Recently in pop diatribe Category

"Foolish pride is all that I have left so let me hide from the tears and the sadness you gave me when you said goodbye" - Cyndi Lauper, Walk On By

When I read a great page turning book, I barrel through those final 40 or so pages with an agitated excitement. My chest tightens. My mind fills with that world as my own reality falls away. It's a rush. Mingled in with that is a sadness. This fictional world's time is coming to a close, at least for now. The characters, people and places that I've loved for 400 or 600 or 1000 pages revoke my priviledge of peeking into their world and while I enjoyed my stay more than maybe even I know, I want more. I'm greedy for more.

The third season finale (and possibly the series finale?) of The Wire feels exactly like that.

Unlike the last two season finales, I'm not left feeling like I need more, though. I understand that the worlds of these characters will go on but I'm satisfied. I know enough about McNulty and Bubbs and Daniels and Freamon and Pearlman and Bodie and Puddin' and Omar and Mouzone and Herc. Okay, maybe I could get a bigger taste of Kima and Carv and Cutty and Bunk and I'd like to see how Marlo does as the new big dog on the corners but I don't have to. In truth, I know how their stories will go. The details may be different but as we've been told over and over this season: the game is the game. Whether it's the hoppers or the police or the politicians, the game don't change.

What else doesn't change is how spectacular David Simon is at capturing the soul of a city. Maybe Spike Lee does it in The 25th Hour and Do The Right Thing and maybe Walter Mosley gets old Los Angeles right in his Easy Rawlins and Fearless Jones mysteries but, damn, David Simon is Baltimore. From his books to Homicide to The Corner to The Wire, if you don't feel like you could step foot in B'more and survive, well, you just aren't paying attention. Everything he writes is a tough love letter to his hometown, a city ever teetering on the precipice of oblivion.

It's horrifying and invigorating.

And maybe, this is enough. Enough to see The Corner's real DeAndre McCullogh playing Brother Mouzone's muscle (and by extension knowing he's still alive and, apparently, doing well...something that can not be said about most of the real live people from Simon's novel). Enough to see McNulty finally see himself for who he is while Kima rapidly turns in to him. Enough to hear the venom in Bunny Colvin's "Get on with it, motherfucker" to a smug Rawls. Enough to hear Rawls say "bend over" and get why he is always amused by his sexual metaphors to his subordinates. Enough to see dark skin on dark skin. Enough to see dark skin on light skin. Enough to know that Avon has finally realized the hell that he had brought into the world.

It's enough.

But like an addict, I will always be ready for another hit. And I will always hope that it will be as good as this even though I know in my heart it really can't be.

How can it?

Mission Accomplished.

"What you say? What you need? What you want?" - Ginuwine, Little Man's Bangin' Lude

"We don't need to dream no more." - Stringer Bell

I had forgotten just how foul Stringer Bell has really been.  He and Avon own the death of Omar's boyfriend, Brandon, together but the hits on D'Angelo and Brother Mouzone are all him. He saw everything as business, even moreso than Avon, and saw little use for the traditions of the game if they got in the way of him making a bigger profit.  String, outside of maybe Prop Joe, was the smartest man in the parts of Baltimore we get to see on The Wire and yet even he couldn't beat the game.

"The game is the game." - Avon Barksdale

It didn't come as a surprise that Stringer's time was coming to an end. Everything in the episode pointed that way. It still was one of the most powerful deaths on television, rivaling Adriana's murder on the last season of The Sopranos. It's perhaps even more jarring because we're not supposed to like String. He's a low down dirty drug dealer and murderer. Somehow, though, he just seems so much less lecherous than the rest. He'd be legit if he could.  He's in many ways the perfect embodiment of the American Capitalist. When it really comes down to it, the hell with morality, honor, and family. The mighty dollar was his god and devil. And the game is the game.

So, who in the blogosphere is watching The Wire? Check out the links after the jump.

"I want to rest in your bed tonight/I want to finally believe" - D:Fuse, Into Me [who's america?]

I don't actually have a tivo, I've got one of those scientific american boxes that everyone seems to hate but it lets me record two channels at once while watching my stored shows at the same time so I am not complaining. Anyway, over the weekend the box filled up with some good stuff.

Film School
IFC is getting really good with the original programming. Dinner for Five is hit or miss but the Ultimate Film Fanatic game was surprisingly watchable (even with the creepiest contestants this side of Beat the Geeks). Film School is their foray into reality television (or docu-drama if you want to go high-brow). With 4 really different students from 4 different levels of skill, interest and desire, the NYU based series has piqued my interest. It's not the best show. They have some problems with pacing and overall story structure but they have a guy making a film called The Adventures of SuperNigger and the supertease for the series has someone getting straight knocked the fuck out. You have to love that.

The Batman
Based under the same context as the Christian Bale version of the caped crusader, The Batman is the only saturday morning cartoon I'm watching this year...at least until Static Shock comes back (it is coming back, right?). Based in a contemporary Gotham City with a young Bruce Wayne only 3 years into his Batman career, the Gotham City PD are trying to either arrest him or prove he doesn't exist while Alfred attempts to keep the tortured Wayne from becoming The Bat full-time. It's been a long time since Alfred was a key figure in animated and live versions of Batman and it's been a long time since the Batman stories were told in new and compelling ways. I enjoyed it way more than I expected to and this version of the Joker was as batshit crazy as you could ever hope him to be. He doesn't even wear shoes. Crazy!

HBO
Six Feet Under and Entourage both ended in very satisfying ways. SFU gave every character a reality check that they could choose to take (like Nate, Rico, and maybe David) or not (like Claire and maybe Ruth) and had two of the most jarring scenes in a season chock-full of them in one episode. Entourage. There's nothing to say really. It's not inspired tv at all but it's so very much show business that I have to love it. It's now my mission to meet Samaire Armstrong out sometime. Right now she's my fake hollywood girlfriend.

Jack and Bobby
Quite good in that Aaron Sorkin way. Christine Lahti is mesmerizing and exceptionally good at delivering his dialogue and the concept is compelling. It feels big like The West Wing and Sports Night feel when I watch them. I found myself welling up inside rising with the emotional weight of each scene. They make every situation matter. I'm worried about it getting too gimmicky but I'm happy for at least one good new tv show this fall.

Starting Over
The new season of my own personal hell began today and the message boards are open. Kill me now. How do I go so quickly from thinking about all the other shows I am overseeing the content of to obsessing about this monster of a show. This season is great, though. We've got Iyanla Vanzant as a Life Coach and we've added a therapist and have ramped up the crazy and the waterworks. I've watched the first 3 weeks of our series and there is not a day where a woman isn't crying in our house. We are Soap Opera Gods.

"Skeet, skeet, skeet"

I'm trying not to talk about the VMAs because I'm too cool to actually watch awards shows but...

Is that Vivica Fox on stage shaking it like a salt shaker in coochie cutter shorts?

Scandalous.

Bonus question: Is she so irrelevant at this point that nobody in the audience even noticed. Including the hip hop cats she's been in movies and the bed with?

And since I'm not watching but still talking about it: Usher annoys me but that's a fly suit and Jigga's so on point I can't even see him. I love Xtina even though she ain't got no eyebrows and I'm so down with B.Willis for Leanin' Back.

Perhaps some more later if I decide to not watch some more.

"I'm sharp like a cactus plus quick to bust gymnastic tactics" - The Roots, Mellow My Man/Jusfuckwithis (live at Fenix, Seattle, Wa, 1999) [buy come alive]

Pardon this interruption but have you been watching The Amazing Race 5? Can I take a moment to knock on my TV screen and rip somebody a new asshole?

*tap* *tap*

Colin, you insufferable prick. Hi. Now, not only did you and your girlfriend go head to head with my beloved Charla & Mirna and win last week, this week you proceed to show how much of an absolute ass you are. You go bug shit in Tanzania refusing to pay the same fare that all the other teams paid and going so far as to nearly get arrested while treating every dark skinned man you came into contact with like he was nothing. Then when you realize that the Tanzanians aren't intimidated by your "I'm a crazy American white man who can buy and sell your entire country" shtick you toss your 100 dollars in the air in the most contemptible of fashions. (Which, by the way, is the second time that behavior has happened on this show. Last week Nicky of Brandon and Nicole fame, while probably justified in being irate, did the exact same thing. What's up with that exhibition of class, entitlement and superiority my Ugly American in a foreign land friends?)

Then, Colin, my bastard, you blame Christie for your nearly getting arrested. What the shit is this? Now, I'm no Christie fan (although I imagine she's much more tolerable when she's not having to deal with your sociopathic tendencies. Can you see the tension in her face, fuckwad? She's on the verge of breaking down every time you give her your best American Psycho stare) but, dude, you were a complete jerk-off right there. Just admit it.

Why do you scream at every person you meet like they owe you something? Homeboy in the cab, walking with the camel, pushing the water taxi along the river doesn't know or care about you. Enjoy the fact that you are in fucking Dubai, say thank you every once in awhile, tell this woman that for some odd reason (fear?) decides to stick it out with you (and blame herself for your toolery) that she rocks and you don't deserve her, and then shut the fuck up for a minute and enjoy the view.

It hurts my heart that despite all your complete and total jackholeness that the two of you ended up in first again. If Chip and Kim, who are absolutely wonderful week after week (South Central say what?!), don't win and you two miserable bastards do, we are going to have to fight in the street.

Because Colin, this week, and really every week, you get the gas face.

Fucker.

"I know it’s hard to take but her mind has been made up/There’s plenty more fish in the sea" - The Streets, Dry Your Eyes [buy the album]

This is what I fear about getting older:

Like some who wrote in, I initially confused Timbaland with a well known pop singer called Justin Timberlake. Some listeners may know of the latter because he appeared with Janet Jackson during her infamous "wardrobe malfunction" at this past winter's Super Bowl broadcast.

Ulaby's interview with Timbaland was about how he found inspiration in the Tolkien novels, The Lord of the Rings. It seemed an unusual combination, but Ulaby made Timbaland more comprehensible and his music more accessible.

This was good cultural journalism: It introduced me to an artist I didn't know. It told me why he is important and why he is an artist. I may not run out to buy his CD, but at least I can make an informed choice. - NPR's Ombudsman (initially found via Anil)

I have absolutely no plans for this weekend? Wanna hang out? I'm trying to go to the Apple Store in Santa Monica tomorrow so I can meet up with alphabet girl and see the guy she manages perform. Other than that...it's lookin' like DVDs and chores. What kind of shit is that?

Also, I will buy you something off your wishlist if you can figure out what the hell's going on with my typekey and comment problems. The milk's gone bad. hit me up via email and if you're not crazy I'll give you access to my MT and you can work your magic. My mind just is not working looking at all that code today.

"When I'm feeling alone, you feel like home, you feel like home" - Zero 7, Somersault (Dangermouse Remix)

Halfway There
The Top 10 Albums of the first half of 2004. In order.

10. AIR - Talkie Walkie
AIR is best heard when you're by yourself, or at least want to be alone. Talkie Walkie feels solemn and pensive, looking inward. It's an empty park on a blustery gray day. Talkie Walkie also has tons of tracks that you'd want to end a mix CD with. I've listened to it less as the year has gone on but it dominated my winter.
Download Universal Traveler (25 itunes spins)
[Buy the album]

9. Toots & The Maytals - True Love
I'm a pretty new listener to Reggae, Ska and it's roots. This compilation with one of the originators of the style performing with some of the best artists across all forms of America's popular music is a great introduction to Toots Hibbert's songs and his powerful, striking voice.
Download Reggae Got Soul (featuring Ken Boothe and Marcia Griffiths) (11 itunes spins)
[Buy the album]

8. Madvillain - Madvillainy
Madlib always blows me away with his production. The gritty tracks he's built for MF Doom are perfect for Doom's many rhyme aliases and Madvillian stands strong from start to finish.
Download Fancy Clown (featuring Viktor Vaughn) (8 itunes spins)
[Buy the album]

7. Cee-Lo Green...is the Soul Machine
Cee-Lo is baad, man. Hip hop so funky it makes your bootyhole pucker. "Whenever you need some soul, start him up." Indeed.
Download My Kind of People (featuring Jazze Pha & Menta Malone) (24 itunes spins)
[Buy the album]

6. Modest Mouse - Good News for People who love Bad News
No, I'm not obsessed with Float On. It's a cool song that's been squeezed into a smashing pumpkins video and is a little too radio friendly for an act that is more more interesting than pop music is allowed to be but whose to say that that's a bad thing? If Float On gets folks to hear The Good Times Are Killing Me and Ocean Breathes Salty and the blaring of horns just for the sake of horns, well, then that's a good thing. "And that is that and this is this."
Download Ocean Breathes Salty (13 itunes spins)
[Buy the album]

5. DJ Nu-Mark - Hands On
It's not just that I love his blending of intro tracks from several different albums and artists into a head nod dream (and don't think that I'm not totally biting that concept with all the intros and skits I've got...it's damn harder than it sounds) it's the middle of this album that I love. From Chali 2na's jump up and get down Chali 2na Comin' Thru to Viktor Vaughn's Saliva it's fun , upbeat, rarely heard tracks from some very adept rhyme slingers over really solid beatwork. Nu-Mark is always impressive when he's showing his turntablist skills live, I'm incredibly happy that he's as adept at picking tracks on his own compilation album.
Download Melody (7 itunes spins)
[Buy the album]

4. Ozomatli - Street Signs
I've only had this album in my possession for a few days but it's speaking to me. It's probably the perfect album for a Los Angeles Summer. It sounds like LA. It's alive and vibrant. It makes me sing loudly in my car. It makes me want to get out of my car at stop lights and dance.
Download Te Estoy Buscando (3 itunes spins)
[Buy the album]

3. RJD2 - Since We Last Spoke
It's just a special, special album. RJD2 takes the sensibilities of a hip hop producer and just takes them to a completely different world. Wonderful, romantic, multi-faceted music.
Get Iced Lightning on (18 itunes spins)
[Buy the album]

2. Rewind 3
The album with the most spins combined in my itunes library, Ubiquity's compilation of many of the artists on their label (and some that aren't) doing covers and remakes of some of their favorite songs is inspired and awe-inspiring. Antibalas, This Kid Named Miles, Nobody, Greyboy and the rest just do beautiful and unexpected things on what are already great tracks. I think everyone needs this is in their music library but that's just me being hyperbolic.
Download Genevieve (33 itunes spins)
[Buy the album]

1. Zero 7 - When It Falls
Now, this is just for me. I reviewed the album earlier this year and then I sort of reviewed the show. It's the absolute embodiment of my first 6 months in 2004.
Download Passing By (12 itunes spins)
[Buy the album]

"One day all them bags gone get in your way." - Erykah Badu, Bag Lady

Trent loved the list David was making and I'm loving both so I figured I had to chime in.

My top 20 albums of the new millenium so far.

20. Since I Left You - The Avalanches (2000/Modular)
19. Justified - Justin Timberlake (2002/JIVE)
18. Another Late Night - Zero 7 (2002/Kinetic)
17. Phrenology - The Roots (2002/MCA)
16. Voodoo - D'Angelo (2000/Virgin)
15. One Beat - Sleater-Kinney (2002/Kill Rock Stars)
14. In Between - Jazzanova (2002/Atlantic)
13. Aaliyah - Aaliyah (2001/Blackground)
12. American IV: The Man Comes Around - Johnny Cash (2002/Universal)
11. One Word Extinguisher - Prefuse 73 (2003/Warp)
10. Vespertine - Bjork (2001/Elektra)
09. The Colored Section - Donnie (2002/Giant Step)
08. Like Water for Chocolate - Common (2000/MCA)
07. Shades of Blue - Madlib (2003/Blue Note)
06. Reflection Eternal - Talib Kweli & DJ Hi-Tek (2000/Priority)
05. Red, Hot + Riot - Various Artists (2002/MCA)
04. AOI: Bionix - De La Soul (2001/Tommy Boy)
03. Speakerboxxx/The Love Below - Outkast (2003/La Face)
02. Simple Things - Zero 7 (2001/Palm Pictures)
01. Mama's Gun - Erykah Badu (2000/Kedar)

If I was on a desert island with an ipod filled with the tracks from these albums, I'd be happy for a long time. It pretty well acknowledges my eclectic tastes and includes my favorite artists of the era. The honorable mentions would include Verve Remixed, Duck Season Vol. One, Back To Mine (Tricky), and the Ocean's 11 Soundtrack. I'm surprised, too, because I'm a sucker for good compilation and/or mix/remix albums and I love those 4 but there were some albums that just had to be there. I only considered albums I actually own and because just about all of them are in my itunes, it wasn't as difficult to widdle down as I expected. I'm also surprised neither of Kelis' albums made the list but Wanderland did get close.

Zero 7 appears twice, although Another Late Night is a compilation mixed by them and is, easily, the best comp album I have in my collection. Zero 7 is maybe my favorite act of the 2000s.

"I love you, I love you, I love you , I do. I only make jokes to distract myself from the truth, from the truth." - Zero 7, Distractions

I'm in love with Hermione Granger.

There, I've said it.

"Forget about your worries/Forget about your bad times/Life is but a shadow" - Handsome Boy Modeling School, Sunshine (So, How's Your Girl...)

It's a harrowing dance the DJ has with his music. We imagine the good DJ is always in control and command of his partner, manipulating and moving the sounds to his whim. Watching Live! In Tune & On Time, however, you get the sense that even the most masterful of disc jockeys are on the brink of chaos. The beat drives and builds to a crescendo, ever faster and harder, the crowd reacts ever more strongly wanting only to grow as the music grows. The DJ must be in that moment while also being two steps ahead. He's in a race with the rhythm and he has to win.

In Tune & On Time was shot on October 19th, 2002 in Brighton (UK) about a month before I got to watch Shadow do his thing at the KCRW Sounds Eclectic Evening after-party. He was tight and focused that night spinning a lot of hip hop that didn't bear his name. Now I understand why. The nearly two hours that made up his tour sets consisted almost entirely of self-produced tracks--many off of his solo albums (Endtroducing, Pre--emptive Strike, The Private Press and the U.N.K.L.E. collabo) and the rest of the set filled with several of the pieces he had cut together for others like Handsome Boy Modeling School and Blackalicious. There are very few hip hop DJs that could spin 40 tracks of original instrumental music that they created and command the attention of thousands of people. Who knows what lurks in the hearts of sweaty, head nod maniacs? Only the Shadow knows.

Would you know Josh Davis if he walked past you on the street? Unassuming in his Quannum sweatshirt and jeans, hat cocked to the back, he walked down the aisle of the Cecci Gori Fine Arts Theatre right next to us. He was dressed the least hip in this very hipster crowd and initally I assumed he was just another early twenty something angling for a better seat to view what was sure to be musical majesty. He introduced the film, thanked everyone for coming, and walked back up the aisle as the lights dimmed.

He was no different on that Brighton stage and as he welcomed us to his show on screen we were transported to that night. "Love is the Answer," someone screamed from the right side of the theatre and we all relaxed into our chairs realizing this was more night at the club than night at the movies. Shadow's visual and audio performance didn't dissapoint. Using short films by Ben Stokes to complement his beats, the film merges the aural and the optical perfectly. We quickly found ourselves nodding our heads and raising our hands. We suppressed the urge to scream "Put Your Hands Down!" to the people on screen who for a moment might block our view of Shadow's stage. None of this could really prepare us for what it would be like to get an up close and personal view of him mastering the turntables.

I was mesmerized by the scratching that took place in Scratch: The Movie (particularly Q-Bert and Shadow's section of the film) but I hadn't seen anything like this before. No overdone grandstanding like you might see at a Turntablist contest, Shadow presents the most spectacular crab scratch you are like to ever see. It's brilliant. It will make you want to DJ yourself.

"Engage the moment!" the disembodied voice in the theatre screamed. Really, how could you not? This is the perfect party DVD. Even if you're playing other music, having it on screen and on repeat would be a wonderful touch. Especially if you want to impress hipster cats like me.

The DVD and accompanying CD hits stores June 15th.

On June 14th, DJ Shadow heads home to Mill Valley to spend the rest of the year working on his next record.

I'm not sure which piece of news you should be more excited about.