Lifestyles of the Almost Famous

I Can't Get On His System Because His System is the Solar.

I need another day to think about all of this.  My funny juice is all out of wack and I still haven't really slept since the concert.

Let's see what happens tonight in new jersey.

What Happened to Lil' Wayne at Monster Jam 2008?

 

An unprecedented amount of you are arriving at my blog in search of some explanation of why weezy was a no show.

it was disappointing but I'm sure that you can all agree that Jay-Z really stepped up to the challenge even as the crowd screamed someone else's name (I'm sure that has not happened to him in over a decade).  I will add to this post later today, but for now, feel free to tell any stories of monster jam 08 here. I know I heard a lot of you tweens say lil' wayne lost a fan last night.

It is being officially reported that Lil' Wayne was having trouble getting through security so he left.  This isn't the first time this has happened.  BOSTON MAKE SOME NOISE!

Everyone Thinks They are Obama's Best Friend

I guess it isn't just me after all!

...and the NY Times is willing to report on every new staff member Barack befriends.

Lucky for us.

"Give me the jacket"..."Say please Mr. Future President"

Last spring, when Barack was still trying to beat Hillary (seems like ages ago) the New York Times published an adorable little front page article about Reggie Love, barack's body man/personal assistant/best friend.

Here are some very special exerpts:

“There’s no doubt that Reggie is cooler than I am,” Mr. Obama said, laughing, in a phone interview. “I am living vicariously through Reggie.”

Mr. Love, who played football and basketball at Duke, usually starts the day with Mr. Obama with a dawn workout in the hotel gym. They end the day more than 15 hours later, often unwinding before bed by watching ESPN’s “SportsCenter” or that night’s big game. (Mr. Obama sometimes flosses his teeth to ESPN while lying down.) ...

Compared with the even-tempered and self-controlled Mr. Obama, Mr. Love is raffish, always joking with the Secret Service, offering closed-fist high-fives to members of the news media and making frequent appearances in the daily pool reports. At a V.F.W. hall in Indiana, he helped out when the senator did not want a second Budweiser, taking it off Mr. Obama’s hands.

So it seems that REGGIE is responsible for the terrorist fist jab.  he also introduced Obama to some new hip-hop, so I guess he would be categorized as an all around BAD INFLUENCE.  But I digress.

"Listen, Axelrod, back up offa me"

This morning, The New York Times is again reporting on a special relationship created on the campaign trail.  This time, Barack's new best friend is David Axelrod.  According to the article, Barack calls David every night before bed.  David has a special ringtone just for Obama "Signed Sealed Delivered, I'm Yours".  HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

Anyway, apparently these two also enjoy some fun times including this one:

"As Mr. Obama was practicing his acceptance speech at the Democratic convention, at the very hour that a Denver stadium was filling up with supporters, a knock sounded on the door of his hotel suite. He was at an emotional high point of the address, the moment he declared, “Enough!” But he was near the door, so he answered it.

“Room service! Someone ordered a Caesar salad?” Mr. Obama said, turning to his chief speechwriter, Jon Favreau, and Mr. Axelrod. “Did one of you guys order a Caesar salad?”

Mr. Axelrod gingerly raised his hand. Mr. Obama took the silver tray over and placed it in front of him.

“Here you go, Ax,” Mr. Obama said. “Sorry to interrupt your lunch with my convention speech.”

With that, the senator burst out laughing."

But something tells me that Barack likes Reggie a LITTLE more than David.  At the end of the article on Axelrod is this AWKWARD moment.

"Told that “Signed, Sealed, Delivered I’m Yours” rings on Mr. Axelrod’s phone, a song that also plays at each campaign rally, Mr. Obama smiled. “Really?” he said. “I didn’t know that.”

When Mr. Axelrod calls him, the senator’s phone is set on vibrate."

AWKWARD!  I'm not even sure what that is supposed to mean.  And I want to let the Obama campaign know that I am available for befriendment.  I am a college student who volunteers and stuff!  Let's have a just-for-publicity friendship.

MONSTER JAM 08? OK!

Monster Jam 2007 (WAS AMAZING)

"There are some wicked big names at Jam'n 94.5's Monster Jam this year. Grab some tickets to the show before Jay-Z pretends to retire again or Lil' Wayne gets called back to his home planet."

"It might be time to give JAM’N 94.5 some props. The DJs at Boston’s lone rap station are prone to spinning repetitive playlists, but they sure as hell throw vicious superstar-studded hip-hop bonanzas every Halloween.  The Monster Jam formula is simple: Invite every urban artist with major buzz. Luckily, there’s almost as much talent as there is horror in this season’s JAM’N rotation."

OK BOSTON NEWSPAPERS.  IF YOU SAY SO, I GUESS I'LL TREK A COUPLE HOURS OVER TO BOSTON  TO SEE THIS ONE.  AND HEAR ALL JAY'S NEW SONGS FROM THE BLUEPRINT 3.  and I'm ready to predict that kanye and t.i. are going to be there.  My expectations are high after jay's special appearance during kanye's set last year.  Hopefully, lil wayne will decide to get out of his dressing room this year, realizing that thousands of adoring fans actually ARE better than whatever is on animal planet tonight.  fingers crossed.

 

***UPDATE: There is a Miami Animal Police marathon on all evening on Animal Planet.  Shit.  I guess I can always see him next year.

THE VOCODER ISSUE.

Lots of people hate the vocoder.
I actually don't remember the last time I had a conversation with someone who said, "I just love that thing T-Pain does with his voice.  It's so much better than regular singing".
So why does it continue?

Why do artist continue to use/overuse it when most listeners can TOLERATE it at best?

Insecurity?  Do these rappers believe they don't have the voices to sustain a simple melody without computer help?
Coolness Factor? Do they feel like all the cool kids are doing it, so they should give it a try?
Money? All you have to do is look at the charts to understand this one.

I can't explain it.  (speaking of, simply google "I Can't Believe It by T-Pain and Lil' Wayne to see a perfect example of what I am talking about).

Anyway, here are a couple funny videos that confront what I will call "The Vocoder Issue".

By the way, my friend just came in and asked what I was blogging about.  Vocoders/Auto Tune, I told him.  He asked what it was.  I explained it.  He was like, "OMG I love that".  To each his own.  Also, I just played him, "Heartless" and he said, "Huh, sounds like T-Pain."  That is exactly my point.  If you distort your voice to the point that you all sound the same, then what?

Oh, and the one acception is "My Life" by The Game feat. Lil Wayne, and most other Lil Wayne music because he is, after all, a martian, so his voice would naturally sound like a machine.

The Thing About Kanye (part 100003)

So, I was ready to take my battle with Kanye to the next level.  I hated "Love Lockdown".  Loathed it.  I went so far as to send this email out just last week:

"can we talk quickly about how every kanye west song I have heard in the last month is terrible?  If I wanted to hear him sing into a computer I'd...never want him to sing ever again.  His songs just suck really bad, meaning his whole album is probably going to be terrible.  I can't explain it.  Just wanted to let you know."

While I have always, and will always, HATE vocoder/autotune (I'll post about this in a hot minute because there are several exceptions), I listened to "Heartless" a couple more times and I have to say something to say.

I want to be Kanye West's best friend.

He is heartbroken.  This is what the whole album is about.  Maybe this was obvious with you, but it took a second for me because he is usually so proud.  If you look at "Heartless", however, you can see just how human the guy is.  I mean, look at the first verse (and listen, with youtube-the same sketchy way I listen):

"I mean after all the things that we been through
I mean after all the things we got into
and yo I know some things that you ain't told me
Ayo I did some things but thats the old me
And now you wanna pay me back
You gon' show me
so you walk round like you don't me
You got them new friends
Well I got homeys
But at the end its still so lonely."

He got homeys?  Sad.  I think that Kanye really misses Alexis (his fiance from last year who broke up with because, according to a friend, "They'd been having problems. Kanye is really focused on his show; he's putting everything into the show right now. Alexis is a nice girl, but Kanye has been going through a rough time. They hit a rough patch and for now they've split."  If you read Kanye's blog at all last year, or went to see his concert, you know how much work he put into that, and almost everyone knows how upset he was when his mother died.) 

So, anyway, once you ignore the vocoder for a quick second, you realize that Kanye had to create this album because he was hurting.  This album WILL stray from what he usually does, and it may not be pretty, but therapy is not always pretty, and it usually isn't meant for public entertainment.  And never fear, he is allegedly coming out with a fifth album in June 2009 (according to a highly unreliable youtube video) that will be called something along the lines of "Good Ass Job" and will go along with his usual education theme.  So think of albums 1,2,3, and 5 as parts of a series, and "808s and Heartbreak" as a bit of a pet project.

So here's what the man himself had to say, telling people not to judge this very personal album. 

"It's like judging your grandmother's love.  It's like saying your grandmother's love gets 2 and a half mikes.  It's like saying your grandmother didn't sell a million her first week."

  I'll say the naked girls at his listening party are all for the sake of performance art for now, since I am cutting kanye a bit of a break here.

So, you know what, after all this time, I kind of miss Kanye.  I wish we were still on talking terms.  As a matter of fact, I think I am going to go fix my watch.

(by the way, I have nothing good to say about the love lockdown video, but I want you to take a listen to the lyrics, because I think he knows what he is talking about, and it's pretty honest.  and smart.)

I Want To Be The Game's Best Friend (part 2)

***UPDATE***: Like my sister, I also like to see what people searched in Google to get to this blog.  Ten minutes ago: "which famous person has a tattoo LA on his cheek" all the way from Australia. LMAO.  I don't have anything interesting to say about that (my sister is older so a little more thoughtful), but you know, it's cool and stuff.