weird musical vibes lately..

been way out there on the musical tip lately, searching for something new and interesting, but haven't quite found it yet... I've had this cheesy disco track by Cerrone on repeat all week, but other than that....

Here's what I listened to last week courtesy of last.fm...

~C


Top Artists – Week of Sep 18 to Sep 25, 2005

1 Jazztronik - Ryota Nozaki
2 Cerrone
2 Massive Attack
4 Ennio Morricone
4 Bugz In The Attic
4 Melaaz
4 Leftfield
4 Vikter Duplaix
4 Mark de Clive-Lowe
4 Badmarsh & Shri
4 Barrington Levy
4 Tricky
4 Moloko
4 Les Négresses Vertes
4 Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan
4 Cosmosis
4 Willie Williams
4 Johnny Osbourne
4 Fertile Ground
4 Foxy Brown
4 Paul Murphy & Marc Woolford Pr
4 Osunlade
4 Aretha Franklin
4 angel "pocho" gatti
4 mark de clive-lowe ft. bembé segué
4 king britt pres. scuba ft. lizz fields
4 The Meters


Top Tracks – Week of Sep 18 to Sep 25, 2005

1 Cerrone - Not Too Shabby (Jamie Lewis Goes Disco Mix)
2 Ennio Morricone - Come Maddalena (Cosmos Remix)
2 Vikter Duplaix - morena (remix)
2 Bugz In The Attic - Booty La La (Extended Mix)
2 Leftfield - Inspection (Check One)
2 The Meters - Just Kissed My Baby
2 Les Négresses Vertes - Face à la Mer (Massive Attack Remix)
2 Melaaz - Non Non Non
2 Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan - Mustt Mustt (Massive Attack Remix)
2 Mark de Clive-Lowe - Slide
2 Badmarsh & Shri - Signs (dubplate mix)
2 Barrington Levy - Here I Come (Dubplate Mx)
2 Tricky - Aftermath
2 Moloko - Forever More (Dennis Ferrer's
2 Massive Attack - Karma Koma (the Napoli trip)
2 Massive Attack - Unfinished Sympathy (Paul Oakenfold Perfecto Mix)
2 angel "pocho" gatti - kashba
2 Willie Williams - Armagideon Time
2 Paul Murphy & Marc Woolford Pr - Jazz Room (Spiritual South Rem
2 Cosmosis - Tell Her
2 Johnny Osbourne - Budy Bye
2 Foxy Brown - Oh Yeah
2 Fertile Ground - living in the light (uk remix)
2 Osunlade - tree of life
2 king britt pres. scuba ft. lizz fields - our time (original exclusive)
2 Jazztronik - Ryota Nozaki - A Charmed Life - J-Live
2 Jazztronik - Ryota Nozaki - Shashkin [Hefner Mix] - Omar Faruk Tekbilek
2 Jazztronik - Ryota Nozaki - Make Up Your Mind - Swayzak
2 Jazztronik - Ryota Nozaki - What Blows And Grows - Jimpster
2 mark de clive-lowe ft. bembé segué - state of mental
2 Jazztronik - Ryota Nozaki - Vertigo - Stacey Pullen
2 Aretha Franklin - Rock Steady (Danny Krivit edit)

Dilettante

dilettante

dil·et·tante (dl-tänt, dl-tänt, -tänt, -tnt, -tnt)n. pl. dil·et·tantes
also dil·et·tan·ti (-tänt, -tn-)

adj : showing frivolous or superficial interest; amateurish; "his dilettantish efforts at painting"

n : an amateur who engages in an activity without serious intentions and who pretends to have knowledge

n:A dabbler in an art or a field of knowledge.

cornet west on Katrina

I really try not to get too personal with the chronicles, but I haven't written because these last couple of weeks have had some occurances that have made me question my most loyal of friendships. Therefore, it has been just as difficult to NOT write about as to write about it... lots of unanswered questions, lots of past actions that are now questioned, etc... Hopefully one day soon, I'll have the right words to say, but at this point, I'm still speechless.

I thought I'd share a powerful read I came across in the Guardian. It is funny that Cornel West's commentary on Katrina gets published in a British newspaper, but doesn't get any burn (that I know of) in the US press..

~C

http://www.guardian.co.uk/katrina/story/0,16441,1567249,00.html

Exiles from a city and from a nation

Cornel WestSunday
September 11, 2005
The Observer

It takes something as big as Hurricane Katrina and the misery we saw among the poor black people of New Orleans to get America to focus on race and poverty. It happens about once every 30 or 40 years.

What we saw unfold in the days after the hurricane was the most naked manifestation of conservative social policy towards the poor, where the message for decades has been: 'You are on your own'. Well, they really were on their own for five days in that Superdome, and it was Darwinism in action - the survival of the fittest. People said: 'It looks like something out of the Third World.' Well, New Orleans was Third World long before the hurricane.

It's not just Katrina, it's povertina. People were quick to call them refugees because they looked as if they were from another country. They are. Exiles in America. Their humanity had been rendered invisible so they were never given high priority when the well-to-do got out and the helicopters came for the few. Almost everyone stuck on rooftops, in the shelters, and dying by the side of the road was poor black.

In the end George Bush has to take responsibility. When [the rapper] Kanye West said the President does not care about black people, he was right, although the effects of his policies are different from what goes on in his soul. You have to distinguish between a racist intent and the racist consequences of his policies. Bush is still a 'frat boy', making jokes and trying to please everyone while the Neanderthals behind him push him more to the right.

Poverty has increased for the last four or five years. A million more Americans became poor last year, even as the super-wealthy became much richer. So where is the trickle-down, the equality of opportunity? Healthcare and education and the social safety net being ripped away - and that flawed structure was nowhere more evident than in a place such as New Orleans, 68 per cent black. The average adult income in some parishes of the city is under $8,000 (£4,350) a year. The average national income is $33,000, though for African-Americans it is about $24,000. It has one of the highest city murder rates in the US. From slave ships to the Superdome was not that big a journey.

New Orleans has always been a city that lived on the edge. The white blues man himself, Tennessee Williams, had it down in A Streetcar Named Desire - with Elysian Fields and cemeteries and the quest for paradise. When you live so close to death, behind the levees, you live more intensely, sexually, gastronomically, psychologically. Louis Armstrong came out of that unbelievable cultural breakthrough unprecedented in the history of American civilisation. The rural blues, the urban jazz. It is the tragi-comic lyricism that gives you the courage to get through the darkest storm.

Charlie Parker would have killed somebody if he had not blown his horn. The history of black people in America is one of unbelievable resilience in the face of crushing white supremacist powers.

This kind of dignity in your struggle cuts both ways, though, because it does not mobilise a collective uprising against the elites. That was the Black Panther movement. You probably need both. There would have been no Panthers without jazz. If I had been of Martin Luther King's generation I would never have gone to Harvard or Princeton.

They shot brother Martin dead like a dog in 1968 when the mobilisation of the black poor was just getting started. At least one of his surviving legacies was the quadrupling in the size of the black middle class. But Oprah [Winfrey] the billionaire and the black judges and chief executives and movie stars do not mean equality, or even equality of opportunity yet. Black faces in high places does not mean racism is over. Condoleezza Rice has sold her soul.

Now the black bourgeoisie have an even heavier obligation to fight for the 33 per cent of black children living in poverty - and to alleviate the spiritual crisis of hopelessness among young black men.

Bush talks about God, but he has forgotten the point of prophetic Christianity is compassion and justice for those who have least. Hip-hop has the anger that comes out of post-industrial, free-market America, but it lacks the progressiveness that produces organisations that will threaten the status quo. There has not been a giant since King, someone prepared to die and create an insurgency where many are prepared to die to upset the corporate elite. The Democrats are spineless.

There is the danger of nihilism and in the Superdome around the fourth day, there it was - husbands held at gunpoint while their wives were raped, someone stomped to death, people throwing themselves off the mezzanine floor, dozens of bodies.

It was a war of all against all - 'you're on your own' - in the centre of the American empire. But now that the aid is pouring in, vital as it is, do not confuse charity with justice. I'm not asking for a revolution, I am asking for reform. A Marshall Plan for the South could be the first step.

· Dr Cornel West is professor of African American studies and religion at Princeton University. His great grandfather was a slave. He is a rap artist and appeared as Counsellor West in Matrix Reloaded and Matrix Revolutions.

house music mix for Katrina survivors

Last week around Wednesday or Thursday before the photo-op cavalry arrival in New Orleans, I hadn't heard from my fam in Gulfport (they're ok), people were laying in the streets dying, racist media coverage ran rampant, FEMA had done nothing, all I could do was just watch the TV and feel absolutely helpless. I had given money already, but somehow that made me feel worse.

I was just completely numb, couldn't sleep and simply had nothing to say to anyone. So like so many of us would do in times of sorrow, I turned to music. Not really sure if it was to escape, to release, or what, but what follows is me staring at my turntables for about 15 minutes, grabbing a record and pressing the record button.

I went back and listened to the mix tonight and somehow it accurately represents what I was feeling on that day:

anger
sadness
confusion
helplessness
hope

There is nothing incredibly new here, some of the levels are off, and some of the mixes are just "ok", but hey, nobody's perfect. I hope you enjoy.

click to download

Tracklisting:

1. Romanthony - "Hold On"
2. Filsonik - "Slavery"
3. Monday Michiru - "Higher"
4. Osunlade - "Pride"
5. Nike Jones & Kalim Shabazz - "Dreaming" (Shelter Vocal)
6. Human Arts - "Big Sur Highway" w/ "Dreaming" acapella
7. Glenn Underground - "Black Action" w/ Nikki Giovanni "But Since You Have Asked"
8. George Benson - "El Barrio" (MAW mix)
9. Markus Enochson - "Feeling Fine"
10. Serenity Project ft. David Blak - "The Sun Will Shine"
11. Jasper Street Co. - "Another Day"
12. Ageha ft. Jocelyn Brown & Loleatta Holloway - "A Better World"
13. Kings of Tomorrow - "Finally"

a few Katrina e-mails..

Here are a few of the e-mails I've received on Katrina I'd like to share...

~C

-------------------


Hey Curtis...

I was reading your blog today and saw that you had a lot of places people can donate to help Katrina victims. We have another to add to your list. We were watching Larry King last night (I can't stand Larry King), but he was having a "how you can help" program. The last guest was Irvin Mayfield from the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra. He is a Grammy nominated trumpet player who is known as a cultural ambassador for New Orleans. He is spearheading a relief effort for the countless musicians of the city who have lost everything. Many of these people made their lives as street musicians in New Orleans providing the culture and sound that made New Orleans so unique - many of whom are of limited means, and some who were homeless to start with. Now, they don't even have the instrument that provided them a livelihood. The address to send donations and the web site address is below.

The NOJO
P.O. Box 82385
Baton Rouge, LA 70884-2385
Their Web site is www.thenojo.com

---------------------------------------
Dear Sirs:

The United States of America is a great place. I am a fiercely patriotic person, as my family and this country have grown side by side. My family has been here for almost 400 years - we helped found the state of Connecticut; we were the blacksmiths who made the guns for The Continental Army during the Revolutionary War; we were instrumental in the development of The Underground Railroad and fought tooth and nail for Abolitionism during the Civil War; we worked in the labor camps during the depression and battled racism in the Deep South long before the Civil Rights Movement; we served the world's interest and fought against Hitler in WWII; and we are still fighting the good fight even today.

The history of my family in this country makes me no more an American than someone who arrived in 1980, but I wanted to mention these things to indicate my perspective on the current stage of our political development.

Where I'm going with this is simple: I want to help New Orleans and our country recover. The single most obvious way I can do that is to continue my family's tradition of grappling with the issues of the time by getting directly involved and not just sit back and pontificate. So, as my grandfather once said: "The feelings burning me up might disturb some of the authorities, if they knew. They don't...so I will tell them."

So I'm telling you now: This administration is a disgrace to the honor of this country, and they have betrayed the ideals the rest of us have fought and died for. They are criminals with no sense of compassion or respect for the dignity of the people. They are sociopaths, and arrogant to the point of insanity. Even worse, they are inept, willfully ignorant, and fiendishly power hungry. The situation in New Orleans is just the tip of the iceberg, but this horror story will be what finally forces the public to open their eyes and see the painful truth. Very soon, this administration will understand how the segregationists felt in 1963. Their time is coming - the people will not abide by this any longer. And I will be marching with them: peacefully, but with an undeniable moral puprose.


Thank you very much for your time,

-------------------------------

Thank God someone else is catching this too. . . Looting implies the spoils of war. . . Raiding a village after the battle.

In times of crisis it is called survival.

The media is more of an enemy to Blacks in America then any other source. I'm also sick of seeing the 10 white people in New Orleans being portrayed as the "only" people willing to help one another. . . Giving gas to strangers, buying food for strangers fleeing the city, offering the use of cell phones to contact loved ones.

Blacks, drifting out of wal-mart "looting", fighting for a spot on a bus or a bottle of clean drinking water. Black bodies floating in the water on tree branches. How is it looting when you're taking diapers, canned food, sheets, medicine, toilet paper. . . most things that will be destroyed once businesses re-open. . . That is what we pay outrageous insurance premiums for. The portrayal of Blacks during this crisis is more appauling than the flooding.

I don't know what type of news you guys are receiving up there but it is so blatant out here, yet they think we're stupid.

Dallas is about to be over-run with the displaced which will also make my job "FRANFUKINTASTIC!". We are supposed to take in, clothe, feed, and educate children who just days ago watched loved ones wash away forever. . . Will little Johnny fail if he doesn't know his multiplication tables this year. . .

I'm sorry to burden you with this Curt, but lately that seems to be all the rage around here. . . "Why are they making us look like wild animals while whites appear to be helpless victims?" "Why are they finding food, and we are looting for food?" "Why did so many whites find a way out of there, yet we are stuck for 4 days with no food or water and expected to behave rationally?"

Did you know many Blacks didn't leave because they couldn't afford the gas it would take to get to Texas? Did you know that supplies used to board up doors and windows was in short supply in black neighborhoods but overflowing in affluent neighborhoods. . . what reason was given. . . Lumber is being sent to Iraq to help with the reconstruction efforts. ARE YOU SHITTIN' ME!

Over 150 years since the end of slavery and we are still this country's doormat. It's always easy to divert the focus onto us rather than the reality of the situation. True, we're not helping the situation by shooting at rescue workers. . . but I wouldn't hesitate to believe that they are being taunted by some nasty BUTTFUCKS who are more concerned with becoming heroes then with helping poor black people.

i'm done. . . sorry Curt, but this shit is just dumb.

-----------------------

....looking at the footage you almost wouldn't know if it was darfar or new orleans....watching the horror and insane conditions that people are dealing with breaks my heart and i'm so so so angry that it's taken 5 days for anyone to begin to help and people are saying they're looters and hoodlums - tell anyone to go somewhere seeking shelter and leave them with absolutely nothing and no one and ask yourself what you'd do to survive.....anyway, also knowing i was there six months ago and seeing the city now, this whole thing just makes me cry...

---------------------------

I have been doing little else than watching the disaster coverage in disgust. It is bad enough the media always seem to find the least articulate, most ghetto-looking fool to interview when something happens in a predominantly black location, but this is insane. If I ever run into Brown, the FEMA director, do you think he'll understand why I walked up to him, slapped him upside the head, and walked off? He has been blaming the victims who they knew had no means of leaving the city because they are poor, elderly, infirm, or all of the above, and they were not provided adequate options to get out. And, now it is their fault? It is their fault that a handful of bad souls are shooting at doctors and fellow victims and looting?

And, if a black kid is likely floating in sewage and battery acid filled water with a bag on his back he must be looting - what if that is all he has left and he is trying to take it with him? Ugh...I'm so annoyed. If you really want to loose your mind, watch FOX News for a few minutes. At least half the CNN correspondents have officially gotten so disgusted they are ranting in all the right ways. What I fear most now is the Bush administration spin machine that is officially in full throttle. I really hope the American people are not ignorant enough to forget this first week and all the people who died because money for the levees in New Orleans were diverted to Iraq by Bush, because National Guard have been diverted to Iraq by Bush, and because for decades corrupt, racial politics have kept the poor and dark-skinned down in Louisiana. And, that's not even to mention all the people suffering in Mississippi and Alabama.
If this situation, soaring gas prices, and the mess in the Middle East don't wake Americans up once and for all, will anything?

new e-mail from the ebonic speaking latino

I guess my talk only worked for a month or so...... can't keep a brotha from the hood down before he resorts back to his hood-like tendencies....

this is why niggas (of all races) shouldn't work in a professional environment. Here is his latest office wide e-mail inviting folks to happy hour...

~C

-------------------------------------------

Yo, we have this deadline to bust, but dat ain't gonna stop the hour of happiness ya heard meeeeeee? Its friday and I know yall got crazy $$$$; so has has da 1st round at the Big Hunt 2nite yo?, ha,ha,ha....It has been a while that I've seen you folks get keyed off da brewskies....skee, skee, skeee...

Yo gazoo? Where u be...danger's in da hizouse kid!
COSTCO! wud up Doggg?
Yo squigee, lets call it a wrap and five-tray-0'
Yo eightball, it's on tonizite! Packin da MonteCristo's?
To all my potna's in the West, keep ridin...

Kanye is my hero

http://media.putfile.com/Kanye79

**call to action in support of Kanye West and the Victims of katrina**

---The Situation----

as u know, iont even listen to music like that & frankly I didnt think too kindly of "Golddiggers", but I respect Kanye's right to make the song.

and, I respect and support him in what he said during the "A Concert for Hurricane Relief" because he was right.

there is no good excuse why federal relief did not get to the victims sooner.... there is only one reason:

"George Bush does not care about Black (or poor) people"


--- The Target ----

We must quickly egister full support of Kayne West's statement.
We need to ensure that Kanye West is not at all black-balled in any way and is congratulated for his bravery, honesty and forthrightness.


--- The Plan---

Each person reading this post must email a statement simply indicating that we support Kanye's Statement to all of the following:

us senator: http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm
the white house: comments@whitehouse.gov
the red cross: https://www2.redcross.org/contactusform/
Kanye's record label: sitesupport@rocafella.com
NBC: Today@NBC.com
Associated Press: info@ap.org


btw, I'm gonna buy 2 of his new cd's now... just because of what he did.

help links

I'm just so numb right now over what is going on in New Orleans, that I told myself I need to calm down before I write... anything that would come out would have lots of emotion behind it.

For now, here are many ways you can give to help out.

~C

The Federal Emergency Management Agency lists these organizations for those seeking to assist victims of Hurricane Katrina:

Charity Navigator: charitynavigator.org
Information on various charities and ways to donate to the relief effort.

Donate cashRed Cross: 1-800-HELP-NOW or www.redcross.org

AmeriCares: americares.org

Episcopal Relief & Development: 1-800-334-7626 or www.er-d.org

United Methodist Committee on Relief: 1-800-554-8583 or gbgm-umc.org/umcor/emergency/hurricanes/2005

Salvation Army: 1-800-SAL-ARMY or www.salvationarmyusa.org

Catholic Charities: 1-800-919-9338 or www.catholiccharitiesusa.org

FEMA Charity tips: www.fema.gov/rrr/help2.shtm

National Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster: www.nvoad.org

Louisiana Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals: www.la-spca.org

Operation Blessing: 1-800-436-6348 or www.ob.org

America's Second Harvest: 1-800-344-8070 or www.secondharvest.org

Adventist Community Services: 1-800-381-7171 or www.adventist.communityservices.org

Christian Disaster Response: 1-941-956-5183 or 1-941-551-9554 or www.cdresponse.org/cdrhome.html

Christian Reformed World Relief Committee: 1-800-848-5818 or www.crwrc.org

Church World Service: 1-800-297-1516 or www.churchworldservice.org

Convoy of Hope: 1-417-823-8998 or www.convoyofhope.org

Lutheran Disaster Response: 1-800-638-3522 or www.elca.org/disaster

Mennonite Disaster Service: 1-717-859-2210 or www.mds.mennonite.net

Nazarene Disaster Response: 1-888-256-5886 or www.nazarenedisasterresponse.org

Presbyterian Disaster Assistance: 1-800-872-3283 or www.pcusa.org/pda

Southern Baptist Convention - Disaster Relief: 1-800-462-8657, ext. 6440 or www.namb.net

American Red Cross (800) HELP NOW (435-7669) English; (800) 257-7575 Spanish

Operation Blessing (800) 436-6348

America's Second Harvest (800) 344-8070

To donate cash or volunteerAdventist Community Services (800) 381-7171

Catholic Charities, USA (703) 549-1390

Christian Disaster Response (941) 956-5183 or (941) 551-9554

Christian Reformed World Relief Committee (800) 848-5818

Church World Service (800) 297-1516

Convoy of Hope (417) 823-8998

Lutheran Disaster Response (800) 638-3522

Mennonite Disaster Service (717) 859-2210

Nazarene Disaster Response (888) 256-5886

Presbyterian Disaster Assistance (800) 872-3283

Salvation Army (800) SAL-ARMY (725-2769)

Southern Baptist Convention -- Disaster Relief (800) 462-8657, ext. 6133

United Methodist Committee on Relief (800) 554-8583

Other Information:

Federal Emergency Management Agency: 1-800-621-FEMA; www.fema.gov

Louisiana Homeland Security: www.ohsep.louisiana.gov

City of New Orleans: www.cityofno.com/portal.aspx

Louisiana Governor's Office: www.gov.state.la.us/

Mississippi Emergency Management: www.msema.org

National Hurricane Center: www.nhc.noaa.gov

National Weather Service: iwin.nws.noaa.gov/iwin/graphicsversion/bigmain.html

Hydrologic Information Center (river flooding): www.nws.noaa.gov/oh/hic/index.html