Phi Nu Theta?

I get a text from a friend this morning saying there is a play entitled 'The Eclectic Society'. Based on the one and only Eclectic Society of Wesleyan University before it had to integrate, pre Kennedy assassination. At the time Eclectic was a male-only, intellectual society, of wealthy white men. The tradition and history is deeper and richer than that I have shared but needless to say it has evolved into something broader and richer, relatively speaking, as well as notorious. I am very interested as to the subtext of a play about a society that still exists but is not even an apparition of what it once was. Those that write the history make decisions of and for immortality.

Link to the theater in Philly, where it premiered.


A synopsis...

The Eclectic Society will make its world premiere at the Walnut Street Theatre, located at 825 Walnut St., in Philadelphia at 8 p.m. Jan. 27 and run through March 7. Performances are Tuesday through Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday evenings at 7 p.m., with matinees on Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays at 2 p.m. Tickets range from $10 to $60, with premium tickets available for $115. For tickets, visit www.walnutstreettheatre.org or call (215) 574-3550

Love King

So... I love The-Dream. The song, lyrically is lackluster but has the sense of humor present in his 'pop'py songs. "Sorry ladies ain't nothing like a smart bitch".
It is good to hear him stay consistent with that I love your girl steez, but he has moved past the 'riding' and 'pony' references. Although that's all his production and vocals lead you to do. Needless to say I am two stepping this up in the spring time.


Music by Singersroom.com | More on The Dream

I can not lie and say it is not an acquired taste.

Check my Homey Out

New show on HBO. Take a gander at the trailer.

Click Here

The Most Amazing Thing EVER!!!!!!!!

Check it out...
I am so serious; I am so sincere.

http://moblackart.org/exhibitions/

Not only should you click on the link preceding this paragraph, but if you are in anyway able to make it to the Brooklyn Artist Gym, 168 7th street between third and second avenue, in BROOKLYN, you need to. You can take the M, R, to 9th avenue and 4th street; you can also take the F to 4th avenue and 9th street. We are having a free opening reception on Saturday, December 5, from noon until 5pm. Take a look at our featured artists. I know you're impressed.

Be wise. Come see us.

sjeffers@moblackart.org

More Black Art about More Black Ish

Learn more about us!!!! 

Come out and support our event preceding our first exhibition commemorating our anniversary. Come mingle and learn more about how you can be involved.

http://moblackart.org/events

BLACK DYNAMITE!

I saw Black Dynamite at a preview screening this past Thursday. It was an interesting circumstance because I did not really know what to expect from the movie and I had spent the last half an hour dedicated to shots of Jack to be "nice" while I viewed it. I will say that it was not that necessary to do so. The shit was funny.

So, my friend and I, are walking swiftly down the block after he uses the bathroom at a bar where their shots of Jack are sixteen dollars each... I was none too pleased. Get to the movie theater and I am standing next to Cipha Sounds, and I am like, this is incredible. I say Cipha, I am lifetime Hot 97 listener and I just want to say congratulations on your success and progression. I waited 5 seconds, I listen to your show in the morning, you are so funny. He is thanking me, genuinely while moving aside, as I am speaking while the director is addressing the audience, talking about the reason he decided to do this project. Needless, to say all I got was an impression of his "blaxploitation voice" and to see Michael Jai White, in person. He is very handsome. But Cipha shook my hand so the movie was the icing.

Delighted and slightly inebriated, the film begins, and I was exposed to pure entertainment. All I can really say is; at several points of the movie I was heard saying either, no, I can't, or I am ready for the credits to roll. And when I say that, it means that I am so overwhelmed by the magnitude of greatness that I almost can not bear it. Was that vague enough?

The success of this movie is that the actors are really good. The satire was done in such a way that it playfully makes fun of the Blaxploitation genre while admitting that it was entertainment that could be enjoyed. The project is well executed and as I sit and try to think of excerpts all I can do is laugh hysterically and insist that you go see it.

Click the link for screenings

http://www.blackdynamitemovie.com/

PS. On my way out, Cipha was handing out flyers, my friend asked where Rosenberg was, we heard someone say, right here.

Hide out to Ride out

This past Saturday, my brother, biblicallynice.blogspot.com, and I decided to go out for a wine open bar as the after party for his friend's roommate's showing of her new collection. (I went to their show at Pink Elephant for Fashion Week in February,  http://toolbox1130.blogspot.com/2009/02/untitled.html, their link to their lookbook, and subsequently their website, is http://untitled1111.com/Untitled_11_11_fall_09_lookbook.html)

After verifying the address and hopstopping, we, my brother and I get ready to hit Chinatown. All, I have to say is thank goodness for the neighborhood maps and cardinal directions. When we arrive at Doyers Street, a small street with a crook leading you from Bowery to another alley way looking street, it looked like we took a wrong turn somewhere. My brother said he always thinks he will get ninja-starred to death in Chinatown. If it were to be anywhere, this street was the place. I just got a flashback to one of my favourite movies, Death to Smoochy, where Spinner gets killed and dumped in a street that resembled this one. 

Tangential? I know. Sorry? No. 

Anyway... the address of the venue, Apotheke, has us standing in front of a well maintained yet closed Chinese restaurant. The doors, solid wood, were uncharacteristic of a restaurant of that nature but still did not betray what was lying behind them. After looking around an empty street, we venture inside. A subdued setting with red lighting, hinting at a den of sin or secrecy, with four men in labcoats standing behind a bar. My brother and I were the only black people in there and I decided to wear black jeans, a white tee and construction timbs. But, it wasn't that awkward. An amazing ambience and a menu of drinks that will liken themselves to a bucket list. I do urge you to give it a try.

Here is a link to ther drink menu... http://www.apothekebar.com/index2abar.html

Look into it. 

I have been thinking....

Apparently for a really long time. 

With the hype that has been surrounding the long awaited sequel to Raekwon the Chef's, Only Built 4 Cuban Linx... I have been confused as to what Hip Hop purists have been complaining about. 

Last night I was conversing with my brother, biblicallynice.blogspot.com, about what it is that is making everyone say that this was/is a 'good look' for hip hop. Do not misunderstand what I am saying, the album is a solid effort and without sounding retro, it brought me back to a place I forgot. The hard, gritty sounds of people that are hungry and dedicated, who lead real lives before/ throughout their entry to the 'game' and have things to discuss. Delicately balancing the ill's of their behaviours, environs, and circumstances with the fact that they still must do what they have to do to survive. That being... selling crack. I mean the nigga's name is the Chef. Is it this ephemeral past we are holding on to, that has us thinking that, as long as the artist is not lying about the amount of money they have and their level in the drug dealing hierarchy, or the fact that they were actually middle-class but, in order to sell they must fabricate the realities of the impoverished that rhyming about selling crack and the projects is a step in the right direction for us?

Pyrex visions, birds flying south, bricks, kilos, cubans, columbians, crackheads... It's all the same. 

Yea, I still own that shit, though; don't get it twisted. 

Get Your Mouth Away from My DICK

* no comment

TreZure the Empress

http://www.thisisrealmusic.com/articles/40509/trezure_the_empress.php

ABUNDANCE

I recently went to visit my brother on the West Coast. He told me about the second album by PPP (formerly Platinum Pied Pipers, titled, Abundance.

To make a long story short, PPP comprises of two producers, and the featured albums has their tracks, cohesively, and and ensemble set of singers to be found throughout the album. Coultrain, Karma Stewart, and Jamila Reagan, with one song with Neco Redd on vocals. A dance party that encompasses American black music, so not just one of the default genres, but a natural progression of music, using basic structural ideas appropriated to create a fresh sound without seemingly trying. I would also like to note that the lyrical content, as it is hard to hear and understand every word, due to the layered vocal arrangements, is of an intelligent quality. The ideas of love and relationships, the good and bad, and personal motivation, are present throughout the album but new language adds a much needed dimension to the rigmarole.

I enjoy it.

"Triple P, the debut from the then-Platinum Pied Pipers (now just PPP), was a deserved recipient of glowing reviews and dropped jaws throughout independent music media. Refining if not revolutionizing modern soul, Triple P announced a new player in 2005. In 2009 the player is established and Abundance announces a new game.

There is something inherently carefree about this album. It’s unfortunate to realise, but what sets Abundance apart from so many modern releases is that it is obviously the result of a deep musical passion and a delight in musical experimentation. Wajeed and Saadiq stick to the decidedly Detroit formula of big drums and dirty synths, but manage to give the motor city’s model a new chassis to handle the now even stronger bumps. Alongside the rejuvenated production is PPP’s refined vocal lineup: Previously a mash up of all Detroit had to offer, the vocal responsibilities now lie with the smoky tones of Coultrain, the soul of Karma Stewart and the sugar of Jamila Raegan. With the smaller cast, Abundance is as cohesive as any producer-based album could hope to be.

Abundance breaks the boundaries of R&B and is far too much fun to be labeled neo-soul. Sitting happily in it’s own genre, Abundance is an album many will be compared to in years to come."

source

I get up Early

This is TreZure the Empress performing at Public Assembly for Forever Fresh 5.

Right now, live, this is my favourite part of her set because she is speaking to women like me. Caught up in the individual vs. subscription to partnership, sweet and mean as I ever wanted to be.

Going from looking for someone to hold my right side, in the morning, because I work hard and I love crazy to establishing that...

My man don't need no sugar in his coffee. He likes me mean.
He needs his mean old black woman.

And when I am good and ready, I will need him too.

Fat, Black and Ugly as ever, however

He stayed Coogi down to the socks...
and I am not sure if this is still too soon, but I will always feel it's time to get paid, blow up like the (see above).

Anyway, when I heard Biggie was killed, I was in church. At this time, I was in seventh grade, we did not listen to secular music in the morning, my mother was not having it. Since the shooting occurred in la madrugada it was very easy to not hear about immediately. My peers in my church class, as we were divided by age groups, were talking about his death, and of course linking it with TuPac, the whole time we were in Sunday class, and not doing a Bible role play. I merely wrote them off as being misinformed, because EVERYONE else was wrong. Exactly. At the end of church, on the way home, we were allowed to listen to the radio station we preferred which was Hot 97, where we found out that what I had been hearing that day was in fact true. Biggie was shot and DOA in Los Angeles, California.
Damn.
The fucked up thing about that was, Mo' Money, Mo' Problems was the single after, Hypnotize. Diddy, in his verse on Mo' Money states mess around with DOA be on your way. Right?

I was hurt. I think I am still hurt. I remember one time Biggie stopped by HOT 97 on his way back to New Jersey and shouted out Faith, Chyna and CJ, saying he had to get medicine for Chyna because she was sick. I also remember hearing him talk about his next album, Life After Death, and how he was not in the same frame of mind as Ready to Die, he actually wanted to live and this album would show his life on the other side. He was saying that the album was almost finished how excited he and focused he was. I remember it like it was not TWELVE YEARS ago.

To this day he is the only rapper, and one of the few musical artists to put out a classic double album.

For the nicest MC, niggas know the steelo

Untitled

I am going to the fashion show for this line tonight.
I will update for my opinion of the clothing and occurrences.





picture source:http://www.highsnobette.com/news/2008/09/12/untitled-1111-ss-09-simply-fa-bu-lous/


Here is a link to their blog

And a link to their website: Untitled 11:11

*Update

Here is a link to the show... I do not own a digital camera so I had to pull them here. Herald de Paris

These are some of my faves!

Happy Valentine's Day!

This is one of the most brilliant songs I have heard, I think ever.
The lyrics are fantastic and smart and its just great. Even if you aren't on that love shit. You can't knock the hustle.

Please, its on me.

The track is called Vertigo on Cloud 9:
http://www.zshare.net/audio/55542667e089876f/

His name is Gordon Voidwell
www.myspace.com/gordonvoidwell

Ruud van Empel

On January 29 th. the third solo exhibition of Ruud van Empel opens at Stux Gallery in New York. There his new series titled Dawn and Souvenir can be seen for the first time. Also some new works from his former series World, Moon and Venus will be in this exhibition. Stux Gallery, 530 West 25th street New York NY 10001
January 29 - February 29, 2009

Read more about this at: http://www.stuxgallery.com/

source

*Update:

I attended the opening of the exhibition with two friends. Beforehand, I scoured the internet looking for information on the artist, as there was no clear explanation of the different installments, and what they represent, the artist's intentions, etc. I was initially intrigued, when I learned van Empel was from the Netherlands, with black representation in his pieces, I wanted to find out a little more about the message he was trying to portray.

Very reminiscent of the 'noble savage', with dark complected children, in their Sunday's best (the medium was collaged digital photography so it is questionable whether the subjects were actually wearing the attire in the finished product), with wide eyes staring at the viewer, against a background of water lilies and greenery. The few images with white subjects lacked the rigidness of their black counterparts. Towards the back of the gallery, in an elevated section, there was an installment that had more to do with the artist borrowing imagery and memories from his childhood and placing them in the same images. That is to say a toothbrush and a kettle are not necessarily situated in the same room, but for these ephemeral purposes, they were found along the same counter as other familial bric a bra, yet nothing seemed out of place. What made this section different was the fact that there were small bits of prose/poetry/anecdotes found as the placards or exhibition labels.

After giving permission to be filmed speaking amongst ourselves about the works we were viewing, and hearing an older black lesbian, arguing loudly, with her white male counterpart about some one's family heritage and some one's mother being black, while asking not to be insulted, we, my friends and I, thought it was time to get to the bottom of the artist's background and intentions.

We asked the person that asked our permission to film if he knew anything about the artist and the exhibition, it turns out the artist was his brother and he would introduce us to ask him ourselves. Very simply, in trying to portray innocence, he used a white girl with blond hair, blue eyes, and a blue and white dress, to which he was told that he was subscribing to a very Aryan aesthetic. So, he decided to use black children, because they are not normally seen in that light and it was different. When asked about the stiffness of their postures as well as their unyielding attire, he responded that that was the way he dressed for a photograph in his childhood. All of a sudden we were able to enjoy the exhibition. This also led to a discussion, amongst ourselves, about the difference between race in America versus abroad, and his simple resolution to utilize black children to show innocence, because his prior attempt was problematic. As Americans, we must think about the multiplicities of identity, perception, reception, and overwhelming sensitivity, when van Empel, was just trying to make sure people would by his art.

See it if you can.

A Simply Profound Look at Love

This is one of my favourite cartoons. Ever. Since I was a child, I would catch this cartoon for different occasions, whether it be a tribute to Chuck Jones, or special holiday where revues are called for, and I would sit and simply enjoy.

I would appreciate if you did the same...

You Should Come

Enrichment

Hendricks' Brilliantly Endowed (Self Portrait), 1977

If you have the chance, again, The Studio Museum in Harlem is free on Target Sundays, noon to 6 pm, please go see Barkley L. Hendricks: Birth of the Cool (b. 1945). Upon reading articles about his first retrospective, it was brought to my attention, in a fashion where I should have made the connection, that Hendrick's is Kehinde Wiley's predecessor in the fashion of large, black, rich portraiture. Hendrick's reached his peak in the 1970's with pieces like the one at the beginning of the post. Along with his well-known pieces, there will be works from his ouevre from 1964 to the present.

The Museum is intimate, pristine, and fluid. A great place to view the show. The show is going on through March 15, 2009.

Visit the Studio Museum in Harlem's website, for details.

Website

Pants? Yes!

So here is this amazingly talented person I met on my preliminary journeys into the rest of my life.

His name is Sasa Kovacevic, he is based in Berlin, Germany.

here is his blurb about his line : Sadak

sadak
The whole concept is based on tradition, ethnography, anthropology, history, and clothing. I incorporated a variety of ideational elements from proceeding periods, together with the clothing features of the period when they were made and worn, often using the mystical and poetic stories.
Sadak is the ancient name for a traditional sleeveless jacket worn in some regions of the Balkans. The preserved magical meaning of sadak in its original oral and visual context is transformed and adapted to contemporary reality, becoming independent through the development or construction of forms, figures, motifs, magical objects, statements, temporal codes of society, space, objects and functions of protagonists.
Sadak is this name for a label which deals with clothing, which is distinguishable not only by whom they are made but also by their artistic and aesthetic value. The collections, which embrace a system of signs, symbols and beliefs from their original homeland also comprise elements of tribal and local beliefs, influences of different religions, traces of clothing taken and transformed into a new interpretation which have remained in narrative, visual harmony, artistic character and aesthetic value.

source: http://www.iqons.com/Sasa+Kovacevic

check the site

http://www.sadak.de/lapot20082009.html