Before I forget.....here's some rap!

I've been meaning to post these videos from my first ever hip-hop show in New York (can you believe that??) Anyway, it was at the knitting factory a few weekends ago and featured 4 of my favorite indie-alt-art-hop acts from back in the day...

Alias, Buck 65, Jel and Dose-one. Buck 65 is one of the greatest of all time, I swear. And he's Canadian to boot. These guys all represent a crew called Anticon that I used to think was the hottest shit around the bay area until they all got bored with plain old rapping and had to get all ultra avant-garde on me.

I still have love for them though. Dose-one is an old buddy of mine from back in the day when he was a hip-hop buyer at Amoeba records in Berkeley and I would sell him my janksy little mix-tapes. I was super pumped that they were coming to NY.

But anyway, some fella was kind enough to film Buck 65's performance that night and I would like to share some of it with you here. I highly reccomend you buy all his albums ever right now...

"Bandits"


"Enter Governor Bolts"
He hadn't played this song in so long that he had to read the lyrics off an airplane sick bag...


And as a super special bonus, here's a link to an album he just released for free along with his press release for it. Go listen to some real music folks. It'll make your heart smile and your brain cry...

From Buck:
"Lovers, I’ve been doing some woodshedding. I’ve been making beats and collecting them from some friends. I put together this thing called Dirtbike. Actually - at the risk of sounding nuts or esoteric or pretentious - the project is called Dirtbike (I figure it will be an on-going endeavor) and the first piece of it is called Lettersongs (Different Kinds of Dirt). I don’t really even understand it myself. Anyhow, it’s a new project. It’s kind of an album. It’s one very long piece and in many ways it’s a lot like the original versions of Vertex and Man Overboard. It’s an hour and ten minutes long and is very lo-fi (sounds like crap). This is just something I did on my own time for fun - like I said: woodshedding. But I didn’t work alone. My old friend and collaborator Jorun contributed an amazing beat that Moka Only raps on. Moka also contributed a beat for a part that was inspired by Vivienne Westwood’s Active Resistance Manifesto. There’s a “hook” in the song that goes “take action…”. I also had input and added production or instrumentation from: Buddy Peace, Emily Wells, Tom Inhaler, D-Styles, Skratch Bastid, Andrew Glencross and Serafina Steer. Oh yeah, and Doseone raps on a part - yes, raps. There’s a “song” about Fatty Arbuckle, one about St. Anthony the Great, one about La Golue who was featured in many Toulouse Lautrec paintings. There’s also a cover of a weird French song (in English) from the late ‘70’s (maybe 1980). Anyhow, it’s a very strange, experimental, un-commercial project. I made it for my own perverted pleasures and never considered for a second that it might be a proper release. I gave a few copies to friends and that’s all I ever planned for it. Well, I tell you about all this because it’s out there. If you’re interested in hearing it, I don’t think you’d have to search on the internet very long or hard to find it. The key word is Dirtbike1/3. Before I put it together I felt as though I was sitting on around four hours worth or material of the same sort that I now plan to complete before the end of October. So there may be more of this kind of thing to come - soon. I’m also working on the “proper” follow-up to “Situation” and the Bike For Three! album will be out in January. That’s all. Hope you’re good. Buck"

www.zshare.net/audio/17691744a94f4663

After the show, Casey, Leile, Mary and I wandered into a mystical little absinthe lounge in the middle of nowhere and drank for a thousand years. I managed to fall UP a flight of stairs...

Sick and Tired

I think I have the flu. I woke up at 5am today to trek my ass to staten island. But the coughing, sore throat, raspy thick chest noises and general aches and pains told me that i had better lay the fuck back down. This is just the cherry on top of my shit flavored sundae.

I know I tried to promote a more positive outlook in my past couple posts but I have just not been having a good week.

LAST week was fine. It was great actually. One of my best friends back home, Parisa sent her cousin to come stay with me during her visit to America from Italy. I was a little unsure as to how I could entertain some perfect stranger who didn't even speak english that well. But it turned out to be really nice.

She was so friendly and genuine and curious about all things American. It was her first time to NY so every little thing was amazing to her. It really changes your perspective on your own life when you have someone around who is so fascinated and entertained by the things you take for granted everyday. And it helped me to understand myself a little better when her and I would have discussions about politics or evolution or any random thing and I would really have to stop and figure out how to explain myself and why I actually feel the way I do about things.

I actually really really missed her when she left and I still do. Aside from being a really fun and kind person she also just reminded me so much of my old friend Parisa that it hurt worse to see her go. She left Friday and then on Saturday I went on a big Park Slope pub crawl with Bay and Casey. Then I went into the city with Casey for a party and some more bar hopping till 4am. I was amazed that I could still function at that hour. I hadn't had a break all week.

But now i'm alone again in this big ol' house. The studies are piling up and I sure as hell don't have the concentration to open a book. I'm sick and lazy and bored and lonely and basically just FULL of complaints. I have friends telling me to stop being such a pussy. I have dreams day and night of my life one year from now. When Hopefully, if I play my cards right, i'll be with a special someone...enjoying my well paying career...and living back where things make sense. I know, I know, New York is great, it's amazing, it's fun, I have amazing friends here...

But damn, sometimes friday and saturday night can't make up for everything else I have to deal with all week!

Saturdays were made for...

Bloody mary brunches with an awesome girl...

Running through a Brooklyn rainshower with her on a search for socks...

Beers and bowling with your homies and getting dry again...

Getting off at the wrong train stop and finding an unexpectedly delicious dinner there...

A rooftop penthouse party with $9 beers... (okay, that last part sucked)

Working my way uptown with Casey for various bars and frolics...

Passing out at her place fully clothed and fully drunk. Having made the most of a day and without a care in the world... (Until sunday, that is.)

Tonight I saw...

1. Tropic Thunder.
Kinda' good. kinda' not so good. Jack Black kicking heroin and RDJ being a black guy saved it.

2. A clearly european man on the subway wearing a pair of those big dumb Ugg boots. He seemed to not realize that everyone was staring and laughing. I aaalmost felt bad.

3. A cat in a bodega with a dead mouse in it's mouth. It came towards me like it was delivering a gift of frankincensce and mihrr.

4. An unexpected and boisterous rainshower that forced me to buy a tallcan of tecate and wait for the bus in order to get home.

5. The fact that I need to start seperating what I want from what I could possibly have...

I'm fuggin' psychic!

Tonight I ventured out into the hot cruel world to wish my pal and longtime acquaintance Medwards off as he returns to the bay. I was tired and pissed off from a long last day of summer interning but I felt like I owed him some face time since I haven't seen him more than thrice the whole time we've lived here.

Anyway, the moral of this story is that I correctly predicted tonight that,

A. The only person that was going to remain on the train ALL the way back to my neighborhood from Manhattan was the russian girl in front of me. The entire full train was gone by Church st. No white or black people live in my 2 mile radius.

And...

B. As I stopped to get a delicious halal cart chicken platter dinner I was wishing and hoping that the friendly vendor would offer to throw in some fries and maybe a falafel ball. I could just tell that he liked me. And sure enough, he said, "Hey, you want some fries too?" As in, free? "Oh sure!" I said. Then came that lovely fried ol' falafel ball as well.

It was really good. Not as good as the chicken platter in front of SUNY Downstate hospital, but pretty darn good. And that's my story.

Do I ramble when i'm drunk? I guess i'll find out tomorrow...

I've turned the corner on bullshit lane and have entered high hopes avenue

After 4 months of torture, my cousin is GONE!!! My aunt finally put her foot down and that's that. I don't even want to get into it. I'm just going to put it behind me and focus on getting this senior year of mine off to a good start...

I've been subletting at Bay's place in Park slope for the last week. Mostly to avoid the troubles of home, but also to enjoy his awesome neighborhood and close proximity to even more awesomeness. His roommate Jaygee is great too. She's an actor who does shows for disney and off broadway and USO tours and stuff. I love their roof more than anything...



Took my friend Emily up there for a couple Yuenglings Thursday night to kick off my 5 day weekend. Then we went to 4th ave. pub and watched the big Obama speech. I must admit, I was moved. Up until that point I had never heard him speak but standing at the bar half drunk with a mob of equally buzzed and enthralled young liberals all cheering was sorta' exciting. Obama has a bunch of big ideas and I like to pretend that he'll be able to follow through on them without falling into the usual presidential puppet role.



Also spent a lot of time with Casey this labor day weekend. She just came back from Spain. I accompanied her to Ikea for bed shopping and hot dog eating. Went to a really awesome Japanese yakitori style place in times square called "Hagi" apparently as close to authentic japanese as you can get in the US. Quite delish. Anthony Bourdain loves it so it's good enough for me!



Unfortunately I fell asleep on the train that night and didn't get home till' 4am. LAME!

Other highlights include sangria brunch and a riverside walk on sunday with Casey followed by beers "to-go" at McCarren park with Emily and her friends :) It was rad...you go to this bar directly across from the park and they sell you a giant Bud in a to-go styrofoam cup complete with straw. Then you walk on over to a grassy field and get tanked while watching hipsters play kickball. It's my new thing.

I went to a wild party in Williamsburg that night with Emily and her friends also...it was quite the night...needless to say I was up drinking whiskey and white wine till the sun rose. And then crumbled out of bed at 4pm the next day. Yikes!

I played tour guide a couple weekends ago when this girl, Sydney, that I met at Beerlympics came out to NY for vacation. It was fun doing the touristy thing again. We went to the David Byrne art project called "Playing the building". Basically there's a big organ set up in the middle of a warehouse and hitting the keys triggers all these different clangs and bangs and air horns throughout the walls of the place. Pretty nifty.




Then we hit the staten island ferry and back up to Chinatown for delicious ice cream and miles of Central park. All photographed beautifully by C. Bay...


www.cbaymilin.com

Which basically brings us up to date. I'm fuckin' sick and tired of my summer internship. The classmates i'm with have all formed a secret gang that i'm not apart of and their little condescending additudes and retardoid conversations have become infuriating. This is my last week there in Far rockaway. After this i'm in a small clinic in Staten island with a girl that i'm actually friends with. She's a complainer though, and not exactly the best worker. I hope we can get along after the next 2 months of just me and her in each others face 3 days a week.

I'm trying to keep the ol' hopes up. I've got interesting things happening and i've been squeezing in alot of good times with good people. I can't really complain at the moment. Positivety is the motto as Jaygee has told me. And with my cousin gone I can enjoy my home base relaxation again at least.

Here's to the beginning of my last year in New York!! Cheers, Motherclucker!