Aping Hurrell and Owning It

I recently helped recreate a photo of Rita Hayworth taken by Hurrell. As lovely as the original is, I'm glad for the focus on my face, with body in [fun blocky] shadow. I think we achieved a modest yet adventurous take on old hollywood glamour portraiture.

       photo by Hurrell. 1941.                                                                      photo by peter onys. 2011.    

Muhsinah.

Muhsinah's music is a sound I'd like to make myself.

Goodie, grimey, introspection full of dance.

and ma, she's worse than me for lagging on the phrasing!

www.muhsinah.com

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What's a mistake anyway?

Here's a photo that would never have been taken intentionally, but thank lucky stars and accidents that the shutter closed at the 'wrong' time with the camera on the 'wrong' settings.

Unbridled sunlight.

A toast to love and life.

Charlie Wilson, born in 1953, was the lead singer of The Gap Band. After the breakup of this successful group, Wilson did what so many musicians with inflated and/or bruised egos do -     went on a bender that lasted a couple decades. He has now been sober for 17 years and is back to winning Grammy awards and topping the charts as recently as 2009. 
The list of current, popular musicians who have collaborated with Wilson is... seemingly endless... 
He is a living legend.
I'm not sure why Snoop Dogg and his [real life, highschool sweatheart of a] wife are the stars of this music video, but shit! is it ever endearing.

Here's to love, here's to real life.    

You Got Me.

This song appears on The Roots album, Things Fall Apart, 1999.  Jill Scott (!) co-wrote the song and recorded vocals with The Roots, but MCA Records wanted a bigger star than Scott, which lead to a re-recording with Erykah Badu. The Roots did/do perform live with Scott whenever possible. 


First, the Record Company-sanctioned music video. Which I love.

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and now a vicious, delicious take on the song. Hey, it's theirs, they can do what they want with it:)

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