Recently in taste me. Category

They say that 41 is the new 31. I don't know about all that, but I do know it's my birthday today. Before I start talking about something else other than music, let's drop the Old School Wednesday given to us by Mr. G-Force and Yvonne, cause they're SO good at it.

Old School Wednesday: Hang Tight
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Podcast/mix available here. [Click to play or right click-save as to download.]
Want to subscribe to podcasts? Use this link.

01 - Jesse Johnson - Can You Help Me
02 - Today - Girl I Got My Eyes On You
03 - Tony Terry - Lovey Dovey
04 - Patti Austin - The Heat of Heat
05 - Alexander O'Neal - What's Missing
06 - Curtis Hairston - The Morning After
07 - Bobby Thurston - I Know You Feel Like I Feel
08 - Keni Burke - Hang Tight
09 - Phyllis Hyman - Under Your Spell
10 - Deniece Williams - Cause You Love Me, Baby
11 - Tashan - So Much Love
12 - Vesta - Sweet, Sweet Love
13 - Shirley Jones - Do You Get Enough Love

I'm grateful to G-Force and Yvonne for subscribing goodness this time around, particularly with Jesse Johnson, Alex O' Neal, and especially songs from Keni Burke and Bobby Thurston - two tracks that I had never heard before. As you can tell, they are a formidable duo. Suffice it to say, you will be hearing more from them. Believe that.

I have yet to get the actual count right of how many OSWs have actually been done here, but the count is somewhere around 194. Back in the day, the OSWs were a creation of the one and only, KB. I did a couple from his suggestion, then a couple became 5, and then he passed the torch to me. I still can't tell you to this day why I haven't just stopped doing it. Masochism? Craziness? Probably a little, but mostly because of the love I have for music. KB helped me expand that vibe, and to that I'm very grateful for it. But what's even better are the people that helped me with this with their comments and emails, including Ms. Alex, Thierno, Wayne, VPayne, Qamar, James Madison, GrantLove...and the list goes on and on. (By any means, if your name was left out, it's not because of lack of love- more than likely lack of memory...definitely let me know.

During OSWs, since I had so much time on my hands, I also did radio-blogs of songs I liked - no matter how different they were. The count of those is around 65 with no signs of slowing down. Podcasting was an offshoot of that, beginning without vocals, and then when I discovered that people actually vibe to someone whose vocals are reminiscient Mickey Mouse except in an MP3 format, I kept on doin' it, getting slightly better each time. If it weren't for the bloggers Honey, Lis, Todd Kelley, Nikki, and TGrundy, I would have given up a long time ago.

...but here I am, still doing them, which of course begs the question is, "whatever happened to that thing called blogging?" Well, things combined with my weekly podcasting like Friendfeed, Twitter, and Plurk to name a few, I haven't felt the need to blog about anything. I'm going to attempt to change that because when all is said and done, I still do miss what blogging used to be back in the day. In fact, I'll start this by breaking the ice - let's get to know EJ a little better. If you have questions about me, post the question here or email me directly at ejflavors at gmail.com and I'll be sure to answer them. I'll also try to give you a little more insight into my life, which isn't a whirlwind, but more like a steady stream with a big rock here and there. So there you go. Give up a happy birthday to ya boy.

And now back to our regularly scheduled programming. You won't hear my voice much in the podcast, because of time constraints, but I'll be back next week, definitely. Thanks to G-Force and Yvonne for mixin' it up quite nicely. For those who'd like to subscribe to these podcasts, enter this link manually into iTunes. Also, please be sure to check out on Flowink.com, where there's always great music to check out. If you have requests or questions, send an email to ejflavors [@] gmail [.] com. Take it light.

I'm pretty sure you've guessed that this weekend, I decided to go live with MT 4 and cleanup the layout and (hopefully) the commenting issue. This is so I can continue with providing what everyone is looking for- content with suitable visual effects.  If you take a look around with the first page, you'll see on the left:

1. The Doorway: Various ways to contact me, gift me, and find out more about me.
2. From My Headphones: What I'm listening to right now on iTunes.
3. Tag Cloud:  Various ways of sorting through blogs (will be enhanced further to be more explicit).
4. Omnipresence: Technical information and various feeds.  For the extremely technical at heart.
5. Monthly Archives.
6. Voices:  Comments from a variety of sources.

On the right hand side, you'll see some much more near-real-time information about me, like:

1. Search.
2. last.fm: Music I've been playing from a variety of sources like iTunes and Media Center, from last.fm.
3. Twitter Vibe: What I've been doing throughout the day, from Twitter.
4. Flickr Vibe: Photography (or lack thereof), from Flickr.
5. Categories.There are also comment links displayed on the top of an entry versus the bottom.

There are a few kinks that need to be worked out, like:

1.  More of the information above located on each page, for easy accessibility from whatever page you're on. [Fixed 07.31.07]
2.  Omniscience: Blogs I read on a normal basis.
3.  Verification of comment issues being rectified. [Fixed 08.01.07]
4.  Fixes of links under Voices.  [Fixed 07.31.07]
5.  More real representation of tags (AKA Tag Clouds.)
6.  More graphical representation of EJFlavors.com
7.  An "About EJ" link.

If there's anything else you see that is an issue, please by all means, let me know. Please be patient: this has been done over the span of about 10 hours, which is the quickest time it's taken me to revamp a site..

Check it out. I don't know if'n anyone told you, but today is a day for celebration. It's my birthday. Of course, it's not just my birthday:

Corey Scott Feldman.
Ruben Blades.
Barry Sanders.
Stewart Copeland.
Phoebe Cates.
Barbara Stanwyck.
The same exact date as Will Ferrell.
Even Orville Redenbacher.

All of whom have nothing on Honest, who also got a promotion. You know she's the queen of the 16th, right? Right. But I digress.

I'm not one for writing much these days, because my head is in many different places at once. The last couple of days have been really eye-opening. If you were wondering what was going on last week, my mother had a heart attack Tuesday afternoon which put life on hold for a second, but I'm glad to say that everything is back to normal. The whole situation itself was terrifying, to say the least. To put things in perspective, I lost my father to cancer and my stepfather to a heart attack, so Mama Flavors is the linchpin of the family and it's my job to make sure she stays that way. Pounds to those who had my back during the whole ordeal.

These situations, in addition to work restrictions, are forcing me into being more money-conscious, which means rethinking how I'm going to be spending vacation for the rest of the summer and into the fall. Unfortunately, I'm having to postpone my trip to the west coast which is breakin' my heart. Brother needs to get out of town to clear his head though, so I'm going to be cutting corners here and there to go up to NYC in a couple of weeks.

More random thoughts, since I've now got more time, and it's often been said that I speak more about music and less about me.

You know how it is when work gets you, where there's stuff you really want to do but there's not enough time in the world? Well, that's me, today - seven days after Friday the 13th.

I had every intention of doing an In Rotation this week, but then I thought that maybe I was too mellow, that I needed to do more upbeat stuff. For example, the radio blog I was going to throw up was going to include Platinum Pied Pipers, Matt Bianco, Ivana Santilli, Rahsaan Patterson, and more....but then I thought that after the Old School Hip Hop arby that it would be better if I just let people marinate on that instead of going ultra-mellow as I've been kinda feeling after the weird work week I had. For example, I was supposed to see Star Wars, and I was all set. We were all sitting down, and the movie was about to start and then.... then....

...my pager went off, I got stuck on a conference call, and as the movie started I was on my way to my car going back to work. Sometimes life is like that, you know?

Especially since I've hit the cover of Jet Magazine!

HOLLA!

What a weekend, what a weekend, what a weekend!!

I'm tired, behind with my blog readings (Nichelle, do you know anyone with an IV tube?!) but I'm happy.

I had more fun than I've ever had with Chef Bernie, Jimi Sweet and my main man Christopher David, who made my visit spectacular.

I ate and drank myself into a wonderful stupor. George, Chris, Donald, S Dot Porter, and A. can attest to that).

I got a chance to hang out with Gordon Chambers and listen to him show me the time of my life. (Friday's mix is gonna be a knockout).

I have so much to say from my trip that I can't even begin to tell you how much of a wonderful time I had with the Brown Bloggers, and yes what a night it was, with getting to hang with Punchin' Prometheus 6, Radiant Ronn, Devestating Donald, Photogenic Phillipe, Luscious Lynne, Hip Hop Hashim, the blogfather George (and blogmother A.) and the hostesses with the mostesses, Luminescent Liza and Knockout Nichelle. I've got nothin' but serious love for everyone that was able to hang with, to talk to, to be with.

I still missed hanging with my homeslices, like eating with Al Boogie, groovin' with KB, hanging with GrooveBunny, chillin' with Steve, and absorbing all that is Kevin R. Scott, but you know, that's what makes me want to get up there even more and make for missing some of my people. (Yo Berry, Trent, Metalface, where you at?)

If Sunday night was any indication, I believe there's good things in store for New York's brown bloggers. To have this many people show up at the first annual event shows that brown bloggers - and I don't mean just the ones with brown skin, but also the ones with a brown identity, can embrace what the idea of brown blogging is and what it can be across the nation. I'm throwing the gauntlet down not only for the Atlanta brown bloggers, but brown bloggers across the nation. If it can be done in NYC, than it can be done anywhere. Believe that. If you don't know, now you know. See it for yourself from my lens, or you can check it out from George's lens, or you can check it out from Donald's lens. Check it out from Nichelle's view (who's got even more links of people up in the place)and Liza's view too!!

And yes, while I was gone, I was able to have Xquizzyt1 throw it down yet again, with her OSW, and she don't stop:

Old School Wednesday: The Xquizzyt1 Mix, Volume 3.

01 Meli'sa Morgan - Fools Paradise
02 Sybil - Falling In Love
03 Today - Girl I Got My Eyes On You
04 Nona Hendryx - Transformation
05 Mantronix Feat Wondress - Got To Have Your Love
06 Sounds of Blackness - Optimistic
07 Family Stand - Ghetto Heaven
08 Inner City - Good Life
09 Portrait - Here We Go Again
10 Lidell Townsell - Nu-Nu
11 Ralph Tresvant - Sensitivity
12 Chuckii Booker - Games
13 52nd Street - Tell Me How It Feels
14 RJ's Latest Arrival - Heaven In Your Arms
15 Mint Condition - Pretty Brown Eyes
16 Hi-Five - I Like The Way (The Kissing Game)
17 Tony! Toni! Tone! - Whatever You Want
18 Above the Rim Soundtrack - Sweet Sable - Old Time's Sake

Show your love, here, there, and everywhere.

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...