Rakim’s “It’s Nothing.” Still a great MC.

No snow here, just rain.

The new issue of GWSB News is up.

In Miles, Ornette, Cecil, jazz journalist Howard Mandel pulled together the three avant-gardists whose music advanced beyond jazz. Miles took on fusion; Ornette built on harmolodic; Cecil went way out and wild. Drawing from his personal experience as well as his professional expertise, Mandel examines the art of improvisation and the musical direction Miles, Ornette and Cecil had embarked. What makes this book a fantastic read is hearing these masters, particularly Ornette, talking about their work, creative thinking and innovative approach in the interviews Mandel had conducted.

Eric Karjaluoto:

For hardcore designers, “does it work?” is the one question that must be obsessed over. Really, this should be the case for any designer anyways; not whether it looks cool, and not if it can win awards. Hardcore design is about taking away the cute, fluffy stuff, and concentrating on what is actually accomplished.

Ben Ratliff eulogizes Teo Macero:

Helping to build Miles Davis albums like “Bitches Brew,” “In a Silent Way” and “Get Up With It,” Mr. Macero (pronounced TEE-oh mah-SEH-roh) used techniques partly inspired by composers like Edgard Varèse, who had been using tape-editing and electronic effects to help shape the music. Such techniques were then new to jazz and have largely remained separate from it since. But the electric-jazz albums he helped Davis create — especially “Bitches Brew,” which remains one of the best-selling albums by a jazz artist — have deeper echoes in almost 40 years of experimental pop, like work by Can, Brian Eno and Radiohead.

mocking up the homepage http://business.gwu.edu/

Finished the biweekly newsletter

A nifty little tool for writing quick css font properties.

way too cold to commute