Monthly Archives: March 2008

Politics

Bhutan becomes newest democracy

March 26, 2008 – 8:03 pm

Bhutan becomes newest democracy

This is pretty big news. Hot on the heels of Kosovo declaring itself independent, Bhutan, a hundred year old monarchy has brought itself forward as a democracy.

What’s most incredible about this story is that it is the King that is pushing this forward. Think about it. The absolute monarch of a nation is pushing to dilute his power and bring authority to his citizens.

And this isn’t one of those situations where the people were pushing for changes. Just listening to the interviews shows that. Under the latest King, the economy was doing better than ever before. More and more people were being lifted out of poverty.

Beyond that, the previous system had provided medicine and education to the nation. This is a country where internet was only allowed somewhat recently, and it already outperforms its neighbours (India, Pakistan) in terms of economic growth and transparency.

“His Majesty is like our father. We all prefer our father,” said Karma Tsheweng, a 35-year-old mechanic.

But Tsheweng and hundreds of thousands of others nonetheless lined up at polling stations across the Land of the Thunder Dragon to vote Monday, excited at getting to try something new, but nervous about what may happen after they’ve traded their Precious Ruler for politicians.

One of the most interesting things about this whole experience is that so many of the citizens themselves seem to be doubtful. They wonder how all these politicians can actually be better, or do better, since they all seem so petty.

In a nutshell,

“Why do we need these people and their arguments?” asked 48-year-old Kinzang Tshering after listening to one candidate make his spiel days before the vote. “They tell us they are better than the other ones. How should I know which one is better?”

Insane. Absolutely mad. How can any nation expect this? What’s funny is that it’s the truth anywhere you live. All these politicians bring in their arguments, and there really is no way for anyone to know who is better.

No matter what, welcome to the World’s Newest Democracy. They’ve already understood some of democracy’s biggest challenges.

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Album Reviews Music

Heavy D & The Boyz – Blue Funk (1992)

March 26, 2008 – 4:13 pm

Heavy D & The Boyz - Blue Funk (1992)

Heavy D & The Boyz – Blue Funk (1992)*

On Blue Funk, their fourth studio album, Heavy D & The Boyz largely eschew the New Jack Swing sound that defined their earlier work in favour of an East Coast-influenced, boom-bap style that is grittier and “entirely streetwise.” The album’s beats, courtesy of legendary producers DJ Premier, Pete Rock (Heavy D’s cousin), Tony Dofat and others, are, for the most part, typical of early ’90s New York hip-hop; that is to say, excellent. Replete with atmospheric, heavily chopped horn samples, deep bass lines and hard hitting snares, the beats complement Heavy D’s rhymes without overshadowing them (except on “Girl” – which is a terrible track all around).

Diggers will easily recognize several of the album’s samples, including those tapped for use on “Who’s the Man?” (based on a sample from “Fly Like an Eagle” by Steve Miller Band), “Slow Down” (based on a sample from “Darkest Light” by Lafayette Afro Rock Band also used by Jay-Z for “Show Me What You Got”), the title track (based on a sample from Lou Donaldson’s “Pot Belly” also used by A Tribe Called Quest for “If the Papes Come”) and “Yes Y’All” and “Love Sexy” (you’ll recognize these popular loops right away).

Lyrically, the album is somewhat of a mixed bag. Although stylistically impressive, Heavy D’s rush to embrace a more hardcore aesthetic often results in rhymes that sacrifice content for empty braggadocio. Indeed, the Overweight Lover spends much of the album boasting about women, threatening snitches and bragging about his “ghetto props.” Although undeniably talented on the mic, Heavy D’s rapid fire delivery and complex wordplay are largely wasted thanks to Blue Funk’s mundane subject matter. The interludes, which feature Heavy D discussing, among other things, the role of black women in African American society, life in the ghetto and materialism do little to counterbalance the album’s lyrical shortcomings.

Overall, Blue Funk suffers too much from Heavy D’s obvious desire to accrue street cred. If you’re a Heavy D fan the album is worth downloading just to hear how much he tries to change his sound, otherwise I’d recommend it mainly for the excellent production. Blue Funk is also noteworthy because of Notorious B.I.G.’s appearance on the posse cut “A Buncha Niggas,” which was the legendary Brooklyn mc’s first major label recording.

* [zipped and in .wma format]

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Cool Geek

The Internet? Bah! | Newsweek.com

March 25, 2008 – 6:35 am

The Internet? Bah! | Newsweek.com

In what has to be one of the best “Boy I was wrong” moments in a long time, this Newsweek article from 1995 goes in depth about why the Internet will never be a big deal. The author, one of the foremost computer experts of the time, scoffs at the mere idea that the internet would be a big deal.

But today, I’m uneasy about this most trendy and oversold community. Visionaries see a future of telecommuting workers, interactive libraries and multimedia classrooms. They speak of electronic town meetings and virtual communities. Commerce and business will shift from offices and malls to networks and modems. And the freedom of digital networks will make government more democratic.

Baloney. Do our computer pundits lack all common sense? The truth in no online database will replace your daily newspaper, no CD-ROM can take the place of a competent teacher and no computer network will change the way government works.

Boy he is wrong. Not only is the trend towards the death of the common newspaper widely acknowledged, but we’ve also seen the growth of e-government.

How about electronic publishing? Try reading a book on disc. At best, it’s an unpleasant chore: the myopic glow of a clunky computer replaces the friendly pages of a book. And you can’t tote that laptop to the beach. Yet Nicholas Negroponte, director of the MIT Media Lab, predicts that we’ll soon buy books and newspapers straight over the Intenet. Uh, sure.

Not only does the growth of e-books and readers like Amazon’s Kindle and e-books in general, you don’t even have to buy newspapers online anymore! Most of the content is offered for free. And a pay-per-month subscription often takes care of the rest.

Then there’s cyberbusiness. We’re promised instant catalog shopping–just point and click for great deals. We’ll order airline tickets over the network, make restaurant reservations and negotiate sales contracts. Stores will become obselete. So how come my local mall does more business in an afternoon than the entire Internet handles in a month? Even if there were a trustworthy way to send money over the Internet–which there isn’t–the network is missing a most essential ingredient of capitalism: salespeople.

My goodness how things have changed. E-commerce has taken off tremendously, with the big online retailers doing hundreds of millions of dollars in business. Stores aren’t necessarily obsolete, but we have seen some companies fall and become strictly online entities.

Last,

What’s missing from this electronic wonderland? Human contact. Discount the fawning techno-burble about virtual communities. Computers and networks isolate us from one another. A network chat line is a limp substitute for meeting friends over coffee.

This is one of the best quotes because the internet has become the dreamland of essentially avoiding human contact. The huge growth in online gaming from enterprises like World of Warcraft or Second Life suggests a way to socialize without physically being present. Tremendous leaps in social networking and the rise of the Facebook and it’s archaic counterpart MySpace suggest a growing desire for interaction without physicality. In fact, one would argue that we’re almost more connected than ever before. At a few clicks you can creep that person from your history class, or find out your cousin’s favourite band. All of a sudden we’re in this era of the complete lack of personal privacy, where people are more exposed than ever. It’s unbridled internet freedom.

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Music

Diddy denies LA Times’ Tupac story – Yahoo! News

March 25, 2008 – 5:37 am

Diddy denies LA Times’ Tupac story – Yahoo! News

So, in proof that the ‘Pac myths will never, ever die, people are still talking about who killed Tupac Shakur. He’s all up in arms about an LA Times news story claiming his associates were involved in the first shooting of Tupac (a couple of years before he was killed)

“The story is a lie,” the hip-hop mogul said in a statement Monday. “It is beyond ridiculous and completely false. Neither (the late rapper Notorious B.I.G.) nor I had any knowledge of any attack before, during or after it happened. … I am shocked that the Los Angeles Times would be so irresponsible as to publish such a baseless and completely untrue story.”

A pretty strong reaction, and I don’t doubt it. I’m not one of those conspiracy theorists who still thinks Pac is alive, and I’m not even convinced it is some elaborate plot that goes all the way to the top of the East and West coasts. My money is on a couple of idiot gangbangers trying to make themselves famous or trying to impress someone. It is possible that some Eastcoasters thought Biggie would love them if they took out Pac, but it is equally possible that some jealous Westsiders wanted to knock Pac out to make a name for themselves.

Either way, 14 years after the first shooting, we’re still talking about who started it and why. I’ve pretty much lost faith that we’ll ever know.

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Awareness Music

We care a lot: 14 overblown charity/advocacy songs besides “We Are The World” | The A.V. Club

March 24, 2008 – 10:18 am

We care a lot: 14 overblown charity/advocacy songs besides “We Are The World” | The A.V. Club

This is a pretty interesting look at the nature of those musical charity songs we always hear about. The most famous one is probably “Do they know it’s Christmas?” from the BandAid concert many years ago raising money for African famine relief. Or more recently “What’s going on?“, a benefit song to raise money for AIDS research.

Here’s a little sample of the Onion’s commentary on some of these songs. Below is the video to the West Coast Rap All-Stars‘ “We’re All in the Same Gang”.

WPvideo 1.10

Thanks to producer Dr. Dre, “We’re All In The Same Gang” is at least better musically than most heavy-handed cause songs. Ignore the words, and you can almost imagine it’s another prime-era N.W.A. track about blasting motherfuckers in the face with a sawed-off while bitches lick your enormous balls. The problem with “We’re All In The Same Gang” is context. Sure, rapping about ending gang violence is noble, but can one song outweigh the blood-soaked and bullet-riddled gangsta mythology that West Coast rap was built on, especially when the video looks about as cool as an episode of Family Matters? While Straight Outta Compton didn’t necessarily influence youngsters to grab guns and start shooting people, “We’re All In The Same Gang” definitely never convinced them to stop.

I do take some issue with it, but seeing as it is the Onion you can’t really take it too seriously. I think that having these guys preach a better kind of message really may have made a difference. Maybe not doing it in this fashion, but it’s been proven that hip hop can help take away from gang violence. Just look at Afrika Bambaata and all that he accomplished. And obviously as we all know hip hop is way more complex than just a blood-soaked and bullet-riddled mythology!

But hell, any song that gets NWA together with Eazy-E, MC Hammer, and Digital Underground has to be awesome.

Still, the Onion has a point. There’s no disputing there is room for some of these fundraising concerts/songs, and they do manage to raise the profile of some of these issues. We just can’t let artists and celebrities get away with letting this be their only contribution to the cause.

[Update:] Oh, and before you readers think it’s just the silly Americans and some of the Brits leading these waves, witness Canada’s contribution below. “Northern Lights.” from 1985. “Let’s show the world that Canada still cares.” Genius.

WPvideo 1.10

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Geek Music

Robot Chicken’s 8 Mile Spoof

March 23, 2008 – 7:59 pm

Anyone remember Eminem’s movie 8 Mile? It’s a movie that got surprisingly positive reviews across the board and even managed to win some academy awards.

Robot Chicken, Seth Green’s irreverent stop motion animation series took a shot at spoofing the movie with pretty funny results. Check it out below. Bugs Bunny taking over Eminem’s role as “B. Rabbit”.

WPvideo 1.10

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Music

How To Making The Beats

March 23, 2008 – 12:30 pm

Anyone who has ever done a Youtube search for anything remotely similar to the phrase ‘beat making,’ or even ‘mpc,’ or ‘producer’ knows that there are literally hundreds of videos of dudes (unfortunately, the world of beat making is dominated entirely by males) explaining how to make beats. The vast majority of them are terrible, but some of them are really, really good.

For a list of the better ones, check out Music Thing’s list of the ‘10 greatest beat-making videos ever (Or, you know, today)‘ and ‘10 MORE greatest beat making videos ever’.

Or, if you don’t have the patience to spend two minutes reading (basically, if you were born anytime after about 1978), watch this video featuring the amazing cardboard ‘empeec’:

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PS: I remember watching a hilarious spoof by some German dude several months ago, but I can’t seem to find it. If anyone knows what I’m talking about, please send me a link.

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Music

Wale reveals details of ‘Seinfeld’ mixtape

March 23, 2008 – 7:59 am

D.C. native Wale (pronounced Wall-ay) is supposed to be the next big thing in hip-hop. A quick youtube search provides a bunch of his videos, and I have to say it’s not entirely my style. No matter what, I guess you have to admit that he does have some talent. Check out the freestyle below.

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Plus, he earns major points for his upcoming project. The aptly-titled “Mixtape about nothing” is inspired by Seinfeld. He’s a big fan of the show, and seems to want to incorporate it into his music. Apparently he even managed to coax Julia Louis-Dreyfus (Elaine, to those who don’t know) to come out and record a little skit for an interlude. Now that is dedication.

Keep an eye out for this one. It may actually be good.

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Music

John Lennon on I Am the Walrus

March 22, 2008 – 12:12 pm

This is pretty cool. PonderAbout.com has put up a little video about John Lennon discussing “I am the Walrus”, one of the Beatle’s more memorable tracks.

WPvideo 1.10

Check out the original article here.

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Music

Q-TIP says ‘RAP IS DYING’

March 22, 2008 – 10:17 am

Q-TIP: ‘RAP IS DYING’

“I think it’s pretty evident – and everybody says it – that hip-hop is definitely not as good as it once was. It’s sort of like disco was. “There was a time when disco was the s**t and Steve Rubell had Studio 54. But the minute you heard Disco Duck by Rick Dees, that was the telltale sign that disco was over. I think that if hip-hop continues on the path that it seems like it’s going down, then it looks like it’s not going to hold up.”

That’s the way Q-Tip phrases it. And I have to agree. Hip hop, at least a lot of the popular form of it, is not nearly as good as it once was.

Still, it’s tragic that Q-Tip is joining the seemingly endless parade of artists who claim hip hop is dying. It doesn’t really help the cause that much, and may just ensure it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. I think there is enough new talent out there to keep hip hop from going the way of disco, but not without some effort. So some of the more underground artists out there will need support to get their music out. That is the only panacea for hip hop.

I can’t bring myself to say that hip hop is dead. I just can’t. Not when so many new amazing artists keep popping out of these underground scenes. With Mos Def and Common still making music. In fact, I’d say hip hop is becoming admirably international as time goes on.

Perhaps hip hop is dying in the pop sense. Maybe it’s true what Billboard claims, that hip hop sales have declined 40% since 2000. Still, maybe that’s a good thing for the art form. Maybe this will push it back to the streets, get things back to the roots and away from musical trainwrecks like the G-Unit.

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