Ghostface in the NYT

Playlist | Ghostface Killah
Shift of Gears, Looking Back and Ahead

Q: What about some of the newer soul artists you’re a fan of, like Raphael Saadiq and Mayer Hawthorne?

GHOSTFACE: Hawthorne, I met him on the road one time. He wants to link up in the future and do some music. He’s crazy. His music is fire. He got a lot of soul, a lot of Motown soul. The production and how he sings, it sounds like he could’ve been like Smokey Robinson. You would think he was a black guy, to have the soul that he’s bringing to the table like that, but to find out no, it’s even more incredible. It’s like, where’d you get that from? And it sounds dirty too. Back in the day, the music sounded a little bit more warmer and rougher and dirtylike.

First Amendment

I am taking a Journalism and the Law class this semester. George recommended the professor, and from what I have gathered he is the lesser of two evils. The woman who teaches the other section oof the class is supposed to be “difficult.” But I’m not overly impressed with my prof, which is disappointing.

He started the semester with the usual, “I’m very accessible, especially by email” speech, which I have not found to be the case at all. He also started the class by making us sign a contract (bullshit, especially since there was nothing in there about his responsibilities…) and fill out a form with our experience, to tailor certain parts. Despite me letting him know I own my own publication covering an illegal activity, having the threat of a libel suit and also working in the porn industry, he has shown zero interest.

Also, learning about the First Amendment has really interested me. The intricacies, the judges, the laws and lawsuits. In three emails I have asked for suggestions for further reading. Nothing.

Students aren’t the only ones that talk shit.

Here‘s a piece in the NYT about a case the Court will be hearing, surrounding the First Amendment and dog-fighting videos.

There’s been several articles and current events that are relevant to the class that usually I pass on. Not for ass-kissing purposes, but because I think they can add depth to the class because of the relevancy. I ain;t forwarding him shit.

Shield Law editorials…

Predictably, the NYT and WaPo shared their thoughts regarding S. 448: Free Flow of Information Act of 2009, the proposed shield law changes.

Follow the bill here.
Read the bill here.

Twitter….

Mashable posted this the other day regarding Twitter’s growth:

Twitter’s Value: 5 Eye-Popping Stats

1. According to PEDC’s numbers, the price of a single share of Twitter has increased by 239,619%, from a measly $0.00667 per share to a much stronger $15.9824.

2. Twitter’s $100 million round is over 1025 times the amount of money they raised in its very first round of funding. In July of 2007, Twitter raised $97,500.

3. In five rounds of funding, Twitter has raised an estimated $153 million (some peg it a few million dollars higher). Since the day of its initial round of funding, Twitter has been given an average of $187,356 per day by its investors.

4. Using that same time frame and its current $1 billion valuation, Twitter’s worth has grown by $1,223,990 per day. If you start with the day of Twitter’s inception (the first tweet from Twitter’s Inventor and Chairman, Jack Dorsey), then Twitter’s worth has grown by around $772,797 per day.

5. Twitter has yet to make a single cent in profit. We’ll let you be the judge of what that means. Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

What I haven’t read much about is this. NYT covered it too.

Jim Carroll

So the legendary Jim Carroll passed a few weeks ago.

I try to stay away from just regurgitating information here and trying to contextualize it to my life or things that are important to me, but I neglected to post anything about it.

I was a huge Jim Carroll fan. One of my friends, Janine, always cries when she watches The Basketball Diaries saying it reminds her of me. Doesn’t that make me so very tragically hip and fatally cool?

In any event, I liked what the guy wrote. I was all hyped when I first moved to Philly and saw that he was doing a book signing at Borders or B&N for Void of Course: Poems 1994 – 1997. I knew or heard he was in recovery, in NA, so I was trying to figure how I could in some secret code let him know I knew he was in recovery, and I was in recovery too. In theory this would lead to the realization we were kindred spirits, and we would go off to meetings, then off to coffee shops and have some great, deep conversations. I thought the perfect opening line to this play and as he signed my copy of the book, I stuttered to him, “You know Jimmy K. too?” A reference to the founder of Narcotics Anonymous. Recovering alcoholics ask the question, “Are you a friend of Bill W.’s?” as their secret handshake, so I figured this was a pretty good shot. I remember a frail and gaunt looking Carroll squinting at me saying, “Who?” as he scribbled in my book. Embarrassed and realizing he had no idea what the fuck I was talking about, I left.

Funny enough there was a girl from Drexel I was trying to smash (Mya?), and I knew she would appreciate an autographed copy of the book, so I went home, got another book of his, went back, stood in line, and without saying anything, got another book signed. And I was right. The girl really, really appreciated it. But apparently not enough to fuck.

Jesus. That story wasn’t even the point of this post. The point is that the NYT recently ran another piece about Jim Carrol’s last days, and the nearly completed book he was working on at the time of his death. (Interestingly enough, going to NA meetings and hanging out in coffee shops… Jim, what the fuck?!) The piece has some interesting insights into his day to day life, and also offers a glimmer of hope that the book might see daylight next year. Fingers crossed.

Pill: Trap Goin’ Ham

Pill recently began getting major attention recently after being mentioned in a NYT article (for UN & PW click here). The the interwebs are going crazy not just over Pill, but arguing over who had talked about him first years ago. The rest of the world is arguing exploitative or realism.

Killer Mike (one of the the dudes that really has something to say is intelligent AND well spoken…) discusses Pill’s video:

Pill performing the song in NYC:

Pill back in Pink City: