I want to know everything

I just finished reading The Watchmen... SO GOOD. I highly Recommend you read it. Yea its a comic book, so what, it's the best one ever. It's the only graphic novel on Time's 2005 list of "the 100 best English-language novels." My friend said it looked stupid when I showed him I was reading it... but screw him, he's a d bag.

I picked it up when I saw the trailer for the Watchmen movie, which looks badass by the way.I was reading the wikipedia for it (probably helpful if you want to know everything) and the writer, Alan Moore, seems pretty against turning it into a movie, saying, "You can also flip back a few pages relatively easily to see where a certain image connects with a line of dialogue from a few pages ago. But in a film, by the nature of the medium, you're being dragged through it at 24 frames per second." I agree with him, you could not pull off what he and Dave Gibbons (the artist) in any other medium.
Moore also said, "there's stuff in there Dave had put in that even I only noticed on the sixth or seventh read"

Trailer:


I still think the movie is going to be SWEET, but for different reasons than the book was. The directer from 300 is doing it and 300 was so badass, too bad he's not gonna do it all on green screen again...

And heres the song from the trailer by smashing pumpkins, The Beginning Is The End Is The Beginning. SO APPROPRIATE, if you've read the comic you know. When you get to the end of the book you'll look back at the cover, like, "damn." lol.



Direct link

You've Got the Love I NEED Babe

Al Green, produced by ?uestlove, Anthony Hamilton on the chorus, and oh I love those Daptone Horns.

The Story if Life is This:

Check the Night of the Hunter reference, love Spike Lee.

Billie Jean Is Not My Lover

I hear a lot of hate towards MJ in the last few years, but who can deny Thriller as one of the best albums EVER? Regardless of the content, it stands as the best selling album ever, that has to mean something. I mean, 7 of the 9 songs were top 10 on the charts. ridiculous.
To be honest I liked him more when he was in the Jackson 5 but I love Thriller. If you feel like really listening close to this album, you'll hear the impeccable work of Quincy Jones on the production. Also, throwing Eddie Van Halen on Beat It was genius.
Since I wasn't around 25 years ago I don't know what it was like when this came out, and I can't even imagine. The influence can still be heard today though, with PYT being sampled by Kanye West (Good Life) and Wanna Be Startin Somethin sampled by Rihanna (Don't Stop the Music).


Anyways, here is a nice groovy electro-house remix of Thriller.

Art pt. 1

Rene Magritte
The Son of Man


I believe that true art changes the way you perceive the world. Art CHANGES you, makes you see things you didn't otherwise see in the world. First an artist must discover something and then find a way to let the world know. This is not easy. The artist cannot (and should not) simply tell you, they can only show you. In doing this they create art. This 'something' that is discovered can be anything, an idea, an observation, an argument. It can be as simple as discovering color in shadows, but I think the most powerful art reveals a universal truth.

In class today we were discussing Shelby Foote's "The Civil War" and some of the characters, and I think that Foote may have been trying to show is that TRUTH is hard to see. I think that is what Rene Magritte was getting at in this painting. He said that "Everything we see hides another thing."

Painting and sculpture are not always art, some are just entertainment, and there is nothing wrong with that. I think that most books, music and movies are entertainment, but some can be art too. There are a few I think that are art and not entertainment though, like some of John Cage's compositions (look up 4'33") or Andy Warhol's films (look up Sleep or Empire). Either way it is very subjective and up to the individual.

I think that this song is a good example of something that is both art and entertainment. Peep the first verse, it's amazing.


Anyways there are many definitions of what ART is, this is just mine, who knows if its right or wrong, but its kind of fun to think about...

Hot 8 Brass Band

So I was gonna try and write something deep but then I started listening to this song, and I just wanted to jam to it. An amazing cover of the Marvin Gaye hit by the Hot 8 Brass Band from NO. Hope you like it as much as I do, which is A LOT.

Piano is hard

So I started trying to learn the piano part to Kanye West's "Homecoming," one of the better songs on his last album. Only 2 days through and I've almost got the right hand down! Too bad my keyboard only has 25 keys so that makes it pretty hard to learn on...

Anyways I dunno if you've heard the original but the verses are actually from an older song called "Home," from a mixtape a while back. That one had John Legend on the chorus (not Chris Martin) and I like it a lot better.

Here are both for your listening pleasure.



p.s. I figured out how to embed songs! Very exciting.

1st post!

I wanted a place to put my thoughts and also share some good music, so here it is.


Anyways here is the song that I got the name for this thing, from off one of Lupe's mixtapes. Two of my favorite artists, the original is hot too, check it out.

Anthony Hamilton- Comin' From Where I'm From (remix) ft. Lupe Fiasco