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April 24, 2008
Audio. Lupe Unplugged
Audio. Lupe Unplugged: It’s cool when a couple of elements of a song are changed and the result is something completely fresh. Lupe Fiasco’s Superstar gets new life with this live version he recorded with Matthew Santos for BBC. It reminds us of Nelly Furtado’s cover of Gnarls Barkley’s Crazy.
The acoustic version is a bit more subdued than the original. Lupe employs a soft-spoken delivery and it kind of makes you listen to the words differently. He even does back up vocals for Matthew. Pretty impressive stuff. Watch the acoustic version of Superstar after the jump.
Posted by james at 12:23 AM
April 22, 2008
Film. Medicine for Melancholy
Film. Medicine for Melancholy: Medicine for Melancholy is an anomaly. It’s a story about two San Francisco hipsters and the Sunday they spend together after having a one-night-stand. They ride fixed-gear bikes, smoke a joint, visit a museum, go dancing at an indie-rock club, and buy late night tacos. They also happen to be black. Gasp!
Like it or not, a monolithic image of blackness pervades in popular culture. Any deviation from this is deemed inauthentic and unmarketable. This is not a subtextual issue for the film but a theme it tackles head-on. The duo’s affinity for indie-culture has left them isolated in a rapidly gentrifying city that is only seven percent black. Meeting each other seems to bring their mutual identity crisis to light. Their affection for each other is visceral, - they both realize, without actually saying it, that they belong together. Micah (the guy) wants to go with this gut feeling, while Jo (the girl) seems a bit reticent. Here’s what director, Barry Jenkins has to say about the film: “In this meek story of a random encounter, the film explores the process of negotiating one’s identity by illustrating how the effects of gentrification make it virtually impossible for minority urbanites to just be.” [Photo Credit]
Dork recommends Medicine for Melancholy. View the trailer [Here]
Posted by james at 08:53 PM
Media. Nike's Maybe
Media. Nike's Maybe: Once again Nike raises the bar. We've played their latest commercial at least twelves times now. We're not sure why, but we find this particular ad really compelling. Entitled "Maybe," it is narrated with Jordan's confident and instrospective tone. The shots, cut aways and sequencing is everything Nike has become - the symbol of defiant, odd beating, hard working, impossibilities achieved by the passionate. And, amazingly they've breathed this ethos in a narration articulated by the word maybe. It's just plain awesome.
Spike's Mars, Saul's List of Demands, and now Jordan's Maybe. We've added this to our morning get-hype machine. After watching this you'll feel like you can tackle anything if you put in consistent hard work. Get your dose of inspiration after the jump.
Nike Maybe Video
Posted by taj at 01:59 AM
April 20, 2008
Film. The Killing of John Lennon
Film. The Killing of John Lennon: For all of the wrong reasons, Mark David Chapman, was a man ahead of his time. He was a 25 year-old narcissist, whose obsession with Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye and celebrity, led him to murder. You can’t watch this movie and not feel weird. This attention is sort of what Chapman wanted, right?
This movie’s worth seeing because it’s not about what is going to happen (we know how the story ends, sadly), but why and how it happens. It’s doesn’t condone or romanticize what Chapman did. The film is entirely factual - nothing has been made up. All of Chapman’s dialogue was taken from interviews, depositions and court transcripts in the public domain. Chapman’s isolation and detachment are captured with shots of him walking the streets in slow motion in relation to the surrounding world. The story is told entirely from Mark David Chapman’s point-of-view, which is challenging, but it gives the film a vivid realism rarely seen. In exploring the mind of a celebrity stalker, Andrew Piddington (the film’s director) has turned the mirror on us, and exposed things about our celebrity-obsessed culture that we don’t like to see.
Dork recommends this film. View the trailer [Here]
Posted by james at 08:59 PM