A People's History of Hip Hop

Thursday, September 16, 2010

Vainglorious

Wow. We have every indication that this Dipset reunion is going to be as great as their best material, it's like the last 3 odd years never happened. This beat is like a week old. Cam makes an extended X Clan reference, Jim Jones' shit talk is better than his verse (I love what a bad voice Jones has but how crazy would it be if Max had the freedom to get in on the act?), they randomly decide to get Dame's back and diss Kanye. The only part that gets you is there won't be a Kanye beat on the next album, because no one has more fun on Ye's shit than Cam, but he probably wouldn't have made a contribution anyways. No craft or actual criticism here just geeking out because I love the fucking Diplomats.

Thursday, September 9, 2010

Hip Hop Tweets: September 7

A semi regular roundup of the best Tweets in and around the Hip Hop Community.

Tom Breihan: Someone explain the spoken-word guys in that Pac/Tyson documentary. Can't imagine a cooler idea for a doc being paired with lamer execution.

Wiz Khalifa: one of my family members told me not to wake up with chickens or mike tysons tiger in my penthouse. Hahahhahahahahhahaha

Freddie Gibbs: Just met Lisa Bonet, she still fine

Statik Selektah: @Grafh no doubt... we gotta link

Swizz Beatz: @aliciakeys you shocked me today when you knew all the words to ERIC B FOR PRESIDENT wowwww

Lil B: mannnn I tell u this all these rappers is scared of Lil B I tell u that. I tell u Lil B done something no1 has - Lil B

Monday, September 6, 2010

Rest In Peace Bob Marley

Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Hip Hop Tweets: August 31

A semi regular roundup of the best Tweets in and around the Hip Hop Community.

Talib Kweli: Ok cocaine. I get it, you're back.

Soulja Boy: @YellowBoneStar_ yu killed it baby real talk swag swag

Snoop Dogg: bacctage at the @justinbieber show in NYC with the beautiful Vita Chambers... its all gravity!

Soulja Boy: @_LoModele swag

Joe Budden: Posta Boy- Jurassic harlem http://www.zshare.net/video/796007009885d666/

Soulja Boy: @SouljaboysAngel swag

Maino: I irritate u huh?RT @CiaraImani: Umm everytime I see maino's corny ass on this MTV commercial for this show I get irritated.

Soulja Boy: @BitchiamFAMOUS swag

Crooked I: Jus left court.. It's a shame to see people get time in chunks all because they can't afford a lawyer.. #EffTheSystem

Swagger Jacked

I feel like Pierre Delacroix after sitting through Blak Iz Blak: I don't want to have anything to do with anything 'Swag' for at least a week. After "Pretty Boy Swag" I thought the B and Soulja union was going to be a positive thing, Soulja could teach this kid how to edit and turn his style into a viable product. Instead Soulja Boy is suddenly a cokehead and all the great energy that had finally won me over has been replaced by this breathless near monotone play at weirdness. Is it me or is it fucked up when you need to bite someone else's weirdness? If you do, is it still technically weird? This song is a cry for a celebrity episode of Intervention.

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Live From James Evans' Crib

Joell Ortiz- Funkmaster Flex Freestyle

Sorry, I physically can't care about the internet between June and August. Joell Ortiz pops into Hot 97 and does something I can't remember anyone doing in years: Tears it down with 5 minutes of crack. Joell, arguably the greatest rapper left in New York amongst a sad, slim field most notably challenged by one Juelz Santana, dropped his first and only album three years ago. As a fan of that album and its artist I feel like he should be in the midst of a promising mid-level career, the kind guys like Beanie Sigel and Jadakiss used to be able to enjoy comfortably, without having to resort to stunts like Slaughterhouse.

Have we really reached a place in Hip Hop where no flash lyricism, not to be confused with Detroit and Philly's seemingly intentionally boring old school technical proficiency, but real writing, wit, fire and lively punchlines have no place in our culture? Joell concludes his freestyle by begging all MCs listening to take it back to the pad and pen. A majority of the successful music produced over the last decade in this city seems to fall into two camps: stubborn underground old schoolism and popular parody, where guys like Mims or Maino or 50 or Jay-Z made Clear Channel Rap that could've come from everywhere. (Then there's the Diplomats, who I will address on this site any day now) Perhaps Joell has a point. That it's more than playing at grimy atmosphere, trying to recapture a sound with knock off Rza beats and weak attempts at a Buckshot sneer (See: Fat Joe). But the studied, detail rich, alternating funny and sad writing that powered New York's Golden Age could be the only way back to relevance. Start at the beginning.

Monday, July 26, 2010

Hip Hop Tweets: July 26

A semi regular roundup of the best Tweets in and around the Hip Hop Community.

Rick Ross: rollin up..grams of real estate..purple pastime's..

Curren$y: I waketh...I baketh... Early drivin da el co bumpin eazy e ... Jet Life

Wiz Khalifa: 4 of us gangsters caughin on tha porch finna go down red robin n fuck up these turkey burgers

Lil B- @iamdiddy I NEED U TO MAKE A COOKING VIDEO DIDDY AND YOUTUBE IT!!! MASTER CHEFS IT IS A MUST!!! COOKING TO WONTON SOUP ! SWAG

Juicy J: yesturday we started tapin our new reality show''COOKIN ANIT EASY'' wait 2 u see da chiks we got on da show u gone shit yoself lol!

Dru Ha- NY Times reports "Gulf Rig's alarm was habitually set 2 inhibited 2 avoid waking up the crew w/ late-night sirens" - Isn't that the point?

Big Boi: @BunBTrillOG that's the beauty of the block button, fuck dem hoe ass niggaz

Soulja Boy: @DJDRAMA wowww drama thats so ironic dat u just tweeted me nigga im in da studio i just made a song called "DJ DRAMA' this shit go hard!

Just Blaze: im gonna leave onyx "bacdafuc" up playing on 10 for the dogs while im gone. ill see how they act when i get back. #experimentinonanimals

R.A. the Rugged Man- @JustBlaze as a kid I wondered who the pic of the white guy was in the RAKIM album.. Then I found out who the Great Paul C was.

The Photography

May I brag a little about our photography club? Yes? You don't mind? Thanks!

A few months ago, Jeff, myself, and several members of our photo club (Megapixels) submitted photos to a contest, sponsored by our local newspaper. The contest was Capture El Paso. The best of the photos were to be published into a coffee-table book. No one was to know the results until the release of the book.

Well, last Friday the book was released, and there was a book-signing party/award presentation at our Barnes and Noble. It was surprising and FUN!

Jeff won "Most Votes" in the Institutions Chapter ($100) with this photo:

I won "Editor's Choice" in the Plants and Animals Chapter ($50) with this photo:

In total, Jeff has 6 photos published in the book, and I have 3! I only submitted 5 photos, so 60% is darn good! Jeff and the other members submitted quite a few more, so my average was best!

;-) I can tease them about that!

One of our club members, John, won the Grand Prize (a new Rebel XTi), and 2 other members, Brent and Sharo won prizes! Several of our other members have pictures in the book too! Brent has FIFTEEN photos published! Jeff is calling him the "book hog". LOL It is well deserved though - he has a great eye and his work sometimes leaves me speechless!

Overall, we all did FANTASTIC!!!!

Here are some stats Jeff worked up for our club's forum:

960 people submitted photos

Number of pictures in the book - 200
Megapixels members' pictures in the book - 41
20% of the pictures belong to Megapixels members.

Total pictures submitted - 15,016
Megapixels Member submissions - 489
Only 3% of the submissions were from Megapixels members, yet Megapixels members have 20% of the published pictures.

Poor, Neglected Blog

Be sure to read to the end of this post for FREE drawing info!

Oh my...time has been flying by, and I haven't had a chance to post on my blog! I'm sorry blog...I'll try not to neglect you so much.

Truth is, I am engrossed in this Presidential race! I have been able to vote in Presidential Elections since 1984. I have always had a clear vision of who I would vote for, but have always thought that each candidate had something good to offer the country.

However, this year, my contempt for one of the candidates is running high, and I find myself having the cable news channels on all day, every day. I think I am driving Jeff crazy. ;-)

I won't say who I am speaking of - I don't want to start any debates here. And I won't mention politics again - I promise. Just wanted to let you know why I've been absent!

Here are a couple pictures I took while I was at my parents' house. They have a gorgeous piece of property in the middle of the desert - like a little oasis. Bugs, birds, trees and flowers are abundant. Sometimes when I go there, the ladybugs are all over the place. This time, it was grasshoppers - and so many different varieties! Of course, grasshoppers are pests, and no one really likes them, but I had fun taking their pictures!

Friday Fly-By

I was right...getting all this stuff ready has taken me all week! I still need to frame some prints, and make sure I have everything packed and ready to go, but I'm almost there!

This afternoon, we will go and set up our tent, gridwalls and tables, then bright and early tomorrow, will set up the displays. I enjoy doing these activities with the photo club, but my goodness, they are so much work!

Here are a few of my favorite pendants! PINK is of course one of my favorites!

I've always had a thing for giraffes!

This Could Take All Week!

I now remember why I don't do craft shows any more. They are way too much work! I guess things would be okay if I didn't constantly have new ideas, and have the terrible urge to try everything I think of! I'm a glutten for punishment.

Art In The Park is this coming Saturday and Sunday (as well as the annual picnic for the gas company where Jeff works). Thank goodness it's a photo club activity, and we will all be taking turns manning the booth. I'll be working on these glass tiles until I'm finished, and it could be the wee hours of Saturday before I'm done. Right now, I'm about half way finished putting the photos on the tiles themselves, but I will still need to add a sealer to the backs, add the magnets or bails, put the pendant tiles on their ribbon necklaces, then package them all up! Whew!

Here are the 2 inch tiles I have finished so far.

The 1" x 2" tiles...
The 1" x 1" tiles...some of these will become pendants instead of magnets.
And now, just pretend that this tile has a bail on it, and it is strung onto it's ribbon necklace. This is how I will be packaging these up.


Whatever is left over, whether it's prints, cards, magnets or pendants, they will all be going into Jeff's Etsy shop when I get back from my parents' house.
I'll try to check in later in the week...until then, you'll know what I'm doing!

Busy Weekend

Bugs & Crafty Stuff

I'm back, and with pictures, as promised!

I love my macro lens...just wish I was a little better with it! I usually take 50-60 pictures at a time when I find an interesting subject, but out of those 50-60, I end up with very few that are decent! Practice makes perfect, right? I'll just keep practicing!

Here's a little fuzzy caterpillar I found swimming in our pool the other day. I rescued him so I could take his picture and set him free. I walked outside about an hour later, and where was the caterpillar? In the pool AGAIN! I rescued him once more, and haven't seen him since! Click on the pictures if you want to see the larger, more detailed versions!

Here's another one of the itty bitty flies I find every day on my dahlias. They are so colorful, and I love the detail in their wings. This little guy is less than 1/4" long.

Yesterday, I discovered these little white things on the hibiscus. With my naked eye, I couldn't tell what they were, but they were being attacked by a million tiny ants. Enter the trusty macro lens! I'm still not sure what they are, but they look like roly-poly bugs that have been doing their roly-poly-ing in a bowl of flour. Don't they? For all I know, they could be something completely different! Anyone know?

Now for the crafty stuff! I MUST whittle down my fabric stash! I have vowed not to buy any more fabric until I make some kind of dent in what I have. Sachets don't make a big dent, but at least I'm trying! I have this problem...there are so many things that I want to make, that I can't decide what to make! I needed to get something done though, so I decided on the super easy sachets. Tomorrow's another day...maybe I'll throw all my ideas in a hat and go that route to make a decision.

All In One

This will be a mixed up post...I'll announce the winner of my Birthday Drawing, share a few pictures, and tell you what I'm going to tackle this Tuesday...all in one!

I hope you all had a safe and fun holiday weekend! My birthday was yesterday, but we celebrated over the weekend. Nothing big...just a trip to the zoo and dinner out. I told Jeff he better not get me anything because he bought me those wonderful new machines and digitizing software a few months back, and now it looks like I might be needing a new computer soon. I'm completely happy with that!

Down to business! We have a winner! The random number picker chose poster number 10...now who could that be?



Bunny B! Congratulations, Bunny! I'll email you today to get your mailing address. Thanks to all of you who entered! Of course, I'll give something away again next month, so please come back and visit me again.

I love zoos. Here, our zoo is nothing spectacular - it's small and they are working on lots of new exhibits, but it is a nicely maintained zoo so I enjoy visiting. Jeff and I went early Sunday morning, hoping that it would still be cool enough for the larger animals to be active. No such luck. They were all being lazy and hiding. However, the birds were cooperative, so that's about all I took pictures of. Here's a few shots - remember, you can click on each picture for a larger view.

A Road Runner! These guys are so skittish and FAST in the wild that I thought I would never be able to get a good shot of one. I had never seen a Road Runner in the zoo aviary before either, so I was surprised to find him there. I have known people who have never been to the Southwest, and who thought that Road Runners didn't really exist. They thought they were only in cartoons! YES, they do exist and they are pretty cool birds!

I don't know what this bird is, but I'm assuming it is some variety of cardinal. I'll ask my dad if he can identify it - he's an avid bird watcher. I thought he was pretty. Update: Dad says it's a Brazilian Red Crested Cardinal. Thanks, Dad!

A dancing White Wing Dove - he seemed to like the camera!

Again, I don't know what this bird was, but he was hilarious! He was about the size of a full grown duck, but had longer legs. As I was walking through the aviary, he walked right beside me. When I stopped, he stopped. When I started walking, he started walking too. I stopped and started many times just to see if he would continue. We couldn't keep from laughing! Silly bird.

A cute Emu...she came right up the fence and posed for the camera.

The turkeys didn't like us taking their picture though...this is how they told us to go away!

Well, since this computer is acting up, I think today my Tuesday Tackle will be to make sure I have everything backed up on my external drive, then do some cleaning up and defragging of my other drives. Better safe than sorry! Have a great day, all!

A Do-Nothing Day

I rarely have these days, but every once in a while, they are so nice! I did two constructive things today. TWO. I packed Jeff's bag first thing this morning (he had to go out of town for a short business trip), and I looked up a Latin phrase on the internet (I might explain that at a later date).

No laundry. No cooking. No cleaning.

After I got Jeff out the door, I went looking for bugs on my flowers. Jeff bought me a nice macro lens for my birthday last year, and I am just now putting some real effort into learning how to use it - less than two weeks before my NEXT birthday. It's not as easy as I thought it would be, that's for sure. Until just a few weeks ago, I would get frustrated and put it away without making any progress.

When we were on vacation, I used it a lot, and felt like I was actually learning something! Having Jeff by my side, guiding me really helped. He's usually at work when I decide to give it a shot (and get frustrated). It gave me the confidence to keep trudging along, and now I think I'm obsessed with looking for bugs and pretty flowers. Anyway, here's a bug I found this morning (click on it if you want to see the details):


And here's a couple pictures I took while we were on vacation:

I completely ignored all the pictures of my stuff that I still need to edit and went straight to editing the bug pictures. I'll get back to the stuff tomorrow. And I'll get back to the things I need to do. Or at least the laundry and cleaning.
Tomorrow evening is our monthly photography club meeting, and we always have it at a local restaurant, so I won't be cooking. This meeting could prove to be quite interesting, and Jeff is going to miss it! I wish I had one of those little tape recorder things.

This will be only the second meeting Jeff has missed since we joined the club - and both times because he had to be out of town for work. He's president of the club, and ironically, the other meeting he missed was the one where he was elected!

And I completely forgot about WFMW today - sorry. But I think I do have a tip for everyone...

If at all possible, take a Do-Nothing Day once in a while! It's healthy for your psyche!

Knitting Confidential - A man's journey into the knitting world

NO BIG HAIR!

Having observed the march of reunion concerts and annual Broadway show-like tours for another generation's bands--hey, it's REO Speedwagon and Fleetwood Mac in some iteration again--I've viewed them from a mostly negative perspective. Look at the cheap cash-in efforts and uninspired playing of the same old hits every summer.

I actually saw some of these shows the summer I worked part-time at an amphitheater and simply didn't get the appeal even if you liked the artists. Granted, all of them hadn't done anything of note in ages, which made it seem all the more pointless. This was driven home by seeing Poison in consecutive years. (You better believe I didn't pay either time. For what it's worth, Cinderella impressed me with their chops.)

So there I was tonight at the Pavement reunion concert. I purchased a ticket as soon as they went on sale, and I was looking forward to this show quite a bit. I never saw them during the '90s when they were one of the most influential band in the lo-fi and indie realms, and this was a reunion that I don't think many anticipated. Of course, that tends to be the way it goes with these things. It'll never happen...until the financial rewards are calculated.

Granted, we're talking different levels here. Pavement is a seminal act, and like such groups, their popularity was basically confined to the musical underground. And no wonder. With ambiguous but verbally witty lyrics, guitars and vocals that sometimes sounded like they were out of tune, and a generally offhanded vibe verging on sloppy, they were too rough around the edges to breakthrough. I suspect they are playing the biggest rooms in their career on this reunion tour, which is testament to their influence and the regard with which their albums still have, but we're still talking about venues that can pack in 1500-2000 people.

Anyway, to get back to my point, I gave in to nostalgia and made sure that I'd be at this concert. I'll be doing the same thing in a month when the reunited "classic lineup" of Guided by Voices comes to town. I justify it because, well, I really wanted to see them and because these are bands that never were that big beyond a small but dedicated audience. It may seem pathetic if they keep coming through year after year with nothing new to offer or nothing new that's any good, but for groups whose shadows have only become longer in the intervening years, it seems respectable and right that they take victory laps now.

Pavement has a mixed reputation as a live act, but they were pretty terrific tonight. They played many of their most beloved songs--it's hard to call them hits--and plenty of other unconventional choices. It didn't feel like a performance meant to resuscitate their former days as indie rock heroes but a genuinely worthy and engaged playing of their catalog. Pavement didn't appear to be going through the motions of yesteryear, and I didn't feel like I was reliving my time in college. Nevertheless, hearing "Range Life" gave me the chills. Other favorites--"Stereo", "Cut Your Hair", and "Summer Babe (Winter Version)", among others--sounded as fresh as they did during my twenties. Undoubtedly nostalgia colored my enjoyment, but I'd prefer to think that is was merely an enhancement than the primary object.

Labels: concerts, nostalgia, Pavement, rock 'n' roll

Paper Craft Addiction - Art for Amanda

Sunday, September 12, 2010

Another work colleague loved the canvas I made for Jannene earlier this year, so this weekend I made her a canvas too, only 16 tiles tho not 225!  I loved working with Teresa's pallet, so I decided to stick with it.

I hope she likes it....

Tuesday, September 07, 2010

Tiles for Teresa!

Arty_oz August Swap

OPS late.........

They took me a little longer than I had planned!  The background is chipboard which has been embossed using the Cuttlebug and painted using one of JVO's paint techniques

Sunday, August 01, 2010

What I love

Rebecca Sower has some images of things she loves on her blog

"We love the things we love for what they are."

{ robert frost }

Things like...

My beautiful Jasmine (ears or no ears)

My beautiful set of wheels and the beach that I can walk to

My home near the sea and a place to create

Friends and family

SHOES!!!!

Ribbons!

What do You love?

Saturday, July 24, 2010

Tidying up the craft room

Doesn't it look slick  ;o)

To the right of my laptop is a Bill Holder from Bed Bath 'N' Table. It holds my stamps beautifully!  I'll reveal more as I tidy it up.  There is my fantastic shelves from a few posts ago..

Sunday, July 04, 2010

Arty_oz July Swap

This months theme is Vintage Children and what better image to use than one from Paperwhimsy?  The background is also a whimsy digital image.  And the flowers - made them myself using my NEW Tim Holtz Sizzix dies (in the Cuttlebug). Just loving these, I was able to cut 8 flowers at once!

Sunday, June 27, 2010

How do you store your collections?

While the organisation of my house may leave a lot to be desired, the organisation of my Collections doesn't!  The chipboard is all sorted and stored in plastic compartmentised (is that a word??) containers .  But the paper well.. it was sorted and kept in the 6x6 bags that they came in, in a drawer.. not very satisfactory.  So on Friday night I spied this nice album at Scraptacular. I love albums that I can decorate myself.  I was going to cut it down to 6x6, but it had the "long" page holders in it and  as you can see these hold some of the paper products beautifully!  So I bought more 6x6 page protectors for the Collections paper :o) They are all sorted into colours, so it's easy to flip through....
Had a really enjoyable day at Scraptacular today.  Made the spools for my kit and then covered the album.  I had searched through my stash last night agonising over what to cover it , but Scraptacular had some Periphery paper in stock (one of my fav's) so -  decision made :o)

Thanks to Julie from Scraptacular for the beginings of my Angel ;-)

Saturday, June 26, 2010

New matching shelf ;-)