Losing Interest?

Not to worry, I'm certainly not going to give up blogging, but I'm rather annoyed at the inability to enable comments on here, and I keep forgetting my password so I haven't been able to send slideshows from Slide or video from YouTube. It's just not a full service blog these days. I'll come up with some stuff soon. My ole band buddy Spyro started a great new blog, linked above. He's real funny, y'all.

OK no more Britney posts, definitely, I'm feeling kind of played by her shenanigans.

Yesteryear or World premiere?

Now you think jazz listeners are snobs? What about classical "purists" To say for some people there hasn't been a good piece of music written in 150 years is not an unusual statement to hear. Although I wouldn't have been able to glean that viewpoint from yesterday's concert at The Kennedy Center because I don't speak Russian.

My sophisticated and culturally informed girlfriend treated me to a lovely afternoon concert (dragging me away from another football fest) primarily to hear one of her favorite pieces, Mozart's Requiem. I'm more of a Tchaikovsky guy and am used to hearing just the orchestra and maybe a soloist out front bustin' some Suzuki style violin. But this piece relies heavily on the 100 strong chorus and 4 lead vocals.

It's clear that Mozart's a genius, completely at ease baring his tortured soul to parchment and letting the music sweep and drag it all over the gentry's soft sensibilities. The man was clearly too hardcore for Salzburg, and it is apparent the city does not honor his legacy adequately. I've seen the documentaries, and girlfriend assures me, Austria ain't all that.

Preceeding this piece was a world premiere piece by some young composer alinged with the Washington Chorus. Description is as such:

"Hope and Remembrance"

Join Maestro Robert Shafer and the 200 voices of The Washington Chorus for a concert of hope and
remembrance to mark the five-year anniversary of September 11. Mozart's Requiem was performed
throughout the world following the tragedy of September 11 in a "rolling requiem." This Mourning,
commissioned by The Washington Chorus from composer Joel Puckett, is written for chorus and
orchestra and features the poetry of Emily Dickinson and Thomas Bailey Aldric

Well, it was another example of how maligned modern classical music is. There's too much attetion to setting the mood and using alternated techniques to achieve this mood. Attention young composers, if you're not a genius, if you haven't lived music at least for 3/4ths of your life, if you don't draw little dots on your bedsheets, do not offer yourselves up for commission. Lay low and practice, but you man, these tickets are expensive! Don't waste my time!

The element most mismanaged was the use of the Washington Gay Men's Chorus, 30 strong, who were there, not to bust pipe {heh} but to do that rub the crystal glass thing, making some kind of "haunting semi-tone chord" while the violins played the same chord. The 100 voice chorus chortled and garbled in some kind of CNN-white noise murmur and the lead sang the borrowed poetry, A God as Died...etc.
Boring!
Mozart is awesome dudes, check 'im out!

Album reviews

Hip hop is fairly dead to me. With the likes of Jay-Z and it's widespread commercialization and product-placement, it just doesn't have the same cultural push I needs, in my opinion. But two new releases are out coming from the bottom of the barrel so to speak that I must make note of.
Yes, I am the lowest common denominator and no I did not pay for them. But this is my blog so consider it free publicity and exposure y'all.

Um, K-Fed. You know that was coming. Has G Force lost his mind, how masochistic can you be? Well I spend over an hour a day stuffing mail sacks with copiers grinding in the background. I can stand any kind of diversion, and the mental notes just pile up like so much copy. So this album begins, of course with the sound of whiny children (?) asking Grampa Fed to tell em a story..about his famous ex-marriage I suppose and the tabloid frenzy etc. That and the actual vocal appearance of Britney Spears, heavily multitracked later, are the only mentions of "the wife". We are then thrown into narcissistic purgatory.

Here's the information I gathered from this bit of cultural TP:
He has the "West Coast thirst" for weed.
"Popozau" was intended only for his Brazilian fans. (!!)
Persecution complex (whining) check
Some life changing event happened to him in 1993. Unclear.
Clearly he is a "superstar" in his mind, the album has very few cameos by other singers, so, not a a lot of variety here.

And the usual, he's a whiny lame rapper, too many chorus repeats:
Who want's to dance with a Pimp????
OMG
and oh yeah, he don't give a fuck, I quote.

Now I digress, and wonder. Did Britney support this shlub's music because she loved him (or just that first month of boning) or did she think his foul mouthed music was good? Good for him, or her and her fans who are presumably the first people likely to buy this germ...I mean gem. The album plays out how he looks, greasy, petulant and snide.
The production is actually pretty good, they put an effort around this clown, but you know, little substance. And even more irritating, you have the bonus song after 6 minutes of silence on the last track. This was a brilliant move when Nirvana did this stunt on Nevermind (Something in the way...12 minutes of silence...Endless...Nameless....Secret Song)
I waited it through and got some bit called middle finger. Shouldn't have stuck around.

PART 2
FLAVOR FLAV-HOLLYWOOD

First of all the title and cover art are an afterthought, hastily slapped together, sloppy. This album is more of anthology of tracks assembled after he got out of Rikers Island in 2003. His status as a man of Hollywood is only thanks to his VH-1 output. None of the songs reflect this lifestyle. I was hoping for a cameo appearance by Deelishis or Krazy from Flavor of Love 2 but no dice. Sorry, lay-dees.

The album is pretty long and you have a lot of variety. There's depressing R & B about seniors dying, love heartaches, being locked up, and just being Flavalicious. He tries like the dickens to sing of course, and of course he' s way off key, not nearly bad enough to be cute, not grating enough to turn off completely. There's too many instrumental gaps and of course, chorus repeats. Very uneven production, some actual dips in sound levels and vocals that need bringing up in the mix.
As a bonus, you get an actual word for word remake of Cold Lampin' called Cold Limpin'.
I guess it's everybody's dream that he would do a whole album in this vein, but at least he tries a remake. It seems he's tried several directions over the years, anticipating getting picked up by a label. But these are hard times for record companies and it took all somebody could do to throw enough of his songs into the hamper and make a production, leave it up to a distributor to sell some units. I don't think it will do very well.
There is also the matter of a bit of negative press surrounding Flav and his post-show antics. The show ended happily enough, but him announcing another woman is pregnant with his kid and she wasn't even on the show? How much poon does one guy requite? Is it like phantom Vagin came in through the window of his mansion and none of them reality show bitches noticed it? The reumion show also blew chunks, not new tidbits there. DVD of the whole sordid mess coming out this month. But I feel the fever of the flavor of flavor might be waning before Christmas if he keeps putting out hastily patched together product.

Day of Reckoning!

At this point I nor the collective media can project any winners of the Mid-Term elections sweeping our nation (USA! USA!)

But I have to muse more on this K-Fed thing, as it is news and it is somewhat official.
Here I am still trying to figure out why this dweeb is getting a push at all from anybody.
He's going to have to make a good deal with Mr. Vince McMahon of WWE if he's going to be able to pay his end of the legal fees for his divorce. Way to stick it to him Britney! And as the script goes, John Cena accepted K-Fed's flaccid challenge to a bout on New Years Day, no doubt will be assisted by actual wrestlers running interference of course. I liked this scenario the first time...when Andy Kaufman challenged Jerry Lawler back in 1984. The difference though is massive. Kaufman was an established and curiously talented star comedian with a genuine, if not perverse desire to get involved in pro wrestling. These days the splash is cheap and small, short sighted, and not nearly as dangerous. K-Fed gets off a quick chair shot and runs away.
I hate when celebrities get involved in wrestling, although perhaps like Kaufman, Fed might actually be ignorant enough to get involved to the point where he might suffer some injury, which I certainly would not put past the ignaheimous. I hope for at least a severely sprained neck, so he can fake paralysis when being carted out of the ring. Perhaps a broken jaw (like Kaufman got) so his minimal vocal abilities will be severely hindered.
And K-Fed's gig at 2am in NY after Britney didn't show due to the two not getting along? 70 people hung around. Ha! And what's with the cape?

Ugh! Enough for now. Go Democrats!

K-Fed's day of the dead.

Wazzup y'all. I'm sure everybody in the blogosphere has had Halloween marked so if so inclined, they can pickup this "rap artist's" debut CD. It seems the distribution is not up to snuff as many have not been able to locate said "work".
While there's not a Republican's chance in Heaven I'd buy it, certainly I'm willing to opine. Why? Because the guy pisses me off to such a point I was spewing venom in the middle of a tranquil late TV night with my honey the onliest enduring my spittling.
Do I hate KF in the way he wants, the way his management have so carefully constructed that i may be one of the millions giving him some sort of push? Only as far as Google search result will quantify. By the time that data is tabulated I hope it worth not a farthing.
I'm LIBERAL yo. I look for the good in anyone...with redemptive qualities that is. The clip last night was a radio interview with Ryan Seacrest and Kev is so inarticulate and transparent. I wonder if Howard Stern is on his appearance list because he will at least ask him relevant questions that the common person wants to know which is very simple.
The only thing the common man would want to ask Federline is not about his album, his lifestyle, his childhood, his special scent, his literary aspirations. It's the same question Stern hypothetically asked Bruce Willis, when he was indulging in his brief musical career. (substitute Britney for Demi Moore)
"What was it like BONING Britney Spears?" "Did sparks shoot out of it or what?"

Now I won't get into the aw, give some brothers a record deal schpeil at all, not a race thing. What scares me is the notion of the modern promotional machines put into motion a campaign for a guy that absolutely nobody can stand. He's a sloth, a repugnant humanoid type-thing. Look at him sitting on the fucking couch with the remote control in his hand. Had he earned the fucking right to waste away on that couch when he should be selling Slurpees? Aargh!! He want's to be considered a serious artist, and an author, when all he raps badly about is bling and party and players and my wife, yo, word, Federation records, McDonalds, Viacom, yo yo yo.

It sets a really bad precedent. I just gotta vent. Wish he'd just go away, lest I be tempted to mock him in other ways, like do a solo version of Popozao at a coffeeshop, remind everyone how sucky he started as and how sucky he'll always be,.

UN-Fuck K-FED!!