Corndogorama has come and gone without me this year.

I’ve missed Corndogorama totally this year. Partially because I took my cousin who doesn’t like Rock music out on Thursday Night, Had previous plans on Friday night and had to work Saturday night and attend my Brother-in-Law’s graducation celebration all day Sunday. I’m not happy. So basically this weekend sucked. Instead of partying like it was 1999 at the final Decatur Social Club in Downtown Decatur or losing my voice at Lenny’s for Corndogorama, I got to watch non-partying people faux party in Castleberry hill.

I guess that’s on me. I could have always went to MJQ, I suppose. The Q never fails me, but I had my wife with me and she had been in heels all day. No way that was happening. I’m mad at the world right now and I don’t care who knows it.

For day to day Corndogorama coverage check out ATL music blog ohmpark

Lazlo Hollyfeld installation and launch party

Mint Gallery

The Backwudz aren’t done quite yet…

I caught up with an Eastside ATL MC that should not need any intro from me who performs with Da Backwudz & The Labratz. I know y’all remember the Backwudz being all over MTV and BET (if you watch that stuff) a few years back. They even hosted a few Hip Hop shows as featured artists on MTV that year. If I recall correctly it was 2005/6. Their hit ” You Gonna Love Me” got a great deal of burn on commercial Radio stations as well. People have been wondering what happened to them. An interview I’ll be conducting with them for VIMBY.com will get into their label situation but it seems they are working on a new album right now. That’s good news for Atlanta, it’s great news for Backwudz fans worldwide. Looks like they’ll be looking to drop a new album later this year as well as a Labratz album. Jmil from Collective Efforts said they were in the recording studio putting together something with them. I wonder if we’ll ever hear what became of that.

ATL_Preview

A new concept is coming to the Atlanta Fashion scene. It’s being ushered in by Dosa Kim, TUNDE and Epidemik Coalition. It’s fun, it’s forward thinking, it’s distinctly Atlanta. If you haven’t seen a few people wearing the shirts or the characters on Myspace profile pics with Atlanta tastemakers, you’ll soon be aware of it. These guys are talented. I wish them nothing but the best. The VIMBY.com interview will be up soon, I promise. Technical difficulties are not allowing me to record. Technical difficulties meaning someone stole my cables. MY MONSTER CABLES!!! Those things are expensive! :o(

I’m working on rigging around that issue, though. I have NO idea where my cables are.

Even at these gas prices, A Pabst Blue Ribbon can’t be worth it.

Look at that picture over to the left of this copy. No really, look at it. Is it not a work of art? The mere mention of a Guinness waters my mouth. Why is that? It’s more than a beer, really. It’s a metric of taste, style, understanding. I remember the first time I heard of PBR. It was in my first living space over in Marietta. One of my roomates had a few cans of PBR in this book case- a relic of better times had. I asked him about the brand. He said that in the 70’s it was a cheap and terrible tasting beer he and his frat buddies would quaf with the eagerness of labrador in a country creek lappy up muddy water. A few years later I noticed a few people drinking it in contemporary times. I didn’t try it. I like my beers full-bodied, robust, with a weight to each mouthful that is reassuring of money well-spent. The other day I found mywelf at a local club without my wallet. I had no more than 8 dollars on my person. My options, as I saw them, were to either enjoy one cool Guiness or have 3 PBR’s. I chose the latter. At the time they did the job, I suppose. The short-lived buzz was then quickly followed by an uneasy stomach and later a temporal lobe splitting headache. I have nothing againt light-er beers. I am capable of enjoying a Stella, Sam Adams or a Red stripe from time to time. But that swill they called a beer was disgusting. I’ve never woke up with a headache after beers, save for the very-very bad decisions in my youth to skip on quality and indulge in the quatinty afforded with poor-man’s suds like Natty Ice and Magnums. I didn’t know better then. I do now. Yes, this is a rant. WHY oh WHY do hipsters find this beer so appealing? I haven’t a clue. I believe in being frugral, yes. But not at such a price.

Newly Remixed song from ATL’s Atlas Sound

Photo swiped from Brooklyn Vegan, btw. Hope they don’t mind. My camera and camera battery charger are DEAD! I have to get to Best Buy at some point this week to rectify that. I have a pic of Cox on my cam from when I saw him a few months ago. It’s not a bad flick. Had to kind of take it on the run, but hey…it is what it is. I heard he’s shy so I didn’t want to bother him and got my paparazzi on instead. The Chap is a fun group so I’m glad he did a remix for ’em.

The Chap- “They have a name” (Atlas Sound Remix)

Earwax records closing up shop…

Admit it. You took it for granted, didn’t you? As long as there is sky, pollen and heat in Atlanta there will be burgers at Vortex, Chili Dogs at the Varsity, Stone Mountain park, the World of Coke and Ear wax records, right? Wrong.
It’s the end of an era, folks. Earwax records has been a staple in the Hip-Hop and House scenes in Atlanta for a long, long time. We’ve seen several stores like Tower, More Dusty than Digital and others fall by the wayside over the past few years. It seems like all the best record shops are over on the East-side of town now begining over in the Little Five points/East Atlanta area and extending into Decatur- the Sound Shop and Big Oomp over in the West End being two of the few exceptions (but no vinyl at either location). Maybe more people out there buy records. Maybe it’s easier to park. Who knows? Don’t look at me like that. Yes, I know it was a low comment to make but y’all KNOW it was hard as hell to park at Earwax. That little parking lot is a mess- smack dab in the middle of busy traffic going both ways on Spring and West Peachtree. What is certain is that in this era of legal and illegal digital downloads the CD has become a relic to many. It’s easy for folk to blame the demise of record stores on the lack of appreciation for vinyl. Nothing could be further from the truth. In a lossy-sound mp3 era many music lovers are actually retreating back to vinyl recordings for the warm, rich depth of analog sound. Nevertheless, CD’s remain the cash cow for mom and pop record stores attempting to find footing in a crashing wave of digital excess. It’s tough. Earwax is the latest casualty in a domino effect across the county. Be sure to stay in touch with the fellas over at Earwax. They embody DECADES of knowledge in the ATL music scene. Word on the street is that they will still be keeping the on-line shop going. Check them out at earwaxrecords.com.

Ira Glass on Storytelling.

I’m addicted to This American Life with Ira Glass. For my money it’s the best radio program I’ve ever heard in my life. I’m a nerd and unapologetically so. 1.7 million people can’t be wrong, right? That’s not necessarily true, is it? Nevertheless, This American Life remains one of the best written, well-thought-out programs in media today. When I took on the VIMBY.com project of Analogue Atlanta, I looked to people like Ira Glass, Terry Gross, David Sedaris, Ed Bradley, John Oliver Killens, Krista Tippett,Ayi Kwei Armah, Charlie Rose and Ralph Wiley.

These writers and journalists are all people I constantly look up to as examples of how to get it: how to get the story, the interview, the tale right and how to keep it compelling. It turns out this isn’t such an easy thing to do. It’s particularly difficult in radio. What’s held me up in releasing the finalized pilots and ultimately the inaugural Analogue Atlanta episode is fear. I know I can do this well. I know I can. There is a standard that I’m not willing to bend on, however and I am just not sure that what I have meets that standard. How do you tell someone that their story just wasn’t compelling enough, though? That the day you spent with them wasn’t interesting?

That’s a tough pill to swallow. At the end of the day I could easily publish what I do have. I’m sitting here on this Dosa Kim/Epidemik Coalition story which began as an Epidemik Coalition story and I feel like a fool, to be honest. I told the guys over at EC-good guys, laid back fellows- that this story was about them. But the story I publish won’t be about them. That angle was washed away by the day we spent together and the story that emerged, the story you’ll hear by week’s end, God willing.

What about the hours I spent preparing the Youth in arts piece? It’s worthless. I’m not afraid to say it is. Some stories, despite the well wishes of yours truly, are just crap. They are. I have a story I haven’t started on editing yet that I know will knock your socks off. I know this because it did mine and I am an unabashed cynic. Who could know that would happen? I certainly didn’t. That’s the trick of it, isn’t it? That’s the magic of artistry, of Journalism. I’ve been sitting on my hands, wringing them in my mind afraid of how my peers, how Atlanta, how the people I have interviewed will view me. Well, I think I’ll adopt my good friend Spree Wilson’s approach and say “FUCK IT!” I’ma do me.

When it’s all said and done, I’m the only one that will have to answer to the quality of my work. I’m not ashamed that I am behind deadline or that I’ve trashed, tabled and re-hashed much of my work. I shouldn’t lament quality control and neither should the people I interview. I know my listeners won’t.

*sigh* This is ALOT of work, I’m sure you know. Work I do on my own each day, dutifully. Hundreds of hours of tape, more hours of writing and few hours of sleep. All this for what? For a city that doesn’t even know I exist. I do this for you, Atlanta.

I do this for you and thank Allah (swt) for Ira Glass. That last sentence is funny because he’s both Jewish and an atheist, but in the above pieces Mr. Glass has assured me my process is a solid one. Analogue Atlanta will debut this week. It will debut late and it will be a monthly program instead of a weekly. As one person, I just don’t think it’s possible to live life, work and make a weekly happen without doing the project a severe injustice.

Until then here are the two pilots that I am satisfied with enough to have published. I don’t particularly like them either, but at least the stories are somewhat compelling. The other three pilot shows have been TRASHED, DELETED, THROWN AWAY. Sorry guys! I did keep the interviews for stock sound bites, though:

TMNK, The Civil Rights exhibit @ the High, Daughters of Men

That’s what my weekend was about. TMNK (looks like we crashed his site!!!), for y’all that don’t know is a part of the Radiant Kidz family- a tight confederation of like minded artists principally based in Atlanta. TMNK, however is from NYC. The nucleus of this group is Smalleyez, The Soul Stirrer, Spree Wilson, Ms. Leah, Tendaberry, Drummer Alien1 aka Ali Warren, Lmarr The Great, Nashville Multimedia artist Bryan Rollins, TMNK and myself. Extended family included DJ Slim Chance, The Audubon Society, Atypik and Meeka Guthrie (our young patewon). We delve into Literary, Visual and Musical Arts, we live it. TMNK had a show this weekend over at U space gallery in Downtown Atlanta just off Edgewood. The man’s work is exceptional. He works in mutlimedia and it was great to chop it up with the brother. Look for more of his work to be infused into what we do in the near future. We’re excited about the work we’ll be bringing to you in the upcomnig months including a new EP from Post-punk band Tendaberry, new singles from Smalleyez,Spree Wilson, Random Tags from TMNK around NYC & ATL, Singles from Ms. Leah & Meeka Guthrie and so much more… Anticipate exciting material with other progessive artists here in ATLANTA and beyond. The Sun will shine!

After recovering from a night of dancing with the crew over at MJQ, I woke up Saturday morning for the Free-First Saturdays (I stree FREE- for Fulton County Residents, that is) over at The High Museum of Art. The highlights of course for me is always El Anatusi’s work, Chuck Close and the The Louvre exhibits. This weekend my wife and I went to see the new Civil Rights photo exhibit. Wow. It was powerful. We were able to catch a brief part of the Daughters of Men book tour discussion as well. These women discussed their father’s role in the on-going struggle. I thought one of the poingant points was the fact that it is in fact an ongoing struggle (see Sean Bell, The Fleecing of New Orleans/ Southern Mississippi) and that it is an extension of the work that America’s Maroon, abolition and freedom movements led by men such as Nat Turner. I was humbled.

In other news, Atlanta Hip-Hop jam-band Collective Efforts just dropped a new EP. Go get that. You know you want to. I can’t wait to hear it. I was supposed to catch up with MC Jmil of CE but time got the better of me.