I love written word, spoken word, melody, harmony, rhythm, & dynamics. This blog, like its author, is full of random rants, raves and thoughts that with a bit of luck, just might change the world one passionate word at a time.
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May 20, 2008 by Alysia Belle
Are any other Adult Swim fans digging the segues between shows? I haven't seen much of Cartoon Network until recently, so this probably isn't new, but the 10-second "Baggage Room" clip caught my attention the other night and I went on a mad search for the origin of that beat. It was short enough to miss, but as discussed in my last post, I wouldn't rest till I found it.
And this beat (playing below) is especially chill. It's a great find...
Given his style of production I'm sure I would have come across Flying Lotus and his work somehow, even if it hadn't been for Adult Swim. But I like how they incorporate good music with their stylized line up of nighttime cartoons. See now that I'm a bit of a Dillahead, I'm finding more and more producers and MCs associated with Dilla and Madlib etc., and I'm becoming more and more hopeful about the state of music these days. I agree, there are too many good emcees out there for folk to be screaming about the death of Hip Hop, but if its not reaching the masses who are hungry for it... who can blame anyone for being skeptical? Cartoon Network doesn't credit those super-short segments, so this dude was difficult to find!
Here's another nice one from FlyLo--
It's especially interesting when compared to the Mia Doi Todd original--
Check FlyLo out at his Myspace page.
May 20, 2008 by Alysia Belle
What's more annoying than having a random song inexplicably stuck in your head? Sometimes obsessive compulsive tendencies win out and it bothers me when I don't know things that I know I know.
It definitely drives me up a wall when I can't name music that's at least semi-familiar. As mush music as I know, Its one of those tiny annoyances that's too almost too insignificant and/or too often an occurrence to talk about. Still, I'm someone who pretty much needs Google by my side 24/7 just in case I need to research some random fact I can't think of, musical or otherwise. In cognitive psychology, the tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon is a simple matter of intruding information clogging retrieval of the correct item that the brain attempts to recollect. Don't be too impressed with that tidbit though, I had to look it up as well. I do this all the time on the phone and every now and again in conversation-- I just like to know things.
Case in point: Some friends and I went to Sonic not too long ago, and somewhere between the coneys and shakes we became aware of the music playing over the speakers on the patio. "There's a remake of 'Beat It'?! And how could anyone allow such a horrendous cover of one of MJ's finest to make it to the radio?!" I had a minor freak out. I knew the sound of the band, the name was on the tip of my tongue (Fall Out Boy)-- I wanted to say it was Panic! At the Disco (or wherever the ! goes). But I just had to know who it was right then, so after ordering dessert, I jokingly asked our not-in-the-mood 40 year old server if she had any idea... Oh if I'd only had Wikipedia...
It's even worse is when all you can remember is a melody or a beat. As I type this, I have a melody circling my head. I know the song I'm thinking of is from the 80's and I can sing the tune, but no one knows what the heck I'm talking about when I do. Imagine my excitement when I came across SongTapper.com, which allows users to tap the rhythm of the song on the keyboard and then promises to provide a list of possible matches shortly thereafter. It's really just false hope. Suffice to say, it didn't come through for me. The song I'm thinking of is an 80's R&B ballad and it gave me Afroman's "Colt 45" as the top pick. Although, further down the list was "Oh Sheila" by Prince-- close but no cigar?
I'm the meantime, my mind won't let me rest until I name this tune...
May 17, 2008 by Alysia Belle
Lots of people are becoming increasingly annoyed with Twitter, and I share their frustration. Now that the summer is here, it would be especially convenient to have a simple way to keep track of the interesting things that my friends and associates are up to. But alas, it seems that joining just about every social networking site to accommodate everyone has backfired and Twitter/FriendFeed are no help at all.
Facebook and Myspace and whatever other social 2.0 sites I belong to are enough to keep up with. Then there's Twitter and that FriendFeed thing which promises a streamlined, consolidated portal for my social feeds and those of my friends. The thing about having FriendFeed is that it forces you to go to Twitter and back even though its supposed to aggregate all of your activities onto one feed.
Really, the fact that comments can be made interchangeably between the two networks complicates conversations and ends up being quite confusing. For the sake of simplicity, I may just do a little end-of-spring cleaning and stick to the networks that are truly necessary. But once you join a social networking community and your friends are involved, they all become necessary (albeit complicated) evils.
May 04, 2008 by Alysia Belle
Oh how I've missed my blog...
While I've been eye-deep in exams and thesis-writing for the past few weeks, I've had virtually no time for much else. But Myspace TV is always a nice procrastination inducer... that may not even make sense... at this point I feel like it takes SO much energy to type grammatically correct, articulate sentences so I will spare you all my incoherentness-- and share a clip of one of my favorite shows
Enjoy!
April 17, 2008 by Alysia Belle
This is really funny. Apparently Flickr gave free Donuts to some *extra special* members yesterday. What did they do to deserve such special treatment you ask?
The 'We Demand Donuts' group started as a protest group that was protesting protest groups on Flickr. Recently, when Flickr added their new video feature, some people got vexed and started the 'No Video on Flickr' group. In response, other Flickr users wanted to make the point that such groups are pretty much pointless. They decided to demand donuts from Flickr for no particular reason aside from their love of sweets.
What's awesome about this story is that the people @ Flickr HQ ACTUALLY BOUGHT THEM DONUTS! Members of this group located in San Francisco were granted their demands at a local donut shop-- Bob's Donuts. As for everyone else? Unfortunately, group members outside of SF were left donutless, a Flickr employee citing that "a greasy donut and a postal envelope is a very sad thing indeed, and would be an affront to Donutkind."
Be careful what you wish for, eh?
April 13, 2008 by Alysia Belle
This is the kind of thing that turns me off of the music industry all together. Apparently, Atlantic Records US told UK R&B artist, Estelle, that she needs to have cosmetic surgery on her teeth and really change her whole look to break into the US charts. To quote a source from the label, "The American executives are adamant she makes a lot of significant changes. They want rid of her tomboy hair and want her to get her teeth fixed."
Why are these people trying to put every R&B artist in a blond lacefront?! Estelle is gorgeous and amazingly talented; she's one of the few female R&B artists whose videos I keep on my iPod. Why?
Because like the one above, they're actually good. So much of pop music right now is mediocre and just plain "eh" at best. This isn't like the good old days when you had Michael Jackson et al. So when one come across an artist who is actually good, one appreciates it. But that's a matter of taste. Really, record execs could care less about music. They want that dirty green cream...
So, they tell Estell that she looks like a "tomboy" and in order for her (but really them) to make $$$, she should make herself over into the mainstream. When eliminating what makes an artist, or anyone, unique you're taking something valuable. According to The Sun, "Estelle is not happy. She feels her teeth and the rest of her look are a big part of her character." It would be one thing if she wanted to change, that's her prerogative. But to force her to? And why does short hair have to be tomboyish? In the photo of her above and in her videos she is the epitome of femininity. Take Toni Braxton for example, I've always thought she was gorgeous, and she still is. But over time her look became more generic, she may have had plastic surgery or something I think I heard once. In any event, I don't think Ive seen her look as amazing as she did back in the day (though she may even look younger now...) Like the video below:
Maybe it's not just the industry. They may even be right, she may do better if she looked like whatever they want to make her into. It's this crazy feedback loop that projects a desirable image for everyone else to conform to then we in turn prefer that image. Art ends up taking a backseat. Not everybody gets caught up in this, obviously, but enough people...
So throughout all of this, Estelle has spent the last three weeks at the top of the UK charts. If that's really what she 'has' to do to make it here, I'd say to heck with it. She's already burning it up at home. But I know that can't be a simple decision to make either way. (source)
April 04, 2008 by Alysia Belle
Mumia Abu-Jamal-- Whore Nation
Mumia Abu-Jamal is an award-winning journalist, former President of the Philadelphia Association of Black Journalists, and author of "Live From Death Row", "Death Blossoms", "All Things Censored", “Faith of Our Fathers” and the recently released “We Want Freedom”. A resident of Pennsylvania’s death row since 1982, new evidence, including the recantation of a key eyewitness, new ballistic and forensic evidence, judicial racial prejudice, and a confession from Arnold Beverly (one of the two confessed killers) points to his innocence. Mumia continues to fight for a new trial with the support of tens of thousands around the world.
March 30, 2008 by Alysia Belle
Living in Tennessee (20 mins. away from the distillery no less) I know alot of people who think its an absolute SIN to mix Jack Daniels with Coke or any solvent. Suffice to say, these folks are a bit too serious about their alcohol consumption and could benefit from some sober hobbies... or extracurricular employment. Not to be too critical of my friends, but if you know any southerners... real southerners... you know what I'm talking about.
People can be like that about music, with their sacred cows and all. Especially when it comes to a band like Radiohead, and even more so when that solute is Hip-Hop.
I'm not sure exactly how long ago this came out, but a friend told me about the Rainydayz album, DJ Amplive's remix of In Rainbows, because he thought it was crazy and weird-- although he hadn't thought to even give it a listen.
"Rainydayz Remixes is composed exclusively of source material pulled
from In Rainbows, re-envisioned by Amplive and complimented by
vocal work from Too $hort, MC Zumbi of Zion I, Chali2na of Jurassic
5, Codany Holiday, and Del The Funky Homosapien."
Ive been telling everybody that Hip-Hop and indie rock belong together in artful harmony since forever. They'll learn one of these days... see "Us Placers"
Download Amplive/Radiohead- Rainydayz