i’ve long had a theory that the reason hip hop has been steadily in decline, and is so inexcusably awful in this century, is in part due to sampling law. (i say in part because sampling law does not explain the lack of lyrical prowess, also the detrimental effects of the huge influx of cash is obvious.) in september of last year copyright law concerning sampling was made even more stringent in a ruling over the song 100 miles an running by n.w.a. today any note or sound not originally composed must be payed for. i suspect musically it will be the death knell of this already limping artform. (it makes me wonder how any albums have made it to press in the last 8 months!) anyhow if you’d like to revisit the glory days of sampling check out the history of sampling v1.0 created by jesse kriss. it’s a java applet which draws data from the breaks database and creates a nifty visualization of sampling from 1952-2004. the most sample heavy record i’ve found so far is three feet high and rising. check out the full list for every track on paul’s boutique, stress: the extinction agenda, low end theory, etc. very cool. guarantee you’ll learn something or at very least find something to search for on itunes.

came across this piece in the guardian today do the arts matter? in which the question posed in the title of a forthcoming John Carey book, “What Good Are the Arts?” was put to a disparate bunch of artistic types. further questions followed like, what is art? who decides? are there absolute standards? can art make us better people? etc. having just returned from an “art related activity program” this morning, and being overly tired and grumpy from poor quality hotel sleep and bus travel i thought i’d offer up a few quick gut reactions to the questions myself.

Since this site is all about venting, let me vent about my paranoid, psychotic girlfriend who is breaking up with me for basically no reason.  I have loved this girl like she was my juliet.  I have weathered all kinds of emotional storms.  I have been there for her through and through, and what thanks do I get?  I get no phone call, no explanation.  Nothing.  I get two weeks of unreturned voicemail messages and a pit in my heart.  So guys, ladies, here’s some advice.  If you are going to end a three year relationship with class, try actually letting the person know about it.  It doesn’t make it any easier, per se, but at least the person feels they have been graced with enough dignity and class to actually be told about it.  Seinfeld once said that “Seven dates is the limit for face-to-face breakups.  I think three years of loyalty deserve at least an e-mail, a voicemail message, something.  What do you think?  P.S. Excuse the tone as I am frantic and deeply, deeply hurt right now.

hate to disappoint but technically this post has nothing to do with iron maiden. “A newly discovered fragment of the oldest surviving copy of the New Testament indicates that, as far as the Antichrist goes, theologians, scholars, heavy metal groups, and television evangelists have got the wrong number. Instead of 666, it’s actually the far less ominous 616.” this story dropped a few days ago and i wanted to post about it but didn’t really have anything to add. luckily john over at laputan logic had plenty to add. all of it interesting (as tends to be the case at laputan logic.) check it out.

well good ol’ dick dawkins is shooting off his mouth again, this time over at salon. i love this guy. i wish there were more folks on the national stage so willing to continuously challenge all enforcers of the status deus. wishy washy types might get turned off by his attitude. example: “He recently met a minister who was on the opposite side of a British political debate. When the minister put out his hand, Dawkins kept his hands at his side and said, You, sir, are an ignorant bigot.” haha. good for him. i say, fuck wishy washy types. people with strongly dissenting opinions on the big man in the sky need a hero too. dawkins is about as close as we are likely to get just now. in this interview he talks about his new book projects, why god is a delusion, how religion is like a virus, and the notion that america is slipping back into the dark ages. props to the salon folks for that illustration too. funny. (daypass required etc, etc.)

that could easily be the definition of all fine art. it’s how zak smith introduces his extremely impressive gravity’s rainbow illustration project in which he created an illustration for every single page of pynchon’s door stopper. that amounts to a staggering 760 illustrations, all of which were evidently included in the whitney’s 2004 biennial, though this is the first i’ve heard of it (via growabrain). i love this project. i imagine it’s the sort of endeavor any artist would nod knowingly about (if not cringe at, with a heartfelt: “damn, wish i’d thought of that!”) it’s a great project from the artists perspective because it is foolproof in 3 ways. 1) the framework is concrete enough to keep you moving along without need of much angst (i mean there is a literal script to draw from) but that framework is also elastic enough to encompass all manner of noodling. 2) the act of completing a project of this scope can impress regardless of the quality of each individual piece. 3) the choice of “gravity’s rainbow” offers ample gristle for the intellectual art set to sink their bloodless dentu-grip affixed teeth into for days. in point of fact any even somewhat interesting collection of words would serve just as well from the artistic standpoint, but the choice of a dense conceptual darling adds some extra fat to the bone. just see the piece by Creon Upton linked at zak’s page for proof of concept. anyhow add to all that the fact that the illustrations are really very good, and you’ve got a winner me thinks.