Be Excellent To Each Other

Jidenna is excellent.

Some Jidenna stuff is incredible, but there's a load of shite on the album as well.

Also, agree with Sat about fucking 'Soundcloud rappers', a lot of that stuff is god fucking awful. If I ever met Lil Pump in real life I'd be genuinely tempted to murder him on fucking principle. The fact that Gucci Gang is a successful song makes the case alone for the human race being snuffed out.

Why does this exist? It's the antithesis of rap.

Man's Not Hot gets a pass though, right?

I'm currently working my way through Peter Doggett's 'Electric Shock', a rather hefty volume tracing the history of pop from the earliest days of recording. I'm fascinated by the connections between artists and styles and the evolution of various genres, but it's probably a case of too much information as without having samples to hand or knowing about the artists beforehand I'm having to take his word for it.

I dunno, that Jidenna tune is pretty good, but it needs a better beat.

Mind you I might be unusual, in that I like the whole package, I'd rather listen to a simple rap over some great breaks than an intricate, clever flow over these minimalist beats you get nowadays.

"I Wish" by Skee-Lo has just come on over my headphones, and that's a great example. Simple, clear flow over a great beat with a great rap-a-long chorus.

Obviously, if you can get both, that's awesome. Probably why I like DJ Format and Abs.

Huh. There's a certain floorboard you can stand on in my flat that knocks the house phone out of handsfree. It doesn't disconnect the call or have any other effect, it just switches it from the speaker to the handset. What the actual fuck?

Grab bug out bag and gogogo!

Weird? Does the floorboard make a loud creaking noise?

Not especially. I mean I'm assuming the phone cable runs under it because anything else would be completely bonkers, but it's just a really weird thing to happen just from applying pressure to the cable.

For clarity, it's not an actual floorboard but a section of laminate.

Leylines intersecting over an ancient burial ground.

The wire is probably tight and the pressure is tugging it around/out the socket(s) a bit. Give it some slack where you can and it’ll probably stop.

Either that or you’ve got an Indian Jones style pressure plate that’s being stopped by the wire. Removing the wire will cause a giant boulder to smash through your living room causing a big draft.

What would it be a draft of? Blueprints for correct installation of phone lines? In 100:1 scale?

How about Talib Kweli?

https://open.spotify.com/track/2RVCkAsopqqwKHCKKtHVYP

Missed pun opportunity there - should have called it "Kwelity"

Whoah shit Spotify embedding?!

Yeah, man. It's been there for 36 minutes, easy.

Song Wars?

Wouldn't work with Spotify - people would have to vote for the song.

Best. Song. Of. 2017.

If Craster doesn't do it soon, we may have to stage a coup and do it ourselves.

(see also: sim beex brother)

Technical issues.

There is a sinkhole on Broad Street. This is possibly the most notable to have happened on that road since things got a little hot for Archbishop Cramner.

It's a bit small!

That's just a missing manhole cover, surely.

It's nowhere near enough to fill the Albert Hall.

So this is fucking terrifying:

http://www.wired.co.uk/article/chinese- ... y-invasion

The gist of it is China implementing something not a kick in the balls away from the system in Black Mirror's Nosedive episode where everyone gets ranked on their activities and people with a low ranking get denied access to stuff.

Currently a voluntary system via private companies--though set to become mandatory and government controlledin 2020--people get rated on a range of stuff from credit score and bill payment timeliness to, most worryingly, "behaviour and preference". The latter involves stuff like shopping preferences (buying nappies is good as you're probably responsible; videogames are bad because then you're likely to be 'idle') and even relationship; whether your friends are posting positive stuff on social media or not can impact you. And obviously in this context 'positive' means 'saying nice things about the government' because China.

Equally terrifying is the range of access this can all impact. Right now a high score just gets you bonuses like access to airport lounges, personal loans, easier car rental and faster airport check-ins. However, when the government take over a range of punishments for low scores will take effect that have a wide range of impacts. Access to jobs, fast internet, certain schools for your children, restaurants(!) and travel can all take a hit.

The article goes into a lot more depth about the specifics and potential issues but the whole thing is just boggling my mind. There's not a single aspect of it that doesn't scare the shit out of me.

Yeah that is pretty terrible sounding. Mind you we have a system where most things people ever get is just based mostly on who their parents are. Probably easier to game that system.

Community did it better.

I'm in California and I just booked flights for my next trip to California (May) and next week I'll probably book more for June

RIP my sleep patterns (but hurrah for my frequent flier account)

Great stuff!

Of course the Mid-West farmer's daughters really make you feel alright.

I'm finding it amusing this morning that the Jeep boss is called Mike Manley.

There’s a joke in there about marrying an American, having them relocate to the UK, and then spending half your time flying to the States without them...

How is Danielle anyway? We miss her on Twitter.

I saw this and at around 1:56 I thought of Malia and his red shirt.

is it the end of Bond?

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2018/j ... ?CMP=fb_gu

Christ. Anyone who thinks you can't do James Bond without having him be a mysogenistic dickbox needs to have a long good look at themselves. Yes, Bond films have a deep historical issue with the way bond interacts with women. So just change that and get the fuck over it.

Or equally, don't change it but make a point of highlighting how and why it's a problem.

This is the non-sexist version:

If only there was some kind of modern day Bond-esque super spy that isn't a massive misogynist that they could look to for inspiration.

And then we could have even more fights involving random props.

All of the above.

Just have a woman tell Bond to fuck off.

Or have Bond be a woman.

The internet would explode

Nah, just make her hot. Problem solved.

It was bad enough when people had the temerity to suggest a black man plays the role.

Or a female Dr who, imagine that.

Of a woman?

It would be incredible, I would absolutely love to see this; especially if they just kept all the same tropes. Watching idiots tie themselves in knots to explain, say, why it was somehow bad that FemBond shagged and discarded hot guys but it was okay when ManBond did it would be more entertaining than the film itself could ever be.