Luc Sante wrote a great essay on the history of New Year's celebrations, with a titular nod to a song I'll be humming at my laptop tomorrow while blasphemously drinking Canadian whisky regifted by my grandmother. It was published decades before the Observer had a real website, so I can't link to the full thing, just transcribe.
Perpetuate a travesty, and digg this scat-anthemic remix of Justin Timberlake's "SexyBack"
Is an alcoholic internet junky's delight--seems others have followed Genna's lead: laptop wielders sandwiched in Paradise can suck down queer Irish and Adair's wifi... which allows us to bring you this unconscionable excerpting of a Townes Van Zandt bio, (theoretically pegged to a Cowboy Junkies show at the Majestic) by a journo/prof/multi-instrumentalist who last recorded for Crustacean. And this further exploration of the majesty of Shopbop.com.
We mentioned that Kay Sai and Jay Olsen's StoryBridge.tv might produce material for Isthmus/Daily Page. That was mostly correct.
What we didn't reveal? Shilv inked a similar deal that will generate vlogs exclusive to Shiv/Shill/Shine. A taste of what's to come appears below. Quirky cobranding, huh?
The Shiv/Shill/Shine services page alludes to a variety of different skills and assets we can deploy to help you blow up your business. We neglected to mention our French-to-English pop translation option. PROOF OF CONCEPT: Sh/Sh/Sh agent Ivanka Trump translates the lyrics of "Boule de cristal meth"--or if you prefer, "Boule de crystal meth"--by Montreal's Malajube, who will be playing Memorial Union Music Hall tomorrow night.
Also, we have writers whose last name is not Cameron, who will review mixtapes like Cam'ron's Public Enemy #1. Word to the patron saint Larry David.
Shiv/Shill/Shine reports ineffectually (never got around to donating plasma to fund the excursion) record dig at St. Vinny's annual record sale. When I've been awake too long, my shit starts rhyming.
but there's new audio on Shiv/Shill/Shine, once again covering Madison's shouty Library Mall beat.
...for cluttering up the whimsical pop-culture zone with some media giggles that would've once been this blog's bread and butter. The audio-sharing server is down for maintenance tonight, so I couldn't post the planned teaser of the earth-shattering interview with Ashok. Strike that--audio up... click to hear Ashok Kumar discussing the political imperative of the google alert.
Shiv/Shill/Shine remains a non-profit entity, but we just crudely inserted some Ad-Sense in the hopes of recouping a fraction of our unbearable overhead, while various other shill-whoring arrangements are hashed out. Those algorithms got inside the minds of our readership right quick.
WSUM benefit @ King Club previewed @ Shiv/Shill/Shine, shillery-hyped @ dailypage, blurbed @ dane101. Though if you've seen one, you've probably seen them all.
This morning, Shiv/Shill/Shine's ambiguously-if at all-gendered publicist comes across an excellent new blog, and does Vicki Mckenna proud by hitting the big foosball game to learn about abortion... from a comic book.
Shillery's background is in PR, so some hyperbole, hyping the hype-puncturing in the former case, may be involved. The back cover of that comic really does say "is this Nazi Germany in 1943?", though.
Today on Shiv/Shill/Shine:
A rap joke from the Streets of Gold Beat Battle elimination round. 18 producers entered, 16 made it through. Must've sucked to be those other two. Press release spam blast to burn up the internets tomorrow.
Also, since Ish-Om has basically become Sh/Sh/Sh's manual RSS feed, for reasons that will become clear soon enough, we should remedy Ish-Om's failure to link to the original announcement that Nathan Meltz's modular House of Tomorrow had been unpacked from the flatbed and reassembled in the Hudson Valley.
The eponymous Shiv/Shill/Shine post, re: social networking via the Mother Fool's permission wall, has been updated to include the eponymous Chris Brown song. And the fact that Shiv/Shill/Shine now exists on Facebook. And yes, we're rather fond of the word eponymous.
...or kicks n' giggles. This morning, Shiv/Shill/Shine extended unsolicited copy-editing services and rewrote Context Clothing's online blurbs. Context's site is pretty slick and functional, and a great deal of care seems to go into the graphic presentation of their wares. Yet the accompanying text ranges from endearingly hyperbolic, but sloppy--to cosmopolitanism run back and forth through babelfish a few too many times. Perhaps there are typos on our post, too. Do point them out.
Disclaimers/Disclosures:
Quincy Hoist's DJ debut beyond the WSUM cradle is in but a few hours. To commemorate the occasion, he has written up a typically cryptic sh/sh/sh contributor page auto-bio.
More Shiv/Shill/Shine shilling:
This blog will revert to arbitrary sniping once it relocates: for now, it will continue shilling, since we've heard our RSS feeds aren't quite working elsewhere.
...endorsement of Paolo Nutini's show @ the Barrymore tonight. Because we'll be drinking and ogling Big Rigs.*
since we feel guilty about something we wrote a few weeks ago, we'll probably bring a bottle of wine
Today @ Shiv/Shill/Shine:
Today on Shiv/Shill/Shine: Quincy Hoist, pallbearer of ill will, posts as panting Burial fanboy, explains why moody low end theory has supplanted his indie rock diet. On October 18th, he'll serve equally OCD platters @ Cafe Montmartre. I've been bugging him for a preview mix, so hopefully that will surface next week.
Kanye West really 'likes' dykes: misappellation examined @ Shiv/Shill/Shine. A quick googling reveals this particular preoccupation--especially the recycled verse that took "months" to write after he tapped Daft Punk--has been widely referenced,* some speculating that he's not ignorant, but merely an enthusiastic voyeur who fantasizes about unwinding after shows by watching two lesbians make out. This post is less generous.
*If it's behind the blog cycle, blame Hastings for taking too long to format/publish--twas conceived a few weeks ago.
Just posted: Shiv/Shill/Shine's guide to fall fashion. Neither clairvoyant prose nor pseudonym is mine--but I picked up a bundle of sticks the author dropped, and edited out some low-hanging American Apparel. His nom de plume was apparently non-negotiable. And why quibble when there's such a scarcity of anonymous writers with eyes and ears to the street?
Speaking of which, now's as good a time as any to congratulate Emily Denaro on her quarter-centennial. Yep, she's 25 posts (weeks?) into her pseudonymous Daily Page column. No longer a new girl, is E$.
"...It will make your brains turn into puree of bat guano."
We've been led to believe Mark Ronson's sugary post-September 11th commentary was actually inspired by Jesse Russell's Vitamin Water detox plan.
...but I'm bitter as shit that this scored lower technically than "northern state"*
MUWWAHAHA! In another venue, we'll explain how Aesop Rock is exactly like Nas, and expect you to take us very seriously, but for now, bask in the hilarity that is Aesop's fabled e-street team flipping their shit in the comments of the above-linked review.
* you already knew, though.
Oh Word has the exclusive Bin Laden interview, antidote to imminent 9/11 handwringing:
I needed some next shit. I can’t keep coming back with the same steez. The industry is hurting right now with downloading and security around tall buildings n’ airports being up.
Don't know when this was first posted*, or if it's been mentioned by members of the respective publications, but the Badger Herald and Daily Cardinal are both finalists for the Associated Collegiate Press' 2007 Newspaper Pacemaker awards, in the 4-year daily paper category. MATC's Clarion represents in the 2-year category. Winners will be announced at some pow-wow in late October.
These things were submitted pre-D.C. redesign... local Online Pacemakers, not so much.
Individual finalists:
The Daily Cardinal's Erik Opsal (for News Page/Spread design) and Phil Hands (Editorial Cartoon). Phil's drawing hands professionally caress other pages, though.
*entire post via creepy google alert, too lazy to search further
Pick up this week's Onion to read an explosive conversation with Neeta Saluja, local author of Six Spices: A Simple Concept of Indian Cooking, who will be having a book release party tonight @ Whole Foods from 6-8pm. This, rather than the initial signing, is the event to attend, as Saluja indicated the stack of books will be accompanied by “aalu bhar—spicy potato and peas baked in a puff pastry. Often I serve it as an appetizer or a snack food. And also these corn fritters, makki pakoras: corn mixed with chickpea flour, Cream of Wheat and spices—and you just deep-fry that. For dessert I'm going to have gulab-jamun. It's a milk preparation, enriched: you make the dough with milk powder, and then you fry them and put them in syrup, and it's really, really good.” You’ll find the corresponding recipes on pages 134, 124, and 149 of Six Spices (Jones Books, '07)
This is not a revolutionary, or particularly socially/environmentally conscious blog, but we dedicate the track below to the student walking down State Street who has some sort of class orientation tonight at the "anti-globalization bookstore... you know, Rainbow Books."
The same fellow seemed rather eager to be outed as a b-schooler: "what will they do when they find out I'm a capitalist pig?!"
Closeted capitalists and conscious rap types alike should head to the Memorial Union Terrace around 8pm. WTO protest nostalgia optional.
Blue Scholars, "50 Thousand Deep", off Bayani
If you are a blogger in Madison running an ad-sense widget for shits and giggles, you should probably check this FAQ out and contact the principals, if you haven't already.
What a socially responsible way to put on an eating contest! There's an Ian's pizza inhalation race happening on Library Mall right now. Winner gets a semester's worth of pie (actually $7 in weekly gift certificates). Pretty sure I could've won the thing if I'd known about it in advance--and forgone lunch, subsequent appetite suppressants.
Only happened upon the event because Daft Punk's Mr. West's "Stronger" on large speakers pricked my ears while I logged time at the office. Unfortunately the pizza pitchmen promptly cut the track short and queued up that fucking Cake song.
To keep our Sept 11th-isms in parallel, here's a recast version from the francophile who passed Kanye the record in the first place.
Kanye West, "Stronger" [A-Trak remix]
We've resolved to avoid drinking for 2 weeks in order to fund server space (rent?) but this teetotalist agenda doesn't preclude us from accepting free booze.
"Once you’re done getting your shop on, Cork ‘n’ Bottle will be having an Ale Asylum beer tasting from 4-6 pm today and their usual wine tasting at 3pm tomorrow."
Where do you drink--socially, not at home?
Lonesome Wyatt: I don't have SOCIAL---
--where do you drink by yourself, when you're not at home?
LW: In the ditch, junkyard.
Do you have a favorite ditch?
LW: Shallow ditch, with a puddle of water. "The shallow ditch," I guess it's called... with water.
Vincent Presley: You know that one?
Where might I find that?
LW: It finds you.
What about the puddle we walked by earlier?
LW: That won't do.
KF1: Yeah, all the hot guys in Milwaukee are straight.Natt Spil curbside, Tuesday night, kindly fellows psych up a friend: she's moving to Milwaukee, where there's "lots of opportunity" to snag the heterosexual drinking buddies she richly "deserves."
KF2: Cause all the gays moved to Chicago.
"Out of my backpack I share four magazines: Interview, Vogue, Entertainment Weekly, Vanity Fair. These, I had hoped, would appeal to the former art student who had lived in the Village near N.Y.U. with two other post-punk roommates when the Clash were the Coldplay of their time."
[emph. added] NY Times, via Gawker, memory triggered by Fresh Foods
There's a piece surveying wheat beers in the current issue of The Onion. Note that it was written when the morning commute involved shirts sweating through by 7AM, rather than coasting through a cool, umm, spritz. The most notable omission*, New Glarus' Dancing Man Wheat, already got a shout-out in a previous issue--and an initial attempt to shoehorn Fearful Symmetries into the intro led to some piece-wide bloat. The original, politically-charged context was funnier anyway.
Also, tangentially re: something else I'm way behind on: KRS-One talks about reclaiming the n-word, Fat Joe.
*also checked a bunch of places for Viking's Belgian Dim Whit (July seasonal), with no luck
We recently abandoned a half-assed plan to move to an eastern jenga tower of vocational contingencies and dubious crash pads--settling on a more prudent 12-month plan. And while we remain so hell-bent on pursuing a poorer quality of life that we won't think twice about donating our bodies to science and nursing stimulant addictions, at least we won't be tempted to pull this sort of growth-stunt journalism in Madison.
... adds Kelly Nolan angle to Channel 3000 piece that first aired in June.
Allow us to summarize the "story": The MPD has this Arrest Transport Vehicle. It's like a paddywagon, but a van--and less offensive to Irish people! Officers throw semi-belligerent drunk people into the ATV. If drunks calm down, they get to walk away with scoldings and tickets.
To take our food coverage beyond hip-hop buffet endorsements (although expanding that, indie rock cookbook-style, could be fun. Don't "steal" that idea!) we offer the following update:
At some point in July, we were told that Med Cafe was only making one pot of soup a day, owing to the youth-migration business dip. So we resigned ourselves to the reign of the lentil, and conceded it made sense for that pot to go vegan. The imminent return of the youth means business hours have recently extended and freedom of choice has been restored. Which means fewer frustrated trips to Chipotle and Potbelly's when the proprietors of this blog take 4pm lunch breaks--closing time is back to the school year's 4:30pm.
More importantly, the sublime lemon-chicken-egg goop that is avgolemono should be regularly available. Or at least, we had some 30 minutes ago.
If you are ravenous and starch-addicted, consider the "soup over rice" option: an additional $.75 ($2.25, up from $1.50) will get it splattered over a mound of color-matched saffron rice (sometimes oily, but always filling). We're pretty sure you get more rice if you order to go: the carry-out boxes harbor deep wells that demand filling.
Related:
Haven't seen posted elsewhere, but we noticed a Kweli show on the Barrymore marquee yesterday, while Golf-ing (Jewish driver: "it's my holocaust hooptie") shotgun. The venue calendar confirms. [update: also on the bill are DJ Chaps--presumably Kweli's tour DJ--and Rob Dz.]
el guante: Like, I see people on the street wearing Talib Kweli t-shirts or something and I think for a second "maybe I should give them a flier"--but then, for the most part, I'm not interested in getting the underground hip-hop audience. In my experience--and I don't want to paint with too broad of a brush stroke--but in my experience that's a very close-minded audience...====
Sure, there's that electricifyingly self-aware track, but our favorite beat off Kweli's forthcoming (8/21) Ear Drum is right here:rhymes turn a new page like Mark Foley--touched kids like when Larry Clark gave the part to Chloë
The media play a vital role in letting the public know what's going on in their communities. The media's job is to aid police in pursuit of terrible criminals when possible. The media's job also requires asking tough questions about whether the public is being properly protected and informed.
Alternate job description: entails reading Dane 101, fleshing things out a bit?
... or just hop into a van with Minnesota plates. Let's continue the onslaught, by asking El Guante about geographical matters and CD sales, because hip-hop fandom is all about state lines and stats.
I just opened the current issue of The Onion to make sure I don't go redundant with the Guante papers, and ran across the finest pronged insult I've read all week. The purple-hooded Pony Boy above is theoretically strumming his heart out at Montmartre as I type:
The buildup to Matt White's forthcoming debut album, Best Days, took the former UW-Madison student from playing in the New York subway to tour dates with John Mayer and Sheryl Crow and a spot on the Shrek The Third Soundtrack. Unfortunately, the result is a laborious, generic coffeehouse lament, produced with an excessive polish rivaled only by White's rather threatening cliff of shellacked hair.
I first saw this promo video projected onto a large screen, audio presumably dispersed by heavy-duty speakers. All they needed was to get the machine in question on a rotating stage with some spokesmodels, and the auto-show ambiance would've been complete. Anyway, it's not quite as majestic in google video embeddable format, but remains an entertaining clusterfuck: a mish-mash of car-ad tropes overwhelming a company's folksy past. To what end, exactly? The future.
For any semblance of context, you should check The Onion's Madison A.V. Club for a piece entitled, "My Square Peg, Your Round Hole"--and back here later today for an update of this post, containing a Q&A with one of the video's producers.
Here's that debut piece from last week's issue, re: Ka-boom!Box's monthly DJ sets @ Mickey's, with accompanying podcast.
Kyle Myhre, aka El Guante, recently posted a few points of clarification re: my Q&A in the current issue of The Onion with him. WHICH YOU SHOULD STILL GO PICK UP. I think the more open-ended of those points will be addressed as I post more content from our original conversation on Dane101 and Emcees Without Voices but figured I'd get this thing up quickly, since it's actually about a restaurant that I'd hoped would get some additional exposure from the piece, as he'd strongly endorsed it, and mentioned that its business was being hurt by the construction along East Washington.
As per his blog, in the very last item of the Q&A...
One one blog post, you directed everyone in Madison to eat at Taste of Asia. You said, don't ask questions, but why?...Myhre wanted to convey that the East Washington buffet "Taste of Asia is NOT greasy-- i was saying that most places are-- and i like that-- but what makes ToA special is that the food is a bit more classy."
[Laughs] I love Chinese buffets, like good old American, greasy Chinese food. I'm thinking about filming a music video there, or like a YouTube bio. Next time I go, I'll have to talk to them.
Taste of Asia's the best in town because it's not as greasy, it's not just Chinese: they serve Hmong, Laotian, Thai food. We bought a bunch of egg rolls from them for a party we were having, 'cause they were doing a fundraiser: selling these egg rolls to help Hmong immigrants. They're good people, and again, the food is just great. The one thing they don't have is an ice cream machine. If they had that, I'd never leave.Taste of Asia can be found @ 2817 East Washington. They've got a website, but it doesn't seem to have been updated for a while.
What's an ideal meal there?
I like a lot of white rice, which is boring—but also a lot of broccoli from the chicken and broccoli. They also serve really good sesame chicken and General Tso's chicken, because it's crispier: it's not just soggy breaded stuff. But the best thing they have there are the Hmong egg rolls--not as fried as a traditional Chinese buffet egg roll.
I think I helped book the Coup tickets-- Katrina Flores and the Multicultural Student Coalition may have done that though--i don't really remember. I remember being at the Student Travel place for what seemed like hours, but I was probably just following Katrina's orders. haha.
Hastings says:
Pick up this week's Onion to learn what the hell this tumescent red state totem of patriotism was doing at the Commonwealth Gallery a few weeks ago, and who these people are. There is a line in the intro that became a little too tell-not-show-y for my taste, but basically, the whole thing was fun as hell to write, I was thrilled to have the privilege of getting the piece in wide circulation, and wish I could lay claim to the brilliant title (again, see hard-copies of The Onion's Madison A.V. Club) or even the idea in the first place. Will post less cryptically about this later.
When we first saw this Romensko link on Gawker, announcing the Chicago Reader and Washington City Paper's purchase by ATL-based Creative Loafing, our impulse was to prematurely eulogize the Chicago Reader, the weekly that first pointed us to the gallery openings with ice buckets full of Goose Island, and fed us media criticism before we knew what that was (let alone that our first boss when we returned to the city, ever underage, knew the Hot Type scribe). Anyway, we still plan our Chicago excursions by triangulating between friends and fingers pointed randomly at the Reader's picks, and the paper still publishes some of our favorite music writing, so we'll hope all that continues and acknowledge the obvious--that we have no insight into the business side of the papers involved [that the Reader and City Paper had ties to the Stranger and Mercury was news to us as well--see the announcement's footer]...
If you hadn't heard, Jane Magazine is effectively shuttered and its website's closing up shop next month. We can relate, in the sense that that sweet Covance study that was going to finance some globetrotting and resolve our housing situation for a month, fizzled out on us yesterday afternoon. We're not going to pretend we were down with Sassy from the jump or anything, but we fondly recall visiting a friend's summer sublet in Logan Square, grossly extending bathroom trips perusing Jane back issues. [for the articles, really!] We even bought a copy a year ago, when we had designs on pitching a piece on womyn rap producers or something. So we thought we'd preserve the following Madison zine moments for posterity. No quips for now.
excerpted, without permission, from Jane, July '07, "Hit The Road: The MIDWEST," by Brekke Fletcher and Julie Bloom
"After a warning from State Trooper Dubois, we roll into Madison ready for a drink. Inside the cozy Natt Spil (211 King St.; no phone!), we catch the attention of scruffy DJ Chuck Money and chef Dave. "I could tell you were tall by your long torso," Chuck says to Brekke, who totally digs Chuck's sardonic irreverence and his hand on her thigh. He escorts us to late-night spot The Weary Traveler (1201 Williamson St., 608-442-6207), where Julie approaches Ed, a truck driver who looks like Mark Wahlberg. "You can't go anywhere in Madison without running into someone you know," he complains. As if on cue, Andrew, our sexy waiter from dinner, shows up, sits on the other side of Julie, and sets up a love triangle. One $3 beer later, Ed bows out and the four of us head back to Andrew's bachelor digs until the wee hours. The rest is classified."
We just updated two recent posts--one of which to embed a link to Ashley Watkins' podcast, but WSUM's sites are currently down, and the other was sort of dated and the added excerpt lacked the unbridled enthusiasm of a post-fork message* we just received, so stand by, and we'll post something even older and more unrelated.
*"You should write an article on Cool Kids. They were an amazing show. Im obsessed. Make them big. Make them my friends." We think this grossly overestimates our hype generating and groupie-placement powers, but we're taking it under consideration. We'd already asked after that set anyway.
When we mentioned we'd say something about El Guante's penultimate Madison rap show, this is actually what we had in mind (Manchromatic will be performing with him @ the Inferno on Thursday). This one's free, within staggering distance for us--and wallflowering's more appealing when new art's going up.
Our weekend has revolved around homegrown insanity, so we refer you to the work of colleagues.
Start with Drop A Ambulance, reporting from sonetheque. We had planned to preface a link to DAA's post by describing the bar's decor: imagine the interior of a stretch Hummer, upholstery and light fixtures "curated" by a hipster hotelier. Except the Hummer's a fucking spaceship.
Because we live to repost press-release-y shit sans commentary:"The crimethinc. gang (www.crimethinc.com) is touring the midwest. They will be in Madison this Thursday night at Lothlorien co-op. A radical puppet show will lead into workshops and discussions surrounding topics of security culture, consent, and radical mental health... and more. If you are at all interested in the work crimethinc has done in the past then this event is not to be missed. A potluck dinner will take place starting at 6 pm, the show will begin at 7:30 pm. Lothlorien co-op is in downtown Madison at 244 West Lakelawn Place."
Portly man (who was about to handle my condiments) eyeing sandwich rolling out the assembly-line's toaster oven, to coworker:
'Jane,' you're the best fluffer ever. Yours are always perfectly fluffed.H:
So... what's fluffing?PMWWABTHMC:
It's when you spread. The meat--evenly all over the bread.
not the sandwich in question, but evocative nonethelessLast time I was at Natt Spil, the proprietor of At War With Metal was patient enough to watch me eat two Brie and Braeburn pizzas. Tonight, I'll be there, listening to a set by WSUM's Ashley Watkins. She will probably be spinning some combination of dub, reggae, and .... SKA? You should show up and buy her a drink: my checking account is overdrafted, because of shit like buying two pretentious pizzas to gear up for a night AT THE CLUB.
While you should be able to subscribe to her WSUM podcast by heading to the far reaches of the WSUM.NET Cosmos, here's Ashley explaining why she's a vegetarian. I wish I could relay more of her wit beyond the decks, but she's always issuing ominous proclamations about the liberties taken by my blogging style. Join an old email dialogue in medias res, at this relatively mild (affectionate, even?) insult...
AW: hah, you little turd.
H: speaking of which, I've been mesmerized by the [image] below all week, and have had trouble coming up with a pretense to link to it.
It's quite the decadent turd.
AW: bling bling gone too far...diamonds on mah neck, diamonds on mah
grill, titanium in mah gutz/turdz.
reason #30292 why i am a vegetarian.
We do not, quite frankly, have time to outline our futuristically, anachronistically, scatologically oxymoronic syndication scheme to anyone who doesn't have the money to bank-roll the project. If you would like to make an offer, but have lost track of us, the track below explains how to get in touch.
It was really about transparency*, a PSA really, but to anyone who thought this was coming from a madison.com shill, please tune in tomorrow morning, for an unveiling of a new local blog-to-print syndication scheme that will blow POST out of the water. And soak up the mess. Kind of like this.
Now if you'll excuse us, we've got some non-blog work to mop up.
*hence the pseudonym here, obv.
If you hadn't heard, Madison is totally like Austin. And while music bloggers may moan that Madison's lacking in barbecue and multimedia festivals, we often* share some fine alt-weekly film criticism, as...
Austin Chronicle Senior Editor and lead film critic, Marjorie Baumgarten has reviewed
Evening--7/5/07, @ TDP
"If there ain't no light at the end of the tunnel, then build a fire and roast marshmallows on sticks of dynamite..."--El Guante's July 4th Anthem,
"Unmastered"[this was originally a MySpace rip, go there to stream].
Boom?We're going to talk some shit about press releases (and mention a few things re: El Guante's penultimate rap show) whenever we wake up in the afternoon. But first, we'd like to share our favorite line from an email he sent out June 21st:
His blog, "Why Is El Guante So Angry," has become a widely-trafficked local website due to its unique blend of hip hop, politics and vitriol.
As recently as last Wednesday, Saloon-Brink-Ring-bound cyclists had to lock their bikes up on paint-scuffing parking dividers and fences. Or, handlebars permitting, gingerly mount the railing on the south side of the building. But no more! As of last night, there's a proper bike parking lot. (Seen above, through night-vision goggles.) Don't know when it was installed, but it was new enough that the guy manning the door, who biked to work, hadn't noticed it.
NOTE: if you care to blog and drink during an empty hip-hop show, set up your laptop at the stage left mini-bar, and you'll pull down a decent wireless signal (it's closer to the office). The balcony, not so much.
Since copping the Killer Genuine Draft mixtape at last Thursday's Ghetto Fusion-F.A.B. King Club show, I've decided to retire from music blogging and write press releases for a forthcoming album of murderous craft brew jingles by a member of the Public Drunkards.
You can catch a Ghetto F.A.B. profile at the Madison Times. Perhaps the author could've inquired about Curtis Mayfield's influence on SYAD: "Sit your ass down. Bitch, sit your ass down."
Or maybe gone to a show*?
Ghetto F.A.B. is apparently known for high-energy, live performances: The two say they'll give an "unforgettable performance" every time. While Isabell lures the girls with his "rugged delivery" — he is often referred to as a “lady's man” — Loving does his part by giving the audience a reason to stay on their feet.
"We please the crowd," Isabell gloatted [sic] playfully. "They chant with us; we pull people on stage. We even talk to them afterwards."
So I guess it's safe to say that Ghetto F.A.B. is all about having fun.
...skip down to the last track, "Art World," Coolzey's nightmarish, funny vision of a culture superstore that's losing ground to independent creatives. Coolzey takes the voice of the company, indignant that "we even took the safest art, made it into glossy posters,/ but they wouldn't but the shit, so we had no sales turnover/ I want to bend them over and spank them all, very long and hard/ only two percent of the kids we solicited applied for an Art World card."
I gather Bostonians RADIx are headlining. If you go to their myspace, you will hear that they, like Kidz in the Hall, could not leave "93 'til infinity" well enough alone.
- Download Coolzey's Biz Markie homage
"French Fries and Ice Cream" [mp3, right-click, save-as]- Read Coolzey's interview Maximum Ink interview. He was going to tour with the Crest, or something. Who knew? I didn't.
In recent years Madison has lost McDermot's, Bookworks, Big Deal Books, and is about to lose Star Books.I'd walked by recently and seen a poster in the window reminding customers to place Harry Potter pre-orders. The latest installment's slated for July 21st publication, so that didn't strike me as the last gasp of a business about to advertise a 25%-off storewide clearance sale...
I recently stopped by Avol's while Bookworks owner Peter Dast was on the premises, and interrupted his late lunch of Fat Squirrel and a messy burger (some sort of sauce-laden sandwich, at least) but he was happy to chat re: the ethics of dealer competition, book digitization a la Bartelby and google, and the impact print-on-demand technologies will have on the long-tail of obscure academic texts. Oh, and recommend some books (19th century travel is a particular passion). I offered a vague prompt--"my sister's going to be working in Indonesia, so..."--and now have two more to add to the reading/moving crates. And some Redmond O'Hanlon to track down.if you stop by, be aware that we are on the second floor of 1421 S. Park (just north of Arby's and Midas Muffler, across the street from the Labor Temple). I'm here (unless I'm at the post office) 10:00-5:30 mon-sat., and noon-5:00 on Sunday.
Just posted Bookworks owner Peter Dast's response to a surveyish thing I was trying to put together on Post.
Earlier this morning, I sent Peter a follow-up email that commiserated a bit re: the reader poll's failure to gain traction, and ask if it would be ok to post his reply outside of the context of the broad bookseller survey originally envisioned. The lightly edited excerpt below references my own e-book wariness, and responds to Peter's question,
For example--as a writer, don't you feel you want or need a nice hardcover copy of Strunk & White, Webster's Second Unabridged, maybe an OED, and old hardcover editions of your favorite essayists or journalists?"====
As a telecommuting writer/blogger whose first real rent-paying piece was for a website, my personal relationship with books is really one that revolves around decompression, and literally unplugging from the day's work. I often stare at one screen or another for much of the day, and wind down by going to bed with a book--usually short stories and essays. I'm guessing an e-book reader with a backlit screen would feel a little too vocational for comfort. I'd rather continue falling asleep with the lights on and waking up with paper cuts on place-holding fingers--or spine imprints on my face.
You invoked a writerly canon of reference materials, so I figured I'd share mine. I haven't graduated from paperback copies of Chicago and AP style manuals, Strunk and White (and rarely, if ever, consult them). The reference books I value and revisit regularly were given to me by friends [as jokes, i.e. a 1930's vocab-building workbook or revolve around hip-hop. I think the most interesting contemporary explorations of the genre are published by writers with one foot in the "blogosphere" and another planted elsewhere (to name a few career lanes of favorites: academia, big box retail, fast food, lock-smithery, magazine writing--even PR), but there are a few texts with staggering historical sweep that I flip through regularly--Can't Stop Won't Stop, Yes Yes Y'all, Hip Hop America, the Vibe History of Hip Hop. I'm ashamed to say I don't own the two books that best embody hip-hop in written form. Ego Trip's Book of Rap Lists and Big Book of Racism ARE the concise and contradictory wit, wordplay, humor and outrage that drew me to hip-hop in the first place, and I need to stop checking them out of the library.
Forthcoming posts will visit the stores that remain, for now.
I probably said a lot of self-absorbed and incoherent shit--and frankly forgot the thing was being taped (hence the near-slip-up on the punk house. Always swore to give Camp Randall as the address--Blues Brothers style). Blame it on the dehydration.
I'll eventually clarify what I said about yet another prospective publication--that was more wishful thinking than prediction, hopes that some of the flickers that appear across local blogs and publications like Emmie found themselves under one flaming masthead. There may've been a dash of what would've Coreweekly* become with a proper website? nostalgia thrown in there too. Also maybe I should follow up on the stuff about local rap, and post the MySpace of that Miami backpack rapper...
Three pressing items first, though.
Curated by...Wisconsin State Journal publisher--and DJ emeritus!--builder Bill Johnston.
This was basically random rules, with a laptop. Posting seemed apropos, 'cause moments later someone messaged a recommendation request. Sponsored by Charter and Oakland Property Management.
Check the near-eponymous debut track, and...
Download:
Nicolay and Supastition, "The Williams" [z-share-d mp3]
Hello. Even though we can't be bothered to write about music not produced by our favorite local songstress EVAR, we'll be on a music blogging panel tonight @ the High Noon. It's at 5:30pm. We told some people that we had prepared talking points re: the Rhythm method of musical contraception night-prowl planning and post-idea plotting. But we'll just shoot that wad into a sock right about now...
Seems craigslist was clamoring for pics of a trashed car on the 1000 block of East Johnson. Can this really be the "tan intrepid" champagne Chrysler 300 M in question? The carnage is pretty underwhelming, but this poster makes a good point. I'll edit this later to wax idiotic re: East Johnson traffic flow.
Emcees Without Voices' first "hip-hop" content of the month: I posted a gallery of sorts from the Library Mall half of today's Elements of Change "Hip-Hop Revival."
Two things not noted there:
*obviously, I have a conflicted relationship with gender dynamics and race vis a vis rap/hip-hop. As I mentioned earlier to the proprietor of Madison's newest hip-hop blog--written by another (presumptive) white person--this has been my go-to GET SHIT DONE track for the past few weeks.
Which brings to mind the physical-world shop. bop.
While the Amazon buyout's old news, I wasn't familiar, and stopped in yesterday to ask if the brick and mortar store--on West Gorham, just off State--was tied to the website. Was told that the two entities are part of the same company (different merch buyers, though), which amazon had purchased over a year ago.
Which is swell. More madisonians should be getting paid off internet tendencies. And we all know that blogging is hustling backwards.
But what's the grace period? How long until that sign needs to be updated to "locally founded, globally juicy" or whatever the case may be?
Murs, "H.U.S.T.L.E."
