https://pitch.cargo.site Pitch Wed, 09 Jan 2019 22:27:28 +0000 https://pitch.cargo.site en https://pitch.cargo.site/Homepage Sun, 16 Sep 2018 23:19:12 +0000 Pitch https://pitch.cargo.site/Homepage Pitch https://pitch.cargo.site/OG-1-9-19 Wed, 09 Jan 2019 22:27:28 +0000 Pitch https://pitch.cargo.site/OG-1-9-19 OG OG Original gangster. When my friend’s four-year-old calls “I Feel It Coming” his OG jam, I’m fairly certain he’s not referencing a hip-hop record from 1991. And yet, his statement shows a Kyrie-caliber handle on Ice-T’s patented slang. So how can someone know what a word means without knowing what it means? That’s the nature of abbreviations—the caterpillars of the word world. The untethered, continuous term they will become can only be realized via a departure from their dotted form. And like German vocabulary, the metamorphosis that fades the black spots between the lonely letters yields meaning that extends beyond the aggregation of their previously seperated parts. To know the butterfly is to erase the caterpillar, and it is in this way words like laser, scuba, and OG define comfortable homes in the dictionary—by forgetting what they used to mean.  Oh gee A mild reaction. The Serie A recently pioneered a punishment that exists in the rare and innocuous space between a slap on the wrist and a free pass. Their two match supporter ban of Inter Milan, imposed following racist chants aimed at Kalidou Koulibaly, is the ugly emblem of a game currenlty inept at eliminating discrimination. Forget the embarrasingly mild nature of this action and the fact remains—the action being taken is reaction. Footballing organizations are bureaucracies to govern and struggle by nature with both immediacy and proactivity. But humans don’t, and humans are the ones in the tribunals allowing these chants to continue. We, the fans, need to do better and confront discrimination—on sight and on site.  https://pitch.cargo.site/Accent-11-27-18 Tue, 27 Nov 2018 16:36:48 +0000 Pitch https://pitch.cargo.site/Accent-11-27-18 Accent Accent A manner of speaking. At first listen, Anderson .Paak’s Oxnard finale abandons the send-off principles established in the first two installments of his musical trilogy. Venice and Malibu both conclude with a neatly tied bow, bidding the listener adieu with cinematic songs that (even on the name level) lift upwards to offer a cohesive view of the whole. Left to Right also does what its name suggests but shuns the rest of project, turning away from summary towards something unrecognizable and new. .Paak’s surprising, patois-laced delivery in the song, however, comes as a tweak in execution rather than a shift in approach. This deliberate departure from his smooth, smile-ridden inflection actually imitates Off The Ground and The Dreamer by acting as a springboard to the next project. In order for a trilogy to progress, each story requires a conclusion. The grand finale, however, demands something fresh, a farewell that turns its back on a concluded work to concentrate on the mystery of the future. Now, with his trilogy behind him, Anderson .Paak has our attention. Accent A complement. “Oh! Blocked by James!” If you’re like me, two things just happened. First, the epic voice of Mike Breen just invaded your thoughts for a brief dramatic reading. And second, little bumps appeared up and down your arms (sorry (not sorry in the least) Warriors fans). The Block is forever a multi-sensory experience, two masters of their craft collaborating to erect a statue of a leaping LeBron, inscription and all, into our memory’s museum. It’s also proof that commentators define moments. A muted television, despite all the visual drama of athletics, means a one-dimensional experience. Voices make games immersive, molding the emotions of fans into tangible sound bites. And in a sphere where actions often defy depiction, commentators do what we cannot—put words to the indescribable. https://pitch.cargo.site/Discord-11-13-18 Thu, 08 Nov 2018 22:44:30 +0000 Pitch https://pitch.cargo.site/Discord-11-13-18 Discord Discord A disagreement. Not only is taking six half steps an inefficient way to get somewhere, it’s also sonically horrifying—in isolation. Sitting between the perfect fourth and the angelic perfect fifth, the tritone imposes a thoroughly tangled frequency ratio of 64:45, a relationship that would befuddle even the metronomic hands of Buddy Rich. These uniquely incompatibie vibrations, however specific and unpleasant, become less poisonous and more dye-like when dropped carefully into a score. Listen to this ecclectic flight of tritone users—“Mo Bamba”, “Black Sabbath”, and Westiside Story’s “Maria”. The inclusion of an atonal chord lends all three a darker hue without dooming them to a uniform, discordant blackness. Each song blends its own coloration with the murkiness of the diminished fifth into a rainbow of discrete, inky feels—thrilling aggression, haunting satanism, and misty listlesness. Discord Dissonance.When comparing performances and statistics, it’s hard to discern the subject from the mirror. In a simple, elegant game like football, numbers seem a shallow evaluation of reality. Our eyes, however, are disposed to caricature, contorting evaluations to account for the intangible. So is Mohamed Salah worse than he was in 2017? The eye test would suggest that the Egyptian Messi(ah) has lost his spark. Unfortunately, his tallies disagree. Salah has only 1 fewer goal involvement in the Prem through 11 games (5 goals and 4 assists vs. 7 goals and 3 assists). What’s more—Liverpool have improved their points tally by a healthy 8, all while scoring just one fewer goal. This disconnect between numerics and aesthetics aptly brands football as ”the beautiful game”—a competition that values artistry as much as scoring.  https://pitch.cargo.site/Limbo-11-5-18 Thu, 01 Nov 2018 21:11:16 +0000 Pitch https://pitch.cargo.site/Limbo-11-5-18 Limbo Limbo A game of lowering the bar. In many fields, there is a skill gap that arrives from repetition, an advantage that benefits newness and disqualifies pioneers from maintaining a top spot (sorry Mark Spitz). Bun B visited Complex with this in mind, using inflation to neutralize this recency effect in crowning the hip-hop G.O.A.T. In nearly every matchup, Bun’s rationale relies on precedence to inform prowess—an artist’s future influence magnifies (and overshadows) the value of their work and their innate capacity for their craft. Though this adjustment accounts for the shoulders-of-giants effect, it makes earliness, rather than talent, the standard for excellence. To properly honor Biggie as #1 after two decades, influence and ability need to be considered, equally and as independent variables. Without doing so, the Top 5 will always resemble Mount Rushmore—a monument that commemerates founders rather than geniuses. Limbo No man’s land. Neutrals don’t occupy the moral high ground—especially when it comes to modern football’s infamous barbershop debate. In fact, the Messi vs. Ronaldo discussion has such distinguished hemispheres that diplomats are forced into a lonely orbit. The nonpartisans-turned-extraterrestrials among us fail to understand that their perspective is, by nature, alien—far enough from the surface to see both sides. Where impartiality traditionally bridges distances, refusing to choose between #10 and #7 emphasizes the space between the uninvolved and the passionate. Simply posed, the question is about the existance of a best player. To pick neither is to disagree with the whole world.  https://pitch.cargo.site/Syncopate-10-23-18 Tue, 23 Oct 2018 22:16:53 +0000 Pitch https://pitch.cargo.site/Syncopate-10-23-18 Syncopate Syncopate To stress the up beat.  V.I.P. by Youngblood Brass Band is The Sixth Sense of jazz music, hiding its off-beat bassline in plain sight by carefully curating the listener’s context. In isolation, the tuba intro supplants a false “one,” offering a backing groove whose percieved downbeat corresponds to the entrance of percussion. At 1:42, a seemingly abrupt cymbal crash shifts the feel an eighth note forward to accompany the melody. YBB’s M. Night Shyamalan reveal revolves around unveiling this discomfort as the result of a mistaken assumption rather than a metronomic alteration. To do so, the song essentially restarts at 4:09, but with new information. Now, the tuba riff starts on the “and” of one while the horns dictate the downbeat. When the transition comes again at 5:00, the chorus begins seamlessly, uncovering the truth to the listener—there is no shift or measure of 7/8. The tuba and drums were syncopated the whole time. Syncopate To cut short.  Zidane is football’s patron saint of early exits. This exalted position, like the canonization of many, has come at some cost—namely a throbbing forehead and a shiny silver medal. But at long last, Zizou’s affinity for walking away unexpectedly has paid dividends (or not hurt him, rather). Real Madrid are heading into El Clasico with only one win in their last six (and none in their last four domestic outings), the type of form that attracts George-Clooney-Up-in-the-Air types. Whether he foresaw Ronaldo’s turn to Turin or simply felt it was time for a change, Zidane, for perhaps the first time in his career, is not being punished for leaving.  https://pitch.cargo.site/Coin-10-22-18 Mon, 22 Oct 2018 21:56:30 +0000 Pitch https://pitch.cargo.site/Coin-10-22-18 Coin Coin Legal tender. What do you call a transaction in which both parties lose money? Spotify. Although I’d gladly snap my way through a dramatic reading of David Ek’s letter to his shareholders, the quick maths don’t yet add up to “giving... creative artists the opportunity to live off of their art.” The global streaming titan reported $1.5 billion in losses last year, all while paying artists as little as $0.0006 (they have a precise machine that splits a penny into almost two thousand tiny copper-plated bits) per play. Take an up-and-coming indie group like Lawrence. If each of their respectable 200k monthly listeners streamed Living Room front to back, the nine-piece soul-pop group would net a neat $1,560—the equivalent of selling a meager 75 $20 CDs. But before we light our torches and set sail for Stockholm, let’s consider being open to paying an extra three dollars a month for unlimited music—that alone would’ve balanced Spotify’s books in 2017, giving them more room for artist compensation.  Coin To create.  100 kilometers west of Paris, the concrete pitches of Évreux still echo with the name of Ousmane Dembélé. The nimble Frenchman’s shrewed footwork has earned him (for the moment, locally) what few players in the history of football have been inventive enough to achieve—a cemented place in the vocabulary of the game. Johan Cruyff’s trademark turn, Ronaldo’s explosive chop, and Neymar’s coy in-step control represent the legacies of creators rather than players, self-titled iconographies that immortalize the individuality of their inventors. By minting the term “Dembouz,” the youth of Dembélé’s hometown have identified something the world is discovering at the Camp Nou—an artist.  https://pitch.cargo.site/Ring-10-10-18 Thu, 11 Oct 2018 05:24:16 +0000 Pitch https://pitch.cargo.site/Ring-10-10-18 Ring Ring A rounded band. Humans, like trees, can be dated by dendrochronology. In fact, an analysis of the circles within which an individual lives reflects more than age—each halo tells the story of the historical conditions that nurtured one’s growth. The voice of Lil Wayne’s mother enlightens in a way that four Carters cannot, the presence of Saba’s father behind a Tiny Desk an illuminating cross-section of the artist’s roots. As a fan, I often mistake my access to a musician’s thoughts for intimacy. With each album spin, I play the needle, pushing my way to the middle until I am tracing the center. Understanding, like dendrochronology, is not about focalizing a particular band. It’s what a mother’s voicemail and a father’s refrain showed me about Wayne and Saba—the concentricity of our circles. Ring To resonate. Serial pop-culture thief Antoine Griezmann is going back in time for his new post-goal routine, leaving behind Drake and Fortnite for the Queen of music, and realistically, the world—Beyoncé. Although his last performance was less than convincing (I’m only 60% certain he’s attempting the “Single Ladies” dance), the French striker has pioneered an approachable model for a personal franchise. Athletico’s goofball superstar flipped a telephone-handed jig into a robust ad campaign by simply embracing his inner child and echoing meme culture. His fellow #7’s (think Ronaldo and Mbappé) embody excellence, offering a refined image that kids aspire to when looking at their reflection. Griezmann is the mirror in which kids see something playfully familiar—themselves. https://pitch.cargo.site/Humble-10-9-18 Wed, 10 Oct 2018 00:17:45 +0000 Pitch https://pitch.cargo.site/Humble-10-9-18 Humble Humble To put to shame. An exquisite meal, particularly to those who consider themselves toque-worthy, comes with a mellow aftertaste. This lingering flavor, diluted by the hope that the dish’s quality was derived from a mysterious (and likely divine) intervention between the kitchen and the table, is envy. Join the artist at their work station, and this sensation intensifies. FKJ’s YouTube page is an invitation behind the swinging double-hinged door where the dreadlocked Frenchman scurries around, looping himself until the studio is filled with phantom duplicates, each attending to one element of his masterpiece. His physical singularity—his movement between instruments—magnifies the presence of every ingredient and assures us (and our unfortunate egos) that what he has plated is far from an exercise in post-production. Humble Courteous. I’d like to see a heat map, not before goals have happened, but just after. There’s an obvious magnetism that emanates from the corner flag, but what about the pull of one's teammates? After watching Ross Barkley wheel away in celebration, not in search of the provider (a certain French striker whose regal good looks are second only to the beauty of the eye-catching scissor-kick he used to service the ex-Evertonian), but in search of his own accolades, I saw a freckled pitch and a team that lacked a sense of community. Chart the aftermath of nearly any goal from Barca’s MSN years (Catalonia’s best-ever trio), however, and you’ll see the a different image—three red dots converging into each other’s arms. Appreciation is an acknowledgement of value, value that one places in their teammates to mature into trust. And trust, in a team sport, is power. https://pitch.cargo.site/Crowd-10-5-18 Fri, 05 Oct 2018 23:25:15 +0000 Pitch https://pitch.cargo.site/Crowd-10-5-18 Crowd Crowd To squeeze into an area. I want to take this moment to honor the brave tributes from every American high school that dedicated themselves to mastering the Busta Rhymes verse from “Look at Me Now”. This iconic illustration of syllability (thanks for the term, Logic) is a mesmerizing depiction of the human voice as its own instrument. Our attention to meaning often deprives us of this experience, shrouding our ability to focus on the timbre and cadence of a voice. Instead of abandoning words to subvert content and highlight his musicality (think vocal runs), Mr. Rhymes crams words together to blur comprehension, leaving behind articulated sounds that can be consumed like drum rudiments. Crowd An assembly. A vacant seat at a Champions League fixture sticks out like a raised hand—what self-respecting fans forgo the tribunals on hallowed European nights? The self-respecting fans that live in Italy, as it were. At least a section of plastic interrogatives were visible at three stadiums on Matchday Two, but only PSG and Lyon were suffering UEFA-imposed sanctions. The San Paolo’s barren appearance in Naples was a victim of a reflexive parasite plaguing the entire Serie A—low attendance. Fans go to games as much for the ambiance as for the live experience, and the 56% fill-rate of Italian stadiums is turning supporters away from gates and towards bars, where energy is a guarantee.