Ryan Adams, IMO the greatest songwriter of ALL FUCKING TIME, is gonna be putting out a book of poetry next year that I probably won’t buy because most poetry sucks, but whatever:

EMO rocker Ryan Adams has more to say than can be conveyed in one of his crooning songs or in one of his lengthy missives to Gawker.com. Page Six hears Adams has signed with indie Brooklyn house Akashic Books to publish his still-untitled collection of prose. “They just signed the contract,” said our source, “and they plan to release it in 2009.” A rep for Adams confirmed the deal, but wouldn’t comment on a working title or when it would hit the shelves.

In b4 summer of 69

Kevin Powell is a former cast member from the first season of MTV’s The Real World. Now he’s running for Congress in the 10th district (Brooklyn) of New York. I don’t think being on The Real World is any sort of credential but he does have a BA in Political Science. At least he was on the show before it went completely downhill and turned to crap.

He is up against Ed Towns, a 13-year incumbent, so we probably won’t see him in office anytime soon. Powell thinks “civic engagement should be a part of our values as much as MTV and Xbox.” He is trying to get more young people involved and what better way than making a tape of his speeches mixed with music from Tupac, 50 Cent and Kanye West?

Joining the ranks of other recently folded music mags No Depression and Harp, Mass Appeal has decided to gtfo of the magazine game:

In a refrain that’s becoming all-too-familiar for niche music magazine publishers, Mass Appeal, the 12-year-old Brooklyn-based hip-hop and lifestyle magazine, is calling it quits. The 100,000-circulation title had recently published its 50th issue.

As part of our continuing effort to turn Synthesis weekly Managing Editor Ryan Prado’s tiny apartment into a legendary music venue, we recently invited Brooklyn-based ultra-spocks The Big Sleep to come up and rock some tunes, and they obliged. Check out the band rocking “Pinkies” above, then check out our YouTube channel for an interview with the band, and clips of all the other badass bands that have played at Ryan’s lately, including Armor for Sleep, Portugal. The Man, The Color Fred, and a shit ton more.

I’ll admit, things in America suck right now, compared to the salad days of the late-nineties. But from the daily headlines regarding the current financial downturn, you’d think Hoovervilles are already springing up outside every major American city. As I’ve pointed out in previous posts, the hyperbole surrounding these events is laughable once you get into the meat of the stories. Like the story a few weeks back about the “ruined lives” of Bear Stearns employees, in which one executive stock options were worth a mere $28 million dollars, and lesser employees were forced to put their “weekend homes” up for sale, or another story about the California housing market in which the shrinking pool of mortgage related credit had forced one homeowner to “cut back on travel” and find other means by which to pay for his “investment properties.” Today, I found yet another golden quote, in a story with the dire headline “Food Costs Rising Fastest in 17 Years,” which definitely sounds scary. Should we expect food riots in the streets of New York? Soviet-style bread lines at bakeries nationwide? OMG WHAT DO WE HAVE TO BE AFRAID OF NOW???! How about $20 key lime pies that now cost $25?

Steve Tarpin can bake a graham cracker crust in his sleep, but explaining why the price for his Key lime pies went from $20 to $25 required mastering a thornier topic: global economics. The owner of Steve’s Authentic Key Lime Pies in Brooklyn said he didn’t want customers thinking he was “jacking up prices because I have a unique product.”

“I have to justify it,” he said.

I somehow doubt that anyone who could afford a $20 key lime pie is somehow going to starve now that they have to pay $5 more. But then the story got even better:

“I was talking to people who make $9 an hour, talking about how they might save $5 a week,” said Kathleen DiChiara, president and CEO of the Community FoodBank of New Jersey. “They really felt they couldn’t. That was before. Now, they have to.”

For some, that means adding an extra cup of water to their soup, watering down their milk, or giving their children soda because it’s cheaper than milk, DiChiara said

Umm…have they ever heard of WATER?? It’s this thing that runs out of the faucet. And guess how much it costs?? $0.0000000!!11 But I guess if you’re poor you’re not really interested in giving your kids something healthy to drink, especially not something totally free.

Here’s the latest from this years Brooklyn Hip Hop Festival:

Brooklyn Bodega, the producers of the 4th Annual Brooklyn Hip-Hop Festival and The Lyricist Lounge announced today that the two premier Hip- Hop event producers will be joining forces for this year’s Brooklyn Hip-Hop Festival. The two companies will be co-presenters of the main date on July 12th at Empire-Fulton Ferry State Park as well as a new date - June 28th at Prospect Park.

The Lyricist Lounge will be joining the Festival’s SUPPORT CELEBRATE REPRESENT network of cultural programming partners. This group of like minded promoters, DJ’s, artists, writers, and activists are working together to produce top notch events around Brooklyn, New York City and beyond.
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