Either I was somewhere asleep far beyond the reaches of the echo chamber when this announcement first came. Or this is, in fact, the first time any of us are hearing the news, thanks in part to Samuel L. Jackson signing on to play the role of The Baddest Mofo Lowdown Around This Town–Sho’ Nuff.

Whatever the case, I’m amped! Best believe I’ll be in someone’s theater when this drops, front and center, eating popcorn with chopsticks no less. Aight, maybe I’ll pass on the chopsticks. But I’ll most definitely be there to see whether or not they’ve revived this 80’s classic properly.

Here’s a memorable scene from the original:

It looks like they’re letting TiVo in on the fun as well:

Netflix will place its Watch Instantly streaming-movie service on TiVo’s HD-compatible set-top boxes, furthering the technology industry’s goal of sending television shows and movies over the Internet — instead of over traditional cable and satellite networks — to ordinary TVs.

Seriously, I don’t know who should be more afraid of this–tv networks, cable providers, the Blu-Ray squad, or all of the above. Either way, it’s gonna be interesting to watch it all go down (no pun-o).

As John McCain would say it, it’s goin down in November, my friends.

Let’s see, we’ve got Gears of War 2 dropping at the top of the month (Nov. 7th), followed by Call of Duty: World at War (Nov. 11th). And although COD isn’t exactly a 360 exclusive, PC aside, we all know where its true home is.

Then of course there’s the long overdue dashboard update, the New Xbox Experience as it’s called, dropping on the 19th. Which, in addition to a new interface design and community features, adds the ability to stream movies from Netflix in HD. I, for one, am looking forward to this new feature the most. As it stands now, if you don’t own a tv-top Netflix player, you’re stuck watching movies on the tiny confines of your computer screen. As you might expect, this doesn’t make for the most enjoyable viewing experience.

Peep the New Experience at work:

More where that came from.

A few days ago, I hit up my local record spot to dig through the crates one last time before it closes its doors forever, a little more than a week from now. Sadly, they’re being forced out of their location, along with a few other businesses on the block, to make way for new development in the area. It sucks but, looking on the brighter side of things, it’s somewhat comforting to know that they aren’t closing as a result of the declining interest in vinyl–something that’s driven way too many stores out of business over these last few years.

I’m telling you, if stores continue to die off at this pace, I’m gonna find myself digging full time on eBay one of these days. Or maybe not.

Anyhow, I went in hoping to get lucky and stumble across a gem or two hidden away amongst the hugely discounted inventory, instead I got my hands on two records from the premium stash that satisfied my hunger just the same, if not more:

Doug Carn ft. Jean Carn - Revelation (1973)
Doug Carn - Adams Apple (1974)

Both are from the catalog of the short-lived Black Jazz Records imprint founded by the late jazz pianist Gene Russell. Huge scores for my collection! Thinking on it now, even though I didn’t pick up much that day, I think that may have been one of the more satisfying digs that I’ve ever had at that spot. Guess that last trip was worth it.

Just as I reached for the remote to turn away, this track grabbed me by the ear and made me stick around for the end credits of last night’s show:

Basic Vocab - Come Get With It

Oh, and, by the way: Late & Pass.

The guys are back:

After I spotted preview images of TI’s Paper Trail album cover a couple months ago on the web, I immediately put it down in my book as one of the best hip-hop album covers of the year. In fact, with a little over 2 months left in ‘08, and still without any contenders in sight, it might be the best cover of the year (oh, you think otherwise? drop your picks in the comments.).

However, when I first blogged about the cover here, the one thing that drove me crazy is that I couldn’t find a single drop of info on the artist behind it. Nothing. Nada. Not even a small clue on the websites of Atlantic Records and Grand Hustle Entertainment. But now, thanks to tips from a few awesome Gureala readers, I now have a name and website to put with the work: Ian Wright.

What’s even cooler, is that while looking through Ian’s portfolio (which includes more dope mosaic style projects) another question was answered: the cover isn’t a vector image as I initially suspected. Nope. The shreds of money, notebook paper, envelopes, newspaper and receipts that make up TI’s portrait are 100% real:

Amazing!

(images via Ian Wright)

Black.Alltop.com, to be exact!
It’s a little ironic (and a bit shameful) that my last three posts have all centered around Gureala’s recent accomplishments in the blogosphere, yet my posting game has been less than admirable lately. But I’m workinonit. Nonetheless, I’m flattered as hell to be listed on Alltop, and amongst so many great blogs and bloggers that I admire at that.

For those of you who aren’t yet familiar with Alltop, think of it as a public rss feed of sorts, or a “virtual magazine rack” with all the best reads of the web laid out at your disposal. It’s pretty cool. Peep this visual to get a better idea of how it works.