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Archive for November, 2009

Sesame Is What’s Hot In The Streets…

Friday, November 13th, 2009

Rafi Kam was right when he said that the Internets Celebrities owe a debt of respect to Sesame Street (Saturday Night Live as well, but that’s another drop for another day). Without the production of the Children’s Television Workshop this world would be too mean and scary for children. The monsters on Sesame Street were our friends and they looked out for us. They held our hands and they sung to us.

You can’t imagine the transformative power of this programming even today when kids can navigate gaming consoles well before they can speak in complete sentences. Everyone is failing the children from the parents, caregivers, and up to the educators but never Sesame Street. This is still the single place that children can be adults without the burden of paying bills. Children are spoken to with eye contact and love in the center of the message. Thank you Sesame Street, without you this world would be even more fucked the fuck up.

This weekend, my favorite library in the Brooklyn, the central branch at Grand Army Plaza is hosting a 40th anniversary celebration for Children Television Workshop’s Sesame Street. They have so many activities and events scheduled I almost want to rent myself a child. If you are lucky enough to have someone in your life that you would like to introduce to the perfect world of Sesame Street please don’t hesitate to find yourself at the Brooklyn Central Library this Saturday.

Ol’ Dirty Bastard would definitely be there.

But then again, Wu-Tang is for the children.

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The Sound I Saw…

Thursday, November 12th, 2009

roots

I just cribbed that headline from a great book that Chocolate Snowflake’s father published.

I always get that feeling when I attend a Roots Jam Session at the Highline Ballroom. There’s always a visual element that perfectly complements the musician’s performances.

roots
roots
roots

I try not to take the Roots for granted like I did back in the day. They were in NYC as often as they are now it seemed and the scene they were helping to build was still not the developed headliners and showstoppers that we know these people as today. The whole Rawkus movement along with what we would come to regard as the neo-Soul genre was just finding their footing. When you are building something substantial the footing is attached to the foundation and the Roots are the foundation for soul music.

The first sound that man ever made was the sound of the drum. This was the call to listen up. Man was trying to imitate the thunder from the sky because it told him to pay attention to his surroundings. The second sound that man tried to create was the song from his mouth. The song held the instructions that the drum told you were coming. When the drum and the song complement each other we learn about our world. We evolve to a higher plateau of understanding.

The final Roots Jam Session will be next week Tuesday. The Roots will continue to perform I’m sure because this is what they do, but I won’t take them for granted that I will the chance to commune with them again as I have at the Highline. This has been one of the most inspirational periods for me as a writer to be around a group of people that love what they do so much they would do it for free.

It’s now time for me to embark on my journey to deliver my journals and tell everyone I know about the sound I saw.

roots