Today on NPR’s Day To Day

This week’s edition of “What’s The New What?” sets out to show that Friends are the New Lovers. Check out the report on NPR’s Day To Day.

What’s The New What? Yes, It Is.

Back in business after a Van Winkle-esque slumber, Youth Radio’s cutting edge culture blog What’s the New What returns to “Teh Interwebs” on the eve of the launch of the new What’s The New What segment on NPR’s Day To Day May 22nd.

Within its virtual pages you will discover how Internships are the New Summer Jobs, The Bathroom is the New Office, Rick Ross is the new Notorious B.I.G. and much, much more.

[What’s The New What @ blogspot]

WTNW: The Bathroom is the New Office

From our sister blog, What’s the New What!

I’m not ashamed to admit it; I’ve held several conversations on the can that directly pertain to business. I’ve also looked over contracts and planned events, all while relieving myself. In the sitcom Seinfeld, when the character George read a book in the bathroom, it was “flagged” and people didn’t want to go near it. I wouldn’t give a crap (no pun intended) if someone read a book in the bathroom.

-King Anyi

Read the whole piece!

Recent Post Roundup

First off: apologies for the disappearing act. We’ve been cooking up a few things for the long term and some other projects on short notice, and thus the blogging suffered.

Yet fear not! For the front page at Youth Radio has been off the hook all week… here’s some highlights for the three of you who don’t come to the blog via the website:

• Pop, Lock & Roll: America’s Best Dance Crew— America Idol judge Randy Jackson’s new reality show has been a big hit here at the office. Youth Radio’s Best TV Watchin’ Crew: Brandon McFarland, Ayesha Walker, Susana Vuong, and Denise Tejada got together to break down their fandom. [Real Media Format]
• In Memory: Markeese Edwards–a former student of Youth Radio’s CAP program, Markeese was slain in Oakland last week. We’ve gathered up a small collection of photos and tribute recordings to honor his memory.
• Strange Illness— Denise Tejada talks about how her experience with contaminated water and food made her re-think what she can do to help keep the Bay Area environment clean.
• Thrifting— Kelly Douglas of Youth Radio Atlanta brings us up to speed in the latest in thrift store chic.

That’s just to hold you until I can get a very special interview up this afternoon. You should probably go get yourself some sliders to go with that one.

Afternoon Youth Beat Roundup

Not a lot from the youth media orgs today, so here’s a few mainstream articles to contemplate before dinner… or over that really late lunch.

Sexual Revolution in China? [CNN]

China is in the midst of a sexual revolution, a byproduct of rising prosperity and looser government restrictions on private life. The relaxed attitudes about sex mark a historic turnaround from the days when love and sex were denounced as bourgeois decadence, and unisex Mao suits and drab austerity were the norm.

Urban Is The New Mainstream [Advertising Age via ypulse]

What is Hipster-Hop? It’s mainstream enough for urban America, weird enough for these young hipsters. I know everyone says that hipsterism is dead, but it’s just morphing into something else.

Bonus Articles:

Religious Issue Could Cost School In Playoffs [USA Today/PrepRally]

Herzl/Rocky Mountain Hebrew Academy’s boys and girls teams could be headed for a regional championship on Saturday, March 8, if they win one more game Thursday night. But the Denver school’s religious beliefs prohibit students from playing on the Jewish Sabbath between sundown Friday and sundown Saturday.

Young Superdelegates & Obama [The Politico] This one dates back to Feb 16th. It makes for a good background piece on the status of young superdelegates, shedding a little more light on an otherwise opaque political process.

Obama’s softness among the youngest of superdelegates is unusual given his popularity with young voters in general — he has captured the under-30 youth vote in all but three states so far. In a closely-divided nominating contest that might be decided by the more than 700 Democratic superdelegates, the loss of even a few could prove costly, not to mention ironic if those superdelegates came from one of Obama’s demographic strongholds.

Best of [Late] February

For the shortest month of the year February sure has been busy! Of course, we do get a whole extra day to process it, but still… so much has hapened, there’s no way you caught everything.

With that in mind, here’s a few things from the last couple of weeks you may have missed:

The Game is the New Music Studio

When Brandon McFarland sees Amp Live use a PSP to mix a beat freestyle onstage his vision of video games as mere toys changes in a heartbeat.

HEAR: Brandon meet Amp Live and his shocking skills!

SEE: Brandon match his pipes against ‘Wanted: Dead or Alive” Rock Band style.

BELIEVE: The dork on guitar in the video totally isn’t blog editor Noah Nelson. No, really BELIEVE! Please?

Sexuality: Unacceptable

Candlelight vigils and rallies continue in honor of Lawrence “Larry” King, a 15-year-old who was shot at his Middle School in Oxnard, California. Larry was bullied at school for being openly gay and also gender non-conforming — he wore women’s clothing and make-up on occasion — and it is thought that his identity provoked another student to kill him. Anne Santos reminds us that it wasn’t just Larry King’s life that was affected by violent homophobia. Here’s her own story of when she was assaulted for being gay, and how her family still feels the trauma.

Nico Savidge Liveblogs the Texas and Ohio Debates

He brought you the Savidge World of Sports and helps you to Meet The Mess… and now he liveblogs major political events so you don’t have to watch them. Check out YR personality Nico Savidge’s on the spot response to the big showdowns between Hilary Clinton and Barack Obama.

Lil Kim and Remy Ma are the new Biggie and Tupac

Commentary by Tone Kapone

Everybody thought that Lil’ Kim and Remy Ma where cool since seen on MTV’s hip hop honors awards preforming together; unfortunately everyone thought wrong. Their beef exploded over time through YouTube accounts; at first what seemed catty disagreement has gradually became an all out lyrical battle and media war.

The reason why is of course is a he-say-she-say situation over the radio waves that seems to be instigated by the infamous DJ Whoo Kid (a radio personality in New York). Both had very interesting things to say about each other on mutual interviews.

Lil’ Kim: “Every thing she do got to much testosterone in it. She look like a transvestite. Remy MAN grew up on me.”

Remy Ma: “She don’t like her nose, her breast or her face she look like Micheal Jackson now she don’t want me to smack her”.

Both of the female rappers have made underground mix tapes on the other: Lil’ Kim spiting hot verses over the I get money beat sayin’ ”These chicks too busy being to CONCEITED puttin’ on my lipstick you had one hot song well sorry I missed it”. And Remy Ma making a diss video to single when I see her basically saying that when she and Kim meet its going to get real physical.

Honestly I’ve been a fan of rap since birth it so upsets me to see to two of the illest rapers male or female to follow in the steps of Biggie and Tupac. Both of the rapptresses can paint a picture in your head when they flow… they are extremely talented… but they should use there gifts for good instead of taking shots of each other or threating each other. Females rarely get the opportunity to express themselves in the same light as men i hope they take advantage of the platform they have and squash the beef so they can keep hip hop alive and stay clear of the mistakes that other rappers have made and not do the same thing twice but then again who’s to say that a female beef isn’t just a publicity stunt.