Media

Since I've started to spend such an enormous amount of my time with work and settling into a new apartment, I've had literally no time to discover new music. Because of this utter lack of time on my part, I've been pondering this idea for about the past month or two on a daily basis, I want to participate in an iPod Foreign Exchange Program.

I currently own a 30GB Video iPod (black) that has about 28GB of music on it with a few assorted podcasts here and there.

Here's what I'm thinking would constitute a good set of rules for swapping an iPod to "walk a mile in somebody's shoes" (musically).

• We can be acquaintances, but not friends. I know what my friends listen to and can steal their iPods myself :)
• The period to swap iPods would last one week
• Both parties would make sure to un-sync their address book and calendars from the iPod, but not change any of the music (no trying to impress people)
• The iPod swap is accompanied with a business card or means to coordinate a swap-back
• Both parties must be respectful of the others' tastes, even if it's really weird (you know who you are)

I went ahead and removed my calendars and contacts from my iPod just in case I run into somebody on the train that has read this post and wants to swap right away, but failing that, if you're around San Francisco, let's swap iPods :)

Last night I attended the "Hip Hop Live" show at the Mezzanine here in San Francisco, and it was nothing short of absolutely amazing. As some of my coworkers know, I'm a huge hip-hop fan, but primarily dirty-south rap, so going to a show by three East Coast rappers was different. The show started with Brother Ali, who I've maintained for the month leading up to the show is "one of the most insightful rappers you'll see." Following Brother Ali, the venerable Ghostface Killah and his crew took the stage, dedicating a song to ODB (Old Dirty Bastard) as well as paying homage to some of the other Wu-Tang Clan members. The final act of the show was Rakim, another powerhouse act, who did some songs off his new record but also some "oldies" from the early nineties like "Don't Sweat The Technique."

In general, you missed a hell of a show. I wish I could describe it a bit better but between raising my fist in the air or making the Wu-Tang symbol with both hands, I lost track of it all and let myself become overpowered by the music.

At the very least, I recommend checking out Brother Ali, I think you'll be hearing a lot more from him over the next couple years. This is one of his more controversial songs, "Uncle Sam Goddamn." Enjoy.

Reminiscent of Michael Bolton, Peter's side-kick, from Office Space I find myself indulging more and more in one of my numerous, geeky, guilty pleasures. Hip-hop. Not just any hip-hop, dirty south hip-hop. Sideways-sittin', wood-grain grippin', screwed and chopped, smoked-out dirty south hip-hop. One of the few exports that I'm proud Texas has produced (ahem) in the last ten or fifteen years. Texas hip-hop in general is a weird mix between the "roots" of rap in that a lot of it focuses on the ghettoes and hardships the artist has experienced growing up in places like Houston's 5th ward, to the "more modern" hip-hop which has become more and more about women, cash, and cars; mainstays of any good hyper-masculine artform.

Now that I've finally figured out where I know Zach Hale from (via Colin it seems) I wanted to link to his mixtape-blog. It''s an idea I've thought about before, but never taken the initiative to do, so golf claps are in order for Zach. Anyways, they're some great mixes with lots of artists you probably haven't been introduced to just yet, check it out over on poorleno.com

Many Mac users around the world are having problems using video chat on iChat AV. The problem is routers or so I hear, every time I try to video chat with some ( sometimes video chat works) i get an error message concerning a communication error -8. When typed into google, there are several people with my same problem, why can't iChat love everyone equally, does it just hate mexicans. Why can't I hit Video Chat and it just works, I can just hope the new OS can fix this or someone can help me.

Sorry Apple I just had to say it,

Roy

Yesterday afternoon at the Flash Fire Facility we got a visit from Rick Mercer. Since it won't be airing for a week or so (and thankfully I won't be in it) I won't yet comment on the stuff we did, but it was pretty cool. It was a lot more fun than some of the other TV spots we've done (local news, Daily Planet). Rick was pretty cool, and needless to say very funny. I'd invite him over for a BBQ anyday.