ROFLconnoisseurship, aka LOLology

Internet meme scholar and steward that I fancy myself, I regret I’ll have to miss this weekend’s promising ROFLcon here in Cambridge since I’m due in Iowa City at another conference (and, I’m afraid, one which will leave me rolling on the floor laughing not nearly as much). Wish I coulda joined Kevin to talk […]

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Nella Mia Lingua

Last week I gave a guest lecture in a “Global Pop” class at MIT. The professor, Patricia Tang, asked me to come in and do my thing where I show how various genres cohere depending on tempo and rhythmic pattern. It’s a shtick I’ve had going for years, using Ableton (or, previously, FruityLoops) to make […]

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Hip-hop Japanthropology & the End of the Jews

Recently I brought two authors to campus to share their work with my class — that’s the only connection between the two otherwise disparate topics in the title of this post. (Hope I didn’t alarm anyone by implying improbable causal relationships.) … 1. The “hip-hop Japanthropology” was c/o Ian Condry, a professor at MIT who […]

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Slackness Chat @ UPenn

Tomorrow I’m participating in a symposium convened by the Center for Africana Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. I’m humbled and excited to be a part of the conversation. Check the lineup — Thursday, March 27th 12noon – 2:00 pm Smut/Slackness in Caribbean Music Carolyn Cooper University of the West Indies Shannon Dudley University of […]

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linkthink #0735: Happy Easter Edition

Topical Ointment: WAR FEARY “…the juxtaposition of this [GW Bush action figure] kind of mimesis with Hamas children’s TV propaganda and its anti-semitism seemed an unconvincing ideological symmetry…” (tags: critique academic theory language mimesis war blogpost) Hakim Bey and Ontological Anarchy archive of bey’s writings (h/t katie h) (tags: theory philosophy culture politics art activism […]

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linkthink #5939: Nestle’s Crunk

Dr Pepper Sabrosura Radio Ad Dr. Pepper propels its latest campaign con cumbiaton! :: “Treat your taste buds to Dr Pepper while you indulge in our latest radio ad featuring the best Cumbia to a Reggaetón beat you´ve ever heard!” :: i think calle 13’s got em beat on that count, tho (tags: cumbia reggaeton […]

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linkthink #8340: Zuper Globalized!

Zizek brings to N.Y. its infectious Buenos Aires cumbia beats carolina gonzalez hypes the zzk tour’s NYC stop :: my favorite, perplexing bit — “You don’t hear this music mix anywhere in New York,” said Héctor Arce Espasa, 25, a visual arts student and Zizek fan. “It’s super globalized.” (tags: cumbia argentina buenosaires newyork latin […]

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YouTubology: Cansei de Ser Clueless

As I linkthinked yesterday, YouTube’s most viewed (all time) page is a hard to find but rather interesting thing. For one, nearly all the videos are musically-mediated in some way (aside from the laughing baby). Most of the videos are, disappointingly, commercial productions that you could as easily catch on MTVH1, though there are a […]

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linkthink #1924: Sonidero Hero

Under the Musical Spell of the Sonidero; Mexican D.J.’s Relay Messages, on Dance Floor and to the Homeland – New York Times on the NYC-mexico sonidero circuit — cumbia shoutouts as greeting cards ! (tags: nyt newyork mexico cumbia soundsystem sonidero transnationalism latinamerica) From VOICES: The Sonideros of Mexican Youth Dances abstract & photos of […]

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Conversación Cumbia2.0 Continúa

thx to all for the continuing cumbia convo, esp those who have left comments and/or sent emails (is it telling that not all can be aired here?) i guess this stuff cuts close to the bone, but that’s how we like it here at w&w — jugando con fuego desde 2003! & thx to KG […]

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Critical Distance, Por la Ventana?

¿Qué reflexiones? Tonight in San Fran, DJ /rupture — never one to let his critical eyelids slack — will be digging thru his kumbia krates alongside the Zizek gang. Yesterday, Carolina @ Sound Taste framed her excitement around the neo-cumbia thing (coming soon to NYC) by noting that her “critical distance has gone out the […]

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linkthink #9423: Off the Rock

The Wire’s War on the Drug War — TIME “If asked to serve on a jury deliberating a violation of state or federal drug laws, we will vote to acquit, regardless of the evidence presented. … No longer can we collaborate with a government that uses nonviolent drug offenses to fill prisons…” (tags: tv thewire […]

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linkthink #18t3965: Ninjabread Man Edition

Just to make things a little extra personalized in the age of linkthink, ‘low me to add, Sasha-style, a (generally) random photo for your imaginative conneckees — Sucker Free » Dr. Dre Drops A Mixtape vintage mid-80s dr.dre mixtape :: i could listen to these for days (tags: 80s hip-hop mixtape mp3s dre LA) Earplug […]

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linkthink #2356269

MySpace.com – Wally Badarou – FR – Other – www.myspace.com/wallybadarou parisian-beninian keyboardist who made some amazing worldy music with sly&robbie in the early 80s (see Funky Nassau comp); recorded some pretty out there multitracked solo synth stuff too (as collected here, in medley form) (tags: myspace worldmusic reggae musician paris benin africa) Harvard Proposal to […]

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linkthink #5647477

YouTube – RDC Mugen: Homer Simpson Vs. Predator Warrior bizarre mortal kombat-style face-off between homer and predator (tags: videogames predator thesimpsons humor youtube) WikipediaVision (beta) mashup tracking, in real time, anonymous edits to wikipedia via google maps (tags: mashup google web2.0 wikipedia visualization map webapp) Getting to roots of Mexican rock – CULTURE MIX – […]

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Globalistas e Baptistas

Not long ago, w/r/t global gobbledecrunk, I referred to an interview I gave recently to a Brazilian journalist. The journo in question is Camilo Rocha, who doubles as a DJ (& has a fab disco mix over @ Spannered). The piece was just published in Folha de Sao Paolo, apparently Brazil’s biggest newspaper. I don’t […]

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Music & the Art of Cartography

In that Empire, the Art of Cartography attained such Perfection that the map of a single Province occupied the entirety of a City, and the map of the Empire, the entirety of a Province. In time, those Unconscionable Maps no longer satisfied, and the Cartographers Guilds struck a Map of the Empire whose size was […]

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Deisy Beats

Tonight at the E Room :: Brandeis Beats ! As my blogger-DJ-applied side attests, I like to combine the hands-on production of music with an approach that grounds any such creative engagement in historical study and an appreciation for music’s social and cultural contexts. This semester, my first term at Brandeis University, has been no […]

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Just Call Me Mr. Meme Maker

when i say that ghislain poirier is one of my favorite global ghettotechies®, i think i mean that unsardonically, but i’m not sure where that leaves us ghislain’s music, however, usually leaves me grinning if not spinning keep it blazin, g —

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Book Review: Michael Veal’s Dub

As promised last week, what follows here is my review of Michael Veal’s recently published book on dub. It won’t appear in print for perhaps another year, which is a little silly and unfortunate, but that’s how it goes. I see no reason, at any rate, not to share it now that it’s written, especially […]

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