Things on my mind

OBSESSING OVER THIS SHOW

HOMESICK

HERE, ALL DAY URR DAY

READING THIS, AND MORE, SO MUCH MORE

FINALLY LIVING IN THIS CITY

Transitions bleh

I haven't updated the ol blog in 3 months. But I also haven't cut my hair in 3 months. I'm leaving the bay area (again) next week to move to Southern California (again) so I can begin what I hope will be my future career (again). I decided one way to commemorate this transition would be to occasionally list different things I'll miss about the Bay Area. Since I am at times filled with negative energy, I'll throw in some shit I really won't miss as well. Since moving back in January I feel much more like a citizen of the bay area than I previously had; the Berkeley bubble, combined with lack of a car, isolated me from the massive chunk of land filled with cool stuff. For the most part, this changed. yay.

STUF I'LL MISS, PART ONE:

1. The Cathedral. My relationship with my own Catholic faith is odd. That said, I try to make it out to mass on occasion, say my prayers when I can, avoid meat on Lenten Fridays etc. Having a nearby church makes this easier to do, and having an imposingly gorgeous cathedral a few blocks from my house definitely didn't hurt. I really dug going here and thinking things over quietly, checking out mass and trying to understand the priest's accent, or showing it off to visitors. I also really enjoyed trying to scale its walls on a drunken walk home from BART. Cathedral, I'll miss you.

2. Giant Burger. This place is emblematic of alot of things that make me love Oakland. Care free, fun, sociable, diverse, drunk and crazy people all arrive here between the hours of midnight and 3 am. EVERY time I went here I'd strike up a great convo while waiting for my fries. Chatting with the blunt-rolling dudes about going to space, the fur coat wearing lady about her son's graduation, the bum about how he can't sell white people razors fo black hair....good times. Alot of my time in Oakland was spent in a pseudo-hipster bubble, but trips to Giant Burger made it clear that I lived in a badass place with lots of different social niches. We were totally different in so many ways, but we loved Oakland and we loved drunk food. That's all the connection I need.

3. Lake Merritt. Or as I've recently heard it called, "the lake of 1000 smells." Yes, that one part by Harrison/Grand stinks. Yes, the birds eat rocks and bums sprawl out on the benches. But it was sweet living by a nice little body of water, the views were cool, and it was the perfect distance and flat-ness for me to have a good jog.

4. Grocery Shopping. I'm convinced I lived in the world capital of grocery shopping. Everything was within a fifteen minute drive. Aside from my staple Safeways, there were so many cool ethnic stores that exposed me to some new dankies. Koreana Plaza was a serious haven of cheap food. TWO DOLLAR STEAKS, SERIOUSLY. If I got broke and needed a cheap meal, I could go buy a steak? wah? And they had those crazy awesome popsicle-yogurt things; I ate about 4 of them each day. Nearby Chinatown had really cheap produce and a fun vibe. A little further down the freeway, Fruitvale's Mi Pueblo had some serious awesomeness. Fresh tortillas, aguas frescas, hispanic seasonings, mexican sodas, asada-friendly cuts of meat, and ambiance! The cinco de mayo specials were great: cheap tequila and a DJ blasting ranchera music. Oakland groceries, I will miss you.

Bookz

One of the perks of being out of school is that I actually get to enjoy reading again. It's not something I need to do for hours a day, and I get to pick the books I read. I just finished Nuthin' but a 'G' Thang: The Culture and Commerce of Gangsta Rap. It's by Eithne Quinn, and it was lent to me by Tyler.

This book rules. I'm pretty sure no one reads this blog, but if anyone does, try to locate a copy of this. Hip hop as a movement and as a culture has often been discussed; however, gangsta rap seems too often tossed aside by serious cultural observers as either "just fun and benign" or "crude and vulgar." Quinn does an amazing job of breaking down Gangsta rap (primarily West Coast based rap between the years 1988-1996). She breaks down the following aspects of gangsta: its massive cultural significance, its role in African American culture, its reflection of 1980s capitalistic individualism, its candid discussion of sex and gender, its positive AND negative impact on the black community, and its reflection of a culture ambiguously fixated on authenticity. 

It's a pretty academic book, unlike other pop-culture savants like Chuck Klosterman, and considering the subject matter, that really helps the book's potency. Quinn demands that we take gangsta seriously, that we consider Snoop Dogg to be a vital pop cultural figure, that we not dismiss certain genres as simply mysoginistic or silly. This book expresses everything I wish I was eloquent and intelligent enough to say about my obsession with hip hop.When I am derided by people for not listening to more "conscious" or "indie" hip-hop, I sometimes struggle to defend myself. This book clears it all up for me. If you love commercial rap, read this book. If you hate commercial rap, read this book.

It's hot as hell, I'm gonna go look for a kiddy pool.

AMAZON LINK TO THE BOOK:

http://www.amazon.com/Nuthin-but-Thang-Commerce-Cultures/dp/0231124090

Oh hey well look at that

Oh cool, a video from the ol' band's noise pop performance last year. Watch carefully as I stare downward and play the cowbell with minimal competence.

Muzak

How come I haven't heard this sweet mixtape track before? Kanye and Pharrell and other over Thom Yorke's "The Eraser." It's really good.

I have trouble acknowledging Jamie Foxx as a musician, but I'll be damned if his new auto-tuned club banger "Blame it" isn't great. And his video is absholutely nuts, with some of the most bizarre cameos of all time. peep it.

Eff this guy

I just perchanced upon this article in the SF Chronicle by one Peter Coyote about travelling to Cuba.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2009/02/26/petercoyote022609.DTL&type=travel

This article is an immense pile of shit. In the first paragraph, he calls Cuba a, "little Carribean upstart nation that has insisted on socialism as its economic form (read: "sharing what you have)."

This was the first sentence and I already felt like punching through a wall. Cuba embraced Castro when he first took over, true. But at the time he had not declared he was a socialist. As time progressed, his popularity dwindled so significantly that he has to take measures like banning people from emigrating and not allowing people access to the internet or alternate media sources, just so he can maintain his control. And even then, it's not quite socialism. It's authoritarian communism. He's a dictator, not someone who oversees the "sharing" as this piece of shit article declares. Party officials ride around in Benzes while my grandfather's small business was taken away and he was forced to work in a movie theater. I call complete and utter bullshit.

The second quote that drove me nuts was "On the ride in from the airport, I was delighted to see the gaily, hand-painted vehicles of my childhood cruising the road in good working order." Cubans don't drive those old ass cars because they think it's quaint and badass, it's cause they have no options. I'm really glad that Mr. Coyote was able to get nostalgic at the expense of a nation's poverty. That'd be like visiting a poor American's house and commenting how much their 1994 computer reminds you of their youth. He's missing the point: Cuba is in drastic need of repair, and it has almost no capacity to modernize and to provide amenities like efficient transportation for its citizens.

The next line I loved was "There is a level of decrepitude that covers much of the environment like a fine mist." Way to romanticize their poverty by making it seem like a more authentic reality than America's stuffy, superficial capitalism.  Like being decrepit is more "hardcore" and hip than being boring and financially stable. If Coyote stayed in the country for more than a few days, he might notice that the decrepitude is not a "fine mist." It's a lingering cloud that has stood over the country for over half a century. The decrepitude is a day to day reality of the Cuban people. It is evidenced in the lack of toilet paper, and in the need for almost everyone to secretly have a 'black market' job just to support their family. 

To romanticize a people's suffering is disgusting. This article says volumes about what Coyote hates in the US, and his general points are at times valid. Sure, American capitalism has an ugly side of conspicuous consumption, greed, and carelessness that has contributed to our current financial crisis. But to assume that Cuba stands as a perfect antithesis to American capitalism is silly. To assume it's a nation of content socialists is practically laughable. Coyote comes to Cuba with a disdain for his own affluent, comfortable life in a US city, then projects his white guilt onto a poverty-stricken nation by fetishizing and romanticizing their suffering.

Was he aware that this quaint little upstart country doesn't allow people to have computers, out of fear that people will gain access to free media? This ban is regulated by block captains, party officials who oversee all activities on each street to ensure people are living lawfully. What a quaint "big brother"-esque activitiy they have chosen for themselves! Is he aware that the lovely "upstart socialist" government puts homosexuals in exile, forcing them into far off camps or into prison? Is he aware that the government does the same for AIDS victims? Is he aware that when my uncle tried to leave the country by boat in order to reunite with his wife and his infant son, he was jailed for seven years as a political prisoner?

This article is a disgrace, and it gives a bad names to liberals everywhere. Peter Coyote, fuck you.

YES

The first trailer for Tarantino's next movie, which I kind of suspected he'd never get around to actually making. Brad Pitt's sweet mustache, Tarantino's usual ass-kickery, and WWII.....I'm stoked.