Song of the Week – “Paper Planes” by M.I.A.

British (by way of Sri Lanka) hip hop artist M.I.A. rhymes over a beat flipped by DJ Diplo from The Clash’s Straight to Hell to create Paper Planes. Straight to Hell is a classic riff and M.I.A’s Caribbean feel gels nicely with Strummer and Jones’s groove. 

Also check Diplo’s treatment of Marlena Shaw’s fantastic California Soul.

Crimes and Misdemeanors: A Slate Guide to the Bush White House

Are you like me and can’t keep track of which Bush Administration official is responsible for which crime? Slate is here to help with Crimes and Misdemeanors, their beautifuly organized interactive diagram documenting who is implicated in each major scandal. Each ellipse represents a scandal and each name reveals a dossier.

Or, if you’re busy, Slate suggests:

And if all else fails, fall back on this golden rule of wrongdoing in the White House: All roads lead to Gonzales.

Obama Quest

All week long we’ve been following ‘Barry Magicseed’s Summer Abroad’.

That’s how Jon Stewart introduced a brilliant Daily Show Thursday night, which was followed by a hilarious mashup of our heroic Senator slaying seven-headed dragons and a cyclops from that old-school Sinbad movie that used to constantly play on UHF TV.

In Part 2, CNN’s Wolf Blitzer asks, “Is the mainstream media in love with Barack Obama?” Stewart answers that question more effectively, and more humorously, than the videos attempted by the McCain campaign.

I post this today because this is one of the funniest Daily Shows I’ve seen in a while I think there’s a laugh in there for everyone, even Republicans.

It’s worth just watching the Sinbad intro and the first 1:20 of jokes. Perhaps the GOP should just pay liberal comedians a boatload of cash to write humorous material attacking the left, since it’s obvious that no one satirizes the left better than the left?

(Stupid WordPress doesn’t allow Daily Show embeds, so you’ll just have to follow the links)

[ Part 1 ] [ Part 2 ]

The third segment with Senior Black Correspondent Larry Wilmore was funny as well.

My Birthday Cake

Idea courtesy of my sister and cake courtesey of my brother's girlfriend.

The Wire: The Greatest Television

[This endorsement of HBO's "The Wire" is taken from an email I sent my friend in March. This is essentially a first draft, so expect it to be loose and informal and not representative of solid writing.]

I just finished the 5th and final season – it has has been the most satisfying thing I’ve ever watched.  I’d commend this series more fervently then any crime flick, Scorsese included. And rest assured, this is the only television drama I’d ever urge you to consider.

WHAT’S IT ABOUT?

The show is about Baltimore, a bleak, largely African American, impoverished rust belt city ravaged by drugs and failed institutions.  You’ll hear “The Wire” described as a crime drama, but creator David Simon says it’s “really about the American city, and about how we live together. It’s about how institutions have an effect on individuals, and how…whether you’re a cop, a longshoreman, a drug dealer, a politician, a judge [or] lawyer, you are ultimately compromised and must contend with whatever institution you’ve committed to.”

Season 1 is introduces the audience to two institutions – The Baltimore Police Department and the Barksdale Drug Syndicate.  The show is a serial, and the season 1 arc presents the investigation of the Barksdale organization by a cop who games the system to coerce his department to support an investigation that higher-ups want to ignore.