The Critical Condition is a cultural contradiction. I’m trying to create a casual space for serious critical thinking–a space that feels relaxed and welcoming, yet also thoughtful.

I’m trying to do that because in this country, thought is often derided as the enemy to friendliness. We’ve all seen movies that celebrate ignorance as a virtue (Forrest Gump, for example), and we’ve all see seen muscleheaded heroes triumph over evil geniuses

Many politicians also insist that you can’t trust someone with too much education. As Kristi Keck wrote for CNN.com:

Republicans for years have successfully labeled Democratic presidential candidates as the liberal elite. Portraying their rivals as latte-sipping, sushi-eating insiders, Republicans have connected with some voters by arguing that they understand the values important to the everyday person.

And if these elite-baiting politicians do go to good schools, they spin it as a positive if they don’t do very well, like when George W. Bush told a class of Yale undergrads that C students can still become president.

But I don’t buy it. We can all engage in deep thinking, and it won’t make us jerks. Thoughtfulness isn’t just the province of a special group, but the birthright of all people. It’s even one of the democratic qualities that America was founded to nurture.

Therefore, I want The Critical Condition to flaunt the supposed gulf between criticism and fun. I want to have debates in slang and funny accents. I want the community on this site to embody the fact that thinking isn’t elitist.

And when I want to remind myself of that, I listen to these songs.

Crank That Hit! after the jump…

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Hey y’all! I forgot to post this yesterday, but I had a piece in The New York Times over the weekend about HERE Arts Center, one of the city’s most interesting avant garde theater companies:

Read it here and enjoy!

The Movie: An American Carol (Opening October 3)

The Buzz: Hollywood’s conservative stars get together to spoof the country’s liberals. David Zucker  (Airplane!, The Naked Gun) directs. 

Let’s get scalin’… after the jump

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Here it is: A lifelong dream come true. In this post, you can hear my first-ever, fully produced rap single, and you can download it for free.

Yes! Free!

And there’s also a music video!!

For those who don’t know, I started rhyming when I was eight years old. I wrote the following jam in my grandmother’s shower…

I’m the prince of power
I’m the king of cool
If you don’t like me
You’re a fool

You see? Second grade, and already an MC. And If you’ve spent five minutes around me since, then you know my flow never stopped

And now, for The Critical Condition, I’ve written “Silence (of the Lambs),” a rap song that distills The Silence of the Lambs into three hot minutes.

No doubt: It’s a sick-ass hit.

If you know dance music, you might recognize Sumeet, my amazing guest vocalist. She wrote the melody for the hook, and her cohort Amil was our producer.

Download the song, stick it in your playlist, and let the good times roll. And don’t forget to watch the video!

(If you have trouble downloading, just e-mail me. I’ll make sure a copy of the track gets to your inbox.)

According to reputable sources, Eminem is about to release a new album. 

Surprisingly, I’m interested to hear it. 

I say it’s surprising because I spent the early aughts just loathing everything he produced. The petulant hatred in songs like “The Real Slim Shady” made me angry enough to spit.

But then I was in this club one night, and I heard “Lose Yourself” for the first time, and I got into it before I realized who it was by.

And then I had to get over myself and acknowledge the man’s gifts. Once I paid attention to “Lose Yourself,” for instance, I was impressed by the rhythmic complexity of the lyrics and by how well the worked against the beat. I was also impressed by the cleverness of the writing, and by bow vulnerable it was.

From there, I realize Eminem had always blended impeccable craft with a furious display of his personality. Sometimes I empathized with him–like with the anxiety in “Lose Yourself” and the political rage in “Mosh”–and sometimes he made me angry, but how could I deny the importance of an artist who always made me react? Better one Eminem sticking in my craw than sixty five Ja Rules leaving no taste at all.

I don’t know what I’ll think of Eminem’s next album, but I know I’ll think something, and probably while bobbing my head to an excellent beat.

Over at Variety, I just reviewed the last-ever New York incarnation of Forbidden Broadway, a musical revue that spoofs current Broadway theater. FB has been cranking out material since 1982, so its swan song is a big deal.

Also, check out my review of The Marvelous Wonderettes, which is a musical about a campy girl group… that doesn’t include a single reference to Dreamgirls. Odd!

Hey y’all! I’m just popping in today, because tonight I’ll be starring in Lucy Alibar’s short play “A Little Bit of Butter” at Dixon Place Theater. (I have to leave for technical rehearsal in about 20 minutes. Yowza!)

The piece is part of an evening of short works called Little Taste of Paradise. Deliciously, the shows explore the intersection of food and faith.

In “A Little Bit of Butter,” I play a young boy who is rejected by his classmates at a Pentecostal Day School… until Jesus gives him some amazing red velvet cake.

For those who are around, you should come on down! The show starts at 8:00 PM, and it’s going to be lots of fun.

Here’s the official info.

From one perspective, I’m not sure this commercial is effective, since it doesn’t make me want to buy the new iPod Nano. Mostly, I’m wondering why any iPod in 2008–whether it’s floating through space or not–would have a picture of James Blunt on it.

And also? If my music device ever bleeds paint on me, I will be pissed.

But then again, this ad furthers Apple’s track record of introducing cool songs by indie musicians. Even if it doesn’t move the Nano, it will probably enhance the company’s overall image as a coolness magnet.

And let’s not kid ourselves: For all their customer service problems, Apple did us right by bringing Feist and Yael Naim to the larger world. We need them to mitigate the crimes of Soulja Boy.

I mean, I’d heard of Feist before “1, 2, 3, 4,” but I hadn’t heard her. Now, she’s got two songs in my iTunes top 40. (The other one is “I Feel It All.”) And I sure as hell hadn’t heard of Yael Naim, but thanks to that MacBook Air commercial, I rock “New Soul” and several other ditties from her debut album.

And now I can thank the bleeding Nano for introducing me to Chairlift and their groovy song “Bruises.” Just like “New Soul” and “1, 2, 3, 4,” the track is quirky, bouncy, and cute, but in particular, it sounds like Nena’s lost follow-up to “99 Luftballons.”

Listen to the song and tell me you don’t agree. I dare you!

After two episodes, I’ve got to say… I’m digging True Blood, Alan Ball’s new HBO series about vampires “coming out of the coffin” to live among humans. The story’s set in rural Louisiana–there’s a murder mystery, corny jokes, and a psychic Anna Paquin falling for a hot vampire–and I’m already invested in the gory fun.

I doubt the show will affect me like Six Feet Under, Ball’s previous series, but no series has ever effected me that way. Did you guys see the final episode? I was still crying the next day. I was standing on the subway platform, thinking about the scene where David see Keith’s ghost (or whatever), and I just lost it. Capital L.

But that show was also structured to end perfectly: When your conceit is that someone dies every week, it only makes sense to see all the characters die in the finale. It’s absolute closure.

True Blood is much less profound… at least right now. As Alessandra Stanley writes in The New York Times, it’s a “little too enthralled” with its own exoticism, and its politics are wincingly obvious. Vampires have represented social outcasts for so long that we could have made the connections in True Blood in our sleep. We certainly don’t need “helpful” touches like church signs reading “God Hates Fangs.”

But that said, there’s a sudsy, sexy playfulness in this show that Ball’s work usually lacks. It’s nice to see vampires go into a bar an order a tall glass of Tru Blood (the synthetic blood that slakes their thirst for humans), and it’s nice to hear about “fangbangers,” the humans who want to get it on with vamps.

It’s nice because vampire stories are usually so moody that their comedy is unintentional. (Lestat, we are looking at you. )

Or else the vampires are Count Chocula, and they’re completely devoid of mystery. When the creatures land between beastliness and foolishness, they’re much more interesting.

Do you guys read those Twilight books? Do they skirt this line, or are they all, “Vampires are goth and sexy!”  If Twilight is more like True Blood, I might see that movie or read one of those novels.

Then I guess I’ll be a vampire freak.  I’ll have to go to a vampire convention. Or think more about this woman.

The Movie: Doubt (opening December 12)

The Buzz: The play won a Pulitzer. The cast is lousy with Oscar faves. How capital can you make the “P” in “Prestige?”

The Trailer: 

The Review: If I hadn’t seen the play, this preview would make me skeptical about Doubt. It only hints at the fiery complexity of the story–it’s about much, much more than ripped-from-the-headlines accusations of abuse–and it makes the movie seem a stiff. 

But I have seen the play, and it’s anything but stiff. It uses juicily written characters to ask enormous questions about faith, and by the end, those questions crack across the story like a whip.

The early scenes in this preview hint at how writer-director John Patrick Shanley has enlarged the world of his four-character drama. Seeing the leads interact with children, for instance, could be illuminating, and giving Mrs. Muller (Viola Davis) more scenes can only deepen one of the most surprising characters I’ve seen in contemporary theater.

Plus, it’s obvious from this preview that Meryl Streep and Philip Seymour Hoffman are rocking it. I can’t wait to see them face off.

But again, I feel like I’m excited because I know how the scene snippets fit into the film’s larger structure. For those who don’t know the play: How does the trailer make you feel about the movie? And for those who do know the play: Well… same question.

The Rating: 3 1/2 Severe Bonnets