Wednesday, November 2nd, 2005

Hyphy vs. Thizzin’

OK, in my screed a while back against the Voice/New Times merger, I left out a not unimportant fact–that amidst all the crapola, there are some incredible writers at some New Times papers. They include my man Sam Chennault at the Miami New Times. And I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, Eric Arnold runs the Bay. We just bow down.

This week, in addition to a feature on Damian Marley, he updates the Yay slang book with a lesson on Hyphy vs. Thizzle. Fine graphic by the crazy Ariel Shepard. Teach.

None of this means I take back a word of what I said. It’s just about recognizing game, yadamean?

posted by Jeff Chang @ 12:44 pm | 0 Comments

Wednesday, November 2nd, 2005

Rant Addendum

So while we’re on the topic of that rant, I did want to say that I’ve been having lots of conversations with friends and not-so-much-friends about the future of alt-media.

Some who objected felt the piece was far too pessimistic. Others figured, eh, I don’t get paid that much anyway for this stuff, so what. To those who feel I’ve slipped off my meds, I will take this opportunity now to say I told you so, so that I don’t need to do it again in a few years when, as one very good friend put it, we could be talking about the sale of Village Voice Media to Gannett.

Still others wanted to draw me into a comparison of Bay alt-weeklies, pointing out that in particular the East Bay Express has been much bolder than the Bay Guardian of late, both politically and culturally.

This week’s Express, for instance, features a thoughtful piece on a friend, Van Jones and the future of environmentalism. Yes, it’s good reading–reminiscent of the Express of the late 80s, actually.

This argument is a sometimes a fun one for those of us in the Bay–and if this were a Friday-night fight, I agree that the Express would be way ahead on the card. (Let’s not even talk about the websites, for which the I think the BG should be crying “No mas! No mas!”)

But it misses the larger point. The Express is unique among NT titles because it’s serving one of the leftiest constituencies north of Havana. When the NT bought the SF Weekly and the Express, it actually did slide right for a time, but swung back left when it realized that because of competition from the BG, that formula wasn’t going to stick in this market.

It is possible that the Express–especially if the quality of its writing remains this good–could generate a number of progressive pieces that flow into red states via syndication. (A very good friend reminded me that this was the case around reviews of my book. Fair enough. I still owe him a few lunches. Though I still don’t forget that Express writers took it upon themselves to personally attack me a year before the book was even out. I guess I had a “KICK ME, I’M PROGRESSIVE” sticker on my ass back then. And I guess they’re gone from the staff now.) But the irony is this: that kind of progressive shift comes at the expense of localism. It’s top down, not bottom up.

Worse, I think it’s just as plausible that if competition ever dries up in the Bay (read: SFBG loses lawsuits, does a Source-like nosedive off the Cliff House) we could have an East Bay Express that is no longer interested in Oakland, but in the growing exurbs on the other side of the tunnel.

So call me a pessimist, call me a whiner. I said what I said, meant what I said. At least I think I did. Thank you and good night.

posted by Jeff Chang @ 12:09 pm | 1 Comment

« Previous Page

Feed Me!

Revolutions

DJ Nu-Mark :: Take Me With You
DJ Nu-Mark remixes the diaspora…party ensues!
El General + Various Artists :: Mish B3eed : Khalas Mixtape V. 1
The crew at Enough Gaddafi bring the most important mixtape of 2011–the street songs that launched the Tunisian & Egyptian Revolutions…
J. Period + Black Thought + John Legend :: Wake Up! Radio mixtape
Remixing the classic LP w/towering contributions from Rakim, Q-Tip + Mayda Del Valle
Lyrics Born :: As U Were
Bright production + winning rhymes in LB’s most accessible set ever
Model Minority :: The Model Minority Report
The SoCal Asian American rap scene that produced FM keeps surprising…
Mogwai :: Hardcore Won't Die But You Will
Dare we call it majestic?
Taura Love Presents :: Picki People Volume One
From LA via Paris with T-Love, the global post-Dilla generation goes for theirs…

Word

Cormac McCarthy :: Blood Meridian
Read this now before Hollywood f*#ks it up.
Dave Tompkins :: How To Wreck A Nice Beach
Book of the decade, nuff said.
Joe Flood :: The Fires
The definitive account of why the Bronx burned
Mark Fischer :: Capitalist Realism
K-Punk’s philosophical manifesto reads like his blog, snappy and compelling. Just replace pop music with post-post-Marxism. Pair with Josh Clover’s 1989 for the full hundred.
Nell Irvin Painter :: The History of White People
Well worth a Glenn Beck rant…and everyone’s scholarly attention
Robin D.G. Kelley :: Thelonious Monk : The Life And Times Of An American Original
Monk as he was meant to be written
Tim Wise :: Colorblind
Wise’s call for a color-conscious agenda in an era of “post-racial” politics is timely
Victor Lavalle :: Big Machine
Victor Lavalle does it again!