A great, short profile directed by Spike Jonze

Good questions.

‘The rapper talks with dream hampton about his now-infamous XXL video and what he has learned from the backlash.’

Profile of the rising rapper.

A portrait of Manoj Bhargava, the man behind 5-Hour Energy.

‘An oral history of the British experimental rock act's remarkable Five EPs.’

A first-hand account of hanging around Young Jeezy for a few days.

“In other words, I'm not inspired by the Serengeti, I'm inspired by world music depictions of African expanses, and the sort of false authenticity of those depictions. As if Peter Gabriel has a handle on what the fuck is going on with FGM in Sudan. It's ludicrous. On a track like 'Preyouandi', I'm attempting at least to make sense of my relationship to those sorts of musical practices, while retaining some of their melodic and aesthetic ideas that I'm so clearly drawn to.”

“So I’m painting these pictures, not of the actual world, but of us watching that world.”

‘Every artist deals with critics differently—Richard Ford spitting on Colson Whitehead, for example. But the rule is to avoid direct contact. Not for John Warner, debut novelist, who decided to seek out the man behind his worst review.’

Good interview.

‘He gives us a window into his creative process and talks about several projects (old and new).’

My friend Niko Rivas interviewed me and wrote up this great column on my Lapwing EP.

“And playing live is a different process to DJing, which is more about getting on a train, arriving, meeting some guy you don't really know and going to a place you don't really know. Actually playing is the best bit because you get to connect with people for the first time in 24 hours. Parts of it are really good, but it's just a lot of time on your own. You can reflect. I write lyrics in those moments when I haven't got anything else to do. Those are probably just the moments when I start being a bit, you know, sad [he smiles].”

My new friend-through-friends and fellow musician Sabrina interviewed me for her blog on Honolulu Pulse, the Star Advertiser's online nightlife section.

Great profile.

“…here’s a Q&A with Matthew, who was kind enough to agree to an e-mail interview the day after the HTML5 logo was unveiled. He was quick to point out that it was a team effort, and that Ocupop Creative Director Michael Nieling headed the project and designed the logo itself.”

“What do you recommend is the best process for getting my music reviewed on Pitchfork?

“The easiest way to contact us to email and mail something to me directly, not just to the office. I would also read some reviews, find out which writers might like what you’re doing, and try to contact them directly. Targeting people who seem open to your music is an easy way to help it along. If you do send CDs, I would expect that a one-sheet, while it could be read, is more likely going to be discarded, so if you send a promo CD you should make sure any information that anyone might want– your website, short bio if needed, contact info for booking or PR if you have it, is on the back of the CD case itself.”

A good interview, and explains Obama's long-game strategy explicitly. His indignation at progressives and Democrats complaining about the state of things when much has actually been accomplished is reasonable, but his final statement bothers me.

"We have to get folks off the sidelines. People need to shake off this lethargy, people need to buck up. Bringing about change is hard — that's what I said during the campaign. It has been hard, and we've got some lumps to show for it. But if people now want to take their ball and go home, that tells me folks weren't serious in the first place." OK, but what does that mean? What's going to make a difference with ten-to-one odds and enormous corporations and special-interest groups lined up on the other side? Your base gave you a lot of money to help you get elected, but is that what you're asking them to do again, deep in a recession? They need direction, advice, some instruction or insight. What exactly do you want us to 'try harder' at?

"'I stuck her with my wang. She hit me in the balls. I grabbed her by her neck. And I bounced her off the walls. She said it was an accident and then apologised. But I still took my elbow and blackened both her eyes.' That's clearly a song about domestic violence. So your Christian message is... don't be like that man?" "Huh?" Violent J repeats, mystified.

Interesting interview. I would disagree, however, that the sequence is funny.

Humanizing and well-written. Spoiler: she doesn't have a penis.

"I would prefer to go to a different world and the closest we have to that besides space travel is an inner world. It's not so much that I really love the act of sleep, but that I love that escape from reality, the potential for the impossible, removing myself from the stress of today’s culture world, from people talking all the time, etc."

A standard report on the duo, but finally some news! "They're halfway done with a new album, which might be released this year, but they're not rushing it."

"Will Oldham transfigures American music." A portrait of the press-shy singer, highlighting his heroes and a unique concert.

A great, humanizing interview with the musician and fashion designer. He's eclectic, egotistical, but honest and aware of how self-absorbed he is.

An old interview with my old favorite band. Lots of fun here.

On "shortening your workweek" in every way: outsourcing, clever promotion techniques, social engineering, and focusing on the right things.

Interview with a man afflicted with Body Integrity Identity Disorder who took care of the problem by staging an accident and amputating his right hand.

Interview with author Sumie Kawakami about sexless marriages and the falling birth rate in Japan. Covers a lot of interesting ground, if lightly.

Kieran explains the importance of ideas, process, computers, and the mastering of technology that works when it comes to creating music. Loaded with great technical and system setup details.

"Sean Booth of the British duo Autechre talks about just about everything but how he and partner Rob Brown make music."

Good pictures, good overview of his work, and, of course, sage words from the designer himself.

"'I don't have an agent, I organise my own tours, and apart from the odd deadline when I have to do a remix, I work on tracks as and when it fits in.'"

Matmos do a long interview with BUTT magazine. Rather explicit; a fun read.

A video interview with the infamous web celebrity "Randy Constan, who has something of an obsession with dressing up as Peter Pan."

A great interview with a great designer. His anecdotes and wisdom are particularly valuable, especially the answer to the last question and his five bits of advice.

America's latest "Hitler" is Ahmadinejad, Iraq is Bush's Vietnam, and the NYTimes "failed the First Amendment." "You'd think that in this country with so many smart people, that we can't possibly do the same dumb thing again." But "there is no learning."

Great interviews with web developers and luminaries, including Khoi Vinh, Jason Fried of 37signals, Jeff Veen, Merlin Mann, Heather Champ, Dan Cederholm, and Guy Kawasaki.

An interview with Apple's brilliant product designer, who possesses a "fanatical care beyond the obvious stuff."

The technologies that went into the latest one-to-many message-tumblr-filesharing-social web app.

How to build a successful business.

Exploring the tunnels beneath Canada's metropolitan areas, replete with excellent photography.

Neat. A lot about Craig's decision not to monetize, etc.

Great interview, including some song meanings.

The history of his characters, explaining the humor, more...

Contains a short audio interview with The Books.