culture

R&B albums rarely combine the multiple musical legacies of one given city and catch the zeitgeist of its time as masterfully as PPP’s sophomore disc, Abundance (Ubiquity). As the title suggests, producer Waajeed and multi-instrumentalist Saadiq—the group’s two brainiacs—pack so much historical reference, so much modern perspective, so much deft musicality, so much lyrical ingenuity,…

“You may not think I’m French, but I am,” said a latte-colored man with frizzy hair over a loud speaker hidden in a sculpture garden on the Mall in Washington, D.C.  At the performance last fall, there were no signs leading to the concert where French harmonica player Frédéric Yonnet performed. The only giveaway was…

Modern medicine never ceases to amaze The Buzz. The latest shocker? A recent kidney transplant, detailed by William Saletan in Slate’s “Human Nature” blog, in which a 48-year-old woman had the organ removed through her vagina. Yes, you read correctly! Vagina. And if BBC News reported the story, then you know that it’s more than the setup for a…

Sporting a business ‘fro and a pronounced beard that gave him the look of an ‘80s Marvin Gaye or a ‘70s Orson Welles, Tuesday, while his one time paramour Christine Beatty still serves out her 120-day sentence, former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick was released from jail and headed directly to his family’s new home in…

Finally, the Ty company (of Beanie Babies” fame) yanked the “Marvelous Malia” and “Sweet Sasha” children’s dolls that had been doing a brisk business since Barack Obama, the father of the namesakes was sworn in as President. Michelle Obama reportedly led the White House crusade against the image appropriation. The Buzz is all for dolls…

On Wednesday, President Barack Obama and Treasury Secretary Timothy “My Bad” Geithner will announce on behalf of Sen. Claire “They’re Idiots” McCaskill and a fed-up Main Street, U.S.A., that going forward, financial institutions receiving federal funds via the Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP) will be required to limit employee salaries to $500K. The Buzz would…

Today, the first family continued to make nice with their new hometown, paying a surprise visit to the Capital City Public Charter School in Northwest Washington. On the heels of his much-publicized visit to local restaurant Ben’s Chili Bowl, President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle hit up a second grade classroom just up the…

When author and history professor Carter G. Woodson created what would become Black History Month in February 1926, America’s black citizens were on the outside looking in, spectators to the great American drama, subjected to a repression of aspiration and identity so severe that it amounted to domestic apartheid. Lynchings were so common that the…

President Barack Obama sits down for interviews with all of the major television networks on Tuesday. As the economy flags and his stimulus package continues to languish in Congress, Obama will tell America how he plans to “Fix it!” Two weeks out from his inauguration, and two days after his pre-Super Bowl fireside chat with…

Sonny Rollins is called “jazz’s greatest living saxophonist” so routinely that it is almost a nickname and probably a curse. Yet his new recording, Road Shows, Vol. 1 (Doxy/Emarcy), is another affirmation of his greatness and may be a sign that the curse is lifting.   The recording is a compilation of highlights from Rollins’ live…