Nike organized a nice stickball game/party in SoHo yesterday, shutting down the bottom of Mercer street by their shop. Add that to the 75º weather we had yesterday here in NYC and it sorta had a retro vibe, a corporate-sponsored and safety-netted “kids running in the streets” thing… Nothing wild, of course. Got the phone call from my man 100 grand Tony Chan and headed out for a free taco, but the line at the truck was too long for me - I mean, the tacos were free, after all… what did I expect?

Street was packed, I don’t think many people there had ever played or even seen a stickball game (myself included).

Q-Tip was DJing, quality-control was in effect… 90s sp1200/MPC60 beats were killing the neighbors. I told him I was a little mad he cut Smooth B’s verse when he played DWYCK. Why do DJs ALWAYS do that?

Futura was overpowering them with funk:

The Don of 12oz himself:

“Vintage” 255 Elizabeth Street Nike IDs, son! Spring is here, bring ‘em out, bring ‘em out!

Good times.

One of my favorite artists from the last decade. The phrase “Post-Apocalyptic” gets thrown around a lot, but I would call it more “Post Infrastructure Collapse,” as Jules de Balincourt’s work seems to deal less with mass death/destruction but more with what it might be like during a mass exodus from first-world city centers due to massive power failure, government coup, or military take-over. At the larger Dietch Projects space, 18 Wooster Street, New York, through April 24. Only a few more shows there, so go before SoHo loses another one of the few remaining galleries in the area worth a fuckin’ Metrocard swipe.

Coming to the Wii later this year… Smooth-looking update to the classic. I wonder how many of the hidden characters from the old one will find their way into this new version

I don’t like to notice when I rehash ideas, but this one is always a winner: The Accidental Playlist gag.

So here I am again, working on the computer, and of course the iTunes is running along side me, loyal like a well-heeled dog, but the ‘shuffle’ feature can give it a maverick streak. It sometimes needs a little pull on the leash, so I’ll type a search for a song I want to hear and inevitably I end up with a near stream-of-conscious grouping of songs like the list above. Following other successes I’ve had with words like “police” and “waiting,” today’s word was “bye” and that’s what I listened to for the night.

Got any ‘bye’ songs that might fit? Note that this is not “songs to say goodbye with,” but simply songs that come up when you search for “bye.” Hit me in the comments. I usually end up a little embarrassed by gaps in my library but I can take it. Always learning, right? I of course reserve the right to pull out this lame excuse: I have a totally different song collection on my laptop that I use for DJing, and that’s why you don’t see that one song. That one real obvious essential song. No doubt on my laptop, yeah.

I hate to see even the dumbest SoHo staple businesses go away. I still miss ‘Rocks In Your Head’ and the Rizzoli Book Store. Anyone remember any other good ones? You know, like THE U.S. POST OFFICE?

Feel the rush of ALL CAPS, that is. I wonder what “Big Bob” thinks of ‘Gucciflage’.

Went over to my friend Jeremy Dawson’s apartment for the second half of the Super Bowl on Sunday. Yes, predictably, as a sucker for the dark-horse, underdog, “little guy” (loosely applied here to a major sports franchise and corporation) I was pulling for the Saints - not only was the New Orleans Team/City symbiosis just a better story than the weak “Manning is the greatest ever, right?” angle, but I feel Brees is, in a small part, still spiritually one of the San Diego Chargers, my team. He put up numbers and delivered on Sunday. New Orleans loves him. He’s got that chant. So I was glad to see him lead the Saints to take it all.

Probably my favorite thing of the night (aside from that Peyton pick by Porter) came from The Who’s halftime show: drummer Zak Starkey (Ringo Starr’s son) had the Royal Air Force roundel painted on his cymbals…

So simple, but so archetypically The Who - simultaneously proud and wary of being British. I wish they had finished their 12-minute halftime set with ‘My Generation’ or ‘I Can See For Miles’ but instead they ended with a rather redundant second verse from ‘Won’t Get Fooled Again’... I blame it on the CBS/CSI-themes tie-in.

But I have digressed… Jeremy is a producer with director Wes Anderson, recently returned from a three, maybe four-year stint in London working on Fantastic Mr. Fox. As well as producing the film, he did the voice of the Badger’s bully son, and Anderson gave him the animation puppet as a gift. So dope!

Jeremy with his character from Fantastic Mr. Fox

Congratulations to him and everyone involved with the film for the Academy Award nomination in the ‘Best Animated Feature’ catagory… If you haven’t seen it, you really ought to try, it’s really great. The work behind it is so visible, so apparent, it’s inspiring and it really gives you that ‘get up and make something’ vibe really lacking from the CG blockbuster animated films of today, and if that sounds stupid, maybe this link might help bolster what I’m trying to say… Fuck a Pixar! The blu-ray is gonna be a must-cop for me.

“Those boxers are winning the game right there, son!”

Some silly South African shit for your Tuesday afternoon… Thanks to my man Goods for the tip. If you can stomach more here’s another song.

Watch all 5 episodes if you’re feeling it. Then check this link my man Tony Chan sent me Wu Tang/Beatles mash-ups.

Yeah I rolled my eyes a little at first too, it’s 2010… Mashups? But it’s killing it over here as I do photoshop.

Launch video for the Star Wars Adidas line. You know that resonates with me. The video has some dope cameos from a random array of celebs. I won’t spoil it for you. Except for Beckham rocking some muttonchop variant… I guess someone had to pick it up as Gaz has moved on.

I walked past the Adidas Originals store here in SoHo late last night and spotted them placing up the Star Wars decor. The Vader track jacket is not for me but I do love those Yoda Dagobah chillers and the X-Wing pilot kicks (peep them here).  IMPENDING COPPAGE!

This is not new, it came out in October but I was thinking about it as I listened to it earlier: Lupe Fiasco needs to roll over different beats from what he’s been putting on his albums. The video is his verse from the All the Way Turnt Up remix, and he kills it dead, I mean… what, mayne?

I am on my mmm hmmm
They are on their ‘ohh nooos’
I am really in here
They ain’t real like Soul Glo
Don’t you know I’m so sure, them ni**as got no glow,
find a master ‘fore you can come back into the dojo

...And that’s like the least-clever line in there, I just thought it was funny so I pulled it. Check his whole verse and let it marinate, the kid is for real. Anyway, just a thought. Back to January 2010, where I’m hoping Lupe had such a good experience on that Atlanta-style rolling beat that he’s working with some more tracks like that in some studio somewhere right now.

Maybe I can pick up something really rad for really cheap.