Ali.

(Malcolm playing photog.)

I do not care for pugilism, but I do care for leftist political leanings, confident manhood, antiwar activism, using insulting wordplay to take down one's opponent, skill, form, technique, etc. When my brother was little, our dad took him to a Raider game at the Coliseum and Ali was there on the sidelines. He walked over to Ali, told him he'd always been one of his heroes, and had his son shake his hand. I was not present for this event. I have not shaken Ali's hand. That is I something I continue to have intense, fiery envy about to this very day.


OhanddidImention:


Having a dude taunt you repeatedly in the media before your big match doesn't mean you get a pass to be an awful human being.
Joe Frazier, I'm looking in your direction.

Oh Word?

I got 99 problems but etymology ain't one.

Today's word: MORPHINE!

"The Roman poet Ovid found a need for a new god while writing the poem Metamorphoses, a series of stories written by him a few years before his banishment in 8 A.D. This series is devoted largely to the adventures of the gods in their amatory pursuits of nymphs and the daughters of mortals. While writing, the poet's fancy took him into the realms of dreams, which he felt to be apart from sleep. There was a god of sleep, the Greek Somnus*...but there was no god of dreams. So, taking the Greek word morphe ("shape" or "form"), he coined the name Morpheus, whom he described as being the god of such dreams that include human shapes or forms. Later poets accepted the name as if there had actually been such a god among those of the Greeks or Romans."

- Thereby Hangs a Tale, c. 1950;
Charles Earle Funk, author

* insomniac, somnolent, etc!


I wanted to post this one in keeping with our recent G n' R theme; however,
the classic-ness of this one...

Stunted vocabularies/word poverty. Guru and I break up. Obama = Richard Roundtree.

1. Apparently there are individuals known as grammerians and lexicographers. I'm pretty sure I should be one of them. Stunted vocabularies. Word poverty. A new word created every 98 minutes. Such word nerdery! I'm in love!

"Experts predict words like "stab" or "throw", have a language lifetime of about 800 to 1,000 years whereas the words "three", "five", "I" and "who" may last anything up to 20,000 years."

Is having a large vocabulary something you learn or have a natural ability for?



2. Auto-Tuned Guru is the most painful phrase I've ever typed. Stay calm, kids. This too shall pass.


3. This is depressing and racist and stupid.

Idiot on the left: "Teach me about your people and their exotic ways, black man!"
Idiot on the right: "Well, here's the trajectory: Billy Dee --> Shaft --> Obama."

The Flaming Lips - "Borderline"

Wayne Coyne is tryna get me to take my pants off with this little tour de force. It will probably work.

I was betrothed to "My Girls," and then that Diamond District one, and before that it was "City Lights," and then that TVOTR, but I will be stealing away for a tryst with this little slice of magic. It starts out real calm and sweet and mellow-like, and then it builds and builds and becomes unbearably pleasurable. There's a metaphor there, I'm pretty sure.

I don't want to be your prisoner so baby won't you set me free!
Just kiddin, Wayne--I do want to be your prisoner. Don't set me free.




2009 Borderline from George Salisbury on Vimeo.

Liquid Swords history!

Catch a swollen heart from not rollin smart!

Be still my little music-nerd heart! My future employer Wax Poetics did this brief piece about the making of Liquid Swords. It's not the most interesting or surprising read (sorry GZA, still love you forever and ever), but predictable Wu is still better than no Wu at all. And as an addendum, unless you have an SK who constantly laces you with knowledge like I do, you don't know nothin bout no Lone Wolf and Cub. Look it up, I implore you.

"It's just another emcee lyrical joint with crazy smooth cadences."

"Myself and Killah Priest were in the city one day with a portable ADAT recorder I just bought. We were just walking around, going to stores, buying water, juice, whatever, and just recording the random stuff, you know, just picking up sounds and shit. I think we recorded the Hells Angels riding by [us] too. RZA was in a restaurant talking to some guy, and we were banging forks on the tables, and we just recoded all those sounds too [laughs]. So we incorporated all that into the production."

- Link

Um, hi, new Pete Rock

I take such good care of you guys!

File under "Ear candy," and "Life is wonderful" and "Basslines are sex"; thank you kindly.

Inhale. Exhale.

I can't remember where I got this, so no "via." Sorry, random Internet soldier (and thank you).

Love,

Logan

I don't have to explain myself to Amir Thompson.

He understands me in a way that you never will.
(Just kiddin...you're almost there.)

(+ Astral Weeks and Court and Spark and Innervisions and 3,962 other albums = me.)

What's that? You want some ?uestlove pics?
He always looks relaxed but intently music-obsessed at the same time
(if it's possible to wear something like that on your face)


I've been meaning to talk to you about stepping up your t-shirt game.
You need this and I found it for you.

How come I don't live here? All I need is a little cot in the corner.

And hey, you guys, how come we don't listen to this EVERY DAY? Have we all forgotten how much we loved it when it came out?

The Roots - The Seed 2.0 - The Roots

(video = clean version; YouTube link above = superior, cuss words version)

Rakim speaks on memories, inspiration, intellectual property rights

See, I do this thing where I flip through my records and then I think and think about music and words and influences and other assorted topics. And eventually it shows up on here. For example, I think we all remember the Axl Obsession of April '09 here and here.


and now we have the
second Rakim-related post in a week, kids!
(I found the picture above, liked it, wanted to share)

"Before you know it, you're following and fiending..."

Ernie Barnes...

...was a guard for the Broncos (ugh) in the '60s, and then became a professional artist once his football career ended. He died on Monday and this is simply a humble tribute to a man who did some great work.

Wonderful, you guys are saying, but what's the connection to bikini-clad nerdery and unnatural affection for music that I come to this blog daily to read about?

He painted "Sugar Shack."

Respect is due--we all recognize it from "Good Times," of course, BUT

it's also the cover of Marvin Gaye's I Want You, the album you really, really ought to have in your collection if getting a pretty female Earthling undressed and sweaty and then cuddling with her and having her say sweet things to you and making you pancakes is something you'd like to accomplish. I'm just sayin....I heard that this might work. From a friend of mine. Who looks a lot like me.

Anyway, just heed my words; have I ever led you astray?

00:11 - 00:18, the loveliest way anyone's ever expressed carnal longing without using actual words. Oh Marvinnnn.

- Link

It's too bad, it's just too sad
you don't want me now
but I'm gonna change your mind
someway, somehow
sweet baby...

Rupert Murdoch still evil, hates handsome superhero political leaders

Rupie and his Fox henchmen have decided not to show The Prez Who Can Do No Wrong's "First 100 Days" press conference tonight. Aw damn, see, now you've gone and upset me.


Rupert reassures me that it's not a decision based on the fact that he hates progress, poor people, rainbows, ponies, and civil rights, and that he uses his network to further his agenda:

"Fox (is) stressing that the decision not to air the Obama press conference was not political in nature and not meant to be a precedent-setting decision. The net didn't air a George W. Bush press conference in 2001."

Good one, Rupes! I see you! You think just cuz I listen to coke raps, often eat ice cream for dinner, and have a bikini obsession I'm not up on politics? HOW. DARE. YOU. And after further review, it turns out that the hard-hitting George Weasel Bush press conference not aired by Fox in '01 was a joint one between him and Vlady about the "new relationship between Russia and the U.S."

Yeah, umm...this writer believes that there's something not-so-compelling about George and Vlad sitting at a table together, and that, in contrast, there are many compelling things about a press conference related to the first 100 days in office of a history-making brilliant man who is the leader of the free world and who will speak on such topics as the current financial crises on a global scale, the state of employment, education, and health care in the U.S., the fact that he's signed 19 executive orders and 12 laws since he got the job, and his administration's ever-present need to practice careful diplomacy since we've pissed off about 8,000 countries during the last administration. Also, apparently there are wars we are currently embroiled in and I think some of us might want to hear the latest on that.

(Oh, and I hope he gives us an update on Bo, can I just add that in?)


PS - Rupert's lackey, fellow rich, conservative white man, American president of Faux News, and Dude Who Will Not Be Seeing Me Naked, Roger Ailes is a fellow Blogspot-er! Aw, we're like 2 peas in a bloggy pod! I'm pretending it's not fake because it makes his musings like this more fun:

"Waterboarding isn't torture. I pay good money for waterboarding. Okay, technically, it's not water."

- rogerailes.blogspot.com

"All around the world today, the kilo is the measure/

a kilo is a thousand grams, it's easy to remember." *

A yayo connection to The Clipse? The No Fucking Way file is getting overloaded.

(news via smartest dude I know, The SK)


* When Clipse lyrics are too predictable, a girl's gotta go with some Tony Starks. Everybody knows that.

D, motherfucker, D

(not a young hip kid on the streets of New York...but

my radio, believe me, I like it loud)

"People that were big fans of music at the time were into higher-fidelity, better-quality sound — bass, midrange and treble," Freddy says. "So [the manufacturers] listened to what the consumer, what the young hip kid on the streets of New York, wanted. We wanted bass."

A Eulogy for the Boombox on NPR.

Statik Selektah feat. Styles P & Talib Kweli - "The Thrill Is Gone"

Whoo in thee hay-ell produced this lovely work?*I would like to shake your hand, sir. Also, if you would like to give me the INSTRO I would not be mad.

Apparently there's a situation called The Hangover that will be unleashed upon us in Sept. '09. I hope with all my girly heart that it will be full of similarly lovely piano loops.

In other news, it's Biggie's second hook appearance of the day! Two in a row! That's gotta be some kinda record.



(05/17/09: YouTube still acting bitchy, taking down videos, making things difficult for me. I had to replace the video from April; hopefully this one stays up for a while.)


* (prob. Statik himself, but I can't seem to find this info anywhere on the Internets).

Axl. Again.

1987:

“I sing in five or six different voices, so not one song is like another, even if they’re all hard rock. In the last year, I’ve spent $1,300 on music, everything from Slayer to Wham!, to listen to production, vocals, melodies, this and that. I’m from Indiana, where Lynyrd Skynyrd are considered God to the point that you ended up saying, ‘I hate this fucking band!’ Yet for 'Sweet Child' I went out and got some old Skynyrd tapes to make sure that we had got that heartfelt feeling.”

Music nerdery will, in fact, lead to my demise.
If there's anything I like more than geeking out over music/music history/musicians, it's geeking out over a musician geeking out. Dear Axl, I too spent $1300 on music last year to listen to production, vocals, and melodies. Except I'm not making a record; I'm just a melody enthusiast.

Sigh.

Rich Harrison, show your face

Where are you, babycakes? It's almost summer and I need something big and booming and shiny and girly from you that'll provide the soundtrack as I clean my apartment, read, rooftop sunbathe, and don my new sundress as I drive back and forth between K-town and Hollywood for a rendezvous or twelve with my boyfriend. Then, in the evening hours, I find that you get me all psyched when I put you on my hi-fi as I'm getting myself dressed and ready and cocoa-buttered-up and long locks brushed for the Cha Cha. Oh Rich!

It's been a couple years and nobody does it like you...I swear you're the best producer that Stax never brought on board in 1965.

More DC go-go magic, please, Richard. Pretty please.
My high heels are clickin towards your door!


1 Thing - Amerie

- MySpace