RASHOMONIC.com

Tuesday, January 27, 2004

operators

Lola Ogunnaike reports on another industry shakeup:

Just weeks ago, Antonio Reid was one of the biggest executives in the music business. The top three singles in the country were his: Outkast's "Hey Ya!" and "The Way You Move" and the R&B singer Kelis's "Milkshake."

An executive at a major label who demanded anonymity said: "It's not about hits. It's about the bottom line. That's what L.A.'s departure means. It is the operators verses the creatives now. Chalk one up for the operators."

:: 4:28 PM [+] ::

violations

There are plenty of reasons to mistrust the U.S. government, needless to say. Cathy Hong reports on how younger South Koreans are viewing the North and the U.S.:

"South Koreans who were born in the '70s and the '80s didn't experience the Communist threat. They are blinded by national pride and think of North Koreans as our brothers and sisters. The problem is that they mix up the regime with the people," says Jin Wook Choi, a senior research fellow at the Korea Institute for National Reunification...

North Korea's violent crackdowns at home counted for little here. "The U.S. has been giving false propaganda about the North," said one Catholic university student. "There is no proof that the North commits human rights violations. I think the U.S. is misbroadcasting information about North Korea killing its own people."

:: 1:01 PM [+] ::

paleface

If you wanna get my attention, tell me that

the Wayan Brothers' upcoming White Chicks features Shawn and Marlon donning paleface in an attempt to pass for a pair of white heiresses.

That's what Vibe said. Sounds like a mix of Bamboozled, White Christmas, and 8 Mile. Sounds awful.

On the bright side, it will probably make fun of white people. Which is a good thing.


:: 9:30 PM [+] ::

boho lite

Must be growing up or something ... for some reason I have houses on my mind. Maybe it's that my friend Matt M. just bought one. Or maybe it's that Bonnie and I are planning to spend Presidents Day weekend in Brooklyn, checking out the neighborhoods.

This morning Deborah K. Dietsch reports:

Lofts have landed in Washington. This buttoned-down city fond of tradition -- the navy blue suit, the center-hall colonial -- has seen a flurry ... "I call D.C. loft living 'boho lite,' " says Williams, who recently moved to Washington ... "It's a way of being bohemian by living in a funky, interesting space. But buyers are comfortable knowing their investment is good."

I don't know. I'm not old enough.


:: 12:50 PM [+] ::

InKast

Hip hop's favorite duo informs CNN on the state of the game:

BIG BOI: It's changing [but] it's pretty much for the most part stayed the same. There's certain cats out there, you know, who've got a little leverage to step out and crank it up. But it's real safe right now. This sort of music is real safe right now -- there's no one out there who's really taking any sort of risk.

ANDRE: Hip-hop is at its most commercial point right now. So, once you say that sentence, you have to pretty much say it's dead because what people are going to start doing is finding something new to do or a new way to do it. Which is, it ain't a bad thing, it just makes you go off and do other things. So probably in the next couple of years you're gonna hear some new cats, or the old cats doing new stuff.

:: 7:18 PM [+] ::

mall rule

Used to buy music at malls in Virginia. So it's funny to find this in the NYT's "Sweeten the Image, Hold the Bling-Bling:

"It's not only about satisfying your boys in the hood anymore," said Nelson George, author of Hip Hop America. "Now the mainstream matters as much if not more than they do ... Ja Rule is probably being purchased more in a mall in Virginia than on 125th Street."

A mall in Virginia, hmm? For the record, I never bought - or will buy - Ja Rule.

:: 1:38 PM [+] ::

so ...

It's been a while since I put anything in writing about my life. Bonnie and I live in a basement apartment in Brookline, Mass. It's a nice part of the city ... too "nice" for us. Very affluent, very white. Like an island off the coast of Boston. Like a resort town. To be continued ...

:: 9:10 PM [+] ::

back in the saddle

Three things have kicked me in the seat to get blogging:

1. A week ago today, I finished five straight months of part-time classes. I'm off for the next month, and I'm going back to grad school with a lighter schedule in the spring.

2. My friend Rudy Carrasco emailed me around Christmas, asking me about this blog. Bonnie and I got to hang out with him in October. Rudy's a king blogger and he's busier than I am.

3. Ta-Nehisi Coates won't stop writing at the Voice. Every time I see a new piece with Coates' name, I have to read it right away - no matter what I'm doing. That happened today, and I gotta share.

:: 8:54 PM [+] ::