Sunday 29 May 2011

New York Is Killing Me

Gil Scott-Heron is frequently called the “godfather of rap,” which is an epithet he doesn’t really care for. In 1968, when he was nineteen, he wrote a satirical spoken-word piece called “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised.” It was released on a very small label in 1970 and was probably heard of more than heard, but it had a following. It is the species of classic that sounds as subversive and intelligent now as it did when it was new, even though some of the references—Spiro Agnew, Natalie Wood, Roy Wilkins, Hooterville—have become dated. By the time Scott-Heron was twenty-three, he had published two novels and a book of poems and recorded three albums, each of which prospered modestly, but “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised” made him famous. Scott-Heron calls himself a bluesologist. He is sixty-one, tall and scrawny, and he lives in Harlem, in a ground-floor apartment that he doesn’t often leave. It is long and narrow, and there’s a bedspread covering a sliding glass door to a patio, so no light enters, making the place seem like a monk’s cell or a cave. Once, when I thought he was away, I called to convey a message, and he answered and said, “I’m here. Where else would a caveman be but in his cave?”...

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Alec Wilkinson @'The New Yorker'

Monique de Latour narrates a slide show of her never-before-seen photographs of Scott-Heron

Postscript
Obituary
Discography

Bradley Manning: the bullied outsider who knew US military's inner secrets

"I think that sex, drugs, art and religion very much overlap with one another and sometimes one becomes another." - Brian Eno

Tim Hetherington - Sleeping Soldiers (2009)

“White People” doesn’t have to mean “Those who travel and traffic in ignorance” (but often does)

The glorious idiocy of Simon Chapman

Messi by Paul Trevillion

Via

Barcelona's Messi masterclass carves Manchester United open

Saturday 28 May 2011

Top 10 Evil Lairs

Home Is Where the Hate Is

For years, the accepted wisdom was that Osama bin Laden was holed up in a cave along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. It turns out he was living in a rather large, heavily armed house in an affluent town outside Islamabad. With his Abbottabad house being carefully examined, TIME takes a look at the horrible hideouts of other evildoers

Hitler's Bunker
Osama bin Laden's Compound
Jeffrey Dahmer's Apartment
The Manson Family Ranch
H.H. Holmes' Murder Castle
The Unabomber's Cabin
Josef Fritzl's Dungeon
Jonestown
Saddam Hussein's Spider Hole
Elizabeth Bathory's Castle

Full list @ TIME

Remember him THIS way...

The Bottle

Winter in America

We Almost Lost Detroit

Download Radiohead’s 20 Best Cover Songs

20. Radiohead – “Wonderwall” (Oasis Cover)
19. Radiohead – “Down By The River” (Neil Young Cover)
18. Radiohead – “Sing A Song For You” (Tim Buckley Cover)
17. Radiohead – “I’ll Wear It Proudly” (Elvis Costello Cover)
16. Radiohead – “Cinnamon Girl” (Neil Young Cover)
15. Radiohead – “Shot By Both Sides” (Magazine Cover)
14. Radiohead – “On The Beach” (Neil Young Cover)
13. Radiohead – “Tell Me Why” (Neil Young Cover)
12. Radiohead – “Rhinestone Cowboy” (Glen Campbell Cover)
11. Radiohead – “The Thief” (Can Cover)10. Radiohead – “Unravel” (Björk Cover)
09. Thom Yorke – “All For The Best” (Miracle Legion Cover)***
08. Radiohead – “The Rip” (Portishead Cover)
07. Atoms For Peace – “Love Will Tear Us Apart” (Joy Division Cover)
06. Radiohead – “Nobody Does It Better” (Carly Simon Cover)
05. Sparklehorse (Feat. Thom Yorke) – “Wish You Were Here” (Pink Floyd Cover)
04. Radiohead – “Union City Blue” (Blondie Cover)
03. Radiohead – “Ceremony” (Joy Division Cover)
02. Thom Yorke – “After The Gold Rush” (Neil Young Cover)
01. Radiohead – “The Headmaster Ritual” (The Smiths Cover)

download @ stereogum