Growing up, TV shows like The Wonder Years or movies like The Natural led me to believe that every epiphany or climactic realization in my life would come at equally cinematic moments, drenched in sepia tones with oboes and clarinets playing in the background, or maybe with fireworks and light standards exploding overhead. “And that was when I realized I should shave my head,” I’d tell Carter someday, describing the touching moment when I realized I was losing the fight with male pattern baldness. Me holding a mirror looking at the back of my head, a tear rolls down my cheek. I reach for the clippers. Cue the Coldplay song.
(more…)

Moving to a new house means getting to know new neighbors. Debbie has shouldered this chore with aplomb at our new place, flagging down everyone we see and introducing the whole family, even stopping the car on our way in the garage and shaking hands through the window. I’m not as forward; I figure I’m doing my best if I nod and say hi, figuring I’ll learn a name if necessary, say when I borrow a garden hose or have to apologize when the security alarm goes off for 30 minutes straight because I forgot the code.
(more…)

The news that Ol’ Dirty Bastard had died surprised no one. A friend who knew I was a fan of the Wu-Tang Clan, ODB’s Staten Island, NY rap collective, emailed to tell me the news. I immediately checked the web for a write-up, and found the expected news that he had collapsed of apparent heart failure in a Manhattan recording studio. His passing in such a sudden manner, just two days shy of his 36th birthday, was the inevitable flameout at the end of an explosive career. Born Russell Tyrone Jones, ODB died on November 13, 2004. He left behind the musical legacy of a deranged genius, and an evolving persona that, just a month later, has already been turned into a cultural punch line.
(more…)

“You know it’s underground when the rappers have to untangle their own microphones,” said Afrobatik, as he and the rest of the Perceptionists, Mr. Lif and DJ Fakts One, prepared for their set at the Def Jux Presents III tour on Sunday night at the Logan Square Auditorium in Chicago. The cables were twisted into a knot after 4th Pyramid and SA Smash kicked off the night, but the Perceptionists managed to deal with the minor inconvenience and deliver an intense, politically charged performance that topped a bill also featuring indie-rap hero Murs and none other than Humpty Hump himself, Shock G, formerly of Digital Underground.
(more…)