The Hairdryer Treatment

neil young plays the fresh prince theme song… absolutely...

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 15:24:39 -0500

neil young plays the fresh prince theme song…

absolutely brilliant.

Francisco said he never saw the signs. He lost sense of time. He was prepared, he said, to remain...

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 14:03:11 -0500

Francisco said he never saw the signs. He lost sense of time. He was prepared, he said, to remain in the subway system forever.

No one spoke to him. Asked if he saw any larger meaning in that, he said, “Nobody really cares about the world and about people.”

At a covert forward operating base run by the US Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) in the...

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 09:32:00 -0500

At a covert forward operating base run by the US Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) in the Pakistani port city of Karachi, members of an elite division of Blackwater are at the center of a secret program in which they plan targeted assassinations of suspected Taliban and Al Qaeda operatives, “snatch and grabs” of high-value targets and other sensitive action inside and outside Pakistan, an investigation by The Nation has found. The Blackwater operatives also assist in gathering intelligence and help run a secret US military drone bombing campaign that runs parallel to the well-documented CIA predator strikes, according to a well-placed source within the US military intelligence apparatus.

oh, also, these fuckers are posing as aid workers. read scahil’s piece in full.

figured out I went the wrong route, so I got with a sick tight...

Sun, 22 Nov 2009 16:20:20 -0500

figured out I went the wrong route, so I got with a sick tight clique and went all out.

the walkmen - good for you’s good for me after wandering...

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 16:12:44 -0500

the walkmen - good for you’s good for me

after wandering around the west village following a dangerous all-you can drink open bar joint-fundraiser for my soccer team and a rather congenial women’s amateur side, it was probably not the best of ideas to come home and introspectively go through all of my old moleskins, including the legendary circa ‘05-‘06 f-train diaries, and then proceed to drunk dial an ex 500 miles away and talk to her for an hour plus. about nothing. about everything.

memory is selective, and how certain things felt at the time seem so foreign and overstated with the hindsight i now have, especially in light of the sheer amount of shit that went down in the last year, the two thousand and ninth of our lord.

and the sun was shining out, cast my shadow on the walk. another year is going round, in a shadow of this town.

"it’s not an allegory, i see it amuses you. true, mr. verkhovensky says that i’m lying..."

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 01:51:00 -0500

““it’s not an allegory, i see it amuses you. true, mr. verkhovensky says that i’m lying under a rock, squashed but not quite crushed to death— just wriggling. that’s a clever way of describing my state.””

- fyodor dostoyevsky

a spider...

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 01:46:00 -0500

Without the thought of preconceptions, things come out like mustard, words free fall with correct spelling, sort of.

Bombs are going off on some of my former stomping grounds, people are dying and all I can really do is just think about how fucked up it all is.

Yeah I can write about it and I can go to protest, but what can I really do, how can I really be a factor?

It’s a disturbing thought. These last two weeks have serious repercussions. Perhaps in my life, my career, my friendships, my political socialization in the post-collegiate, still making no money period, who knows?

things go boom, that much is understood.

i have been attacked by a spider and it hurts…

7-28-06

vladimir putin, hip-hop head. a true renaissance man,...

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 13:24:54 -0500

vladimir putin, hip-hop head.

a true renaissance man, russia’s ~~former~~ dear leader is not only down with judo chops, jean-claude van damme, and icy death glares, he’s also down with the elements of hip-hop!

“graffiti becomes real art, breakdance is something special, it is really a promotion of a healthy lifestyle.”

and then there were 32...

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 20:33:00 -0500

some amazing scenes today/tonight as the final 2010 world cup field was established.

also, an absolute travesty of justice occurred in paris as the irish got egregiously raped out of a spot in south africa as the ref failed to see two offsides and two handballs (in the same play). yeah, the ‘hand of henry’ condemned the irish out of, yet another, major tournament.

that one is going to hurt, especially since lebanon ~~sucks~~ narrowly missed qualification again. if i didn’t have a match of my own tonight i would be mourning with the rest of the irish via strong irish drinks in dark-lit local irish establishments. AMERICA, FUCK YEAH!

regardless, as the whistle just blew in montevideo with uruguay wrapping up the final spot (suck it costa rica), here are the 32 countries that will learn their groups in the live draw going down on december 4th…

FULL LIST OF TEAMS AT 2010 WORLD CUP

HOSTS: South Africa

AFRICA QUALIFYING: Algeria, Cameroon, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Nigeria

ASIA QUALIFYING: Australia, Japan, North Korea, South Korea

EUROPE QUALIFYING: Denmark, England, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland

SOUTH AMERICA QUALIFYING: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay, Uruguay

NORTH, CENTRAL AMERICA AND QUALIFYING: Honduras, Mexico, United States

ASIA/OCEANIA PLAY-OFF New Zealand

203 days, 40 hours, and 20 minutes until it kicks off!

this went up near monot street in beirut, lebanon during the...

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 12:01:00 -0500

this went up near monot street in beirut, lebanon during the long, hot, terrible summer of the 2006 war. the text reads ‘beirut will never die’ and was thrown up by graf artist rgb, who is also one of the most talented emcees in the arab world. you can catch some more rgb on my epic arabic hip-hop mix.

i’ve had this image as my desktop at home for 3 years.

and it never will…

photo by michelle woodward

international sporting moment of the year… egypt scores 5...

Sun, 15 Nov 2009 23:03:44 -0500

international sporting moment of the year…

egypt scores 5 minutes into injury time to force a playoff game in sudan on wednesday, keeping thier world cup hopes alive and breaking algerian hearts. pandemonium.

the emotion in this 1 minute video is simply incredible.

algeria v. egypt. shit is going down tomorrow… the video...

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 18:24:00 -0500

algeria v. egypt. shit is going down tomorrow…

the video above shows the little welcoming party the algerian national squad received when they touched down in egypt ahead of their clutch final world cup qualifier.

egyptian fans hurled bricks through the algerian team bus, smashing the windows and bloodying 3 of the squads players. check the two vids from inside the van and the player’s injuries. crazyness.

“They struck our bus with large bricks,” said a distraught Antar Yahia. “Players have open head wounds with blood. We were lying down in the bus. All the windows were broken. It makes you fear for your life. As long as our lives are not assured we’re afraid to play this match.”

a bit of background, which coincidentally, has been brewing over for 20 years the last time these two met in a winner-goes-to-the-cup match.

Egypt won 1-0 thanks to a goal by their legendary striker Hossam Hassan to qualify, but the victory was marred by horrendous scenes of bloody riots and fighting on the terraces, in the streets, in the tunnel, and even, most infamously, at the post-match reception, where the Egyptian team doctor lost an eye after being hit by a broken bottle.

in the lead up to tomorrow’s match, provocation on the internet has gotten to fever pitch levels. even arabic rappers are getting in on it.

An Algerian hacker, who called himself “KADER11000,” allegedly infiltrated the websites of President Hosni Mubarak and the government-owned Al Ahram newspaper causing major disruptions last month. In retaliation, Egyptian Internet pirates attacked an Algerian newspaper Elshorouk Al Youmi, crashing the website by bombarding the chat forum with too many comments after the publication had praised Algeria’s World Cup efforts.

And then there has been the songs. The Algerians were the first to strike, releasing a cussing rap video that included the lines: ”Listen to me Pharaohs, you are already cursed… Israel beat you in six days in 1967… We are not the ones who sold Palestine to the Jews.” Unsurprisingly the Egyptians then released their own counter-video which included similarly hate-filled verses including, “Your words are not important, your words do not affect us. Talk to me in French because your Arabic is so broken… We liberated you when France made you slaves.”

it’s about to get hectic tomorrow in cairo.

also, ireland v. france playoff also tomorrow at 3pm eastern. pay-per-view in the pubs. queens blvd will be green and raucous.

the french coach may have made an egregious error labeling ireland ‘england’s b team’ in the run up to this first leg playoff for a world cup birth. if there is one thing you never do to the irish, it’s conflate them, in any way, to their ~~former~~ colonizer.

swine flu '09 pandemic mix 3.0

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 00:29:00 -0500

well, it’s all fun and games and media sensationalism until one of your best friends gets it and then— within a week— it spreads to his wife, parents, friends, sister, 1-year old niece, and co-workers. um, yeah. shit is for real.

in times like these, some get vaccinated, others stockpile tamiflu, many put their trust in high-tech holy water dispensaries, a few simply flee to south dakota.

i inoculate with multilateral bass-y mixes. no mercury included, promise.

here is vol. 3, enjoy.

1. K’naan & J.Period - Don’t Think Twice (Messengers Remix)
2. Los Destellos feat. Fefe - Elsa (Sonido Martines Remix)
3. Jahdan Blakkamoore - Get Hustlin
4. Phaseone - Villain Jawnt
5. Sir Mixalot - Posse On Broadway (Diplo Mix)
6. Los Rakas - Fuego En Su Cuerpo
7. Zomby - Digital Fauna
8. The Very Best - Nsokoto
9. Schlachthofbronx feat. Slush Puppy Kids - Too High
10. Magic System - Bouger Bouger
11. Uproot Andy and Geko Jones - Manuelita (Remix)
12. Elephant Man & Ishawna - Give It To Me
13. El Hijo de la Cumbia - La Cumbia Es Un Tango
14. G-Side feat. Shyft - Hit Da Block
15. Jahdan Blakkamoore feat. Durrty Goodz - Mesmerized
16. Checkpoint303 - Rissala-Min-Qalandia
17. Gnonnas Pedro & His Dadjes Band - La Musica En Vérité

**Download Swine Flu 3.0**

previously…

Swine Flu 1.0

Swine Flu 2.0

“You know who’s guarding Hillary Clinton in Afghanistan right now? Blackwater,”...

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 16:23:04 -0500

“You know who’s guarding Hillary Clinton in Afghanistan right now? Blackwater,” Scahill told MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow Tuesday night. “You know who guards members of Congress? Blackwater. They have half a billion dollars in contracts in Afghanistan right now. CIA, State Department, Defense Department. Why is President Obama keeping these guys on the payroll? There has never been a company in recent history that made the case that corporations are corrupt, evil organizations [better] than Blackwater.”

…”Another way of looking at this is Blackwater knows where a lot of bodies are buried,” Scahill told Maddow. “These are guys who worked on the CIA assassination program, the drone bombing campaign, and regarding all of the senior officials, they know a heck of a lot about what happened in Iraq and Afghanistan, and those are not guys that you want on the other side of the fence if you’re running Washington.”

scahill was speaking on this bombshell in the times today that shows how blackwater bribed the iraqi government after the 2007 nisour square massacre. sad, sad state of affairs.

reforming the security council makes me want to dance to...

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 15:58:24 -0500

reforming the security council makes me want to dance to cumbia.

good thing this is popping off on friday since saturday i have a college-y birthday party reunion kinda thing that will, disappointingly, prevent me from being here.

blu in bogotá.

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 09:32:51 -0500

blu in bogotá.

"every promise is a threat, every loss a discovery. courage is born of fear, certainty of doubt...."

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 00:38:42 -0500

“every promise is a threat, every loss a discovery. courage is born of fear, certainty of doubt. dreams announce the possibility of another reality, and out of delirium emerges another kind of reason. what it all comes down to is that we are the sum of our efforts to change who we are. identity is no museum piece sitting stock-still in a display case, but rather the endlessly astonishing synthesis of the contradictions of everyday life.”

- eduardo galeano, celebration of contradictions/2

in detroit, 7 of the 9 incoming city council members boast permits to carry concealed weapons.

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 13:44:38 -0500

in detroit, 7 of the 9 incoming city council members boast permits to carry concealed weapons.

jean-paul sartre is my anti-drug...

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 11:45:00 -0500

Sartre: … when we decided to experiment with drugs, I ended up having a nervous breakdown.

Gerassi: You mean the crabs?

Sartre: Yeah, after I took the mescaline, I started seeing crabs around me all the time. They followed me in the streets, into class. I got used to them. I would wake up in the morning and say, “Good morning, my little ones, how did you sleep?” I would talk to them all the time. I would say, “Okay, guys, we’re going into class now, so we have to be still and quiet,” and they would be there, around my desk, absolutely still, until the bell rang… . The crabs stayed with me until the day I simply decided that they bored me and that I just wouldn’t pay attention to them… .

I would have liked my crabs to come back. The crabs were mine. I had gotten used to them. They kept reminding me that my life was absurd, yes, nauseating, but without challenging my immortality. Despite their mocking, my crabs never said that my books would not be on the shelf, or that if they were, so what? You have to realize that my psychosis was literature… . My crabs had considered me important, or else why bother me? De Gaulle, the ridiculousness of the Cold War, America’s drive to conquer and control, all that made me realize that I was not and would never be significant.

Gerassi: From the end of the war until de Gaulle’s coup d’état in 1958, you were haunted by neither crabs nor depression?

Sartre: We keep calling them crabs because of my play The Condemned of Altona, but they were really lobsters.

Gerassi: Anyway, they were gone then?

Sartre: Oh, yes, they left me during the war. You know, I’ve never said this before, but sometimes I miss them — when I’m lonely, or rather when I’m alone. When I go to a movie that ends up boring, or not very gripping, and I remember how they used to sit there on my leg. Of course I always knew that they weren’t there, that they didn’t exist, but they served an important purpose. They were a warning that I wasn’t thinking correctly or focusing on what was important, or that I was heading up the wrong track, all the while telling me that my life was not right, not what it should be. Well, no one tells me that anymore.

um, i guess hallucinogenic talking crabs (that are really lobsters) more or less define an existential crisis.

via.

2 dreams...

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 12:22:00 -0500

last night i had two weird, and memorable, dreams.

in the first i was getting mauled by a tiger in a post-apocalyptic urban environment.

in the second i was eating this crack-marinated street cart lamb.

hopefully one, and not the other, can come to fruition this afternoon.