As the World Turns... It Turns No Matter What

Horn player from Emergency Service

yes the world turns even if your ass ain't ready or down on your luck. Such is the world as my supervisor passed on an old Pointer Sisters platinum plaque he had sitting in his office of 8 years. it was one of the things he wasn't taking with him as he learned he was being laid off the same day.

Taking it in stride (well he is getting 5 months pay), he was calm about it,knowing it made sense with purchase of another company and the merging of it's departments with ours. heads were gonna roll.

The one thing i have to deal with is the commute which will change from one train ride to 34 st. to the lirr from brooklyn to Garden City, Long Island. You know that i am making sure i have other options lined up before that move happens.

oh and check out my Last.fm radio station

Cool Stuff:
Stevie Wonder drum solo

The kids/Some cool stuff

Azure celebrates her first communion
Originally uploaded by richlouis.

One of the best things i have ever explored is Eddie Bauer online. For the tall man (such as myself) who can't afford tailored, mature clothing, it's the next best thing.

which leads me to this: i donned these fresh pair of pants from EB this past Saturday for the third time with a new button-down shirt i bought at Daffy's, and headed to Queens to grab my mother. then we were off to my goddaughter's 1st Communion. albeit a little late.

i'll admit i was/am ambivalent about the whole affair as it is really a measure taken so that Azure can stay at her new Catholic elementary school. I went through the same process when i was in my elementary school, but it was a different time with less options when it came to private schools. and i think being from a Haitian family, Catholic schools were all my parents knew from Haiti.

In all honesty, the best parts of the day were driving my mother around in the minivan, seeing my cousin's family and friends who knew me as a kid and talking to them, and seeing all these kids enjoying themselves so that the reception felt less like a party for adults and more about Azure and others like her.

Cool Stuff:
Best long takes in Cinema

Kay of the Foundation - The Talk Show (free album download)

what i am listening to

Benny Sings
Happy Blue-eyed soul from the Netherlands



Stephen Marley - self-explanatory. but he dropped his first solo album recently


Mark Ronson - Stop Me (Feat. Daniel Merriweather) (The Smiths & The Supremes cover)
Ronson is releasing an album of covers that he produced, old and new songs like Britney Spears' "Toxic" (nay not even with the odd OBD guest spot)


Marisa Monte - "Vilarejo"

Exodus

Chee in Jackson Heights- 2006

By the time i got into my boy Dashuan's birthday party at White Rabbit Saturday night (which included getting past a black bouncer who seemed to give people who looked like him the hardest time getting in), I was presented with two surprises: my man Chee Malabar, (writer and emcee) chilling at the bar getting toasted, and the announcement that he was returning to the West Coast to live after graduation.

But he wasn't the only one announcing his exodus from NYC -though it didn't surprise me as he has lived in many different places-, a fellow workmate and friend from the shop also his plans to move to Colorado to attend grad school. He like others who have lived in new york for most of their life seem to be "over" this city. It makes me wonder what other city i would want to live in. i know that miami and atl are cool places to visit and hang out with, but do i want to spend a lot of time driving, especially to work. i don't feel like I'm done with New york, but if i decide to live somewhere else even for a short time, it should be overseas. but i think i have written that thought here more than once here.

But my two friends are leaving here for opportunities elsewhere so i don't blame them. NY is where i think i shall be until a photographic opportunities calls me to another place.

Comedy from An old Cl Smooth Interview

From Allhiphop.com
Higlights are in bold. all are his responses to his second falling out with Pete rock

Allhiphop.com: Do you wish to comment on some of things that Pete Rock has been saying lately?

CL Smooth: If you’re not here to help, f*** you! Don’t act like I’m a cancer or a parasite. I’m not jealous of you! I would never be jealous of nobody with one car and one garage. I’m trying to get four cars and four garages! What is the matter with you? Come back home. I’m building houses where I sold crack at. ....I just asked him to do his job. Do your job, Pete Rock! I didn’t ask him to be a superhero; I asked that n***a to make me a beat. How did you get to be you if you didn’t make CL any beats? Give me a beat, shut the f*** up, and stop trying to live my life for me. Give me the beat n***a, and let me go out here and please our public! I’m not the problem. The problem was getting your ass on that plane and displaying what you are truly gifted at. Why be a rapper when there’s no future in it for you? You are a wack ass rapper.

Allhiphop.com: He did an interview with us back in May, and he hinted that you could not make it on your own. Do you want to respond to that or not?

CL Smooth: That’s his opinion, and he could never say that to me personally. If that’s how Pete Rock lives his life, talking through the media, go ahead. I love you anyway. It takes a whole lot to be me, so I imagine it takes ten times more to be you. He knows me and his family knows me. They know how I get down. True indeed, I smack n***as heads off their shoulders! If you want to talk on the swings and talk s**t to your peers, that s**t doesn’t bother CL. It bothers CL when you lie and create a false image. Snoop Dogg said, “Come holla at me, homie, you know I love you.” How does Snoop love me and my n***a Pete don’t love me? How does Raekwon, Method Man, and the whole f***ing Wu-Tang Clan talk about how they really love me and Pete Rock don’t love me? I walked on blocks that Pete Rock can never walk on. Pete Rock, I love you baby. I’ve got nothing to be ashamed of. I got a good woman and a good life, so what should I be ashamed of? Pete Rock can’t ever disrespect me and not get his head smacked off. He can never say that to my face. I love him anyway. All I’m asking him to do is do the beats. The proof is there. CL Smooth is the biggest s**t on your project and you are a walking contradiction, man. We don’t have to sling no more mud. Make my beats, f****t!...Pete Rock doesn’t have to talk to me. Make my beats though! I’ll cut you a check, you go in the studio, and make my f*cking beats, man. I don’t see anything else happening if you don’t facilitate CL Smooth.

You can juggle fruit stands for all I give a f***! Pete Rock ain’t even the cake…he’s the icing! I’m smooth, but I dog n***as when they play me out of pocket, man! I go to the toughest barbershop in my town where n***as get shot in the barber’s chair! I won’t make it? Man, my woman has more money than Pete Rock! That’s the truth, and she holds me down impeccably!

Che Grand - The Fixtape is here

Che Grand


download links and tracklisting

Digable, Digable, Luther King Jr.

Thank you to the almighty message board i finally got to see Digable Planets' Grammy acceptance speech. If I had seen this speech at the time I would have known somewhat why their second album (the gravely underrated and superior Blowout Comb) was so much more militant and the 5% references more prevalent. All i remember was the hate by hip-hop heads for them winning for "Rebirth of Slick" and their whole Fort Greene poetry image.

And this is an interesting article on the the omission of Martin Luther King Jr.'s later stances in the media before he was killed.

It begins with the observation that most of what we see every year on him is:
"King battling desegregation in Birmingham (1963); reciting his dream of racial harmony at the rally in Washington (1963); marching for voting rights in Selma, Alabama (1965); and finally, lying dead on the motel balcony in Memphis (1968)."

Then it goes on to discuss his whole shift from civil rights to human rights, including economic gaps.

uh Yeah

So i have this feeling I will not be getting the new Feist album. Other people really dig it but i have yet to get into it. Maybe it's because it doesn't flow as well as her last album, which i love



However, i think listening to a well-mixed version of Reminder might sway me.


BMG/Columbia House-- that's where i find myself this past week with a steadier and higher paycheck. A long-term temp gig that comes with it's perks including music left in the kitchen area that has an abundance of vending machines, a nice window view of well the buildings to run across 34th and 8th ave., and a very laid back supervisor in the proofing department.



As a method to contain the mess that is my clothes in the new apartment I have visited the Container Store and purchased a set up from these customizable drawer systems. Which also means I have accepted where I am now as my new home, complete with a female video game playing roommate, and two young cats who run around a lot, and the filmmaker roommate who is hardly around. Most importantly, everyone who has come by has said it's a big step up from the "fight club" (: Jasper) apartment i lived in before.


From my aborted Che Grand shoot last summer :/

The New Feist has leaked!

Photo by someone else

no this is not a link to any leakage

Photoshop Fun with Sorla

Photoshop Fun with Sorla
Originally uploaded by richlouis.

This picture and more from my shoot with Sorla here

lol NKOTB and Nice 'n' Smooth

This was the nail in the coffin for this group and how unlike them to do a hip-hop -inspired misogynistic song

Just in case you don't know...

I shot three shows this week (Click on the pictures for more shots)

My friend's band Sorla:

Nouveau Riche (Dice Raw's band and featured heavily on The Roots Game Theory album):

Chris Glover: