It is only Saturday, but this has already been a pretty nutty weekend. Roca Wear hooked us up with some tickets to the Jay-Z show last night. Reagan and I were both completely blown away. We both agree, that it was probably the best show we have ever been to. One of my favorite parts was watching Reagan jump up and down when Rihanna came out. Then again, when Beyonce came out. It was totally crazy. If you want to check out pics and/or read about it, I did an article over on SoJones.

Not withstanding the fact that we got home in the middle of the night, last night, we got up before the sun, this morning (which wasn’t that early, since it was overcast), to get down to Central Park for our race. To our surprise, we ran into a bunch of friends from church, on the way down. They were all headed to Jersey for a canoeing trip. Anyway, it is my first race since I started doing physical therapy. I have to admit that the hills were a little bit tough, after having logged almost all of my miles via treadmill, for the last month and a half.

I was still pretty pleased with my time. I didn’t hit the goal that I was hoping for, but I was close. This was Reagan’s first time running, in a while, so she was kind of nervous. She really did well, though. The way it was set up, this morning, the men ran first, then the women went afterward. This made it really fun, because we were both able to watch the other one, start and finish the race. The weather was perfect for running, and we had a really great time.

It looks like I’m going to be working for the rest of the weekend. So I’m glad that I was able to get all of the fun in early.

Fashion week is here. One of the cool things about fashion week, is all of the cool stuff that happens around the City, at night (after the runway shows, etc.). SoJones hooked us up with some invitations to a few pretty exclusive parties, last night. We set out intending to hit all three, but ended up camping out the first one we went to. The DJ was super good. The Roca Wear people are super cool to chat with. But most of all, the company was off the hook. Sorry to bomb this post all up with photos, but here I go:

Jay Z

Beyonce

Reagan and Jay Z

Reagan and Beyonce

Check out the rest of the pics over here.

Reagan, and I have been pretty pumped about this show for a couple of months now. It was especially cool, because we generally try to get to a lot of shows during the summer, when it is nice outside. For whatever reason (the exceptional amount of rain is actually probably the reason), we haven’t really been to many, this year. In fact, we have been to one, if you don’t count seeing the philharmonic in Central Park. We were, of course bummed when we heard the news about MCA. But we would be crazy to complain about who they found to replace the B-boys. We showed up around 3 and just kind of wandered around to check the place out. It was kind of sprinkling on and off. We ran into on of our friends right before it started to pour. We found a little tent booth that had been abandoned and spend the next 3 hours under it. Hahahaah

It rained for Vampire Weekend’s entire set, but they were really cool about it. We actually still had a really good time watching from under the tent.

After the clouds finally broke, the sky looked amazing. But the ground was a complete disaster.

We wandered over to one of the satellite stages, to watch Q-tip, while they were setting up for Jay-Z. Q-Tip was awesome. He did a bunch of old Tribe songs, and a tribute to MCA/B-boys.

Jay-Z was incredible. The only problem was that Reagan for some reason was feeling really sick. We had a really good spot, not too far from the stage, but she kept gagging, etc. So we went away from the crowd, so that she could puke, and get something to drink. I felt bad for her. But she said she was still having fun. So We just watched the rest of the show from the side, then the way-back. It was actually a lot of fun.

^—Reagy, not feeling too hot.

One very cool thing about the weather situation, is that the organizers are giving all of the people who bought Friday tickets, free admission to Saturday or Sunday. I think that we are going to go Sunday evening for Coldplay. Go here for the rest of the photos.

Here for a video of Reagan dancing to Q-tip.

Vs.

The mashup phenomenon is one that kind of blew up a couple of years ago, and has since died down considerably. One thing is still true when it comes to mashups. Some are good, some are ridiculously bad. When Jay Z released an A capella version of the Black Album, it was like an invitation for mixtape and mashup artists (even really bad ones with no resources [or skills] to acquire said A capella tracks by other means), to go crazy. Go crazy, is just what they did. At any rate, it was a smart marketing ploy on the side of Jay Z (as if he was having trouble gaining exposure). One of the more popular mashups that the A capella Black Album spawned, was the Grey Album, by DJ Dangermouse. The Grey Album is a very “haha” clever title for the album, since the beats that Dangermouse used to lay behind Jay Z’s vocals were all laced with samples from the “Beatles’” White Album. It is debatable whether these types of creations really even count as mashups, since the traditional notion of mashups precluded the use of any added beats. Traditionally, the tracks being mixed would just be sped up, slowed down chopped (or not) and overlapped. But, whatevszzz. That is a conversation/rant for a different day. The song that I’m sharing today is a Dangermouse-style mashup, done by DJ BC. BC released a collection called the “Beastles” where he mashed up “Beastie Boys” and “Beatles.” I’m going to go out on a limb here, but I’m guessing that BC’s idea for this track may have possibly had something to do with Dangermouse’s Grey Album. Just a wild guess. Most of the “Beastles” tracks, frankly, are garbage. No offense, DJ BC. Even the song that I’m sharing contains some corny mashup no-no’s such as including samples of speech that attempt to explain, or provide commentary about the track. Whaaaatttttttttttttt? I’m willing to look past that crap though, because the rest of the track comes together pretty well, and because I’m a sucker for projects involving the Beastie Boys. See what you think. Here is “Buildin my Life”

The other day, one of my friends accused me of not liking hip-hop. I was completely stunned, at first. The more that I thought about it, the more it made sense. Because, honestly, I haven’t really been a fan of a lot of the stuff that has come out recently, claiming to be hip-hop. I mean T-pain and the whole voice modulation thing have just about killed the genre, for the time being, in my opinion. But that doesn’t mean I’m not into hip-hop. I totally get down with the organic stuff, especially. I’m talking like, Souls of Mischief, Jurassic 5, Roots, Esoteric, 7L, and such. I even get into a lot of the mainstream stuff. The first time I ever heard in “In the (da) club” it changed my life. Although, I can’t really vouch for 50′s recent stuff. The song that I’m sharing today is a fun mix of an old Jay-Z staple, “Ain’t no ****a.” The reason I can share this one is because they used the radio edit acapella for the mix (which is the clean version). So, give it a listen and enjoy!