esperanza spalding

nice short of the creative process in the making of her

new album chamber music society. she will be coming

to charlotte september 24th at knight theater.

Esperanza Spalding, Chamber Music Society EPK from Concord Music Group on Vimeo.

reel shit talking

Gonna Make a Change (and bring back my career!)

Chris Brown...........Chris Brown..........Chris Brown......... It's been a minute since we've seen this fella in the news. And last night on the BET Music Awards (in which they gave out approximately 5 awards...or at least that's what it felt like), he made, what started out as, a pretty impressive Michael Jackson tribute. I have to admit, I enjoyed the tribute at the beginning. It was one of maybe three highlights I could attribute to the entire 3 hours of time BET stole from my life. Props to El DeBarge for also doing his thing on stage. He's legendary. Also, the humanitarian award they gave to John Legend was dope. He deserved it, and the speech he gave was short, yet poignant. Back to Mr. Brown however. Impressed with the beginning of the MJ tribute, I quickly changed my view at the end.

At first, I have to say I was extremely critical of Chris Brown. There were numerous reasons behind this. One; because of his unapologetic attitude towards his actions towards his former girlfriend/lover/whatever it is they do in Hollywood these days, Rhianna. Two; because his music is lumped with Hip Hop, and he condones it. Three; because he's "cookie cutter". Figure it out. And the list could go on, and on. But this isn't a Chris Brown "hatathon". Also, my homie Kat said something that made a lot of sense when I slammed him on her FB page. She said; "maybe he's starting with the man in the mirror?" Great point. That said, purpose of this post is to analyze his actions last night on the BET awards from two points of view. 1st, we'll look from the point of the skeptic. Lastly, we'll look at it from the point of the sympathizer. Both to his career, and to his situation. Not sure where I lie on the matter. Both sides of my brain are making some pretty compelling arguments. Long live the schitzo world destroyer!

First the video. After that, the arguments. I'll tell you one thing, I can't WAIT to see what J-Smooth says about this on Illdoctrine!

Chris Brown MJ Tribute at the BET Awards 2010 from KrazyOfficial on Vimeo.

The Skeptic

If we really look at what happened last night as its own entity, what do we see? Before it all, Chris Brown's career was almost dead because of his "kind of" recent 6 round bout with singer/entertainer/lover Rihanna, where he felt the need to not only beat the piss out of her, but bite her in the face. Now even when we were little kids, we knew the "biter" was a weird one. But biting in the face?! Issues. So his PR team/Label decides they need to work overtime to save the career of a person they invested so much money into. So on Dec. 14th 2009 (no I really don't know when) when someone in Jive think tank said, "hey, what do you think about a Michael Jackson tribute during the 2010 BET Music Awards in June 2010?!".. Somehow, some way, the right BJ was given SOMEWHERE (by man OR woman who knows nowadays), and BET caves.. Now he has to do something big, because its possible he could ACTUALLY salvage his career.. This is some true bottom of the 9th 2 outs, tying run on 3rd, winning run on 2nd shit here..

Britanny's image took a bad hit after the "chillens", and efforts to clean that fiasco up FAILED miserably.

Whitney went down swinging by getting booed on stage..

They needed something HUGE.. A fierce dance montage! Other than Usher, Chris is just about the ONLY one who could pull it off.. But we need something bigger.. Something to put it completely and utterly over the top... hmmmm.. OH SHIT! Sing "Man In The Mirror"! Better yet... CRY WHILE DOING IT!!! If u are totally crushed because u beat and bite women, what better way to redeem in the eyes of the fans than to CRY WhILE SINGING MAN IN THE MIRROR!!!? EUREKA! BASE HIT!!! GIANTS WIN THE PENNANT!!

The Sympathy Giver

One can only look at the performance by Chris Brown and feel sorry for the guy. Whether you like his music or not, watching him breakdown like that on stage showed that he may have finally felt the weight of what he's done, both to his career, and a young woman personally for the rest of her life. He sang a song, Man In The Mirror, by R&B legend Michael Jackson which seemed like it was hitting home, as he could hardly get a word out of his mouth because he was so choked up. If we look at some of those lyrics, it's pretty easy to see how this could be true.

I'm Gonna Make A Change,

For Once In My Life

It's Gonna Feel Real Good,

Gonna Make A Difference

Gonna Make It Right . . .

I'm Starting With The Man In

The Mirror

I'm Asking Him To Change

His Ways

And No Message Could Have

Been Any Clearer

If You Wanna Make The World

A Better Place

(If You Wanna Make The

World A Better Place)

Take A Look At Yourself, And

Then Make A Change

(Take A Look At Yourself, And

Then Make A Change)

Yeah... For someone who has fallen as hard as this man has, it's pretty easy to see how such a song could have such a profound effect on a guy. On top of the words of the song, the anniversary that was going on, and the event taking place, there is the weight of WHERE he was performing this song. At the shrine where Michael Jackson was finally laid to rest. I don't know where Brown's true sentiments lied last night, but I hope that it was with Rihanna, and all women out there who get they're asses kicked every night. I hope he has decided to MAKE A REAL CHANGE. The opportunity and timing is perfect. Let's hope he swings the bat.

There you have it. Where do you fall? I know I still hate BET regardless! They will be of the first the world destroyer topples!

mS

rip dennis hopper

coming soon
gotta see this...can't wait.

BOUNCING CATS film trailer from nabil elderkin on Vimeo.

get down

not really a fan of the jay-z/radiohead mash-up but the

visuals are on point. plus the girl rockin is pretty versatile.

nice.

Questions

"All questions are female. All answers are male. If you're wondering why this might be the case, you are thinking with your feminine sensibilities. If you're considering why this is the case, you are thinking with your masculine senses. Questions are creative, intimidating, and periodically irritating. We may think them docile, we may try to ignore or suppress them, but their destabilizing power persists, pushing us towards our proper destiny. Answers are protective, giving us some ground, however shaky, on which to stand. Answers are cool, logical, but they can also become stubborn know-it-alls, resisting the emergence of new questions and answers and deteriorating into conservative old farts. Truth is a precarious balance between poignancy and peace. Truth lies within the perpetual prance of Yin and Yang." – Tony Vigorito, Just a Couple of Days

It's not always the wrong answer, but the wrong question.

Certain sects of religions, including the one I was raised in, teach you to be afraid of asking questions. They teach you that questioning the origins of things is a lack of faith. Which is completely ludicrous. An inquiring mind should be applauded. I was once asked, "If you don't go to church, what do you believe? Why are you here?" My response was, "Why do I have to believe anything? Maybe my purpose is my existence." Some people don't even know what they actually believe because they never asked questions. Which is a shame because humans are notorious for fucking things up. After centuries of their hands dabbling into interpreting and re-interpreting what they interpreted, edits and re-writes of certain 'sacred' texts… I think it's moronic not to question…I also believe it's okay to not have all the answers. Some things are meant to be wondered about, researched, theorized…Questions really CAN be irritating, especially when the answer to one question only leads to another question.

Why are we afraid to question?

I've always wondered if people ask themselves the right questions…the internal questions that serve as filters for our minds and mouths. The ones that make us think before we speak or DO. Because maybe asking ourselves the right questions will lead to truths about ourselves we really don't want to be made aware of. Certain truths about ourselves can always be changed…most adjectives we use to describe ourselves and others could change at anytime, if we ask the right questions. But most people don't because they are too lazy to do anything about changing or are too weak to face the truth.

Sometimes, we take a different wrong turn: asking questions of self that we need to ask of someone else. When I dread hearing an answer that I have no control over, I tend to overanalyze. Why did she say this? Why did he do that? When the real answer doesn't exist in me, but in someone else. I know this is mostly because of fear of a response I don't want to deal with or an answer I may not want hear, but some questions are necessary. It's better to be afraid than to regret not hearing something you may have learned from.

If you don't ask the right question, you may never get the right answer.