Blogging on Meds

Yesterday I mentioned that children should be causing trouble in the woods not rolling around on Heelys and listening to Wilco.  Judging by the graphics from  newly launched New Jersey based comapny Totally Skateboards, they agree.

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I see muscle cars, fire, butterfly knives and chains. All things of these objects seldom lead to anything productive but they are fun as hell. In fact if you put them all together, marinate them in yellow beer and drop them in New Jersey you have a good fucking time in the making…unless you’re a girl I guess.

Jersey boys Dave Wasnak, Pat Guidotti, and Anthony Anastasio were united in the desire to create a skateboarding first company with quality products using top notch wood and simple, functional shapes.

Peep the promo to see new and old blood rip and get ready to be wiped out TOTALLY! (If you’re a surfboard dude of course….AYE!)

Totally Skateboards

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Chemically enhanced Southern rap

I love music! I just purchased the latest Hitmen CD for $5 on the corner, and let me tell you, it rocks! All 25 tracks. But thanks to the latest Sunday Times Book Review, I’m having trouble critically determining my relationship to music:

The critic is the only artist who depends entirely upon another art form, which means that part of his job is to determine the nature of that relationship. Should he be an advocate? A policeman? A curator? A hanging judge? A mostly loyal but occasionally snippy personal assistant? The decision is an unconscious one, perhaps, but once it’s made, the critic’s writing will be colored by his chosen role in the same way that our voices carry the accents of our birthplaces. 

Oh, pity the critic! I’ll try. The HITMEN SOUTH HITZ 4 DA LO is a contemporary survey of southern rap. What a big sound: southern rap is funky, over-produced, orchestrally electro and R and B influenced, and often less lyrical than New York rap, rather it’s more “unique voice” driven. Judging from DA LO’s tracklist, Miami is currently the capital of this sound, with Atlanta, Memphis, and Houston also contributing. Miami’s two biggest artists, Rick Ross and Lil Wayne, are on 9 of the DA LO’s 25 songs. (Miami’s rise is directly linked to the many great producers—Timbaland, Scott Storch, Cool and Dre—who live there.)

Rick Ross at a Fader Magazine party in NY where, before performing, he demanded multiple Grey Goose bottles and to watch the Heat game. Lil Wayne and Trina.

Miami: drug boats in harbor and super-producer Scott Storch chilling at Mokai. (more…)

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Left, Obama over Phillies and Eagles hats in Paoli, PA, Saturday (Geoff Kenyon). Right: Newspaper cover in Scarnton (MacKenzie Lewis).

Pennsylvania votes today! In honor of National Poetry Month, allow me to begin with a lyric quote:

I’m feelin’ like a black Republican
Naw, I can’t call it
More like a black Democrat runnin’ ‘em out of office
Young Barack Obama, I’m all for it
The Rock of Gibraltar has now fallen—on ya!
I protect my land like a farmer
Pockets stay chubby like Tikara
Or should I say fat like the Parkers
Tote big guns like I’m still playin’ Contra
Y’all washed up like money that’s laundered
Y’all funny, I’m bonkers
Honest: girls strapped to my dick like a harness
Rock star, flier than an ostrich 
—Juelz Santana, Black Repiblican Mixtape Remix (Featuring Weezy F Baby)

Scranton, PA, 4/20—Two meatball-ish men stand on a street corner holding a 3ft by 6ft Hillary For President sign. One wears camo shorts, a tank-top, and velcro shoes. The other sips a can of Miller Lite and wears a shredded Eagles jersey. “Fucking vote for Hillary!” one yells. It’s mid-afternoon on the Sunday before Pennsylvania’s primary, about 75 degrees.

A silver Volvo pulls up with Obama stickers and posters strewn across the dashboard and rear of car. (Obama is scheduled to speak in Scranton later that day.)

“Obama is fucking faggot!!!” yells the Hillary supporters.

“Hillary’s a bitch!” booms a voice from the car.

Ah, how far America has come in the four months since New Hampshire.

I spent last weekend in Eastern Pennsylvania. I took similar trips to New Hampshire before the January primary and to Connecticut before Super Tuesday. So what has changed?

For one, America itself. Back in January, we were still a nation on the edge of recession. But after four months of negative growth, the collapse of Bear Stearns, heightening unemployment, and with no end in sight to the credit crunch, the country faces the worst economic crisis in a generation.

And four months ago Iraq was seeing violence reduced to 2005 levels. An uptick in bloodshed came with the arrival of spring’s traditional fighting season. Then in March the Iraqi government invaded Basra and all heck broke loose (600 dead in 7 days) between the Shias. Now the US is in the middle of a month-long battle for Baghdad’s slum Sadr City (400 dead and counting). Meanwhile, the Sunni insurgency has waged a steady campaign (killing 80 just last week). Bush promised no further troop reductions after this summer, guaranteeing the war will be raging next fall and into the next President’s term.

Polls show the economy and the war remain issues number one and two respectively of the 2008 campaign. Neither shows any hope of near-term improvement. And both can be blamed on the irresponsible—and criminal—8 years of Bush rule. Yet the Democratic candidates have chosen to make personality the central issue of their race. What a wasted opportunity.

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