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"I'm Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How to Dance with You" by Black Kids
This totally addictive song from Jacksonville, FL band, Black Kids, was apparently all the rage last summer...somehow I missed it on my Best Songs of 2007 list...BUT now they are touring in the UK with Kate Nash and Sons & Daughters, so I thought this would be timely. Their 4-song EP called Wizards of Ahhhs is available for FREE at their site BlackKidsMusic.com.
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In a terrible twist of fate, Andy Palacio died on Saturday, January 19, 2008 just after having received numerous awards for his album, Watina. Here is the official obituary in the New York Times. I was stunned when I heard about this. What a tragedy. I had just learned about his wonderful music a month earlier and picked "Watina" as one of my 2007 Best Songs of the Week.
The full article: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/21/arts/music/21palacio.html?_r=1&ref=obituaries&oref=slogin
Andy Palacio, Who Saved Garifuna Music, Dies at 47
Andy Palacio, a bandleader and songwriter who spearheaded a revival of the Garifuna music of Central America, died Saturday in his native Belize City, Belize. He was 47 and lived in San Ignacio, Belize.
The cause was respiratory failure after a stroke and heart attack, according to Jacob Edgar, president of his record company, Cumbancha.
In Belize, Mr. Palacio was nationally known as both a musician and an advocate for Garifuna culture. “Watina,” his album with the Garifuna Collective, was acclaimed as one of the best world music releases of 2007.
The Garifuna (pronounced ga-RI-foo-nah) are descendants of West African slaves who were shipwrecked in 1635 off the coast of what is now the island of St. Vincent and intermarried with local Arawak and Carib people. Garifuna villages arose on the coasts of Honduras, Nicaragua, Guatemala and Belize. There are now an estimated 250,000 Garifuna people worldwide, a minority culture under pressure from assimilation and coastal development.
“I decided to use music as a medium for cultural preservation,” Mr. Palacio said in an interview with NPR last year. “At least we’d be able to use the language in the songs and keep them alive.”
Mr. Palacio grew up in a Garifuna family in the coastal village of Barranco, Belize, and soaked up local and international music. He worked as a high school teacher, and on a visit to Nicaragua with a literacy project, he met an elderly man who was one of the last Garifuna speakers in Nicaragua. He resolved to preserve the language at home and in 1981 served as host of a Garifuna program on Radio Belize.
During the 1980s, Mr. Palacio used Garifuna rhythms in punta rock, a popular Caribbean dance music, and had Central American hits, including “Bikini Panty” and “Gimme Punta Rock.” In the mid-1990s, working with the producer Ivan Duran, Mr. Palacio made albums with musicians from Belize and Cuba, and in 1999 he appeared with older Garifuna musicians on the album “Paranda.” After various government jobs, he was named director of culture at the Belize Arts Council in 2003.
Meanwhile, Mr. Palacio and Mr. Duran worked to assemble the Garifuna Collective, which brought together multiple generations of Garifuna musicians for socially conscious songs. Mr. Palacio’s album with the collective, “Watina,” uses the Afro-Caribbean lilt of vintage Garifuna styles along with modern touches like an occasional electric guitar. The songs carry messages like: “Our ancestors fought to remain Garifuna/ Why must we be the ones to lose our culture?” It stimulated a rediscovery of Garifuna music among younger musicians in Central America.
The prime minister of Belize gave Mr. Palacio the Order of Meritorious Service in September 2007, and in November, Mr. Palacio was named a Unesco Artist for Peace. “I hope that our efforts will not only preserve Garifuna culture but also re-energize a generation,” he told NPR.
Mr. Palacio is survived by his mother, Cleofa Avilez; his brother, Oswald Lopez; his sister, Jacinta Palacio; his children, Kami, Uani, Nita, Tara, Kamou; and two granddaughters.
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Yesterday, Musician's Friend gave over $6,800 worth of musical gear to Josiah Leming, the former American Idol contestant who lived in his car and was booted off the show before making it to the final 24. I was rooting for him and was surprised he didn't make the cut, but anyway...over the weekend we got a call asking us to donate a gift package for his appearance on The Ellen Show yesterday. We put together a sweet prize and the giveaway got mentioned on Access Hollywood and AOL.com.
Here's the list of what we gave away, thanks to some awesome vendor support:
Anyway, I wish Josiah the best of luck! Here's his MySpace page and here's a video of him performing "One Last Song."
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Legalese: My blog is personal and has no affiliation to Ellen Degeneres, The Ellen Show or American Idol. Nothing I say on my blog has been in any way endorsed by Musician's Friend or Guitar Center and reflects my own personal views only.. So there.
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Happy Presidents Day! And even more importantly, I've got a personal holiday of sorts to celebrate. Two years ago this week, I left Manhattan for Ashland, Oregon. Believe me, it has been quite an experience. In honor of the big move (and my big city valentine), this week's Best Song is a cover of "New York, New York" off Cat Power's latest album released last month, Jukebox.
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In honor of Presidents Day, here are two ways to save huge on music gear Monday, Feb. 18, 2008:
Musician's Friend: Presidents' Day Clearance Event! Extra savings on over $2 million worth of inventory from overstocks and returns to refurbs and discontinued gear. Ends 2/19.
Guitar Center: One-Day-Only Presidents Day Sale! Starts at 10am at your local Guitar Center Store or call 866-498-7882. Presidents Day price-cuts plus special one-day-only financing: 2/18 only.
image source: kaboose.com
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Had a funny conversation with a colleague recently. After a meeting was over, she looked at my shoes and said, "I know you didn't buy those locally!" She was right. Most of my shoes, of course, were bought in NYC since that is where I lived for most of my adult life, and you'd be hard-pressed to find better shoes than ones you can get in Manhattan (boy, do I miss Otto Tootsie Plohound). Since I moved to Southern Oregon, I would say that my clothes and shoe shopping has been...challenged. It's all a bit crunchy or rich retiree for my taste, but there are a few bright spots and it took me a while to find them. Portland, of course, has good shopping, but as far as local stores go, the following are the ones I like the most in Ashland.
ATOMICA (116 Lithia Way; 541 488 0386): Tiny boutique specializing in neo-vintage and rock & roll-inspired clothing. They carry a few local designers and have super cute stockings and knee-highs (I bought my favorite skull socks from here!) and other fun accessories.
EARTHLY GOODS: (142 East Main Street; 541 488 8080): A surprisingly large, two-floor women's clothing store in downtown Ashland. LOTS of shoes, and most importantly, they carry Campers which I love.
NECTAR ECO-BOUTIQUE: (293 East Main Street; 541 488 3340): Specializes in "fashion with a conscience" meaning stylish organic clothing and products. It recently opened--hope it survives.
PRIZE (264 East Main Street; 541 482 0345): Easily my favorite store in the area. Prize is very West Village with stylish and oh-so-witty gifts, trinkets, note cards, home furnishings, beauty items, etc. I've bought everything from cute tees and stationery to teddy bears and dishes and even bon-bons here. It's a little slice of downtown NYC home for little 'ol me. :)
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"Oxford Comma" by Vampire Weekend 
I've been looking forward to this debut album by NYC band Vampire Weekend since last year. The sound is sort of like preppy indie Afro-pop ska or what they like to call Upper West Side Soweto. I know this seems a little wacky...but there you go. I saw them perform recently on David Letterman and I actually was a bit disappointed, but the album OTOH I like a lot--catchy tunes with smart lyrics.
Live from MTV Spanking New Sessions...
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My friend, Sarah Bernard (formerly VP of Ecommerce at BabyCenter.com), is now VP of Worldwide Product at Snapfish.com. Snapfish has a few key roles that they're looking to fill on the Product Management, User Interface, Design, & Project Management Teams. If you know of potential candidates, please email her at [email protected].
This is a great opportunity to work at an innovative online/multi-channel technology company with really fun people who are changing the photography space with new products, technologies, and services.
See below for open positions. All jobs are based in San Francisco. For more detailed descriptions contact [email protected]
Company: Hewlett-Packard Snapfish
Job Title: Various Roles on Product Team
Description: Product Manager, International: help us build our sites world wide.
Project Manager: task master our projects to completion across functions
Web Marketing Designer: design landing pages and interactive web pages that express who we are and help the customer
User Interface Designer: architect our user experience and make photo sharing, printing, and product creation easy.
Production Associate, International: produce our sites with the designs and marketing that keep it fresh
HTML Designer: develop and build our pages and bring our designs to life.
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I am a huge film buff, although from my blog you probably wouldn't know it. My film posts are admittedly very few and far between. I'll try to rectify that a bit in the new year. In any case, these were the Top 10 films I saw in 2007 (most released in 2007...only a couple a bit older than that). It was a pretty good film year. Even movies I thought were overrated (e.g. Waitress), were still pretty acceptable, all things considered.
My Top 5 popcorn movies of 2007:
Top 5 Films from 2007 on my Netflix queue:
And if you've got more time to fritter away, check out my picks for Best Albums and Songs of 2007!
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Here's a sign that I'm living in hippieville...
At Creekside Pizza in Ashland (the best pizza in town, in my opinion, plus just generally a good place to hang), there's already a waitress named Sunshine. Pretty unusual name, right? Another girl comes in to apply for a job. Hey, what's your name...Sunshine, of course. (!!!)
Of course, this is coming from someone with the name So Young. Unlike in the U.S., in Korea (at least when I was born a long long time ago), parents wait until a baby is born to name him/her. My mom took my birth certificate to an astrologer who looked at all of the various sun and moon and planet signs and ascendants and what-have-you and determined the best name for me was "So Young" which means something like "radiant like the sun." So now you know.
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