if there’s a cure for this…

…seriously, I don’t want it. But I still think it’s funny as all hell.

And I love that it’s from “the makers of Damitol”.

cheers,

k

i’m listening to: Esperanza Spalding

Buy on | Buy on Amazon | Listen | Watch

 

Album: Esperanza (2008)

Sounds Like: American jazz meets Brazilian rhythms

Makes Me Wanna: stay inside on a rainy day, skip outside on a sunny one

Filed Under: jazz, female vocalists, bass players

Favorite Tracks: I Know You Know, Punta de Areia, I Adore You

She sings, she plays the bass, and she’s got one helluva afro. At a relatively young age, Esperanza Spalding is already a trailblazer in the world of jazz, effortlessly blending her vocal and instrument skills to create a sound that is light, joyful, and full of promise.

 

cheers,

k

prince to perform 4 nights on leno

The year was 1999. The place: New York City. The time: New Year’s Eve. The mood: uncertain. Rumors had been flying around for months about what might occur at the dawn of the new millenium. Would all computer-based electronics stop working at the stroke of midnight? Would people start rioting and looting in the streets? Would spaceships land on our planet and beam up a portion of the populace, leaving the rest of us behind to deal with post-apocalyptic turmoil? Nobody knew for sure.

So, instead of spending New Year’s Eve in Times Square watching the apple drop, I was holed up in my then-boyfriend’s basement with friends, family, drinks, and a television tuned to Prince’s live concert performance at Paisley Park Studios. If it had been any other performer, on any other New Year’s Eve, I’d probably have been pissed to be inside. But, as I found out from watching that night’s concert…no other music maker can mark the end of an era as well as Prince.

Very soon, another era will come to an end. Jay Leno will officially end his tenure as the host of The Tonight Show on May 29. This week, Prince will play 3 nights on the Leno show (Mar 25-27), and on May 28 – the eve of Leno’s departure – Prince will play a final set.

Prince’s 3-disc set drops next Sunday, March 29, so I’m guessing that we’ll hear some of that material on this week’s show and more of the all-time classics during the May 28 performance.

cheers,

 

k

westside art walk – march 21

 I have a confession to make – I love art walks. Why? Well here are a few reasons:

1. I get to explore / visit a cool neighborhood or area of town
2. It’s one of the few times where walking about outside with a glass of wine is not only acceptable, but encouraged
3. I get to look all cultured and junk
4. I get to run into (sometimes literally, due to #2) all sorts of cool people who enjoy the same things I do
5. I get to check out some cool art and meet even cooler artists

Next weekend, the Westside Arts District is hosting the second of its monthly art walks, which are intended to encourage awareness of the emerging art district in Atlanta’s Westside neighborhood.

The art walk – which runs from 11a to 5pm – will cover 1 mile and includes 9 member galleries in the area. Check out the lineup after the jump.

Read more

lime and garlic panko-crusted prawns

Two days prior to the recent ‘Atlanta blizzard’, I found myself with a predicament.

1. I had a refrigerator full of food. But little of it was fit for consumption by either humans or many other carbon-based life forms.
2. I had absolutely zero desire to submit myself to a grocery store full of Southerners stricken with pre-snow hysteria, forming lines longer than Crystal Gale’s hair.

So when Sunday came around and the snow started falling, me and the beau hit the near-deserted streets and headed to the Dekalb Farmer’s Market.

Thanks to the ‘blizzard’, the Farmers Market was more calm than usual, so I took my time sniffing, examining, and exploring all the fresh and exotic wares. Just before checking off the last item on my list, I caught sight of a great deal. Huge, whole, head-on shrimp (so huge I decided to promote them to prawn status) for 4.99/lb. I was a bit daunted by the look of the alien heads with long antennae, but not enough to pass up such a bargain. Plus, I thought it’d make for good presentation to cook a couple with the heads / antennae intact.

Here’s how I handled the little monsters.

Read more

my latest guilty pleasure – rupaul’s drag race

I don’t know why I love drag queens, but I do.

Actually, I’m lying. I do know why I love ‘em.

As a youngster, I was certainly no girly girl. My wardrobe consisted largely of baggy jeans, tees, and baseball caps fitted snugly around my head which was forever buried in a book. But in my late teens, I frequently traded in the baseball cap and jeans for heels, makeup, and high fashion – modelling in fashion shows and (accidentally) winning a beauty pageant. Much of my ‘diva training’ - from how to work a catwalk, to which fork to use for salad, to when and how to leverage a flair for the dramatic, had been delivered to me over the years by several ‘artsy uncles’, who at the time I viewed as simply… eccentric.

C’mon.  It was a small GA town in the 80s…what did I know?

Besides that, I generally admire anyone who has the, er… balls to get on stage and perform. And even more admiration goes to those transformer performers that totally become someone different when they get in front of a crowd.

So when my friend Kali hipped me to LOGO’s new reality show, RuPaul’s Drag Race, I was instantly hooked!

The show borrows alot of its format from my other guilty TV pleasure – America’s Next Top Model. But instead of young would-be models blossoming under the tutelage of Tyra Banks, the show’s contestants are some of the fiercest female impersonators in the US, lorded over by the grand-diva of them all, Ms. (“you betta work bitch”) Ru Paul.

So far, my fan favorites are the cute little Asian queen, Ongina, and the beuatifully bizarre Nina Flowers (girl’s accent is the cutest). But all the girls serve it up with full glamazon drama and attitude. In each episode, the contestants are given a challenge, and the bottom two losers of each challenge, must (drum roll, please) lip-synch for their lives!! Without a doubt, it’s the best part of the show, and I must admit, I end up lip-synching right along with the divas as if my life depended on it. I think I may have a future as a female impersonator impersonator. Stage name: Candi Tucker.

New episodes air every Monday at 10pm on the LOGO channel. Or you can watch full episodes of Ru Paul’s Drag Race online. Check it out and prepare to get hooked.

cheers, bitches!

k

the lena baker story – limited screening this weekend

BUY MOVIE TIX | BUY THE BOOK

I heard about this movie during last year’s Atlanta Film Festival. But unfortunately, I heard about it too late to get a ticket to the sold-out premiere. Fortunately – for me and for you – there’s a second chance to catch the film this weekend.

Hope and Redemption: The Lena Baker Story is a film that was inspired by the book, The Lena Baker Story written by Dr. Lela Bond Phillips. Both works cover the real-life account of the complex relationship between a black woman with a sordid past and a white man with an abusive personality in Jim Crow era Georgia. The black woman is Lena Baker, the only woman to have been sent to the electric chair in Georgia.

The film – which was written, produced, and directed by Ralph Wilcox – is set and shot on location in southwest Georgia, and stars Tichina Arnold (Everybody Hates Chris) as Lena Baker, and Peter Coyote as her employer/abuser and the man she is accused of murdering.

Read more

d-nice presents: true hip-hop stories

Did you know that Dana Dane wrote a novel?

Did you know that Sadat X did time in Rikers?

Did you know that Monie Love is a mother of four?

Did you know that D-Nice was a director?

No? Well, neither did I until I watched True Hip Hop Stories.

My friend Kenton put me on to this last week and I’m loving it! Conceived and directed by D-Nice, of Boogie Down Productions fame, True Hip Hop Stories is a series of short, candid monlogues with some of hip hop’s heavy hitters of the 90s. Each artist speaks about the inspiration for one of their well-known songs, and fills us in on what they’re up to now.

By far, my favorite is the one with Buckshot of Black Moon.

Check it out:

 

True Hip-Hop Stories: Buckshot (of Black Moon) from D-Nice on Vimeo.

 

And check out the rest of the videos here: http://vimeo.com/dnicecollection

cheers,

k

Next Page »