lay.over

Image: Saul Steinberg

halfway between mardi gras and home, my flight got canceled. i write this from the giantest, fluffiest bed in memphis, tennessee, where i've already gorged on unlimited wi-fi and peed in their pool. twice. breakfast this morning is cold pizza because apparently nobody does continental breakfast anymore? also availed myself of a few piping hot showers, wherein i managed to scrub most of the grime of last week off my skin. t-shirt still smells like wet cigarette, though, and sweat and leftover glitter. you're welcome, future seat partner.

most of mardi gras was spent dancing to/marching with/screaming at the what cheer? brigade from providence, ri. similar to this, actually, but with 100% less sage francis.

what I missed on the internet while i was gone: the making of Pharcyde's 'Drop' (you know: that Spike Jonze joint with all the backwards?). Here we learn a) there are cool jobs for linguists (DUH.NO.DUH), b) there are cool jobs for linguists in hip hop, and c) goddammit Pharcyde what happened to our love? Seriously, was it something I said? I want you back! I'll do whatever it takes.

Biggie's last interview with the Source magazine, re-run.

You know how most articles about 'what teh innarnets is doing to our brainz' either focus on how it's ruining us or how it's turning us into uber-menschen? And how both takes are overly-facile, limited readings of a pretty complex, incompletely-understood process? This guy gets it closer to right. I especially enjoyed thinking about how our transition to online memory storage is similar to what happened when we first started inscribing things in books.

The Roots' Picnic drool-worthy lineup. June 4. Who's with me?

Currently digging Aleon Craft, dude doing future-hop out of Georgia. Sounds like he's circling the planet in a spaceship from Saturn, transmitting bizarre beats and made-you-blink lyrics directly to your brain.

"We think of artistic processes as male sexual processes. You ejaculate on the canvas (Jackson Pollack to Dash Snow). You write a book and then you bind and print it, the end. And then if you want to write another book the whole process starts over again from the beginning. But what if art is a female sexual process? If there is no refractory period? What if orgasm just leads to more orgasm? More spending? More paintings, more poems, more posts on a website? Every day there is five dollars and a sunset." ---Please start reading This Recording. You won't regret it.

.....aaaaannnd if you're in Chicago this Sunday, check out my friend Becket's show. i'll be there. so will becket. 'nuff said.