I bought it at IKEA for ten dollars this weekend. It is already changing the way I live and work.
Monthly Archive for March, 2006
Let me get this straight.. everyone is freaking out about this Matisyahu guy because he’s a Jew and he sings reggae?
I’m not saying the guy is bad. He seems to be very good from the music I have heard (which is restricted to his live album), but do you think we would even know who the hell he was if he wasn’t Jewish and didn’t have this ironic package to sell to the American public?
Even more so.. isn’t there an underlying racist overtone when someone says “he sings reggae!! and, OMG, he’s a JEW!!!” ? I mean, isn’t that implying that Jewish people can’t rap? If I said, “I met this cool guy at work today, oh yeah, and he’s black.” wouldn’t that be a little fucked up? I guess it can be shocking to people in the podunk midwest that a Jew could be exposed to such music and perform it so authentically, but my first thought when hearing him was “New York City” and, in that environment, it’s not surprising at all. Truthfully, Reggae is so mainstream these days, it shouldn’t be surprising anywhere.
But the bottom line is, if you heard this dude on the radio and heard none of the backstory that has been plastered all over the media about him, would you be as impressed by his music? I don’t think you would. I think the music is very average by modern Reggae standards even if it is well executed.
At any rate, my favorite Jewish rapper is still MC Serch
This weekend, I downloaded an NES emulator and beat Metroid. I used a cheat code, but I beat it nevertheless. That is one of the all time greatest games ever made for any console. It’s also one of the longest games ever made for the NES and if I hadn’t cheated I’d still be playing it for the next week or two. I think it took me two years the first time around just because I kept writing the codes down wrong.
I saw the XBox 360 in Target the other night and I think I am so jaded by technology that nothing really impresses me– no matter how impressive it really is. I’m glad I’m not a gamer, that is a bottomless money pit and you never get back anything you put in it. I do know that I have the personality for it and I could easily become one of those guys who plays mega-multiplayer online games in his underwear with the shades down for weeks on end, surrounded by empty Mountain Dew Code Red bottles, but I know better and stay away from them.
I’ve met alcoholics who don’t classify themselves as “recovering” but they just don’t drink anymore. One the same principle, I wouldn’t call myself a “recovering” gamer, because I don’t think I have recovered.. I just don’t play them anymore.