Negative.

"Jesus, Logan. You must have a thousand hip-hop nerds stalking you."

-Jim, non-hip-hop nerd

Ummm, no. This is the greatest compliment ever (honorable mention goes to "I like your contours" guy at The Dime*). I do enjoy nerds of various ilk so it would be lovely if some stalking did occur; however, if these individuals exist they have yet to identify themselves. Until then, I'm still the skinny quiet girl at Amoeba looking for that Idris Muhammad on vinyl (unlikely, but still).

* joke. I'm joking. I'm not a Buick.

I Got A Castle In Brooklyn, That's Where I Dwell

Wild Sugar, "Bring It Here"

Auto-Tunerrrrrr

"by T-Pain: The Remix (feat. T-Pain)"

Aural Intercourse

Portishead & me, Coachella

"The fuck you mean, is he fuckin dead?"

Wu Tang is fun.

3 Stacks, "Royal Flush" verse.

"Styles will change. They say change is dang-erous
As a King standing on the terrace
While his partner pointing up at the riflemen
Coward shooter, never know when your life will end
Then live like there ain't no 'morrow
And if one come then this the motto
Now I put message in bottle
You go to the nearest beach and open your car door
And walk to the place where the sea meets the land
Yeah, it's easier to run the street than walk in the sand
Hey, I'm talking young man. As if chalk in my hand
I will take y'all little ass to school
It's cool when the kids call me Sunny, the hood calls me Stacks
The B's call me honey, Hollywood calls me back
Crack and I have a lot in common
We both come up in the 80's and we keep that bass pumping
That's a nega-tive comparison, embarrassing
Unfortunate that if you come up fortunate the streets consider you lame
Ha, I thought the name of the game was to have a better life. I guess it ain't. What a shame
I don't slang. Never slung but I'm one with the slum that has a name well fitting
Plenty cheese getting. No wonder why they call it the trap
So watch your tail and I'm not kidding
The rats and mice will give advice, they say, "you can paint and draw
Get out of here. Go show them that we're more than slanging raw."
That's when I broke into my Big Rube impression
And I tried to enlighten but that night I learned a lesson
That the morals that you think you got go out the window
When all the other kids are fresh and they got new Nintendo Wiis
And your child is down on her knees praying hard up to God for a whopper with cheese
Do you B) hit the street hard with a flair
Or do you A) go to school for heating and air?
Dare make an honest living or make a crooked killing
Or do a bit of both until you're holding on a million?
Brilliant. You got one foot in, one foot out
You put your left foot back in and then you shake it all about
You do the hokey pokey til you turn your life around
That's what it's all about, 3000 out."

!

Act Like You Know My Steez

The Purple Line To The Red Line

Bernard taught me how to take the subway and it was great! I saw Gino in line at the re-sell counter at Amoeba and he hugged me and it brought me much mirth. I inadvertently hurt the delicate feelings of a young man who started talking to me about a record in my hand and then I, of course, had to be a joker and kick some sarcasm. I can't help it; playfulness is delightful. I didn't make the rules. But see, the problem is that he didn't get my joke and I therefore cannot allow him to see me naked. Sorry, dude with glasses and brown shirt at Amoeba. Thanks for playing.

Ahhhhh. Saturday Morning.

Play loud!

I Am, In Fact, Alive

I didn't realize anyone actually looked at this, but I've gotten a couple questions lately regarding when I'm gonna post again. Awww. I feel loved.

I'm here, alive and well. Hold on a sec, lemme find something interesting and fresh to post and please you...

Speech to the Young: Speech to the Progress-Toward

Say to them,

say to the down-keepers,

the sun-slappers,

the self-soilers,

the harmony-hushers,

"even if you are not ready for day

it cannot always be night."

You will be right.
For that is the hard home-run.

Live not for battles won.

Live not for the-end-of-the-song.

Live in the along.

-Gwendolyn Brooks

(she once said, "I am a writer perhaps because I am not a talker." Wordemup.)

"I'm Low-Key Like Seashells, I Rock These Bells"

from Pitchfork:
Attention, San Diego, L.A., and San Fran: the head to the Wu-Tang's Voltron body, GZA, is coming to your city to perform 1995's classic Liquid Swords in its entirety.
This trio of Cali dates finds the Genius swinging Swords and cutting clowns much as he did last year at the Pitchfork Music Festival, in London, and a couple times in New York. Bodies will drop, heartbeats will stop, and rhyme thoughts will travel at tremendous speed as the GZA tackles the 1995 classic in full. Come to think of it, that line about "natural blends of weed" will probably apply to the proceedings as well.

GZA (performing Liquid Swords):

03-28 San Diego, CA - Canes
03-29 Los Angeles, CA – El Rey Theatre
03-31 San Francisco, CA – Independent

- Link

Best Line, 01/29/08

"Here, listen (pause, pointing her finger in my face): You're so nice because dudes don't talk to you, Lo-Lo. Listen, it's good. You don't think you're beautiful and I hope you never do because you're so sweet and it would ruin you. Plus you're built like a cartoon character so you should be a complete fucking bitch, but you're not and that's why you're dope."

Courtesy of Maker's Mark and the Cha Cha. Thanks, Nadia!

What I Look Like At Amoeba & Rockaway, v.2.0

Where's. The. Hip. Hop. (I'm Still Going, But C'Mon...)

Queen Latifahs & Will Smiths??

Yesterday the tenants of 1520 Sedgwick, Kool Herc, and Senator Schumer held their press conference to unveil their plan to keep rents in the building affordable to residents. It turns out that the owner is asking $14 million and the tenants, through a private lender and city subsidies, can raise about $11 mil. So where’s the rest of the money going to come from?

Campbell [Kool Herc] called on "all the Queen Latifahs and Will Smiths" to step up with some financial help Tuesday.

"We’re asking all those guys you see in Forbes magazine that are living hip hop to recognize this building," he said.

Link

Eskay's right--what makes residents of this building any more deserving of affordable housing than any of the other people in the Bronx? Also, how 'bout actual Bronx-bred people ante up (Bambaataa, KRS, Kool Keith), rather than a New Jersey-an and a Philadelphian?

The Birthplace of Hip-Hop On August 11, 1973, in the first floor recreation room of 1520 Sedgwick Avenue, hip hop was born. It was on that day that DJ Kool Herc, known as the founder of hip hop, and his sister threw the first hip hop house party. Scholars, musicians, and the media widely recognize 1520 Sedgwick Avenue, aka General Sedgwick House, in the Bronx borough of New York City, as the birthplace of hip hop, a uniquely American musical genre and culture that has taken over the world. In recognition of its important place in American history, in July of 2007, 1520 Sedgwick was declared eligible to be listed as a state and federal landmark. Congressman Serrano of the Bronx honored Sedgwick and Kool Herc in the Congressional record. Now 1520 Sedgwick is at risk of converting to market-rate housing! 1520 Sedgwick was built in 1969 under a state program to provide quality affordable housing for New Yorkers. This affordable housing helped revitalize the Bronx and made it possible for working families like DJ Kool Herc's to thrive and create the communities that gave rise to hip-hop. The owner of 1520 Sedgwick plans to remove the building from this affordability program by February 2008! The owner of Sedgwick intends to sell the building to a private equity investor who has already taken several buildings out of the affordability program in the Bronx. As gentrification sweeps through New York City, the low and moderate income families who have lived in these communities for decades are being pushed out. You can help! The tenants of 1520 Sedgwick refuse to be swept aside! They are organizing to preserve their building and they need your help. The 1520 Sedgwick Tenant Association has been working with the Urban Homesteading Assistance Board (UHAB) and Tenants & Neighbors to preserve their buildings and help them convert 1520 Sedgwick into a permanently affordable, limited-equity cooperative. UHAB has entered into negotiations with the companies who control 1520 Sedgwick and they have offered to sell the building to UHAB and the tenants. Using money from the State and City of New York and your contributions, we hope to reach a fair purchase price and save 1520 Sedgwick as affordable for the next generations of New Yorkers!

Del!

March 11. I can't wait. I can't wait.

If I Cut My Ear Off, Would I Only Love Music Half As Much?

"In the end we shall have had enough of cynicism and skepticism and humbug,

and we shall want to live more musically."

- Vincent Van Gogh

Amoeba tomorrow! (I've been in self-imposed exile due to lack of funds). If you need me, I'll be in the bossa nova section. Also, my verdict on this group Black Kids (fresh, or not fresh?) is still pending. Nobody make any sudden moves until then.

Random Tribute: Scott Joplin

"Keep on, yes my word is bond
Speakin' that knowledge like Farrakhan
Cause it's ragtime."

     - Sadat X





Every day at approximately 5 pm, there's a taco truck that parks on my street and
plays a tinny, carousel-ish song over and over. Repeatedly. Like,
overandoverandover. I'm hearing it as I type this, matter 'fact. It's not an
unpleasant tune; it's just annoying to a degree that I cannot describe because it infiltrates
my brain and I hear it when I'm trying to go to sleep, when I'm at the grocery store, when
I'm at work in front of my computer, when I'm brushing my teeth, and when I'm drinking
tea and reading the newspaper and wearing kneesocks.

I went to my parents' house a couple weekends ago, and I was mindlessly humming the
tune when my dad tells me that it's the "Maple Leaf Rag" and that "ragtime" comes
from the term "ragged time" due to its complicated rhythmic patterns (you don't know
nothing about my pop's 1-2 punch of nerdiness and musical knowledge. Step back,
young'n.). Being my father's daughter, I embark on a quest for information regarding
this piece of music and discover that it's actually "The Entertainer," but pops gets
points anyway because both are Scott Joplin songs. Turns out Scott Joplin was
African-American (I was surprised to learn this but then I remembered that a black
composer not getting his due in American history when he should be a household name
is really something so non-surprising that I should've assumed it to be the case).

I will no longer refer to it as "ice cream truck"/"taco truck" music because that discounts
the history behind it. So now when I hear it I think of not only carne asada, but of
whorehouses and sheet music and Missouri and syncopation. Kids on my sidewalk and me
in my apartment above, we all hear the music and it's an amazing thing to know how it came
to be blasting from the taco truck's speakers. But I'm corny like that. Also, I apologize for the
quotes below including the c-word. 

"A Brief History of Ragtime," by Dr. Mark Birnbaum

One hundred years ago, ragtime was king. Missouri, Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana were the cradle of ragtime civilization. America bounced and danced to it. It put a smile on everyone's face. (like me!)

Overseas, ragtime was better respected than in the USA. Paris, London, Vienna - they went wild! Here, ragtime could never quite shake its "whorehouse" association. And yes, it was played in whorehouses, saloons (as opposed to European salons), and eventually concert halls. Also, a "rag" was slang for a dance (a jig or a shuffle). And a "ragtime girl" was a babe (or a whore).

Yet, ragtime was so good, it was irresistible. Only snobs and prudes from high society disliked it, as it came from a mixed "black" and "white" background. In short, the rhythm is black (African), the harmony/melody is white (European), and the result is American.*

One man is chiefly responsible for ragtime's popularity and survival: Scott Joplin (1868-1917). He codified it, wrote it down, made it into an art form.

It is amazing this controversial music became popular so quickly - it has never been easy to play. Ragtime is a solo piano affair. The left hand provides the basic rhythm and harmony, the right hand sings the melody (which has its own rhythm). Yet, it was easy to listen to; it still is.

Ragtime didn't exist in a vacuum. Ragtimers were required to play folk, blues, popular tunes of the day. Yet, ragtime piano was unique. The melodies were captivating - but the rhythm was infectious.

Syncopation! Two rhythms at once - a steady beat in the left hand and something happening off the beat in the right hand. The tension between the two gives ragtime its special kick. Ragtime's syncopation grew into the foundations of Jazz, Swing and Rock n' Roll. Whether a rag is fast (like the "Maple Leaf Rag") or slow ("The Entertainer"), you feel the syncopation.

In 1899, the "Maple Leaf Rag" put Scott Joplin on the map. Although Joplin was not a technically great pianist, with his unique compositions he quickly established himself as the king of ragtime composers.

Shortly after the wild success of the Maple Leaf Rag, Tin Pan Alley quickly published hundreds of mostly third-rate song that overshadowed superior works by Scott Joplin, Eubie Blake, Jelly Roll Morton and Co. Yes, Irving Berlin ("Alexander's Ragtime Band") and Zez Confrey ("Kitten on the Keys") wrote first-rate ragtime stuff, but they were the exceptions in a sea of mediocrity.

By 1917, things were changing. Europe was enmeshed in the Great War, Scott Joplin was ill, and ragtime's stepchild, "jass," was coming into its own. As American entered World War I, Scott Joplin died. Yet ragtime never really went away. And the next generation of Duke Ellington, Count Basie and Co. were weaned on it.

Link

Random Wikipedia notes:

The defining characteristic of ragtime music is a specific type of syncopation in which melodic accents occur between metrical beats. This results in a melody that seems to be avoiding some metrical beats of the accompaniment by emphasizing notes that either anticipate or follow the beat. The ultimate (and intended) effect on the listener is actually to accentuate the beat, thereby inducing the listener to move to the music. Scott Joplin, the composer/pianist known as the "King of Ragtime", called the effect "weird and intoxicating" (like me!). He also used the term "swing" in describing how to play ragtime music: "Play slowly until you catch the swing...". The name swing later came to be applied to an early genre of jazz that developed from ragtime. Converting a non-ragtime piece of music into ragtime by changing the time values of melody notes is known as "ragging" the piece.

According to the New Grove Dictionary of Jazz the musical form was originally called "ragged time" which later became corrupted to "ragtime". Ragtime originated in African-American musical communities in the late 19th century, and descended from the jigs and marches played by all-black bands common in all Northern cities with black populations. *A distinctly American musical style, ragime may be considered a synthesis of African-American syncopation and European classical music, though this description is oversimplified (shocking).

Some early piano rags are entitled marches, and "jig" and "rag" were used interchangeably in the mid-1890s and ragtime was also preceded by its close relative the cakewalk. In 1895, Black entertainer Ernest Hogan published two of the earliest sheet music rags, one of which ("All Coons Look Alike to Me") eventually sold a million copies. As fellow Black musician Tom Fletcher said, Hogan was the "first to put on paper the kind of rhythm that was being played by non-reading musicians."While the song's success helped introduce the country to ragtime rhythms, its use of racial slurs created a number of derogatory imitation tunes, known as "coon songs" because of their use of extremely racist and stereotypical images of blacks. In Hogan's later years he admitted shame and a sense of "race betrayal" for the song while also expressing pride in helping bring ragtime to a larger audience.

The heyday of ragtime predated the widespread availability of sound recording. Like classical music, and unlike jazz, classical ragtime was and is primarily a written tradition, being distributed in sheet music rather than through recordings or by imitation of live performances. Ragtime music was also distributed via piano rolls for player pianos. A folk ragtime tradition also existed before and during the period of classical ragtime (a designation largely created by Scott Joplin's publisher publisher John Stark) (not John Starks--that was the dude who played for the Knicks), manifesting itself mostly through string bands, banjo and mandolin clubs (which experienced a burst of popularity during the early 20th Century), and the like.