I HATE BLOGGING

Let's not even talk about the inactivity of Internet Vibes. WHO CARES?



I did my first bit of investigative journalism for this website.

There is an "urban wear" store on 125th St. near Lexington called "Hip Hop." They sell the usual assortment of Roc-a-wear, Girbaud, Akademiks, Enyce, etc. In addition, they also sell a complete line of Ivy League varsity-style jackets. Now, wearing jackets with the logos of sports teams or sports-inclined colleges is nothing new to hip-hop fashion, but I have never been to a store with a complete line of Ivy League jackets before.



It almost makes sense that this store would have Columbia jackets since the campus is so close, but Dartmouth? Cornell?

What's going on here? Is this Bill Cosby's dream come true? Academic snobbery supplanting "bling" culture as the pinnacle of prestige for the young hip-hop listener?

I truly have no idea. I asked the store manager where this idea to sell Ivy League clothes came from, but he didn't speak English too well. He just tried to sell me a Columbia jacket, pointing out how nicely it would match a pair of baby blue Nike Airs.





I asked the guy where all the Brown jackets were. He said they sold out immediately.



I'd like to leave this as a sort of "trend-spotting" post, but why not throw out a few instigating ideas?

- Most academic analysis of hip-hop feels kind of hollow to me; partly because it feels like such a one-sided dialogue. An extreme observer/subject situation.

- Have you ever seen that VH1 show about hip-hop where Vincent Gallo talks about the early 90's, Tommy Hilfiger-era of hip-hop fashion, and he says something like, "There was such a funny irony about these kids who would never go skiing wearing ski goggles and stuff"? I'd hate to apply that logic to this situation, but maybe it's analagous. What do you think? Maybe the people buying these jackets don't think about their purchases in these terms at all.

- "The Martha Stewart that's far from Jewish/ Far from a Harvard student." - Jay-Z

New Age Family Vacation Alert

In what may or may not be the first NY Times article with the word "vibe" in the title, senior Book Review editor Dwight Garner takes us on a textual trip to the New Age mecca of Sedona, Arizona in "In Search of the Vortex Vibe in Sedona."




A few years ago, USA Today called Sedona the most beautiful place in America. At sundown, that doesn't begin to cover it. And it's not just the views. There's a vibe in the air, something not quite audible, a kind of metaphysical dog whistle that calls people out to have a look around and to try to feel something that, if you're not a committed New-Age pilgrim, is hard to put into words.


Hmmm, vibes ARE hard to put into words. Maybe that's the whole point. Anyway, I'm glad that such an elusive concept is considered LEGIT enough for inclusion in THE PAPER OF RECORD.

Here's another choice quotation:

This isn't Aspen. There's a tasteful, turquoise-arched McDonald's on the main street here but no Louis Vuitton outlets in sight.

It was surprisingly easy to find a picture of this McDonald's on Google:


Speaking of tasteful McDonald's, check out this one in OLD SAN JUAN:



See more here.

Now I'm going to enjoy one of those painfully rare spring days when NYC, or at least Columbia, develops it's own Sedonatic vibe. Don't forget that Morningside Heights sits atop a giant GEODE.

HEART OF DARKNESS

As some of you may know I have a new band with ROSTAM, CHRIS and CHRIS called VAMPIRE WEEKEND (yes it has the same name as the forthcoming film). We played our second ever show last Saturday at the Columbia RELAY 4 LIFE. It was a very positive experience.

We don't have any finished recordings as a full band but Rostam did a sweet techo remix of our first song "Walcott." He also made a nice website for it:

CHECK IT OUT

The song basically recapitulates the plot of the film but also contains trace elements of poetry.

St. Patrick's Day Massacre

After returning from five days in sunny San Juan I was greeted by both the harsh cold of winter in New York AND a seriously devastating population fact:

the population of Ireland is 4,015,676.

I realize that not everyone is as into population facts as me, but let me try and put this in perspective.

-The population of the USA (!) is 295,734,134

-The population of New York City is 8,168,338

-The population of the UK is 60,441,457

-The population of London is 7.5 million

-The population of Italy is 58,103,033

-The population of Finland is 5,223,442

-The population of Luxembourg is 468,571

This seriously blows my mind. I've tried to convey this mind-blowingness to other people, but NO ONE'S FEELING MY VIBE. Can you believe that Ireland is closer in size to Luxembourg (both in real terms and proportionally) than to the UK?



I have a bad tendency to equate population size with coolness and I have a serious soft spot for Ireland and its peoplez so this is NOT adding up for me. When the Wes Man and I realized that Columbus, Ohio had a bigger population than Boston we started planning imaginary road trips there.

The population of Puerto Rico is 3,916,632. The area of that island is 9,104 sq km.

Ireland has almost the same population but its area is 70,280 sq km.

I know there must be tons of good reasons (potato famine, this etc.) why Ireland has such a WEAK population, but STILL!

If anyone out there is as surprised by this as I am, CAN WE PLEASE TALK ABOUT IT?
Maybe I should try to go here.

There were 1/4 as many people at the NY St. Patrick's Day parade as there are ON THE WHOLE ISLAND OF EIRE (1/6 if you count Northern Ireland).



Anyway, HOW ABOUT SOME GOOD NEWS?

GET READY AND GET PSYCHED FOR SOME INDIAN MANGOS.



All you AMERICA-HATERS better write George W. an apology letter because on his recent trip to INDIA he finagled a SWEET DEAL which is gonna give us DELICIOUS INDIAN MANGOS at our supermarkets. I'm not sure what India got in return. Maybe some uranium hot dogs or something...

This is from a transcript of Bush and Singh's press conference:

PRESIDENT BUSH: And, oh, by the way, Mr. Prime Minister, the United States is looking forward to eating Indian mangos. Part of liberalizing trade is to open up markets. And as a result of your leadership, and our hard work, we are opening up markets.

You know Bush doesn't actually like mangos. He only eats BBQ. He's trying to make peace with all the blue-state food snobs.

Peeps with TIMES SELECT can learn more here.

Also props to Alec for putting out some positive vibes over on prosebeforehos.

THE DOCTOR IS IN

DROUGHT IN PHOENIX! THIS PICTURE WAS TAKEN IN 2006! BELIEVE IT OR NOT!


KITES BANNED IN PAKISTAN! THIS OTHER-WORLDLY PICTURE TAKEN IN AFGHANISTAN!

"People are dying, and we are celebrating!" said Khawaja Izhar, 75, the chairman of Anti-Kite Flying Democratic Front. "Why allow kite flying for even a brief period?"

AND ME? I'M GOING ON VACATION. SPRING BREAK '0666!

WEEKEND NEWS ROUND-UP

I was struck by two pictures published in the NY Times this past week. Coincidentally, both were taken in Africa.

The first shows some school kids on a class trip to see a hot-spring in Kenya. Here's the article.



The second shows Macon Hawkins of Kosciusko, Texas, currently a hostage of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta. Again, here is the article.



The contrast between the beautiful pink shirts of the first picture and the insane threat of ultraviolence in the second (rocket-launcher to the head?!?!?) reminds me of this song (piece?) by Terre Thaemlitz. In it he convolutes the melody from "Lovin' You" by Minnie Riperton with an actual speech from Radio Freedom, the voice of the African National Congress.

The speaker starts out with general talk of freedom and inequality but then gets down to business with some super-specific and practical suggestions:

"The lone policeman must be made a target. He must be destroyed so that we can get his weapon."

Thaemlitz serves it up smooth. Try putting this on next time you've got your girl (or boy) over.

Terre Thaemlitz - Between Empathy and Sympathy is Time (Apartheid)

I heard this track a lot over the summer thanks to Joe Grimm, the Wind-Up Bird.

Nota Bene: New Balance = Nuclear Brightness

It's time to update the "ghost shoez" repository. Internet Vibes is now the official place to witness and talk about the New Balance ghost shoez phenomenon.

This first one was submitted by an anonymous internet user in the comments section of an old post. I present it here for your convenience:



This next one is another random facebook find:






Finally, here is one that was living on my very own computer. The ghost shoez-wearer here is the one and only Jake Longstreth, bro of Dave and oscillationist with the Dirty Projectors on the epic summer tour which I also took part in.



I placed the pics in order of ghostliness (descending). There's also something ghostly about the similarity between the big guy in the red jacket and Jake in his red shirt, no?

hello, it's me

The previous post has inspired some lively (and mostly good-natured) dialogue both on and off the court. There are definitely some things I'd like to clarify and expand on, but I don't have time right now.

In the mean time, I would direct you to John Atkinson's blog in which he weighs in on preppiness by posting a new and truly great Three-Six Mafia song about poppin' one's collar. The VIBE circle is now complete!