12.25.2008

Jet-Fret Life (the Battle of Midway) - First Portion

You know about my travel-troubles already. Flew to airports 6 times- went nowhere (fast), and it took two days.
The net effect of my traveling and time was, effectively, this:



No control, no certainty of where I'd be moved next: I felt like a puppet!



Don't be scared of the above: it's not more recent Lee Perry; it is from before his brain was crushed up like apple sauce by too many drugs. Back when it was merely drug-fueled and still runnin' smooth. So it's not all WayFuzzDubMush, but just way pleasant, sunny day, grin-music. Like Modern Lovers, sort of, some of it. But of course, ol' reggae stylee.

(Oh, obviously I mean it's like Modern Lovers in feel, not really in sound. Jonathon Richman will do Calypso songs sometimes, but that is a different Caribbean beast altogether, innit?)

12.15.2008

Dead-Metal (Turbonegro and Betty Page)


Betty Page died the other day. (These things do happen.)



The above song, retrospective of her passing, must be considered a loving, rather moving tribute.

Download TURBONEGRO's "(I Fucked) Betty Page"

Turbonegro are a sorta punk, sorta metal band. I just got into them recently, but supposedly they have 8 albums. (That's more than you.) This is how the lead singer typically performs:

(With that physique, you might be forgiven for being surprised that he didn't die BEFORE Betty Page...)
They are somewhat daffy, but it stays fun and doesn't get old. Partly because, musically, they are way rad. But even the lyrics, which are where the tomfoolery enters into it, rarely are straight-up stupid.
Turbonegro are daffy in that they talk about sex and coke and erections (independent of sex- see below) and "ROK und ROLL" and ask questions like "Do you do you Dig Destruction?" (to which they answer "Latino lovers often do" ???). They obviously aren't taking it all so very seriously, but they aren't in it just to joke either. So when, in "I Got Erection", they say:

"Every time I walk down the street - Erection -
When I think of blood I think of love - Erection -
When I set a house on fire - Erection -
When I dig a hole in the ground - Erection -
When I hear that death punk sound- Erection"

they are probably mostly joking. But when they say that 'Turbonegro Hate The Kids' (you know, 'the kids'), I get the feeling that they mean it.



They played at Madison Square Garden a little while ago, which is a slightly odd venue for them. And, slightly related: when uploading "(I Fucked) Betty Page" (click to download), A pop-up ad informed me that The Hold Steady (who I don't know about, but am sure that they are "The Kids" and very dumb and bad and all that) and their tour are sponsored by Duracell. they are sponsored by the Pink Rabbit!



This is why we all need bands like TURBONEGRO, by the way.
Well, one more for the road- and I promise, you all will like this song; it has homoeroticism, international travel, the bars of "New York, New York" (they call it that because they are from Norway, by the way).

12.10.2008

If I have to Walk, I'm a get There just the Same - Wilbert Harrison goes to Kansas City

It's been a while, hasn't it. Chomping at the bit again, I'm sure. Here's a 'your new favorite song' to hold you over until I drop some serious mixes *plop* right in your lap.



There are about 5 in post-production right now (all in the "AMX" series which I mentioned); a long-finished mix called "Pretty Pretty Songs" that even a grizzled homeless guy would like; and a more recently accomplished mix in a series called "SHOWER JAMZ!" (yes, it must be in all caps- you'll grasp the enormity of it all, which requires decisive use of graphic effects, in not too long).

But for now, a little ditty by Wilbert Harrison:



...Download Wilbert Harrison's lil' corker of a tune, Kansas City...

I originally heard this song on a tape of old rock business. Don't think I'm faking, please: tapes are not picked over at Goodwills e.g., to the high degree that vinyl is. This would be a moot point, except I was at the time cruising around Portland, OR, in a car with a tape deck (and a SUNROOF boom! and red blam! and a goddamned SPOILER!). So I dug around a bit in the tape bins, and now that I think about it, that was the beginning of me listening to oldiesrock.



So, lucky me and lucky you: sunroof = tapes = Wilbert Harrison.


...Download Wilbert Harrison - Kansas City...


11.24.2008

My Dad is cooler than Your Dad



Oh, Ricky Nelson. You used to be a heartthrob, back when that meant something. Yes, you had your version of Youth Rock. Very white, very innocent, very fun.



Download "There's Good Rockin' Tonight" by Ricky Nelson

Charmed all the ladies, you did. But then, at some point, you gave birth to the Nelson Twins.



But these things happen; I forgive you, Ricky Nelson. (But I will not forget.)
Ricky Nelson is about to find his way from Rock'n'Roll Heaven, to one of my Mix CDs. (this is only a small step down, because my mixes are rather fantastic*-, oh but you knew that, didn't you, Ricky Nelson?!)

The mix will be called "AMX", after a very special muscle car that MY DAD has. This is why my Pops is cooler than your pops (I didn't even capitalize your pops- that is how much cooler mine is than yours!). My Dad is restoring this badass, boss motorized vehicle.
I am pretty sure that the lovely women of Quentin Tarantino's DEATHPROOF talked about this car.
Thus, the mix will be Tarantino-movie-soundtrack themed. I will have oldies rock (witness Ricky Nelson, above), semi-obscure soul, and some sort of hip-hop or other. This will cover the well-loved soundtracks of Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, and Kill Bill. So far, I am considering Jerry Butler, Ricky, and something from the RZA- all of which I ripped recently**. Also going to put the original version of "(Bang Bang) My Baby Shot Me Down" on there; written by Sonny Bono (!) and thus recorded by Cher (!). Probably going to put "Leader of the Pack" on there, for some explicit "DEATH PROOF" references. Yes, "referencing" will be key, since that is 88% of what Quentin Tarantino does.

Here's another little gem by Ricky "I <3 you!" Nelson:


* If you are wondering how to download one of my various mixes, just click its link, obv, but you'll also need a program that unzips file packs.
EASY!:
WinZip, which lots of computers come equipped with, will do the job. I use WinRar, because it is free to download ('trial', but won't stop working if you don't buy it...) and works swell.

** Just so you know, all my posts tagged "Archive Fever" have songs that I ripped from vinyl. That means they are old, and topnotch. They are good enough, you see, that I took the time to painstakingly record them from vinyl records to my computer. Likewise, all posts tagged "track listing" are mixes that I've made; you'll want to download them all, of course, now that you can unzip them.....

Here's a picture of an AMX, doin' what AMXs do....

11.13.2008

Don't Knock my Coccyx

A friend of mine fell off a scooter. She's okay, but she did injure her
coccyx.
It's not funny.
Also not funny is how good Wilson Pickett is.



R I G H T ?? !! ?? (I tell you, I am not one bit joking when I say: my grandfather has the exact same suit. He wore it to my high school graduation, and damn, if he didn't look sharp.)

This is an album I picked up a while ago. Again, it came from the Second Mile thrift; not too surprising, since the album before this one was called "Wilson Pickett in Philadelphia" (it was produced here by Gamble and Huff). That probably helped him gain a little more regional recognition.
"Don't Knock My Love", on the other hand, took him back to his ruts (that's "roots", pronounced Southern Style) - it was produced at the famous Muscle Shoals Studios.

When I first put on this record, I'll admit that I thought it a little slick.
I don't know what the hell I was thinking, because it's in fact more than a lil' gritty. Maybe it was the suit that threw me (the suit above, obviously: that's the cover of the record of which I speak). Well, as Wilson himself told me, You Can't Judge A Book By Its Cover.mp3 (download).

Stream it here, if ya'd rather:


I think I was washing dishes, so maybe I wasn't really listening actively. (maybe it should've been LOUDER? right: it should ALWAYS be LOUDER!)

It (now) reminds me of a snippet of Leigh's and my conversation about the Staple Singers, Stax, etc VS The Supremes and Motown records.
This Wilson Pickett record would fall on the former side: south-y, bigger and looser. The Supremes, Mssr Gaye, etc. have a citified sound, slicker and much more poppy.

This record (and, in general, Muscle Shoals, Stax et al) is more elemental: it's got some of earth in it; it's got some Fire and Water (download mp3) in it:




Yeah, your man Wilson Pickett is not citified: he's country. He's country like Otis "Tramp" Redding. I'll post that song - a funny and funky duet with Carla Thomas- sometime too, but you gotta wait...
Here, to tide you over, is a picture of Otis Redding, approved by your own United States Gov't:


oh hey my wait: it's a TRAMP STAMP!!!! AHAHAAHAahaha aHahhaHAh HAHhaHah ahahaha!

10.30.2008

Futurist Revelations - the Second (secular) Coming - Be Thankful!

Yeeeeuh... another mix, matched so mean! This one is the originally planned mix for The Second (Secular) Coming: this one deals not with my colossal narcissism, but rather with the purity of spirit which is my Divinity Proper.
HELL YES!

Link it up : The Second (Secular) Coming.zip

As a mix, it moves from slow-burning but intense/driven (1-3), to sprawling dirty grandeur (4-5), quietism without passivity (6-8), a darkness (9-11) pefiguring The End and Resurrection (12-13). Quite a history here...


Here is the cast of characters, in the order in which you ought to listen to them:
1 Eternity Is Here *The Gun Club* Danse Kalinda Boom
2 Coded Language *Krust (Featuring Saul Williams)* Coded Language
3 The Prophet *The Make-Up* Untouchable Sound—Live
4 Revelations *Panthers* The Trick
5 Dead Souls *Joy Division* Permanent
6 My Body Is A Cage *The Arcade Fire* Neon Bible
7 City Of Refuge [Acoustic Version] *Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds* B-Sides And Rarities Volume I
8 Be Thankful For What You've Got (orignially by Devaughn - live cover) *Yo La Tengo*
9 Death To Everyone *Bonnie "Prince" Billy* I See A Darkness
10 Share the Fall *Roni Size and Reprazent (Grooverider's RMX)*
11 I Swear *Tulipomania*
12 Back *Alpha* Come From Heaven
13 I Am The Resurrection *The Stone Roses* The Complete Stone Roses

DOWNLOAD : The Second (Secular) Coming.zip


Share the Fall- sparse and epic. Like Fitzgerald, as 'read to me' (i.e. quoted) by Deleuze:
"twilight on a deserted range, with an empty rifle in my hands and the targets down. No problem set — simply a silence with only the sound of my own breathing." The sound of a faraway, lifeless planet: it bakes during the day and it freezes at night.

Body is a Cage: Church organs, giving the grand sweep, the operatic heights, appropriate to the Declaration of Divinity.


Eternity is Here: Once started, this song begins to instantly, insistently proclaim itself. Whipcrack drums, plaintive guitars. Its insistence is almost a prosyletizing.

Death to Everyone: see the cover for a picture of the aforementioned planet.



Lyrically, this songs does this:
"Stars turn, balls burn / Coming kids are raging

Death to everyone is gonna come / And it makes hosing much more fun"

"So strap me on and raise me high / Cause buddy I'm not afraid to die
But life is long and it's tremendous / And we're glad that you're here with us".

Dead Souls- Joy Division made this song, which later was covered by NIN (on "The Crow" Soundtrack). You know what this one sounds like. It sounds like JoyDiv, so how could it not go on a mix about the Second (secular) Coming?:
Ian Curtis died by his own hand (as did Jesus- well, His Dad asked Him to die, and He consented - since He is, in a mysterious but essential fashion, His own father. He consented to His own death: that is, He is a suicide),
and the Crow character COMES BACK FROM THE DEAD to avenge wrongs done him. And what is Divine Justice if not supernaturally aided punishment of the wicked?

DOWNLOAD : The Second (Secular) Coming.zip

Back- Alpha is always slept on: I told you this already. Some fantastic male crooning here; you'd do well to check it out if you like Rufus Wainwright, or the more sedate Morrissey even. This song has a hazy quality: incense floating through a still afternoon.
But In A Barn.
A barn with a record player. And records (for sampling): old ones, very scratchy and mellowed with age.

I = Resurrection- Manchester Madchester : Woodblock like the cowbell in a Will Ferrel SNL skit. "I put my raver-sized corduroy pants on the same way you do, mate: except when I put on my pants, I make GOLD RECORDS!" (cue laugh track)
(please?).

Coded Language - Man, when this one breaks, it B R E A K S out for real. Massive world consuming clattering drums. Some lyrics (By the great poet Saul Williams):
"Motherfuckers better realize, now is the time to self-actualize.
We have found evidence that hip hop's standard 85 rpm, when increased by a number of at least half the rate of it's standard, or decreased at a third of its speed, may be a determining factor in heightening consciousness.
[somehow, he is actually rapping all these words -
- believe, brudda, It Works]
Thus, in the name of:
Robeson, God's son, Hurston, Ahkenaton, Khalo, Kali, Whitman, Baldwin, Ghandi, Gibran, Shabazz, Hamer, Holiday, Davis, Coltrane, Morrison, Joplin, Gaye, Hathoway, Nostradamus, Nefertiti, Shiva, Ganesha, Yemaja, Kennedy, King, four little girls, Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Marley, Cosby, Shakur, Those Still Aflamed, and the countless unnamed!"


By this point of the song, trust me, we are all aflamed. Lit up by millenia of song and millenia of thought, all compressed into (the Coded Language of) quantized drums. INTENSE.

DOWNLOAD : The Second (Secular) Coming.zip

Be Thankful- a mellow little interpretation of the ol' soul-ish/reggae-ish classic. Be Thankful that I put this on there. (You might even snap your fingers during it!) Yo La Tengo is supremely good at covers- get into it and see what I mean...

Revelations- Panthers started out super-Futurist, very much in the vain of !Nation of Ulysses!. The Kids wanted their revolution, by gum, and they were going to knock on the squares until they got one. Now, Panthers seems more gripped by the ennui of being a hipster who knows that he's a hipster, and who also knows what this means: they have become nearly paralyzed by awareness of self-awareness. But the music hasn't frozen - oh no - they have moved away from any formulaic punk and added that rad heavy stoner drone psych grind that the Kids these day like so well: more Black Sabbath and less !Nation!. It's a good mix- heavy, but still with momentum/propulsion.

DOWNLOAD : The Second (Secular) Coming.zip

DEATH TO ALL KINGS
LONG LIVE THE PRINCE OF PRINCES

10.13.2008

Narcissistic Revelations

Or, NarciCHRIStic RevelAWESOMEs. Take your pick.
In a former post, I revealed to you my divinity. (It was of world-historical import. But trans-historical, too.)

As was said about me in Oscar Wilde's 'Salome', "When he cometh the solitary places shall be glad. They shall blossom like the rose. The eyes of the blind shall see the day, and the ears of the deaf shall be opened. The sucking child shall put his hand upon the dragon's lair, he shall lead the lions by their manes."



Here are some of the first fruits of my new rule over man and beast.

A MIX! (the opening of ears!)

NarciCHRIStic RevelAWESOME.zip

TRACKLISTING =--=


I Wanna Be Adored>> The Stone Roses>> The Complete Stone Roses

I Am Pentagon>> The Make-Up>> Untouchable Sound—Live

New Morning>> Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds>> Tender Prey

More Than This>> Bryan Ferry & Roxy Music>> Street Life

(It Will Have To Do) Until The Real Thing Comes Along>> Wibert Harrison>> An Introduction To Wilbert Harrison

Didn't I>> The Delphonics>> WIBG 99

I Am Mister Big Stuff>> Jimmy Hicks

Me Myself And I>> De La Soul>> 3 Feet High And Rising

9 Lashes (When Michael Smacks Lucifer)>> Vast Aire>> Look Mom...No Hands

Touched by the Hand of God>> New Order>> Salvation Original Sdtk

Y.T.T.E. (Yield to Total Elation)>> Matmos>> The Civil War

My Week Beats Your Year>> Telefon Tel Aviv

U Don't Know Me>> Armand Van Helden

Bunk Trunk Skunk>> Be Your Own Pet>> Be Your Own Pet

Time of the Season (Zombies cover)>> Snowden

JUSTIFICATION of Tracklist:

So this mix came out of the attempt to put together a series of songs having to do with revelations, prophets, etc. But as a ran through some CDs, I also started thinking about the monumental narcissism of proclaiming myself as the Second (although Secular) Coming.
I have no problem with my monumental narcissism; it's just something I noticed.
So out of that mix (coming later) came this series of songs, which combines my posturing and my awesome nature.

The Stone Roses are British, and British rock bands often have God-complexes. Remember Oasis, and how they claimed to be as big as the Beatles? And remember how the Beatles said they were bigger than Jesus?



My Divinity has been geometrically demonstrated, according to Spinoza's mos gemetricos. Turns out the damn thing's a Pentagon! Who'd've thunk it?

There's nothing more than this [this=me].

And even if there IS something more than me, it ain't here yet, is it? So you'll have to wait, then, until the real thing comes along.

With that clear, irrefutable reasoning just then- didn't it just blow your mind?

Either that, or it only makes sense to me. Maybe I'm a little 'touched'...
TOUCHED BY THE HAND OF GOD more like it! (!zing!)

Plus, I went to RUBA this weekend -Before Sunday!- then back to mine. Proof positive that "My Week Beats Your Year".

And if I'm not JC Jr., then certainly Armand Van Helden is. That guy... I mean that guy, he invented speed garage, made guitars work in house music (mixed blessings, that), etc. He made a Tori Amos song cool- if that's not magical power, then what is?

We'll just close out this justification with some lyrics from the final song by the Zombies



(but our version is a cover by Atlanta's Snowden):

"What's your name?
Who's your daddy?
Is he rich like me?

Has he taken
Any time
To show you what you need to live?
Tell it to me slowly
Tell you what?
I really want to know..."


Wait, wasn't Jesus a Zombie too?


T H E C I R C L E I S C L O S E D

10.06.2008

Older Gents - In Suits - With Tasteful Arrangments

Time to go see some shows. Shows that will be well-populated by older gents.
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds tomorrow.

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Opium Tea.mp3, from their "Rarities and B-Sides" compilation.



When I saw them in Portland, it was all German men in suits. Plus me, alone, because I have BETTER MUSICAL TASTE than all my friends (oh, except you!, don't be naff! I'm not talking about you at all!) I wonder what sorts will come out for it this time, in Philly rather than Portland (I know that Liam and Greg and Alex will be there- I mean what Other sorts?).

I just mentioned Kid Congo Powers to you in my post about his former band, the Gun Club; he is opening for N.Cave and B.Seeds this Tuesday at the Electric Factory. (He used to be in the Bad Seeds, too). Here he is, as a picture - He is the one with the gun over his heart.







I should have a nickname like his. "Kid Christophresh Physis"?









Perhaps not (at least I didn't haz teh epic fail).





OH! As I am writing this, I just saw a man in A SUIT, AND a woman with DYED BLACK HAIR! It's like I'm at the show already!

Also, related to this show, I recently bought the new Tindersticks album. It's good. However, it's a bit quiet; too quiet for me to prove to you, decisively, that they are a band for whom you must demonstrate devotion.
Here is a stream of a song from another album:




Tindersticks are great, and this song has some of their key elements: strings (which produce dramatics), Stuart Staples' warbly voice, hotel rooms (hourly, perhaps- I think Tindersticks' library must include a fair bit of Bataille- this song has "when the cab ride seems to long, we go have sex in the bathroom" going for it [lyrically, I mean]), ricocheting drums to keep you uneasy, drinking, arguments (not exclusive of drinking), and a whole world of destructive desires and fantasy ("I could've drowned in all those so-called dreams", Stuart informs), mournful horns, usw.
("usw." is German- it means "und so weiter", which fairly literally means 'and so forth' but is translated well by "etc.", which itself is Latin.)




Download another fantastic song by Tindersticks here; it's called "Can We Start Again". Many of their songs sound like 'starting again':
within an old love;
with a new love;
in a new place;
fresh out of rehab, usw.

Or, instead of downloading, you can listen at this object:




I'm also going to see TV On The Radio on Friday. I'm going because it's free; they are a fine band, but I never felt like listening to their first album.
So I sold it. But I didn't get much money for it, because it was one of those heavily-promoted records that is sold much cheaper for the first few months. It was something like $8.99, $9.99 new. No, really. So when I sold it, people already had it.
Oh, and you thought I would never come back to it, but here is the icing for those patient souls who get ALL THE WAY TO THE BOTTOM:

there will be lots of old men at this show too, because this is a nerdy,
much blogged about and beloved band (a much be-blogged band),
because they are slightly obnoxious,
different in terms of makeup (there are black men in the band, which is rare in indie),
and, actually pretty interesting....
so older music critics (and the older men who want to be music critics- you know, like, actual journalists, with 'end of the year top tens' and bios and all that) love love LOVE them.

You know, like this guy (don't ask...)

9.26.2008

Mystery at the Gun Club

I know that you have all been slavering at the mouth, waiting for my next blog. It would have come sooner, but I have been busy. Busy traveling, and reading, and buying more music.

Download The Gun Club's 'Come Back Jim' on Mediafire

or, maybe Download The Gun Club's 'The Fire of Love'

I was recently chided for ‘still’ buying music, but I don’t mind.
Because I know I’m right; I'm in the black and all that. (See below for an apologia of music purchasing- it's not what you expect...)
Thinking that it is goofball to buy music is simply false; in fact, I might go so far to say it's a LIE!!

Download The Gun Club's 'The Lie' on Mediafire
Or watch it !LIVE! on Youtube:


Plus, what would I spend my money on instead? I am running out of room for thriftstore kicks. I have already constructed a Foucaultian counter-archive (that means ‘lots of odd books’ about prisons, sexuality, state institutions, ‘abnormal’ individuals, militaries, and history history history). You know that I would just spend the $16.25 (no sales tax) on stickers from the dollar store (or worse, dollar store hardware/tools), caviar from Asian Invasion, SEPTA tokens, ceramic knickknacks or bric-a-brac, etc.
(just reflect for a moment upon how good this last part of this last sentence sounds and looks: “Caviar from Asian Invasion” [‘a’ and ‘i’ make such a good vowel-team!], and just say “Ceramic knickknacks and bric-a-brac” out loud. “My, what a Pleasant Blog!”)
I don’t need that junk.
Oh, what $16.25? I got *3* CDs in Portland for that paltry sum. All by one of my new favorite groups: GUN CLUB .



Right?!?!?




Big dramatic sweep. Wild-eyes and Snake-eyes. Very American: Blues, Country, Skuzzy, 'end-of-the-road' Guitars. My understanding is that Gun Club sort of helped spawn rockabilly (while not being rockabilly themselves), and the lead singer, Jeffery Lee Pierce (he’s one of those who writes almost all of the songs too) died young: drugs, prolly.
Listen to the way he sings, and tell me it’s not drugs that killed him. Look at him, and tell me if he doesn’t look like Brando crossed with Gerard Way.








Kid Congo Powers is in the band too, of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds fame, and also The Cramps.

A surprising amount of the Gun Club that I have is live; two full albums, and half of two more. Related to his death, and to label-related issues and troubles (some of their stuff is released on “Sympathy for the Record Industry”, as in, sympathy for the Devil). More interestingly, however, it’s probably related to how good they were live. A singer that sounds like he IS drugs, actually high, in front of you, live?: gots to be good, right?

Here’s the liner notes- in their entirety- from “Danse Kalinda Boom”:
”Yes its true kids, this is an authentic “live” album for the first time. In response to the overwhelming amount of illegal & incorrect recordings purporting to be “live” Gun Club albums, Kid Congo, Patricia Morrison & myself have found it necessary to release an “Authorized” live album representing the Gun Club experience at its best and as it truly went down. So guaranteed this is not an album of poor quality tapes licensed clandestinely to some dodgy label by disgruntled & frustrated ex-members. I can promise this record features the Gun Club at its “live” best and definitive line up. Rest in Peace. [signed] Jeffery Lee Pierce”

Funny- signed “Rest In Peace” to us ( but he dies); “disgruntled ex-members”; “how it truly went down”; “dodgy labels”. Plus, did he misspell his own name? Or did someone else write the whole thing- seriously undermining all the rhetoric of “authentic”- since the CD’s copyright date is 7 years after he died? A Real Jeffrey Lee M Y S T E R Y.



As promised, here is the apologia of buying music 'in this day and age':
First, if you just download it all, you are guided only by what you already know you like, or what someone else ‘knows’ to be ‘good’.
(On the other hand, presented with a random assortment of used CD’s or vinyl, you can find new stuff, get reminded of old stuff, and with CDs at least, give a little listen before a wholesale acquisition an entire downloaded back catalog, which, it may turn out, you don’t really like that much anyhow.)

Second, used music isn’t even really random, is it? It's better than random. Because someone had to like that CD enough to purchase it, so you actually have a built-in regulator of quality, although it’s far from failsafe: Cf. “ ‘knows’ to be ‘good’ ”. Whereas with mp3s, all that can be shown in someone else having it is that they probably have 'heard about it', and have the internet. Not a stellar recommendation, is it?}

9.15.2008

Balds Have More FUN

Okay All right Hey:
I had a good, fine, wonderful day yesterday.
You couldn't be there- sad sad- so I am going to share good, fine, wonderful and fun music with you instead. FUN FUN!



First is a jangly little number (or, "lil' nummer") from an old old country group called the Carlisles.
You can tell they are old two ways:
they are a whole family,
and Chris Ruth has heard of them,
and even approves somewhat.
("They're no Stanley Brothers though, I tell you what.")

Download it here, after you have streamed it below:
The Carlisles - Rattlin' Daddy.mp3




FUN FUN!: I got a free coffee drink coupon, just because they forgot to warm up my pretzel! OH BOOHOO I had to wait about 45 seconds more! That coupon? Oh, it's worth like 5 bucks, because it says ANY COFFEE DRINK which means that motherfucker be gettin a Milkshake or somethin.


Here is a lovely little summer jam (it is still summer, despite the pants you wore the other night, even though you were dancing, dancing on the very highest floor, on the very highest floor of a gay biker disco)


Oh, I love this song: The Spinners "I'll Be Around".

FUN FUN!: Banana Republic made me look really good in the mirrors. I think it was all in the eyes: the bright fluoro lights made my eyes look different. Different from the beady black little spots that they are, so I looked less like a snake or a rat. Or a cockroach.
(I have to shop there, okay?- for professional clothes, like.)

FUN FUN!: I shopped all day in earnest and didn't have to spend any money!

Download The Dells - Wear it on our Face.mp3

Or, be stupid and just watch the Youtube video here:




Yesterday was so FUN FUN! that even today is FUN FUN!: I just saw not one but two parrots on one guy, and brian pointed out- the first parrot was fine- the second is just showing off: sheer hubris.

Here's one you would've heard at my house Friday:

The Whispers - Love Machine.mp3. Serious Booty disco madness.
"I'm just a love machine, and I won't work for nobody but you"!





Go ahead. Enjoy yourself: have some FUN FUN! with these songs.
Make a roommate play them while you take a shower in the morning. Play them when your anti-depressants run out. You know, so on and so on.

9.05.2008

Wise Up: Jerry Butler

I just wised up to the great Jerry Butler. Choice!

I had one of his records, it turns out, but hadn’t listened to it yet. The other day I got about 40 records… for about fifteen bucks.
I bought so many records, that I had to buy a backpack in order to carry them all. It was Heavy!



Including the bag, Zoolander on VHS, 3 books (one about making Aarow brand dress shirts!), and the records, I paid 23 dollars. Bag + VHS + Books >/= $7.
Second Mile, I tell you, is nothing to fuck with.
I got New Edition, Temptations, JERRY BUTLER, The Moments, the Whispers, the shit, etc.

Mr. Butler has a strong, clear and clean voice. Reminds me some of Sam Cooke, but not so mournful. But that way that they can both sort of project a really manly sound, and never seem like they are straining at all: as if it were as easy as talking. That ease with the mic is why he’s called the Iceman.


So, of the three albums that I have, there are three distinctive “Butlers”.



One is full of simple soul songs. (Simple like a circle is simple: it’s perfect, smoothly elegant -- unimpeachable.)

“When a Man Loves a Woman” is on there, you see? Sounds like the early Temptations, with Smokey (think of “My Girl”, for instance). It’s called “Mr. Dream Merchant”.


One is partly Burt Bacharach Songs; more complex, and melodies that are always very bittersweet. More sad. “Moon River”. "Make It Easy On Yourself" (Burt) and even "Yesterday" (Beatles) but punched up with some more sophisticated arrangements.
This album is called “All-Time Greatest Hits”, but they really should have waited before stating “All-Time”, b e c a u s e….:


One is a FULLBLOWN Gamble and Huff Production. They all called it ICE ON ICE (……coooooooool……). Stompers, funky cuts, and NOW we get a little strain in that voice, cos the
S O U L
is getting loose! More like Otis, or even a not-high (and so, more restrained) James Brown. "Moody Woman" is a famous cut off of that album.

By the way, I once received a subpoena for the trial of James Brown. Of course, this particular James Brown was in Juvenile Court (he had mugged Adriel when I was with her months before- but he didn’t technically mug me. From me, he got NOTHING! Nothing, you hear!) in Philadelphia.
And, as I said and as you read, this album happened in Philadelphia too. Gamble and Huff (not humble or gruff) worked out of Philly, on Philly International records.
I really should have kept that subpoena; could've sold it on Ebay or something.

8.27.2008

Rippity-Do-Da

Recently, I got a shit-ton of records. So many that I haven't even gotten to listen to most of them yet. And books: always records, always books...

I am throwing up some titles here to wet your whistles
(or is it 'whet', like you whet an appetite? ANSWERS, SIRS)
for the upcoming 'madness lacking badness'.
I will take something and talk about it sooner, if you make a please-and-thank-you request. Just holler, hit me up, or harangue me:
I make things happen, ya know?





Oh, those? Those are some shoes of mine. Quick Facts about the shoes:
They say best on them 7 (seven) times. 7x on EACH shoe. (Does that clarify who the best around here is?)
They are from a martial arts academy. (I can kill you with my feet in these shoes.)
They make me look like a ninja; this probably is related to the above.
They are too small (this helps with the Ninja-look), and since they are black (Ninja-black), they look really really tiny.
They have no laces.
They did have laces.
But I took them out. I like to customize (it's called Ghetto Fab-rication!)

Oh yes, the records.....

These ones have been put on the hard-drive already.

Lou Rawls: Soulin'
Lou Rawls: Sit Down and Talk To Me



Chubby Checker and DeeDee Sharp: Down To Earth

Bad Brains: Live (Thanks PUNKROCK FLEAMARKET!)

Aretha Franklin: The First Twelve Sides (i.e. the first twelve songs she released!)

X-Terminator Selections: BOOM Reggae Hits Volume 4



25 Great Country Music Artists Singing Their Famous Original Hits (that is a lot of adjectives for an album title). Stone Cold Classics: Bobby Bare, Patsy, Cash, Owens, Williams, and some lesser-known folks: Johnny Bond, Lefty Frizzell, Pee Wee King, Kitty Wells, Tex Ritter... don't the names give you a little taste of THE GOODNESS you have coming your way?

Commodores: All the Greatest Hits

To-Be-Ripped:
Melissa Manchester: Hey Ricky (eighties pop with a pretty lady)

Luke: Work It Out! (a 12", from Luke of 2 Live Crew. this will be epic! 4 different mixes! Clean and dirty!)

Hank Snow: The Old and Great Songs (old country business: titles include "Brand on my Heart", "In Memory of You Dear Old Pal" [his horse maybe?], "My Sweet Texas Blue Bonnet Queen", "Let's Pretend", and "Wanderin' On")

Spandau Ballet: Through the Barricade (under these stones, the sea)

Deborah Washington: Any Way You Want It



Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats, read by T.S Eliot (Whuh? I am really not sure either. But let's all admit that we are excited to hear the track titled "Growltiger's Last Stand", and let's all try to be patient too)

Motown Story: Some very well-known songs off of Motown, but the twist: there are historical introductions to the songs, and !THE REAL ORIGINAL ARTISTS! talking between songs! Stevie Wonder talks about getting discovered! Marvin Gaye sounds like a nerd when he's chatting about the ladeez!)

Trammps: no title (OMC OMC OMC OMC a philly disco act. SIGMA SOUNDS represent! This cost 4x what I normally pay and I barely cared! So hott they had to name themselves The Trammps! Two Ms = Too Much!)*

Jean-Patrick Capdevielle: Planet X (this is the other Frenchman who will be dueling soon with Pierre Rapsat! Excellent: Get Psyched for some Franco-Epicness!)



*OMC - Oh My Chris - is my new replacement for OMG. For an explanation, see here.

Here is one more ME picture. It's my bathroom; the newest edition to the chalk art we have been throwing up there for months.



Okay. See you soon: in the bathroom.

8.23.2008

Female Rap Battle

Yes yes yes! If you thought my post about Def Dames was good...
sheeeeit, you ain't heard anything yet:
Come on and Get Some!

(Download "Come on and Get Some".mp3 by the Cookie Crew here!)

This is the first in an ostensible series
called:

___x___ BATTLE!!!

('x' is a variable, so it changes, but the battling aspect remains. Next time, I swear that I am shitting you not, is 'French pseudo-New Wave' Battle! EEEEP! Get excited OH WAIT you ALREADY totally are!)

Since I've already given you a taste of some Def Dames, and I just got this other record recently, the scene is set for an EPIC Battle between.....

Cookie Crew !!!! ((Some Very Bad Girls!))
Bad Girls (Rock the Spot).mp3 - Cookie Crew

and Def Dames !!!! ((They're 'bout to Set it Off!))
Set It Off.mp3 - Def Dames

Another well-sniffed out piece of vinyl!
The hints this time were:

A) it's on the ffrr label
(which I recalled put out LTJ Bukem's classic: Logical Progressions)




----- 1) And then I learned that ffrr was founded by none other than Pete Tong?!?! Hey Koob!!
----- 2)and also learned that ffrr stands for "full frequency range recordings"
----- 3) and that both the label's logo and it's name were both bitten from Decca!
:Stealing is fun!)

B) has a track called "black is the word"

C) has a track called "Dazzle's Theme"
(which you can download on mediafire

or stream from this little fella:



----- 1) which, as a "theme", must be the DJ's own special little jam. DJ's are one of the OFFICIAL pillars of hiphop (which broader than rap- rap itself is 'just' a pillar ), and so a Crew that is paying homage to their DJ understands the roots of hiphop. They get that you can't just spit rhymes, however good, over stupid beats.
Over STOOPID beats, yes, sure. That would be good, to do that.



Watch Cookie Crew on Youtube, that is, if you want to see some more of the above circa '90 "fashion":



D) had the same tracks on both sides (sort of...*), which means that it is a record meant for DJs. Lots of rap records have the same tracklisting on both sides. When you see duplicated tracklistings, you should assume that the vinyl is either
----- 1) a party jam (so that you can throw it on right-quick without looking for the right side) -OR-
----- 2) vocal tracks on one side, and the same tracks as instrumentals on the other (or, one side is Radio-edit [no cursing!] and the other is the LP version [shit-tons of cursing!])
----- ----- a) which demonstrates that you are holding some SERIOUS DJ shit in your hands...

*Sort of... it turns out that they just glued the same label on both sides!... which, since this was released on VINYL and CASSETTE only

(at least Stateside- did I mention that Cookie Crew is BRITISH?!? which makes their rapping skills that much more impressive. As I've said before, the British, despite speaking the very same language as Americans, could not figure out how to rap for the longest time! Go ahead and name 3 British rappers: see?)

means that I almost could not find out what the first side's tracks were. BUT someone commenting on amazon listed the tracks, and although they were for the British CD, and thus were still not exactly right, I made do. YOU ARE SO LUCKY that I put in that effort, huh?

Aw, you're welcome, you old so-and-so.

Now, Def Dames respect the DJ too. They gave him his own track too, wherein they query, "Do You Wanna Battle Tomkat????"


----- 1) the answer would be no, you do not want to Battle Tomkat ("Don't be a fool!"). He'll take your title, you sucka DJ!



Born this Way - Cookie Crew

There, now you tell me:
who won this here Battle?

8.17.2008

Dirty Ol' Men

Dirty Ol' Men:
They're everywhere.

Jerry Lee Lewis was one.




(But this post isn't about Jerry Lee- that will be another post- his older records are Mellow, Christian, and Country. I've got a pair, and I'll toss up some of that surprisingly great stuff. Later, later: patience Friends!)

They are even on records that I have.
Dirty Ol' Man.mp3 by The three Degrees
If and When.mp3 by The Three Degrees

The other day I was picking through some records, and I came across a slab of vinyl without any cover. It was by The Three Degrees: "Who are they?": I'd never heard of them. But at the Second Mile Thrift, records are just a quarter, so you take a Second look at things, even if (especially if?) they appear innocuous at first glance.

I saw a few song titles that seemed fun. One was "Dirty Ol' Man". Here's a Youtube of a live performance of that song, on Japanese television (!!!!):


Watch the video: it has Tennis! Coronations! A Mallet!
"You're a Dirty Ol' Man; You can't keep your hands to yourself! Yeah! You're a Dirty Ol' Man; Go mess around with somebody else!"

When the sleeve is missing, you don't have as many clues to go by. No pictures, no listing of who might have produced it, etc. You go by band name, track names, and your gut.

(most people's guts have shit for brains -get it?- but not my guts. No, I'm your favorite cultural detective; I can sniff out little clues and make a picture out of them. You'll see...)

It's like a peepshow- pay a quarter, take your chance, see what it is that you can see.

It turns out that The Three Degrees are on Philadelphia International Records- home of the Philly Sound. Yeah! I didn't notice this at first, but then I saw 'K. Gamble and L. Huff' as the songwriters, and then, I could hear them too. Gamble and Huff produced/wrote tons of 'the Philly Sound' bands.
Very smooth RnB, around the time when disco mixed with other sounds in a pretty dynamic way. Usually, this mix involves some of the funk and fun of disco; but with the regal pomp, drama, and cooled-out style of rhythm and blues and soul.

Ooh, I'm tellin' you- if you don't know, now you know.
Evidently, Gamble and Huff were also producing at a time when so-called "Women's Lib" was a topic of convo; here are some of the spoken lyrics to The Three Degrees' "I Like Being a Woman":

"You know, women's liberation
It's cool.
I mean, it's got its good points
and its bad points.

But you know sometimes, i just want to be loved
And that's when i become your slave.
I don't want to be your equal, i just want to be a part of you."

Right!
And on the topic, these were some sharp looking broads. If you haven't seen the youtube clip above (shame on you then!), here's a pic:



Hot to Trot, right?





They told me that "A Woman Needs A Good Man" to be a good woman.



A Woman Needs A Good Man - The Three Degrees


7.29.2008

Humility and Repentance : Let There Be Music

So I apologize for the last blog. I haven't heard any complaints, but I knew going in that my screed, my decree, might be decried as grandiose. That it might tickle some of you as off-topic, even though it WAS the topic.

((Well! Don't say I didn't warn you of My Awesome Powers when the Christo-Pocalypse rains upon the earth.))

But I know that you come here not for spiritual revelation, but musical revelation:



AND THUS IT SHALL BE.



{{updated August 5th, with some streaming audio and direct links to select MP3s!}}



DOWNLOAD The Coup : http://www.mediafire.com/The Coup- Get Up.mp3



STREAM The Coup at IMEEM :







Here is a mix I made (should I say, of which 'I Am the Creator'? Hmmm...) All the tracks are all stone-cold rockers; real cuts as Lindsey says; all killer no filler; etcet etcet.

Here is the cover that I made for my copy of the mix:







With Less Ado:

"Kill: The DJ.zip"







More Mix CD’s for you: MIXPLANATIONS




I teach at a Philadelphia-area university, and last semester I taught 'philosophy of contemporary music'

It was pretty great.



((btw : THE WHOLE POINT OF THIS IS THAT I WANT TO BURN THESE MIXES FOR YOU- you being actual friends: actual meaning that you have a face- WITH AWESOME CD SLEEVE DECORATIONS AND PICTURES AND STUFF: SO TELL ME IF YOU RIKEY AND I WILL MAIL THEM TO YOU BECAUSE I WUV YOU: I wuv you if you have a face, that is))



I put a few tracks together almost every class, and although I usually forgot to play more than one or two, I sent all selections via email. Great. But that only means that some of my students (some of them- I think most never listened to any of it) got to hear.

BOO I like you better than my students.



http://www.mediafire.com/Sleater Kinney - I Wanna Be Yr Joey Ramone.mp3





What okay so I took all the songs I ever picked out, and chopped them into 8 different mixes. 8 which on its side is the symbol for infinity. Cos that's a lot. Most of these have a musical sound that they ride through the mix.



*SOME BACKGROUND* I never thought mix CDs should be letters to a friend, or documents of a 'moment', or eighty minutes of your favorite or most fun songs that you could think of, off the top of your head-like.

My default mode for mix CD'ing is closer to a DJ. There will be a mood or a song with a very specific musical quality to it, and then there will be a selection of all the songs that resemble the mood/song. Then, you pare down the songs on the basis of which ones fit together. There will probably be certain songs that

M U S T MUST must

be on the mix, and so you have to get from point A (must 1) to point B (must 2), using those other songs that might work, that might make the cut. So it fits together from song to song and as a whole.

And still to me that is the model of a mix. Points as Joints: each song, as a relatively discrete point, must form a jointure with the next point, and together they form something like an organic whole. LESSON OVER now on to the Kill: The DJ.zip mix I made from class. They are all tootoo dope.











Wheres Jack the Ripper? (Origin Unknown RMX) - Grooverider



This first one is called "Kill: The DJ".zip, not "Kill the DJ". OKAY? This one is very good. It is not happy with your testwork. It has some stunners, and it might maybe have a headache. But it won't give you one, prolly.







Panic (live) ----- Billy Bragg



I Wanna Be Your Joey Ramone ----- Sleater-Kinney



Love Will Tear Us Apart ----- Joy Division



Age Of Consent ----- New Order



Paint It Black ----- The Rolling Stones



Hey Hey, My My (Into The Black) ----- Neil Young



Summer ----- Mogwai



Sluta Följa Efter ----- Dungen

http://www.mediafire.com/Dungen-Sluta Följa Efter.mp3



What's Ya Take on Cassavettes ----- Le Tigre



Posse Slash ----- Vast Aire (f Karniege, Breez Evahflowin, Poison Pen & Aesop Rock)



Get Up ----- The Coup



Earth People ----- Dr. Octagon



We Enter RMX ----- Optical



Where's Jack the Ripper? (Origin Unknown RMX) ----- Grooverider



KILL: THE DJ .zip



You probably recognize some of these, and if so, you should have a decent mental image of what the others sound like, based on the shared feel of the ones you know.

It is the of utmost import that you listen to these IN ORDER: I didn't just pick out like the best songs ever (although I most certainly DID do that), but also sequenced them properly. (It's a gift; what can I say.)

Mogwai, then Dungen?: It's A Must!





Sluta Följa Efter - Dungen




And how do you hopscocth from the Rolling Stones (very old) to some crucial junglist anthems? Why, you must get some rock-with-synths (thx Kathleen Hanna! Hai JD! ay Johanna!) in that-there mix! Then slide through some lurching, icy, creeping hip-hop. Smooth: easy breezy mang.



Panic is that Smiths joint. But here is a live Billy Bragg version.

*Joey Ramone has Corin Tucker making this way-rad squealing noise.

You have danced to this Joy Division at Making Time, AND at Click!. So, you know.

*When will the New (world) Order finally arrive?....

You may have wanted to dance to Paint it Black at Kelliann's in West Philly, but you never did.

*Mogwai puts on a fierce intense destructive live show. Some think that the album off of which this song comes is their best; some people are silly little things. COME ON DIE YOUNG is their best.

Dungen sounds old, and many-headed; it is new, and mostly just one person. He even plays the drums!!?!!

*Le Tigre: My take on Cassavettes is that I loved 'Faces' better than "woman under the influence", which is quite good. "Genius, or misogynist?": How about, "Both"?

Vast got vastly lazy these last few years: here he is still killing mics.

*The Coup are as relevant as ever. Funky Bay-area business, all in the name of black rights/consciousness/pride/greatness/etc.

Kool Keith is still Krazy.

*Optical is strictly for the heads- tell me if I know any 'heads' anymore please.... "and we enter, enter with the funk of the future...."

And this Grooverider track (though not this remix) is what got me into drum and bass decisively. I had Goldie's Metalheadz comp, and enjoyed it, but when I heard "Where's Jack the Ripper?", I lost it.



I never got it back.

KILL: THE DJ .zip

And neither will you.





7.28.2008

THINKING WITHOUT THANKING

If you know me IRL, then you have heard me discuss how I am the Second Coming. The Secular-Second-Coming, that is. I discussed it last night in fact, at Alexi's. But I can never remember all the reasons (so many reasons...) that could prove My Divinity to skeptics.
Even the (Re-)Christ forgets things, okay? (It makes it easier to forgive, BTW!)
Here are the reasons that I always remember:
My name means bearer of christ (and who would bear christ more than the Re-Christ?)
Almost nothing bad ever happens to me
I have stigmata: one from an ACTUAL NAIL going through my hand; the other JUST SHOWED UP ONE DAY and has a way bigger/better scar than the nail one
people love the shit out of me
(with this corrolary: while I love everyone, in my own special -often despising- way, Jesus did not really love ALL THINGS, just all people: I love all things, even Us Weekly and dirt, so that makes me BETTER THAN HIM)
I have a beard

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((This is Soutine. It is supposed to be a self-portrait, with a beard, but I see no beard... Well, let's cut him some slack SINCE HE'S DEAD))

But just moments ago, I remembered another one, a really key reason.
Everything in my life is connected in a productive way. I don't mean 'connected' as in "Man, my yoga guru and I are like, totally connected", nor do I mean it in the sense that temporally distant and causally distinct events might be thought to 'mean something' or 'belong' together. I mean that something happens- I hear something, I say something, I see something- and then something else happens- I am told something, I am shown something, I post something- and the connection which is established between the 1st and 2nd thing/event is E P I C.

It's like this:
Went to the Barnes Institute the other day. Saw many painters that were new/s to me. One of those was Pacsin. (others of note were Corot, Rouault, Demuth, Sefarbi, Pippin, Glackens, Karl Priebe, Soutine, Settani, Dimock, Wols, and Gritchenko)
Of these, Pacsin may have impressed me the least -- BUT -- there is a Divine Connection lurking...


I went to my WC today, just as I was thinking about writing a lil' weblo' about the Barnes Foundation
http://www.barnesfoundation.org/
(people gotta know, ya know?). In the WC I have a copy of Hemingway's 'A Moveable Feast'. I don't love Hemingway, by the by, this is just a physically small book that will fit in the WC. (I scavenged it from Villanova Katie.)
Photobucket

One that I got recently, too, which makes me more likely to read it (oh, the backlog of books...).
Plop down for a read and what do you think the very next chapter is called? 'With Pacsin at the Dome', that's what it's called. One and the same Pacsin as of the Barnes.
HAH!
The Supremes were playing on the jukebox (hereafter 'juxe') aka ITunes, which is also weblo' material (Past and Future).
Dr.J
and I were just talking about the Supremes here, and she had this genius insight about how the sample in question basically added a comma ('love child' vs 'love, child...') to the meaning. That changed the meaning from a comment about the status of the child, to a comment about the love this child has for someone else.
Then I read the following in my German book (yes, the book from that OTHER blog).

Friedrich the Great was friends with the philosopher Moses Mendelssohn. Let’s pretend this Matisse below is Friedrich the Great, shall we?
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Photobucket

And let’s pretend this Cezanne is a young Moses Mendelssohn.

Mendelssohn invited Friedrich the Great to dinner, and was keeping poor Fred waiting. The Great wrote a note and told his servant to place it on the missing philosopher's plate.
The note reads: "Mendelssohn is an ass. [signed] Friedrich the second."
Mendelssohn finally arrives, reads the note, puts it in his pocket. Friedrich says jovially, 'Hey, Moses, what was that note? What did it say?'
Mendelssohn smiles and loudly reads HIS version of the note:
"Mendelssohn is an ass; Friedrich: the second".
Get it? Change the emphasis/punctuation a little, and The Great is just one of multiple asses. (Also densely connected within Blogville because Chet
probably has read this note in the Official National German Archives- in the original German, no doubt.)


See? I was going to write a blog anyway, and then all these other related things pop up to jiggle my memory box and get themselves inserted into the blog too!
And see how then it got WAY BIGGER and then mutated into a blog about how my blogs can mutate into other, bigger blogs?
And when these things come together in a really big, really effective, really truly awesome way, then we have such a greatness that we have no option other than to declare the birth of a divinity.
OBVIOUSLY
Photobucket
(that's El Greco's version of the vision of my ascension. They're trying to take off my clothes! Gasp/Giggle!)



Now, in no way, shape, or form do I think that my Father is GUIDING these things. There is not something or someone planning/directing/guaranteeing this good-into-Awesome development of reality. No, no, three times no. The new Christ is not a piece of a 'tripartite good', but an equiprimordial 'bipartite AWESOME'. Meaning, that my father does not guide these things, but rather they happen simply as a direct causal effect of the ontological depth of my reality. Holier than thou? NO: REALier than thou. I am, in the strict sense, 'more real' than you are: I have more formal and objective reality than you.

Don't get offended- it's a dirty job, but someone has to be the new improved Christ.

I am 'causa sui' (that means 'self-caused') -here, I say causa sui not as strictly as I said 'more real', but close: I am the primary cause of my own increase in reality. Hence the so-called bipartite awesome: I sprang fully formed from my own forehead- also, just heard Missy Elliot say "I don't brag I mostly boast..." --told you it was all related!!!)

Gossip Folks (Explicit LP Version) - Missy Elliott

Now, if there is not a transcendent/external cause, but an immanent/internal one (immanent to the caused, even- hence the 'loose-sense causa sui'), then you can understand why I stand in no need of a father. The result being: two parts (me as cause, and, me as effect) not three; and no need to go outside of the connected things to find a 'reason' why they are connected.
(An important corrolary of the above is that no things BELONG together, but that many things can be productively combined, which is precisely the means by which I increase my being).
Diana Ross does not BELONG with Hemingway; but she can (as it turns out- you could not have predicted it!) be placed right alongside, or superimposed upon him, and we can then see an increase in knowledge, power, or being (the three being very nearly synonomous: very tightly related).
Photobucket
(The above is Karl Priebe- admit it: you'd never heard of him either.
That is not ACTUALLY a painting of Diana Ross- her hair is not that bad.)

And, to go back to my love of all things, Jesus was a dirty dirty humanist: people are different than, and better than, things, according to him (Jesus= Augustine here; same diff, right?).
But I know (this would be 'The Newest/Bestest Testament') that people are not different than things: people are simply made up of things.
(Trust Me: Spinoza proved this for us.)

In my case, the things of which I am made up of are :
The Supremes,
Hemingway (just a little Hem though),
a really big and badass bookcase,
asphalt,
a selection of works from the Barnes,
coffee (aw, you could tell by this weblo, huh?),
Missy Elliot,
the day of Sunday,
shoes,
ties,
special-bought shoelaces to ghetto-match with my shirts/hats (yup, made of those too),
etc.
etc.
etc.


The above things have a shit-ton of being or reality (or, perhaps a dick-ton: I am willing to admit when I don't know something- I am a modest little DIVINITY after all), especially when combined.
I am nothing but those things of which I am made.
I am made of the above things
THEREFORE
I have a shit-ton/dick-ton of being.
QED


Photobucket
(DEMUTH- I was probably the most taken with him)
Photobucket
(Demuth again duh)



Photobucket
Degas

Photobucket
Matisse

Photobucket
Modigliani

Photobucket

Toulouse-Lautrec


(It pains me to say this, but most of the above pictures are NOT the ones at the Barnes. It was surprisingly difficult to find pictures of the paintings that I remember online; partly because, beyond the Matisses, and the Picassos, and the Cezannes, the Renoirs, etc., most of these artists are not so well-loved and so well-documented that many would take the time to put up significant numbers of their works.
Plus old museum people are scared of the ones-and-zeros.
The last 4 are at the Barnes Foundation; the Great and the Philosopher are as well; the smoking girl is Picasso's and I think there too.)