blk jks

so these guys are on the cover of the africa issue of the fader right now, so it's not likely that this here blog is going to be the reason you check them out... but if you missed it... give it a second...

these guys really are pretty solid.
blk jks myspace page

everyone should make movies

from here to awesome is trying to teach people how to be their own machine. fuck festivals. fuck distributors.

i still blame society

is your baby tense...?

baby rubs yo...

baby rubs

thank you for being a friend

ALAN'S THICKE-NESS

i used to think that gay club music, especially diva house, was the ultimate self help mechanism:
one of my best friends in high school used it often, all of the lyrics seemed based around a couple of central themes:







"tonight is your night, you're a star, people like u... so on and so on"

then i had an epiphany while listening to the golden girls theme song repeatedly:

Thank You for Being a Friend by Andrew Gold - Golden Girls Lyrics
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thank you for being a friend
Traveled down the road and back again
Your heart is true your a pal and a confidant.







And if you through a party
Invited everyone you ever knew
You would see the biggest gift would be from me
And the card attached would say thank you for being a friend.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

t.v. theme songs are the most comforting, concise little musical manifestos on earth

tiny aural affirmations that embed themselves in our subconcious and guide us to enlightenment...
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The Facts of Life Theme Lyrics






(aaah, was george clooney ever so young?)

The Facts of Life by Alan Thicke (obviously where Robin gets his talent from), Gloria Loring and Al Burton -


Seasons 1
There's a place you've got to go for learning
all you want to know about the facts of life
the facts of life.

When books are what you're there about
and looks are what you care about
the time is right,
to learn the facts of life.

When the world never seems
to be living up to your dreams
it's time you started finding out
what everything is all about

When the boys you used to hate you date,
I guess you best investigate
the facts of life you gotta get'em right
the facts of life,
the facts of life,
the facts of life

Seasons 2-5
You take the good, you take the bad,
you take them both and there you have
The Facts of Life, the Facts of Life.

There's a time you got to go and show
You're growin' now you know about
The Facts of Life, the Facts of Life.

When the world never seems
to be livin up to your dreams
And suddenly you're finding out
the Facts of Life are all about you, you.

It takes a lot to get 'em right
When you're learning the Facts of Life. (learning the Facts of Life)
Learning the Facts of Life (learning the Facts of Life)
Learning the Facts of Life.

End Credits
You'll avoid a lot of damages
an enjoy the fun of managing
the facts of life;
they shed a lot of light
If you hear them from your brother,
better clear them with your mother
better get them right,
call her late at night

You got the future in the palm of your hands
all you gotta do to get you through is understand
you think you rather do without,
you will never make without the truth
the facts of life is all about you

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that's some deep shit, there are real thoughts and ideas running though these 30 second throwaway pop confections...
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Diff'rent Strokes Theme Lyrics

It Takes Diff'rent Strokes by Alan Thicke, Gloria Loring and Al Burton - Diff'rent Strokes Lyrics


Now, the world don't move to the beat of just one drum,
What might be right for you, may not be right for some.
A man is born, he's a man of means.
Then along come two, they got nothing but their jeans.

But they got, Diff'rent Strokes.
It takes, Diff'rent Strokes.
It takes, Diff'rent Strokes to move the world.

Everybody's got a special kind of story







Everybody finds a way to shine,
It don't matter that you got not alot
So what,
They'll have theirs, and you'll have yours, and I'll have mine.
And together we'll be fine....

Because it takes, Diff'rent Strokes to move the world.
Yes it does.
It takes, Diff'rent Strokes to move the world.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
what better way to combat discrimination than with the words of Alan Thicke?

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Who's the Boss? Theme Lyrics






(ANGELLUUUUUUUUUH!!! SAMAAANNTAAAAA!! MONUUUUUUHHH!!!)

Brand New Life by Larry Carlton, Robert Craft, Martin Cohan and Blake Hunter - Who's the Boss? Lyrics


There’s a time for love and a time for living.
You take a chance and face the wind.
An open road and a road that’s hidden
A brand new life around the bend.

There were times when I lost a dream or two.
Found the trail, and at the end was you.
There’s a path you take and a path untaken
The choice is up to you my friend.

Nights are long but you’re on your way
To a brand new life,
Brand new life,
Brand new life around the bend.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
a beacon of hope
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Family Ties Theme Lyrics

Without Us by Jeff Barry and Tom Scott - Family Ties Lyrics


I bet we been together for a million years,
And I bet we'll be together for a million more.

Oh, It's like I started breathing on the night we kissed,
And I can't remember what I ever did before.

What would we do baby, Without Us?
What would we do baby, Without Us?

And there ain't no nothing we can't love each other through.

What would we do baby, Without Us?







Sha la la la.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
the importance of intimacy and relationships, don't take your partner for granted...
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lyrics for What's Happening






...

oh yeah, no words to that one...
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

but there are words to Star Trek,







trouble is they were so horrible that they were never used

Beyond
The rim of the star-light
My love
Is wand'ring in star-flight
I know
He'll find in star-clustered reaches
Love,
Strange love a star woman teaches.
I know
His journey ends never
His star trek
Will go on forever.
But tell him
While he wanders his starry sea
Remember, remember me.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
the only thing i learned from that one was that Star Trek shouldn't have lyrics...
"strange love a star woman teaches?"
wow
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
in doing my research i noticed that once again, my path has crossed with Alan Thicke, who evidently has penned quite a number of memorable t.v. themes, as well as played the father on growing pains, as well as fathered the Robin...







Alan Thicke







30 second pop philosopher/motivational psychologist

the meaning of life

the complete history of people, creation and any future technology is already written in our dna...

nanotechnology, computer programs, intelligence, spirituality, information storage... moving and swimming through us at all times, every leap our society takes is mirrored and intuitively influenced by the basic workings of our own bodies

society works so hard to pit us all against each other, the truth is that we all come from the same place, decended from the same early people and that we are all constantly exchanging molecules through breathing and simply being around each other...

all you need to know in order to feel a spiritual connection to the universe:

1. our basic make up shows that we came from an old, caring intelligence, our dna is a simultaneous blueprint/program that makes us exist and continue to exist

2. scientists pointed the hubble telescope at a section of the sky that was the size of a pin-head and found within that tiny space thousands of universes, there are more universes inside and outside of our known universe then there are grains of sand on every beach on our planet...

kinda puts our frivolous differences in a different perspective

just a thought...







oh yeah, the meaning of life...

be cool to each other, eat well, try and do some cardio-vascular exercise occasionally...

pizza is good

luv
j

NOOOOOOOO!!!!

(AP) A 16-foot python stalked a family dog for days before swallowing the pet whole in front of horrified children in the Australian tropics, animal experts said Wednesday.

The boy and girl, ages 5 and 7, watched as the scrub python devoured their silky terrier-Chihuahua crossbreed Monday at their home near Kuranda in Queensland state.

Stuart Douglas, owner of the Australian Venom Zoo in Kuranda, said scrub pythons typically eat wild animals such as wallabies, a smaller relative of the kangaroo, but sometimes turn to pets in urban areas.

"It actively stalked the dog for a number of days," Douglas said.

"The family that owned the dog had actually seen it in the dog's bed, which was a sign it was out to get it," he added.

"They should have called me then, but (the snake) got away and three or four days later, I was called and went around and removed it" after the dog had been killed, Douglas said.

By the time Douglas arrived, all that could be seen of the dog was its hind legs and tail.

The zoo manager, Todd Rose, said pythons squeeze their prey to death before swallowing it whole. The 5-year-old dog would have been suffocated within minutes.

"The lady who was there threw some plastic chairs at the snake, but you've got to remember that this is about 50 kilograms (110 pounds) of aggressive muscle," Rose said.

Removing the half-swallowed dog could have harmed or even killed the python, Rose said, because dogs have sharp teeth and claws that could do the snake internal damage if it were wrenched out.

The snake was still digesting the dog at the zoo Wednesday. It will soon be relocated to the bush, Douglas said.

i blame society

Winter In London

yeah, winter in London kinda sucks, but at least people are posting videos made at their local fast food joints.

Frozen Garden of Eden...way cool. literally!

Norway has launched its "Noah's Ark" of the plant kingdom, an underground vault built to protect millions of crop seeds from climate change, wars and natural disasters.

The vault, built within an Arctic mountain 1,000km from the North Pole in the remote Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard, was officially opened on Tuesday.

"The Svalbard Global Seed Vault is our insurance policy," Jens Stoltenberg, Norway's prime minister, told delegates at the opening ceremony.

"It is the Noah's Ark for securing biological diversity for future generations."

Backup plan

The cavern will act as a backup storage for seeds from gene banks around the world.

Initially, 100 million seeds from more than 100 countries have been sent for safekeeping at the $10m facility which holds 268,000 distinct seed samples, each from a different farm or field.

Stoltenberg said the vault, would guard "the fundamental building blocks of human civilisation" from forces, including climate change, threatening the "diversity of life that sustain our planet".

The Norwegian prime minister and Wangari Maathai, a Kenyan environmentalist and 2004 Nobel peace prize winner, put the first box of seeds in the vault at the inauguration ceremony.

The 'Doomsday' vault's seed deposits range from major African and Asian staples such as rice, maize, wheat, cowpea and sorghum to European and South American varieties of eggplant, lettuce, barley and potato.

'Frozen Garden of Eden'

"We will have a major [seed] collection here, one of the biggest in the world, from the opening day," Cary Fowler, head of the Global Crop Diversity Trust, which is funding the operations of the vault, said.

"We are going to put an end to extinction with this vault because we are going to have a safety backup, a Plan B."

Jose Manuel Barroso, the European commission president, was also at the ceremony.

He called the project "a frozen Garden of Eden".

Roger Smith, the founder of the Millennium Seed Bank in the UK's Kew Gardens, told Al Jazeera there needed to be greater understanding of just how endangered some plant life is.

"We're talking about a something like a rate of extinction 70 times greater for plants than is in the geographical record - we're talking about thousands of species being lost," he said.

Smith called the Svalbard vault a "double indemnity", saying "it is the safe deposit box where seed banks can put some of their contents for security".

The seeds will be kept at a storage temperature of minus 18-20 degrees Celsius.

Barley can survive 2,000 years, wheat 1,700 and sorghum almost 20,000 years under such conditions, according to the Global Crop Diversity Trust.

If the freezers failed, the permafrost would keep the cavern at around minus 4 Celsius, allowing time for repairs.

"I like having a Plan B to our Plan B," Fowler said.

soul plane

a man was browsing the clearace dvd's today at my day job
he stopped me to ask me a question
so i'm waiting for: "do you have a copy of Encino Man...?" or something of that nature...
he asks me why major labels conspire to promote young artists over older ones, the politics of music and ageism

whoa...

i thought he wanted Half Baked for $2.99 but he really wanted a deep philosphical statement...

i have a short attention span today so i'm going to borrow one:

LAST THOUGHTS ON WOODY GUTHRIE by Bob Dylan (1961)

When yer head gets twisted and yer mind grows numb
When you think you're too old, too young, too smart or too dumb
When yer laggin' behind an' losin' yer pace
In a slow-motion crawl of life's busy race
No matter what yer doing if you start givin' up
If the wine don't come to the top of yer cup
If the wind's got you sideways with with one hand holdin' on
And the other starts slipping and the feeling is gone
And yer train engine fire needs a new spark to catch it
And the wood's easy findin' but yer lazy to fetch it
And yer sidewalk starts curlin' and the street gets too long
And you start walkin' backwards though you know its wrong
And lonesome comes up as down goes the day
And tomorrow's mornin' seems so far away
And you feel the reins from yer pony are slippin'
And yer rope is a-slidin' 'cause yer hands are a-drippin'
And yer sun-decked desert and evergreen valleys
Turn to broken down slums and trash-can alleys
And yer sky cries water and yer drain pipe's a-pourin'
And the lightnin's a-flashing and the thunder's a-crashin'
And the windows are rattlin' and breakin' and the roof tops a-shakin'
And yer whole world's a-slammin' and bangin'
And yer minutes of sun turn to hours of storm
And to yourself you sometimes say
"I never knew it was gonna be this way
Why didn't they tell me the day I was born"
And you start gettin' chills and yer jumping from sweat
And you're lookin' for somethin' you ain't quite found yet
And yer knee-deep in the dark water with yer hands in the air
And the whole world's a-watchin' with a window peek stare
And yer good gal leaves and she's long gone a-flying
And yer heart feels sick like fish when they're fryin'
And yer jackhammer falls from yer hand to yer feet
And you need it badly but it lays on the street
And yer bell's bangin' loudly but you can't hear its beat
And you think yer ears might a been hurt
Or yer eyes've turned filthy from the sight-blindin' dirt
And you figured you failed in yesterdays rush
When you were faked out an' fooled white facing a four flush
And all the time you were holdin' three queens
And it's makin you mad, it's makin' you mean
Like in the middle of Life magazine
Bouncin' around a pinball machine
And there's something on yer mind you wanna be saying
That somebody someplace oughta be hearin'
But it's trapped on yer tongue and sealed in yer head
And it bothers you badly when your layin' in bed
And no matter how you try you just can't say it
And yer scared to yer soul you just might forget it
And yer eyes get swimmy from the tears in yer head
And yer pillows of feathers turn to blankets of lead
And the lion's mouth opens and yer staring at his teeth
And his jaws start closin with you underneath
And yer flat on your belly with yer hands tied behind
And you wish you'd never taken that last detour sign
And you say to yourself just what am I doin'
On this road I'm walkin', on this trail I'm turnin'
On this curve I'm hanging
On this pathway I'm strolling, in the space I'm taking
In this air I'm inhaling
Am I mixed up too much, am I mixed up too hard
Why am I walking, where am I running
What am I saying, what am I knowing
On this guitar I'm playing, on this banjo I'm frailin'
On this mandolin I'm strummin', in the song I'm singin'
In the tune I'm hummin', in the words I'm writin'
In the words that I'm thinkin'
In this ocean of hours I'm all the time drinkin'
Who am I helping, what am I breaking
What am I giving, what am I taking
But you try with your whole soul best
Never to think these thoughts and never to let
Them kind of thoughts gain ground
Or make yer heart pound
But then again you know why they're around
Just waiting for a chance to slip and drop down
"Cause sometimes you hear'em when the night times comes creeping
And you fear that they might catch you a-sleeping
And you jump from yer bed, from yer last chapter of dreamin'
And you can't remember for the best of yer thinking
If that was you in the dream that was screaming
And you know that it's something special you're needin'
And you know that there's no drug that'll do for the healin'
And no liquor in the land to stop yer brain from bleeding
And you need something special
Yeah, you need something special all right
You need a fast flyin' train on a tornado track
To shoot you someplace and shoot you back
You need a cyclone wind on a stream engine howler
That's been banging and booming and blowing forever
That knows yer troubles a hundred times over
You need a Greyhound bus that don't bar no race
That won't laugh at yer looks
Your voice or your face
And by any number of bets in the book
Will be rollin' long after the bubblegum craze
You need something to open up a new door
To show you something you seen before
But overlooked a hundred times or more
You need something to open your eyes
You need something to make it known
That it's you and no one else that owns
That spot that yer standing, that space that you're sitting
That the world ain't got you beat
That it ain't got you licked
It can't get you crazy no matter how many
Times you might get kicked
You need something special all right
You need something special to give you hope
But hope's just a word
That maybe you said or maybe you heard
On some windy corner 'round a wide-angled curve

But that's what you need man, and you need it bad
And yer trouble is you know it too good
"Cause you look an' you start getting the chills

"Cause you can't find it on a dollar bill
And it ain't on Macy's window sill
And it ain't on no rich kid's road map
And it ain't in no fat kid's fraternity house
And it ain't made in no Hollywood wheat germ
And it ain't on that dimlit stage
With that half-wit comedian on it
Ranting and raving and taking yer money
And you thinks it's funny
No you can't find it in no night club or no yacht club
And it ain't in the seats of a supper club
And sure as hell you're bound to tell
That no matter how hard you rub
You just ain't a-gonna find it on yer ticket stub
No, and it ain't in the rumors people're tellin' you
And it ain't in the pimple-lotion people are sellin' you
And it ain't in no cardboard-box house
Or down any movie star's blouse
And you can't find it on the golf course
And Uncle Remus can't tell you and neither can Santa Claus
And it ain't in the cream puff hair-do or cotton candy clothes
And it ain't in the dime store dummies or bubblegum goons
And it ain't in the marshmallow noises of the chocolate cake voices
That come knockin' and tappin' in Christmas wrappin'
Sayin' ain't I pretty and ain't I cute and look at my skin
Look at my skin shine, look at my skin glow
Look at my skin laugh, look at my skin cry
When you can't even sense if they got any insides
These people so pretty in their ribbons and bows
No you'll not now or no other day
Find it on the doorsteps made out-a paper mache?BR> And inside it the people made of molasses
That every other day buy a new pair of sunglasses
And it ain't in the fifty-star generals and flipped-out phonies
Who'd turn yuh in for a tenth of a penny
Who breathe and burp and bend and crack
And before you can count from one to ten
Do it all over again but this time behind yer back
My friend
The ones that wheel and deal and whirl and twirl
And play games with each other in their sand-box world
And you can't find it either in the no-talent fools
That run around gallant
And make all rules for the ones that got talent
And it ain't in the ones that ain't got any talent but think they do
And think they're foolin' you
The ones who jump on the wagon
Just for a while 'cause they know it's in style
To get their kicks, get out of it quick
And make all kinds of rnoney and chicks
And you yell to yourself and you throw down yer hat
Sayin', "Christ do I gotta be like that
Ain't there no one here that knows where I'm at
Ain't there no one here that knows how I feel
Good God Almighty
THAT STUFF AIN'T REAL"

No but that ain't yer game, it ain't even yer race
You can't hear yer name, you can't see yer face
You gotta look some other place
And where do you look for this hope that yer seekin'
Where do you look for this lamp that's a-burnin'
Where do you look for this oil well gushin'
Where do you look for this candle that's glowin'
Where do you look for this hope that you know is there
And out there somewhere
And your feet can only walk down two kinds of roads
Your eyes can only look through two kinds of windows
Your nose can only smell two kinds of hallways
You can touch and twist
And turn two kinds of doorknobs
You can either go to the church of your choice
Or you can go to Brooklyn State Hospital
You'll find God in the church of your choice
You'll find Woody Guthrie in Brooklyn State Hospital

And though it's only my opinion
I may be right or wrong
You'll find them both
In the Grand Canyon
At sundown


word...

i just really had to share this with you... anyone know how to play the accordian?

stole this from music thing

QUESTION...?

when was the last time you heard an artist say:
"man, i saw that movie (insert random hollywood egofest here) and felt so inspired that i wrote this song for the soundtrack that won't actually be in the film but will be on the soundtrack..."







Music From And Inspired By The Motion Picture Mission Impossible







anyway...

WHAT'S UP WITH THOSE SOUNDTRACKS THAT HAVE AN ORCHESTRAL SCORE AND THEN THE "WHO THE F^@K IS THAT" BANDS?
any 80's movie, especially in the action genre, has the lamest ending credit music done by a band that never caught another break...

like this film:







the last few songs on this soundtrack are by a group named Tahnee Cain and Tryanglz...

huh...?

or how about that song on the Revenge Of The Nerds soundtrack that goes:
"...are you ready for the sex girls, the fine fine superfine, real sex giiiirrrlllllsss..."







the band is called the Gleaming Spires and they do that other song that goes:

"...allllll night, all night parrrty... all night..."

its like, we saved the rec center, or the bad guys are dead, or the neverending story only clocks in at 90 minutes and now you have to deal with Lamahl:



who if you didn't know was also the lead singer for Kajagoogoo:


AND FOR MY LAST RANDOM THOUGHT...
why on earth would you ever name your band Hoobastank...?







did your parents not raise you right?

IT'S NEVER TOO LATE TO REPENT, BABY RAY LOVES YOU...

this brief article is in regards to the Langley Schools Music Project, a group of rural western Canadian school kids doing covers of pop songs from the 60s & 70s. the creation of the project was overseen by Hans Fenger. the audio tracks, recorded in '76 and '77 are unfortunately not affiliated with the videos. the first 'Spacey-Man' was created by Layne Pavoggi, i think a film student(?).

the second is someone on youtube's attempt at commemorating the war in Iraq to the tune of 'desperado.' it's priceless.

how did i miss the zombie flash mob downtown last spring?

zombie protester.

zombie tourists.

zombie mac store shopper.

zombie i-mac brain eater.

zombie scientology.

i think these guys were responsible...

the most amazingly dynamic/diverse artist you've never heard of...

people like bruce springsteen:






HACK!!!

SPRINGSTEEN AIN'S SPRINGSHIT COMPARED TO...

DAVID BROZA!!!






(notice the similarities in the cd design, bruce you theif, even stealing a bit of the mans natural good looks...hack)

just listen to this review for Broza's besf of disc:
About the Artist
David Broza is not like any entertainer performing today. Transcending national and artistic boundaries, this guitarist-composer sings in English, Hebrew and Spanish -- and with his flamenco and salsa-tinged folk-rock melodies and keen talent for breathing musical life into sensual snippets of poetry, Broza is a formidable musical force of nature. He commands and captivates his audience heart, mind, soul and gut. "Even when he performs solo, the way he finger-picks and drums on that guitar at the same time, you'd think there were five people on stage," declared one music biz exec. Hollywood Reporter says that Broza "brings a powerful amalgam of influences to his work and commands the room with intensity." A critic at the Baltimore Sun writes, "Broza draws on old folk-rock and then adds urban passion. He is a captivating, compelling performer who masters his guitar into submission." Critics have labeled him as a post-modern Leonard Cohen, the Stevie Ray Vaughn of folk rock, the Mel Gibson of rock n' roll, the Bruce Springsteen of Israel -- and all five Gypsy Kings rolled into one! His performance career includes headlining with Paul Simon, Bob Dylan, Van Morrison, Jose Feliciano and other superstars in Israel's yearly Masada concert and other special events, dueling guitar solos on stage with Sting, performing at the Rabin Memorial in Madison Square Garden at the request of President Clinton -- and giving time and song to his appointment as goodwill ambassador for UNICEF and other humanitarian causes. A modern-day troubadour traveling the globe with his unique blend of urban folk rock, the world of David Broza is passionate, dedicated and unique.

Product Description
With twenty three albums to his name, Broza continues to forge his way with a style so diverse that he has passionate fans in every corner of the world. Critics have labeled Broza as a post-modern Leonard Cohen, the Bruce Springsteen of Israel and all five Gypsy Kings rolled into one!

He became a superstar in his homeland of Israel by his early 20's with his quadruple platinum debut album, 'The Woman By My Side." 16 gold, platinum and multi-platinum releases later, the Jewish Music Group, along with David Broza, has hand-picked songs on this "Best Of."


okay, did it settle in yet...?
let's do a quick rewind:
Critics have labeled him as a post-modern Leonard Cohen (holy shit! that's post-post-modern)

the Stevie Ray Vaughn of folk rock (good lord!!!)

the Mel Gibson of rock n' roll (what the f^@k!!!?)

the Bruce Springsteen of Israel (the springstein if you will)

...and all five Gypsy Kings rolled into one!
(FUCK!!! have you ever heard ONE gypsy king, that is as loud and intense as your ears could stand before your brains jump screaming out of your head and take cover...)

he has a song about shoelaces and also does a cover version of the 70's latin-rock masterpiece "Suavecito"

damn...

i'm quitting music.

the importance of trannyshack

so i got super freaked out for a second... because a fresh said she heard trannyshack was ending... i'm beginning to relax a bit because from what i can tell, chelsea may have been referring to the departure of miss juanita more... which itself is a tragedy, but somehow more easily stomachable.
...and now i find that jennifer has never been... how many others like her are out there?
lets just take care of this as soon as is possible... k?
tuesday, february 26th.
trannyshack at the stud.

Inmates of the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center

I think if I was in jail in the Philippines, I'd probably want to stage a version of Thriller with the other inmates.
There's something eerily ironic about miming living death while you're incarcerated.

celebrity never dies...

...and then it makes strange bedfellows...

donny osmond has nice teeth:






even when he's being serious:






martin lawrence is so crae crae (that means u so crazy):






but so is donny osmond, as seen in this vintage clip of the osmond brothers for "crazy horses":



...and it seems like celebrity never dissapears

for instance:
again...
what the f^@k:





this will never be okay...
why you ask...?
Yo VIP let's kick it

Ice ice baby (x2)
All right stop collaborate and listen
Ice is back with my brand new invention
Something grabs a hold of me tightly
Flow like a harpoon daily and nightly
Will it ever stop yo I don't know
Turn off the lights and I'll glow
To the extreme I rock a mic like a vandal
Light up a stage and wax a chump like a candle
Dance go rush to the speaker that booms
I'm killing your brain like a poisonous mushroom
Deadly when I play a dope melody
Anything less than the best is a felony
Love it or leave it you better gain weight
You better hit bull's eye the kid don't play
If there was a problem yo I'll solve it
Check out the hook while my DJ revolves it

CHORUS
Ice ice baby vanillla (x4)

Now that the party is jumping
With the bass kicked in and the vegas are pumpin'
Quick to the point to the point no faking
I'm cooking MC's like a pound of bacon
Burning them if you ain't quick and nimble
I go crazy when I hear a cymbal
And a hi-hat with a souped up tempo
I'm on a roll and it's time to go solo
Rollin' in my 5.0
With my rag-top down so my hair can blow
The girlies on standby waving just to say hi
Did you stop no I just drove by
Kept on pursuing to the next stop
I busted a left and I'm heading to the next block
The block was dead
Yo so I continued to A1A Beachfront Avenue
Girls were hot wearing less than bikinis
Rockman lovers driving Lamborghinis
Jealous 'cause I'm out getting mine
Shay with a guage and Vanilla with a nine
Reading for the chumps on the wall
The chumps acting ill because they're so full of eight balls
Gunshots rang out like a bell
I grabbed my nine all I heard were shells
Falling on the concrete real fast
Jumped in my car slammed on the gas
Bumpet to bumper the avenue's packed
I'm trying to get away before the jackers jack
Police on the scene you know what I mean
They passed me up confronted all the dope fiends
If there was a problem yo I'll solve it
Check out the hook while my DJ revolves it

REPEAT CHORUS

Take heed 'cause I'm a lyrical poet
Miami's on the scene just in case you didn't know it
My town that created all the bass sound
Enough to shake and kick holes in the ground
'Cause my style's like a chemical spill
Feasible rhymes that you can vision and feel
Conducted and formed
This is a hell of a concept
We make it hype and you want to step with this
Shay plays on the fade slice like a ninja
Cut like a razor blade so fast other DJs say damn
If my rhyme was a drug I'd sell it by the gram
Keep my composure when it's time to get loose
Magnetized by the mic while I kick my juice
If there was a problem yo I'll solve it
Check out the hook while Shay revolves it

Ice ice baby vanilla
Ice ice baby (oh-oh) vanilla
Ice ice baby vanilla
Ice ice baby vanilla ice
Yo man let's get out of here
Word to your mother
Ice ice baby too cold
Ice ice baby too cold too cold (x2)
Ice ice baby


uhhhh....
"Feasible rhymes that you can vision and feel"

damn

anyway back to where i'm supposedly going...
celebrity doesn't die, it evolves, because people always want to see how far their self-made heroes have fallen, sometimes they re-grant them credability:






other times we just want to laugh at how they've fallen:







other times they occupy a limbo until we decide their fate:
(peep the background dancer)



i only mention this because i was at the movies today and not only is Martin Lawrence in 2 new films...
i saw someone very interesting on one of the posters:
(disney are being poo poo heads and not letting me download a bigger image of the poster, but if you look stage right in the back seat of the car you will see the caucasoid known at Donny Osmond (direct from the planet of Kolob, check your Mormon dictionary for that one)...






money and/or second chances at celebrity make for strange projects, bedfellows, legitamacy from the entertainment community, money/ego also makes people think they can act...
so be sure to check out puff daddy in "Raisin in the Sun"






trust me... the end will be much more painless than prophesized because dispite the evidence,
god loves us, hollywood is the entity that loathes us.

see you all on Kolob
luv
j

more movies.

shortbus

babydoll


secret of nimh

PEEPS NEED TO KNOW ABOUT CHARLES STEPNEY...

ONE OF MY FAVORITE PRODUCERS...
HERE'S WHY:

"For The Record: Charles Stepney"
by Edwin Black, Article reproduced with kind permission of Downbeat Magazine.
Originally printed November 26, 1970.

One of those unseen workhorses whose business is other people's success is Charles Stepney, music supervisor for Chess Records. Stepney, in four years with the label, assumed responsibility for styling Ramsey Lewis' post-Young-Holt sound, electrifying Muddy Waters into the R&B limelight, giving Phil Upchurch's guitar a salable image, and inventing, organizing and bringing into being the Rotary Connection.

Several years ago, when young Stepney was about to sell his vibes for $65, he thought he would never make it on the music scene. The northside clubs in Chicago were mostly white and non-jazz in the mid-'50s, and the southside clubs didn't pay much bread. Coming from the same westside Chicago street school that produced Eddie Harris, Ramsey Lewis and Walter Perkins, among others, Stepney knew "it was play good or don't even bother gettin' up on that stage. 'Cause if you got up there and played bad,", he remembers, "the other musicians and audience would just kick your butt. Matter of fact, Eddie Harris was getting his kicked regularly back then; he just could not play the sax - of course, that was back then.

"Anyway", Stepney continued, "I was broke and convinced I would never make it in this field maybe I ought to try being a shoe salesman or bookkeeper or something and I was going to sell my vibes, but my mother kept telling me to hang on a little longer. But the day I was going to deliver the vibes to some other cat, Phil Wright at Chess gave me a call and said he'd heard me playing with Eddie Harris I think we were the Jazz Jets or some cornball name like that and he asked me to come in and play a session in the studio. Okay, one day's bread. I didn't figure this would make my career, so I was still going to give up the vibes.

"But Wright talked me out of it and showed me how to get work - you know, hang around the studios and pick up sessions. Man, one thing I learned was that all that bullshit they teach you in school is just that - walk out of the toilet and it's worth nothing."

Four years ago, Wright left the company. Stepney had already charted a few LPs and accepted an offer to become Chess' full-time music supervisor. "Now I was on the other side of the studio window," says Stepney. And in his role as composer-arranger-producer, Stepney had to come up with that right musical combination that made albums like Maiden Voyage, Rotary Connection and Upchurch so popular; the unmistakable style of voce da lontano, syncopation and electronic sounds. But sitting behind the console sometimes gets Stepney down. He isn't always pleased with the talent he has to record, and rightly so.

Many recording artists, including some on Chess, are accidental professionals, whose big break was some smart manager's feat. "These artists are musically stupid," insists Stepney. "I swear you've got to stand over some of them and yell out: one-two-three-four - now PLAY! They have no sense of counter-rhythms or polyrhythms, can't hold their part against other parts, don't know a note of music and have no concept of musical balance."

"Oh yeah, in a live performance they get by," asserts Stepney. "The listener has sight, sound and smell. It's a visual as well as musical production. But the recorded performance originates mystically from this inanimate box - the phonograph. The listener uses only his ears. The appeal lies in the quality of the music - and here's where the artist can easily fail from lack of talent, lack of skill, or sheer disinterest.

"I guess it's no mystery," says Stepney, "who the real talent behind a group like the Beatles always was - George Martin, their producer! Hate to shatter so many balloons, but no way could those four have pooled all the instrumental and electronic complexities involved in Day in the Life or Eleanor Rigby or I am The Walrus. Any trained ear can easily spot the songs the Beatles produced alone. They're repetitive and shallow - you know, same three chords and that unmodified beat.

"That brings to mind a particular gripe of mine," continues Stepney. "Critics. Music Critics. These self-appointed protectors of the literature, who are determined to save the artist from the evils of the arranger. Overproduction they call it. Overproduction. Anytime you extend harmonically above the 7th and have more than five guys playing in the background and use more than monosyllabic lyrics - like James Brown's grunt; back to the cave, man! - critics call it overproducing. I've seen arrangers write for the critics. Man, I'll have nothing to do with it. See, I know, and the other people in the business know, these artists simply need to be directed. That's why we have producers - not the financial kind - because these Sinatras and the rest need to be played like instruments into the whole musical picture, even thought that picture many exist around them."

Stepney has his own idea of overproduction. "I hate to criticize," half-apologizes Stepney, "but these groups that insist on playing louder than 85 decibels are not really keeping their image. I mean, they protest water and air pollution as a disease of our times, but go right ahead and commit ear pollution. That's as dangerous as cigarettes, as far as I'm concerned. It's a known fact that sounds about 85 decibels are dangerous to the ear. These rock-acid groups average over 100 decibels, and this erodes the highest layers of your audio perception; since it's at the top, the person doesn't know he's going deaf. He just begins perceiving less sounds at the peak range."

Members of groups like the Vanilla Fudge, the Cream and the Stones have enthusiastically admitted they're going deaf, and consider it the necessary consequence of their 'message'. But Stepney qualifies, "if a group plays loud enough they can cause pain, but there's a difference between pain and honest emotion. Musical quality gets inside of you and makes you emotional. Part of that quality is the very loud sections. But to confuse emotion and a pain in the ear is clearly unmusical. We need more groups like Peter, Paul and Mary, Chicago (Transit Authority) and Blood, Sweat & Tears. Try to tell me they don't have a message, or they don't evoke feelings in the listener! But they can do it without endangering the hearing."

As an arranger-composer-producer, Stepney maintains a musical stockpile that ranges from R&B images for the Dells to the electronic images of Mother Nature's Son. Although Stepney operates widely within the electronic field his approach is unusual. At a time when the rage is the synthesizer, Stepney cranks out a great volume of material using alternative methods. "I had been anticipating working with the Moog for about 10 years before we did Mother Nature's Son on one," recalls Stepney. "Frankly, I wasn't turned on. That may have been because there's only one Moog in Chicago and the rent is so high every breath costs a fortune. But here I had been expecting all kinds of wonderful and beautiful sounds and found that the Moog produced no more than a new version of what we had before. Very limited."

"I really prefer," he says, "what some might call the old-fashioned means, but what I consider the more resourceful and inventive means of producing the sounds we accept as electronic. I can get excellent effects by altering and distorting legitimate sounds with tapes and stuff. If you keep up on the latest developments in acoustics and electronics - you know, subscribe to various international engineering magazines, you can pick up all sorts of techniques."

Stepney's effects for Ramsey Lewis are mainly derived from a rare, out-of-print volume, New Musical Resources by Henry Cowell. Page after page of that book defines revolutionary (at least in Cowell's day) piano concepts, including techniques for elbow and forearm, cluster overtones, and resonant muting. Stays Stepney, "There are other sounds worthy of musical organization besides the conventional, sonorous ones. So we can take a cluster and know which overtones to expect, score that for divided strings and winds, and the difference sounds electronic. Sort of like Lygeti's Requiem. Or Atmosphere is another one, where a whole new quality of sounds is scored for natural voice and instruments. We do the same for Ramsey and instill that electronic texture. Like I say, we did use the Moog on Mother Nature's Son, but we're not likely to use it again."

When Stepney arranged for Phil Upchurch, a favourite device of his is overloading the amps to cause a distorted rasp. "We produced a low, distorted, really raw sound for Voodoo Chile that we couldn't ever get on a Moog - at least not of the same texture."

The charts for Howlin' Wolf and Muddy Waters normally don't go beyond electronic guitars and brass, "because these stars just don't feel comfortable in a musical atmosphere that exceeds a simple ensemble of guitar and brass," Stepney says.

But what seems Stepney's greatest continuing project has been the Rotary Connection, an idea for a group he conceived and executed. "It was 1966," recalls Stepney. "Marshall Chess wanted to get into some psychedelic or acid-rock material. Chess owned a small European label, Pye, and he thought we could fill the time between bands with something.

"I arranged related percussion and some new-stream vocal into those spaces," remembers Stepney. "Chess was so impressed with the thing, we took the studio kids that did the work and gave them a name - I think it was Chess' idea - Rotary Connection. We did a whole album of the stuff, a little Moog, a little electronic alteration, and the style caught on instantly.

A consequence of the Rotary Connection was the emergence of a singular talent, Minnie Riperton. "This chick," exults Stepney, "has a soprano range of about four octaves, a whole lot of soul, she's good-looking and she's got the experience of Rotary behind her."

Stepney is producing an album, Come to my Garden, featuring Minnie's solo voice on 10 Stepney compositions and one other arrangement. Minnie will stay with the Rotary and also work solo for a while. If she soars, she'll be another luminary in the Stepney-made sky.

selected productions...



TERRY CALLIER: Occasional Rain (1971 Cadet)

Segue #1 - Go Ahead On
Ordinary Joe
Golden Circle #317
Segue #5 - Go Head On
Trance On Sedgewick Street
Do You Finally Need A Friend
Segue #4 - Go Head On
Sweet Edie-D
Occasional Rain
Segue #2 - Go Head On
Blues For Marcus
Lean On Me
Last Segue - Go Head On



TERRY CALLIER: What Color Is Love (1972 Cadet)

Dancing Girl
What Color Is Love
You Goin' Miss Your Candyman
Just As Long As We're In Love
Ho Tsing Mee (A Song of the Sun)
I'd Rather Be With You
You Don't Care



TERRY CALLIER: I Just Can't Help Myself (1973 Cadet)

(I Just Can't Help Myself) I Don't Want Nobody Else
Brown-Eyed Lady
Gotta Get Closer To You
Satin Doll
Until Tomorrow
Alley-Wind Song
Can't Catch the Trane
Bowlin' Green



THE DELLS: Freedom Means (196? Cadet)

Freedom Means
Rather Be With You
The Love We Had (Stays On My Mind)
One Less Bell To Answer
It's All Up To You
If You Go Away/Love Story
Make It With You
Free and Easy
Melody Man
Freedom Theme



EARTH, WIND & FIRE: Spirit (1976 Columbia)

On Your Face
Saturday Nite
Imagination
Biyo
Burnin' Bush
Departure
Earth, Wind & Fire
Spirit
Getaway



RAMSEY LEWIS: Maiden Voyage (1968 Cadet)

Maiden Voyage
Mighty Quinn
Sweet Rain
Lady Madonna
Do You Know the Way To San Jose
Ode
Les Fleur
Since You've Been Gone
In the Heat of the Night
Afro-Boogaloo Twist
Only When I'm Dreaming
Eternal Journey



RAMSEY LEWIS: Mother Nature's Son (1968 Cadet)

Mother Nature's Son
Rocky Raccoon
Julia
Back In the USSR
Dear Prudence
Cry Baby Cry
Good Night
Everybody's Got Something To Hide Except Me And My Monkey
Sexy Sadie
Black Bird



RAMSEY LEWIS: The Piano Player (1969 Cadet)

The Distant Dreamer
A Rainy Day In Centerville
Everybody's Talkin'
Didn't We
Whenever, Wherever
Close Your Eyes and Remember
You've Made Me So Very Happy
The Love I Feel For You
Time and Space
Golden Slumber
Do I Love Her



MINNIE RIPERTON: Come To My Garden (1969 Cadet)

Les Fleur
Completeness
Come To My Garden
Memory Band
Rainy Day In Centerville
Close Your Eyes and Remember
Oh, By the Way
Expecting
Only When I'm Dreaming
Whenever, Wherever



ROTARY CONNECTION: Rotary Connection (196? Cadet Concept)

Amen
Rapid Transit
Turn Me On
Pink Noise
Lady Jane
Like A Rollin' Stone
Soul Man
Sursum Mentes
Didn't Want To Have To Do It
Black Noise
Memory Band
Ruby Tuesday
Rotary Connection



ROTARY CONNECTION: Songs (1969 Cadet Concept)

Respect
The Weight
Sunshine of Your Love
I've Got My Mojo Working
Burning of the Midnight Lamp
Tales of Brave Ulysses
This Town
We're Going Wrong
The Salt of the Earth



ROTARY CONNECTION: Dinner Music (1969 Cadet Concept)

Pointillism
We Will Be Free
Living Alone
Lektricks #1
Country Things
Quartet
May Our Amens Be True
Stormy Monday Blues
Love Me Now
Lonely Summer
Amuse
Lektricks #2
Merry Prankster
Pump Effect
Want You To Know



ROTARY CONNECTION: Hey, Love (197? Cadet Concept)

If I Sing My Song
The Sea & She
I Am the Blackgold of the Sun
Hanging Round the Bee Tree
Hey, Love
Love Has Fallen On Me
Song for Everyman
Love Is
Vine of Happiness



MARLENA SHAW: The Spice of Life (1969 Cadet)

Woman of the Ghetto
Call It Stormy Monday
Where Can I Go?
I'm Satisfied
I Wish I Knew (How It Would Feel To Be Free)
Liberation Conversation
California Soul
Go Away, Little Boy
Looking Thru the Eyes of Love
Anyone Can Move A Mountain



PHIL UPCHURCH: Upchurch (1969 Cadet)

Black Gold
America
As You Said
You Wouldn't, You Couldn't Be True
Cross Town Traffic
Adam and Charlene
Spinning Wheel
Voodoo Chile
More and More
Midnight Chile

bmbf radio 2-08-08

click this and listen

blinded by the light-jackie chain
blood 4 blood-killarmy
i just wasn't made for these times-bullion
turquoise hexagon sun-boards of canada
belldog-eno
le enfant la mouche et les allumettes-jean claude vannier
credit-ariel pink
war pigs-black sabbath
i'm not-panda bear
perfume-sparks
trap door
knife-grizzly bear
black butterfly-electric wizard
milk it-nirvana
?
lotion-greenskeepers
turn me on-kevin little/coco rosie/yume bitsu
i belong in the world-microphones
lightning to the nations-diamond head
black widow=genghis khan
moonage daydream-bowie
i'll do it again-highway robbery
defective trip-gravediggaz
spare ass annie-burroughs
i walk the line=alien sex fiend
bitch-bangers and cash
you're only dreaming-hawkwind

Philip Glass on Sesame Street

courtesy of yootoobsuxx
Here's a series of animations called 'Geometry Of Circles'
Philip Glass wrote the score for Sesame Street in 1979.
No info on the animator though, sorry.

This gives me hope that there's some long lost technicolor freak-out by Terry Riley about cooperation, or a cartoon with a musique concrete piece by Steve Reich that teaches you to count to 12 in Spanish.

cosmic egyptian mysticism

Le Sony'r Ra, otherwise known as Sun Ra:



Like Duke Ellington and swing-era pioneer Fletcher Henderson, Sun Ra learned early on to write music in an arranged form that showcased the specific talents of his individual Arkestra members, and he has retained the services of some of these musicians to this day: John Gilmore, Marshall Allen, and Julian Priester for example since they first joined in the 1950's. On the other hand, Sun Ra was the first jazz musician to perform on electronic keyboards (56), the first to pursue full-scale collective improvisation in a big band setting, and his preoccupation with space travel as a compositional subject predated bands like Weather Report by about 15 years.All this from someone who refuses to even cite the earth as his home planet and prefers to have arrived from Saturn. As Sun Ra once explained it, "I never wanted to be a part of planet Earth, but I am compelled to be here, so anything I do for this planet is because the Master-Creator of the Universe is making me do it. I am of another dimension. I am on this planet because people need me".

Equally as mystifying is the fact that Sun Ra has no legal birth certificate. The Library of Congress claims that he arrived in Alabama, U.S.A., and his passport states that his legal name is Le Sony'r Ra, thus making all other names such as Sonny Lee, Sunni Bhlount, Armand Ra, and H. Sonne Bhlount merely pseudonyms.

From its inception, the Arkestra's music was infused with Sun Ra's unique philosophy, an unexpected hybrid of space-age science fiction and ancient Egyptian cosmo religious trappings. This philosophy gained a visual manifestation in the colorful robes, mock-metallic capes, and space headgear worn by the band (it's the only jazz orchestra that brings a tailor on tour), and in a stage presentation that usually features several dancers, a number of group chants ("We travel the spaceways/From planet to planet"), and at least one instance of the entire band juking its way, single-file, through the audience.

you can read the whole story here, though i didn't cut much out....
http://www.elrarecords.com/sunra.html

it's been posted before, and it will be posted again...

ZOMBIE VS. SHARK

WHAT THE F^@k!!!?

I THOUGHT THIS WAS 2008?






STOP GIVING THIS MAN CHANCES!!!

what happened to our dignity

hip hop is the movement of my generation
it gave a voice to the voiceless
power to the powerless
a forum to the frustrated youth
hope
a way out
dignity

we should be concerned with how we portray ourselves in this genre because we are under constant surveillance and scrutiny

in the past, hip hop album covers have shown tribute to great musicians (as in this cover that pays direct tribute to marvin gaye's "i want you"):



new age philosophies as in Sach "5th Ave"



political strength and an uprising of a counter culture:



humor and parody:



tribute to fallen political leaders:



fantasy and entertainment:



artisitc leanings stemming from jazz culture:



subtlety in knowing that you're the bomb:





when i work in the hip hop section today i feel troubled, bombarded with violent fantasies and a loss of dignity, keep your fantasy, play your role, create your alter ego's, just remember, people look at you for truth, hip-hop is the only music where what you say is taken as gospel and how you show yourself has a direct effect on the youth and the old...
whether you support it or not, demeaning yourself gets into people's heads and they will soon follow your example

like i said, keep the music and the culture and most of all
your dignity