UPDATE-001: A New Weekly Thing... I Wonder If I Can Keep This Going

Hello Folks...

I'm stepping into a new phase in my life and I can't help
wondering..... Where is this road taking me? Well, I will continue to
be motivated by the haters... That's right, I'll Show You... And I
will continue to have love for those folks who just can't see it.

WHAT'S BEEN HAPPENING:

The week started with a little stress: my oldest daughter's car
accident, finals, and the tingle of the hairs on the back of my neck
from the hairs standing up... I know the haters are busy.

Well, my oldest's auto mishap wasn't as bad as it could've been. The
car is a total loss; but she came out of it just a little banged up.
Gotta give her a call today.

Finals... Not as good as I would have liked. I'm hoping I can find a
way to make up the shortcoming... At least I did well with the
English final. I'm not quite satisfied with my work there either....
I'll do better next semester....

Oh yeah, and a CD for Prof. Kinsley.

I haven't heard from certain people in quite some time. Whatever
they're up to, it surely won't be of any benefit to me. I wonder if
anyone would be interested in exactly how I feel about that... I see
a long blog coming on.

MUSIC I'M HEARING

• There Is A Way - Mos Def

The push. The Struggle... Only two lyrics:

"There is a way - No matter what they say"

And

"Dont give up - Dont give in"

• Got To Give It Up - Marvin Gaye

Grooving to this while moving.

• Whatever Happens - Michael Jackson (ft. Santana)

MJ's best work, in my opinion, was on his largely ignored Invincible
CD. This song is only one incredible work... It reminds me of holding
Andrenna's hand those final days (see earlier blogs).

I'm really missing Andrenna this week. She's been on my mind a lot.
Those last days just didn't seem fair.

NEW IDEAS:

• I would really like to reacquire some of the souverniers that
have been lost each an every time I've been forced to move on. Most of
them are irreplaceable... But not all. I'd like to get three or for
"Ship's Store" items from each of the submarines I've been attached to:

- USS MIAMI (SSN-755)
- USS TOPEKA (SSN-754)
- USS TUCSON (SSN-770)

• On the above note, I can probably hook up a buddy while replacing
some keepsakes... As soon as I hear from her soon (hopefully this
weekend) so I can discuss potential T-Shirt Designs incorporating each
boat's logo. Maybe, I can order two shirts for each boat (one to the
CO of each and one for me)... Reach Out Ms. T-Shirt Lady!

CLOSING NOTE:

• Sometimes what's good may not be the best thing for you.

Sent from my iPod

We Are The World 25

Not to take away from anyone or anything connected to it; I didn't much care for the original or the video. I did, however, appreciate the coming together of these people for the cause. Of course this started a massive aid trend that lasted for years.

We Are The World was NOT a song to be remade in my opinion... After "hearing" it, I felt even stronger about it being left alone. I simply couldn't get into it. But, after thinking about it for a little while; I realized I should check out the video. I didn't much like the video of the original; but this is a different time. And Quincy Jones has rarely produced a song I didn't like.

After watching the video (and hearing the WHOLE song), my attitude changed. The song, though the words are the same, seems more like a continuation of the earlier version. As it went on, I couldn't miss the fact that they kept MJ's part in there.

As it went on, seeing Tony Bennet, Barbara Streisand and was that Irene Cara? Or someone that looked like her? Anyway, the same appreciation I have for the original only grew with this one.

And then there came the twist...

Wycleff put his twist on it... Then there was LL, lil'Wayne (and I really don't like his music) and of course Kanye.

I appreciate music in all it's forms. Even if I don't like a song, I appreciate the heart that's put into any artists craft.

The video doesn't change how I feel about the song... I still don't like it... The original or the 25 for Haiti... But I appreciate the original and the 25 even more. I know it sounds kind of strange... But I'm sure true music lovers understand.


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Self Love...

Okay, so the term "self love" can be interpreted in several different ways... Today, though, I'm thinking in pure terms.

There's not a lot of things more depressing than being alone on Valentine's Day. But, ask your self this: "am I really alone?"

Some people have their children, religious people have their gods, and most everyone has family, friends and so on.

And if all else fails, you have your "self". So give your self some love.

If you don't have a special someone this Valentine's Day then treat your self.

Go out to dinner, take in a movie or a show... Just treat your self to something special and feel good about it.

Because once your self is feeling good, then you're feeling good too.

Besides, who knows your self better than you?

Self Love Boo-Boo!

Self Love

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Self Love...

Okay, so the term "self love" can be interpreted in several different ways... Today, though, I'm thinking in pure terms.

There's not a lot of things more depressing than being alone on Valentine's Day. But, ask your self this: "am I really alone?"

Some people have their children, religious people have their gods, and most everyone has family, friends and so on.

And if all else fails, you have your "self". So give your self some love.

If you don't have a special someone this Valentine's Day then treat your self.

Go out to dinner, take in a movie or a show... Just treat your self to something special and feel good about it.

Because once your self is feeling good, then you're feeling good too.

Besides, who knows your self better than you?

Self Love Boo-Boo!

Self Love

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Anger by Marvin Gaye

Up and down my back, my spine, in my brain
It injures me, babe....

Anger, can make you old, yes it can
I said anger, can make you sick, children... oh Jesus
Anger destroys your soul
Rage, there's no room for rage in there
There's no room for rage in here
line up some place to go to be mad
It's a sin to treat your body bad

When anger really gets the best of us
We've really lost our heads
We often say a lof of things, oh darlin'
Wish we'd never said
Oh, reason is beyond control
And the things we do spite
Makes me ashamed
And I mean this, baby, makes me want to the things right

Someday soon I hope and pray like Jesus
I'll reach that wiser age
Hope I will learn I really never never profit
From things I do in rage

One more time-anger, more ager
When it's flaming hot
Anger burns to the bitter end
Know what i'm talkin' 'bout
When it cools I find out too late
I have lost at love, love, love, dear friend
I said, anger will make you sick,
children, oh Jesus
Anger destroys your soul

I ain't gonna let you get the best of me, babe
I'm gonna go somewhere and cool
This is not the way my head's supposed to be, babe
You've got me feelin' like some silly fool
But I know a real nice place where I can go
And feel the way i'm supposed to feel

I don't want to be mad at nobody
I don't want to be feelin' bad
Up and down my back, my spine, in my brain
It injures me, babe

Anger, can make you old, yes it can
I said anger will make you sick, children, oh Jesus
Anger destroys your soul
Anger
Anger

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You're The Man by Marvin Gaye/Kenneth Stover

Talkin', talkin' to the people
Tryin' to get them to go your way
Tellin' lies, not to worry
That we won't be led astray
So blind, unsignified
Your opponents always lying
Think about the mistakes you make
I believe America's at stake

You know, busin', busin' is the issue
Do you have a plan with you?
If If you have a plan
If you have a master plan
Got to vote for you
Hey hey, got to vote for you
You're the man

We don't wanna hear no more lies
About how you planned a compromise
We want our dollar value increased
And employment to rise
The nation's taxation
Is causin' all, all this inflation
Don't give us no peace sign
Turn around and rob the people blind
Economics is the issue
Do you have a plan with you?
'Cause if you've got a master plan
Got to vote for you
You're the man

Don't you understand?
There's misery in the land

People marching on Washington
Better hear what they have to say
Because the tables just might turn against you, brother
Set around Election Day
Politics and hypocrites
Is turning us all into lunatics
Can you take the guns from our sons?
Right all the wrongs this administration's done?
Peace and freedom is the issue
Do you have a plan with you?
'Cause if you've got the plan
If you've got the master plan

Got to vote for you
Hey hey, got to vote for you
'Cause you're the man

Got to vote for you

--- and this song came out WHEN ---

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Chumpy by Sonny Sharrock

Chumpy is a piece by one of my music teachers from way WAY back. The late guitarist Sonny Sharrock who exposed me to the roots of Bee-Bop and other forms of jazz. I remember learning to read music through his teaching from a book called "The Monster".
In 1981, I picked up my first musical instrument... The Clarinet. Not a very popular instrument by mainstream standards; yet, it IS the starting point for many of the true artists out today. But in 82, Sonny introduced me to the Bass. From this, my musical journey took me to Fusion. I started following groups like Spyro Gyra, Weather Report and so on.

Nevertheless, through all of the different songs I've experienced, Chumpy sits among my top favorites.

There's the running bass line at the beginning while he's doing things I am quite sure the late Mr. Les Paul did not intend to be done with his namesake. You see, Sonny really wanted to play Tenor Sax like his biggest idol, John Coltrain. However, because of is asthma, Sonny had to settle for something else. He became a master of the Gibson Les Paul.

About halfway through the song, there's a pause. Then starts the good part. Slowing down to about two thirds the original tempo, the bass player goes into this funky bluesy nasty nasty that you can do nothing else but feel while Sonny takes you on a ride somewhere down South... Then you realize you're in the Netherlands... Amsterdam to be exact... Somewhere in their "Red Light District". That's where he was inspired to write Chumpy.

The actual inspiration for the song "Chumpy", I believe, was the drummer from the Sonny Sharrock Band. Something about him putting ketchup on everything and his addiction to "Glory Holes"... Whatever those are.

Anyway, it all boils down to Sonny considering the guy an idiot, and when it came down to giving the song a title (in the colorful way he did), the title wasn't originally "Chumpy". In fact, I can't even begin to imagine how he came up with that... [John, you've GOT to tell me THAT story].

"Stupid Fuck" was the original title, and so this song plays in my head every single time I come across one idiot or another from day to day.

So here's to you Sonny Sharrock...

You will NEVER be forgotten.

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The "Boom Bap" 1

Hip-Hop, though identified in the late 1970's, truly goes much further back in time than it does forward. I picked this up through reading such books as Roots by Alex Haley and others.

I really grasped onto the true history of Hip-Hop while KRS-ONE from Boogie Down Productions started of a documentary by discussing Cab Calloway and his affect as a band leader in the 30's and 40's. The way he would "move the crowd" (MC or Emcee) at a time when "black entertainers couldn't even walk in the front door" of the venues they performed in. Even today when the song "Minnie The Moocher" is heard, people of all ages races and walks of life find themselves chanting the chorus "Hydee Hydee Hydee Hooo"...

Today, is there an ear, anywhere in the world, that is NOT familiar with such songs as "Rapper's Delight" by the Sugar Hill Gang? Who HASN'T heard "The Message" by Grandmaster Melle Mell and the Furious Five?

One of the biggest milestones in Hip-Hop came to pass when Run DMC released "Sucka Emcees". The group of three (two emcees and a DJ) pretty much set the standard while at the same time exploding so loud the shock waves were heard around the world. All, with nothing but a beat and a rhyme.

The world was finally exposed to the Boom Bap.


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Diary of a Madman (Lyrics by Scarface)

[Scarface talking]
Yo anybody seen my diary? Oh there it is.
I gotta write this shit down. Check it out.
 
Dear Diary, I'm having a little problem
I can´t make it by myself maybe you can help me solve em
I'm confused and I don´t know what to do
I'm hoping you can help me cause
there's no one else to talk to
I want to die, but it ain't for me
I try to talk to my dad, but my old man ignores me
He says that I'm delirious
And I that drink too much, therefore he doesn't take me serious
But little does he know I'm really losing it
I've got a head, but ain't no screws in it
I be thinking deep
That's one of the reasons at night I can't sleep
I thought it would change when I was older
But even now I'm still peeping over my shoulder
Is there life after death troop?
And what about the nigga with the cane and the black suit?
And what about cancer?
Too many motherfucking questions, and not enough answers
Ain't no use in trying
We might as all face it we were all born dying
There's a black book in Brass hands
And it's the diary of a madman
 
Dear diary today I hit a nigga with a torch
Shot him in his face and watched
him die on his front porch
Left his family heartbroken
Flashbacks of him laying there bleeding with his eyes open
I can't put the shit behind me
I know I'm here somewhere, but I can't find me
I used to be a drug dealer
On the for reala, now I'm a born killer
And it ain't no changing me
It used to be hard, but now it ain't no thing to me
To go up to a niggas house
Put a pistol in his mouth, and blow his fucking brains out
No doubt if you cross then I'ma take ya
Cause I'm a fucking killer by nature
You got an M11, bring your weapon
I got an AK-47
It's gonna be a bloody Sunday
Cause your fucking with a nigga like Bundy
And I was taught not to kill
Like a Vietnam vet with a thousand yard stare
So welcome to the slaughterhouse nigga
Red Rum and I'ma be the grave digger
And if you want to cap, come cap me
I'm trigger happy like my great-grandpappy
Just watch for the chrome in my right hand
My second entry from the diary of a madman
 
Dear diary, help me cause I'm frantic
S-sometimes I think I'm going schizophrenic
The world's looking dark for instance
Maybe cause I'm looking from a distance
But then again I wear a blindfold
Staring at the motherfucking world with my eyes closed
Even to myself I'm a stranger
Walking in the footsteps of danger
It's a long path ahead of me
I gotta get somewhere cause everybody here is scared of me
I had a job but they fired me
My wife walked out now I'm living in my diary.

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Microphone Fiend (lyrics by Rakim)

 
I was a fiend before I became a teen
I melted microphone instead of cones of ice cream
Music orientated so when hip-hop was originated
Fitted like pieces of puzzles, complicated
'Cause I grabbed the mic and try to say, Yes y'all!
They tried to take it, and say that I'm too small
Cool, 'Cause I don't get upset
I kick a hole in the speaker, pull the plug, then I jet
Back to the lab ...without a mic to grab
So then I add all the rhymes I had
One after the other one, then I make another one
To diss the opposite then ask if the brother's done
I get a craving like I fiend for nicotine
But I don't need a cigarette, know what I mean?
I'm raging, ripping up the stage and
Don't it sound amazing 'cause every rhyme is made and
Thought of, Cuz it's sort of...an addiction,
Magnatized by the mixing
Vocals, vocabulary, your verses, you're stuck in
The mic is a drano, volcanoes erupting,
Rhymes overflowing, gradually growing
Everything is written in a code, so it can coin-
cide, my thoughts a guide,
48 tracks to slide
The invincible, microphone fiend Rakim
Spread the word, 'cause I'm in
E-F-F-E-C-T
A smooth operator operating correctly,
But back to the problem, I got a habit,
You can't solve it, silly rabbit
The prescription is a hyper tone that's thorough when
I fiend for a microphone like heroin
Soon as the bass kicks, I need a fix
Gimme a stage and a mic and a mix
And I'll put you in a mood or is it a state of
unawareness? Beware, it's the reanamator!
A menace to a microphone, a lethal weapon
An assasinator, if the people ain't stepping
You see a part of me that you never seen
When I'm fiending for a microphone, I'm the microphone fiend...
After 12, I'm worse that a Gremlin
Feed me Hip-hop and I start trembling
The thrill of suspense is intense, you're horrified
But this ain't the cinemas of Tales From the Dark Side,
By any means necessary, this is what has to be done
Make way 'cause here I come....
My DJ cuts material....
Grand imperial.
It's a must that I bust any mic you hand to me,
It's inherited, it's runs in the family
I wrote the rhyme that broke the bull's back,
If that don't slow 'em up, I carry a full pack.
Now I don't want to have to let off, you should of kept off
You didn't keep the stage warm, step off!
Ladies and Gentleman, You're about to see
A pastime hobby about to be
Taken to the maximum, I can't relax see, I'm
Hype as a hyperchrondriac 'cause the rap be one-
Hell of an antidote, something you can't smoke
More than dope, you try to move away but you can't, you're broke
More than cracked up, you should have backed up
For those who act up need to be more than smacked up
Any entertainer, I got a torture chamber
One on one and I'm the remainder!
So close your eyes and hold your breath,
And I'm a hit'cha wit the blow of death
Before you go, you'll remember you seen
The fiend of a microphone, I'm the microphone fiend

The microphone fiend...

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Shake It Off...

Sometimes, you just have to shake it off and keep moving.

When someone decides to make a negative comment about your positive movement...

Shake it off.

When they try to make their pain your pain... Just shake it off. It's just not worth the hurt.

Like when the haters hate and toss obstacles in your path... Most times I will go over or through it... But if I can do neither...

I'll just shake it off and keep moving.

When it rains, snows, or even when you're caught in the occasional dust storm... You can sit there and whimper...

Or just shake it off.

Don't blame the next guy tho... Because, even if it IS their fault, they're going to just shake it off.

It's not like you can change the past...

Just shake it off.

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The Joyner's

Thirty years ago, I found myself attending what might be regarded as a boarding school. Pleasantville Cottage School, the main campus for the Jewish Child Care Association (JCCA) used to be a place for "emotionally challenged" kids. With today's kids, I'm starting to believe their idea is outdated. But that's another story.

Some of the things to stand out most (next to my exposure to music) would be the kind, gentle eyes and voice of Mrs. Joyner, the Home Economics teacher and the stern and knowledgeable voice of Mr. Joyner, my Science teacher. Even though it was common knowledge around campus that they were married, I never put the two together. In fact, throughout the five years I spent there, I do not recall ever seeing either one of them in the presence of the other. But that's cool.

Through my adolescent and into my adult years, I managed to carry with me some of the basic things they taught me. Any time I felt the need to be confident, I'd remember Mr. Joyner's voice in how he taught his classes and how he never spoke down to any of us... Even when we were in trouble. He would simply speak to us like we were his equal and let us know that we 'should know better'.

Mrs. Joyner, on the other hand, has had a more direct impact on things in my life. I have to say, SHE is pretty much the core to my skills in the kitchen... And I am fairly nice at the stove these days. Additionally, I have never had to take a single article of clothing to the cleaners to be repaired. I've always done my own alterations and other sewing... I did get a little assistance on the measurements though; but I NEVER received any grade below "Outstanding" in ANY of my Navy uniform inspections.

However, none of those things compare to the most recent inspirations they've bestowed upon me.

Recently, they showed up at the funeral of one of my former classmates... Together... The day was dismal, and the Jewish funeral is one of the most morbid events I've ever attended. But, seeing and hearing the Joyner's together like this just made everything brighter. Just watching them together taught me a few more things I'd never gotten a chance to learn throughout life... Or maybe I just missed those things.

It was just good to see them. Mr. Joyner no longer sports the Afro I remember so well... Mrs. Joyner's shoulder length brown hair is now all white. But, her eyes are still the same as is his voice. I am grateful to have had the opportunity to thank each of them for what they've given me.

I do hope they won't be strangers.

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