The British bass guitarist Terence "Jet" Harris died of cancer on Friday at the age of 71. I had never heard his name before, I don't think (and what an awesome name it is!) Though I'd heard and enjoyed some of his music—and, even more so, a lot of music that was made out of other recordings and samplings of music that he recorded first. And his life, I've learned over the past couple days, was a story of both great victory and sadness.

Say what you will about the baffling nature of this ad, and feel free to decry the continued sexualization of products aimed at America's youth, but you've got to admit it: there is something deeply endearing about Sir Mix-a-Lot's continuing devotion to booty. The man liked booty back in the day, and he likes booty now. It's not a career gimmick; it's not a passing fad… it is a deeply held belief in the sanctity of booty, and he doesn't care who knows it. In an age of ceaseless change and easily discarded ideology, I think this kind of constancy deserves acclamation. We know you don't need to [...]

I am a non-practicing Jew and a practicing hip-hop head. I can't be bothered with the five books of the Torah, but I can wax ecstatic about the 36 chambers of the Wu-Tang until your eardrums pop. (That sound you just heard-right before the popping of your eardrums-was my grandmother's wailing.) While hip-hop has quietly been part of my identity for at least fifteen years, Judaism has partly defined me since birth, even though I turned out to be only a High Holidays Jew. These two unrelated aspects of my life are usually able to coexist peacefully, but every now and then homeostasis is disrupted by the odd anti-Semitic reference [...]

You probably did not think you needed an interactive Google map of the forgotten Sir Mix-a-Lot classic "Posse On Broadway," but you so do. [Via]