Recently in the world according to ej. 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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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.
Hey now! I'm in Chicago on business so this Old School Wednesday will be a little late in coming. Sorry for the wait, but someone is working on it as we speak. Check back soon. Meanwhile, I'm going to get back to the grind.
Never thought I would make it this far. Today's the day. And what a wonderful day it is. Holla atcha birthday boy.
We preempt Old School Wednesday this week for the special occasion known as Valentines Day, in a more comprehensive mix:
Old School Tuesday : Valentines Day 2006.
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01 - Alexander O'Neal - Do You Wanna Like I Do
02 - Quincy Jones featuring Patti Austin - Somethin' Special
03 - Loose Ends - Sweetest Pain
04 - Atlantic Starr - Send for Me
05 - Switch - I Wanna Be Closer
06 - Stevie Wonder - Ribbon in the Sky
07 - Heatwave - The Star of The Story
08 - Donny Hathaway & Roberta Flack - You Are My Heaven
09 - Jermaine Jackson - You Like Me Don't You (Single Version)
10 - One Way - Lady You Are
11 - Deniece Williams - Free
12 - Anita Baker - You're The Best Thing Yet
13 - Skyy - When You Touch Me
14 - Sade - Kiss of Life
15 - Enchantment - It's You That I Need
16 - Etta James - At Last
17 - Phoebe Snow - Poetry Man
18 - Chaka Khan - My Funny Valentine
19 - Spandau Ballet - True
20 - Swing Out Sister - You Already Know
21 - Van Morrison - Someone Like You
22 - Gino Vannelli - I Just Wanna Stop
23 - Player - Baby Come Back
24 - The Art of Noise - Moments in Love
25 - The Time - Gigolos Get Lonely Too
26 - Bootsy Collins - I'd Rather Be With You
27 - Prince - Adore
28 - Isley Brothers - Atlantis
I wanted to give a little of the old school staples, like Deniece Williams's classic Free, and Heatwave's Star Of The Story, one of my personal top 5 all-time classics. But I thought it be essential to pull out some of blue-eyed soul, like Player's Baby Come Back or some cuts that were played way back in the day, like Phoebe Snow's Poetry Man. Also, there is no way I could possibly forget my cassette tapes and 12 inch songs that I've bought at least 3 copies of, like Moments In Love and Gigolos Get Lonely Too, essentials for the cool dudes from around the way.
I consider myself one of "least romantic" people out there, as I told my homeslice PhillyKat better known as The Romantical Chick. She gave me that push that I needed. Enjoy it. Hey, and if Valentines Day isn't your bag, you could always do something like let EJ know what you think about him (snatched from George and Hopluv.) Don't be shy.
Happy Valentines Day to you and yours!
Before I give the answers to questions asked during the last couple of weeks, I'd like to make a little statement and do a little polling.
Without going into details, my work and life schedule has primarily been in a state where most of my blogging is done when I'm at home. In other words, being able to read other blogs at work is much easier than actually blogging at work. Because the break/fix to the radio blog for Old School Wednesday had to be done during work hours, I received backlash for having to do so in the workplace. Because of this, I was a little shaken and a little discouraged in actually finishing work on an In Rotation this week.
I have an In Rotation in progress for this week, but because of the way my week at has been, I wasn't able to finish it in time for this morning. I'm thinking of switching my In Rotations to either:
1. Every other Friday; or
2. Posting one on the weekend.
Readers/listeners out there, which schedule would you vote for? I like to be able to provide a mix, since doing radio blogs and sharing music is something I really enjoy. I'd like to hear from you. Thanks.
....and now to answer questions.
Thoughts before I head to Brooknam for some much needed vacation:
Givin': Yahoo 360? GMail? Need em? Want em? Let me know.
Thinkin': Chandrasutra brought up the reality that bloggers are being misrepresented. She states:
Big Media are doing a fine job of misrepresenting bloggers.She has a list of seven questions, which I would encourage everyone who is reading this and believe that blogs need finer representation (as I do), to either answer them in the comments section of her blog entry, or email them to her at mel at htmel dot net.
And I've had enough of it.
It's time we spoke for ourselves. It's time we raised our voices and let them (and everybody else know) who we actually are, who we link to and why we blog.
Vibin': While I've been doing Old School Wednesdays (which are actually easy), I've been lax on giving vibes on a regular basis for new music, new beats, and giving more exposure. Therefore, Friday Melodies is back this year, this time entitled:
In Rotation: 4/8/05.
01 - Mariah Carey - Stay The Night. From The Emancipation of Mimi, Mariah's debut album on Def Jam. This track was produced by Kanye West, which in my opinion, is the finest track on the CD. In terms of quality, this CD is exceedingly better than Charmbracelet.
02 - Mica Paris - I Luv You. First track from her new CD, If You Could Love Me. On Wounded Bird Records.
03 - The Rurals - Read Me Like A Book. From their just-released album A Rural Life. Mellow, deep house.
04 - Beady Belle - Irony. From their new CD Closer.
05 - Pete Belasco - Hurry, Hurry. It would be easy (and incorrect) to compare him to Marvin Gaye. He knows how to sing, point blank. His CD Deeper is quite mellow and soulful.
06 - Beanie Sigel - Change. Ian recommended his CD, and in doing so, was the impetus for me getting it after being on the fence for a second. This is one of the mellower, introspective tracks on the album, which fits into this mix nicely. The album, as it stands, is arguably one of the first standout hip-hop albums this year.
07 - Earth Wind And Fire with Rafael Saadiq - Show Me The Way. Fantastic single from the upcoming album. Produced and sung with Raphael Saddiq, this is true EWF, and will stay in my rotation for a good while.
08 - Nicole Willis - (Sunday Night) Don't Hold Back. Great horn section accompanies this track. From Be It.
09 - Onda - Deeper Love. From Carte Blanche 3. This CD has Gaelle's Falling as well as P'Taah's Hold You Close, which are also of merit.
10 - Silhouette Brown - Changes.
11 - Faith Evans - Lucky Day. Nikki loved this CD, and recommended it to me. I'm glad I listened to her. This is one of my favorite tracks.
12 - Ivana Santilli - Deserve. Todd hipped me to Ivana, and I was not dissapointed. This single was penned and backed by....
13 - Omar - Come On.
Vibe with me.
*Special thanks to Honey for the vibe!
