Where am I

bearcast is awesome

Pulp Fiction
A movie I really need to see: Moulin Rouge, and also Oceans Eleven.

OK disclaimer: im into taking and showing pictures today.

The Aftermath of What Some Think Was Too Much Fun
good poetry baby! http://www.angelfire.com/on/abovegroundtesting/index.html also http://www.meer.net/~johnl/e-zine-list/

Southern Hip Hop Southern Hip Hop is typically bass-heavy and drawled, combining the slow Funk of West Coast g-funk and East Coast abrasiveness and intensity. Though for the most part Southern Hip Hop is often a derivative combination of Gangsta Rap and Miami Bass, such as Master P’s No Limit Records, a new crop of artists with a distinctive Southern voice have emerged recently. Artists such as Outkast, Erykah Badu, Goodie Mob and Dead Prez incorporate a bluesy, urbane yet countrified Soul feel to their music. Indie Pop Indie Pop embraces the basic tenets of Pop songwriting but filters them through the warped sensibilities of Indie Rock. The result is ear candy that is smarter, more experimental, and more emotionally realistic than the typical dross on the radio. Belle and Sebastian, the High Llamas, Stereolab, and the works of all the Elephant 6 bands could all be described as Indie Pop. Indie Rock Indie Rock refers to a scene maintained by all the Alternative bands who remained underground and on independent labels in the wake of Nirvana’s success and the widespread commercial co-opting of Alternative music. Though there is no particular Indie Rock sound, it is typically guitar-based and made with a Punk-inspired Do-It-Yourself (DIY) aesthetic. Sebadoh, Guided By Voices, Superchunk, Beat Happening, and Shellac are examples of big name Indie Rockers. Independent Hip Hop Independent, or Underground, Hip Hop is a genre in the same way that Indie Rock is a genre. It is independently produced and distributed music that does not seek to compromise in any way in order to gain a wider, more mainstream audience. Kool Keith, Latyrx, Mos Def, and Jurassic 5 are all examples of quality and diverse Independent Hip Hop. Hip Hop Hip Hop, or rap music began as a largely black, inner-city phenomenon of the late ‘70s and early ‘80s. Hip Hop was originally a strictly live idiom, performed at clubs and parties (often illegally thrown in NYC parks). The music grew out Jamaican DJ, or Toasting, music, disco and the burgeoning, (and intimately connected), electro-funk sound. Jamaican DJ music was the blueprint, with its reliance on a turntable and a DJ, or MC, who called out rhythmic phrases and chants over and between bass heavy dub records. Hip Hop used this same style but often rhymed over funk and disco beats and breaks, a technique developed by DJ Kool Herc in the mid ‘70s. Hip Hop also established the DJ innovations of cutting, back spinning and scratching, largely through the work of Grand Master Flash. The Sugarhill Gang recorded the first rap single in ’79 with the commercial cash in, Cold Crush Bros. Rip off "Rapper’s Delight." Hip Hop established itself as commercially viable in the next few years with "Planet Rock" by Africa Bambataa and the Soul Sonic Force, and "The Message" by Grand Master Flash and the Furious Five. Hip Hop began to crossover into mainstream commercial success with the rock heavy rhymes of Run DMC and the novelty, party raps of The Fat Boys. A number of other artists found commercial success in this period including Whodini, Kurtis Blow, UTFO, LL Cool J and many others. After the mid ‘80s rap began to solidify itself as a genre and to branch out into a number of different styles and sub-genres. Today everything from the top of the pops derivative Puff Daddy, Swizz Beats stuff, the Sci-fi, stream-of-consciousness work of Kool Keith, the underground, black consciousness of Blackstar, the studied New York violence of Mobb Deep, to the Southern booty shake of Quad City DJs all fall under the hip hop umbrella. Gangsta Rap Hip Hop had been telling tales of urban crime and ghetto lifestyles almost from its inception. Grandmaster Flash’s "The Message," Schooly D, and even the first two Boogie Down Productions albums are all prototypical Gangsta Rap. The genre, however, truly found its blueprint with the surprise success of NWA’s "Straight Out of Compton," a shocking and compelling ghetto narrative. Subsequently Gangsta Rap has often been mired in a malaise of recycled g-funk beats, and violent, misogynistic lyrics that border on self parody. Most Death Row and No Limit artists typify this type of Gangsta Rap. There are exceptions of course. Mobb Deep, Tupac and Bigggie Smalls all made intelligent, though still violent and misogynistic, Gangsta Rap that was all the more disturbing because of the intelligence and articulateness of the artists. Tupac, Master P., MC Eiht, 8-Ball and MJG, and the Underground Kings are some of the many artists typical of Gangsta Rap.