The Third Shoe

Not to get all morbid while everyone is in holiday mode but I won't be a bit surprised to hear about another famous person dying in the next week or so. The one-two punch of James Brown and Gerald Ford necessitates a third celebrity death. It's just a rule that celebrity deaths always come in threes.

March 4 - 9, 1999

I first picked up on this back in 1999 when Justice Harry Blackmun (March 4), Stanley Kubrick (March 7) and Joe DiMaggio (March 9) all died within a week of each other. That "death trio" reminded me that just one month earlier King Hussein of Jordan (February 8), John Erlichman (February 14) and Gene Siskel (February 20) all died within two weeks of each other also. WEIRD. An odd phenomenon for sure but it's definitely held up over the years.

Late June 2001: Carroll "Archie Bunker" O’Connor, Jack Lemmon and John Lee Hooker.

June 21 - 27, 2001

September 2003: Johnny Cash, Warren Zevon and John Ritter died within five days of each other.

September 7 - 12, 2003

Some people may claim Peter Boyle started this current James Brown/Gerald Ford death trio but I'm not feeling that. Peter Boyle was a delight but he's not on the James Brown/Gerald Ford level. It's gonna be somebody big. I won't even speculate on who it could be for fear of getting it right and consequently being burned at the stake.

December 25 - ???

The only time I can remember there being a truly unequal death trio was back in 1997 when Princess Diana, Mother Theresa and Lorena Bobbit all died within a week of each other. Oh yeah, you didn't hear about Lorena Bobbit dying? Yeah, yeah, it was a traffic accident, a real bad one too. Yeah, apparently SOME DICK CUT HER OFF!

BWAAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

No, seriously, I hope it's Osama that goes next.

2007 Here We Come

Just a few more links to help keep you all from doing anything constructive during this short work week.

1. British soldiers participating in LSD experiments.

2. The Time Fountain.

3. Lifestyles of the Rich and Fascist

4. Short Imagined Monologues of McSweeney's. The Whole McSweeney's website/magazine is fantastic and I highly recommend frequent stoppage-by.

5. The MySpace page of Knicks rookie Renaldo Balkman. FAN-tastic!!!

6. NEW FAVORITE WEBSITE!!! Only those miserable few who grew up rooting for the Washington Bullets/Wizards through the 80s and 90s can truly appreciate the spirit behind Wizznutzz. And I need that 98 Bench t-shirt to wear everyday. For anyone who is experiencing second thoughts on having stiffed me this holiday season, this will get you back in my good graces.

DO. NOT. FALL. IN. LOVE.

IT'S TOO LATE FOR THE SSA STAFF. SAVE YOURSELF.

New Years

Diplo My Love remix

Strike Sparks Anywhere #1 - Diplo My Love remix



The Good News: After many weeks, I was finally able to get Timbaland's swell-and-contract "My Love" syntheizer noises out of my head.

The Bad News: It's been replaced by the boop-bop-beep sonic hook in this remix by Diplo.

P.S. I'm shopping around for a new service to post audio. Not sure how I feel about the style of this one - please holler if anyone knows of a better one.

Random Linx

As we continue to dust off the ol blogeroo, here are a smattering of links I've been meaning to share:

1. What's on Santa's Ipod? Lemon-Red, Tittsmas and more courtesy of Nick Catchdubs.

2. Gabe said We're Into Movements

3. Tribute album to The Band.

4. Interviews with cast members of Season Four of The Wire: Part One, Two and Three

5. You know what part of this one I wonder about the most? It's not the toilet seat around the neck. It's not the "Sexual Millionaire. Be One." scrawled on the chalkboard either. It's not even the dilated-pupil rantings. It's the cap gun and the cherry.

Keep posted for some possible intriguing news re: NYE....toodles.

Cool Grafitti/Art Exhibit

The line outside 11 Spring Street on Saturday

An inside view

Before catching the fracas at the Garden last night I checked out this, um...art happening(?) on Spring St. The abridged back story goes as follows: Old building in = longstanding, well-known worldwide grafitti/art canvass. Building to be converted into luxury condos. Art world mourns. New owners not total dicks. See blurb from NYT below for rest of story...

The group decided that the best salute would be to stage one last, thoroughly legal, art-making hurrah, inviting some of the best-known graffiti and street artists in the world, many of whose work already loomed large on the outside of the building, to take over the inside and completely cover five floors, 30,000 square feet of brick wall space, with work. The art would then stay up only for a few days before the contractors moved in with drywall to cover up the interior works and pressure hoses to erase those on the outside.

In other words, not destroying the art inside but, rather, vacuum-sealing it like a time capsule inside the drywall of luxury condos. The line to get in stretched around three corners and lasted over 2 hours but the art inside and out was really cool. Crazy to think it was all done in just a few days...

Some of the rest of my photos are below. You can also find more photos from other people here. Full New York Times story available here also.

Quato Lives

Oxy Cottontail

What the Jolly Green Giant's dreams look like

You see straight up racist that sucka was, simple and plain...

Ghost Che far away

Ghost Che near - the coolest

Always fresh

More outside(r) art

Rock out with your walk out

Pulp wall art

I got nothing on this

Totally creepier in person

Rubberband art with artist

Baaaaaaaa

MELO 4 LIFE!!!

The view from my seat at last night's Knicks - Nuggets game/brawl. All the action went down right where the people are standing in the photo above. I'm here to say that Melo did not throw a basketball punch at Mardy Collins - it was a man's punch. Fat Joe, Spike Lee and Turtle from HBO's Entourage were sitting in the front row courtside by where it all went down. Turtle wanted nothing to do with it and hid behind his bodacious girlfriend. Two security guards were required to hold down Fat Joe and Spike was so mad that his glaring at Isiah was interrupted that he bit Fat Joe in the leg and gravy poured out. The World's Most Famous Arena!