Back in 1988 my dear friend Willie Ninja called me and asked me to write lyrics to a song he was doing with Malcolm McLaren. The result was Deep In Vogue.
As I mentioned in a previous blog post Willie and I got swindled out of publishing rights, writing credits and money. Hey, we were young kids from the ghetto and didn't really know how the music industry operated.
Over the past few years I have met many people that told me they were inspired by that song. You see for a young gayling growing up in a small town, Deep In Vogue provided a fab-boo-less light at the end of a dark tunnel.
A few years before Willie passed, he spoke on a panel about his career. I was in the audience. When he talked about Deep In Vogue, he asked me to stand up and acknowledged our collaboration on the song. His gesture of appreciation meant the world to me.
I wrote the lyrics that Lourdes sang so seductively and fiercely. Enjoy.
Nov 30, 2007
Music Makes The World Go Round
Okay good people, those of you that know me well, understand I obsess about music. Well here is a list of what is currently living on my iPod shuffle:
Wake Up Alone - Amy Winehouse
Love Is A Losing Game - Amy Winhouse
Paper Aeroplane - Angus and Julia Stone
Rebellion (Lies) - The Arcade Fire
In The Back Seat - The Arcade Fire
Do The Whirlwind - Architecture In Helsinki
Witch Doctor - Armand Van Helden
Pioneer To The Falls - Interpol
Road To Home - Girl In A Coma
Three Words - Junior Boys
Koop Island Blues - Koop with Ane Brun
Why - Lemongrass
Run Into Flowers- M83
God Moving Over The Face of Water - Moby
The Chills - Peter Bjorn and John
Fire - Pointer Sisters
Sign Your Name - Terence Trent D'Arby
Look them up, download and enjoy.
Peace,
Allan
Wake Up Alone - Amy Winehouse
Love Is A Losing Game - Amy Winhouse
Paper Aeroplane - Angus and Julia Stone
Rebellion (Lies) - The Arcade Fire
In The Back Seat - The Arcade Fire
Do The Whirlwind - Architecture In Helsinki
Witch Doctor - Armand Van Helden
Pioneer To The Falls - Interpol
Road To Home - Girl In A Coma
Three Words - Junior Boys
Koop Island Blues - Koop with Ane Brun
Why - Lemongrass
Run Into Flowers- M83
God Moving Over The Face of Water - Moby
The Chills - Peter Bjorn and John
Fire - Pointer Sisters
Sign Your Name - Terence Trent D'Arby
Look them up, download and enjoy.
Peace,
Allan
Nov 25, 2007
Nov 23, 2007
Got A Letter From The White House Today
Today I got a letter from the White House. Mind you it wasn't from Georgie but from his Special Assistant and Director of Presidential Correspondence Darren K. Hipp. It was in response to a letter I wrote to Georgie about the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB).
Turkey Day Without The Turkey
Well good people, I got through another Thanksgiving Day. This year was very different than the past few years because I did not have my extended family members Izzy, Joslyn and her son Marco at my table (sigh). Over the past few years they have come out to CT to spend a few days, while consuming food and drink.
I was in a low-key sorta mood so I decided to keep it very simple. My hubby invited over his good friend Joma and her new wifey with their 3 year old child. I forgot how much attention children need. He was adorable and smart, but the poor child was not feeling well so they left earlier than we had expected. In fact I didn't get to serve my pumpkin pie. Lil J I hope you feel better soon.
I also didn't cook a turkey this year. I made my lovely fresh ham that I cover in cloves, mustard and brown sugar that is mixed with a bit of curry powder. Try it you'll like it. My side dishes were collard greens sauteed with maple cured bacon, onion and garlic, as well as, my puree of sweet potato seasoned with butter, cinnamon, maple syrup and cream. YUM! Oh and the husband wanted my arroz con gandules. Like most Puerto Ricans from the island, he feels he hasn't really eaten unless he's had some rice and beans on his plate.
It was cute for what it was. I'm really thinking I want to blow it out for Christmas.
I was in a low-key sorta mood so I decided to keep it very simple. My hubby invited over his good friend Joma and her new wifey with their 3 year old child. I forgot how much attention children need. He was adorable and smart, but the poor child was not feeling well so they left earlier than we had expected. In fact I didn't get to serve my pumpkin pie. Lil J I hope you feel better soon.
I also didn't cook a turkey this year. I made my lovely fresh ham that I cover in cloves, mustard and brown sugar that is mixed with a bit of curry powder. Try it you'll like it. My side dishes were collard greens sauteed with maple cured bacon, onion and garlic, as well as, my puree of sweet potato seasoned with butter, cinnamon, maple syrup and cream. YUM! Oh and the husband wanted my arroz con gandules. Like most Puerto Ricans from the island, he feels he hasn't really eaten unless he's had some rice and beans on his plate.
It was cute for what it was. I'm really thinking I want to blow it out for Christmas.
Nov 22, 2007
Fags Of The Universe...Attack
Miss Kitty brought to light this new conservative version of Wikipedia that lives and breathes online. It is called Conservapedia and here is the list of there top ten searches:
Main Page [1,917,991]
Homosexuality [1,593,146]
Homosexuality and Hepatitis [517,611]
Homosexuality and Promiscuity [421,459]
Gay Bowel Syndrome [396,933]
Homosexuality and Parasites [395,038]
Homosexual Couples and Domestic Violence [373,439]
Homosexuality and Gonorrhea [331,797]
Homosexuality and Mental Health [292,921]
Homosexual Agenda [271,275]
So I see that according to this website, the conservative mind believes one of the biggest issues we face as a country, culture, human community is homosexuality. Never mind immorality of war, or the corruption of government, nor the impact of corporate greed. What is paramount in the minds of the conservative minded is that, in the world there are fags and dykes, and all that thrives in between, and that they must be stopped.
When was the last time that homo-sex affected your own life? For those anti-gay readers that think it's about being preventive, get over it. Same sex love happens since the beginning of time. And, some of those same sex loving sodomites have been some of the best teachers, uncles, aunts, siblings, friends, and maybe even parents you have ever known.
Expanding on some wise words said by someone else: "The mind is like a parachute, if it doesn't open then is doesn't work." I would add that it doesn't save the traveler. The unopened mind sends it owner to a hard crash that could have been avoided.
Main Page [1,917,991]
Homosexuality [1,593,146]
Homosexuality and Hepatitis [517,611]
Homosexuality and Promiscuity [421,459]
Gay Bowel Syndrome [396,933]
Homosexuality and Parasites [395,038]
Homosexual Couples and Domestic Violence [373,439]
Homosexuality and Gonorrhea [331,797]
Homosexuality and Mental Health [292,921]
Homosexual Agenda [271,275]
So I see that according to this website, the conservative mind believes one of the biggest issues we face as a country, culture, human community is homosexuality. Never mind immorality of war, or the corruption of government, nor the impact of corporate greed. What is paramount in the minds of the conservative minded is that, in the world there are fags and dykes, and all that thrives in between, and that they must be stopped.
When was the last time that homo-sex affected your own life? For those anti-gay readers that think it's about being preventive, get over it. Same sex love happens since the beginning of time. And, some of those same sex loving sodomites have been some of the best teachers, uncles, aunts, siblings, friends, and maybe even parents you have ever known.
Expanding on some wise words said by someone else: "The mind is like a parachute, if it doesn't open then is doesn't work." I would add that it doesn't save the traveler. The unopened mind sends it owner to a hard crash that could have been avoided.
Nov 19, 2007
Cherry Picking Music
Jermaine Dupree broke out his violin to plead the case of music artist. He wrote about how Jay-Z refused to have his music posted on i-Tunes because it would disrupt the flow of what he created as an artistic expression because of the "cherry picking" mentality of listeners.
This is what I have to say about that:
1. Yo J, come on, you know when you was broke, like most folk, you recorded your favorite songs on tape to listen to later. As you made your mixed tapes you cherry picked
2. Where were you Mr. Dupree when the music industry started charging young people over $20 for a CD when it only cost that greedy industry only a 1/4 of that amount to produce that CD. The kids couldn't afford their music so hence the "sharing."
3. Ahh the whole artist canvas defense you presented. Even the most devoted fan can say that the whole CD they purchased from the artist they are devoted to, they often find they tend to skip a few tracks to get to their favorites.
4. Let's keep it real, in your YOUR CD collection you have a few tracks that you skip because that song is WHACK.
5. Artist have so many other avenues to cash in. I just saw a commercial for i-Tunes with Mary J. Blige. You know that was all ka-ching for her. Shit she paid several months of her mortgage thanks to that commercial.
6. Embrace the times and figure out how to adapt to them. Many other ARTIST have figured out way to respond to the changing needs and economics of their time. Do the work.
7. Pandora's box has been opened. Do you really think that Jay's albums is not on the Internet as you typed your post on http://www.huffingtonpost.com
8. Finally, times are gonna be hard for us non-MTV-living-Cribs such as yourself. Our disposable income will be far and few in between. So I ask when it comes to feed yourself or buy Jay-Z's new album; I'm gonna choose FOOD.
This is what I have to say about that:
1. Yo J, come on, you know when you was broke, like most folk, you recorded your favorite songs on tape to listen to later. As you made your mixed tapes you cherry picked
2. Where were you Mr. Dupree when the music industry started charging young people over $20 for a CD when it only cost that greedy industry only a 1/4 of that amount to produce that CD. The kids couldn't afford their music so hence the "sharing."
3. Ahh the whole artist canvas defense you presented. Even the most devoted fan can say that the whole CD they purchased from the artist they are devoted to, they often find they tend to skip a few tracks to get to their favorites.
4. Let's keep it real, in your YOUR CD collection you have a few tracks that you skip because that song is WHACK.
5. Artist have so many other avenues to cash in. I just saw a commercial for i-Tunes with Mary J. Blige. You know that was all ka-ching for her. Shit she paid several months of her mortgage thanks to that commercial.
6. Embrace the times and figure out how to adapt to them. Many other ARTIST have figured out way to respond to the changing needs and economics of their time. Do the work.
7. Pandora's box has been opened. Do you really think that Jay's albums is not on the Internet as you typed your post on http://www.huffingtonpost.com
8. Finally, times are gonna be hard for us non-MTV-living-Cribs such as yourself. Our disposable income will be far and few in between. So I ask when it comes to feed yourself or buy Jay-Z's new album; I'm gonna choose FOOD.
Nov 18, 2007
The Late Night Soul Train
Good people, ya need to catch the Best of Soul Train on late night TV for the following reasons:
The music is motherfucking hot.
The fashion is truly inspirational.
You'll see the mothers and fathers of the sounds you listen to NOW.
Don Cornelius is mad cool.
Oh! Let's not forget the Soul Train Line!
Do the search and find out when you can catch the love, peace, and afro grease.
Dumb Aint Cute
Jessica Simpson has been the butt of a joke for far too long. She has been cast as the dumb blond in contemporary popular culture. Think back to her "chicken of the sea" confusion, or her buffalo wings commercial, and most recently her role in the Macy's commercials. This woman is pimping out her soul for tons of money and doesn't realize it's being done without any lube.
Us older folks see this. I fear the younger folks don't. This so-called Christian woman that saved her virginity for marriage is now promoting a stereotype that invites young girls to open their legs. Don't think, but you betta look cute, is the rule of the dumb blond.
What's really tragic is that I've heard her father was a minister. This former minister-father pimped his children out to serve a lower purpose. I'm sure he knows a chapter and verse to justify his behavior.
Let me say this. I don't mind the blond bimbo thing if it's organic. I want to help that type of person, man or woman, that suffers from a lack of awareness and life experience. It's all about enlightenment in my opinion. I do mind it when it's a contrived bullshit like Jessica and her surgically altered sister took on and promote.
We're suppose to evolve not go backwards!
Us older folks see this. I fear the younger folks don't. This so-called Christian woman that saved her virginity for marriage is now promoting a stereotype that invites young girls to open their legs. Don't think, but you betta look cute, is the rule of the dumb blond.
What's really tragic is that I've heard her father was a minister. This former minister-father pimped his children out to serve a lower purpose. I'm sure he knows a chapter and verse to justify his behavior.
Let me say this. I don't mind the blond bimbo thing if it's organic. I want to help that type of person, man or woman, that suffers from a lack of awareness and life experience. It's all about enlightenment in my opinion. I do mind it when it's a contrived bullshit like Jessica and her surgically altered sister took on and promote.
We're suppose to evolve not go backwards!
Nov 14, 2007
A Hidden Epidemic - Iraq War Veteran Suicides
According to CBS New "At least 120 Americans who served in the U.S. military killed themselves per week in 2005, CBS News learned in a five-month investigation into veteran suicides. That's 6,256 veteran suicides in one year, in 45 states."
The tragedy is deep folks. Click here for more information.
The tragedy is deep folks. Click here for more information.
Nov 6, 2007
Notes on the Nuyoricans
Notes on the Nuyoricans
By Soledad Santiago
February 19, 1979
Village Voice
It's 15 minutes to airtime at NewsCenter 4 on a Saturday night. Felipe Luciano, Emmy-award-winning journalist and former head of the Young Lord's Party, is weekend co-anchor. Around him at least six clocks tick simultaneously, making tangible the rush of time as news pours in from around the world.
"Ten seconds . . . 10 seconds to the real thing," says the stage manager, starting the countdown. Then Luciano begins. Twenty-seven monitors and two cameras are going at once.
Luciano is projected into living rooms around New York City every weekend. He is among the most visible of young Latinos who herald the arrival of a new breed—the Nuyorican. Technically Nuyoricans are second generation Puerto Ricans who have made New York their home. But to me, Nuyoricans cannot be defined by age or date of arrival. Nuyorican is a state of mind.
Many Latinos remember with pride the splash the Young Lords made across the front pages of the nation's newspapers in the late '60s. They remember Luciano as a brilliant public speaker who exhorted the young to rise up against the system. He once told a graduating class at East Harlem's Ben Franklin High School: "You are not going to get it by getting people elected to Congress, by a good education, or by praying. The only way you are going to get it is by ripping it up. Seize the schools, seize the courts, seize the prisons where three quarters of our people are." . . .
The successful Nuyorican is often cut off from his roots by the very nature of success, suspended in the time warp of a culture in transition, a culture of synthesis which is defining and asserting its values, attempting to allow tradition to survive assimilation. The dilemma of Nuyorican identity is not a racial but a class one. In the uncomfortable limbo between black and white, rich and poor, the Nuyorican pioneers a new identity.
The Nuyoricans walk a tightrope between yesterday and tomorrow, cherishing the positive in Puerto Rican culture while wrestling with its ingrained restraints that have no place in their new life; attracted by the personal freedom of an anonymous urban society yet repulsed by its indifference; aspiring to middle-class accoutrements yet shackled by the code of machismo which presupposes that the male in the family be the only wage earner.
Not all New York Puerto Ricans are Nuyoricans. Many stay in enclaves, never learning English and never touching the mainstream of New York life. The Nuyorican identity has emerged as the result of a series of choices, an individuality born of historical necessity.
By Soledad Santiago
February 19, 1979
Village Voice
It's 15 minutes to airtime at NewsCenter 4 on a Saturday night. Felipe Luciano, Emmy-award-winning journalist and former head of the Young Lord's Party, is weekend co-anchor. Around him at least six clocks tick simultaneously, making tangible the rush of time as news pours in from around the world.
"Ten seconds . . . 10 seconds to the real thing," says the stage manager, starting the countdown. Then Luciano begins. Twenty-seven monitors and two cameras are going at once.
Luciano is projected into living rooms around New York City every weekend. He is among the most visible of young Latinos who herald the arrival of a new breed—the Nuyorican. Technically Nuyoricans are second generation Puerto Ricans who have made New York their home. But to me, Nuyoricans cannot be defined by age or date of arrival. Nuyorican is a state of mind.
Many Latinos remember with pride the splash the Young Lords made across the front pages of the nation's newspapers in the late '60s. They remember Luciano as a brilliant public speaker who exhorted the young to rise up against the system. He once told a graduating class at East Harlem's Ben Franklin High School: "You are not going to get it by getting people elected to Congress, by a good education, or by praying. The only way you are going to get it is by ripping it up. Seize the schools, seize the courts, seize the prisons where three quarters of our people are." . . .
The successful Nuyorican is often cut off from his roots by the very nature of success, suspended in the time warp of a culture in transition, a culture of synthesis which is defining and asserting its values, attempting to allow tradition to survive assimilation. The dilemma of Nuyorican identity is not a racial but a class one. In the uncomfortable limbo between black and white, rich and poor, the Nuyorican pioneers a new identity.
The Nuyoricans walk a tightrope between yesterday and tomorrow, cherishing the positive in Puerto Rican culture while wrestling with its ingrained restraints that have no place in their new life; attracted by the personal freedom of an anonymous urban society yet repulsed by its indifference; aspiring to middle-class accoutrements yet shackled by the code of machismo which presupposes that the male in the family be the only wage earner.
Not all New York Puerto Ricans are Nuyoricans. Many stay in enclaves, never learning English and never touching the mainstream of New York life. The Nuyorican identity has emerged as the result of a series of choices, an individuality born of historical necessity.
3 Is A Magic Number
Well good people, yet more rats are fleeing the sinking S.S. Bush-shit. In Esquire magazine two former high-ranking policy experts from the Bush administration make an attempt to clear their conscience and scrub up their karma. I guess they want to get in good with their fellow uptight, lily white suburban neighbors.
They reveal how the U.S. has been salivating for a war with Iran for years, despite Georgie's spin that claims the opposite.
Consider it Iraq the sequel, but not in Iraq. Click here to know more about the unfolding horror.
They reveal how the U.S. has been salivating for a war with Iran for years, despite Georgie's spin that claims the opposite.
Consider it Iraq the sequel, but not in Iraq. Click here to know more about the unfolding horror.
Nov 4, 2007
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