Mantras and Memories

"You'd have to eat some celery"
"You'd have to eat some celery"
"You'd have to eat some celery," he whispered under his breath over and over again as they stood in the abandoned alley way. It was 12 am, Seg had forgotten what he and King were talking about and thus was reduced to repeating the last spoken phrase over and over until he could find a place for it. Like the mantra of some senile jigsaw puzzle addict.
"We were talking about tic tacs." King said.
"We were talking about tic tacs!" Seg recalled all of a sudden.
Tic tacs have one calorie. Celery has negative calories. In order to eat tic tacs safely, you'd have to eat some celery. Suddenly it all fit into place. Seg's face flushed with relief. The tension in his shoulders dissipated, the night could continue.

This is what Saturday night had become. The plan to goto west Philly had started its slow twisting decent into the ground after a few delays and miss-communications, and it was time to eject. KCG returned with his friend, and the four began crawling the area for hidden drinkeries. Pleasant memories of bars open long ago were met with boarded up windows and cold winds. Some hugged the walls of alleyways to keep warm, others made phone calls trying to find the next bar. Cramping their cellphones up to the ear, listening for long moments and at times replying, "No, we're here now, it's gone. There are boards over the windows."

Finally the group found a local bar, and stepped inside.
"Interesting crowd." Interesting is never a compliment.
Seg scanned the room with skeptical eyes. This was a small town bar somehow right in the middle of the city. A dumpy looking women belched lyrics into a microphone while the words ran across a nearbye monitor. "Uhhhgg, Karaoke."
KCG snatched up the song list and began scribbling titles on a piece of paper. "Where are all the drunk songs??"
The night took a delightful turn at this point. I desperately wish I could share these moments more visually. Words are so low budget.

The DJ unnecessarily butchered KCG's name and he made his way to the stage. With delivery like a lounge singer he began belting out the lyrics to "Tainted Love."
"First I ran to you, now I run to you."
Apparently, the only thing different between then and now is tense.
"Tainted love!!!! Tainted!! Love!!! Tainted Love!!"
The song was finished in dramatic fashion, with the words "Tainted Love" being expertly inserted at random and hilarious moments.
The performance ended, and the group laughed, and drank, and played pool, and lived happily ever after.

The End

(I think I wrapped that up nicely.)

- Seg

What it Do: New Years Weekend

What up Party People? Another year gone by and I can't believe it already. Have fun and stay safe. Minnow is still open so stop by before they close for good.

Friday

• Mike Nyce and Big Rich Medina - Loft party style byob to 4 am jumpoff
• DnB at Ulanas
• Monie Love and Ultraviolet - Ladies Love Hip Hop at Fluid
• Wooden Shoe Books 30th bday party at Upstairs @ Sals
• Hands and Knees - M Room - Front and Girard
  

Saturday

• Doug E. Fresh in AC
  
• Drum n bass smashdown at Liquid Charm
• The Most Awesome New Years Eve Eve

New Years Eve

• Philly
• Paper Street and Simplefly will be partying at the Bellevue hotel (remember Halloween?) with Low Budget, Plastic Little, Juiceboxxx in room 1, Shakedown in room 2 and DJ Dee Jay's Madonna/Michael/Prince party in room 3
• Guest list and more info
• Making Time with open bar, extra sound Man Man and the usual crew at Transit
• Rowdy crew with Nate Day and friends at Medusa ($5 if you myspace msg Nate)
• Baltimore
• Taxlo at Sonar
• NYC
• Rub with Catchdubs and Caps & Jones
  
• Cousin Cole in the Burg
• Toronto
• Diplo tickets available from a disgruntled fan
  

RIP James Brown

Rest in peace to the Godfather of Soul. There are a few musicians that have a truly lasting and revoloutionary effect on music and this man is one of them. Soul to funk to hip hop, his music resonates and will live on forever.

• Check out ?uestlove's take on James Brown.
• Soul sides pays tribute and found an awesome Youtube and has an excerpt from an interview done earlier this year.
• James Brown interview about how Jazz influenced him
• Soul sides pick of JB Youtubes

• Different Kitchen has a number of posts
• Beware of the blog links to a number of tributes
• Bag of Songs had a number of mp3's up but exceeded their bandwidth
• Learn how to dance like James Brown
• Honey Soul
  
• Who Sampled James Brown? more like who hasn't?

The Hardest Working Man in Show Business aka Mr. Dynamite will be sorely missed but his legacy will live on.

Now... and many times before

Classic footage of various artists edited together to form a stunning visual tribute to the musical arts. Oh and a U2 track is playing in the background, which I'll begrudgingly admit is pretty good.

- Seg

What it Do: Christmas Weekend

Happy Holidays to all of those celebrating whatever holiday you down with. I'm an equal opportunist and think we should celebrate all holidays continuously. Holla!

Friday

• The Straight Dope : Meddafore (mixtape champion) is home to tear it down with BD1982, Dev79, Starkey and the crew at Khyber Upstairs.
• [Click] : Special free edition at Fluid, $1 PBR and $2 well drinks til 12, 613 S. 4th Street
• Dave P, Adam Sparkles and Julian S. Process provide the jams
• Jae Kennedy and Illy DJ at the Dive: 947 S Passyunk Ave, with everything classy
• cheap drinks and classy jams in South Philly
• Hands and Knees at M Room (Frankford and Girard) - Jhn Rdn, Ian St. Laurent, 10 - 11 Free, Sparks, PBR, VitVodka
  

Saturday

• Hip Hop for the Kids at the Khyber - $5 with an unwrapped gift, $10 without. 100% of door goes to the kids.
  
• Nas at the Electric Factory - God's Son proclaims Hip Hop is Dead and pisses off a whole lot of people