Monthly Archive: January 2018
Friday, Nov. 3, 3:45 a.m.: My alarm clock goes off. I was at a wine bar just four hours earlier, so I’m feeling the hour pulse through my head. I’m leaving to stand in line for the iPhone X, though I promised myself I’d never do this again after the iPhone 6 came out in 2014. I make sure I have everything I need to …
I recently watched Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure, a 1989 movie that I wore out on VHS as a 9-year-old back in the day. It’s a relatively innocuous buddy-dude comedy, but there’s one scene in which Bill and Ted hug after one was previously thought to be dead, only to release each other and say “fag!” in unison. It’s a small example of media from …
I’ve learned recently that I can’t have CNBC’s daily blocks of “Shark Tank” playing in the background while doing important things, because I always get sucked in. “Ratchetality TV,” however, is a different story: I treat “Real Housewives of Love and Hip-Hop with Black Ink Crews” like I do Big Sean’s music: it can play when I’m in the room but I’m never paying any …
As I write this introduction, I’m in a text-message discussion with Panama regarding his piece on Black Thought, the merits (or lack thereof) of “Bodak Yellow” and what role subjectivity plays in what we consider “exciting” hip-hop. As is the case with all nerdy, somewhat esoteric conversations between two opinionated, manila folder-complected individuals who know what they’re talking about, we weaved through what constitutes “good” …
