Jason Toney

Genius Random Ten: Soul Flower Edition

I haven't done a random ten in years but PostBourgie noted that Amanda had switched the game up by doing a Genius Not-So-Random Ten. I love my Genius Playlists so here we go.

The kick-off song is Soul Flower by The Brand New Heavies off of Heavy Rhyme Experience Vol 1. It features Da Pharcyde and Liza Richardson was just playing them on KCRW.

1. Soul Flower by The Brand New Heavies
2. Pickin' Cotton by Johnny Talbot & De Thangs
3. Kashmere by Kashmere Stage Band
4. The Trip by Eugene Blacknell & The New Breed
5. Galactic by DJ Spinna
6. Hollywood by Erykah Badu
7. Alcohol, Pt. 1 by Robert Jay
8. T Plays It Cool by Marvin Gaye
9. Valdez in the Country by Donny Hathaway
10. Wanna B Where U R (Thisizzaluvsong) by Floetry & Mos Def

A nice acid jazzy/rare grooves kind of mix. Of these tracks, Wanna B Where U R is my most listened to track at 15 spins while Galactic by DJ Spinna has never been listened to all the way through for some reason. Valdez in the Country is probably my favorite of the bunch, though.

The Dreams

She sat next to me in a coding rhythm rapidly typing, flipping back and forth between windows and applications. She wields her macbook like Annie Oakley and I feel like a rank amateur. Actually, no, I'm impressed and a bit awed.

Actually, no, I'm asleep -- snoring, apparently -- and my mind went...

I'm talking to her in her home but its not her home. The wood is too dark. The rooms as a whole are too dark. We're talking. She's wearing green. Except now its blue. And then some swirl of something. I think something of it but nothing of it. Someone's hands cover my eyes. B. Brown says, "guess who came to see you?!" and I have no idea. Except then I do. But now I don't.

We all sit and talk about dinner. There is no food. We must go to the grocery. I must go to the grocery. We, the friend (not the girlfriend) and I will go to the grocery. We will ride bikes. Why do we have bikes? Why are we at the top of this steep hill? Why is it a patchwork of brick and stone? Why am I suddenly scared? Where has my friend gone?

I take the hill. Immediately, I am going too fast. I press on the brakes. The brakes do not work. I'm afraid. I'm near panic. The incline levels before going down a steeper fall. I hit the leveled area like a shot and fly out pass the edge into the air. The bike touches nothing. I want to yell but I don't. I want to pump the brakes again but I don't. I hit land again and the speed is now breakneck. The bottom is near. I can see black rails, a true cliff, and water. This is the end.

Except.

Except at the bottom, I break. I turn. There's the store.

There's the girlfriend (not the friend) and she already has what we need.

Blueberries.

---

We (she and me) are in my parent's house. Sort of. There is an odd conversation I don't understand and then suddenly I'm in the car with my mom. We're driving through a canyon. Las Virgines Road, I think, although sometimes it becomes Mulholland Drive. We are in a Range Rover that feels far too wide for the road. I don't know where we're headed. Oncoming traffic picks up and it feels like we'll crash at every turn. Have I mentioned I'm the passenger? My mom stops. To the left of us is a rocky off-road "path". The drive will be perilous. She looks at me once and I grab her arm. "What are you doing?!" I try to shout but nothing comes out. She backs up slightly and then breaks left driving onto the craggy terrain. The wheels drag and spin. Dirt sprays every which way. She hits a space where the ground gives way and we roll off the side of the mountain downward. I think I should scream but don't. The ground barrels towards us as we descend.

And then.

And then we right ourselves. We pull into a driveway that I do not recognize.

My mom turns to me and says, "Don't doubt. Just be."

Everything's going to be alright.

iTunes Obsessing: I Can Sing a Rain Dance

Even though in my neck of the woods we got barely a drizzle today, the gray skies and cooler temperatures felt like actual weather in what has been a very dry, sunny, hot year for Los Angeles. So, I spent much of my homespun Saturday listening to a playlist of "rain" songs, perhaps in hopes of invoking the traditions of the rain dance, turning the lightly spitting skies into a full on torrential downpour.

No such luck but I did find out a lot about how rain plays in my iTunes.

As of today, I have 58 songs with rain in the title (including words like rainy, rainbows, raincoat, and raincloud) totaling 4.2 hours worth of listening enjoyment.

The shortest song: at 1:06 minutes, Right Now Real/ 6 Variations of In The Rain by MED/Madlib off of the Stones Throw 101 Mix CD. (There is also the much longer version of this song from The Funky 16 Corners Compilation in this playlist)

The longest song: Love Rain (Suite) by Jill Scott from Experience: Jill Scott 826+ is 12 minutes and 30 seconds long.

The oldest song: Come Rain or Come Shine by Ray Charles was released in 1959. My version comes from Atlantic Soul - 1959 - 1975 (disc 1).

The newest song: Raincoat Song by The Decemberists is from the future. It isn't officially released until October 14th off of Always The Bridesmaid: A Singles Series.

R&b/Soul is a genre in love with rain songs and leads the pack with 18 entries. Country and Reggae both only post 1 song each (Willie Nelson's Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain and Bruce Ruffin's Rain, respectively).

Only Mary J. Blige shows up with two completely different songs about the rain (although I do have several artists with live versions or remixes in the playlist). She has Everyday It Rains and Rainy Dayz, the latter of which includes a guest rhyme by Ja Rule.

I Can Sing a Rainbow by the Dells is the most popular song in the list with 62 spins. No surprise there as it is one of my favorite songs ever.

There are several songs that got listened to for the first time today but only one song got the one star treatment from me and is thus marked for deletion. That would be In The Rain + Ain't No Sunshine by The Black Seeds. It's not a terrible song but it clocks in at 10:39, and is poorly tagged. I have no idea where I got this track or why and at that length, I know it will rarely, if ever get any spins unless I decide to have fun with rain (or perhaps the Sun) in the future.

Full playlist can be found on flickr.