Notes from the underfoot

I guess I haven't been writing because things just feel pretty fucking bleak. Although I have people to commiserate with, as close as here in NYC and as far away as the UK and sometimes Australia, it's not quite comforting to know that we are all in the same boat. It's actually quite distressing. If only because I can't imagine that anything could really be accomplished if we were all in the same room together. The hacienda won't be built.

I have been drinking a lot more than usual lately. Don't worry, I am taking the next weekend or two off. Maybe I'll get some more writing done then.

I do plan on writing a bit about music again. Or maybe I will do so now. I don't know what I mean to say when I say write. Because you all expect paragraphs. Arguments. I don't want to do that. I just want to say that what I find disappointing about music now is that I wish there was something large enough, a statement, a concept album, even, or just a sound, that could really describe an encompass what the world feels like now. I can bitch and moan about how there is nothing new, idea-wise, but that's not quite the problem. Novelty has always been relative. But music now and the discourse surrounding it has concerned itself solely with music, and that is why it is all dead. Music is no longer an interpretation of life as it is or should be, but rather of music itself. Nothing can be accomplished in this way.

You may say to me that this is all my fault. I am depressed. Lots of people aren't. So why should I expect others to have a desire that makes no sense to them. Well. Maybe some people are not fucked, but we are fucked. Which is more arrogant? Trying to speak for more than one person, or asking me to listen to a record about your feelings just because you are you? I prefer a general lie to a specific truth. At least it is a vision.

Am I making sense? I don't know. My mind is still hazy.

People should know better than to accept things the way they are. Don't tell me that when you first heard whatever it is that made you who you are that you wanted taxonomy. "Who would care to contribute to a culture that cannot be satisfied no matter how much it devours, and at whose contact the most vigorous and wholesome nourishment is changed to 'history' and 'criticism'?" Only historians and critics, apparently.

Bullisht

Some dude said that life without music would be a mistake but I can't help but feeling that the opposite is true. In my experience, there is no human endeavor that has drawn the distinction between what life could be and what it is better than music. Compared to the sublime feeling I have had listening to music, the drudgery of daily life has been aberrant. I spent too much time listening to music with friends this evening. I haven't been able to fall asleep yet and now I have to be at work in five hours. Surely that is the mistake!

Still arguing!

It's been over 40 years since Miles Davis added instruments that required electricity into his music, over twenty-five years since the first techno record came out, almost twenty years since the first drum and bass record, and conversations like the below are still happening. Thankfully, not only does Mtume have a talent for dope early 80s r&b but also for comedy! As Miles would say, he's a motherfucker.

Ones and Twos

I played some records last night as part of a belated birthday celebration for myself which managed to draw all of one friend besides the two who regularly DJ that particular night and were nice enough to hand a few hours off to me. All of you who know me personally and don't actually live in New York were not expected to come, of course.

I played well. I played badly. I played a lot of records I wanted to hear and wanted others to hear and I didn't always think about my selections in terms of what would actually be good to mix (it was just a bar, you know?). More than a few mixes involved some speed changes that were pretty unacceptable outside of the context of a handful of inebriated people hanging out at the end of the night. Here's the track list. Mixes are mostly not listed - just check the links...

(Friend #1 plays, then)

Set One:

1. Mr. Fingers - Can You Feel It

2. Fingers Inc. - Mystery Of Love

3. Projekt:PM - Deeper In The Tones

4. Nagual - I Feel The Rhythm

5. Cassio - Paradise

6. Jon Cutler - Don't Move

7. NY's Finest- Do You Feel Me

8. Jomanda - Got A Love For You

9. Darryl Pandy - I Love Music

10. Mod Wheel - The Way

11. The Shamen - Make It Mine (Moby's Deep Mix)

12. Sweet Exorcist - Testone

13. Virgo - Ride

14. Convextion - AA

(Friend #2 plays, then)

Set Two:

15. Jamie Principle - Bad Boy

16. ESP - It's You

17. Joe Smooth - I'll Be There

18. JM Silk - Music Is The Key

19. Octave One - Blackwater (NB video is not the exact mix I played but closest)

20. Model 500 - Starlight

21. Psyche - From Beyond

22. Jam & Spoon - Stella

23. Jacques Greene - Another Girl

24. Frankie Knuckles presents Satoshie Tomiie - Tears

25. New Order- Thieves Like Us

(random messing around, some other records not from my bag, then)

Last Record:

26. Bizzarre Inc - Playing With Knives

Fucking 31!

How did this happen?

Accidental Break

I guess I was always a Leftist but there's nothing better to turn abstract concepts into hardened beliefs than direct experience. Reading Rousseau in bed in high school not particularly worried about food was a bit different than trying to fit reading a similar work around less free time, less energy, less mental space for contemplation, etc. I was 16 and I think I can be forgiven somewhat for the distance that existed in my head between thought and action. But what about those who are no longer teenagers but who still have so many of the aforementioned benefits of my youth? Is it inevitable that only personal suffering will turn predilection to conviction?

As for me, work sucks, my apartment sucks, I have no money, and I am tired. I haven't been here to lament human misery towards political ends. I'm just livin' it right now. Well, sort of. I have a job. I have a home. There are certainly billions worse off than I am. Let's just say there are two types of torture. The worst happening and the constant reminder that it could happen at any moment. In my case it is not paranoia.

I still haven't gone down to OWS. I feel like a hypocrite. You should read Disaster Notes on the specter of hierarchy that is currently haunting the still-legitimate movement. One and Two.

Until sometime in the future...

Personal Ad

When I am drunk I like to play air bass to "Love Sensation" by Loleatta Hollway. The Shep Pettibone mix, of course. All I want is a basement, a TV, a joint, a collection of classic Film Noir movies and a girl to cuddle and watch them with. But it ain't that simple, and neither are you. Oh well.