Words to ponder

"Where does the time go?" everybody says.
I say, "where does the time come from?"
Let me know that and maybe we can figure out where it goes…
--Lazlo Toth

Two things I learned today

1. From Matthew: all hip-hop is satanic. Believe it or not, I heard a guy say the same thing at a Zulu Nation panel about four years ago…

2. From John: They have a machine now that writes Graf. Sure, but can it beat up other graffiti machines and take their paint?

P.S. All I need now is two friends named Luke and Mark and I’m ready to go up against Schneerson for Messiah!

It’s been a long time, I shouldn’t have kept you...without a strong blog to kvetch to

So I attended this panel over the weekend:

SATURDAY APRIL 8 @ 7 PM
THE FUTURE OF HIP HOP
Music's sharpest minds get 5 minutes each to offer three wishes for the future of hip hop.

Speakers:
TA-NEHISI COATES (Village Voice, Time)
JALYLAH BURRELL (Pop Matters)
RICHARD GOLDSTEIN (Former Editor, Village Voice)
MARGO JEFFERSON (New York Times)
SACHA JENKINS (Ego Trip, Vibe)
BAKARI KITWANA (Why White Kids Love Hip Hop)
CRISTINA VERAN (Voice, One World)

…which went off as planned with the exception of Margo Jefferson being absent due to the flu.

What was cool about it was that every single person on the panel had been around enough to know what everyone expected them to say [insert standard criticism of contemporary hip-hop here] and had enough confidence in their – and the audience’s - intellectual abilities not to say it. They all really pushed themselves to think not only critically, but also distinctively, about hip-hop, which to me is hip-hop.

Afterwards, I went out to dinner with a diverse array of hip-hop luminaries and learned many items of interest from my companions, including the following:

1. There is a more-or-less formal procedure for bestowing the title “Grandmaster” on deejays;

2. There is a check-cashing place somewhere in Brooklyn that has a prominently displayed sign reading: “We do not cash checks from The Source”;

3. While many of your so-called conscious rappers do not behave in an entirely conscious manner while sojourning in foreign lands, the one person that has been consistently reported to respectfully engage with the world’s cultures, peoples, and hip-hop scenes during his international travels is – of all people – Snoop Dog.

ADVICE RE: CRITICAL THINKING

For reasons that I would probably have to go to a psychologist to truly understand, I chose to watch Fox’s coverage of the immigration marches yesterday. Every single time they mentioned how many people were participating (“over a million”), they noted that “many of the demonstrators are themselves illegal aliens”, which they reported as a fact.

Exactly how did they come into possession of that information? Did they actually poll the demonstrators as to their status? Spot checks by the INS? Or did they perhaps use the well-regarded “that guy looks like an illegal alien to me” method? OK, maybe I’m overreacting, but, just as a matter of principle it bothers me when the news reports speculation as fact, even if it’s not racist, which in this case it would pretty much have to be. But, even under the best of circumstances, I believe that it actually demeans the idea that there is such a thing as fact. Although, then again, their canny use of the word “many” seems like a good safety net should anyone try to get too literal on them (“25 people is ‘many’ people! You’d think so if they were living in your house!”).

But, on a more fiendish level, this is a brilliant propaganda maneuver, insofar as it equates the demonstrators themselves with illegal aliens, so the more people there are demonstrating for immigrant rights, the more illegal aliens there are, which just proves how bad the problem is!

Imagine how beautiful the world could be if whoever came up with that idea decided to use their power for good instead.

But anyway, to get to my actual point, the thing that really struck me is the stated position of most of the anti-immigration folks I’ve seen interviewed, which is “I have no problem with immigration, I’m just opposed to illegal immigration." But if it’s so easy to come here legally, why exactly do they think so many people are doing it illegally? They’re willing to spend three months locked in a metal shipping container, but they’re too lazy to fill out a few forms?

I’m not even saying I have an answer to that question. I just want to know why no one is asking it.

Generally speaking, I have found that when large groups of people do things that make no sense to me, it usually means that I’m missing something (rather than that they are all crazy and/or evil). But you’d be surprised at how many media pundits would disagree with me on that.