Possibility of Creativity

Over at JungoRoad.com, I did a video interview with Zodiac Cartel and Lee Coombs while I was on vacation in San Francisco for the LovEvolution festival.

These two guys are at the top of their game.

Interview: Zodiac Cartel and Lee Coombs @ LovEvolution | Jungo Road: Techfunk, Fidget House, Glitch, Breakbeat.

Jungo Road is featuring DJ ICON with a kick-bootay beatbeat set. Download it and enjoy. Its got big fat beats.

Jungo Road is also going to be covering the San Francisco LovEvolution festival this coming weekend. Video, pics, interviews and things like that.

Supah-supah excited for tonight’s Erykah Badu concert on Governor’s Island here in New York City. We’ll have the backdrop of the the Manhattan skyline with her saucy beats. Badu is one of my favorites and…just go to the concert and let your sould momma out! ‘Nuff said on her.

The opener is Janelle Monáe and she’s been riding a wave of positive PR recently; I enjoyed Paper Mag’s Summer 2009 issue where they write about her multidimensional career approach, tight pressed outfits, and pompadour reaching to the 2^nd floor. The got rave reviews for her performance on the recent No Doubt! 2.0 tour and I hear her stage persona is amazing.

Originally from Kansas, Janelle’s father was hooked on drugs and she used her imagination to escape from the challenges. She was educated in New York City and then moved to Atlanta where she collaborated to create the Wondaland Arts Society, a kick-ass wack-a-doodle performance art collective. That got Big Boi’s, of Outkast, attention who put her on two of his albums and a video. Janelle released The Chase EP which was to be the first of four concept EPs about a character named named Cindi Mayweather from the far future. That got Sean “Diddy” Combs attention…and now we’ve got a rising hip-hop/pop star.

Jungo Road released MACE’s DJ mix this morning. I played his mix twice over shaking my thang with his fidget/electro house meets dubbyish hint of breaks and Baltimore booty. Eeeeyeaaaaahhh!

Mace plays all over San Francisco; part of the Brass Tax krew building a massive, fully functional boombox as a DJ booth for Burning Man 2009; collaborating on Peter Hudson’s Homorouboros and Tantalus, both zoetropes; and VIP coordinator for America’s biggest dance music event LovEvolution (Oct 3rd).

Full article and upcoming performance dates at Jungo Road.

http://jungoroad.com is the place for music off the beaten path; the road less traveled. That beautiful, wonderful, creative road that is just oozing with creativity. Go over there and listen, download, subscribe to our iTunes podcast as Jungo Road, and follow us on twitter. Stand up and show your support for these producers and DJs of electronic music by going to their live shows and purchasing their music.

Jungo Road released Zach Moore’s DJ mix this morning. Its a tech funk balls-to-the-wall mix with some progressive house, electro beats, and vocals to keep you singing along. Zach hails from San Francisco; runs his own nationally known podcast The Gough Street Sessions; part of The Deep End; and collaborates with Space Cowboys and Opulent Temple.

First smitten by house music in 1999, Zach began DJing in 2003 and launched his podcast in 2005. Zach believes the recorded mix can be a much more powerful way to reach out to people and help them manage their everyday challenges. With his Jungo Road mix, you can enjoy this from him. He has several upcoming performances in San Francisco, CA and at Burning Man in Nevada. Full article at Jungo Road.

http://jungoroad.com is the place for music off the beaten path; the road less traveled. That beautiful, wonderful, creative road that is just oozing with creativity. Go over there and listen, download, subscribe to our iTunes podcast as Jungo Road, and follow us on twitter. Stand up and show your support for these producers and DJs of electronic music by going to their live shows and purchasing their music.

The artist John Van Hamersveld and Alida Post, his wife, have brought the Summer of ‘69 to Vegas. Both friends, I visited them in California a few months back and heard of their amazingly fun opportunity unfolding in Vegas. While first hush-hush, now everyone can know.

Alida and I met 17 years ago in New York City and have kept our friendship over the years and as we each switched coasts. Along the way, she met and married John. John brings his creative artistic talents; Alida her savvy relationship skills and marketing talents; together a force of creative nature.

John has created many memorable images including The Endless Summer movie poster; album covers for the Beatles, Stones Jefferson Airplane, KISS, Blondie and Grateful Dead; the classic Jimi Hendrix concert poster; Johnny Face; the St Mark’s series with Mickey Mouse; Pinnacle Indian. For me, his artwork ranges from bright silkscreened images to iconography to monochromatic drawings. In all cases, having a sure hand on layout, focus, subject, color, proportion…all qualities that are found in a skilled craftsman; with images of emotion, feeling, depth, completeness and originality that are found in a true artist. If you like Keith Haring, KAWS, or Shepard Fairey, then you will likely appreciate Van Hamersveld.

Now in Vegas, John and Alida have the opportunity to bring his art to a broad audience. I am particularly excited about the canopy movie debut, Signs of Life. John has created a movie that is projected from the Viva Vision canopy above Fremont Street in Vegas. Two custom-painted vintage school buses flank the street while John’s iconic images and recognizable style are animated 90 feet high and five blocks long. The visual engages you; sweeping you down the street and back to 1969. Video here.

To round out the Summer of ‘69 experience and bring John’s art into your own home is Hippie Nation Gallery & Records. Hippie is an art gallery located right at the Fremont Street Experience that will sell custom John Van Hamersveld posters, digital prints, original drawings and hand pulled silk screens, in addition to record albums. Do it this summer because the show ends Labor Day! More info at Vegas Experience.

I’ve written a new track review on Jungo Road for the new Waveplant & Ernesto (I Need A) Bassline (Chad North and Aaron Pope Remix). Its a great new track put together by Chad North, Aaron Pope, Waveplant, and Ernesto. Its a solid funky breakbeat track with glitched out vocals, choppy beats, and a background hint of retro vocoder effects. Think more prime time Stanton Warrior-esque in a crowded room of heated sexy people pulsing to the beat.

Juicy for dubstep, glitch, wobbly bass, and drum and bass…er…jungle? I’ve got a new mix out on Jungo Road just that. I’ve recently been more into the outer rims of bpm; say less than 100 and more than 160. It’s more your ass quaking than your hands shaking.

[WARNING: Please, get some good speakers or earbuds; not like the terrible ones included with iPhones and iPods. Without them, you just won't hear the bass that is essential to enjoy this mix. For those few extra bucks you’ll get better sound at lower volumes which also helps to save your ears.]

http://jungoroad.com is the place for music off the beaten path; the road less traveled. That beautiful, wonderful, creative road that is just oozing with creativity. Go over there and listen, download, subscribe to our iTunes podcast as Jungo Road, and follow us on twitter. Stand up and show your support for these producers and DJs of electronic music by going to their live shows and purchasing their music.

Moving forward, I’m going to be telling you about my Jungo Road project. It’s a partnership with Chad North to highlight music producers and their music; music off the beaten path.

This week’s Jungo Road mix is by Chad North (Erase Records, Jungo Road, NYC). He’s recently had a string of successful releases (The Grind, You Got What) and we’ve got an exclusive mix by him that includes unreleased tracks and remixes of his own tracks from producers like Scott Cooper, Wasabi, and Mike Hulme aka Introspective.

If you like tech-funk, breaks, or tech house then you’ll get into his mix. Come over to http://jungoroad.com to listen and download, get the 411, and support him as an musician by buying his tracks or hearing him LIVE this month! The podcast is also available on iTunes as Jungo Road.

Jungo Road continues a weekly get-it-on podcast release and blog on top notch music producers and DJs. Go visit our website http://jungoroad.com to read and listen to them all.

Anti-gay marriage zealots are repeating the mistakes of 50-150 years ago. Their shaking fists raised in the air must be blocking the light of truth. Or, perhaps they’re not breathing well. Its really a small bit of insanity…or poor thinking.

1. One rationale in the founding of our country was religious freedom; its the 1st amendment, part of the Bill of Rights, to our United States Constitution. This same amendment also gives rise to the separation of church and state. This particular wording is from a letter Thomas Jefferson wrote to the Danbury Baptists. These anti-gay zealots, are double-faced. Opportunists. Cheaters. Which is likely behavior which should be against their own religious rules. Why? Because our ancestors fought to keep religion out of the laws. And now, because they don’t like something, they want to not put religious dogma in our laws.The 14th amendment says,
   

   “No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”

   Yet here is California and many other states doing just that. Invading the private lives of homosexuals and depriving them of life and liberty; also denying equal protection by forbidding marriage which grants approximately 1,400 benefits and rights of marriage. Things like hospital visitation, inheritance, not testifying against your spouse…very core basic human rights.

   Given all that, I believe any reasoning or proof that includes reference to a deity or religious text should be dismissed. Why? Because our governmental laws (especially constitutions) should not codify religious dogma because of our separation of church and state, equal protection, and religious freedom.

2. Moving a bit more recent in history, slaves and interracial marriages were forbidden. Here’s just a few examples of our past stupidity. As you read these, substitute in same-sex marriages where you see interracial references.
   • After the Civil War, California chose to specifically prohibit “intermarriage of white persons with Chinese, Negroes, mulattos, or persons of mixed blood descended from a Chinaman or Negro from the third generation inclusive.”
   • In 1869, a Georgia judge blocked the marriage of a white Frenchman and a black woman by saying, “The amalgamation of the races is not only unnatural but is always productive of deplorable results.”
   • In the widely known 1959 Loving case in Virginia, Judge Leon Bazile sentenced a black man and white woman to prison for trying to circumvent Virginia law by marrying in Washington D.C. He said, “Almighty God created the races white, black, yellow, Maylay and red, and he placed them on separate continents…And but for the interference with His arrangement, there would be no cause for such marriages.”

   Finally, on June 12, 1967, the U.S. Supreme Court put an end to laws preventing interracial marriages. A unanimous opinion by Chief Justice Earl Warren ruled that Virginia’s “white supremacy” marriage law and similar interracial marriage prohibitions in 15 other states did indeed violate the 14th Amendment. Decreeing that marriage is a “fundamental” civil right, the court told the nation that “the freedom to marry, or not marry, a person of another race resides with the individual and cannot be infringed by the state.”

   That was less than 50 years ago. Seems our zealots have a short-term memory. Or…perhaps they have selective memory because they don’t remember about separation of church and state, not casting stones, not committing adultery, rape victims that don’t cry out loud enough (Deuteronomy 22:23-24), and big ones like, “He that curseth his father, or his mother, shall surely be put to death. (Exodus 21:17)”

3. Separate but equal doesn’t work. The propaganda that civil unions are an equal substitute for marriage is horrible. It would not give the 1400+ rights and privileges of marriage. Proven time and again is the abolishment of separate but equal laws, institutions, schools, buses, and bathrooms. They are never equal. They are unfair. They favor the ruling class (many times the majority). This Rosa Parks summary of separate but (non) equal transportation in the southern states captures the issue well.

I was born and raised in Alabama. I have seen past and current racial and ethnic discrimination; some from my own family. I deplore their behavior and offer correction when I hear it. Alabama is not the best educated state in the country. It has the 6th highest divorce rate in the nation and one of the highest teen pregnancy rates in the nation. This is also the same state that four times elected George Wallace governor. In 1963, George Wallace stood in front of Foster Auditorium at the University of Alabama in defiance of the Deputy U.S. Attorney General and said, “Segregation today, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever.” Wallace was an idiot and a bigot. But a popular idiot and bigot elected four times by Alabama voters.

I’m not proud of the state of Alabama. However, I am proud of most of my family. My mother taught me about fairness and treating people well. My father was a helicopter pilot in the US Army where my parents and I traveled to Germany and Kentucky; I was exposed to different people and cultures. When my father left the army, I was nine. We moved back to Enterprise, Alabama where I remember going to a public school (rather than military) for the first time. One day, I was making friends with an African-American. Later that same day, a Caucasian kid pulled me to the side and asked me, “Why are you talking to that black kid? We don’t talk to them.” I was a little kid and didn’t really understand the weight of what he was saying.

What that kid said to me at nine was stupid. I ignored him and kept making friends no matter what their skin color. My early exposure traveling to different countries forever gave me a broader view of the world and possibilities within it; appreciating diversity. My mother then educated me about fairness. She wasn’t really exposed to homosexuality and we didn’t talk about it much in my youth. When it did come up, she always spoke fairly and with grace.

African-Americans in the 1900s were able to change the laws to officially end segregation and discrimination. They are a proportionally large group (13%) of Americans; the single largest racial minority in the United States. Homosexuals and others that desire same-sex marriages are at most 10% of the population. This is a small group of Americans that are being discriminated against, harassed, fired from jobs, denied hospital visitation rights, and some are even murdered in hate-crimes.

I am asking for those people that easily have those 1400+ rights and privileges of marriage to consider their own history, America’s past mistakes, and learn from them. If they would stop their mindless histrionics of hate for a few days, perhaps they can calmly gather all the facts and information and make an informed decision. Otherwise, its time for you to leave my country. If you want a religious zealot-based government, I hear of other places for you where they still stone their women.