Shouts to Hulu.com for giving me television when I have no television.
Archive for the ‘Straight Laced’ Category
Draft Daze…
Friday, January 16th, 2009
You and Spike Lee have been waiting to peep these webi-isodes from TERRENCE ELENTENY, the man behind some of my sickest projects.
‘Draft Daze’ is the documented story of Dontrevius Wenters, a delusional basketball fan who has submitted his name into the NBA draft over the better part of a decade and a half.
This would have been called ‘Love & Basketball’ but there isn’t enough love in the world for you to watch Dontrevius play basketball.
Draft Daze (Part 1) from Terrence on Vimeo.
Draft Daze (Part 2) from Terrence on Vimeo.
The Autopsy Is Still Inconclusive…
Sunday, January 11th, 2009
This Sunday school drop is for the seven readers that would even think to read my column on a Sunday as opposed to doing other shit like a) masturbating to Maya Hills videos pulled down from xnxx.com, b) watching ‘Like It Is’ with Gil Noble, c) sleeping, d) did I say masturbating?
I just read a great article inside of the Village Voice about the demise of the record industry. I call it a great article even though I ultimately disagree with the author.
How the Music Industry Died: Steve Knopper’s Appetite for Self-Destruction
Voice columnist Rob Harvilla interviews author Steve Knopper and he ultimately concludes that the death knell for the record industry was the rebuke of Napster. This guy Knopper thinks that if Universal Music Group or (name your label) had adopted the social networking possibilities within the file-sharing community these record labels would have been able to stave off their deaths.
Nahh, I don’t think so. Just like we will eventually run out of fossil fuels that we extract from the Earth the need for oversized distribution systems for music (and entertainment) for that matter was bound to run its course. Technology finally pushed these dinosaurs off a cliff. Monetizing content on social networks will not support the top heavy burdens that major labels carry. Their executive salaries alone cut away any profit that they might garner from .99 cent downloads and ringtones.
The only thing that could support these executives were CD sales. $16.99 CD sales. Those days are long gone now. I think I bought two CD’s in 2008. I didn’t even copp ‘808’s & Heartbreak’ and this was my favorite album of the year. Maybe I can return my ‘Rising Down’ to Target and exchange it for 808’s? I doubt that though. I look at all the CD’s in my collection and I definitely feel like I did my part for the music industry.
My solution for the recording industry is for buyouts to start taking place, but NOT from other media companies. The truth is that media companies are now a dime for a dozen. Anyone with a weblog and a YouTube channel is a media company. Byron Crawford doesn’t even have a YouTube channel and he is a media company. Nah’Right is a media company that helps disseminate current content for other media companies. Crunk & Disorderly and Concrete Loop are both media companies. The only thing that a media company has of value are the eyeballs of their viewers.
Some media companies mistakenly have their lawyers attack other media companies because they claim to have exclusive broadcasting rights to some piece of content. Do you think that the content gives a flying fuck who owns it? Hells no. The content wants to be free to be viewed and praised and critiqued and loved and hated. I know that these corporate lawyers need to justify their salaries just like the record label executives did but if there are some heads that need to see the guillotine it should be the lawyers up next.
The only way for the music industry to survive now is for companies that sell other types of products that people buy out of need or desire to produce compilation CD’s to be included with those products. Like for instance, with every pair of Nike ACG boots you get a free Wale CD featuring his Nike boots song. When you buy some alcohol like cognac (negro health water) you will get a CD with all the songs that mention Hennessy. It shouldn’t be old music either. All you artists on the come up need to get your jingles game up and start making some commercials for your favorite products. Maybe Kool-Aid might pick y’all up and sign y’all to their new label – Grape Drink Records.
This is the only hope for the record industry at this point. There won’t be any government bailout for UMG or Sony, but hopefully Fruit of the Loom or Tropicana wants to get into the music buisness.
What You Don’t Know About Gaza…
Saturday, January 10th, 2009
Editor’s note: I was stunned that this article by RASHID KHALIDI appeared in the NYTimes since they are the leading supremacist mouthpiece. Someone was surely fired for letting this find print.
NEARLY everything you’ve been led to believe about Gaza is wrong. Below are a few essential points that seem to be missing from the conversation, much of which has taken place in the press, about Israel’s attack on the Gaza Strip.
THE GAZANS
Most of the people living in Gaza are not there by choice. The majority of the 1.5 million people crammed into the roughly 140 square miles of the Gaza Strip belong to families that came from towns and villages outside Gaza like Ashkelon and Beersheba. They were driven to Gaza by the Israeli Army in 1948.
THE OCCUPATION
The Gazans have lived under Israeli occupation since the Six-Day War in 1967. Israel is still widely considered to be an occupying power, even though it removed its troops and settlers from the strip in 2005. Israel still controls access to the area, imports and exports, and the movement of people in and out. Israel has control over Gaza’s air space and sea coast, and its forces enter the area at will. As the occupying power, Israel has the responsibility under the Fourth Geneva Convention to see to the welfare of the civilian population of the Gaza Strip.
THE BLOCKADE
Israel’s blockade of the strip, with the support of the United States and the European Union, has grown increasingly stringent since Hamas won the Palestinian Legislative Council elections in January 2006. Fuel, electricity, imports, exports and the movement of people in and out of the Strip have been slowly choked off, leading to life-threatening problems of sanitation, health, water supply and transportation.
The blockade has subjected many to unemployment, penury and malnutrition. This amounts to the collective punishment — with the tacit support of the United States — of a civilian population for exercising its democratic rights.
THE CEASE-FIRE
Lifting the blockade, along with a cessation of rocket fire, was one of the key terms of the June cease-fire between Israel and Hamas. This accord led to a reduction in rockets fired from Gaza from hundreds in May and June to a total of less than 20 in the subsequent four months (according to Israeli government figures). The cease-fire broke down when Israeli forces launched major air and ground attacks in early November; six Hamas operatives were reported killed.
WAR CRIMES
The targeting of civilians, whether by Hamas or by Israel, is potentially a war crime. Every human life is precious. But the numbers speak for themselves: Nearly 700 Palestinians, most of them civilians, have been killed since the conflict broke out at the end of last year. In contrast, there have been around a dozen Israelis killed, many of them soldiers. Negotiation is a much more effective way to deal with rockets and other forms of violence. This might have been able to happen had Israel fulfilled the terms of the June cease-fire and lifted its blockade of the Gaza Strip.
This war on the people of Gaza isn’t really about rockets. Nor is it about “restoring Israel’s deterrence,” as the Israeli press might have you believe. Far more revealing are the words of Moshe Yaalon, then the Israeli Defense Forces chief of staff, in 2002: “The Palestinians must be made to understand in the deepest recesses of their consciousness that they are a defeated people.”
Rashid Khalidi, a professor of Arab studies at Columbia, is the author of the forthcoming “Sowing Crisis: The Cold War and American Dominance in the Middle East.”
Buck Fifty Scar NOT Included…
Saturday, January 10th, 2009
The JUSTICE HALL shirts with the ‘RUN-DC’ graphic are the hottest tees on the planet. Don’t get caught sleeping. Get yours @ RUN DC ’09