The Tide is High...

...but I'm holdin on! I'm gonna be your Number One!

Hi friends!


fierce fierce fierce

I love her. She's definitely on my list.

I'm not a hundred percent sure where my love for her or the band originates... but I'm pretty sure it stems from my early childhood, when little first grader Promas and big sis used to create elaborate fake music videos and dance choreography for various melodies on the Parallel Lines album.

Now arguably, my personal connection to this album makes me feel as though it is Blondie's best... and it's the most successful, thus the most mainstream, but I truly love each and every track on it. From the upbeat and effervescent "Pretty Baby" and "Picture This" (Both of which are included in my lovetunes playlist!), to the haunting tones of "Fade Away and Radiate," all the songs do well to showcase the versatile appeal of Debbie's sultry voice and the supporting dudes that make the music pop! Not to mention the unique lyrical content, that make the songs intriguing to listen to, and easy to love! :)

My espesh fave is when the guys (Chris Stein, Clem Burke, Jimmy Destri, Frank Infante) join in on some of the background vocals like circa 2:14 during the quintessential and enduring "Heart of Glass," a song I can never ever ever tire of. Check their kicks!

heart of glass - blondie

Got me through some timez. Even though it's sortof a departure from the band's New Wave beginnings into a distinctly disco-ish vibe... I'm all about genre blending and experimentation when it comes to music! Ridin high on love's true bluish light...

Quickly back to Debbie before I bid ya'll adieu... She was born in 1945, worked in a Dunkin Donuts and was a Playboy Bunny before joining a girl group where she met her future epic love and Blondie guitarist, Chris Stein. I love that dude too. They started Blondie and named it after the cat-calls foxylady Debbie would get walkin down the street. Don't hate her because she's beautiful. It's painful to be that hot. yikes!

Note that I have avoided all discussion of "Rapture," Debbie's attempt at paying homage to a genre of music she admired and loved, but probs shouldn't have really delved into. Save the rap, I love that song, even though that's whyy it's so famous. *toe to toe dancing very close barely breathing almost comatose* Poo to those who credit Blondie as being the reason for rap's mainstream success. Let's not diminish the power, strength and pure talent of the brown bodies and voices that actually made that happen. Holla!

Shouts to my neww roomie(!), who fulfilled my fantasy of wearing Blondie paraphenalia, by letting me borrow a ferocious black miniskirt with the silhouetted likeness of Dirty (Deborah) Harry in pink, blue, and purple. Sigh...

brimming with sisterlove

I had the best weekend!!! Time spent with so many of my sisterfriends, my best friends! Congrats to Linde for a amazing job helping with the South Asian Film Festival in NYC! And also to homegirl Jillian for her acceptance into FIT for next semester!!! Anaka came to visit! Jean an Jung-Hee loved hard. And we celebrated Ayesh's bday in style with Soomz! Big girls doin some Big Thangs.

The subsequent video might seem mad irelev, but its not...

This version of the video includes clips from the classic film soundtrack on which it appears... starring Charlie Sheen, Tim Curry and Rebecca DeMornay (of The Hand that Rocks the Cradle fame). We're talking friendship that sustains the trials and tribulations of time, transition and perseveres beyond the evildoings of Cardinal Richelieu and friends...or at least the imminent end of raspy white man pop/rock as a popular genre.

BUT you gotta heart the lovefest happening between these dudes in the video, esp in the beginning. Rod Stewart offering a little affection circa 1:51 for Bryan, and then to himself 8 seconds later. Bryan rocking that unfortunate mushroomesqe hairdo, and the killer guitar solo juxtaposed with the most intense scenes from the film... I just hope that in the future when my homegirls and I reunite, it's as sweet.

I'm not hatin' though. Sting could get it. (I heard he's into that tantric shizz)... But not Bryan or Rod. and definitely not Kiefer.

perfection part II as promised

So this weekend, I spent time doing the following: 1) sleeping for hours, 2) wearing my Wesleyan sweatshirt and complaining about the cold, 3) going out with my beautiful friends, 4) watching episodes of "A Different World" on Youtube.

I don't know what prompted this re-invigoration of my love for the show. It happens periodically; I think on some level it has to do with this whole Barack/McCain thing, the heightened political atmosphere, the lack of current creative output such as that particular show...

It started off as the Cosby Show spin-off, a way to keep Lisa Bonet around without dealing with her butting heads with Heathcliff himself... but then she got preggers after the 1st season with Lenny Kravitz's baby and the show got a makeover.

And what a deliciously perfect makeover it was. Debbie Allen (mama Huxtable aka Phylicia Rashad aka the orig MILF's real life sis! holla!), came in as the producer of the show and revamped it so that it more realistically resembled a historically black college (peace! to Marisa Tomei). The show actually addressed issues that the Cosby Show shied away from... race, class, and it even aired one of the first TV acknowledgements of AIDS.

Slash, how beautiful to see such gorgeous and talented people of color all over the screen! Plus the shit was FUNNY.

I always had the thickest crush on Dwayne Wayne and his flip up glasses... and in the later years, Jada Pinkett's boyfriend Dorian, as played by Bumper Robinson with his corny collegeman schtick and "Richie Cunningham" sweaters really did it for me... Sidenote: Kadeem Hardison (aka Dwayne Wayne) used to date Cree Summer (aka Freddie) and has definitely referred to her as the love of his life. So romantical! I'm totes jeal.

Watch it. now. on youtube or elsewhere. It is just so good!

ps check out the homies loving each other now! adorabs!

don't need no hateration, holleration

In this aftermath of graduation, I’ve really been trying to unearth the things that make me feel happy and good, solid yet powerful enough to move. And musically, this has drawn me back to Mary J. Blige.

1994 Mary. Holla!

Mmmm some of that shiyet is Just. So. Good. This is Mary before she sampled the theme song from Young and the Restless and made up words for lyricslets get it percolatin it why you waitin so jus dance for me?”

Also way before she was just fine fine fine fine fine fine fine fine!

Just fine fine fine fine fine!

This was Mary at her life’s lowest. Drug addicted and new to fame and fortune. Her music relationship with Puffy (now: PDiddy) ending and her life getting away from her. I watched a lot of Behind the Music in my day.

Anyway. Mary J. Blige’s album “My Life” is so beautifully real, and raw. It is the output of a woman who’s falling but trying to fight gravity to keep herself alive long enough to get her message out, and hopefully and thankfully, come back up and out, happy and strong. Sometimes, the lyrics don’t even have to be desolate or sad to get across the breadth of emotional weight that someone is carrying on their own. Just listen to her voice. Shit is deep! Mary J.’s popularity and her talent is rooted out of her uncompromising and sortof mindblowing conviction, as an artist, and as a creator. I love her. Mary, U Bring Me Joy!

CrazySexyKewl

Hey friend(s).

Don’t be fooled by the title. The purpose is not to hold my own with the Crazy ones that Make Shit Happen. The Arbiters of Sexy. The Titans of Cool.

Do you want to know the secret to uncovering what your life is missing in order to be fly girls and boys, or about fresh, new and glamorous happenings that would enrich your being and livelihood? Do you want to know how to make affordable and adorable necklaces that one should not live without?

I can’t help you! Womp (x3).I can barely help myself, kids. I can’t sophista-funk or dip into a crate o' honey. My terribly true blue boos do it. And they’re so good, they about to take off and fly.

Okay. No more shoutouts! They actually have readers! My shit is what you already know. What you’ve already felt and experienced, what made you into the person that you are. My shit is the shit that is nearly useless to know, and yet we care somehow.

The Blog is Mine Redux. Prepare to think about stuff you never thought you would after eighth grade. Prepare to care. About mini backpacks and songs by Total feat L.L. Cool J. About how Charlie Sheen’s real name is Carlos Estevez and songs like Rock the Boat by the Hues Corporation should get more airplay on lite fm radio stations. About where Montell Jordan is presently, after his This is How We Do It comeback came only a mere four years later in the form of Get it on Tonite. See? I’m trying to link the past with the NOW, the need for nostalgia marked by the need to move forward. Let’s do this thing! Woo!