Love Musings #1

Love.

There is no way to truly comprehend the magnitude of that word. I don't think anyone alive on this planet can fully, completely come up with a definition of this word. I mean, seriously. There is no way. There are way too many variations and version, interpretations and intentions. Love. I love my parents. I love Reese's. I love my girlfriend. I love action movies. Love, love, love. What the heck does it really mean?

Should it even have a definition? If you are of the Christian persuasion, you know that the maker of this...thing is so great, He cannot be defined. He is so much bigger than any adjective, term or religion. He just is. So maybe, and I'm just free-balling here, love is as much as its Creator. Love is undefinable.

But if that's the case, how can so many people claim to know for sure that what they call love is really, truly love?



I love this girl. Yet, how do I know? How can I possibly know, in my limited years of experiences on this miserable rock called "Earth", what love is? How can I use the same word for her and Butterfingers?

A little history lesson. I am a hopeless romantic in a sad way. My favorite movie is "Aladdin". I love watching "The Notebook" for no apparent reason. And I've been in enough heart-related trials to completely discourage me from the pursuit of such. As a matter of fact, were I any less of a man, I would've probably converted to one of three options:

1. Forget females. All I need is me, myself and some Vaseline.
2. Forget true love. Just change my name to King Ding-A-Ling and lay the pipe at any opportunity that presents itself.
3. Keep trying. There's always tomorrow.

Naturally, we can tell which one I chose.

I suppose that it is just my nature. I guess God just saw it fit to have me as an emotional soul, blindly following my emotions. Whatever it is, I am not too much closer to the definition of whatever it is that seems to swarm over my being...

I found it interesting, while reading 1 Corinthians 13:1-3. A lot of people are familiar with the Love Verses, which are 1 Corinthians 13:4-12. These are the ones that we are taught as children. While they are important, I personally don't think that they are the entire picture. The first three verses of this chapter really seems to capture the essence of Love. I think that this is what makes love Love.

Without love, generosity means nothing. Without love, donations mean nothing. Without love, nothing is of consequence.

Remember that pretty lady in that picture? I still love her. I had love for her from when we were simply friends, but I love her. Still. I'm still learning more about her, day by day, but I still love her. Not that "bow-chika-wow-wow" kinda love. More like "I-am-going-to-consciously-work-on-growing-with-you" kinda love. A lot of people think that love is a magical event that takes no effort. I used to to hope/believe in that. But love is not apathetic. Love truly is a verb (Thanks dcTalk).

My parents? They've been around since day 1. And they are still my parents, checking up on me, calling me, even slipping a little dollar bills in my account when I'm not looking. Still. They are still concerned. They still want the best for me, and that's not just because they biologically are responsible for my life. They love me. My dad could've left. My mom could've given up. I know that out of the four children, by myself, I've given them enough opportunities to give up. But they still worry, pray for, stress over and love me. For real.

I think that's the first step to understanding love. It endures.

Y'know, I should post a bunch of cheesy love quotes to prove my point, but for now, that scripture is all for this post.

True Story...kind of.

I thought it was funny...

This is what I laugh at when I'm bored at work. Find more here.

I Heart HipRockSoul pt.2

As I've stated before, 4th Avenue Jones is my favorite Hip-Hop group; sadly, almost NO ONE knows about them. I honestly believe that they are to Hip-Hop what Michael Jackson was to Pop.

In music today, there is a formula that didn't exist before. Which makes sense. Back then, in the days of Frank Sinatra and Ella Fitzgerald, there really wasn't a whole lot to the music scene. I'm not saying that it was easily accomplished, but whatever was found was chock full of talent, which is why we know their names today.

Duke Ellington. Michael Jackson. The Beatles. Louis Armstrong. James Brown. Stevie Wonder. Ray Charles. Classics.

These people, and so much more, have accomplished what wasn't there before them, at least not in that form. They took what they had around them, and built on it. They created a new style, a new sound, or they at very least contributed to eternal sound.

How I wish I could say that for today's music.

In order to me to recall and truly enjoy any kind of music that comes out today, I need to run everything through a finetooth comb. I can't just turn on the radio. As a matter of fact, I am in a strike against the radio.

I can't explain it easily. I just can't listen to this stuff as I used to. And I've come up with a theory why.

Music today? A formula. That's all it is to me. It's a formula. Not even a formula, but a compound of "what's cool" and "what's hip". Take the popular slang, throw in a hook from a forgotten 1980s pop tune, add a few music videos and a guest appearance by someone who's already established and you have a hit album that sells like mad for a few weeks. I'm not saying that there will be no references to the successes of old, but instead of building on the foundation of the greats, Today's Music is just...mimicking it, not really adding anything new. I feel like I'm hearing the same thing, over and over and over and over. What was cool 10 years ago is being cloned into what's hot right now. I could name names, but there's no need for that. Maybe in my next rant.

I see no innovation. I see no...creativity. Oh, there's some cool quotes and such, but will "M.O.B." stand the test of time?

This is just a rant. But I celebrate experimentalism, if that is even a word. I love the unheard stuff that will never be popular, because it's not what's cool right now. I really wish that this season of insta-gratification would die off and go away. I wish the Soulja Boy's would really become some sort of soldier. I wish hip-hop would snap out of it. I wish R&B was exactly that: Rhythm & Blues.

I wish music would come back.
I hope Somobe blows up something terrible.
I want 4th Avenue Jones to become something bigger than "a legend, small, but on the map."

----------------
Now playing: 4th Avenue Jones' - Pick Up The Phone
via FoxyTunes

Some Stuff I've Worked On...

(Pay no attention to the coffee cup on my forehead...

I Heart HipRockSoul

One of the saddest facts about the music business, in my humble opinion, is the fact that a lot of the talents that exist in the world will never be well known. Here in America, we can't get enough of the crap rappers, voiceless vixens and tuneless models. There are too many truly gifted souls out there that are unknown. Instead of giving the people something that will truly uplift them, record executive continue to pump out these "perfect formulas for superstardom". And we allow the cycle to continue.

But. This is not the direction I wanted to take this entry.

I make it a point to choose my music carefully. Yes, some things will fall through the cracks, but any one who knows me knows that I am not one to follow the trend of listening to and loving whatever is on the Top 40.

For the past few years, my favorite Hip-Hop band is 4th Avenue Jones.

Practically unknown among basic hip-hop circles, this band a gem in a field of pebbles. I first heard them on DJ Maj's The Ringleader Mixtape, and I was hooked ever since. It turns out that their story is almost literally a rags-to-riches story, even though they are still coming up.

The Jones' crew have a few albums under their belt:

2000: No Plan B
2002: Respect
2003: No Plan B, Pt. II
2003: Gumbo
2004: HipRockSoul
2005: Stereo: The Evolution of HipRockSoul

Like a madman, I went out and purchased each album I could get my hands on. First, I bought Stereo which was being released at the time. After that first purchase, I started at the top and bought No Plan B, Respect and No Plan B, PT. II. However, to my chagrin, Gumbo and HipRockSoul were sold out. I maintained my cool, because I honestly believed that there would be more in stock in a matter of weeks.

This was not the case.

Those two albums have evaded me for the past three years. I have looked high and low. I've searched the limits of Amazon.com, ebay.com and I may be wrong, but I don't think any one person has googled as much as I have for those two albums.

However. A silver lining appeared out of nowhere. Thanks to the kindness of a complete stranger's heart, I have receive my two rogue albums. I don't think I've felt such joy.

I urge all to go after 4th Avenue Jones and support music. Maybe they aren't your particular cup of tea. Whatever. Real music needs to survive nowadays.

I was going somewhere with this blog. I lost it. I blame this 4thAve I have bumping in my headphones.

Jealous? You should be.



----------------
Now playing: 4th Avenue Jones' - Don't Talk No More (f. Mystic & NeNe White)
via FoxyTunes

Penny for Your Thoughts

“Penny for Your Thoughts"
Gemineye



Can I offer you a penny for your thoughts?
As a matter of fact, how about three?
One penny for you, one penny for me,
And one penny for our minds engaged not so sexually.
Getting intimately closer as we approach the
Climatic altitude of nude, mental, sensational... conversation.

Because I’m trying to get to know everything about you
From the neck... UP.

So these are not your typical, sexual, poetical prose.
I’m trying to close the door on that all too familiar freaky foreplay game.
With which most guys have chose to approach you.
While they are trying to get deeply imbedded
In the fine fibers of your bed sheets,
I’m trying to find and define the fibers of which your mind speaks.
I want to engage you
By putting a two karat solitaire diamond on your mind
Marrying your every thought!

I want to lick every inch of every crevasse
So I can get an oral fix from each orifice
And taste you passionate IMAGINATION.

I’d rather be naked and exposed, holding you
As we're lying and you're crying
While confiding and describing
the tough times you’ve had in life
And how you don’t know
If you can keep a relationship long enough to be somebody's wife.

I wanna feel the heartbeat of your inner rhythms
As they lead me toward your warm, wet, waterfalls of feminine thoughts.
And ill swim in them.
From backstrokes, to breaststrokes,
I’m penetrating every entrance... to your mind.
Taking my time to find out everything about you.

Did I ever tell you about how you
Fell asleep in my presence?
And your mere essence
Kept me awake for hours
As I cowered with this feeling
Of sexually unadulterated mental connection?

And as you lay by my side
I pushed the blinds aside
And took the time in the moonlight of that night
To count 72 eyelashes
On the upper eyelid of your right eye!

Because when you sleep
Your eyes remain open slightly.

And while we probably moves in too quickly into some sexual shit
I’ve always cared more about the explicitly illicitness
That came from between your lips meaning your voice.

So now I am standing here
Ready to trade in all the sexual acts that we've preformed
For the chance to reform the very foundation
And the basis of our relationship.

So I reiterate my opening statement
And I offer you another penny for your thoughts!


This is what love should be like. I was so touched by this one, I had to have something to say to it. Maybe I'll post it up here. Maybe I won't. Either way, this piece is written in a way that makes me jealous.