This makes me extremely happy: Aziz Ansari, of Parks and Recreation fame, is releasing a mixtape under his alter ego, Raaaaaaaandy (who also happens to be the character he played in Funny People).  Produced by Dave Sitek of TV on the Radio, the mixtape was supposed to be released in February, but that date has reportedly been pushed back.
In the meantime, the first track has been leaked and it’s awesome/hilarious.  It’s called AAAAAAAANGRY, and it’s a diss track aimed at all the emcees who didn’t deliver verses for the song.  …

While we don’t normally offer a lot of architecture coverage, this story seemed too good/bizarre to pass up: the firm Fitzsimmons Architects recently posted photos of Wayne Coyne’s new Oklahoma City home.  Coyne, who is the frontman of ‘space rock’ band The Flaming Lips, is a strange and imaginative dude, and his new house certainly embodies those characteristics.  According to Pitchfork, while the house “looks like a simple brick house from the outside,” … it “turns pretty phantasmagorical once you get inside.” 
Indeed, as you’ll see in the photos, the house …

In addition to sporting events, this year’s Winter Olympics will feature a large and surprisingly diverse schedule of free concerts.  Being held at two ‘LiveCity’ venues in downtown Vancouver, the concerts will span the length of the games and represent an excellent opportunity to take in high quality music for zero dollars.  Here’s a sampling of some of the performers who will take the stage:

Wilco
DJ Spooky (!)
Matisyahu
Deadmau5
Jully Black
Damian Marley
Blue Rodeo
Jets Overhead
Buck 65

Not bad at all.  I plan on seeing several of these shows, if not all of them.  And here’s …

You know that we here at 4080 are pretty big fans of TED Talks.  Not only are they good for dropping some knowledge on you, sometimes they come up with great entertainment too.
Check out the video below to see Herbie Hancock give a solid performance.

This isn’t nearly as snarky as that headline comes off.  This guy is actually pretty talented.  He does impressions of LL Cool J, Snoop Dogg, DMX, and Jay-Z.
Just a little something to distract you for a few minutes.

Here he is doing it on a radio show.  A little bit different, but still entertaining.

What do you get when you combine Black Element, djBC, and Big D and the Kids Table? A hip hop video for a Wicked Hardcore Christmas.
You’re welcome.

Props to BoingBoing.

Here’s further evidence of vinyl’s slow resurgence as a viable audio format (a theme we’ve discussed often here at 4080): Hachette Book Group recently announced it will release David Sedaris’s latest audio book, Live For Your Listening Pleasure, on vinyl (in addition to other formats).
But is it really because vinyl is once again in the ascendancy?  (In its report on the story, the New York Times notes that “[vinyl] albums are enjoying something of a renaissance, posting $57 million in sales in 2008, more than double the previous year and …

This is pretty amazing.  Jimmy Fallon, pretending to be Neil Young, covers the Fresh Prince of Bel Air.
It’s glorious for so many reasons.

This may be looking up for the state of hip hop, even if it happened almost a year ago.  Back in Dec of 2008, Chingy, the awful excuse for a rapper that brought you such classics as Right Thurr (below), was dropped from his label.  Why?  Well he had a little tiff with his partner, Ludacris.
It may sound ridiculous, but I have to say I’m kind of happy about this developed.  If you ignore the obvious schadenfreude in a post like this, I think the overall sentiment is that removing …

It’s not often that we publish posts on humour-related topics (unless you count Twice’s recent musings on Vanilla Ice and Shaq), but this update from Andrew Sullivan’s Daily Dish reminded me of my favourite Youtube video of all time, “Gabe and Max’s Internet Thing.”  Check it out:

Fax us your email address now! Priceless. Anyways, turns out Gabe and Max are launching their own online talkshow. Check out episode 1, which features them in similar, but also slightly altered roles: