The week that was. Stories include Mrs. Clarence Thomas’ voicemail message, the firing of Juan Williams, and the multiple tragedies in Indonesia.
A failure to memorize this song will reflect poorly on your education.
Performed by ipoet. Music produced by DJ M@nwell?
Today’s audio here:
TWTW 10-25-10
A strange news week so far. A lot of difficult human tragedy. A slightly less absurd political slate in these final days before the midterm storm.
My roundup song is on target for Thursday publication. Next week is going to be a challenge. Preparing a Monday post will be complicated by my weekend schedule, and then I want to make sure and do something interesting for the elections. We’ll see.
Please spread the word to the handful of people still not following this blog. The data is telling me that that number is now almost certainly under 20, but the thought of even one person receiving their news in regular human speech rhythms, and not set to 4/4 time, is simply chilling.
Don’t forget to check for this week’s first song. (Alternatively, you can scroll an inch down to the immediately preceeding post. Maybe a little hyperlink happy.) Remember this site is a song blog. You’re looking for the songs. Never get distracted by my clever prose.
This post will self-destruct unless you quickly and repeatedly press play.
Commentary on recent classified document dump by Wikileaks of nearly 400,000 Iraq War documents, which may or may not include evidence of war crimes, torture in secret prisons, significant civilian casualties, and even limited caches of WMDs. Themes include substantial controversy over the propriety of such leaks as against the national security interests of this country and the devastating human toll of war.
Performed by ipoet. Music produced by DJ M@nwell?
Today’s audio here:
Top Secret
The week that was. A summary of important and not so important news stories from the past week. Quickly commit this to memory in anticipation of upcoming civics examinations or brain bowls. Also good for law firm karaoke.
Performed by ipoet. Music produced by Harry Krum.
Today’s audio here:
TWTW 10-17-10
My schedule remains a work in progress. The goal is a Monday and a Thursday song. Everything is in place to meet the Thursday deadline this week. So check back or risk not knowing anything about what happened in the world. You will look like a fool, I promise.
People seem to be having difficulty finding the audio. Sometime around the advent of the cassette tape player the triangle was designated as the universal symbol for “play.” For every post that contains audio (but no video), one of these mysterious triangles will appear preceding the title of the relevant song. If you will depress the mouse itself (mac) or the mouse’s button (PC) when your cursor hovers over top, my voice will magically but regrettably appear.
As you can see, I have great technical expertise, so please do not hesitate to forward me any additional operating questions.
In truth, the site needs all sorts of improvements. Suggestions or concerns about content and accessibility are genuinely desired.
Thanks to all who have made the first week so much fun.
Please pass the word along to any professionals, students, hip-hop heads, or wealthy benefactors who you suspect may be wanting their news delivered in rap. I’m assuming this is a pretty significant group of people.
While outside the scope of this blog, it would be an oversight not to express condolences for the unexpected passing of Michael Larsen, better known as Eyedea, of Rhymesayers Entertainment. He was a five-tool emcee, internationally known for his legendary freestyle battles, ferocious intellectualism, and incomparable story telling. He represented all the things in hip hop that the public rarely sees. Artistry for its own sake, commitment to craft, social consciousness, and a self-aware identity. Not the best, not the first, but an indispensable contributor of culture simply too young to die.
Commentary on recent rescue of 33 Chilean mine workers. Themes include emotional tragedy of the event, commercialization of personal loss, and mistreatment of working class.
Performed by ipoet. Music produced by Harry Krum
Today’s audio here:
Whistle Workin'
Don’t be fooled by the year’s time between my last post and this one. I’m serious now. Real serious. I’m going to rap-blog current and political events if it’s the death of me. The goal is two a week. One topical effort and then maybe a summary of important news. We’ll see. If you have any suggestions or specific requests, please forward them. Do not sleep. This is the first of its kind. We are all witnesses.