"At Last like Etta James"

I'm finally finished with exams, so I will have more time to devote to sharing my thoughts and things I find interesting on here. With that said, I've been trying to catch up on a bunch of music that I haven't had a chance to get into.

So, first things first, I knew someone taught MJ the moonwalk, but I didn't know who. I stumbled on the group Shalamar the other day whose member, Jeffrey Daniel, taught him how to do it. I also didn't know that Shalamar was the group whose song is "This is for the lover in you."--which I like. Here is a clip of Jeffrey Daneil performing, including the moonwalk, in London as well as another clip of the group singing "This is for the lover in you."





Secondly, I've heard about Jay Electronic but very minimally and elusively. Apparently he has an 'unconventional' approach to releasing his music, in that it is very arbitrary. --According to Wikipedia. It may be 'unconventional' to the music business' standards, but he should be able to release what and when he desires, it's his music. Enough of the politics. All in all I really like his style--kind of like Jay-Z in the sense that you need to listen carefully to catch the metaphors, which to me cut a bit deeper then Jay-Z's. I definitely have had to stop and rewind some of the tracks I've heard. A lot of the stuff I've heard, content-wise, has elements of Nas in it as well; especially his "abstract rhyming style" as Jay calls it. Where I think he stands out from the two, however, is in several ways. His production--much more thematic and his use of recordings from movies is really cool. His voice--definitely a couple tones deeper than Jay and Nas'. His delivery--not as 'poetic' as Nas' and hits harder than both Jay-Z's and Nas. From what I hear, it sounds like he will have enough content to really create a lot of good music. In my attempts to keep and ear to what and who's up and coming but also relevant, I would say that J. Cole and Jay Electronica definitely may have the appeal to younger, newer hip-hop heads, but still have remnants of earlier hip-hop (Pac, Nas, Wu-Tang, etc..) which appeals to hip-hop fans like me who seem to still be attached to that generation of hip-hop. Here is one of Jay Electronica's tracks I like.

Freedom of Speech

Exercise Your Right!

Different Energy Source

I'm so sorry for not posting in a while. Posts may never be on schedule, but always on time...This is an article I saw on CNN's website about a new concept on how to capture energy from ocean currents--thought it was pretty interesting. CHECK IT OUT

Africa's Role in the U.S. Slave Trade

I thought this was a very accurate response to Henry Louis Gates Jr.'s Op-Ed on Africa's role in the U.S. slave trade. Both this response and Gates' original Op-Ed were featured in the NYTimes.

Published: April 25, 2010
To the Editor:

In “Ending the Slavery Blame-Game” (Op-Ed, April 23), Henry Louis Gates Jr. notes that African rulers and merchants were deeply complicit in the Atlantic slave trade. Despite Mr. Gates’s contention that “there is very little discussion” of this fact, it hardly qualifies as news; today, virtually every history of slavery and every American history textbook includes this information.

Mr. Gates’s point is that the African role complicates the process of assigning blame for slavery and thus discussion of apologies and reparations by the United States. I believe that apologies serve little purpose and that reparations are unworkable. But the great growth of slavery in this country occurred after the closing of the Atlantic slave trade in 1808.

It was Americans, not Africans, who created in the South the largest, most powerful slave system the modern world has known, a system whose profits accrued not only to slaveholders but also to factory owners and merchants in the North. Africans had nothing to do with the slave trade within the United States, in which an estimated two million men, women and children were sold between 1820 and 1860.

Identifying Africa’s part in the history of slavery does not negate Americans’ responsibility to confront the institution’s central role in our own history.

Eric Foner
New York, April 23, 2010

The writer is a professor of history at Columbia University.

The Future of Travel?

There are some really interesting designs and concepts for different modes of travel out there. Let's just see how long they take to be considered, let a lone implemented.

Here's a New York Times blog post on the topic!

Sexual Frustration - Dali

After going to The Met last year, I never seemed to forget Salvador Dali's piece on sexual anxiety. This doesn't mean I've been battling my own sexual anxieties since I saw the painting! I just appreciate how he was able to depict such a specific desire. About this painting, The Met's website says,

"Painted in the summer of 1929, The Accommodations of Desire is a small gem that deals with the twenty-five-year-old Dalí's sexual anxieties... In this picture, he included seven enlarged pebbles on which he envisioned what lay ahead for him: "terrorizing" lions' heads (not so "accommodating" to his "desire" as the title of the painting facetiously suggests), as well as a toupee, various vessels (one in the shape of a woman's head), three figures embracing on a platform, and a colony of ants (a symbol of decay). Dalí did not paint the lions' heads but, rather, cut them out from what must have been an illustrated children's book, slyly matching the latter's detailed style with his own. These collaged elements are virtually indistinguishable from the super-saturated color and painstaking realism of the rest of the composition, startling the viewer into questioning the existence of the phenomena recorded and of the representation as a whole."

Blame It on the Boogie!

One of the most innovative music videos to date! lol

Some of the Entertainers Who Inspired MJ

It's really interesting how we build upon what we all ready know to help inform something new and innovative. This obviously applies to the hard sciences and to a certain extent the social sciences as well, but this is also visible in the arts. I often like to watch the artists and entertainers who are the inspiration for newer acts, as sometimes the originators are the ones who can do it best. MJ was obviously innovative in many ways, but remembering those who inspired him is equally, if not more important. James Brown, Jackie Wilson and Fred Astaire were entertainers who were influential for him. These clips clearly show how many of their moves and style were reenacted by MJ...enjoy!

P.S. These entertainers were also inspired by people that came before them. For example, Fred Astaire was influenced by Bill "Bojangles" Robinson and John "Bubbles Sublett

Oh Eddie Murphy--Gotta Love Rick James

Remember Eddie Murphy's "Party All the Time"? If you do and don't want to, sorry. However, if you haven't heard it, it's definitely pertinent that you do! I wanted to watch the video, after having not seen it in a very long time. Sadly enough, all I remembered from it was Rick James--the long blond curls, and his excitement while he "produced" Eddie in the video. (I'm referring to how Rick James was looking between 2:40 and 2:50 seconds of the video) Peep this essential song in music history!:

Crazy Bassist

I love the bass and synth. When I listen to music those are probably the first things I listen to. Wayne "Buddy" Hankerson is a crazy bassist who, I believe, used to play for the funk group Slave. A bunch of their music has been sampled in hip-hop, "Watching You" was sampled on one of Snoop Dogg's tracks. Check out the bass solo:

The Sleepbox

For the frequent travelers out there--I'm not sure if these will fill the void (if there is one lol) between not being able to find a place to sleep for the night and a hostel, but I think the design and concept is really interesting. They slightly remind me of the "capsule" which seem to be pretty popular in Japan...

For more information on the sleep box here ...Shout out to Mr. Olivas for the link!

The Warm Up - Almost a year old, but still something to get you hyped for the game

I know this mixtape is about a year old (Released June 19, 2009), but I have just now started getting into it. I definitely hear potential and passion on it. Let's see how his first album sounds. I hear No. I.D. is producing a lot of tracks on it which, from his track record, (no pun intended) should be good.

Portable Housing

Crazy concept by Brazilian architect Felipe Campolina! Check out more of his work here