Sad news for anyone who considered themselves part or fan of the countercultural music and art scene of the late 80s and beyond. Yesterday, landmark multimedia artist Mike Kelley was found dead at 57 of an apparent suicide. Though his work – whether it be in music, sculpture, film, installation, or more – often incorporated themes of loneliness and confliction with modern (especially domestic) life, it remains shocking and very sad to see him gone so soon.
Starting out as a member of the noise rock band/art collective Destroy All Monsters, Kelley parlayed his talent into a long and very fruitful career, emerging as one of the most distinctive and respected voices of his artistic generation. His most famous or recognizable creation may still be the dolls that graced the cover and liner notes of Sonic Youth’s 1992 album Dirty. He leaves behind a large hole in the fabric of the contemporary art scene. Total bummer.
Hate to say I told you so, but earlier today filesharing services Filesonic as well as Uploaded.to have gone offline*, though to be fair it didn’t go down quite the way I expected. In fact, the reality of what happened might be even more discouraging. Either based on a snap judgement of the situation at hand, or more likely working off of tips or rumors related to the Feds’ next move, both of these sites shut themselves down of their own volition, presumably to avoid prosecution.
Not only is this a sign of an incredibly hostile litigative environment, but also a reticence on the part of the people behind these sites to stand up to this bullying. It also looks like a tacit admission of guilt on their part, all things which are exactly what we as Americans should not want. These file sharing websites should not be prosecuted not because we just don’t want them to go away, but because they are not breaking the law. If this trend continues, the Government won’t even have to expend the effort and money to legally pursue all of these sites. Let’s hope no one else follows suit.
*Neither site has technically shutdown but done the following: Filesonic no longer allows sharing of any files uploaded to the site. Access to files is now limited to only those who originally uploaded a file making the service useless. Upload.to has merely blocked all U.S. IP addresses from accessing the site.
So much for the blackout. Yesterday, the US Federal Government unsealed a massive indictment of numerous people and properties involved with file sharing hub Megaupload. All in all it seems 7 people were arrested, as well as 2-3 more still being on the lam, and large amounts of property and non-liquid assets were seized or frozen. At the center of it all is Kim Dotcom, aka Kim Schmitz, founder and head of MegaUpload, who was arrested in his mansion in New Zealand after sealing himself in a panic room with a sawed off shotgun. Police also seized Dotcom’s numerous classic cars, including a Benz with the license plate “GUILTY.”
Though the timing vis a vis the widespread content blackout in protest of SOPA/PIPA legislation is certainly suspect, the fact is that (without that legislation in place) the Feds would’ve had to have been working on this for a very long time, and likely would have executed these warrants sometime in the next 2 weeks anyway. That being said, as far as specific date choice, I doubt this was a coincidence. But wait, there’s more bad news. Now that we know the feds have been investigating MegaUpload (a site that, by the way, is responsible for 4% of the internets collective traffic) it can be surmised that they’re probably deep into building cases against other properties such as MediaFire and Rapidshare.
Kim “Dotcom” Schmitz
I wouldn’t be in the least bit surprised to see those sites go down in the coming month. After all, there’s no way that they’ve been avoiding the activities that got Megaupload busted. Basically the charges stem from supposed “evidence” that Megaupload was actively ignoring or impeding the reporting and removal of pirated content. Megaupload is perfectly allowed to host user-uploaded pirated content as long as that behavior is in no way encouraged, and if copyrighted content is reported or flagged it must be taken down immediately.
With the mind-bogglingly large amount of data that Megaupload hosts, moderation of that kind is monumentally difficult at best, and odds are they weren’t that interested in doing it anyway. Unfortunately, with a figure as ridiculous and conceited as Kim Dotcom at the head, and likely many similar personalities filling the upper echelons of Megaupload, they probably openly bragged about supporting piracy, and it was probably recorded by the government.
Schmitz in happier, more incriminating times
I’ve already heard that they have IM’s between Dotcom and another unnamed party where he talks about being a “modern day pirate.” That’s the type of shit that’s going to hurt. The weirdest thing though is how little this seems like a criminal case. The Feds keep referencing the potential amounts that Megaupload have deprived the entertainment industry of (apparently somewhere in the $500 million range, which seems more or less arbitrary to me). Because proof of each of those frauds is practically impossible to produce, this sounds to me like a civil suit or class action suit being carried out as a criminal case by the Federal Government.
Let me rephrase that: this sounds like the Feds working as entertainment corporation’s personal legal team. Uh-oh. The internet is none too happy about this, and Anonymous has predictably responded, DDOS’ing the DoJ website, the RIAA, Universal Music Group, and the MPAA. In the end, however, actions like that are minor annoyances (unless 4chan et al really decides to make their stand here, which I don’t think they will) and the real battle will be waged in the courts. Megaupload is a massive company that is incredibly profitable, so you’d best believe their legal team is rock solid. Make no mistake, this battle is just beginning. But nonetheless, it feels like the end of something. Later Megaupload. You were cool.
Though it in itself is often the epitome of a community effort, no aspect of the Star Wars saga was more of a group project than the hulking, wheezing, eternally memorable villain to-end-all villains, Darth Vader. Twas not just one man behind that mask, as I’m sure you know. Whelp, one of the men behind the Sith Lord has passed away.
Bob Anderson, lightsaber fight choreographer for the films, passed away yesterday. Anderson, who was unable to get the massive David Prowse (the man in the suit for most of the films. James Earl Jones’ voice, of course, was only added in in post-production) to do a lot of the fencing maneuvers. So, for the unforgettable duel between Luke and Darth at then end of Empire (among other scenes) that’s Bob Anderson in the black robes wielding the blood red saber. RIP dude, hope you’re hanging with Obi-Wan and Yoda somewhere.
Blake Anderson, AKA the dude with the swaggery hair from Comedy Central‘s fantastic show Workaholics, has been a Мишка buddy for a minute now. Unfortunately, he was injured in the line of duty recently while trying valiantly to bring the internet laffz.
As you can see from the video, Blake was just trying to make a funny video by jumping off a roof at a party onto a beer pong table. Also Tyler was there. Fully acceptable decision. But, unfortunately, not all lolzy videos have lolzy endings, and Blake actually broke his back. Being a resilient gentleman, he’s already undergone surgery and should be back in action soon. Get better dude!
Last night while we were out having dinner or just getting started on our Friday nights, Hip Hop lost a great rapper who barely got a chance to shine. When I first heard about the death of Brick Squad member and Waka Flocka Flame’s best friend Slim Dunkin (born Mario Hamilton) I expected it was another celebrity death hoax making the rounds on twitter. Unfortinatley, it turns out it’s not and that’s a TOTAL bummer.
Friday night Dunkin was shot and killed while on his way to a photoshoot in Atlanta. He was just starting to come into his own as an artist making this extra sad. Dunkin’s intense rapping and sometimes playful sense of humor — he has some great lines — made him my favorite Brick Squad artist second to Flocka. He and Waka Flocka made a great team and their collaborative Twin Towers 2 (No Fly Zone)mixtape (from this summer) was quite dope. Dunkin’ is believed to have been somewhere in his very early 20s at the time of death.
Up above is Slim Dunkin’s video for “Blindside” off Twin Towers 2. It’s my favorite Slim Dunkin song and one of the few he’s solo on. This past Halloween Dunkin dropped also dropped his first mixtape, Menace II Society which featured Waka, Gucci Mane, Pastor Troy and Roscoe Dash; he also had two guest spots on the just released BAYTL album from Gucci & V-Nasty. Really, really sad news.
With Christopher Hitchens’ death yesterday from complications brought on by esophageal cancer, the world lost a great intellect and an even better wit. The Vanity Fair writer and inspired polemic was brashly controversial but always genuine, even when using his considerable grasp of rhetoric to handily eviscerate those he was less than enamored with. Certainly the most widely read staunch advocate for socialism in the United States, Hitchens’ perspective is one that will be missed.
Though he alienated many of his followers after adopting a particularly conservative streak post 9/11, he never seemed like anything less than a very intelligent man who was desperately passionate about what he believed in. A unabashed advocate of boozing and cigarettes, Hitchens’ was one of the last of the fun, magnetic journalists, a figure who’s existence inspired as much debate as his words.
A dude in a popular death metal band (which I won’t name) once told me that the only people who think Pantera is better than Slayer are from Florida. I’m from Miami Beach and drove hundreds of miles, skipped days of school, and creeped out so many Jr. High girls because of this band.
Today marks the 7th year anniversary of their guitar player’s murder. It’s an eternal bummer for me.
I was in seventh grade when the video for “Walk” premiered on Headbangers Ball. No spandex, no Van-Damme kicks, no make-up, just good ol’ boys in shorts playing that riff. That RIFF. THAT RIFF.
Game over, I was 12.
Mouth for War? Phil wrote that riff. New Level? Phil wrote that riff too. Walk? Yup, Phil. No one played it like Diamond Dimebag though. I’m not riding his decomposed jock here. Metal guitar players still can’t top this guy.
Who’s better??? Eddie Van Halen doesn’t count. Squealing out of this Dean ML. How the hell? The sickest. The illest.
@3:08
And dead. Has been for 7 years today. Some fuckface murderized him. Fuck that fuckface. Fuck his corpse. Fuck his Mom. There are people who I’ve met that hate metal. Thinks it sucks, hates it. But they love Pantera.
Black Tooth Grins for errbody. Here, here. To Dimebag Darrell. Amazingness.
Don’t you hate when this happens? One minute you’re living your life, thinking logically, and the next, Drizzy drops a new album and you totally lose control and get his name tattooed on your forehead. Same thing happened to my brother when he dropped Thank Me Later. Now he’s got the words “Thank Me Later” real big across my chest (“So Far Gone” is on his lower back). Clearly this woman is a huge Drake fan. Clearly she also does not hope to attain any sort of respect or dignity for the remainder of her life. Imagine if your mother had Drake’s name tattooed on her head. Boy howdy.
And before you get to doubting the authenticity of this, tattoo artist Luke Wessmanconfirmed that it’s real, and who’s more trustworthy than Luke Wessman? That’s right: presumably many people.
This reminds me of something I’ve always pondered. Imagine if you had a child (for the sake of simplicity, let’s presume it’s a boy), and when he was still an infant you tattooed an eye on the back of his head, and then as he grew older, and his hair grew in, the eye got covered up, until finally it was no longer visible. Now imagine if you never told this son of yours about his tattoo. He would go his whole childhood and young adulthood with no knowledge of his marking, until finally, when he became a badass at nineteen, he shaved his head and discovered the eye. How cool would that be? It would be so cool. He would probably think he were the messiah, or something. The only flaw in the plan, and really, the only thing keeping me from going ahead with this plan, is that newborn’s heads are too soft to tattoo. It’s a real shame.
Oh, how does that twisted fantasy remind me of this woman? Both tattoos are horrible ideas. Take care.
(Afterthought: I bet she’s related to Gucci Mane.)
The Grammysdon’t mean anything. It would be nice if they did, they’re supposed to be the most prestigious honor that a musician can be awarded, but they’re not. The Album Of The Year award, for example, should be given to the best album released that year, as the name suggests. This year, the nominees in that category are Adele,The Foo Fighters, Rihanna, Bruno Mars, and Lady Gaga. Three of those names are unlike the others. Rihanna: Oh, so a compilation counts as an album? In absolutely no way was Loud a cohesive body of work, otherwise known as an album. It was simply a collection of singles. Gaga’s album wasn’t as good as her first, and Bruno Mars is an adequate songwriter, but this is all inconsequential (I haven’t listened to the Foo Fighter’s new album so I’ll leave it out of this discussion (it’ll be irrelevant momentarily anyway)). One name is prominently absent from this list: Kanye West.
My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy was one of the highest rated albums of all time, receiving five stars from Rolling Stone, a ten out of ten from Pitchfork, and an average score of ninety-four (based on forty-three reviews) on Metacritic. Those numbers are meant as a preface to my next claim that: this was one of the greatest albums of all time. It was a shoo-in for Album Of The Year, I thought, being significantly greater, not only than any other rap album from 2011, but than any album released period. Over the last year I discussed with friends how great it will be to see West accept the award for Album Of The Year, the true point of redemption for his manic public image, and a deserved honor for his magnum opus. Sometimes we would joke about the idea of him losing. It was a good joke. But never once did we consider that he would not even be nominated.
It has long been known that The Grammys are political, but now it is clear that they are only political. In denying MBDTF, a perfectly rated, written, and sequenced album, The Grammys deny having any interest in honoring music based on music. Is Rihanna’s Loud a bad collection of songs? No, some of those are really catchy, but was it the greatest work of music released in 2011? Come on. It wasn’t even kind of the greatest album released last year. But that is the recognition that it very well could receive, because it sold well, charted well, and produced hits. Also, The Grammys would presumably like Rihanna to perform, and what better way to book that than throwing her an AOTY nomination.
With award shows annually losing viewers, The Grammys want ratings, but wholesome ratings. They want minivan-friendly Bruno Mars publicity, not monstrous Kanye West. Additionally, it’s known that Kanye is disliked by the Grammy committee for his outspoken, arrogant qualities. Three of his five classic albums have been nominated for AOTY, but never has he taken home the award. And regardless of whether or not each of his previous studio albums deserved Album Of The Year, in the case of MBDTF it’s clearly not a question of the music. And the committee is not going to pretend that it is; they’re not going to throw Kanye a nomination and then give the album to Gaga, or Bruno Mars. To have Dark Fantasy seemingly lose in a competition of quality against any of the albums that are nominated would be just as unfathomable as it not qualifying. The only legitimate, credible option for the Grammys here was to give Kanye Album Of The Year, and if they’re not going to, then I’d rather he not be nominated than for them to pretend that Dark Fantasy was in any way inferior to another album from 2011.
This goes beyond just snubbing Kanye. The Grammy committee simply does not know what to do with hip hop. It receives recognition as a musical genre, but is largely quarantined into its own couple of award categories. Seldom does a hip hop album manage to cross over and receive recognition as a contender for Album Of The Year, and when it does, only twice (Lauryn Hill‘s The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill and Outkast‘s Speakerboxxx/The Love Below) has a rap album won. Though hip hop has arguably been the mainstay of American popular and youth music for the last ten, if not twenty years, it has to work substantially harder as a genre to receive recognition.
The Grammy committee doesn’t know how to gauge the quality of a rap album. It goes beyond them not associating with the subject matter, as plenty of hip hop fans do not have personal experience with the subject matter concerning rap, and is more that they cannot compare it to other forms of music. Few hip hop albums are considered for album of the year because the committee doesn’t know how to equate a rap song to a pop song. And in some ways it is a difficult task, with a rap having more lyrics and traditionally less melody, but they must be compared if The Grammys expect to have an award ceremony that properly reflects the state of American music (which, it appears that they do not).
Is it an issue of race? Maybe, if only indirectly. Eminem was nominated for AOTY last year despite Recovery being underwhelming for both a hip hop album and an Eminem album. Though I don’t attribute this to Eminem being white. Recovery sold incredibly well (5.7 million copies as of this writing) and spawned two number one records on the Billboard Hot 100. So while it was not a great hip hop album, it was well received by the masses, which is what The Grammys are all about. Race factors in contingently by the committee being generationally disconnected from hip hop. The people deciding the greatest album of a given year, an emblem of our culture, do not reflect the majority of listeners culturally or generationally, nor do they seem to understand the music of this time. Rap music is youth music, and to have the judges of our culture be less than youthful results in a lack of comprehension, an in turn skewed accolades.
Recently, while performing in Chicago, Kanye addressed his Grammy snub, saying, “I figured out though, that’s my fault for dropping Watch The Throne and Dark Fantasy in the same year.” The back-to-back releases indeed might have divided voters and unintentionally hurt Dark Fantasy’s chance of being nominated, but it’s not just a matter of technicality. This snub is a personal snub, a biased snub, and a cultural snub. As both a hip hop head and a Kanye fan I am of course biased, but when it comes to the rest of the nominees no album even comes close to Dark Fantasy except Adele’s 21. Even then, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy is a musical masterpiece. Show some respect.
