MUSIC: Dizzee Rascal

DIZZEE RASCAL's 'Maths & English' album came out last year on import, but i heard it this week for the first time. it's due out at the end of the month through DEFINITIVE JUX. Dizzee's second album 'Showtime' in 2004 was a disappointment, mostly due to its unsuccessful bling-bling gestures and lowest-common-denominator rap album tendencies. on 'Maths & English', Dizzee's unique delivery flows through some of the most original rap melodies in a decade. on top of that, the production is everything i love about UK grime, and it's a dirty electro freakout. plus, he rhymes "foie gras" with "murderer"!

flo rida, t-pain, jeezies young and old: you all can't touch this!

MUSIC: Does It Offend You, Yeah?

ok just one more record before i forget...
if you know me, you know how much i hate long band names that sound like racehorse or boat names. (and if you know me, you know how much i love racehorse and boat names for being so un-namelike.) however, i heard a record this week that i really kind of dig, at least upon my initial two listens. they're called DOES IT OFFEND YOU, YEAH? and they've kinda got this 'Justice-like Parisian hard dance music - meets - bands i like like Bloc Party/Maximö Park' type of sound. meaning, they've got the electronics going on, but underneath it all is this music that reminds you of something you loved back in high school but hadn't heard for a while until recently.

MUSIC: the Sun Paulo

so now that myspace won't allow me to post the albums i am 'currently listening' to, i am experimenting with various ways of posting them on here. too bad blogger makes it a total freaking hassle.

anyway, the SUN PAULO is an electronic psychedelic parliament/funkadelic rock dance freakout from Japan. their album's released next month on the Malicious Damage record label.

How to Use Furoshiki

at my house, we have a ton of furoshiki. i knew of their versatility but usually used them only as tablecloths and doilies.

NOW i know how to use one, and so do you. many thanks to my bro KeKi aka Kaze for this wonderful online discovery!

Denied by VIRGLE

the web is full of great april fool's day pranks. GOOGLE and VIRGIN GALACTIC have one they've elabourately conspired on. so i thought, what the heck, i'll give their questionnaire a try. here's what i got once i pressed the submit button:

"Well, you're distressingly normal and could conceivably adjust to life as a deep space pioneer, though we recommend instead that you leave the Mars missions to the serious whack jobs who scored over 130 and instead finish year 3 of law school, tuck your toddler into bed, design Web 2.0 applications, run for Congress or do whatever other normal, healthy, middle-of-the-road thing you're currently doing with your normal, healthy, middle-of-the-road life. If you're determined to give Virgle a try, though, you can submit your video here. "

darn.

my TWENTIETH high school reunion??!!

i went to sunny hills high school in fullerton, CA.

a while back, i performed a wedding in Laguna Beach, and down the hill from the wedding, in the same complex, there was a 40TH YEAR reunion party for my old high school. i went to my 10th and it was actually pretty fun...

today, i got an invitation to sunny hills' 20th year reunion. i don't know if i'm going to go to this one, considering it's going to cost NINETY DOLLARS a person. but, i may, for the hell of it.

have you ever gone to any of yours?

HATER-ade and lazy music supervisours.

if you know me, you know how much i hate commercials, and last night i saw a commercial that really bugged me.

anyway, when you watch THIS, listen to how they've completely butchered Carl Orff's Carmina Burana. disgusting. we're talking the fat, bone, and meat have been cut away, leaving a completely jarring, disjointed musical excerpt. the edits in the music make no sense. sure, they're in time with the music, but why couldn't they use 30 seconds of the piece from beginning to end, instead of omitting every other phrase!???

i guess the part that bothers me about this is that an ad company or music supervisour is actually allowed to do something like this to a piece of music. i am tired of lazy music supervision, where they will do anything they can to use Barber's Adagio for Strings or Orff's O fortuna just one more time. they've both been used to death. music supervision has become lazy, just to try and squeeze out one last drop of some sort of emotional response. emotional response that only a piece of music can evoke...

again, if you know me, you know how much i love to drink gatorade. so my problem is with the ad company and not with gatorade...although a company ultimately has to be held responsible for their advertising. a good example: remember how great those NICK DRAKE VOLKSWAGEN ADS were, and how much vw ads suck now?

bubbles+ elephants = cruelty OR "science"?

if you know me, you know i have a very soft spot and deep love of living things that are not human...as opposed to my not-so-deep love for some living things that are human.

so, in orange county, there has been some controversy over an exhibit that is taking place, performance art style, at the DISCOVERY SCIENCE CENTRE, and it makes me sad.

i don't know how i should be feeling about this, especially if Tai, the elephant, is being well-cared for, overall. i simply don't trust humans and their motives sometimes. all this being said, i thought i would share this with you:

Artist Yang says putting elephant in bubble isn’t demeaning

Free Grooverider!

if you know me, you know how much i love dance music. i wanted to share this news with you, especially since i recently served on a jury on a drug possession case.

this week, thanks to a flyer in our monthly Fabric subscription CD, we learned that GROOVERIDER, the legendary drum and bass DJ/producer who hosts a show with Fabio on BBC RADIO ONE, has been incarcerated in the United Arab Emirates for possessing cannabis/marijuana. he was sentenced to a four year jail sentence.

there is an online petition in support of Grooverider, to try to convince the authourities to allow him to come home to serve his sentence. (if you read the text of the petition, it is slightly dodgy but it's still a show of support...)

Free Grooverider Petition

i still love jury duty

so, i've got a lot of work to catch up on, but after spending seven days in court, we finally reached a verdict yesterday afternoon:
1) NOT GUILTY of possession of marijuana with intent to sell

• GUILTY of possession of marijuana under 28g.

2) NOT GUILTY of possession of ecstasy with intent to sell

• HOPELESSLY DEADLOCKED on the lesser crime of possessing ecstasy (the judge declared a mistrial on this one)

3) GUILTY of possession of ketamine

Marcy, Ernie, Steven, Charlie, Julie, Tina, Chris, Steve, JoAnn, Laurie and Tony were the best co-jurors a person could ask for! Also, if i ever need a criminal defense lawyer, and i can afford him, i'm going to try and hire VINCENT LABARBERA, JR.

Many more details to come!