2 posts tagged “billie holiday”

If you read my blog you probably know I adore Maxwell's music so I am treating myself to a ticket to see Maxwell in concert.

[Yeah! I have never seen Maxwell in concert despite all that I write about his voice. I've been following his career since 1996 like most of his fans. The man is gifted!! I adore his art but I am NOT trying to get with him. I am making that extra L-O-U-D and clear for I respect his art! If you check my other blogs you may see I have a slight obsession with falsetto voices. I believe this ties into the theory that Daniel J. Levitin has discussed in his book, This is Your Brain on Music. I adore not only Maxwell's voice but a variety of voices such as Prince, Michael Jackson, Babyface, Opera singer Measha Brueggergosman, Kathleen Battle, Jessye Norman, Amel Larrieux, Billie Holiday, Sade, Barry White, Smokey Robinson, Seal, George Michael, Souleymane Diamanka (my list is continuous so I am giving you a picture of my musical appreciation for VOICES!!]

TODAY and starting NOW until 9pm, BUY BUY an internet PRESALE ticket to see Maxwell in New York City at Radio City Music Hall.

Buy your tickets through www.ticketmaster.com and the Internet Presale Password is HEWING (according to presalepassword.net)

Link to Maxwell on Ticketmaster

I have NO clue when Maxwell's new album is debuting but I am excited to experience Maxwell live because his MTV Unplugged album is my absolute favorite. My favorite song by Maxwell is Softly, Softly which he performed with Sweetback. If you read the bio for Sweetback that is the band that backs Sade. Sweetback's member Stuart  Matthewman is another artist that I adore for his musical compositions and work with Maxwell, Sade and even my other favorite, Amel Larrieux. I have all of Matthewman's albums which I have been playing out continuously.

I've given love to Maxwell, Stuart "Cottonbelly" Matthewman & Amel Larrieux in all my blogs so if you want to learn more about them please check my blogs here:

2Serenity on Last.fm
SerenlyLife on MOG
2Serenity on Fuzz

To keep updated on the latest Maxwell news please check The Latest Maxwell News here.

Special shout outs to the Maxwell Family (aka MaxFam) & of course my play brother Maxwell!!

Finally, I get to see Maxwell do his thing live! Maxwell, I hope you will SELL a DVD of this performance or one of your live performances because I CANNOT FIND the MTV Unplugged performance that you did and I would love to SEE it after listening to the MTV Unplugged Maxwell CD for a decade. Help your sister out - PLEASE?!?! =P Thanks kid!

Just remember this voice then you know why I go absolutely NUTS when I hear it (thank you to the kind soul on youtube who uploaded this video!):

[formating is WACK on Vox. I am not getting this ?!?!?!!]

Picture of the artist - Kara Walker:

from www.britannica.com

These links just came to my attention:

Information at PBS on Kara Walker (bio, etc).
http://www.pbs.org/art21/artists/walker/index.html

Wow..
She has a books!

Recently she was in the New Yorker Magazine:
Shades of Meaning (another plug for her exhibit at the Whitney Museum)
http://www.newyorker.com/online/2007/10/08/slideshow_071008_walker

Also in New York Magazine:
http://nymag.com/guides/fallpreview/2007/art/36599/
Darkness and Light: In the art of Kara Walker, prim Victorian forms bring racial history into
high contrast by Karen Rosenberg

Kara's messages reminds me of Damali Ayo in how she is in your face.
Some people need this to truly understand the horror of slavery and
other unsettling times in history.

Thank you, Kara Walker!

Here is the blog for the exhibit:
http://whitneymuseum.wordpress.com/2007/10/03/share-with-us-your-reactions/

I really needed a Kara Walker/Damali Ayo type when I lived in the midwest because some people
did not have the exposure at all to other cultural groups. I was surprised especially in a University
setting people asking me questions about my color and hair.  That was wild. I had that
in grade school, junior high and high school but .........why in a University setting??!?!?!? I seriously got
tired of it but I smiled and grinned, but some days I wanted to wear a bag over my head.

[I went to all prep schools growing up and I was usually the one of few dots in my class.
You never get used to the stares and idiotic questions, but sometimes just a little irritated.
People will turn to you and think you are the voice of the entire black race.
I would always say I am talking only for me!]

And, I have to say that those artists who used the N word a lot (in jokes) and still do made it hard for me
in professional school where I was asked by one of white classmates if she could call me the
N word. I still am baffled over my class mate wanting to call me the N word. She thought it
was a funny term.

Whenever I hear the N word, I immediately think of the lynchings that were made in the US back in
the early 20th and late 19th century. Remember the song, Strange Fruit by Billie Holiday:

Some people try to get to familiar with you and you need to just be respectful of others.
I found that very inappropriate and out of line for people to want to call me the N word for no reason but
just because it was funny. WHY? I am not an N. I am human being.  I am always respectful of others
even those who I do not care for but that is just how I was raised.

Thank you for Paul Mooney for saying that you would stop using it. Although he used it in a way to provoke thought in terms of our history. He was just not saying the N word just to say it but to make a point to the knuckleheads who do not listen.

Although you see these negative and hear negative images of every culture in the world, I have PRIDE in who I am because I try to educate myself on the beauty that is within every culture. There is just a lot of pain in the African American culture and we tend to show that more only because we are so disconnected from our history that is not taught. It is frustrating to always have to question what part of Africa we may have come from or what other cultures are we mixed with. And, that DNA African American ancestry testing thing is not accurate. I already was tested and my results do not make any sense at all. I received only numbers and letters and not where in Africa my people came from. I want my money back!

Check out: www.myspace.com/dnahoax and this on 60 minutes about questioning the process:

60 Minutes - Finding One's Roots- Lesley Stahl reports..
http://www.cbsnews.com/sections/i_video/main500251.shtml?id=3340379n

I am looking forward to seeing Kara Walker's exhibit. I am mentality prepared to deal with whatever comes my way!