soul train dance line to curtis mayfield’s get down
not really a music video but a kind reminder that you can just sit back and watch soul train lines on youtube as much as you want
I'm a writer, filmmaker, and performer in Oakland. My wife is better at tumbling than me. channing@channingkennedy.com
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Channing Kennedy
• about / portfolio
Channing Kennedy
“For centuries, artists had stored their paints in pigs’ bladders. It was a painstaking process: they, or their apprentices, would carefully cut the thin skin into squares. Then they would spoon a nugget of wet paint onto each square, and tie up the little parcels at the top with string. When they wanted to paint, they would pierce the skin with a tack, squeeze the color onto their palette and then mend the puncture. It was messy, especially when the bladders burst, but it was also wasteful, as the paint would dry out quickly. Then in 1841 a fashionable American portrait painter called John Goffe Rand devised the first collapsible tube — which he made of tin and sealed with pliers. After he had improved it the following year and patented it, artists in both Europe and America really began to appreciate the wonder of the portable paintbox.”
from Color: A Natural History of the Palette by Victoria Finlay
Painting is
Claude Monet Painting by the Edge of a Wood
by John Singer Sargent
1885
all my ‘97 David Bowie tweets that i wrote last night on my phone in bed immediately before falling asleep. man i dunno. shoutout/apologies to alittleheadache (click for context)
Sheila E doing “Glamorous Life” at the American Music Awards in 1985. This performance is bonkers. For the first third she sings lead while standing and also playing the lead percussion part. Then she takes the mic and dances around. And then the lights on stage go dark and she solos on drums in the dark with glow-in-the-dark sticks.
Two things occur to me watching this, and recently revisiting Sheila E’s first two albums. One, Prince in the 1980s was the kind of pop genius that comes along every 20-30 years, maybe. The amount of brilliant, boundary-pushing, but still accessible music he was responsible for, as both a solo performer or, as with this song, as a writer/producer, is simply astonishing. It’s honestly like talking about Albert Einstein in 1905, that’s how in the zone he was. It was a decade of a true and lasting genius by an artist at the height of his powers who was given all kinds of resources. A rare thing.
The second thing is what a talent Sheila E was (and probably still is, though I haven’t heard anything she’s done in some time). She had a few big hits, two good records, and came from a remarkable family of musicians (she had several first-call percussionists of note in her family). In the late 1980s she was Prince’s live drummer and also was also the leader of his backing band (you can see her considerable skills behind a proper kit in the Sign O the Times film). Imagine what it takes to be Prince’s musical director in those years, for him to hand over the keys.
Put down whatever you are doing and make sure you watch this video.
Also before the drum solo somebody comes out and puts a white fur coat on her.
NOBODY DOES IT BETTER.
if you’re not watching this tapircam, what are you even doing with your life
Hey, it’s my face real big on NPR’s Tumblr!
npr:
Last week, we wrote about the way members of minority groups are frequently linked in the popular imagination with prominent fellow members of their group. We asked Channing Kennedy, frequent contributor to Colorlines.com, for a commentary on this phenomenon from the perspective of someone without any immediately obvious minority affiliations. Here’s what he told us: Can A White Guy Represent For His People? : Code Switch
Photo: Hatty Lee / Colorlines
“Kya kare kya na kare yeh kaise mushkil hai?”
jesus christ these dance moves
“It has been recorded by a reliable authority that near the graves of Roger Williams, the founder of Rhode Island, and his wife, there stood a venerable apple tree which had sent two of its roots into the graves of Mr. and Mrs. Williams. The larger root had pushed its way through the earth till it reached the precise spot occupied by the skull of Roger Williams. There, making a turn, as if going round the skull, it followed the direction of the backbone to the hips. Here it divided into two branches, sending one of them along each leg to the heel, where both turned towards the toes. One of these roots formed a slight crook at the knee, which made the whole bear close resemblance to a human form. There were the graves emptied of every particle of human dust. Not a trace of anything was left. There stood the guilty apple tree… caught in the very act of robbing the grave. The fact proved conclusively that bones, even of human beings, are an excellent fertilizer for fruit trees; and the fact must be admitted that the organic matter of Roger Williams… had bloomed in the apple blossoms, and had become pleasant to the eye; and more, it had gone into the fruit from year to year, so that the question might be asked, Who ate Roger Williams?“
–Sereno Edwards Todd, The Apple Culturist (1871) via
Roger Williams Root photo via
Mom and Baby Tapir Webcam
They’re probably asleep now, but if you keep it open in a back tab and refresh every 5 minutes or so they’ll be in a cute new cuddling position. Or maybe you’ll get lucky and they’ll be awake! They’re in Austria, so their sleeping is at least partially due to a time difference, not just laziness.
the greatest
original url http://www.geocities.com/Paris/7172/
last modified 1997-08-11 18:13:58
