Liner Notes

The Hova is Present: Jay-Z took up residence recently at the Pace Gallery in New York for a six-hour performance art piece in which the Brooklyn-based rapper sang his “Picasso Baby” the entire time. Fans and the generally curious alike watched from a comfortable distance as Jay stood up on a small white raised platform.

Of course, it’s not as impressive in its relentlessness or pointlessness as it seems: he hopped off stage a number of times to talk with fans, get closer to them, take pictures with them and generally interact with his audience. He also let other amateur performers take the stage and have what can only be described as an audience with the king.

He was joined, as well, by other important artists such as Marina Abramovic. Abramovic is a performance artist whose career spans 40 years and over 50 works. For over two months in 2010, she sat in silence for several hours a day in the Museum of Modern Art across from thousands of visitors. According to the MoMA, it was “an endeavor to transmit the presence of the artist and make her historical performances accessible to a larger audience.” It seems that Jay-Z, someone who nowadays only plays stadiums and massive concert halls, had this same idea in mind. (He also got a music video out of it.)

One such stadium concert is the upcoming sold out Rose Bowl Stadium concert with Jay-Z and Justin Timberlake, which will take place on July 28. Part of their “Legends of the Summer” series, the concert is going to be so packed that venue officials are rolling out a campaign to get people to buy advanced parking on Ticketmaster and show up hours early to enjoy a “Picnic in the Park” or just tailgate.

If you’ve ever had to justify to your friends why you’re willing to pay nearly 10 dollars for a burrito, you know two things: Chipotle is delicious and your friends are terrible. But there are some things that you love that might not go with that burrito: tuna salad, Legos or the music of Radiohead. The last one is, according to Christopher Golub, the man who programs the music playlists for Chipotles nationwide, makes perfect sense.

“You know that if you go into a store, you’ve got the small, hard surfaces, Golub said in an interview with Denver Westwood Dining. “You’ve got concrete floors, a lot of windows, hard walls and a lot of cooking gear and tile. “Golub says that it just doesn’t work with certain songs or sounds, citing Radiohead—particularly Thom Yorke’s voice—as an example.

The Golub interview does offer some interesting insights into how music at stores like Chipotle is programmed, though, including revealing that the BPM—beats per minute—of the songs changes throughout the day based on how busy the restaurant is projected to be. For example, during a lunch rush, they songs would be faster than they would between lunch and dinner when business (and music) slows down. When, though, does Chipotle deem it necessary to play dubstep?

Photos surfaced recently on the Internet of special Daft Punk condoms that encouraged sexually active fans to, well, “Get Lucky.” Unfortunately, like with most promotional materials, they aren’t available to just anyone with a few bucks and access to a CVS. Sony Music Belgium posted a photo of a pile of the condom packages, with an image of Pharrell WILLIAMS and Daft Punk in front of a blood-orange sun, on Instagram and they were apparently distributed to several DJs at the festival, including Diplo.

The condoms are not official Durex products, as was previously believed, but a representative of that company did not seem displeased at the comparison. In an interview with MTV, the rep told fans and musicians to “continue to make sweet music together and have great sex!”

Daft Punk groupies can confirm hat the French duo is capable of great sex, but are their robotic hearts capable of love?