True love over the interweb

We’ve all heard of the Nigerian email scam, and I’m not exxagerating when I say I receive about one or two a week in my inbox. While I usually just hit delete, I recieved one this morning that can only be classified as the best email scam letter in the brief history of the information super highway. I would be doing a disservice by not sharing it. Italics and brackets mine.

Shoe throwing to be named Olympic event; Iraq favoured.

Normally, I try to avoid simply posting videos with no context or at least something witty or insightful to add. This clip however, in which the Iraq-shoe-thrower gets a wingtip-of-irony thrown at him is simply too good. (The perpetrator is an Iraqi Bush supporter. No, honestly. You can’t make this stuff up).

On top of this, the original thrower’s brother proceeds to then take his shoe off, exacting immediate karmic revenge on the apprehended fastidious footwear flinger.

Bonus points to the camera man and AP editor for ending the piece on an ominous close-up shot of a shoe.

Word Up: A jail-breakdown

Bake 'em away, toys.

The execution of the Beltway sniper in November triggered a few time-pegged stories about capital punishment — this, combined with some “Hey, let’s find out what’s going on in jail” stories that journalists are wont to pitch every now and again, led to an almost-meme that came and went quietly but that I think deserves a little more contemplation. And don’t worry, I left out all those stories about rappers taking the “T.I. and Vick vacation.”

Show and Tell: K’naan goes acoustic

I wasn’t originally going to post this because I thought it was pretty standard stuff, but since I first downloaded this “tiny desk concert” of K’naan performing at the NPR music office while on his U.S. tour, I haven’t been able to get his acoustic version of take a minute out of my head. It also includes great versions of Fatima and waving flag. Well worth the watch.

 

PaRappa the Rappers causing mass hysteria

Google ‘”drake cartoon” and this is what you get.

Rap is kinda cartoonish these days still. Take MF Doom (aaand I guess the Wu to an extent) out of the equation, just for for this one, okay? I’m talking about the overly defined, larger-than-life hip-hop personas we’re surrounded by: Gucci Mane, 50 Cent, Wayne, Yeezy. (Even their rap names are animated!).

Rappers used to all look the same—speaking relatively of baggy jeans and timbs—and were homogeneously braggadocious, mean-muggers who never caused mass, preteen, Miley Cyrus-esque hysteria. But it’s a whole mess of kids that hip-hop is reaching right now—the black kids and white kids and brown and Asian kids. And you can go to a concert and just feel the power of their emerging hormones: every single straight girl or gay guy wants to makeout with the dude on stage, and every single guy, bar none, wants to be as cool as him.

Reeling: Fantastic Mr. Fox

It occurred to me while watching Fantastic Mr. Fox that all of Wes Anderson’s movies are really cartoons at heart.

After all, not many film directors have patented a style as instantly recognizable as Anderson’s. Like Warhol owns pop-culture triptychs or Joanna Newsom any song with a harp, Anderson has essentially monopolized the market on bobo anti-hero coming of age stories. These tales are almost all eccentric caricatures of life, wielding flights of fancy and whimsical humour in order to comment about our quainter existential questions.

It makes perfect sense then that when Anderson finally made an animated film, the results would be so Schultz-ifiably perfect.

Twilight, Edward Cullen, and the death of cool Vampires

I like vampires as much as the next guy, which come to think of it probably isn’t that much.

I mean, from a guy’s point of view, what’s really to like about them in the first place? Traditionally there are two types of vampires: the ridiculously sex-crazed aggressive dudes who are suave and cool (think of the Lost Boys) and would make every other male feel totally inadequate being around them, or the ridiculously sex-crazed, old ass creepy guys who obsess over and stalk girls (the forefathers of vampires, Nosferatu and Dracula, both based on Bram Stoker’s novel, both fit in here).

How sad is Precious?

Apparently, not very

When Hotel Rwanda came out I remember avoiding seeing it for over a year, despite the hysteria, because everyone told me it was sad as hell. I did the same with Before Sunrise, Eternal Sunshine, Leaving Las Vegas, Requiem For A Dream, and other generally depressing films. Of course, I went on to love all of these movies because they were sombre in a way that made me feel something.

Precious has been marketed as a movie that is, in short, fucked up. Clearly, that’s right up my masochistic alley so I guess I had to see it (plus a combination of factors including hype, buzz, and an unconventional protagonist). And because I’m fastidious like that, I read the book (Push by Sapphire) beforehand. Two words: God damn.

Word up (abridged): The rap beef edition

Though it might seem like a tired concept, shots fired (in lyrical, not literal, form) are crucial to keeping hip-hop fresh. Ranging from tragic (i.e. Biggie “versus” Tupac) to comedic (Soulja Boy vs. Ice T), rap beef can be integral to the art form if it’s restricted to punch lines and dis tracks. Your favourite rapper has probably been mired in it at least once, if not multiple times, and some of hip-hop’s most scathingly sick moments have been recorded as a result of healthy competition.

Bjork’s Post gets the Stereogum treatment

I’m a sucker for Bjork covers almost as much as I am for the Icelandic pixie herself. Don’t tell anyone, but I took pictures in front of her house when I was vacationing in Reykjavic. I know that sounds creepy, but spend a few days there and you’ll realize everyone’s pretty chill — even the stalkers. But I digress.

Stereogum has put together a tribute album for Post, Bjork’s second album and probably what many would consider her break out LP. Featuring a track-by-track cover from artists such as the Dirty Projectors, The High Places, Atlas Sound and more, the results are thoroughly enjoyable and most importantly, free to download.