Tinnitus.

Bells ring; drums, ring; hell, even freedom rings.This is not a ring.More akin to a whistley whine.Or a whiny whistle? That never stops.It’s not a pulsating, or a sireny whine;It’s one, single, unbroken note,Like a dead guy slumped over his car horn. That’s always there.I can’t ever not hear it.Even when I’m not listening to […]

Unpopular Opinion?: Like the art, dislike the artist.

I think the problem arises when we want our celebrity idols to be more than human; to be better than human, because humans are, well, they’re not always the best. Many of them are the worst. But, liking a song, or movie, or other artistic endeavor by someone who’s done some bad things, isn’t necessarily […]

Ronnie, Joey, Donnie: All Singers Matter.

(Never read YouTube comments. Form your own opinion.) Back when I was a wee lad of about twelve or thirteen, I and a few of my friends from the neighborhood, were sitting in my living room, trying our best to copy the hit song “Jealous Girl” by New Edition. When we got to the breakdown […]

DJ Chronicles – 6: Once A DJ…

…always a DJ. I could no more quit DJing than I could quit breathing. I was supremely depressed about bombing hard at Soundset 2009 (even though I’m probably the only person who still remembers it), but I wasn’t in any hurry to dump all my equipment and records, and retreat into a cave in some […]

DJ Chronicles – 5: The Times Were A-Changin’.

Right around the late 00’s, the DJ game began to change. Well, maybe “evolve” is a better way of saying it. More and more DJ’s were discovering the wonders of Traktor Pro and Serato Scratch Live. These new doohickeys allowed you to manipulate music that was converted to electronic media, just like vinyl records. It […]

Hip Hop Frum Tha Past: Misspelin Stuf Iz “Kool.”

While it’s true that Hip Hop music has taken a significant dip in quality over the last 20 years, there is one thing that you don’t see a whole lot of these days: deliberate misspelling of names and songs. Other than the rare exceptions like The Weeknd or Knxwledge, you don’t see that much misspelling […]

DJ Chronicles – 4: Keep The Turntables Turnin’…

Well, somebody must have been paying attention to me while I was trying to make my mark in the Minnesota turntablist scene. One of the first gigs I got asked to do was to provide music for a house party over by the U of M. Boy was that an adventure. It was during my […]

DJ Chronicles – 3: I, Turntablist.

So I’m fresh out of college with my degree in Creative Writing, and a minor in Music Recording that I was only a few units short of finishing, a pair of ungently-used turntables, a beginner’s-level mixer, and a bedroom full of records. Now what? Well, I managed to make a few contacts thru working at […]

DJ Chronicles – 2: In Full Effect(?)

My freshman year at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles was spent trying to get my rapping career off the ground. Ya see, when I was in high school, I wrote a rap for me and my friends to perform for some project in Chemistry class. When the rest of my friends chickened […]

DJ Chronicles – 1: The Genesis.

I’ve always loved to write, but I’m not just a “wordsmith.” Besides writing, reading, and watching more television than I should, I’ve been a lover of music all my life, and I’ve been a DJ for almost 30 years. I remember listening to music on the hi-fi as a kid. The hi-fi was a console […]