MME's Soul Treasures

..being true to yourself..being real...this is what has driven the shift in soul music from the 1990's to the present.. Although what is marketed as soul music today in the commercial spheres is a downright abomination, the following playlist is testimony to the fact that we are only just beginning to tap the fertile fields of this altered landscape....OneLove!

Deep SoulDiving - Playlist by MixMasterE

:::MixMasterE::

..leave all our hopelessnesses aside...

Thanks to Lola Funkland Android for putting me on to this incredible song. The song, "Just For Now", is about family gatherings and all the love & warmth, conflict & pain, candor& evasiveness that normally accompany these gatherings (it's the human condition). The artist, Imogen Heap, has an earthiness & range that touches you deeply. I first heard of her in the group Frou Frou in another phenomenal song, "Let Go", and I've been a fan of her ethereal falsetto ever since. Just listen...




OneLove

:::MixMasterE::

The Disappearing Male

James Brown once bellowed, "It's a Man's World", in full, soulful, patriarchal power echoing a long-held belief that we (men) are inherently dominant & superior to everything and everyone (God's design, it has been argued), but it takes a woman (in a secondary role) to make it all worthwhile. I have never subscribed to this perverse mind-set (truthfully, a social disease of the highest order), but I am not going to elaborate on that now. Instead, I present the following documentary which might have well been called, "(S)he Who Laughs Last, Laughs Best" (in a tragicomic sense). It seems that all the poison we (men) have released upon the physical (and mental) environment has come back to haunt us and potentially sweep us off this artificial world we have created. Our own cleverness has turned against us! It's a man's world indeed.



OneLove

::MixMasterE::

...enter the fire...

In complete control,
Pretending control,
With dignified authority,
We are charlatans…
(Or maybe just a goat's-hair brush in a painter's hand.)
We have no idea what we are.




O, happy the soul that saw its own faults.



Conventional opinion is the ruin of our souls




If
by Rumi


If you can disentangle
yourself from your selfish self
all heavenly spirits
will stand ready to serve you

if you can finally hunt down
your own beastly self
you have the right
to claim Solomon's kingdom

you are that blessed soul who
belongs to the garden of paradise
is it fair to let yourself
fall apart in a shattered house

you are the bird of happiness
in the magic of existence
what a pity when you let
yourself be chained and caged

but if you can break free
from this dark prison named body
soon you will see
you are the sage and the fountain of life

Peace

::MixMasterE::

Poet's Nook: "What Of A Love Unspoken" by Tupac Shakur (2PAC)

One of my favorite 2PAC poems is "What Of A Love Unspoken" which lays out a man's soul to the flower of his desire. Incredible truth-telling:

I know my heart has lied before

but now it speaks, with honesty

of an invisible bond of friendship, that was formed, in secrecy

Coming from me this may seem hard but..but to God I swear - it's truth

We are friends for eternity and for-ever I will always love.. you..

What of a love unspoken?

Is it with or without a name?

Does love exist without a title

because I dare not share it's name

All my life I've dreamed of

of meeting one with immense beauty and..

and once I found her I would charm her and...

and she'd be mine forever (mine forever)

I found her and, indeed she is all that I, wished for and more but she

is not charmed nor intrigued (not charmed, nor intrigued)

Then I think to myself "what.. can I offer her?"

The tears warm my eyes and blur my, vision I

stick to my stance of bravado and give her

the same uninterested look that she, gave..me

(She was so beautiful) She was so beautiful

But what.. can I offer her?

You say that you'll love me forever..but

but what about today?

As the dusks become the dawns and the years pass on will you

love me (love me) the same way (the same way)?

If so let us rejoice and bathe in this constant pleasure

If not spare my heart today and I shall recover before, forever

And if my doubts and questions upset you

(forgive my fragile heart) forgive my fragile heart

I just wanted to know if you'd love me forever before today,

would start (would you love me.. would you love me..)

What of a love unspoken?

What of a love unspoken?

Check out other poems from one of the most gifted rappers (in spite of his glaring contradictions) that ever lived here.

Peace

::MixMasterE::

Like A Dew Drop

~~is all that we see or seem but a dream within a dream?~~

Take this kiss upon the brow!
And, in parting from you now,
Thus much let me avow-
You are not wrong, who deem
That my days have been a dream;
Yet if hope has flown away
In a night, or in a day,
In a vision, or in none,
Is it therefore the less gone?
All that we see or seem
Is but a dream within a dream.

I stand amid the roar
Of a surf-tormented shore,
And I hold within my hand
Grains of the golden sand-
How few! yet how they creep
Through my fingers to the deep,
While I weep- while I weep!
O God! can I not grasp
Them with a tighter clasp?
O God! can I not save
One from the pitiless wave?

Is all that we see or seem
But a dream within a dream?

Edgar Allan Poe

::MixMasterE::

The Writer's Lens

Two of my favorite writers, Alice Walker and Eduardo Galeano, on their observations of Obama's White House visit yesterday. Quite powerful



Peace

::MixMasterE::

Youssou N'Dour's Sufi Soul

When I first heard Youssou N'Dour's voice on the song, "Bamako". many years ago, I was hooked and reeled into the mystifying world of Wolof culture and mysticism. That song, with its hypnotic conga drums and Youssou's soaring, penetrating voice, had me longing for a continent I had yet to visit...and also longing for a deeper, more embodied spiritual life. I think I may have stumbled upon Sufism through reading Youssou's background in his album's liner notes, and to this day, I still enjoy the timeless wisdom the Sufi mystics have given Mankind through the ages.


I put together some of my favorite Youssou jams for your appreciation of a living legend. Also, check out this interview he did a few months ago which highlights his deep convictions and expansive consciousness.




 
OneLove!


::MME

Hope Springs Eternal

Worldwide—the tears fell
Hope—long-stained, battered and bruised
Craned its jaundiced neck up towards the shaft
Of Light bursting through a formidable darkness
Familiar but hardly adjusted to.
How many lives have been sacrificed up to this point?
From the moment of the first African slave’s footprint on stolen soil
-the scarred backs, raped mothers and torn psyches from which this Empire was built-
To the known and unknown seekers of true liberation and honor who laid
Their lives on the ground for the conscience of future seekers of the same prize
We are now closer to that mountain-top that King envisioned
Closer to that Oneness of Man that Malcolm epiphanized
Closer to the end of that reckless notion of white supremacy…..
So, we celebrate a milestone in human progress
And, in particular, a turning point in the narrative of a besieged people.
Jesse, love him or hate him, understood & felt the weight of history
Standing there in Grant Park observing something of momentous proportions...
That the world wept at seeing the ascendence of Destiny Incarnate
Signifies an essential truth about Truth which Emerson observed:

Truth is our element.

The road is going to be long, dark & meandering, but hope springs eternal.....

:::MixMasterE:::

The Triumph of Democracy

I must admit, I never thought that I would see an African-American First Family in my lifetime, but here we are. No amount of analysis by the Mr Know-It-Alls can fully explain this present moment in American history. One thing is certainly clear though: America has broken through the shackles of its past on many levels. Yes, I know that at some point after the euphoria wears down, the dire realities will come back to the fore & President Obama will be heavily scrutinized. At this time though, let's all -just feel good about the American electorates' rejection of 8 years of disastrous neoconservative policies that railroaded everything from the environment to working-class families. So here's my victory party to President Obama, who I believe will become one of most honest and intelligent presidents this country has ever had.

Obama's Victory Jam - Playlist by MixMasterE

First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.
Mohandas Gandhi

::MixMasterE::

November 4th 2008: America's Day Of Destiny

Well done, Mr Obama!

My hope is this:

- That you honor your pledge to help the average Joe and the poor both here and abroad

- That you initiate innovative approaches to challenge the forces of greed and other corrupting influences of power and privelege

- That you end the dictatorial control of labor, consumers and taxpayers and that all those unchallenged loopholes that the rich have always enjoyed are done away with

- That America-as-Global-Cop (or Agent-Provocateur) comes to a long-awaited end (the world has had enough)

- That American politics transforms itself to the public (voluntary) funding of elections and becomes less and less influenced by powerful corporate interests (that could care less about that messy thing called "democracy")

- That the crusty, old-guard racists/jingoists scatter like the cowards and dumb-asses that they are and come to grips with the revolutionary power of critical engagement aka truth.

- That your symbolic presence (and that of your beautiful family) shakes the foundation of what is possible in America, especially for folks who have been historically reviled and despised

- That the military budget which gets the lion's share of the national budget, is cut big time & the money siphoned off into more meaningful areas (education, food/nutrition programs, housing & urban development, etc).

I don't expect the seas to be parted or angels to swoop down from heaven heralding a New Dawn, but, like most people who have grown sick with cynicism and tired with rage, I expect a good dose of fresh air and a realistic change of direction that you embody & anxiously await your historical achievement as President of the United States of America.




Peace

::MixMasterE::

Harmonic Connectons: The Music of August Rush

There was something about the movie "August Rush" that appealed to my poetical & musical sensibilities. In particular, I recall a line in the movie that crystallized something I have always felt about music:


“You know what music is? God’s little reminder that there’s something else besides us in this universe; harmonic connection between all living beings, every where, even the stars.” - Maxwell “Wizard” Wallace

The soundtrack has a number of gems, but the stand-out track for me is, "August's Rhapsody". Many people slept on this movie or ridiculed it for being too schmaltzy (I liked it though), but there is hardly an argument about the superior quality of the soundtrack. Judge for yourself...



...music is all around you, all you have to do is listen..

OneLove

::MixMasterE::