If you care about sports, good writing, laughing, being smart, or rap, you should probably throw some $$$s at The Classical‘s g-string on their Kickstarter. Here’s the press release:

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The Classical is a daily web publication. We’ve written about sports and other things for the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Sports Illustrated, GQ, The Nation, Yahoo! Sports, New York Magazine, Vice, Pitchfork, and more. We’ve started blogs you love, written books you’ve bought, and tweeted with you about critical theory, punk rock, and Kevin Durant. The Classical is the place where we write about those things some more, but on our terms, for ourselves and for the audience we know is out there.

Every day, The Classical will deliver several regular columns, a host of quick, random goodness, and a fun, smart community for talking about the sports world. There will be long features (a 25,000-word piece on Pete Alexander, say, or introductions to particular niches of sports fandom) and contributions from the world: prizewinning novelists, internet celebrities, guys and girls we went to school with who are unappreciated geniuses, members of the public. There will be theme weeks in the spirit of FreeDarko’s “Dream Week,” on-the-ground reporting when we can, and essays commissioned by you, the readers.

We will make no attempt to be comprehensive, or even to offer a reliable guide to the world of sport at a given moment. We will not try to be a smarter version of what you can find elsewhere. Instead, The Classical will be a running, wide-ranging conversation between us and our readers about baseball, basketball, soccer, football and fighting, and about things that aren’t sports, too. Our model in this regard is The Awl, a site for which many of us have written and which all of us love.

Writing about sports the way that smart people talk about sports is a simple idea, and a good one. To do it right, though—to set up a sustainable business, rather than yet another blog or Tumblr—takes some money. Site design and hosting, lawyering and other businessish stuff, and keeping a couple of us at this full time while we show and prove ourselves will require resources. We need to fund our budget for one year, and we need your help to do it.

PETE BEATTY: Who is registered to vote in Brooklyn, NY, and edits books during the daytime hours, including Craig Robinson’s Flip Flop Fly Ball. He has written for GQ.com, the Chicago Tribune, Pitchfork.com, Time Out Chicago, and the Internet. He is the only Cleveland Indians fan you have ever met and has stated that he plans to have a string quartet play Double Nickels on the Dime at his wedding (he is single).

TOM BREIHAN: Who is a writer from Baltimore who lives in Virginia. He used to write the Village Voice’s Status Ain’t Hood blog and also used to work for Pitchfork. He’s written, mostly about music but sometimes about pro wrestling, for GQ, Spin, Blender, the Chicago Reader, the Baltimore City Paper, and a bunch of other publications. He is taller than you, and his daughter will also be taller than you soon enough.

FREDORRARCI: Who is a writer from Ireland. He is the owner/operator of Sport Is A TV Show, and has contributed to Norman Einstein’s Sports & Rocket Science Monthly and The Run of Play. He follows Arsenal, and will tut at anyone who tries to tell him that snooker is not a sport.

ERIC FREEMAN: Who is a writer from San Francisco, CA. He contributes daily to Yahoo!’s Ball Don’t Lie NBA blog and has written for GQ, The Awl, and FreeDarko. He was also a co-author of The Undisputed Guide to Pro Basketball History. In his spare time, he reads long novels, watches weird movies, and yells at his television.

TIM MARCHMAN: Who is a writer out of Chicago, IL. Currently a Knight-Wallace fellow in journalism at the University of Michigan, he has written for various publications including the Wall Street Journal, Sports Illustrated and the New York Sun, where he was the baseball correspondent from 2003 to 2008. He admires The Mekons and Jon Fitch.

ERIC NUSBAUM: Who was a U.S. Census Crew Leader in Seattle, WA, where he still lives. He founded and co-edits the baseball blog Pitchers & Poets. His writing has appeared in Slate, Deadspin, GQ.com, TheAtlantic.com, and The Best American Sports Writing anthology.

KATE PERKINS: A pro basketball and tennis enthusiast who has edited at n+1 and Verso Books. Resident minimalist.

DAVID ROTH: Who is a writer from New Jersey, and who lives in New York. He co-writes the Wall Street Journal’s Daily Fix and writes the unpopular sports column The Mercy Rule for Vice. He also writes about sports and other things for The Awl, New York Magazine and GQ, among other places. He’s a Mets fan, so he knows all about how that feels.

TOM SCHARPLING: Who is the host of the radio show “The Best Show on WFMU.” He was a writer and executive producer of the Emmy-Award winning show Monk and wrote for SLAM magazine as a young lad. He is currently developing two shows for Comedy Central and finds himself rooting for Kevin Durant but relating more to Monta Ellis.

BETHLEHEM SHOALS: Who is the founder of FreeDarko and a co-author of The Macrophenomal Pro Basketball Almanac and The Undisputed Guide to Pro Basketball History. He has written about sports for GQ, Sports Illustrated, McSweeney’s, and Deadspin, and about non-sports stuff for The Nation and The Awl.

LANG WHITAKER: Who is SLAM magazine’s editor-at-large, and a contributor to NBA TV. He is the author of The Time of Bobby Cox: The Atlanta Braves, Their Manager, My Couch, Two Decades and Me and a co-author of The Undisputed Guide to Pro Basketball History. He has also written for the New York Times, GQ, Sports Illustrated and Esquire. He plays a lot of video games

And now for more THINGS WE LIKE! Honestly, I don’t know crap about Hip-Hop photorgraphy and photographers. The only reason I’m up on Jonathan Mannion is because I stumbled across some random post on Hypebeast about a show in Paris several weeks ago. He’s done some really amazing photography and captured some really iconic moments as the Vimeo videoclips below will quickly remind you. I’ve posted a couple of my favorites from his website above but I just thought I’d shout dude out on the blog real quick… because he’s ill! Anyway, go check his blog and follow the man on twitter after you watch the clips below.

Back in the Days : 27 Mars à La Bellevilloise , Episode #1 from Nadim33 on Vimeo.

Back in the Days : 27 Mars à La Bellevilloise , Episode #2 from Nadim33 on Vimeo.

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Steve James, the director of CFB favorites Hoop Dreams and No Crossover: The Trial of Allen Iverson, has been hard at work on a new documentary called The Interrupters. It looks phenomenal. Check the trailer above and their website for more info and festival showtimes. There doesn’t seem to be a general release date yet, but we’ll be sure to keep you informed as soon as we find out more info. UPDATE: I was just notified by The Interrupters twitter account (which is probably the best way to find out about showtimes that there will be a showing of this film at the Cinefest Philly in April. The exact time and date has yet to be announced.

The Interrupters tells the moving and surprising stories of three Violence Interrupters who try to protect their Chicago communities from the violence they once employed. From acclaimed director Steve James and bestselling author Alex Kotlowitz, this film is an unusually intimate journey into the stubborn, persistence of violence in our cities. Shot over the course of a year out of Kartemquin Films, The Interrupters captures a period in Chicago when it became a national symbol for the violence in our cities. During that period, the city was besieged by high-profile incidents, most notably the brutal beating of Derrion Albert, a Chicago High School student, whose death was caught on videotape.

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Head over to my man Ray The Destroyer’s Big Cartel shop and cop his Based buttons pack (so punk rock!) and his dope More Blast Beats t-shirt!

GO, BUY… NOW!

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Go to this if the snow ever stops in Philly.

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It is a collection of pictures and words illustrating life in the Philadelphia neighborhoods of Frankford, Juniata, Kensington, Port Richmond, and Fishtown.

I’m really proud of these guys for putting in the effort to chronicle their lives and our city. They didn’t just do it, they did it well.

GOOD SHIT! COP THAT!

Just got this email regarding from Derrick @ Bustbright, the excellent graphic designer that helped us design The Crossfaded Bacon EP Bo Bliz and I did on Flamin Hotz Records. (As a sidenote, this EP should be available digitally within the next couple weeks!!) Anyway, here’s the email:

Just wanted to let you know the Crossfaded Bacon EP has been accepted by the AIGA for this year’s AIGA 365 collection in the Packaging category. Its actually pretty tight…the AIGA is the big Graphic Design organization in the US and competition is pretty fierce. Last year they only picked one music package, and it was this huge, Wynton Marsalis, history of the French Quarter music deal. There were also only 14 pieces from the packaging category selected among the 300 pieces total last, so its kinda serious to be selected this year.

Thanks dudes for being so cool to work with and for pushing this shit to be as dope as possible.
D.

We’re really excited!

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Buy some of his prints here.

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More after the jump

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Made in Queens is a documentary by Nicholas Randall and Joe Stevens documenting a fresh group Trinidadian kids in a Queens subperb. Lead by teenage master builder Nicholas Ragbir, the squad turns BMX bikes into speaker balancin, mobile block party making monsters. Peep game here:

http://www.madeinqueensfilm.com/

If you’d rather stick to your discman and your fixed gear, pump this on your way to Johnny Brenda’s.

Busta Feat. Jadakiss and Jeezy- Conglomerate

http://www.zshare.net/audio/5403034614a839ba/

Imagine a diverse group of young(early-mid 20s) International artists of the same medium connecting , collaborating and selling via one comprehensive website that features all of their work. Sure, this is not a new concept but Depthcore, a digital art collective, presents a nice model for how nichey artists who don’t know, but respect each other’s work, can support each other.The mission of the group is to highlight innovation in an “industry that is inundated with repetition”.

Peep it here:

http://depthcore.com/home/

Bonus: Last year’s recipient of the “Fatally Slept on Backpacker Block Banger award”.

Kweli Feat. Consequence-Engine Runnin…Madlib again and again.

http://www.zshare.net/audio/52934068599496f4/

China 2007

LA 2005

Friend and colleague Cosmo Baker’s big sister Zoe has put together what looks to be a really amazing book of photographs. Definitely go cop it as soon as you can especially if you’re having trouble thinking of non-cliche, reasonably priced Christmas gifts.

Hit the jump for more info…

50 years after Robert Frank’s seminal book The Americans was released, Zoe Strauss’s own America breaks new ground. The Philadelphia native who has brought us searing images of that city’s marginalized people and places on the fringe of society, has taken her no holds barred, up close
and personal style of photography on the road across the underbelly of America.

Zoe Strauss had never picked up a camera before her 30th birthday, but in these recent years has generated a huge body of work that has been recognized and exhibited in the Whitney Biennial, as well as New York’s Bruce Silverstein Gallery, and garnered her a United States Artists grant and a Gund Fellowship. Additionally, Ms. Strauss creates a yearly public exhibit called Under I-95, beneath Philadelphia’s interstate, that has garnered a devoted following. This is the first monograph of this incredibly talented and prolific photographer.

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Photographer Peter Beste has posted some incredible pics that capture Houston rap culture’s most candid moments. Here’s what he has to say about the pictures and definitely go peep them:

My hometown of Houston, Texas, also known as the Third Coast, is a world all its own. This city is responsible for birthing the Geto Boys, UGK (from nearby Port Arthur), DJ Screw, and the codeine-based drink known as Syrup. Producing an uncompromising and innovative sound all their own, many of these artists existed under the radar for nearly twenty years despite a virtual absence of press outside of the deep south. These photographs are my attempt to bring attention to the music, lifestyle and culture of a very exciting time and place. — Peter Beste

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From Stefan Glerum’s Blog. Click the link for the whole collection in detail, or here for the overview. Below are some of my faves.