Funny find

01 Act Like Ya Know by divablue

Teddy sent me this track that I'd totally forgotten about. We wrote it sometime in the late '90's for a ten year old Japanese artist to sing.  Unfortunately the label thought it was TOO MATURE(!!) for her and passed on it. ah, pure 80s/90s pop bliss.

Cain's Pain

In the republican debate the other night Herman Cain, notably, and the presidential aspirants railed (as per usual) on 'Obamacare'.  And I just want to express this simple (seemingly obvious) point/grudge: Being rich is the best health care policy there is. period. In this country right now the rest of us just have to somehow figure it out. Obama and the democrats have at least tried to address this issue. But what are the republicans offering besides criticisms? Where's their policy for covering the uninsured? (crickets chirping)

Class Warrior??

Just read Paul Krugmans column in the NY Times today about class warfare and what it really is about. He made some great points and I do hope whatever influence his words have will help move the needle of public opinion towards what would seem to me to be obvious. Because I'm going to tell you what warfare means to me: How about health insurance warfare, mortgage warfare, credit card warfare, retirement savings warfare, childcare warfare, food warfare, fix my broken roof warfare, my car is 12 years old warfare, my check don't come until the end of the month warfare and I'm broke warfare...

And these wealthy people are complaining about paying an extra 4% of your income which equals in ONE YEAR the earning power OF MY ENTIRE LIFETIME?! As overweight people say to skinny people who say they need to loose weight,"I'm going to stand here and listen, but don't expect me to feel for you..."

What does it mean to be Human?

Been thinking about humanity again.  I've been thinking a lot about humanness. The situations of these past several years, droughts, famine, natural disasters and responses to them.  But re-thinking in the wake of Michelle Bachmann's unthoughtful comments about the HPV vaccine (of which I'm not entirely a fan) make me think again about humanness.  What is human?  Is it just biology? Because we don't always treat people we say are human beings as 'one of us'.  Maybe if aliens landed we would have some sort of moment where we would realize that we all are the same species, but until then we have so many ways to divide and codify who we are - - and who we are not - -  to one another.  If vaccinations don't work, why is there no more polio?  Shouldn't we look at what the world was like before vaccines?  This is not to say I don't have reservations. But it's the same as genetically modified foods: on one hand, certain gm foods could save people's lives by creating seeds and produce that can be grown in areas that have difficulty growing things.  But - - and it's a big but  - - do we want one or two companies owning the seeds that allow us to eat?  Is humanity connected by greed or is it connected by compassion or are both in play depending on who it is, what a person's class status is?  With vaccinations, should an individual who believes vaccinations are bad be allowed to  put others at risk because they refused to vaccinate against measles?  Or are we standing up for our beliefs and individual freedoms by saying "no" because we are unsure of the veracity of statements that drug companies tell us; knowing also that a lot of researchers and doctors don't take time to deal with, learn and research efficacy of "natural" or holistic modalities.  Is nuclear power clean and efficient and thereby safe to be located near people's homes only until a complete Chernobyl type meltdown when, of course, we suddenly acknowledge just how dangerous radiation is?

Though these things may seem like unrelated issues, they feel related to me because they deal with how humans actualize the concept of humanity, or lack thereof, by creating otherness.  Who decides who is worthy for care?  Who decides what is a worthy cause?  Who decides who are the good and bad people, the angels and the derelicts, the family men or the pimps?  Who decides?!  Who is human?  What does the word really mean? 

Ima Hustla (no, really I'm a hustla...metaphorically speaking of course)

That song I was working on in the hotel on the road in August is really coming together now, it's basically done.  I sent it to teddy and he was into it, but I think on the fence.  So I changed a few things and put some more stank on it...it has to be stankish...gritty, old-man-with-a-licorice-tree-bark-stick-in-his-mouth kind of groove, ala Lamont McCain-on-bass (oh how I miss you Lamont!)  kinda stank. We put horns on it this weekend and I think now it's layin' just right. Greg Boyer from Prince's NPG arranged 'em, how do you like that??! Snippets to come soon!

Green Energy??

The controversy this week about the green jobs company that got special treatment from the Obama administration made me think about how green energy is kind of a bust so far, at least in my own life. I was listening to NPR a week or so ago and they were talking about fracking (sounds like a curse word from Battlestar Galactica)  for natural gas; hopefully allowing the US to be less reliant on fuel from foreign sources.  In thinking about this, there are so many variables because I would love to be more energy efficient, but I can't really afford it.   If there could be natural gas to fuel my car, I would love that since it's about a dollar less per gallon than gas right now.  But, if I bought the car that could run on natural gas, would it be cheap enough to make sense for me to buy it?  Technology that is efficient just doesn't solve my underlying problem of not having enough money to begin with.  I didn't buy a hybrid because I had just bought a car the year before and it had already gone down in value and the hybrid's price didn't make sense in the long run.  It's the same with solar panels.  If you don't have $20K to put them on your roof, they are useless unless they can pay for themselves within a few years, which at this moment, they don't.  So I am not energy efficient.  I'm still just hustling to add $1k per month to my income so I can afford daycare and/or preschool in a minute.  I guess I need to sell some more records :)

Horny?

Did the horn sections for Ima Hustla.  Thanks to my husband, Robert Landham, for setting it up.  I've never been in a horn session before.  Very interesting.  Will be posting video for it soon

Strings??!!

Teddy has recommended we add live strings to a few of the tracks on the new album, first one is Depression. Brilliant! He's using this guy named Christian Howes, who's got a great team of players/arrangers. I'm so excited, the record is really beginning to take shape!!

On Science...

For those who don't believe in science based reasoning and thought, this is an article that hopefully should change your mind. How anyone can decide which scientific thought to believe in while going to the doctor and using a cell phone, I just don't get.

End times??

An earthquake and a hurricane in the same week? Really???

Hustlin'...

It's been a second since I've written here...I've been sooooo busy since I got back off the road.  Being a mom, educator, composer, musician, business owner, administrator, kid whisperer, and wife has been so time consuming.  The baby is right outside my bedroom door right now screaming for mommy while I'm in here sick and trying to get some rest while I pay bills, book gigs, write out lesson plans, contact workman, set up after school activities, and find a way to PAY for all of it.  I'm always on the move, always hustling.  I think I wrote before that parents do the most hustling out there, I know that's true in my case.  At the same time I'm dealing with the fact that my mortgage is underwater and the bank won't re-fi me, I am also hustling to put food on the table and make sure that my baby has child care while I go to work to pay for the car seat that I need to purchase. etc, etc...and ya don't stop.

I don't think I'm alone. I know mothers who stay up until 2 or 3 in the morning doing work after they put their kids to sleep, only to get up at 7am or earlier to get their kids ready to go to school. Then they work all day in or outside the home only to start over.  Um, actually that's my life too....

Just how bad is bad (ie are we just f****d??)

After reading this article in Foreign Policy's online mag about a double dip recession, I feel even more confused.  Right now I feel like I'm living in a really good, suspenseful action movie.  I have absolutely no idea what is going to happen next, and no one in the media, or even regular people, does either.  It seems that we have no policy on tap that really addresses our short and long term future.  I was speaking with a friend of mine who is a real estate developer, and he is in flux.  He can't move forward in his business because of the situation with banks and loans not being given out.  The gov't hasn't put together any policy to deal with the MILLIONS of people who have foreclosing homes or, like me are underwater in their home values.  My friend is just hustling. If he was a drug dealer, he'd probably be rich because he is hustling so hard.  Shoot, the biggest hustlers are....moms, or at least parents...

The world thinks we're crazy

I've been on the road for a bit with the band Live Tropical Fish and it's been fun, but not just because of the music.  It's been really great getting to see people from outside of my little gov't town of Washington, DC.  When I was in Boston, there was a group of IT professionals from all over the world.  They were arguing just how screwed the US is, not IF it is screwed, but how much and why.  There were lots of  whistling noises where thumbs were being pointed down, if you catch my drift. They were from china, germany, japan, the good ole US of A.  All of them said, why can't rich people pay a little more in taxes?  Why can't we find ways of adding infrastructure?  What the hell is wrong with you people?  

verses

On tour, working out songs in a hotel room...ah, the joys of life on the road!

The Kids are alright...

I've been out on the road for the past week with italian soul-sters Live Tropical Fish (click for the tour schedule - come and see us/me!) on their very first US Tour, so my apologies for not posting for a few days. Before I left I came up with a couple of new songs for my album. Here's the bassline to one:

My big girl came in mid way through and helped me flesh it out a bit more :)

Here's another song I wrote earlier that day in the car, it's gonna be called "I Am A Million":

Both my lil' ladies chipped in on this one!

On my umpteenth revision!!

Song...Almost...complete....5th revision...Brother....never....satisfied....If I didn't love him, I would have to slash his tires.  Ahhh... it's all for the music.  Track is dope.  I think I should put a neon sign on my wall for when a track sounds good, I push a button and it flashes dope over and over.

Talkin' like they know...

I'm working on this new song that I think's gonna be about how difficult it is to find real objectivity and reliable information on TV (cough...Fox news..ahem...MSNBC...cough cough). And I was thinking about the whole Rupert Murdoch story that was going on a few weeks ago.  The fact that a portion of his news organization just decided to make up the news that it wanted and not call it a tabloid, but actual news is my real problem with news today.  I'm a political junkie and I consume news the way some people consume chocolate.  There are certain anchors that I become like a teenager worshiping justin beiber or something because I am soooo into them.  But I do expect there to be facts spoken about, not opinion.  I can't seem to find that easily and it's been happening for a long time and it's really getting me mad.  They speak like they know the answers and they don't even know the right questions.  They keep talking like they know something when they just think they have no idea about the subject and are using fact-like-objects to explain themselves.  Just stupid. There are actual problems and there are people who actually have solutions, but very few news organizations talk solutions because their ratings would go down if they weren't having the metaphorical Housewives of DC having spats and cat fights on their political "roundtables" everyday.

Working on a new track...

Teddy sent me this dope a** track from a jam session in the studio the other day: 

Goes back to our DC roots in gogo.  I went to youtube and went down memory lane to listen to some Little Benny and the Masters and Chuck Brown.  A couple of friends of mine work in Chuck's band...gotta take advantage of that and see his show....Thinking about Sardines and Pork and Beans and Cat in the Hat and Money, Money Money and stuff like that. Back when I was a kid, we loved those groups.  It was DC gogo against NYC hip hop.  Back when music was still regional.  

...and I came up with this in the car, I like it so far!

Debt Deal Reax

Now that the deal/deed is done and I have a chance to get past my frustrations and take a step back and look towards the bigger picture, this is what I think: This anger and frustration with people not doing they're jobs in gov't is making it difficult for people to come together and make decisions.  When Obama was running for president, there was a great feeling around of being able to accomplish things regardless of political ideology, cultural and racial background, age and sex. Now, what we need is a resurgence of community and brotherhood. We all want good things for ourselves and our children.

At least we didn't default...

So the debt ceiling has an agreement now, but congress has not voted on it yet.  The frustration I feel is not that it will or will not be passed; it's that both sides have their own set of facts and the media is deciding what it will cover and what it will hold up as "facts" or an"expert".  Fact: the Tea party has moved the agenda towards cutting the debt.  Fact: no one is covering the "real" story of job loss and the need for job creation.  I was watching fox, because though I lean toward the left, I like to have an understanding of what people who think differently than me think, and why.