From theage
HOW did you start 2010? To say that the first month of this year was eventful for Chicago rapper Lupe Fiasco would be a colossal understatement.
Having leaked his excellent mixtape Enemy of the State: a Love Story at the end of last year, his first in four years, in January the 28-year-old Sunni Muslim joined a group of personalities (including actress Jessica Biel) to climb Mount Kilimanjaro to raise awareness of the world's lack of drinking water. He climbed all 5895 metres, he declares proudly.
''It actually changed my life,'' he says. ''It was the hardest thing I've ever done. At a certain point, the altitude medicine doesn't work. It becomes more about your body. And then a spiritual and mental thing.''
Lupe (Loop-ay) - real name Wasalu Muhammad Jaco - is difficult to pin down but, when finally on the phone, he proves articulate and candid. He speaks passionately about the fact 1 billion people do not have access to clean drinking water.
''They literally drink their water from pools on the side of the road they share with animals and use as toilets,'' he says.
''You get to a certain point in your career and you wonder if you're being arrogant or you are on the right path. This showed me I am on the right path with what I talk about. And now I have more to talk about.''
The rapper returns to tour Australia this week at a strange time in his career. Having started making music at the age of 16, he earned his first http://www.brooklynbodega.com/wp-admin/post-new.phprecord deal, with Epic (Sony in Australia) at 19, before moving to Arista (BMG) and, finally, his home today, Atlantic (Warner).
Facebook earned a patent for its core news feed and published one for prioritizing communication from apps based on how closely users interact with them.
It’s hard to put too much weight into either patent because from a strategic perspective, Facebook would do better financially by prioritizing development on its advertising, metrics and payments offerings, than by pursuing a more litigious strategy of suing other companies. Both patents, which were found by AllFacebook, were also filed a long time ago; one in 2008 and the news feed one in 2006. The company iterates and adapts at a significantly faster pace.
Officially, this is what the news feed patent covers:
“A method for displaying a news feed in a social network environment is described. The method includes generating news items regarding activities associated with a user of a social network environment and attaching an informational link associated with at least one of the activities, to at least one of the news items, as well as limiting access to the news items to a predetermined set of viewers and assigning an order to the news items. The method further may further include displaying the news items in the assigned order to at least one viewing user of the predetermined set of viewers and dynamically limiting the number of news items displayed.”
The patents reveal a bit about different ways the company could have designed the news feed. In it, many approaches are described. The company could have created a news feed where users ranked the types of activities they wanted to see first, like relationships changes or events at the top.
From npr
New York's embattled Democratic Gov. David Paterson is facing new allegations Thursday that could further cripple his election bid.
The New York Times is reporting that Paterson and his state police security detail intervened in a domestic violence case involving one of the governor's top aides.
Just last weekend, Paterson announced that he would fight to win a full term in office — despite persistent polls showing that most New Yorkers want a change.
On Shaky Ground
Paterson took office in 2008, after Eliot Spitzer's sex scandal and resignation.
Paterson's own precarious political situation worsened this month when rumors circulated that The New York Times was preparing a major expose examining details of his private life.
The governor remained defiant, accusing his enemies of launching a smear campaign.
But The Times reported Wednesday night that one of his top aides, 37-year-old David Johnson, had been accused of violently assaulting a girlfriend.
According to the paper, the unnamed woman dropped her court case after allegedly being pressured by the governor's state police security detail — and then receiving a call from Paterson himself. In an interview Thursday morning with a talk news station in New York City, Paterson said that he had asked Attorney General Andrew Cuomo to conduct an independent probe.
"He would conduct a full investigation of all the allegations that would, if true, make this a very disturbing and alarming situation," Paterson said.
Paterson refused to confirm or deny making the phone call, but he suspended his aide without pay and called for state police to conduct a separate probe.
Monday night shows can be hit or miss.
Patrons need a good excuse before blowing 4 days worth of rest on the first night of the work week.
A damn good excuse.
If its a dinner or happy hour, then in better be dinner or happy hour with an old friend who is only in town on that Monday.
If its a concert, it better be a concert featuring an act who rarely performs, or an act that you’re personally invested in and not sure when you’ll see again live.
Its the difference between “must see” and “might see.”
And even those who classify an event as “must see” still might leave early. Its Monday after all. People have to work tomorrow.
Tanya Morgan headlined a solid line up this past Monday. Bronx upstart Emcee, YC The Cynic, P.SO of the AOK Collective, and North Carolina natives Kooley High joined “a team called Tanya” on SOBs legendary stage.
Mic to plug, the show was quality.
YC The Cynic continues his props-snatching city wide tour, running through now crowd favorites “The Return of Slick”, “Why Cee La”, and “Say Superman” while also bringing out Homeboy Sandman to assist on “We Aint Scared”.
P.SO, formerly P.Casso, delivered as expected, bringing out Von Pea, Homeboy Sandman, with several members of AOK lurking in the background for one of the most official live posse cuts I’ve seen in some time. Other than an odd “Guitar Hero” segment -- where P.SO attempted to rock the actual “Guitar Hero” guitar live on stage (with little success), confusing a number of people in attendance -- “The Earth Tone King” put together a rather tight set.
“Kooley High / truly high / spittin mathematics. / Got you addicted like a bad drug habit.”
Raleigh based Kooley High arguably generated the nights largest crowd reaction. From there visual and sonic diversity, to their Golden Era angled set (Biggie remakes, Michael Jackson tribute), to their live poetry segment, to their bounce friendly ode “Mami Is A Dancer” complete with an accompanying jig -- there was something for everyone.
Tanya Morgan debuted their video for “Bang & Boogie”, Brooklynati’s next single, before hitting the stage for their live set. Judging by crowd reaction, Von Pea, DonWill, and Ilyas did not disappoint.
Unfortunately -- since it was a Monday night after all -- the vast majority of those remaining in the building were press related or fellow supportive artists. All walk-ins, SOBs regulars, etc left the venue before the headliners hit the stage.
To put it in perspective, SOBs was more packed for the opening act than it was for the headliner.
FACT.
Monday shows are like that -- unpredictable. Those of us still around for Tanya Morgan were personally invested to be there. Maybe we were friends or had a friend rocking that night. Maybe we were press covering the event.
Maybe we worked for SOBs...
That part is less important. The overall quality of the show is the only thing that matters.
And front to back, each act entertained.
Regardless of who was left to witness.
From NYT
IT is a convention of the Oscar season that when an actor is among the hopefuls, a phalanx of promoters, publicists and managers go to work, making sure that the star is dolled up and walks miles of red carpets to tell anyone who will listen that she would be “thrilled just to be nominated.”
Mo’Nique has never been much for convention. A stand-up comic from Baltimore, she defined her own version of plus-size beauty, drawing belly laughs along the way by pointing out that it is O.K. to have one. Along with her busy stand-up career, she starred in “The Parkers” for five years on UPN and had movie parts here and there. But it was her role in “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire” that turned heads. As Mary, the baleful, hellacious mother of Claireece Precious Jones, the illiterate teenager who serves as her punching bag, Mo’Nique created a movie monster who seemed all too real. Her ability to step inside a character of monumental menace has made her a favorite in the best supporting actress category.
Mo’Nique, 42, says she cares deeply about “Precious” and is thrilled to be among the mentioned, but she is not about to reorganize her life or her priorities to get her mitts on an Oscar. “The Mo’Nique Show,” her daily talk show on BET, just began in October, and while other hopefuls are criss-crossing the country for all manner of events, chatting up Oscar bloggers and making sure that everyone knows that they want it, Mo’Nique is mostly here in Atlanta, tending to her show.
