Plethora of New Things to Check Out
Hello, lovers!
Happy Easter.
First off: there is to be a mini-reunion in New Haven this week, which should provide pictures and joy and laughter, etc. Not much has been going on up in New Hampshire. The weather's improving, people are trying to tan under the weak sun rays we get up here, and seniors have divorced homework. One of my friends has downloaded twelve episodes of Desperate Housewives and devoted her time to watching that, rather than ever working during senior year again. For me, the "good enough" point is creeping to a sooner and sooner point. And I just can't bring myself to feel bad about it. I've been devoting most of my energy to water polo this term, and some to my English elective, Spring in Love. We're reading unconvential love stories and books, and my section of the class is all female, which makes it sort of wild, in a good way.
Good new thing I've discovered: James Hunter.
He's kind of a retro R&B/soul in the best kind of way. I first heard his single, "People Gonna Talk," (good first song to check out) and I honestly thought it was an old song I'd just never heard before. He's got an amazing voice, makes you want to dance around your room with your hands up and hips swaying like you've got a dance partner, even though you don't. Just all around feel good music.
Also, I readingasmed when I discovered that my school has a history section devoted entirely to popular music. I checked out Can't Stop Won't Stop : A History of the Hip-Hop Generation, which I remembered seeing lying around the house in Michigan. I have undecided feelings on it as of yet, but I liked the introduction from DJ Kool Herc about keeping it right. So, given that we are, in fact, the musical TASP, I think you might enjoy And It Don't Stop : The Best American Hip-Hop Journalism of the Last 25 Years. It's pretty damn good, and goes a lot into hip hop's relationship with popular media. I think people could get into it even if they're not enamored of hip hop.
Top Five:
1. People Gonna Talk - James Hunter
2. Strawberry Fields Forever - Ben Harper
3. The Book of Love - The Magnetic Fields
4. Start Wearing Purple - Gogol Bordello
5. Party and Bullshit - Notorious B.I.G.
posted by Meredith at 12:52 PM
1 Comments:
Mmmm...I'm betting that was my copy of Can't Stop Won't Stop, though Nestor was probably the reason it was laying about. Personally, I thought it was unbelievably excellent. I have never seen an overview of Hip Hop anywhere near as comprehensive or lyrical in its description of the culture. Plus Jeff Chang was one of the founders of Soleside- the record company that became Quannum, which has been the label of folks such as Blackalicious, Lyrics Born, and DJ Shadow. Not exactly a lightweight.
I would be interested to hear what your thoughts are when you make it all the way through, if you make it all the way through. I'll definitely have to check out And It Don't Stop, probably sometime in May.
That English elective sounds like a lot of fun and carnage. I'm taking a pretty cool southern lit class at Chico State. Most recently we've been reading Zora Neale Hurston's Mules and Men and listening to bluesmen like Muddy Waters, Albert King, and Otis Rush. We just wrote a paper using specific blues songs as a lens to read passages of the book. Talking about the spread of Southern black culture throughout the North during the great migration and the preservation of tradition and cultural unity through forms like the blues is pretty interesting to me.
Have a blast at the mini-reunion. Happy Easter.
Best,
Isaac
1:35 PM, April 16, 2006
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