A Discussion on Hip-Hop February 23, 2007

Crosstalk from the Onion’s AV Club

I thought it was a very interesting read about the cultures of hip-hop and asking the question: Is hip-hop relevant to middle-aged white guys? Because as it permeates culture more and more, we have to look at this and analyze it. I personally am so out of the loop because a) I live in Vermont, about as far from the inner-city as possible, and (like one of the writers said) b) when I do listen to hip-hop, I feel self-conscious and out-of-place because it doesn’t seem to correlate. I don’t know, though. The misogyny and violence in the lyrics is no different from older rock songs, but they seem to be more celebrated and highlighted. I’m glad they discussed some of the more musical and risky artists out there, because I’d be more inclined to explore that.

LP and I listen to the old-school rap channel on our Sirius during the day; sometimes we find fun dance-party hits we can have fun to, and sometimes I have to change it. I really long for the music to be fun without misogyny, profanity, and violence, because the music IS fun and CAN BE fun, but you know what? That doesn’t sell records (or mp3s) anymore.

I remember the Fat Boys being on Sesame Street, teaching us to count with hamburgers. How cool was that?

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Your Favorite Spooky Christmas Carols December 27, 2006

Just by dropping into a minor key, these sound like great silent movie soundtracks. I’m really amazed by the elegant sound these have. Who knew Jingle Bells could be so…eerie?

Link

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Drum Solo October 23, 2006

One of Lil Pumpkin’s favorite games is “Drum Solo.” The way we play this is where she sits on my lap, I take her arms and say “DOO DOO DOO DOO DUN DUN DUN DUN DOON” or whatever drum solo-sounding thing I can think of while I make her arms mimic that of a drummer in an intense Rush-like drum solo. She giggles and LOVES it.

With that knowledge in mind, I found a digital drum kit for sale locally for $50; I checked it out today and bought it with a twofold purpose. One is to entertain me, and one is to let her play around on it. We busted it out of the box soon after we got home and she was enthralled by all the different sounds.

Also thrown into the mix was a roll-up keyboard. Now that thing is weird! It definitely takes some getting used to.

Ahoy, tis an audio pier September 20, 2006

audio pier

Originally uploaded by bakebakebake.

Finally! I have been buying records for years now, but never had a decent record player on which to play them. I had the old 1988 cassette/record player combo, but the sound quality just was never there, plus it was bulky and a pain to set up. I finally attained a Technics SL something or other and with that, we needed a new audio setup in the house. Hence the nice pier from Target!

I had to jimmy up a unique setup for the stereo — I found out that the stereo that we have is not an amplifier — which the record player needs. I could have gone out and bought a pre-amp, but instead I dug out the big old receiver I got from my parents when they moved. So, I ran the record player into the receiver and then, since the receiver doesn’t have any convenient OUT ports (being from 1975 and all), instead of splicing wires I had a jack for the headphones. Long story short, I have the receiver’s OUT as headphones. This runs into the VIDEO IN on the back of the stereo. That negated the VIDEO I had running into the stereo now! The stereo only has one input…sigh. I am going to be moving the receiver into the TV table and running the video into that as a separate IN, so hopefully we will still have that up and running. I do need some longer audio cords, however.

I’m confused by the furniture’s terminology of these things as an audio “pier” — is it really a dock? Is it like a pier in that it’s taller than you expect? I’m searching for their explanation.

Josh Ritter – The Animal Years March 16, 2006

I was just recently reminded that Josh Ritter has a new album coming out (it’s already out in Ireland where I guess he’s HUGE), and it’s already getting rave reviews there. Here are some mp3s from his site, do check them out. I have always loved his stuff, and this is no exception.

Josh Ritter – Girl In the War

Josh Ritter – Thin Blue Flame

Josh Ritter: he plays FOLKSY AMERICANA CHILL-FOLK

We the people March 8, 2006

It was occuring to us last night that many other forms of government would be better than what we currently have. So I present to you the first in an occasional series: Overthrow This!
Kris Kristoffracy: a form of government in which Kris Kristofferson ruled the planet with his songwriting. Laws would be carried out by his band of Highwaymen, where they would dole out justice in a three-minute country ballad. Advantages: low crime, high musicality. Disadvantages: I don’t really have a structured government here, but we thought it sounded like a good solution to today’s problems.

The new Yeah Yeah Yeahs album is pretty tight, but I’m really digging the new Loose Fur already. Discovering a few new bands courtesy of my bro 106, and I’ll update more with that later. Right now it’s time to jet out of this breadshack.