(a knuckleball continues spinning and the jukebox plays)

Barkeep here. Just putting two songs for the jukebox and breaking them down a bit. The Breaks is a great way to actually dig for samples if you choose to.

1. Edie Brickell and the New Bohemians, "What I Am"

Thanks to UMG for actually making this video available. This song got too big for its own good when I was seven or so watching MuchMusic. Y'know, the Canadian music channel?

Lemme just put it this way. J and the Family Roam was in Ecuador then. I loved this song. Then I heard "Slow Down" by Brand Nubian about 15 years later and loved that too.

2. Crooklyn Dodgers (Original Squad), "Crooklyn"

Loose and beautiful track by three amazing emcees...if only for one track. An all-star team that actually is in continual rotation with a hook placed in between them.

Q-Tip of A Tribe Called Quest is a great producer. The song's about Brooklyn of that moment (1994) and of a different time (the 1970s, which Crooklyn was about).

Beautiful samples to my ear here include a championship call (Brooklyn wins! Brooklyn wins!) and the hard-ass DJ Premier/Guru collaboration "The Place Where We Dwell." (Never taking shorts 'cuz Crooklyn's the borough.)

And now let's switch to the walking headphones. G'day.

Off-Day Entertainments: Wholly unrelated.

And now, for no good reason, five excellent song and music video pairings.



That coal miner sure can dance.



When they did this, they did it live backwards...and replayed it...backwards!



A recent addition to my list. This would make a good animated feature unless Disney got his dead and deadly hands on it.



Either you love or hate "Genius of Love," and so it is with the video. I prefer cheaply-drawn animation to the expensive flawless sort.



One of the first music videos of any kind. One of my favorite non-album tracks, too.