Apologies, but squeezed for time today—have to bolt early to record a segment for Here & Now, as well as arrange a trip out to East Texas for next week. A classic above to tide you over, as you surely count the minutes ’til tomorrow’s post about the new Great Game and the madness it’s […]
Tags:music·R&B·Sylvia Striplin
I just split my morning between two fruitless tasks: the first an investigation of pending nuclear projects in the developing world, the second an attempt to understand naming conventions in the world of cattle breeding. My curiosity about the latter issue was piqued by news of a bull auction in North Platte, Nebraska, where bovines […]
From the 1915 paper that first legitimized the scientific study of combat-related trauma, Charles Samuel Myers’ “A Contribution to the Study of Shell Shock”: Dec. 27th–While in hypnosis he gives the name of hte man in the same trench with him as K. He “sees” very clearly the position of the trenches, their shallowness and […]
Tags:Achilles in Vietnam·books·hip-hop·MF Doom·music·psychology·PTSD·Vietnam War·World War I
Thanks a million for putting up with sporadic, half-baked posting this week. Totally drained by Mr. Mom-ing it, a routine that left precious little time to formulate ideas into coherent paragraphs. But help is on the way, as the Grand Empress is making her way back to Atlah this very moment. All should be back […]
Absolutely nothing in the tank today—totally drained by a fifth consecutive day of solo parenting. Gotta use all available mental bandwidth to start outlining a forthcoming Wired opus ’bout an ingenious casino scam. You know the drill—enjoy the prime example of Malaysian movie music above, and catch you again as soon as I’m able.
This is gonna be a rough week, as we’re solely in charge of Microkhan Jr. while the Grand Empress is off doing her thing in Vega$. The good news is that, with the aid of several Yuenglings last night, I believe that I’ve been able to reset my internal clock to deal with the situation […]
Deadline day here at Microkhan headquarters, so please make do with some downbeat Canadian dream pop for now. Listen closely for a moment that obviously made a big impact on Dan the Automator, seeing as how he copped it for a Deltron 3030 chorus.
Tags:Dan the Automator·Deltron 3030·hip-hop·music·The Poppy Family
I have done my earnest best to keep self-promotion to a minimum on Microkhan, while also refusing ads in order to preserve the pristine reading experience you’ve (hopefully) come to know and love. But, alas, I’m going to ask you to endure a bit of jersey-popping on this cold winter morn, as I try once […]
Tags:books·Calcutta·Chicago·China·coal·India·jazz·music·Piano Demon·Teddy Weatherford·The Atavist
I wasn’t going to start plugging my next major project ’til next week, as it won’t be going live ’til Wednesday the 26th. But this piece sort of blew our cover, plus a pending guest shot over at Ta-Nehisi Coates‘ blog threatens to complicate matters, so I’ve decided to end the week with a not-so-hard […]
Tags:Chicago·jazz·music·Shanghai·Teddy Weatherford·The Atavist·writing
Running late on a monthly deadline, plus putting the finishing touches on the soon-to-drop Jazz Age yarn. Back tomorrow with some commentary on gang life in Port Moresby. Or perhaps some commentary on the mystery of Ma Anand Sheela.
Major projects day here at Microkhan HQs, which means lots of reading up on Eldridge Cleaver’s interest in juche and cold-calling retired Naval officers. I trust that you can get through the next 24 hours with the aid of MC Soom T, one of Glasgow’s finest songstresses. Full interview here if you’d like to learn […]
Cutting out a little early on 2010 to prep for 2011; today’s all about wrapping up loose ends, drawing up New Year’s resolutions, and game-planning for what’s sure to be another madcap 12-month stretch. Lots in the works, starting with my long-promised Jazz Age yarn. As always, check this space for details—or simply because you […]
I toyed with the idea of doing a couple of “Best of…” lists in these waning days of MMX, much as I did last year. But in the course of trying to pull together some worthy candidates from the realms of filmdom, books, and booze, I got to thinking about the criteria I was employing—at […]
Tags:Big Fan·books·Burkhard Bilger·Canada·movies·music·Propagandhi·punk·Sandor Katz·The New Yorker·Winter's Bone
Taking a day to wrap up pending projects, so that I can unplug for 96 hours starting on Christmas Eve. Stevie Wonder will see you through; a great remix of this tune leads the latest installment of Microkhan fave Fresh Produce.
Tags:music·Stevie Wonder
Absolutely nothing left in the tank today—not even enough mental bandwidth to squeeze out a Bad Movie Friday. Spent the bulk of yesterday recording the audio version of my upcoming Jazz Age yarn, an experience that has given me new respect for voice actors. You try saying “Critics and compatriots rarely stinted on superlatives” without […]
Tags:Group Doueh·music
Mere hours away from this killer Wired deadline that’s been vexing me since last week, so please endure one last day of meh-ish posting. There’s only so much mental bandwidth to spare, alas, and most of what I’ve got is currently dedicated to figuring out a way to end this piece. (I’m playing with several […]
Still cranking on this Wired deadline, so I can only offer you a pittance this morning. But what a pittance—a tribute to the Morris Day, a few hours too late to celebrate his 53rd birthday. Aside from absolutely owning Purple Rain, Day is responsible for one of the greatest on-stage gimmicks ever: Checking his reflection […]
Tags:Bez·Jerome Benton·Morris Day·music
Microkhan has a bunch of A-plus material lined up for the coming weeks, including looks at gossip in Borneo, Korean marathoners, chess hustling, and Orissan labor songs. But today’s a wash due to a Wired deadline, so please ease into your Monday with a humble musical offering: New Birth‘s “You Don’t Have to Be Alone.” […]
Putting the finishing touches on a soon-to-be-revealed major project this morning, so just a quick slice of sonic grandeur to get your day started. Laugh if you must at this band’s name, but rest assured that many of the finest minds in hip-hop history can see beyond the cheesy psychedelic moniker. The Electric Prunes’ “General […]
Tags:Black Moon·David Axelrod·hip-hop·Madlib·music·The Beatnuts·The Electric Prunes
While I enjoy a good sci-fi concept album as much as the next khan, few bands are adept at creating mythologies that measure up to their music. Ziggy Stardust’s backstory has always struck me as prosaic, for example, while the “Red Star of the Solar Federation” from Rush’s 2112 is only a tad less schlocky […]
Too sick to offer anything halfway intelligible this morning—to cop a line from Killing Zoe, I feel as if the rest of the world is in a bubble of glass and that I’m rubbing up against it like a bad windshield wiper. As I recuperate, please enjoy the classic Jamaican rocksteady cut above, later made […]
Tags:Jamaica·music·reggae·Sugar Minott
I’m churning out the third draft of a major project this morning, so just some music to get you through the a.m. I saw the guy above, Eric Lewis, play last night in the basement of the Red Rooster. The bloke who introduced him said that he was essentially a cross between Prince and Thelonious […]
Tags:Eric Lewis·jazz·music·Nirvana
The great pleasure in the clip above is not necessarily the music, but rather the bewildered faces of the German kids in the audience. Take a close look—most seem deeply unsure of how to react, yet still fully aware that they’re bearing witness to an early flicker of greatness. I wish I could dig something […]
Major projects and chores all piled up today, so please sustain yourself on one of the few songs in music history to explore the sexual tension that existed between James Bond and M’s secretary. Saucy.
Tags:A Tribe Called Quest·hip-hop·James Bond·Miss Moneypenny·music
Many moons ago, I found myself at a basement party where a band named after a Dungeons & Dragons creature provided the entertainment. The star of the show was a diminutive man with a bushy beard and a strange contraption draped across his chest. It looked to me like a badly wrought piece of armor, […]
Tags:Cleveland Chenier·Clifton Chenier·innovation·music·musical instruments·rubboard·technology
I recently bought a bevy of vinyl off a guy in my building. He just showed up at my door with a crate full of records, which I purchased for a relative song after giving the contents only a cursory glance. Turns out there was a lot of junk in there—I am now the not-so-proud […]
Tags:addiction·Esther Phillips·music·R&B
Just one of those dour days here in Atlah, with the brain creaking along so slowly that the firing of each synapse sounds like the bursting of a soap bubble. Classic ZZ Top will have to see you through for the moment. And if you have a few spare moments over lunch, it’s worth checking […]
Scrambling to prep for a key interview and finish a Wired essay, so just a quickie this morning. The clip above features the coolest drummer ever to brush a cymbal; the snippet below reveals how a young woman named Courtney Larkin was able to triumph in this year’s Miss National Peanut pageant: On Monday, Larkin […]
Tags:beauty pageants·Bill Withers·food·music·National Peanut Festival·peanuts·R&B
While drinking my birthday bottle of Lucky 13 the other night, the Chubb Rock classic above suddenly came over loud-and-clear on the latest WeFunk show. It reminded me how this heavyset artist rarely disappoints, especially when cuts from his golden age waft across the sonic transom. But perhaps what’s most impressive about Rock is his […]
Tags:Chubb Rock·creativity·hip-hop·music
Apologies, really thought I’d have time to write today. But it’s nearly 8 a.m. here in northern Arizona and I’m several notches less than prepared for a mammoth day of reporting. Thanks, as always, for your forebearance—all will be back to normal by Friday, if not earlier.
