Put those f*cking heels on and work it girl....let that mirror show you what you're doing.

From The Sartorialist

So Appalled - Kanye West feat. The RZA, Jay-Z, Pusha T, and Swizz Beatz

Kanye West is going in hard for a comeback and so far his G.O.O.D. Friday releases have been on point.  Breaking from his traditional pop tracks he has been putting out music featuring some of his staple co-collaborators as well as RZA and Raekwon of the Wu-Tang Clan.  I'm feeling his latest release "So Appalled", what do you all think? get it here.

This is a poem and sketch a friend did for me for my birthday a while back, shes working towards getting some of her work published now.  This is for a little inspiration. Shout out to you.

Jay Ghartey - Shining Gold

Jay Ghartey is an up and coming Ghanaian-American singer/songwriter currently working out of NYC.  I first heard about his music through my cousin Jodi's husband Joseph who is his brother/manager.  I've sporadically heard singles released from his album throughout the last six months until finally today I got the full album and gave it a listen.

This dude is dope, and I'm not just saying that because he is in my extended fam.  Blending African drumbeats and rhythms with a distinctly American hip hop/r&b flavor perfectly bridges the gap between contemporary African and Western sounds without seeming as if it's trying to.

The album begins with already popular singles "Me Do Wo" feat Okyeame Kwame and "My Lady", higher energy tracks capturing the vibrance of African music and culture.  As the album progresses it relaxes into softer more romantic tones and this is where Jay's exceptional vocal talent shines through.

My favorite tracks right now are "Shining Gold", "Runaway", "Around the World", and "Waiting for you".  You music heads definitely want to check this one out, you can find the album here on iTunes (Shining Gold).

Brooklyn Tornado

Yesterday there was a tornado in Brooklyn.  A few local scholars documented their initial reaction to as well as the defensive measures they took to remain safe during this weather phenomenon atypical for the region.

Theophilus London

Through The Wormhole hosted by Morgan Freeman

A series of documentary programs dedicated to asking "the big questions" of science and finding the correlations and divergences within philosophy, religion, and the natural sciences.  I'm quickly becoming addicted to this.

James Brown & Luciano Pavarotti - It's a Man's World

Keeping in the spirit of killer musical tag teams this is one of my favorite songs and performances of all time. Rest in peace to the great Pavarotti and James Brown

Frank Sinatra Improvs with Louis Armstrong at a Live Show

I stole this from OctobersVeryOwn blog but I couldn't help myself. This is one of the coolest things I have ever seen.

Miles Aldridge

Miles Aldridge took the photo of the girl I use as the cover art for this blog and is one of my favorite risque/avant-garde artists.

The Gospel of Wealth - David Brooks

I was initially put on to David Brooks by my professor Frank Myers and have read most of the columns he has put out since the day I first read one in my junior year of college. David Brooks is truly the most gifted columnist in the world and his latest article is proof of this.

Maybe the first decade of the 21st century will come to be known as the great age of headroom. During those years, new houses had great rooms with 20-foot ceilings and entire new art forms had to be invented to fill the acres of empty overhead wall space.

People bought bulbous vehicles like Hummers and Suburbans. The rule was, The Smaller the Woman, the Bigger the Car — so you would see a 90-pound lady in tennis whites driving a 4-ton truck with enough headroom to allow her to drive with her doubles partner perched atop her shoulders.

When future archeologists dig up the remains of that epoch, they will likely conclude that sometime around 1996, the U.S. was afflicted by a plague of claustrophobia and drove itself bankrupt in search of relief.

Continue at NY Times

Ayo Technology - Katherine

G.O.P. making a mockery of the electoral process in Arizona; Unapolagetic

The NY Times is reporting that Steve May, a Republican party 'operative' in Tempe,AZ has admitted to recruiting and compelling three homeless men to run for political office on the ticket of the Green Party in an effort to siphon votes from the Democratic Party. Mr. May is running for election to the Arizona State Legislature and is following the practices of at least two other Republicans within the state. The reason they are able to manipulate the Green Party ballot is due to the fact that the party does not have the funds to place their own candidates on the ballots thus allowing for write in contenders. To me all of this seems foul and does a disservice to our disintegrating electoral credibility over the last ten years.

Pacino

 

Somehow I made it through the 90's without seeing either of these.  All I have to say is Al Pacino delivers in both and is easily one of the best actors of our time. Heat is definitely in my top five action films of all time.

Isn't love supposed to conquer all?

Nobody likes unpleasant surprises, but when Allison Brooke Eastman’s fiancé found out four months ago just how high her student loan debt was, he had a particularly strong reaction: he broke off the engagement within three days.
Ms. Eastman said she had told him early on in their relationship that she had over $100,000 of debt. But, she said, even she didn’t know what the true balance was; like a car buyer who focuses on only the monthly payment, she wrote 12 checks a year for about $1,100 each, the minimum possible. She didn’t focus on the bottom line, she said, because it was so profoundly depressing.
But as the couple got closer to their wedding day, she took out all the paperwork and it became clear that her total debt was actually about $170,000. “He accused me of lying,” said Ms. Eastman, 31, a San Francisco X-ray technician and part-time photographer who had run up much of the balance studying for a bachelor’s degree in photography. “But if I was lying, I was lying to myself, not to him. I didn’t really want to know the full amount.”
At a time when even people with no graduate degrees, like Ms. Eastman, often end up six figures in the hole and people getting married for the second time have loads of debt from their earlier lives, it should come as no surprise that debt can bust up engagements. Even when couples disclose their debt in detail, it poses a series of challenges.

- NY TImes

How Debt can Destroy a Budding Relationship - Ron Lieber

"Yes I make mistakes that I don't ever make excuses for like leaving girls that love me and constantly seducing h*es"

It is amusing and abhorring at the same time listening to popular rap music. The beats are good, the words deplorable. Similar to the direction some modern photographers are going it seems. This Drake lyric made me think of these pictures I had seen on TheDayAfterYouDie and in a Lindsay Lohan Spread for Muse Magazine.

My Grandfather

The tall gentleman with the tan overcoat.

Chromeo

Some of the most creative artists out there right now.

Gomorrah

If you haven't seen it yet Gomorrah is one of the best films about organized crime rivaling even that of Mario Puzzo's Godfather.  The strength of this movie was increased by the incredible soundtrack, this song by Daniele Stefani is my current favorite.