I originally had an article drafted last week on a few interviews I found on the internet by way of the hype machine. But friends of the Consortium, Better Than Yours, put me on to an interesting development — a little blogosphere beef between Heron P. and the writers over on the Complex Blog surrounding an interview Heron did with NYC coolguy A-Ron.
Basically what I drafted last week still applies. Here’s my take on the whole thing:
Just surfing the internet in a daze checking shit out…. came upon a couple of things that I thought were worth posting.
First is this Paul White beat tape over at Dazed Digital. It’s so on point. I’m already on my second listen and it’s quite dope. I’m usually pretty skeptical about things like this but apparently this dude is on the up and up and it’s not hard to see (hear) why.
Next, on a more visual note is a series of pictures taken by Dennis Stock. They’re all from the filming of the Planet of the Apes. It’s great how they capture the spirit of the period and of LA and Hollywood from back in the day. I smell a BAPE tshirt somewhere in the mix.
As a follow up to the retrospective of the last few posts, I thought I’d take some time to marinate, postulate, and speculate on the year ahead. Soundune’s post brought a tear to my eye and longing in my heart for a foregone era, but whose to say that the ’08 won’t be filled with new memories and more of greatest time of my life. So, what follows are a few hopes, dreams, predictions, and observations on the coming 365 and the state of affairs we find ourselves thrust into.
Last night the Stones Throw 2K Sports tour came through DC, stopping at the infamous Blackcat nightclub.
Despite its infamy, it’s not the usual hip hop venue. It most often plays host to up and coming or underground indie and punk rock bands. Nevertheless, I’ve seen plenty of shows there and I’m always happy with the intimacy of the place. The main stage, where last night’s show was held, is small enough with a high enough stage to make no view a bad one. Two bars flank the standing-room-only audience section ensuring a quick trip to the bar without missing any of the action.
Mark Zuckerberg just conned Microsoft into a $240 million deal to buy 1.6% of Facebook, valuing his 20% stake at $3 billion. If there was any doubt that we’re in the midst of the Web 2.0 bubble, it’s just been left in the dust by MZ ghost-riding the Bently Continental courtesy of Microsoft.
Seeing as Facebook has yet to turn a profit or publicly release revenue figures, and taking into account the non-zero probability that Facebook and the whole social networking fad fades quicker than NBC’s “Cavemen”, Microsoft’s only hope of making money on the deal lies in a Facebook IPO within the next year or so. If Google wanted to invest in Facebook it would have outbid Microsoft and since it didn’t, we can safely assume that Google knows what we don’t about Facebook and, given that information, thought $240 million for such a small stake in the company was too much.
Hopefully for both Microsoft and Zuckerberg’s personal Make It Rain fund, it’s not.
In any event, to the casual observer, the whole thing boils down to this: 1)The second dot-com bubble is definitely in effect, given the amount of money old, established white men are giving to young, computer-savvy college dropouts; and 2)The deal makes Microsoft look stale and outdated as Google, the maverick new-kid-on-the-block, casually walks away.
Just to follow up on soundune’s earlier post on Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings, Oliver Wang over at soul-sides hooked up a nice little post complete with this track off the new album, featuring Jones taking it back to her gospel roots over a slow-buring southern soul influenced number. Check out the post over at soul-sides as well as the accompanying write up OW hooked up for the LA Times.
In other Sharon Jones news, they’re currently on a world tour, and you know they had to come through the District. I saw them sometime last year and it was, hands down, one of the best shows I will ever see, much less have seen. I never thought that I would be able to see a show like that; they do a show in the style of the old soul revues a la James Brown. Amazing. Sharon Jones is just booming with energy and soul like you just don’t see anymore. If you’re lucky enough to have them come through your town, don’t sleep.
Here’s the track, but be sure to visit soul-sides.
Download Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings – Answer Me
Via US Weekly. M’julie noticed this shot of the ever hip John Mayer and his girl rockin a supreme tee. Looks like he’s wearing that ish to the gym. Are those sweat stains? Better bring a towel son.
I just updated the blog software to version 2.3 and it looks like some of links to youtube posts got broken during the process. For now we’re gonna have to be light on the media since I think it was the media plugin that posted audio and video that got fucked up. That’s all I’m gonna say since I don’t feel like putting my nerd status on blast.
I’ve been hard at work lately trying to redesign the site. Here’s a taste of what’s to come….
Expect a fully integrated multi-blogger community, enhanced styling and functionality, and artist and author profiles, in addition to the stuff you’re already used to if you’ve been visitng the site.
Please feel free to comment on what you’d like to see on thegreaterminds.com ver 2.0. Get at us.
Well, you didn’t. But that Bernard Wright got me thinking.
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Another undisputed heavyweight.