Where are we right now?

While I do believe Oh-Eight will be our year--by "our," I mean those of us who have brains and like using them wisely--there are a handful of idiots who still want to live through an out-dated perspective.

Exhibit 90 trillion: Bossip posted an article about North Dakota State University students putting on a theatrical performance that includes one white kid in black face portraying Barack Obama receiving a lap dance from a stripper. Then you got two dudes in the background posing as cowboys simulating anal sex.

Yeaaaaaaaaah.

I'm gonna need for people to stop being stupid, wake the fuck up and be merry. Nobody has time for that shit. Except, of course, when you post a blog entry stating that fact. But that's besides the point.

Anyway, is racism the only card ignorant people can pull these days? You can't just clown people for being imbeciles anymore? Now, you gotta insert someone's race to try to cut deeper? Come now--smarten up, y'all.

So this is how I've been feeling in the past six weeks:

Erykah Badu - Me

Just listen to it and you'll understand why I haven't been blogging as often as I used to in the past six weeks. I've been on a beautiful journey of self-discovery, and I'm loving it.

Love,
Amb

Video Vault: "Da Art of Storytellin" by Outkast ft. Slick Rick

Uhhhh, how can you go wrong with this video? Man. It's so underrated, too. People didn't even give a damn about this video when it came out circa 1999. They were too busy trying to "Tear Da Roof Off" with Busta-Bus (and understandably so--that album was the shit).

Uh, yeah, The Kills? May I have my brains back please?

Because you've blown them away. Three out of three ain't bad, babydolls. I was a little nervous because you graced the covers of Nylon magazine and was a featured artist on Myspace. Nope. The grit is still there. The sexiness is still there. The awesomeness is still there. I love this new album. I want to make silly, sweet love to it.

Listen:
Kills - Tape Song

Keith Olbermann, marry me.

He kills it. He abso-fucking-lutely kills it. From his rippage on Geraldine Ferraro being a dumb, victimizing cunt to Hillary Clinton pretending like she didn't know what the hell was going on with her campaign to references to Ferraro's comments back in '88 during Jesse Jackson's run to--ahhh, everything. His references, his viewpoints and objectivity was outstanding. He literally revived journalism with his near 10-minute calm tirade. Go, Keith, go.

It's strange, because I used to watch this guy every night at 10 CST for Sportscenter. Damn.

I've been really on edge lately because of this unraveling of the shitstorm that the Democratic primaries have become. Obama, rise above it. Keep doing you, boo-boo.

For those of you who don't know Sir Mix-A-Lot:

Yeah, yeah, he's a lame mutha now because of that lame-tastic "Baby Got Back," but he will always be remembered in my eyes for this song. The flow, the beat=flawless.

Girl, do you!

Raven-Symoné, you are a brilliant lil lady. You were once touted the "400 Million Dollar Woman" back in March 2007 on the cover of Ebony. That's a whole lot of money, and yet she manages to stay out of the negative limelight and lives her life like a level-headed human being. And what I love most about her is that people constantly tried to find ways to clown her, mostly about her weight, and she still kills it.

Yes, my friend. Do.You.

Great songs, Vol. 5: Goodie Mob's "Cell Therapy"

I had to add the video to this'n. You know how you love a song during your pre-adolescence because of something simple, like a hot beat or a wild video? "Cell Therapy" was that for me. I loved the video, loved the beat, loved the flows. But it wasn't until recently (check: yesterday), when I was doing my usual YouTube frenzy looking for old school hip-hop vids and noticed the heavy political tone of the song and video--I mean, on some for real New World Order shit.

AND THAT WAS JUST GOODIE MOB'S FIRST SINGLE!!!!

What I love most about this is that they weren't some Poindexter Negroes that could've been Carlton Banks' best friends, but some down home, Southern brothers dressed in Dickies and wife-beaters with grills. And that was their target in that song! They were saying, "Yo, I know you gotta stay on that grind, but if anything, don't become victims to the mind-controlling system that is our capitalistic society."

Prime example of that is during Big Gipp's part where he's in the convenient store and a woman in front of him buys a two-liter soda (sidebar: am I the only person in the world who grew up saying "cold drink" for sodas?), and that's acceptable, but when he goes to the counter with a newspaper, the attendant won't allow it, because that's the last thing America needs--an aware, knowledgeable black man.

Intelligence, my friends, comes in all kinds of packages.

And in the legendary words of Spike Lee a la Laurence Fishburn in School Daze: People...please wake up.

Let's get Texas and Ohio!

This is how I act on Karaoke Night:

Me, essentially. While people are prepared for their numbers and can look through the song book without much browsing, I sit and theorize how I would sound and if I'm actually in the mood for it. There have been times where I've, literally, nursed the song book for 30 minutes on end just to make sure I got the right song to sing. I take it very seriously, dammit!

Song karaoke gems:
"Stay" by Lisa Loeb
"Fell on Black Days" by Soundgarden
"Real Love" by Mary J. Blige
"Immigrant Song" by Led Zeppelin
"I Feel Like A Woman" by Shanie Twain (and killed it--don't hate)
"Forever My Lady" by Jodeci
"Don't Speak" by No Doubt

Honey Owens loves me.

Females in the drone/experimental/weirdness genre are automatic rules of the world. I went to so many stores Saturday trying to find Valet's newest album, Naked Acid, only to find out it drops tomorrow. I wept. Until, of course, I get it tomorrow. Shares the Kranky Records label with fellow weirdness/drone/awesomeness/experimental brother Bradford Cox of Atlas Sound and Deerhunter. Can't go wrong with that. Kranky's the new Jagjaguwar.

Check her Myspace.

Listen:
Valet - Kehaar