VIDEO: “Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee” (new Jerry Seinfeld show)

In other means of social media, I’ll talk about some of my favorite non-music interests, and I am a longtime fan of comedy. I grew up with comedy albums, a good share of sitcoms, and love a funny movie. There was a time in my life when I wanted to be a comedian or a comedy writer, because I was considered the class clown during elementary school and I enjoyed the response I received when I made an effort to be funny. However, the funny bone is one that I enjoy getting tickled at any given time.

I was doing research for suggestions to make for walk-on music for a late night talk show, and the actor in question was Alec Baldwin. I wanted to find something clever, and that lead to his appearance on a show called Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee, which I had never heard of. Come to find out that this is a new show created by and starring Jerry Seinfeld, airing on a network I had never heard of before called Crackle. Crackle? I did research and found that Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee is a show where Seinfeld is seen driving around in select cars, talking with some of his funny friends. He has done episodes with Larry David, Ricky Gervais, Colin Quinn, Mario Joyner, Joel Hodgson, and Alec Baldwin. The latest episode features longtime buddies Carl Reiner and Mel Brooks, and with those two names I knew I had to see it. It’s a very simple premise: drive people around and see what kind of stories they come up with. Whatever happens happens, and it is edited down to a show that’s 20 minutes or less. I found myself laughing at the humor, loving the knowledge and information shared, but also admiring the friendship and bond that both Reiner and Brooks have. While I wish this episoide could have been 20 to 40 minutes longer, I think it’s perfect as is. Now I’m a fan of the show, and I want to know more about this Crackle. I was digging around and found some twisted parody of Japanese shows where the host sings very weird songs about hot dogs and saying dirty words. BOOM… I was sold.

According to Wikipedia, Crackle is a network that started earlier this year from the ashes of Grouper, which I hadn’t heard of either. It is “a digital network and studio” owned by Sony, and provides web content “through a web syndication network”, which means apps, YouTube, and content providers like Hulu. As more people become more tech-savvy, this type of on-demand/in-demand programming is not the future, it is something that has existed and loved for years, but it has taken time for things to catch up. What I like is that if for some reason a television show gets canceled by one of the big networks or maybe it is tested but doesn’t appeal to some audiences, a network like Crackle can become the home of that show and eventually gain an audience, however big or small.

Head to the Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee homepage to find out about this episode and watch the show itself from there (including scenes edited out of the final versions), or head to the Crackle info page about the show. You can find out more about the Crackle network by clicking here, which includes information about the free Crackle app where you’re able to stream content.

REVIEW: My TV viewing experience of the 2012 London Olympics

It’s not a secret: I’m not exactly a sports fan. If I was, this website would be called “This Is Book’s Home Run” or something. However, there is one major sporting event that I go crazy for, and that’s the Olympics. Doesn’t matter if it’s summer of winter, I enjoy both of them. It’s funny because I definitely wasn’t raised in a house or within a family that were aiming for Olympic gold, and as for winter sports? I’m from Hawai’i, if the temperature goes below 70, it’s considered “blue ball” weather and people have to put on their mainland jackets. Yet moving to the mainland made me not only enjoy the cold at times, but winter sports. I was someone who loved watching the intro to ABC’s Wide World Of Sports and looked for “the agony of defeat” part, a Saturday was not a Saturday without seeing that guy eat it.

I think for the longest time, I never saw myself as someone sporty, and definitely not someone who wanted to be athletic. My goal in life was not to be a lazy ass, but I felt at an early age that if I could use my smarts to get me where I need to be in life, I wouldn’t have to get involved in sports, at least competitively. I loved playing sports with friends, be it football, basketball, or baseball, but for an actual team? Forget it. Growing up in Honolulu, I loved to swim and still do when I am able to get to a pool but I love the beach, and I haven’t had a swim at a beach for way too long. In elementary school, we would go to camp every year and I clearly remember playing a game of water polo. I loved the pool, but playing also meant activity, which I wasn’t about. My appreciation for water sports came from my upbringing, being surrounded by water and ocean.

Which brings us to the 2012 Olympics in London, England. When it comes to my Olympics interests, I tend to enjoy watching what I think most other Americans don’t care about. I tend to like the fringe stuff, and I also like to watch all the athletes compete, and not just the Top 5 or “projected winners”. While my experience with archery is limited to the few experiences I had at camp, and with an uncle who hunted and would leave his bow & arrow at our house, I enjoy watching it. Hawaiians also love their volleyball, and I watched a good share of the games that featured Team USA, both men’s and women, but more of the women. I also watched the bronze metal match between Japan and South Korea, that was good.

In 2008, I watched the full Men’s Bicycling race in Beijing, and did so online. The feed came from the BBC and the commentary was great, but also minimal. What I also liked was being able to see the countryside, along with hearing some of the natural sound, which was primarily crowds and the cars and trucks with the camera crews. I wish I had watched the bicycling online as well, but both races were very good. I also liked the mountain biking event, and if anything, it continues to push me to get a real bike so I can do some riding outdoors and explore the world, or at least the world outside my door. My interests in bicycling has existed since my parents bought me my first bike (a blue Schwinn) when I was 9, and after hitting a tree and falling off, I understood the dynamics and did not want to stop riding.

One event that I fell in love with this year is Handball, or “Team Handball”, “Olympic Handball”. It existed before but I know I didn’t spend time watching it or caring. This time, it looked incredible. It’s a game that looks like water polo but without being in a pool. You mix up elements of soccer (football), American football, basketball and… it’s the most perfect hybrid sport I’ve ever seen. Imagine the Trey Parker movie BASEketball, but as a serious attempt in combining the best of many sports worlds, and without the humor. According to Wikipedia, handball is popular around the world, but there’s not too much attention in the United States. With luck, that will change in the last 10 to 20 years, because I’m addicted in watching and I want more.

Most of my viewing was on the weekends, and if I had a chance to watch in the evenings on a weekday, I definitely would. I believe it was the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, but I would not hesitate to watch coverage into the wee hours of the morning, which meant 2 or 3am at times. I’m sure it had more to do with my attraction to Hannah Storm, but that’s another story.

Would I have liked to watch more? Sure. I would have liked to watch more track & field, a bit more swimming, along with the canoeing and kayaking. I would have liked to have watched basketball that were not focused on the USA, and I wished I could have watched more soccer.

Which leads us to how it was covered by NBC. With any televised event, one is able to go to social media and comment in real time. In the United States, it was time delayed due to the 5 to 8 hour time different between North America and England (or 11 hours if you factor in Hawai’i and Alaska). This meant that everything would be seen in American homes long after the event was over, although NBC did provide streaming, but there were issues. In order to see live coverage, you had to prove that you were a cable or satellite subscriber by verifying who you were with, but also giving up your e-mail address. The issue was that they didn’t want just anyone to see the games, you had to be with DirecTV, Dish, or whomever in order to enjoy the games. For those who did take on the offer, the feeds were not always there 100% of the time. I read reports on how some games would black out for minutes. I did not take advantage of it, but when I watched a few events online in 2008, I had no problems whatsoever. In fact, I didn’t have to let them know I had Charter, DishTV, or DirecTV, I just clicked to the website, pressed play, and watched, with a minimum amount of technical difficulties.

In the U.S., the games were spread over a number of NBC-affiliated networks: CNBC, MSN, Bravo (who would cover the tennis matches), NBC Sports, and Telemundo. Unfortunately, I don’t have NBC Sports or Telemundo, and there were a number of events shown that I did not get to see, such as the Handball finals which aired on NBC Sports, or some of the soccer games that Telemundo would run. Despite my Spanish being very limited, I find the Telemundo coverage of soccer much more entertaining and exciting, especially when the hosts get into it and yell out a long “GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL”.

Of course there were alternative ways to watch, including going to the London2012 site in England, or the CTV website from Canada, who primarily use the British feeds but do so uninterrupted. There wee also online streams from sources of unknown origin from many countries, so if you wished to watch it with Russian, German, or Mandarin commentary, if it was online, you could view it. Even if you visited a website where you couldn’t watch the feed because you were not in the website’s native country, there were more than enough programs that could be used to watch it successful. As fans wanted to see what they wanted, when they wanted at any given time, people used social media to get it and for the most part they did. Americans suffered through a number of bad choices NBC were doing with their presentation, everything from editing games/events to commentary that was either corny, dumb, or suggestive to the point where some felt it was offensive. It’s 2012, everyone is capable of watching what they want at any given time, but NBC were basically saying “no, we are going to present it to you this way. We have other ways, but this is the way we’re doing it, and we’re not going to change.” When word had it that NBC were removing elements of the opening ceremony, it was obvious that the commentary was not going to be only about the events, winners, and losers, but it lead to the very active #NBCFail hashtag, along with accounts that would post their delayed NBC-related tweets.

Someone representing NBC had to come out and say that he didn’t know NBC offered something people really wanted to see, due to the backlash from a very vocal group of people. I found myself getting caught up in some of the dialogue, and when things died down, I realized that many of the arguments were valid. In the end, I feel NBC underestimated the public, what and how viewers wanted to see the games. It’s no longer the 90’s, 80’s, or 70’s anymore. In fact, I heard a statistic during the Olympics which said when ABC showed the Olympics in 1976, only ten hours was devoted to airtime. Ten. Most people didn’t have cable yet, and back then there weren’t many cable channels to begin with. You were stuck with ABC, because the other two networks couldn’t show the games, and you’d never see the Olympics on PBS. Now, you can veg out during the day and go back and forth between three to four channels and watch non-stop boxing, fencing, or tennis.

I think NBC needed to give people better, more, and easier options, because some of the method they had done to insure people watched their games on their terms… it’s outdated. The means to watch the people in the Big Brother house 24/7 is easier to obtain. If I want to watch extras from any specific season of Survivor, I can go to the website and access each one. Hell, it seems like maybe CBS should have been given the coverage, but I know NBC/Universal purchased the rights and will hold onto it until at least 2020. In fact, as I was watching the games and how bad some of the coverage is, I hope that Google and/or Netflix will be able to obtain the rights to show the games in 2022 and beyond. Imagine Netflix doing it where you could have access to every single event, live, or to be able to watch a feed from the country of your choice, which would be in the language of your choice. If you wish to watch something more compacted, you can have that option, or a “highlights” channel. I feel that NBC will have to do a bit of rethinking and reworking the machine for the 2014 Winter Olympics, and I’d like to think that in 18 months or so, it will work to their advantage. One can assume that if Google and Netflix can do it now, imagine what they could do if they obtain TV/video/feed rights in 2022. Or imagine what would happen if NBC collaborated with Netflix and/or Google for 2014? It could be huge.

What sucked about NBC’s coverage was that there is an NBC Sports, and most of it was not done with the expertise that NBC Sports is known for. It could have been better. Much better. There was a lot to enjoy and a lot was quite good, but the public deserved more.

The Olympics is something I like because I like the power of competition and strategy, and the fact that people from around the world can gather together for the love of sport and the game, and the human condition. It’s one of the few times where we can see people get along together without too many issues. We fight wars because of the governments, but the Olympics show that with a sense of community and spirit, we don’t have to have those issues with ourselves and one another. I value that because of the way I was raised with a wide range of people, and in a small way, seeing these people, hearing their languages and how they speak, it’s my way of “traveling without leaving your easy chair”. It shows our world is only limited by what we think the world is, but for those who want to explore, leave your world/comfort zone and see people and places, hear new sounds, taste new food. The Olympics does something very few events in this world can do, especially in an official capacity. We live, we compete, we fight, but we do it to make it to the next stage in life. We do it before we reach “the inevitable”

I loved the importance of music in these ceremonies, and with my love of British music, film, comedy, and arts, it was great to see and hear music so enthusiastic, understanding things have beginnings, middles, and ends. There’s story and structure, concept and themes, and the British have the utmost respect for artists who made music. The idea that one is a failure because their last hit was a flop doesn’t seem to exist, you are who you are because of what you created, or that you simply created or made an effort to. Within music there is unity. There is also sanity and insanity, but the London Olympics showed you could be any, all or nothing, as long as it moves people. While the opening and closing ceremonies didn’t have everything I wanted to see and hear (no Iron Maiden, Motörhead, or The Police? Why?), I feel it worked incredibly well. What I enjoyed about the ceremonies was that it was like a concept album with a distinct beginning, middle and end, a theme that made sense even though NBC felt the need to remove some of it because they didn’t think American audiences would “get it”. I liked the closing ceremony because the theme was done in the form of “morning, noon, and night”, from the ringing of the bell and using The Beatles’ “A Day In The Life” (“woke up, fell out of bed, dragged a comb across my head”) to partying into the evening with Fatboy Slim. The torch going out but the Phoenix rising was a nice touch, but I also liked the songs The Who uses as a trilogy to encourage the youth to keep the world moving. The line about a “teenage wasteland” in “Baba O’Riley” was changed so it wouldn’t be negative or sarcastic. Using the “See Me, Feel Me” segment of “We’re Not Gonna Take It” was a nice touch too, for the concept of Tommy was about “that deaf, dumb and blind” kid who had to deal with physical and mental abuse as a kid, being told to shut up during his childhood. Finally at the end of the song and album, the child speaks by saying “see me, feel me, touch me, heal me” and it fit in with the end ceremony being a celebration of the contributions of British music to the world, with lines that offered a bit of a triple meaning. The song is about an abused kid who feels strong enough to speak and sing again, its use here not only could refer to the celebration of music, but also of the Olympic spirit which will continue with the youth of today and tomorrow:

Listening to you, I get the music
Gazing at you, I get the heat
Following you, I climb the mountains
I get excitement at your feet

Right behind you, I see the millions
On you, I see the glory
From you, I get opinions
From you, I get the story

England was not afraid to share with the world their flaws, it did not want to sweep it under the rug so people can say “ooh, this is a nice place.” The good and the bad was a running theme, but it said “hey, we are a beautiful city and people, but there have been things we’re not too fond of. Let’s see how we got from there to here, and not censor ourselves.”

Maybe one day, NBC will take the hint.

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TV SHOW REVIEW: “Portlandia” (IFC)

The buzzword up here in the Pacific Northwest has been the new show in IFC starring Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein called Portlandia, based on the people and things found in and within Portland, Oregon. With an interest in wanting to move to Portland, I was interested to see what it was about.

From reading a number of articles and blogs, and hearing podcasts in Portland, it seemed people were either afraid of how Portlandia would show Portland, leery of how embarrassing it might make the city and its residents, while others could care less. The hate was strong, especially with excerpts of the show that could be found, but I think it was nothing more than a proud city who did not want to be looked at as or treated like animals in a zoo. Is Portlandia an example of the unique quirks that Portland does have? Yes, but not all of Portland is like that. “The dream of the 90s is alive in Portland” is what the introduction to the show says, so immediately one is meant to look at the characters and see them as what exactly? 30- and 40- somethings who want to fix the errors of what they went through in the last 20 years? People who felt the past was better? Citizens who wish to live life pre-grunge, pre-hip-hop as a corporate entity, pre-gaming revolution, pre-internet, pre-apps, pre-digital, pre-…cum? It may seem like that from the outside, and I say that as an outsider myself, but watching the show and believing these things will only make you ask one question: what the hell is Portland all about?

For one, Portland is a large metropolitan city with its share of hippies. However, you will also find preppies, hipsters, gangsters, senior citizens, swingers, conservatives, dope fiends, teabaggers, foodies, raw food enthusiasts, and a little bit of everything. You can also find these things in Seattle, San Francisco, Detroit, and every other city Huey Lewis mentioned in the last verse in “The Heart Of Rock’N’Roll”. So why is Portland the hot city of discussion of the moment? I think it’s because it’s a large city whose talent and resources have remained untapped, and the fear is that if the country taps PDX’s ass, it’ll turn into the woman Common rapped about in “I Used To Love H.E.R.”, where she will end up being worn out and torn, but still able to return to the place she calls home. This isn’t to suggest that Portland wants to remain in the past, although shades of the past can be found throughout the city and its various sections. As a record collector, I remember a few years ago when Portland was called “the last untapped vinyl destination”, which comes from young college kids who want to discover a format they didn’t grow up with, and an older generation who found no need to replace a format that they were happy with. Perhaps that’s the perception some people have of the city, the idea that it’s not Miami, it’s not Dallas, it’s not Chicago, it’s not San Francisco. The city of Portland, Oregon is known by name, but very little is known by people outside of the Pacific Northwest, other than how quirky or “weird” it makes itself out to be. Yet within that quirkiness and weird vibes is a sense of wanting to be a Portland resident because the people and the communities feel that the standard of living is very good, even when times are rough, and while I’m only one episode into the show, I think Portlandia is going to show some of the many things that makes Portland worth celebrating, even if some feel it’s unnecessary mockery. Then again, the show was created by Fred Armisen, which obviously means comedy, even if some are not willing to laugh at themselves.

The show is based around different scenarios and storylines, so that Armisen and Brownstein will portray different characters from scene to scene. One scene may show them being overly conscious about the food they consume, while another scene may have them as employees at a women’s book shop. The one thing that I did like was when they showed Armisen’s character overdosing on living in a digital world, and some may thing Portland and being digital is an oxymoron. Truth of the matter is that Portland has a healthy and diverse blogging community, and has been internet savvy for years. There is also a tech community that looks at some of the innovations being done in Portland and the rest of Oregon, some of which is discussed at Rick Turcozy‘s Silicon Florist website. In a recent issue of Portland Monthly there was an article covering the best doctors in the city, while talking about how Portland could take part in becoming a microcosm of what the country’s health care system should be. The city is known for being a mecca of bicyclists, but it’s also encouraging people to think better and smarter about how they travel in and out of the city, with discussions of a forthcoming transportation safety summit producing a number of pros and cons.

Of course, you can also celebrate Portland by taking advantage of a pedestrian-friendly city by discovering the many stairs of the city in The Portland Stairs Book. If you’re unshaven and proud, take part or become a spectator in the West Coast Beard & Mustache Championships. If you want someone to fondle your nether regions, there’s a map for that. Portlandia represents all of this and none of this, so why does it matter?

Let’s be real. The city of Portland, Oregon might seem weird to some, but those people are probably happy with who they are and what they’ve become. Portland is not for them. Those who seek something different and unique may or may not find it in Portland. Truth be told, it can be found anywhere and everywhere. You just have to look, and it just so happens Portland occupies a lot of searchers, even those who are content. Maybe the things they search for seemed varied and different from what you’re looking for, but respect the search. It’s a nerdy city, but that’s a dorky way of saying that this city is well read. I’m a Book, I’m well read, so… Portland seems like a perfect place to be, right? I haven’t lived there yet, but I’d like for it to be a place I will want to call home, and hopefully I will very soon. In the first episode, I see a sense of the people that are there, and it’s not just the characters Armisen and Brownstein portray. Look at the older lady in the library, that’s Portland. Look at the bearded man who has been hiding in the library since 1979 while taking part in a hide & seek contest, that’s Portland.

Maybe want to discover Portland because it’s seen as an intelligent city that isn’t afraid to play the fool, even though they don’t want anyone to call them fools or being foolish. Maybe Portland simply wants people to not poke fun or criticize, but if you’re going to stare, put on a souvenir T-shirt and participate. I also think that Portland has been overshadowed by Seattle for decades, even when Seattle wasn’t the coffee-drinking, tech-savvy city it is today. Upon moving to Washington State in 1984, I remember when it was possible to drive through downtown Seattle and see small corner stores, hear the breeze, and be able to walk on the street for blocks without being hit. With Seattle being home to a number of fisheries, another distinct I remember about some parts of downtown Seattle was how it smelled like a fishing boat. Growing up in Honolulu, I know the sights, sounds, and smells all too well. The Seattle music scene in 1984 was active but bands showed support for other bands, and some bands probably featured members from other bands, so a group of 12 people might have 5 bands ready to go on tour together in a stinky van. The Kingdome was an ugly beast, but people loved the beauty of the ugliness. In 1987 while on The Joshua Tree tour, U2 didn’t play in Seattle, leaving the defunct magazine The Rocket to ask why a big band like them can play San Francisco one night, drive up the West Coast and completely miss Portland and Seattle by heading to Vancouver, British Columbia in Canada? From that point on, it seemed the music community did everything to strengthen itself within themselves, and in time people discovered the unique qualities of their music.

Meanwhile, Portland remained the city on the I-5, not really quiet or dormant but ignored by people who were entralled by the big and bright lights of Seattle, the city of dreams in the late 80’s and early 90’s. Which brings to mind what Portlandia suggests: what exactly was the dream of the 90’s? Or is it about going back to a time before the world seemed to collapse in front of our eyes? Is Portland a utopia? Is it a town of music makers, and in the words of Willy Wonka, are Portlanders the dreamers of the dream? By being exposed to the possibility of being overexposed, will the unicorn magic of Portland slowly fade away? If anything, that may be the biggest fear of all, that Portland in the early 10’s will turn into what Seattle became in the 1990’s: overcrowded with Californians looking to change the ways of the city or adapting the city’s qualities and making themselves look like a fool.

It’s possible that this review has less to do with Portlandia the show and more about the city of Portland and what it represents to an outsider who wants to play in their reindeer games. Nonetheless, love or hate, Portland is there to sample and experience. If the show moves you to pay a visit, they’ll be more than happy to welcome you.

(Portlandia airs Friday nights at 10:30 Eastern/7:30 Pacific on IFC. While the show is produced by Saturday Night Live‘s Lorne Michaels,the show is based on the video projects Armisen and Brownstein used to do together when Brownstein wasn’t recording/touring with Sleater-Kinney. Consider it a high-budget independent video project, and one that works quite well in the context of what the city represents to its residents.)

PHOTO: Attack Of The Show’s Twitter wall

It didn’t air live, but the folks behind the @AOTS account at Twitter were looking to utilize their Twitter wall on air for the G4 show, Attack Of The Show, and asked for people to send in a few messages before they went to air. Any messages that were used, they’d take a photo and use it. Mine made it.

VIDEO: Previously unseen film footage of Bob Marley & The Wailers

This footage of Bob Marley & The Wailers was filmed on June 17, 1980 in Stockholm, Sweden by a man who was able to bring his 8mm silent (i.e. no audio) film camera and bring it into shows. He did this apparently from 1976-1980 and has had these reels of film in his possession for years. He decided to give it to a friend so that he could convert it to digital. This is one of those clips. Keep in mind that this was shot by a fan with an 8mm camera, so it’s a bit shakey as many “home films” were. Not much film has been seen of Marley’s last year, especially performance footage.

I found out about this through a post on the Steve Hoffman music board. If you’d like to see some of the other films, click the user name aneurhythms on the right side of the YouTube screen. They’re of the hard rock variety, but back then Marley did have a following with rock audiences.

SOME STUFFS: P.O.S. tours now for “…Now” never, Dessa, Astronautalis, and Grieves to join in

The Never Better album by P.O.S. has pushed him to the forefront of something created by a publicist to make it sound effective. But you don’t want that, right? What you want to know is “WHY IN THE WORLD ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT MY FAVORITE RAPPER, P.O.S.?” I’ll tell you.

Because of the album, P.O.S. is about to hit the road with 40-dates on what he’s calling the Every Never Is Now Tour For the first half of the tour, Grieves will join him while the second half will feature Astronautalis. Meanwhile, Dessa will be with P.O.S. for the entire tour. She will be touring in support of her album, A Badly Broken Code, due out January 19th on Doomtree RecordsD. Here are the confirmed dates:

w/ Dessa and Grieves
January 29th First Avenue Minneapolis, Minnesota
February 2nd Jackpot Saloon Lawrence, Kansas
February 4th Black Sheep Colorado Springs, Colorado
Febraury 5th The Marquis Theatre Denver, Colorado
February 6th Kilby Court Salt Lake City, Utah
February 7th Urban Lounge Salk Lake City, Utah
Febraury 8th Neurolux Boise, Idaho
Febraury 9th Badlander Missoula, Montana
February 11th The Biltmore Cabaret Vancouver, Canada
February 12th Nectar Lounge Seattle, Washington
February 13th Berbati’s Pan Portland, Oregon
February 14th The WOW Hall Eugene, Oregon
February 16th Tonic Lounge Reno, Nevada
February 18th Bottom Of The Hill San Francisco, California
February 19th Troubadour Los Angeles, California
February 20th The Loft San Diego, California
February 21st Glass House Pomona, California
February 22nd Chasers Nightclub Scottsdale, Arizona
February 23rd Club Congress Tucson, Arizona
February 24th The Launchpad Albuquerque, New Mexico
February 26th Red 7 Austin, Texas
February 27th Hailey’s Denton, Texas

w/ Dessa and Astronautalis
February 28th The Parish Room New Orleans, Louisiana
March 2nd Club Downunder Tallahassee, Florida
March 3rd Backbooth Orlando, Florida
March 4th Masquerade Atlanta, Georgia
March 5th Local 506 Chapel Hill, North Carolina
March 6th DC9 Washington DC
March 7th First Unitarian Church Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
March 9th Bowery Ballroom New York, New York
March 10th Middle East Cambridge, Massachusetts
March 11th Space Portland, Maine
March 12th Higher Ground Burlington, Vermont
March 13th Il Motore Montreal, Quebec
March 14th Sneaky Dee’s Toronto, Ontario
March 16th The Crofoot Pontiac, Michigan
March 17th The Grog Shop Cleveland Heights, Ohio
March 18th The Bottom Lounge Chicago, Illinois
March 19th High Noon Saloon Madison, Wisconsin
March 20th Turner Hall Ballroom Milwaukee, Wisconsin
March 21st Pizza Luce Duluth, Minnesota

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VIDEO: Clipse & The Roots’ “Grindin’ (Live On Late Night)”

Last night, you may have had a chance to see Clipse perform with The Roots as their back-up band on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon. If not, here’s the performance.

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On Fallon, whenever possible, a musical artists will perform an extra song that is recorded exclusively for online audiences. Here’s that performance, with the song that put Clipse on the map.

http://widgets.nbc.com/o/4727a250e66f9723/4b45edeea918a354/4727a250e66f9723/3f87c629/-cpid/d85f24ea5cb0d1fe

VIDEO: Athletic Mic League’s “RU???”

You may know of Athletic Mic League, and you may know the song “RU???” but did you know they made a video for it? The video had remained unreleased for years, but now it’s being presented for all to see. The song is from their 2004 album Jungle Gym Jungle.

http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=8024189&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=&fullscreen=1

Athletic Mic League – RU??? from A-Side Worldwide on Vimeo.

http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?lt1=_blank&bc1=000000&IS2=1&bg1=FFFFFF&fc1=000000&lc1=0000FF&t=thisbosmu-20&o=1&p=8&l=as1&m=amazon&f=ifr&md=10FE9736YVPPT7A0FBG2&asins=B002X5RXGO

VIDEO: artist Andrew Schoultz talks about his inspiration to create

If you love intense drawings and artwork, but aren’t familiar with Andrew Schoultz, get familiar. Schoultz recently worked on Scion‘s Installation 5 Art Tour, and how his origins in graffiti and underground comic got him to where he feel he’s at today, and where he hopes to be. Tattoos cannot hide a farmer tan, but the quality of his own art overshadows that small fact.

http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=6507696&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=&fullscreen=1

Andrew Schoultz Interview from Scion ART on Vimeo.

ON THE TELLY: Brother to B.R.O.THER unite on “Late Night” tonight

Brother Ali will be backed by The Roots tonight on NBC’s Late Night With Jimmy Fallon, so stay up tonight or set up your recorders, it should be very good.

BTW – if there’s a slight chance that Fallon’s people are reading this, in reference to your Nintendo NES products on the website, may I present to you a custom built NES guitar.