Saturday, February 21, 2004
Small weekend update: Site syndication is a go! (I think?) | New hip hop singles appraised
OK, for those of you who skim through hundreds of sites & blogs using newsreaders or aggregators, I am finally making your life a little easier as I have set up some sort of syndication on this site using Feedster and Blogstreet. I figured out how to do it after reading some suggestions that I got from the Comments Section on the Lynne D. Johnson site. Thanks to Lynne and Gwen for the link refs.
Now the only problem is that I don't know if they actually work or not since I don't use or have a news reader/aggregator and won't know unless those of you with these tools tell me. I'm especially worried about the BlogStreet feed because after I set it up, all I got was this message on the last page (reproduced following just in case link does not work):
Anyway on to some quick news & bits:
So unless there's some cataclysmic action in a state, circuit or even higher level court, it looks like the debate over whether gay marriages are legal or not is over before it really heats up as old boy in San Fran gets a pass from the courts to keep marrying same-sex couples. (New York Times)
Meanwhile Bush wiles out and flaunts good bipartsian politics again by bypassing Congress and appointing controversial Alabama Attorney General William Pryor to the the Atlanta-based 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals which covers Alabama, Georgia and Florida using his second "Recess Appointment" (after using a first to appoint Charles Pickering earlier this year). (Seattle Times) Of course, conservatives are happy. (RushLimbaugh.com)
Between this, the Patriot Act, Guantanamo Bay, the Florida 2000 election debacle and the SF gay marriage controversy, does it seem like rule of law is slowly losing its relevance in this country, or is this just business as usual and, now that I'm blogging and paying more attention to issues, I'm just noticing this stuff more?
So with all that's happening, who's optimistic for Iraq remaining as calm and stable as it is now (!), when news like this breaks: Iraq Elections May Be Over 15 Months Away (Washington Post). I'm sure Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani and the Shiite majority will take that one sitting down.
Not sure why, but here's how to barcode yourself? (via Mindspray)
Movieoke has arrived. (NEWS.com.au)
And on some non-hip hop ish:
OK, after kind of mocking them a little while back, I think I might actually be diggin those Franz Ferdinand cats. I just heard the "Matinee" joint off their album which I like (even though it sounds like "Have Nagila" [sp?] in parts). It's supposedly going to be the follow-up single to the excellent "Take Me Out". Any indie band messin' with disco and funk rhythms is gonna get checked for by the kid (who loves his disco-punk). Of course, I just missed their show in NYC last week which was also supposedly pretty good (not that I really had any ends for it, anyway). (mp3 courtesy: XFM UK)
And more disco-punk action for scenester victims like myself: "!!!, Out Hud Readying New Albums" according to a suddenly with-it Billboard.
But finally back to the real ish. I was spinning a little wax I had gotten from Def Jam recently (and not so recently) in the crib last night. While practicing my limited cutting and scratching skills (limited by my vanity in having bought the fancy silver Ortofon concorde catridges, which tend to skip a lot, instead of going with the standard, and supposedly better at tracking the vinyl but much plainer looking, Stanton hip hop jumpoffs), came up with a few thoughts on what I was playing:
- Young Gunz's "Friday Night", assisted by Just Blaze on the boards, from their new album is my new favorite party starter. (mp3 snippet courtesy: Hiphopsite.com)
- The A-side of the latest Ja Rule single, "Against Time" is more of what makes everyone hate him but, knuckle-headed title (and another Biggie/Bad Boy bite) aside, the B-sde "Ni**as & B**ches" is kind of hot. (mp3 snippets courtesy: Sandbox)
Falling into the "didn't like them when I first heard them, but sounded a whole lot better once I started cutting them up on the 1's and 2's" category were:
- Beezel feat. Bone Crusher & David Banner "See About Ya": another Southern crunk club anthem in the making. (sorry no mp3 linkage yet)
- First Draft "Too Many People in the Club": more of those St. Louis x-over party vibes. (again, sorry no mp3 linkage)
- And missed this one first time around, but "Now What" feat. T.I., the B-side of Juelz Santana's "Down" single, is crazy hot. Man, I'ma have to get T.I.'s album now because I pretty much like everything I've heard from son and the album did get good reviews too from what I remember. (mp3 snippets courtesy: Sandbox)
BTW, it's really amazing how much your local radio influences your perception of what's hot (or happening) or not in music. I've been a long-time booster of J-Kwon's "Tipsy" since well before the end of last year assuming it would be one of the first big records for 2004. After hearing it only sporadically on mixshows on Hot 97, I assumed I was just off my game and it wasn't to be. Last night though, my sister came in from some music industry party and passed me a copy of Billboard magazine's Airplay Monitor, a trade magazine that contains radio airplay charts with detailed info on the actual total spins records are getting at various formats. Turns out the J-Kwon is the number 3 most-played record with 6895 weekly spins on the "Rap Monitor" chart behind "Slow Jamz" and the new Chingy single.
So why did it seem like the record wasn't ringin' off in New York? Looking at the playlists for urban and "rhythmic top 40" (ie. pop stations that play hip hop) radio stations in the biggest markets around the country, "Tipsy" is a top 10 or 20 spun song on almost every station except in NYC where it's not on either Hot 97 or Power 105's playlists. I don't know if I should celebrate this as evidence of regional diversity still in play in an era of growing consolidation and homogenization in radio, or wilful ignorance and snobbery on the part of New York radio programmers. The music industry: I'll never understand it. (BTW: anyone curious as to how well their favorite current hip hop record is doing at radio, feel free to post comments and i'll look it up on the chart. Don't even bother asking about the new Aesop Rock or similar underground ish as it won't be on there. For those kinds of artists, you're gonna have to get directly at the Beatbox chart on CMJ. FYI: the #40 last track on the chart is "Here Comes Tecca Nine" by Tech N9ne [who he/they?] with 539 spins this week.)
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Now the only problem is that I don't know if they actually work or not since I don't use or have a news reader/aggregator and won't know unless those of you with these tools tell me. I'm especially worried about the BlogStreet feed because after I set it up, all I got was this message on the last page (reproduced following just in case link does not work):
The RSS feed for this blog has been successfully generated.So I wasn't sure whether, when I tried to actually add the script to my template, it was done right or not. I then basically flipped the script (hey!) they gave me from the Feedster site to create a link on my site for the Blogstreet feed. Anyway, I would definitely appreciate comments below if there are problems (with insights on how to fix them if need be), thanks. Man, blogger is so wack. The sooner I switch to typepad/movable type, the better, but I've been slackin' on getting the research done to move on this.
You can copy and add the feed URL to your RSS Aggregator.
Blog: Notes from a Different Kitchen
RSS Feed URL: http://feeds.blogstreet.com/42681.rss
Anyway on to some quick news & bits:
So unless there's some cataclysmic action in a state, circuit or even higher level court, it looks like the debate over whether gay marriages are legal or not is over before it really heats up as old boy in San Fran gets a pass from the courts to keep marrying same-sex couples. (New York Times)
Meanwhile Bush wiles out and flaunts good bipartsian politics again by bypassing Congress and appointing controversial Alabama Attorney General William Pryor to the the Atlanta-based 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals which covers Alabama, Georgia and Florida using his second "Recess Appointment" (after using a first to appoint Charles Pickering earlier this year). (Seattle Times) Of course, conservatives are happy. (RushLimbaugh.com)
Between this, the Patriot Act, Guantanamo Bay, the Florida 2000 election debacle and the SF gay marriage controversy, does it seem like rule of law is slowly losing its relevance in this country, or is this just business as usual and, now that I'm blogging and paying more attention to issues, I'm just noticing this stuff more?
So with all that's happening, who's optimistic for Iraq remaining as calm and stable as it is now (!), when news like this breaks: Iraq Elections May Be Over 15 Months Away (Washington Post). I'm sure Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani and the Shiite majority will take that one sitting down.
Not sure why, but here's how to barcode yourself? (via Mindspray)
Movieoke has arrived. (NEWS.com.au)
And on some non-hip hop ish:
OK, after kind of mocking them a little while back, I think I might actually be diggin those Franz Ferdinand cats. I just heard the "Matinee" joint off their album which I like (even though it sounds like "Have Nagila" [sp?] in parts). It's supposedly going to be the follow-up single to the excellent "Take Me Out". Any indie band messin' with disco and funk rhythms is gonna get checked for by the kid (who loves his disco-punk). Of course, I just missed their show in NYC last week which was also supposedly pretty good (not that I really had any ends for it, anyway). (mp3 courtesy: XFM UK)
And more disco-punk action for scenester victims like myself: "!!!, Out Hud Readying New Albums" according to a suddenly with-it Billboard.
But finally back to the real ish. I was spinning a little wax I had gotten from Def Jam recently (and not so recently) in the crib last night. While practicing my limited cutting and scratching skills (limited by my vanity in having bought the fancy silver Ortofon concorde catridges, which tend to skip a lot, instead of going with the standard, and supposedly better at tracking the vinyl but much plainer looking, Stanton hip hop jumpoffs), came up with a few thoughts on what I was playing:
- Young Gunz's "Friday Night", assisted by Just Blaze on the boards, from their new album is my new favorite party starter. (mp3 snippet courtesy: Hiphopsite.com)
- The A-side of the latest Ja Rule single, "Against Time" is more of what makes everyone hate him but, knuckle-headed title (and another Biggie/Bad Boy bite) aside, the B-sde "Ni**as & B**ches" is kind of hot. (mp3 snippets courtesy: Sandbox)
Falling into the "didn't like them when I first heard them, but sounded a whole lot better once I started cutting them up on the 1's and 2's" category were:
- Beezel feat. Bone Crusher & David Banner "See About Ya": another Southern crunk club anthem in the making. (sorry no mp3 linkage yet)
- First Draft "Too Many People in the Club": more of those St. Louis x-over party vibes. (again, sorry no mp3 linkage)
- And missed this one first time around, but "Now What" feat. T.I., the B-side of Juelz Santana's "Down" single, is crazy hot. Man, I'ma have to get T.I.'s album now because I pretty much like everything I've heard from son and the album did get good reviews too from what I remember. (mp3 snippets courtesy: Sandbox)
BTW, it's really amazing how much your local radio influences your perception of what's hot (or happening) or not in music. I've been a long-time booster of J-Kwon's "Tipsy" since well before the end of last year assuming it would be one of the first big records for 2004. After hearing it only sporadically on mixshows on Hot 97, I assumed I was just off my game and it wasn't to be. Last night though, my sister came in from some music industry party and passed me a copy of Billboard magazine's Airplay Monitor, a trade magazine that contains radio airplay charts with detailed info on the actual total spins records are getting at various formats. Turns out the J-Kwon is the number 3 most-played record with 6895 weekly spins on the "Rap Monitor" chart behind "Slow Jamz" and the new Chingy single.
So why did it seem like the record wasn't ringin' off in New York? Looking at the playlists for urban and "rhythmic top 40" (ie. pop stations that play hip hop) radio stations in the biggest markets around the country, "Tipsy" is a top 10 or 20 spun song on almost every station except in NYC where it's not on either Hot 97 or Power 105's playlists. I don't know if I should celebrate this as evidence of regional diversity still in play in an era of growing consolidation and homogenization in radio, or wilful ignorance and snobbery on the part of New York radio programmers. The music industry: I'll never understand it. (BTW: anyone curious as to how well their favorite current hip hop record is doing at radio, feel free to post comments and i'll look it up on the chart. Don't even bother asking about the new Aesop Rock or similar underground ish as it won't be on there. For those kinds of artists, you're gonna have to get directly at the Beatbox chart on CMJ. FYI: the #40 last track on the chart is "Here Comes Tecca Nine" by Tech N9ne [who he/they?] with 539 spins this week.)
