Random wrongness

If this 10-minute clip intrigues you, you can watch the entire 47-minute documentary here. (Hat-tip: What Would Thembi Do?)

This date in Beatles history: 1966

On the evening of June 30, 1966, the Beatles played their first concert in Tokyo. It was videotaped.

In 1984, a 44-minute Laserdisc (and VHS cassette) of this concert was released commercially in Japan. This recording has been the subject of copyright litigation (and the object of bootlegging) ever since.

Of course, all the songs are up on YouTube. Below is the group’s performance of “Yesterday” from that Tokyo show.

A free Suzanne Westenhoefer download

Here we go with the comedy binge I promised...

Suzanne Westenhoefer is my absolute favorite lesbian comic. And she’s on my long list of Best Standups, Period. I’ve been following her career since the early ’90s.

A whopping 14½-minute chunk of material from Westenhoefer’s 1997 debut CD – “Nothing In My Closet But My Clothes” – is available as a FREE MP3.

Click here to hear “Let’s Talk About Sex” on my Vox blog.

Even though she’s talking about schtupping from start to finish, Westenhoefer does so in good taste and with an endearing humanism.

And you can’t knock her technical chops... the way she simply commands a stage or builds a series of jokes.

I’ll be pointing you all to more free comedy tracks. To download this one, click the title below.

“Let’s Talk About Sex” (MP3)
Album available at eMusic

Colored Folks Against Obama

Something candid from Ricky Gervais and Louis CK

Two funny guys on a private jet. Trying to crack each other up. Using bad language when the flight gets bumpy. Et cetera.

I’m about to go on a comedy binge with this blog. (Inspired by Carlin’s passing, I suppose.) So enjoy this 5½-minute video, which Ricky Gervais uploaded earlier this month:

Ummm... I don’t mean no harm, but...

... how gay do you have to be to think Sandra Bernhard is the shit?

U.N.I.T.Y.

This day was worth waiting for.

Random hotness

This cutie craves attention. And she knows where to go to get it: YouTube, betches! (Ignore the first 15 seconds.)

A free Tricky download

First, a word about Dave Allen. Dave Allen played bass for the British post-punk band Gang of Four. Now he’s in Portland, Oregon, and he runs a music blog called Pampelmoose.

And he hosts a lot of FREE MP3s.

Here’s one by the British “trip-hop” vocalist Tricky. Tricky has a new CD dropping overseas in July. But this freebie is from his 1996 album, “Pre-Millenium Tension.”

To stream “Tricky Kid” on my Vox blog, click here.

To commence downloading the MP3, hit this link. (Cheers, Dave Allen!)

Below is the video for Tricky’s latest single, “Council Estate.”

MBP of the Week: NBC News

Been missing the Misidentified Black Peoples? Yeah, me too.

According to the blog TVNewser, NBC’s “Today Show” yesterday mentioned that Barack Obama is a fan of the rapper Jay-Z.

But NBC didn’t show a picture of Jay-Z; it showed a picture of the rapper Joe Budden.

TVNewser reports that this “editing snafu” was corrected in time for the West Coast feed.

(Thanks, RP.)

Another free Alejandro Escovedo download

Last summer, one of the first FREE MP3s I blogged about was by the beloved Texas rocker Alejandro Escovedo.

Time for another shot of him. Mr. Escovedo’s new album, “Real Animal,” came out this week.

Click here to hear “Always a Friend” on my Vox blog. To download the track, follow this link to Alejandro’s official website.

Below is a video of Alejandro performing this tune with Bruce Springsteen two months ago at a Bruce show in Houston.

Calling a spade a spade

From HillaryGreenMountain.org:

Random Japaneseness

Racist political witchcraft

In the Internet Age, anyone can be a political saboteur... a “dirty trickster,” a smear artist, a faceless character assassin... from the comfort of one’s home.

But if you don’t want your true identity discovered, you better be slick about it. Slicker than the asshole who launched a website called Power 2 Obama.

Hanging out last week amongst the rabid Obama-haters at the No Quarter blog, I saw a suspicious comment with a link to Power 2 Obama. So I went and checked it out.

It pretends to be a black-power site – with a red, black and green flag with a fist on it. Power 2 Obama has photos of Farrakhan, Jeremiah Wright, Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson and (until recently) Malcolm X and Huey Newton under the heading “The Cabinet.”

The site has pages such as “Hatin’ On Whitey” (“Look at what the white man has done to our people. Our list of grievances is real. Our anger is justified.”) and “Whitey’s House” (“The time has come for the black man to rise up!!! We’re going to take that house on Pennsylvania Avenue and we’re going to turn whitey’s house into the brotha-man’s crib!”)

Obvious bullshit fakery. With a mission to rile up gullible white folks.

There’s a “Reparations” page. (“Brothas and sistahs, the time has come to make whitey pay!”) And, of course, a Michelle Obama page. (“You’re damn right America is hungry for a change, now hand over the keys, whitey.”)

You might even consider it satire. Except that the man behind Power 2 Obama is out there driving traffic to his site by commenting on Web forums like You Decide 2008, Political Crossfire and FoxNews.com’s GretaWire.

I did a quick WHOIS search to see who owns the power2obama.com domain name. Alas, it was registered anonymously through a proxy service.

So I sent a comment to Power 2 Obama through its “feedback” page. Noticing that the site doesn’t seem like a big-money operation... it smells totally like a one-man show... I wrote: “Can I contribute money?”

I soon got an email back from yomomma@power2obama.com:

“ALL POWER 2 THE PEOPLE,” he wrote. “BARACK OBAMA FOREVAH!”

Dude gave a quick explanation of why Power 2 Obama doesn’t have a donations link. Then he wrote: “I do have an evil twin who supports John McCain, however, and I owe him some money..., so you can help me by buying some of the gear here: http://www.secondcarterterm.com

“Just tell him Ahmed referred you.”

Bingo.

This new site called Second Carter Term – complete with an American flag and a bald eagle – is straightforward and direct with its anti-Obama agenda. It offers for sale “NOBAMA” bumper stickers and “Bitter Gun-Owner” T-shirts and the like.

Now guess what? The genius registered SecondCarterTerm.com under his real name! This bush-league dirty trickster is Mike Cornelison of Laguna Hills, California.

I emailed him back at yomomma@power2obama.com:

“So, Mike... that Power2Obama site, that’s just a bit of political witchcraft on your part? Or is it satire? Or what exactly?”

Mike Cornelison wrote back from a different email address:

“I just received an email from my brother Ahmed and he seems to think I somehow claimed responsibility for his website. I just wanted to make it very clear that I have had no hand in power2obama.com and the work you see there is entirely his and his alone.”

Mike added: “[F]or whatever chicanery I may be willing to stoop to to try to influence a vote or two here or there,” if Obama becomes president “I will wish for him to enjoy all the success in the world.”

Left unanswered is the question of why “Ahmed,” being a black-power militant who rants against “whitey,” would encourage me to buy “NOBAMA” gear from his white brother.

Unless, of course, “Ahmed” and Mike Cornelison are the same person.

How do I know Mike is white? Because he has videos up on YouTube. I’ve embedded two of them below. (His YouTube handle, “shikamoo,” is the same as the email address listed with his domain-name registration for SecondCarterTerm.com.)

Mike Cornelison is a bass player and author of the book “Classical Masterpieces for Electric Bass.” He needs to stick to music and leave the right-wing political sabotage to the pros.

UPDATE (06/26/08): As “dj” mentioned in the comments section, Mike has pulled down his Power 2 Obama site... and replaced it with a semi-contrite message.

‘Y’all Should All Get Lynched’

I tip my brim to media blogger Richard Prince for pointing to the provocative rap video below... evidently produced by BET executive Reginald Hudlin but released on the internets by Babygrande Records.

The theme of the video is that “coon-ass rappers” who traffic in negative images are “sellout niggas” who ought to be lynched.

The track is by Staten Island rapper NYOIL, and was originally released in 2006. It’s included on the new NYOIL album “Hood Treason: Deluxe 2 CD Edition.”

“To BET’s credit,” wrote Dick Prince, “the network has not televised the animated video....” In Prince’s opinion, the song “trivializes the horrors of lynching to make its point.”

I’m all for free speech... and the animation is definitely top quality. But perhaps Black Entertainment Television shouldn’t be in the position of suggesting that anyone get lynched, metaphorically or otherwise.

What do y’all think? Is this too much for TV?

Tuesday 12-inch Flashback: ‘Spacer’

This dance record by Sheila & B. Devotion was a mid-sized black-radio hit in the summer of 1980, but it was much more popular in Europe.

I remember it fondly for its grade-A Chic groove, propelled by the chugging rhythm guitar of Nile Rodgers.

As producers, Rodgers and Bernard Edwards were kings of the world at that point. Sister Sledge had blown up the year before. And Nile and Bernard rocked the charts later in 1980 with “Upside Down” for Diana Ross... and with “Rebels Are We,” Chic’s last Top 10 R&B single.

So... who the heck were Sheila & B. Devotion? “Sheila” was the stage name of Annie Chancel, a pop star in France since the ’60s.

B. Devotion – sometimes known as Black Devotion – were Sheila’s backup singers. You can see them prancing around in the music video for “Spacer.”

Anyway... cheers to the Vinyl Morpher for dropping the needle on this.

Random wrongness

D.C. represent!

Ladies and gentlemen... the one, the only... Blelvis!

‘Hard Times at Douglass High’ on HBO tonight

If you’re in need of new reasons to get depressed about inner-city schools, HBO has something for you tonight at 9 p.m. (Eastern and Pacific time). It’s the debut of a 2-hour documentary titled “Hard Times at Douglass High: A No Child Left Behind Report Card.”

Filmmakers Alan and Susan Raymond spent a year shooting footage inside a Baltimore high school... a school whose proud past includes alumnus Thurgood Marshall.

HBO is marketing “Hard Times at Douglass High” as a critique of President Bush’s education plan. But according to reviewers, the documentary is less about policy than about the thoroughgoing dysfunction of ghetto culture.

“[This] dismaying film isn’t really asking whether No Child Left Behind can help Douglass,” writes a New York Times critic. “It’s asking whether anything can.”

A National Review Online reviewer sees “Hard Times” as an exposé of incompetent teachers and administrators; “Many are just plain bad at their jobs.”

I might catch this one on a later showing. Don’t think I’m up to it tonight. Below is a 1½-minute clip from the documentary:

George Carlin (1937-2008)

George Carlin, one of the great standup comics of the last 40 years, died yesterday at a Santa Monica hospital. He’d checked in complaining of chest pains.

My earliest memory of Carlin was his appearance on “The Flip Wilson Show” when I was about 10 years old. I followed his career ever since.

Only in recent years did I learn that George Carlin began as part of a two-man team: Burns & Carlin. The Burns was Jack Burns, who later found fame in the duo Burns & Schreiber.

Carlin’s first comedy album was actually a Burns & Carlin album, released in 1963. To hear one of their routines – “Killer Carlin” – click here.

Carlin discussed his partnership with Burns in a conversation with humorist Larry Wilde back in the 1980s. It’s part of an album called “George Carlin on Comedy.”

Click here to hear Carlin tell the story of how he and Jack Burns arrived in California in 1960, hoping to make it big, and how they were helped by Lenny Bruce and Mort Sahl.

(My previous blog posts about George Carlin are here, here and here.)

Something sweet from the Carolina Chocolate Drops

This’ll be my third time since February blogging about the Carolina Chocolate Drops. I am not ashamed. (Previous posts are here and here.)

Rhiannon Giddens, Justin Robinson and Dom Flemons (pictured) are my kind of Negroes... “doing culture” at a high level. And they’re in demand, with gigs booked into next April.

Heads up, Brooklyn! The Chocolate Drops will play a free show Thursday night in Prospect Park. (Organizers of the Celebrate Brooklyn concert series request that you donate $3.)

Next month the Carolina Chocolate Drops will travel to France for a world-music festival. And in August they return to the Ottawa Folk Festival... after rocking it a year ago.

Now guess what else? The Chocolate Drops last weekend made their debut at Nashville’s Grand Ole Opry House – the tabernacle of country music – and they got a standing ovation!

Below, the group performs “Cornbread and Butterbeans” during an April showcase in Knoxville, Tenn. Enjoy!

Tsvangirai quits!

Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai has withdrawn from Zimbabwe’s presidential race... or, as he called it, “this violent, illegitimate sham of an election process.”

He told reporters today in Harare: “We can’t ask the people to cast their vote on June 27 when that vote will cost their lives.”

Instead, Tsvangirai is calling on the United Nations and the African Union to intervene and stop the “state-sponsored brutality” in Zimbabwe.

Morgan Tsvangirai’s party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), was due to have a rally today in Harare. But according to the New York Times, members of a “youth militia” supporting President Robert Mugabe – “armed with iron bars, sticks and other weapons” – attacked MDC supporters.

Just yesterday, Tsvangirai had issued a statement urging his supporters not to be intimidated and to vote in Friday’s election.

This is a sad day for those people of Zimbabwe who yearn for change.

Mugabe, who has ruled Zimbabwe with an iron fist for 28 years, said on Friday: “Only God will remove me!”

A free CéU download

Want some Brazilian hotness? Everybody likes the Brazilian hotness.

Maria do Céu Whitaker Poças – known simply as CéU – is a singer-songwriter from São Paulo. Her “passion” for black music is such that she cites Billie Holiday, Lauryn Hill and Bob Marley as influences.

Her sultry, funky 2005 track “Ave Cruz” is available as a FREE MP3. Click here to stream it on my Vox blog.

It’s from CéU’s self-titled debut CD, released in the United States in 2007 (with the promotional backing of Starbucks).

If you want “Ave Cruz” on your hard drive, follow this link to Download.com.

‘The Country I Love’

Here is Barack Obama’s first national television ad of the general election campaign. It’s the “Country I Love” ad, and it began airing yesterday in 18 states.

What do you think of it?

To be quite honest, I think the open-collar look takes a dozen years off his age. Not in a good way.

In reintroducing himself to American voters, Barack should endeavor to look older than Will Smith. Which means: Keep rockin’ the neckties, brah!

L.A. Film Fest

I’ve been living in Southern California 14 years and never got hot and bothered about the Los Angeles Film Festival. Don’t know why that is.

This year’s L.A. Film Fest jumped off yesterday. (Check out Tambay Obenson’s blog post about it.) There are a few items I’d like to see.

Embedded below are trailers for three festival films. (More are up at the L.A. Film Fest YouTube channel.)

The top trailer is for “Boogie Man: The Lee Atwater Story,” a documentary about the Republican strategist who taught Karl Rove the techniques of hatchet-man politics.

(Atwater created the most notorious negative ad of the 1988 presidential campaign.)

Lee Atwater was denounced by Democrats as a race-baiter... yet he loved to jam the blues with B.B. King. He ended up dying of brain cancer, but not before apologizing for his hardball tactics and bemoaning the “ruthless ambition” amok in American life.

The middle trailer is for “American Son,” a drama about a young Marine’s last 96 hours at home before deploying to Iraq. It stars young celeb Nick Cannon, whose acting in “Drumline” I liked. If Cannon can pull off this role, it’ll lift his movie career to another level.

Bottom trailer: “Made in America,” a documentary about South L.A.’s black gang culture, directed by Stacy Peralta (“Dogtown and Z-Boys”).

It doesn’t look like any kind of fresh take on the subject... but that’s irrelevant. I learned everything there is to know about the Crips and the Bloods from Peggy Seltzer. ;^)

Anyways... if you’re in SoCal, check the festival schedule for screening times.

Stew is the toast of Broadway! (Mmmm... stew and toast.)

I have blogged before (here and here ) about Mark Stewart, a.k.a. Stew, former front man of an L.A. band called The Negro Problem.

Well, I’m blogging about him again. Because on Sunday night, Stew copped a Tony Award!

He won the Best Book of a Musical trophy for authoring the hit show “Passing Strange.” (Thanks for letting me know, dez.)

This show has also won an Obie Award for Best Musical, as well as a Drama Desk Award and a New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award.

Congratulations, Stew, to you and your creative partner Heidi Rodewald. Your fastidiously literate lyrics and saucy adult wit make you a true credit to the Negro people.

Below is a 10-minute “Passing Strange” pupu platter, performed by the cast a month ago at the Obies.

Random hotness

Don’t blame me... blame Bklyn6!

Desmond Tutu on the Zimbabwe crisis

One week from today, the citizens of Zimbabwe will cast their votes in a presidential run-off election.

The Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) – daring to challenge the 28-year rule of Robert Mugabe – has been subjected to violence and intimidation by Mugabe supporters.

“I think that the world really does have to step in and say: ‘Enough of this.’ ” Those are the words of Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa, Zimbabwe’s neighbor to the south.

Embedded below is a 9-minute David Frost interview with Archbishop Tutu, shown last week on Al Jazeera English.

The Anglican archbishop doubts that the Zimbabwe election will be free and fair.

He said MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai has “the chance of a snowball in hell” to be elected – even though Tsvangirai got more votes than Mugabe the first time around.

Indeed, according to news reports today, Tsvangirai is considering whether to withdraw from this “charade” of a free election.

UPDATE (06/21/08): The Field Negro blogged today about Zimbabwe. “What Mugabe has done to the poor people of Zimbabwe,” he wrote, “is no different than what the evil and unjust regime of Pieter Botha did to the poor black Africans in South Africa.”

The comment thread contains a few sickening apologias of Robert Mugabe by doctrinaire black nationalists. (“He liberated Zimbabwe from the wicked hands of the British!”)

But those apologists, in turn, get chin-checked by more sophisticated thinkers.

It’s an interesting read.

Wanna watch ‘What’s Happening!!’?

One of my all-time favorite culture bloggers is Thembi. She’s always coming up with brilliant concepts and rocking the socks off ’em. And she’s funny as hell.

The other night, Thembi explored a phenomenon familiar to fans of old black sitcoms: the “talent showcase” episode.

Most black sitcoms, at some point, contrived an excuse to have their characters singing and dancing (or “cooning it up,” as Thembi would say) in a competitive or exhibitionary context.

So Thembi put together a smorgasbord of clips from “Good Times,” “Martin,” “227,” “A Different World” and “The Cosby Show” to illustrate the point.

Ahh... sweet memories.

I add here a 2-minute clip of my own: Fred “Rerun” Berry throwing down on “What’s Happening!!” in an audition for “The Gong Show.”

If you want to watch this entire 1978 episode, it’s embedded at the bottom of this page, via the magic of Hulu.

A free Amos Lee download

At the risk of putting a further hurt on Bklyn6’s stimulus check, let’s talk about suspected undercover black man Amos Lee.

The singer-songwriter’s career has been on the rise since 2004, when Norah Jones hand-picked him to open for her on tour.

Lee’s new CD, “Last Days at the Lodge,” comes out next Tuesday. He will be plugging it tonight on Tavis Smiley’s TV talk show.

I’d never heard of Amos Lee until Kellybelle mentioned him in a comment this week (on my post about white Negro Lipbone Redding).

I soon found a FREE MP3 from Lee’s new album on the internets. So click here and listen to “Ease Back” on my Vox blog.

To download it, follow this link to Download.com.

Random wrongness

Are you prepared for maximum wrongness?

Russerted out

Lookit, I enjoyed and respected Tim Russert’s work like most TV news junkies. And I made known my shock and sadness when Mr. Russert died last Friday.

But goodness gracious... MSNBC is still devoting hours upon hours to memorializing the man.

After Russert’s funeral today, perhaps the cable news network will return to doing news. I think Tim would have wanted it that way.

I mean, wow... they really gave him the “full Reagan.” Johnny Carson didn’t get this kind of love when he passed. Walter Cronkite probably won’t either.

I hear that Pope Benedict XVI saw MSNBC’s funeral coverage today, then he told his College of Cardinals, “Don’t make that kind of fuss over me when I go.”

Too much, I tells you!

It’s left to me to restore some cosmic balance.

If you watched the “Meet the Press” tribute on Sunday, you saw one of Tim Russert’s greatest hits – his withering interrogation of David Duke about the scope of Duke’s knowledge of the Louisiana economy. (Duke was running for governor at the time.)

Let me tell you, David Duke, America’s best-known bigot, was quite delighted to receive some attention during NBC’s shivah.

Duke talked about it Monday with his friend and fellow ex-Klansman Don Black on Black’s Internet radio show.

I’m streaming a 6½-minute edit on my Vox blog. (You ain’t surprised, are you?) Click here to listen, if you can tolerate the sound of two neo-Nazis sucking each other’s ding-a-lings.

Duke actually boasts that “I beat Tim Russert!” in a “Meet the Press” rematch. And Don Black is all like, “They scareda you, man! They can’t fuck wit’ no David Duke!” Or words to that effect.

Anyways... R.I.P., Mr. Russert.

More cowbell, Sheila! *

I’m on a music binge right now – more so than usual – and you guys are gonna have to ride it out with me.

So please check out the video clip below: Marvin Gaye, live at the 1980 Montreux Jazz Festival. (DVD is here.) Marvin jams the hell out of “Got to Give It Up.”

What really tickles me is seeing Sheila E. rock the cowbell! *

Ever wonder what’s up with Sheila E.? Last I heard, she was making music in a genre known as “Christian smooth jazz.”

But she also leads a charity called the Elevate Hope Foundation, dedicated to abused and neglected children.

The Elevate Hope Foundation will have a fundraising event tomorrow night in Hollywood – a special performance of the stage show “The Who’s Tommy.” (With Nona Hendryx as the Acid Queen!)

Did you know Sheila E. was raped at the age of 5 by a babysitter? And molested by relatives? I didn’t. But that’s what she told Tavis Smiley on his radio show last Friday.

On my Vox blog, I’m streaming her full 10-minute appearance on “The Tavis Smiley Show.” Click here to hear it. (And try not to laugh when Smiley repeatedly refers to “The Who’s Tommy” as “Who’s Tommy?”)

You can download the podcast of Smiley’s June 13 show by following this link.

Go Sheila!

* UPDATE (06/19/08): Aw hell, I think I made a mistake, people. My thanks to Craig Belcher for commenting that Marvin’s percussionist at Montreux is listed as Sandra Akaka, not Sheila Escovedo.

Studying the video again, she doesn’t look so much like Sheila E. after all. She looks Asianish.

But I have a lingering doubt. Because when I Google the name “Sandra Akaka,” the one and only thing that keeps coming up... from across the whole wide Web... is Marvin Gaye’s Montreux gig, either the album or the DVD.

You’re telling me this chick Sandra was bad enough to back up Marvin at Montreux, and she never played on another record... ever? Not one?

Plus it’s a known fact that Sheila E. had toured with Marvin Gaye. (Pete Escovedo did too.)

So I appeal to my musically astute readers. Is the woman in this video Sheila E. or not? (Reggie Hudlin has already weighed in; he don’t think it’s her.) And did “Sandra Akaka” do anything else in the music business expect play this one show?

I don’t mind admitting to a mistake... but is there a mystery here?

UPDATE (06/19/08): No mystery.

A Hawaiian percussionist named “Sandra Lee Akaka” (pictured left) does turn up on Google. That must be who the woman is.

Oh well... she did rock that cowbell, though.

Bonus freebies: Lalah Hathaway

I just stumbled on a couple of FREE MP3s by Lalah Hathaway (daughter of the late, beloved Donny Hathaway). She’s got a new CD out called “Self Portrait.”

Click here to hear the single “Let Go” on my Vox blog. To download, follow this link to Amazon.com.

Another tune comes courtesy of SoulTracks.com; follow this link to download “That Was Then.” It’s a lesser-quality sound file than that Amazon freebie... if that matters to you. To stream it on my Vox blog, click here.

A free Benji Hughes download

Here’s something cute from singer- songwriter Benji Hughes, who’ll be performing tonight at L.A.’s Greek Theatre, opening for alt- rockers Rilo Kiley.

Click here to hear “You Stood Me Up” on my Vox blog. This track is from Benji’s upcoming debut solo album, “A Love Extreme.”

“You Stood Me Up” is available as a FREE MP3, courtesy of Toolshed.biz. To commence downloading, hit this link.

Stevie Wonder, Dr. John on Letterman tonight

Just to let you know: Stevie will be sitting in with Paul Shaffer and the band. Dr. John is the musical guest. Tonight on CBS at 11:35 (Eastern and Pacific time).

UPDATE (06/18/08): Well, one outta two’s not bad. Stevie Wonder was nowhere to be found. But Dr. John and his “Lower 911” band jammed “Time for a Change” off their new CD, “City That Care Forgot.” Worth staying up for.

(And it’s no coincidence that the word “Change” is also prominent in a certain presidential campaign.)

To stream the album version of “Time for a Change” on my Vox blog, click here. Eric Clapton is featured on guitar.

Obama-Haters Against Obama

I wasted an hour or two today commenting at Larry Johnson’s No Quarter blog... birthplace of the vicious “whitey” smear against Michelle Obama.

There you can peek into the dark souls of Hillary Clinton’s most ardent supporters... a pack of irrational haters who seem proud that their most important decision as citizens – their choice for president – will be determined wholly by spite.

They’re childish, often vulgar, and without shame. And they call themselves Democrats. They’re an embarrassment to Sen. Clinton.

Here is a sample of the give-and-take at No Quarter today:

ROSEERITER: ... Hillary doesn’t tell me or many others how to vote. We can think and see with our own eyes how bad the Democratic Party is right now. All they can see is win at all costs and supporting the puppet, Obama is not the right thing to do.

Party loyalty and oaths are for bots.

UNDERCOVER BLACK MAN: But I don’t understand. Won’t a Democrat in the White House be CRUCIAL to attaining Sen. Clinton’s most important goal… health-care reform?

McCain in the White House means no health-care reform.

So how is that being true to Hillary? I don’t get it at all. Do the issues mean nothing? Is it all about runaway emotions, personalized politics and grudge-holding?

CLINTON FAN: No, not at all.

A vet0-proof Congress can force McCain to do damn near anything, save wear a purple tutu and dance on his toes.

Clinton can herd that health care package through the legislative process without too much trouble, and a majority legislature can override any McCain veto.

Another bozo who slept through that civics class…

UBM: Ahhh… I get it now. And you attain that veto-proof Democratic majority in Congress by trashing and sliming the top of the ticket!

I’m so glad I can come here and get educated. (And called names to boot!)

NY STILL LOVES HILLARY: I supported Hillary because she is true to me and issues that are important to me, not the other way around. I don’t do anything because she tells me to. She is paid to represent me, not vice versa.

You guys keep missing the point – it’s not about Clinton anymore. It’s about saving America, democracy, and the Constitution.

If you have been called names here at NQ, you must realize that many Obama supporters have been coming here for months calling us every name imaginable, slinging mud and epithets, and doing whatever they can to aggravate us. If you find this behavior offensive, we’d all appreciate a word from your candidate asking people to stop “for the sake of party unity”. So far, it’s been pretty quiet….

* * *

KEVIN: FUN OBAMA FACTS:

When he farts, it smells like roses

When he takes a dump, nothing comes out, it just magically appears in the toilet, call it the immaculate defecation.

he is the only male to experience multiple orgasms

when he smiles, god smiles

when he cries, god kicks a puppy

HE liberated auschwitz, HE gave his uncle credit because his uncle was sad

A lot of kids wear superman pajamas, superman wears Obama pajamas (from the chuck norris facts page)

he can calm the hulk down with his melodious voice and a scratch behind the ears.

UBM: First time being old enough to vote, dude?

KEVIN: CARTER
MONDALE
DUKAKIS
CLINTON
CLINTON
GORE
KERRY
CLINTON
MCCAIN

dude?

UBM: Cool. So you’re used to voting for losers.

KEVIN: Best part of you ran down the crack of your momma’s ass and wound up as a brown stain on the mattress, you’ve been cheated!

You went back for seconds of the koolaide didn’t you?

Your psedonym makes one think you’re one of those suburban hip hop white kids, size 8 hat with the stickers on it, sean jon top, baggy pants hanging round your ass, wearing whiter than white air forces unlaced.

What’s the word I’m thinking of?

Somebody help me out.

Something informative from Orrin Keepnews

I love jazz history. Plus, you know, June is Black Music Month.

Now, thanks to Concord Records, we can hear jazz history straight from the mouth of record producer Orrin Keepnews, whose Riverside label in the 1950s showcased the likes of Bill Evans, Wes Montgomery and Cannonball Adderley.

And the magnificent Thelonious Monk.

Embedded below is an 11½-minute video in which Mr. Keepnews recalls the making of a modern-jazz masterpiece – Monk’s 1956 LP “Brilliant Corners.” (The sessions included Sonny Rollins, Max Roach and Clark Terry.)

The composition “Brilliant Corners” was so structurally complex, the musicians could never play it correctly from start to finish. The final track is stitched together from various takes. (Click here to hear “Brilliant Corners” on my Vox blog.)

Orrin Keepnews says cutting that track was his “most debilitating experience in a recording studio.”

If you’re a jazz fan, you’ll like this:

Tuesday 12-inch Flashback: ‘Livin’ It Up (Friday Night)’

This one takes me right back to my senior year of high school. Autumn of ’78, to be precise.

R&B music made you feel so good back then. “Livin’ It Up,” recorded 30 years ago, still sounds fresh as a daisy.

Bell & James were a one-hit wonder as recording artists. But they had a career as Philly songwriters behind them. (Leroy Bell’s uncle was the legendary producer Thom Bell.)

Bell & James wrote “Mama Can’t Buy You Love,” which was a Top-10 hit for Elton John (and produced by Thom Bell).

Anyway... cheers to the Vinyl Morpher for uploading this:

Bonus freebie: Lipbone Redding’s new album

And whom might Lipbone Redding be, you wonder?

Lipbone Redding used to perform in the New York City subways for tips. Before that, he was an avant-garde performance artist.

Right now, Lipbone Redding is a guy with a brand new CD out, and he’s touring the Carolinas and the Mid-Atlantic with his own brand of blue-eyed funk ’n’ soul.

And also with a mouth effect that earned him his nickname.

Dude blows air through his lips to sound like a trombone.

Which is cute and all, but Lipbone can also straight-up sing. And swing.

Now guess what? His new release, “Party on the Fire Escape,” is available as a FREE download – the complete album... or individual tracks of your choosing.

Just follow this link to Lipbone’s official website, and follow the simple instructions. You can also stream any and all tracks on that website’s audio player.

I wish to recommend two tunes in particular, which I’m streaming on my Vox blog:

Click here to hear “Ghetto Girl,” which is Redding doing his most earnest neo-soul thang, complete with wah pedal and cungas.

Then click here and check out “Voodoo Cadillac,” a heaping helping of New Orleans-style jump blues... with an ideally situated lip-trombone solo.

If you dig the boy’s stroke, do take advantage of the freebiosity. Cheers to Lipbone Redding for giving this music away. It’s a damn good way to spread his name around.

UPDATE (06/17/08): Oh shnap! Just that quick, they changed up the whole Lipbone.com website; the free album is no longer available. Sorry about that. Too good to last, I guess.

If you like that “Ghetto Girl” joint, though... you can download that one for free by clicking the title below:

“Ghetto Girl” (MP3)
More on this album

Random Japaneseness

A free Danny Aiello download

Yes, that Danny Aiello.

Like most Italians, he wishes he was Frank Sinatra. But he ain’t.

Some of you might remember my post last November showcasing the vocal stylings of Billy Bob Thornton, Russell Crowe and other actors.

Time to add another hambone to that soup of vanity. Because Mr. Aiello is most definitely trippin’. I’ve got a FREE MP3 to prove it.

Click here to hear “Pennies From Heaven” streaming on my Vox blog. If you want to download it (?!), click the song title below.

The track is from Danny’s upcoming CD “Live from Atlantic City.” Let me just say that, as an interpreter of standards, Mr. Aiello is no Bruce Willis.

“Pennies From Heaven” (MP3)
More on this album

Barack Obama’s Father’s Day speech

Delivered today at the Apostolic Church of God on Chicago’s South Side.

(At 13:05, he drops a little Chris Rock on ’em.)

D.C. represent!

Boris Willis likes to dance. I mean, he really likes to dance.

Now on the faculty of George Mason University, Boris spent the past year doing something cool. From May 2007 to May 2008, Boris Willis made a short video every day... of himself dancing around Washington, D.C. And he posted those videos to YouTube.

Below are three of his “Dance-A-Day” vids, with Mr. Willis busting modern-dance moves outside of Union Station... under a blossoming cherry tree in Malcolm X Park... and on 18th Street in the heart of Adams Morgan.

Playlist: Happy Father’s Day

1. “Patches” – Chairmen of the Board

2. “Papa Don’t Take No Mess” – James Brown

3. “Daddy Could Swear, I Declare” – Gladys Knight & the Pips

4. “Dat Dere” – Oscar Brown, Jr.

Obama as ‘sock monkey’

A free RZA download

Something new from the RZA (performing as his alter ego “Bobby Digital”)...

Click here to hear “Straight Up the Block,” featuring David Banner, on my Vox blog. To download it as a FREE MP3, follow this link to Spinner.com.

‘If you can’t deal widdit, then move out the way!’

Never let it be said that I ignore dissenting opinions.

Tim Russert (1950-2008)

I’m stunned by the death this afternoon of NBC newsman Tim Russert.

I paid attention to every word he spoke during this campaign season. We have lost a source of wisdom and great passion in American journalism.

To remember the quality of his game, please watch this 3-minute clip of Tim Russert moderating a February presidential primary debate.

A free Imani Coppola download

Imani Coppola – Brooklyn-based, biracial and babelicious – is about to make noise as the vocal half of a duo called Little Jackie.

Instrumentalist Adam Pallin constructed some campy, retro grooves to suit Imani’s sassy lyrics. The result is the album “The Stoop,” which will drop on July 8.

That very night, Little Jackie will perform on “Late Night with Conan O’Brien.” (I’ll remind you again.)

The track “Crying for the Queen” is available right now as a FREE MP3. Click here to hear it on my Vox blog. (Sassy, I tells you! I assume she’s dissing Amy Winehouse.)

To download “Crying for the Queen,” follow this link to Download.com.

Extra vibe: Below is a cute clip of Imani Coppola shooting a Little Jackie music video... in zero gravity.

Coming attraction: ‘CNN Presents: Black in America’

On July 23 and 24, CNN will present a six-hour “television event” – “Black in America” – hosted by undercover black woman Soledad O’Brien.

A 3-minute trailer is embedded below.

To be quite honest, I’m leery about these huge, quasi-comprehensive “race” projects. Seems kinda 1970s-ish.

Number one, if you’re black, you don’t need a TV show to tell you what’s happening. So from the gate, this seems to be about explaining black America to non-black America. (Check the final words in the trailer: “You Have No Idea.” Who has no idea?)

Number two, how deep will it go? I’ll be shocked if “Black in America” deals frankly with the great crisis of our day: homicide.

But... we shall see.

Medgar Evers speaks

Civil rights activist Medgar Evers was assassinated on June 12, 1963... shot in the back by a rifleman outside his Mississippi home.

A former Ku Klux Klansman was convicted of the crime... in 1994.

The murder of Medgar Evers shocked white America. Young balladeers wrote songs about it... most famously Bob Dylan’s “Only a Pawn in Their Game.” Phil Ochs wrote “The Ballad of Medgar Evers,” and Dick Weissman wrote “Medgar Evers Lullaby.”

Black activist Matthew Jones, a leader of the SNCC Freedom Singers, also wrote a “Ballad of Medgar Evers.”

My earliest recollection of hearing the name Medgar Evers was an episode of “Good Times.” (Young Michael Evans, the “militant midget,” kickin’ the knowledge.)

I never heard Medgar Evers speak with his own voice until last year, when I found a minutelong track on the album “Sing for Freedom: The Story of the Civil Rights Movement Through Its Songs.”

Click here to hear “Medgar Evers Speaking.” This recording was made shortly before his assassination.

A free Homemade Jamz Blues Band download

The Perry siblings from Tupelo, Miss., are billed as “the youngest blues band in America.” Singer/guitarist Ryan is 15, bass player Kyle is 13, and drummer Taya is 9.

They’re the Homemade Jamz Blues Band. (Aren’t they cute?) And Ryan Perry can really play.

Their debut CD – “Pay Me No Mind” – just came out. It’s downloadable from iTunes, eMusic and Amazon.

One track is available as a FREE MP3. Click here and check out “Penny Waiting On Change” on my Vox blog. To download it, just click the song title below.

Homemade Jamz will be playing festival gigs throughout the summer... including Lollapalooza. I bet they’re fun to watch.

“Penny Waiting On Change” (MP3)