An article on PDF games, featuring interviews with me and Sean Fannon of OneBookShelf has gone up over at COMICM!X.
Thanks to
Friday Music
Here we go — another internet mixtape:
First, we have the Academy Award winner for best song, from Slumdog Millionaire — I’m really glad that Hindi music is getting some exposure here in the US. Cross-pollination is a good thing. A.R. Rahman – “Jai Ho.”
Courtesy of
Ian Eagleson was pursing a doctorate in ethnomusicology, and studying abroad in Kenya. He ended up combining members and sounds from his Washington D.C. rock band ‘Golden’ and the Nairobi benga band ‘Orchestra Extra Solar Africa’ into a new group, Extra Golden. In 2007, then-Senator Obama managed to get them visas so they could tour the US, and they wrote a tribute song to him in Luo, the language of Obama’s Kenyan tribe. Really excellent stuff: Extra Golden – “Obama.”
I’ve been listening to quite a bit of 60s soul recently — blame the revival by folks like Ronson, Winehouse and Sharon Jones. It all leads you back, and before you know it, you’re rocking out to “Midnight Hour” by Wilson Pickett, or Eddie Floyd – “Knock On Wood.”
Emily Wells is an artist performing at this years SXSW in Austin — she creates a new genre, a mix of classical, hip-hop, alternative… I don’t know what to call it, but it’s brilliant. Emily Wells – “Symphony 6 – Fair Thee Well and the Requiem Mix.”
Jukebox The Ghost is an indie pop band, whose debut album, Let Live and Let Ghosts came out last year. They’re a three-piece: drums, guitar, piano — with serious chops. Reminds me a bit of early Ben Folds, but even better, in my opinion. Jukebox The Ghost – “Victoria.”
Lastly — one of the best hip-hop tracks of all time, which I never get tired of hearing. “Engine, Engine No. 9, on the New York transit line…” Black Sheep – “The Choice is Yours (Revisited).”
Enjoy.
[New York] Pedestrian Plazas!
Gothamist – a NY group-blog that I have syndicated to my Friends page – is reporting that Times Square and Herald Square are about to become pedestrian plazas.
Starting on Memorial Day, two stretches of Broadway, from 42nd to 47th streets and from 32nd to 35th streets, will transformed into pedestrian plazas in an experiment that will last through the end of the year and may become permanent!
I hope so. That would be great — I mean, the only vehicles going through there now are cabs, limos, delivery vehicles and out-of-towners who don’t know better.
Broadway is an odd duck, moving diagonally across the traditional grid of streets and avenues in midtown — eliminating traffic along the most congested parts will free up traffic on the streets that are crossed, by preventing gridlock. Plus, much more pleasant for the majority, who walk!