Weigh In On Our Swirl Syndicate Poll!

Click "Participate" below and help me decide which one of these two Swirl Syndicate shirts stays and which gets auf'ed!

Poll closes 5 PT, 5.18.10.

Update: Thanks to all those who voted. Your voices were heard and the choice has been made!

Song of the Day

I started my day asking myself this very same question...

Art I Heart — "Where They At" Puts New Orleans Rap In Focus

"Treme" is not getting me where I need to go, guys. I was obsessed with David Simon's "The Wire," so his new HBO series, focusing on the musical culture in a post-Katrina New Orleans, was a must-see for me. I love seeing Wire actors Clarke Peters ("Lester Freamon") and Wendell Pierce ("Bunk Moreland") back on the screen. And I will admit Steve Zahn is good for predictable chuckles. Aside from that...a few episodes in, the show is feeling like a chore.

Assuming Simon makes this project stick, bounce is a N.O. musical trend he needs to clue into next season.

My good friend, Aubrey Edwards, shone a spotlight on the genre with her photo archive, "Where They At." Along with music journalist, Alison Fensterstock, she spent two years interviewing and photographing rising stars and local legends of the homegrown musical style. Here's their description:

Bounce’s signature rhythms and call-and-response chants are deeply rooted in New Orleans’ cultural heritage, including Mardi Gras Indian and second-line traditions. The exhibit “Where They At” documents pioneering New Orleans rappers from the 1980’s, 1990’s, and early 2000’s, the period when bounce music melded and interplayed with lyrical hip-hop and gangsta rap in New Orleans to create a unique, hybrid Crescent City hip-hop sound – the newest branch of Southern roots music.

All photos by Aubrey Edwards

Watch This — (After clicking the link, that is)

Follow this link to watch the trailer for "Waiting For Superman." Maybe I didn't have enough coffee, but embedding seems beyond me this morning.

The new documentary on how poorly our nation's schools are doing may not be groundbreaking material. Still, the trailer choked me up even more than "Babies," the life-affirming doc I'd gone to the theater to see. In particular, my eyes started stinging when I spotted the school featured at 1:07...it's right down the street from my childhood home.

Last Night Was All About A Mind-Reading Monkey

The family spent last night on the sofa giggling more than a little bit over our latest literary acquisition.

It's "The Purple Kangaroo," the latest book by comedian Michael Ian Black (who, at his best, made "The State" great and, at his less-than-great...well, you've seen all those VH-1 "I Love the...").

The book stars a very M.I.B.-esque monkey who boasts that he can read your thoughts. It was our second run-in with one of his kids' books. The first was "Chicken Cheeks," which we borrowed from the library a while back. It fell flat in our household, but if you have a kid who's fond of goofy gross-out humor who might find animal posteriors humorous, I say go for it.

The number one draw this new one had for me was its illustrator, Peter Brown. From "Flight of the Dodo" to "The Curious Garden," I can't say enough about how much I love this guy and endorse the purchase of his entire canon.

Here's me and my daughter meeting Brown at last year's LA Times Festival of Books.

Perhaps it was his punchy, modern sketches that elevated it, or maybe Black is just now hitting his stride as a writer. Either way, the book is a winner. It has sophisticated kid humor, but with silly tongue-twists that keep it light and fun. And, speaking practically, it's short enough that you won't immediately groan whenever your kid pulls it off the shelf. We actually had to fulfill an "Again, again!" request after the first read.

Not to toot my own horn or anything, but I think I do a better job of reading it than the author himself (though, I did so without wearing a furry monkey costume).

And for your parental viewing pleasure, here's a satirical Rated-R making-of clip, wherein, Black asks a beleaguered Brown, "Did you actually paint this with your vomit, or did you vomit on it afterwards?"

The Making Of Michael Ian Black's The Purple Kangaroo - watch more funny videos

Wait...If I Keep Doing Cool Stuff Like This, What Will I Whine About?

It's me...and I'm smiling!!! A lot!

Broken Social Scene's show at the Henry Fonda Theater this past Monday was sold out, leaving me out in the cold. As per usual, I (possibly, irrationally) blamed Orange County for my missing out. I pouted, fumed, slammed a few cabinet doors, then resigned myself to my fate.

Then, I got wind of a free in-store at Amoeba Records. Further fuming, as I figured there was no way I could maneuver myself from here to there in time to catch a 6p "show."

I was so blissfully wrong. I made it there in stunning, rush hour-flouting time, parked with relative ease and was able to breeze past the line of kids that went down and the block (not to mention the scads that were already inside waiting patiently in the humid aisles). Thanks to a fairy god-employee who shall remain nameless, my way-back Austin friend, Andy, and I got to stand stage adjacent and revel in the all the multi-instrumental Canadian goodness.

Kevin Drew and Brendan Canning were in good spirits, cracking Justin Bieber jokes, offering unsolicited KISS trivia and aping cheesy rock poses while playing. They introduced new stuff from Forgiveness Rock Record, which debuted that day (this was Tuesday, btw). Insert the usual drill of all the cool kids diligently nodding their heads and feigning extreme interest with material that they hadn't yet memorized. [Can I say...God, how I miss being in a room full of people well under the age of 50 and over the age of 5!!!]

Everybody made with the fist pumps and whoo!-ing, though, when older tracks — "Stars and Sons," "Cause = Time" and "Ibi Dreams of Pavement" — surfaced. I would go on record as saying it was one of the promptest, longest, most heart-felt and un-obligatory seeming in-store performance I've ever seen.

Follow that fantastic freebie up with a slammin'-ass burger across the street at Umami Burger and I felt rejuvenated (a feeling that would soon be sapped by a bleary-eyed solo nighttime drive back down to Orange County).

One great free L.A. show down...one to go!

'Cause I'm A Winner...No, Not A Loser

Finally, the mail contained more than just grocery circulars, pizza chain coupons and lasik surgery credits!

I won this "Dessert" letterpress print by Justin Richel from ever-cool online art boutique, Little Paper Planes, by entering a giveaway on Art Hound.

Yay, me! Not only am I enjoying this winner's glow, I now need a frame and, thus, have a somewhat valid reason to head to Ikea. (Never you mind how the remaining $200+ of that eventual purchase gets itemized!)