I Hate You So Much Right Now

Wait Wait Wait...Hold the phone. Did she say that she wrote this after visiting a website where everyone was spewing their venomous insight on why they hate Jill Scott. I wish more artists had as fluid a method of analyzing their emotions as this one. All things have their root in a context of creativity if we are willing to visualize past the present moment. If this is where you go from hate, I have some rough drafts of some very acidic hate mail that I need to send your way. The haters must be stewing in the juice of their own mediocrity right now.

I can't stand you! Always Gettin' In My Way and throwing Honey Molasses on my plans. I Think It's Better that you never Cross My Mind cause you won't be experiencing any Love Rain. I will take A Long Walk to Philly and get down like Whatever and when I leave, I will be Golden. (Come on girl, you know I was just playing, right?)

SpreadLove!

The AOIntelligent

Sweet Like Honeydew?

I'm sorry ya'll. I must have been on the late train. I happened to be channel surfing across VH1 Soul when I landed upon an artist by the name of Geno Young. The warm melody and subtle vocal stylings of Young combined with an almost unbearably sweet video make for a song that grabbed and held my attention inspiring me to follow after the trail of this artist. Ghetto Symphony is the name of his debut album. Little did I know, but came to discover that he was the vision behind those seminal works, "Time's A Wastin" and "Orange Moon", from Badu's Mama's Gun album. You mean the source behind one of Erykah's most understated classics has a solo work all his own? I had to jump on it. Then he enlists Celia from Les Nubians to play a part in bringing vision to the voice. I can't take this one out of rotation in my Miro player. I will be back with a review of the album once I have it on hand. I haven't forgotten to give you an update on that True Love for the Culture event, but I was waiting until I finally uploaded the pictures. Until next time, stay sweet like honeydew.

True Love For The Culture Album Release Party

Listen To The True Love For The Culture Compilation Here

What do you create when you combine one of the loves of my brief Life, Tigi Nii, with her own undying devotion and love for the people particularly the young people? You create a brief, yet potent compilation of artists who have come together out of their mutual love, respect, and admiration for the youth to give voice to messages that were felt might enrich their souls and stimulate their minds.

The plan for the project is that it will be distributed both locally and nationally directly to youth and organizations that work with youth in a mission to spread the message in the music. The website listed above features not only each of the tracks included on the compilation, but also the method of contacting Tigi in order to obtain FREE copies of the compilation CD and its associated chapbook for your organization. The chapbook includes the lyrics to these magnificent compositions as well as bios of the feature artists and a closing message from each artist to the youth.

On Saturday, August 25th, the release party will be held at Mercury Café located at 1505 W. Chicago Ave. at 7:30 pm. The project will feature Zenif Be.P, Camil Williams, Tekhen, Karega Ani, Veronica Bohanan, and e.nina.jay. In addition to the poets and MC's already featured on the project, the release party will feature the highly talented all female live band, Molly Sue Africa. Now I was only blessed to have a single rehearsal date with these sisters, but the way they pulled together the improvisation of my backing track for this session was nothing short of marvelous.

For those who have never heard me reference myself as such, I am the artist featuring as Tekhen on the track with Karega Ani, a brilliant artist out of Detroit, and if I must make a modest claim, the track is something extraordinary. If you are in the Chicago area, check in to this event for some dynamic performances and find out how you can assist with sending this injection of love out to the heart of youth where it is sorely needed.

Peace!

Mikey------------------------------Tekhen-----------------------The AOMuse

shala esquire's Seven Spoon

The brother who writes this piece is pure comedy. Irreverent and upbeat. Keen observations from the young, vibrant Seven Spoon always confined to 40 words or less, but never without invoking the deep thought and/or raucous laughter. The publishing of such has been running in email syndication for 2 to 3 years in between the Shala's work with the hip hop group Qualo. Expect that I will treat you to other such episodes of Ms. Spoon that I find to be well woven into a future commentary. I simply hoped to introduce you in this first instance to the unequivocal Spoon as well as offer you a link to the artist's website where you can subscribe to his work as well as order T-Shirts with your favorite Spoon-isms inscribed upon them. Hope you have as much fun with this one as I did. Remember this insight the next time you are talking to someone that you think should have been swallowed.

More Seven Spoon Can Be Seen Here

Rashida

Cute Sister's Dog

Cute Sister Trying To Avoid A Morning Picture

Cute Sister's Other Dog

Persistent Brother's Second Attempt At A Morning Picture

Everyone give your best greeting to Rashida. She is an interesting character that can be encountered here in Chicago if you look very carefully on the second Sunday after the full moon where the third star in Orion's belt can be seen on the far East rock near Promontory Point. Sorry. My subtle attempt at humor to offer some semblance of how often I get to see her, but still I find her quite the treat when she is in town.

Determined, explorative, adventurous, and willing to put up with a non sequitur such as myself. Isn't that printed tee great? The two little ones pictured above are Gizmo (above) and Chewie (below). They have faces that bear an uncanny resemblance to their respective namesakes. She has just returned to Boston to complete a contract so I will have to fast and meditate for another 6 or 7 weeks at best until her return. Until that time, I always have my blog, these photos, and the waning days of my seasonably warm Chicago summer.