The Sixty One: A Music Adventure

The other day Sumkid sends me this link. A dope idea that kinda mixes indie music site promo with a web 2.0 Digg model. This is pretty high up on the, 'I wish I would've thought of that' scale. 'The Sixty One' is a cool tool for discovering new music from a growing list of independent artists. It's a simple concept. If you like something you 'bump' it. As an artist the more times you're bumped, the more likely you are to gain new fans and solidify a slot at the top of your genres queue. You can sign up as a listener and create your own play list station with feed to communicate with your subscribers. Or you can create an artist account and try your hand at 'innanet' fame by cleverly promoting with tenacity to an audience that is actually interested in hearing something new and different.

Untraceable

I found traces of the predictable in Untraceable. We all knew the good guy would die and that the game would prove a pivotal factor but predictability is par for the course in suspense thrillers. I easily forgave this misstep because the movie has gruesome killing and a plot, with an Asian false lead no less (or am I giving too much credit here?). Attempts at serious reflection rendered trite dialogue that interrupted the flow like Crazy Eddie commercials during The Cosby Show but were few enough in number to keep me from screaming insanely. This anemic moviegoer welcomed the touches of irony, especially when presented subtly in the settings (pay attention, you must!) though I didn’t know if I should blame the film’s editor (David Rosenbloom) or screenwriters (Robert Fyvolent, Mark Brinker, and Allison Burnett) for the fill-in-the-blank style plot progressions. Someone suggested the director Gregory Hoblit, omitted these expendable details. Altogether, the 21st century Agatha Christie or Sherlock Holmes in each of us can enjoy this modern murder mystery.

Tyrell by Coe Booth

Tyrell is realistic fiction for many an urban teen coming of age in or around poverty and a nightmarish fantasy in the seedy part of the city for suburban and rural dwellers. At times, the narrator’s slang distracts from the rhythm of the prose but such staccato may keep the interest of the adolescent who loathes reading 310 pages of anything. Images of poverty are fresh; the emotional undulations the title character experiences and shares lend authenticity and, along with ubiquitous sexual pressures and illegal activity, make this tale of stolen youth a page turner. With nearly every female in the novel characterized as irresponsible or a sexual deviant, I almost assumed Coe Booth a member of the generally hairier gender but I suppose that the notion of a near-perfect protagonist and narrator would make many a male novelist chuckle then pause. Still, you gotta love Tyrell’s fear and courage, naivety and wisdom all balled up into one hormone heightened kid who can’t catch a break but never stops trying.

King & I - Fairfield, CT

Great Thai food places are still fairly tough to find in some places. In fact, I hadn’t found a spot that qualified around me until last week when I happened upon King & I, a beautiful restaurant tucked away in the Post Road Plaza in Fairfield, CT. The chicken panang was fantastic. Rather than trying to blow you out of the water with spiciness they make it so you can actually taste the sauce. The drunken noodles were tasty, as well, and pricing wasn’t bad at all. Dinner for two including an alcoholic beverage for each person totaled up to $40. Even if you have the most expensive meals on the menu your bill shouldn’t go too north of $50 unless you’re ordering appetizers and desserts. A perfect date spot, King & I keeps its lighting low and its service knowledgeable and quick. I plan on going back and eating my way through the menu.

For more information check out: kingandict.com/index_fairfield.aspx

Crest Clean Mint Extra Whitening Toothpaste

As anyone who drinks tea, coffee, or anything else that may stain their teeth knows, it’s not always easy to find a good whitening toothpaste. There are a lot of brands out there, I’ve tried a few. The one that has worked the best, and I stick with to this day, is Crest’s Clean Mint flavored Extra Whitening toothpaste with Tartar Protection. From the first day I used it I noticed my teeth getting whiter and some of the staining that other whitening toothpastes had left going away. I’ve tried other versions of Crest Extra Whitening toothpaste but the Clean Mint is the one that works best. So before you throw up your arms in confusion while staring at the myriad of choices in your toothpaste aisle, focus on finding Crest’s Clean Mint Extra Whitening variety. Hopefully it will work as well for you as it does for me.

Praverb The Wyse - The Gospel Is Free

Everyone and their mother has a friggin mixtape. (I heard a couple mom's that were actually pretty tight. I must admit, pretty tight). Praverb The Wyse releases 15 scriptures from his book of life over a few industry beats as well as original production. This is gospel rap without furious fire and brimstone exclamations or overtly self righteous finger pointing. His voice is pretty human, very easy to listen to. There's a charm that most rappers don't have you can hear shining through on, 'Loving Morning'. Its obvious that this young man has a fair amount of skill, 'The Gospel is free' serves as a nice introduction to this emcee that surely loves this Hiphop thing.

You can check it out for yourself here.

Ledisi - Lost & Found

Ladies, it's alright to smile and be happy. To love your man and give him your all, if he so deserves it. Listening to Ledisi I gather the previous statements are felt and appreciated by more than just a mere handful of powerfully progressive, forward thinking females like the many that attend this dynamic femme body's shows. Her essence on this record as well as in person is nothing short of inspiring. Ledisi's 'Lost & Found' is great music to wake up to whether you're female or male - alone or attached. Various expressions of true love and passion inhabit this sound tablet of strength within poetical phrases and silky soulful music. Ledisi leads by example by putting forth a vibe of positive communication. It is obviously uncontrived. Natural. You can't fake this type of human therapy.

Citizen Kane

Sometimes we look at lists of the greatest anythings of all time and openly wonder why certain old films, movies, ballplayers, etc. make those lists. After watching Citizen Kane again the other night it’s still abundantly clear why it’s considered one of the greatest, if not THE greatest, film of all time. Orson Welles’ classic still holds up to the test of time and is worthy of all the praise it’s earned. Following an intrepid reporter seeking the real back story of who Charles Foster Kane was in order to create a proper story on his life we get all the information about Kane at the same time the reporter does with no extra details until the very end. There are dozens of examples of why this film is great, one of my favorites is a beautiful illustration of how distant Kane was from his second wife. The two sit at opposite ends of a room nearly a hundred feet from each other, he in his chair and she by the fireplace, with nothing but space between them, and have a conversation the only way they can, by shouting. Everything about Citizen Kane is on point. If you haven’t seen it you owe it to yourself to find a time to.

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

Not since childhood have I been so consumed by a work of literature. I initiated contact by opening the book; then the words leapt from the page and transported me across the world to an unknown land. My senses were overloaded with the realities of this place too distant to be real, too startling to be imaginary, replete with ripe fruit bubbling summer joys, cloudless and colorful winter skies, fallen Adams on cold autumn ground…I felt every character’s conflicting emotions like so many of my own, loving and loathing parts of myself in a boy--then man--I heard about but never met. I moved through the pages according to their rhythm, the prose at once fresh and soothing, fierce and subjugating. As the journey neared its end, some loose ones were tied in such perfect bows they disrupted the natural meter I had come to know. But in life I’ve learned to accept even the expected unexpected. In all, The Kite Runner is a 324 page sojourn through heaven, hell, and all the shared space in between that is worth every minute it takes to read it “a thousand times over.”

Stop complaining about Bad Hip Hop on the Radio and in the News and Read this Guy’s Blog!

OK look… I used to complain about the crap that’s on the radio and how the media brings the worst out in Hip Hop. I have hereby decided to stop whining and look to resources other than the conventional media.

There’s a really dope blog that anyone who is starving for an unbiased, honest account of Hip Hop needs to be checking out. It’s called Adam's World. This cat (Adam Bernard) has put me on to some people who I would have never researched before and are now getting bumped in my player on the regular. Not to say that there are some people that I haven’t felt in his blog but they are very far and few between. But hey that’s my opinion, right? You’re not gonna like everyone but you’ve got to be exposed to people first right? Adam Bernard brings it to you raw with an artist of the week and lots of refreshing commentary on the underground as well as the mainstream stuff.