Takeshi, what are you doing?! This is appalling, and I hope the Japanese (and international) press rip him apart over this. Does this mean I have to remove Fireworks and Sonatine from my Netflix queue now? 

Tags: Beat Takeshi Japan Gay Marriage Why????

“When people didn’t rally around Dead Prez, I knew the black hip-hop audience had become far less politicized. I just don’t know if Americans give a damn about anything past a shopping mall. And that’s all Americans on all levels. I can’t expect rappers to be politicized when Americans are not socially motivated enough to care about their own lives and public policy as much as they were even 20 years ago. But I’m compelled to make the music I make regardless.”

—

Killer Mike talks about the evolution of hip-hop’s relationship with politics in our latest feature interview. (via pitchfork)

Kind of reminds me of this New York Times article about the Occupy movement’s lack of an anthem. Music in general is just a lot less political these days.

Tags: killer mike occupy

thedailywhat:

In Case You Missed It of the Day: In which Obama out-Clintons ol’ Bill, cements place in late-night history as POTUS With The Mostest.

[latenightjimmy]

This whole thing leaves a bitter taste in my mouth. Jimmy Fallon has been the host of Last Night for…how many years? Two, three? And already he seems to have taken it to another level that Conan never could. And it doesn’t look like TBS’ Conan is making much of a dent in popular culture either. I don’t know…but I feel dirty for enjoying this.

Tags: obama late night with jimmy fallon conan o'brien

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Arabesque

Takeshi Kobayashi / Salyu : All About Lily Chou Chou OST

Can you believe it’s been 10 years already? I’m currently listening to World End’s Girlfriend’s new Starry Starry Night soundtrack (more about that later in the week…maybe), and it got me thinking about other soundtracks I enjoy. One of them is 2001’s All About Lily Chou-Chou soundtrack composed by Takeshi Kobayashi, with vocals by the Salyu (whose real life music is much poppier in comparison). This track, and probably the entire opening sequence, is one of the highlights of the movie.

Tags: music

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Track 11

Dean Blunt and Inga Copeland : Black Is Beautiful

Don’t get your hopes up. This is the only good track on Dean Blunt and Inga Copeland’s new collaborative album that’s available for free on their website. The album sounds ever like the experimental side project it is, although that’s not really a surprise. Worth a listen.

Just realized I had this sitting in “Drafts” for like a week. Publish!

Tags: music hype williams

What are “goods and services intended to be used for cybersecurity purposes?” A Facebook status update was never “intended” to be used for cybersecurity purposes. Yet, under this law, a Facebook status update could be seen in a variety of ways. The wording of the definitions leaves it open for the government to request information from Facebook (or any other digital information service) over the smallest of updates.

The Internet was outraged over SOPA but has been pretty lax about CISPA, a sloppy cybersecurity bill that is being supported by Facebook and others. Thankfully, ReadWriteWeb breaks it all down for those who haven’t been keeping up. 

Tags: CISPA the goverment ate my freedoms news

Current TV: The Network That Could Have Been

Quick! Without cheating tell me what channel Current TV is on. Oh what the hell, even I don’t know what channel it’s on and I actually watch the damn channel. Thing’s aren’t looking good for Current. From its current lawsuit with Keith Olbermann to its low ratings threatening to end the network for good, it seems Current still can’t catch a break despite once being one of the coolest, most original channels on television. 

Read More

Tags: current tv keith olbermann television

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Secret

Clark : Iradelphic

If I could use one word to describe Iradelphic, Clark’s long-awaited follow-up to 2009’s Totems Flare, I would call it “interesting.” Not a bad interesting or even a good interesting, just…interesting. Like an interesting plant that catches your eye at the store that you may or may not take home. It’s such a contradictory album that, unlike the chaos of Totems Flare, sounds more like a playful musical scrapbook. From piano ballads to jazz numbers to ambient lullabies, Clark has a lot of good ideas on this album, he just doesn’t know what to do with them all. The album inevitably can’t help but sound  disjointed. By themselves, however, a few of the songs sound solid. The laid-back, trip-hoppish  ”Open” and “Secret” are obvious standouts, while “The Pining Pt 1-3” hangs on dearly to the “old” Clark. Iradelphic  somehow manages to be wonderful, messy and frustrating all at the same time.

Tags: music clark what's playing now

“There is an expectation that we can talk about sins but no one must be identified as a sinner: newspapers love to describe words or deeds as “racially charged” even in those cases when it would be more honest to say “racist”; we agree that there is rampant misogyny, but misogynists are nowhere to be found; homophobia is a problem but no one is homophobic. One cumulative effect of this policed language is that when someone dares to point out something as obvious as white privilege, it is seen as unduly provocative. Marginalized voices in America have fewer and fewer avenues to speak plainly about what they suffer; the effect of this enforced civility is that those voices are falsified or blocked entirely from the discourse.”

— This Teju Cole piece from The Atlantic  on The White Savior Industrial Complex has already made the rounds of the Tumblrs and the Twitters this week, but I wanted to quote this part anyway. You should obviously read everything that Teju Cole wrote because it is brilliant and so incredibly important, but this passage is unparalleled. It is probably the smartest thing I’ve read on the Internet so far this year, and considering how many smart thinkers I have the privilege to read on a regular basis, that’s saying something. Cole speaks to something so critical about the nature of the complicated experience of agency and dialogue from within the marginal space with this passage, an element that is so overlooked even by those sympathetic with movements for equality. 

(Source: thepoliticalnotebook)

Tags: politics

I was thinking Whatever Happened to Baby Jane, but yeah, this works too. 

Tags: random celeb kids ontd