Friday, January 31, 2014

super rich kids.

a moment of clarity.

words.

THE WASHINGTON POST: The 1% as victims? That’s rich!

can't remember to forget you.

a video.

starring shakira and rihanna.


digital witness.

a video.

from st. vincent. 


ashley.

a video.

with big sean and miguel.


#DUDES.

A Moment of Clarity.

"Clearly, men in America have grown up learning to be scared of gayness. But not only for the reasons we typically think—not only, in the end, because of religion, insecurity about their own sexuality, or a visceral aversion to other men’s penises. The truth is, they’re afraid because heterosexuality is so fragile.

Heterosexuality’s power lies in perception, not physical truth—as long as people think you’re exclusively attracted to the right gender, you’re golden. But perception is a precarious thing; a “zero-tolerance” policy has taught men that the way people think of them can change permanently with one slip, one little kiss or too-intimate friendship. And once lost, it can be nearly impossible to reclaim.

Put another way, the zero-tolerance rule means that if a man makes one “wrong” move—kisses another man in a moment of drunken fun, say—he is immediately assumed to be gay. Women have a certain amount of freedom to play with their sexuality (mostly because society has a hard time believing in lesbian sex at all). Male sexuality, on the other hand, is understood as unidirectional. Once young men realize they are gay, they become A Gay Person. We don’t hear about gay men discovering an interest in women later in life, and we rarely believe men when they say they are bisexual—the common, if erroneous, wisdom is that any man who says he is bi is really just gay and hasn’t admitted it yet.

 The result of all this is that men are not allowed “complex” sexualities;..."

SLATE: Homophobia Is a Real Fear … but of What, Exactly?

Thursday, January 30, 2014

confident.

a video.

starring justin bieber & chance the rapper.


come alive.

a video.

starring chromeo & toro y moi.


same girl.

a video.

starring jennifer lopez. 

MTV: Jennifer Lopez Rides The 6 Train: Watch 'Same Girl' Video

Wednesday, January 29, 2014

apocalypse soon.




PITCHFORK: Major Lazer Announce Apocalypse Soon EP Featuring Pharrell

a moment of clarity.

words. 

"...when wealthy individuals are understood to have bettered most people’s lives — as, say, Steve Jobs was — they win acclaim and even veneration. But the paths that many of today’s wealthiest Americans have taken on their road to riches have not bettered most people’s lives. Many have actually hurt most people’s lives. Their riches have come at most other people’s expense.

Since the recession officially ended in June 2009, for instance, the wages for all private-sector jobs have fallen, on average, by 0.5 percent. The wages for jobs in financial services, however, have risen by 5.5 percent. Inasmuch as the recession was brought about by the financial services industry, it’s understandable that this disparity would strike most people as unjust.

 ...Many in that 1 percent argue that the root cause of this inequality is the nation’s deficient schools. Granting that our schools could be improved, that hardly explains why the pay of bankers and CEOs has soared, or why corporations would rather buy back their own shares than give their employees raises. If the voluble members of the 1 percent wish to reclaim some legitimacy, they might become active in campaigns to raise the minimum wage and make it possible for workers to form unions without fear of being fired. After all, some CEOs have unions of their own devoted to boosting their pay: They’re called corporate boards. Until and unless corporate leaders back their workers’ efforts to form unions, here’s some advice on what to say when their fellow Americans question the propriety and legitimacy of their wealth: nothing. One percenters, just shut up."

THE WASHINGTON POST: Money made at others’ expense

danny glover.

a remix.

starring nicki minaj.


humphrey.




starring cam'ron & a-trak.



PITCHFORK: Listen: Cam'ron and A-Trak: "Humphrey"

robes.

starring freddie gibbs, madlib, earl sweatshirt, and domo genesis.



PITCHFORK: Listen: Freddie Gibbs, Madlib, Earl Sweatshirt, Domo Genesis: "Robes"

union station.

words.

SLATE: The Work Ethic: Obama is betting that Americans will side with labor over capitalism. He’s right.

SEE ALSO:

THE WASHINGTON POST: In the State of the Union, opportunities to work together

THE WASHINGTON POST: The real state of the union is inescapable

THE NEW YORK TIMES: Principles? What Principles?

THE NEW YORK TIMES: I'm Looking Through You 

THE NEW YORKER: Obama Breaks Up with Congress

Thursday, January 23, 2014

thug life.

words.

GRANTLAND: Stanford Man: Richard Sherman and the Thug Athlete Narrative

love letters.


starring metronomy.



PITCHFORK: Listen: Metronomy: "Love Letters"

I Hope This Whole Thing Didn't Frighten You.

 starring the hold steady.

stream here.

buzzworthy.

words.

THE WASHINGTON POST: An emerging market problem

looking.

words.

"...gay men don’t necessarily need a reason to desire fitness, and a much simpler explanation comes down to aesthetics: We’re attracted to what we’re told is sexy, and this creates an insatiable desire to look a certain way. In 2012, a British poll found that 48 percent of gay men surveyed would sacrifice a year of their life to enjoy their ideal body now, and another 10 percent would give up 11 years, killing themselves to be beautiful. The gay community’s subcultures each have their different ideals—and the standards vary between bears and twinks. However, if you don’t look like a Ken Doll (or the muscle bear equivalent), you might do whatever it takes to fit that mold."

SLATE: Gay Men and the Tyranny of Body Image

I Can't Describe (The Way I Feel).

a video.

from jennifer hudson & t.i.


Tuesday, January 21, 2014

priority.

a moment of clarity.

words.

"Millions of Americans can’t find work and have lost their unemployment benefits because Congressional Republicans insist the government can’t afford to help them. But there is no shortage of money when it comes to hunting down unauthorized immigrants.

...What’s most disheartening about the spending splurge is that it attacks only the symptoms of the ailing immigration system. It reflects a government cynically resigned to chipping away at the presence of millions of unauthorized immigrants, most of them noncriminals, instead of one willing to create a way for millions to come forward and get right with the law, freeing up taxpayer dollars to go after real threats."  

THE NEW YORK TIMES: Detention Must Be Paid

smooth sailin'.






INTERVIEW: Kanye West By Steve McQueen

blue moon.


sundanza.


starring Sampha.

PITCHFORK: Listen: Sampha Releases Sundanza Collection of Early Recordings

latch.

LIVE!

With Disclosure & Sam Smith.


Monday, January 20, 2014

everyday robots.

a video.

from damon albarn. 

Sunday, January 19, 2014

rich ____.

A Moment of Clarity.

words. 

"IN my last year on Wall Street my bonus was $3.6 million — and I was angry because it wasn’t big enough. I was 30 years old, had no children to raise, no debts to pay, no philanthropic goal in mind. I wanted more money for exactly the same reason an alcoholic needs another drink: I was addicted.

... in the end, it was actually my absurdly wealthy bosses who helped me see the limitations of unlimited wealth. I was in a meeting with one of them, and a few other traders, and they were talking about the new hedge-fund regulations. Most everyone on Wall Street thought they were a bad idea. “But isn’t it better for the system as a whole?” I asked. The room went quiet, and my boss shot me a withering look. I remember his saying, “I don’t have the brain capacity to think about the system as a whole. All I’m concerned with is how this affects our company.”

...Wealth addiction was described by the late sociologist and playwright Philip Slater in a 1980 book, but addiction researchers have paid the concept little attention. Like alcoholics driving drunk, wealth addiction imperils everyone. Wealth addicts are, more than anybody, specifically responsible for the ever widening rift that is tearing apart our once great country. Wealth addicts are responsible for the vast and toxic disparity between the rich and the poor and the annihilation of the middle class."

THE NEW YORK TIMES: For the Love of Money

Friday, January 17, 2014

a moment of clarity.

words.

"...after two consecutive elections in which the Democratic candidate for president garnered more than 50 percent of the vote — a one-two punch last achieved by Franklin Roosevelt — it is worth questioning that assumption. The country is getting more diverse, and as the proportion of white voters shrinks, so, too, does the conservative base. As demographics shift, so do political preferences — in this case, toward the left. A close examination of U.S. attitudes in the past decade-plus reveals that the United States is steadily becoming more progressive.

...It is more than an interesting observation that America now leans left. This should be a guiding light for politicians. With the knowledge that most Americans are, in fact, behind them, Democrats no longer need to fear running on their beliefs. They should stop letting special interests on the right hold ideas and ideals hostage and start listening to voters.

And what are the American people saying? That they’re fed up with political obstructionism and conservative policies that have left the country at a standstill. They want a new direction.

 ...Smart politicians ought to get ahead of them."

THE WASHINGTON POST: America is becoming more liberal

allergic to love.



starring charli xcx.



PITCHFORK: Listen: Charli XCX: "Allergic to Love"

BOUND.

a video.

from rick ross.


strife.

a video.

from savages.


coming attractions.



LOS ANGELES TIMES: Watch: Beck hypes 'Morning Phase' with vinyl-fetish promo video

John Doe.

A video. 

Starring B.o.B. & Priscilla.


Man of the Year.

A video.

Starring SchoolBoy Q.


Thursday, January 16, 2014

-INTERLUDE-

mess on a mission.

starring liars.


legs.


Starring Chuck Inglish & Chromeo.

stream here. 


grab her.

a video.

from Disclosure.


Wednesday, January 15, 2014

she wolf.

for your consideration...



GRANTLAND: Shakira and Rihanna’s Ska-riffic ‘Can’t Remember to Forget You’

Ghetto Gospel.

A video.

Starring Killer Mike.


"ON SIGHT!"


words.

"The Great Kanyeezian Paradox (traded on the NASDAQ as GKP, invest now) is his ability to work the artistic high- and lowbrow simultaneously, to firmly make a point that unravels all his prior points without blinking. He's a man who can couch his many frustrations over the complicated subtlety of American classism next to a clunky Adam Sandler movie reference ("New Slaves"). He can stuff a video full of white trash tropes and declare it high art ("Bound 2"), or propose to one of the world's most loathed reality stars without fear the relationship will detract from the perception of his own artistic genius. He can write one of the most striking and poignant criticisms of racism ever set to music ("Black Skinhead") and sell it for use in a Motorola commercial. He can repurpose the Confederate flag for his own dark, twisted merchandise.

These contradictions might be more concerning if they weren't so remarkably consistent, fitting tidily under an "All I Want Is Dopeness" umbrella that's become his unofficial life motto. To Kanye, the perfection of his end product justifies the sometimes cloudy and confusing means he uses to get there. You can't tell him otherwise because, quite famously, you can't tell him nothin'."

VILLAGE VOICE: PAZZ & JOP: For the Fourth Time in Six Albums, Kanye West Takes the Top Pazz & Jop Prize

EARLIER:

BOUND: The Albums, 2013: 04/Kanye West/Yeezus

AND

BOUND: The Singles, 2013: 01/Kanye West/Black Skinhead



I'll Be There 4 U.

 A video.

Starring 7 Days of Funk (Dam Funk & Snoopzilla).


Sunday, January 12, 2014

Pearly Gates.


Starring The Men.

Saturday, January 11, 2014

loose leaves.

words.

THE WASHINGTON POST: The NFL should let its players smoke pot

short cuts.


THE WASHINGTON POST: Tax reform is the best way to tackle income inequality

for your consideration.

words.

SALON: American men’s hidden crisis: They need more friends!

body party.

words.

"Lena Dunham’s nakedness on Girls is revolutionary and needs to be applauded, without reservation.

Look. We live in a world where beauty standards for women are in a terrible place. I’d like to blame that on men alone, but I can’t. Crappy, thin-white-dressed-to-the-nines beauty standards are delivered to a supermarket near you by the Vogues and Elles of this world every month. They’re on television, when even on the most female-centric shows, powerful, independent careerwomen still wake up in the morning already in perfect hair and makeup. The need to look perfect, is still the #1 demand in most women’s lives. And women suffer for that perfection — perfection being defined in ever more difficult and expensive and literally painful (think plastic surgery) ways. It’s unattainable. It’s impossible. Even the actresses with the round-the-clock trainers and stylists and makeup artists complain about how impossible it is, and end up in those “NO MAKEUP KILL YOURSELF” spreads in the US Weeklys of the world.

I say all of that because it seems this hasn’t sunk in for some people yet."

FLAVORWIRE: ‘Girls’ Whiplash Report: Why, Despite Everything, Lena Dunham’s Nudity Is Radical

Friday, January 10, 2014

A Moment of Clarity.

 words.

"This is not a conversation we can have until we can use all the words in our national vocabulary. To really reckon with something, it has to be named, called out, described—as the President has done with the plague of gun violence or obstacles to gay marriage. This is not to suggest that Obama, in his upcoming State of the Union address, should ask Congress for a renewal of hostilities with poverty, fifty years after Lyndon Johnson declared war. But it might be time for him to summon a little of Johnson’s indignation. Americans knew, listening to L.B.J., that he took almost personal offense at the existence of poverty; it was an affront to his sense of self, and, by implication, to ours as a nation. If President Obama sees it that way, let him say so, and plainly. Unemployment insurance, the minimum wage—these are important, but they are part of proxy wars. The larger battle is still on, and it won’t be won by stealth maneuvers.”

THE NEW YORKER: The “P” Word: Why Presidents Stopped Talking About Poverty

Monday, January 06, 2014

words.

GAWKER: Transformed Into White Gods: What Happens in America Without Love

BOSS.

starring nicki minaj. 

for your consideration.

words.

THE NEW YORK TIMES: Abolish the Corporate Income Tax

A Moment of Clarity.

words.

"Why are we arguing about issues that were settled decades ago?

 ...The contention over unemployment insurance and the minimum wage reflects the larger problem in American politics. Rather than discussing what we need to do to secure our future, we are spending most of our energy re-litigating the past.

...we have to stop letting the politics of culture wars so dominate our thinking that we forget how much we share when it comes to life’s day-to-day struggles and what we can do to ease them. Disputes over personal morals and lifestyle choices may get more page views or rating points, but they do little to improve anyone’s standard of living.

...President Obama’s old line challenging the idea of red and blue Americas unalterably opposed to each other seems terribly outdated or naive. Electorally, at least, those divisions are still painfully obvious. But on matters of economic justice, we shouldn’t let a defective political system distract us from what we have in common."

THE WASHINGTON POST: The social justice majority

shields.

Starring Grizzly Bear.


...Like Clockwork.



PITCHFORK: Watch Queens of the Stone Age's Hour-Long "Austin City Limits" Performance

come alive.


Stream here.

Friday, January 03, 2014

Modern Vampires of the City.

A Moment of Clarity.

words.

"Would David Brooks feel the same way about drug laws if he was one of the hundreds of thousands of Americans arrested in weed-related incidents every year (it was over 700,000 people in 2012)? If he'd been prevented from getting a student loan or getting a state job because of such a bust? If he'd lost a professional license, or had his property seized, or even had a child taken away from him?

We'll never know, because by and large, people like David Brooks, or me for that matter, don't suffer serious consequences for weed arrests. Most people who get busted on pot charges are non-white and from poor neighborhoods: In the Bloomberg years, there were as many as 50,000 pot arrests a year in New York City, the overwhelming majority of which were black or Hispanic people. Brooks should ask himself how sending people to sit in Rikers on weed charges (I've met such people) reflects upon our "moral ecology," especially when it's almost guaranteed that the cops who sent that person there also smoked pot in high school and/or college.

...by making it legal, we're deciding that letting people get high is a lesser evil compared to a person's life being derailed forever by a pointless and intrinsically hypocritical marijuana arrest. But Brooks/Brown/Scarborough wouldn't know anything about that, apparently."

ROLLING STONE: Yuppie Prohibition League Denounces Pot Legalization

Riot/Northern Lights.

A video.

Starring Dawn Richard.


Wednesday, January 01, 2014

BOUND: The Albums, 2013.


the knowing.

01/Of Montreal/Lousy with Sylvianbriar 

Kevin Barnes is often the oddest/wackiest/most imbalanced person in the room. But he is not and has never been stupid, no matter how disturbing or chaotic the circumstances are that surround him. He's still present, with a keen eye. Forever an astute observer with the sharpest of tongues, even when he's the butt of another's joke or emotional and verbal abuse. And on Lousy with Sylvianbriar, he's seeing things more clearly now that the rain is gone. Lousy with Sylvianbriar is what happens when the plates stop spinning and it's become all too clear that those you've been hiding from/putting on airs for/taking shit from/or whose opinions you've been valuing for far too long are just as broken or even more so than you. These moments of clarity cut like a knife as Kevin, done with being a monster "just to feel something ugly enough to be true", is ready to keep it real, tell you about yourself, and do what he's always done best: read. "There is a virus in your tenets. Don't be naive, you know it's true"; "she ain't speaking' now. Her eyes they seem cast and Fatherless"; "I've become such a wolf around you"; "I'm not a patron of yours anymore. Don't want to hear it. The sirens of your toxic spirit…" 

This go round, Kevin and his Of Montreal cohorts look to the vibes and melodies of folks like the Dylans and Neil Youngs of rock's free spirited and acid tongued past, adopting cocksure stances that are strongly matter of fact, yet wonderfully nonchalant, making the words and observations sting that much more. Kevin and company are focused and know that of which they speak of here. Are sure of it. No patience for impractical emotions. Insanity and clatter are cut to a minimum, or are non-existent. And it's allowed he and his band to make one of their most direct and focused long players in years. 

KEY TRACKS: Obsidian Currents/Sirens of Your Toxic Spirit/Colossus 


03/Sky Ferreira/Night Time, My Time

04/Kanye West/Yeezus 

05/Arctic Monkeys/AM

06/Arcade Fire/Reflektor

07/Justin Timberlake/The 20/20 Experience, Pt. 1

08/Janelle Monae/The Electric Lady

09/Chance the Rapper/Acid Rap

10/Haim/Days Are Gone

11/Danny Brown/Old

12/Deerhunter/Monomania

13/Foxygen/We Are the 21st Century Ambassadors of Peace & Magic