Dudes who have been around since the early days can basically consider themselves blessed to have read that schitt. Like having a one of a kind book that was passed around, and consequently lost or destroyed.
Dudes who have been around since the early days can basically consider themselves blessed to have read that schitt. Like having a one of a kind book that was passed around, and consequently lost or destroyed.
What's James' "day job"? Because frankly, I want to sign him up to write for every publication I know.
The "Smooth" radio format is some revolutionary (if throwed-back) shit, though. Outside of mixtapes, in how many other contexts do you hear music that's programmed not by its genre and not by the demographics of its listenership but by its abstract aesthetic? My dad is deep in the Smooth lifestyle (dude was country when country wasn't cool, so to speak: He's been down with the Smoove unit since the mid-eighties when his avuncular cocoa co-worker Greg--he of the late-model zinfandel-colored something with the "LOAFIN" vanity plate--turned him out with some Najee), so whenever we go to visit him, it's wall-to-wall "Wave FM" or whatever--in the crib, in the convertible, while ordering assorted chicken-based wraps named after towns in Arizona, etc.--and I can honestly say that said station will seemingly play anything, by any artist, in any genre, from any time period, as long as it feels smooth. In one weekend, on one station, I heard Bobby Caldwell, late-period Miracles, Beck, Al Green, MacNeal and Niles, Paul Hardcastle, Etta James, The Deele, Dave Brubeck, Steely Dan, Maroon 5, Lee Morgan, Johnny Hammond, Jefferson Starship, Jobim, Talking Heads, and on and on and on. Regardless of how one feels about the individual artists, where the fuck else do you hear that kind of sensibility in wide public broadcast? Those of you that can't get past the specifics of the playlist ("Fuck a Kenny G, thun!"), think of it this way: Imagine if there was some station that would play anything, by any artist, in any genre, from any time period, as long as it felt hard (settle down, Beavis): MC5, Public Enemy, Metallica, Prince Far I, Funkadelic, Alber Ayler, M.O.P., and on and on and on. Well, that's what's going on with a lot of these "Smooth" stations. You ain't gotta like it, but please recgonize this for the soft bomb that it is.
And in a side note: All those who diss Men With Hats out of hand better hope that Clubbup doesn't see that shit. You'll be a bus ticket.
This could be the smartest thing ever posted on soulstrut...i've given this a lot of thought over time.
The bumpin of old threads got me thinking and I was actually reading this at the time it was bumped - the Strut works in mysterious ways.
Some of this stuff is absolute genius and much missed from both James and Terry. I think James was responsible for my first ever location with a throw away line about how locations were the internet equivalent of a funny t shirt.
Many years ago I saw some cartoony poster at a Shoney???s, advertising their all-you-can-eat shrimp plate. The ill-conceived and inexplicable dixieland motif they had chosen combined with their artist???s poor rendering skills and overeagerness to anthropomorphize his or her subject and resulted in what looked like an illustration of a jazz band composed of smiling, slightly curved phalluses. Like, ???Why is there a happy little penis stabbing itself in the face with a black golf tee? Oh, that???s supposed to be a shrimp? Playing a clarinet? Oh, okay.??? Trust me when I say that shit was far from appetizing.
This is the best thing i ever read on the strut. a few years back i actually printed this out and stuck it on the wall behind my screen. there is greatness in every word.
i feel compelled to to add that the synopsis of bernadette is so on point that a cosine graemlin would be a bastardization of agreement/support/whatthefuck the word is.
Oh, shit--my man Jimster told me the dude was back in town, and I had to come see it for myself.
Coincidentally enough, just the other day I was bumping "Never Gonna Give You Up," off of The Soulful Strings Play Gamble-Huff (Philly plus Chicago--what's fucking with that? ), which is one of those things that, for the few minutes it lasts, really does feel like you're tuned in to the best thing ever. I know y'all know what I mean.
And don't be fooled, my people, by his humble misdirection: It was a post by Cosmo that cracked this whole shit open for a young(ish) james. It was several Soulstruts ago, and I'm sure the post has long since been swallowed by the drift, but: It started more or less as a "finds" post about a stash of old concert posters that, I think, one of Cosmo's parents had given him, then moved into him imagining what his parents might have been like at the time of these concerts, close to the age that he was then, and then spiraled outward into a meditation on life, love, music, and change. It was gutsy and beautiful, and the last line was something like, "I don't know what's going to happen to me."
As I said not too long ago over at The Other Board:
Cosmo Fucking Baker--the Prometheus of Soulstrut, and probably thee single biggest reason I am posting on the internet today. All credit/blame.
I'm having lunch with visiting dignitary Terry_Clubbup next week, and we'll make sure to raise a glass toward the East.
And interestingly enough, I'm sitting in Philadelphia whilst listening to a "radio show" Pon De Innernets dedicated to Chicago's own Charles Stepney. Pretty, pretty pretty, pretty pretty good... if I do say so myself. May take a deep dive on the Rotary Connection catalog later today for the hell of it - not a bad way to direct energy on a Tuesday.
And yeah, I do remember that day and that post. Lord knows, that was a lifetime ago at this point. So much has happened since, and yet I still don't know what's going to happen to me. But it all keeps coming, it keeps coming, keeps on coming, whether we move with it or not, as it moves right on over us all.
But it's alright, and you know EXACTLY the intonation of that "alright" when I type in on there. I end up spending most of my days with this guy, the devastatingly handsome Bootsy Baker.
Raising a glass back to you, and to all of you. All my best to everyone.
Cosmo said: And interestingly enough, I'm sitting in Philadelphia whilst listening to a "radio show" Pon De Innernets dedicated to Chicago's own Charles Stepney. Pretty, pretty pretty, pretty pretty good... if I do say so myself. May take a deep dive on the Rotary Connection catalog later today for the hell of it - not a bad way to direct energy on a Tuesday.
Comments
Don't forget, Saturday, June 2nd 2007 is DO THE JAMES DAY[/b].
What's James' "day job"? Because frankly, I want to sign him up to write for every publication I know.
This could be the smartest thing ever posted on soulstrut...i've given this a lot of thought over time.
Some of this stuff is absolute genius and much missed from both James and Terry. I think James was responsible for my first ever location with a throw away line about how locations were the internet equivalent of a funny t shirt.
This is the best thing i ever read on the strut. a few years back i actually printed this out and stuck it on the wall behind my screen. there is greatness in every word.
And surely, I shall turn to the writings of James to give me the intestinal fortitude to see the day through.
That, and drink.
Coincidentally enough, just the other day I was bumping "Never Gonna Give You Up," off of The Soulful Strings Play Gamble-Huff (Philly plus Chicago--what's fucking with that? ), which is one of those things that, for the few minutes it lasts, really does feel like you're tuned in to the best thing ever. I know y'all know what I mean.
And don't be fooled, my people, by his humble misdirection: It was a post by Cosmo that cracked this whole shit open for a young(ish) james. It was several Soulstruts ago, and I'm sure the post has long since been swallowed by the drift, but: It started more or less as a "finds" post about a stash of old concert posters that, I think, one of Cosmo's parents had given him, then moved into him imagining what his parents might have been like at the time of these concerts, close to the age that he was then, and then spiraled outward into a meditation on life, love, music, and change. It was gutsy and beautiful, and the last line was something like, "I don't know what's going to happen to me."
As I said not too long ago over at The Other Board:
I'm having lunch with visiting dignitary Terry_Clubbup next week, and we'll make sure to raise a glass toward the East.
My dude. I do hope you're well.
James
And yeah, I do remember that day and that post. Lord knows, that was a lifetime ago at this point. So much has happened since, and yet I still don't know what's going to happen to me. But it all keeps coming, it keeps coming, keeps on coming, whether we move with it or not, as it moves right on over us all.
But it's alright, and you know EXACTLY the intonation of that "alright" when I type in on there. I end up spending most of my days with this guy, the devastatingly handsome Bootsy Baker.
Raising a glass back to you, and to all of you. All my best to everyone.
Just to say, YES: https://worldwidefm.net/show/celebrating-charles-stepney/