November's here! Reunions begin!

Hope everyone’s Halloween was fun, and that you are adjusting to Daylight’s Savings Time. I've adjusted just perfectly. With an extra hour to sleep, I still can't make it to work on time. Oh well, here are some pictures from Halloween's festivities.


First up, Mary and Biggie. They look suspiciously high don't they?


We ran into Flav and his newest girl. Her clock said "Hoops" but I don't remember Hoops looking like that.


Biggie and Pac, in their finer moments. Can you believe she researched and drew all those tattoos?


Next we went to a Studio 54 Themed party, but for some reason in this close-up I looked like one of those crazy-looking Japanese girls who almost got kidnapped by Gwen Stefani. Meanwhile, Tupac Jr. decided to switch her headrags up and become a fortune teller.


Here was the full extent of my outfit. I didnt really plan on who or what I was gonna be, but I kinda looked like Sharon Stone from Casino. Many Italian Jewish racial jokes ensued that night. I know they did.


Only on the dancefloor does the 80's meet the 70's. Groovy. Far out. Wait, was that the 60's? Well it’s Thursday and the weekends are almost here. I'm headed out to the Big Apple and getting ready to see some extended fam.


This here is the Organics Thoughts Crew, they're from Jersey. The emcee in their group just happens to be a female and her name is Elisa, or El Gambina as they call her. She’s making a funny face for the camera here but on the mic, she’s a fucking beast. When I first saw OTS perform at Columbia University back in 2001, they did a song called Verbal Approach and she came onstage, and I couldn't believe what I heard:

"Yo I’m a female emcee/ holding a license to burn/ I got my microphone in check so now it’s your turn/don't underestimate me/ just sit back and learn/ give me full attention and the respect that I deserve..."

I had found my new hero. I videotaped their show and watched it over and over again just to learn her words. Months later I proved how much of a groupie I was and invited OTS to Philly to share the stage with us, DJ Kuttin' Kandi and Rholi Ro. Turned out to be a really fun show. Now that I think about it, I'm a little intimidated knowing that Michelle, Cool Calm Pete and El are all Korean and dope with the lyrics. Hmmm, I guess Koreans do do it better. Anyway I'm going to see Elisa perform for this benefit event, here she explains in her own words what she's doing:

"BE THE CHANGE sponsors ELEVEN Ugandan kids. They throw parties to raise money for their school’s tuition, housing and food. They are sending a team of 13 people (seven New Yorkers) to Uganda this December to register the kids for their 2007 school year! They still need A LOT of support, so I thought it would be a great way for me and my friends to get involved and help them out!"

You can check her out this Friday at Party for Uganda, 161 W.22nd between 6th and 7th avenues. Cost is $20 and its open bar all night. And peep this, she even got press in New York's Timeout. Go head, girl.




Next in this line of reunions are Norm, REX, and KP aka the Pacifics.


These guys are originally from Chicago, they don't get go out to to the east coast much, but's it's mad fun when they come through. The last time I saw them was at the Trocadero in Philly in 2004. They just released "The Case", a collabo project with another talented brother, superproducer Illmind (he's a Jersey head too)and have been getting a lot of press lately. The Pacifics deserve every bit of it, they've been doing their thing for a minute now. The first time I ever saw them was with I Was Born With Two Tongues, at that same 2001 Columbia U show where I saw OTS. Damn that must've been THE show to be at, huh? The PACIFICS and Illmind will be performing together this Saturday in NYC with other acts from their label, All Natural, Inc. to showcase at the Scion Strictly Business event during this year's CMJ. They'll be part of an all-day event from 2-4pm in the afternoon. Click on the link below to RSVP, because I think that's the only way to get in.

http://scion.com/strictlybusiness

Before we join Giles, Taiyo, Regie and the rest of the Sulu Fam in Brooklyn, we’re going to finish the night off with a party with the rest of the OTS crew. If you’re in the city come through, there's no dress code and it’s free free free!!!



C-

Tangents, updates and whatnot.

God bless anybody who has a blog and keeps it going. Especially if your blog in one of the many many things you have to keep going. On top of updating blog, upcoming shows, our day jobs, our other side jobs, and the spending of quality time with friends and family that often happens at the end of the day, although it’s always claimed at the top of the priority list. I say this of course in light of the fact that this blog doesn’t get updated not as often as we’d like, and that’s with two of us writing. I’d like to blame it one the broken computer and lack of working camera, but that’s just an excuse. As writers, we should be devoted to this blog, regardless of technological difficulties. But I’d also like to remind you that we’re new to this, so bear with us. I'm never really sure how many people actually read this until I come across the occasional fan who tells me they read it all the time or worse, that letter that asks "how come you haven’t written anything lately?" With that being said, I’ll make this one an extra long blog and hope it makes up for the past week. I have to warn you first, it kind of a tangent. If you’re into short blogs, now is the time to train your eyes to skim.


I’ll start with an intro about intros. This here is my friend Nick. He runs a streetwear brand, Twelvebar, as well as a blog twelvebar.com/astorytotell(which I am also featured on btw) and recently discusses the intros of songs and how they serve as perfect precursors for the rest of the other instruments to join in and follow. I think the same can be said of blogs, as Nick’s blog are enjoyable and always has a great intro. You see, a blog still counts as writing and therefore, like music, is considered a body of work. And a body of work should to have, well, body, supported by a worthy intro that leads readers to. a conclusion, a story to tell. Sorry, but name drops grouped with pictures that aren’t even worth the look (not to mention worth a thousand words) aren’t exactly the distraction we seek in our internet browsing. It’s hard to find blogs these days that are really worth "subscribing" to, you know the ones that you can consistently check up on and the material is worth the read, even if there aren’t major announcements. I’m saying this to anyone who may not understand blogs or why we write about what seems like random things.

The purpose of a blog is simple, it’s a public journal. The "public" part is because whoever the author is has gained such a following in whatever previous work they’ve done before that a blog becomes necessary to let followers/supporters/fans know what’s going on. For some people, the blog is medium for updates, a display of schedule that boasts about how busy they are and the upcoming projects they’re working on. And sometimes that’s all that needed to be said. Then, there’s the "journal" part, the part that means that it’s also personal, therefore you can talk about whatever the hell you want, even if it’s not pertaining to the original thing that created the need for a blog in the first place. Which is why even though we are poets, we can ramble on about other things like Flava Flav episodes, stalker status-like crushes on MC/Producers (Cool Calm Pete is actually Korean, not Chinese like I had previously thought). There are things going on in our lives besides "poetry" that we’d like to talk about. We are humans, we are complex. We are consistently changing our minds on what we feel is particularly interesting or important today. But we are also poets, we draw our inspirations from what’s around us. How we process our creative efforts remains the same, it's how we outlet it that's different.

Politics influence current events, which in turn influences music; music in turn, influences fashion, and so on and so forth. Going back to Nick, I asked him why he named his brand Twelvebar, and he told me that music influences everything, and in music the measurement is always in twelve bars. It makes so much sense. Remember when fashion magazines used to just be fashion magazines? Now they’re lifestyle magazines, and they cover everything from make-up to food to religion . Models who used to be the only ones to grace the covers now share the spotlight with actresses and singers, because it was obvious that we didn’t want to read about somebody we didn’t have very much going on except a pretty face. We’re no longer the monotonous human beings we used to be.

Blogging is also an important tool because communication is the basis for everything that happens. We get our info as a result of communication. We get our inspiration as a result of communication. We get everything done as a result of communication. Sometimes when things coincide, we say that the world is small, but honestly it’s just connected through communication. I mention this because I have to mention another friend, Vaughn, who also writes his own blog, words2herbsmag.com.


In this mirror self-portrait, Vaughn is holding up a copy of Prequel, of which he is also a staff writer. Vaughn is a new friend, I "met" him just a little while ago (I say "met" because he lives in Cali, on the west coast so we haven’t physically met, but we talk all the time via the interweb) although he knew of me from before because he saw the Def Poetry episode that Michelle and I were on. See, connection through communication. Vaughn recently wrote a list of creative folks who inspire him and he put Yellow Rage 4th in his order, talking about our work with Beau Sia and even compared us to Mobb Deep. The funny thing is that he also put www.dorkmag.com, the magazine that I write for, 5th on the list, and made note of that coincidence. Yep, more communication connections. I’m sure if he’s changed it since I saw it last week but originally he wrote my name as Catzuella, my alter ego. Haha, can't escape that Freudian slip.

Well I just wanted to throw that "intro" in there because you, the reader, our fans and firm supporters, keep us connected. So now the moment you’ve been waiting for... Updates!!!

The show at the Asian Arts Initiative was awesome, and we were so glad to be apart of an amazing line up and remember performing in that space for the very last time. Thanks to Phil, Taiyo, Regir, Omar, Florence and everybody who came out. Unfortunately, neither me nor Michelle could take any pictures (unless she secretly has and is waiting to upload them a month later, just kidding M) and because the house was so packed, all of our friends' pictures came out kinda blurry, so you’ll just have to depend on my words to paint the pictures. Asian’s Misbehavin’, made up by Dan Kim, Anula Shetty and Michelle did such an amazing job curating the show with absolutely no tech run-throughs. The highlight of the show was the finale skit, Joy Cock Club in which Regie and Omar play bickering mother and daughter over bukkake. Oh did they have me in the corner in a hyena-like hyperventilating after-laugh. In case you have never seen it, it’s one the very things my writing can do no justice for but if I could try to describe it it’s a spoof of the Joy Luck Club based on porn. If you don’t know what bukkake is, you’re gonna have to look that up, buddy.

The only pictures I managed to dig up are from going out after the show, you know, the afterparty...

It’s obvious the ladies love Taiyo. No, seriously, I’ve gotten so many questions about who the acoustic soul singer was. The funniest thing I heard all night was that Taiyo was married and had a kid. Yep, somebody confused him for Dennis from I was Born With Two Tongues/Typical Cats.


This here is DJ Phillee Blunt and he never likes to make nice faces when he's pictured with me. Phil is our resident show DJ and he's also a member of the Ill Vibe Collective. If you ever see their name on a flyer, you should go to their events. Real classic stuff.

Next week, we join our long time no see buddy Giles Li coming all the way from Beantown for Sulu Series in Brooklyn.

Yes, he is also another smooth and acoustic poet. Sorry ladies, he’s married. But you can probably come see Taiyo because he’ll be there with Regie, who both run the Series every first Sunday of the month. Peep the flyer:

Yes, that's is Mr. Sulu from Star Trek. A+ for you if you already knew that.

Last but not least I have to give a shout out to my best friend Anwar who turns 25 today. Happy Birthday Homie. Tonight he's having a 90's theme party to celebrate. I’m going as Mary J. Blige and he's going as Biggie. I wonder if anybody will show up in finger waves.

C-