Nah, but Bessie Smithhhhh has become my womannnnnnnnnn!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Love this chick, who knew I was a bluesy chica?
Showing posts with label Music. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Music. Show all posts
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
slow tongue
I NEVER heard this song before I HAD to post it...um...she cracks me up though, she's practically orgasmic on stage
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Monday, September 20, 2010
Friday, November 28, 2008
This Song is a Prayer
Each morning before the sun comes shining
I pray Jah Lord to keep me strong
To keep me far away from the wicked
And let me live clean and strong
Just let me live with my fellowman
Father oh my Father, Father, Father
Lift up my head and let me move along
Show me the way, the truth, and light lord
And let my days be long
And let my days be long
-Let My Days Be Long, the Abyssinians
I feel like a rastafarian hippie child sometimes (not unlike the the "rasta style, flower child" so embodied by ms. E Badu). I do though, because my folks raised me in such an Africentric hippie way, whether they'll admit it or not. My father used to blast the Abyssinians when I was growing up, this conscious reggae group from back in the day. And because of him, I love them. Their music is so simple and soulful, so intertwined with spirit. It's also so clearly influenced by Rastafarianism, with little bits of the Amharic language sprinkled in their lyrics alongside English and Jamaican patois, and countless references to the middle passage, zion and Africa. This song has always been one of my favorites. I was trying to explain to my partner, Seshata (she has a name! LOL) how it makes me feel, and has made me feel since I was a little child. I feel like you sing this song when you are truly, utterly content with life. When you are so grateful just for the opportunity to live and smell the flowers another day that you're not singing the popular refrain of our times, "take me now," "end this shit," or "when will it be over..."
...BUT you're praying, begging Jah to increase your shit! Increase the number of days you have on this planet. Power. To me it expresses such an ownership of your life, of your own destiny, when you have reached the maturity level to be able to be so in tuned with nature and the rhythm of the planet that you want to be here longer.
I feel that we have inherited this sad, sad legacy of colonization, unfulfilled promises and broken spirits that has made it so difficult for many of us to break through the barriers imposed by our environments and connect with the source. It's not often that you see a person just smiling because they are alive, and asking God to keep them on the planet longer. Not in our culture that is so addicted to depression. And to feeding that depression with more and more things, with more and more material products that by design and definition cannot possibly fill the cliched but all too real hole inside.
This is a song you sing when you know. When you know the difference between what's real and truly valuable and what's constructed. When you can distinguish between what parades as truth but has no substance, no space for soul to enter and what truly matters, and what is soulful (soul filled).
Prayer: "...to keep me far away from the wicked..."
An especially important line to people who have had the experience of colonization. An especially important line in the wake of Thanksgiving, the holiday constructed to obscure the depths and the breadth of the horrors that happened beneath the paved roads we now walk and drive. To obscure the stories, the voices of those that lived here first. "The wicked" assumed that those voices were actually buried when those roads were paved, when they washed their hands of the blood they spilt to pave those roads but they were wrong. They were wrong and the planet is in the process of rebalancing itself. And the buried voices, the bones and the strories are being reconstituted as the flesh of songs and refrains like this, as prayers, as creative inspiration, as the simple happiness of being alive and connected despite the continuing horrors of colonization, despite the pain that continues, that started when the first river was renamed, when the first tribe was forced to relocate, when the first person was smuggled and enslaved to do work for this empire.
(Dr. Marimba Ani: to take away a person's name is to destroy that person. To rename them is to colonize them.)
I most definitely want to be far away from the wicked when the planet enters its final stages of rebalancing. LOL. (But truthfully. In all seriousness: I do.)
But I still want to be around long enough to witness it and sing this song with conviction.
I pray Jah Lord to keep me strong
To keep me far away from the wicked
And let me live clean and strong
Just let me live with my fellowman
Father oh my Father, Father, Father
Lift up my head and let me move along
Show me the way, the truth, and light lord
And let my days be long
And let my days be long
-Let My Days Be Long, the Abyssinians
I feel like a rastafarian hippie child sometimes (not unlike the the "rasta style, flower child" so embodied by ms. E Badu). I do though, because my folks raised me in such an Africentric hippie way, whether they'll admit it or not. My father used to blast the Abyssinians when I was growing up, this conscious reggae group from back in the day. And because of him, I love them. Their music is so simple and soulful, so intertwined with spirit. It's also so clearly influenced by Rastafarianism, with little bits of the Amharic language sprinkled in their lyrics alongside English and Jamaican patois, and countless references to the middle passage, zion and Africa. This song has always been one of my favorites. I was trying to explain to my partner, Seshata (she has a name! LOL) how it makes me feel, and has made me feel since I was a little child. I feel like you sing this song when you are truly, utterly content with life. When you are so grateful just for the opportunity to live and smell the flowers another day that you're not singing the popular refrain of our times, "take me now," "end this shit," or "when will it be over..."
...BUT you're praying, begging Jah to increase your shit! Increase the number of days you have on this planet. Power. To me it expresses such an ownership of your life, of your own destiny, when you have reached the maturity level to be able to be so in tuned with nature and the rhythm of the planet that you want to be here longer.
I feel that we have inherited this sad, sad legacy of colonization, unfulfilled promises and broken spirits that has made it so difficult for many of us to break through the barriers imposed by our environments and connect with the source. It's not often that you see a person just smiling because they are alive, and asking God to keep them on the planet longer. Not in our culture that is so addicted to depression. And to feeding that depression with more and more things, with more and more material products that by design and definition cannot possibly fill the cliched but all too real hole inside.
This is a song you sing when you know. When you know the difference between what's real and truly valuable and what's constructed. When you can distinguish between what parades as truth but has no substance, no space for soul to enter and what truly matters, and what is soulful (soul filled).
Prayer: "...to keep me far away from the wicked..."
An especially important line to people who have had the experience of colonization. An especially important line in the wake of Thanksgiving, the holiday constructed to obscure the depths and the breadth of the horrors that happened beneath the paved roads we now walk and drive. To obscure the stories, the voices of those that lived here first. "The wicked" assumed that those voices were actually buried when those roads were paved, when they washed their hands of the blood they spilt to pave those roads but they were wrong. They were wrong and the planet is in the process of rebalancing itself. And the buried voices, the bones and the strories are being reconstituted as the flesh of songs and refrains like this, as prayers, as creative inspiration, as the simple happiness of being alive and connected despite the continuing horrors of colonization, despite the pain that continues, that started when the first river was renamed, when the first tribe was forced to relocate, when the first person was smuggled and enslaved to do work for this empire.
(Dr. Marimba Ani: to take away a person's name is to destroy that person. To rename them is to colonize them.)
I most definitely want to be far away from the wicked when the planet enters its final stages of rebalancing. LOL. (But truthfully. In all seriousness: I do.)
But I still want to be around long enough to witness it and sing this song with conviction.
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
Tried to turn the sauna up to hotter, drunk a whole jar of holy water, but it won't let go
Can i just thank Erykah Badu for capturing these feelins so succinctly...?
Thank you, e. badu.
I especially love the ambivalence of the last part
[just because i tell you i love you...don't mean that i do]
cuz i'm a ambivalent mofo
---
Last Sunday I went to a meditation group that a buddy of mine put me onto. One of our assignments for this week is to construct a love altar, or add symbols of love to our preexisting altars. I don't have an altar, and I barely have space to construct one, but i'm really going to try tomorrow. gotta get some rose quartz
I'll let you know how it goes
Saturday, August 16, 2008
Spiders
System of a Down
system of a down is cool because they usually start off slow and then get really loud
it's like a vocal roller coaster ride
system of a down is cool because they usually start off slow and then get really loud
it's like a vocal roller coaster ride
Saturday, August 2, 2008
I lean against the wind...pretend that i am weightless...and in this moment i am happy
I've been obsessed with this song.
Tell me the lead brandon isn't a cute white boy tho (and if you do tell me that you'd be lying!). But then again musicians always could get the pantydrawers. LOL i'm hopeless
Tell me the lead brandon isn't a cute white boy tho (and if you do tell me that you'd be lying!). But then again musicians always could get the pantydrawers. LOL i'm hopeless
Sunday, July 27, 2008
Warning! Incubus
And thisssssss shit...looooooove it...learned it only last semester through folks cooler than I
Shit I'm a night owl.
Still my guitar gently weeps
I know I've posted this song on a few of my various social networks but I freaking love "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" by the Beatles
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
AfroPunks!
It's AfroPunk Week in Brooklyn and let me just say that I am truly enjoying the festivities! I <3 AfroPunk. I first attended the festival three years ago with a couple of my friends. It's a festival that at the time was in it's second year and was spawned from a documentary of the same name and directed by James Spooner, a self-proclaimed Afro Punk. It's about race in punk rock, and specifically about Black people who are punk (and have been punk since punk was). It's now in it's fourth year and it draws Afro Punks and Afro Punk enthusiasts from around NYC, the tri-state area, and probably the country. It generates such amazing energy because there is such radical race pride and self-acceptance floating in the air during the festival alongside pure rock and roll, pure music, pure incredible intense love and rebellion and defiance. There are no apologies, no "yea I'm Black but I'm punk" or "I'm not white but I do like punk."
But there are lots of...
"Hell yea I'm punk and hell yea I'm Black! What other way is there to be?"
"Shit yea punk is the Blackest thing on god's green earth, you ain't know?"
"Where the fuck do you think the punk counterculture got it's inspiration from? This is pure Black nationalism...the piercings, the tats, the dreds, the 'hawks...that's Africa babe!"
You see folks with Black power buttons, and tee shirts with messages like "I'm Black...please don't shoot," and golden Africa medallions...
annnd lip rings annnd nostril rings annnd industrials annnd artistically shaved heads annnd ear plugs annnd hair color annnd skateboards
and the space that this festival creates to be all of that and more is so refreshing and empowering and affirming and celebratory and sexy and addictive as hell, and so COMPLETELY necessary.
But that's just a background. This year's festival has so far been amazing, and last night I saw two incredible film selections with friends.
The first was also directed by James Spooner, a "scripted documentary" about a man who rejects his Black self while exploring the punk world, since conventional, white dominated punk outlets don't typically have space for a strong Black consciousness. No, he doesn't conveniently "discover" the AfroPunk scene near the film's end but he does eventually discover himself. Brilliant film, highly recommended.
The second was a hilARious romantic comedy called "I'm Through With White Girls." For me it was an extremely refreshing take on/celebration of Black love amidst the problematic history of race relations in the U.S., but it's one of those films that everyone is bound to take something different yet powerfully affirming from. While some small aspects of it rubbed up against my politics (and lead to a spirited phone conversation with one of my friends until 3:00 am about the biological/socially constructed nature of desire, the troubled history of race and the present manifestation of racism in a colonized world, standards of beauty and desirability that are decidedly anti-Black and anti "real people," and the politics of interracial relationships and skin color in the U.S.), overall it was just such a provocative, intriguing, entertaining, funny, well-acted, relate-able movie. And I'm not even one to really sit through and enjoy movies that don't have a documentary kind of feel to them. But this movie definitely WILL be in my collection when it's released on DVD Aug. 12th. Without a doubt. It was that good, and if you get a chance, you should really check it out.
Sunday, July 6, 2008
You say you love me...don't wanna hurt me...can you explain this pain I feel insiiiiiideeee
..The fear of losing you it makes...me...cryyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy
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