July’s tbtotm, biiig tune, produced by the big neptizzle. (actual video here cuz I can’t embed) If you do comparisons between Timbo and The Neptunes for late 99/00, you can see between them they both put out a lot of bangers. I’d have to go with Neptunes in 00 though.. I have a soft spot for that Ray-J beat. ANND Southern Hospitality. Anyway, I remember hearing this song on the radio for the first time and being completely entranced by Mya’s voice. (Likely not the first or last time that happens regarding Mya’s voice.) I didn’t even know there was a video to it, and she looks gorgeous in it. This song was on the charts for 11 weeks, and topped out at a modest #24. Good job Beenie Man! (If Beenie Man’s accomplishments were great enough to warrant a biopic, I would hope that Don Cheadle shows up to get cast. so serious.)

+ Lately I’ve been kinda into the idea of the girl roll call in rap/r&b. Anytime actual names get used in lyrics or songnames, it makes it more memorable, probably 100x moreso if it actually is your name. What I thought was a more common occurrence turned out to be.. a rarity? Maybe I’m just not thinking hard enough/remembering enough songs. The ones that pop into mind with the quickness are:

• LL Cool J – Around The Way Girl (Lisa, Angela, Pamela, Renee)
• The Dream – Shawty Is A Ten (Keisha, Sonya, Tanya, Monique, Nece, Keke, etc)
• Petey Pablo – Freek-A-Leek (Shameka, Keisha, Tara, Shonda, Sabrina, Crysta, Daronda, etc)
• Slum Village – Selfish (The whole 3rd verse: Whatup Pam, how yo little man doin in New Jersey)

additions:

• Boyz II Men – All Around The World (Keisha, Kelly, Tanya, Stacy, Mica, and LaShaun)
• Blackstreet – No Diggity (Jackie, Lisa, Nicky, Tameka in full effect)

And that’s all I could come up with. As with my other compendium, I’ve got to set some rules, but this one’s pretty easy: Has to have the girl roll call. Meaning, it can’t be focused on a single girl. So no Sheilas or Sallys. Please help me find the diamonds in the rough, or if I’m just overlooking obvious choices, the diamonds in a stack of diamonds. (sidenote: of the four songs I chose to use as examples, Keisha shows up in two of them. Girllll you get around.)

+ Some older mixes I did (and probably posted about) earlier this year, the mini WFMU mix and the Midnight Snacks mix. One is chill, one is booty bass/bmore. Figure it out.

+ I’ve moved my whole design site to Cargo, which is honestly one of the easiest and friendliest CMS’s out there. I used to think that sticking with WordPress would be fine, but I just got bored of hacking wp so much – plus all that knowledge is slowly getting depreciated, and I’m much (MUCH) too lazy to learn a new piece of software just to show off work. This is one advent of web 2.0 (shouldn’t this be like web 3.0? web 4 beta? web 2010 for workgroups) that I will gladly embrace.

If you’re new around here, I’ve been doing ‘Ten years ago’ throwback tracks since January, and this is the one for June. However I can’t really effuse any more on it since I posted about it previously. I do want to say that I was talking to one of my younger cousins and I told her ‘Lucy Pearl’ she said ‘oh she sounds familiar, how come I remember her name?’ I was about to slap some sense into this girl. The other tracks that were popular in June are all either unknown to me or I didn’t like them.. so boo. Dance Tonight was on the charts for 26 weeks and peaked at #5. Awesome Song Great Job! (sidenote: I TOTALLY FORGOT TO PUT DANCE TONIGHT in the calendar. What a horrible and obvious oversight. Apologies.)

+ Apologies (again) if it’s been quiet around here, I’ve been busy working on my design portfolio and photography site too, so the mixes and mashup game have been on the backburner. However this is exactly why when I finish up blends, I sit on them for a hot minute until I know I’ve got some downtime and I’ll post it up. I’ll be done with both sites soon enough so I’ll get cracking on some other music related stuff.

+ Oh yeah, I came back from Australia. I really liked it out there. Weather in the fall is nippy like SF, everyone dresses so sharply, and everything is expensive. (hint: one of these was not enjoyable.) It wasn’t so much of a backpacking/exploration trip like my previous DR trip, but still seeing the world nonetheless. See some of my shots of my trip over on my flickr.

+ FIFA IS BIG. I was never really that big into football until the last Copa Mundial when I met up with some real (read: foreign) folks who knew the deal. Since they introduced me to it, and they were Dutch, I’m rooting for HOLLAnd. Plus orange jerseys are hella sick. But to be honest It’s just really fun to watch a game anyway, whether or not I have a team in favor. Kinda wanted to see NK do something crazy after holding Brazil down in their first game, but it looks like their defense just collapsed that last game. Ouch. Also I make it a point to watch the matches on Univision because the announcers are way more hype. GOL GOL GOL GOL GOOOOOOOOLLLLLLLLLLLL (etc etc)

May‘s throwback track. This track is straight happy times, it would always be a party up in the headphones when it got radio play. (bonus memory: 00 was also when 92.3 became 100.3) I really miss a lot of that old g-funk from Quik/Suga Free, when repping coasts was so important you had to throw up westside in like every picture that got taken. Pitch In On A Party was on the charts for 14 weeks, and peaked at .. 68!? Boo. There were other great tracks that were on the charts this month, though – next episode, ruff endz no more (!!?), best of me remix. We’re inchin in to summer and a lot more heaters came out during then.

+ Since I’ve put that mini site up with my sticker offer, I’ve probably sent out atleast 200. Ya’ll are awesome! And I’m definitely still sittin on more, so if you don’t have em already, ask and ye shall receive. (send me cool pics of where you put it tooo!)

+ I forgot how but I was reminded of an old old mix i did, I’m thinking some time circa 2004 or 05.. I still enjoy it. It’s kinda different though.. kinda fast like 160/80bpm kinda shit. Old heads might have seen it around a long long time ago. I don’t have a tracklisting either, but it’s a full length mix and it’s the first mix I ever made! (well it’s an updated version of the first mix I made, hence the v2 – but you get the idea) download here: melotic v2

+ I leave you with that, because for two weeks I’ll be in Australia! Be back in June with (I hope) something special for my ★FIVE YEAR ANNIVERSARAYAYAY★

Throwback track of the month. Big Pimpin is such a happy song. I remember when this video came out, I was kinda blown away because of the white letterbox instead of black – such a sick idea. (what other videos have white letterbox? should I start another mini compendium?) I also remember being perpetually complexed to what a B L A D was. Only recently (five minutes ago lol) did I figure out what it was. My best guess would have been a ‘blad, but somehow I don’t think that’s correct. Ten years ago Big Pimpin was on the charts for 22 weeks and peaked at 6. Super! Also of note: the past few throwbacks have been very heavy on the Timbaland tip. He kicked so much ass in the late 90s. What happened dude..

+ As I just sent out my last calendar (bigup Dale!), It’s only fair that I share the project with the masses: Promo Only Urban 2000 was the infographic calendar I made last December outlining all the hot tracks that came out in 2000, broken down by month. I had a lot of fun researching and making it, and I’m dedicating all my throwback posts this year to certain tracks I remember. When I’m not talking about music or photography I just might be designing something, and infographics are really interesting – and I don’t mean those halfassed “info graphic” bastardizations (INFAUXGRAPHICS!!) that have been becoming oh so popular around the interbutts lately.

+ Also on the flickr are some shots I took behind the scenes from the Snoop Dogg & Kid Cudi video for That Tree. You know my steez: film only. Snoop is pretty hilarious irl. The video just got premiered on mtv.com and you can peep here, I take some issue with the color correcting they did.. it’s all washy and shit.

+ Next Monday I’m playing some shit on wfmu, a big thanks to Trent for reaching out. Eastcoasters, check it out 8-11 or just peep the stream online.

+ Things been listening to lately:
Onra – Long Distance
New Boyz – Cricketz
Dilla Joints
Return Of The Ankh – this cd is thoroughly listenable. REALEST.

This month’s ‘ten years ago’ throwback track, and yes I’m really late on it. I can’t even properly classify this as a throwback, to be honest, because it’s not like I haven’t heard this in a while – lots of Aaliyah stays in rotation. I do remember mornings at school when people would be bumping this from their rides before first period started though. ‘Try Again’ was on the charts for 27 weeks, and peaked at #4. Nice. My criteria for throwback is that I gotta know this song, which ruled out this Tamar Braxton song I found out while researching – I’ve never heard it before. Hell, I didn’t even know she existed. I like it!

+ Super late on this: my live set at Devils Pie last November. Some old, some new. All chillin. Thanks to Phatty and company.

+ Super early on this: I’ll be doing a mini twenty minute set for my buddy Snacks for the five year anniversary of his weekly radio podcast. Hint 1: it won’t be any r&b. Hint 2: it will be all 2 live crew. This got me thinking: five year anniversary, huh. June 14th would be the anniversary of my first wordpress post, the post with the now classic amerie remix (rest in peace Jun Seba), and that was also five years ago. Should I do anything fancy? Goodness, how time flies. (also a ‘we’re fucking old’ for good measure)

+ I am GIVING AWAY SOME STICKERZZZ so gimme an address and I will send you some.

Daniel Kahneman: The riddle of experience vs. memory. (transcript)

TED talks are usually informative and fun to burn 10-20 minutes on and learn something new, but I’ve probably watched/read this one multiple times now – it’s really affected me and how the concept can be applied to certain things I’ve been interested in. Without paraphrasing too much from the video, as I strongly suggest taking some time to watch, Daniel Kahneman tells us that we all live two lives – one for our experiencing self, and one for our remembering self. The experiencing self lives life every day, while the remembering self decides which experiences are worthy enough to be remembered. Most are not. And when making life decisions, or just every day decisions even, our remembering self uses its memory to dictate which direction an experience will go – Daniel calls the future anticipated memories. “And basically you can look at this, you know, as a tyranny of the remembering self, and you can think of the remembering self sort of dragging the experiencing self through experiences that the experiencing self doesn’t need.”

I never really put it together, regarding an experiencing self and a remembering self, but it makes enough sense. When friends would ask me if I’ve seen a certain movie and it’s kinda hazy to me, I’d reply “I remember seeing it, but I don’t remember anything about it.” The remembering self remembering atleast the experience but not taking away anything substantial from said experience. It may certainly be that the experiencing self goes through life and does more things, and that the weight and importance carried by the remembering self is disproportionate in comparison, but I don’t see this as a negative, or something that should be fixed – a topic that gets addressed in spiritual self help books and other publications of the ilk that encourage you to live in the now, to stop being trapped in the past, etc etc. Going along with Daniel’s theme of happiness, I feel that happiness and satisfaction on an experiential level are fleeting, easily reproduced, and simple. Happiness and satisfaction on a reminiscential level are unique and can last for ages. Different emotions would be a different conversation altogether though; while happiness is something you’d like to remember, pain and discomfort probably aren’t. Daniel also talks about the focusing illusion, which definitely distorts memories over time, so that your perceived memory may not actually be anywhere close to what someone else’s shared memory, but I’ll choose to keep myself ignorant of those complications (for the sake of happiness! ho ho ho)

What he talks about a little but made me really think were his words on vacations, and how he would ‘consume’ those memories through looking at photographs of said vacation. I shoot a whole lot, and especially more during vacations, but to what effect? Am I keeping memories of those moments through pictures, or am I primarily shooting for the sake of shooting – for the experience? I thought about it more, and I’d have to say that my love for photography is definitely experiential. Memories of the experience through photos, while not quite an afterthought, rank below the excitement I get solely for taking pictures. Shooting, composing, and editing are all exciting to me, no matter where the location. Sharing the pictures – showing off, basically – also gives a great deal of satisfaction. But even after all that, I’m stuck on his idea of happiness during a vacation. When Will and I were in Dominican Republic we’d jokingly say “I can’t wait to get back to edit these pictures”, which in all honesty was hardly a joke. The sole purpose of the vacation was to take pictures. Maybe next time I go on vacay I’ll leave the cameras at home and see how much I can enjoy myself solely with the remembering self in mind, and not the experiencing self. (You might take note that this whole offshoot has contradicted my stance on which I prefer, the remembering self or the experiencing self. I’m still trying to wrap my head around the subject.. am I happy because I remember a good experience taking photos or am I happy whenever I am in the moment of taking photos?? Am I anticipating memories by shooting? head asplode)

I’ve talked about my interest in associating music to a memory, and with the TED talk in mind, I think that music heard during an experience definitely solidifies the memory and the song associated with that memory. And more often than not, you’ll forget all lyrical content of the song and simply associate it with a memory – which would lead to some weird matchups. How many R&B songs do I enjoy because of the opportune times I heard them during my life, rather than actually cheating or fucking or creeping? (Now that’s a really extreme example – of course I remember the first song I dedicated to a girl, somewhat loosely based on the lyrics, but you get what I mean right?) There are other ramifications as well, like having a good song ruined by a bad experience, or having the focusing illusion take effect, or is happiness from a memory based on the memory or a song’s upbeat nature. Shit is really deep. The mind is a frightening thing.

This month’s throwback track of the week (throwback track of the week of the month?) is Nas – You Owe Me, with my favorite kind of Timbaland – mid to late 90s Timbaland. Pure gold, most of the tracks he was producing. Ten years ago, this song reached its chart peak at 13 and was hanging around on the charts for 24 weeks. Good job!

+ Themixtapeclub has a new offering for February, and i’m really feelin the chairperson‘s tape. Back in January I had my own tape up, it’s a love thing, which was a selection of old funky slowjams. Though now that January is done, you can no longer listen to it on site – not to worry as I’ve done the uploading and mirroring for you! For your enjoyment (and quite apropos for sunday’s fond festivities, if hearts and roses are your kinda thing):
it’s a love thing | mediafire
untracked, individual file version

Earth Wind & Fire – Love’s Holiday
Leon Ware – Turn Out The Light
Angel Bofill – Baby, I Need Your Love
Alfie Silas – Can’t We Do It All Again
Peabo Bryson – Lovers After All
Bobby Williams – You Need Love Like I Do
Alton McClain & Destiny – Why Did You Let Me Love You
Carl Carlton – This Feeling’s Rated X-Tra
Dynasty – Take Another Look At Love
The Gap Band – Yearning For Your Love

+ The announcement of a Daria: The Complete Animated Series box set has brought much joy in the past few days. I remember vegetating on the couch certain weekends watching daria marathons as a kid. And as i’ve been watching a bunch of youtube clips of Daria episodes lately, I’m being reminded of how great the writing was/is. Not to mention all the background audio they’d use in that show, REAL good selection. So much so that people have taken time to document the songs used in each episode. However I heard a rumor that the dvd won’t have all the music because of liscensing issues – but that’s like the best part!?!!? I surely hope the songs stay in tact.

As I’m still interested in the research I did for my promo only calendar(which if you might be interested, I’m selling for $30 shipped/just email), every month I’ll post a throwback track that ranked for that certain month ten years ago. This throwback being Hot Boys – I Need A Hot Girl. Cash Money was in its heyday back then, and Lil Wayne was so audible – no slurring involved. Just realize though that all the monthly bonus throwbacks I post are (just? or already?) ten years old. I know i’ve made an issue about a decade span and the age of certain songs, but it just goes to show how music can stay timeless – it’s just really good at reminding us of how old we are, and that’s nothing to blame music on.

+ The Hurt Locker : I’ve stopped watching trailers (well, as much as I can avoid them) and have tried to watch movies based solely on word of mouth. The Hurt Locker wa recommended twice, which is a far cry from the dozen or so ‘watch Avatar!’ I received, but still enough for me to take note. I watched it the other night and I’m slightly convinced. I feel like every character’s actions were already made for them before they even thought about it – the movie just kinda happened, with or without them. Other than the movie happening, nothing much else happens either – war, death, and violence become very commonplace. However when it gets nearer the end, and they quickly vignette into a soldier’s return to the mundanity of civilian life, then the movie clicked for me. A friend of mine was stationed in Iraq and when he was back in town for break I got to pick his brains, and he seemed most troubled about that exact feeling, coming home and getting in a car and going grocery shopping – the movie told that perfectly. The movie’s first hour and fourty minutes made some more sense after that. It’s okay; the movie drags. However I believe that was the intention.

+ I’ve pretty much finished uploading my Dominican Republic shots, you can check the set here. I’m way way WAY picky about pictures now. I have over 290+ shots and I narrowed it down to those 60ish, and even then I can probably do some more condensing.

Will had already spent a good amount of 2009 traveling, and mostly on Couchsurfing‘s dime, so I trusted that we could find couchsurfing members in the DR. Much to our chagrin though, they were not many to be found – atleast the ones that were able to host. If you’ve never heard of Couchsurfing before, the premise is simple – social network for travelers that allows you to either stay at someones house, or host people at your house free of charge. The more people you interact with on Couchsurfer(and that give you positive testimonials), the more people will trust you. It’s an interesting concept that really gives you faith in the goodness of people! However: most people we found on CS were only able to hang out (this option is ‘meet for coffee’ instead of ‘couch available’), so we had to bite the bullet and find hostels for most days. Later after meeting some CS people I was informed that the lack of hosters in the DR could be a cultural thing – people don’t leave the house until they get married, so we’d have to be couchsurfing with families, which might be too close for comfort for people.

Another thing we had to bite the bullet on was the money we spent on the trip. We were trying to be thrifty, but it seemed like most of the locations we went to were very tourist-centric(not really our intention), and the prices were adjusted accordingly. My whole thing when I travel is that I want to get away from tourist trap areas, all those kinda spots that everyone already has pictures of – another good reason to seek out couchsurfers, because they’ll bring you to local spots that are off the beaten path and way cooler. Nearing the end of our trip we were able to meet up with some locals and we got to see some really beautiful parts of DR.

My command of the Spanish language is not horrible, not great – whatever I can remember from my three years of high school Spanish has survived me enough in Los Angeles, but most of the time I can understand through context – atleast I thought. As the trip progressed I tried speaking more Spanish to people, but there were times when I was trying my hardest to understand/reply and people would look at me like what the fuck or just give me like the meanest rolleye, and I’m just like EEEK I’M SO SORRY FOR BUTCHERING YOUR LANGUAGE. I also learned that ‘orale’ is strictly a Mexican thing. Living in L.A. has really narrowed my scope of Spanish slang – there are some pretty sweet ones I learned on the trip.

One thing I’ve got to touch on is the DR sandwich. Them dudes got the sandwich game proper. Everything with copious amounts of cheese and butter. I don’t believe I’ve talked about it, but me and sandwiches are like THIS (crosses fingers), and each time I had a sandwich in DR it was like heaven in my mouth. Most places, whether it’s a restaurant or a cafeteria or a diner-style eatamabob had a very tried and true list of sandwiches that they could make – my favorite of the trip was a completo, which consists of ham & cheese & shredded chicken & butter & a tomato slice, all sandwich pressed. Are you kidding. I think the dealbreaker here is the sandwich press – these fucking things make sandwiches 200% better and I swear I need to have one in my house.

Other than the usual Dominican music – merengue, bachata, etc – the couchsurfers we met up with showed us some local indie music, and it was pretty sick! A reggae band who’s name is currently escaping me, and Rita Indiana y Los Misterios. There was a small live concert for her that we went to, and I enjoyed what I was hearing. Check this track, Jardinera. The keys are really sick on it, the whole song slightly reminds me of Behind The Front era BEP, which I will never not be a fan of, no matter how lame they are currently – my eyes unfortunately were witness to their newest music video one night at another couchsurfers house, I cannot unsee or unhear ;_;

Staying true to my i shoot film mantra, I only brought two film cameras and about thirty rolls of film to use up. I would never trade for digital, but I definitely made a sacrifice in bringing all that film – shit is heavy! My backpack could(and should) have been lighter for easier travel, but I really can’t have it any other way. Plus if I got jacked of my camera I wouldn’t be crying about it. Many times while we were walking around, some good natured people or police would tell us to guard our cameras/hold our straps tight, because it isn’t safe. WHATEVVVVSSS. My only regret is at the Dominican airport, on our flight out – having a good grasp of Spanish would have helped immensely. I wanted to hand check my film because I was worried about x-rays doing the dirty to my negs, but the dude was like ‘no es importa’ and just ran it through anyway. THE NERVE! QUE MAS IMPORTA! And now my negs have an annoying x-ray strip in them. Motherfucker. It’s not THAT bad, it lends the picture some authenticity and i’m all about film imperfections, but ugh – it coulda been avoided.

I know I said that I was going to try and stay away from the internet as much as possible during the trip, but that proved difficult when we had to check Couchsurfing nigh daily to see if we could find people to host us. I still locked myself out of other things by purposely not bringing any electronics except for maybe my camera(no digital!) – no watch, no phone, no ipod, no lcd screens to look at or check constantly during the day. It was liberating. Even as I type up this entry right now, I’m feeling like I shouldn’t be stuck to a monitor – that’ll be tough once work comes around. But that feeling of no responsibilities, no cares in the world except for where to sleep tonight and what we’re doing tomorrow, no attachment – traveling provides it in an unrivaled way. I’m already thinking of the next trip, maybe S.E. Asia sector in May – my aunt lives in Cambodia and I can most likely stay there for free.99 and then just take the bus all over.

The End! I’m sorting through pics already and will be posting them up to my Flickr intermittently, with some more detailed descriptions of how my trip went.

haven’t done a throwback track in a bit, here it be. courtesy of a recent find while crate diggin. and much to my surprise, the lp was also stuffed(stocking stuffed?) with another bobby brown 12″, get away. both have acapellas. FOR THE WIN.

+ hooray, the end of the year means a full-year recap! here it is, quickly:

cool things: up, autotune the news, fat princess, star trek, falling in love with new york, princess and the frog, critical mass, district 9, kevin hart, having a hilarious nephew, taken, father’s office, community, 30 rock, in the valley of elah, building forts, coraline, guppy house (brick toast is the biz), honda-ya, this mpc, ponyo, lonely island shit, karaoke, rudo y cursi, stone ipa, el aura, zelo pizza, inglorious basterds, sfvi, fast & furious, finding out about angela bofill and my mom schooling me on her, hbp, watching my first football game (footy, not american football-also world cup 2010 HUGE!), taking lots of pictures

meh things: blacking out on halloween, monsters vs aliens, kogi taco truck, funny people, google wave, a few not-minor-but-not-major bike injuries, guys that love to talk about how much they enjoyed 500 days of summer, crows zero 2, team edward and/or team jacob, kanye, bakjwi, fml/mlia/etc, shooting a wedding (i originally thought it’d be cool but it’s a lot of work!), bruno, i haven’t really heard any lady gaga song but i suppose that should go on the list, moon, being frequently sick, late hours, addiction to tumblr, wolverine, everyone dying

song/album addictions, released in 2009: energy, yer a jerk, dom kennedy mixtape, road to till the casket drops (i know its 08 but i am still feelin it hard), knock you down, shots, took the night, rockin that shit like, mr yeah, slow dance, back by popular demand, GEEGEEGEEEBABYBABYBABY+IM GENIE FOR YOU BOIIII, i wish that it would rain, boyfriend #2 dj tamiel remix, friend lover. (seems like keri hilson is all over this)

song/album addictions, not released in 2009: i want her, pretty brown eyes, is it good to you, more than a woman, nuttin but love(noxzema girl!), saturday love, touch me, big fun(not the inner city one – the gap band one), man in the mirror, nu nu, bushes (zero valut ver), love for the sake of love, oh sheila, above the clouds. (it’s hard to be accurate/cumulative with this – i routinely delete my whole itunes library and reload all my music, so it resets all my playcounts)

mixes i played out on my ipod: secret weapon, casino heat 2, death of all wack club music, juke chainsaw massacre vol 2, nightmare juke squad mix 02, mixed up in the hague vol 1, the freak beat mixtape, all of richfourfour’s new jack mixes. (i am really into juke/ghettotech shit. it’s like, wyle out who gives a fuck if the neighbors are sleeping)

movies i didnt see/want to see: cloudy with a chance of meatballs, fantastic mr fox, brothers, the informant, good hair, pandorum, transformers 2 kiiiiiiiinda? atleast for the visfx

+ i’m trying to hurry it up with my recap because on the 26th i’ll be out of the country. backpacking in dominican republic/puerto rico for like twoish weeks. i’ll try my darnest to not be around the internet but surely i will succumb.. i’m kind of OCD about archiving/labeling on gmail, and i can already imagine the unbridled joy of organizing tons of unread mail. that shit is crack. fuck the reading part though. i’ll drag labels for days.

+ new comeup podcast by me and mike diggity deuce. i’m in a kind of a slowjammy mood. and to add:

+ check the mixtape club in ’10 for a guest spot by yours truly, which is on the funk/slowjammy tip. i’m trying to be more critical of my usage of the word love, but it’s hard when probably 80% of popular music is about love or making love. (maybe not so eloquently, lately)

merry christmas/happy holidays/happy new years, see you mid january!