RainyDay

This is so outrageously stupid on so many levels, I barely know where to start, so I won't. But I did enjoy this: Spoon Bender - (sung to the music of "Dream Weaver"--also a dorky oldie)

There should be a separate thread for Elvis songs, there really should. You're in a whole 'nother world with him (the Elvis Zone, as it were.) He did some of the worst and best pop songs of all time----but with some of his worst songs, the kitsch doubles back on itself, and the song becomes a masterpiece. So bad it's great, sort of. "Viva Las Vegas" is an example. Yet even many of his best songs have an element of kitsch to them. He was an enigma (wrapped in a cheeseburger...) I love Jail House Rock. If that song or anything by James Brown comes on while I'm driving, I resist the urge to pull over, get out of the car, and do the funky chicken. Not a pretty sight, I might add. Elvis' song about the child in the ghetto prompts dry heaves every time I hear it. It was a cynical attempt to produce a song "relevant" to the times. Yeeeeechh.

See my Joe Zawinul story. I don't say more than "hello nice set" if I say anything at all, let alone ask for an autograph. B)

Spike Lee got creamed in reviews of Bamboozled but I applauded the spirit of the film. An awful lot of black entertainment being produced by black folks is of minstrel quality, black face. It's degrading, disgusting, and ignorant. If white people were flooding the market with this trash, the NAACP would have an entire movement around the issue. An awful lot of Hip Hop/Rap exploits women and makes men look like completely backward, ignorant asses. I never thought I would live to see the day that black people would cheer on images of blacks as buffoons. The most perverse excuse put out there is that it's employment opportunity for black youth. It used to be that education was what would set you free. Now it's shaking your ass and boobs in front of a camera or digging in your crotch like a five-year-old. You can't have it both ways. How can you expect anyone to treat you with respect if you don't even respect yourself?

I was surprised at how badly they all did with the Estafan material. I'm not a fan of Estafan's singing at all (I guess that's heresy to say so) but all of the contenders were struggling with it. Although I thought Latoya's stage presence was red hot, her vocal work was weaker than usual. IMHO. I'm glad young Jon is gone. Every time they rerun the shot of his pained face when Jennifer was voted off, I genuinely feel sorry for him.

Listen, Jack. This isn't a negative response to you. Seriously.... I just wanted to say that (1) I agree that dudes like Nelly present awful images of women as sexual objects but, more importantly, (2) women "fighting back" against this sort of image portrayal isn't exactly late-breaking news. It just so happens that someone at the AP chose to write a story about it this time. Queen Latifah's "U.N.I.T.Y." came out eleven years ago. First verse: "Instinct leads me to another flow Everytime I hear a brother call a girl a bitch or a ho Trying to make a sister feel low You know all of that gots to go Now everybody knows there's exceptions to this rule Now don't be getting mad, when we playing, it's cool But don't you be calling out my name I bring wrath to those who disrespect me like a dame That's why I'm talking, one day I was walking down the block I had my cutoff shorts on right cause it was crazy hot I walked past these dudes when they passed me One of 'em felt my booty, he was nasty I turned around red, somebody was catching the wrath Then the little one said (Yeah me bitch) and laughed Since he was with his boys he tried to break fly Huh, I punched him dead in his eye and said "Who you calling a bitch?" Yeah, but then next day Latifa's just playing ball with other artists who do all the same things she complains about. Which is why this thing at Spellman seems so different. --eric I beg to differ about Latifa. She made this song at a time when Dr. Dre, the impressario everybody just drools over, pounded the crap out of a female DJ less than five feet tall for not giving his latest work a glowing review. He really hurt that young lady and to this day, he isn't even man enough to take responsibility for what he did and continues to brush the incident off as nothing. So I think Latifa making a song like that when she did is quite significant.

Well, I am sitting here wiping away the tears. I usually go to see him at Yoshi's but I just couldn't bear it this year. I'm glad I didn't go. I would have been a mess. Here's to Elvin, just hanging in there for the duration. My co-worker saw him and he said one guy sitting with them had to leave. My friend's wife lost it after the set ended. What an amazing human being and artist. He apparently has more strength to handle this than we do.

As lame as that song was. Sugar,Sugar not only comes close but it passes it .One of my candidates for the jukebox in hell. "Sugar Sugar" is dorky pop. "Sugar Shack" is evil. There is no comparison.

Imagine circus music accompanying these magical words:

"Sugar Shack." I've read the entire thread and it's "Sugar Shack." Nothing mentioned even comes close. 'Nuff said.

http://www.oaklandtribune.com/Stories/0,14...2111071,00.html

!! Great work! Do you ever have shows or do the open studio thing? I like your work. Very nice.

Hot. Hot here is relative. If you live near the Bay, hot is anything over 80 and we all wilt and whine like crazy. It's going to be close 90 degrees in SF and in Oakland. It's too early for it to be like this. Last summer we had record breaking heat. Last month we had almost two straight weeks of record breaking heat, waaay too early in the year for that. I've lived here for over 30 years and this is not normal weather. It takes the fog a long time to get here and cool things off. Typical heat waves last 3-5 days, not 1-2 weeks. Global warming...

What is it about a brand new baby? She is just beautiful. Congratulations!

...and "Cooley High."

Here, here. First title that popped into my head when I saw the thread. I voted "other."

Listen, Jack. This isn't a negative response to you. Seriously.... I just wanted to say that (1) I agree that dudes like Nelly present awful images of women as sexual objects but, more importantly, (2) women "fighting back" against this sort of image portrayal isn't exactly late-breaking news. It just so happens that someone at the AP chose to write a story about it this time. Queen Latifah's "U.N.I.T.Y." came out eleven years ago. First verse: "Instinct leads me to another flow Everytime I hear a brother call a girl a bitch or a ho Trying to make a sister feel low You know all of that gots to go Now everybody knows there's exceptions to this rule Now don't be getting mad, when we playing, it's cool But don't you be calling out my name I bring wrath to those who disrespect me like a dame That's why I'm talking, one day I was walking down the block I had my cutoff shorts on right cause it was crazy hot I walked past these dudes when they passed me One of 'em felt my booty, he was nasty I turned around red, somebody was catching the wrath Then the little one said (Yeah me bitch) and laughed Since he was with his boys he tried to break fly Huh, I punched him dead in his eye and said "Who you calling a bitch?" I really like this song. Not just the message either. It sounds good. I can understand why she moved on but she put out some decent music for a while and it's too bad her voice is missing from hip hop.

Well, for the record (ahem, ahem,), my Zawinul story was as much about the WR organization as it was about him personally. Also, we had to go through a lot of stupidity with the Bill Graham organization to get them booked. The whole experience was one chain pulling exercise after another. Then when Zawinul does this Ice Queen routine, I just threw up my hands. I don't necessarily hold it against him musically. It just taught me to leave people alone. You know, George Benson opened the festival and at the time the album Breezin was a HUGE hit. He was nice as pie (he was also sick as a dog but that's another story).

Stanley Crouch says a lot of stuff I don't agree with but he is right on about rap. Right on big time.

Finally.

I will also be dropping in on this over the weekend: http://www.booktv.org/misc/la_festival_042404.asp#saturday The Iraq war panel on Sunday at 1PM (EDT) and the panel on fear on Saturday at 5PM (EDT) should be interesting.

Tomorrow is brunch with a friend. Sunday is work, probably from home. Tonight, nada. Maybe watch 24 since I only half watched it on Tuesday. Does anyone have a clue what is happening on that show? Yeah I know, see the 24 thread...

I am still geting stray pop ups. I thought I had a virus it was so bad.

I did not "know" Joe but I met him on several occasions and he was so sweet because he always pretended to remember who I was. I have a friend who played with him many years ago and I used to see him play a couple times a year.

On Tuesday, after my Grammar God award, I found myself in pop up hell. Our IT folks had to come and clean up my programs. Yesterday, I was still deleting bogus programs that were pulling in pop ups. At the height of it, my computer was running like sludge in winter. No more visits to links for me.