The kids took it to the streets Sunday night. Courtesy of

When this song first dropped, and they would play it in the Hip-Hop parties, some of the more notorious DJs used to say, “Come on Brooklyn, time to start robbing,” and the Brooklyn guys really would start robbing people on the dancefloor… like they had been waiting for the opportunity all night-

Some people get paranoid about riding in elevators. Its pretty silly, too, because elevators almost never drop. There are too many standard safety mechanisms. It would really take some shit! One of the rare cases of an elevator plummeting down the shaft occurred when a B-25 bomber lost in the fog crashed into the Empire state building. One of the elevators fell from the 75th floor when the cables were snapped by the crash, with the attendant inside. Miraculously, she was wounded but survived. Experts explained that the slack cables coiled beneath acted as a spring, and also the air pressure of the car falling through the closed space helped to cushion the fall. The other elevator operator was even luckier, however. She had just stepped out for a smoke.

A NEW YORK THING does not endorse cigarette smoking- except in such a singular occasion that it may spare you the trouble of free-falling through an elevator shaft…

If you have an hour to spare, this is well worth watching. Aired on TV in the 1960′s, this was Jim Henson (yes, from the Muppets) in his Existentialist phase:

Hou Hsiao-Hsien’s films require patience, and nothing really “happens” in the Hollywood sense, but the payoff is always prove the investment. See why so many people consider him the best of the best directors.

If you have never spent time in France, crime is probably not the first thing you think of- when you think of, say Paris, you probably conjure up an image of some fruit in a beret sipping a glass of Sancerre with a boodle on his lap- but those dudes have almost as much action as the Italianos, and the thug lifestyle is so artfully captured in this film.

Unless you are a Nazi devil worshipper that dabbles in gay S&M you probably have little in common with this director- but great art has a way of leaping right over such petty dichotomies, to grab at the core of human feeling.

A young drummer from a remote village goes on to become a big star (in Africa), and then after many years returns home. A scripted, acted film has never been so packed with emotion as the spontaneous heart-felt shit captured in this documentary.

In the end, almost every director in this world was influenced in some way by Hollywood (even as a reaction against its conventions)- and here is an example of Hollywood functioning at its very best.

Click HERE for a link to an excellent and funny joke!

If you want to judge a record by its cover, you are safe with these bangers:

Thelonious Monk is the only pianist I can think of who has a trademarked signature sound- so much so that you can hear it is he as soon as he touches the damn key.

Willy Colon & Hector LaVoe were on some gangsta ish- even if you don’t understand Spanish you can feel that bad-ass horn but when you get the translation you’ll be like, damn, they were like Capone & Noreaga back in the day.

If you are a smoker on a budget you can always count on a contact high from good Dub Music- gets your mind drifting, and carries your cares far away…

These punks from Queens are so bratty and apathetic that they are tired of their girlfriends, and just want to be left alone to drink their beer in peace. Yet there is something vaguely heroic in their stance.

Back when Hip-Hop was just creating itself in the hands of a few South Bronx geniuses there were no rules and Bam and the Zulu Nation laid down the keystone for what rap should sound like. To date, nobody has been more free or comfortable in the medium.

The Best of Chinatown:

What’s funny is that pretty much everything still called “modern” in architecture today was dveloped by the 1930s- and most of it by the three dudes featured in this book. If you have even the slightest interest, you will find this book easy to read, and offering a kind of knowledge that will stay with you the rest of your life.

Whether you are a revolutionary and sympathize with their struggle, or a conservative and think the radical left should be lined up and shot, the reader cannot escape the adventure and romance of this group that defied the system of the world’s greatest super-power, in their effort to change the world.

Funny how there is such a dignified tradition springing up around the teachings of total madmen. The more you study Zen, it becomes clear that the ones who broke all the rules (Buddhist precepts) are the ones who were elevated to the rank of saints.

If you have ever wanted to get to know yourself, this is as good a place as any to start- focusing mainly on the cycles of Ego, from inflated to alienated- it lays out a map of the human psyche complete with the personal YOU ARE HERE red dot.

He’s got the glossy finish of Mickey Mouse and the psychedelic depth of Jimi Hendrix. Mister Woodring’s comic compilation can grace our coffee table any time.

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