iTunes Canada's Serious Defect

[melodramatic]Canuck iTunes is broken. You know why? LL Cool J's Mama Said Knock You Out isn't available for purchase. Neither is Walking With A Panther, but I'm getting ahead of myself...the fact that his finest moment on wax isn't legally available on the digital juggernaut is a travesty of musical justice. If things were right in the world, I should be able to have "Eat Em Up L Chill" and "To Da Break of Dawn" come up randomly on my iPod, so I can bug out at my fucking cubicle. iTunes Canada...do you really like me to be sad? Apparently, you do. Your omission of this album and Walking With A Panther kills my (natural) high, dawg. And what's up with keeping 14 Shots To The Dome around? Nobody likes that fucking album! It's quite clear that you have a hate-on for me, and I don't know what I did to deserve this kind of treatment. I'm so done with you after I buy this exclusive iTunes Session with the Black Keys.[/melodramatic]

Kanye's Runaway

I watched this a couple of hours ago, and I kinda liked it. Yeah, there were some goofy moments, but there were some dope tunes and a ton of explosions. I can't get mad at that.

After watching this, I couldn't help but compare this to the work of Matthew Barney. At that moment, I realized I've never actually watched a full Matthew Barney film, but I've seen plenty of stills; many perplexing stills. So...I hit YouTube, and watched several lengthy clips from the Cremaster Cycle and Drawing Restraint 9. Mind-boggling shit. So, my comparison to Barney's work isn't warranted, really. Kanye's symbolism is easy to interpret (his chick is a phoenix, and he's smothering her. Phoenixes gotta burn, homie!), while you need a series of charts, diagrams, and Coles Notes to figure out what the fuck is going on in the Cremaster Cycle...and there's a good chance you'd still be wrong.

Man, those explosions were cool.

Random Thoughts: October 20th, 2010

The Wrestling Ring, by fellow Flickr user Podknox. Used under a CC Attribution 2.0 Generic license.

• Three ropes, fool. I can't tell you how pissed off I get when I see illustrated depictions of wrestling rings with two or four ropes, and I do believe I saw two examples recently.* It really speaks to the importance of having reference around, and a simple Google image search should kill any doubts you may have. Now, having said this, you now have free reign to call me out on the next thing I fuck up graphically. However, there's a chance I actually did my research, so the error can be chalked up to ineptitude.
  So, get it straight, chump: three ropes = wrestling ring, four ropes = boxing ring.
  Two ropes? I seriously don't know what the hell that is.
  
  
• Lack of Francais. I was listening to A Propos on Saturday, remembering the time I made my elementary school French teacher cry.
  No, I'm not boasting. It's one of the many regrets I have.
  She overheard me expressing my frustrations with learning the language, and how I didn't plan on taking it in high school. She lost it. My imposing sixth grade teacher (he's the tall Belgian in the photo Jeope is holding) made damn sure I apologized to her in front of everybody the following day. If I remember correctly, I did take French in junior high, but didn't for the latter years.
  Years later, I can say searching for female nudity on CBWFT during my youth cultivated an appreciation of French cinema**, even though I have to read the subtitles, which I don't really mind. It'd be cool to understand it a little more beyond the handful of words I know, though. Sometimes, I think it'd be dope to try and re-learn it, but I'm still trying to remember all of the Japanese stuff I've forgotten.
  
  
• Don't sleep on Winnipeg. There's a lot of good shit coming through before the end of the year, rap-wise. You already know mcenroe dropped a tight EP. You should also be aware that Yy's new full-length will be coming in December. And via the good folks at Marathon of Dope:
  
  
  • The Gumshoe Strut's Too Long In The Tooth will be available November 2nd. He had a release show on the 15th of this month, compete with physical copies of the EP, and I can tell you that it's very good. It's about being broke down and ragged, so I can totally relate. For the moment, check out this dope video he shot for "On The Move". Man, I love that beat!
  • Birdapres' got some raw shit for ya. This sounds serious, y'all. Of course, I'd expect nothing else from Bird. I'm stoked!
  • John Smith's collab with producer Murdock, It's True Because It Rhymes, is finally seeing the light of day. I've been bugging both of them for so long about this album's release date, that the interlude I appeared on ended up being a cruel joke, so it got dropped.*** All of that doesn't matter, because people need to hear this shit. For the moment, read homie's bio and stay tuned.
  
  That's a tidy, jam-packed list that'll keep tongues wagging throughout 2011. Don't front.
   
• Covered/Repaneled. Covered: Classic/not-so-classic comic covers re-imagined. Repaneled: Same concept as Covered, except individual panels get the treatment. Both rule very hard.

*I won't link to them, because I'm classy. And, uh...I can't remember where I saw them.
**Playtime is one of my favorite films. There's no nudity in it.

Potent Quotes

"... I one day expect to find him perched on my couch prattling on about Oxo bouillion cubes or something."

– Illustrator Rod Filbrandt on Douglas Coupland.

"At least pornography has a function."

– Steve Albini on fashion. This GQ interview he did is typically acidic.