Manhattan Digest

Grammy Award Predictions: Record Of The Year

Music’s biggest night is only three weeks away now, where the 2014 Grammy Awards will take place live on CBS at 8PM Eastern, 7 Central. The Grammy Committee released its nomination list in early December to much fanfare and shock. One of the biggest awards of the night, if not the biggest, is “Record Of The Year”, an award that is recent years has gone to Adele’s “Rolling In The Deep”, Lady Antebellum’s “Need You Now”, and most recently Gotye & Kimbra’s “Somebody That I Used To Know”. This year’s category is interesting as it really isn’t that cut and dry as it was in previous years, which makes this category amongst others that much more interesting. Let’s break down the nominees, and see who was left out, who should win and ultimately who will win.

Record Of The Year Nominees-

Daft Punk Featuring Pharrell Williams- “Get Lucky”

Lorde- “Royals”

Robin Thicke Featuring T.I. & Pharrell Williams- “Blurred Lines”

Bruno Mars- “Locked Outta Heaven”

Imagine Dragons- “Radioactive”

Who Got Snubbed Yo-

There were a couple of people that I thought could’ve definitely been in the running for this category, but above all I think the Grammy Award Nomination Committee got this one right. Justin Timberlake was the biggest snub in my opinion for his song “Mirrors” as I thought he was kind of a shoo in for this and the other two main categories (Song, Album of the Year). Other hopefuls for this were Drake’s “Hold On We’re Going Home” and Taylor Swift’s “I Knew You Were Trouble” as they tend to love both artists in their perspective categories (Rap, Country).

The Long Shot-

The Long Shot here in my opinion is Bruno Mars, as when you look at his track record at the Grammy’s he always seems to be the bridesmaid and never the bride in terms of the big categories. The Grammy Award committee always nominates him for these particular awards, yet he never seems to win them. Granted he has won one, but he also has been nominated about 10 times in the past couple of years. So this will come and go for him again as he is always up against bigger fish.

Who Will Win-

There can definitely be an argument for each of the nominees for who will win this, minus Bruno Mars. I feel like Pharrell might be the thorn in both nominees sides because each song came out at the same time over the summer, and received similar fanfare in terms of chart positions, airplay and overall sales. I get the feeling that the Grammy Award committee that votes for this won’t really be able to differentiate between the two, and they will cancel themselves out. So this leaves “Radioactive” and “Royals”. Alternative has definitely had its moments for “Record Of The Year” over the past decade, with acts like Gotye, Kings Of Leon, Green Day and Amy Winehouse winning. That being said, my money is on “Radioactive” to win, as it seems to go with how the Grammy’s have voted on in the past. An upset for Lorde would be great, but I’m not counting on it that much.

Who Should Win-

I have a hard time breaking this down as for me it is between two songs- “Royals” and “Get Lucky”. “Blurred Lines” was great but I felt like it was overplayed and redundant after a while. I do feel as though “Blurred Lines” in the grand scheme of things could be considered the ROTY as it was the highest selling song on iTunes and stayed number one on the Billboard Hot 100 for such a long time, but personally I don’t feel that it is. Neither do I feel this way about “Locked Outta Heaven” and “Radioactive”. “Royals” has a simple beat with some simple backup singers, yet Lorde’s amazing falsetto and message of an anti bling society that she wants to be the queen of really rang true for me. In a world of Miley/One Direction mania, she really comes in to counteract something like those two and bring a more authentic sound to what she is doing. “Royals” would be a great winner. As for “Get Lucky”, two words- Nile Rodgers. Anytime you hook him up on a song it is going to be dope. “Get Lucky” is one of those songs that is just as good instrumentally as it is with Pharrell’s smooth vocals. It was the best dance track of 2013 in my opinion, and I would just love to see this win off the sheer fun of Daft Punk getting on the Grammy Award stage with those helmets to accept. Tee hee.

Who do you think should win? Take a listen to a Grammy podcast that I did with my good friend John Campanario last month after the nominations were released to hear our perspective on who should and will win. Best of luck to The Grammy Award nominees!

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Top 10 Hip-Hop albums of 2013 | Hip Hop

by Peter Foy

Coming to the end of the year, my brother and I began talking about who should write what best-of-the-year-lists for certain mediums. We both agreed that he should make a top 10 list for music, but the more he talked about his process towards completing a list, it made me wonder how much different a list by me would look. It made me realize that while I had enveloped just as much music this year as he did, there were just too many different genres and styles that I listened to, that I began to feel that a top-ten music list from me would be a nigh impossible task for me. That said, there is most certainly a genre of music that we both agree is more my area of expertise. That area is hip-hop music, and it didn’t take me long to realize that I simply needed to do a top ten list for it this year, and immediately!

I have to say 2013 was a great year for hip-hop, and one that really re-sparked my interest in the genre. I often say hip-hop music was my gateway drug towards becoming the music nerd that I am today, and this year proved actually nostalgic for me in that regard. There was just such a platitude of great artists working at the top of their game this year, from ones that recalled rap’s golden age in the 90s (Ka, Action Bronson), to highly popular acts moving rap even further into the 21rst century (Drake, Kanye West, Danny Brown), as well as some new alternative acts that seem to have already found their own unique niche that lays calmly in between these two points (Chance the Rapper, Earl Sweatshirt). I left off some albums that I deemed too “experimental” to carry the misnomer of hip-hop (with all due respect to the excellent albums Death Grips and The Weeknd put out this year), but I did include releases that artists were referring to as mix tapes this year (As holy shit, we saw some great “mixtapes in 2013!). So sit back, relax, and strap on your seat belts (courtesy of Dr. Dre I suppose), as this young journalist takes you down his top recommendations for 2013 rap music.

10. Le1f – Fly Zone/Tree House

I know it’s kind of cheating to put two mix-tapes on this list, but I feel that Fly Zone and Tree House both reflect such engaging-yet-conflicting sides of the New York beat-maker/rapper. Fly Zone is clearly the more upbeat of the two, with Le1f demonstrating that his unique talent for rapping over electronic beats could become a club sensation, while Tree House is smoother and sexier, and shows he could be Marvin Gaye if he wanted to. Like Action Bronson, I feel that Le1f is just warming up with this steady stream of mix-tape releases before giving us his first studio release sometime next year, but both of these records give us all something to be really excited for.

9. Earl Sweatshirt – Doris

It took years to get here, and arrived after the whole hot topic of “Free Earl”, so it was a bit of a dismay when listeners of the 19-year old rapper’s major label debut record began calling the album “merely good”. Still, Earl Sweatshirt (easily the best rapper in the LA-based hip-hop collective Odd Future) made a very strong record here, and showed that his subject matter had evolved beyond the already-tired horror-core raps that had made his brand name popular among America’s impressionable youth. A little too abstract at times, as Earl’s rap persona is still a tough nut to crack, but a brilliantly rapped record with some of the most playful use of production you’ll see all year (check out the song Molasses to see what I mean).

8. Drake – Nothing Was the Same

I have to admit that at first I was a little upset with Drake’s third LP. I thought Take Care was a brilliant album that trumped his freshman release in every regard, and I found that Nothing Was the Same was a bit of a return to the style that was on Thank Me Later. Thing is, this album does indeed use the raw honesty that the rapper conveyed on Take Care, just in a flavor that’s closer to hip-hop, rather than the R+B stylings that saturated his last release. It’s overall a very moving listening experience, and Drake may very well go down as the Prince of our generation (at least until Andre 3000 finally starts putting out albums again!).

7. Pusha T – My Name is My Name

Clipse was one of the best hip-hop duos of the 2000s, and for Pusha T’s solo record he proves that he can hold his own without his brother Malice backing him up. Sure, it doesn’t hurt that he has Kanye West executive producing the record, but aside from the high-end production and polish, Pusha T shows he has the wit, charisma and energy to be his own voice, and not just another protege of Yeezy’s. Also, I just have to say that Kendrick Lamaar gives possibly the best guest spot of the year on Nosestalgia, and I already can’t wait to hear his next album!

6. Ghostface Killah – 12 Reasons to Die

After two decades of being the Wu-Tang Clan’s most eclectic and evolving emcee, one has to ask if there’s anything more the 43-year old veteran can do…clearly a lot! Enlisting American composer Adrian Younge (who supplied the soundtrack for the blaxploitation spoof Black Dynamite), Ghosftace has given us a giallo-film-inspired concept album about a crime lord who is killed in a gang war, and then resurrected to lay bloody waste to his enemies. Spitting violent imagery and pulp narratives at a rate and quality that would make Tarantino proud (would it be asking too much for him to direct a film adaptation?), and featuring guest appearances by most of the other Wu-Tang Clan, as far as I’m concerned, this is the best thing to invoke the group’s spirit to come out of 36 Chambers 20th anniversary year. I’ve been calling Ghostface my favorite emcee for years now, and 12 Reasons to Die is proof enough to me that he’s going to remain so

5. Ka – The Night’s Gambit

If it wasn’t the most under-appreciated rap album of the year, then it’s only because not enough people listened to the damn thing! Ka, a Wu-Tang affiliate who some of you might have heard rap a solo track on the GZA album Pro-Tools, is that rare breed of rapper that uses his middle-age as a benefactor. At 41, Ka’s mindset seems to still be inherent to the 90s, with his talk of thug life, street poverty, and that era when New York was known as the Concrete Jungle, all while using eerie beats that recall early Mobb Deep and Wu-Tang. Yet he approaches these well-worn topics with a sense of maturity and wisdom, that lets you feel like you are really hearing the words of a wise street prophet, who has managed to survive the chaos of urban decay. Whether talking about spiritual re-awakening after violence, or rapping a street narrative that also happens to be a hip-hop history lesson (the track Off the Record incorporates the names of classic hip-hop records in the lyrics, similar to how the GZA referenced record companies on his famous track Labels), The Night’s Gambit is serious, no bull-shit, hardcore rap, and it’s up there with Savages’ Silence Yourself as one of the most awe-inspiring throwback albums of the year.

4. Chance the Rapper – Acip Rap

He’s barely out of his teens, raps while on drugs, often rhymes using the most nonsensical sentences, and he sounds like Ol’ Dirty Bastard as a pimply faced teenager with asthma…I love him already. The Chicago emcee is certainly unique, but it’s also surprising how heartfelt and thought provoking his songs can be. On songs like Acid Rap and Everything’s Good (Good Ass Outro), the rapper brings up all his woes concerning death, addiction and loss of innocence, all while coming off as a cute-and-cuddly teddy bear who happens to be a chain smoker. I’m hoping that in the future Chance realizes that Acid Rap is just too good to be called a mix tape, and will indeed be seen as his proper debut (I felt something similar happened with Danny Brown’s XXX). Regardless, Acid Rap is my pick for best debut record from a rapper this year, and possibly the genre’s most unique new voice since Danny Brown.

3. Run the Jewels – Run the Jewels

El-P and Killer Mike both released great albums last year (which El-P both produced), so obviously the only question remaining was this: what if they made one together? Well, fans got their answer through Run the Jewels, a project that both rappers said was intended to merely be a fun little exercise for them, but it ended up being one of the best and most succinct hip-hop releases of the year. Over the album’s ten tracks, Killer Mike and El-P mostly restrain from being overtly political or meaningful, and instead just talk shit and try and have a good time. It’s a half-hour of witty verses, El-P’s futuristic beats, and an attitude that’s as tough-as-it-is-intelligent, and must be the most consistent and compact rap record this year. It sounds like a Method Man and Redman album from the year 2054, which sounds all the more awesome the more I think about it.

2. Kanye West – Yeezus

Technically it should be number 1 on this list, but something kept me from putting it there. No, it’s not that it’s too obvious, it’s more that I’m not exactly sure how well the album will age down the line. Right now, however, Yeezus is a brilliant release from hip-hop’s most discussed personality, and one that acts as sort of an inevitable destination point for him. While certainly a bizarre album, both lyrically and production wise, Yeezus is very much a culmination of all of Kanye’s past albums and his always evident obsessions, from his infatuation with his egotism, to his possibly clinical sex drive. At forty minutes also, the album is lean and filler-less, and even seems to fit the format of some of the synth-groups that Kanye appears to be imitating (i.e. Suicide, Throbbing Gristle). It’s still unclear whether Yeezus will go down as the rappers crowning achievement (might be hard to do, cause shit, that guy’s put out some really fucking good albums), but it’s likely that it will go down as his most Lynchian work. Like Eraserhad, I’m not entirely sure what it is or what the artist behind it is trying to say, but I am sure that it’s fantastic!

1. Danny Brown – Old

Is Danny Brown the single most crazy, endearing, vulgar, eclectic, distinct and original emcee in the game right now? That’s certainly a helluva claim (especially as a lot of those adjectives seem to contradict each other), but after listening to Danny’s latest release it’s hard to think of another. Over Old’s 19 tracks, the rapper touches on a plethora of different music styles that range from gangsta rap, to house, to alternative pop, while never breaking his singular character. What’s more, he’s a rapper that always has something to say, such as when he’ll spit party rhymes that are as ugly as they are lively, and then speak on darker issues such as his struggles with depression and addiction. Hell, as much as I love Danny Brown’s on-stage persona as a drug and sex fiend, I’m hoping he only continues to show more of his softer side on later records. A masterpiece of an album from a performer completely in control of his image and artistry

Breaking Down Kluwe and The Homophobia in Sports

by Ryan Shea

Manhattan, Manhattan Digest, Chris Kluwe — Credit to: The Current

Chris Kluwe for me was always a hero in the sports world, because he did things that really were never done before. What is that? Stand up to homophobia in such a way that it even made people question his sexuality. Same thing happened with other gay rights activists such as Ben Cohen and David Beckham, and similarly Macklemore who changed the face of hip-hop with his equality anthem “Same Love” that featured Mary Lambert, a gay singer. Chris just released an article yesterday on Deadspin alleging that he was let go of the Minnesota Vikings due to his support of the gay community, and blaming two cowards (Leslie Frazier & Rick Spielman) and a bigot to boot (Mike Priefer).

Since the fallout of the article, The Minnesota Vikings have released statements saying that Kluwe’s stance on marriage equality had nothing to do with him being fired, it was purely based on his performance in the sport. This is something that Kluwe vigorously denies, as he believes it was his viewpoints that cost him a spot on the team. So what seems to be the ultimate conclusion in all of this? It is simple as this- Homophobia exists in these kinds of arenas. It always has been, and it always will be.

As someone who grew up playing football, starting in little league, I cared more about the love of the game than worrying about being gay in a sport that is known for its machismo and masculinity on top of its over aggressive behavior for something as simple as throwing a ball around. I made the decision easily to join the Junior Varsity football team when I was in 9th grade, as I played throughout my middle school years. I was still heavily in the closet at that point, and didn’t want anyone knowing out of fear of being teased and bullied. I was actually asked during a routine football practice by a friend if I was gay, and I don’t know if I was just tired of being in the closet or the humidity that day. So I told him. He pretty much said, “Ryan, we’ve known for years. No one cares, just be happy”. That kind of encouragement allowed me to talk to a couple of other guys, until one of them told… the entire school.

As much as I hated that one particular guy and wanted to get him back for what he did to me, I didn’t. I became one of the lucky gay youth who was embraced by his peers and not shunned or ridiculed for something that they themselves couldn’t control. I did quit the football team because after I was outed I somehow felt a sense of defeat and judgement from the rest of the team, something that I still believe is true to this day. There were however guys who rallied around me and saw me for Ryan and not that gay kid, which is something I am forever indebted for them for.

So why bring up that story? Because it all goes back to what Kluwe is striving for- acceptance. I shouldn’t have to feel like my sexuality is a barrier to playing a sport that not only do I like but I happened to be quite good at at a certain point in my life. He just wanted to make sure that everyone is treated equal be in at a job or even if two people of the same sex wanted to get married. This is what I love about guys like him and why in a way he is a personal hero of mine. Even as a straight man he has knocked down the doors for several gay athletes to come out and feel like the sport should matter, not the personal stuff. So regardless if what he is saying is true or not, he has made himself legendary for something he didn’t need to in the first place. What do I call that besides being awesome? Progress.

High Marks for Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones

by Dane Benko

Viewer beware, you are entering into the lost land of imagination, after the warmth of Hollywood’s carefully placed and critically lauded hits have faded and you settle down to bed, intending to hit up the cineplexes over the next few weeks for a bit of catch-me-up before all those award shows hit, and upon scanning the listings, have the horrifying misfortune of seeing the new releases. It has arrived: January, Hollywood’s graveyard of zombie franchises.

And what better to start the toss off into lonely auditoriums than a new spin-off of the wildly successful Paranormal Activity series. The Marked Ones has all the warning signs of a train wreck: they’ve stopped numbering the iterations, the release was pushed back from the franchise’s annual holding space as the go-to Halloween movie, and except for a couple announced cameos, it’s dropping the lineage of the previous installments in favor of a brand new cast. You could almost say it was… marked… for failure?

Except I basically had all that written before I’d seen it. It’s actually a lot of fun, and if you’re getting tired seeing the giants of Hollywood clash over golden figurines, you might as well jump in for the ride.

Helmed by franchise writer Christopher Landon, The Marked Ones follows Jesse and Hector, two best buds recently graduated from high school, staving off boredom in their run-down apartment complex by toying around with the new camera Jesse’s received for graduation. Between smoking pot and pranking each other, the two manage to start poking their camera into places they don’t belong and end up finding a strange ritual they don’t understand performed by Anna, the old woman downstairs, who they quickly decide must be some bruja.

Which isn’t really enough to distract them from setting off fireworks and other shenanigans, until Carlos the school valedictorian shows up and offs the old lady in a spectacular manner while Jesse notices a strange mark appear on his wrist, not to mention suddenly acquires spectacular abilities of strength and levitation. Which is all well and good for his YouTube channel until strange noises start upsetting the electronics and his behavior starts to get weird.

Paranormal Activity The Marked Ones screenshot — “Yo Mr. White, what’d you do to my eye?” Oh wait, wrong Jesse.

From there it’s all exorcisms and shaky cam as Jesse and friends venture progressively deeper into lower levels of the bruja’s hellhole and even follow up on trying to find what caused Carlos to go loco. Ali Rey makes her appearance to provide tie-in and exposition, and the audience tries to tell the characters what not to do as they immediately proceed to do precisely that.

However what makes the movie really roll is the friendship between Hector, played by Jorge Diaz, and Jesse, the headlining Andrew Jacobs. As horror protagonists, they do predictably stupid things, but as Latino teenagers just trying to spend their last summer together and get laid, they’re those really goofy guys you know from that one party we don’t talk about.

Like how a good children’s movie will provide some references that will go over the head of the kiddos so that the adults can have a laugh, Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones contains enough bumps, screeches, and scratches to keep the 14 year olds on edge while using the same elements of surprise and shock for some rather good slapstack pratfalls and screwball Spanglish. The found footage style lets the story jump cut and fast forward through all the boring stuff until Hector manages to get the neighborhood gangsters to pull out the big guns (literally) and it’s all Cholos versus Brujas in some empty plastic-and-dust mansion somewhere up in mapped but unmarked gringo territory.

It’s worth the price of admission as long as you allow your b-movies to be packaged in a brand name. The Paranormal Activity series has managed to keep a legitimate cult following from its beginnings as an actually independent breakout hit through its progressively commercial sequels (and prequel), and The Marked Ones indicates that the filmmakers are willing to expand the world and make it playful.

With the New Year Comes New TV | Best New TV Shows

by Michael Tyminski

New Year’s Day always has a slightly bittersweet feel to it due to it being the end of a month of holiday parties and light work loads. Pop culture also tends to lag into the new year, the result of shorter season orders, the movie dumping ground, and the (often accurate) assumption that people are not gonna spend money on music after the spend-a-thon that is the holiday shopping season.

This year, however, we hit the ground running on mid-season due to Sochi’s Winter Olympics displacing the brunt of the traditional February sweeps period, pushing other events like the Oscars and Grammys out of February (The Olympics eat up three of the four weekends in February, while TV’s largest event – some football game being played in New Jersey – eats up the fourth). This is particularly notable as CBS and NBC both are pushing out new slates of episodes from their comedy lineup tonight, while ABC trots out The Taste for a new season while also debuting it’s new show The Assets.

This time around, the mid-season schedule trots out the return of a number of old favorites, be it a competition show like American Idol (a show that schedule prognosticators for next year will be eyeing like a hawk as it’s success has major ramifications on Fox’s fall slate for 2014-15), comedies such as Archer, Community (a personal favorite, and one that has danced around the cancellation ax twice already), and dramas such as The Following (a permanent half-season fixture due to an episode cap in Kevin Bacon’s contract) and House of Cards (dropping on Netflix Valentine’s day).

The displacement is also going to create two waves of new shows, one wave in January, and a large spring wave that looks to pick up around the tail end of February. Amongst the shows receiving the most hype in the January window include the legal dramedy Rake (with Greg Kinnear), HBO’s True Detective (with big names such as Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey), and Dick Wolf’s Chicago PD. Notable later debuts include Crisis and Mixology (which gets the Modern Family lead-in despite not really fitting with ABC’s family comedy Wednesdays).

In terms of event TV (a word that will be thrown around quite a bit this year), this mid-season is packed to the gills, between the Golden Globes (1/12), the Grammys (1/26), the Oscars (3/6), the Winter Olympics (2/7 until 2/23), and some football game that everyone watches for the ads (2/2). As with last year, I will be live blogging the three aforementioned awards shows right here on Manhattan Digest.

In addition to all of the above, we also will see NBC attempt yet another changing of the guard at late-night, this time deposing Jay Leno from The Tonight Show for current Late Night host Jimmy Fallon. Seth Meyers will then move into the 12:30 am spot. Hopefully for all parties involved this goes considerably more gracefully than what we got when the peacock tried the same maneuver five years ago (a maneuver that NBC is still feeling the sting of today).

Next Time: Regular reviews pick back up Tuesday, with ABC’s new drama Killer Women.

Journeying Inside Llewyn Davis

by Dane Benko

The trailer for the new Coen brothers movie was a surprisingly dry tease. With stilted, almost Mumblecore dialog in desaturated imagery over Bob Dylan’s folk chords, the trailer sold the movie as any other 20-something inspired indie flick. To frustrate the viewer further, it cuts to black before the audience even hears Llewyn’s first acoustic strum. Upon unwrapping, however, Inside Llewyn Davis proves to be a box stuffed full of the Coen brothers’ best working habits, complete with amusingly dysfunctional failures of characters, dialog that variously nips and bites, and for what it’s worth, the best folk soundtrack for a movie seen since… well, the Coen brothers’ other folk-inspired Odyssey, O Brother, Where Art Thou?

Inside Dave Van Ronk album cover — Take note of this cover.

Oscar Isaac takes up the role of a couch-surfing New York folk singer in 1961, who is also a physical amalgamation of early Bob Dylan and his colleague Dave Van Ronk (the latter comparison is revealed explicitly by the cover of Llewyn’s new solo album Inside Llewyn Davis, which remakes the cover of real life album Inside by Dave Van Ronk). The movie begins in media res with an answer to the cutaway of the trailer, by settling right in to a concert at The Gaslight in Greenwich Village (again, Van Ronk’s old haunting grounds). After a pleasant introductory song you get used to the smoky enchantment of the place, rendered by new(ish) Coen brother collaborator Bruno Delbonnel (Roger Deakins was busy shooting Skyfall, so the brothers hired the director of photography from their Paris, je t’aime short). Once the piece is over, however, events quickly turn brutal, as Llewyn apologizes for hitherto unknown drunken actions of the night before to his barkeep friend, and then gets kicked and beaten outside the bar.

It turns out that the beginning is a bookend device and the background to these events are strung out from there. Llewyn Davis is feckless at best: sleeping in an unending circle of his friends’ couches, dropping his equipment off hither tither, and trying to run away from either some crushing responsibility or inner demons, it only becomes clear later which. He’s the existential and dramatic counterpoint to a slapstick hero, his thoughts always one step behind his own actions, resulting in a cascade of negative consequences.

Within the first couple of scenes he loses his upscale professor friend’s cat and is chewed out by Jean (Carey Mulligan), girlfriend of Jim (Justin Timberlake) for possibly getting her pregnant. Situations never really settle from there. As Llewyn Davis traverses the lonely New York City landscape, staving off fatigue and rolling over his debt against time into higher interest rates, we get further insight into the nature of his base circumstances. It turns out that he’s being left behind as Jean’s and Jim’s careers start to blossom, the folk scene starts to crystallize, and Llewyn has to make a decision between finding work and dedicating himself to his art. Thus the odyssey starts, as Llewyn seeks a way to get cash from his agent, the cat back to the Gorfeins, and the attention of record executive Bud Grossman, not to mention come to terms with his defiantly hidden feelings for Jean. This journey will bounce him up and down Manhattan’s west sides and between New York and Chicago, while running him into a variety of Coenish characters such as John Goodman’s appearance as a batty and overweight jazz musician.

As a central character, Llewyn can sometimes be difficult to stomach. With an abrasive personality, caustic attitude, and a constantly burning frustration, he’s every deadbeat mooch you’ve ever been friends with, except slightly more parasitic. Nevertheless the Coens actually manage to not only provoke sympathy, but actually all out empathy for his character. For all his screw-ups he doesn’t have much of a choice, and ultimately his inner motivations come down to things and people he’s lost well before the movie started. The trip he takes doesn’t operate quite like a Hero’s Journey, but rather is the medium through which we gain insight into his past. Thus the movie elegantly lives up to its name.

Whether audiences will muster it will be a different question. Inside Llewyn Davis is inverse O Brother, Where Art Thou?. Where the latter is colorful and fun the former is drab and so dry it crackles. Where the O Brother sold its soundtrack, the soundtrack sells Llewyn Davis. And rather than adapting The Odyssey with folk music, Llewyn Davis structures folk music history around an odyssey. The result is the exact type of movie that excites critics but depresses audiences.

Dating In The Gay World: Extinct… or Evolving?

by Ryan Shea

Manhattan Digest, gay, gay dating, Manhattan — Credit to: Blogspot

Is the “Meet Up” the new Dating?

As we enter into a new calendar year and fresh hopes for what is to come in each of our lives, something that seems to be a constant “Resolution” that many single people, both gay and straight, make is the thrill of dating someone and falling in love. In today’s day and age of how technology rules the world, it seems to be that getting to that point of said love is much different than when our parents were growing up. Back then, the norm seemed to be you meet someone at a bar or a mutual friend’s party, get set up on a blind date, and so on and so forth. These types of situations don’t seem to happen as often as they used to. Just last night, I was at my friend New Year’s Eve party and I met a really great gay couple who explained that they met on Grindr, and had difficulty telling their boss because even though the boss was gay it isn’t exactly something that you want known that you met someone on something that most consider to be a hook up site. But the thought does prevail, is online apps like Grindr, Scruff and Growlr the new way to meet a significant other in the gay world, or are there some people out there that still believe in the traditionalist ways of hunting for a mate where you go on an actual date with them and see where it goes? Let’s examine this for a second.

I myself, have been in both situations where I have asked a guy out online and in person. The problem I have with online stuff is that I tend to cut to the point after talking with someone for a couple of hours on there, because quite frankly you can have all this great conversation and it never leads to anything. Usually I will say, “So, when can we go on a date?”. I have had men quite shocked when I ask that, and when I ask why they usually say that they haven’t been asked on a date in so long. Same thing if it was in person at a gay bar or party. So what gives? This is where I went all Carrie Bradshaw and turned to my friends for advice. The responses that I got were quite interesting and diverse when it comes to dating in the modern world, and spoke true in regards to how each person sees this ever present aspect of our lives in our 20’s and beyond.

Many of the responses that I got came from this- We hang out first, and then see what happens. “I think people date when things are more concrete. Personally, I’m the type to say “let’s hang out” rather than “let’s go on a date”. It’s usually less pressure on both parties and when things progress then then a more formal “date” happens”, said one friend. Another one echoed something similar. “It seems guys are more interested in meeting up first, something casual like grabbing a beer. There after if a connection is made then a date seems to happen.”.

Question with both of these responses is, would we think the same way if technology didn’t get in the way? We live in a world today where we can pretty much custom order a date or a boyfriend due to these apps, and ignore the creeps and guys you aren’t interested in by simply not responding or even blocking them if need be. Would we have the same reaction as above if it was more traditional as it was 10 or 15 years ago? Or is it simply a defense mechanism that we place on ourselves in case the guy with the really hot photo and seemingly interesting online persona turns out to be something completely different and that way makes it easier to divulge how you want to move forward with this person?

Then there are friends who say that technology has really screwed up the whole dating concept in general. “I think technology dilutes the entire dating process…it speeds it up dramatically. Long gone are the days of courting someone; most guys in our community have a plethora of options for “dates” and therein lies the problem–make something so easily attainable and it loses its allure,” says one friend. Another one had something similar in mind- “I think with texting and Facebook and Internet in general, a lot of the interactions we used to do early in dating we did face to face, we now do via technology. Dating as we knew it 20 years ago is over.” Check out this article which talks about younger guys talking about online dating as a reference to all of this.

So where do we find a comfortable line in the dating world when it comes to how we approach someone? Is it taboo all of a sudden to simply ask someone on a date, or has the ever popular “meet up and see what happens” take over and be the way of the future? Is dating extinct… or is evolving?

What do YOU think?

Design and Violence—MoMA’s online experiment

by Austin Arrington

boxcutter — Boxcutter—tool or weapon? Photo credit: HomeSpot HQ

We are often accustomed to think about design in light, happy terms. Design is a way to shape the built environment in beautiful and functional ways. However, design can also be viewed as a creative act of destruction. Design and Violence, an online curatorial project at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), is currently exploring this relationship.

In the 1971 book, Design for the Real World,Victor Papanek writes, “There are professions more harmful than industrial design, but only a very few of them.” Papanek was a designer and educator who advocated for social and ecological responsibility in the design of products, tools, and community infrastructures.

Designers, whether architects, fashion gurus, or web developers, create new ways for people to interface with reality. In doing so, they play a major role in reconfiguring society and culture.

There are two main questions posed by Design and Violence. How is violence embedded in design? And how does design impact society’s idea of violence?

Design and Violence is organized by Paolo Antonelli, Senior Curator, Department of Architecture and Design, MoMA; Jamer Hunt, Director, graduate program in Transdisciplinary Design, Parsons The New School for Design; and Kate Carmody, Curatorial Assistant, Department of Architecture and Design, MoMA.

The curators invite experts from a wide range of fields (science, literature, philosophy, journalism, and politics) to comment and theorize on the relationship between design objects and societal violence.

The project defines violence as “a manifestation of the power to alter circumstances, against the will of the other and to their detriment.”

One example of such a manifestation of power is gentrification—in which entire communities are displaced through interdependent socioeconomic and cultural shifts in design.

The curators at Design and Violence have mostly collected objects designed after 2001, to signify the paradigm shift that occurred after the 9/11 attacks. One case study was performed on the box cutter/utility knife, due to its role in the 9/11 plane hijackings.

Other concepts that have been explored by the project include the global shift from symmetrical to asymmetric warfare, as well as the development of cyber-warfare.

There are seven thematic categories through which the curators organize objects—Hack/Infect: disrupting the rules of the system; Constrain: binding, blocking, and distorting; Stun: causing blunt trauma; Penetrate: infiltrate the boundaries, breaching; Manipulate/Control: drawing into the realm of violence with suasion; Intimidate: promising damage and death; and Explode: annihilating visibly and completely.

The most mundane of objects can be the subject of a Design and Violence case study. Take a look at Daan van den Berg’s Merrick Lamp. According to the curators, ‘virus’ is a versatile term that can mean an infecting agent for either biological life or computer files. This fact led van den Berg to hack CAD files, 3-D printing a mutated IKEA lamp named after “Elephant Man” Joseph Carey Merrick.

Elephant man — Joseph Merrick, the inspiration for van den Berg’s Merrick Lamp.

Andrew Blauvelt, Senior Curator of Design, Research, and Publishing at the Walker Art Center, calls the Merrick Lamp an act of “aesthetic terrorism.” It serves as a subversive commentary on the industrial homogeneity perpetuated by corporations like IKEA.

The Design and Violence website also acts as a forum for design experts to critique each other’s ideas. For example, the Republic of Salivation by Michael Burton and Michiko Nitta is a project that imagines a dystopian future of food shortages, rationing, and synthetic feeding devices. Philosopher and sustainability advocate John Thackara recently critiqued the Republic of Salivation, on the basis that the global food crisis can be solved in more holistic, environmentally conscious ways.

Design and Violence is an ongoing experiment, with no definite end scheduled. The second phase of the project, currently under development, is its Google Earth extension. This phase will enable users to locate the physical location of each object within the collection, allowing for more traditional viewing of the artifacts.

The Wolf of Wall Street – The Boy Who Called…Wall Street!

by Peter Foy

Call me a simple man, but I like my Scorsese films like I like my rap music: crime-related. As much as I appreciate how diverse career Martin Scorsese has been, and I really have enjoyed so much on his non-gangster fare (I feel that The King of Comedy is his most underrated masterpiece by a colossal margin), I still find myself wishing the director would focus more on his claim-to-fame, and I’m sure we’ve all been waiting for him to release another Goodfellas for over two decades now. Therefore, I became increasingly intrigued with following the progress of Scorsese’s latest film, The Wolf of Wall Street, when it was announced last year, as it certainly sounded like a return to the director’s comfort zone. While not a traditional gangster film in the least, the film, adapted from Jordan Belfort’s memoir, would be an epic story of crime, greed and corruption, all while set in New York, Scorsese’s beloved hometown. Now, a week after seeing the film, I have to say that The Wolf of Wall Street is a very curious entry in this year’s Oscar race. In my opinion, it’s not one of the best films of the year, but it’s definitely one of the most interesting, and it’s flaws actually add to that attraction.

Fictionalizing the real story of Jordan Belfort, a Wall Street stock broker who committed numerous counts of fraud during the 90s. Beginning in 1986, when Belfort (Leonardo DiCaprio) was just starting out as a stock broker, only to find the job market in disarray after Black Monday. He goes on to work at a boiler room on Long Island that deals in penny stocks, where he comes across a very lucrative prospect: his talents allow him to persuade millionaires to invest money in worthless companies. Before long, he’s set up his own billion dollar company called Stratton Oakmont, and he’s handling drugs, women and insanity at a rate that would make Stephen Tyler gasp.

The best way I can describe the Wolf of Wall Street is this: It’s a three-hour sex-and-drug roller coaster that happens to have one helluva conductor. At first glance, I have to admit it can be jarring for someone to determine why Scorsese, now 71, would have agreed to direct this film. It’s a hyper-stylized film, that’s ultra-modern and ultra-slick in it’s story telling, plus the world of stock brokers is (allegedly) a much different world from the impoverished mean streets that supplied the fodder for Scorsese’s most recognizable work. Written by Boardwalk Empire’s creator Terrence Winter, one may even assume that Scorsese agreed to film The Wolf of Wall Street simply due to the working relationship the two men have from working on that show. Thing is, upon seeing the film does have plenty of Scorsese’s hall-marks, from vivid camera work, scintillating dialogue scenes, and that sense of attitude that could only come from a New Yorker.

One can see that Scorsese has mined a lot of his experience from his past films to shoot some of The Wolf of Wall Street’s best scenes. Raging Bull, Mean Streets, and Goodfellas all come to mind, particularly when Scorsese is giving Belfort a good lashing. A man raised on scripture and belief, it’s been clear throughout Scorsese’s career that he has no tolerance for sinners, and when he spreads his punishment on Belfort he makes the man look like both a fool, and a total disgrace. Simply put, this film might have the funniest, and nerve-ending drug scene that I’ve seen in a film since Trainspotting, and you can tell that Scorsese must have revered every moment of his shooting it. It truly is something to behold.

The thing is though, is that the script doesn’t seem entirely certain on whether this is a film about Belfort’s survival, or if it’s about his downfall. Winter’s decision to have the story iterated through Jordan Belfort’s eyes as he breaks the fourth wall could have come off as gimmicky, but instead it fits with the film’s playful sense, but perhaps a bit too much. It would have been beneficial for the film’s message about excess and corruption had it shown us the victims of Belfort’s crimes. The even graver sin comes from the film’s ending, which sure, it is accurate to reality, but I feel that Winter and Scorsese are talented enough that they could have concocted an ending that would have proven more provocative, and giving us more a sense that Belfort’s lifestyle is not something to emulate.

That said, this is a Scorsese film, which means that it doesn’t have good acting in it, it has great acting! It was certainly no surprise to see Scorsese cast Leonardo DiCaprio (AKA his latter day Robert DeNiro) in the lead again for this film, but we can be thankful that the collaboration between these two men continues to be so riveting. DiCaprio is slimy and surprising as Belfort, and it certainly enlightens one as to why DiCaprio was originally considered for Christian Bale’s role in American Psycho (they rejected him ultimately because they felt he was still a teen idol). Plenty of great work from the secondary characters too, as Kyle Chandler is in fine form with his type-cast, this time playing a straight-laced FBI agent trying to convict bad-guys the legal way, as well as a brief but all too memorable role played by the electrifying Matthew McConaughey, who acts as Belfast’s justification for why drugs and prostitutes should be part of his normal schedule. That said, the script’s material actually lends itself to some semi-disappointing performances from the other characters. Jonah Hill will also likely be getting a lot of attention for his latest dramatic role here, playing Belfort’s scuzzy buisness partner Donnie Azoff, but while the regularly-comedic actor does display the same fervor here that’s made him a scene stealer in films like Superbad, there’s also the fact that his character is plain unlikable, thanks to his vile behavior and uncouth demeanor. Also, when it comes to women in the film, it appears that Terrence Winter has made them shallow and indistinct for the same reason Aaron Sorkin did in The Social Network: Females are seen as prizes more than people for these characters.

Any movie that runs three-hours long runs the risk of coming off as exhausting and pretentious, but I feel The Wolf of Wall Street justifies it’s length, and actually for the very exact reasons. It’s a lopsided spectacle of decadence and repugnancy, that’s entertaining and hilarious despite it’s very visible flaws. Calling this film this generation’s Goodfellas is so inaccurate, that the we can only be explained as the by product of wishful thinking. Actually, a far more realistic comparison is referring to this film as this generations Wall Street, another film’s that’s ambitions were undone by a messy story, and a misplaced sense of morality. Flaws and all, Wolf of Wall Street is a must-see film for this holiday season. It’s not so bad it’s good…it’s too good to be bad!

Album Review: Clams Casino — Instrumentals 3

by Rio Toro

Clams Casino: Instrumentals 3
Similar Artists: Araab Muzik, Prefuse 73, Holy Other
Genre: Left-Field Hip-Hop
Label: Self-Released

When people say “this guy is one of the best producers in the world” — and that’s something people say a lot when referring to New Jersey’s Mike Volpe (AKA Clams Casino) — what about him are they exactly referring to? Now, I’m not saying that Clammy Clams isn’t one of the best producers in the world, as few really do compare to this one in terms of style and a sense of forward thinkingness in regards to hip-hop beats, but we also get the feeling that he’s capable of doing much more in the way of artisticness. As it stands now, Clams has put out only a small handful of tracks that have remained memorable as purely instrumentals, and the micro-genre he briefly enacted known as “cloud-rap”, can pretty much be named DOA. Maybe I’m demanding too much from a producer who has yet to release a full-length worth of original material, but despite the quantitative amount of work he has done, there has only been a marginal amount to truly sink our teeth into, and that really bugs me.

Of course, tracks don’t have to be memorable to be great, and for the most part, Clams Casino is still making music that is enjoyable to listen to. Unfortunately, this third (and apparently final) instrumental mixtape marks the blandest appropriation of his style thus far, and it would have been easy to dismiss entirely if not for some distraction worthy highlights. And the more I think about it, aren’t those occasionally stunning highlights — such as “Motivation” and “Realist Alive” on Instrumentals 1 and “I’m God” on Instrumentals 2 — what has really garnered Clams Casino so much attention in the first place? His incredible and even slightly under appreciated Rainforest EP on Tri-Angle is the closest he has yet come to putting out a coherently solid listening experience, and for now at least, that will have to continue being the only one.

Anyway, the highlights here lean towards the previously unreleased ones. There are three of these, three A$AP Rocky beats, three Mac Miller beats, one for DOOM, one for Mikky Ekko, one released for Flying Lotus’ radio station on GTA 5, and one remix. It’s an odd assortment of tracks to say the least, and since Clams has moved away from the outward and easily identifiable sampling (“Cold War”, “Illest Alive”), many of them leave little to hold on to other than a slyly choreographed production technique here and there. The best standalone track of the ones intended for vocals/rapping is the breath of fresh air that is “Pull Me Down” — a warmer and more smoothly paced track from the bunch that was also co-produced by Mikky Ekko. The definitive standout though — the one that can compare to his best productions to date — is “Cry For Me”, which places glitchy, warbling vocals over a solid kick drum based groove and some of the most pleasing textures yet heard from the producer. Aside from those two highlights though (plus the GTA V track, I suppose) there’s nothing here to sway your opinion on the producer one way or another. In fact, it’s way more likely to make you become bored with him.

What many people will, and should use this mix as — as it works much more smoothly than listening to the tracks in unison — is to combine it with all of Clams Casino’s other instrumental work and put it on shuffle. Here the wealth of his capability becomes more visibly apparent, and the compilation can work perfectly for night drives in urban environments (permitting that you have the car stereo to handle these often layered and uncompromising tunes). If this is the end of his instrumental mixtape phase though, we should be happy, because it’s a sign that Clams is moving on to bigger and better things. For now, listen to these instrumentals, be happy with them, but just don’t get your hopes up that they will offer you any more than a momentary glimpse into the power of a producer who will undoubtedly grant us more fulfilling statements further down the road.

Track Listing:
1.) Crystals*
2.) Hell
3.) Cry For Me*
4.) Pull Me Down*
5.) Lvl
6.) Bird Call
7.) Freeze
8.) Haunt*
9.) Melthru
10.) Bookfiend
11.) Cold Feet
12.) Wizard
13.) Youforia*

Album Highlight – *

Is the “Meet Up” the new Dating?

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