cool stuff coming out this week!

Music:
Lil Wayne's Tha Carter III: This is a hugely hyped album from pretty much the mixtape king of hip-hop. I'm really interested in it because his flow is still evolving and also because his sound is a little grimier than either more commercial hiphop (kanye, ludacris) and less wholesome than socially responsible hiphop (kweli, common). i also love that he has beef with the clipse, my other current favorite hiphop artist.
Coldplay's Viva La Vida: Well, I loved Violet Hill, but that iTunes commercial song pretty much blows, so we'll see whether they want to make music that sounds urgent or music that belongs on Grey's Anatomy.

Movies:
The Incredible Hulk: It's a little weird to me that nobody seems at all excited about this. Is the Hulk not interesting because he's not personable or good looking? I guess, but Bruce Banner is so interesting for so many reasons! (described here). And most importantly - he's a SCIENTIST!
The Happening: I'm not really a big MNS fan. His stuff is too formulaic. And the Happening seems like a lame version of Zodiac. David Fincher could kick M. Night's ass.

Other thoughts:

Cool Weekend New York Times Magazine Focus on Architecture: particularly, an awesome article on this company called MVRDV that suggests novel architectural solutions for overpopulation, and another on the challenges facing the sudden construction of instant cities to support exploding economies.

The Machinery of Hope: I'll be the first to admit Rolling Stone's liberal homerism, but this is a great article on the success of grassroots efforts to drive voter turnout by the Obamachine.

Musicians like Obama: Bob Dylan and Nas both endorse him. Nas even raps about it in a track called "Black President" which is pretty cheesy. But, I'm just being biased because I'm a Lil Wayne fanboy at the moment.

China's SATs Basically Suck: Or do they? A huge national standardized test allows for economic mobility, but at the same time suppresses more creative intellectual pursuits.

Finally, Sufjan Stevens is awesome. Why? many reasons, but the most recent being his awesome takedown of Vampire Weekend, who (and I don't care that Mark Davis' daughter dates one of the band members) suck:

"Sometimes I worry that the ever-increasing trend toward excessive innovation has pushed the art and music world into a slapstick exhibition of dog breeding, generating increasingly newer, more contemporary fashions: gothic folk, for one. Or Afro-beat Ivy League pop."

Ha ha! Take that, stupid reggaeton-pop-rock fusion losers!