Sometime last year, a friend of mine turned me on to XKCD. In my travels around the intertubes interweb internet, I come across many web comics made for geeks and gamers. XKCD is my favorite of the bunch – it’s consistently funny, and unlike with the gamer comics, even if I haven’t been up on the geek news for the past few weeks, I usually still get the humor. Even if you don’t score very high on geek quizzes, you should get at least some of the humor. (You are reading a blag, so I’ll assume you’re part of one of the internet-ready generations)

So, umm, yeah . . . I bring up XKCD because today’s comic is particularly applicable to my life. Many people who have heard my music collection played on shuffle don’t know what to make of it. Years ago (when my collection was less diverse than it is now) it wasn’t uncommon to hear dancehall reggae followed by The Muppets or show tunes (anyone else like The Pajama Game?) followed by Akinyele (You know you still love Put It In Your Mouth).

I was browsing on Myspace last night when I came across this profile ->LINK<-

She calls herself Watts 1965. It’s not that often that I come across a new artist that grabs my attention like she did. I came home tonight and found myself back on her myspace page bumping the tracks she has up. Watts 1965 has a very unique style and words that mean something. I highly recommend that you check her out. As soon as I find out where to get a hold of some more of her music, I will post a link.

This is a repost from my Yahoo! 360 blog.

Thursday February 2, 2006

Phew! I thought I’d never get a chance to write something. I’ve been busy, but I finally have time.

Enough small talk. Or maybe too much small talk. Consider this an obituary. Out in the real world (as they call it once you leave college) it can be really hard to form new meaningful relationships with people. I’ve been fortunate in this area, mostly because of the (now closed) Crimson Moon coffee shop (pictured above) For those that don’t know, The Crimson Moon was a small independent coffee shop in Philadelphia. The Moon served as a comfortable spot to work, relax, talk, and meet people. I met just about all of the creative people I work and create with at the Moon or through other people who I met at the Moon. Sometimes I wonder, where would I be if I had never been there?

During its last days, one of the regulars filmed interviews of a selection of Crimson Moon regulars. I helped do some of the questioning. From the responses I got, I was reassured that it’s not just me – that little coffee shop helped shape the lives of many individuals. I remember one South Philly native saying something like “Where else could an oil truck driver who writes poetry feel at home?” That was the essence and beauty of The Moon. It fostered creativity and true diversity. Not the kind of diversity you see in college brochures (though it was frequented by many different races and nationalities.) Crimson Moon regulars came from all over the world and all walks of life. From executives to waiters. From college professors to high school drop outs.

Unfortunately, in the growing corporate nature of this country, there is less and less room for places like Crimson Room. Financially, it was a small mark on the Philadelphia landscape, but a landmark in many lives.

The website is still up here .

This is a repost from my Yahoo! 360 blog

Thursday January 19, 2006

I don’t know if I’m misreading people, but sometimes I get the impression that a lot of young well-read people aren’t very impressed by some of the more known classics. Well, I just want to say that I am impressed. The other day I was reading Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Raven” and, as it does every time I read it, it amazed me. This time though, I had hip-hop on my mind as I read it and it struck me – Poe was into wordplay. The type of wordplay many MCs would be proud of if they could claim authorship. The poem came up in conversation with a friend of mine, another MC, and he made a similar comment. The value of certain works of art are very much connected to their placement in time. Think of that song that makes everybody go back to a certain era of time whenever its played, but if the song were to come out now it would’ve been laughed off of the airwaves. We move forward, certain forms get more developed, certain things that were once original and rare become cliche and boring, and interests change. You have to respect a piece of art that can pass through time without succumbing to those threats and remains valuable in different contexts because its true value is seperate from its original context.

As if that wasn’t enough, while I was searching the web for a link to the poem to post here, I came across an essay that Poe wrote detailing how he went about writing “The Raven” and why he made some of the decisions he made regarding. This man was a genius. He treated writing this poem as if it were a math problem and he came up with a formula that led to a poem the stepped out of the formulaic box poetry tends to fall into. No rant today, just a recommendation.

Read the poem.
Then read the essay.