The Racket Friday FAQ: Volume 3
This is gonna be short and sweet because I have to pack and get the hell out of this city. Spring break! Spring break! WOOOOO!!! When we were in college, this is what we would yell at the girls leaving the tanning salons. It was funnier, then. Anyway, questions. Regulators, mount up:
Q: What is an 8-ball?
Okay, I figured I would get this question, but I was surprised at how many times I did. An 8-ball is almost four grams of fun. To be specific, it's around 3.5 grams; or, 1/8th of an ounce. Back in the mid-1990s, if memory serves, it cost anywhere from $100 to $150. I don't know if that was a bargain.
Q: What the hell is a teener?
A: A teener is half of an 8—1.75 grams; or, 1/16th of an ounce. I don't know its origin.
Okay, so here's one other question that I'm going to preempt right now because I know it's going to come up in later stories:
Q: What is yay?
A: yayo [sic]: n., cocaine. Origin is the Spanish llello; yayo is the misspelled/phonetic version. Also, yay, for short. I've read that it's attributed mostly to one Tony Montana.
And now that I've displayed my mad urban lingo skillz, we can move on.
Q: None of your entries are about music so why give them the titles that you do? I read the one called "Janes Addiction" [sic] and it wasn't about them at all.
A: They're totally about the music. The music is what frames these stories. The music is what makes me remember the details. The music is why I'm writing at all. Writing about music in the literal sense—that's best left to Sasha Frere-Jones or David Fricke, no doubt. But a review can only tell you so much about a song or an album. It's when you learn about the people who listen to that song or album—what their lives are like, who their friends are, what their state of mind is—that you really understand how the music sounds. That's what I think, anyway.
Alright, so thanks for the questions. I'm not going to be online for a week and a half, so unfortunately, there will be nothing new here until I get back. But in the meantime, why don't you take a stroll through the Archives? Or check out some of the site's Greatest Hits:
* "Laurel, your friends are all sluts."
* The Elton Series—Parts One, Two, and Three.
* The most melancholy songs in the world.
* LL Cool J's doppelganger.
* The punk-rock poet with the star tattoo.
Have a great week, you guys.
Q: What is an 8-ball?
Okay, I figured I would get this question, but I was surprised at how many times I did. An 8-ball is almost four grams of fun. To be specific, it's around 3.5 grams; or, 1/8th of an ounce. Back in the mid-1990s, if memory serves, it cost anywhere from $100 to $150. I don't know if that was a bargain.
Q: What the hell is a teener?
A: A teener is half of an 8—1.75 grams; or, 1/16th of an ounce. I don't know its origin.
Okay, so here's one other question that I'm going to preempt right now because I know it's going to come up in later stories:
Q: What is yay?
A: yayo [sic]: n., cocaine. Origin is the Spanish llello; yayo is the misspelled/phonetic version. Also, yay, for short. I've read that it's attributed mostly to one Tony Montana.
And now that I've displayed my mad urban lingo skillz, we can move on.
Q: None of your entries are about music so why give them the titles that you do? I read the one called "Janes Addiction" [sic] and it wasn't about them at all.
A: They're totally about the music. The music is what frames these stories. The music is what makes me remember the details. The music is why I'm writing at all. Writing about music in the literal sense—that's best left to Sasha Frere-Jones or David Fricke, no doubt. But a review can only tell you so much about a song or an album. It's when you learn about the people who listen to that song or album—what their lives are like, who their friends are, what their state of mind is—that you really understand how the music sounds. That's what I think, anyway.
Alright, so thanks for the questions. I'm not going to be online for a week and a half, so unfortunately, there will be nothing new here until I get back. But in the meantime, why don't you take a stroll through the Archives? Or check out some of the site's Greatest Hits:
* "Laurel, your friends are all sluts."
* The Elton Series—Parts One, Two, and Three.
* The most melancholy songs in the world.
* LL Cool J's doppelganger.
* The punk-rock poet with the star tattoo.
Have a great week, you guys.
posted by Iseult at 2:33 PM
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