Category: Music
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Dispatches from Quarantine, March 2020
As we all try to make sense of this constantly fluid global pandemic, I have been wrestling with my definition of control. As a writer, I take solace in working alone in my own environment and over the last two weeks our Raleigh apartment has doubled as a co-working space, as my husband has…
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Artist a Day: John Coltrane
Today’s post combines math, data visualization, and mysticism all within a single song. Yesterday while I writing, I was listening to some jazz and John Coltrane’s 11383 (Take 1) randomly played. About three-quarters of the way through the song, a bass solo by Jimmy Garrison suddenly reminded me of a hip hop sample that was…
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Playlist-30 Day Music Challenge
It’s not all about art reviews over here, and today I decided to share some music with you all. I simply cannot overstate how important music is in my life, and for that I am forever grateful to my dad for bringing me up around an eclectic array of musical artists. For those of you…
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Artist a Day Challenge (24): Mark Bradford’s Homage to the Roxy
I have this mythologized view of New York that I have created entirely from the city’s nightclub scene between 1973 and 1987. The Loft, the Gallery, the Paradise Garage and the Roxy sit at the center of this utopia, with the music in these venues acting as the heartbeat of the city. Notice I didn’t mention Studio 54, because in my…
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Artist a Day Challenge (21): Kahlil Joseph, Shabazz Palaces and Kelsey Lu present, “Music is My Mistress”
The Kenzo team snuck around and dropped off this video, tip toeing away like it was a secret gift. It’s a visual stunner which comes as no surprise with Kahlil Joseph as director. Music is My Mistress is a short film featuring Jesse Williams as an Easy Rawlins style private eye who’s tracking down a man and his mistress for Tracee Ellis Ross; Kelsey Lu and…
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Artist a Day Challenge (17): Mindfulness and Modernism with Jennie C. Jones
Many years ago I took up the practice of Yoga during three important periods of my life. When I first moved away from home for college, when I moved to Los Angeles 2001 and when I moved out of west L.A. in 2006. The benefits of yoga and meditation were important keys to me adjusting…
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Artist a Day Challenge (12): DeCarava and Jazz
“In between that one-fifteenth of a second there is a thickness.” Roy DeCarava Roy DeCarava’s photos of jazz musicians are some of my favorites in his body of work. Photographers who are also musicians in their own right, capture what the rest of us don’t see in the moment. “Jazz I think approaches the visual experience…
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In Memoriam: The Legacy of David Mancuso
In San Francisco in the 1990’s, the club scene fell into one of two camps: the heavily promoted, large scale parties at Club Townsend and the Sound Factory or the smaller word-of-mouth underground parties like Informal Nation, the Beer Cellar and Sophies, (Raves rested somewhere between the two). My world revolved around the underground. You wouldn’t hear about…
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Stand on the Word: TGIF Edition
….and Disco begat breaks… While Larry Levan didn’t make this track, he made it known. TGIF! Go get your life.
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The Let Down: Netflix’s Ambitious Take on the Birth of Hip Hop Falls Flat
The 2015 Netflix trailer for the Get Down gave us a glimpse of 1970’s New York and the birth of hip hop with the fire and drama you would expect from a Baz Luhrmann production. When the show launched August 12, they managed to deliver on lush cinematography, stunning style and familiar hip hop samples, but well after an…
Colony Little, Culture Shock Art 