One man hopes to improve the quality of life in New York City by making books available to the public using custom-made bookshelves made to fit around the city's oldest communication device... the pay phone.
The idea of a community llbrary where books can be borrowed, returned and shared is the beginning of a bigger interaction he'd like to see take place in the community.
Author/director/screenwriter/producer Nelson George has been making the rounds recently in support of his latest novel, The Plot Against Hip Hop, the first thriller where hip-hop is the setting and subject of the book, not just something on the periphery.
Eddie "Stats" sat down with the bohemian to discuss how The Plot Against Hip-Hop came to be.
"This video is a teaser for my upcoming novel The Plot Against Hip Hop. Some of it was shot at this summer's Brooklyn Hip Hop Festival under the Brooklyn Bridge and the rest on Crosby Street in Soho, where a major event in the novel takes place. Through a murder investigation the history of hip hop is revisited and an underground history (one that has nothing to do with mix tapes) is unearthed. Official pub date is November 2011, but you can buy it now at all the usual web sites. Welcome to the world of our hero D. Hunter."
Styles P and Sheek go in, but the combination of Sheek and Tyler is a good one. Watching them trade verses is a good thing... it works and is unforced.
Tyler has to have, in my opinion, the second best falsetto in contemporary R&B, the first belonging to Maxwell. He uses it well on his leads and background vocals, delivering soul by the pound.
"The Great Gatsby" artwork by asianpride7625via latimes
The house that is said to have been the place that inspired author F. Scott Fitzgerald to write "The Great Gatsby" is scheduled to be razed.
The 25-room, 20,000 Square feet, Long Island home, which sits on 13 acres in Sands Point, N.Y. is going to become the victim of the wrecking ball in the name of excess progress.
Although it has been disputed whether this house had anything to do with inspiring Fitzgerald, it does match the setting and geographic location described in his classic book.
Fitzgerald is believed to have attended parties at the house, which is how he got the idea for the characters in "Gatsby".
As the holiday approaches it is best to keep in mind that a shift in information technology is upon us. A cell phone that only acts as a phone is a thing of the past - it's a mobile device. The same can be said for laptops and netbooks.
While they do serve a purpose, allowing users on the move to access information reliably, they are either too big or too small for those who wish to do less work and more reading or listening to media.
Here's where the tablet and e-reader come in. They are not going anywhere, they're only getting better. Think Walkman, early 80's.
The Walkman made the boombox obsolete, not because it was a better way to hear music, but, because it was a more convenient way to hear it. It was lighter than the box, used less power and could be hidden at school or in the streets, unlike the boombox. It also offered privacy.
The same can be said for tablets and e-readers... they are portable and easy to use. Now that Barnes and Noble has introduced color into the game, I don't think we will ever go back to grayscale.
Barnes & Noble Nook Color. Photo: Robert Deutsch
Next week B&N introduce their Nook Color at a price point of $249 - a little lower than high and higher than low.
How does it stack up to the Kindle?
Is the Samsung Galaxy Tab or iPad tablet a better option?
Writer Dave Tompkins traces the history of the vocoder from the mid 20th century to it's use in later Hip-Hop and R&B music.
What I like most about Tompkins writing is his inclusion of all of the players involved in the popularization of the vocoder as an instrument - not just the major players. This is more historical reference than a chance to celebrate a few of the people he admires.
The book's title comes from the phrase "how to recognize speech" being said through a vocoder and misheard as "how to wreck a nice beach".
Actress Pam Grier known for many of her roles portraying strong, multi-layered women in film and on television sat down with Andrea Cagan to share the person she really is with the world.
She stresses how much of herself and the women around her are in the characters she's portrayed(Foxy and Coffy in particular). As strong women who constantly fought sexism and marginalization they helped her to understand self-love.
The memoir covers her relationships with Kareem Abdul Jabbar(who wanted her to convert to Islam, Freddie Prinze, Sr.(who wanted her to have his child) to Richard Pryor(who wanted her to save him from drugs), difficulties with sexual abuse growing up, taking on Hollywood as a young actress during the advent of the Black Action genre and how she had continued to win her fights.
Pam has learned many life-lessons and penned this memoir as a way of giving back.
TODAY show weatherman/personality Al Roker has written a mystery novel, The Morning Show Murders.
The Morning Show Murders was written with Dick Lochte. You may recall Roker is authored a New York Times best seller in the non-fiction genre, "Don't Make Me Stop This Car: Adventures in Fatherhood".
The book is written around a celebrity chef names Billy Blessing. If you watched any of Al Roker's programs on the Food Network, you know that he is a foodie. He;'s knowledgeable and produces many of well produced shows. It only seems logical that he would take a step in this direction.
Thursday, February 23, 2012 
