Quote of the Day/Listening Post

"I am a journalist. The truth shall set me free."

-- James O'Keefe III, via Twitter last night

Behold the surreal Escher painting of a practical joke that is this kid's entire existence. He's a white upper-middle-class brat from New Jersey who identifies himself, in Thurston Howell-esque fashion, as being "the third"; a guy who dressed like an exaggerated version of what he figured a pimp looked like from watching TV and tried to bring down an organization that ostensibly is in place to help the underprivileged people he felt completely comfortable mocking; and somebody who co-opts Bible verses like an oppressed commoner when one of his scams blows up in his face due apparently to his own amusing incompetence.

Seriously, Andy Kaufman couldn't have come up with something like this.

Here's Dynamite Hack's Boyz in the Hood.

Listening Post

There's nothing less funny than really white guys trying to co-opt hip-hop lingo -- particularly gangsta rap. And yet the level of good-natured goofball mockery that these guys heap on that entire aesthetic -- while still paying homage to its source material -- makes this song and video pure genius.

Here's Dynamite Hack doing Eazy E's Boyz-N-the-Hood.

(This song, by the way, is available as part of the unofficial "soundtrack" to my memoir, Dead Star Twilight. It and the rest of the music from the book can be found here and here, and downloaded from iTunes.)