I caught this show last night at the Chicago Lyric Opera House. Shen Yun was Opera in every which way imaginable, but with a Chinese twist on things.

Sure there were Tenors, Sopranos and one SCARY Contralto, all singing in Chinese. The orchestra was half Euro-classical, half Chinese-classical. There was also stunning background scenery. That’s where the similarities ended.

According to the Emcees for the evening (yea… MCs) most of the moves we refer to as acrobatics come from Chinese classical dance. I am inclined to agree. Shen Yun featured dancing with unparalleled acrobatics. In my humble opinion, this is the height of operatic performance… with NO fat lady singing……..

I couldn’t resist.

In an era where internet sensations come and go, it is easy to end up being “hot” one minute and “not” the next. The only way I see around this is to show consistency. Once you have become known for doing something, do it more. Make people understand that you aren’t joking.

A little over a year ago, for some reason; probably the desire to go completely insane, a Chicago DJ named “Chrissy (ask him about that name, not me) Murderbot” decided to post mixtapes, every week…….. for the ENTIRE year. The culmination of this undertaking can be viewed here. http://yearofmixtapes.blogspot.com

Through his year of mixtapes Murderbot has helped to highlight the “Juke” scene in Chicago, and connect key players with interested parties overseas. The most popular post though, and one that stands out in my mind, is issue #35

Griffen might represent Chicago, but he has done it from all over the USA. He made a name for himself as part of Atlanta’s “hustle and bustle” music scene, doing show openers for the various radio personalities. Soon after, he turned up in L.A. collaborating with acts such as Ice T, Far East Movement, Filthee Immigrants and Aceyalone. Recently it was announced that Griffen was signed to Facemob Entertainment reportedly as a result of a Twitter DM he sent to Scarface of the Gheto Boys.

Today he is re-releasing his “Holladay” track over Soundcloud

Holladay by Griffen

Reaching back into the archives:
Griffen’s “Jacken Fa Beats” series of mixtapes was a Chicago scandal on the Hip-Hop scene of the late 90′s, as he expanded upon the Ice Cube concept, releasing a series of full albums on Riddims made famous by other artists. He was subsequently branded a “Biter” by

So many happy people at shows… and then a few haters. It’s always the bullies who think you won’t turn and deal with them.

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Dominique Rowland is a nice guy, a pretty good songwriter, but really nothing special for stage. MC ZULU is a circus clown with too much testosterone who will command a crowd’s attention at all costs.

Things are great now…. but I come from the days of not getting billed, or not getting paid, sometimes both. I would open a veritable Pandoras Box of self-promotion tricks… swinging machetes on stage, antagonizing everyone in attendance (especially hecklers) maybe even pull the damn fire alarm.

I have changed my ways somewhat, but unqualified critics who pretend to offer well-intentioned advice,
}} By All Means, hop YOUR SORRY ASS up on stage, and show me how it’s done, son.
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Tune in next time as I give CERTAIN MAGAZINES, (who commonly OMIT my name from projects I am featured on) DETAILED instructions on how to go out of business, evacuate their offices, and set their buildings on fire..

Chicago loses 2016 Olympic bid QUICK FAST and IN A HURRY..!
OK, so Investment property values might dip a little. I’ll live with it…

As much as possible…
I will be posting photos from the various parties and shows I do.
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To tell the truth, I should have had a web gallery up a while ago… whatever.
Also considering uploading all the pix I have taken over the years. Not the Jheri curl pix tho.

From The Event’s Organizers:
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http://www.resonatechicago.net

Holy Shite! Resonate is over the top this year! Featuring Fire, Aerial Silks, Burlesque, Live Art, Amazing DJ’s, Funktion One Sound Systems, State of the Art Lighting, Belly Dancing, Technology, Tarot, Interactive Art and Media, Domes, Glo Art, AcroYoga, Tech Art, Live Music, Art Cars, Art Carts, Body Painting and LOTSA freaks all together in 2 gigantic event spaces and 1 enormous soundstage room!

This ALL brought to you by no less than 172 performance participants, 15 volunteer organizers, and over 50 staff volunteers from the community, across the country, and Canada!! And it’s all Non Profit! This is unreal and unheard of, on any level anywhere around.

Yes… we are crazy! But that’s what makes ‘Resonate’ so much fun! : )

RESONATE V.4 is produced by Chicago’s Burning Man Community for the Burning Community
at-large. It embodies the tenets of Radical-Inclusion, Radical Self-Expression, Radical
Self-Reliance and LEAVE NO TRACE!

We strongly suggest that if you plan on attending Resonate v.4, that you please purchase tickets in advance at www.resonatechicago.net (or .com), as we cannot guarantee that you’ll be admitted through door without a ticket and tickets are going fast.

Event begins at 9 pm, ends 5 am.

BYO. Dress to Kill. Near West Side location.

this year’s final line-up…

Music

Dub Fi Soundsystem with Radiohiro, Janaka Selekta, and Julius Caesar Stokes
DJ Striz
DJ C w.MC Zulu
Justin Reed
Jeekoos
Carla Starla
Brad Miner
Environmental Encroachment
Nate Manic
Duke Shin
Cringer w. Entro MC
Evol
DJ Warp
Caural and K-Kruz
Divine Balance Devi
Dirtball
Vishal Kanwar
Ixnee
Ahura Mazda
Searchlite w. MC Zulu
Matt Alchemist
Marcin
Pat Hilander
DC PCS
Robyo
Hax

Live Video Installations

Video Janitor
MF Chicago

Performance

Mark Lerro
KC from the Bella Fuegas
Varietease Cabaret
Pyrotechniq
Gerry Sheahan
Strings Of Fire
Cello by Liz
Angi B
Tatiana Sanchez

Fire

Chicago Fire Tribe
Pyrotechniq
Detroit Fire Tribe

Live Art

Pants Laroo
Melissa Bruck
Eric E. Esper
Scott Bullock
Ronit Mitchell
Zac Franzoni
Jason Brammer
Alex Z

Art Installations

Kevin Loftus
Bad Advice Bears
Sloan
Enchanted Jungle – Jasmine Harris and Rebecca DeCoster
Kosmik Krystal Kastle – Brilliantly Mad
Spiral Kinesis
Karma Wash – Brilliantly Mad
Sabreena – Live Body Painting/Henna
One of Nine – Giant Mushroom Rocket by Zenon Krause
Time Control Station _ Mess with the Earth’s magnetic field!
Transamoeba Studios – Silkscreening
IamU
Nichelle Lawrence
L.E.D. SoundBank – Chris Johnson
Rendezvous Promotions
Chiditorart
Cid The Vicious Cobra
DJ Shhhh – Silent Dance Party
John Sacelli
Hookah Lounge by The Freakeasy
Yva Neal
Chicago 1968 Project
therecordindustry.com
Collaboraction
GlitterGuts

Sound and Light Installations

Sound Investment
Illmeasures
Tecknosis

Website Design www.resonatechicago.net // www.resonatechicago.com

Heather Albekier
Devin Breen
Sloan’s Hot Carla – photo

TICKETS for RESONATE available now at www.resonatechicago.net

All profits from this all tribe event go back to our community and are administered thru
the Chicago steeringman committee. All budget and expense info are reported
transparently to the community (i.e. you) thru the Burning Man-Chicago regional mailing
list.

Resonate is a leave no trace event

What can I do to LEAVE NO TRACE at Resonate, you ask?

For starters…

1. BYO CUP – NO BOTTLES OR GLASS!
Refreshments will be available, but only if you bring your own cup to fill.
If you decide you want to bring something special to imbibe (cans, plastic water bottles
or flasks only), please deposit all garbage in the provided receptacles, or come prepared
to take your trash out with you just like on the playa!

2. SMOKERS:
Please BRING YOUR OWN TIN to stash your butts in – Do Not Throw Them On The Ground!

IMPORTANT – PLEASE NOTE:
The main stage area dubbed “The Dirt Room” has a tightly packed, dirt and gravel floor,
so please dress appropriately. Again, think of it as the playa. Perhaps wear boots -
possibly bring goggles (for fun or function) – Wear your playa best, put on your dancing
shoes, set your mind on FUN and get ready for the MOST ANTICIPATED PARTY of the season!!

Remember – RESONATE is a LEAVE NO TRACE event. Be aware and responsible… Protect your
community… Ask first…. And leave no trace.

This is an 18 and over event. This is a PRIVATE event, tickets at the door are not
guaranteed.

)(
Resonate v.4 crew!

Direct Link to Show:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/aod/radio1_aod.shtml?radio1/hobbs

Anyway Children, I have realized… 
..that I am an artist who does NOT come from a “scene”.. like Houston Tx. (even tho my momma from Tx.), The red hot FLA scene, Jamaica, NYC, or Great Britain.

Chicago is a really a collection of assorted scenes… none big enough for locals to immediately attract a CROWD.D.D, unless they do cheezy cover tunes.  (Red Red Wine, my ass… , so many audiences… , cursed tha fk out, with a smile) Hey.. I love you, but wise up!

It is therefore my responsibility to cultivate my own fan base. I cannot simply do ‘my thing’. I must also let you know how it is making an impact worldwide… or it could seem like ‘no big deal’, and we can’t have that. 

Already, I have touched each of the afforementioned “scenes” (and many more) in various ways; and I will do so again…. only this time.. I am keeping track   )

-

OK that’s it for my political punditry… (don’t bet on it)
Barack Obama is elected and the whole world loves one another, right?
Well, I guess we’ll find out. You need my expertise, and you know it.. hahaa 

Anyway, in the mode of minding some of my own damn business for a while, I have been performing with a live band out of Chicago,,, The Drastics. I feature as part of their set, with another singer named Fada Dougou.

In the spirit of musical togetherness, The Drastics makeup is as diverse as you can get. African, German, Irish, Sicillian, Iranian… and the Crazy Baldhead from Panama.  )  We didn”t plan it like that, one of them had to be very drunk, and he started pointing it out… I think it was the Irishman. Then the Sicillian kicked his ass while the German called the police, the Iranian set fire to the tour bus, and the African slept through the whole drama.

That’s how I knew I had found a home.

Anyway we can play any genre of music, BUT ‘The Drastics’ is a bad azz Dub-Reggae band.

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The Drastics started gaining serious momentum last year, after we did the ’07 Ska Festival (yea mon music a music) in Knoxville Tn. We cultivated a nice name until our idiot drummer threw himself in front of a mack truck,.    lol naaahhh…

What really happened was a hit and run situation, we were all worried as hell, but the kid is tough. We should be playing shows again in the next few months.

………… In The Meantime…

* Once a month The Drastics will be releasing a new single digitally (with a DUB.)
* Which ever one you all like best will be pressed to vinyl

Listen to the first one here  http://www.myspace.com/drasticdub   LOVE Is WAR f. MC ZULU
Find out more about The Drastics here: http://www.thedrastics.com/

Big up Kush Arora for sending this thru…! Saturday Night Live Strikes Again…!

Here is a GENIUS piece of material from SNL’s Andy Samberg, about the Pseudo-Rastas who sprang up from smoking weed, listening to Reggae records, and reading ONE book about Haile Selassie.

Ras Trent emulates all the stereotypical aspects of Rastafarianism, and incorporates the standout buzzwords into his upper-middle-class, American vernacular (sorry, vocabulary)….

Never mind the hair.. he even has his Hackey Sack, his Birkenstock Sandals, and that damn ITCHY, hooded, hemp sweater (you know the one). He’s now fully prepared to FIGHT THE POWER….. BURN DOWN BABYLON…. MASHUP OPPRESSION…. 

All the “Ras Trents” of the world yearn for that counter-culture experience, because they know The System is B.S., so they vehemently take up the cause of the Rastas…………. for………. about 5 years or so.

Right around grad school, “Ras Trent” has miraculously RE-formed back into Trent Blumenthal The Third, or Trent Hamilton Richards, Esq….. or what have you. He returns to his Christopher Cross, and Steely Dan CDs, and he pretends he never smoked weed.lol

The point is… “Ras Trent” can always return, like the prodigal son, to his life of privilege… and he usually does at some point. Hopefully his brush with counter-culture that some of us are STUCK in, has made him a more compassionate, global-thinking individual.

Once Trent takes over his dad’s company, hopefully he will see the need for charity, conservation, peace, unity, love… These are things the PRIOR generaton of corporate raiders considered “business folly”.

You no SEE it? Dat a one way Rasta Music elevate Mankind….!

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…………AND ………NOW          JAH JAH PEOPLE …………..
I wan you listen this.

While you were watching Ras Trent…
I was actually able to catch some of my musical HEROES, Live And Direct..!
Music . Peace . Unity . One Love

Mighty Diamonds (kind of a surprise gig to me) at the Kinetic Playground in Chicago.

Kinetic Playground is cool… but come on… This is The Mighty Diamonds…! You know “Ras Trent” would have sold out House Of Blues, or probably some arena, to thousands of screaming Yankee teenagers;

…because although “Ras Trent” HATES his parents, he won’t hesitate to use their money and connections to push his music to a higher level….

…be the top seller on CD Baby, get his music in video games, in movies, on T.V. shows… merchandising…. and maybe even have the Mighty Diamonds open up for him, at “Reggae On The River”.lol

So with the music/peace/unity business, don’t let me leave this one out….. EQUALITY….. G*Damn