April 2012

  • Why Would Anyone Buy a Book?

    I read this on Nathan Bransford’s blog as part of his regular feature, This Week in Books Meanwhile, publishing industry sage Mike Shatzkin has some very helpful context on why publishers are so reluctant to let libraries lend e-books. This is definitely a tricky issue for publishers, and I don’t envy them being on the wrong […]


  • The Word is Bond Weekly Podcast (The First 5)

    Recently, The Word is Bond redesigned their entire website to help bring you the best in underground hip-hop. There are daily news articles, album reviews, music videos, interviews, editorials, and much, much more. It really is an excellent online hip-hop magazine. I am proud to head up The Word is Bond Podcast and just in […]


  • DOPEfm Old School Mix (Free Download)

    Here’s an old school hip-hop mix for you to enjoy. Download it for free, play it straight through, or skip through the tracks. This mix really bumps. Every song is mixed and blended together. It features music from Run-DMC, K-Solo, O.C., Nice & Smooth, Gangstarr, Audio Two, Eric B & Rakim, A Tribe Called Quest, […]


  • The Rise of the West Coast (Know Your History Podcast)

    For the first few years of its existence, hip-hop was something that you had to experience live. There were no commercial recordings, no rap albums, no 12-inch singles, no rap music on the radio. You had to go out to a block party or a club to see a DJ throwing down a set. Hip-hop […]


  • A to Z: Free Smartboard Game for Your Classroom

    I’d like to share with you a game that I designed for the Smartboard. I’ve played it with several classes over the past two years and it has always been a hit. I got the idea of it from this electronic game that I saw in the toy store one day. I have seen many different […]


  • Chasing Content – April 2007

    I’m still working on making a “Best Of” post for every single month I’ve blogged. To that end, I thought I would serve you up a second edition of Chasing Content this month. This way we can look back at what I was doing five years ago at this time. Read all of the posts […]


  • A Novel a Month

    I am continuing to document everything I read over the course of this year. So far, I have grouped my posts by theme; Hip-Hop Memoirs, Graphic Novels, and now here are the novels I have read in addition to The Hunger Games . . . School of Essential Ingredients by Erica Bauermeister Lillian’s restaurant isn’t […]


  • I’m a DJ Hero

    Look what I found for $10 at the Giant Tiger! It’s DJ Hero for the Nintendo Wii. I really like how much it looks and feels like a turntable a scratch deejay would use. And I love that it was on sale for a fraction of the original cost. Here is a screen cap of […]


  • Let the Smartboard be Your Artist

    A Smartboard is a great tool to have in the classroom. It lets us do much more than a regular blackboard or whiteboard. Today, I am going to show you how to use the built-in picture library. Say you wanted to get an image of a soccer player for a lesson. Without a Smatboard, you […]


  • What an Angry Father Taught His Daughter (Jim Richards Breaks it Down)

    Did you hear the story about the father who was upset with a Facebook update that his daughter posted? It was basically just a complaint about the amount of chores she has to do. Her dad responded to her Facebook message by filming himself shooting her laptop computer with a pistol. I really like what […]