Superbad

I'm just checking everyone has seen Superbad? obviously it came out a bajillion years ago and everyone saw it, but i didn't until the other day, it's pretty flipping funny, not wedding crashes funny but up there, this is my favourite scene.

Cadence Weapon New Mixtape

One of my favourite artists of last year was Cadence Weapon you may remember him from my Tracks 5 compilation, he has just released a mixtape of new material and remixes called Separation Anxiety, It is a pay what you like album which I love because I get to give him a little bit of money but not too much, get it here. I haven't had much chance to listen to it but I'm sure it will be good, if you like your rap with a dancey edge check it out. The below track features final fantasy and A trak, Sally Shapiro and Kid Sister are involved.

Joaquin Phoenix retirement

Did everyone else know about this...what the hell

Personal favourite Joaquin moment

Sorry I'm busy again.

Little summat summat to keep you going.

Things I've Learnt From Research Today....

They don't make 'em like they used to. Hitchcock's North by Northwest
Baywatch was amazing
Hasselhoff didn't do all is own stunts...or pay for stunts to be done twice if someone's wig fell off
All Creatures Great And Small is one of the best programs ever.
Sideways is still brilliantly tragic.

Lies Lockdown

I know nothing about White Lies just that their posters are all over town, but props for this live lounge cover of Love Lockdown.

via Pigeons and Planes

Amazing Inauguration picture from around the world

For the full stories and many other brilliant images go to boston.com

Washington

Nairobi

Guantanamo (yes they stole that picture from my blog) 

Afghanistan 

Washington

or for a more personal view, Rob was in NYC check it

thanks Chris.

Best of the balls...

Mariah sings Hero for Barack. Touching.

"Kanye, do you want to perform at Obama's Youth ball?"

"...can I wear my new tux?"

"why not"

"I'm there."

Obama's Speech by Tomasky

More prose than poetry means: it's time to get down to work. 

A presidential inaugural address can be pitched either to the ages, replete with eternal verities, or to the particular moment, cataloguing the challenges of the day, but rarely to both. I think most of us expected the former from Barack Hussein Obama, whose most stirring oratories have certainly sung with ageless poetry. This speech had those moments, to be sure, and Obama from time to time reached back to Abraham Lincoln, George Washington and even to Paul the Apostle. But what was surprising was how rooted in the current moment the speech was. 

Obama chose to speak in specific terms – one might even say programmatic ones – about the dire present moment and his plans for how to get out of it. Only a few minutes into the speech he was mentioning jobs, homes and healthcare, and building roads and bridges, and investing in new sources of energy and improving education. A few of the lines were so on-message that they would have worked well in a closing statement during a presidential debate.

There is precedent for this. Franklin Roosevelt's inaugural addresses, his first and second ones in particular, were pitched directly at the moment Americans faced then. That we are in the midst of an economic crisis greater than any since Roosevelt's time obviously motivated Obama to move his rhetoric in this direction. But I felt he may have pressed a little too far in that direction. When he mentioned "electric grids" and "digital lines," he sounded like he has about a half a beat away from diving into a discussion of the competing merits of corn- versus switchgrass-based ethanol. 

Another way in which the speech was geared toward the moment: it was, in parts, a coded but unmistakably clear denunciation of the Bush administration. "As for our common defense," he said, "we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals." The line drew a big cheer from the nearly two-million-strong Obama enthusiasts on the mall, and they knew exactly what he meant: no more Guantanamos, no more torture, no more Dick Cheney-style governance (and the sight of Cheney in that wheelchair…what was he doing packing his own boxes anyway?). And how about the line about how America's founding fathers "understood that our power alone cannot protect us, nor does it entitle us to do as we please?" Obama may be ready to cooperate with congressional Republicans, as he has often stated, but it has to be said that at least with regard to Bush and Cheney, even Obama's penchant for post-partisanship clearly has its limits. 

The speech's most stirring passages were directed not to Americans but to the world, and here, I think the speech was more in line with the high expectations. Here, he moved away from Roosevelt and leaned more on John Kennedy's 1961 address. His words "to the people of poor nations" were moving, and those addressed "to those who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent" were stern. The world will be listening to this president with more care and respect than most, so one hopes that over the next four years those words are backed up by some actions. 

If the speech was mildly underwhelming, I suppose I'd say this. There were many times during the campaign when I, and other political junkies of my acquaintance, thought Obama was screwing something up. A week or a month later, we almost invariably saw that maybe he was right after all. So maybe he thought, let's put the poetry on the shelf. It's time now to get to work. He's got a lot of that ahead of him, so it's understandable I suppose if that, not rhetoric, is what is foremost in his mind. link

Today's Telegraph

Mr President

Turn on your TVs the day has arrived. Speech at around 5pm our time. Lots of coverage at the guardian.

Feist & Ben Gibbard

This is a lovely cover by Leslie and Ben of Alasdair Clayre's song 'Train Song' from the up coming in aid of aids album 'Dark Was the Night' which has all our favourites on it (Bon Iver, Sufjan, Arcade Fire) download Train song here

 

Rummey

I never knew Donald Rumsfeld said this 5 hours after 9/11

"Best info fast. Judge whether good enough hit SH at same time. Not only UBL."

UBL was how they referred to Usama bin Laden in those days before the entire world had heard of him, and SH, of course, was Saddam Hussein.

full article

The Wire in a 5 minute rap

Don't watch if you haven't seen all 5 seasons of The Wire but you plan on watching them (or just pause it when you get up to the season you have reached)

Marina & The Diamonds

At first I dismissed Marina & The Diamonds as being nothing new and a bit young for me if you know what I mean, but I keep coming back to her soon to be release single Obsessions, I love a good piano ballad, this song makes me feel almost warm inside (a cold heart like mine will always be relatively temperate) Laura Legs if you ever read this I think you might like this band. more here mp3 here

Slate

Slate.com seems like a good website, intelligent youthful humourous look at the news.

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

President Goofus and President Gallant - Peer Pressers

Barack Obama Interview
John McCain Interview

Sarah Palin Video
Funny Election Video

Still no competition though.

Stranger Than Fiction

If you haven't seen Stranger Than Fiction you should definitely watch it, I keep using it as reference for work and always mean to blog (weblog) it. You can borrow it from me if you like. It's very refreshing and beautiful. 

Inaugural Collectibles

Just because he is nearly the president it doesn't mean Obama has stopped peddling his wares. Lots more at the Official Obama Store. The bags are dope (his words not mine) And if you didn't already know you can keep up with Change at change.gov

Banjo or Freakout

Last night I saw a really great band called Banjo or Freakout, it's been quite a while since I have seen a really good band at a gig that I hadn't previously heard of. I should go to more gigs, I think I'm going to go to White Heat most weeks (Woman are playing in 2 weeks!) and more of the Upset The Rhythm nights. Banjo or Freakout were celebrating their single release, the single Mr No is brilliant you should download it from his blog. Sorry to make lazy comparisons but Animal Collective with a more youthful edge springs to mind. He does some really great covers as well, you can find them on his blog too. 

Slumdog Millionaire

Believe the hype (and the Golden Globe wins) Slumdog Millionaire is absolutely brilliant. I think the marketing including this trailer doesn't quite do it justice, the whole thing about being on who wants to be a millionaire isn't really what the films about, it's more about life in India. I wont say too much I'm pretty ham fisted when it comes to analysis, just make sure you go to see it if you haven't already.

The sound track is heeeeavy too. The opening song is a new one from M.I.A download it here

A Kid Named Kudi Mixtape

I've just realised I've never actually posted Kid Cudi's amazing mixtape 'A Kid Named Cudi' Download it here. For the uninitiated rappers in America tend to put out free mixtapes of their work before they put out a proper album, it includes songs that will make it on to the album eventually as well as a lot of songs that sample other songs and stuff like that to show off the concerned rappers unique talents. Cudi's came out in the summer and is brilliant I have been listening to it constantly for a good few weeks now, he even samples Band Of Horses from the indie world (below)

(I don't know how to stop wide videos being cropped sorry)

Wow

Surf installation inspired by Beatnick writer Steve Gorrow. There is more and a great film here.

Albums

Bit of an album post? Go on then. Have you got any Dan Deacon? I was reminded of him after Rob posted on his blog a review of 2008, we had some pretty great times in 2008 one of them was seeing Dan Deacon play in East London in a week where we went to a gig every night and saw some amazing things (Jens Lekman, Bon Iver, Telepathe, Xiu Xiu, Animal Collective..and I can't remember who we saw on the Friday) Anyway above is Dan Deacon's 2007 album Spiderman Of The Rings download it here. After the gig I described him as fisher price Digitalism and I'm sticking to it. 

His new album Bromst is coming out in March, make sure you buy it not download it if you like Spiderman of the Rings that I have given you for free.
Night Ripper is Girl Talks album before his current one Feed the Animals that I blogged about previously here. Download Night Ripper here.

And obviously the new Animal Collective album is out on Monday, I'm actually going to go to the record shop to buy it first thing monday morning before work...can't remember the last time I did that...Show Your Bones maybe. Below is a sample of Animal Collectives new album.

Amazing.

Elspeth Diederix

I really like the new work of Photographer Elspeth Diederix. There is lots more on her site

From the ever insightful BOOOOOM!

The Knux

I know somebody who can't be bothered to type and think of descriptions shouldn't be allowed to blog but here we go never the less. This is The Knux as recommended by Sound Opinions (below) I really like them, I think Garage Hop is the term being banded around, It's hip hop with lots of life and warmth -myspace- it up

Another Ad

Mat didn't like the last Nokia ad I put on here, what about this one?

Film School

I haven't been keeping up with daytrotter of late but Rupert put me onto the Film School sessions it's very good, have a listen it will only take a minute to know if you like them.

Sound Opinions

Sound Opinions is a great podcast from Chicago Public Radio the same station that features This American Life. Sound Opinions is...

Two of the nation's most respected music writers, Jim DeRogatis of the Chicago Sun-Timesand Greg Kot of the Chicago Tribune, meet each week to interview fascinating artists from the top of the charts and the cutting edge of the underground, and give the latest scoop on pop culture and review albums past and present.

It's great hearing mildly intelligent debates about current music rather than Zane Lowe chatting on, I just listened to the show Radiohead were interviewed on, it was very interesting. Subscribe to the podcast and get a new free show every monday.

I think I might move to Chicago - Obama, Kanye, and This American Life? Must be good.

The Sound Of 2009

I just listened to the Guardian Music podcast about what's in store for 2009. You should listen to it it's quite interesting in parts. It all sounded very gloomy but it was nice to hear other people's view on the state of play in the music industry. They are predicting the death of the traditional indie band, no one going to gigs, electro girls like Little Boots doing well, and a return to Pop - amongst other things. They did briefly mention Kid Cudi and Asher Roth towards the end which I was pleased with, although she did called him Kid Coodi. 

I predict:

• The rap people I always bang on about doing well in America and here (Kid Cudi, Wale, Asher Roth & Charles Hamilton)
  
• Interesting electro pop like The Sound Of Arrows (above and below) and Empire Of The Sun doing well both in the indie market and pop world.
  
• Kanye headlining numerous festivals to great acclaim.
  
• More and more albums being released straight from artists websites not on CD, everyone should admit defeat like Zaavi
  
• Animal Collective being everyones new Tv On the Radio/Arcade Fire...even though they are sort of close anyway
  
• And Arctic Monkeys releasing an album I love but most people aren't that bothered by
  

I haven't put a lot of thought into this but as you might have guessed it's a quiet day at work. here is an exciting video by a new swedish duo called The Sound Of Arrows

The Sound of Arrows - M.A.G.I.C. (Mini-video) from The Sound of Arrows on Vimeo.

Download single

A Saturday Dance?

You could go to this at Bethnal Green Working Mens Club...it may or may not be my birthday.

I like these

by Katelyn Reece Farstad

Not long to go!

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

The Bush Years: The Iraq War

Barack Obama Interview
John McCain Interview

Sarah Palin Video
Funny Election Video

ATP 2009

We should all probably think about getting ATP tickets for May. I've never managed to go my little brother says it was the best thing ever last year. More.

Cildo Meireles

There is only a week left of my favourite exhibition on 2008, it's amazing, you should probably go if you haven't already. It's at Tate Modern and includes a room where you take off your shoes and wade through talc (top image) and a bit that feels like you are walking on broken glass (second image) It's open till 1opm on friday and saturday and around £7. more.