Music has gotten me through this week. It's been a little stressful (ok, very stressful), and I'm sure I could talk about work forever, but I think I'd rather just listen to music. Let's end it on a high note, shall we? There's hip hop, there's mellow music...in fact, there's a little house here too.

Mixing it up a little-- Friday Melodies XVIII.

1	Jon B with Dirt McGirt	Everytime
2	Raphael Saadiq	I Know Suggie Otis
3	D-Influence	Phunky Times
4	LL Cool J	Can't Explain It
5	Toshi with Mos Def	Living For Today
6	Talib Kweli	Never Been In Love
7	Rafael Saadiq /Tony Toni Tone / Lucy Pearl	Rifle Love
8	Jon B	Lately
9	De La Soul featuring Yummy	Much More
10	Lyfe Jennings	The Way I Feel About You
11	Slum Village	Old Girl/Shining Star
12	John Legend	Live It Up
13	Joi Cardwell	Be Yourself
14	Cheryl Lynn	Sweet Kind of Life
15	Abenaa	Rain

Two tracks (2 and 7) are from Rafael Saadiq's Ray Ray album, but the one that is most special to me is the track Rifle Love, with Tony Toni Tone and Lucy Pearl accompanying him. Tracks 1 and 8 are from Jon B's new album, Stronger Everyday. Notice the vocal stylings (!) of Dirt McGirt in Everytime.

Track 10 is from Lyfe Jenning's Lyfe 268-192 album. Cheryl Lynn's Sweet Kind of Life is a nice track off of the Shark Tale soundtrack. Be Yourself by Joi Cardwell is from the awesome house CD Blaze Presents Artists United for Life.

Nod your head. It's a little bit of everything. Enjoy.

Last week hit home for quite a few people, so we're going to continue the formula here. There were quite a few exclamations of gratitude, and along with it some requests. Striving for perfection, I had to call in reinforcements, 'cause we wanted to get this right. I get by with a little help from my friends.

OSW: Euro Groovin', Volume II.

Check it:

1	Paul Young	Everytime You Go Away
2	Wham	Careless Whisper
3	Five Star	Let Me Be The One
4	Level 42	Something About You
5	Basia	New Day For You
6	Culture Club	(Do You Really) Want To Hurt Me
7	Swing Out Sister	Twilight World
8	Thompson Twins	Hold Me Now
9	Human League	(Keep Feeling) Fascination
10	Scritti Politti	Wood Beez
11	Soft Cell	Tainted Love
12	Pet Shop Boys	West End Girls
13	Frida	I Know There's Something Going On
14	Phil Collins	In The Air Tonight
15	Phil Collins	I Missed Again
16	Go West	Eye To Eye
17	Sheena Easton	The Lover In Me
18	Samantha Fox	Naughty Girls Need Love Too

Special Notes:

Paul Young's Everytime You Go Away and Culture Club's Do You Really Want To Hurt Me was graciously contributed by the one and only KB. He and Fredamae also requested Twilight World, and I was happy to place it in the mix here, since that's one of my alltime favorite songs.

Cecily and Monique both dropped their Scritti Politti knowledge on me, and let me know that while Perfect Way was cool, Wood Beez would be even better. Cecily did even better and dropped the tune to me, which I had (admittedly) never heard before.

Phil Collins is represented here not once, not twice, but three times, as I present two of his singles, preceded by former Abba member Frida. Check him out on the background vocals and the drums.

Enough talk. Let's groove.

Baker's Dozen. Snoozin' Season. From KB's Bakers Dozen.

1. Trying to think of 12 useful things I've done this weekend is almost like taking a long exam. In the dark. Without a pencil.
2. However, the bed is my fortress of solitude as sleeping eight to ten hours a day becomes commonplace now.
3. Conversations with Prime, trying to get over a cold all weekend, have their moments of dramedy:

ej: what we gonna eat for dinner?
Prime: oh, probably chicken.
ej: you gonna pick it up?
Prime: but I am still dying.
ej: then i will drive your car!!
Prime: I think I have enough life left in me...

4. Got halfway through Getting Things Done. I have a schedule now. Let's hope it pans out.
5. First task: only hit snooze button twice each day.
6. I guess John Legend knows about bootleg copies of his CD on the street right now.
7. Picked up Human League CDs for the next Old School Wednesday. It's more than an adventure, it's a second job!
8. Not to be constrained with the music for Old School Wednesday, received a couple of CDs to review for Mixtapes, Etc. this week too.
9. The next time you invite me to your house, make sure you have some Welch's Passionfruit juice, okay? Thanks.
10. I want it to be Summertime, just like Fresh! does.
11. I don't know why I'm so enamored with Third Watch now. It's the show that keeps me in the house on Friday nights, instead of hangin' out with the fellas.
12. And now, for the bizzare show that has me laughing every weekend on Adult Swim: The Oblongs. Does this mean I'm demented or just in the house too long?

After doing such a superb job with OSW and having a great week at work, I thought maybe I'd just skip the Friday Melodies and try to post something a little more substantial. However, the more I thought about it, the more I realized that I'd leave out a piece of myself to start the weekend off with. Besides, there were a couple of things going on that I couldn't just let fall by the wayside:

1. KB's third anniversary of Buccho. Listen to his Friday Melodies. Read about it. Show your support.
2. Ray talks about Sexomania.
3. Lis had Wendy And Lisa's I've Got No Strings in her radio.blog, which made me find this interview with the two.
4. Lynne's man Q is really getting his scribe on.

Dropping the tunes late in the evening, but the weekend's just beginning, right? Right. Friday Melodies 17.

1	D'Influence f/Lily Roy	Wondering
2	Mayisha	Orbit
3	Magic Number	Turn Back
4	Miguel Migs	Brand New Day
5	Calvin Harris with Ayah	Let Me Know
6	Zap Mama	Yelling Away
7	Brand Nubian	Where Are You Now
8	Kaskade	Maybe
9	Raphael Saddiq/Teedra Moses	I Want You Back
10	De La Soul	Church
11	Toshi	It's Time
12	Talib Kweli / Mary J. Blige	I Try
13	John Legend	I Used To Love You
14	Toshi	Beating of My Heart
15	The Rebirth	This Journey In

Groove it forward.

You know, when we talk about Old School all the time, we think of anything on the Black hand side, right? Well, that may be the case, but sometimes you have to give a nod to the grooves that didn't have to be melanin-infused.

When I starting putting together this Old School Wednesday, my thought was to put together something I was going to call The 80s British Invasion. The more I started listening and picking, spinning, and reflecting, I started to realize that hey, back then there may have been a melanin influence everywhere we walked, but we can't fake it - we know we heard these tunes, and as much as some of us hate to admit it- we vibed to 'em on the regular. We listened to these and never told anyone how cool these songs were. The only time we dared speak of these tunes were when our friends were around and they proclaimed them to be cool. The fact that they were even played by our radio stations were a definite plus.

There were other ones also, back when we were in high school and college, that we heard and we nodded to, because we loved 'em. We couldn't deny it. These tunes were performed by, as I remember them being referred to back then, people who were 'short on melanin but heavy on groove'. Nod your heads, ladies and gentlemen:

Old School Wednesday: Euro Groovin' Volume I: On the Light Hand Side.

There's only one song on this radio.blog where all the members were Black. I'll let you figure out which one.

01 - "Situation" by Yaz. The precursor to Alison Moyet and Erasure.
02 - "Take On Me" by a-ha. Norway in the house.
03 - "One Thing Leads to Another" by The Fixx.
04 - "The Reflex" by Duran Duran. You know, a playlist with nothing but Duran Duran would be very cool. Any takers?
05 - "It's My Life" by Talk Talk. They were all over the place with their music, but this one was played prominently when I was in high school. Just ask No Doubt/Gwen Stefani.
06 - "Owner of A Lonely Heart" by Yes, produced by Trevor Horn, who also produced:
07 - "Close (to the Edit)" by The Art Of Noise.
08 - "Perfect Way" by Scritti Politti.
09 - "Be Near Me" by ABC. What's your reputation? Ecstacy.
10 - "Cruel Summer" by Bananarama, one of the plentiful Stock Aiken Waterman tracks that was so prevalent in the 80s. They also produced:
11 - "Never Gonna Give You Up" by Rick Astley. I believe they called him the blue-eyed soulster.
12 - "Hanging on A String (Contemplating)" by Loose Ends.
13 - "Digging Your Scene" by Blow Monkeys. The background vocals alone were infectious.
14 - "Things Will Only Get Better" by Howard Jones
15 - "Call Me" by Go West. One of my favorite duos.

Groove on. You know you want to.

Alright, playing catch-up here.

Lis, because she wanted to torture me (didn't you Lis?), wanted my favorite non-computer related pasttime, which is television, something out of my drawer that I'd never wear again, and a candid shot of me taken by someone else. This jacket was a BBD jacket, and I have no idea why I bought it, but I did, and never wear it unless I have to run to the mailbox. As for the candid shot, well, there isn't much of a candid shot of me. I'm still trying to locate one. I'm hoping they've all been destroyed, but I'm sure someone will come up with something.

Deb -- let's see... you wanted a pic of me with Anna, a picture of my favorite piece of artwork, which is a painting from Rossy Finol that hangs in our home, and a picture of the front door.

Deshi wanted to see a picture of me smiling. Well here ya go! Up for a limited time only.

Now Gwen - you wanted one of me making a scary Halloween face. I'm going to postpone that until Halloween, because I have to think fo a costume. (No comments from the peanut gallery!) You also wanted one of my record collection. I took a picture of part of one, which is lots of tapes, CDs and etc. in my personal office. As for my favorite knick knack, I wasn't sure what that was going to be, but as I was in my office, I took a picture of one painting that I think was really special from Rossy Finol. When we got the first paintings, I was captivated by this one which has three sections: the top section had a scissor with a goat on a string on the bottom. My interpretation of its symbolic meaning was that in order to set yourself free, always look to the sky and something or someone above would inspire you and that inspiration would set you free.

Elle, here's the inside of the main fridge, and yeah, we have food aplenty, my favorite snack, which besides chicken is key lime pie ice cream, and the dog.

KB the sadistic one, you asked for pic of all my Flytetyme stuff. That's nearly impossible, seeing as I'd have to drag 3 computers, tapes, and phonographs together. Instead I just put as much vinyl as I could in the frame, and yes, even Pia is there. The other two you wanted, me and Anna face to face and my fortress of solitude were much easier.

Karen, I could never stop taking pics of Anna, but as for a picture of someone I look up to, I'm still trying to figure out which picture could capture that so I'll have to give you a raincheck. The two above are a couple of pics of the collection. I'd be snapping pics all day if I had to capture them all.

Enigma, I got a pic of Mike (and I caught hell for it too), the bathroom, and a pic of the front of the house.

And pics of me with just my boxers on? Send a $100 check or money order to...