Floating Away

Jonathan Lethem @ ALOUD at Central Library

Last night, I headed over the Central Library to hear Michael Tolkin talk to Jonathan Lethem about his new book, "You Don't Love Me Yet".  The book, set in Los Angeles, is about a near famous Gen-X rock band.  As you may have read, Lethem has been getting more attention for his plan to "sell" the film rights, than he is for the actual content of the book.  You see, he plans to just give the rights away to one filmmaker who agrees on two conditions: 1) that Lethem will get 2% of the budget when the movie is picked up and 2) that 5 years after the film's debut, the movie, the novel and all things associated with it will become open source material - free for anyone to play with, adapt, steal, etc.   

It's pretty incredible when you think about it and Lethem talked extensively about the idea last night.  Tolkin brought up his most recent piece (must read!) in Harper's Bazaar, which is an incredibly well written tale of the history of plagiarism and open sourcing only to get to the end and discover that he didn't write any of it - it's all been plagiarized.  Yes, the idea is brilliant and yes, he is much, much, much smarter than you.  He is planning on doing the same for a fiction piece and I am sure the movie will get some press for the same reason if it is ever made.

The conversation went on to discuss more about LA (he's never really lived here, yet wrote an entire novel based here), mash-ups (he loves them), Mickey Mouse (he is the Nelson Mandela of Public Domain) and Frank Gehry (hates him). 

There are some other fantastic events happening at the Central Library in the next few months and I encourage all of you go here and check the schedule.  Highlights include:

May 9: Michael Chabon speaking to Kenneth Turan about his newest novel
May 15: Film Screening of "Tony Kushner: Wrestling with Angels"
July 12: Daniel Wallace speaking to Erika Schikel about his new novel
July 25: An Evening with Graphic Designer Chip Kidd

All events are free.

Saul Williams @ West Hollywood Book Fair

Yesterday, Saul Williams appeared at a panel at the West Hollywood Book Fair.  I have known of the great Saul Williams for some time.  I have heard several tracks of his and even saw him perform live a while back on Def Poetry Jam, but I was not prepared for the genius that is Saul Williams.

Saul Williams is a poet/spoken word performer/underground hip hop star.  But, beyond that, he is incredibly smart and has brilliant musings on the state of hip hop today.  He appeared on a panel entitled "Beats, Raps and Rants: Hip Hop in Prose, Poetry and Spoken Word" with other artists/poets Jair and Mike Sonsken (aka Mike the Poet).  The panel was moderated by writer/critic Donnell Alexander.

Their conversations primarily focused on the hip hop as an artform.  Not surprisingly, Saul Williams said the most intelligent and thoughtful comments.  My favorite thought had to with his theory on sampling.  He said (and I am paraphrasing) that when an artist chooses to sample a piece of music for his or her own piece, he is making a statement about that song.  For example, if you look at "Ring My Bell" as a philosophy, 30 years later, you might not agree with the philosophy in its entirety, but you agree with one or two points.  So, you take those points and bring them into your music by sampling them. 

Sadly, Saul Williams is not performing in this area anytime soon, but I will be sure to let you know when he does. 

Until then, enjoy these tracks:
MP3: Saul Williams - This Type Love (from Def Poetry Jam)
Read the lyrics for This Type Love here
MP3: Saul Willaims - Black Stacey

Also, all four of them took the time to praise Ras Kass for being the best rapper no one has ever heard of.  I had never heard of him and have listened to a few tracks last night.  More to come on him.

1,001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die

I was at my parent's house this weekend and noticed a book on the shelf called 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.  I am a fan of lists, so I opened up and began reading some entries.  I was pleasantly surprised to see a great mix of genres, organized chronologically from 1955 to 2005.   There are entries from writers all over the globe which diversifies the list a lot.  From albums that I secretly love (George Michael's Listen Without Prejudice Vol. 1) to albums I totally forgot about and cant wait to hear again (see the long list below). 

I then got ambitious (and a bit bored) and decided to flip through the entire book and see how many albums I own that are reviewed.  Turns out that I have very few albums that were released in the 1980s.  Minus The Replacement's Let it Be, Paul Simon's Graceland and a handful of Bruce Springsteen albums, I was moving through that decade quite quickly.  I think it has to do with the fact that I didn't really get into music until high school and have very few early hip-hop albums, but regardless there is a lot in that decade that I don't have and a handful I had never even heard of.

My total count was somewhere around 223.  Several times in the process I couldn't remember if I was on a number or that was the next number (NOTE: I have the same problem running laps around a track, so it's not surprising that I am not confident with my count).  I think owning more than 20% of the most essential albums is pretty good, though I imagine many readers out there possibly have more. 

Anyway, I wanted to share with you a list of albums that have been lost in my record collection but I have now rekindled with thanks to this book:

Neil Young - On the Beach (1974)
Dexy's Midnight Runners - Too Rye Ay (1982)
Paul Weller - Wild Wood (1993)
Spirtualized - Ladies and Gentlemen, We are Floating in Space (1997)
XTC - Apple Venus, Vol 1 (1999)
Travis - The Man Who (1999)
PJ Harvey - Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea (2000)