Uness ft Drake – Would You Love Me

This track was produced by the amazing talent that is Ryan Leslie, who in my (possibly bias opinion), tends to make a masterpiece out of anything he lays his hands on!

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J Holiday – Lose Your Love

I heard this new track from J Holiday a few weeks back and have been blasting it on repeat ever since. It features Claudette Ortiz (of City High fame) and samples the classic 80’s jam ‘Computer Love’ by Zapp and Roger. The original track is actually one of all my all-time-favourite tracks, so it’s nice to have a fresh spin on it!

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Backstreet Boys – She’s A Dream

Backstreet’s back! Again…  and the second release from their recent album is actually pretty good! This Is Us is the groups 7th studio album and was released on October 6th.

With T-Pain on the production credits, it seems the band couldn’t stay away from autotune. But this is a big track regardless, and it’s great to see them bringing it back with a sound that’s current and fresh!

That title should be pronounced in your best approximation of the vocoder voice, such as was used by 80s greats Zapp on such hits as Computer Love. Why doesn’t anybody make music like that anymore?

Anyways, here is my electronic art, baby:

Just like the Zapp song was being played on Vinyl, this is not entirely digital. In fact, it is built from 4 different sheets of scanned scraps of paintings.

I explain more and embed Computer Love after the jump. You know you want to embed computer love.

The reason I built this was because in 2006 I didn’t have a camera with high enough resolution to blow up any photos of my paintings to poster sized. But I wanted to make a poster because it sounded fun. I decided to get around the resolution issues by taking smaller res images and just layering them atop one another until I had an image the appropriate size.

This is made of over 60 layers of full sized 8 x 12 scans of individual scraps, each modified in photoshop. I got my poster- it hung in my office a few months and now I’ll probably use it in a collage. If I can find the damn thing.

I may do more of these. They are easier to store than actual paintings. But my to do list is longer than my have done list will ever be, so don’t count on it.

Anyways, here’s computer love.

I love the sax and vibraphone solos. I need to work some of those into my art. Soon we’ll be able to replace America’s highways with my to do list.

-JD

iTunes-Link

Hab letzte Woche kein Weekly Mucke gepostet..

You've been tagged.You've been tagged.You've been tagged.You've been taggedYou've been tagged.

I’ve been mulling over how much time I have to be associated with Facebook. I mean, I’m a 31 yr-old black male, which means that I’ve already out-lived my projected lifespan by about 15 years. So it’s time to start getting serious thinking about my legacy.

2014: Rosie Perez gets replaced with Rosie the Robot

Back in the day, such things would be accomplished through NBA record-setting, organizing the Million Man March, or cameo-ing with Master P on something, but in the advanced computer age, such legacies are now redundant. I mean we’re about 5 years away from the Jetsons’ imagined future of white-haired daughters and busty robot maids, so all legacies now will be the electronic kind.

This is where Facebook comes in.

Facebook was initially the gentrification answer to the ever-browning MySpace. In its initial incarnation, you had to be a college student with a working college email address and know the cast of Friends. It’s since changed to become something akin to MTV: a maelstrom of people cavorting, f-cking and photo-ing with the reckless abandon of a frat initiation.

Do I really want to show my children, or have my children shown to them, that my electronic/internet-al imprint consists of copious linking of “Lil Wayne freestyling about tampons” or “wall” messages like “I can’t believe you peed on the Metro!”.

Is that what I want?

To be remembered and traced back with comments like, “omg did u see kanye on the mtv awards? i h8 him–but his album’s the shit. i <3 him. drinks tonite?”.

To have my child look at my list of friends and say:

“Who’s that?”

“I dunno, someone I met at a bar once I think”

“Who’s that?”

“I dunno, someone I went to HS with once. Or maybe punched”

“Who’s that? She looks like me!”

“Someone I hooked up with once before…..don’t tell your mother”

“Who’s that man? He’s funny-lookin”

“Fergie. No wait that’s my old English prof. He was in a horrible fire accident once. No, no, wait…that’s Fergie”

And so on and so forth.

So yes. I think the time’s ticking on my time with Facebook. I mean, no offense, but if I haven’t talked to over the last 15-18 years…..why now?

So I can see your latest “Mafia Wars” hit?

So I can see that I should join you in becoming a fan of “Jesus”…or “Gossip Girls” or….”Laughing at People Tripping”?

From the album "Piggy's Pork Tenderloins"

It might be time to move on. I’d rather stay one step ahead of the pack whenever possible and spare myself the inane listings of favorite bands that are really only listed to prove how cool you for knowing obscure ones (“Favorite Artists: The Snoot Group and Its Babies–it’s a little known band out of Brooklyn fronted by ‘Zoot’ the bald saxophone player from the old Muppets Band.”). And books. The oft-times embarrassing favorite books of people that I respect. Who knew Dan Brown had so many fans?

Facebook is an amazing collection of people treating their dogs like kids (“snoopy’s sick today. can’t think about work “), their kids like pets (“my son pissing on the carpet and me taking a picture. my boy! lol”), and their spouses like bitches (“wife crashed car again today. my gf and i can’t believe it”).

So yes, it’s getting close to closing time on FB. And if there’s ever better proof that now’s the time to get going it’s the recent article in The Washington Post about Sarah Palin joining Facebook (kinda).

Sarah Palin.

Sarah Smurfing Palin is on Facebook.

The mere idea that somehow, someday, I’m going to log into FB and have Palin as a People You May Know is, well, terrifying.

It falls on my personal list of Greatest Fears.

Just look:

1. The Roots become house band for a really unfunny white guy
2. Salma Hayek is really a man
3. Oprah eats my family
4. My fave group, The Snoot Group and Its Babies, disbands
5. Sarah Silverman’s career continues
6. Getting friended or connected to Sarah Palin
7. Pharrell is really a woman

Out of curiosity and bloggeristic integrity though, I went to Sarah Palin’s page and over the last couple of days discovered the following:

"Just wrote on your wall, sweet'ums"

• Favorite Bands: rubber, John Denver, Jesus, moose mating calls, John Mayer, N.W.A.
• Favorite Things: bein’ cute, bein’ stupid, bein’ pregnant
• Status Updates: “is looking at the shores of China from my window, wondering where it all went wrong”….”is getting super-poked by so many new friends!”….”still thinks that colored-man in the White House talks kinda funny”….”is not understanding what’s going on on ‘House’ anymore. I mean, really!”….
• Favorite Books: the Bible (GOP edition), So Your Daughter’s a Whore and You Want to Be VP, The Da Vinci Code

So I gotta leave. Soon. I can’t afford to be associated with another Da Vinci fan.

I can’t.

To boot, the website’s having a movie made about it.

Starring Justin Timberlake.

I Smurf you not.

So it’s time for an about-Face. Time to gather my things…my photos….my witty captions on pics…my Lil’ Wayne freestyle links….and Cormac McCarthy this b-tch by hittin’ the road.

Who’s with me?

The following story is rated R for extreme wordplay:

Once upon a time, there was a Girl and a Mac. The girl worked at a grocery store. Sometimes the Mac would come  for an Apple or  to ‘Window’ shop. One day, the mac stopped at the Girl’s desktop and said: ” I’ve been scanning you for a bit and I love your hardware” The girl replied, “Hmm.. your outlook has got me refreshed. Here’s my number, you can page me and maybe we can go for some Java”‘. He replied, “Word, you’ve got a power-point there, but let’s crash at my space. I can take a byte out of your cookie.”

So they went for some java but when they arrived, their server told them that the site was experiencing high traffic volume, and as a result, it was over capacity. So the girl said, ‘Don’t worry about this place…it’s not that serious. Their stuff is shareware; I even think I see a mouse! Let’s bounce.” So they left the entourage and headed to the guy’s spot. Inside the car, she started scanning his hard disk. She RAMed her hands into his folder, and noticed that it was indeed a FLOPPY DISK!! oh HELL to da NO! She said, ” Jor o. u better upgrade before I backspace…. I hope you have another memory stick somewhere around here, cuz I don’t do floppy disks! He replied, “Don’t worry, I got this…I need some shepe (alcohol) in my system. I have a space-bar at my crib.

When they reached the Mac’s place she excused herself to use the bathroom and began searching through his mac-book. . As she looked through his mac-book, all she saw was yahoo-yahoo and twitpics of girls, playing with their twitter! “This low down dirty SPAM!”.She grabbed her shoes and as she was about to re-boot, she thought about it… ” I mean.. he is a hot-mail. and I do need to get plugged.. so I might as well crash with him”, She thought to herself.

When she entered the room, the mac was fully loaded! the Shepe had him recharged . She could see his power cord shining like a limewire. They began to turn each other on. He right-clicked, she left-clicked. they were all over the place! He explored her safari, tore her thread , unzipped her file and dragged her to the bed. He inserted his gigs into her slot. It took a while to get the bandwidth to a broadband status but once it was connected, he was highspeed!

I guess the girl forgot to scan for viruses or spyware because the next day, the mac was no where insight but she found his note and it read:

“You have been infected with  a malicious spyware called the ‘Trojan Virus’. You should have used a protection. Maybe if you weren’t all over the world wide web, you would have a stronger firewall. Please don’t attempt to contact me,I don’t Double click. Girls like you are what I call Error:”WScript.exe – Bad Image”

Disclaimer: “The characters in this story are fictitious and any resemblance to persons living or dead is purely coincidental.”

The Pharmartist ~CockTales~
copywrite 2009, all rights reserved

The thing I LOVE about Theophilus London is his choice of instrumentals. Blending dance and electronic styles, these arent your typical hip hop beats. You should take a listen…

Theophilus London – Computer Love – download

Theophilus London – Day One Fans – download

Theophilus London – Sand Castles – download

Download: Theophilus London – This Charming Mixtape

Bonus: Theophilus London – Jam!

Dentro de una nueva era musical encontramos de todo tipo de sonidos y de mezclas, es la era de regresar a lo “antaño” con sintetizadores y voces roboticas como un sello caracteristico, y aqui un ejemplo un grupo llamado Glass Candy.

Originarios de Portland, Oregon llegan Ida en las vocales, y Johnny Jewel en la bateria, con un poco de electropop  la banda termina por incorporar un estilo Italo disco, en lo particular esta banda y la voz de Ida me transportan a decadas en las que aún no tenia la edad necesaria para estar de fiesta. Estos muchachos aunque no hacen mucho ruido han seguido haciendo lo suyo y nos dejan este gran resultado musical.

el video no es el mejor pero dejo las recomendaciones:

• Computer Love
• Rolling down the hills
• Candy castle

i love current.com’s supernews. check out the hipsters in space and the AMERICAN A-PERV-EL episodes too.

download:
Theophilius London – Computer Love

How much do you love Commodore 64?  Even if you’re kissing one, right now, you still don’t love it as much as the champions of bleep at Slay Radio.  If you are kissing one right now – just make sure it’s not plugged in, mmmkay?

Slay Radio plays almost exclusively Commodore 64 generated music – ranging from blipped out squelch anthems to ’string’-sodden epics, with a few MOR rock guitar noodle-outs thrown in for good measure.

DJs include stationmaster Slaygon – a member of the Commodore 64 scene since the late 80s (yes, there’s a Commodore 64 scene. Do keep up). Gothenburg-based Slaygon’s DJ style is pretty loose – after warning us to “please make sure no wives, women or children are listening to the show because it will be rude”, he wanders off to get a beer, then leaves his mic on through the next track. We like that.  Also look out for ‘the BBB – Boz’ shows – he’s the droll British dude on the station. Download his request show and check out the gamer shenanigins. Contains loads of swearing. Loads. Tell your wife…

Datorn skickas iväg på service imorgon och det kommer med all förmodan vara rätt dött här under den tiden.
Finns väl inte så mycket mer att säga… fan vad jag kommer sakna den.

Yep, workload means I’m still recycling Black Lodges blogs from last week…I know that’s lame, but I’m not reorting to shooting what I got free this week.

I don’t know if I stand alone in this sentiment, but I’ve got little interest in reading books or publications about anything I already know. I prefer to be in-the-dark about a topic and emerge either a zealot for the cause, whatever it was, come out the other side as confused as I was when I took the plunge. Too many magazines and books trying to pander to sectors of…uhhhh…I’ll whisper it, street culture, flop because enthusiasm outweighs ability, or they’re treading absolutely no new ground at all. Seriously, who fucking cares about the same old faces that have been done to death? All, without fail, have been covered in a far superior style back when they were unknowns.

Paper doesn’t deserve a heavier status than pixels on a screen by right – it’s the potential realised when good writers, illustrators and photographers try to push things forward, or get thoroughly retrospective and immortalise a topic that warrants respect. Me? I’m a regressive fucker, and I love nostalgia-fests.

I had no idea about anything pertaining to the UK jazz dance scene. I knew it had ties to b-boying. I knew many of the attendees of the Wag club in its heyday ended up forming clothing brands, distributing product, stores or DJing and building many of London’s foundations. Reading Mark ‘Snowboy’ Cotgrove’s labour-of-love, ‘From Jazz Funk & Fusion To Acid Jazz’ in the sun, so intently it induced multiple migraines, a bigger picture emerges, linking a subculture to pretty much any other key subculture of the seventies, eightes or nineties. Now that’s deep. Definitely worth your time if you ever hoarded ‘Big Daddy’, ‘Grand Slam’ or ‘Keep On’ – oral histories built on interviews, from ‘Please Kill Me’ to ‘It’s Not About A Salary’ are usually fascinating – even Steven Blush’s ‘American Hardcore’ is classic despite his non-objective approach to the topic.

I had no idea about the jazz dance scene, but now I have a little insight – job done. The motherlode is the new book by Dave Tompkins, ‘How to Wreck a Nice Beach’ on the history of the vocoder and talkbox that’s published soon  (on Stop Smiling/Melville House) and if it’s as strong as the recent ‘Wax Poetics’ article on Roger Troutman (best read of the year thus far) this year is shaping up to be particularly edumacational.

This one goes out to the Troutman brothers and my new MacBook…

Computer World ’s sound may be a bit emptier than before, containing few of those iconic neo-classical moments, if any, yet it incorporates what might be the most individual melodies in a single one of Kraftwerk’s records. There’s one for the title tracks, “Pocket Calculator,” “Computer Love,” and “Home Computer,” all of which manage to be memorable in their own right. “Computer Love,” in fact, is probably the third loveliest composition they ever made. Every track was made with a dance floor in mind, the most blatantly being “Numbers” and its prominent percussion, which ended up going on to influence some hip-hop. “It’s More Fun to Compute” even marks an attitude that would be realized in Electric Café of tracks being intended more for fun than for any real concept. Thankfully, it’s taken no further than Electric Café.

[5 stars, A]

Two of my favourite cover versions ever!

T-Pain couldn’t make it to the video shoot due to his golf cart accident…

Vans Japan has released a premium pack of goatskin Sk8 Hi’s. The pack consists of three colorways of the classic high top sneaker, with all three coming in tonal colorways, featuring nice quality leather logo tags on the tongue. The pack is now available at ABC-Mart.

via: www.highsnobiety.com

Soundtrack Entry: Never Been a Next Time – The Truce

Like many of us, Siamese Fighting Fish become extremely anxious and aggressive as soon as they look in a mirror.

They probably think all that anger is an asset, that it will help them become more focused and determined in achieving their goal of being less like themselves, but it never works out that way, does it? You just expand out into cumbersome dimensions, diseregard the value of your brightest colours, and attempt to attack that image of yourself even though a transparent wall bars you from that resolution short of an ultimate sacrifice.

One which, if were you to jump out the top of your bowl to meet your opponent, would find him already defeated.

We (you) have met the enemy, and they (you) are us (you.)

So, to kiss a Siamese Fighting Fish, all you have to do is not be another Siamese Fighting Fish. Unfortunately, nobody wants to kiss Siamese Fighting Fishes except for other Siamese Fighting Fish, because although they hate each other in the flesh they are able to become co-enabling and sympathetic to each via text-based chat on the internet, leading to tragic destructions of romance which might have been. They’re all like:

Siam_I_Am98: so yah thats basically all the bad stuff that ever happened to me, alphabetically

Siam_I_Am98 has signed off.

Therefore, to work out a peaceful kiss of another Siamese Fighting Fish, it may be crucial to leverage the fact that they are unable to distinguish water from vodka.

Either that, I guess, or you tell them to get off the internet and confront an image of themselves that they aren’t able to manage solely in abstract and intellect.

So, yeah: Vodka.

Esther Baxter talks about the circulating rumors that she was involved with Fabolous. Addresses Fabolous’s ‘Esther’ reference in “Computer Love.”

“Digital, digital get down just you and me / (You may be) Twenty thousand miles away but I can see ya / And baby, baby you can see me / Digital, digital get down just what we need / We can get together naturally / (We can) We can get together on the digital screen” – N*Sync, “Digital Get Down”

Lately, I’ve been contemplating doing the online dating thing.  I figure that I can start small (and free!) and then, depending on how that goes, graduate to a paid site like E-Harmony.  I know what you’re thinking because I’m thinking it too.

OK, first, let’s take out the safety factor.  I know, I know – there are crazies out there.  But let’s face it.  You could meet a crazy walking down the street, riding on the bus or eating at the diner . . . . Need I remind you of the 3.5?  And let’s go ahead and take out the jerk factor as well.  Yes, I’m sure that on some sites there are some men who are married or in committed relationships that are online looking for a good time.  But, those same guys are in the bar, at the club or in the mall.  So safety and creep factor aside, I’m still fifty-fifty on this thing.

I’ve got more than two hands worth of friends who are doing it.  And no, if everybody were jumping off a bridge I wouldn’t do it too. But this is kind different. And, for every horror-story that I hear about a date gone wrong, I have a friend who landed a solid, long-term, committed relationship.  All things considered, I’d say that my online dating friends are batting the same average as my traditional dating gal pals.

So, with that being said, why am I still straddling the fence?

One sistagirlfriend brought up a good point.  She wonders about the types of black men I might find on there.  Are they going to be the ones who can’t find a date?  Or the players?  The truth is that I have no idea.  But I kind of feel her.  I wonder (because I have no actual evidence) if there is a stigma in the black community attached to dating online? If the only black women who are supposed to date online are the ones with four degrees and in their early forties.  I’m just wondering, because usually, when I mention online dating to my black girlfriends they give me a funny look.  At least the ones in my immediate age range.  My older girlfriends, like Diva B, hardly bat an eyelash.

On the other hand, I’m not necessarily looking for a black man.  BREATHE!  I’m not saying I do not want a black man.  Just that I’m open to other men.  I’m not even sure I’m looking for something serious.  I’m just looking.  Being nosy if you will. Not in a desperate type of way.  Just opening myself up to other possibilities.

After all, we live in a digital world.  I spend more time in the office and on my blackberry than I do sleeping. Think about that.  I outsource everything else in my life – dry cleaning, house cleaning (shut up!) – and conduct all the business of life on my computer – payments for my mortgage, insurance, cable, cell phone, etc.  So why not conduct my dating business online as well? In the digital age it makes perfect sense, doesn’t it?

But see, right at this point where I get all rah rah rah about dating online, a little thought creeps in my head.  Does online dating make me desperate? I do not think it does – but maybe it does.  Do desperate people know they’re desperate?  I know lots of people who have had success.  Do you think I could?

Oh LORD, I feel a complex coming on.

So dear readers, what do you think?  Should I go ahead and give it a try? What have I got to lose?  And have you done it?  What’s the worst that can happen?   Actually wait . . . . don’t answer that.  Let’s not take it all the way there. I know the world is a dangerous place.  But really, the people I meet couldn’t be any worse than the ones I’ve managed to meet on my own, right?  Shoot, they could be lots better.

You know the deal – weigh in below.

Signed,
Wondering if I Should Digitally Get Down Barbie