SB1716 has been signed. Starting June 1, Illinois will recognize civil unions, giving same-sex couples (and opposite-sex couples who hate federal benefits) the same rights and recognition afforded to married couples. Is it perfect? No, it is not, but short of calling civil unions marriage (which is an obvious non-starter for a large chunk of the voting populace), there is not much more IL can do. I've read the law a few times now and gone over the cross-referenced sections of the Illinois Marriage and Dissolution of Marriage Act. I think this is a great step forward towards federal recognition of same-sex marriages and a real achievement for progressive voices in the state. I hope it is celebrated as such.

G-Side's album, The ONE...COHESIVE is my album of the year. It dropped 01/01/11, which strikes me as an odd date to release an album as everyone on the fucking planet is pre-occupied during the end of the holiday season, but that's just me. If the album was released a day earlier, it would have been my album of 2010. In fact, I am having a hard time remembering the last time an album floored me from the moment I put it on my stereo.

Learning (or trying to learn) to produce music made me an even harsher critic. The more I listened to what I was trying to make, the more problems I heard. It became apparent that the best form of editing was constant repetitions. Errors became apparent, eventually. John used to insist, rightly I believe, that if you listen to something over and over again and it sounds great each time, if no mistake jumps out at you and if there is nothing you would change about the song, then it's done. When I hear music with obvious composition flaws, with bad transitions, boring sounds or poorly chosen tones, I can't help but be annoyed. It sounds lazy to me.

G-Side's album is brilliantly produced. These aren't hyper-compressed, club-ready bangers that are mixed down to be blasted at top volume from shitty car speakers. These beats are balanced and solid, great at any volume, and deep enough to demand repeat listens. You unpack these songs, not throw them in the background and check back in for the hook. The instrumentation nods to everything from piano ballads to stadium rock to 90s West Coast rap production. The timing changes, percussion cuts in and out, hi-hats deteriorate and crescendo in waves that overtake the song just in time to pull back and expose depth and tension. It is just gorgeous, through and through.

The rhyming is wild, smart, and hungry. Flea once said that he loved punk rock because the musicians play each note like it's their last, like someone is about to walk through the door and kill them at any moment. G-Side raps like this is their last album and they still haven't shown the world their potential. There are no references to violence, there are no misogynistic verses (although there is plenty of sex), there are only clever rhymes and stories of growing up hungry, working to put out great music, and dealing with the aftermath. It is so refreshing to go an entire album and not hear some auto-tuned bullshit about asses.

In short, I think I should thank G-Side. Albums like theirs remind me of why I fell in love with music in the first place and how great it feels to never lower your standards and still have them surpassed. It's so refreshing to hear an album that has been carefully constructed and produced, that reflects the love and attention it hopes to garner from its audience. Everyone else, you're on notice.

Listen to the whole thing, for free, here.

I started baking bread in June of 2010 to fight off the stress of studying for the bar and of being unemployed. I have since passed the bar and found a job. Nonetheless, I have gone a week without baking at least one batch of bread... until this past week, when a fever took me out of commission for several days. Alas, I will overcompensate with some ambitious recipes this weekend. It's more than time to move on to some next level shit.

6'7' makes me forgive Lil Wayne for all of his watered-down guest verses and lame puns. He slays this beat by Bangladesh (that fits squarely into the A Milli template). Let's break it down.

Lil Wayne's delivery is in a slightly higher register here than it normally is. He isn't straining, but he is delivering his lines with force and in quick succession. There is a tight bounce on the beat and he isn't going to waste it for some loose rapping. His rapid fire delivery adds momentum to the beat and, at times, provides an additional percussive track.

Lil Wayne's rhymes don't make a ton of sense and thus they all make complete sense. Most of his lines would seem out of place if delivered by another rapper, but because he has been dwelling in the abstract for so long, this is sort of expected. For instance "Niggas think they He-Men, pow, pow, the end." What? Let's put in context with the line immediately preceding and following it

Swear, man, I be seein’ through these niggas like sequins
Niggas think they He-Men, pow, pow, the end
Talkin’ to myself because I am my own consultant

It just comes out of nowhere. It is ridiculous and childish and esoteric and somehow totally acceptable. To further emphasize the point, when Cory Gunz handles the final verse, both his delivery and his rhymes come off as flat, non-sequiturs delivered by someone who sounds like they are a bit too conscious of what they are saying. For instance

Word to my mama, I’m out of my lima bean
Don’t wanna see what that drama mean, get some Dramamine

Out of your lima bean? What? Do you really mean that?

To the contrary, I am quite certain Lil Wayne is insane.

In short 6'7' > A Milli.

Thanks to Ari on this one.

Thanks to Zack on this one.

...Clinton smash.

Or rather, Clinton make mention of reality: that corrupt and repressive states are bad for business; that there are a healthy variety of profitable business ventures that could be operated out of, and directly benefit, many Arab states; and that it is against everyone's interests to stifle economic growth. Oh, and that the U.S. takes too much blame for failing to solve the world's problems. I fully agree, although I can't tell if that is the realist in me talking or the liberal in me dying.

Really? Look, if I worked for Palin, the first thing I would do is distance myself from any heated political rhetoric that might appear as a sign of support for violence. Violence against elected officials is inexcusable and has no place in any democracy. That is pretty much a no-brainer. I don't think Palin had any intention of calling people to violence; I do think she was trying to allude to violent revolt as a way to empower her constituents and support a populist mistrust of centralized government. I also think she was reckless in disregarding the effect her words would have on susceptible people. But, and here is where I get to the important part, she said it, and she should own it. She used these terms, she is on TV showing off her hunting/survival skills, and she has preached a distrust of government for a long time. So I was shocked when I read this in the Ny Times:

"“I don’t understand how anybody can be held responsible for somebody who is completely mentally unstable like this,” an adviser to Ms. Palin, Rebecca Mansour, said in an interview with a conservative radio host, Tammy Bruce. Responding to accusatory messages on the Web, Ms. Mansour added: “People actually accuse Governor Palin of this. It’s appalling — appalling. I can’t actually express how disgusting that is.”

Ms. Mansour said that the cross hairs, in fact, were not meant to be an allusion to guns, and agreed with her interviewer’s reference to them as “surveyors symbols.” Aides to Ms. Palin did not respond to interview requests on Sunday."

Surveyor's symbols? What? Are you fucking kidding me?

I am NOT a scientist, but I found this discussion interesting.

It is, in short, about the optimal pH of fermented dough and wild yeast cultures. The interesting points are: (1) wild yeast cultures maintain a lower pH than the internal pH of fresh yeast cells; (2) the longer dough ferments, the lower its pH drops; and (3)at some point, the pH will drop so low that the structure of the dough will break down and the yeast will not be able to produce enough carbon dioxide to leaven the bread.

I know that the yeast eat the sugars in the flour to produce carbon dioxide and, if given the chance, will eat enough of the sugars that the they no longer have sufficient fuel to produce carbon dioxide. Obviously something about this process changes the pH of the dough, as starter cultures (dough fermented over a long time) have a lower pH than fresh dough, with the only variable being fermentation (and, perhaps, the source of the yeast).

I don't take any measurements when I bake. I keep rough track of the fermentation times and don't measure the fermentation temperature, the size of the dough, or the internal temperature of the loaves after they are done baking. I barely keep track of my baker's percentages. So this pH stuff is interesting on a theoretical level, but probably won't impact my baking. It is interesting though and, if I would like, it gives me another set of variables to play with.