Underground Runway 3/3/07 Saturday Night Style

So in the interest of full disclosure... and just to let ya know...

This weekend is the debut of a fashion event I helped brainstorm called Underground Runway...

if yer in the Bay Area this Saturday night I encourage ya to check it out...

At our debut this Saturday, multiple local designers are to be featured in the premiere live event hosted by the fly Malika (of MTV's Making The Band ) to be held at 111 Minna Gallery in San Francisco on Saturday March 3rd 2007, with doors and VIP cocktail reception starting at 8:30 pm.





Designers To Be Featured:

* Mastahn Fanaka

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* RJ Designs / RJ Latina

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* RubyGirl / Ruby Dolls

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* Tavia Adinasi

Guests will be treated to hot and flashy runway presentations from each designer's latest sexy collections, and a lavish after party with music from top Bay Area DJ talents like DJ Undakut, Sake 1, and possibly even myself in da mix...

The goings on will be documented by numerous still photographers, as well as a camera crew run by award winning filmmaker Kevin Epps (Straight Outta Hunters Point, Rap Dreams) who will be showing the edited results via Adam Curry's global reaching Podshow Network. Listen for Kevin around 12 on The Bay Area's Pirate Cat Radio at 89.7 FM on the day of the show being interviewed by Ms. Lilycat. Event logistics, lighting, projections and whatnots will be provided by a crew including myself and Eddie Cantrell of EventMagic, who runs one of the Bay Area's top event coordination crews.

We're pulling this thing together in a quick & dirty high energy fashion on a shoe string, but will deliver ya a quality evening with many creative & talented folks working behind the scenes and of course, striving to put some serious beauty on display...

bring yer cameras... is it a coincidence that this foto friendly event will be sharing space as the Flickr anniversary party goes down?

There's a full bar and a full slate of stuff going down...



Maybe I'll see some of ya there...

&

Here's some VIP & fashionista worthy mp3 tuneage & whatnot for all you style stragglers below...

Kinks - Dedicated Follower of Fashion

Jimmy Scott - The Way You Look Tonight ( Stuhr Remix)

more classic Syl Johnson, Kinks & Jimmy Scott tracks for

• Download at eMusic

and now that you have been annoited with that, do perhaps try some more nuevo stuff below ...



Pumali Panthers - "In Style And In Rhythm"

by Pumali Panthers
on sevenahalf records

• Download at eMusic
• Stream from RealNetworks / Rhapsody
• Buy at Napster

some mo fashion tracks for y'all



Bildmeister - I Fit In My Style

Kristoffer Ragnstam - Fashion

Roger Rackett - Designer Jeans

Danielle Luppi - Fashion Party

Definition of Sound - Looking Good

Cylob - Actress/Model Rubicks Remix

Kraftwerk - The Model (Simian German Mix)

Innocence Mission - Tommorrow On The Runway

(download mp3)

Exus - VTP@MySpace

from "Inside Out"by Exus

released via
http://Part Of.com

• Buy at iTunes Music Store

Mikey Dread - Saturday Night Style

from "African Anthem Deluxe: The Mikey Dread Show Dubwise"
by Mikey Dread
Dread at the Controls

• Buy at iTunes Music Store
• Buy at eMusic
• Buy at Napster
• Stream from RealNetworks / Rhapsody

PS did ya know today ( 2/28) is Cindy Wilson of the B-52s Birthday?

and that she's turning 50!!

here's a few tracks for ya from the B-52's glory years

B - 52's - 52 Girls

B-52's - 53 Miles West of Venus

B - 52's - Rock Lobster

B- 52's - Dance This Mess Around

Hail A Booze Cruise Grooves

Just blogging a bit for ya on a rainy Monday night , enjoying some delicious sweet potato tamales from local heroine Virginia the Tamale Lady. Maybe I'll creep out into the hail and get a beer...but maybe i'll spiel at ya 1st...

I guess since the weather here's a lil funky...I'll toss ya some links to funky tuneage down below as well...

Over the weekend I made a lil trip down to LA, I had intended to maybe catch some nightlife at the Smell where I saw that Mars Volta frontman Omar's new project Zechs Marquise was making the scene...

I don't know how it happenend but on Friday night I didn't make it much past my hotel...

After dinner and brews stumbling around the Japantown area ( mainly enjoying finger foods at Weiland's, and Chop Suey)... I got the idea to meet my lil' bro for drinks after he got out of The Laker game where he was putting away a half dozen or so free hospitality suite brews.

Where better to rendezvous than my hotel's 35th floor revolving cocktail lounge...

I loved watching this cyndrical glass coated hotel as kid when it was used as a "futuristic" backdrop for the Buck Rogers in the 25th Century sci-fi series...

Now it's sorta old school...a 70's version of what was supposed to be the future...including futuristic lighted martini glasses.

But the cocktails are definitely old school...just with new school inflationary pricing...

Needless to say a couple rounds of specialty cocktails and $155 later... ( add in a cheese plate & the view I guess)...

We had the spins...literally and figuratively.



It was time to descend into the bowels of the hotel and find my room...

only problem was I had no idea what tower, or even floor I was in by that point...my unlabeled Westin key card was no help...

I kept slipping the card into various doors on various floors hoping for a green light...

All I could recall was that I was in the teens somewhere, maybe 14th floor or was it 17th... sorta near the elevator I think... but which elevator...

So after about half an hour of quality reality tv for closed circuit security camera enjoyment I decided I'd retire back to the bar in the lobby until last call. At least it was spot where if I was gonna get arrested it would be for annoying tourist couples from the midwest just by ordering beers they'd never heard of...

Like I must assume Anchor Steam is some sort of secret to the masses, despite having been brewed continuously from 1896 until prohibition and then onward since the 1960's by rebel Maytag washer heir Fritz Maytag on the side of San Francisco's Potrero Hill...

L.A, though despite being more than 10x the size and population of San Francisco is not so lucky in the beer department, so mostly peoples drink yellowish swill...

I was lucky to find some Sam Adams while bar hopping downtown, but compared to the tasty barleywines Magnolia and Toronado in my neighborhood were throwing around during Strong Beer Month... it was a sad situation.

But one thing LA has though is a few bitchin' micro funk labels, like Stonesthrow and it's also home of the Kajmere label...

Stonesthrow's been around since the late 90's and gets a lot more attention, what with it's links to J Dilla, Peanut Butter Wolf etc...Stonesthrow also has subsidiary imprints Now-Again and Soul Cal that specialize in rare funk and soul re-issues.

Like this Cut Chemist remix that chops, mashes and slides through a buncha old school grooves heard on the label's seriously mandatory compilation Funky 16 Corners...

Cut Chemist - Bunky's Pick (7 Minutes and 48 Seconds of Funk)

or perhaps this bit of relatively obscure bit o' nappy Indianapolis funk delivered circa 75 by Amnesty... via the latest Stonesthrow / Now Again reissue..."Free Your Mind"

If ya get to this post on Tuesday Feb 27th... The track called Love Fades is the free eMusic mp3 download of the day



but any fan of the stuff put out via Stonesthrow might wanna check into Kajmere as well...

This Kajmere label was co-founded circa 2003 by "Loslito" Guaico, an LA scenester & member of Breakestra, and is another deep repository of gritty grooves...


So the next couple tracks I'm gonna lay on ya from them are worth a listen if ya have ears and possibly feet that can appreciate this sorta thang...

One of their most emphasized artists has been the Seattle based female soul singer Choklate...

On this track from Sound Volume 1 she is joined by Jurassic 5's voice of authority and hip hop royalty Chali 2na

Choklate w/ Chali 2na - Waiting

Choklate is on tour this spring in the dirty south & east coast & even Tejas so y'all check her out

Saturday, March 10th, 2007

Apache Cafe

Hustle Hard Show #1 - 9p

ATL GA
USA

Price: Cover

Hustle Hard '07 Launch in ATL

Tuesday, March 13th, 2007

Reign

Choklate - 9p

Norfolk VA
USA

Price: Cover

Choklate returns to VA feat the Fuzz Band

Thursday, March 15th, 2007

Bohemian Caverns

Choklate - 9p

DC WA/DC
USA

Price: Cover

DC Performance Debut

Friday, March 16th, 2007

Berklee Performance Center

Choklate w/ Raheem Devaughn - 9p

Boston Mass
USA

Price: Cover

Wednesday, March 21st, 2007

SOB's

NY Performance Debut - 9p

New York NY
USA

Price: Cover

Soul Village Hosted by Eric Roberson

Sunday, March 25th, 2007

The Triple Door

Welcome Home Choklate feat. Peter Hadar and Eric Roberson - 8 & 10pm

Seattle WA
USA

Price: Cover

Hustle Hard '07 Tour Finale
Feat. Peter Hadar and Eric Roberson

Friday, April 27th, 2007

Soul Music Conference

Soul Music Conference

Dallas TX

Saturday, April 28th, 2007

Soul Music Conference

Dallas TX

Afrodisiac Soundsystem

One of the other interesting Kajmere projects has been a series of white label-esque afro mash ups by the Afrodisiac Sound System crew who create cross cultural mash ups like this one incorporating Michael Jackson's Billie Jean groove and inspirational samples from Fela Anikupalo Kuti...

Afrodisiac Sound System - Billie Jean vs Fela Kuti

Visit KajmereSound.com for more info on this dynamic and diverse label...

Well finish up with some sounds from Maestro Omar Sosa...

This Berkely based jazz/latin/soul musician was born in the inland Cuban city of Camagüey and after rigorous musical studies and stints in Ecuador & Spain, he made it to the US in 1995. He began working with John Santos and has been well respected around SF's latin jazz scene for years...but last year was really in some ways the man's commerical breakthrough...

He was nominated for a Grammy in 2006 for the 2nd time, and he was made the subject of a trippy remix CD effort produced by Paris-based drummer, Steve Argüelles as well...

• 
  
  Here are two cuts... one from Mulatos and the other a remix of a track from the Mulatos Remix project...
  
  Omar Sosa - L3zero.mp3
  
  Omar Sosa - La Tra ( basephunk mix)
  
  

  "Mulatos" & "Mulatos Remix"

  

  released in US by
  Otá Records

  
  
  
• Download more at eMusic
• Download more at Napster
• Stream from RealNetworks / Rhapsody

Gotta Keep Rollin'

I'm driving down into LA this weekend for a quick jaunt in & out Friday & Saturday...

Hope I miss the rain that's supposedly coming & hopefully going before I get there...

Snoop Dogg ft The Doors - Riders On The Storm

I've got a nutty pal whose also trying to get me to go see The Who in Fresno on Sunday. All I know is that would be way to much time spent driving around out there... in the, gulp, Central Valley.

The valley itself is a long stretch of not much of nothing, at least culturally significant..which has made it the proud prime meth origination spot in the nation...

California authorities busted over 2,200 labs in the year 2000...

Little nowhere towns off the beaten path like Turlock, Manteca ( Spanish for Lard)
Los Banos ( Spanish for shithole) have long been popular outposts for hopelessly deviant drugged out California speed tweakers.

I knew some Central California tweakers once who were involved in finding some ornate stored antique European brass bridge railings in crates that they had melted down for a pittance in scrap metal money...

Dark Meat - Angel of Meth

Originally Meth was used on trooops and war workers during WWII to keep them going , Japan supposedly had a full scale meth addiction epidemic in the 1940s. By the 50s, speed was popular with Beatniks, and housewives..bikers and truck drivers. By the 1960's, Amphetamines were fairly mainstream, with President Kennedy even getting Vitamin & Energy Shots weekly.



Lou Reed was always known as a chemical cowboy, and you just know he had to be on something when he was making music like this... the 8-track Hall of Fame release Lou Reed - Metal Machine Music

Lou Reed - Metal Machine Music Pt 1

Eventually , with help of biker gangs and nowadays since the late 80's a highly organized latino drug mafia, Meth is everywhere...not just our lowly lil central valley.

Alaska had 66 speed labs seized in 2004... more than quadruple the number of just 4 years earlier...

Arkansas authorities seized more than 800 labs in 2004, double the amount in Texas a state w/ 10x the population.


Here's a 60 second PSA about the drug produced by Patrick Mandingo for Spokane Washington...

Meth PSA.mp3

here's a link to a recent PBS Frontline on the epidemic, where you can watch the whole thing online...

perfect way to kill time for all you tweakers reading this

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/meth/

Sic Pleasure - Speed Rules


Vibrators - Amphetamine Blue


Throwing Muses - Speed & Sleep


Fishmonkeyman - The Man Who Took Speed


Michael Holland - Crystal Meth Freak From California


Mark Lanegan w/Josh Homme - Methamphetamine Blues


DJ BC vs Wu & Louis Armstrong - When The Meth Comes Marching In



God knows, I love a good time as much as anyone...but why the cranky powder appeals to people is beyond me. I understand the physiological flava of the whole shebang...but if ya ever spent anytime around someone "enjoying" their speed binge, that experience seems like it should be enough to scare ya straight...

All I know is I'll be shopping at one of those truckstops in a few hours alongside folks like the chick above...and i just can't wait to see that concert crowd in Fresno...

If Ya Ever end Up on Ol' Hwy 5 , Here's Some Old Fashioned Central Valley Style Hillbilly Truckin Music For Yer Journey...

Hoyt Axton - Gotta Keep Rollin'

Buck Owens - Waiting In Your Welfare Line

Merle Haggard - The Bottle Let Me Down

Troy Hess - Please Don't Go Topless Mother


Now for something Completely Different:


As I dutifully reported last month, former Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker is coming stateside, and has added a second show in NYC to meet demand. His biggest US showcase will be at Coachella, in front of tens of thousands...

Not sure how all this will translate commercially over here, at least for a semi-obscure Brit singer whose current CD's hidden emphasis bonus track features the corporate radio friendly refrain "Cunts Are Still Running The World"

Jarvis Cocker - Quantum Theory

In honor of my excursion south towards the magic kingdom tonight, here's another track from Jarvis' latest disc

Jarvis Cocker - Disney Time


anyhow

excuse me now, but the staff are waiting for me here, so i gotta get going...

Money Trumps Peace Sometimes

While the British media are openly speculating on how many hours we have until Bush launches an attack on Iran, USA TODAY's founder Al Neuharth finally put GW Bush on the list of all time worst presidents. More on that in a minute, but first y'all get yourselves in the mood with some thematic Presidentially relevant tuneage...

Paula Cole - My Hero Mr President


Slackers - International War Criminal


Jackie Mitoo - President Roots


Subhumans ( Canada ) - World At War


In an editorial published on President's Day, now retired Gannett publisher/editor Al Neuharth, outed Bush as beyond lame in his online column aka "blog":

Our great country has had 43 presidents. Many very good. A few pretty bad. On Presidents Day next Monday, it's appropriate to commemorate them all.

I remember every president since Herbert Hoover, when I was a grade school kid. He was one of the worst. I've personally met every president since Dwight Eisenhower. He was one of the best.

A year ago I criticized Hillary Clinton for saying "this (Bush) administration will go down in history as one of the worst."

"She's wrong," I wrote. Then I rated these five presidents, in this order, as the worst: Andrew Jackson, James Buchanan, Ulysses Grant, Hoover and Richard Nixon. "It's very unlikely Bush can crack that list," I added.

I was wrong. This is my mea culpa. Not only has Bush cracked that list, but he is planted firmly at the top.

more at:
http://blogs.usatoday.com/oped/2007/02/plain_talk_by_a_1.html

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Meanwhile, I just read today that in a press conference on Feb 14th Bush tellingly told reporterswith candor in his best "Aw, shucks, I'm schoolin' ya hear fellas" voice :

"Money trumps peace sometimes. In other words commercial interests are very powerful interests..."

WOW...no sh*t sherlock, oh and say hello for me to all your Halliburton homies I see waiting for those upcoming Iran contracts ...

Flying Lizards - Money

Neil Young - Let's Impeach The President

Speaking of gov't's and following the moolah...

Any taxpayer worth their weight in non voluntary donations made to the government can complain about the institutionalized bureaucratic inefficiencies, laziness and general bad service received when we actually have to deal with the government agencies in charge of the minutiae of our lives.

Rare is it when we see a remedy or even a challenge succeed against the gov't and it's labyrinth of unaccountability that ordinary citizens face in such cases. Well , Tuesday provided one of those rare small glimmers of light in the uphill battle against bureaucratic b.s.

L.A bureaucrats at the county's Registrar-Recorder's office have been put on notice by a California state judge for failing to get their work done on time. Apparently what got the case started was county official Conny B. McCormack's refusal to get staff to file the standard , but legally necessary paperwork for property titles & deeds within the two business day limit set by law. Citizens were previously unable to check on the stautus of their cases for days, financial lives and property transactions hung in the balance, and gov't preferred profiteers with unequal access to the "unfiled" data were making a profit. A current class action lawsuit could see the county end up paying out up to some $200 million in penalties requested by plaintiffs p.o'd about some 400,000 reconveyances allegedly not filed on time and another $16.6 million per month for continuing violations until the county complies with Sec. 2941(c). The judge gave LA county until March 7th to get their act in order.

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Southern California, where I will be spending most of my weekend, has lots of other news as usual, not surprising since it is where most of the state's population lives.

LA Times Photo Gallery

Barack Obama's Southland visit

Amongst stories on the radar there, is Barack Obama wooing Hollywood Democrat donors and picking up more than a million at a $2,300 a plate Beverly Hills fundraiser. His itinerary also included an even more exclusive late night private dinner for 40 really, really big ticket donors at David Geffen's estate.

The earlier larger scale event at the Beverly Hilton was hosted by Geffen and his Dreamworks partner's Steven Spielberg & Jeffrey Katzenberg. The star power sightings included Jennifer Aniston, Norman Lear, Ron Howard, Morgan Freeman, Tom Hanks, Eddie Murphy, Ben Stiller and producer Brad Grey, current head of Paramount Studios.

Interestingly, Obama kept his media time to a minimum, answering questions only to the Los Angeles Sentinel, an African American weekly newspaper, which aides said would be his only California press interview.

California has attempted to increase it's political clout this year by moving it's 08 presidential primary to February 5th. Now less than a year away, Obama , just 11 days into his "campaign" is the 1st high profile democratic hopeful to rake the state's wealthy for checks...

Obama, moves on to the far less star studded environs of Des Moines today... bypassing a Labor Forum in Nevada where most other top democratic hopefuls were appearing.

Hillary Clinton though is expected later this week to the LA area, but unlike Obama who showed up in Crenshaw at a lively outdoor rally for 7,000, Hillary has no public events scheduled. Her LA itinerary appears to be heavy on meetings with high powered financiers in Pacific Palisades and deep pocketed execs, like those at Creative Artists Agency in Century City. There's a fundraising event at the office of Ninja Turtles mogul Haim Saban, as well as an event sponsored by Iranian immigrants. According to the LA Times, Clinton has also scheduled two other California trips next month to raise more money, in some cases from donors also giving to Obama.

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The Frogs - I Only Play for Money

Diplo - Money Power Respect

John Belushi - Money, That's What I Want

In another strange dispatch out of Southern California, a prominent rabbi, and longtime mideast peace movement member has issued a formal apology to a right-wing conservative activist who claimed she was attacked by the man at a UCLA event.

"I am deeply sorry that I hit, kicked, and scratched you and called you a liar. By taking these unprovoked actions, I have contradicted the pluralism, peace and tolerance about which I so often preach. I have also violated the humanitarian teachings of Judaism regarding kindness and respect for others that I am bound to uphold."

so wrote Rabbi Chaim Seidler-Feller, who for 30 years has been the director of Hillel: The Foundation for Jewish Campus Life at UCLA. He is currently on "sabbatical".

The "attack" on writer Rachel Neuwirth, reportedly occured following an Oct 2003 speech by lawyer Alan Dershowitz, who was promoting his book “The Case for Israel.” Ms. Neuwirth, a 50 something real estate agent and staunch pro-Israel activist & writer, was participating in a post event protest by a nationalist Israeli group and confronted Seidler-Feller angerly about his inviting a Palestinian to speak on campus.

After the brief scuffle which started when Seidler-Feller reportedly deflected Neuwirth's pointing fingers & grabbed her wrists, she called him a "capo", an insult meant to infer he would have capitulated to the Nazi's. Despite Neuwirth's claims that she was roughed up at the time, Seidler-Feller was never charged with assault by police.

Neuwirth, and her supporters have said their interest in pursuing the matter was based solely on the issue of male violence against women, but have capitalized on the media attention to promote their virulent anti-Palestinian/ pro-Israeli views. In her lawsuit filed against Hillel she asked for

"damages for battery, intentional infliction of emotional distress, negligent infliction of emotional distress and negligent retention."

At the time of the incident, Yigel Arens of the Southern California based Information Sciences Institute (which is affiliated with USC), wrote "Neuwirth is an otherwise normal person who has a compulsive obsession with those whose position on Israel and Israeli policies she disputes. She has made it her life’s mission to hound such people and groups and has by now become a constant disruptive presence at all meetings, demonstrations, etc., that support Palestinian rights in Los Angeles. She is not to be reasoned with."

Uh, You Go Girl, Cash That Check!


John & The Sisters - Money Changes Everything

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In a move telling of the ongoing Google-fication of the online world...

As predicted in a January report in The Wall Street Journal, Google has purchased video game advertising agency Adscape Media for $23 million. Execs at Adscape, will eventually begin nesting at the multi-building Google-plex in Mountain View CA and figure ways to slip Google's "AdSense" clients into the online gaming realm.

rare .mp3 track of the minute:

The Nazz ( featuring Todd Rundgren) - It's Not That Easy

from "Nazz Vs Toddzilla"
by Nazz

reissue released via
ItsAboutMusic.com

• Buy at iTunes Music Store
• Buy at RealNetworks / Rhapsody

More On This Album

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Aside from Britney Spears shaving her head ala Sinead O' Connor, further evidence has surfaced of the decline of American empire. The New York Stock Exchange, has dropped to third in the global market volume for initial public offerings.

This puts the NYSE behind London and Hong Kong, and has financiers worried and blaming the passage of Sarbanes-Oxley. Recently it was reported in the NY Sun that the "financial secretary of Hong Kong, Henry Tang, recently thanked Messrs. Sarbanes and Oxley for sending so much business his way".

Another sign that America is losing it's way... well, pundits in conservative run US media are aghast that a So Cal legislator named Lloyd Levine has proposed eventually eliminating incandescent bulbs from the state's marketplaces. Editorials have sprung up around the country, speculating how stupid it is that nutty Californian's and their sick liberal values are seeking to control our consumer desires, make us live in darkness by banning our lightbulbs and starve us without access to satisfying saturated trans fatty acid rich diets...

California legislators are going forward despite being lampooned in the conservative media for a bill that would limit incandescent bulbs from being sold in the state. Despite Fox News attempting to ridicule the measure and rile the sleeping masses of overweight viewers by telling cosumers their freedom of choice is threatened, it just makes sense. Even electrical manufacturing giant Philips has announced plans to stop making incandescent bulbs by 2016.

With ready availibility of compact fluorescents and even light emitting diode technologies long available, the need for the old fashioned energy inefficient light bulb has declined.

In fact California may even be behind the curve...for the lead, we can look down under...

Australia is promising it will be the 1st country to get rid of the bulbs altogether. Australian Enviornmental Minister Malcolm Turnbull pledges to do away with the outmoded technology by 2010. Turnbull has told media reps

"Electric lighting is a vital part of our lives; globally it generates emissions equal to 70 percent of those from all the world's passenger vehicles."

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That's All For Now Folks.. hit the archives for more whatever yer looking fer

try an mp3 sample from my fave music service

• eMusic
• 
  

• John & The Sisters - "Money Changes Everything" (mp3)
  
  by John And The Sisters

• available via
  Northern Blues

• Download more at eMusic