Archive for April, 2011
MUSIC: New Yitty ft Sean Price – Bar-Barian (VIDEO)
Apr 30th
Dope. New Yitty Hooks Up With Fellow Brooklyn Native Sean Price & Canadian Producers ILLATRACKS For The Official Street Single, “Bar-Barian”, Off The Upcoming Album N.Y.S.O.M.!
ART: Arabic Calligraffiti: How Calligraphy Found Its Way Into Urban Arts
Apr 27th
Dope post over on PSFK about Arabic Graffiti by From Here to Fame Publishing that examines the influence of Arabic calligraphy on urban street art in the Middle East, and its spread to urban art circles in Europe and Canada. Great imagery that encompasses everything from the freight trucks of Lebanon to village alleyways in Bahrain to the bullet-riddled walls of Palestine and more:
Recent developments in the Middle East have given its “creative class” an unprecedented level of freedom to tag, draw, subvert, and write in public spaces. One consequence of this is that deep-rooted fields, namely calligraphy, are experiencing a phase of intense re-purposing.
Attention was called to the connection between calligraphy and graffiti in 2007 with street art veteran Shoe (aka Niels Shoe Meulman). This international movement, referred to as Calligraffiti is defined by Shoe as “traditional handwriting with a metropolitan attitude”. What makes Shoe’s thinking especially potent is that it frames the tradition of calligraphy as a way to break away from graffiti’s conventions. A good analogy would be to think of how incorporating ballet can enrich a breakdancer’s visual power:
“Whether it be Japanese ancient brush characters, Arabic pictorial scripts, illuminated mediaeval books or swirly quill writing… [it's] all calligraphy… The fairly new art of Graffiti and its somewhat rigid rules prompt us to look further back into the history of writing.”
A recently published book titled Arabic Graffiti by From Here to Fame Publishing documents street art from “freight trucks of Lebanon, along village alleyways in Bahrain, on the bullet-riddled walls of Palestine, or adorning the walls of Western metropolises and designer bags.” It showcases a spread of Arabic calligraphy from the Middle East to urban art niches in Iran, France, the UK, Germany, and Canada.
Arabic Graffiti is authored and curated by typographer Pascal Zoghbi that leverages the insights of experts such as Huda Smitshuijzen AbiFarès (Founder of Khat), Rana Jarbou, Tala F. Saleh, anthropologist Houda Kassatly, and William Parry (author of Banksy’s Against the Wall) whom come together to “explore the traditional elements, modern approaches, and the socio-political and cultural backgrounds.”
LIFE: Creative Control Presents: Welcome Prodigy (Video)
Apr 21st
From Creative Control: Coodie travels with Lord Nez to Queens, NY to visit Prodigy. Appearances by Tony Yayo. Clip accompanied by snippets from The Ellsworth Bumpy Johnson, EP. free download here.
WELCOME from Creative Control on Vimeo.
LIFE: Tupac: Uncensored & Uncut, The Lost Prison Tapes (Video)
Apr 21st
Tupac: Uncensored and Uncut features footage taken in 1995 while Tupac was serving time at Clinton Correctional Facility in New York. Less than two years later he would leave this earth. A rare look at a dynamic, spirited individual often misrepresented by the media. Rest in peace Tupac Amaru Shakur.
MUSIC: Curren$y and The Alchemist – Covert Coup (FREE EP)
Apr 20th
It has finally arrived. Curren$y’s Covert Coup project, produced entirely by The Alchemist. Features include Prodigy, Freddie Gibbs and more. Enjoy jets.
MUSIC: 80 Blocks From Tiffany’s (Camp Lo & Pete Rock) – Mic Check (Video)
Apr 20th
First single off the upcoming Camp Lo and Pete Rock LP.
LIFE: 9 Things The Rich Don’t Want You To Know About Taxes
Apr 14th
Willamette Week has a great write up from David Cay Johnston, a columnist for tax.com and teacher at Syracuse University College of Law and Whitman School of Management, on the 9 things the most privileged in this country don’t want us to know about the U.S. tax system. There are some pretty shocking, but unsurprising statistics. The full article can be accessed here. Read up and spread the word – no one is going to change things for us.
For three decades we have conducted a massive economic experiment, testing a theory known as supply-side economics. The theory goes like this: Lower tax rates will encourage more investment, which in turn will mean more jobs and greater prosperity—so much so that tax revenues will go up, despite lower rates. The late Milton Friedman, the libertarian economist who wanted to shut down public parks because he considered them socialism, promoted this strategy. Ronald Reagan embraced Friedman’s ideas and made them into policy when he was elected president in 1980.
For the past decade, we have doubled down on this theory of supply-side economics with the tax cuts sponsored by President George W. Bush in 2001 and 2003, which President Obama has agreed to continue for two years.
You would think that whether this grand experiment worked would be settled after three decades. You would think the practitioners of the dismal science of economics would look at their demand curves and the data on incomes and taxes and pronounce a verdict, the way Galileo and Copernicus did when they showed that geocentrism was a fantasy because Earth revolves around the sun (known as heliocentrism). But economics is not like that. It is not like physics with its laws and arithmetic with its absolute values.
Tax policy is something the framers left to politics. And in politics, the facts often matter less than who has the biggest bullhorn.
The Mad Men who once ran campaigns featuring doctors extolling the health benefits of smoking are now busy marketing the dogma that tax cuts mean broad prosperity, no matter what the facts show.
As millions of Americans prepare to file their annual taxes, they do so in an environment of media-perpetuated tax myths. Here are a few points about taxes and the economy that you may not know, to consider as you prepare to file your taxes. (All figures are inflation-adjusted.)
MUSIC: Styles P – It’s Over (video)
Apr 14th
New video to “It’s Over” off of The Ghost’s 2010 tape “The Ghost Dub Dime.” Dope video, and if you are in NYC make sure to stop by Styles’ new juice bar – Juices for Life. Mind over matter! Stay healthy!
Juices for Life
MUSIC: Apollo The Great – Destiny (Video)
Apr 8th
Thorobredfilmz presents the visuals for Apollo the Great’s “Destiny” (prod. The Incredible Stro). Off the upcoming Apollo 21 with DJ Omega.
ART: Lighter On London :: Laser Murals
Apr 8th
Lighter On London :: Laser Murals from greentomatocars on Vimeo.
Very cool. This film was shot over two nights in and around Battersea power station in November 2010 by Dentsu London, on a Canon 5D Mark II. You can read more about it here on their blog bit.ly/laser_murals_gtc
LIFE: Tax the Super Rich Now or Face a Revolution
Apr 8th
With everything going on domestically and internationally, talks of a U.S. revolution are starting to surface. Paul Farrell with Market Watch had an interesting piece on how the delusions of the super rich will force the masses to rise up. People are foolish to think money will protect them, and that the U.S. is beyond its own class uprisings. America is a class based society and the so-called “dream” has become a nightmare for the working class who has been systematically saddled with debt.
Get your pitch forks ready.
Tax the Super Rich now or face a revolution
Commentary: A ‘Super-Rich Delusion’ is leading us to ruin
By Paul B. Farrell, MarketWatch
SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. (MarketWatch) — Yes, tax the Super Rich. Tax them now. Before the other 99% rise up, trigger a new American Revolution, a meltdown and the Great Depression 2.
Revolutions build over long periods — to critical mass, a flash point. Then they ignite suddenly, unpredictably. Like Egypt, started on a young Google executive’s Facebook page. Then it goes viral, raging uncontrollably. Can’t be stopped. Here in America the set-up is our nation’s pervasive “Super-Rich Delusion.”
We know the Super Rich don’t care. Not about you. Nor the American public. They can’t see. Can’t hear. Stay trapped in their Forbes-400 bubble. An echo chamber that isolates them. They see the public as faceless workers, customers, taxpayers. See GOP power on the ascent. Reaganomics is back. Unions on the run. Clueless masses are easily manipulated.
Even Obama is secretly working with the GOP, will never touch his Super Rich donors. Yes, the Super-Rich Delusion is that powerful, infecting all America.
Here’s how one savvy insider who knows described this Super-Rich Delusion: “The top 1% live privileged lives, aren’t worried about much. Families vacation at the best resorts. Their big concerns are finding the best Pilates teacher, best masseuse, best surgeons, best private schools. They aren’t concerned with the underlying deterioration of America or the world, except in the abstract, because they aren’t directly affected by it. That’s not to say they aren’t sympathetic, aware, or don’t talk about the issues you bring up. They are largely concerned with protecting and enhancing their socio-economic positions, ensuring their families live well. And nothing you write about will change things.”
Warning, in 2011 that attitude is delusional, deadly, yet pervasive in America.
More at MarketWatch
LIFE: JP Morgan Profits From Food Stamp Processing Business
Apr 7th
Get outraged – JP Morgan rakes in the loot over its Food Stamp processing wing. We need a new revolution straight up, because greed is out of control and the strings are being pulled from the top with no one representing working folks. Furthermore, the power structure drives us apart by convincing us we are different. Illusions – take back the media.
Anyways, there is a decent amount of info on this out there – check out some key excerpts from SeekingAlpha below, and there is also a video of a JP Morgan executive spelling out what a booming business they have on their hands:
JP Morgan (JPM) is the largest processor of food stamp benefits in the United States. JP Morgan has contracted to provide food stamp debit cards in 26 U.S. states and the District of Columbia. JP Morgan is paid for each case that it handles, so that means that the more Americans that go on food stamps, the more profits JP Morgan makes. Yes, you read that correctly. When the number of Americans on food stamps goes up, JP Morgan makes more money. In the video posted below, JP Morgan executive Christopher Paton admits that this is “a very important business to JP Morgan” and that it is doing very well.
So if unemployment goes down will this ruin JP Morgan’s food stamp business?
Well, apparently not. In the interview Paton says that 40% of food stamp recipients are currently working, and he seems convinced that there could be further “growth” in that segment.
….it turns out that JP Morgan is saving money by “outsourcing” food stamp customer service calls to India.
When ABC News asked JP Morgan about this, the company would not tell ABC News which states have customer service calls sent to India and which states have them handled inside the United States….
Just try to imagine the irony – a formerly middle class American that has lost a job to outsourcing calls up to get help with food stamp benefits only to be answered by a call center employee in India.
More at SeekingAlpha
More at DailyKOS
