I’mma Own It

Hi there. I haven’t posted in a while, the reason being A.) Sick, fever, cough, blah. Last week was basically just filled with tons of TV and mindless vegetating, hence the un-creativeness, and B.) I’m going through yet another one of those “blogging related questioning” times. This time, instead of worrying about how my blog looks or what the topic is, I’m wondering why I resist making posts that are… time locked. I mean all of my posts usually have nothing to do with “the now” and are more like references. Maybe I trained myself to make posts that people might bookmark and come back to. But what I’m realizing now is that when you write about what’s happening now, people will be more motivated to come back often–because it’s time related. So, on that note, I think I’ll start writing more of the ‘haps, kay? After all, I am a kid. No need to be professional or anything.

Being a musical family, we listen to music on the way to school. My dad’s car doesn’t have an iPod connector, so we end up listening to whatever CD’s are at hand, usually a Mojo sampler or something. Lately we’ve been listening to two things: Animal Collective (Merriweather Post Pavilion) and an Oxford music thingy. The first one is amazing. Animal Collective’s dreamscape epic harmonies are beautiful, only to be topped off by driving beats and complex synths. The only thing I would complain about is their melodies. Sometimes they’re just too “covered up” by the other instruments, but the good part about that is it makes you want to listen to it again, and again, and again, until you can really grasp it. On the other hand, whatever is on that Oxford compilation is (also) amazing. It has a spoken word intro by Morgan Freeman (I just realized that his last name is “free-man”) that ends with, “Let’s boogie.” Those are definitely the proper words to describe this album. How can you not love a soulful blues song? There is one song, though, that just makes me laugh. It’s called something like “Jelly Behind Woman (Blows my mind).” The whole song is basically about this guy who is “blown away” by this woman’s “jelly behind” because she “gets on the dance floor and shakes that thing” and it just “blows his mind.” It’s funny.

Listening to all this funky music with good messages reminded me of a long lost friend: Charles Wright. Charles Wright & The Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band, that is. On their album Express Yourself: The Best Of Charles Wright & The 103rd Street Rhythm Band, they rip it up with soulful tunes and great lyrics. The first song, called Express Yourself, is actually partially what inspired me to write this post. It really made me feel what expressing yourself means–making art, talking, being creative. Writing is a big way of expressing yourself for me. Sometimes the mere feeling of getting something done can make your day.