randomness w/out music files

ever since cecily did it again, i've been thinking about doing it.

last 20 random plays as of 9:30 pm, March 30 '04:

1. Intro - Amp Fiddler
2. They Schools - dead prez
3. Small Axe - Bob Marley
4. I'm On My Way - Candido (Blue Note Trip - Sunrise Sunset)
5. If I Ever Recover - Basement Jaxx
6. Love Is Everywhere - Mezzanine de l'Alcazar, Vol. 3
7. No Better Love (Featuring Rell) - Young Gunz
8. Baltimore Oriole - P'taah / Lorez Alexandria (Rewind 3)
9. Spirits In Transit - 4Hero
10. Long Live Da Game - T.I.
11. Can't Knock The Hustle - Jay-Z
12. Eamon - Don't Want You Back (DJ Vlad The Butcher - Hot In Here 4)
13. (Dry Cry) Just One of Those Days - Sizzla
14. Things That Make You Feel Good - Photek Feat. Robert Owens (Oliver Peoples 3)
15. Backseat Love - N.E.R.D.
16. Born and Raised - Jae Millz
17. I Like Your Style - Da Band
18. 2nd Childhood - Nas
19. Da Journee - Redman
20. DJ Enuff Freestyle - Notorious B.I.G. (Rap Phenomenon)

posted by lynne | link to this | comment () | trackback (0) |

why apple itunes music store is dangerous...

i don't usually have to buy recent music
it comes to my mailbox before i can even ask for it
whether i want it or not

so i was awaiting the release of...

among a few other things
and got sucked up in the iTunes music store downloads
even when this joint cost me $16.99 instead of the usual $9.99

a review is forthcoming
but a feature is more likely

so far i'm hearing jimi hendrix, led zeppelin, the beatles, sly stone, which all of course means prince and lenny kravitz, er, and perhaps, terrence trent d'arby

pharrell does have a way with the drums though, might he give mr. big 'fro a run for his $$$ - hmm...

since when was it so hip to be square?

posted by lynne | link to this | comment () | trackback (0) |

musicology

i want some musicology really badly. it'll be ready on monday.

but why does it sound like what the neptunes produced for beyonce for goldmember?

doesn't matter, the musical genius is the originator and there is none greater.

posted by lynne | link to this | comment () | trackback (0) |

answers to the lynne friend quiz

I've decided to post the answers since it doesn't look like many more people will be joining in. And away we go...

1. when is my birthday?

from my wishlist...

2. before i cut my hair all off...

from a post from 4.16.02

3. my other half lives...

not only do i mention it in several posts here, but the cheat sheet from my interview with Steven said...

"College Park in ATL - that's where the significant other is living right now."

4. i work for...

if you've been around here long enough, you know where i work, but you could have also peeped my bio...

"Lynne d Johnson is in the FT employ of VIBE/SPIN Ventures LLC."

5. i teach a college course about...

for those who said technology culture, well that's what i once taught, but i also mention it in several posts here and if you checked my bio...

"an adjunct professor in the Audrey Cohen School for Human Services at the Metropolitan College of New York, where she teaches The Sociology of Group Behavior with a focus on ethnic and racial relations from an American and global perspective."

6. my middle name is...

i'm not telling you the answer, because 10 of you got it correct. also many of you who've been around for a long time know that it used to be on my wishlist

7. my favorite music is

i think this was one of the trickiest questions on the quiz, and i know that many of you think you got it right, but if you had read the interview with Steven that i posted as a cheat sheet, you would have been even more confused...

"Funny thing is everyone thinks I'm this big hip-hop head, when I actually listen to all genres of music. What's been classified as electronica and acid jazz is what I really like. Those folks do something different. Those folks push boundaries. And of course, I love my straight-ahead jazz and house/dance music will always be a favorite."

8. i have a poem published in...

i posted the peom here back on 9/23/02 and again, you could have picked it up from the bio...

"her poem "The Flow," was featured in Bum Rush The Page: A Def Poetry Jam, edited by Tony Medina and Louis Reyes Rivera (Three Rivers Press: 2001)."

9. my favorite mixed drink is...

damn, i thought i talked about this drink here, but i can't find anything posted about it when i search the archives. and i thought i'd find it in a post or comment at j's site, or especially wood's. wood happens to be a fan of the same drink as me, but all the men at DIC should know the answer...

hpnotiq & grey goose

10. in my family, i feel closest to...

donald says this was another trick question, although he and seven other people got it right. if you notice i don't really talk about my family that much here, i kind of keep most of that personal, except for rare moments. i never say their names.

but as i thought about what donald said, i figured maybe i should have said the person i feel most connected to in my family is. then perhaps maybe even more than seven folks would have gotten it correct.

but anyway, the one person i talk about with the most consistency and the most enthusiasm, and who i've posted about the most here, (which means that mainly people who have been reading me the longest would know the answer)

is...

of you bloggers, donald scored highest with a 90 (let's not talk about the fact that i've know donald forever, although we didn't really have a personal relationship until the last few years), and ronn ran a close second with an 80. there were two other 90s, but those are folks in my personal life so they better had scored that high. the rest of you who took it scored 60 and below.

and now i'm closing the quiz. everyone who took it will receive the answers, but i, and probably nor you, will ever be able to access the quiz again.

posted by lynne | link to this | comment () | trackback (0) |

in search of my blogging identitiy...

this thing has always been labled a diary

yet i taglined it a day in a life many moons ago

with my new site design

it became Lynne d Johnson :: Diary

and then in the past week i simply made it

A Day In A Life

but now i'm rethinking it

shuffling my thoughts

and perhaps

it'll become Lynne d Johnson :: black thoughtware

the name of my former column on popmatters

any opinions?

and the answers (with visual aids) to my frinedship quiz to come this weekend. so if you haven't taken it, step up...don't be skerred.

posted by lynne | link to this | comment () | trackback (0) |

repeating the errors of the dot.com

If you don't know by now, since ringtones have become the greatest revenue model for the mobile/wireless industry (and not service - w/out value added), there are a host of companies coming out with this crazy ass biz models to try and make you spend more time using your cell phone for chatting, messaging (multimedia), blogging, IMing, watching video, yadda yadda yaa. This so reminds me of the dot.com industry boom.

I'm in ATL at CTIA, the cellular telecommunications and internet association show here. A few months ago, I went to the one in LV, but it was nothing like this show. This show reminds me of Internet World or one of those other such dot.com events circa 1999 - when the Internet World promised this everywhereness. I wish I could tell you the number of booths here, it's a really absurd amount. And there is lots of international presence. I'm not saying I don't believe in the power of mobile to, ah, mobilize us, especially the youth, considering the ways in which mobile is being used in the UK or Japan. But I bet, in a few years, there'll only be a handful of players in this game. And that handful will all probably be absorbed into the Verizon and AT&T's of the world.

I've seen some really cool phones, apps, wireless gadgets, etc. but none of it is ever that must-have kind of stuff. It always seems so much like excess. For instance do I need a "face tone?" A picture of big boi and andre 3000 with big boi's lips moving on my phone. Or how about this other kind of tone, that gives me an animated 50 Cent rapping "P-I-M-P?" Yeah, yeah, the kids will love it. And they will also love the ability to IM anyone on any gateway with one app. They'll love to send MMS in which they put in the images, sound, and text. I'm sure of this...it's the youth, and the NYC and LA tastemakers pushing this ringtone market.

I know I'm in the new media industry, and part of my job is to bring my company's print and television properties to the consumer in both the online and mobile arenas in "unique" ways, but I still have this one question that's been burning me from the inside out.

Just b/c someone wants something or thinks it's really cool, does it necessarily mean they need it?

posted by lynne | link to this | comment () | trackback (0) |

feminism and hip-hop

i'm so happy to see this discussion emerging. there are so many hip-hop blogs, but everyone is questioning where is the feminist voice in hip-hop blogs and hip-hop in general. i'm happy to see posts like this one @ feministe called sexism and hip-hop, and this one at negroplease called Bitches Ain't Shit but Hoes and Tricks: Sexism, Feminism and Denial in hip hop, and this other one @ dieselnation called hip-hop hates women. it appears that with this post black females are valued by no one, i was in the middle of a meme and didn't even know it.

it's so good to see these kinds of conversations taking place. and i'm glad i'm a part of it. the sad thing is that this so-called feminist voice in hip-hop is out there, but no one is listening to me/her half the time, 'cuz half the time she's very much conflicted. in a couple of weeks, i'll be attending the emp pop conference and i'm so looking forward to this panel..."Female Hip-Hop Writers Summit: A roundtable discussion on the early days and current realities of women covering hip-hop. (Joan Morgan, dream hampton, Sheena Lester, Raquel Cepeda, Elizabeth Mendez Berry & Karen Good, “Female Hip-Hop Critics Summit”)

the voices are there. again i ask, who's listening. of course i plan to report on that event, and i still plan on commenting on all those blogs where this conversation is blowing up.

posted by lynne | link to this | comment () | trackback (0) |

Sun Ra - Space Is The Place (DVD Review)

As published on Popmatters.com March 8, 2004.

SPACE IS THE PLACE
Director: John Coney
Cast: Sun Ra, Ray Johnson, Christopher Brooks, The Intergalactic Myth-Science Solar Arkestra with June Tyson, John Gilmore, Marshall Allen
(Plexifilm, 2003)
DVD release date: 28 October 2003
by Lynne d Johnson

The Music Will Set You Free

Step into the realms o'space where nobody goes
Only the baddest motherfuckas are the ones that are chose!
Some of the coolest individuals on the planet we said
Best believe that we can buck or give a damn if we cared!
— Big Boi "Bust," Speakerboxx/The Love Below

The people have no music that is in coordination with their spirits. Because of this, they're out of tune with the universe.
— Sun Ra

2003 was the year that hip-hop truly ruled, and it was also the year when Sun Ra's cult classic Space Is the Place was reissued as a 30th Anniversary special on DVD. If the film is the definitive model of where blaxploitation intersects with sci-fi, as it has so often been regarded, then 2003 was an appropriate year for its return.

It was a year in music when the gangster rapper -- the baadasss nigga -- kicked off the year with the most record sales, and the funkadified otherworldly ones, preaching love and self-and-social consciousness were deemed best artists by the critics and music awarding institutions alike. 50 Cent, in all his materialist, sexist, pimpoligist glory, didn't win a Grammy, just like the overseer, played by Ray Johnson, in Space Is the Place, didn't win over the souls of black folks. Meanwhile Andre 3000 and Big Boi -- hip-hop's messiahs -- could be likened to Sun Ra, in all his Pharonic grandeur, musically teleporting black souls to that parallel universe, which is something much beyond this place called earth.

That the music, in the form of free jazz, is the message and Sun Ra the messenger in this film comes as no surprise. This was always the artist's shtick. His mythic science loomed quite largely throughout all of his musical masterpieces. He denounced earth as his home, opting instead for an affiliation with Saturn and an embracement of the mythology of ancient Egypt. For Sun Ra, music was not about getting rich or dying while trying, but instead it was a tone science in which the artist is supposed to find the right tone and key that resonates with his spirit so that his music can in turn be spiritually uplifting to the people. The sharp dissonance Sun Ra created as he pioneered the use of electronic music making machines, like Moog synthesizers, was his deliverance from the outerworld to humanity, to bring about harmony. In essence he was futurizing the rhythm machine as a posthuman, stepping into this other self and away from his human self, to fully realize what it means to be humane.

This is exactly what the 82 minutes of Space Is the Place is meant to convey. It was Sun Ra's way of preaching his cosmology to the masses. In story form, it becomes the typical good vs. evil epic.

When Sun Ra and his Arkestra, donning Egyptian garb, land in a '70s Oakland, California ghetto from their parallel universe, historically it's a complex time in Black USA. The Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was amended by the Equal Employment Opportunity Act of 1972, prohibiting employers from discriminating against employees on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. The entitlements offered by this Act had not yet become much of a reality for black folks. In fact, they were downtrodden and living in despair.

"The people have no music that is in coordination with their spirits. Because of this, they're out of tune with the universe. Since they don't have money, they don't have anything. If the planet takes hold of an alter destiny, there's hope for all of us. But otherwise the death sentence upon this planet still stands. Everyone must die," Sun Ra observes.

Desperate times call for desperate measures. Enter the Overseer. Often, and especially in blaxploitation films, the overseer is associated with "the man." But this flick offers a twist wherein it's the slick, flashy, jive-talking, Superfly-cool black man in a white suit. So here the meaning of overseer becomes perverse, in that it's the black man who is at the center of his own oppression and destruction on planet earth. The overseer offers a life of corruption, while Sun Ra offers jobs and an escape from earth before it's destroyed.

Most of the film highlights this battle, depicted like a chess match, between Sun Ra and the Overseer to gain mind control of the people. But there are also white racists, in the form of NASA clowns, who seek to shut Sun Ra and his intergalactic movement down. Everything comes to a head when Sun Ra is to have a concert, in which the music will finally get through to the people and provide them with that journey to out of space. This music is interspersed throughout the film, and actually may be the best part of the film. When the Arkestra performs, with their elaborate costumes, polyrhythmic overtures, and June Tyson's eerie voice harmonizing the message the film has been trying to convey all along, this is when you finally get it.

From the outset you know that it is music that powers Sun Ra's spaceship, so the spaceship becomes a metaphor for the black mind, in fact the black soul. If music powers the alien-like machine that transports one to an alternate reality where they can experience an alternate self, then music can power an alien-like black self to do the same. What further supports this magical notion, is when the radio announcer, the primary character who represents the masses as Sun Ra and The Overseer fight over his soul, has his black part teleported to the parallel universe while his white part remains on earth to be destroyed along with it. Of course there are moments throughout the film, where its overall message gets confounded. To say the acting is amateurish and the script a tad bit weak is of course an understatement. But that it hits home in the end reveals that the director, John Coney, really got Sun Ra. In many ways the film is biopic, given all of Sun Ra's ruminations about who he actually was and the purpose of his free jazz. Because of this, a viewer of Space Is the Place might get the feeling that there should be more music there. More is offered though, as backdrop to Sun Ra and the Arkestra's home movies as they visited Egypt in '72, along with other mystical visual aids.

Other features to this edition of this film include an interview with director John Coney and producer Jim Newman, and a deluxe booklet with liner notes by Sun Ra biographer John Szwed, introduction by Sonic Youth's Thurston Moore, and an essay by director John Coney. These additions do much for filling in the blanks about the film, and especially about Sun Ra and his myth science.

Not that it's a bad film, but perhaps only true Sun Ra devotees, and those hoping to learn more about the artist would only really appreciate it. His obstinate message of going back to the past to be an integral part of the future hints at the notion that the only way for a black soul to exist on earth is to consider himself an alien. Down with the guns, war, and materialism, symbolizing the corruptive ways of the overseer, and accept love, and your alieness as your universal savior. And isn't that just the way the year of music went down in 2003?

— 8 March 2004

posted by lynne | link to this | comment () | trackback (0) |

"Black females are valued by no one."

Isn't that a very powerful quote? It's a quote from the authors of a recent study about African-American youth and sexuality. Thulani Davis penned an article in this week's Village Voice that discusses the study, and focuses on the notion that since the hip-hop generation came about (those born 1965 - 1980 would be considered the first hip-hop generation) there has been a dearth of feminist voices.

Those interviewed for the study were aged 16-20, and the following 15 identifications are what they came up with to describe women: block bender, woo-wop, flip-flop, skeezer, 'hood rat, 'ho, trick, freak, bitch, gold digger, hoochie mama, runner, flipper, shorty, and wifey. Some young women also used these terms to describe their own gender.

Hip-hop music and culture, are more and more, being expressed as the culprit contributing to the disrespect of women. For instance, more openly female-on-female sexual relationships were evaluated, with (scholars) attributing the rise in these types of relationships to mistreatment by men. Another factor, experts claim, is that many women don't feel self-identified with pop culture's standards of beauty (a la Beyoncé) - 'cuz we know all straight men, shoot some gay men too, want themselves a Beyoncé. And though some of the mentioned issues might play keen contributors to the rise of homosexuality amongst young women, it is also highly likely that women not only feel safer with women, they could very well (oh my) actually be attracted to the same sex, and in being exposed to it more they in turn feel more comfortable to be themselves.

[Don't dwell on that, because it's not really the singular thread of this entry.]

Of course what was most disparaging about the article and the study, is that black teens are engaging in more-and-more risky sexual behavior and are contracting HIV/AIDS at alarming rates. Factor in that we're talking about young'ins on the lower end of the economic scale here.

While I was reading this Thulani Davis article, I thought about a post I was going to put up a couple of weeks ago. One Sunday, while reading The New York Times, I came across an article that talked about hip-hop artists joining the ranks of the adult entertainment industry. I didn't really read much beyond Lil Jon and the Ying Yang Twins and 50 Cent's foray into the porn industry. I believe the reason I never finished it was because I kept getting stuck on the fact that after the Grammys, Lil Jon was running upstairs to film some girl-on-girl action for his adult film series. Not so shocking of course, if you've seen Nelly and the St. Lunatics video for the "E.I. (Remix)" also known as "Tip Drill." Petey Pablo's "Freak-A-Leek" video pales in comparison, though it does have some moments where one would question how in the world it got past the censors. Hip-hop videos, often border the boundaries between soft and harcore porn, and if you've got a public access cable station in your hood, or watch BET uncut, trust you've seen what I'm talking about. Women never appear in a positive light, but the truth is these women agree to appear this way.

Back in 2001, an artist who exhibited in One Planet Under a Groove: Hip Hop and Contemporary Art at the Bronx Museum of the Arts, juxtaposed images from adult entertainment and hip-hop music videos. I'd be damned if you could tell them apart. Women are to blame, just as much as men here.

For one, there is no strong female voice in rap music today. I mean the Queen, not the Bee, but the La, hailed once, but will an era like that ever have its chance to shine again? Shoot, even the first hip-hop act to really have some serious sales, Salt-N-Pepa, topped charts with hits that sang of "pushing it real good." Doesn't that kind of remind you of Ghostface & Missy's new song, "Push?"

Sorry, I'm digressing here.

At one time, when the whole black power and native tongue movement of hip-hop was the ruler, there were females with messages in their music. But what was interesting is that as time passed, women had to be as hard and as aggressive as men - remember Yo-Yo in her baggy jeans? Lyte, Rage, and a slew of female rappers went the boy/girl route for awhile. Then when Foxy and Kim hit, everything became sexualized (we watched Salt-N-Pepa go through this type of transition during their time of making records).

Whose the hottest female rapper today? It's probably, that's right you guessed it, Missy. And didn't she lose a "few pounds in her waist fo' ya?" C'mon, you gotta' see where I'm going with this. And I'm one who once wrote of Lil' Kim representing freedom of sexual expression for women. But when does enough become too far?

Hasn't bell hooks and others in the cult crit circle spoken again and again about hip-hop's misogynistic stance? Somehow those messages fall on deaf ear. As Todd Boyd pointed out in The New HNIC, hip-hop has somehow replaced the civil rights movement. And what is its message?

I'll give you an example. An animated film that Sony was going to bring to a theatre near you in either the 0-3 or the 0-4, entitled Lil' Pimp, about a white, freckled, 9-year-old pimp who struts his ho's around the 'hood is said to feature the voices of various hip-hop artists, including Ludacris and Lil' Kim. Sony has since pulled the movie back either for straight to DVD, or on demand release. You can actually check it out at MediaTrip.com.

All of these things are brutally connected. And trust, I'm no hip-hop hater, but as Ta-Nehisi Coates pointed out in The Village Voice back in its June 4-10 2003 edition, many of hip-hop's artists tend to keep it unreal and overblow ghetto stereotypes. Coincidentally, these stereotypes are what "our" youth are hailing as their own version of the Bible, and it is manifesting itself in the most ugliest of ways in their lives, every day.

Again, I'm not a hip-hop hater, there are other factions of hip-hop (though they don't rise to mass cult status), and I still have hope for the music and culture as a whole. Also as I've written here several times over, parents need to be responsible for their children, not hip-hop. But if in fact, today's youth are the descendants of hip-hop's first generation, then what does it say about how the first wave of hip-hop influenced lives just like mine?

posted by lynne | link to this | comment () | trackback (6) |

caught out there again, daaamn

posted by lynne | link to this | comment () | trackback (0) |

there's another contest

you can win $1,000 for writing the best poem about "redemption" in 100 words or less enter here. the contest is related to that upcoming FX speacial starring Jamie Foxx, called, what else, Redemption.

posted by lynne | link to this | comment () | trackback (0) |

what are you hungry for? (redux)

Lynne d Johnson koan 1: why is it that that which fulfills us also consumes us?

posted by lynne | link to this | comment () | trackback (0) |

this goes out to trent...

in an effort to make my site more user friendly for those w/out loads of plug-ins, a hi-speed connection, and a powerful 'puter, i'm testing out an audio player. you must at least have a flash player plug in to see the player, and how well you can play the selections will still be dependent upon your downloading abilities. but that shouldn't really be a problem, b/c right now you're only getting 10 sec. samples. i'll either do some php hacking to change that, or i'll be looking at more solutions.

let me know how it works.

after playing around cross-OS, cross-browsers, with the above player, embedding windows media player, embedding .m3u playlists, embedding .mp3(s), so far i have to say that the flash player is looking like the winner for me. i won't have to worry about adjusting anything for anyone's computer. if i don't figure out a hack for the php to get the tracks to play longer than 10 seconds, then i'm going to have to go for the developer's version.

you see, basically i want to stream. i want to stream open source. i want to use open source tools to do my streaming. i don't want anyone to be able to download mp3s...only streams.

with that in order, for those of you who would like to hear the playlist above, i'll do an a href and an embed. you can either link to it, or it will automatically download to your default mp3 player. some of you might even see a player on the page, if your browser or plug in allows it.

get the playlist by clicking here

i know, i know, there's always radioblog or soundblox, but with radioblog you have to convert the mp3s to swf files and soundblox doesn't exactly look like the player is stored on your own host. the mp3 files are and you can use relative links, vs absolute, but stil..

if i'm going to hack, to be quite honest, i might as well build my own player in flash, and do some of my own scripting. (as if i have time for any of that).

my only problem with all of these playes is that not one of them supports mp4, m4a, or m4u yet.

and this brings me to my other problem, the problem i thought i'd have with MT. i can't just drop some harcore script into the template and expect it to kick. i've had problems with nested tables, with embedding, and a few other things. MT is still cool though. i'm writing here a lot more because . but since i'm a lil bit advanced with the coding skills, sometimes MT holds me back.

i guess when i have a little bit of time again, i'll come back to this task, and perhaps even do the comparisons of radioblog to what i'm using now.

after careful research and testing, i figured out that radio blog is really kind of cool. but there's a drawback of course, it's an app for windows users. i'm not with that, especialy since my main machines are macs. but it's really easy to setup and use as either a pop up or embedded player. (i could find an .mp3 to .swf converter for mac and that'd be cool.)

second thing, mac users will be pissed at me when they visit this page, b/c an .m3u playlist is probably going to open up iTunes immediately. i'm just trying to cover all the basis until i get my music situation fully solved.

but i already think it is with the player that starts off this post. i just have to get the developer's version and i'll be able to enable people to hear full length tracks at their own discretion.

i'm audi like a tt roadster.

posted by lynne | link to this | comment () | trackback (0) |

my first tv appearance

okay, it really wasn't my first, because i've been on bcat (brooklyn community access television) interviewing angel kyodo williams and in another episode interviewing ron kavanaugh of mosaicbooks for a show called mosaiclive, of which my brother is the producer and director. and not that those don't count, they do, but this one is a lot different.

a couple of monday nights ago, i was on UPN 9 News in NY and NJ. i don't know which other markets carry this network. it was a strange time for me, and i wasn't even going to mention it here, but two things happened this past week that made this event resurface.

a reporter/producer from upn 9 news had contacted me b/c she was doing a story on the black church and homosexuals. she said she ran across this quote, "The black church, the oldest institution and pillar of the black community, has historically dictated the community's stance on homosexuality — either you don't talk about it, or you condemn it," of mine at human rights campaign foundation's site. the quote was actually extrapolated from a story i had written for africana.com called young, black, gifted, and gay about hip-hop and homosexuals. don't worry, hrcf got my permission to use the quote.

but anyway...

at first, i was a little taken aback by the call. with all this talk about same-sex marriage going on, i thought perhaps i was being trapped into talking about that issue wrapped in this other issue. i was assured that wasn't the case. and perhaps trapped is the incorrect word, but i wanted to be sure that i wasn't being tricked. that the issue was what the woman told me it would be.

hmm...

i thought about it some. when i talked to "t" about it, and had a conversation with "the ex" about some biz we had to take care of, they both said i should do it. even while having brunch with keith boykin one saturdayi talked about it. these folks rested any reservations i had, or tv shyness i was feeling. but other than these folks, i hadn't really told too many people. not even my family.

the producer thought it would be good to get my perspective since i teach a sociology course. i still was a bit camera shy, but when they came to the office to tape me i was prepared. hair was did and the face was beat.

at work, the only people i told were the PR chick and my VP emil wilbekin. they both told me to go for it. so i did. and still i hadn't talked about it much to others.

then when i met the fellas for the blog brunch, ronn mentioned that he had seen me on tv. i was a bit perplexed, b/c i was told that i wouldn't be on until the following monday. matter of fact a few people sad they saw me, but what they actually saw were the coming attractions. hell if i knew my face was popping up on tv for a couple of days.

but still i had not told the family. i just hadn't thought about it much. i did at first, and then i didn't. my job keeps me so busy, i don't think about a lot of things. so the monday came, and i realized that same-sex marriages would be a topic that night. i of course thought i had been bamboozled. but no, the black church and gays topic came up following the same-sex issue. and really all i had were a few soundbites. one where i said something like "it's very hush." and another where i said something like "it's a lot like the military, don't ask, don't tell." sound bites. that's all.

i didn't actually watch it myself. well not initially. i was jittery. i thought i probably didn't sound right, or say the right thing, or look right, so i pressed record on the VCR and waited to watch it later.

of course that same night, the phone was abuzz. mom and sis were the first to call. they actually got a call from one of my sis's friends saying baby sis was on tv. and then, the next day, the im was on blast. folks that don't even im me crawled out. (this tells me loads about how many folks watch black-themed tv shows on monday nights. i guess that's why the topic aired that night. clever upn 9 them.)

"the ex" even im'd to say i didn't say i'd be on tv, so there was a lot of surprise when watching tv that night. shows how much listening that one does, huh?

but that was it.

it was over. it went away. two seconds of fame were long gone. and i was cool with that.

and then...

this week, i'm sitting in my office working on a project, and i overhear someone at the assistant's desk asking where the offices to our sister publication were located, and then, "hey, i know this office, i saw someone on tv, a sociology student." ok so the leo i am, came out and said, "no actually that's sociology professor." anyway, duke (it's a lot like dude often used in brooklyn) was like oh, maybe you can offer me some guidance, i'm looking to get a masters. wow! this shit was unreal. he wanted my advice on what he should major in for a number of things he was planning to do with his life.

but trust me i'm not big headed by all of this. you might think so because i'm blogging about it. but really i'm not. i'm humbled by it. very humbled.

so it ended again. no one to talk about this tv appearance any longer. thank goodness.

and then...

i haven't been to the barbershop in ages. since growing out the hair, and not getting it all lined up perfectly anymore b/c i've mainly been braiding and twisting it, i really hadn't been. but today, i decided i wanted someone else to clean up the neck, line around the sides, and start the foundation for my sideburns again, since i had cut them off when someone else (the nofrills barber at the braiding salon) misshaped them. it takes a long time to get sideburns to look like this. and once f'd up, i was just very pissed and put clipper to side of face myself to take them off, well not cleanly off, but the luda' swirl got nixed. but anyway, today i decide to go to the barbershop to try and start getting that shape again. and as i sit in the chair, the barber says, i saw you on tv.

it'll end right? please, tell me it'll end?

oh shit, probably not. i just told all of you.

posted by lynne | link to this | comment () | trackback (0) |

how well do you know Lynne d

inspired by kia who was inspired by karsh, i decided to join the friend test quiz craze. i want to see how well y'all know me out there. so take my quiz.

but first, here's a cheat sheet, lifted from my interview with steven g. fullwood back in january. the cheat sheet doesn't answer all the questions, but if you've read my blog long enough and other parts of the site, then you just might be able to answer the quiz.

cheat sheet...

Why Do You Write: Lynne

Use “LDJ” to describe your personality, one word for each letter.

Ah, it's LdJ, lowercase d. You did know that, right? But anyway, that's a good question. I never thought about it as an acronym. I had been using the lowercase d for some time, and then a friend designed a biz card with the logo LdJ and it looked so cool, and everybody started calling me that. Then when I began to DJ professionally it became EL d j, you know, The DJ. Like I'm the only one and there is no other. LOL. But seriously, if I had to come up with an acronym for it, I'd guess I'd go for something over-the-top and self-serving like "lyrically divine juggernaut." And that probably sounds like I'm trying to be a rapper. I'm not even sure it's grammatically correct. But you asked, didn't you?

How does blogging heal you?

Well I started this whole blogging thing, without really knowing there were blogs or what I was doing. I put up a website in the summer of 2001, after being laid off from my gig at BlackPlanet.com. I primarily put it up as a resource for job-hunting, and mainly freelance writing. So it was my online biz card. But I had decided from the outset that I'd include a diary. I needed an outlet for my voice, when I wasn't doing any professional writing. Through time, I met other bloggers like George at allaboutgeorge.com and Cecily at formica.ca, and they helped me to find other bloggers and to really understand what a blog or online journal could become. At times, I've used it just to deal with my day-to-day, and other times I've used it to share my day-to-day, and even other times as some sort of cultural criticism space. I guess overall, I'd have to say it's similar to any other type of journal, it helps you work through your shit and deal with self, and also to know self and bond with self.

Talk about the state of R&B music.

Is there really an R&B today? I mean I know the history of the term. Some dude over at Billboard came up with it in the late '40s to encompass blues and soul music, so basically at some point all black music became defined as R&B. That was until you got pop and hip-hop. Most of the time I'm annoyed with today's R&B, it tries to be too much like hip-hop and not enough like itself. It's not creating a lot of newness within it's own foundation. I'm overly skeptical of the categorizations to begin with, it's too boxed in. But on the other hand, over the past decade we have seen some really creative artists coming out of what is typically referred to as R&B. Though often too much imitations, duplications, and artists who cover past hits, or put their own lyrics over old soul tones. I love Mary J. to def, 'cuz to me, though not the best singer in the world, she's emotive. She brings those gutturals deep down from the depths of her pussy. That's right, I said it. But I didn't coin it myself. I think I first heard a statement like that when Karen R. Good put it down writing about Mary J. in the Village Voice awhile back. And when I read it, I was like yeah, that's it. But her latest efforts are much like the stuff I was talking about being disappointed with. I do feel what artists like Erykah Badu put out there, because you either gotta' love her or hate her, and there is no in between. She's doing that real artist shit just like Prince did, and now that's the same thing that Andre 3000 of Outkast is attempting to do.

Basically, I feel there are a lot of people who can really sing, but most of the time their lyrics aren't saying anything and they're not pushing boundaries with the music. If you asked me about the state of hip-hop, you would've gotten a dissertation. Funny thing is everyone thinks I'm this big hip-hop head, when I actually listen to all genres of music. What's been classified as electronica and acid jazz is what I really like. Those folks do something different. Those folks push boundaries. And of course, I love my straight-ahead jazz and house/dance music will always be a favorite.

Technology and black folks. What are we/could we/should be doing?

During the 3rd Annual National Black Family Technology Week, held Feb. 2-10, 2001, in New York City, I sat on this panel called the "Digital Divide," and I was quoted as saying "Too many people think entertainment and basketball are the way out of their existence rather than starting a business. I blame the low interest in computers on the many entertainers and sports figures who glorify only quick money and flashy clothes," in the Final Call's online edition. I still believe this to a certain extent. Granted, I see lots of us building community online, making these very creative Websites, and creating this online identities, and by extension branding ourselves. I've even written about the potential for increasing positive communication between black males and females called "Imagining a Gender Neutral Black Male/Female Relationship," for drylongso.com's special edition on "Gender Issues in Sepia Space." But technology isn't just about the Web and being online. I see so many of us black folx as being consumers of technology, more than creators of technology, and by extension I suppose that means entrepreneurs. There is no black Bill Gates or Steve Jobs. How come?? There very well could be. When I worked at BlackPlanet.com, I had a mission that was twofold. To dispel the myth of the digital divide, and to show that blacks were utilizing technology in novel ways.

But what should we be doing? Sharing our knowledge. Making sure youth really understand that this is really the information era, and that traditional skills are not going to be enough to be successful in this society. That math and science studies are still not stressed for black youth upsets me. That many schools are not wired upsets me. Or you have these wired schools where the kids know more about computers than their teachers, and that's bad. That's not education. And education with computers is not just making presentations and doing research on the Web. It's working with math, science, and other educational applications, and writing hard core programs. I see a lot going on in educational technology, but not enough of it is coming through the public school systems at the lowest economic levels in our society.

IT has changed our lives in myriad ways, but what will we do to become innovators in this IT age and to push IT further? That's what we should be thinking about.

Name seven places that you are likely to be seen in New York, and why.

I don't hang out much nowadays, but I'll give this a whirl. I think it's going to be pretty basic.

1. Co-op City in the Bronx - it's the foundation and where the fam still resides.

2. College Park in ATL - that's where the significant other is living right now.

3. Fort Green in Brooklyn - that's the 'hood for me, though I don't exactly live there. I'm in walking distance, and have been living in the area for many years now. BAM, The Brooklyn Moon Cafe, Frank's Place, Fulton St. ‹ those spots are home. When I walk down Fulton St. with someone else, they're always amazed at how many people I know, but damn as I'm answering this I'm realizing that I've been here for nearly 12 years now so it makes sense that I know lots of people in the 'hood..

4. Union Square - because Zen Palate is there (yummy yummy veggie food), and a branch of my bank HSBC, and a Barnes and Noble, and a movie theater are also there. Besides it's on the way home, and I like to walk there from the office, which is about 20 blocks away. I do that when I don't make it to number 5, because the kid needs to exercise.

5. Crunch on Lafayette - I have a membership, it's open 24 hours, and this year I vowed I'd get my money's worth.

6. SOBs - they have the best artist line up when it comes to concerts and it's so intimate. I really prefer small spaces to those large concert venues.

7. New York City Parks, specifically Prospect Park, Fort Green Park, and Central Park - They all have off-the-hook events in the summer, and I really love watching the drummers in Prospect Park. But I'll go to Prospect Park anytime of year to walk or bike ride, or just to commune with nature when I'm feeling overwhelmed by the stresses of the daily and I need to get in touch with reality.

What can’t LdJ do?

Hmm, would you believe me if I said there ain't nothing I can't do? Nah, you probably won't.

OK, here we go, I suck at shooting pool and bowling, though I love to do both. And I'm not the greatest roller skater, but I'm not bad on the roller blades. That's not deep enough though, probably, right? Hmmm....

Ok, here we go. Often, I can not be patient. I need to learn to practice patience with folx. I think it's because I spend a lot of time communicating in real time, that when it comes to other aspects of my life, I get a little irritated by having to wait for things. So perhaps I can't be patient. But that might be a lie, because I've worked with both children and seniors.

Damn! I'm stuck. What can't I do? I got it. I can't answer this question.

What does LdJ love to do when nobody is looking?

Pick her nose. We all do that. Though no one wants to admit it. You feel that blockage, or that little bit of crust right there on the tip, and your finger just itches to touch and dig it out.

Nah, seriously, there's probably a couple of things I do when nobody is looking. I talk to myself a lot, and that's because I spend a lot of time alone. It helps me get ish into perspective.

And I guess masturbating would be one of the biggest things I do when nobody is looking, though I'm not against having someone look. But it kind of happens a lot when your relationship becomes long distance, and you're not getting it like you're used to it. Though I know it's something that probably like 99.5% of us do, though some won't admit it, and many are even doing it when we are getting it often.

c'mon now, take my friendship quiz. don't be skerred.

posted by lynne | link to this | comment () | trackback (0) |

blogs on blast...

man, trent, go and brush your shoulders off.

i didn't even know that when writer paul farber turned in this piece about blogs that mr. beats and rants would be the star subject. and i'm not mad about it at all. the man does represent music blogs to the fullest. rebecca blood is also mentioned as a blogspert, and keith boykin is quoted b/c, well he should be. his blog is extra dope. mia, toni is also mentioned in the article.

i remember awhile ago, keith had written his own piece on bloggers, entitiled blog this. one that i was actually mentioned in.

now that trent's the p-i-m-p of blogging, he wrote a very thoughtful post about how though he loves blogging it's taking over his life. i can relate to that ish, been there before.

speaking of blogs, i'm now digging blogs that serve as portals for like-minded blogs. you've got that hip-hop blog portal called blogship, of which both trent and i are members. but it's a little techinically challenged, b/c it requires its members to ping entries related to certain topics. if somebody can think of an easier way to do this, give a shout out to eric nord who founded the joint. something also better than he having to maintain feeds in order for it to run. we all definitely know that when it comes to hip-hop blogs, of course jay's spot puts the hip-hop in blog.

then the other night i ran across clyde smith's netweed, which serves as a compendium of sorts — and it's quite extensive, and well an intensive endeavor.

and of course, we can't ever forget about george's negrophile. you know college students have got to be using this directory to do their research on black culture. i really love the way that he not only brings in news items, but stats, and then observations from bloggers talking about issues of race. prince c's american black really puts it down in this arena also.

this whole blog universe has sure come up a lot since when i first started doing this thing.

posted by lynne | link to this | comment () | trackback (0) |

did i tell you about these contests?

from the ladies first tour - enter to win tix to see Beyonce, Alicia Keys, Missy, and special guest Tamia. enter here.

and from the ladies night tour - there's also a contest to win a free ipod, courtesy of ginuwine, avant, jagged edge, atl, and joe. enter here.

more to come soon...

posted by lynne | link to this | comment () | trackback (2) |

man, i really gotta' write

i really haven't been saying much up in here, but it's so hard to write as of late. probably why i have no more black thoughtware column on popmatters.com. so much of my day is spent utilizing my MBA, tech, and editing skills, that i really can't get to the writing myself, and thus the writing here, in this space suffers too. aight, so if you happen to read that magazine that's part of the same co. i work for, you know i have a digital music column there, but that's not really flexing my true writing abilities. and lord, i don't know the last time i freelanced for someone.

k, yeah, so i reworked a book chapter recently, and am working on one of my own proposals, but is that an excuse, for not being able to turn out some interesting, and meaningful prose? no, don't answer that. i will. it's not an excuse. i just get all used up - my creative energies that is. all used up.

and then, my biggest problem is it's hard for me to write, 'cuz i'll look at something i wrote in the past, and i'll try to top that. like i can't just write a regular review - it has to go deeper into something else. i just can't say this dvd was good, and the film, went like this, i always have to find some analogy, or go off and do some deep research. this is an example of what i'm talking about. just can't write regular and from the heart. and then i'm always finding ways to work in some metaphysical shit.

if i could just sit and write, w/out overthinking, i could probaly write like 5 meaningful pieces of prose a week, ok, no, maybe 2. where'd this thought come from? after sharing a conversation about writing with that kid nova (and i mean kid in all deepest affection - it's like using son for me - you know - how we use it in the hood), anyway, as he becomes more and more of a writer, and is perfecting his craft, it just got me to wondering about how i don't really use my gift anymore. i mean even here. the sentense structure i use here is so simple. so devoid of literary techniques, GRE words, etc. anyway, i'd like to see all folks who write, i'd just like to see them all feel really positively and strongly about their abilities.

i also come back to this now, b/c last week, an interviewer told me i couldn't really be classified a senior writer. i asked had she visited my site? she said no people don't have time to do that. i had to explain that i've been in the writing game since 1990 - i've written for newspapers, magazines, the Web, and books. she acknowledged my management experience, and hinted toward the fact that i was probably an entertainment writer and not a reporter/journalist. i asked again, did you visit my site? no. she asked for writing samples. i invited her again to visit my site. she asked me to fax her hard copies. why fax someone hard copies, when most (definitely not all) of the writing i've done in the past 4 years, is right here? i tried to explain that. i guess i won't be faxing her. that seems so antiquated to me anyway, especially since i even offered to send PDFs. but anyway.....

don't ever let anyone question your abilities, when you know the truth. and don't even question your abilities your own got damn self. you can, for the most part, become what you believe yourself to be.

posted by lynne | link to this | comment () | trackback (0) |

what are you hungry for?

i was just thinking, there's a lot of hungry cats out there. most of us are just working to eat. i mean we're mad hungry, and we want to eat, so we work. eating can literally mean eating, or it can be a metaphor for that phat ride, house, jewels, etc.

but i'm saying though, are you happy doing what you're doing, or are you just doing it to eat? and if you're not happy doing what you're doing, and could do anything in the world, what would that one thing be.

i'll answer first. if given the choice, all i'd do is write, and perhaps teach, but i'd definitely be working from home (everyday) and not on someone's clock. obviously working toward that now.

how 'bout you? what would you be doing, if you could do what you really wanted to do - and if you weren't so hungry that you were just doing anything to make that paper.

posted by lynne | link to this | comment () | trackback (0) |

it was so nice i had to do it twice...

i copped it from jason who was inspired by sh0nuff and also saw the meme here, here, and here, and then after i did it, ronn and cecily did it too. so here i am again with it, but with samples (which might be a bad idea) and i'm only going for 10 joints this time (with the music samples i should probably only go for 5). i might have to do this every week.

and so it goes...

1. fire up iTunes
2. turn on shuffle from library to randomly play all songs
3. list the first 10 joints that pop - no matter how embarrasing

"Paid in Full" - Eric B. & Rakim

"Manhood (Remix)" - Viketer Duplaix

"Way Out" - Slave (featuring Steve Arrington)

"International Affair" - Mark Ronson (featuring Sean Paul and Tweet)

"50 Shot Ya" - DJ Kay Slay (featuring 50 Cent)

"That's The Way Love Is (Deep House Mix)" - Ten City

"Girlfriend" - B2K

"Be Thankful For What You Got" - William De Vaughan

"Babies Makin' Babies" - Sly & The Family Stone

"Redman Meets Reggie Noble" - Redman

posted by lynne | link to this | comment () | trackback (1) |

where da ladies at? stand up...

man e'rr now and then, since doing this thing since the '01 it gets a lil' bit hard to come up with freshness. so i decided to scope 'round the 'sphere and see what the hell all y'all talking 'bout. well, what the ladies are talking about. after last sunday meeting up with some blog gentleman, i realize i have to bring more of the ladies into my cypha'. i've been reading all y'all for awhile, but you probably didn't even know it. and hopefully i've mistaken no men for women here (not e'rrbody puts up an about me, a picture, or a personal entry). sometimes i gotta' go with a gut feeling about what appears to be written by a female.

roll out...

cecily, always the most fascinating of the technoliterati, intrdouces us to her side blog that documents her research into the future of digital libraries.

unfortunately, anitra hasn't posted since feb 10, but as usual this post reveals a woman who definitely has a way with words, and who can tell a story from the heart.

steph uses her new digs, studpoet to ponder racism and accountability. after reading the entry, i'm surprised that there's only one comment there.

brick contemplates what life really means.

monique is missing in action. life's been very all-encompassing for this lady as of late.

like monique bonetta has also been MIA a lot lately. she's posting here-and-there, but if you used to read her in the good old days, man, you'd understand why i'm missing her.

and speaking of MIA, trayc is still on summer vacation.

while thinking of summer vacations, i also noticed that toni ain't been around in a minute.

at least i know for sure that rashunda's absence is credited to being on the road and in the air.

nakachi is hoping her brother and his girlfriend get their lives together. for selfish reasons only, i'm going to ask her if i can help her make an rss feed, so i can add her to my aggregator. it's harder to keep up with that links list i have over there @ blogfam.

alexis gets really personal. she used to talk a lot about sex, and the voyeurs ate that shit up. she still deals with the body politic, and in a sense has grown a sense of navel appreciation.

nappi has been kind of on again off again with the blog, but always a pleasure to read when she is around.

vain-glorious is over there talking about how most of the advance on her income tax return is already accounted for and how she's going to spend the rest.

nekaybaaw recently lost her gig, so she hasn't really been saying much.

lauren hasn't been saying much for a minute, but if her archives are there, you know she always had lots to say. she was down with that whole blog date debacle. sorry i brought that up. but that was big. anyway, i hear she might be a neighbor of mine soon.

thelovebelow gets deep into blogging personas (characters), folks need to be who they are not. she also talks a lil' bit about a friend who had the nerve to email her that she might be pregnant, which thelovebelow feels may not be such a good thing.

sunray has got a newly designed site, and it's banging i might say, courtesy of nova, btw, nova took hip-hop to the max in his own new personal design. but anyway, sunray talks about celebrating her son's 5th berfday and where a kid can just simply be a kid.

alissa is really over that martha stewart bizness.

afrochelle ain't been blogging lately, but wants folks to know there's lots to talk about so she'll return to her regular posting schedule soon.

cheryl coward is all about the music right now and she's trying to win some of those free pepsi iTunes downloads.

adiktd had fun last night and she's got the pictures to prove it.

kim is this young writer on the come up and she goes by the blog name of afrochic. her entries are always intelligent and witty. in her last post she's talking about dreams. she's also another one who could use an rss feed. but i'm only saying. what? i'm being selfish again.

swirlspice hipped me to the adorkable ring. not sure i'll join it, but it's interesting.

bodyandsoul, man, this is the kind of writer you need to read every day. in this latest post she writes a moving piece about the unnecessary detainment of iraqui prisoners. the way she keeps going back to this 11-year-old, and the comments that are attached to the post, man, i'm awe struck.

jilanda is inspired by Greg Levoy. and it's a quote we might all need to get our inner clocks working properly at times.

lashundra really got all creative on a friday meme in her last entry.

renaissancesistah titles her entry blah, blah, blah, to convey her random thoughts of the day. she's got her fav song, for now anyway, a meme, and discussion about the passion of the christ.

saucydame wonders whether ms. badu is pulling another publicity stunt. her belly is swole, it appears in concert and pics, and according to her label, but who the father is remains a mystery. man she could be faking the whole thing. she did have us all believing she had 'locs.

lisa over at ghettointellect has some choice words for couch potatoes, well especially those who can only blog through the inspiration of the remote control. she's also got a few words for mama's boys. and she loves ursher's new video.

this other lisa is moving on. and can i just say how happy i am you picked up that little atomz feed from blogger.

michelle is on a path as usual. she's making choices about seeing mom instead of dad, and she thinks she's a bad child b/c of it. you're not. no really, you're not.

like i said, i met up with some bloggers last week, and i was the only female in the place, and it kind of left me wondering about my own relationships and whether i gravitate toward males or females more. maybe on some level it's me, but maybe also it's that women aren't interacting with me on the same level as fellas are, and then i have to wonder why that is.

so if you are a chick, ok a woman, and you know i read your blog, but i missed you, or if you just happen to stop by here and comment and i missed you, or you stop by and say nothing and i missed you, holla'. leave your signature in the comments. it's really time for the ladies to rep in this blog universe.

posted by lynne | link to this | comment () | trackback (1) |

uh...

now e'rrbody in the club gettin' tipsy...

there is this really weird thing about me. i always end up liking songs that i have no bid'ness liking. it's basically about melody. i could care less what jkwon is spitting. mama loves to dance. and not just some old silly two-step, ta daa, back-and-forth. i do dat real ish - *visualize* - missy's "i'm really hot" video. yeppers, that'd be me. so it's like this, mama grew up in the boogie down - like many moons ago, and breakdancing and poplocking was basically first things she learned to do. so though mama gettin' old she still gots lots of that in her.

so it's like this. certain songs come on and i can feel myself in a video. no joking. k, my on-the-floor moves ain't what they used to be, i'm talking about me down on the floor, floor moves — helicopters and stuff. but standing up, maaaan. and i'm not being big headed here. perhaps next new york reunion i can drag some folks out dancing so that they can come back and report that it's truth. 'cuz right now all you got is my word.

let's just say, my niece is 13, and she runs her moves by me. she checks me out for moves too. so should i be embarassed? hell naw. so what if i want to st. louis dance, a-town stomp, and alla' that. mama gets down to the house beats too, so it isn't just all about hip-hop. but on the real, i do get caught up in some songs that even some folks in the lower half of their 20s that i know can't get with.

just call me a slave to the hpnotiq-kickin' rhythms.

1, here comes the 2 to the 3 to the 4...

now e'rrbody in the club gettin' tipsy.

posted by lynne | link to this | comment () | trackback (0) |

on firs’ lissen

a lil’ meme extracted and co-opted from my favorite negro jason. check his list and find out where he copped it here.

1. fire up iTunes
2. turn on shuffle from library to randomly play all songs
3. list the first 20 joints that pop - no matter how they make you look

and the winners are:

1. walk on by – d train
2. e.i. remix – nelly da derrty versions : the reinvention
3. slowly but surely – wayne wonder no holding back
4. hardgroove – roy hargove presents the rh factor hardgroove
5. who’s the man? – notorious b.i.g (feat. Ed lover and dr. dre) dj vlad and dirty harry : the notious b.i.g. : rap phenemoneon
6. the new workout plan – kanye west college dropout
7. i love the pum pum – capleton kardinal offishall & cipha Sounds :: fire Shots!!
8. pimp juice – nelly and ron isley da derrty versions : the reinvention
9. like glue – sean paul dutty rock
10. carolyn’s fingers – cocteau twins blue bell knoll
11. freestyle – mos def dj vlad presents vlad the butcher
12. paradise – young gunz (featuring freeway) tough luv
13. encore – redman whut ? thee album
14. tight jeans – jahiem still ghetto
15. don’t stop the music – yarbrough and peoples
16. waiting in vain – bob Marley the very best of bob marley
17. fix up, look sharp – dizzee rascal boy in da corner
18. i can’t get with that – jay-z s. carter & sicamore :: from marcy to Madison square
19. everybody loves the sunshine – roy ayers
20. please don’t leave - paolo fedreghini / sahib shihab rewind 3

posted by lynne | link to this | comment () | trackback (4) |

sunday, early dinner

Lynne, Larry, and Steven
Photo By Donald Andrew Agarrat

i don't have the pictures. so i can't tell too much just yet. many of them had cameras though, and i'm sure they'll be posting them soon. what the hell am i talking about? a bunch of us ny-based black bloggers hooked up yesterday at BBQ on E 72nd. in attendance were the estemmed bloggers of a burst of light, anziblog, blog.stevengfullwood.org, diesel nation, life up in harlem heights, ej flavors, j-notes.com, prometheus 6, and there were a few of these cat's friends. more were supposed to show up, but it's alright they didn't. maybe next time. i enjoyed meeting the fellas, but i really wanna know where the ladies at?

posted by lynne | link to this | comment () | trackback (4) |

i've retired

yeah, i know i'm a little young for that. but what i've retired is my black thoughtware column on popmatters.com. turns out i didn't have enough in me to turn out those serious pieces on a timely basis, and that of course messed up the editor's schedule, which wasn't a good thing. i'll still be writing for the site though - features and other pieces instead.

they've put out a call to replace me, and i guess now that i think about it fully, i probably replaced mark anthony neal (his critical noire column there). on the home page of popmatters it reads, "PopMatters Seeks Columnist to Write on Black." personally, i think a word is missing, but here's the description: PopMatters Seeks Columnist to Write on Black

Deadline for submissions is Saturday, March 20th. Send your application to Karen Zarker, PopMatters Columns Editor, at Zarker@PopMatters.com with the subject line, "PopMatters: Write on Black" (lest I mistake your e-mail for spam and delete it). You will receive an e-mail confirming receipt of your application. All writers will be notified of the status of their application by Saturday, April 3rd.

oh, my bad, it looks like they do really want someone to write on black. i swear, i really don't know what that means. anyway, i'm sure there's loads of you out there, reading this right now, who'd love to jump on the opportunity. if you mention my name, i don't know where it'll get you. remember birds of a feather flock together, and um, i had a problem being able to work within a scheduled enviornment. so i don't think you want to be affiliated with that crap. but a mention of my name, might turn out to be a good thing.

posted by lynne | link to this | comment () | trackback (0) |