#TheRoots

Aboard the Intrepid w The Roots + David Byrne’s latest installation & more (Sept/2011)

The Roots – Aboard the Intrepid/12th St Harbor- NYC – Sept 29th

Ok so to unpack things a bit today was going to be a bit nerve-wracking. Erin was coming from Texas to see me, and we hadn’t seen each other in two months, and most of that time was on purpose from both of our ends. It’s always exciting/anxious when you haven’t seen someone in awhile especially when you are involved with them – but given the baffling dysfunction of her daily life and how on edge things have been between us I was especially trepidatious but hoped for the best. I had some really fun things planned for us that I know she likes while she was gonna be here and was looking forward to doing those things with her.
We hadn’t been alone in a room together for five minutes before the torrential rain of resentment began to pour. Usually something else much more pleasant takes place when we are alone and its usually in the first five minutes especially after a long separation.
I hadn’t been around her unpredictable nature and her ability to throw random curveballs my way in awhile so I wasn’t acclimated and since I had some distance from it, my patience for it was even shorter than before. I don’t mean to throw her under the bus, she really is a lovely girl but when you combine her already unstable nature with seething resentment of everything I do, it’s a Molotov cocktail that impossible to prepare for.
And I certainly wasn’t prepared for after only being together for an hour, as I was coming out of the shower to prepare for the evening’s festivities I had planned, to catch her going through my things – looking for what? I don’t know – a hint of infidelity? – Clues to the Da Vinci Code?
I don’t know but to me this had now escalated to something I could no longer reconcile – but there was nothing I could really do about it – she was here for a week and this was only the first day (the first hour!) – If we had been in Texas when this occurred, it probably would have been our last night together, but I had no choice but to try to make the best of things, but I wasn’t ready to forgive something so betraying.

Ok so enough of that depressing shit, let’s get to the fun – The first thing I had planned was something fucking awesome – The Legendary Roots crew were playing tonight, and aboard the Intrepid Battleship overlooking the Hudson Bay – I had turned her on to Questo (Roots bandleader/drummer & DJ extroidinaire) last time she was here when we went to see the Tribe Called Quest movie that Questo had so graciously given out all the tickets to of the first screening back in July.
By the time we got to the ship, the mood was excited/expectant and we were ready to have a good time.

 

 

A band called the Hold Steady was opening that I’m not that familiar with nor was I too impressed with, but I was on some VIP juice that allowed Erin to go right to the front and take pics:

There was easily 1,000 people lined up to see the Roots rock the Intrepid. We were beginning to think we’d need one of the helicopters up on the flight deck just to make it to the stage, but after some finagling, we made it past the gate. The event went down on the deck of the aircraft carrier, with drink tents on top and food trucks down on the pier. Those in attendance were given red light up shutter shades, making the deck look like a hive of glowing fire ants from above.

After the first three songs we retreated to this VIP tent they had setup that was elevated for perfect viewing with free booze and food. I know I should be grateful for these little perks, but it never fails to embarrass me.
Not to mention the elitist/douchbaggery that you are rubbing elbows with looking down (literally/figuratively) at the regular partygoers sipping their eight dollar cups of wine as secret service-looking dudes watched and waited for someone to get just a little too close to the edge of the ship. Good thing there’s a guardrail on deck.

Blurts from a sousaphone (think wearable tuba) heralded the coming of the Roots. Damon “Tuba Gooding Jr.” Bryson burst on stage so violently we half-expected something to pop out of it. Brassy bass notes backing up Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson’s drums wafted out of the beast of an instrument, as Black Thought launched into How I Got Over.
The MC asked, “Can I get some help?!”—the answer from the audience was an overwhelming yes.

The energy was well-divided among the Roots, there was plenty of movement, with synchronized dancing and Bryson at one point waded into the crowd, going from front to back, the bell of his sousaphone poking above a sea of heads. Totally awesome as always.

(later that night) Bowl train w/ Special Guest Ali Shaheed Muhammad – Brooklyn Bowl – Sept 29th – Brooklyn, NY

Ok so in spite of the swankiness compromising my DIY nature, I was pleased that I had treated my lady to the full VIP experience, aboard a freaking battleship no less, and it allowed her to take photos from the stage. We left there totally amped and ready to take on the night.
We were heading out to Brooklyn to get more of the Questo experience as I had been telling her all about how awesome his weekly Bowl Train party is at the Brooklyn Bowl. I had taken her to the BB last time she was here to see Cibo Matto and now it was time to dance.
When we got there, their was notice that Questlove wouldn’t be spinning tonight because I guess he still had duties back at the Intrepid party we just left, but have no fear because his replacement was Ali Shaheed Muhammad from A Tribe Called Quest!! –

We had come full circle! Only in NYC would something like this happen, if this was in Texas and someone canceled I would probably have been their replacement, here? It’s a member of Tribe – cause everyone freaking lives here it seems.
Now, we were certainly excited, and I don’t think this caused us to have to high of expectations but I’m sorry to report that Ali just didn’t deliver, and I’m not talking about comparison – as in like if you were to judge his skills based just on that performance alone (which we will not because that would be totally unfair) I can say that I’m a better DJ – I don’t know what was up, but he was just off and the song choices had no flow. I forgive him cause he’s the man and he we still had a good time.

David Byrne ‘s Tight Spot installation – Pace Gallery – September 30th – NYC

Ok so I had more fun planned today with a full day of activities for us to enjoy – One thing that we enjoy the most is what Erin likes to say “I don’t wanna eat, I wanna dine” – And walking down 9th Ave so their is so much to choose from.
After a wonderful lunch at a nice Italian restaurant I took her over to the Pace Gallery so we could take in Talking Heads’ singer David Byrne’s new installation.

 

Confined by the space between the onetime elevated train track, the ground, and various pillars, the inflatable globe measures 48 X 20 feet. The installation also features a sound component, a low-frequency vibration that is a digitally distorted version of the Byrne’s own voice.
Now I am not the world’s authority on art, and I usually loathe the culture surrounding the art world and of all its pretensions, not to mention that I will be the first to admit that if not for life-long obsessions with the Talking Heads, I would probably have no interest in this at all (as I would imagine most people, regardless if they are willing to admit to it or not) –
However Erin is not the punter that I am with art, she studied it, knows what she’s talking about and uses this knowledge in her career in Interior Design. I thought we would both get something out of it as well as to do something different on a lovely day. They were taking it down the next day and its your responsibility that while your in NYC to take advantage of all the wonderful works you have at your disposal.
One could pontificate on what Byrne is trying to say with this, but one person that had grown tired of its image in a hurry was the main hired to guard it –
Leave it to me to act a complete fool among the sophisticated – but I really couldn’t resist.
Inside the actual gallery was another exhibit running concurrently on Social Media interestingly enough/not enough also called Social Media, that Byrne also contributed to.It’s rare that I find something meaningful in these situations but there was some pretty effective pieces in this exhibit. In taking the internet offline, much of the work brings the web down to human scale.

For example, the piece you see above here in the corner is called Murmur Study  that comments on how social media has affected communication or relationships. By aggregating onomatopoeic grunts and grumbles from Twitter, Murmur Study highlights the absurdity of reducing communication to 140 characters and the limitations of this form of interaction. By representing the tweets as something akin to receipts, the piece portrays communication reduced to a form of commerce where information is simply an object of exchange. High brow stuff, but I found it to be effective as well as impressive.

Now we couldn’t go the whole day, not even a wonderful day like today without running into a little bit of trouble. I still hadn’t forgotten her betrayal yesterday but the night went on really well and we were having a swell day, that is until…if you look again at the picture above, this time the left corner –
Ok this piece was a video installation that spoke of sexuality by a unique manipulation of footage of a documentary on a day in the life of a lesbian sex worker.
Ok, now I was in now way being insensitive or disrespectful to her by looking at this piece (no pun intended) – I wasn’t standing there staring with my mouth open, yes, this piece did take longer to experience because you were supposed to watch about 40 secs of each video.
Now just because this piece contained images of naked woman I was not going to look at every piece here except for this one –
I treated it as every other piece there and wasn’t gonna censor myself – Grow up already –
But the minute she saw me looking at it, she headed for the exit and burst open the door causing a scene, and no I wasn’t going to run after her.

Brooklyn Hip Hop Festival 2010

So the fun weekend continued after returning from Jones Beach as well as the Hip Hop. On Sunday, my new Spanish Ladyfare and I went out to Prospect Park for some fun. We started out at the Prospect Park Zoo, which I also had never been to and wanted to check out. I hadn’t realized how freaking huge this park was as I couldn’t find the Zoo and nobody could tell me the right way. We finally get there, and had a nice day. The zoo is small but unique and intimate and bit more interactive.

Then we walked over the Bandshell for a highly anticipated Hip-Hop show that kinda capped off this great week of celebrating Hip-Hop and Brooklyn.

Brooklyn Hip-Hop Festival – The J Dilla Seminar – July 6th

     So I was excited that I had been hired by AOL to cover the Brooklyn Hip Hop Festival. As a life-long fan of hip hop and being hired to write about it, in the city of its birth was nothing but exhilarating for me. Today was the first day of the festival and the event that I chose to cover today was a seminar lead by Q-Tip about the life of J Dilla. Held in a library in Cobble Hill by my old apartment, The seminar started with a group called the J Dilla Ensemble, which was lead by a young-ish music teacher/superfan and his students from Boston, doing Dilla pieces via keys, drums, bass, guitar, and a few horns. And this hopelessly white girl would occasionaly sing, and she was good.
I think I benefited from the fact that it was advertised in two sections and the first was to feature a few lesser known panelists and then the later one with Q-Tip and Dilla’s mom, Ma Dukes, but when I got there they had switched it, so not alot of people were there for the first section, and then a ton of people showed up after realizing that they had missed Q-Tip. Since I got there early and wanted to cover the whole thing I sat in the front row about 3 feet from Tip. He was very intense, and spoke very carefully and thoughtfully. You could tell that the pain of the loss of Dilla was still very real and obvious to Q-Tip. He told alot of first-hand stories that I had never heard before, and as the enigma that is J Dilla, its so largely undocumented, so I was inspired and happy that this was being held. It was largely to promote the J Dilla Foundation that supplies inner-city kids with music education.
The second half was another panel after a short film. This time Ma Dukes again, but with a few guys from Slum Village and then the teacher from before. You could tell that the teacher, was like a Star Wars geek standing next to George Lucas. He held it together okay, but you could tell he wanted to break out haha.
The seminar was done well, with a great reception of food/beer and it was an incredibly inspirational day.Brooklyn Hip-Hop Festival – Salute the DJ w/ Rob Swift – Music Hall of Williamsburg – July 8th

Another event I was covering for the Festival, and one I was much anticipating. As a DJ myself, I was excited about the focus and loved the idea of a DJ-cenntric event, not to mention but one of my all time heroes, Rob Swift was gonna bless the 1s and 2s. I get there and I’m hanging out with the crew from Brooklyn Bodega who are producing the festival. Great group of people, a smarter, more ambitious and passionate lot your not likely to find, especially about Hip-Hop. They have been gracious to have me on their radio program a few times in the last couple of years. So I’m enjoying talking with them, but this is not only my least favorite venue in Brooklyn, its one of my least fave in the entire fucking world. Between their aggressive, asshole security out front, you have to deal with the smug, elitist that work the Will Call window. I usually feel sorry for the people that work that gig, but here they seem to enjoy telling people that shows are sold out, or that their tickets are not there etc. Its always a hassle here, and this time was no exception. Not only were they giving the freaking producers of the event, they were even blocking some performers from entering! – What is it with these fucks?
I finally get it settled and get in, and in time to see Rhettmatic from the Beat Junkies getting down.

 

 

The place is packed and their is such a good vibe here. Their is nothing like a good Hip-Hop show. You will see every race, gender, creed etc. all dancing together, laughing and having a great time. I’m not there 10 mins when two older black women are dragging me, a skinny white boy, out on the floor. Just the real deal in every way and such a good time.
And then here comes my man Rob Swift – This cat is one of my biggest influences and inspirations and really my introdcution into turntabilsim. If you see him rawk hardcore, you will know why. It’s mind-boggling and its happening right in front of you. 

 

 

 The show ends at 2am and I thank all of the staff at Brooklyn Bodega and got invited to after-hours but I had been in meetings all day and was exhausted so I called it a night.OkayAfrica w/ The Roots and Talib Kweli – Prospect Park – Brooklyn, NY – July 11th

The Roots headlined the OkayAfrica World Cup 2010 Finals party to celebrate the first time in its 80-year history the tournament will take place on African soil. With a kick-off by Sahr Ngaujah, the star of the hit Broadway musical Fela!, the show featured performances by artists from all corners of the Diaspora, including host Talib Kweli (Brooklyn), Bajah + The Dry Eye Crew (Sierra Leone) former Trickykid Alumni-  Blitz the Ambassador (Ghana), and many others. Musically omnivorous hip-hop icons The Roots honor the fresh music of Africa by jamming throughout the whole day with surprise guests and capping it all off with a killer closing set.

    

We had a blast, and it was such a great environment, let alone the show. Their was a suggested donation but it was basically a free show and something like lover 10k showed up, just droves of people everywhere. Their was such a mix of diversity in performers and in the audience and a proud moment for the people of Africa. They had food tents set up everywhere, and instead of like hot dogs and pretzels, we ended up buying a whole roasted chicken, salad and dessert haha. Good meal and unforgettable music. After the show we walked around the park some more, and ended up just falling asleep in the grass under a tree. A wonderful day.    Private Screening of Basquiat: The Radiant Child hosted by DJ Spooky – Salt Space – NYC – July 12th

 

    So since our phones didn’t work, and because of the language barrier anyway, talking on the phone or texting wasn’t an option for me and the Spanish Armada.
Its so interesting to me that her and I for two weeks, never once communicated by phone, we just set everything up via email, the day before, and we never had one misstep, where as people that I communicate with all the time by means of phone and text, we miscommunicate all the time. So she actually finds in on the street this time, surprising me from behind. A few blocks from a private art gallery that I had received an invite to. Tonight’s event was a private, advance screening of a documentary that Mike D‘s wife, Tamra Davis had made about Basquiat called The Radiant Child, hosted by my friend and whom sent me the invite, DJ Spooky.
We get inside, and the Gallery is really small and only able to seat about 40 people. Now a quick disclaimer, I don’t claim to know really anything about art, art history or really anything about the business of art and its movers and shakers. I do know what I like however, and I’ve never been one to hold Basquiat in any higher esteem than anyone else. I’ve also never subscribed to the sexiness of his legend nor really understood its warrant. Having said that, it was a real trip to be in the same room with all of these people that were a part of that late 1970’s/early 1980’s downtown music/art scene of NYC. Since they were all interviewed or featured in the documentary, it was a reunion of sorts and suddenly the place was moving like a Studio 54 thirty-year reunion.
DJ Spooky did a brief set and introduced the film and moderated a Q&A after the film with Tamra and a few of the other cast members.

 

The film was done very well, and I enjoyed it, but it only confused me more as to the appeal of this guy and wonder if he were still alive if we would be talking about him at all. I know this sounds terribly dismissive, but based on the film, it really seemed like he was just this manipulative, druggie loser, that was able to dupe people that were so full of their own shit, that they wanted to be near what was happening so they enabled him. Ultimately his own demons caught up with him, so instead of his early death seen as this tragedy, it really seemed like the imminent result of that kind of lifestyle.
Afterwards we went and got some Chinese takeout and ate in that little park right off 23rd St. While walking to the subway, we saw all the kids in Iron Maiden shirts coming from their show at Madison Square Garden across town. Maybe one day I will actually see that band.