Look

Ray Bryant: Stop, Look, Listen (To Your Heart)/You Are Everything (Comp. by Thom Bell & Linda Creed)
From: In The Cut (Cadet (Japan), 1974)

Rooming in off-campus housing while attending Howard University I lived with heterogeneously stratified house mates. One in particular was a parasite from South Carolina. He opened all of his retorts with, “Look, man….”
As usual the “rat” of ‘Pearls Before Swine’ and I are in accord.

Ray Bryant’s In The Cut album is very different from a lot of his other work, especially his late 60s sides for Cadet. This album features string and horn arrangements by Charles Stepney which at times are soulfully trippy yet periodically mellow. The songs are full of a majestically soulful approach that's always made Stepney a distinguished arranger. Ray also plays electric piano, dissimilar from the Fender Rhodes, on a number of songs. The collective tone is harder than his acoustic work, which provides a nice contrast to Stepney's orchestrations. Some of the songs appeal to soundtrack-esque sensibilities, in a style that makes one questions with what talent would Bryant have brought to film scores during this time.

*My review was a Dusty Groove interpolation
*Comp. - composed

Doing It To Death

Exhaustive – need I say more?

The Surface

THESAURAL

Let me see...
I can fit you in on Monday at 3:00
Tuesdays is use days
And Wednesdays is friends days
And Thursdays is hers days
And Fridays is my days
And Saturdays is fun days
And Sundays the one day
I rest, give thanks and bless
Again on Monday I will be back

Jay-Z's 99 Problems of The Black Album (Def Jam, November 14, 2003) interpolates Ice T's 99 Problems of Home Invasion (Priority, March 23, 1993) adapting the song title and refrain "...Got 99 problems and a bitch ain't one... ...Hit me..."

9th Wonder explains how in 2003, he created one of the most fan-friendly trends - remixing entire albums. Problemo?

Jay-Z: 99 Problems (9th Wonder Remix)
From: Black Is Back (White Label?, 2004?)

Entry Word: problem

Function: noun
Text: 1 something that requires thought and skill for resolution problem of world hunger>
Synonyms case, knot, matter, trouble
Related Words issue, question; challenge; corner, fix, hole, hot water, jam, pickle, predicament, situation; glitch, hitch, snag; conundrum, enigma, mystery, puzzle, puzzlement, riddle; brainteaser, perplexer, poser, stumper
Antonyms answer, solution
2 an interrogative expression often used to test knowledge problems on the exam, but they were all challenging> -- see QUESTION 1
3 something that is a source of irritation problem in the evenings> -- see ANNOYANCE 3

*9th Wonder (b. Patrick Douthit, January 15, 1975) is a hip hop producer from Raleigh, North Carolina, USA.

*Already know the island I'm from
And y'all don't want no problems with them

*Island I'm from: Manhattan: Harlem: Sugar Hill subdivision

Contradicting Zeamazing R&B

Darien Brockington: Don't Say Goodbye
From: Somebody To Love (Oct. 17, 2006, ABB)

Darien Brockington: Thank You
From: Somebody To Love (Oct. 17, 2006, ABB)

Tony Williams: Wildfire
From: Lifetime: The Collection (1975/1976/1992, Sony)

The last sip of a 22 fluid ounce beverage is approximately 13 percent backwash.

I consider most standard R&B (radio-ready) as backward moving - fluid in devolution (effing "zeamazing" (see definition below). As there are exceptions, most of these works go overlooked by major networks albeit deficiencies in nepotism and/or payola. Within these esoteric manifestations comes Darien Brockington. His album picks up where Carl Thomas's Emotional left off sans authoritative Hip-Hop production (Carl singing over Biggie's Life After Death instrumentals) conjoined with mellifluous R&B crooning.

Drink this R&B slowly for it is not backwash...

Acknowledge the Tony Williams original... (get your edutainment while it's hot - selling two for five down the way - learn something...)

*Zea mays: maize: corn
*Zea + amazing= "zeamazing" which bears a definitive likeness to "cornballs" - amazingly corny (as this is my conjunction word take Ghostface's advise: "Ni**as be killing me though, son. They be coming with your words and shit… They hear you say one word and here they come with the word trying to flip and bounce it and shit on some bullshit. Not sounding right, first of all…")

*My Favorite Darien Brockington song on Somebody To Love is Don't Say Goodbye solely due to production

I'd Go To Bat For You

Hip Hop made comic relative:
Ni**as gonna fuck around and get their balloon popped! (Ghostface Killah: Bulletproof Wallets (Intro))
I ain't a killer but don't push me, revenge is like the sweetest joy next to gettin' pu**y (2Pac: Hail Mary)
Don't push me cause I'm close to the edge (Grandmaster Flash: The Message)

Leflaur Leflah Eshkoshka

SOUND POUND STRAIGHT THROUGH YOUR BUBBLE VEST

Catalyst: Uzuri
From: The Funkiest Band You Never Heard (Disc 2) (1972-75, Muse/1999, 32 Groove)

The ever elusive 'Uzuri'... A cursory amalgamation of variant 'Uzuri' descriptive quotes follows:

"...contains classic '70s elements of liquid electric piano, chimes, and the exotic texture of sleigh bells."

"'Perception' (the album) defies this CD title (Funkiest Band You Never Heard) completely, Brown's (Al Johnson (bass) comprised the original group; Johnson left to work with Chuck Mangione and was replaced by Tyrone Brown) soft, beautiful 'Uzuri' is a dazzler. ...Very little funk here."

*Production credit: Da Beatminerz on Leflaur Leflah Eshkoshka from Heltah Skeltah's Nocturnal
album of July 1996
*"Sound pound straight through your bubble vest" quote from Leflaur Leflah Eshkoshka; reference

The Day The Looney Tunes Died

From left to right: Mickey Mouse, Hewey, Dewey and Louie Wile E. Coyote ("genius") and Daffy Duck

What's Up Doc?: Lee Hyungkoo And The Origin Of The Species
By Howard Rutkowski


The Punch Line

A black room frames the installation, which is dramatically spot-lit. A presentation of two skeletons, not unlike what one might see in a museum of natural history; a predator chasing its prey. Then the dawning – it’s Wile E. Coyote and The Roadrunner! Reduced to a science exhibit! Brilliant, clever and very, very funny.

Once the laughter subsides, something very interesting begins to emerge. The work is not merely clever or amusing in the way that Cattelan’s taxidermy animals are. There’s a whole new bit of forensic activity at work and the viewer is drawn into an exploration of the process behind this reductio ad absurdum. First of all, cartoon characters are not real; they are two-dimensional exaggerations of human behaviour. Yet, over time, they have entered the pantheon of global popular culture and are more recognisable than the real personalities that shape our world (Just consider the multi-national empire that is Disney). Our own predisposition to anthropomorphise furry (and feathered) creatures allows us to endow them with personalities that reflect our own and to place them in situations that mirror the trials and tribulations of our daily lives. So, if these cartoon figures can represent us in a simplified, yet extreme form, it follows that this form can be deconstructed and analysed.

Lee Hyungkoo’s approach eschews the pop psychological approach to deconstruction. What he is doing is actually physical deconstruction – more pop palaeontology – and it is detailed, thorough and completely worked through.


‘Familiar Tree’

This was Lee’s original idea for the title of the exhibition. As a play on ‘family tree,’ he was looking to describe the evolution of his creations and to evoke the empathy we all have with these animated characters. This new body of work began with Homo Animatus of 2002–2004. This was an homunculus – Latin for ‘little man’ – a cartoon exaggeration of human form (think of Elmer Fudd as a skeleton). The original homunculus was a creature with magic powers that medieval alchemists claimed to have created. Considering that Lee’s studio looks more like a laboratory than a typical artist’s atelier, the connection is even more easily drawn. Plus cartoon characters do possess incredible strength, resilience and resourcefulness: how many times has the Coyote fell off a cliff, only to rebound fully-intact in the next frame?

Homo Animatus was an extension of a series of earlier pieces where the artist physically sought to alter – to reduce to cartoon simplicity – his own anatomy. Using plastic forms, enlarging and reducing lenses, Lee created a variety of body costumes that altered both one’s appearance and one’s vision of the real world at the same time. Homo Animatus is, for Lee, the ‘Origin of the Species;’ in a peculiar and devolutionary way, of course, and in keeping with how animated creatures serve as stand-ins for their human counterparts. Canis Latrans Animatus (Wile E. Coyote) and Geococcyx Animatus (Roadrunner) followed and are now joined by Lepus Animatus (Bugs Bunny), Felis Catus Animatus (Tom), Mus Animatus (Jerry), Anas Animatus (Donald Duck) and his three nephews, Animatus H, D and L (Huey, Dewey and Louie).

‘Familiar Tree’ remains an appropriate description for this body of work. These are the ‘skeletons’ of characters/personalities that are as close to us and as instantly recognisable as our own inner frames.


The Process

Stories of any kind usually require a build-up before offering the denouement. The joke involves a narrative before providing the punch line. Lee Hyungkoo works backwards. Merely seeing the work gives no clues to the complexity of its creation. Visually, the work can strike a chord and delight, amuse or bewilder, but examining its origins and development frames it properly.

Lee’s studio is a laboratory and could not be further removed from a scruffy artist’s garret. With a white-coated, masked team of technicians working in ‘clean rooms,’ the space is unlike any other. Bones of real animals sit on shelves alongside those of the works in progress. Clay constructions of skulls of imaginary characters provide a reference to those reconstructions of our fossilised ancestors. The walls are adorned with drawings of the anatomies of both real animals and their animated renditions. The tools and working methods are more akin to the procedures seen on the Nature Channel than the usual brush and paint-pot strewn environments one usually associates with the creation of contemporary works of art.

The adoption of Latin names to describe the individual creations underscores the faux-scientific approach, utilising the classifications associated with ‘kingdom, phylum, genus, species’ that categorise every living thing on the planet. Fans of the Roadrunner cartoons will recall that schoolboy Latin was often used to describe the characters, e.g. ‘Coyotus imbicilus.’


The Sources

The work itself, while sublime, delightful and amusing, requires an in-depth understanding of how all of this came to be in order to be fully appreciated. Observing the creation of this various works does provide the modus operandi behind Lee’s work, but where does the origin of the Origin of the Species lie?

Lee has cited Rodin and Giacometti as sculptural artists to whom he has responded within the development of his own work. Rodin was a breakthrough artist who sought to imbue the natural human form – warts and all – with a heroic sense of space, rejecting along the way the idealisation of the body that was previously the hallmark of Western sculpture. Rodin changed the way one could look at the human figure much in the same way that Lee’s optical helmets and body-distorting devices create alternative physical realities.

Giacometti’s own work passed through a number of critical stages – representational, cubist and surrealist – until he reached his apogee in Post-War Europe and sought to render the human form in all its existential angst. Giacometti found the inner reality of man.

Lee has spoken about the ability of these two artists to create a new sense of sculptural space. ‘Space’ is a concept that all artists working in three-dimensions must come to terms with. With this new body of work Lee has gone from the virtual space defined by his Objectuals series and has made the virtual a reality.

Good?

ARBITRARY WORD OF THE DAY

Cal Tjader: Never Can Say Goodbye
Last Bolero In Berkeley (Fantasy, 1973)

Peedi Crakk AKA Peedi Peedi: Sit…Good Dog
Freeway & Benja Styles: What We Do The Movie

It’s Monday, my deriving at the arbitrary word of the day as “good” is irrefutably arbitrary. I’m not feeling too verbose, nor am I feeling “too” much of anything work-related today, as again, it is Monday - cars made on Monday are to be avoided for the same reason.

Main Entry: ¹good
Pronunciation: 'gud
Function: adjective
Inflected Form(s): bet·ter /'be-t&r/; best /'best/
Etymology: Middle English, from Old English gOd; akin to Old High German guot good, Middle High German gatern to unite, Sanskrit gadhya what one clings to
1 a (1) : of a favorable character or tendency <good news> (2) : BOUNTIFUL, FERTILE <good land> (3) : HANDSOME, ATTRACTIVE <good looks> b (1) : SUITABLE, FIT <good to eat> (2) : free from injury or disease good arm> (3) : not depreciated good> (4) : commercially sound good risk> (5) : that can be relied on <good for another year> <good for a hundred dollars> good for a laugh> (6) : PROFITABLE, ADVANTAGEOUS good deal> c (1) : AGREEABLE, PLEASANT good time> (2) : SALUTARY, WHOLESOME <good for a cold> (3) : AMUSING, CLEVER good joke> d (1) : of a noticeably large size or quantity : CONSIDERABLE good margin> good bit of the time> (2) : FULL good hour> (3) -- used as an intensive good many of us> e (1) : WELL-FOUNDED, COGENT <good reasons> (2) : TRUE good for society at large> (3) : deserving of respect : HONORABLE good standing> (4) : legally valid or effectual <good title> f (1) : ADEQUATE, SATISFACTORY <good care> -- often used in faint praise good -- Frank Deford> (2) : conforming to a standard <good English> (3) : CHOICE, DISCRIMINATING <good taste> (4) : containing less fat and being less tender than higher grades -- used of meat and especially of beef
2 a (1) : VIRTUOUS, RIGHT, COMMENDABLE good person> <good conduct> (2) : KIND, BENEVOLENT <good intentions> b : UPPER-CLASS good family> c : COMPETENT, SKILLFUL good doctor> d (1) : LOYAL good party man> good Catholic> (2) : CLOSE good friend> e : free from infirmity or sorrow good>
- good·ish /'gu-dish/ adjective
- as good as : in effect : VIRTUALLY <as good as dead>
- as good as gold
1 : of the highest worth or reliability as good as gold>
2 : well-behaved as good as gold>
- good and /"gud-^&n/ : VERY, ENTIRELY good and mad>
usage An old notion that it is wrong to say "I feel good" in reference to health still occasionally appears in print. The origins of this notion are obscure, but they seem to combine someone's idea that good should be reserved to describe virtue and uncertainty about whether an adverb or an adjective should follow feel. Today nearly everyone agrees that both good and well can be predicate adjectives after feel. Both are used to express good health, but good may connote good spirits in addition to good health.

Rovy, Please Say The Baby!

1000 WORDS

It's called the "American Dream" because you have to be asleep to believe it.

- George Carlin

*1000 Words - A picture is worth a thousand words is a familiar proverb that refers to the idea that complex stories can be told with just a single still image, or that an image may be more influential than a substantial amount of text. It also aptly characterizes the goals of visualization where large amounts of data must be absorbed quickly.

It is believed that the modern use of the phrase stems from an article by Fred R. Barnard in the advertising trade journal Printers' Ink, promoting the use of images in advertisements that appeared on the sides of streetcars. The December 8, 1921 issue carries an ad entitled, "One Look is Worth A Thousand Words."

Another ad by Barnard appears in the March 10, 1927 issue with the phrase "One Picture is Worth Ten Thousand Words," where it is labelled a Chinese proverb. The Home Book of Proverbs, Maxims, and Familiar Phrases quotes Barnard as saying he called it "a Chinese proverb, so that people would take it seriously." Soon after, the proverb would become popularly attributed to Confucius.

Despite this modern origin of the popular phrase, the sentiment has been expressed by earlier writers. For example the Russian writer Ivan Turgenev wrote (in Fathers and Sons in 1862), "A picture shows me at a glance what it takes dozens of pages of a book to expound."

Futhermore, Napoleon Bonaparte is known to have said, word for word, "A picture is worth a thousand words."

Following the old saying:"A picture is worth a thousand words", Ben Tamari added, as a combination of metaphors and fractals: 'A metaphor is worth a thousand pictures' and 'An allegory is worth a thousand metaphors', see http://www.ecometry.biz/metaphors

Neutral

HOW 1+1= 0 (1+(-1)=0)

Swizz Beatz is garbage with eyes. In this video (Styles P & Swizz Beatz Rap City Freestyle (03-21-07)) he bolsters my case relative the neutrality catalyzed when baseless submarginal banality (yes, I am talking about Swizz Beatz) is paired with effortless faculty (Styles P is "dumb-nice").

In short, when a talent is paired with a handicap (again, Swizz Beatz) the sum is zero - resultantly they cancel each other out.

As always Swizz Beatz get an "E" for effrontery.

Swizz Beatz if you're ever in the habit of doing favors please go face a corner and stay there.


The L.O.X. is a group of 3 emcees originating from Yonkers, New York discovered by Mary J. Blige. The name The L.O.X. originated from "The Warlox", however, it was shortened to The LOX per P. Diddy. The LOX is now a backronym for "Living Off Experience" and is composed of Jadakiss (Jayson Phillips) - whose monolithic strength lies in his voice, Sheek Louch (Shawn Jacobs) - a shallow embodiment of "larger than life" persona (yet had one best lyrics on the 'Benjamins' - a feat that stands alone via devolution), and Styles P (David Styles) - who has due to my sister "Double N G Dukes" become one of my favorite emcees (prior I considered him a tuff illusionist - "kill concrete and put a brick in the hospital" caricature and look-alike of a Pacemaster Mace and Trugoy The Dove hybrid, both of De La Soul).

*Styles P