Down With the King

I can't believe it.

Jam Master Jay of Run DMC is dead. Wednesday night two armed men entered his recording studio and shot him once in the head at point blank range. I found out today when Mike sent me the CNN link.

Seriously, I'm speechless. To my mind this is like, bigger than the death of John Lennon. I mean, Run DMC are the grand daddies of mainstream rap. Without them there would be no Eminem, P. Diddy, DMX, Ja Rule, no rap on MTV or on the Billboard top ten. They are responsible in large part for the massive popularity of rap in America. Like one of Jay's fans said, Run DMC are the Beatles of hip hop. To see one of them die so tragically is stunning.

And it's not like the who east coast west coast thing that killed Biggie and Tupac. By all accounts, Run DMC was in no way caught up in that whole fiasco. Both sides of the country give props to Run DMC for thier influence. These are good guys. Jay was a husband and father of three.

I just can't wrap my head around this. Rap legend dead. I've had Peter Piper on repeat in my CD player all day. That is one of the funkiest most recognizable cuts in all of hip hop history and it's all cause of Jam Master Jay's spinning.

Okay I'm sick and tired of this. I'm calling a moratorium on death! I command that everybody STOP DYING until I regain my equilibrium!

Rest in Peace Jam Master Jay.

Heroin! Just What I Needed!

It's 10:30 PM and I just got back from seeing the student production of Durang Durang, which I can only sum up in two words...FUCKING HILARIOUS!!! I'm so serious! I don't know who the hell Chris Durang is or what he looks like but I swear to God I want to marry him! The writing was just SO ASTUTE!!! All of the one acts were these satires of the theater and the whole audience was just ROLLING!!!

A few highlights: Dave Urlakis in in a purple crushed velvet mini dress, Nate Thompson in bloody boxer shorts...and nothing else. And there was this fantastic first year named Jason Cascio who was just outstanding! He played the lead in a couple of the plays and he was simply rivetting. I think Ben Myers is gonna have some competition when he comes back from Chicago ;)

It's been a good day all things considered. I didn't finish my paper last night :( so I'm working on it now. I'll turn it in tomorrow. Sure it'll be late, but at least it'll be GOOD! Instead of going to class I took my pay check to the mall where I purchased the new Tori Amos album, Scarlet's Walk which I didn't even know was out. It's so cool! It's like a gift package really. It comes with a CD (duh) a DVD with three music videos on it, a set of stickers(?!) a road map, and a little charm that you can put on a necklace or a bracelet. It was so cute! And from what I've heard so far the album is prtty good. My favorite song thus far is A Sorta Fairytale. It's good to have finally driven Tanya Donelly out of my head. I've been singing Darkside for like a week now.

Well I have other things to say but they will just have to wait til later. I should get back to my paper which is coming along nicely by the way :)

Ciao