Writing the Arts

hotel jane

the best new pop album i've heard in some years is beau's that thing reality (great title). it takes account of the lorde/lana down-tempo sorta talky thing, but also many different elements of rock and country and punk. the singing is wonderful, and there are no weak cuts. has to hit, i would think: this stuff would sound great on the radio.

 

what a great build that thing has: very fine writing. beautiful production to boot.

 

Plating Gourmet Lyrics

Action Bronson's bust, carved out of two pork chops and an angel hair beard.

Recently I found this old post by a contributer for the Village Voice.  The post takes the lyrics of rapper Action Bronson (one of XXL Mag's Freshman Class 2013) and cooks up a five course meal.  It sounds unusual, but Bronson is no stranger to the kitchen. In fact, the rapper had an online cooking show entitled, "Action in the Kitchen," and before taking a serious bite into the hip hop world, Bronson was a revered chef in NYC.  

 

The rapping gourmand takes a trip to the farmer's market and stirs up some stuffed zucchini blossoms 

lilou: the man with the ultimate moves

you may not consider a bboy to be among the most athletic humans in the world. i beg to differ. the best breakers are more "athletic" than the best athletes. take french bboy lilou for instance. compare his physique to the kobe bryants or lebron james of the sports world, and you may find me to be the fullest of shit. however, he trains daily, year round, no off-season, to invent, reinvent and perfect the art of breakdancing: where athleticism, grace and music intersect. lebron can jump from the freethrow line and jam it, but lilou can backflip corkscrew at eye-level to his competition. i've yet to see him injured, and if he loses, its usually because he focuses on  "clowning" the competition. in the words of trinidad james, "dont believe me just watch:"

Clowning = to debase a counterpart for comedic relief.  It is clowning/disrespectful to intercept a fellow bboy's limelight, despite being amdist a battle/cypher. 

 

he has won the red bull bc one twice (2005, 2009), an incomparable feat. he has been considered the best even when others have won. his 2005 championship battle against hong 10 is a glaring example of how his talents are beginning to recreate the art. 

the man with the ultimate moves #dope

kimberly, not katy

so i've been rummaging around for new female country singers. i don't know how i left out kimberly perry of the band perry, who's as good and interesting as any of these artists. they're from mississippi and/or alabama, which are good places to be from for this sort of thing. unlike some of the people in that previous entry, the band perry is not a nostalgia act or a tribute to traditional country music; like taylor, they're recognizably country, but they also have a very contemporary pop sound. a good example might be the first single from their fine second album, pioneer.

 

that song has the little bit of morbidity that people have come to associate with the band perry since their breakthrough single 'if i die young.' and it also has characteristic shifts of mood from gentle to intense, both musically and emotionally. my 12-year-old daughter jane loves this stuff, and i think the morbid/country-goth streak is part of the attraction, kind of like pretty little liars. but death is by no means the theme of all of tbp's songs, which run the gamut. check, for example, the title track of the new album. it has an unusual and timely theme for a country song, but also makes contact with the tradition at all points.

 

it's hard to tell from recordings anymore whether someone can really sing. but were i guessing, i'd say kimberley can sing like hell. here's one of their strongest lyrics (and their lyrics are often a bit better than they need to be).

 

and really kimberly can go into many different modes, from rowdy to sultry to heartbroken. here's the rowdy mode, which is dominant among nashville women right now.

 

if you can't sell a hundred thousand copies of that to country fans, you can't sell anything to anyone. one thing that i do like about taylor and kimberly is that they're connected to the tradition without constantly emphasizing that fact by mentioning hank williams or loretta lynn. they show country as a living tradition in a compelling way. also even though tbp and taylor swift are recognizably of the same genre, kimberly is definitely not in any way a taylor imitator; i think she has a very fine country voice: very strong with a soaring upper register.

 

 

if you're in my class and you want to write something about food or music or whatever it may be, come ahead.