This American Life did a story about “Playing the Part,” stories of people who act like someone else. The first story of the four part story program was about Louis Ortiz, a Puerto Rican Bronx-resident who looks freakishly like Obama. I thought it was so uncanny that you would only believe it if you saw it:

TED talk by Dimitri Christakis. To sum up the 16 min clip, Mr. Christakis explains how children who watch up to 6 hours of television a day (overstimulation) experience attention deficit problems in life because of the over exposure to rapidly changing environments and characters, which warp the child’s sense of real activity in their normal surroundings. He shares interesting behavioral studies that reinforce this theory.

No Baby Einstein for my child.

Album: Jay Stay Paid
Artist: The Roots
Song: Reality TV

This is an album I’m (im)patiently waiting for. I first heard about this album at his show at Blues Alley last October 2011. Check out this masterpiece soon to hit the airwaves in February:

Song: Move Love
Artist: Robert Glasper Trio (feat. King)
Album: Black Radio (Feb. 2012)

Marlon Brando, James Baldwin, Harry Belafonte, Charlton Heston, Joseph Minklelwitz, and Sidney Poitier, talk about the Civil Rights Movement of 1963:

Song: Why? (The King of Love is Dead)
Artist: Nina
Album: Anthology Disc 2 (and probably many other Simone albums)

Robert Glasper explaining jazz music and sharing some musical goodies.

Album Release Party for Makin Dollas (video):

DTMD – Makin’ Dollas Album Release Party at Durkl from @marshallslife on Vimeo.

Song: Sea Me Sun
Album: Makin’ Dollas
Artist: DTMD

I got the same text twice, from two different people in completely different social circles, on the same day:

have you checked out that new Thundercat album?

So I immediately got Stephen “Thunercat” Bruner’s new album, The Golden Age of Apocalypse.

A few bloggers rightly used the following phrases to describe the listening experience:

full of spaced-out ’70s harmonies, jazzy drums and musty bass…late-night astral wheeze…production is held together by a waterfall bassline as tiny synth embellishments spark off in different [...]

ProtoCosmos: Thundercat and Karriem Riggins. from MOCHILLA on Vimeo.

The Stuyvesants are at it again – dropping hot ‘ish for the soundtrack to your summer! Check out their site (link above) for more great tracks.

Track: Stoops, parks, & rooftops

Download Here