Been busy as heck this week... and as you can see below, getting volunteers to help out with the chores & keepin things clean as a whistle...while I'm supervisin' & taking pictures... and waitin' on those piss test results...

I'd add maybe a thing or two here on current events or a thing or two there on whatever , but I'm too busy just realigning my home entertainment component world currently. Not only am I knee deep in coaxial cable, but I'm putting away some produce and half a bottle of red wine.

I'm just hoping that chasing these connectors & resetting my satellite transponder will get the signal back into the 2nd TV upstairs after the well paid electricians "fixed" everything while I was gone at work...

So far I finally unhooked half their work, and suddenly got a feed of Tracy Chapman on the downstairs set from a Austin City Limits broadcast and it looks like my old pal Mr. Joe Gore is rocking out on geeetar behind her... cool...

I know Joe from back when we used to help srt up events at a wherehouse space / art collective & music studio called Komotion International in the Mission District a decade or so back...

Joe is a great guitarist, who has collaborated with lots of great artists ranging from Tom Waits to PJ Harvey. He's apparently all over Tracy's 2003 release "Where You Live".

Tracy Chapman - Change ( feat Flea & Joe Gore)
One of the cats that would DJ on nights at Komotion when guys like Joe would have their bands play was Cheb I Sabbah, and now he's a renowned recording artist in his own right

Cheb I Sabbah -

from his latest release
La Ghriba: La Kahena Remixed
available from Six Degrees

La Ghriba: La Kahena Remixed

Cheb I Sabbah

Download "Cheb I Sabbah _ Toura Toura: The Medina Remix" (MP3, 192kbps)

Today I was hanging out on Market St in SF and gave a lot of stray tourists directions to places around town. The most obviously lost were the pierced , tatooed and blackend squads of teenagers looking to attend the Warped Tour. Oddly enough many streams of alterno-youth were heading towards downtown and obviously away from the water, even though their tickets were clearly marked Pier 30...

Not the brightest bunch I guess...

hope they got there in time to catch Joan Jett at least...

now here's some more tunes with ties to the Bay Area & beyond I'm pretty sure nobody heard at The Warped Tour...

Another guy I have utmost respect for is Paris... I got a chance to hang out with him a couple years back at a Hip Hop Film Fest event I was helping out with... He's one of the brightest, and bravest guys in Hip Hop...and that doesn't mean he's been shot in a radio station parking lot by another rapper's bodyguards...

He's not someone whose playing into that negativity, and is instead someone whose music has been a strong and influential presence for years...

His Guerilla Funk label & website is a source for alternative media information, links with Guerilla News Network, as well as a source to buy & download his politically charged indie hip hop beats.

According to the Guerilla Funk website:

There now exists a harmful double-standard at most record labels of endorsing artists who only espouse misogyny, mindless violence, and drug culture references in their music -- while at the same time ignoring artists who strive to enlighten and inspire. It is our pledge at Guerrilla Funk Recordings not to follow suit.

Paris recently produced & added one of his own influences to his label Guerilla Funk...

The infamous Public Enemy

PE w/ Paris : Rebirth Of A Nation

Another artist that Paris has recognized is T-Kash. He's been a co-host with Davey-D of the long running Nor Cal Hip Hop show "Friday Night Vibe" which can be heard every Friday night from 12-2:00 a.m. PST on the Bay Area's listener supported 94.1 KPFA, 96.5 KNOZ (916 Radio in Sacramento), and simulcast via web streams on http://www.95live.com and http://www.guerrillafunk.com.

In person he's a jovial brother with an amicable presence, but onstage can spit a mean batch of verse. For years he could be seen onstage traveling with Boots & Pam The Funkstress of Oaktown's The Coup, and heard on their discm's like Party Music and Steal This Album but recently T-Kash moved to Sacramento and has launched his solo career in earnest with a new release on Guerilla Funk called Turf War Syndrome...

.He recently completed tour with the Coup that hit spots from New York to North Kackalacky...

T-Kash - Made In America

Here's a rare cut from an earlier release T-Kash put out himself in 2002 called "Molotov Music".

T-Kash w/ The Coup - What the Po Po's Hate

plus don't forget to

Download Public Enemy w/ Paris (plus Dead Prez & Jesse Jackson)- Can't Hold Us Back (MP3, 192kbps)

Public Enemy Featuring Paris

Guerrilla Funk Recordings