Monday, July 20, 2009

MTVJams Update

In case anyone is interested...

To start off, I noticed that Eminem is back. He has a new album entitled Relapse. As someone who was very much into the Eminem scene back in high school, and even through early college, I was curious to see how he had evolved, if at all...

If nothing else, the song is a sophomoric (SAT verbal study-guide word!), overly-emotional tour de Marshal Mathers, showing more symptoms of depression than symptoms of empathy and maturity. And then I remembered my high school experience, and realized this is exactly why I used to like Eminem. It's like David Wooderson said in Dazed and Confused, "That's what I like about Eminem, man. I keep getting older, but he stays the saaaaaame age."

I also saw Rick Ross' new music video. It inspired me to write an onion-like article entitled "Hip-hop Artist Makes Reference to Scarface". And then my second Coors Light washed that motivation away.

And while I realize that writing original music is time-consuming and difficult, hip-hop has taken music borrowing ("sampling") to a whole new level. Of the four songs that I watched on MTVJams, two of them sampled Steam - Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye. TWO!! out of FOUR!! I think that the producers are digging pretty damn deep into the old hit-lists.

I will post the video for one of the songs that uses the Steam song below. Because it is Jay-Z. And this is only included because I want to illustrate how to respectfully and appropriately cover a chorus, so take notes. This video represents that genre of music that I really respect and appreciate, but don't listen to nearly enough; a thoughtful and purposeful vehicle of talent, ideas and emotion. I am suddenly ashamed at the number of T-Pain songs near the top of my iTunes most-played list.




Sunday, July 12, 2009

Water Jumpers

Once thought only to exist in the storied Lake Winnipesaukee near Meredith, NH - another group of lake-maids and lake-men were spotted in Third Crow Wing Lake, in Chamberlain Minnesota.

These unique and fantastic creatures, similar to flying fish, are able to leap clear out of the water and jump onto boats in a single bound.

This footage is the second of it's kind, and is one of the rare moments these creatures strange habits have been captured on film. Let's sit back and enjoy: