7/31/09

Afronaught (Afronaut) - DJ/Producer


Sorry for not knowing about this man sooner. Don't tase me, bro!

I've heard the name, "Afronaught," a million times over the years, but I never really heard the music, not knowingly. I was put onto Afronaught by a really good friend of mine who spent some time in London as an A&R for Sony. God bless him.

Afronaught aka Afronaut aka Orin Walters is a London-Based Breakbeat DJ/Producer. He's also known to spend quite some time in Puerto Rico. He also spun some house music in Chicago in he '90s. He's considered a pioneer of West London's breakbeat scene and is also a member of the DJ/Producer collective known as Bugz in the Attic. His style of production is known for being more soulful than others.

Listen. Enjoy. These two songs are merely the tip of an enormous iceberg.

"Transcend Me" (I've been listening to this repeatedly since I became aware, about three days now.)


"Now or Never" (Let the beat build on this one. It's worth it.)



And now you're happy. See how that works?

Afronaught on MySpace

Ning

Bugz in he Attic


And because it's only right.

7/13/09

The Girl with the Chocolate Chip Freckles

Some of the women I love are changing. Permit me to me rephrase. Some of the women I love are changing themselves.

I don't love these women. I don't even know them. I love things about them.

I get an E-mail alerting me the I have a friend request on this social networking site catered to photographers and models. I haven't logged on in a while. I check it out; two female models and one male want to be my, "friend," no problem.

I'm hoping to work on a particular project in the not-too-distant future where I'll need a handful of women. So, I decide to look through photos of some of my friends hoping to see some new shots, and remind myself of some of the people I'd like to work with, maybe even make a new friend.

Then I see her. She's my, "friend."

She's. ... Nice-looking. I don't think we'll work together any time soon. She's located about six hours north in San Francisco, and there's no shortage of models here in L.A., but I love her, "look." I click on her profile picture, and dive into a world of her.

Something's different. The first picture has her nude. In fact, almost half of her pictures are nude, a blend of artistic and tasteful, leaning more toward the latter. There were no nude images here before.

I wasn't here to look at her body, a shape, a formation that even a mashup of designers, sculptors and engineers at Koenigsegg and Rinspeed couldn't come close to on their brightest, most carbon-fibered, most inspired and computer-assisted day after spending the previous day driving Venturi Volages from France to Tuscany to have dinner at Chris Bangle's house all while having the decency to first stop in Geneva for chocolate and braking in Maranello to leave graffiti on the walls of the Ferrari factory.

That was a really long sentence, and for that I apologize. To make up for it I give you small, yet effective picture. Yes, "Picture." Then you keep reading, yes.


Venturi Volage

Koenigsegg CCXR







Rinspeed sQuba

Like I was saying, I was here to look at her face. It had freckles. That's what I loved about her especially the big one on her nose. If I remember correctly it was on the outer edge of her right nostril. Though the rest of her was flawless I was here for those little spots overflowing with melanin that danced on and around her cheeks.

Something's different. Where are her freckles? Her freckles are gone, and so is the love. As beautiful as her uncovered body is, it. ... She doesn't stand out anymore, at least not to me. She's still a nice-looking girl and all, but who isn't around these parts?

I don't know what happened to her freckles. Maybe it was editing. Maybe it was surgery. I don't know why they're not here any more. Maybe she thought removing them would make her look better and feel better about herself. Maybe she'd get more work without them (in conjunction with a bare breast here or there). I hope it's nothing health-related. In a world as shallow as modeling via a medium as impersonal as the Internet one only has so much to go off of. I'll subscribe to a look better/more work theory.

She used to be perfect. She looked like candy. She was candy. She was 95 percent milk chocolate and the five percent that was the pair of inches in between her upper lip and eyes was chocolate chip cookie, but the chips are gone now, and so is much of my interest.

Average Joe: But dude, she's hot. ... And Naked!

Yes, AJ. This is true, and thank you for pointing that out. However, at the moment, I'm looking at her with a part of my right brain that creates creativity (Too much?), and in case you haven't noticed I'm wearing my, "I'm Mature," shirt today. I'm sure you know there is no lack of naked women online. Besides, look how she's posing. This is art.

She is hot, though. Thanks for playing our game. We have some lovely parting gifts for you.



Next I stumble upon the profile of another young lady model. Click. Click. Click. Photo. Picture. Image. She looks nice. Hold up.

Where are her ears?

7/7/09

Michael Jackson is not Available


For the record, before I begin, I'm glad Michael Jackson is gone. Yeah, yeah, I know he's not, "gone," gone, but he's gone. I'm not obsessed with death or contemplating suicide or anything like that. I'm not a super-hardcore fan either, but Mike was the man, and I'd be lying if I said I wasn't trying (and failing miserably) to moonwalk 15 minutes ago.*

Michael Jackson is not dead. He's just not available.

Michael Jackson is not available:
- For interviews
- For photo ops
- To be the butt of bad jokes that aren't funny
- To give paparazzi something to do
- To lend anyone money
- For liars to attempt to extort money from him
- For any sort of comeback
- To be ridiculed and insulted

. ... Any more.

Michael Jackson was a regular guy who lived a crazy life. Sure; he's done things that some probably don't agree with. I have, too, and so have you. As far as the child molestation stuff goes, I wasn't there, so I can't say what's true and what's not. However, some people have admitted to have lied about Michael. Those people will have have to answer to someone, just like Mike will. What those conversations will sound like, only Mike and those people will know.

I'm glad Michael Jackson is gone. Comedians will have to either write him out of their routines, or drastically alter their material regarding him. Now, I'm a sucker for a good joke, even one about Michael, but this guy's probably had enough. Even the bully knows that once the kid is crying on the floor, spitting out teeth and blood, that it's time to go pick on someone else.

CNN showed a clip of reporter, Egberto Willies (Sorry. I don't have the link.). In it he said, "I grew up on Michael Jackson, I loved Michael Jackson. I hated Michael Jackson. I admired Michael Jackson. I was ashamed of Michael Jackson. I was sorry for Michael Jackson. I was proud of Michael Jackson." I couldn't have said it better myself.

I'm glad Michael Jackson is gone. He doesn't have to worry. ... Anymore. ... About anything.

Michael Jackson is not available to worry about:
- Poverty
- War
- Taxes
- Racism
- Everything else he was concerned about
- All the petty things everyone else worries about

So, I'm glad he's gone. He's lucky.

Michael Jackson is not dead.

He's just not available. He apologizes for any inconvenience.


*I've also been jealous for years of my little cousin's ability to moonwalk.

7/6/09

48 - Buenos Aires (Video)

I've been feeling a bit more international than I normally do (which is a lot). I've had a lot of global cities (Barcelona, Tokyo, London, Madrid, San Francisco, Hong Kong and New York to name a few) on my mind as of late. I decided to post a video about Buenos Aires, Argentina. I don't know if it was the fact that I ate at an Argentinian restaurant this weekend. ...

Gaucho Grill (Santa Monica, CA)
- Food - B-/C+
- Service - A

Starters:
- Bread with chimichurri - Could've used more churri in the chimi.
- Chorizo w/ chick pea salad - Decent.
- Sweet bread - Surprise! It wasn't sweet. It wasn't bread.
- Sauteed mushrooms - In butter and white wine, best sauteed mushrooms I've ever had, and the main reason I decided to stick a restaurant review in the middle of a post for a video. ... Dreamt about them the entire following day.

Main course:
- Churrasco (Skirt steak) - A bit overcooked, lacked flavor. Don't you know where I'm from?. You can't fool me on a good churrasco, but thank you for teaching me that's it's also called, "EntraƱa."
- Mashed potatoes - Bland, thank god for those mushrooms.
- Grilled zucchini - I'm just bored at this point.

Dessert:
- Espresso - A nice, needed touch.

I'd come back for the mushrooms, a side of rice and a Quilmes

Where was I? Oh yeah, crawl out of that bubble you call a life, and spend 48 hours in Buenos Aires with Australian journalist, Amanda Palmer and her guide, journalist, Macarena, in "48" on Al Jazeera English*. I've never been to Bs As; so I can't say how accurate this depiction of the city is, but there's some interesting stuff going on, and it moves pretty well.




*It's like Al Jazeera, but in English.