Once, while desperately trying to do anything other than study for a law-school exam, I created a pictorial guide for Rick Ross's verse on Kanye's "Devil in a New Dress." Rozay, so extravagant and grandiose, was hard to believe, and committing his words to images helped to reinforce just how opulent and absurd he is.Today, I am reprising this project to again animate...

N.B: We have arrived at the end of my music-year retrospectives. See here for best and worst songs. Below is Part One of the Albums list. Part Two runs Friday. Should someone ever perform the community service of writing a definitive obituary for hip-hop's critical standards, that author would be smart to identify some moment around 2005 as the time of death. To the extent that...

When Chris Paul was untraded back from the Lakers to the Hornets, the procession of horribles was so obvious that cataloging them was almost a delight. Los Angeles suffered a compromised foundation, the untraded Pau Gasol and Lamar Odom. Houston's careful planning was exposed and burned to the ground. Boston alienated its future by marginalizing Rajon Rondo and lost out on David...

I've already told you about all the songs I hated, laughed about, and puzzled over. Now consider the tracks I liked this year.91) Gale Boetticher, "Major Tom" (Cover)RIP, Gale. You were always going to be the guy who answers the door. 90) Willie the Kid ft. Jon Connor, "One Time"Dave Bing should pass a law mandating that all Detroit-area rappers must prove...

Just as the NBA playoffs often skew memories of a given basketball year--the proving grounds offering a definitive judgment--so, too, can memorable albums improve an otherwise unremarkable music landscape. For instance, 2003 may not have been an especially good year for music, but The Listening, The Black Album, Speakerboxxx, Pete Rock's Lost & Found, Philadelphia Freeway...

Life felt desperate to the Upolu tribe last Wednesday on Survivor. Upolu had just endured another wrenching, disorienting visit to tribal council, this time having lost a big lead when it couldn't use a massive slingshot to fire coconuts at oversized wooden masks accurately enough. At the subsequent reckoning, the usual melodrama engulfed its members. Jeff Probst, as only he...

Most stories about the NBA lockout and its competing parties have portrayed Commissioner David Stern as lugubrious, dishonest, cruel, all three, or something similar. A lot of good reporting has built this case. Beloved truth teller Nate Silver famously scrutinized league revenues while arguing that the NBA has exaggerated the supposed plight of floundering owners. That same week...

N.B: The months of blog hiatus brought with them many pent-up thoughts about a range of topics. Rather than trying to force some context onto the site so that I can work off a foundation of ideas, I am just going in, particularly because I need to get back into a rhythm as a writer. So be warned.The wasteful debt-ceiling wrangling wears on, and both media and politicians perpetuate...

The first meal that I ever ate in St. Louis was a parking-lot-pimpin' special at a Sonic on Kingshighway. I gleefully pulled up at this Sonic. After years of seeing tantalizing ads on New York television, I finally was in a market where I could do something about it. All that time quietly longing for the decked-out hotdogs, the alluring neon beverages, and the kinds of indulgent...

Late pass? This is fantastic.

N.B: I graduate from law school today, and I was selected to serve as the student speaker. I am posting the text of my speech because I think it is important for people to consider the role of lawyers and what it means to become one.Whatever my graduation says about me, it indisputably says a great deal about my parents, two loving, courageous, brilliant people whom I respect more...

Over at the GQ NBA Playoffs blog, David Roth put together an oral history of Zach Randolph. I was asked to contribute some thoughts about Z-Bo from his tenure with the Knicks. You can read the entire post here, and you should, because some fantastic writers chipped in with other perspectives about Zach.David did his usual best, wrangling many verbose writers and distilling the submissions...

At the end of the day, most of Odd Future's music is not inviting. Rappers like Tyler are gifted lyrically, and the themes are momentarily gripping for their audacity, but the overall aesthetic of too many OFWGKTA tracks is harsh and discordant. The Frank Ocean record is a noteworthy exception, however obvious, and it portends more interesting, thoughtful music that is accessible...

My road trip ended yesterday in the place where it began, St. Louis. The final day was uneventful--lots of trees and cows from Oklahoma to Missouri. Below is a compilation of the updates filed from the road.- Day One- Day Two- Days Three and Four- Day Five- Day Six- Days Seven and Eight- Day Nine- Days Ten and Eleven- Day TwelveNow, let's talk about some NBA...

The Big Texan Steak Ranch is nothing if not enthusiastic about itself. Beginning around Santa Rosa, NM, the Big Texan promises that free steak lies a mere three hours due east, in Amarillo, TX. It makes this promise over and over again on countless billboards as the miles wind down. Free steak is only two hours away! Free steak in 90 miles! Free steak in 45 miles! The billboards...

One day sometime after my sister had moved to California, I jokingly asked if she had seen any pickup trucks rolling around with Mexican day laborers loaded into the back. I am not sure what answer I expected, but the question was only partially sincere. I had watched enough television and movies to think that the proliferation of this phenomenon was overstated for dramatic purposes...

I was on a plane a few years ago when I read a New Yorker profile of Arizona's Maricopa County and its sheriff, Joe Arpaio. Until that plane ride, I primarily knew that Mexican immigration had steadily transformed the demographics in the southwest United States. I otherwise had taken little time to think about it, aside from occasionally marveling when I would hear or read that...

(N.B: I recommend clicking on the photos to enlarge them, particularly the photos of nature.)The weekend in Las Vegas came and went. Though time in Las Vegas is unlike time elsewhere, the Vegas excursion was fairly typical. One special moment: while playing poker at Caesar's Palace, I had the misfortune of sitting next to someone who looked like John Travolta in Swordfish and...

He freed the slaves.Emancipation Proclamation.Most taxi rides to In-N-Out Burger begin less consequentially. My friends and I assembled in Las Vegas on Friday, and after the initial euphoria of reuniting in a city where we felt unleashed had worn off, we realized we were hungry. In-N-Out made the most sense to us because: a) it only exists in exotic western locations to which none...

We are broadcasting live from Las Vegas, where the expected array of oddities and excess is delivering on all expectations. So much has been written about Las Vegas in the last decade-plus as it emerged as a de facto inevitability for a certain set of Americans that there is little left for me to share about the city that hasn’t already been reported.Getting here was as anthropological...

For Day Three of my trip, the goal was simple but challenging: make it from Colby, KS to Hurricane, UT, with a stop in Denver to pick up a buddy. At nearly 900 miles, my itinerary was likely too ambitious, but I had three secret weapons that complemented each other: a deep reservoir of naturally occurring energy, an unusual excitement about scenes that other people find unremarkable...

(N.B: You will most enjoy this post if you click on the images to enlarge them. Start with the one above.)The best way to get across Kansas when traveling from Clay Center to Colby is to drive along a stretch of road called U.S. Route 24. It is considered a highway, but that really isn't fair, neither to Route 24 nor to actual highways. I-95 and I-80, with their endless trucks...

During my first year of college, I took a lot of naps. Time was not fixed to a schedule in the way you might pin up streamers across a wall. Instead, it was a blob, an easily reconfigured mess of a resource resembling those beanbag chairs of which college kids are so fond. I did whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted because time was under my control. The nap was the weapon through...

I believe the word is unfuckwithable.