Michael Jackson is my daddy!!

Hello again folks!

I have coined the season between June 25 and August 29 as "Michael Jackson Season". I woke up on June 25 and said "hmmmm, how do I feel today" and my self responded "Michael Jackson!" Who, other than myself, should I listen to about how I feel?

Well, in following the tradition of listening to myself, I played around watching some MJ videos and listening to old Jackson 5 songs and got inspired to record my version of Buttercup. Buttercup is an unreleased collaboration between the Jackson 5 and Stevie Wonder that was highly anticipated and supposed to be released in 1974 (see article). I searched far and wide for a reason why this song was never released. My research has lead me to the following:

Motown was a machine. It brought young talent off the streets and into a family of recording, musicianship, writing, and production. The Jackson 5 auditioned for Motown and were embraced as the first kid act. They grew up in Motown and learned a lot, but Motown was still a business: the Jackson 5 received a standard (i.e., extremely low) royalty rate for their music and the boys became burnt out with singing the same pop bubble gum music they'd always sung (I know that feeling). In order to increase their creative potential, Joe Jackson negotiated a deal with CBS that included a higher royalty rate and increased creative license. The Jacksons (minus Jermaine and adding Randy to the mix) began recording with CBS in 1975...

...SIDE NOTE>>>>>(CBS, Epic, Sony Music Entertainment, and Columbia Records are all the same company. There are only 4 major labels, Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, Warner Music Group, and EMI Group. EMI is a British company. Among the big 4, Live Nation (which dominates live music sales) and Apple (which dominates digital music sales through iTunes), these are the only companies through which artists are able to reach mass audiences. However, with increased popularity of the independent sector, independent distributors like CDbaby.com (those folks are out of Portland, OR. I've met them and spoken with them personally) artists who don't have the mass reach of the major companies can still make a decent living.

So, back to the story. From 1963-1976, Stevie Wonder was not only a musical genius, but an entrepreneurial powerhouse. Unlike Joe Jackson, Lula Mae, Stevie Wonder's mother, wasn't trying to sell her child. She left his father and moved the family to Detroit to be around relatives. Stevie could focus on creativity without the pressures of money and the music industry. Stevie grew up in the 1960s, so unlike Ray Charles, there wasn't this background of dehumanization and poverty in the South. It was Detroit where Motown was being born and the civil rights movement was telling black people they were beautiful. It was a different time and a different reason for making art.

By the time Stevie joined Motown, he had already produced 2 albums, so he had bargaining power. He, like Ray Charles, negotiated to own the rights to all his masters and a significantly higher royalty rate than other artists on the Motown label. Since he was writing all his lyrics and electronically and acoustically producing much of his music, he didn't have  to share his proceeds with other people. He was completely in control of his music career (I'm focusing on the period of 1963-1976 because it's relevant to the song "Buttercup". However, Stevie has always owned himself and is still making music, yet housed under the Motown label...I mean, who would have a problem with Stevie being on their label even if they weren't getting paid? I sure wouldn't)....SIDE NOTE>>>>>>>

>>>>Janelle Monae followed a similar recording and music production strategy as Stevie Wonder. She went to Puff Daddy and courted Bad Boy Records to be one of their artists. He wasn't hearing her. She began producing her music herself under the "Wondaland Arts Society" which she founded herself with a group of like-minded musical rejects. Puff Daddy then returned to her and said "yeah I wanna sign you" and Janelle was like "fuck that. We can enter a partnership though". She currently owns herself, I hope it stays that way. Bad Boy Records started out as an independent label owned and operated by Puff Daddy (Or P Diddy or whatever). Puff was muscled out of 50% of his company by Universal and Bad Boy is currently owned by Warner. Yep. It may be interesting to point out that Janelle Monae founded Wondaland after meeting Big Boi of OutKast and worked with them on some projects. OutKast was signed to LaFace Records...owned and operated by Sony Music Entertainment...are you beginning to see the links?

Back to the story: Michael Jackson, the real creative genius behind the Jackson 5, and Stevie Wonder, a creative genius in himself, met and started making music together. WHAAAAT!!!??? Things really began poppin' off in 1974 when Buttercup was supposed to be released. Could you imagine? The immense talent of Michael Jackson and the business savvy and talent of Stevie Wonder coming together in Motown's headquarters? They probably would've taken the shit over. Anyway, if the Jackson's were recording with Sony in 1975, then the plans were in the making in 1974. It takes about a year to go through the business of changing labels, not to mention the emotional trauma for a child (MJ was 15 years old). Michael had no agency in his life at that time. Joe was running everything, so nature couldn't exactly take its course. The Buttercup project was canned and Stevie had to move on with Motown...as did the Jacksons with Sony. Later, Michael and Stevie would reunite for collaborations like "I can't help it", "Get It", and "Just Good Friends"...all good songs, but not highly acclaimed by pop music charts (I wonder why? #sarcasm).

All that said, attached is my interpretation and tribute to the wonder of Michael Jackson and Stevie that could've been if the industry would've just gotten out of the way and let the artists make art. Ladies and Gentlemen, BUTTERCUP.

An Open Letter about the 4th of July by Blue

An open letter about the 4th of July by Blue Azul:

I think natives (and Black Americans) can do, feel, act, or react however we want with any of these holidays. Our blood, sweat, and tears have earned us the right to either embrace it or reject it. Sometimes in our cynicism, we forget the fortunate effects of the "now" of living in a country where we can say "Fuck The 4th of July" and "Fuck Thanksgiving" and "Fuck Christmas" publicly and in open forum (visit a comedy open mic lately? It's ALL personal manifestos and NO jokes :-/).

As people of color, we must never forget the great crimes of this nation and the many who suffered and died at the hands of whitey and the white negro. We must honor our heroes and soldiers who fight to protect our nation from the tyranny of capitalism and separatism (Shout out, OBS). But that starts with US, not with "THE U.S.", any president, legislation, or what congress "allows". Fuck that. I'm a human being. If I want freedom, I take it (inspired by Malcolm X). I went through the "Eff all holidays" phase and it was fun and I made my point. My family no longer buys me gifts (thank God) and no longer expects me to be involved in their consumerism and the infamous "I never call you or answer the phone when you call, but if you're not at my house on Christmas, I'm mad at you for a year" bullshit madness. And now that I'm broken from other people's expectations, I can get kids together and sing Christmas Carols with them all over the city if I want...ON THE 4th of JULY! HAHAHAHA #imfantastic

In conclusion, people who feel completely violated by this country...violated in the ass with a broken broomstick and no lubrication...have the first say in how we're going to react to the 4th of July. My suggestion: bbq, play NWA loudly in the park with all your bad assed kids who eat the grass, cuss at and fight your siblings and let grandma threaten to kill all of you for being ungrateful heathens, pull out a deck of cards and teach the youngsters to play bid wiz, let your conspiracy theorist cousin talk your ear off about the latest Illuminati video, and at the end of the night, blow shit up. Make sure to have a PhD, MBA, or MSW on hand to talk to the police. Know history, honor it, don't repeat it, and most importantly: fuck hos. -The Management

No More Whore: The Hitchhiker's Guide to Babylon, Part 1: Unsolicited Photographs

Greetings all,
I had a conversation on twitter with an artist who's considering giving up her aversion to getting photographed. I don't think it's fair that she has to bend herself for those who take sport in privacy violations. Did an infomercial about it. Here it go.

Facebook Takeout: Blue explains Afterimages

Facebook Takeout

I've been seeing this picture go around the internet. A lot of people are confused about why this happens. In the comments is an explanation I posted on a friends' page.

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  Blue Azul The cones in your eyes detect variations of red, blue, and yellow. When you focus on any of them for an extended period of time, in order for your eyes to "readjust", the opposite is processed in your brain so you start from "0" again. It happens all the time, but we're usually unaware of it because there isn't that much contrast under normal circumstances.

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  Blue Azul In the case of this picture, you are looking at the spectral "negative" of a man's face. The background is black, so the greatest contrast is to look at a white background. Since there's so much contrast from one background to the next, the "readjustment" manifests itself on the white background as the spectral "positive" of the original photograph.

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  Blue Azul It's the same subcortical logic that explains why when you spin around really fast and stop, the earth looks as though it's continuing to move in the opposite direction of the way you were spinning. Your brain is trying to stay regulated (at "0"), so it will do whatever it takes to maintain a baseline, including manipulating the physical world outside.

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  Blue Azul It's because the spectral opposite of the colors in the picture on the left is the image your brain creates on the right. Blue is the opposite of red, Black is the opposite of white, and so on. It wasn't hard to do this because the artist took a photograph of a man against a white background and processed the negative, so everything lined up just right. Due to photographical technology, you don't have to guess. You just process the negative.

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  Blue Azul If you took some old negatives of film you have and illuminated it and stared at it for a second, then looked at a contrasting background, the same thing would happen.
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  Blue Azul Learn more about "afterimage" here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afterimage. Google some others. Have fun with your friends.

  

  Afterimage - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

  en.wikipedia.org

  An afterimage or ghost image or image burn-in is an optical illusion that refers...See More

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  Blue Azul It begins to get deeper in the metaphysical when you start to understand that you really are always just processing "afterimages". The world that you see is only the world that you're capable of seeing, based on the way that your brain is wired. If you are the type of person who is constantly creating neuropathways (i.e., you read, create, speak multiple languages, travel, expose yourself to new information regularly), the afterimages that you perceive in the world have more dimension and so you are better able to empathize with anothers' "view of the world". However, if you have not been in the habit of creating neuropathways, then your brain looses plasticity and you are unable of perceiving multidimensional afterimages. If you continue to lose plasticity and you get old, it is almost impossible to begin creating new neuropathways. However, this is completely reversible and depending on the will of the person, the individual can increase plasticity in the brain.

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  Blue Azul This is also why there are some people who can learn new information at the rate and efficiency of a child and some children can't process anything...it all has to do with how vigilant one is about incorporating new information into their lives.

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  Blue Azul Literature on aging and cognition has found repeatedly that the greatest buffer against dementia, specifically Alzheimer's disease, is novelty.

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  Blue Azul Learning to do 1 thing really well is not a buffer against dementia. The expertise in 1 thing does not necessarily transfer to other things in life. For example, you can be a master violinist who only plays violin and still not know your sister's name.

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  Blue Azul However, there is a theory called "interleading" that explains how focusing on multiple aspects of a thing increases the proficiency in all areas of that thing far greater than focusing on just 1 aspect will increase the proficiency of that 1 aspect.

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  Blue Azul For example, if you're learning to play basketball and you train only in freethrow shooting, you will become pretty good at shooting freethrows, but not necessarily in layups, defense, offense, or court strategy.

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  Blue Azul However, if you practice a little bit in freethrows, layups, defense, offense, and court strategy, you not only become a better basketball player overall, but you become better at shooting freethrows than if you had just focused on freethrows.

  21 hours ago ·

I like kittens. But I'll dabble in politics.

This is the first and last political statement I will make about this upcoming election: Obama is a great leader. He leads in ways that are most effective, but in ways that politics is not a good platform for. A book written in some century BC called "The Tao of Leadership" describes exactly what Obama is doing. Furthermore, Sun Tsu's "Art of War" also coincides with Obama's leadership style. It's unfortunate that the media and the populous are only interested in a type of leader who's always loud, interfering, and making quick, brash decisions without thinking things through first. Americans want us to lead as though we're venturing into the Wild West with no real understanding of the terrain and limited resources. We need to begin viewing this nation and our leadership from the perspective of prosperity, which leads us to make slower and better decisions, more skillful moves, and use as few resources to get the job done as possible. If people ran their households the way they expect Obama to run the country, they'd be killing their children for talking back to them, going to the store and buying everything in the store, then coming home and cooking all of it at once, and only cleaning when someone gets hurt.

Misguided Anger

READER DISCRETION ADVISED. DIRTY WORDS USED.


A friend and co-creative recently posted this quote on his facebook page as a point of discourse.  It's a hateful rant by some random guy in cyberspace:

.........."thats dat illuminati shit...cuz gay is "okay" in our society. These kids are a victim. And its gonna get way worse cuz the devil aint tryin 2 make the world a Godly place 2 live. But on some real shit gay is not okay but eventually there will be more gay than straight...because of what these kids r being exposed 2 in our society with everything at fingers reach with the internet and cable. In these illuminati infected generations....drugs, sex, violance and money is all thats important. How u obtain and what u believe in dont ,even matter anymore. Home training is a thing of the past because kids raising kids, and they dont know shit. U can only teach what u learn...and look what these gay bastards r learning....father God please help us"  -Some random guy in cyberspace 

Now, I'm all about free expression, but people must realize that in their "rants", they tell more about themselves than they do the thing they criticize. Any critical thinker would clearly see that this guy is offering a lot of information about his personal life. When I experience someone this bent out of shape about a group of people, I have to think, "well, what's it to you?" 

 So, I took it upon myself to translate this post for all who may be subject to it. Hopefully, this translation will add perspective. 

 "Please help me. I'm gay and I don't know what to do. I'm afraid that if I come out of the closet, I will lose everything I've worked for and then I'll go to hell. I am miserable because I am not true to myself, so all freely and openly gay people must also be miserable like me and burn in hell. For the record, I'll do everything I can to fuck up their day by saying really ridiculous shit in open forum about gay people because my life sucks so hard. I sure wish I could suck a hard dick and not feel so incredibly guilty about it. Oh, by the way, I'm a complete douche with too much time on my hands, no real understanding of "Illuminati",  and nobody likes me."

 Folks, be careful what you put out there in cyberspace. People are smarter than you think.

Love, 

Blue 

 PS. If you don't see the satire, that's ok. It doesn't have to be funny because it's true.