SOUNDTRACK: MITCHMATIC-“D-Bags” (2011).
On the show New Girl, my favorite joke in the pilot (which was brought back in a recent episode) is the douchebag jar. Every time someone in the house (well, Schmitt, really) says something a douchebaggy, money goes in the jar.
This song has a crazily simple bass line–which sounds like “Another Bites the Dust,” but isn’t. It’s unclear from the beginning exactly what the song is about. But once the chorus comes in, the song is just perfect: “D-Baaaaaags: Hey I’m calling from a handicapped stall, dude; D-Baaaaaags:oh I’m a jerkwad? I’m a jerkwad? D-baaags, Don’t tell me how to carb load, I know how to carb load.”
There are three rappers in the song. Mitchmatic takes the first verses. Mikey Maybe gets the best line: “say irregardless while trying to seem smart.” The Joe has a really fast delivery that reminds me of Paul Barman (in lyrics and style).
I’m really enjoying Mitchmatics’s beats. You can download Two Week Off for free. Or you can watch the video (which seems to have the studio version of the song over a live video)
The video goes on a little long after the song, but the song is pretty great. It might actually do to give it a proper video.
[READ: January 24, 2012] “Shore Ting”
When I signed up to receive Narrative magazine, I also signed up for their emails. And the January 9 email contained this story (as well as many other things). This story was chosen as their Story of the Week.
I really wanted to not like this story. There were so many things about it that seemed like they should be red flags to me: a tourist getting entwined with a local urchin; the tourist “doing good” for the urchin when none of the locals want anything to do with him; a wife who is very Christian; and the implication of forthcoming violence throughout the story. Not to mention a piece of foreshadowing that I assumed gave away the ending (although it doesn’t).
The story opens with an interesting scene. The tourist, Dale, gives the urchin (named Sammy, although this was obviously a name for tourists) a cigarette and then realizes that he has personally started this boy on a lifetime of smoking. And he feels bad about that.
Sammy hits up Dale for work. Dale doesn’t have work, but since he is looking into renting a sailboat, he more or less hires Sammy to help him on the boat. Dale asks Sammy if he can do various things and whatever he asks, Sammy replies, “Shore Ting.” (more…)