A Checkered Past

An excellent quote I pulled from a post about how media is changing:

“Here’s the real problem facing our newsrooms. Most people are out there playing checkers while companies like Google and Adobe are playing chess. NOTHING WILL CHANGE in journalism unless the conversation is refocused on what matters most: How can the ever-hastening disruptive change be either met or overcome by adapting technology and creative business models?”

I have never seen journalists and journalism nailed so perfectly. A bunch of checkers players.

The width of the brush I just painted with depends on your definitions of a journalist and journalism, but I will say this: Right now there aren’t too many people out there playing chess. I see effort, but it’s a game that takes five minutes to learn, and a lifetime to master.

Tick. Tock.

Knuck If You Buck

I saw Three 6 Mafia live last night and it was madness. An hour of misogyny, sex, drugs, and at least 10 fights. Actually witnessing crunk music live, something you wouldn’t expect to be worthwhile, was actually an interesting experience. The energy inside the Commodore was off the charts.

I’ve been to a couple of shows that were borderline riots, but last night while Juicy J was drawling about putting his foot up some trick’s ass or something, I found myself imagining the energy in that place harnessed into a political movement. I’m pretty sure that if a group of people had the same energy as the crowd did last night, and felt it for political reasons, they could accomplish anything.

Which got me thinking about the relationship between music and politics and their ability to feed off each other. Music has been a major element of many movements, and I’ve always felt that when music gets political, it gains a special energy that other music can’t easily replicate. That’s not to say that all of the music I listen to is political, after all, I did see Three 6 Mafia last night. I’m just saying, if there was a way to focus a lot of the energy people harbour towards this world, some interesting things could happen…

Talked It Then He Lived It

Kan. Ye. West. Love him. Hate him. Write a blog post about him a couple of months ago and delete it when you find out his new album is entirely auto-tuned.

Well, I’ve heard 808’s & Heartbreak enough times, and the opinion I had is intact.

I bought The College Dropout when it came out. That shit spun real hot in my discman. Liked Late Registration less despite the critical ass licking Ye received for it. Thought Graduation was good. I heard all the beats before he was allowed to rap, all the mixtapes and guest spots once he was, read the articles, watched the interviews, and at the risk of my reputation I will say this:

I do not think there is anyone out there making consistently creative music with as much passion as Kanye West.

Like it or not.

It Came From The

I was going through some of my papers and stumbled across this drawing I did a few summers ago for an aborted project of the same name. It’s also painted under a freeway somewhere in Oregon.

Army Gunz

What I would give for a portrait of one of these guys after they let this thing off…