SONG OF THE DAY: Pull My String (kudzu'd)

This is a perfect example of how a song I’d barely noticed in my lifetime suddenly becomes amazing when slowed down. I have a hard time not playing “Ring My Bell” by Anita Ward followed by this all the time on my radio show.

SONG OF THE DAY: Butt In The Meantime (kudzu'd)

Way back in the day when I was buying up all the new tapes and making dual tape deck mixtapes for anybody who gave a fuck, I absolutely loved to start the B-side of a tape with “The Bridge is Over” by Boogie Down Productions with this song second. The two beats are very complementary. Hadn’t found the 7” 45 of “The Bridge is Over” yet at an affordable to me price to recreate that magic on the “45 era Raven” turntables at a slower speed, but we’re halfway there.

CH1LDR3N 1NH3R1T1NG 0VR...

children inheriting our 
destructive psychologies, 
nature and nurture the same 

M0D3RN L1V1NG G1RDL3S VS...

modern living girdles us 
to productive consumption 
(and consumptive production) 

SONG OF THE DAY: I Don't Want Your Love

I mostly listen to soul oldies now, and also wear tracksuits more than I used to. I had to promise my man DJ Brilliant though that I wasn’t gonna start using beard oil (outside of natural ones resulting from giving oral sex).

TH3 VRG3 T0 RVN R3M41NS STR0NG...

the urge to run remains strong, 
but we convince ourselves to 
ignore heart’s desperate pleas 

D0M3ST1C4T3D 0VRS3LV3S...

domesticated ourselves 
as much as the world around 
us, pretending it’s progress 

L0V3 TR3SP4SS1NG 4FT3R D4RK...

love trespassing after dark 
in glare of security 
lights and hidden cameras 

S0M3T1M3S 4LL TH3S3 RVL3S W3 G1V3...

sometimes, all these rules we give 
ourselves lose original 
intent, and stifle living 

T3MP0R4RY 3SC4P3S FR0M...

temporary escapes from 
my own over-practicing 
of tasks (which become habits) 

SONG OF THE DAY: EVERYWHEREIGO

Just a great song, nothing to write here, other than this, which is actually nothing, but I feel like words are supposed to go here. Do people still do music blogs anymore? Why am I here? What is the purpose of this?

F33L L1K3 1'M F4D1NG 4W4Y...

feel like I’m fading away 
many days, my daily ways 
running round downward spirals 

H34RT 0F G0LD M3T4PH0RS M1SS...

“heart of gold” metaphors miss 
the mark, but brains are poisoned 
with relentless lust for wealth 

SONG OF THE DAY: Alive Ain't Always Living

I follow the Islamic calendar for a couple art projects, and prayer times as well, because it helps me be in tune with the natural cycles of the universe, and I can better place myself in the context of that universe keeping in mind the new and full moons. When I scribble on trains, I follow the tradition set before with monikers of including a date reference/time stamp, but I’ve always done the Islamic year. When 1444 came around a few months back, I got excited to switch from 1443s to 1444s, and the first Sunday after the new year, I was up before sunrise to hit a couple of my favorite nearby yards that required that type of early morning stealth. I like day time in yards better than night, but day is when workers are there, and workers don’t like people fucking up their jobsite with their presence, especially not in train yards. So it’s gotta be the right day of the week at the right time, and Sundays at sunrise are just about perfect (and always have been, my whole life). I was bumping Quelle Chris’s latest album, especially “Alive Ain’t Always Living”, so I ended up writing that a bunch of times on hoppers in the yards that day. Scribbling on trains is sort of like writing little prayer poems, and the combination of phrase/year definitely creates ties for me to where I was, both physically but spiritually/emotionally. “Alive Ain’t Always Living” was also a perfect meditation to scribble onto giant industrial hunks as a reminder/manifestation for the new year, signed with the 1444 to make it real for the whole ride around the sun. That song, and sentiment, is completely wrapped up with this whole rest of the new year in my heart, which doesn’t match the Gregorian calendar that’s more commonly known and accepted as the norm. The whole thing is esoteric, strange, but completely obvious, and not weird at all. It’s just doing things to make life more magic and less fucked feeling. That’s all prayer is, or poetry, or being alive to be honest.

Y3ST3RD4Y'S G0LD3N GL1MM3R...

yesterday’s golden glimmer 
fades into tomorrow’s rust - 
natural character arc 

SONG OF THE DAY: The Way You Look Tonight

A lot of record collectors are way too precious about their shit, acting like their living room Ikea shelf is a museum archive. I take care of my records, but also beyond the actual record, I don’t stress it. One of my great joys in getting old 45s is the label and sleeve ephemera – people writing notes or names or weird codes or who the fuck knows what it means. Because of this, I’ve been practicing scribbling little notes or words on the sleeves and labels, especially when I use a 45 for my radio show. I’m not permanent, nor is my collection, and it’s gonna scatter like my own ashes at some point, so having a Conway Twitty 45 with “dirtgod theme” written on the label is most likely gonna be some interesting shit to somebody somewhere down the road.

F34RFVL SH4D0WS 0F GR0VPTH1NK...

fearful shadows of groupthink 
cast an ominous pall 
over otherwise blue skies 

4VTH0R1T4T1V3 P41NT3D...

authoritative painted 
lines provide suggestion, but 
orders are impermanent 

SONG OF THE DAY: I'll Go Crazy

I don’t listen to a ton of James Brown, because he got so played out by the hip hop samples. Then again, there’s a reason he got so played out, because the shit can be pretty great.

H3LLB3NT 0N D3ST1N4T10NS...

hellbent on destinations 
where every unseen sign 
shown says, “maybe turn around” 

SONG OF THE DAY: Come and Get Your Love (kudzu'd)

Fell into DJing at a ladies arm wrestling event tonight, so I’ve got on my nicest tracksuit and used a cotton swab with yarrow tincture to clean my dimples out real good. Y’all should follow me in real life… it’s a fun ride.

WH3N3V3R TH3 D4YS F33L L1K3...

whenever the days feel like 
more of the same, it becomes 
time to do the opposite 

SONG OF THE DAY: Naksah al Ras .2

Hey man, fuck it, let’s go for a ride. Might’ve over-extended myself this weekend, but might not’ve too. Hard to say.

C0NF1N3D BY S3LF-1MP0S3D RVL3S...

confined by self-imposed rules… 
now and then, the best thing to 
do is smash routines apart