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Monday, 12 December 2005
macey does karaoke???
Now Playing: automne vein - the other side of goodbye
Topic: music appreciation

never thought i'd enjoy doing karaoke, but who knew? a good friend of mine threw herself a birthday party this past weekend. it's the second year in a row she's done a karaoke party, and possibly the third time she's done it total. my wife's the songbird out of us two, so she loves that kind of thing. i've got to hand it to this West Side spot we were at, though: their catalog's mad deep. got a kick out of Beth doing "Anarchy In The U.K." by the Sex Pistols. yes, i actually did a few myself, in this order...

Digital Underground - The Humpty Dance
Happy Mondays - Kinky Afro (with my wifey singing backup)
The Time - Jungle Love

Radiohead's "Optimistic" will have to wait until next year - plenty of time for me to get my falsetto on.

Posted by macedonia at 5:58 PM EST
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Saturday, 3 December 2005
BSOTS 009 - some of my best friends are music makers...
Now Playing: AFX - Every Day Arched Maid Via RDJ
Topic: my podcasts

really fun show. already getting feedback from this one. the whole show's devoted to original works from my friends. some hip-hop, some minimal house, some drum and bass, and even some leftfield electro soul. you know what to do: download the joint. notes for the show go like so...

open thought*cold cut
hired gun feat. mista mayday*live right
album mentioned: dj center - feel what i'm feelin'
website mentioned: percussion lab (lovingly protected by praveen)
ezekiel honig*under the covers
sankofa bass project*what we use
dj jon [s]*le jiggy fly
techniken defunkus*stage hands
artists mentioned: core rhythm and dj drilla
steve smith and enrique lunaholder (aka soundscraper)*analogon

Posted by macedonia at 10:35 PM EST
Updated: Tuesday, 14 February 2006 12:28 AM EST
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Monday, 21 November 2005
words and blurbs...
Now Playing: V/A - Gilles Peterson Digs America
Topic: articles

been a while since i posted some articles, so i wanted to do play catch-up regarding some pieces i read and/or heard last month:

first off, here's a great August Wilson article. a great playwright, a brilliant mind, losing August in October really got to me.

the death of Rosa Parks was also a sobering moment for me in October. i encourage you to check out this article from William Jelani Cobb, which reminds that the life of Rosa Parks was about much more than a galvanizing event on December 1, 1955. in fact, it wasn't the first time that blacks had disobeyed segregation laws, including Mother Rosa.

and then there's Project 21, a black conservative think tank. words fail me regarding these comments: you'll just have to see them for yourself and make up your own mind. still, i'm left wondering who's really more of a danger to black folks: the neocons or the negrocons?

Posted by macedonia at 5:12 PM EST
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Wednesday, 16 November 2005
show #8 - potential soundtrack pt. two
Now Playing: a rerun of *that '70s show* and the hum of my computer...
Topic: my podcasts

you know the drill. you can download it, but it would be awfully nice if you would subscribe. you can even do so in Odeo. show notes go like so:

lecture on nothing*i will rise (traditional)
jadox*contact high (from the podsafe music network)
paranorml*the portal (from the podsafe music network)
black dillinger*big trouble (from the podsafe music network)
a few words regarding the bandtrax podcast and their comments on black dillinger
show mentioned: podshow music rewind
knifehandchop*bounty killer killer
steev hise*stuck together, falling apart (excerpt)
the eternals*space dancehall
show mentioned: in over your head
cocorosie*noah's ark (free stream and download)
other key info: afropunk documentary

Posted by macedonia at 11:48 PM EST
Updated: Tuesday, 14 February 2006 12:33 AM EST
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Thursday, 3 November 2005
show #7 - a potential soundtrack for restless thirty-somethings... (pt. one)
Now Playing: ER episode playing in my ear...
Topic: my podcasts

pardon me for a moment. just need to hook up to my Odeo channel.

My Odeo Channel (odeo/43df27128c29a281)

okay, here's the new show available to download. show notes are as follows:

george soule*get involved
mysterious minds*it's real
commercial break: colt 45 malt liquor ad
sound directions*the funky side of life
radio show mentioned: downtown soulsville with mr. fine wine
event mentioned: wfmu record & CD fair
promo for podcast411.com (produced by dan patterson aka creepy sleepy)
full*somewhere before the sunrise
lovespirals*walk away (bitstream dream remix) {on the podsafe music network}
daniel givens*light travel (fetch the future)

Posted by macedonia at 10:23 PM EST
Updated: Tuesday, 14 February 2006 12:32 AM EST
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Tuesday, 1 November 2005
glowing in the dark...
Now Playing: Monica's show on WFMU (wfmu.org)
Topic: playlists

i had a lot of fun spinning this set, despite a few table bumps and power outages. this marked my first halloween-themed party in about eight years.

glowing in the dark (and hovering six inches above your floor...)
- a halloween weekend dj set @ cryptology, long island city, ny / 10.29.05 - 10:30 p.m.

the pointer sisters*pinball number count*ninja tune (uk)
medeski martin & wood*midnight birds (sa-ra remix)*blue note
mu*let's get sick*tigersushi (france)
dennis coffey*theme from black belt jones*good sounds (uk)
the soul searchers*blow your whistle*harmless (uk)
someone else*goink*microcosm music
akufen*in dog we trust*force inc. (germany)
nightcrawlers*push the feeling on (the dub of doom)*great jones/island
$tinkworx*whut*down low
!!!*me and giuliani down by the schoolyard (a true story)*touch and go
out hud*one life to leave (a requiem)*kranky
mu*paris hilton*output (uk)
matthew dear*dog days*spectral sound
the md x-press*GOD made me phunky*nite stuff (italy)
basement jaxx*fly life*white label
i:cube*disco cubism (daft punk mix)*versatile (france)
switch*a bit patchy*dubsided (uk)
serge gainsbourg*marabout (bob sinclar remix)*mercury (france)
carl craig*tres demented*planet e communications
butler kiev*rewind selecta*planet mu (uk)
gold chains*nada (kid 606's hold onto yr hardcore rmx)*pias

Posted by macedonia at 1:22 PM EST
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Thursday, 20 October 2005
show #6 - genrecidal maniac
Now Playing: the bernie mac show on upn
Topic: my podcasts

this one's a bit longer than i wanted it to be, but whatever. you can either stream or download the results. it's high time that i start providing some show notes on the blog, so here we go:

sunspot*radio free earth (on the podsafe music network)
lunchbox*brown bag
jason forrest*nightclothes and headphones (feat. laura cantrell)
radio shows mentioned: advanced d&d and the radio thrift shop
book mentioned: vinyl junkies by brett milano
dvd mentioned: deep crates documentary
phil moore browne*the smallest title
vivian fields middle school psa
capitol k*pillow
connoisseurs*uv
antipop consortium*ghostlawns (lfo rik waller mix)
bjork*enjoy (further over the edge mix)
the almighty k.o.*george bush doesn't care about black people

Posted by macedonia at 11:10 PM EDT
Updated: Saturday, 22 October 2005 8:52 PM EDT
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Friday, 14 October 2005
all up in the family
Now Playing: House Nation w/DJ Silver (eastvillageradio.com)

yesterday, Beth and i went by the hospital to see my grandma. she had surgery to get her gall bladder removed earlier this week. seems to be doing better, not as much discomfort. as much as i know she wants to get back to being her active self (she does more at age 83 than those considerably younger than her), i hope she takes it easy for a while. my mom will make sure of that - she's up from Virginia to keep an eye on her and was at the hospital when Beth and i got there.

yesterday was also my father's 62nd birthday. after some hesitation, i made sure to give him a call. i never liked the fact that a ten-minute phone conversation with my dad consisted of one minute of talking and nine minutes of silence. neither of us are great on the phone, so i know where i get it from. as of late, i've often thought to myself that we should be able to find more to talk about, being father and son and all. (one of the best conversations i ever had with him was two years ago on his 60th birthday, his words fueled by too much gin so the truth had no choice but to come out. i really will have to share that story someday...) plus the rain and the job have had me in a very foul mood lately and i just didn't feel like going through that last night. even so, i called him anyway.

while i was at the hospital last night, i told mom how i felt. she suggested that his ability to recall memory and thought isn't what it used to be, and she noticed that one of the last times she talked to him. i never thought of that before, but when i talked to him last night, for the first time i heard it, and a lot of things started to make sense. Beth talked with him also and confirmed the same: it takes him a while to search for the right words. mom said that she wouldn't be surprised if he ended up getting Alzheimer's like his mother. while the doctors say that it's not hereditary, ma dukes doesn't believe that's the case. obviously, i hope that doesn't happen, but i wouldn't be completely and totally surprised if it did.

i'm not sure how far back substance abuse goes with my father, but i know enough to know that when i was a young boy playing in the back seat of his green Cadillac Eldorado, he was freebasing with his friends in the front seat. i saw that with my own eyes. i saw the burn marks on the pipe sometime before that and wondered what it was used for. outside of hard drugs, he smoked cigarettes for many years. a cigarette was like an appetizer that goes along with your evening meal for him. it was like that for a lot of my relatives on my father's side. kind of a shock that i never picked up the habit, but not really: when you have to hang up your clothes in the garage after holiday functions because your outfit absorbed enough second hand smoke to make people mistake you for a chimmney sweep, it's somewhat difficult to find smoking glamorous after that.

so i think about one of my intellectual comedic heroes...Richard Pryor. i think about the abuse he put his body through regarding cocaine and how upfront he was about it with his audience in his comedy routines. i also think about the fact that he has multiple sclerosis now, which has advanced to the point where he can hardly speak, if at all. while i don't think that drugs are a direct cause, it is possible that such substance intake over a prolonged period of time can break down a body's defenses. maybe the same thing's happening with my father. i don't think it's just age. my other grandmother (my dad's mother) was as sharp as a tack until the Alzheimer's hit.

and here i am, having the nerve to feel old before my time at 31 years of age (going on 32). riiiiiiight. suuuuuuuuuuure you're old.

Posted by macedonia at 4:18 PM EDT
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Wednesday, 12 October 2005
rainy day thoughts
Now Playing: the sound of silence (for once) in my office...

once again, mother nature has mistaken new york for seattle. it's been raining buckets for the past five days or so. this is some biblical "40 days and 40 nights" stuff here. we're all gonna need an ark by the time it's all over. i think i'm finally dry from this morning's commute only to have to do my best duck imitation in about an hour or so. my shoes and socks are still damp, however. one of these days, i'm gonna invest in a pair of galoshes - they aren't fashionable, but they keep your feet dry. nothing will make me sulk quicker than the feeling of rain-soaked shoes on my feet.

this morning was truly horrible. the heaviest rain seemed to come during my walk to the train station. there was no avoiding the puddles. my feet were soaked long before i made it to the train. my raincoat and umbrella were of no use at all - i may as well have gone outside without them. it's especially difficult to get motivated on days like these. it's still dark outside when i wake up in the morning and kinda cold, too. pouring rain just adds a sense of futility to the whole day. usually, i get to work 30 minutes before i have to do the customer service racket. recently, i've been getting to work right on time. although i'm not late (i don't believe in being late to anything), prep time before the work day begins is usually best. particularly when your work place tends to be catty, petty, and generally poisonous to one's spirit.

been a while since i've written a work post, mainly because what i do doesn't deserve the space. but better to get it out now rather than keep it bottled up and go pyro on something or someone later. it's not like i haven't written about work because things are hunky dory - far from it. i just think that there are better uses for the blog, period. it's been a little over two years since circumstances beyond my control pushed me into the customer service field, and while i'm at a better job in terms of pay and benefits, in no way, shape, or form am i proud of the work i do. if it were a job that i found fulfilling, that would be a different story. but since it isn't, why post about that? why remix the same song umpteen times if the melody remains the same? you get the idea the first time.

i will say this, though: there's a lot of lying involved with this job. that doesn't sit well with me. not in the realm of insider trading or embezzlement or a white lady drowning her kids and then dialing 1-900-BLAME-A-BROTHER, but little white lies. the kind that add up. the kind you need to keep track of. the kind you have to spend time remembering who you told what. the kind that's encouraged by management. that sh*t's tiresome. and it's not just a matter of Christian ethics here, although that has a lot to do with it. i'm about to turn 32 years old. i'm restless, i'm sarcastic, i'm dangerously embittered, and i'm rapidly losing the ability to lie to people in general. i figure, why bother? it's much easier to tell the truth. if it hurts you, you'll get over it. if it pisses off a customer, too bad. that and i'm tired of having entirely too much to remember in terms of policies and what to do when and what to say when. and the moment you start to learn the tune, that's precisely the time when someone over your head switches up the tempo. TIRED, TIRED, TIRED, TIRED, TIRED.

it's sad in a way...what i get paid to do, i care nothing about. i have absolutely no idea who's listening to the podcast or how many listen, but i'm totally into it. totally obsessed with anything having to do with music, technology, and how they tie into popular culture and the sociopolitical angles found within certain art. not getting a dime from any of it and it doesn't matter.

gotta go. time to get wet now. quack.

Posted by macedonia at 5:38 PM EDT
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Thursday, 6 October 2005
now, that's what i call a photo op...
Now Playing: Monica's radio show on wfmu.org
Topic: music appreciation

i'm really regretting not being at the Future of Music Policy Summit after checking out some of the panels. thankfully, podcasts and streaming video of each panel can be found here. i highly recommend the interview with George Clinton and Hank Shocklee as they discuss sampling. classic.

Posted by macedonia at 10:41 AM EDT
Updated: Thursday, 20 October 2005 11:18 PM EDT
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