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Sitting Up in Her Room
I have spent the last 6 days in a hospital room on a reclining chair to the right of my mom's hospital bed. I cried briefly when her colleague called me from the Virginia Mason ER 7 days ago and a few...
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jet lag
so plying my memory for folks to plug into search engines. how is it that in this day and age there are some people who are ungoogleable?
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The Listening: Black Music Month
It is out of sleeplessness that I am unmuting this blog. Fortuitous that schemes of coming up on Pro Tools for cheap, scheduling/recording interviews for my forthcoming podcast and securing a freelance...
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The Listening: "Be There"
I became interested in the late Donny Hathaway's catalog after Common's One Day it Will All Make Sense with all that talk of a stolen tape. "Be There" took a while to adhere but now it's a daily...
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The Listening: "Everlasting Love"
I know it sounds dated but that doesn't take away from its strength or that of the burly-voiced Tony Terry and it's not just nostalgia. While the late eighties/early nineties soulsters style has not...
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The Listening: "Soul Clap"
Early this morn, A.G., of Showbiz & A.G. fame, took part in the Roots Jam Session at the Highline Ballroom in New York City. The veteran Bronx emcee was accompanied by two equally light skinned (I...
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The Listening: "Do You Remember"
In my first semester at NYU, I took a course taught by Robin Kelley on the African Diaspora. There was an assignment, a written response, a journal entry or maybe an annotated bibliography, that I was...
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The Listening: "Uhuru Sasa"
A couple of years ago, the manager of and up & coming woman producer picked me up from my Park Slope apartment and drove me to Staten Island to interview her client. As we headed south on seventh...
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The Listening: "Someday I'll Find You"
I can't provide context. I just learned who Noël Coward was courtesy of Wikipedia. As for biracial British soul singer Shola Ama, this is the only song I have heard by her and I have loved it since...
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The Listening: "I Need You"
I remembered I loved this song when I heard it today in Atomic Wings. Fret not, veteran vegetarian I remain, I just had to pee.I've never purchased an Alicia Keys album even as I saw incoming freshman...
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The Listening: "360° (What Goes Around)"
"I don't dis' nobody to be be somebody. I just like to kick the flavor to make the people party."I love everything about this song and accompanying video: the young men dancing (Brand Nubian always had...
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The Listening: "Millions"
All my Facebook friends are commenting, liking and/or unliking Jenée Desmond-Harris' recent opinion piece at the Root, "What Single Women Can Learn From Michelle." I didn't care for its suggestion that...
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The Listening: "Strugglin"
I reviewedFirst Contact last year for eMusic and I fell in love with "Strugglin."When one is going through it, acknowledgement is comforting, so is help, better it be unsolicited.I don't ask for help....
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The Listening: "Set Me Free"
My colleague Jeremy and I hopped on the F train after Joe Schloss' incredible book party at Powerhouse Arena this evening. He took it to Delancey to transfer to the J and I to 14th to hop on the 1. For...
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The Listening: "Love Poems"
So I get star struck. I've shared a word with Andre 3000 back when he was Dre from Outkast, Big Boi too. I've run into Tracy Chapman, Maxwell and DJ Premier and each and every time I see someone whose...
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The Listening: "Po' Folks"
I know a little something 'bout being broke but this don't make me feel bad about it."Po' Folks" [M4A]Nappy Roots"...Black music is Black music and it's all good."
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The Listening: "Peace of Mind"
I saw "UP" today. It's a love story. A life story too. Living well is really all about perspective and with it comes... Julie will sing you the rest.This EP sounds nothing like her later output. She's...
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The Listening: "Azucar de Cana"
I just finished watching American Experience's documentary on Roberto Clemente. His story is one of import to sports historians and Afro-Latinos. A Puerto Rican, his parents cut cane and as much as...
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The Listening: "Expect Your Miracle"
My childhood church had four choirs: the Chancel Choir, which favored a classical repertoire, the Angel Choir comprised of the babies, the L.F. Greene or teen choir and the sanctuary favorites, the...
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The Listening: "Why"
Me and L'Erin used to sing this joint ALL THE TIME. I mean we were socially conscious kids but our performances were more hyperbolic than heartfelt. And looking at the video, the hard dancing, the...
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The Listening: "Beyond"
Intellectually, I understand that hip hop music can cover the waterfront but instinctually, when I hear the piano loop, JS-1's apt scratchwork and O.C.'s businesslike flow on "Beyond" I think, "Now,...
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The Listening: "Welcome to the Colored Section" & "Cloud 9"
I knew when I began this exercise that Donnie would make my Juneteenth post but I couldn't decide between two songs from his debut, The Colored Section."Cloud 9," I listen to most often. It celebrates...
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The Listening: "Be Thankful for What You've Got"
My job is to listen to people. 2-3 days a weeks I sit in a recording studio with strangers and record oral histories. I have heard the most disturbing and heartwarming things. I can't say I am always...
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Be Advised
My MacBook broke and the good folk at the Genius Bar had it, which is why I stopped blogging. Thanks be to them (and valid AppleCare) I have a shiny repaired laptop burning up my legs right now. Final...
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