Hey! Long time no see!!! Sorry about that. There were some complications going on with the settings in the Matrix of Life; some corrupted code that I needed to take care of.

As you can see, it's a pretty difficult programming language to play around with.

So, I’m going to explain some things that have been going on – or, more like, have gone on. For example, everyone in my class yesterday had an official publishing party, without the girls and poles of course (and, instead, all boys), so what we were supposed to do was make a public speech where you introduce the winner of a certain award. The award was for the best participant in orgies. And, if you haven’t noticed, I have just finished cracking a joke. Though it probably wasn’t quite funny.

Some of us were given special roles, though, since we made considerable progress, or could not do much more progress than had already been done. I have a perfect 13 for my ITBS, meaning, my reading and writing capabilities are supposedly at college level, and I’m only in eighth grade. If I can’t brag, I can gloat. If I can’t do it in public, I can do it on a blog – however public a blog is as well.

So what role did I play? I was “DJ” (Dick Jerker) – though I think that’s more of a euphemism. I was just the put-music-during-transitions-from-public-speech-to-public-speech person, which was quite enjoyable for me, since I like poppin’ and then showin’ off my tunes (as in my penis).

I'd rather listen to myTunes.

Like, Cult of Personality, or some other cool ones like White Light by Gorillaz, Feather by Nujabes (featuring some other guy who does the rapping), Prodigy, Motorhead, but, of course, Led Zeppelin.

I had perfect timing on the breaks for the most part, and people actually liked the music. I tried to put music of all genres insofar as they fit the occasion. Mostly hip hop and rock. This is because audience’s won’t always have the same tastes – some will think rap is shitty. I’m not a big fan of rap, except for some jazz rap. So I compromised, and put some jazz rap, which I call candy rap.

Candy rap.

Primarily because it has a sweetening instrumental sound that soothes the ear, backing up the rap so it sounds like spoken word – I also call that hip hop.

I always knew my music wasn’t shitty, like a pile of shit. Sometimes the audience bobbed their heads, and sometimes the “award winners” (actors, really) would dance to it also, just to make themselves look absolutely ridiculous.

I was the Jesus of music during the whole show, yet I had not gotten nailed.

DJ Jesus: "I turned whine into music. And I turntabled music into dance."

My language arts teacher also decided to let me borrow his Operation Ivy CD for me to listen to, also. It was radical, dude. \m/

Damn it, it’s getting dark. And I hate that, because it sort of numbs my mind a little. But, oh well. I’ll find some excitement and adventure again eventually.

I’ve started to try and work things out again with Mickey, after some inner emotional doubt, and then a bit of sullen-ness. Which I think didn’t help much, and I hope she feels better. Sometimes I have no idea what direction I’m taking, or whether I’m doing something awry. But that will only be relevant when it doesn’t work out, right? Right. I hope so.

And, Abe? Well, things have been going fine with him and me, as friends, really. I still rate him a 45. While, last school year, it would’ve been a 25. He says he wishes he would’ve never met me or talked to me, which was a severe blow.  But then he said, well, I’m better than I was last year. I guess he said that only because my eyes met the ground once he said the former. I don’t completely understand, though, of course.

Now I’m going to go to a Thanksgiving family party, to stuff some turkey anally.

Excuse the sexual language, ma'am.

I have a lot of things to give thanks to. Like, maybe boobs, shaven Turkeys, myself..but, I don’t think I’m ready for Thanksgiving. I feel more compelled to ask for something than to give thanks. I want things to get back as they once were; well, just that they ride towards the better.

The race is over and I survived!

Today I reached an unbelievable personal goal, completing a half-marathon after about two months of training. I started on this project as both a personal challenge, and as a way to inspire people through the American College of Endocrinology Power of Prevention program. Along the way, I have heard from so many of you who are following my progress, have been inspired yourselves, or who are just rooting me on to success. On this Thanksgiving Day, I have to tell you all how grateful I am for all of your support.  What started out as a project to inspire others has certainly changed my life, and a significant part of that comes from all of you.

Now, on to race day.

First, a brief note.  I did not run with my iPhone, so I did not take any pictures.  Sarah took some, and I will work to add them later in the day.

So, I guess the story begins with dinner last night. My good friend Britt has been following my progress in this training regimen, and was sorry to tell me that he would not be able to come out to the run and see me finish, due to the fact he is out of town today. But he did offer to help me carbo load the night before. So last night our two families went out and enjoyed a delicious Italian dinner. In fact, I had to stop loading because I was too full. (I had an awesome shrimp alfredo Sicilian style pizza. Pictures forthcoming as well. I promise you will be jealous).

I got home and had a good night’s sleep.  This morning when I woke up, my number one priority was my pre-race preparations. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, go here to get up to speed, but suffice it to say, I was very nervous about making sure this was not a problem today.

Not joking, I resorted to jumping jacks in the living room, but it all came out fine in the end (did I really just type that?)

Sarah and I headed out to the run at about 6:45.  Race time was 8:00, but we wanted to get a decent parking spot and I also wanted to do a mile pre-run before the race to get loosened up.

People up north can complain about this next sentence, but it was cold this morning.  It was probably only 50 degrees when we got to the race site. I was not concerned about the race, because I know how much I heat up when I am running, but I was definitely freezing waiting for the race to start.

Sarah and our friend Melissa were running the 6k at the same time.  The starting line and starting time were the same, so we got “in the blocks” together and waited for the run to begin. After a pre-recorded National Anthem from Lee Ann Rhimes, the race was set to begin.

We had positioned ourselves towards the middle of the group.  We knew we were not fast enough to be in the front, but did not want to get stuck behind the walkers in the back, either. The gun sounded and we were off.  It took about a minute or so to cross the starting line. I’m glad this was a chip race, because I’m interested to see how off my chip time is from the race time. The first mile was the typical jockeying for position that you see at any race. I tried to keep my pace slow and steady, but it is definitely hard with the adrenaline of all the other runners around you.

Around mile one, the course split for the 1/2 marathoners and the 6k, so the crowds thinned considerably at that point. It was about this time that I realized I had forgotten to start the timer on my watch. This is a dual problem, because I had no way to track my time, and because it was not recording my heart rate (long time readers know that I have a history of overheating when not monitoring my heart rate closely). So I started the timer and hoped that at some point there would be a timer on the course that would allow me to get some idea of how I was doing.

The first course clock did not come until mile two.  The race time at that point was 19 minutes. That meant that even if I had been at the front of the pack, I was pacing at sub-ten minute miles. This was both exciting and troubling. Exciting, because I did not feel like I was moving at that pace and felt fairly good. Troubling because I was not sure I could maintain this pace for eleven more miles.

The next few miles were relatively uneventful. I was able to maintain that 9:30ish pace and was not feeling tired. One thing I did not do was take water at the water stations. I have learned from experience that I get bad cramping if I drink anything while running. I had tried to hydrate myself well before the race, and was banking on that being good enough.

The race was actually quite uneventful in general until about mile eight. Right about that time my feet began to really hurt, especially on the instep. I know that I am due for new shoes, but did not want to get them so close to race time. Many runners have told me that’s a recipe for disaster with blisters and real problems on race day. But what was a mild nuisance at mile eight had become a real pain by mile nine.

The mile nine refreshment center had something I can only refer to as runner’s goo. It came in a foil packet, and had the consistency of Vaseline.  But it tasted good, was packed with sugars and caffeine, and really gave me a bit of a boost when I really needed it.

By mile ten, I was in uncharted waters. Ten miles is the previous longest run I had ever done, and I still had a full 5k to go to finish. I resorted to counting miles, not in distance, but in songs. At my pace (I had slowed to about an even ten minute mile pace, by now) I knew it was about two and a half songs between miles. So I just focused on the music and plowed ahead.

At mile eleven, the pain in my feet moved to my calves. This was a new experience for me. Whenever I run, the only true obstacle is breathing. I never have physical pain in my legs that prohibits me from going forward. So this really caught me off-guard. I knew that I only had two miles to go, however, and was determined to power through it, no matter what.

At mile twelve, I could smell the finish line, and so could the rest of the group running at my pace. Everyone kicked it up a notch at that point. I did the same, despite what my legs were screaming to me (R-rated, can’t repeat here). That lasted maybe a quarter of a mile. That’s when I thought I was going to collapse. Despite the fact that I had made it more than twelve miles without stopping once, I had to stop and stretch out my legs, then walk for about 30 seconds. I regret this terribly, but really don’t think there was anything else I could do at that point.

Once I started back up again, I decided to keep the pace slower and just get to the finish line. Two songs later, I was crossing the thirteen mile marker. At this point I knew that I had a 1/10 mile sprint in me, so I kicked it in and raced to the finish line, passing up a couple of guys down the stretch!

Final time: 2:07:18! Official results here: http://www.1stplacesports.com/obdc09halfres.htm

I looked around for Sarah, who had finished the 6k about and hour and 20 minutes earlier, but could not see her anywhere. So I got some water and tried to work out my legs a little bit. About 7-8 minutes later Sarah spotted me in the crowd and came over. I had anticipated finishing between 2:15 and 2:30, so she had gone home and got the turkey and stuffing in the oven, then was going to come back and watch me finish and take some pictures. Since I beat my goal time by about eight minutes, she missed the finish.

She’s more upset about that than I am. I’m glad she came back at all, and I appreciated the support in any case.

So we met up with some friends and compared times, then headed over to get a banana… AND THEY WERE OUT! So I settled for some orange slices and a couple of Michelob Ultras. Sarah also grabbed an Ultra, that she was actually getting for me.

As we walked to the van, I saw a sign for a “Brazilian Honey Bakery”. Having no idea what in the world that is, we headed inside and asked the question “What in the world is a Brazilian Honey Bakery?” The proprietor proceeded to give me a sample of a cheese bread pastry, which was so good, I immediately ordered a dozen.

And with that, we packed into the van, and headed for home. I received all of your well wishes on email, Facebook, and Twitter. You really have no idea how much that means to me. I am thankful today for all of you who have supported me through this training, and I look forward to sharing with you my next plan…

Until then, you know the drill…

Vital Statistics:

Workout: 13.1 Miles

Time: 2:07:18

Pace: 9:43

Playlist:

Neither Can I – Slash’s Snakepit

Estranged – Guns N Roses

Believe – Disturbed

Always On The Run – Lenny Kravitz

Sure Shot – The Beastie Boys

The Battle of Evermore – Led Zeppelin

I.R.S. – Guns N Roses

Brain Stew – Green Day

Miss Independent – Ne-Yo

Rusty Cage – Johnny Cash

The Way You Make Me Feel – Michael Jackson

Best I Can – Queensryche

All Along The Watchtower – Jimi Hendrix

Get It Together – The Beastie Boys

Strength Beyond Strength – Pantera

Hella Good – No Doubt

Hanger 18 – Megadeth

Used To Love Her – Guns N Roses

One – Creed

Razor – Foo Fighters

After The World – Disciple

Hollaback Girl – Gwen Stefani

Elvis Is Dead – Living Colour

Jane Says – Jane’s Addiction

Territorial Pissings – Nirvana

Madagascar – Guns N Roses

No Rain – Blind Melon

Monkey Wrench – Foo Fighters

It Ain’t Over Till It’s Over – Lenny Kravitz

There Is No God – Extreme

You may be surprised at the scope of this week’s topic because when it comes to Elvis Presley, well nearly everyone’s got an opinion. The iconic nature of Elvis Presley in music and popular culture, has often made him a subject of, or a benchmark, in numerous songs. We launched the show with CALLING ELVIS by Dire Straits. Written by Mark Knopler and released in 1991, the song is about an Elvis fan that can’t believe that Elvis Presley is dead. Based on some of the bizarre ’sightings’ over the years, I fear he is not alone.

A song from one of my favourite films followed: Public Enemy’s groundbreaking FIGHT THE POWER from the soundtrack of DO THE RIGHT THING, directed by Spike Lee in 1989. Like the film, the song broke at a crucial period in America’s struggle with race. Unabashedly political, FIGHT THE POWER was confrontational in the way that great rock has always been. It attacks a whole roster of American icons including Elvis and John Wayne in what amounts to a virtual flag burning. Because who better embodies the American ideal than the King? The song goes so far as to call Elvis racist. I don’t agree with that. But what I do know from the National Archives is that in 1970 Elvis wrote a six-page letter to Richard Nixon asking him to make him a ‘Federal Agent-At-Large’ in the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs. And amongst the gifts that Elvis presented to the then President was a Colt-45 pistol. So what do we make of all this? Maybe only that, like a lot of his countrymen, Elvis was a misguided patriot who defended the nation’s order – an order from which blacks, in particular, had been routinely barred. The irony, of course, is that Elvis was the first artist to successfully blend black and white music: country music and the blues. And didn’t he do it well?

It was time for a change of tone: The very whimsical and wonderful Kirsty McColl with THERE’S A GUY WORKS DOWN THE CHIP SHOP SWEARS HE’S ELVIS. The song made an appearance on the FAMOUS PEOPLE show, but definitely deserved another spin. We followed with Richard Thompson’s FROM GALWAY TO GRACELAND.

Robbie Williams’ ADVERTISING SPACE is a song not only about Elvis but, also, about the price of fame.  Emmylou Harris followed with BOY FROM TUPELO. In case you weren’t aware Elvis was born in Tupelo Mississipi on January 8, 1935. And then it was the great Roy Orbison with HOUND DOG MAN.

Living Colour funked it up with their critique of the tabloids. The song  ELVIS IS DEAD ups the ante with an appearance by Little Richard. Check it out.

We dived into the second hour of the program with Ann Margret singing the title song of the film BYE BYE BIRDIE. Based on the stage musical of the same name, the story was inspired by Elvis Presley being drafted into the US Army in 1957. Jesse Pearson played the role of teen idol Conrad Birdie, whose character’s name is a wordplay on another singer of the era, Conway Twitty.  The film is credited with making Ann-Margret a superstar during the mid-1960s, leading to her appearing with Elvis Presley in Viva Las Vegas in 1964.

A couple of great songs were suggested to me by BayFM’s very own Cowboy Sweetheart, Carrie D. First up, Bap Kennedy with GLADYS & VERNON about Elvis’s parents and the night that Elvis was born. And then it was the great Waylon Jennings with the very entertaining NOBODY KNOWS.

I absolutely adore BLACK VELVET by Allanah Myles and have played that before. But, hey, when a song’s as good as this one it deserves a replay!

U2’s song ELVIS ATE AMERICA illustrates the many personas of Elvis, both good and bad. And then it was the romantically delusional Scouting For Girls with ELVIS ISN’T DEAD: ”Elvis isn’t dead ’cause I heard him on the radio….. and you’re coming back to me.”  Yeah, sure guys.

Time to get serious: First up, Kate Bush with her hit song about Elvis – KING OF THE MOUNTAIN. And then, Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds transported us into a disturbing world with their song about the night that Elvis was born. Elvis was a twin but his brother was still-born. The song is TUPELO from the album THE FIRSTBORN IS DEAD. Here’s the totally mesmerising clip:

John Fogarty likens Elvis to the BIG TRAIN (FROM MEMPHIS). Neil Young reminded us that it’s “better to burn out than to fade away “, with his song MY, MY, HEY HEY.

Another of my faves followed: Cowboy Junkies with BLUE MOON REVISITED, otherwise known as SONG FOR ELVIS. And then it was Paul Simon’s song about travelling to Elvis Presley’s home, GRACELAND, with the Everly Brothers helping out on vocals. Don’t have a clip with the Everlys in it, but you can’t do much better than this concert performance of the song in Zimbabwe. Enjoy.

There was time for a little more mjusic dedicated to Elvis before signing off and what better than ELVIS HAS JUST LEFT THE BUILDING by the one and only Frank Zappa. And, of course, I had to play some of the King himself so we went out with BURNIN’ LOVE. Here’s what all the fuss is about:

Next week’s show will be dedicated to the patron saint of Theme Park, Roy Orbison, who died 21 years ago this December 6. So songs by Roy Orbison, The Travelling Wilburys, duets with Roy and covers of Roy Orbison songs. Anything connected to Roy Orbison qualifies. Personally I can’t wait!

Here’s this week’s playlist:

Caiu na rede é peixe… No festival de 1 ano de blogosfera, Fut Pop Clube pede bis para uma das praxes aqui do blog, que são “fichinhas” de preferências gentilmente preenchidas por músicos. A primeira foi com integrantes da banda curitibana Copacabana Club, como a vocalista Cacá, o guitarrista Alec, o Tile e a Claudinha. Tem espaço  para o pessoal do Metalmorphose e pro homem-multimídia que liderava o Dorsal Atlântica e hoje toca o Mustang, o Carlos Lopes. E ainda o sambista Marcos Sacramento. Com as respostas dessa turma toda, conheci um monte de sons a mais!

Também faço aqui um greatest hits dos meus pitacos sobre alguns dos melhores shows que vi no ano: Manu Chao em Sampa, Iron Maiden na praça da Apoteose, Kiss, Living Colour, Faith No More… Ou sobre a invasão de documentários musicais no cinema e no DVD.

El viernes 6 de noviembre fuimos testigos, sin lugar a dudas, de uno de los mejores recitales del año en materia de rock internacional.

Living Colour llegaba al teatro Teletón a promocionar su más reciente placa, “The Chair In The Doorway”, con la que han vuelto al primer plano de la escena mundial tras varios años de silencio.

Tras el teloneo de Los Morton, pasó cerca de media hora para que subieran al escenario Corey Glover (voz), Doug Wimbish (bajo), Vernon Reid (guitarra) y Will Calhoun (batería). Con todo muy bien dispuesto, luces, telón e instrumentos, la banda dejó claro de inmediato que este show sería memorable, al comenzar con el clásico “Middle Man”.

En un comienzo el sonido estaba un poco saturado, pero en cuestión de un par de temas todo se arregló y no quedó nada más que disfrutar la tremenda entrega de estos músicos norteamericanos.

Las cerca de 2.000 personas que se dieron cita en el recinto, desde un comienzo respondieron al entusiasmo mostrado por la banda, coreando los temas y saltando. No era para menos con tan poderoso comienzo, pues sucesivamente sonaron “Desperate People” y “Time’s Up”, para dar posterior paso a una seguidilla de temas nuevos que tuvieron muy buena recepción. En estos tiempos en que cada nuevo lanzamiento musical llega a nuestros oídos en cuestión de minutos, es perfectamente entendible que muchos de los asistentes ya conocieran las nuevas canciones, he ahí la causa de tan enérgica reacción. Tampoco hay que dejar de mencionar el altísimo nivel de “The Chair In The Doorway”, que tiene, a mi juicio, algunos de los mejores temas que ha compuesto la banda, tales como “The Chair”, “DecaDance”, y especialmente “Young Man” y “Behind The Sun”, todas las cuales sonaron en este recital.

Cuando sonó el poderoso clásico de Stain (1993), “Go Away”, la fiesta ya estaba desatada. Ayudaba especialmente la cercanía del escenario con las primeras filas del público. Esto facilitó que los músicos se aproximaran muy seguido a la gente. Incluso Doug Wimbish estuvo a punto de pasar al público en su solo de bajo.

Hablemos entonces de solos, pues jamás en ningún recital tuve la oportunidad de presenciar algo tan memorable como lo de Will Calhoun detrás de la batería. En parte coreografiada y en parte improvisada, su intervención no hizo sino mostrar su increíble virtuosismo y maestría. Impecablemente acompañado por luces y proyecciones de imágenes, nos brindó una clase de más de 10 minutos sobre cómo debe tener protagonismo un baterista. Nota aparte para las baquetas que brillaban en la oscuridad y la atención con el público disfrutó este momento del recital.

Otra situación especial vino por parte de Corey Glover, que justo ese día cumplió 45 años y los celebró con el típico “happy birthday” cantado por el público y soplando las velas de un pequeño pastel. A propósito de la edad, hay que destacar que los años realmente no pasan por la voz del cantante, que exhibió un nivel superlativo durante toda la jornada.

Y el “happy birthday” es sólo muestra de la increíble conexión de la banda con su público, pues con posterioridad se dieron hasta tiempo de improvisar un tema con los cánticos de la gente en un momento de pausa.

Pasaron otros temas como la más pausada “Bi”, “Open Letter” y “Method”, pero los puntos más altos de la noche se vivieron con los clásicos de antaño como “Glamour Boys”, “Cult Of Personality”, “Type” y especialmente “Elvis Is Dead”, con los cánticos del público de ‘Elvis está muerto’, tal como en un momento del tema del álbum “Time’s Up” es posible oir.

Ya al final del concierto se subió al escenario el invitado de la noche, Lalo de los Chancho en Piedra, para interpretar “Funny Vibe”. La aparición del cantante nacional se debe a la amistad que hicieron con la banda tras el recital de 2001 donde compartieron escenario.

Todo se cerró con otro clásico: “Should I Stay Or Should I Go”, que si bien es original de The Clash, a estas alturas es también un tema emblemático de Living Colour. Aplausos y vítores por parte de los asistentes, y total satisfacción tras aproximadamente dos horas de concierto, fueron sólo una demostración de haber presenciado uno de los recitales más notables que una banda extranjera haya dado este año en nuestro país.

Corey Glover, American musician (Living Colour)

Quando  ouvi falar da vinda do Living Colour ao Brasil, logo pensei que mais uma vez Beagá ficaria de fora e eu, com água na boca. Mas às vezes a gente tem sorte!

A minha expectativa para o show era tão grande quanto foi a minha surpresa ao ver o pequeno tamanho do público naquele domingo de 18 de outubro de 2009 no Music Hall. Eu tinha imaginado que pelo menos metade dos músicos que tocam rock’n'roll nas bandas cover da cidade estaria lá!

O Bauxita abriu bem a noite. E tinha boa companhia: Leandro Ferrari na gaita, Daniel Canhas num violão e Toni Carvalho noutro.

O Leandro Ferrari voltou mais tarde para fazer com a gaita o que o Leo Gandelman fez com o saxofone em 1992 no Hollywood Rock:  um solo em “Elvis is dead” com o Living Colour. Banda que, por sinal, proporcionou-me um dos melhores momentos musicais deste ano.

As fotos do Bauxita estão aqui; as do Living Colour, ali.

Will Calhoun performs with saxophonist Jeff Smith, dancer Ethel Calhoun and Tibetan vocalist Yung Chen Lhamo on October 28, 2009 at the Chelsea Art Museum in New York. © Lia Chang

Will Calhoun poses with a photograph he created during his travels, after his performance at the Chelsea Art Museum on October 28, 2009. © Lia Chang

Will Calhoun and Tibetan vocalist Yung Chen Lhamo on October 28, 2009 at the Chelsea Art Museum in New York. © Lia Chang

Dancer Ethel Calhoun at the Chelsea Art Museum in New York on October 28, 2009. © Lia Chang

Calhoun spent a ten year period traveling, mainly to Africa and the Outback of Australia to research music, rhythm, sound, and to learn music that was spiritually based, and not based on entertainment. He took many photographs and field recordings. The photographs on view were from one of his favorite desert locations in the central part of the Moroccan Desert.

“It was a beautiful experience to be out in complete silence, riding a not so friendly camel for two days.” shared Calhoun. “The music you’re going to hear tonight has been influenced from my photographing, my travels and a combination of me growing up in New York City, in the Bronx, growing up on hip-hop, being a kid and going to the Village Gate, listening to music at the Village Vanguard, salsa, electronic, rock ‘n’ roll-all these combined in improvisation.”

The performances featured Calhoun on wave drum, flute, his drum kit and several indigenous drums, exploring traditional/electronic rhythms laced with digital visuals, and married with his photographs that were projected on the wall behind the artists.
!!!
Calhoun’s latest release on the Halfnote label, Native Lands is Jazz meets World, meets trance-inducing Urban music. This double CD/DVD package in which Calhoun marries his far reaching interests in a genre-bending collection that taps key expressionists from various backgrounds. Among those contributing are Pharoah Sanders, Mos Def, Buster Williams, Stanley Jordan, Kevin Eubanks, Marcus Miller and Wallace Roney, as well as Nana Vasconcelos from Brazil and Cheick Tidiane Seck from Mali. The album includes a DVD with over ninety minutes of music videos and documentary materials that chronicle the last ten years of Calhoun’s life and travels.

Selections from Calhoun’s “Native Lands” CD/DVD are also featured in the Streaming Museum exhibit, New Era: The Middle East , at Tina B. Contemporary Art Festival 2009, in Prague’s Wenceslas Square and in the historic district on the Vernon City Gallery facade, as well as throughout the Streaming Museum network in cyberspace and public spaces on 7 continents through December 8. For additional artist information, schedules and locations, go to www.streamingmuseum.org.

Tina b. Prague Contemporary Art Festival (tina-b.eu) is an international contemporary art project directed by Monika Burian, which strives to combine the creative energy of the cultural scene in Central and Eastern Europe with emerging talents and trends from around the world. Tina b. is held under the auspices and with the support of the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic and the City of Prague. An acronym for “This Is Not Another Biennial”, Tina b. is also the personification of a fictitious character, the festival’s enigmatic female patron.

About Streaming Museum
Streaming Museum (streamingmuseum.org), a new hybrid Museum that presents multi-media exhibitions in virtual and public space on 7 continents. Launched January 29, 2008 by Nina Colosi, the museum is produced and broadcast in New York City, with exhibitions generated in collaboration with international cultural, educational, and public centers; artists, curators and visionary creators. The Streaming Museum was inspired by Nam June Paik who in the 1970’s envisioned the Internet, predicting an “information superhighway” as an open and free medium for imagination and exchange of cultures. Streaming Museum is sponsored by The J. M Kaplan Fund, FJC Foundation, ONSSI, and is amember of the International Urban Screens Association.

Will Calhoun on Myspace
www.willcalhoun.com



Lia Chang is an actor, performance and fine art botanical photographer and an award-winning multimedia journalist. Lia’s portraits and performance photos have appeared in Vanity Fair, Gourmet, German Elle, Women’s Wear Daily, The Paris Review, VIBE, TV Guide, Daily Variety, Interior Design, American Theatre, Life & Style, OUT, New York Magazine, InStyle, Timeout.com, Villagevoice.com, Playbill.com, Theatermania.com, The Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, USA Today, The Boston Globe, New York Times and Washington Post. A former syndicated arts and entertainment columnist for KYODO News, Lia is the New York Bureau Chief for AsianConnections.com. She writes about culture, style and Asian American issues for a variety of publications and this Backstage Pass with Lia Chang blog. As a photographer and videographer, Lia is frequently tapped to collaborate with artists, organizations and companies in establishing their documentary photo archive. She has been documenting her colleagues and contemporaries in the arts, fashion and journalism since making her stage debut as Liat in the National Tour of South Pacific, with Barbara Eden and Robert Goulet.
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Charnett Moffett Trio The Art of Improvisation CD Release Party at Iridium
Multimedia: Francis Mbappe and the Tribe at Joe’s Pub Photos
Will Calhoun’s Native Lands Experience Live at the Blue Note in NYC
Francis Mbappe Unplugged with The Tribe at Joe’s Pub
Different Keys: Japanese Women Pianists and Photos by George Hirose at Drom
Matsuri Sawagi at Drom
On Ensemble, Kenny Endo and Kaoru Watanabe in Taiko x2 at Cerritos Center
Alex Nguyen and the Jazz Conceptions Orchestra
Funk Filharmonik at Mirelle
Will Calhoun Tours with Unified Presence and Living Colour in Europe
Exordium Quartet at Drom
Francis Mbappe and Will Calhoun Duo at Zinc Bar
Thelonious Monk at Town Hall-The 50^th Anniversary Celebration
Stanley Jordan

Vernon Reid, Dough Wimbish, Will Calhoun and Corey Glover of Living Colour in concert at the Highline Ballroom on October 30, 2009 in New York. © Lia Chang

Corey Glover, Will Calhoun and Doug Wimbish of Living Colour in concert at the Highline Ballroom on October 30, 2009 in New York. © Lia Chang

Vernon Reid, Doug Wimbish, Corey Glover and Will Calhoun of Living Colour at the Highline Ballroom on October 30, 2009 in New York. © Lia Chang

Saxophonist Jeff Smith © Lia Chang

After the performance, the band members were inundated with fans who lined up to meet their favorites, pose for photos and get autographs.

I’ve listed the dates for LIVING COLOUR’s upcoming shows in South America and Europe. Check out the Living Colour Website for all the latest on the band.

Corey Glover, Vernon Reid, Doug Wimbish and Will Calhoun of Living Colour at the Highline Ballroom on October 30, 2009 in New York. © Lia Chang

LIVING COLOUR DRUMMER Will Calhoun © Lia Chang

Living Colour 2009 European Tour Dates

LIVING COLOUR bassist Doug Wimbish © Lia Chang

LIVING COLOUR vocalist Corey Glover © Lia Chang

LIVING COLOUR guitarist Vernon Reid © Lia Chang

Lia Chang is an actor, performance and fine art botanical photographer and an award-winning multimedia journalist. Lia’s portraits and performance photos have appeared in Vanity Fair, Gourmet, German Elle, Women’s Wear Daily, The Paris Review, VIBE, TV Guide, Daily Variety, Interior Design, American Theatre, Life & Style, OUT, New York Magazine, InStyle, Timeout.com, Villagevoice.com, Playbill.com, Theatermania.com, The Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, USA Today, The Boston Globe, New York Times and Washington Post. A former syndicated arts and entertainment columnist for KYODO News, Lia is the New York Bureau Chief for AsianConnections.com. She writes about culture, style and Asian American issues for a variety of publications and this Backstage Pass with Lia Chang blog. As a photographer and videographer, Lia is frequently tapped to collaborate with artists, organizations and companies in establishing their documentary photo archive. She has been documenting her colleagues and contemporaries in the arts, fashion and journalism since making her stage debut as Liat in the National Tour of South Pacific, with Robert Goulet and Barbara Eden.
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Recent Articles and Reviews
Wednesday’s Earful: Living Colour @ The HighLine Ballroom
Tuesday’s Earful: Living Colour The Chair In The Doorway
Living Colour performs at the Highline Ballroom on 10/30
examiner.com review: Living Colour set lists brings inventive metal to Hollywood concert
Rollingstone.com The Chair in The Doorway Review

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Better.

Things were set up to be a third terrible run this morning.  When I awoke, I was stiff and sore like I have not been for a long time.  I looked out the windows and saw that to top the heat and humidity, Orange Park was smothered in a thick fog.  That is the definition of 100% humidity, isn’t it?

I started by doing a prolonged stretching routine before I even stepped outside.  I know that I should spend more time stretching in general.  My calves and hamstrings have definitely become stronger in the past few months, but they are also tighter.  I realized that a good stretching routine was actually harder now than it was a few months ago.

Also, my back has been hurting this week.  I spent extra time stretching my back and gluts this morning.  By the time I was done, i thought to myself, it’s foggy, I’m sore, and it’s probably too late to get a full run in this morning.

But, if there’s a single characteristic about this journey toward running my first half-marathon that distinguished these few months from the 35 years that preceded them, it’s the fact that I now can make myself do things when normally i would have quit.  It’s the START NOW philosophy, which must be applied to every decision, every day to be successful.  When I do it, I succeed.  When I forget to do it, I tend to fail.

So, I got out into our own little version of London with the fog keeping visibility to less than a quarter mile.  I decided to intentionally dial the pace way back.  All I wanted to do was to finished without walking this morning.  If I was slow, then so be it, as long as I finished without walking.

Mission accomplished.  I finished VERY slowly, coming in at 32:44, only 5 seconds faster than Tuesday when I walked three times.  But, I know that keeping myself going the entire time is the key to mastering this heat and humidity.  Does that mean that I welcome the challenge now?  Certainly not.  But, it does mean that I at least have a strategy for it.

Tomorrow is a rest day, Saturday is another 3 mile run, and then Sunday is the big 8 mile run.  I hope things are a little cooler by then, but if not, I know that I will still finish it.  Somehow.  I may have to walk, but I will get the full 8 miles in.

Wish me luck.

Vital Statistics:

Date: Thursday, October 29

Workout: 3.1 Miles

Time: 32:44

Pace: 10:30

Weight: 236

Playlist:

Hearbreaker – Led Zeppelin

In Bloom – Nirvana

Anybody Listening? – Queensryche

Cult of Personality – Living Color

Bad Medicine – Bon Jovi

Wherever I May Roam – Metallica

Headlong – Queen

Stairway to Heaven – Led Zeppelin

LIVING COLOUR drummer Will Calhoun © Lia Chang

Will’s latest creation is his release on the Halfnote label: Native Lands. Native Lands can be described as Jazz meets World, meets trance-inducing Urban music. This double CD/DVD package in which Calhoun marries his far reaching interests in a genre-bending collection that taps key expressionists from various backgrounds. Among those contributing are Pharoah Sanders, Mos Def, Buster Williams, Stanley Jordan, Kevin Eubanks, Marcus Miller and Wallace Roney, as well as Nana Vasconcelos from Brazil and Cheick Tidiane Seck from Mali. The album includes a DVD with over ninety minutes of music videos and documentary materials that chronicle the last ten years of Will’s life and travels, is available for purchase at the museum book store.

Currently touring with LIVING COLOUR with their 2009 critically acclaimed CD-“Chair in the Doorway” (Mega Force Records), on Friday, the band will perform their new single “Behind the Sun” on the Fox Morning Show and will play the Highline Ballroom, 431 W. 16th St. in New York at 8pm.

“The Chair In The Doorway” (Megaforce Records), is LIVING COLOUR’s first new studio album in five years. The legendary downtown New York City rock band, who exploded out of CBGB in the late ’80s, landing all over MTV, the cover of Rolling Stone and stadium stages around the world with its Grammy Award-winning, multi-platinum debut album “Vivid”, is back and as “fierce” as ever.

LIVING COLOUR'S Chair in the Doorway

Living Colour © Bill Bernstein

Discovered by Mick Jagger who produced their first demo and later offered them an opening slot with THE ROLLING STONES, LIVING COLOUR would go on to create a repertoire that includes a multitude of classic songs, including “Cult Of Personality”, “Elvis Is Dead”, “Open Letter To A Landlord”, “Glamour Boys” and “Love Rears Its Ugly Head”. With “The Chair In The Doorway”, the fifth album of the band’s storied career, LIVING COLOUR expands the scope of its timeless body of work and, in the process, proves vital as ever.

October 28, 2009
Chelsea Art Museum
556 West 22nd St.
New York
(212)255-0719

October 30, 2009
Highline Ballroom
431 W. 16th St.
New York at 8pm.
(212) 414-5994
www.highlineballroom.com/
Living Colour Website
Will Calhoun on Myspace
www.willcalhoun.com

“Behind the Sun” live, on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon.



Lia Chang is an actor, performance and fine art botanical photographer, and a multimedia journalist. A former syndicated arts and entertainment columnist for KYODO News, Lia is the New York Bureau Chief for AsianConnections.com. She has been documenting her colleagues and contemporaries in the arts, fashion and journalism since making her stage debut as Liat in the National Tour of South Pacific, with Robert Goulet and Barbara Eden. She is currently working on several botanical portrait commissions for the New York City Health and Hospital Corporation Art Collection and on a book of portraits of her favorite Asian American men in the arts and space.

Recent Articles and Reviews
Living Colour performs at the Highline Ballroom on 10/30
examiner.com review: Living Colour set lists brings inventive metal to Hollywood concert
Rollingstone.com The Chair in The Doorway Review
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Multimedia: Francis Mbappe and the Tribe at Joe’s Pub Photos
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Francis Mbappe Unplugged with The Tribe at Joe’s Pub
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Alex Nguyen and the Jazz Conceptions Orchestra
Funk Filharmonik at Mirelle
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Exordium Quartet at Drom
Francis Mbappe and Will Calhoun Duo at Zinc Bar
Thelonious Monk at Town Hall-The 50^th Anniversary Celebration
Stanley Jordan

There is no way to stop the time (not that I am aware of), however it can be refreshing and reassuring to forget the present and travel back to live again the old good days once more.

Let’s fix this before I move on, because I believe this is the only reason why bands reunite, any band. To cash on people’s nostalgia and eventually to have some more fun under the spotlights.

It is not a criticism, I just don’t like all the attempts of justifying a comeback claiming “artistic reasons”. I have never seen an artist with whatever successful career to gave it up and reunite a previous band for a comeback destined to fail. Go guess.

I saw Skunk Anansie live at the top of their success. They were selling gzillions, they were a young outburst of energy. Stoosh was just out, the nineties just turned their first half and the rock world was overwhelmed by naughty guitars, radical politics and fights for civil rights.

No frills and social consciousness was the rule, the obvious reaction to the glittery eighties.

Skunk Anansie were a strange entity. They had one foot in the alternative side of music and the other in the pop mainstream. Which is the reason why people either love or hate them. Typical.

A big commercial success doesn’t help gaining the “alternative army”. Charting triggers a veto on what you are allowed to listen to. It’s probably the most universally accepted rule about alternative music.
Signed to a Major? Pop-charts? Keep away, avoid.

A more rational reaction could be that Skunk Anansie music didn’t come out of the blue. It was, in fact, the perfect cocktail of some of the trendiest sounds that where happening those times. Cocktail to be drunk watching the catwalk at the London fashion week, circa 1996.

On one side they picked the blossoming crossover of funk with heavy guitars coming from the States.

It had started (guess) at CBGB with the likely of Living Colour which understood the feelings of a black community getting bored with Rap (now Hip-hop) altered course. Their mix of slap bass, hard drums, flamboyant guitar solos along deep lyrics took the Public Enemy lesson into rock arenas. With the help of “funk the preacher” hard rock for the first time wasn’t a matter of white people anymore.

Living Colour debut masterpiece, Vivid, opened the doors to a tornado that, among the others, hit LA and gave us Tom Morello. Electric guitar was plugged back straight into the ampli, radical politics were back in fashion. Rage Against the Machine were born, and Skunk Anansie got to know their album very well.

At home, London, music fans came out of the eighties split in two halves. One followed the rock decadence of Brit-pop. The hard partying, alcohol-fuelled, coke enhanced stories of the Gallaghers and friends was one.
The other half used to wait for weekends to swallow pills and raving relentlessly till late mornings afters the obsessive waves techno.

Bands like the Prodigy got the idea and put together the post-punk rebellion with the electronic music that those masses loved to dance giving them a Music for the Jilted Generation.

Skunk Anansie found themselves at the right moment in the right place. They combined these two aspects using the glue of fashion. Fronted by Skin.

Skin. A black, lesbian, feminist, skinny, bald woman. A political activist in the body of a model. A terrifying look (on stage), an irrepressible energy with a tender, sweet voice always on the brink to explode after a nervous breakdown. There was nothing similar around.

A well manufactured product. There is the idea, there is the image and let’s admit it, there were the songs too. Inevitably a pop-rock band destined to a big success.

It lasted three albums and about five years. The first two, Paranoid and Sunburnt and Stoosh still on the glorious One Little Indian label, than the signing to the major, Virgin, for their last effort Post Orgasmic Chill.
That closed Skunk Anansie intense career just when the 90s and their music were all going to end. Living Colour, Rage Against the Machine and Prodigy curves were all on a steep drop.

A new decade opened. A decade where heavy sounds and anything reminiscent of a funk groove was going to be banned. Time came for a lighter, jingle jangle garage rock played by bands in fashion design. Julian Casablanca and The Strokes, Jack & Meg and their (red and) White Stripes blew the grungy nineties away. It’s the noughties, the 00s.

That was 10 years ago. Today, October 2009, we are 2 months away from the end of even 00s decade. The Strokes and White Stripes, if they still exist, have been on hiatus for more than a while.
You can see the parallel I am getting at. As at the end of the 90s, bands defining these years will inexorably leave space to the next generation. There is no way to stop progress.

In this panorama, Skunk Anansie reformed. The environment is totally different. Rage, raves and funk are gone for now. Brooklyn still leads the scene, but its sound is more complex, multilayered, experimental, electronic beats pioneered by Grizzly Bear, Animal Collective, Yeasayer.

The image of the angry, lesbian, feminist is today embodied by Beth Ditto, the furthest image of woman you could choose to compare to Skin.
But Gossip, her band, are the mirror image of what Skunk Anansie where in the 90s, projected in the 00s.
Their music is crafted with the same philosophy. Putting together the most interesting trends and boosting it up with an explosive frontwoman.
Some coarse guitars, bits of garage rock, the contradictory concept of  punk attitude in fashion dresses.

Like Skunk Anansie, Gossip published the first albums on the independent Kill Rock Star label before moving to Columbia at the court of Rick Rubin who, when not dealing with immortal artists (Johnny Cash, Neil Diamond), is not that guru that the press depicts.

History repeats itself, but time doesn’t.

When I read that Skunk Anansie were going to reform, I imagined another market survey on nostalgia sitting on the desk of a managerial meeting.
Graphs, tables, indicators suggesting there is enough people in Europe wanting to listen Hedonism again (just because they feel good).

Skin, Cass, Ace and Mark are back.
Skunk Anansie played two gigs at Monto Water Rats in March. Same place where everything began in 1994. Than they have been recording, managing a Greatest Hits album (out in weeks), reharsing and, here we go, reunion tour.
Several sold out dates including Brixton academy suggest that survey wasn’t wrong.

London 7th of October, Electric Ballroom hosts the opening night. Thirteen years later I am waiting for the band to come on stage, again.

What to expect? Would they try to adapt to present taste or pretend time has frozen and give the fans the same feeling of their twenties?

A look at the crowd is revealing. There aren’t many teenagers here but loads of thirty-something people chatting about their old memories.

Skin comes on stage hidden inside a sort of gigantic, metallic pom-pom, which reflects any possible lights, makes any camera go crazy. It is difficult to understand where she actually is. The “wow effect” mode is on.

Not really possible to photograph properly I get distracted by the song, inevitably, Selling Jesus. The first song of the first album. Marketing is someway predictable once you know its mechanism.

Thankfully the giant pom-pom goes and I Can’t Wait arrives.
With a greatest hits about to be published, a greatest hits set-list is what people expects and what people will have.

Skin doesn’t seem to have lost an inch of the energy I remembered despite she’s in her forties. Cass, who is almost in his fifties, doesn’t seem to have lost a single hair of his dreadlocks either.
Time does flow, but for rockstars it does slower. The rock’n'roll deal with the devil must have been revised and extended recently.

Song after song, the band becomes more confident. Ace’s guitar starts to play its angular riffs, Skin voice is tuned up and better balanced at the sound mixing desk. The concert becomes more intense. Because of You, a new single goes, then Charity generates the first big jubilation from the public.

100 Ways To Be a Good Girl follows, ironically, Skin behaves as a bad girl. She introduces the song as “this is a song from MY first album” which is a bit of a gaffe when you’re finally back with your band. Nevermind.
Charlie Big Potato is one of their last good songs. Skunk Anansie distinctive mix of heavy riff and Skin sensual voice. When you are able to make thousands of people dance, nothing else matter, it is working.

I Don’t Wanna Kill You is another new song that answers my question. No new exploratory direction, Skunk Anansie are back in the nineties. Time has stopped, lyrics are classic Skin lyrics:

“I don’t wanna see you,
I don’t wanna touch you,
I don’t wanna talk
‘cos I just wanna fuck you”

Ok fine, got that Deborah.

Weak has signs of ageing while Brazen eternal arpeggio, a must-be track on any “Best of the 90s” compilation, produces a mass sing-along once more.

“Why don’t you weep when I hurt you,
why don’t you weep when I cut you,
you don’t bleed and the anger builds up inside”

Twisted (Everyday Hurts), Cheap Honesty, On My Hotel T.V., Skank Head all comes one after the other. You know where you are, they know what to give. The concert finishes, ecstatic fans ask for more. Non fans simply are not here.

More they obviously get, and predictable is the encore.
Hedonism (just because you feel good) is what everyone have been waiting for. After Brazen, this is the other ballad where Skin’s sweeter side and Skunk Anansie mix of influences all build up to converge on the guitar solo. Tonight longer and openly acknowledging Tom Morello.

Listening to the words, I read a different meaning, the lyrics tonight seem written for the fans reunited

“I hope you’re feeling happy now
I see you feel no pain at all it seems
I wonder what you’re doin’ now
I wonder if you think of me at all
Do you still play the same moves now
Or are those special moods
For someone else
I hope you’re feeling happy now.

Just because you feel good
Doesn’t make you right (oh no)
Just because you feel good
Still want you here tonight”

and the audience seem to agree. Happy it tolerates another new song, Squander, before the closure with Little Baby Swastikkka, back from the debut.

Another reunion is on for fans (not anymore) orphan of their heroes.
Skunk Anansie are back for them, and they are excited about it.

They played exactly the concert fans wanted. They try to look as similar as possible to what they were. The songs, the energy, the music, the appeal even the age.
They won’t recruit new followers. They are not mythical and “alternative” enough to attract new youngsters (as Dinosaur Jr or Pavement, for example) but are still young enough to gather some fans wanting to get that dance floor feeling for few more times, if they manage to find a baby-sitter.

Skunk Anansie reunited on the web too: [website] [myspace] [spotify] [twitter]

Photo tip

What to do when you can’t do nothing?

When it is impossible to focus, frame, set the camera because at the same time is too dark, too unpredictable and too hectic.

With Skin wrapped into a shiny ball jumping here and there relentlessly during the first song, shooting was a matter of a surrealist approach to photography a century later.

One option is to enjoy the song and hope it’ll change.
Another is to attempt a slot of random shooting.
If you can’t really control the results, simply don’t control anything.
Failure is guaranteed but if you are lucky out of the bunch there may be some interesting stuff.

As long as there is enough light to impress your sensor (whichever it is) there will be an image.

Fix the focusing and the lens. My suggestion is to manual focus to a point of the stage that gives you some rough certainty that when the subject will be there it will be on focus.
Use a wider angle to avoid undesired cropping. You can always crop in postproduction, there is not shortage of pixels in modern DSLR.
Set a slightly faster shutter time, Let’s say for a 28mm shoot at least at 1/60s so to frozen the madness. Ignore your anti-shaking system, it is not you moving it’s your subject so it can’t help.

Most important stop trying to understand what is happening, let it go.
enjoy

20 years.  4 albums.  That’s the way it goes sometimes.  And that’s the way it’s been for Living Colour, the groundbreaking African-American rock band, who busted out in a huge way with their breakthrough hit “Cult of Personality”, off their debut album Vivid in 1988.

The New York band has had its share of difficulties over the years after its initial success (check out their allmusic biography here), but persistence pays off and their 5th studio album, The Chair In The Doorway, was finally released this fall.  And, hey, whad’ya know – reviews are solid too.

Living Colour

New York Magazine caught up with guitarist and founder Vernon Reid along with singer Corey Glover, who breaks down the good vibes within the band these days thusly: “It used to be that Vernon and I were constantly fighting for attention. But we complement each other. Vernon is never going to be able to sing like me, and I’m never going to play guitar like him.”

Amen to that – for proof, go find Vivid and play that record front to back.  There aren’t many who can play guitar like Vernon Reid or sing like Corey Glover.  After all this time, it’s great to hear these two collaborate once again.

NPR has made it easy to check out some of the new material for yourself by streaming the band’s recent session on WNYC’s Soundcheck. 

Great stuff.  Living Colour may never again open shows for The Rolling Stones, but their performances are no less relevant than they were two decades ago.  And – best of all – no danger of catching them in spandex ever again.

…Living Colour! Znowu w Polsce! Yeah! I to w moim rodzinnym mieście. Radość wielka będzie 29 stycznia 2010. Zwłaszcza, że będą promować absolutnie znakomity album “The Chair In The Doorway” (w Polsce Mystic Production). Ja po prostu uwielbiam sposób, w jaki ci faceci bawią się konwencjami. Lekko, swobodnie ze zwinnością radzieckiej gimnastyczki sportowej skaczą z rocka w soul, z soulu w funky, pohałasują trochę elektronicznie, rozhulają tanecznym pulsem, pojazzują, rzucą coś w reggae albo, ku zaskoczeniu, zagrają po prostu prostą rockową piosenkę. Corey, Vernon, Doug i Will z upływem czasu nic nie tracą na jakości jako muzycy. Wprost przeciwnie, oni są coraz lepsi. Nie wiem, jak to robią, ale to robią.

 Bardzo mnie do siebie przekonując każdą płytą. To nie jest prosta sprawa, aby startując od takiego arcydzieła, jakim bez wątpienia był “Vivid”, zachować poziom i klasę na następnych produkcjach. Living Colour nigdy nie zawodził. Pamiętam, jak dość mocno mieszano z błotem “Stain”. Tylko niech ci, którzy to robili, pokażą mi zespół, który w tamtym czasie nagrywał takie perełki, jak “Leave It Alone”, “Ignorance Is Bliss” czy “Nothingness”. “Collideoscope” sukcesu nie odniósł, a przecież było na nim kilka fantastycznych numerów – “Holly Roller” czy wzruszająca ballada “Flying”. O kapitalnych coverach AC/DC i The Beatles nawet nie wspominam. Living Colour już od “jedynki” słynęli z doskonałych przeróbek, a najbardziej spośród nich zapadła mi w pamięć ultraszybka wersja “Should I Stay Or Should I Go” The Clash.

 Ze smutkiem przeczytałem, że “The Chair In The Doorway” w pierwszym tygodniu sprzedał się w USA w niewiele ponad 2 tys. egzemplarzy (nasz Behemoth ponad dwa razy tyle). Świat ewidentnie schodzi na psy. Nie docenić takiego albumu… Trudno mi to pojąć. W tych kilkunastu krótkich piosenkach jest tyle fajnej treści, że trudno się nie zachwycić. Bycie ambitnym nie jest dziś opłacalne. Szczęśliwie Living Colour to doskonali muzycy, którzy wcześniej zarobili na trzeci filar i dziś mogą robić to, co chcą, mając gdzieś mainstream.

 Jednym z milszych wspomnień mojej wywiadowczej kariery na pewno pozostanie rozmowa z Vernonem na kilka tygodni przed koncertem w Stodole. Byłem zszokowany tym, jakie ten facet ma szerokie horyzonty muzyczne. Gdy wymienił jako jednego ze swoich ulubionych gitarzystów gościa z Necrophagist, myślałem że robi sobie ze mnie jaja. Nie robił. Oglądanie go w akcji powinno wejść do programu obowiązkowego w klasach gitary w szkołach muzycznych. Zresztą trójki jego kolegów z LC również. “The Chair In The Doorway” to dla mnie z pewnością ścisła czołówka płyt 2009 roku. Mam nadzieję, graniczącą dość blisko z pewnością, że koncert nowojorczyków będzie w szpicy przedniej moich wydarzeń artystycznych roku następnego.

 Dobrze, że w majorsach pozostało kilku, dosłownie, ludzi, którzy znają się na swojej robocie i na muzyce. Rzecz jasna, muszą lansować masę gównianej muzyki, aby słupki sprzedażowe utrzymały się na przyzwoitym poziomie, zachodni właściciel nie dostał piany i nie pozwalniał załogi. Ci kumaci z majorsów wiedzą, kiedy trafia w ich ręce wartościowa muzyka. Jakieś dwa z hakiem miesiące temu, będąc w siedzibie polskiego Warnera poznałem po raz pierwszy twórczość Charliego Winstona. Mariusz Lipiński, człowiek od Warnerowej promocji (bez dwóch zdań jeden z najlepszych w te klocki spośród wszystkich, jakich spotkałem na swej drodze), był tą osobą, która powiedziała mi: “Zwróć uwagę na tego faceta”. Pokazał mi wtedy klip do piosenki “Like A Hobo”. Niechlujnie ubrany koleżka, taka uwspółcześniona wersja Toma Waitsa/Nicka Cave’a/Scotta Walkera z wibrującym głosem trochę a la Anthony Hegarty, zrobił na mnie wrażenie. Ale wiadomo, po jednej piosence trudno kogoś oceniać. Dziś już jestem mądrzejszy, bo album “Hobo” poznałem w całości. I Mariuszowi niech będą dzięki po stokroć!

 Charlie pewnikiem będzie śledzony przeze mnie uważnie, bo talent ma nieprzeciętny, głos przejmujący, zdolności do aranżacji imponujące. Czego to nie ma na jego krążku – fortepian, klawisze, harmonijka, kontrabas, skrzypce, altówka, wiolonczela, puzon, dulcimer, Hammondy, jest i próbka beatboxu. Poza tym oczywiście gitary, bas i perkusja. Sporo, nieprawdaż? Ale całość jest tak zmyślnie pukładana, że nie ma mowy o barokowym przeroście, czy chaosie. Charlie dobrze śpiewa, wiele emocji potrafi przekazać głosem, głównie niestety tych smutnych. Fajnie wychodzą mu skoczne, wręcz taneczne piosenki, a także wolno płynące ballady z towarzyszeniem fortepianu, czy podniosłe piosenki (fenomenalne “Boxes”!). Jest jeszcze jedno – teksty Charliego są o czymś. Prawda, do pośmiania się nie ma w nich za wiele, żal, gorycz, zawód, tęsknota czają się pod każdą niemal linijką, ale nie żyjemy w świecie, który nie rozpieszcza nas radościami, więc taki szczery i prześlicznie podany przekaz powinien trafić do wielu. Tylko trzeba dać Charliemu szansę, więc marsz do sklepów! Straszną przyjemność sprawia mi słuchanie i recenzowanie takich płyt. Mariusz, dzięki raz jeszcze i czekam na kolejne rekomendacje

 Część muzyczna trzecia i przedostatnia postu, i kolejne wydawnictwo, które powinno dać wiele radości. W szczególności tym, którzy zatykają uszy, gdy puszczają Lady GaGę, itp. “Touch Yello” szwajcarskiego Yello to ciekawy, wyrafinowany pop z domieszką jazzu, smooth jazzu, tanecznych rytmów, ambitnej elektroniki, ambientu. Niezwykle starannie zaaranżowany przez Borisa Blanka, z udziałem znakomitego jazzmana Tilla Brönnera, który kilka piosenek świetnie ozdobił swoją trąbką, rodaczki Borisa i Dietera Meiera, mało znanej u nas Heidi Happy (wizualnie pani/panna kojarzy mi się trochę z Sherylin Fenn, czyli niezapomnianą Audrey Horne z “Miasteczka Twin Peaks”). Do tańca jest niewiele, do przytulania całkiem sporo. Ale jesień mamy póki co chłodną, więc “Touch Yello” może okazać się całkiem dobrym podkładem.

 Stało się. Vogg dotrzymał słowa i Decapitated wróci na scenę w 2010 roku. Gitarzysta będzie jedynym oryginalnym członkiem odrodzonego zespołu, bezsprzecznie jednego z najciekawszych deathmetalowych wykonawców w historii gatunku. Covan niestety wciąż walczy o zdrowie, z niewielkimi póki co efektami, Vitka nie ma już z nami, Martin założył rodzinę w USA. Oprócz koncertów ma być również płyta. Zanim doszło do tragedii, która zabrała z tego świata Vitka i przykuła do łóżka Covana, Decapitated mieli podpisane papiery z Nuclear Blast i – o ile pamięć mnie nie zawodzi – materiał na następcę znakomitego “Organic Hallucinosis”… Zwykle do powrotów odnoszę się z rezerwą, ale tym razem czekam niecierpliwie na to, co z tego wyjdzie. Licząc, że wyjdzie wyłącznie coś wyjątkowo dobrego.

 Gdyby nie ten cholerny wypadek Decapitated mógł już być w miejscu, w którym teraz jest Behemoth. Zwłaszcza, że miał znacznie bardziej kreatywnych i lepszych warsztatowo muzyków. Wiadomo, że miejsce Vitka zajmie Austriak Kerim “Krimh” Lechner. Resztę składu Vogg ogłosi pod koniec roku. Dobra wiadomość jest taka, że menedżmentem Decapitated będzie firma Hard Impact Music, w której działa wokalista Kataklysm (i przemiły człowiek) Maurizio Iacono. Gość zna się na tym biznesie, zna się na death metalu, więc od tej strony wszystko powinno się ułożyć, jak trzeba. Mocno trzymam kciuki za Vogga i zespół.

 Wpadłem może na mało odkrywczy, ale dający mi wiele radości pomysł – postanowiłem uzupełnić luki w literaturze współczesnej, w której zapuściłem się niemiłosiernie. Aż mi wstyd. Kupowanie zaległych tytułów szybko spowodowało by moje bankructwo, ale na moje szczęście okazało się, że moja osiedlowa biblioteka jest skarbnicą współczesnej polskiej książki. Na pierwszy ogień poszedł nagradzany wielokrotnie “Gottland” Mariusza Szczygła. Jeszcze kilka stron do końca zostało, ale od mniej więcej 10 wiedziałem, że to pozycja wybitna. Warto przeczytać, bo dotyczy Czech/Czechosłowacji, czyli terenów bardzo blisko Polski położonych. Historia firmy Bata jest po prostu niesamowita, podobnie Lidy Baarovej, kochanki Goebelsa. Gorąco polecam.

 Równie gorąco polecam obraz “Shrink”, u nas wyświetlany pod kretyńskim tytułem “Całe życie z wariatami”. Myślę, że lepiej sprawdziło by się bardziej dosłowne tłumaczenie, bo “shrink” to w USA psychoterapeuta, po prostu. Kevin Spacey w roli głównej, mistrzowski jak zawsze. Jest sporo do śmiechu, takiego szczerego, głębokiego, i takiego przez łzy. Fajnie, i chyba wielce wiarygodnie, pokazany jest światek filmowy. Mało, ale za to konkretnie, gra Robin Williams, który nie chce się przyznać, że ma problemy z alkoholem. No i śliczna w takim starym dobrym stylu Saffron Burrows (choć śliczniej wyglądała w “Angielskiej robocie”).

 A jak ktoś chce więcej śmiechu, to trzeba obejrzeć “Do Czech razy sztuka”. Jiri Machacek, i wszystko jasne Ten aktor jest stworzony do takich ról. Końcówka może nie do końca wyszła Janowi Hrebejkowi, ale generalnie ocena jest co najmniej dobra. Czemu u nas nie potrafią zrobić takiego filmu?! Za naszą południową granicą mam wrażenie, że obrazów na tym poziomie powstaje kilka rocznie. U nas trafi się jeden na kilka lub więcej lat. No, ale jak pakuje się pieniążki na durne seriale i jeszcze durniejsze tak zwane komedie, do obsady dodaje niekoniecznie tych, co umieją grać, lecz koniecznie takich, których jedyna zaleta, to ładniutki wizerunek, to nie ma co się dziwić, że Czesi pod względem filmowym od lat biją nas na głowę…

O quarteto americano Living Colour é uma das bandas mais queridas no Brasil, também pudera – com um poderoso caldeirão de ritmos e influências diversas, o grupo se identifica com o país e torna suas apresentações sempre energéticas e cheias de improvisos.

Graças aos colaboradores cariocas, segue o set-list do Show do Circo Voador e videozinho esperto com LOVE REARS IT´s UGLY HEAD

1- Middle Man
2- Time’s Up
3- Go Away
4- Sacred Ground
5- Burned Bridges
6- The Chair
7- Decadance
8- Young Man
9- Method
10- Open Letter to Landlord
11- Bi
12- Drum Solo
13- Papa Was a Rolling Stone
14- Glamour Boys
15- Behind The Sun
16- Bless Those (Little Annie’s Prayer)
17- Hard Times
18- Out of My Mind
19- Elvis is Dead/Hound Dog
20 – Type
21- Cult of Personality

22- Love Rears Its Ugly Head
23- Crosstown Traffic/Sunshine of Your Love

Grande, grandissimo ritorno dei Living Colour! Non assomigliano a nessuno, non scendono a compromessi, il loro stile e` unico ed inconfondibile, grande voce e grandi musicisti.

I Living Colour sono un gruppo crossover/heavy metal statunitense, formatosi a New York nel 1984, e composto da musicisti afroamericani. Sono tra i maggiori esponenti del funk metal.

I suoi fondatori sono Vernon Reid, ex chitarrista dei Defunkt, e il vocalist Corey Glover.

Grazie all’aiuto di Mick Jagger (Rolling Stones), che apprezzò sia i quattro che le loro composizioni, firmarono un contratto con la Epic Records nel 1987. La Epic stampò nel 1988 il loro primo album Vivid, che grazie anche ai singoli Cult Of Personality (vincitore di un Grammy come miglior brano hard rock nel 1989) e Glamour Boys, ebbe un successo planetario. Cult of personality fa parte della colonna sonora di Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. La stessa canzone figura anche nella tracklist del gioco Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock; essendo il gruppo grande fan della serie, per l’occasione ha riscritto il brano per il gioco con un assolo molto più lungo e tecnico, in modo da farlo apparire tra i brani più impegnativi.

Formazione

Attuale

• Vernon Reid – chitarra
• Corey Glover – voce
• Will Calhoun – Batteria
• Doug Wimbish – basso

Ex-componenti

• Muzz Skillings – basso (1985-1992)

Discografia

1. Vivid (1988)
2. Time’s Up (1990)
3. Biscuits (1991) – Ep
4. Stain (1993)
5. CollideØscope (2003)
6. Live at CBGB’s Tuesday 12/29/89 (2005)
7. The Chair in the Doorway (2009)

Dopo la pubblicazione di Time’s Up e Stain, nel 1995, i Living Colour si sciolsero, per poi riformarsi nel dicembre del 2000. Dopo diversi concerti, anche insieme ai loro ispiratori King Crimson, nel 2003 hanno registrato CollideØscope. Nel settembre del 2009 è uscito il loro ultimo album The Chair in the Doorway composto da 10 brani inediti e una ghost track, registrato a Praga tra la fine del 2008 e la primavera del 2009.

Doug Wimbish, carisma no baixo. FOTO Stephan Solon VIA FUNCHAL

O cara já tocou com os Rolling Stones e tem mis en scène de baixista de metal. Pra quem gosta do Living Colour, ainda bem que Doug Wimbish optou pela banda de NY. Já toca quase como uma guitarra, agora o que rolou no solo de baixo… citação do tema de “O Poderoso Chefão” mais agudo que solo do baixista do Manowar. Doug faz stage-diving,  mergulha na plateia, crowd-surfing, “surfa” em cima do público – e não deixa de tocar o baixo. É o maior performer do Living Colour. Agora, saiba o que o batera Will Calhoun aprontou em seu número solo.

Will Calhoun. FOTO Stephan Solon VIA FUNCHAL

O momento do baterista Will Calhoun no concerto do Living Colour vem logo depois do solo do baixista Doug Wimbish, colado na melô do “Bi”.

Will fez um lance que eu jamais tinha visto em solo de bateria. No final do número, musicalmente muito bom, ele pega duas baquetas com luzes de neon na ponta. O efeito visual formato pela “coreografia das baquetas” é muito bonito.  Supreendeu.

Com show de bateria e baixo, aqui termina a cobertura do Fut Pop Clube sobre o show do Living Colour em São Paulo. Tomara que tenha bons motivos para voltar a falar em breve dessa excelente banda dos final dos 80, 90 e século XXI.

Guitar hero: Vernon Reid. FOTO Stephan Solon / Via Funchal

O Living Colour tocou por mais de duas horas e meia em sua quinta passagem por São Paulo (corrigido pelo leitor Boris), na noite de quinta-feira, 15/10/09. Infelizmente, a pista da casa Via Funchal não ficou lotada. Bom para quem foi e curtiu o show sossegadão, com todo espaço para bater pé, cabeça, pescoço, dançar, pular e até fazer pogo. O quarteto chegou arrasando quarteirões pouco depois das 22h, com pauladas conhecidas dos fãs: “Middle Man”, “Time´s Up” e “Go Away”, com direito a citação de “Give It Away”, dos Chili Peppers (o Living Colour sempre gostou de covers em shows) e ainda “Sacred Ground” (outra pauleira, de um disco menos conhecido, o “Collideoscope”). Em seguida, uma pá de músicas do disco novo: “Burned Bridges”, rockão. “The Chair”, hipnótica combinação de paulada sem dó e efeitos eletrônicos. “Young Man”, boa candidata a single, em sua junção de rock e balanço. E outra nova de clima mais ou menos soturno: “Method” (será que é porque o novo disco saiu pela Megaforce, gravadora de metal?). Esse pacote de novidades quebrou um pouco o clima do show. Mas a banda recuperou o controle do público com uma espetacular versão de “Open Lord (To a Landlord)”, seguida do balanço de “Bi” (aquela que diz: “Everybody wants you when you´re bi” – de bissexual). Os solos do baixista Doug Wimbish e do baterra Will Calhoun merecem texto à parte.

Corey Glover, em foto de Stephan Solon / Via Funchal

O Living Colour todo voltou ao palco pegando mais leve, com nova cover: “Papa Was a Rolling Stone”, balanço  Motown gravado e regravado por muita gente boa. Emendada com a pulsante “Glamour Boys”, um dos maiores sucessos do quarteto de NY.

Em seguida, o guitarrista Vernon Reid deu vazão ao seu lado virtuoso, em “Behind the Sun”, É a melhor canção do novo disco, “The Chair in the Doorway”. O guitar hero esbanja a técnica das duas mãos no braço da guitarra, algo que o Eddie Van Halen usava um bocado. Legal demais. Candidata óbvia a hit, tem vídeo no My Space da banda. Cool!

“Behind the Sun” lidera mais um bloco de novidades, seguida pela balada “Bless Those”, o peso de “Hard Times” e “Out of My Mind”.

Os caras pareciam estar se divertindo bastante no maneiríssimo trabalho. E a Via Funchal quase veio abaixo com “Elvis is Dead”. Entrecortada por um trecho de… “Hound Dog”!

Depois, uma versão esticada e pesadaça de “Type”, cartão de visitas do segundo disco da banda. “Stereotype… Monotype… Blood type… Are You My Type”? Lembrou?

Mais um hard rock dos bons: “Cult of Personality”, abre-alas do primeiro vinil (1988!) do Living, “Vivid”.  O áudio, que começou meio embolado, já permitia curtir os sons de cada instrumento.

No último bis, uma balada conhecida das passagens do L.Colour por aqui no começo dos anos 90: “Love Rears Its Ugly Head”. Vernon faz o solo quase blues – blues pesado, claro. Uma cover há muito presente no repertório do quarteto fundador do movimento Black Rock Coalition manda o pessoal pra casa com um senhor sorriso na alma e um zumbido no ouvido: clássico do Clash, “Should I Stay or Should I Go”.

Showzaço, aço, aço. O Living Colour tem muito peso, é rock pesado mesmo, sem dúvida nenhuma, mas continua flertando com outros ritmos, como punk, funk, soul, rap, eletrônica, jazz etc.

Vernon Reid tem espaço para esmerilhar na guitarra sem deixar o show chato e cabeça. E o vocalista Corey Glover? Pode até não ter o pique pra lá e pra cá no palco do começo dos 90, mas em termos de gogó, que é que interessa num cantor, continua dando show. Por vezes, o cara afasta o microfone quase meio metro e sua voz brilha.

Por falar na Black Rock Coalition e em blues, desse movimento participou um bluesman de NY, o guitarrista Michael Hill. Com seu grupo Michael Hill´s Blues Mob, ele esteve no Brasil (Bourbon Street) anos atrás. No disco de estreia do Blues Mob de Hill, um presente do Living Colour, “Soldier Blues” – autoria e canja de Vernon Reid na gravação de estúdio, presente no CD “Bloodlines” (ouça trechos), pela Alligator Records.

FOTO: Stephan Solon / Via Funchal

Amigo leitor, que showzaço foi o do Living Colour em São Paulo (Via Funchal, 15/10/2009)! O texto inteiro sobre o show está aqui.Para quem gosta de ver set lists, é có clicar em “manter a leitura”. Em negrito,  as músicas do disco novo, “The Chair in the Doorway”, que está sendo lançado na turnê que termina domingo em Belo Horizonte.

- Middle Man (do 1º LP da banda, Vivid! É, vinil, 1988)

- Time´s Up (o blog da banda publicou vídeo da faixa-título do 2º disco da banda no show do bar Opinião, em Porto Alegre, 14/10/2009)

- Go Away (do CD Stain, o 3º da banda)

- Give It Away (citação do Red Hot hit) + Sacred Ground (peso-pesadaço de Collideoscope, 4º disco da banda).

- The Chair

- DecaDance

- Young Man

- Method

- Open Letter (To a Landlord) – também do Vivid.

- Bi (do CD Stain) + solo de baixo

- solo de bateria

- Papa Was a Rolling Stone (clássico Motown já gravado por Tempations, George Michael)

- Glamour Boys (grande sucesso do 1º vinil, Vivid)

- Hard Times

- Out of My Mind

- Elvis is Dead (pérola do Time´s Up)+ Hound Dog (sucesso de Elvis!)

- Type, petardo do 2º álbum, Time´s Up.

- Cult of Personality, abre-alas do Vivid, 1º LP da banda!

- Love Rears Its Ugly Head (jóia do Time´s Up) + Should I Stay or Should I Go, cover do Clash

* conheça um pouco mais sobre os discos do Living… no site All Music.