Nenah Cherry. Buffalo Stance. Love this girl.. On YouTube. Click on image to hear/view..

Lovin’ this girl. Lovin’ the 80’s revival thing.

I’m feeling lucky to have grown up with artists like this.

Ali.

Les Ardentes,

Haven’t you noticed something?

Yes, you, my loyal blog reader. You, who reads àll my stories from the very beginning to the final letter.

Haven’t you noticed that since the blog started,  I only captured 2 females?

Come to think of it. They both were accidental.

I met Marie Daulne while she was leaving Q-tip’s backstage lounge, saying her warm goodbye’s to an old friend.

And Beth Ditto just happened to walk by me, all alone, while I was waiting for Method & Red Man to show up.

I want to represent more women in my little blog. I’m working on that, but trust me…it’s not easy.

Where on earth am I going to meet the Beyonces, Salt ‘n Pepa’s, Aretha Franklins, Jill Scotts of this world?

My point exactly.

So while I was bored as hell waiting for Kid Cudi to show up, I was happily surprised to see Neneh Cherry passing me by.

Neneh Cherry!!

Ok, she might not be in the music industry’s big spotlight anymore , but she is definitely worth a place on my blog.

Neneh Cherry was in Belgium @ the Les Ardentes festival, promoting her band Cirkus and their second album; Medicine.

(check out my favorite song ‘You are such an asshole’)

Cirkus is a family affair, since the band consists of Neneh’s husband Booga Bear, their daughter Lolita Moon and her boyfriend Matt Karmil.

Neneh Cherry who is a Grammy award winner was huge in the 80’s with her mix of hip hop combined with other music genres and her social awareness (remember ‘ I Got You Under My Skin’ for the battle against aids and ‘7 seconds’ with Youssou N’dour  that almost drove me insane since at the time, you could not hide from the song, that brought awareness to racism.)

Her resume consists working with people like Tricky, Gorillaz, Massive Attack and many more.

But, for me personally, she was the first European woman who caught my eye bringing her interpretation of music while rapping on so called ‘Alternative Hip Hop’.

Check out my favorite Neneh Cherry song ‘Buffalo Stance’ and my first encounter with my love for huge gold creole earrings:

She is very down to earth, so when she passed me by, I immediately jumped up from the floor where I was basically sleeping on,

walked straight up to her and asked if I could take a Polaroid.

She took off her headphones, looked at me, smiled and said: “Sure”.

3.2.1. Flashing. Lights. Bingo.

She put her headphones back on, continued singing and went on to where ever she was going.

For me, Neneh is still ‘Raw Like Sushi’.

This is my final Polaroid I took at Les Ardentes festivals.

For obvious reasons, I have a deep love affair with this little festival with both taste ànd diversity in line-up choice.

I’ll be back next year, hoping Lady Fortune will be on my side again.

I’m starting to think, for every too easy Polaroid, I’m paying off in extreme bad luck, since…. oh well…..

I’ll leave that for the next one.

Drama is on its way.

And yes.

There is blood involved.

Love,

Ouni

Please Check:

www.myspace.com/cirkus

www.lesardentes.be

One thing that I hope becomes a recurring feature on this site is the “Song of the Day.” Each day, I’ll post a song that I enjoy singing at karaoke. I’ll also try to explain what makes the song great and why it stands out from other tunes in the karaoke universe.

I figure it’s appropriate to start off with the song that inspired the title of this blog:

Song Title: Buffalo Stance

Artist: Neneh Cherry

Released: 1988

Background: Without sounding too haughty, it would be fair to say that I have a pretty good knowledge of music. But I’ll admit that I didn’t catch wind of this song until I read Brian Raftery’s book about karaoke earlier this year.

Raftery and I have a lot in common besides our mutual love of karaoke. We’re both freelance journalists writing for multiple publications. Our first names contain five letters. He lives in New York, while I’ve visited once. With some many similarities, we’re essentially brothers.

After reading Raftery book, I decided to start listening to a few songs off of his list of favorite karaoke hits. One of the songs was “Buffalo Stance,” a rap/pop ditty recorded by Neneh Cherry in 1988. Cherry – who is Eagle-Eye Cherry’s sister – pretty much used “Buffalo Stance” as a springboard to a moderately successful solo career. Most recently, she guest starred in a song by the pseudo band Gorillaz.

In any case, I enjoyed the song so much that I downloaded it onto my iPod. It’s a fixture whenever I gp running, drive to the mall or decide to stand with buffaloes. I suppose there is some sentimental value to song. For 16 out of the 25 years that I’ve been alive, I lived in the Chicago suburb of Buffalo Grove. While I highly doubt that Cherry was singing about the suburban outpost, there’s something about buffaloes that hearkens back to my formative years.

What makes the song great: It’s a pretty bad secret that I’m a fan of rap, in some respects. But that doesn’t necessarily mean that I think all songs from the genre should be karaoked. Many – such as “Baby Got Back” – tend to be monotonous and overly complicated. While some songs have some high points and memorable lines, most rap tunes droll on until a singer reaches the hook.

Yet, I’ve always been a fan of rap songs with prominent singing parts. For instance, “Regulate” is a great karaoke song because it has the right balance of rapping and harmonizing. I think you could make an argument that “Buffalo Stance” also belongs in this category.

What makes Buffalo Stance … uh … stand out is the rapping part’s technical soundness. It takes awhile to memorize, but the rap portion makes the singer sound pretty darn impressive when it’s done correctly. It’s also short enough to keep the audience’s attention. I also appreciate that the singing portion of the song allows the performer to exert a lot of energy.

Best element of the song: Although I enjoy spitting the rap portion of the song, I’m a big fan of the chorus. It’s catchy, it’s memorable and you can just freaking belt it out.

Worst element of the song: It’s a long song. And there’s a rather uncomfortable instrumental part near the end. On the other hand, that gap is a good time to exhibit some sweet dance moves.

Conclusion: While it is somewhat strange for a male singer to be singing about how a “money man” can’t win his love, Buffalo Stance is probably one of my favorite karaoke jams. It forces the singer to speak, rap and sing, which certainly detracts from dreaded monotony. Raftery deserves some respect for showcasing an excellent tune.

Stay tuned…

Fredrik Reinfeldt

Hej statsministern. Hur mår du? – Vad är din favoritmat? Josefine. På det svarade Sveriges statsminister att favoritmaten är pasta, skaldjur och falukorv.  (Källa ment.se)

Attention:

Till dem/oss som gillar raj raj med falukorv. Vet inte,men det känns som om några, även jag behöver läsa på ett kapitel i den senaste utgåvan av Pedagogiska grunder, Försvarsmakten 2006. I synnerhet  kap 8.  Ett avsnitt som behandlar destruktiva lydnadsreflexer och groupthink. Samt tar dessutom upp några fält som kallas organiserande och ledande.

Jag tar upp det i förhoppning att Ni/Vi och jag  ska göra ett tredje ordningens lärande. Kapitlet är författat av några snubbar som några inom hövdingahuset borde känna till från FM LOPE.  Även andra grupperingar några våningar uppe i folkviljans palats kan ha nytta av denna kunskap.

- även vi/jag som betraktas som argsinta bloggare.

“  Så här kan jag läsa sid på 235 .

“En variant är att människor låter formella regler och bestämmelser överflygla egna ställningstaganden I princip möter vi i detta (läs ert /vårtfall) samma destruktiva lydnadsreflex.

Att människor på ett negativt sätt låter sig behärskas av regelsystemet är lika problematiskt som att behärskas av en annan människa eller ledning.  Också här (läs ert/vårt fall) om en lärd vana att systemets belöningar och sanktioner fungerar avtrubbande på autonoma ställningstaganden”

West Point vink. Utgår vänster höger om. Uppriktigt vresigt. Men det går snabbt över. Ska gå och käka falukorv och studsa till en låt som heter Buffalo Stance!

Olof Bloggar om Raj Raj och Struts Myndighetskontroll har även han en strutsfarm .

Läs vad liberal och långsint skriver. Han gör en jättebra analys

Den som söker länge han/hon hittar ytterligare en struts. Fast det kanske är en okläckt struts.

Andra bloggar om ledarskap.

Samarbetsdynamik. På deras site hittar ni en rapport som ni kan besälla. Titeln är framväxten av pedagogiska grunder. Rapport 120

” Ett särskilt kapitel, no 8 i Pedagogiska grunder beskriver ledning och organiserande. I vår rapport 120 beskrivs också hur arbetet med att ge detta kapitel en helt ny innebörd inför omriktningen till insatsförsvar har bedrivits”

 

 

Quite simply, one of the coolest songs and coolest videos of the 80s.  I remember watching this and then combing the stores for a gold puffy jacket like the one she wore.  I thought black was cool, I thought British was cool, but black British people?!?!?!  My mind was blown.

I give you Nenah Cherry with “Buffalo Stance”

This is a neat application that Mel showed me. Mixwit! You can find an old song (or any song or number of songs), put them together and make yourself a mixtape.

Why not “take it back old school”, find all your old (or new) favorite jams and make your special person a mix-tape? I bet they would like it. I know I would…

I chose to make a tape of Neneh Cherry’s Buffalo Stance. Give it a listen… (refresh the page if you don’t see the little tape)

I’ve been on a “80’s trip” lately, trying to find all the fun songs from that time era. While researching online for “Top 80’s Hits”, I found Buffalo Stance and it took me back… all the way to the 3rd grade at Lampton Elementary School.

So, WHY does it take me back? Well, because Buffalo Stance was the song that me, Joan and our (then) neighbor, Crystal danced to for the school talent show.

Talent show?! Me?! I KNOW!! Weird, huh??

I don’t know how they talked me into doing it, but I did. It was pretty nerve-racking and we couldn’t dance to the entire song. We just didn’t have enough moves.
Some moves that I DO remember doing was:
- Playing with our hair when Ms. Cherry said, “Nasty curls”
- Tuggin UP on the shoulders of our shirts when she said, “Padded bra”
- Walking up and down the stage, then turning to “Gigalo, huh.. sucka!”
- Crystal flipping me. I was skinny.

Oh, my…
I wasn’t sure if Ate was embarassed of me or not. :|

Here’s a self-drawn doodle of what our cafeteria looked like as the 3 of us performed.

You see all the kids that watched us? It was actually a lot more.
You see those “door way” looking things by the sitting kids? Those were actually tables that would fold out of the wall. But, since no one was eating, they kept them up.
There’s like a little room in the back of the picture. Welp, since we’re in a cafeteria, that was where all the food was prepared.

But, we didn’t just perform once. Our cafeteria was pretty small, so we had to perform many times: for the kinder, 1st and 2nd graders; 3rd and 4th; 5th, 6th and 7th.

I laugh about it now, and actually performed some of these moves in front of Mel, Jho and John. Now that I’m older, I can definitely come up with more, fun moves for this song.
Don’t believe me!? I’ll show you…
PSYCH!
I can’t really dance very well.

Thinking back to the talent show, I DO remember 2 performances that stuck out:
Two girls dancing to Janet Jackson’s “Escape”, wearing the spandex, black shorts and black, glitter caps (bills flipped up).
“…Es-ca-pade.
We’ll have a good time!
Es-ca-pade… leave your worries behind.”

And a guy dancing to Michael Jackson’s Smooth Criminal– white glove included.

They all got huge claps! Standing ovations, even!

We got like… 3? ALRIGHT! 2 claps!

Neneh, you’re looking good today.

You’re looking good in every way.

]]> http://bilet.wordpress.com/2008/05/16/neneh-cherry-buffalo-stance/ Thu, 15 May 2008 22:18:12 +0000 Darek http://bilet.wordpress.com/2008/05/16/neneh-cherry-buffalo-stance/

Stara dobra szkoła, w sumie to już 20 lat. Szkoda, że tak mało nagrywała.

+++

It’s been over 30 years since I’ve seen a dogpile develop during the playing of ABBA’s Dancing Queen (Björn Ulvaeus and Agnetha Fältskog’s loft in Stockholm was my sexual Waterloo) however this time around the dogpile didn’t involve Andy Warhol, Brigid Berlin or a traditional Swedish musical instrument called a Nyckelharpa; it was in my son’s elementary school gymnasium and it involved Jack, a number of his schoolmates and a traditional American novelty instrument called an inflatable electric guitar. 

Last Friday was a momentous occasion in the coming of age for Jack as he attended his first school dance. Since it is federally mandated that all dances, proms, balls, shindigs, jamborees, hootenannies, sock hops, clam bakes and hoedowns occurring on public school property be themed and/or named after a current or popular song (My Senior Prom was 2 votes from being the “Buffalo Stance”. Blame it on the Rain? I blame it on the Drama Club stuffing the ballot box) the event last Friday was termed “Dance through the Decades of the 50’s, 60’s, 70’s, 80’s, 90’s and Today” which besides far exceeding any reasonable number of syllables in a title is a preposterous theme for an elementary school dance considering the oldest child at the dance was born in 1998.

Despite winning the heart of my first high school girlfriend Melissa Walrath at the Autumn Harvest Ball by beating her boyfriend at the time in an epic break dance battle to “Jam on It” by Newcleus (Cozmo D you still have my eternal gratitude. Melissa you still have my Depeche Mode T-Shirt) I have mixed feelings about school dances.

On one hand without them I would have never gotten to second base under the gym bleachers with Lynn Mclean (Cad Alert: Lynn was Melissa’s best friend who, incidentally Melissa, didn’t seem to mind my sweating problem) but on the other hand there’s just something “not right” (or “wrong” if you will) about a PTA sponsored rave where supposed chaperones burden slow dancing students with Orwellian restrictions, sketchy custodians leer from the darkness of the Girl’s Locker Room entrance and second-rate morning radio hosts and wedding DJs insist that someone actually requested Old Time Rock and Roll (Hey DJ Shovel and the Wolfman, go reminisce about the days of old somewhere else and play a song from this decade) 

We only live a block from Hillside Elementary School so we walked but even before we reached the corner we could hear the dull thumping bass line and sampled Rick James hook of MC Hammers’ You Can’t Touch This, which Jack must have taken as a challenge because he broke into a sprint towards the building. After paying the steep admission price of $2 for students $3 for adults ($5 for Custodians which I thought was reasonable) we left our jackets with the Girl Scout troupe earning their Coat Check Merit Badge and headed into the gymnasium.

Hundreds of K-5 students were crowded in front of the DJ booth and doing what appeared to be a cross between crunking and the move Michael J Fox does at the Homecoming Dance while in his lupine persona in Teen Wolf. Jack immediately saw one of his classmates who came dressed to impress in a pair of snow boots, knit cap and bright orange hunting vest and the two of them quickly joined the throng of preadolescence that was bouncing in unison to The Pointer Sisters Jump.

What followed was a legendary and unrivaled string of sing-alongs, line dancing songs and playlist perennials that would have been catastrophic had a lesser Jockier of Discs attempted the maneuver, but fortunately for us DJ Jim Stacy “The Good Times DJ” is not a lesser Jockier.

Before you could take those old records off the shelf the gym was polkaed into a Chicken Dance Frenzy and with urging from Jack I was reluctantly partook in the hand-beaking, arm-flapping and tail-feathering while DJ Jim Stacey connected with the crowd by singing the Elmo version over the top of the accordion music (Listen Jim, what Elmo does in the privacy of his own home is his prerogative just don’t drag me into it)

Next we were Shouting with Otis Day and the Knights and it should be noted that after the “…a little bit softer now…” transitions back into “…a little bit louder now…” Jack and I were the only ones who Belushi yelled “GATOR!” then writhed around on our backs before rejoining the chorus and echo of “Heyyyy Heyyyy!” (What are they teaching these kids in school?)

After a surprisingly uninspiring rendition of The Electric Slide by the entire student body in attendance (perhaps they’d be more motivated if it were called the Electric Cattle Prod?) was followed up with an oddly hypnotic and strangely choreographed Macarena that even Jack participated in (What are they teaching these kids in school?) the Good Times DJ posed the question, “Does anyone know how to … Cotton Eyed Joe?”

Now there are only two circumstances in which Cotton Eyed Joe should be played and an elementary school dance is not one of them (In case you didn’t know, it can be played between innings at Yankees Games and during sodomy with Ned Beatty in the backwoods of Georgia) The reason for this is that if heard in its entirety the song is potently addictive to young minds, a theory proven true by the fact that Jack has begged me dozens of times since Friday to sing the “Cot and My Joe” song while he Michael Flatleys around the living room.

A Miami Sound Machine Conga line, the aforementioned ABBA dogpile, an unnecessarily extended remix of the YMCA and some unwelcome sweating at the hands of the C & C Music Factory and I was ready for Jack’s Dance through the Decades to come to an end.

The Girl Scouts at the Coat Check effectively and amazingly retrieved our jackets on the first try and I tried to give them a tip to which they replied they were not allowed to receive tips. A response I challenged with, “Where does it say that you can’t put out a tip jar?” “Right in the Girl Scout Handbook!” lashed the voice of their Den Mother from the shadows behind a London Fog Trench Coat and a hooded tunic. “But you can buy some Girl Scout Cookies if you want to.” the voice beckoned. I handed Jack his coat, placed $3 on the edge of the table and walked away. “Sir, you forgot your cookies…” a scout’s voice sang to me. “I’m diabetic (I’m not) keep them.” I yelled without looking back and with that Jack and I pushed through the front doors into the bitter night air.

A few steps from the school I heard the distinct Bum-Bum-Bum-Bum-Bum-Ba-Ba-Bum intro to “Jam On It” followed by the unmistakable falsetto wikki-wikki-wikki-wikki coming from the gym.
“Hey Jack…want to hear a cool story about this song?”
“Is it Cot and My Joe?”
“No, It’s Jam on It by Newcleus”
“Can you sing Cot and My Joe for me?”
“Sure Jack…Sure… I don’t see why not…ummmm…Don’t you remember, don’t you know, Don’t you remember Cotton-eyed Joe?…”

And with that the lord of the dance was once again dancing and jiving and having the time of his life.
 

Dette er herved dedikert til M.I.A-fans (fordi ingen er så revolusjonerende som du trodde de var).

Jeg elsker Neneh Cherry. Jeg gjorde da jeg var kid, og jeg gjør det enda mere nå. Revivalen kom midt i UK garage-kjøret omkring 2000, da britiske Dreem Teem gjorde en intet mindre enn fantastisk remix av Neneh Cherry låta “Buddy X” (den er fra ‘99, for å være eksakt). Du vet, den relativt rolige female empowerment-låta fra 1993? Uansett, remixen er alt jeg elsker med UK garage. Gull-låt.

Så jeg plukket fram skivene hennes igjen, og som da jeg satt foran TVen hjemme etter skolen (og lærte engelsk via Sky Channel), ble hun folkehelt, som om ingenting hadde skjedd. Hadde jeg kunnet velge fritt (uten hensyn til meg selv eller omgivelsene), hadde jeg lett sett ut som Neneh i Manchild-videoen, og fått barn med en av de heller feminine rumpetaskekledde mennene ved hennes side.

Men jeg har ikke hørt stort fra Neneh de siste åra. Så gleden var enorm da jeg oppdaget at hun fortsatt er å finne. Også på BBC Food, da! En av mine absolutte favorittkanaler. Hun har fått sitt eget matprogram, med bestevenninna si!

Det er så koslig, jeg blir rent varm inni meg. Så lager de mat til familien da vettu, Eagle Eye og sånn. Det heter Dishing Up og er å finne på nevnte YouTube om du ikke har en bra kanalpakke til kabel-TVen. Jeg har desverre ikke det. Krysser fingrene for flere kanaler i neste bolig!Heia Neneh!

Ted’s Montana Grill taken with my Instamatic

Arena District
Columbus, Ohio
As the faux-vintage sign hints, they serve buffalo meat.

Neneh Cherry – Buffalo Stance