About 10 years ago I remember reading the first live blog I've ever seen - Bill Simmons, at his old site, doing the NBA Draft (it might have been the second year he had done it at the time). Now, 10 years later, it's become an overused staple of almost every blogger's repertoire. It's time to stake this b*tch once and for all, and let Bill Simmons be the only one to use it (he deserves to keep it, he created the format). I'm going Buffy the Blog Cliche-Killer on ya'll, by showing you how boring it is to read other people's minute by minute accounts.
Here's a blog of how my Monday evening went:
7:35 - The Marathon Runner (for the record, I hardly ever spend as much time with him as I have over the past week - I have other friends, damnit!) and a bunch of us are drinking and eating at an Irish pub down the block from the Hammerstein Ballroom. The Mets-Cards game is on. We see this graphic come up (man, I wish I had the screen shot of it):
Bad Breaks for the Cardinals This Season:
-Tony LaRussa gets a DUI during spring training.
-Josh Hancock dies in a drunk driving accident.
-Chris Carpenter expected to miss 2-4 months because of bone spurs in his elbow.
Um, one of these is not like the other? Seriously, a middle reliever dying in a fiery car crash is akin to elbow surgery for your ace?!? "Oh my god, my baby infant just died of SIDS. And I forgot to return my overdue book to the library!"
8:00: Head over to the Hammerstein to watch the Wilco show. For the record I am not very familiar with Wilco's music. My GF got us tickets - she's the fan. I've only gotten tickets for one show this year - Rock The Bells on Randall's Island. Wu-Tang Clan, Cypress Hills, The Roots, Rakim, Nas, EPMD, Talib Kweli, Mos Def, MF Doom, Pharoahe Monch, Public Enemy, Boot Camp Clik and Immortal Technique. That's my joint right there.
Aside to The Last Poet: Immortal Technique... thoughts? I'm gonna let it be known that I'm a huge fan. A Latino from El Barrio? Ripping political rap mixed with the soul of a battle MC? Am I alone on this?...
8:50: Notice the audience. Sold-out show... the Hammerstein holds around 4,000 I believe... looking around, scanning the audience... I can see at least half the audience. There are some many different kinds of people... stoners, hipsters, hippies, old, young... I've never seen so many different kind of white people before. No seriously. For 1% of the audience to be black there would have to be 40 black people there. I am absolutely confident that not only weren't there 40 black people there (or even 20, I bet), but I'm not sure there were even 40 brown people there. I think I saw a couple of Indian dudes, and one Greek/Turkish looking guy. I can't even really count myself as brown, as I am the lightest Hispanic ever (Argentine, remember?). Plus, I'm at a Wilco show.
Suffice to say, I'm gonna classify Wilco as "the opposite of soul", whatever that is. In fact, this is how I'll define "soul" from now on - the opposite of Wilco.
9:10: Conversation between The Marathon Runner and SML:
MR: I read your post today on Will Leitch's links...
SML: What ya think?
MR: It's true! But you know Will Leitch is apolitical...
SML: He doesn't want to take any risky viewpoints...
MR: ... he wants to keep writing for the Times and stuff...
SML: No doubt.
MR: He's like a John Edwards supporter...
SML: Word! ...he'll never link to someone like D-Wil.
MR: That guy D-Wil is a machine...
SML: ...he's f*cking amazing...
MR: He totally hangs with Dead Prez...
SML: ...he's The Coup, yo....
11:00: Show ends. Immediately after finishing their last song, the lights come on and the DJ/sound producer starts pumping in "Superfly" (Curtis Mayfield). Yep, soul music. That'll clear the audience out fast.
11:15: Discuss how awful Bud Select was. Now, I don't drink beer normally (I'm a Bacardi or Jack & Coke type), but at the Mets game Friday we all tried it, and were still pissed off about it even last night:
MR: Bud Select is crap...
SML: I don't understand the concept - let's make a select beer from crap. Isn't that akin to a product called "PBR... Select"?
MR: Made from the finest burley and hops that Budweiser... didn't use.
SML: Yo, PBR Select!
MR: Mixed with horse urine for flavoring...
SML: I wonder who would be their spokesperson?
MR: Lil' Wayne.
SML: Nah, he's got too much credibility. It has to be someone totally washed up...
MR: Master P.
SML: PBR Select... "Expect Uhhhh! Uhhhhh! Na na na na. Na na na na."
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I was listening to Yankee Hotel Foxtrot while drinking a PBR....don't forget, it was voted the world's best in 1893, when i stumbled across this post. Needless to say, i found it relevant.
Rickhouse: Um, thanks for sharing. I support PBR. Really, I do. It's the only beer (besides Corona and Heiny) that I drink, on those rare occasions when I drink beer.
As for Wilco: When I asked my GF to give me a clue what Wilco sounds like, she said "Dad Rock". She also agreed that "the opposite of soul" is appropriate. Just pointing this out.
The Marathon Man also told me this morning, with regards to the audience: "It's Wilco, not the UN..."
That line just cracked me up.
The Last Poet: I had no doubt. I've seen Tek live twice (at SOB's, and BB King's), and he's pretty much the only artist I generally go out of my way to support like that. He is a beast.
From "4th Branch":
They bombed innocent people, tryin' to murder Saddam
When you gave him those chemical weapons to go to war with Iran
This is the information that they hold back from Peter Jennings
Cause Condoleeza Rice is just a new age Sally Hemmings
I break it down with critical language and spiritual anguish
The Judas I hang with, the guilt of betraying Christ
You murdered and stole his religion, and painting him white
Translated in psychologically tainted philosophy
Conservative political right wing, ideology
Glued together sloppily, the blasphemy of a nation
Got my back to the wall, cause I'm facin' assassination
Guantanamo Bay, federal incarceration
How could this be, the land of the free, home of the brave?
Indigenous holocaust, and the home of the slaves
Corporate America, dancin' offbeat to the rhythm
You really think this country, never sponsored terrorism?
Human rights violations, we continue the saga
El Savador and the Contras in Nicaragua
And on top of that, you still wanna take me to prison?
Just cause I won't trade humanity for patriotism?
Immortal Technique is a beast, sun.
I used to hand his discs out as christmas gifts to my nephews and cousins - or to random brothas from off the corner! (True story: I'm sitting at the corner of W 122nd about to turn north onto Lenox/Malcolm X, blastin "Harlem Streets" off the Vol. 2 album. Young 'hood cat gets to noddin his head and asks what I'm giggin on. I pull out the CD cover and say, "thats Tek murdering the President and his cabinet." I talk to him about poltical rap, rap with a conscience, and an agenda far different than that bullshid coming across the airwaves. Young dude is shook, but intrigued. I pull out the CD, give it to him, and drive off. Each one teach one.)
But this is how you know rap music has lost its power, because 15-20 years ago, a group like Public Enemy caught MAJOR hell for saying less than half of what Tek is putting down, am I right?
I mean, check the flava:
Harlem streets stay flooded in white powder
Like those mutherfuckers runnin away from the twin towers
Gun shots rock the earth like a meteor shower
Bowling for Columbine, fair, giving the media power
Innocence devoured like a chicken spot snack box
Government cocaine cooked into ghetto crack rock
Corrupt cops false tesimony at your arraignment
Check to check, constant struggle to make the payments
Working your whole life wondering where the day went
The subway stays packed like a multicultural slave ship
It's rush hour, 2:30 to 8, non-stoppin
And people comin home after corporate sharecroppin
And fuck flossin, mothers are tryin to feed children
But gentrification is kicking them out of their building
A generation of babies born without health care
Families homeless, thrown the fuck off the welfare...
- Harlem Streets
And that's just the 1st verse, know what I mean? What's not to like?