I’m spending this summer as a TA for UC Berkeley’s Early Academic Outreach Program, and one of my self-assigned majorly geeky assignments that I’ve given myself is to administer a music syllabus for my students. The topic of the class is America in Crisis and explores how America deals with national and international issues in the age of Obama in comparison to the rest of history. Deep shnit.
Of course, being me, what was supposed to be a short compilation has turned into a 3-disc series that I’ll be distributing to the classes throughout the summer, and I’ve decided to take you along! I pass out the first discs on Wednesday, so you get a head start. Do you feel good about yourself, getting a head start on high schoolers? Oh, you ARE a high schooler?? You should be in class then. Or watching Avatar.
Serving as a soundtrack to the reading material for the class, National Anthems contains the entire spectrum–the political and the rebellious, conservative and liberal, bla blah bloop. You’ll catch on.
This Neil Diamond track is HELLLLLLLA fresh. How fresh is it? So fresh that even him breaking into My Country Tis of Thee in the middle of it doesn’t ruin how epic the arrangement is. It’s like looking at an extremely well-customized SUV like, Damn. I hate the thing, but it’s just so bloody gorgeous.
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WARNING: this is really the whole script for pixar’s up. so if you haven’t seen the movie yet, this is the definition of a spoiler. but if you have seen it, wasn’t it greeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeat!?
It’s coming, peoples…the 5th Asian Pacific Islander American Spoken Word & Poetry Summit! Long ass name, dope ass event! The Summit has such a special place in my big ol slimy green scaly heart because it’s pretty much what made me fall in love with spoken word. Like, if going to my first open mic was like establishing the crush, the 2003 Summit in Chicago is when you get pinned to the locker and then make out in slow motion and then let her wear your varsity jacket (or in my case, fluffy nylon jacket from Chinatown with a bear cartoon stitched on the back).
This year I’m helping organize it in the Bay, and it’s going to be *SHA-WINGGGGGG!* (that’s right, so great that it’s described with a sound effect). It takes place from Thursday July 30 to Sunday August 2, and API folks from all over the world will be flying in for this. It’s like all the dinosaurs meeting at the Great Valley, except instead of Little Foot it’s Bao Phi.
I’m not really crazy for this video but it’s so wackowacko that it belongs somewhere on this site. Is it just me or do those background dancers look like they’re dressed as dyslexic genitalia?
Nisennenmondai is siiiiiiiiiiiiiiick! Ughhh…there’s not much that I can say that would be worthier than just letting you move straight to the clip, so I’m just going to let your face melt to these unsuspecting Japanese ladies playing at Gramaphone, my favorite underground club when I was out in London. Promise me you’ll watch the whole way through though. It’s disgustingly good.
Yo this movie is suuuuuuuuuuch a trip! I normally can’t stand watching silent films, and so falling asleep in the middle of it only twice last night convinces me that for less ADD people, this is riveting! Metropolis is a 1926 German film about a robot lady taking over. What more do you need to know?
Above is the whole film, except rescored by The New Pollutants, a band from Australia. Last night I watched it with Ebony Bones and the J Dilla Symphony album and they were both pretty fresh. Any other ideas of music that would make a great soundtrack to the cyber-enslavement of humankind?
