PLAYLIST -- November (1/2) -- anything can happen at the night show

First of bi-monthly playlists coming on the first and the fifteenth of each month.  Since this is a first, some older snaps on it.  Song blurbs below:

COUSIN STIZZ -- 'Dirty Bands'

normcore rap over haunting production, one of the best tracks of the summer

MURA MASA x JARREAU VANDAL -- 'Lotus Eater (Vandalized Edit)'

an immediate slapper that shrinks and expands -- first heard at vandal's set in copenhagen ten days ago

ALLAN KINGDOM -- 'Take It'

newcomer kingdom slings dope over a hand-clapping, minimalist beat that stretches into a soul sample during the chorus

STUPID GENIUS x TORY LANEZ -- 'Clean'

lanez is a classic on the hook, and these two young kids from boston (1/2 of stupid genius is lil' rich, producer of stizz's 'bonds' below) are on the verge of something excellent.  occasionally reminiscent of busta and mariah's 'baby if you give it to me'

BRYSON TILLER -- 'Don't'

louisville's pen griffey jr. dropped his first ep, 'trapsoul,' last month to co-signs from drake and the ovo crew.  this snippet from 'don't' is a taster of his moody rap&b

K. CAMP x FETTY WAP -- '1Hunnid'

way too easy to bump, esp. fetty's verse

KYLE -- 'Endless Summer Symphony'

at first i hated kyle and thought he had an annoying voice, but i'm all in now -- fun timez beats with a high energy flow and a refrain that brings me back to summer make for a solid track

AMINÉ -- 'Rage/Peace'

reminiscent of chance's flip on 'missing you,' aminé goes from a hardcore, bombastic flow to an introspective verse as a coda

COUSIN STIZZ -- 'Bonds'

sick production from lil rich and hypnotic, off kilter flow from stizz as usual

ROME FORTUNE x D.R.A.M. -- '24/7'

two of the dopest in the game collab on a travis-scott-y trap track

RAURY x KATMANDU -- 'Devil's Whisper (edit)'

original track is solid, but katmandu flips it into a hymnal

MICK JENKINS x KAYTRANADA -- 'Your Love'

mick skis and sings over a funky, left field beat from kaytranana

FRESCO x RJ x DJ MUSTARD -- 'Popular'

classic mustard spin on the song from 'wicked'

OVERCOATS -- 'The Fog'

a duo of east coast unknowns with unbelievably catchy folktronica over warms synths and handclaps

CHANCE THE RAPPER x NONAME GYPSY -- 'Israel (Sparring)'

i could listen to these two spar for an entire album

SANGO -- 'Knew You'

some heavy, shifting, vibes over echoing samples and what seems to be a roomful of instruments

POST MALONE -- 'That's It'

screwed post malone over some snippets of what seem to be glam rock samples -- fire

TORY LANEZ x BENZEL -- 'Initiation'

the kids aren't alright

WUN TWO -- 'Give Me A Hug'

an old timey rework of 'in da club' that satisfies any situation

Spin Feature: Tory Lanez Take on Europe

just had a piece in Spin, which is a decent PG-13 recap of the tory lanez tour, and the kid behind it.

ONE YEAR IN PARIS

i just celebrated my one year anniversary of living here.  like, I didn’t celebrate it, persé, but it did happen.  i had some wine, i guess.  

cats on roofs looking at me

important update

important update: my hair is still growing. it's long and carefree because i haven’t cut it since march.  it’s past the point where it’s a novelty for me, so i’m trying to figure out its next steps.  it’s great to have it all over the place and free and people are like yeah i wish i had the courage to do that, but at a certain point, maybe it’s unruly and lazy and unkempt and i don’t want it long without any shape or direction or goals.

and i am definitely just talking about my hair and not my employment situation.

sicily, early august

view from the apartment

i went to sicily for one week.  it was one of the most beautiful weeks of my life.

sicily, yo.  sicily is bananas.  my aunt and uncle have an apartment in mondello, a sort of beach commune of palermo.  in early august, it’s about 85 degrees and everyone is out in very small swimsuits and the sun, yo, the sun -- it’s like a ton of bricks.  luckily, palermitans/sicilians/italians have invented all kinds of wonderful reprieves from the heat -- gelato, granite, cremino, beach clubs.

mid summer, paris

mid summer, paris

the temperatures are dropping below 60 degrees probably to compensate for the canicule that swept up paris just a few days ago.

i am wearing flannel and a jacket in my new office, which is actually a converted warehouse.  the doors are open and i am not sure if they can close.

the offices belong to les pain surprises, an artist collective made up of a label (or two, not totally sure yet), a burgeoning clothing brand, and a film production company.

29 may -- istanbul

two young girls wear the same outfits although they are different heights.  there must have been a deal -- buy in bulk, bulks of two.  cats dominate the city and behave unlike their american counterparts.

i speak with a man has just begun working at a turkish delight stand in the spice bazaar and he gives me samples.  he learned english by reading classic literature.  he speaks with flowery language.  i wish i intended to actually buy his products.

25 may - thessaloniki

(my only notes from five days in thessaloniki:)

(best photo of the trip inside)

22 may - quick advice on how to fit in at backpacking hostels

• be skeptical of official statistics and the policies of world superpowers
• value art and claim a practice
• speak about where you've been and where you're going
• have recently quit a job
• possess abstract philosophical aspirations
• drink
• smoke
• express exasperation with traditional employment
• speak english

22 may - berat, albania

an old man sits with his back to a fence outside a convenience store in an one road, agrarian town.  his face holds deep lines and dark ridges.  his skin is twinkling brown.  he clutches his knees close to his chest and keeps his legs close together.  i wonder what he's seen.  i wonder about his brothers.

his hair is white and pulled back.

other men stand around him; two in suits, two in blue jeans with loose, short sleeved button-up shirts.  they speak and some smoke cigarettes.

berat

i'm published, yo

friends, lovers,

i've been published!  peep it here, along with a real solid author photo.  might be most proud of that.

21 may -- tirana, albania // meeting lorenc

21 may -- tirana, albania

a boy bathes in the river in western tirana.  men and women pack the streets and sidewalks.  older men wear  loose, short sleeved collared shirts and polos.  younger men wear tight t-shirts.  the old buildings are faded.  cherry merchants stand every two hundred meters; a large, bulging plastic bag sells for 110 leke -- 80 cents.

19 may -- podgorica, montenegro; various, kosovo

19 may -- podgorica, montenegro

a young woman walking her large dog invites us to her apartment for tea.  we are initially wary but follow her.  in the apartment, her boyfriend, a very thin young man sits shirtless at the coffee table watching soccer highlights and rolling a joint.  his face is gaunt.  he used to live in los angeles but was deported after immigration services discovered that he was attempted to secure a sham marriage.  he seems resentful despite openly admitting that he paid a woman ten thousand dollars to marry him.  his girlfriend appears to understand.  it is a bizarre situation.

he asks where are going next and we tell him peja, kosovo.

'pec,' he says, suddenly alert, 'why are you going there?'  we didn't answer right away.  'it's filthy.  it's a filthy country, the city, the people are filthy.  it is still very dangerous.  you will be attacked.'  he is practically spitting.  we steer the conversation elsewhere.  we are not attacked in kosovo.

18 may - kotor & perast, montenegro

18 may - kotor & perast, montenegro

on the bus old women converse with jutted jaws and knobby chins.  one has swollen legs, varicose veins in her feet, from many years upright.  her ankle is wrapped to hide the ugly, heavy.  her husband wears light red.  the creases in her face spell long forgotten words and syllables, suns, moons.  the women wear simple shirts of solid colors.

15 may -- zadar/dubrovnik

dubrovnik, croatia

note: the following travel posts are mostly observational and all non fiction and written in buses and will be further polished and developed. that's why they might not be good.

15 may - zadar, croatia

it's dalmatian. the cigarettes are so cheap they're almost free. i sit on the base of the statue outside of the bus station and a man in a sporty polo and sandals bursting with toes approaches me and expects one -- he doesn't ask. i comply and offer my lighter. he pats his breast pocket. maybe i owed him one in another life. i silently thank him for his patience.

there's sand and hay-colored grass. i hardly understand any words.

a clever trick

a clever trick

i have a locket guess who
is inside?

your mother.
no :)

your grandmother.
no :)

your sister.
i am an only child :)
you told me you had a sister
i tricked you :)
you fell for it :D

is it you?
:)

a poem about cleveland

East 59th and Chester

~~

Here we find ourselves at Chester and

East

Fifty Ninth.

On our southeast corner is a large

abandoned lot.

On our southwest corner is a large

abandoned lot.

Guess what is on our northeast corner?

a church!

there is a church!

On our northwest corner is an

abandoned lot.

During the winter it is covered in snow and

boot prints.

We kneel and pray

IN JESUS' HOLY NAME AMEN.

good weather bonus multiplier / who is hiring

there’s a multiplier, like a bonus multiplier, for how much better paris is in nice weather compared to the cold, grey cloud in which it was enveloped for the december-march doldrums.  it’s somewhere between 3x and 10x and still tbd and not exaggerated.

everybody is outside playing.  old people are hanging on benches, packing squares, spitting philosophy and politics and nonsense to anyone who will listen.  crowds that usually packed barber shops and cafés are spilling out onto sidewalks and stoops.  kids are actually playing.  man.  it’s great.

there’s a canal in the northeastern part of the city called le canal st. martin.  in january, it became my staple running route, and as the weather got nicer and nicer, punctuated by my return into three days of 70 degree sunshine, its banks have been flooded with the parisian youth, hands full of wine and cigarettes from afternoon to early morning.  It's lively and fun.

the reboot

readers, fans,

after quitting my job and returning to paris from a monthlong trip to the united states to replenish my body's need for family love, plutocratic market capitalism, and pabst blue ribbon, i've decided to reboot the NJiT blog.

in the words of one of the greatest anti-heroes of the mid-2000s whose movie had a trailer that was significantly better than the movie itself (at 0:46),


more to come soon.

yo i wrote a thing for vice

happy valentine's day!

slipped a lil piece on parisian undocumented rose sellers into the Valentine's Day slate of releases on VICE.