From The Deep End

Since I was out of town on our beloved weekend-starting day this week (in a mysterious land known as Sumter County where they apparently do not believe in the Internet) I have decided to bestow upon you, dear readers, a special Saturday morning edition of TGIF. Or Saturday afternoon, depending on where your hood is.

This week’s video features a few of my favorite things: bacon, big booties, and Afro Sheen. Watch with your sticky-icky-icky and try not to giggle at the chickens bumpin’ (It’s really hard.[That's what she said!]).

Anyway, sorry for the delay and Thank God It’s Saturday! Continue Reading »

Now that the Election Season media orgy has come to its sticky conclusion, I can now focus my efforts back on what really matters - bringing down the power-hungry empty suits (heretofore referred to as “The Man”) poised to fill the vacuous holes wherein creativity and common decency usually reside instead with the rights (and profits) of the artists upon whom they, like fetid bands of Nosferatu, feed like a softcore Anne Rice porn flick.

Felt good to get that out of my system.
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A recent study by University of Maryland Medical Center has just determined, your favorite jams will help you live longer. Apparently, when you listen to your favorite tunes, blood vessels dilate as if you were exercising or taking ACE inhibitors (a hypertension drug, so sayeth the Wiki). A study on 10 non-smoking men and women showed that their favorite music increased blood vessel diameter by 26%. Music less than pleasing narrowed those very blood vessels by up to 6%. Most of those that volunteered opted for country, but apparently the effect is the same regardless of the kind of music you like.

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At the risk of eating every hateful, venomous word I’ve typed on this keyboard about Paris Hilton - I’ll give her this: She’s entertaining as hell. The Simple Life solidified my hatred, A Night in Paris did nothing to help matters. Then she comes out with political humor and music videos to boot? In addition to fronting this ditzy blonde persona, and building a real estate, image, cosmetic and clothing empire while twirling her hair oh-so-innocuously around her middle finger, she’s now set to be a modern day Magenta in what critics are calling the next Rocky Horror Picture Show. Enter: Repo! The Genetic Opera.
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This week’s contributor offers insight into almost any aspect of music, the industry and technology. Henry Lai is an multi-genre musical enthusiast based out of Hong Kong. He owns his own studio, Java Music Productions, where he plays several roles: record producer, sound engineer, equipment guru, and musician. (If you check out his Web site, he has a- count it- seven-page exhibition of his awesome guitar collection). He has scored a list Hong Kong movies and released several original soundtracks; he has also composed theme songs and arranged music for several TV series, commercial jingles and, more recently, video games. But his greatest passion lies in his world-music inspired band, Tienji Tang, which has its third album in the works. Here, Mr. Lai discusses his diverse projects, compares the US and Hong Kong music industries and chats about the impact of technology on the music biz.
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Florida hip-hop is dead. Or so I thought so. Just a few years ago here in Gainesville, Fl., the quality hip-hop scene was very much alive. We had artists, who if they didn’t live here, came here all of the time to play. And then the scene mysteriously vanished. Astronautalis, a favorite among many Floridians, moved from Jacksonville to Seattle, Washington- the most far away place you could move to without leaving the continental United States.  Intellekt (Gainesville) and Dirty Digits (Tallahassee) combined forces and moved up to Atlanta, Georgia.   Other groups broke up and formed new ones that didn’t quite match up to the quality, lyrical hip-hop they used to be. I had lost all hope in Florida hip-hop.
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