Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Lil Wayne- NYT Review

I love clever reviews of disappointing albums.  Here is a excerpt of John Caramanica's ...review of Lil Wayne most recent album. 
He’s a punch-line rapper who rarely thinks about his lines beyond the rhyming couplet. Coherent verses are a rarity, coherent songs even more so. And his choice of words often feels arbitrary; he’s not obsessed with picking the right ones or the most important ones or the most revealing ones... 
In recent years, but especially on this album, he’s become the least quotable great rapper, with lines that land harder more because of his voice than because of his wit, which was once prodigious. Because Lil Wayne has been so sharp, so dexterous in the past, it’s tempting (and ultimately necessary) to overanalyze him. But even on this album’s weak tracks, and there are several, he remains a commanding presence, deploying just enough of his insistent croak to tether the song together. He doesn’t bother appearing on two of the best tracks on the album, “Interlude” and “Outro,” which are instead full of eager guests.

Friday, August 26, 2011

Bohemian Rhapsody on Uke from TED Conference

When I see this performance I think of this quote from my favorite author Joseph Campbell:
People say that what we're seeking is a meaning for life.
I don't think that's what we're really seeking.
I think that what we're seeking is an experience of being alive,
so that we actually feel the rapture of being alive.

Haunting Description of Libya

From a dispatch by Alex Thompson
Piles of surgical dressings, bloody sheets and half-empty blood bags were all around us, oozing fluids onto the ground. ... Inside, it is not a hospital but a mortuary – or something for which there is no word. Stretchers and beds are stained with fluids and blood, some still dripping on the floor. In one room a picture of Colonel Gaddafi smiles down on at least 23 more corpses shoved onto trolleys at all angles. There is no language for the stench. You fear even to breathe in here.
Link found @ Daily Dish