Here’s an interesting look at the beginning of hip hop culture.
Martha Cooper was a photo-journalist living in New York City when she first began documenting the origins of B-boy (short for break-boys) and hip hop culture. While other New Yorkers at the time saw this movement as a trite, uninspired or even offensive fad, Martha found a new form of expressing art. Through her camera lens we recount the infancy of hip-hop culture, from the alleys and subways of New York to the masses beyond the boroughs.
Last weekend a couple of friends and I drove up to Mount Washington for some mountain biking. I’d only been once before, and this was my first time on a hill with chair lifts.
I have to say, those lifts really make a difference. It was great to start out fresh on my first run. We went down about seven times throughout the day, and I had a blast. I find mountain biking a lot more daunting than most other sports I’ve tried, because it sucks to fall on rocks, but it’s such a great feeling when you’re flying down a path and around corners.
Here’s a video of me riding. I still suck, and I really messed up that first corner, and I have some really obnoxious sounding brakes that I was riding all day, but it’s still fun to see. One of the guys I went riding with has an HD camera we can bring up next time, so you’ll be able to see every detail of my slow, slow riding.
It’s a really expensive sport that I can’t really afford right now, but in the next couple of years I think I’d like to get more into it. It’s great fun, and good exercise too. Plus the body armour looks bad ass.
The end of a long weekend is always a sad event. This weekend was Victoria Day in Canada, in which we honour ex-Queen Victoria, and the current Monarch, with Marching bands, fireworks, and sleeping in.
This was my fourth time in Victoria during this event, and I’d never made it down to the parade, so I figured I’d drop by this year. I decided to take some photos, but in traditional parade fashion, my camera died within the first ten minutes. This has happened at the last three parades I’ve attended.
Soon after arriving at the parade, standing in the chill air, shoulder to shoulder with strangers, I suddenly realized why I’ve missed the last three; I don’t like parades. Standing in a giant lineup, that never moves, while people slowly drive by, laughing and waving at me, is what I imagine hell would be like if there was such a thing.
Putting my cynicism aside for a moment, it was fairly good. A lot of schools and organizations got involved and seemed to put in a lot of effort.
One of the groups involved was Homes for the Homeless, or something like that, which was basically a group of homeless people scaring children and screaming that we need to make legislature listen. The cause is certainly valid, as anyone who spends any time in our downtown core will know, but it just seemed out of place in a parade or at least improperly executed. The funny bit (maybe funny isn’t the right word) was after they finished their march, they came back up the opposite way asking the crowds for change.
After my coffee sunk into my system, it was a pleasant way to spend the morning. I think next year the five minute television coverage from the local news will probably suffice, though.
A friend is trying to get me into mountain biking, so I went to the hill with him last week. It turns out that in order to ride down the mountain, you must first ride up the mountain. Our two hour ascent (probably 45 minutes for someone in any shape at all) nearly killed me.
We took a double black diamond run back down, because my friend apparently hates me, but I took it slow and had a lot of fun. It’s definitely something I’ll look into pursuing, but I’ll need to get in much better shape for it. I haven’t really used my biking muscles (i.e., legs) in over ten years, so I find it exhausting. By the time I get to the top of the hill, I’m almost too tired to enjoy myself on the way down.
Halfway down the hill, someone behind us took a six foot drop and landed chest-first on his handlebars. He didn’t seem to have any broken bones, but he must have been fairly bruised the next day. This incident really didn’t help my mental well-being for the second half of the ride, but I made it all the way down without falling. I had a minor incident where my shorts somehow got caught on my handlebars and I ran into a tree, but nothing serious happened.
When we got to the bottom of the hill, I rode my bike onto a wooden platform about three feet in the air, fell off the side of it, and landed head-first on the gravel, scraping my shoulder up quite nicely. I made it all the way down the bloody hill, only to eat dirt in the parking lot. Figures.
Social software: love it or hate it, it’s here in abundance and isn’t going anywhere.
I personally love the direction web applications have taken in the last few years. I couldn’t have imagined ten years ago everything that’s available online these days. I’m a member of a few of these social websites, so I figured I’d share what I’ve tried.
I’m way behind on this one, as I only just started to use it a couple of weeks ago. It keeps track of every song you play on your computer and MP3 player, displaying them in handy charts. It will also recommend users who have similar tastes to you, so you can pop over to their profile and see their playlists. It even provides samples of most music and will create a ‘radio’ out of your common artists.
It’s a great way to find new and interesting music, so I’m surprised it took me so long to sign up. The only problem I have right now is that my iPod Nano usually doesn’t update my recently played list, so those songs don’t get added to my play count, which is very frustrating. It does work occasionally, just to keep me hoping.
This site lets you broadcast messages to whoever has signed up to listen. The messages have a 140 character limit, so they need to be short and sweet. The neat bit is you can update and receive the messages via text message.
I haven’t decided if this is lame or not. I currently have the messages popping up in Digsby, my instant messaging client, and that’s working quite well. It can be nice to break up those long work days with random messages sometimes.
This is like Twitter, but you can broadcast files as well. I haven’t found much use for this. I get e-mailed right now if there’s any activity on there, but I don’t use it much at all. Apparently, Digsby will be adding support for it eventually, so I might look into it again when that happens.
Everybody loves Flickr. They’re the quintessential example of how to do things right. I bought a Pro account with them when I first signed up, and I haven’t regretted it since. I don’t take nearly enough photos these days, but hopefully that’ll change with the new camera.
I signed up for this a few days ago, and I’ve added about half of my books. I’m really not sure what this is all about yet, but I basically signed up for this because I enjoy lists. Give me a beer, something to snack on, and group of objects that need itemizing, and I’m your man.
Basically you list all of your books, and then other people list their books, and….I’m not really sure what happens then. I guess it’s just interesting to compare libraries with other people. It also gives you recommended books based on what’s in your library, which could be handy.
One neat feature is that they’re adding the libraries of famous readers. I apparently share six books with Ernest Hemingway.
The one thing that worries me about this site is its focus on the books you own rather than what you’ve read. I’m currently trying to wean myself off buying too many books, and this site probably won’t help with that, but I figured I’d sign up and see what all the fuss was about.
Feel free to add me as a contact on any of these or share any sites you’ve been enjoying.
I’m back from the conference. It was good, and I learned a lot. I knew more overall about the technologies going in this time, so I feel like I was able to get a little more out of the talks.
I won a 3rd generation iPod Nano door prize, which is pretty cool. I already have my own 8gb Nano though, so I’m not sure what I’ll do with this one. I’d like to find some cool use for it, but I might end up just keeping it as a backup or giving it away. The next draw was for an iPhone, so I unfortunately just missed out, but I also dodged the book draws, so I can’t complain. Nothing worse than winning the draw for a book when an iPhone is coming up next.
There was much drinking and a serious lack or sleep this weekend, so I’m still recovering. I have my first appointment for dental work tomorrow, which I’m dreading terribly. I get to find out, while in the chair, whether or not I need a root canal. It’s a surprise!
It’s been a good week. I rode my bike to work three times, only missing a day because I had no way to carry my rock climbing stuff with me on Thursday.
The first day of riding nearly killed me, as my legs just weren’t used to it at all. After three days, the trip is already immensely easier, and I’m actually really enjoying myself. It’s nice to get a little bit of exercise before and after work, and I’ve had a lot more energy overall this week. With the traffic I have to go through while driving to and from work, it’s nearly as fast, if not faster at times, to ride a bike, so this is definitely something I’d like to keep up.
I bought a camera a couple of days ago, a Canon SD1100 IS. I haven’t had much of a chance to take it out yet, but I’m quite happy with what I’ve seen. This is the first camera I’ve had with image stabilization, and it seems to be worth the extra cost so far.
Thursday night, a friend and I went to see Wintersleep, an indie rock band from Halifax. It was a fantastic show, even worth standing in a crowd of drunk idiots to watch.
Unfortunately, their opening band, The Most Serene Republic, weren’t great. The lead singer looked like he was trying too hard to be quirky, and they sounded really messy most of the time. I just listened to a few of their studio recordings on their MySpace page, and they actually sound pretty good, so maybe they just have to get their live act together.
I’ve attached “Laser Beams” from Wintersleep’s Welcome To The Night Sky album for your listening pleasure.
The Hip Hop Files
