Tuesday, September 23, 2008

half of my fortune could be yours, (insert name here)!

(Joshua Masayoshi Huff)

Reading this, you can't help but get that Nigerian scam e-mail in your head. Do they really have the money, or do they need money so that they can fly to Switzerland so that they can get the money left to them by their father, the exiled and forgotten and rightful king? Will you get half of the proceeds? Will you get half of Newcastle United Football Club?

Monday, September 22, 2008

no surprises, please

(Joshua Masayoshi Huff)


Here is an interview with Star Simpson, that Maui girl that went to MIT who wore a sweater with LED lights to Logan International a few years back.



The entire thing is ridiculous. It's really asinine when people make statements like "security hasn't changed, just the theater and illusion of security has."

She did something wrong. "People formed strong opinions"...uh, yeah. When you walk into an airport with what looks like a bomb on your shirt, things are going to get heated.

"I didn't think it'd go on for a year"...why not? It doesn't seem like she has any concept of the law. "They charged me with being a disorderly person. They can charge anyone with being a disorderly person". No, actually, they can't. They can only charge people doing ridiculous things with disorderly conduct.

I have no sympathy for her when someone spit on her. She did something incredibly foolish and she should have done time.

She still seems to think it's a big joke and that she's so brilliant and that society just doesn't get it because it is too complicated for the masses. Give me a break.

----

Amazing pictures from North Korea. This may be the best photoset that I have ever seen.

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2008/09/recent_scenes_from_north_korea.html

Friday, September 19, 2008

friday video premiere

Every Friday, we're highlighting a specific video (or two, or three) for your end of week enjoyment.

John Legend (featuring Andre 3000) "Green Light"



Does anyone do cheesy contemporary r&b better than John Legend? I mean, he often says things like "let's mess around", "you'll be my only true lover" (doesn't this sound like something a really old, skeezy European would say to a young college girl studying abroad) and "Let's go to the park/I wanna kiss you underneath the stars/Maybe we'll go too far"

And still, I kind of like it. A lot. Not making out with John Legend, just his mood.

And Andre 3000 is back and really on point here, I mean "
Hey, If i were you then It would be me that I go home with 3, the one and only" and "I heard you when you told your girl "ooo he can get it, admit it, you did it, lets hop a cab and split it I'm kiddin',we both going to where you livin'" are just lines full of swagger and confidence.


And, in case you missed it:



The best dressed men in hip hop collaborated. On a song.

Friday, September 12, 2008

friday video premiere

Every Friday, we're highlighting a specific video (or two, or three) for your end of week enjoyment.

This week, we're looking at the video(s) for Kanye West's "Flashing Lights"



This video didn't get much MTV play--the only time I caught it on TV was on a lazy afternoon, watching MTV Hits (or some other strange MTV channel) with my brother and girlfriend. I had no idea a video for the song was made (when, in fact, it appears three were...but more on this later)

I have figured through deductive reasoning (and googling) that the bit being censored is the lighter fluid, though I can't quite figure out why. Maybe because it's the only real visual allusion to violence in the video (Kanye's presumed death-by-shovel is not explicitly shown).

At first, I didn't know what to think. My brother hated it (and he loves Kanye). My girlfriend had the same response. I didn't like it much, either.

But I keep watching it. Not because the murderer is good looking (though she is), but because it's just so hard not to watch. And not because it's like a car accident, which we watch to make sure we're still alive and view in order to confirm our own mortality, but because I think it's a stunning video.

The simplicity strikes. The continuous camera angle gives the video an oxymoronic spontaneous yet premeditated feel.

It's also a Spike Jonze video..yeah, he did this one and this one and this one

It's hard to ascertain what the video is about. Yeah, the song is about a relationship with a girl while being a celebrity and having the girl enjoying being in the limelight, but you've got to think that this video is shot in Vegas (look at the desert and distant skyline) and that perhaps she hustled him at one of Vegas' nightclubs. Perhaps she's a girl from his past.

There seems to be a theme throughout all of the videos for "Flashing Lights"



and



The video that ended up being officially "released" was in no way the most expensive (clearly, it was the second most expensive video of the three, after the ridiculous castle one but before the picture-vignette one), but it was my favorite. It just strikes me as the most artistic, most raw and most...well, striking. It's so sparse, so unnerving, and you've got to think that's exactly what Kanye is going through while sitting, gagged and bound, in the trunk.

Tuesday, September 9, 2008

check your sources.

(Joshua Masayoshi Huff)

Someone is getting fired.

"So, uh, Mike, we're going to have to let you go"
"How come?"
"Well, you know, you said United was bankrupt"
"They were"
"Six years ago"
"Yeah..."

Friday, September 5, 2008

friday video premiere

Every Friday, we're highlighting a specific video (or two, or three) for your end of week enjoyment.

This week's video is George Michael's "Fastlove"



No, it's not exactly a "new" video, but we've never put it on the site, so there you are. It has that smooth, 4 AM vibe that I seem to be , so I'm not going to apologize.


High school me would have been appalled that I would have enjoyed George Michael so much, but I'm not high school me anymore, so there we are.

The video is so bad that it's almost incredible--I mean, that's the definition of camp, isn't it? And, so many of my favorite songs seem to rip it off--
Utada Hikaru's "Automatic" features a keyboard line that is pretty much exactly the same for its entire melody, and the aforeposted Soul Decision song is pretty much the exact same song.

You've also got to love the fact that George ripped off the "Men in Black" song, except this song came out a few years earlier and was actually just a rip-off of the song "Forget Me Nots" by Patrice Rushen. Take that, Will Smith (this is actually an incredible song). And, come on, George says "why don't we make some room in my BMW". Have you ever told anyone that? As a pick-up line? If so, you're a tool. Congratulations.

So there. George Michael is totally relevant. And, even if he isn't, this song is still great.

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

the universe!

(Joshua Masayoshi Huff)

Anyone that knows me knows that I hold author Chuck Klosterman in a fairly high regard. However, as of late, it's getting difficult.

I became acquainted with Mr. Klosterman's work primarily through his collections of vignettes--I didn't realize that most of the pieces I enjoyed in Spin magazine were done by him until I re-read them in his collections.

Klosterman rides hyperbole in most of his pieces (as well as copious amounts of footnotes). He's taken to writing for Esquire magazine, primarily because Spin was bought out by Blender, the music arm of Maxim. Klosterman's articles started out fine enough, but lately he's been harping on about how much he hates Europe. He took on a visiting professor's role at a German university and has just been writing about how much he misses America/hates Europe/hates soccer.

His most common complaint? "Europe is not America". No, Chuck, it isn't.

In the September issue of Esquire, Klosterman waxed poetic on what it means to follow America while not being in America--largely, he said that it doesn't matter, because most of us are so far removed from America anyway.

Klosterman writes "the mass media is the single most detrimental entity within the United States right now. It's having the exact opposite effect of its theoretically intended one--it's making people less informed and less complete".

Wow. I find this disgusting. Is the media biased? Yes. Is it perfect? No. But what other means have we got? I don't think it makes people any less informed than they would be without it. I mean, how else would we learn about what's going on anywhere in the world? Telepathically?

And it makes our lives less complete? If you're looking at the news to make your life complete, you've got bigger problems, Chuck.