Between this job, this school, and my lack of self-transport skills, I am slowly dying inside. Seriously. Oh, there went my spleen.

Someone asked me the other day why I stopped writing my blog. Honestly, I don’t have much to write about anymore. Everything is either job related and I can’t talk about it, sorority related and I can’t publicly talk about it, or school related and you don’t really want me to talk about it. I have finally become what I never, ever wanted to be: boring. At some point I feared I might be boring but knew deep down that I really wasn’t. Now, I know I am. Truly. I have, however, had some interesting experiences as of late.

Yay for Me!
First was the agony and ecstasy that was seeing Dave Chappelle and the Block Party All Stars at Oven’s auditorium last month. Agony: the show selling out in 20 minutes and my having balcony seats despite being in line at the box office and on line at Ticketmaster.com since 9:50 AM. Ecstasy: the seats being not all that bad and the show being AWESOME! I wasn’t old enough to attend the 25-and-up afterparty, nor was I bright enough to guess that Dave would do a surprise aftershow at the Comedy Zone, so the only pictures I have are screenshots from the dozens of minutes of illegitimate video shot on my wonderful (and now broken, which is another story) digital camera, which I will, out of respect of copyright law and the code of the streets, not distribute to the public. Kweli rocked it, Erykah ripped it, and Dave… Dave is just fucking classic, is all.

I went to see the Block Party movie instead of the stepshow during CIAA weekend, and that might have been the best and only good reason for avoiding social engagement that I’ve had in a long time. There were all of 8 people in the theater, counting the people who came in late. I thought this might have been because all the black people were CIAAing it up, but apparenly this continued across the country and the following weeks. That’s a dissapointment, but an understandable one… if it had been a standup special, the theaters would have been packed. The movie was WONDERFUL and only solidified my standing belief that that concert would have been one of the standout experiences of my life and would probably have made up for my not getting to see the Roots/Fugees show in Charlotte when I was in the 9th grade (but that is yet another story). Maybe there’ll be a Block Party II? Some weekend when I can ditch school and work? Maybe I’ll have friends by then? Who knows? That last one is only half rhetorical.

*This is the closest approximation I can think of to that sound Prince always makes. You know the one.

So I went to the Little Brother show last night at Tremont and it was soooo good! The openers were even decent, esp. The Others and Herron (am I the only person in the world not on myspace?) Hands down the best 12 bucks I’ve ever spent. The chick singing wasn’t all that great, but she was alright. And I discovered Sparks, which has taken the place of Smirnoff TB on the casual drinking list. But I digress.

the offending writing implement. that’s the only pen I own that writes halfway decent.

Since I’m broke and whack and have the bootlegs of all their CDs, it’s not like I had anything to get signed, so I had to take one of the little Mistrel Show posters, which aren’t so little at all. Phonte and Big Pooh only signed a couple of autographs and they’d already left by the time I got up to the stage, but 9th hung around for a while… but he didn’t have a pen to sign anything with. Being the person I am, I volunteer the only one I had, which happened to be my good green AKA pen. Obviously I had to hang around until he finished or somebody volunteered another one, ‘cause man couldn’t keep my pen. I think I looked like a groupie.

(a good ten minutes after he’d signed my poster for me and I thanked him personally for djing the NPHC cookout at State a year after he’d been doing beats for Jay-Z…)
“Oh, you want a picture?”
“Oh, sure. Umm, I’m not stalking you out or anthing, I’m just waiting on my pen.”
“Haha, my bad. Here you go.”
“It’s no problem, I wouldn’t care, but it’s an AKA pen. I can’t let you keep that one.”
“Ahhh. You’re an a-kah? (and a scrunchy face)”
“LOL! Why you gotta look like that about it?!”
“lol. I’m just kidding.”

Lape, you should’ve come with me.

No, there’s no Dipset here. I mean literally, more than music. In putting the cart before the horse and planning a show before I’ve sewn a stich, this became my new favorite site:
Imaginary Runways
Because everyone knows runway shows have the best music.

That reminded me that I never found Kara Saun’s runway music from last season’s Project Runway, so I did that, too.
JFK HOLLA (on Soundclick)

And somehow I got around to rounding out my Daft Punk holdings, and found that Busta Rhymes sample completely by accident. Turns out Lagerfeld used the original for the Spring ‘06 Paris show.
Daft Punk – Technologic

Oh, you didn’t know I was a runway dork? Clearly. PR party Wednesday night.

I had a really hard time narrowing down the contenders for this week. With new tracks from India Irie, Rhymefest, Kanye, and Beck I just didn’t know what to choose… So I’ll pick two.

Beck: Hell Yes

Rhymefest ft. Kanye: Brand New

If you’re awesome like me, you’ve doubtless banged these already, but if you haven’t heard it, it’s New To You.

(keep in mind that all media files posted here are from CDs I either own or am going to own by the next major holiday/paycheck. Files are only available for one week. If you miss it, take it to Limew—I mean, the iTunes Music Store.)

This is becoming a regular thing. You like? Thanks to Courtney S. for putting me on to this song in the first place.

Toni Braxton: Take This Ring

It used to be a point of consternation, but I love the way Toni Braxton comes out with one hot song every two years or so and then dips back out of the spotlight. What is she up to, like 17 albums? Anyway, that’s better than glutting the radio with a bunch of half-assed material and burning out because people hate you. Ashanti, are you listening?

I’m not quite sure why Rich Harrison decided to use the same go-go beat from Amerie’s One Thing, but if it works, work it. It’s got a nice beat. You can dance to it. I give it an 8.