Yesterday, I was back in the mix from a five day weekend and sluggish. I had tons of e-mails to dig thru so the only song I got to post was one that I heard early in the am on beehivefm. Such a fitting song since it’s summer and every Friday you can catch me trying to “fly” home and be near some fun, water and sun. This song puts me in a really happy mood. I’ve never smoked before a day in my life, but I think it’s safe to assume Lenny was high as a bird when he made this track. He was probably floating amongst the stars he sings about cuz that is exactly how I feel when listening… Let’s go and see the stars; The milky way or even Mars; Where it could just be ours…When looking at this video in depth (because I obviously hadn’t seen it since 1998 when it came out) I did NOT know this joint looked like an orgy. And who knew that a girl got nakey in the video (around 1:42). That’s a mess! Lenny was shoool pushing the envelope.
by Lady Gaga ft. Beyonce: I don’t even know where to begin with this mess. I remember when Lady Gaga came out about a year ago, and I really liked her music. After the MTV Video Music Awards when she came out dressed in bizarre outfits and blood all over her body, my liking of her began to dwindle. I feel like she, or anyone else for that matter, shouldn’t have to do all the extra-ness to get people to listen to her music or be interested in her. To talk about her? Maybe…but it’s not necessary! The music alone should speak for itself.
This video presents her biggest debacle to date! I heard a few people mention this video a few days ago but I thought nothing of it. I really thought people made the mistake of calling the video Telephone when they really meant Video Phone – which is Beyonce’s previous single. I finally became intrigued enough to search for the video today, and I was shocked. To even watch the video you have to be 18 or older and have a YouTube account to login. That’s just to watch the video…because it’s that explicit!
After being uploaded for only seven days, there are already more than 20+ MILLION views! And the video is almost ten minutes long! That’s a mini movie – like the kind Michael Jackson used to make back in the day. Yet, this mini movie is straight clownery. Lady Gaga has no self respect and with 10 layers of makeup on, she looks ridiculous. I’m trying to figure out what made Beyonce want to be a part of this song/video!?! I can understand the ‘you be in my video, I’ll be in yours’ deal they probably made, but sometimes you have to put your foot down. Bey just lost some cool points and entered a lower class level in my book by being in this video. My guess is that her hubby, Jay, pushed her to be in this video due to the publicity she would get by being associated with Lady Gaga. Yep – that’s my story and I’m sticking with it!
I could dwell on so many parts of the video that are whack…. the name of the Bey’s truck (Pu**ywagon – what the hell?), Tyrese’s guest appearance (dude – are you really not getting any more movie roles that you have to stoop so slow and be in a LG video?)…I won’t even say anymore. I’ll let you watch this craziness below.
I checked in with Luam’s YouTube page to get the latest and greatest in her choreography. I’ve been slipping because I have clearly missed 3 videos being uploaded! This is the first and I didn’t get past this one to see the rest. This video is a great portrayal of how Luam brings all different races, sexes, and ethnicities together all for the love of music + dance. The choreography is on point as always but the song choice literally made me get up out of my seat and dance. I hadn’t heard Freakum Dress in a hot minute. The choreography made me want to put on my heels and parade around the house – minus the freakum dress…I’ll leave that for my weekend outing.
I know I’m technically a day late for the recognition of the beginning of Black History Month, but yesterday was a looong work day. That’s my excuse and I’m sticking with it. At least it’s the truth 
I came up with this idea to profile a legendary, by my definition, artist every day for the month of February. You will learn a little history, remember or be exposed to a few songs, and be encouraged to rock to some old school music. It’s time to celebrate! It’s Black History month.
About once a week I look at the traffic on my blog site. I would never suggest for someone to look at their web traffic daily. I don’t think it’s healthy because you become more driven by the number of people visiting your site vs. being driven by the love of your content and wanting to share it!
I reviewed my blog traffic this past Saturday and noticed that an increase in traffic was coming from Alltop. Knowing the basis of Alltop and its creation of a location for all the top blogs for hundreds of topics, I figured there was no way Alltop would bring traffic to my little ol blog. Yet – sure enough, there was 6inchvinyl, the 6th blog to be featured on the music section of Alltop! And I’m above the fold. How freaking cool! I also beat out MSN and the New York Times on the list.
I’ve naturally assumed Neenz, who is one of people who attended the Social Media Leaders dinner and definitely one of the most amazing people I met at BlogWorld, worked some magic to get my blog on Alltop. See – Neenz is the Chief Evangelist of leading news aggregation for the site. That’s just my guess but I’m still wondering how I got there. I DO know that I’m not going to wonder too loudly, drawing attention to myself, to get my site pulled down. That would be a no no and #superfail!
When I get a better design, I will have this badge on the side column. But until then, I’ll keep it on this post:
In January of 2008, I bought a Mac computer. Correction – my parents bought me a Mac computer With me switching over to my Mac I left thousands of songs behind. For a few months after, I synched my iPod to my PC which allowed me access to that music library. When I began downloading music on my Mac, I synched my iPod to my Mac because I wanted to have access to my most current downloads. So, for the last year+ I’ve been without all my music. I can tell you it has been miserable!
About 2 months ago, I bought a Lacie Rugged hard drive – which is supposed to be one of the best on the market. More important than that, I like it because it’s orange and I like bright things that are different. The Lacie I purchased holds 250 GB, which is more than enough space to hold the music from my PC, my Mac, as well as back up all the content from my Mac. My PC has hit the dust! It is only usable if the screen has something to prop it up and the cord doesn’t charge the comp, the cord only keeps it powered if it’s in at the right angle – you can imagine my desire to get all the music off.
So, I did it last Sunday. That’s right – i transferred allllll the music from my PC. One and a half hours and 4800+ songs later, I transferred my music. Now I only wish I knew how to sync the hard drive to my iTunes! Shouldn’t be that hard, right???
I’m loving Blip.fm, a new music sharing site. When I registered I became a DJ and could become friends with other DJs. The purpose of the platform is to “blip” music, which is somewhat like a tweet but the blip has audio and/or video embedded in the message. All of my blips are located on my user profile, very similar to the way in which messages are displayed on Twitter. That sounds like a whoooooole lot, but think about it this way: Blip.fm is like the music version of Twitter that allows you to include songs in your messages.
I like to send out Tweets of the music I listen to as I listen. Traditionally, I would have to search on YouTube for a video and hope that I find a high quality one. I would post my Tweet with the YouTube video link and that would be it. But Blip.fm provides three features that I think will change the way I share music on Twitter:
1. When searching for a song, I can preview the song with a single click. It’s very simple! I don’t have to click, go to a separate page, wait for the video to load, go back to the previous page if the video isn’t right, then start the process all over with the next video. None of that on Blip.fm. I can preview as many searched videos that I want all on the same page.
2. I can link profiles: Twitter, Facebook, etc. I can send one message that includes Twitter handles and hashtags, and it will automatically post to whatever post profiles I have linked. The message that is displayed on the other networks includes a link back to Blip.fm that will allow the reader to listen to my music.
3. All of the music that I blip is displayed on my user profile. This is great because people can see what I’m listening to in one location. On Twitter, my music tweets are intermixed with other tweets but this provides a more focused platform for solely music content.
The first negative that I have seen thus far is that the link that is shared on the social networks takes you to a section of Blip.fm that shows other people who have sent blips about the same artist. I would have much preferred that link to take the reader to my personal profile to see all of my blips vs. a mix of blips by other DJs. The second negative is regarding a concern over ease of use. If someone clicks a link that is included in my blip and they are taken to Blip.fm, they may not immediately find where to play the music. I know I didn’t see it at first and it took me a good 10 seconds! That’s 10 seconds for me and 30 seconds for you
Those are only minor details yet not enough to make me stop using the platform. As of now, I like Blip.fm and will try to find additional uses for this innovative 3rd party Twitter website.
My sister gave birth to beautiful Baby Milan, as I call my niece, last Tuesday, December 15. She’s so precious and delicate. One can’t help but smile and be joyful in her presence. Naturally, I sing to her and I sing the lullabies that were sung to me. One day my sister questioned what lullabies our mother sang to us. My mind went blank for a second and eventually Rock a Bye Baby came to mind. I started singing Rock a Bye Baby to Baby Milan, and my sister wouldn’t let me finish. Every time I sang the particular lullaby my sister interrupted me to sing the “Rock” she is familiar with – I Wanna Rock also known as Doo Doo Brown by Uncle Luke. In a normal situation, I would report this to the Pause Police. But since it’s my sister, I can only laugh and dance to her version of rock!
I was a child when I Wanna Rock was released and today was my first time watching the video. I was going to post the video but after watching it, I realized I could NOT post it on my site. This video is a HOT MESS and will not be anything I promote on 6inchvinyl. If you want to watch the video, you can go to YouTube!
What am I supposed to do now?!? Those were my exact thoughts when I typed in imeem.com and was redirected to myspace.com/imeem. Apparently, this Tuesday, MySpace bought the music sharing and listening site, imeem. I used to be on imeem to listen to all my fave music in user created playlists and a lot of playlists featured full albums. At the moment, none of those playlists are available and it pretty much sucks! Not to mention I hate MySpace and it would be such a compromise to go to MySpace for music. Even the sound of it is completely bizarre!
Now, I’m back at what am I supposed to do without imeem? Very few platforms allow you to listen to *full* albums anytime, anywhere. I asked a few people on Twitter what they used to listen to music and the responses included: Last.fm, Rhapsody, Blip.fm, and Grooveshark. I don’t want another Pandora, such as Last.fm, to put in one song and it creates a radio station. I have Pandora and love it. I don’t want to be required to sign up for platform that only allows me to listen to 20-30 second clips. I just want to listen to as much music I want to – when I want it!
Out of the aforementioned services, Grooveshark appears to be the best. It has user created lists and album lists. You can also create your own listening playlist off of an existing list, add songs, switch up the order, and save for later listening. AND you can do all of that, except the saving of a playlist, without having an account! Grooveshark is where it’s at and that’s where I’ll be!
