I promise to come back and provide all the details, but my latest went up today on HipHopDX of the red carpet coverage I did this past Sunday on the Hip-Hop Summit Action Network event in Philly. I have a few more things in the works and I'll fill you in soon.
Until then, all my Pennsylvanians GET OUT AND VOTE!
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Thursday, April 3, 2008
I Stay Woke
I know, I know. Its been a minute since I last posted. Sometimes I think I delay posting so I can feel like when I do post I have something worthwhile to say. Not that I don't usually have worthwhile things to say, but I have to ask myself if its blog worthy or not. Its like that phone call you don't make until you have a chance to compile some interesting info to ensure the worth of the call for the recipient. Should I share the boring minutia just like I share the exciting things? I'm still not sure yet and I'm already on the seventh line. What I am sure of is that I predicted 2008 was going to be great for me and my life as a writer. This first quarter is proving that I must have a little Dionne Warwick psychic friends network blood flowing all up and through because its turning out to be so true.
The first big news is that today my undercover shelter piece for the Philadelphia City Paper was finally published here. I made both the print and on line editions and its been pretty exciting. Its been a long time coming but well worth the wait. I love the entire process of writing; from thinking of an idea, pitching it, having that pitch accepted to writing, editing, and finally seeing the end result in print. Going through the editing process was also very positive which isn't always the case. Sometimes an editor can chop up and rearrange your words beyond recognition. Luckily for me this wasn't the case because I had an editor who worked well with me. When I read the almost final draft I could both see and feel my voice which is very important for me as a writer. Check out the story and let me know what you think.
Since my last post I interviewed a relative new comer to the Hip Hop game, Rocko, for HipHopDX. Although a lot of folks have no appreciation for his rhyme style, all the feedback left in the comments is a good look for me as the writer. Con-tro-versy. I also had the chance to interview Guru from the legendary Hip Hop group Gangstarr for Scheme Magazine. You can kill all your dreams about ever seeing another Gangstarr album because based on our conversation its never going to happen. Guru is back on the scene with a new partner and ready to move forward in a new direction with a new sound. Check out the interview that his new partner MC Solar (not the French MC Solaar) tried his best to dominate. Good thing I know how to keep things moving.
I just got booked to speak at MC3 again in May. Last time went well although it didn't go exactly as I would have liked. Someone actually sat facing left the entire time I talked. It took everything in me to keep my sarcasm about his rudeness to myself. But now that I know what to look for as far as keeping the listeners attention I can step my presentation game up and have those students thinking they were listening to Maya Angelou up in that piece. Well maybe not Maya, but close enough.
On the music front, I have picked up a few CD's in the past couple of months. Of course I had to get my girl Loretta Brown AKA Erykah Badu's New Amerykah Pt. 1: 4th World War. This is Ms. Badu on her other world Parliament Funkadelic vibe. She has never sounded this refreshingly far out. I'd have to say one of my favorite cuts, (aside from the bonus track Honey of course) is Master Teacher. (I stay woke too EB) When Badu starts harmonizing her brown sista power philosophies over funk filled tracks you can't help but get caught up in her matrix. Pt. 2 drops in July so pick it up. My man Johnny Legend has a live CD out (only available at Target) that was recorded at Philly's Tower Theater. If you are already a Legend fan you will appreciate the subtle changes made to some of his songs. I loved how he got straight gos-po-delic on 'I Can Change' which didn't have me missing Snoop's verse at all. There is a duet of 'Where Is The Love' that of course can't top the original version by Donny Hathaway & Roberta Flack but I give him and Corrinne Bailey Rae a 'B' for effort. Not that I don't have enough (can you ever?) Stevie, but his #1's in all its eco friendly packaging was the big selling point. Just kidding. I haven't gone all the way green, but I did think that was a cool thing to do. Last night I was riding, blasting 'That Girl' and thinking, "Damn, Stevie had some serious feelings for That Girl." Ever listen to the lyrics? That brother went there with his feelings and put it in a song. You have to admire people that are able to express their feelings in song, put music to it, and make a classic. Keep trying Neyo.
I have been thinking about starting a series within this blog and today is its premier. Its called WTF. For all my cybertext talkers, you know what it stands for. Today's WTF is being brought to you by the Rev. Pat Buchanan. After you read this nonsense you'll probably ask yourself is this the same Rev. Pat that said, "Hitler's success was not based on his extraordinary gifts alone."? Yep its him. Can the same mouth used to praise Hitler be the same one that bashed Obama's former pastor Rev. Wright so strongly? But guess what? I'm using a direct Buchanan quote and making it seem as if he just praised Hitler today. The quote is actually from 1977 but media has a way of making controversial words seem fresh. Maybe I didn't agree 100% with Rev. Wright's 'God Damn America' or his 'The Day of Jerusalem's Fall' speeches, but who hasn't already heard (or maybe even said) what Rev. Wright has the courage to discuss with his congregants? Nod your head if you feel me.
I got a signed copy of James McBride's, author of 'The Color of Water', new book 'Song Yet Sung' a few weeks ago. I just started it last week and thus far its pretty good. I never gave much thought to how slaves used multiple ways to plan escape like codes and songs, but they did. Although the book is a work of fiction McBride included lots of factual information which has made the read thus far very interesting. When I'm done, I'll review it here.
Saw a bunch of good Netflix rentals as of late. Sometimes I hit a bad pick spurt, but lately I've been thinking that my power to select good movies skills are coming back to me. I enjoyed The Assassination of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford and Gone Baby Gone which both had Casey Affleck as its star. I see Casey is trying to get out of the shadow of his brother Ben and I like it. How was anyone going to know he had the skills if he didn't ever get a chance to flex them? Yeah, Ben directed Gone Baby Gone, but so what. Both were good flicks. I watched No Reservations with Catherine Zeta Jones too. Rom coms (that's movie talk for romantic comedy ya'll) aren't my favorite genre of film, but since it had the cute little girl from Little Miss Sunshine in it and my man Aaron Eckhart from Thank You For Smoking . I gave it a chance. Bad move. One word. Yawn. I'd have to say the best pick of the bunch had to be Sean Penn's Into the Wild. The way the story was both told and filmed were superb. Strong performances and good cameo appearances just added to the film. The movie was adapted from the book of the same title, so if the movie peaked your interest you can read the true account. Two thumbs up for sure and I didn't need Ebert or Roeper to cosign that fact.
I gotta run but I promise not to stay away too long this time.
The first big news is that today my undercover shelter piece for the Philadelphia City Paper was finally published here. I made both the print and on line editions and its been pretty exciting. Its been a long time coming but well worth the wait. I love the entire process of writing; from thinking of an idea, pitching it, having that pitch accepted to writing, editing, and finally seeing the end result in print. Going through the editing process was also very positive which isn't always the case. Sometimes an editor can chop up and rearrange your words beyond recognition. Luckily for me this wasn't the case because I had an editor who worked well with me. When I read the almost final draft I could both see and feel my voice which is very important for me as a writer. Check out the story and let me know what you think.
Since my last post I interviewed a relative new comer to the Hip Hop game, Rocko, for HipHopDX. Although a lot of folks have no appreciation for his rhyme style, all the feedback left in the comments is a good look for me as the writer. Con-tro-versy. I also had the chance to interview Guru from the legendary Hip Hop group Gangstarr for Scheme Magazine. You can kill all your dreams about ever seeing another Gangstarr album because based on our conversation its never going to happen. Guru is back on the scene with a new partner and ready to move forward in a new direction with a new sound. Check out the interview that his new partner MC Solar (not the French MC Solaar) tried his best to dominate. Good thing I know how to keep things moving.
I just got booked to speak at MC3 again in May. Last time went well although it didn't go exactly as I would have liked. Someone actually sat facing left the entire time I talked. It took everything in me to keep my sarcasm about his rudeness to myself. But now that I know what to look for as far as keeping the listeners attention I can step my presentation game up and have those students thinking they were listening to Maya Angelou up in that piece. Well maybe not Maya, but close enough.
On the music front, I have picked up a few CD's in the past couple of months. Of course I had to get my girl Loretta Brown AKA Erykah Badu's New Amerykah Pt. 1: 4th World War. This is Ms. Badu on her other world Parliament Funkadelic vibe. She has never sounded this refreshingly far out. I'd have to say one of my favorite cuts, (aside from the bonus track Honey of course) is Master Teacher. (I stay woke too EB) When Badu starts harmonizing her brown sista power philosophies over funk filled tracks you can't help but get caught up in her matrix. Pt. 2 drops in July so pick it up. My man Johnny Legend has a live CD out (only available at Target) that was recorded at Philly's Tower Theater. If you are already a Legend fan you will appreciate the subtle changes made to some of his songs. I loved how he got straight gos-po-delic on 'I Can Change' which didn't have me missing Snoop's verse at all. There is a duet of 'Where Is The Love' that of course can't top the original version by Donny Hathaway & Roberta Flack but I give him and Corrinne Bailey Rae a 'B' for effort. Not that I don't have enough (can you ever?) Stevie, but his #1's in all its eco friendly packaging was the big selling point. Just kidding. I haven't gone all the way green, but I did think that was a cool thing to do. Last night I was riding, blasting 'That Girl' and thinking, "Damn, Stevie had some serious feelings for That Girl." Ever listen to the lyrics? That brother went there with his feelings and put it in a song. You have to admire people that are able to express their feelings in song, put music to it, and make a classic. Keep trying Neyo.
I have been thinking about starting a series within this blog and today is its premier. Its called WTF. For all my cybertext talkers, you know what it stands for. Today's WTF is being brought to you by the Rev. Pat Buchanan. After you read this nonsense you'll probably ask yourself is this the same Rev. Pat that said, "Hitler's success was not based on his extraordinary gifts alone."? Yep its him. Can the same mouth used to praise Hitler be the same one that bashed Obama's former pastor Rev. Wright so strongly? But guess what? I'm using a direct Buchanan quote and making it seem as if he just praised Hitler today. The quote is actually from 1977 but media has a way of making controversial words seem fresh. Maybe I didn't agree 100% with Rev. Wright's 'God Damn America' or his 'The Day of Jerusalem's Fall' speeches, but who hasn't already heard (or maybe even said) what Rev. Wright has the courage to discuss with his congregants? Nod your head if you feel me.
I got a signed copy of James McBride's, author of 'The Color of Water', new book 'Song Yet Sung' a few weeks ago. I just started it last week and thus far its pretty good. I never gave much thought to how slaves used multiple ways to plan escape like codes and songs, but they did. Although the book is a work of fiction McBride included lots of factual information which has made the read thus far very interesting. When I'm done, I'll review it here.
Saw a bunch of good Netflix rentals as of late. Sometimes I hit a bad pick spurt, but lately I've been thinking that my power to select good movies skills are coming back to me. I enjoyed The Assassination of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford and Gone Baby Gone which both had Casey Affleck as its star. I see Casey is trying to get out of the shadow of his brother Ben and I like it. How was anyone going to know he had the skills if he didn't ever get a chance to flex them? Yeah, Ben directed Gone Baby Gone, but so what. Both were good flicks. I watched No Reservations with Catherine Zeta Jones too. Rom coms (that's movie talk for romantic comedy ya'll) aren't my favorite genre of film, but since it had the cute little girl from Little Miss Sunshine in it and my man Aaron Eckhart from Thank You For Smoking . I gave it a chance. Bad move. One word. Yawn. I'd have to say the best pick of the bunch had to be Sean Penn's Into the Wild. The way the story was both told and filmed were superb. Strong performances and good cameo appearances just added to the film. The movie was adapted from the book of the same title, so if the movie peaked your interest you can read the true account. Two thumbs up for sure and I didn't need Ebert or Roeper to cosign that fact.
I gotta run but I promise not to stay away too long this time.
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