random musings

Love comes in all shapes and forms. This is as timeless of a love story as I’ve ever seen.

Justin Bieber can flow!

I learned about Julia Easterlin in late 2010 through my friend Kris Bowers and his great website, campusounds. I remember being immediately blown away by the sweetness of her voice and her ability to arrange and orchestrate songs in such a rich and full sounding manner with just her voice and a bit of improvised percussion.

I’ve seen video of Imogen Heap do a similar thing but the way that Julia does it is so personal and uniquely original. 

Please take a listen to her beautiful, awe inspiring version of the great spiritual ‘Keep Your Eyes on the Prize’.

And check out more of her music at facebook.com/juliaeasterlin

As I watched ‘I Love You Man’ once again last night, I took notice of Mel Stein. He is the funny, older gentleman that Peter(Paul Rudd) befriends during the pre-Sydney(Jason Segel) portion of his best man search. And later that night, as I turned off the movie, I saw that same older man in a really great documentary.

It turns out, his real name is Murray Gershenz and he has a very interesting story. Although he plays minor character roles in a lot of funny movies, he doesn’t do so because he aspires to be an actor. He’s in these movies to pay the bills for his record store that houses over 1/2 million recordings.

Here’s the video to this great documentary, ‘Music Man Murray’ that is currently airing on the Documentary Channel.

It’s a really great, inspiring story that I hope you enjoy as much as I did.

It’s been a while since I’ve posted anything but I had to share this.

Christina Aguilera sang ‘At Last’ at Etta James’ funeral and…wow! I realize that we may not all be fans of Christina’s music but, if you fast forward to the three minute mark, I think you’ll get it.

la familia

i don’t know if everyone remembers but in the late 90’s, when roc - a - fella records had just begun to take over the music world, they let everyone know that they were “roc. la familia.” a family. dame and jay were the big brothers and the rest of their label mates were their musical siblings.

a little over a decade later, that same idea is still present. but the family has morphed quite a bit. the family is now jay, kanye and beyonce. and they’re no family out of obligation. each one is very individually successful but you get the sense that the presence of the other two makes all of their personal success that much better and meaningful, both professionally and emotionally. the way that you see jay and kanye hug at 1:55. this isn’t a ‘thanks for the expensive ass gift’ hug it’s an, ‘i’m sharing this special moment with my brother’ hug. 

later on, there are several moments where jay talks about kanye in such an endearing and loving way. at 4:40 he says, “kanye is like a brother to me” and goes on to talk about seeing ye’s career flourish and how it’s such a pleasure to enjoy watching that. then at 6:45 when jay reflects on one of his first encounters with kanye, ”he’s the same way. that’s why i respect him. he’s not acting out because he’s successful. he was on the table like, “‘i have the best rhymes ever.’” there might be a bit of sibling rivalry but i can’t see it. and, why not. there’s nothing wrong with two of the greatest ever pushing each other to the next level. quite honestly, if they don’t, who will? yes, you can put together a list of other skillful mc’s and producers but none of them puts together a finished product like these two. some people have great rhymes and whack tracks. other have the opposite problem, great tracks and whack rhymes. but these two have the best of both worlds because they can call on one another.

when you put jay-z, kanye west and beyonce knowles together in one room, you get a one stop music shop. jay is on the short list of the greatest rappers of all time. kanye is just a great producer - i’ll get into that more a bit later - . and beyonce. sometimes her solo projects just don’t do enough to let people know how great of a singer she really is. do me a favor. listen to the ‘cadillac records’ soundtrack. when you hear her sing etta james’ ‘at last’ i want you to sit down and try to find one reason why she couldn’t be the next aretha franklin. trust me, it’ll be a near impossible argument to make. and that’s just her singing. her performing abilities are unmatched. 

now that we know why everyone of the three is extraordinary, let’s talk a little more about kanye. it’s all pretty simple. at 3:30, he makes his intentions very clear, ”when i do my album i’m gon’ take it to the next, next level.” over the last decade, we’ve seen kanye culturally evolve from a young 20-something from the city of wind into a very worldly man who’s aware of and willing to try new things. take h.a.m. for example. if you’ve ever listened to opera, you know that there are few things more powerful than the full chorus of an opera singing in a concerted fashion. however, how many people in the hip hop world know that? i’d be willing to bet that kanye is on the short list of people with knowledge of that information. later kanye very plainly states, ”i love music that really, really, really pushes.” this is obvious in every one of his musical productions. when my friends and i first heard ‘college dropout’ we didn’t know what it is but we liked it. and that’s what’s at the core of a kanye west production. it pushes the listeners boundaries of what’s possible but it never pushes the listener away.

this short video is a treasure for so many reasons. to get to see artists of this caliber being creative is an incredible treat. i remember not really having been the biggest jay fan. then i saw ‘fade to black’ and instantly became convinced of his titanic musical strengths. when they ponder about michael jackson during the ‘thriller’ sessions at 5:55. kanye confidently says, “that’s the conversation we having.” no, he’s not saying that they are in the same rarified air. but i do think that what he is saying is that what they’re doing is special and he’s having an almost child-like moment of reverie with the idea that this could be their ‘thriller.’ all i have to say to that is why not? kanye has said that with michael now gone, he wants to step into the role of being someone that people look to as their compass of great music. and he, jay and beyonce are definitely on the short list of people qualified to do that. kanye west’s music has continued to progress leaps and bounds since day one. and when you add jay-z and beyonce to the mix, you have to realize that they sky is the limit for these three phenoms.

when the audio for some of the album’s tracks comes in at 9:45, you get to know exactly what sets their music apart from everyone else’s. and if you don’t initially understand, kanye says it in plain english, “all of that shit is emotional.” and it is. it’s emotional. it’s melodic. and, to top it all off, it’s danceable. this wholeness sets them apart. while everyone else is just worried about one or the other, roc productions have all of the essential elements of music: rhythm, melody and harmony. and to top it all off, they also cover that one element that is often forgotten, heart.