Days Go By...
... and still I think of you...Days when I couldn't live my life without you...This song has been in my head for forever. I think I have been thinking of this song a lot because of the music--- not the techno, car commercial version, the acoustic guitar version. It's so beautiful. And I actually understand what these guys are singing about. :)
This is sort of a part of the "plunge" I was talking about in a previous blog. There's something intriguing, I feel, about the acoustic guitar and the electric guitar. However, I am more partial to the acoustic one. It's craziness as I feel like I"m "cheating" on my piano.
Yes, I like MOST instruments and I enjoy other performances and listening to other types of music. But this "attraction" is much stronger. I'm almost feeling guilty. It has led me to practice the piano a little bit more so I can reassure "it" that I won't ever forget it.
But really, how CAN I forget the piano? He/She/It has been with me for FOREVER. I mean, come on.
But, I'm guessing, to spice up the relationship, I need to explore a bit more (ok, that just sounds sort of retarded)... and the one instrument that has caught my ear, eye and a part of my heart is the guitar. Don't ask me why. It may be a phase I'm going through. It just sounds good. It's not as complex as the piano as far as sound goes but it's quite authentic. Ok, that guilty feeling is coming back...
I don't know what thing I'm gonna do-- it prolly won't be spontaneous but even I surprise myself!
I will keep all posted on my endevours... it should be quite the adventure! :)
~Don't it always seem to go, that you don't know what you've got till it's gone...~ Joni Mitchell (never lie)
Does Music Reflect the State of Love in a Generation?
After watching the Original Kings of Comedy for 40 times in the past two weeks, I was thinking to myself--- Is Steve Harvey right when he says that folks don't sing about love anymore?
Yes, there are songs about love out there-- the first to come in my mind is Alicia Keys' "If I Ain't Got You." But there are so many other songs out there that just don't really say it like The Temptations' "Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch" where the gentlemen explicity say "Don't you know that I love you?" More examples would be from the movie that got me thinking about this.
It's something to think about, for real, y'all. I mean, is "love" literally gone from our generation? Back in the day, you had the Temptations and all the other folks singing and dancing about it-- count it against the divorce rate back then? I'm not sure what it was back then, but it DEFINITELY wasn't freakin' 50%.
Correlate the current divorce rate to what folks are singing about now. I think music definitely reflects things that cause such relationship problems: unabashed infidelity and sooo many songs about someone paying someone's bills or for someone's clothes, etc. (Exception: Destiny's Child's "Bills Bills Bills" is NOT an example of this-- in the song, the dude used all of her stuff AND expected HER to pay for it-- big no no).
Guys, are you too ashamed to tell your girl that you like her in fear that she may make a fool outta ya and make you spend all you got??? And ladies, are you too afraid to tell your guy that you love him in fear that he may take advantage of you, your assets and your money (do I have a story for you-- that's another blog, though) ?? I think that's the crux of the problem-- people don't want to be taken for a fool (which is understandable) and therefore jump the gun and take all of what the other person may or may not have to offer. It ain't right-- why are we so defensive and so afraid? Why are there sooooo many games being played?
(From a very non-emotional standpoint, however, I do believe that there other things that contribute to divorce or the attrition of luv-- but I'm not writing a Master's thesis... I'm writing a blog.)
Like I mentioned, non-serious relationships do not have to turn into serious ones. But my point is that each party must be clear and expect only what needs to be expected of the other party-- and, as the music reflects, folks sometimes aren't and therefore are very defensive.
If Steve Harvey is right, then, y'all, we have a lot of work to do. Let's sing the freakin' cheesy corny line, ah, now: "
What the world... needs now... is love... sweet love..."Anyway, that's enough of my ranting-- I'm going to go back to listening to 50 Cent's "
Candy Shop".
I might take the plunge
I was on a road trip for the past three days. (No, it wasn't for fun--- it was for work, believe it or not). After listening to my coworker's iPod selection of songs, I got a crazy idea---
I'm not gonna tell ya-- You'll see in a few months! :)
(No, it doesn't involve me shaving my head or anything like that.)
MJ
Ok, bitches, I've had enough.
I've had enough of people asking me if I still like Michael Jackson after al of these allegations. Let's be clear. Yes, I do. I LOVE his music and the fact that he created all of this music, I have to say that I love the man as well.
I'm not 100% unconditionally in love with him. I do think some of the things he's been accused of are questionable, but if you ask me, I think he is innocent. A bit weird, but innocent. And I'm not going to go into this whole diatribe of why I think he is innocent because I am not being paid to do so. That's what he has lawyers for and I ain't one of them.
What set me off was a few weeks ago, at work, a bunch of us were talking about music in our iPods and I said "Yes, I have ALL of Michael Jackson's stuff." One coworker looked at me in clear disgust and said "Eww! How can you???? I have a son!!!" First of all, I don't know what to tell anyone about that, but it's not like all the boys in the world are accusing MJ of this. I could understand if there was a presidential candidate who liked to chop boys' hands off as a national policy, and I supported it, then yes, my coworker's response would be quite appropriate. But this is not the case. To me, this is like someone telling me :"Yo, you know Beethoven beat the crap out of his nephew every single dayfor like 3 months.. you shouldn't like his music."
Look, if I'm entertained by the music, I don't give a flying kitty about what he does on his free time. I paid to listen to his music, not to read about his private life.Why can't I just like what I like without anyone trying to change my goddamned mind? As far as MJ is concerned, NO ONE can dispute the fact that he revolutionized music as we know it. He's not the beginning or the end of music but he is absolutely responsibile for a lot of good things that occurred in music-- disco, pop music, R&B--- he sings SOOOOO well. He changed the standards of entertainment--- you're awesome if you can sing, dance, play and write your own music.
In any case, I'm not forcing anyone to like MJ's music, but I will definitely resist anyone trying to force me to stop listening to it. I"m sorry, he's just awesome. What ever happens to him is not what anyone one of us can determineanyway--- and we really don't know whatever REALLY happened either-- why stress over someone's musical tastes, then???
That's all I'm gonna say about that.
Some good Quotes
Thought I'd like to share:
A guy at work: "Who is this Stanli person? Is that that old guy that sits over there in the corner?"
Me: "No, that'll be me. "
Guy: "You're the old guy?"
Me: "No, I'm Stanli"
Ola (at 8 years old) talking to me-- at least 6 years ago: "You think you're so much better because you have a new hairstyle. But you're not." (She runs out of the room).
Teesha: Oh, I thought you said "You're right."
Stanli: No, you're not right. But yo mama is.
Peter: Even though that made NO sense, it shows that any statement can be an insult if you just add "Yo mama" to it.
Mohsin: "Well, my Shia spidey sense tells me...."
Heather: "Well, you can tell that I'm a mixture of different cultures-- I have Nordic features, some Irish in me, Scottish hair texture..."
Mohsin: "You just look white to me."
Grandma: "...and I can't stand that Corretta Scott King-- she always looks so sad and she's had the same hairstyle for the past 30 years."
Napolean Dynamite: "Are you drinking 1% milk because you think you're fat? Well, you're not. You can totally drink 2% if you wanted to."
Granddaddy: (Looking at my G-town sweatshirt): "Oh, 1789... Man, we sure were in slavery like a sun-bugga. Can you believe it?"
More to come....
So Unrelated to Music
There are some events/revelations/quotes that must be brought to folks' attention whether it's related to the theme of music or not. It's just that good. I have a feeling the this one plus at least two others will break the rules. Then back to music it is.In any case, last weekend, I went to visit my good friend in Iowa (yes, Iowa. Yes, I know I'm Black. Yes, she's Black too. Yes, most folks are Bush supporters). In any case, we've always had a great time watching movies and overanalyzing specific moves, phrases and always ask the question "Why?" to some things... like in Billy Madison: Why did Billy start chewing on that guy's hand at the dinner table? And why did the guy let Billy chew on his hand?
In any case, we were watching "The Original Kings of Comedy" for like the 4th time in that one weekend and there's a part with D.L. Hughley goes into this long monologue about the pleasures of the bedroom and how a guy tries to act like he's all that, etc. So, there's one part where he says something along the lines of "Girl, you don't know who you're dealing with... Shoooot, I'll work you harder than a part-time job!"
I've been laughing at this for the past week now because I'm asking the question "Why?" What's up with correlation to sex and a part-time job? And, to me, this analogy is implicitly stating that a person tends to work a part-time job harder than a full-time job. Why would a person work that part-time job harder than a full-time job? But if that's not usually true, why not just say "... harder than a full-time job"? I think a phrase like "Girl, I'll work you like the rent's due tomorrow" would have been just as appropirate but probably not as funny.
Ok, I could be overanalyzing this but I find it HILARIOUS. I sent a text message to several folks for several different reasons and the responses were awesome. My friend in Iowa texted me back with "Have ya seen Johnny?" by Bernie Mac. My other friend texted me back with "Praise! Take a number!" LOLOLOL
And don't get me started on Napolean Dynamite! That's for another blog!
I'm Sorry, Evgeny
I'm such a punk. SUCH a disappointment to my self-endeared title of a "Chopin Gal". Apparently, one of the greatest (and youngest and cutest) pianists was here in Washington, DC on 6 April and I missed it. Evgeny Kissin played at the satellite concert hall of Strathmore Hall somewhere in Grosnevor. And what did he play? OF COURSE he played a bunch of Chopin preludes, the Ballades, probably even the Bercuse as the encore... life isn't fair.
This has to be the third time I missed him since I first saw him play at the Kennedy Center in December 1999 with my good buddy Michael (who also has a strange affinity for Chopin like myself). The first time I missed him was quite legitimate. He was playing in DC in May 2001, on the ONE day I had TWO finals that were 3 hours apart. Not cool. I missed him AGAIN when I went for a business trip to England but was too uppity and lazy to get that one crooked-y seat behind the big ole column (which, in hindsight, was probably a good choice to not go). And I missed him again here in DC on 6 April because of some unmemorable reason.
What's the big deal, you may ask? He's a ROMANTIC at heart (in the both the emotional and musical era senses). I think among his contemporaries, he plays Chopin the best... the 4 Ballades are WONDERFUL... and those were the very performances I missed. And for a Russian pianist, he's that much better. (Russian pianists tend to have a reputation for playing the piano too loudly--- or so I've heard).
So, as I
stalk him, I am sure that I'll be saving money to globetrot because it is so apparent that I can't see him when he's here in DC.
It don’t mean a thing if it ain’t got the Go-Go Swing
Being raised in DC exposed me to a lot of DC culture that I pretty much took for granted until I went to college in DC. One of these things includes go-go music. The more I think about it, the more I realize that go-go music has been a part of the soundtrack of a good portion of my life.
A few years ago, someone gave a really good history of Go-Go bands in the Washington Post, which was pretty accurate. (check it out:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&node=&contentId=A8247-2001Jun1)
In college, I was asked repeatedly by non-DCers “What the hell is that ‘go-go’ music? Didn’t it end in like 1986? Why do you guys still play it?” My favorite: “What is this jungle music?” I have to admit that I did stop listening to it circa 9th grade, but I still stood up for it. It’s a part of DC culture and you have to appreciate it if you’re going to
appreciate DC (the real DC, not the Georgetown version of DC). I believe (and the article goes into further detail) that it is a direct decendent of funk music (bands like Sly and the Family Stone, even James Brown and his band) and as far as energy and stuff goes, it’s a predecessor to crunk and hip hop.
I remember Halloween of 1990 going to school and there was a live go-go band that played for us 4th to 6th graders a bunch of stuff, including that of “Sardines, hey! And pork and beans!” After doing some research at the age of 24, I realize that this song is a Girl Scout camping song that Rare Essence (one of the best Go-Go bands) had flipped and made their own.
I see that there’s a sort of resurgence of go-go beats in a lot of current hip hop songs: Jill Scott’s “It’s Love”, Beyonce’s “Crazy in Love”, Amerie “One Thing”. Everyone in the world thinks “Man, that beat is HOT!” and I’m like “It’s about time!” And what is up with Rare Essence’s version of “Pieces of Me” as made popular by Ashlee Simpson? It was WAY better than Ashlee’s version by far!
And the dances that I can only think of doing with these songs include really the “shake-it” or the “Lock-It”….Yo, remember the song “Lock-It”???!!! --“Lock it, lock it in the pocket, lock it in the socket, hey, you can’t knock, hey hey… so here I go again, here I go again, to the show again, to the show again, Cee-Cee Lock-It!” I think there is no real way to dance to this music. It’s a flow and you have dance with it as a flow—I think if you watch guys, they are the best dancers to it. I don’t know, just my opinion.
If you ever get the chance, try to get a hold of back in the day joints, as pointed out in the news article above. They are really tight. Rock on.
