Nada

I don't wanna write a post today, but I am, in order to let any devout OMP followers (there are currently 3 of you, world-wide) who frequent the blog know that I am down to go outside of my comfort zone, to blather solely for your (actually "my") enjoyment. I made a very impulsive late night choice over the weekend, which has prevented me from computing at normal speeds. Plus I've been substituting my normal dosage of coffee with toffee, so my energy levels have 5 minute bursts, and are now at an all-time low. There is nothing kicking about my feeble brain, other than that I can't think up anything to write about, so, that is today's topic. Nothing... Booooooo.
Tasha Thomas - Hot Buttered Boogie

Negative Trip

I’m in that mood, where I’d like to kill someone (and it is one specific person), but I’m too burned out to even really feel the rage. In reality I should be more annoyed and be able to just move on with it, but all emotion lately has turned to a sense of anger, which I’m luckily too subdued and lethargic to act upon. My feelings are very back-seated and piteous. This is a result of my coffee buzz wearing off, and I’m literally afraid to delve into the caffeinated zone again, since I absolutely need to re-energize for my extra-occupational tasks later today. I’m sorry, but having 3 large cups of coffee in one day is kinda disgusting in my mind. I once had a power-tie boss (I was working for his start-up outside of his real power-tie job) and was dealt the burnt end of his coffee addiction by just being in his vicinity at 6pm. By that time he was about 5-6 large coffees deep, with the most putrid coffee breath and body odor imaginable. Fucker loved to get right up in my personal space, and give rapid fire instructions, basically dressing me in his foul coffee essence. I don’t wanna be that guy, and I’m therefore living in this emotionally vacuous void, bordering somewhat on this new condition that I just learned about, called Alexithymia (which I guess is somewhat prominent in males). I’m not quite at that point yet, but I’m definitely somewhat abridged in the mental.

Ups to Jon Blunck from Sweaterfunk for clueing me into today's track by Halo.
Halo - Let Me Do It To You

State of Shock

Again, no time for blog, but I’ll take a moment to rant in a caffeine induced frenzy. My job has bent me over, thrusting rapidly, and unfortunately there is no “safe” word that will bail me out. I’m just gonna have to take it until the job gets off, or becomes raw and sore. Not the most pleasing imagery, but it’s also not the most comforting situation, and I felt the need to use the “everyday man’s poetry” to describe my anguish. I’ve somehow become a pawn in a battle of employers and employees; people are acting extremely vague to lead me like a lemming into “traps” which will either justify or prevent the flowage of money from/to the aforementioned parties. I fear that I will be to blame regardless of the outcome (by the group that fails to benefit) and I have the desire to hide under my desk in fetal position, like it’s an earthquake drill. In true American fashion, instead of making a steadfast decision, I’ve just been pretending that the situation does not exist.

I'm putting up one of my alltime favorite Zappa songs (check the guitar solos: fucking EPIC), and make sure to check the bassline on Forgotten Town. If anyone has a dub or instrumental version of that track, lemme know.
Frank Zappa - Uncle Remus
The Christians - Forgotten Town

The Complete Package

I’m clearly in dire need of more caffeine. I’ve been listening to disco all morning, drinking coconut juice, and staring at a blank computer screen, as a result of last night’s love affair with scotch. Scotch pretty much guarantees that the next day is gonna suck, but that doesn’t seem to matter to me, as I clearly have no foresight into any resultant consequences; everything has got to be pleasure now, now, now. My partial dedication to Thursday night hedonism is both impulsive and retarded, and now my eyelids feel heavy and my mind sluggish. If there is a lesson to be learned, it’s probably that just because someone offers you something free does not mean that you have to take it.
The music selection for today is two Johnny Wakelin tracks from the album Reggae, Soul, and Rock n Roll. Usually I try not to post up a picture of the featured artist, as I find it a bit more fun to search out some picture that relates more abstractly to the sentiment of the post, but this guy is such a goofball that I kind of have to post up at least a few pics (the top one is from http://www.johnnywakelin.co.uk/, which is the funniest/saddest site I’ve seen in some time. Anything that highlights 3 semi-hits from 30 years ago with a current pic is getting into some pretty laughable territory). The album has one of the coolest logos of all time, which is supposed to be some dude in a beanie dancing with a lady (although it totally looks like he’s taking her to the bone-zone; check the expression on his face). I’d first heard the track In Zaire on this comp that Jarvis Cocker put together a couple years back, and I never really put together an image of the singer in my head. It’s weird how you can hear a song and not assume that the singer is gonna look a certain way. Then when you see a picture of the dude, you are absolutely astonished by the way he looks for some reason, despite the fact that his looks are merely an extension of the way he sounds. I mean when you hear some guy like Tony Benet or even Afrika Bambaataa, they are dead ringer visually to complement the aural experience. Why I was surprised to see some huge white weirdo in a cowboy hat singing this shit is uncanny, since that’s exactly what he should look like.

Oh yeah, fyi, by now I’ve had so much coffee that I am basically in the future, and my pet turtle seeks solace in the drains.
Johnny Wakelin – Reggae, Soul, and Rock n Roll
Johnny Wakelin – In Zaire

Ray Parker Jr. Bites

Ah coffee. I can feel it coursing through my veins. Pumping my heart rate faster, stirring my bowels, thumping my feet. Again short on a real concept for the day. I think I understand what musicians refer to as the curse of the 2nd album. You have every idea, song, and influence from life to use on your first album. If you are 25 years old when you record it, you can ultimately use 25 years of experience (whatever it is that you are able to remember of course, but I’m sure that there is a bunch of stuff that’s completely lost somewhere in your brain that is somehow able to contribute). So when you are done with that, you’ve completely exhausted yourself of everything contributing to that very point, and now you have one year or so to create all new stuff, having to start completely from scratch unless you want to rehash all your old tarnished ideas (which hopefully you don’t, of course there may always be room for remixes and improvements). I feel I’ve finished the metaphorical equivalent of LP 1 of One Man’s Problem; my general themes of coffee (which is a theme I will unfortunately always regurgitate, as it is my inspiration and fuel), the duality of being super arrogant, confident/timid, meek, and self-doubting, personifying blog like its a person, pointless insight into random topics and similarly pointless negative ranting concerning whatever the fuck I can think of (I hate this, I hate that, etc.). Maybe I should just end it at that.

I’m posting up a flyer for a night that I co-promote and DJ, in the very off chance that anyone that checks this blog does not personally know me, lives in San Francisco/Bay Area, and likes to party. If you come to my gig solely based on the blog, I will not only be extremely surprised and grateful, but also very embarrassed that all you know about me is the shit that I write here. I don’t know if my writing actually reflects accurately on who I am as a person; I’d have to bribe someone else to query a third party that knows me intimately to get to the bottom of that one. I couldn’t just ask that person directly, as they’d likely sculpt their answer in order to not crush my psyche. Enough! Look at the lineup though, we have BT Magnum, a reputable DJ with a respectable blog, Beat Electric, headlining.

Raydio is the fucking shit. About a year ago I’d never heard of them, and all I knew about Ray Parker Jr. was that he wrote the Ghostbusters Theme (direct quote from the song “bustin makes me so proud”) which featured Run-DMC on lyrics apparently (I always thought it was just some no-name rapper). Parker was accused and sued by Huey Lewis and the News for that theme song ripping off “I Want a New Drug” which was settled out of court as a somewhat hush-hush affair. Regardless of controversy, Parker went on to win a Grammy for the track in 1984. In 2001, RP Jr. struck back, and sued Lewis “for breaching a confidentiality agreement forming part of their original out of court settlement which prohibited either side from speaking about it publicly. Lewis had implied in a VH1 Behind The Music special that Parker had paid a financial settlement as part of the original agreement.” In my mind this pretty much validates that Parker did in fact rip off Huey and the News, and later sued him out of embarrassment, and I totally understand, as Huey is both a genius and a pioneer of hyper elaborate chart topping musical composition. FYI I pulled all of this supposedly “insider” info off Wikipedia, which means that it may not be true, and everything I wrote is just a poorly summarized version of what was there. None of this has anything to do with the band Raydio, who were an operating unit well before any of the aforementioned crap went down. Expect more Raydio posts in the future.
Raydio - It's Your Night
Raydio - It's In the Groove