Every Other City We Go

Focus.

One Over Jordan

How I felt.

How I feel.

But, for the record.

Good day. Pause for praise for another year on the books.

* This pertains to age and basketball. Yes, both. Mike > Kobe > Bron.
** Personal CURRENT Favorite: Wade
*** Free Darko

Feeding My Seeds 3.5

You better have money or a plan. You should really have both, but if you don't have a plan, you better have money.
Keep separate fingernail and toenail clippers.
Have emergency cash. For running out of gas. For bail. For when the ice cream truck comes by.
Courtesy flush.
Work first, play after.
Cornbread; ain't nothing wrong with that.

Super Cali Fragi Listic

Expialidocious.

Pic.

Sweet. Mercy. Me.

Thanks to a swift assist from Lady Day, I was refreshed on this video. A couple months ago, I ran into this video on yooouuutuuube (yes that's spelled correctly) and was in an actual trance. Trance music. Trance.

For the love of Jimi Hendrix, funk and the psychedelic movement please click here. Yooouuutuuube. Because I've dabbled in music production in the past myself, I respect the craft that much more. Especially chopping and crafting samples. "Alice" here consists of 90% samples from the movie Alice in Wonderland. That's quite and undertaking in itself, but the final product came out smoother than a foot post-ped egg.

But that's not even where my excitement kicked in. It was when I clicked through to some of his other videos and ran across this gem right here.

This right here. This right here. (c) Katt Williams. I'm a huge fan of musicals. I was raised on them and Annie is one of my favorite movies. I'm absolutely not kidding. I caught Mary Poppins on tv earlier this year and sat up and watched it in it's entirety. I'm 23, so you have to know that it did it for me. The production here is phenomenal. I strongly suggest you download it. It's free.

Expialidocious ← DOWNLOAD.

No really, it's free. Pogo, the artist, offers it up himself, with a slew of his other works, including, but not limited to, songs made from The Sword and The Stone and Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.

I suggest you download his catalogue because even his completely original work is well worth the download. As you know I boogie with the Foreign Exchange, so this was a natural progression.

You can find his catalogue here. You can stream from his myspace here. You can subscribe to his youtube videos here. I honestly hope he offers his music for sale so I can donate some money to the arts.

You can download it from the link provided above or grab a conveniently zipped file with all of his work by clicking the picture below. Cracker Jacks always had such great prizes. Click for gold.

Funny pic, but the real cracker jacks picture can be found here.

You Live To Learn And You Learn To Live

In a very brief exchange with a friend who I've come to professionally and creatively admire for her lifestyle decisions, I was taken back to a thought that I’ve been meaning to expand on. Purpose. Not in the sense that I’ve typically approached these topical words, but in the sense of searching for purpose. I think anyone with a blog, opposable thumbs, between the ages of 13-65, breathes oxygen, walks upright, eats food or is made up of two thirds water should either have been, or be currently searching for purpose.

You can’t find purpose without change. Can’t. If you already new your purpose you wouldn’t need to change. If you didn’t need to change, you’d be perfect. If you’re perfect, you’re Jesus. You see where I’m going here (← Let the record show, that is very poor logic). We’ve all come up short. But the mission is to strive for purpose. To strive for greatness. To do more. To figure out why we’re here. I can’t put my finger on my purpose just quite yet, but occasionally I get flashes. Like someone is leading me in the right direction, but I’m blindfolded so I’m just accepting the nudges. The only times I’ve been able to say for sure I was doing the right thing it hurt. It’s that much easier to maintain than to change. Not because it’s necessarily hard to do what you’re supposed to do (it sort of is). You get no praise for doing what you’re supposed to do. Sure, you may catch flak if you do the wrong thing, but doing the wrong thing is easy. According to cliché, nothing good comes easy. Oh, and clichés may be cliché, but they’re based in truth. Seemingly akin to stereotypes, which slippery slope into prejudices, which continue on sliding towards racism and bigotry. But once again, that’s another story for another day.

Seeking purpose should be a lifelong mission. I have a personal belief that the best works of art came from those seeking purpose. In musical terms, limited to hip hop for allusion’s sake, it’d be the penning of Reasonable Doubt, Illmatic, Aquemini, Trap Muzik, Below the Heavens, and College Dropout. And those are a few stellar examples of artists that have continued to seek a higher level of understanding proven by their stellar follow ups. The Blueprint. Stillmatic. Stankonia/Speakerboxx. Late Registration. Just to name a few.


[End cohesive thought]

That’s just to name a few. In the aggregate, the problem is complacency. Besides a handful of “artists” that continue seeking purpose and striving for purpose, the overwhelming majority get confortable and settle. Since I am constantly ingesting music as a form of catharsis, I’m often drawn to that which I can relate. I enjoy my fair share of ignorant and/or silly music as well, but nowadays, more often than not, I’m looking to relate with what I'm listening to. Hence, my recent discovery that I can appreciate Maxwell's music in its full sense.

I’m at a point in my life where purpose is wide and varied. Most of the artists I’m into are making/made their best music when they were in a similar stage. So I’ve decided this is a good stage. Healthy confusion, if you will. Art is often influenced by pain.

Confusion breeds pain. Pain breeds art. Art breeds creativity.

It’s a pretty vicious cycle, but it’s true.

“There is no growth without change; there is no change without fear or loss; and there is no loss without pain…Every change involves a loss of some kind: You must let go of old ways in order to experience the new.” -Rick Warren-

[End cohesive thought]

This post was drafted about 8 times and never came together. Instead of trying to tie it all up neatly today, I’ll just leave you to do the juxtaposition. Think of it like a "Choose Your Own Adventure" book.



Its almost fitting though, right? If I had any of the answers I wouldn’t be searching. Should I discover my own mission here on earth, I'll be sure to relay it. If you find mine, I hope you'd do the same.

In minorly related news, I'll be co-hosting an online radio show with Devin tonight at 10 PM on Blog Talk Radio. Tonight's topic is "Are You Fulfilled". You can check it out on the Devin After Dark channel. If you miss it, you can always catch the archived version here. It's my first go at this radio thing, so if you get a chance to listen let me know what you think via comment (↓) or Twitter.

Last Week, [Messed] Around And Got A Triple Double

Just waking up in the morning, gotta thank God.
-Ice Cube- "Today Was A Good Day"

A picture is worth a thousand words.

Homeward Bound

Hotel California, originally uploaded by oybay ©.

Just another day out in sunny LA...

From the Lone Star State to the Golden State, I'll catch you on the other side.

Living Of The World Had The Malicious Overwhelmed

Malice in Mass Appeal - April 2006

Mary Mary ft Malice (of the Clipse) - God in Me (Remix)

Its the God in me, I couldn't keep it to myself
When I was on top, I squandered the King's wealth
So many chicks, so many notches in my belt
Living of the world had the Malicious overwhelmed
How could I ever forget who's at the helm?
But now I'm a soldier, boy, I've got to tell 'em.
With the God flow, I raise the dead
What I give is food for thought, we're breaking bread
The time is now to believe, shake a leg
He loved us all like a son, now make your bed
See I was wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked
Without the Lord how could i make it?

1. I can't say I didn't see this coming.
2. My stee-lo.
3. New age preachers are as follows. Malice of the Clipse. Blu. Andre 3000.**
4. Stand by for proof on #3.

All credit to H.E.R.

**Not in the MC Hammer, Pastor/Murda Ma$e way.

Pardon The Interruption

...but can I mention some shoes?

Vans Vault x Taka Hayashi No Quarter LX

Proper has come through for me without fail since 06'. Good customer service. Lightning fast shipping. Top tier collaborations. Quality inventory.

I try not to post too many sneakers here and stick to interesting "in real life" happenings, my/our musings on life and other miscellaneous content I/we find thought provoking, but "yoski woahski." (c) 3000. I'll take the brown and khaki hi tops for 500, Alex. The No Quarter LX makes me reminisce of the glory days of 6' Timbs and Polo Ranger boots...with added 09' style points. Coming up in my household, you weren't getting more than a pair of casual shoes and basketball shoes, as necessary, which probably led me to my present ownership tally now that I have a marginal amount of disposable personal income. Even so, my consumption rate has slowed significantly since joining "the real world." My entire lifestyle is somewhere between sneakers and dress shoes so my bank account will have to empathize. Or force-quit. Whichever comes first. Plus, ordering from SoCal is a fitting way to prep for a weekend mini-vacation to the left coast. The thing about style is that everyone has their own. So if you don't swing this way (||), pay me no mind. Regardless, I'm amped, suited and booted.