James Brown, the Godfather of Soul, died at the age of 73.
When the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was murdered in 1968, Mr. Brown was due to perform in Boston. Instead of canceling his show, he had it televised. Boston was spared the riots that took place in other cities. “Don’t just react in a way that’s going to destroy your community,” he urged. [read on...]
The kind folks at sweetriot (NYC in the house) sent me a fix of their high-quality portable chocolate-covered cacao nibs last week and along with it was a tin of their new flavor 70 cinn (70% chocolate covering the nibs mixed with cinnamon). I used to not be a fan of the darker chocolate but I gotta say that this stuff is pretty great; everyone I introduce it to immediately asks if they can buy some too. I wish Sarah and the entire sweetriot continued success.
Written while groovin' to Enuff from the album “DJ Shadow - Live @ Brixton Academy 15-12-2006” by DJ Shadow
For a few days in early March I'm gonna be hanging out with a few friends in Monterey at the TED2007 conference. Me and Bill Clinton, Paul Simon, E.O. Wilson and a slew of others are gonna be chillin'. No biggie, just chillin'. Can you tell I'm excited?
'Tis the season for end-of-year top ten lists. And in the spirit of sharing (and feeling it my duty as a music aficionado/nut/snob) I present my top ten favorite albums of 2006. Now because I have voracious (neurotic/ocd) appetite for new music this isn't an easy thing to pull together so I'm gonna get democratic on y'all and pull it from my iTunes play count. After all, if I listened to the albums a bunch then they can be considered my favorites, no? I expect you to share your respective lists in the comments. Come on, don't be shy or selfish about sharing your favs with the rest of us...
J Dilla aka Jay Dee, Donuts
Arctic Monkeys, Whatever People Say I Am, That`s What I`m Not
Gnarls Barkley, St. Elsewhere
Jack Johnson, Sing-A-Longs & Lullabies For The Film Curious George
Pearl Jam, Pearl Jam
Tapes 'n Tapes, The Loon
Aceyalone, Magnificent City (Feat. RJD2)
Beck, The Information
DJ Shadow, The Outsider
Thom Yorke, The Eraser
I'm not sure this Jawbone video demo is real or not (the product is real I know) but it's very effective. The use of the Off/On for the noise cancellation coupled with the narrator's nonchalant '“Ok, you should be able to hear me now” make this headset lust-worthy. Word is it's gonna be a hit at CES in Vegas this year. (via Engadget)
My friend Shane Etzenhouser used to live nearby and worked in Palo Alto. My cousin Katy introduced me to him; they'd met in Kansas. Shane was a brilliant computer programmer...he wrote software for music production on computers at a company called DigiDesign. He was never fit to stay put though, the suburban life was not his. “You mean you want to drive a Volvo and shop at Nordstrom?!” he was quoted as asking people. Instead Shane went to Ethiopia a few years ago and started a school (after getting married I learned from katy this evening...his wife is with him in the picture above). Shane and his wife Brukty started a television show for kids to help them learn to read. It's being called the Sesame Street of Ethiopia...those are some big wings to fill but it seems it's being met with success. This is great news especially for those readers that are lucky enough to know Shane.
“The visually impaired can — and do — legally hunt in Texas as elsewhere in season and with the aid of spotters. Kuempel said he wants to make the sport more accessible to the blind and safer for them.” Not commenting, just reporting here.
The Nintendo Wii, heralded for it's reasonable price and family-friendly game selection for the “casual gamer” seems to have strap problems with it's wireless controller:
“We did test the wrist strap before the launch, but some people are getting more excited than we could have imagined when playing Wii so we are investigating the situation.”
It must be such sweet catharsis for the artists invited to judge the NYC arts critics in this Time Out New York / Judgment day piece.
I work with the wife of one of the members of Honeycut. I first heard of them when I was speaking of my association with DJ Shadow. He was co-founder of the Quannum (né Solesides) label that Honeycut finds themselves on. Fast forward some months and I finally had a chance to hear the album and I'm diggin it. It's alternative soul as best as I can tell. Mos def worth a listen especially as it comes out of the Hey Area. They're gonna be on Morning Becomes Eclectic on Monday so give 'em your support.
Written while groovin' to Rise from the album “Greatest Hits, So Far” by Public Image Ltd.