Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Serengeti Appreciation Month: Week 3: Part 1 - Dennehy, Taoism, and Debussy

There's a track from Dennehy (Lights, Camera, Action), with enough meaning it deserves it's own post. The re-release of the original Dennehy has a few additional songs, and more interludes to connect the story line. Two of the worst songs, Derek & iPod, are shorter but all of the added songs make buying this re-released album worthwhile.

The other day at work I met a painter working at the same property where I garden. Homeboy was nodding his head while painting on a twenty foot ladder; bursting out "Yeah!", and  "Ohhh!". I asked what he was listening to and he said the Roots covering J Dilla. Two of the greatest hip hop artists of this generation. I told him about Serengeti Appreciation Month, but I doubt he will be able to find this post. Regardless, I'll dedicate this song to him. From Dennehy (Lights, Camera, Action) - Here is - Go Paint:

  
Download now or listen on posterous
04_Go_Paint!.m4a (8454 KB)
The song that inspired this post is called: the Neeg. Out of all of Geti's songs, the Neeg is the most meaningful for me. The lines "With so much rushing, and so much discussion over nothing [...]", and "I went to sleep and missed all the hoopla, stunning facts of who's hot [...]", are so awesome it's almost insulting to explain why.

  
Download now or listen on posterous
15_the_neeg.mp3 (5329 KB)
http://mooseprints.files.wordpress.com/2008/09/tao-of-pooh.jpg


These lines remind me of the book, the Tao of Pooh, by Benjamin Hoff, and the chapter: Bisy Backson. Rabbit goes to Christopher Robin's house, and finds a sign he reads as:

  

  GON OUT

BACKSON

BISY
 BACKSON

              - C.R.


We all become path dependent to our regular routines. Hoff writes, "If you want to be healthy, relaxed, and contented, just watch what a Bisy Backson does and then do the opposite" (p. 94).  Working too much makes you crazy.  "The athletic sort of Backson - one of the many common varieties - is concerned with physical fitness, he says. But for some reason, he sees it as something that has to be pounded in from the outside, rather than built up from the inside. Therefore, he confuses exercise with work.  He works when he works ,works when he exercises , and, more often than not, works when he plays . Work, work, work. All work and no play makes Backson a dull boy" (p. 94).  Are we all working out for some imaginary idea of perfect health or immortality?

Oh, and does this sound familiar?

 

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CvFH_6DNRCY&feature=fvst]

"This is rap music, something you feel. Word up"

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Thursday, June 24, 2010

Music Post: Week Three of Serengeti Appreciation Month: Wishing for Whimsy Back #SAM

Serengeti's other release from 2006 is Noodle Arm Whimsy.  Whimsy is THE essential Serengeti album. It doesn't define the music Cohn is making today, but the vibe from this album is funny, interesting, and honest. Lots of skits and fantasy songs, like Tanning Season and Trophy Husband, and some songs to make you think, like Benji and Whimsy Cards. My roommate heard about this album on a MF DOOM forum, and was annoying the rest of the house by singing off-key to the hook of Seven Minutes:

  
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13_7_Minutes.mp3 (4882 KB)

 

Whimsy Cards is the only other song from Noodle Arm Whimsy without cursing.  We've been listening to this song for five years, and I still have no idea what it's about.  

"She wrote short stories about a monster in a jar. Whose always looked at as an allegory for being alone"

 

  
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09_Whimsy_Cards.mp3 (2335 KB)

This whole album is fun, and dude. There's even a reference to Spicoli:

 

 

 

Buy Noodle Arm Whimsy on iTunes

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Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Tai Chi Post: Yang Style Taijiquan for the iPhone and iPad - Good Idea?

Taijiquan

Developer: JoyiPhone
Price: $4.99

The Chinese martial arts, has a long history, while the Tai Chi Chuan is a Chinese martial arts in a wonderful work.

Martial arts can not only physical fitness, but also to train a person’s will.

Yang style Tai Chi Chuan is a genre of Tai Chi Chuan. It is created by Yang Lu Chan (1799-1872) and developed by his son-Yang Jian Hou (1839-1917), his grandson Yang Cheng-fu (1883-1936) and others based on the old frame of Chen style Tai Chi Chuan.

Yang style Tai Chi Quan Jia stretch concise, structured, shenfa Chiang Kai-shek, action Hwasun, a mixture of ethereal calm; Lianfa from the Song into the soft, hardness and softness, forming a unique style.

The application procedure of 251 cases of diagrams and a detailed description, and clear videos of each actions, complete explanations of the authentic Yang style Taijiquan for each of all 85-style postures.

This application provides the Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese and English version, will automatically match the language based on the user’s current settings .

If you encounter any problem with this application, please contact with joyipad@gmail.com.

Share

Rating: 0.0/5 (0 votes cast)
http://appcrab.com/taijiquan/">retweet

Taijiquan Screenshots

Taijiquan

As much as I love my iPhone, I don't think I would ever practice a form with a phone or an iPad my hand. This may be helpful for learning the choreography of a form, but so much of learning Tai Chi is based on physical and tactile feedback. You can practice the wrong way, without corrections and feedback, and wreck your knees.

What do you think? Do Smart Phones and other emerging technologies have valuable potential for helping people learn Taiji, or will it promote a superficial and dangerous way of practicing?

Lets chat,
Jordan

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Tai Chi Post: Yang Style Taijiquan for the iPhone and iPad - Good Idea?

Taijiquan

Developer: JoyiPhone
Price: $4.99

The Chinese martial arts, has a long history, while the Tai Chi Chuan is a Chinese martial arts in a wonderful work.

Martial arts can not only physical fitness, but also to train a person’s will.

Yang style Tai Chi Chuan is a genre of Tai Chi Chuan. It is created by Yang Lu Chan (1799-1872) and developed by his son-Yang Jian Hou (1839-1917), his grandson Yang Cheng-fu (1883-1936) and others based on the old frame of Chen style Tai Chi Chuan.

Yang style Tai Chi Quan Jia stretch concise, structured, shenfa Chiang Kai-shek, action Hwasun, a mixture of ethereal calm; Lianfa from the Song into the soft, hardness and softness, forming a unique style.

The application procedure of 251 cases of diagrams and a detailed description, and clear videos of each actions, complete explanations of the authentic Yang style Taijiquan for each of all 85-style postures.

This application provides the Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese and English version, will automatically match the language based on the user’s current settings .

If you encounter any problem with this application, please contact with joyipad@gmail.com.

Share

Rating: 0.0/5 (0 votes cast)
http://appcrab.com/taijiquan/">retweet

Taijiquan Screenshots

Taijiquan

As much as I love my iPhone, I don't think I would ever practice a form with a phone or an iPad my hand. This may be helpful for learning the choreography of a form, but so much of learning Tai Chi is based on physical and tactile feedback. You can practice the wrong way, without corrections and feedback, and wreck your knees.

What do you think? Do Smart Phones and other emerging technologies have valuable potential for helping people learn Taiji, or will it promote a superficial and dangerous way of practicing?

Lets chat,
Jordan

Posted via email from jordankeats's posterous

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Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Music Post: Week Two of Serengeti Appreciation Month: Free Interesting Music

A quick post for the end of Week Two of Serengeti Appreciation Month. Serengeti's album: ThunderValley (2006). Available Free from Audio 8 records: http://audio8.com/releases/A8015.html It's odd but amazing musical storytelling. Two songs appearing in my Best of Serengeti playlist are Chocolate & Curse of the Polo. Chocolate is such a mind worm, it will creep into the back of your head in the next three days guaranteed:

  
Download now or listen on posterous
01_Chocolate.mp3 (2972 KB)
Other tracks of worth noting are Curse of the Polo, You Don't Love Me, and To Be Like You.
  
Download now or listen on posterous
10_Curse_of_the_Polo.mp3 (3992 KB)
"Live Jazz Rap for the Iconoclast"

http://jordankeats.com

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Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Tai Chi Post: Always Wear Pants at Appropriate Level.


There are no formal uniforms for practicing Taiji. Any loose pants will do; however, you should not feel the pants touching your legs or let them restrict your movement in any way. In Hong Junsheng's book, Chen Style Practical Method Taijiquan, Volume One: Theory, he writes "Light silk garment and soft belt/ The style of a gentleman/ Leisurely but prepared" (p. 72).

Last November, Taiji Traditions camp did some serious damage to my hip hop rep. During our afternoon workout, Master Chen Zhonghua said to me, "your pants are too low". I hiked my belt's level to my hip, but Master Chen still said, "too low". I hiked my belt buckle above my bellybutton, and my mobility increased tenfold. 

There are no warm up stretches in Practical Method Taiji, and there are no uniforms. We rely on our preparedness for every situation. Don't be a lookin' like a fool. Keep your pants at the appropriate level:

 

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5ahjK1Urjg]

 

jordankeats.com

 

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Friday, June 11, 2010

Serengeti Month: Post Two: Part 3 - Did I say Four Posts? (tags Serengeti, Music, Chicago)

Serengeti's album: "Dennehy", is the story of Kenny. A Fiero driving & O'Douls drinking "Superfan". Kenny loves Brian Dennehy, the Chicago Bears, and his wife Jules. This album was re-released as "Dennehy - Lights, Camera, Action", with more asides from Kenny, and a few new tracks. This album is a tribute to all things Chi-town, and since the Chicago Blackhawks won Lord Stanley's Cup the night before last, I'll make a preemptive entry to Serengeti Appreciation Month's Week 3 with the title track from Dennehy:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqrtoFWglMY]

 

 

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Wednesday, June 09, 2010

Serengeti Month: Post Two: Continued....

For some odd reason I was prevented from uploading this song to my last post. Here is the song Rich:
 
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12-serengeti-rich-ftd.mp3 (6961 KB)
After listening to Gasoline Rainbows at work today, I am less confident in how much this song represents the album. It's the opposite message of every other "rapper". The chorus, "Do I have to deal drugs?/ Do I have to be a thug?" is a phrase you will never hear again in rap music. Jewels, cars, and expensive liquor, are not interesting to me. I can't relate to those objects in my daily life, is there a positive message in this song?




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Serengeti Month: Post Two: Experimental Musicians - Tom Waits, Serengeti & Rock

Serengeti is like the Tom Waits of the 21st Century. They both make incomparable and experimental music; and rarely will you hear either of their musical creations outside of independent radio stations. Tom Waits has seen recent success, playing the Devil in the Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, but he has produced a canon of 30 years of amazing music. One of many VHS tapes left behind in the rush to convert to DVD is Waits's spectacle performance: Big Time. Good luck finding Big Time on DVD at Blockbuster, but most of the material is from the album Frank's Wild Years, and you can find the entire concert on youtube:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_E--kl3CdU]
 
Serengeti's career reminds me of a scene, from Jim Jarmusch's film Coffee and Cigarettes, where Tom Waits and Iggy Pop meet for a coffee at Tom Waits's local coffee shop. Iggy says, "I didn't notice any of your songs on the jukebox" (4:40). Even though Tom Waits is popular in the restaurant, he's not popular enough to have one of his records on the jukebox:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6Mw6b1T50U&feature=related]

Combined, Serengeti and Waits have made the most interesting music in the last forty years, but enough about Tom Waits: he deserves his own month. Trying to define one of Geti's album is tough because you can't contextualize an album's theme with just one song. Comparing one album to another is even more difficult, because each has it's own concept, but to unfold this month chronologically here is a song from Serengeti's first album, Dirty Flamingo, Ms. Nipple Queen:  

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ImlpdfoXU8&feature=related]


Serengeti's second album, Gasoline Rainbows, featured a full rock band, and has held a permanent slot in my portable music device since sometime in 2005. It's real rock and roll, but like Waits' music, it's too real for T.V. or radio play. Here are two songs from Gasoline Rainbows:

Margot:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXXHPVcIZb0]

Rich:

 

To be continued...


P.S. There are three more songs from Gasoline Rainbow available from Synthesis Magazine's Serengeti Appriciation Week: http://synthesis.net/2007/05/21/serengeti-appreciation-week-day-one/

 

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A #MitchMoment Brought to you by Mitch Hedberg

When you're in Hollywood and you're a comedian, everybody wants you to do other things. All right, you're a stand-up comedian, can you write us a script? That's not fair. That's like if I worked hard to become a cook, and I'm a really good cook, they'd say, "OK, you're a cook. Can you farm?

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Tuesday, June 08, 2010

Serengeti Month: Post One: Why June is Serengeti Month

The inspiration for one of most recent posts: Playing Tai Chi in Subway Stations, was inspired by the trip to San Fransicso in February, my never-ending love for taiji, and my experience with the song: Playing in Subway Stations; by Chicago-based rapper David Cohn, aka Serengeti, and producer Polyphonic the Verbose, from the album: Teradactyl [sic]. Before I left Geti released a select few songs from Teradactyl on his myspace, and one song on youtube that I brushed off as too wierd - Playing in Subway Stations:

The live performance of this song didn't click with the Serengeti I had expected. Auto-tune? Singing? I disregarded the song and the video as some obscure experiment Serengeti is known to do. It wasn't until I heard the album version of Subway Stations, on the Amtrak back from California, when I gew to appriciate this song. I had to rinse my cup of expectation before filling it with the great song of Playing in Subway Stations,


@DaveSerengeti has 58 followers on Twitter. Not that Twitter followers is any measure of success, but it took me four pages of a google search to find results for Serengeti, the musician. Africa's diverse Serengeti plains are one of the ten natural travel wonders of the world, the World Cup starting in South Africa, and the Chicago Blackhawks one game away from possibly winning the NHL Finals: Conditions are right to make four blog posts focusing on Serengeti the musician.

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