It’s a pain to tear up a South Asian artist like I did, but M.I.A. ‘s output has been disappointing in the last couple years.

M.I.A’s mix of ethnic culture and counterculture themes isn’t as novel as it was when I first heard “Sunshowers” in 2004. The fresh energy concealed her lack of talent back then, as it does with most young punk artists. However, that energy is gone and all she have left is cheap, empty gestures, like her middle finger stunt on the Super Bowl.

As I said in the article, she has a long row to Jai hoe.

Man, the things I learn about my favorite author Frank Herbert, writer of the Dune book series. This excerpt illustrates an experience he provided his students to inspire them to answer questions he often asks in his books.

So I hit on the idea of taking them out for along weekend hike in the Olympic mountains . . . in the early spring when I knew the weather was going to be cold and rainy. All I told my class was, “We’ll be out in the Olympics for two nights. It’s going to rain. Bring your gear, food, and paper and pencils for taking notes. I’ll meet you at the trail’s head.”…

Once we all got up to our campsite—at a place called the Flats—I set up my tent, dug a drain trench, stashed some firewood under the canopy for the morning, and helped organize the evening meal. We ate and hit the sack . . . and then the rain came. Well, I was quite dry and comfortable in my tent, but a lot of my students weren’t so well prepared: During the night, I heard voices crying, “My sleeping bag’s all wet! ” or “God, it’s cold! ” I simply rolled over and went back to sleep.

The next morning, I got up early and built a big fire. The shivering students soon gathered round, we scrounged together something to eat, and afterward I told them to get their note pads. Then I said, “OK, the bomb just dropped and we’re all that’s left. How much of our former technology do we try to reconstitute?” Well, let me tell you . . . those cold, wet people who had eaten an inadequate breakfast looked at society’s technology a good bit more closely than they had when sitting in a comfortable university classroom. Students who’d been saying things like “Oh sure, I could do without all this stuff” began to ask some basic questions, and to comprehend that technology isn’t bad in and of itself . . . everything depends on how we use it.

Amazon.com: Revelations: mind.in.a.box: MP3 Downloads.

There’s only problem with Liberty Fund’s lesson in Sumerian history and language: the real meaning of the amagi cuneiform isn’t about abolishing “big government” or abolishing the Fed–nope, it’s about abolishing debts to free citizens from debt slavery. What the history-failures at Liberty Fund hilariously mistranslated was that the term “return to mother” is Sumerian-speak for “jubilee”–as in “debt forgiveness” or “freedom from debt.

As the new year sees more music releases, I  finally got back on the saddle with a new “In Defense of” column this week. As I reviewed Nicki Minaj’s latest video and song, an idea came to mind. I thought to approach the song as an example of the technical and recreational electronic genre called breakcore.

Knifehandchop -”Tizzy Toxbown Riddim” from How I Left You (2004)

I think what drew me to “Stupid Hoe” was the mix of aggression, whimsy, inaccessibility and nonchalance that also drew me to breakcore. This leads me to approach the song as if it were a part of the genre.

Another possibility came to mind, “Stupid Hoe” might also represent a re-appropriation of aggression, music sampling and liveliness in hip-hop and dancehall that the breakcore scene appropriated throughout last decade.

This is one of my longer reviews. When I remembered that Train’s “Hey Soul Sister” was in  commercials targeting women, I went into adbusting mode.

The funny thing is the domain’s not taken yet. It’s kind of odd, since will.i.am considers himself  a technophile. Someone will be able to squat the domain to get a good ransom for it.

I laid the figures of speech super thick on this review. I hope someone notices.

This week, I reviewed Taylor Swift’s latest single  ”Safe and Sound” (feat. The Civil Wars), a song tied in to the upcoming movie The Hunger Games. I think that The Hunger Games is actually the American remake of Battle Royale  that American Japanophiles always gossiped about ever since The Ring.

I’m still wondering how Taylor Swift’s lyrics could settle down someone trying to go to sleep.

Active Child – You Are All I See

Mastadon – The Hunter

TRS-80 – Sky Sailor EP

Dye -Tak 183

SBTRKT -SBTRKT

Adele – 21

Childish Gambino – Camp

Gang Gang Dance – Eye Contact