Usain Bolt Adopts Baby Cheetah

Now that the New York City Marathon has ended we can all go back to doing what we do normally: obsess over Usain Bolt. The Lightning has been taking a break from JA to hang out in Kenya for a few days, where he has “already impressed local children with his football skills, and become an honorary Maasai warrior,” according to the BBC, further proving he is our second most admired jedi knight/sensai/dream date slightly after Barack Obama. But Bolt’s moved up like 18 notches on our list after his recent adoption of A. Baby. Cheetah… as part of a conservation effort focusing on sustaining the environment in Africa via the Long Run, a new campaign he is launching. Appropriately, he christened the cheetah “Lightning Bolt,” and we immediately began singing the Vybz Kartel verse “BOLT / LIGHTNING BOLT,” weirding out our coworkers for the 49th time today. Watch a dubiously edited YouTube of Bolt “beating” a less adorable cheetah in a race after the jump.

Read More

Video: Ya Boy, “I Got The Power”

What music artist has Spencer Pratt of “The Hills” and E-40’s son in his top MySpace friends? We’ll give you three guesses. The correct answer gets a pencil-sketch of Turbo B and Barack Obama shaking hands.

Audio: Jay-Z and Diddy Call Hot 97 From the Inauguration

This is one of the better things we’ve heard from the last two days: Jay and “Puff Daddy” giddy as schoolboys, rightfully so, after being on the platform for Obama’s inauguration. Choice moment:

Angie: “You still feel like this guy’s a little cooler than you?”

Jay-Z: “Nah, he’s absolutely right there. It’s scary.”

Listen: Jay-Z and Diddy with Angie Martinez on Hot 97 (via Angie Martinez)

Bonus: After the jump, watch Kanye’s performance at MTV’s Youth Ball. Check, as he puts it, The Bullet (black mullet). Intense.

Read More

Advertisement

Video: John Legend is Live Vlogging the Inauguration

After watching the mindblowing, nearly live, insider videos of the inaugural festivities that John Legend is posting on John Legend TV (Barack doing the “Single Ladies” hand thing with Beyonce, Al Gore kicking it, etc), we’ve decided that this dude is alright. (via Daily Swarm)

Style: Hat Statements on Inauguration Day

As Inauguration Day is winding down here on the East Coast — and hopefully an evening of festivities is about to begin — we had to remark on a stylish theme that has nothing to do with the hype of Michelle Obama’s sparkling Isabel Toledo dress. It has a more functional angle, yet it also makes for a more traditional statement of special occasion: the hat. There were plenty of interesting hats in Washington D.C. today, ranging from the loud-yet-perfectly-fitting Aretha Franklin bow top hat, to the common fedora, to the wool hunting cap. Regardless of shape or size, it seemed that today everyone was “tipping their hat” to a new era.

Read More

Freeload: Jay-Z, “My President is Black (Remix)”

There’s not much else to say other than that we are listening to this as Barack, Michelle, Malia and Sasha Obama walk out of the front door of the White House.



Download: Jay-Z, “My President is Black (Remix)”

Advertisement

Barack Obama Will Be The President In An Hour

We’re attempting to work today while watching the inauguration proceedings on TV, so please be patient if most of our posts are interrupted by all-caps freakouts and teary emoticons. If, like us, you were unable to make the journey to DC and don’t have access to the boob tube, follow along on your computer at the following places and if your boss gives you lip, just laugh like he’s telling a joke.

Live Webcast on MSNBC.com (also simulcast at a ton of Starbucks)
Washington Post’s Inauguration Webcam
NY Times’ The Caucus liveblogging the Inauguration
Live Web Stream of Swearing-In from the Office of Barack Obama
Official Inaugural Committee Twitter (Latest entry: “If you’re still in transit to the Mall, we suggest you head west of 14th Street. Dress warm – feels like 12 degrees outside with wind chill.”)

Video: Jay-Z, “My President Is Black (Remix)”

We know it’s a holiday but we couldn’t help ourselves. Recorded last night at Love Nightclub in DC.

**Update** New HD Different Angle Version

Happy Birthday To You

We’re off celebrating Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday holiday by trying to help out some less fortunate folks — check Volunteer Match or just be nice to people in the streets — but if you’re stuck at your computer, definitely make sure to listen to Cosmo Baker’s recent Obama-inspired guest spot on our weekly East Village Radio show The Let Out. Listen here. We’ll be back tomorrow talking about music and trying to hold it together during the inauguration.

Obama Has a Posse (if he wants one)

Listen, we haven’t thought of Shepherd Fairey as anything other than a conniving businessman since 1996, but his latest works have us thinking maybe he’s appealing to a higher power for redemption, namely President-Elect Barack Obama. Obviously, his red, white and cream portrait of Obama became the signature image for the campaign and has since been chosen not only for Time Magazine’s Man/Person of the Year cover but also as the official poster for Obama’s inauguration. But, lest he be deemed some sort of short-timer, Fairey has taken it upon himself to design a poster for dog adoption, a cause that has suddenly become close to Obama’s heart, and now, the “urban subversionist” is luring middle class Americans with fat stimulus checks to Saks Fifth Avenue with a spring campaign that (surprise) borrows heavily from the Productivist posters of Alexander Rodchenko. Dog-loving materialist Socialists! Subverting our checkbooks! We don’t even know what to say about this anymore: We love dogs but “Want This!” seems kind of completely freaking nuts.

POPULAR

RECENT

THE FADER NEWSLETTER

Get weekly highlights and exclusive content from thefader.com delivered via email.