think it's him..

The Freegan Establishment

This recent NyTimes magazine article discusses a Freegan squat in Buffalo NY where some rad shit is going on. These dumpster rats are living in a giant abandoned mansion in plain sight of the neighbors and the local authorities, but due to thier persistent renovation of the property they have not only been allowed to stay, but have been granted ownership of the property. Heres the link to the article (The link insert is jamming me so cut and past it):

"http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/06/magazine/06Squatters-t.html?hpw

You asked for it

Richard Dunn. RIP. if you don't watch them all and give this post 5 stars you will be haunted by Dunn. But don't not do it just so Dunn will haunt you. that's a dick move.

bored with tortilla's on the brain.

windows movie maker sucks. but hey.

beantown thug life.

still not sure if it's better than the 80s celtic's pride...

go celtics.

not sure how or why i managed to find this..

it's so many emotions on so many levels..

another reason to sort of like al gore.

he finally divorced tipper. with a name like tipper and a crusade against freespeech in the form of the PMRC on her resume, she sucks. here's ice t, jello biafra, and the tip arguing on Oprah in the 80's:



you can find all 5 parts on youtube..

don't forget about the kiss either..