I Give Up

I saw the Zero 7 show last night. It was really cool!
They didn't play many of thier old songs like "Warm Sound" or "Distractions". They seem to have gone in a more electronic direction than i'm used to hearing from them.
Actually, its a wonderful mixture of folk and funk with a big dose of electro and sprinked with soul.
I found it wonderful.
several of the members switched between different instruments, the bass player playing bass guitar, rhythm guitar, and some kind of stand up acoustic bass. They had two synth players! Each with at least 3 units!With one doing most of the main synth lines, and the other working all kinds of cool synth drums and effects. They had an excellent main drummer laying down the groove, which left the synths free to add all kinds of delicious textures to everything. It was really really nice.

Two amazing female vocalists, plus the main keyboard player who sang as well. He seemed to be the lead person. I'm sorry, it was my first time seeing them and i'm not familiar with thier names. The male vocalist, who played what looked like an electric Rhodes piano, was Henry Binns? Not sure.

One woman played acoustic guitar, a few small hand held percussion instruments and a "harmonium" of all things. Really cool. She had an beautiful voice, and sung in a beautiful folk like style.

The new singer that replaced the well known Sia, sounded very good. Deep. and soulful. Nice. At one point during one of the extended "jams" i could see her through the fog and flashing lights playing alongside with the drummer at the same time on his drum set! It looked really cool with little glimpses of both thier silhouetes on the drums at the same time!

They did ALOT of what sounded like impromptu, electro infused jamming, that usually led into a specific song. It was really nice to see and hear how seamless the electronic instruments blended with the traditional instruments.

At one point, just the drummer and the synths laid down this steady pulsing beat. They were running a sequence with the synths underneath, and the drummer on top, spicing it up alot. the other synth gradually added rhythmic accents and blasts building into a frenzy that really got the crowd going. VERY FUCKING NICE INDEED.

All in all, even though the music was not so memorable, it was nonetheless wonderful to witness such a beautiful synergy of musicianship and musical styles.

I'm a much bigger fan because of it too!

My friend and i watched this animated series last night about supposedly cute animals depicted in situations that get them graphically mutilated and killed. It was called, "Little Tree Friends" or something.

I found it disturbingly strange and pretty much just plain dumb.

Then i got to thinking how it's all about freedom of speech though. I can't stand people who NEED equal rights, yet practice anti-rights.
Like for instance, this guy i work with is Black, right? We drive by this big gas station/car wash place that employs mostly Latinos. You know whats coming, right?
Several times a day, without fail, he says, "look at all those got-damm Mexicans!"
And the very same guy, of course, doesn't want to be judged by the color of his black ass. Not only that, but just by being Black, he himself has been the target of countless racist episodes throughout his life. So, why would he be such a good racist himself? I don't know. Well actually, i think it probably the ol' monkey see monkey do syndrome at work again. His father did it, so he does it too. Shitty.

So yeah, if the creators of that cartoon get off on depicting animals getting thier guts graphically spewed and strewn all over the place, you gotta let em' right?

I have this "theory" about Christianity that puzzles the hell out of me.
Why do Black folks believe in Jesus Christ and the Holy Bible so much?
I mean, I DO know why, its because we as humans HAVE to have a purpose in life. A reason for it all. It can't all just be for nothing, right? Whatever...

But what puzzles me most is this.:
Why would Black people in particular, believe in something that was told to them by the very same people who lied, deceived, enslaved, oppressed, brutalized and lets not forget murdered them (us)?

I mean, please correct me if i'm wrong but, to my knowledge, Black people brought to America (for the slave trade) didn't practice Christianity, did they? It was forced down thier throats by their oppressors who said, "Hey, get on this boat. We're gonna go get drunk and have a party". They lied. I'm being sarcastic, of course, but you get my point.
We were brought to America and thrown into slavery. Enduring (and not) all the things that come with it.

Also, most of the Black folks i know are VERY sceptical about things unknown! So, why would we believe ONE WORD of something so fantastic, as the Jesus Christ story? ...and its coming from the one who you know is not to be trusted!

I could see playing along just to avoid another beat down, but actually believing it? It just doesn't make sense to me...

I could go on and on about how sad it is that Black American's don't really have a culture here in America because of it. How we don't have or know, of a native language. Germans speak German. Chinese speak Chinese and Latino's speak beautiful Spanish. THEY have culture. Black "culture" in America is basically just being a consumer. Our culture is Nike, Mercedes, Sony Playstation, 24 inch chrome wheels on passenger cars, offensive rap music and professional sports. Oh, and killing each other. But thats another subject altogether...
The Jesus thing to me, is like buying a car from someone who YOU ALREADY KNOW, is full of shit and not to be trusted.
So, why DO Black folks believe so wholeheartedly in Christianity?
I'll never know.

How sexy are Ilene's shoes?!
Dam!