Upchuck Understanding and the Upcoming Uber Underground Undertaking

[MuthaWit]

Hola, Loved Ones!

Somebody crank me up this morning. DANG!

I've been working a lot the last two weeks on preparing for the grind of this overseas tour jaunt I'm 'bout to do as the MuthaWit collective with a couple URB ALT events thrown in for great measure. From end of August through mid-late October travel is going to carry me and the crew to Great Britain, Italy, France, Amsterdam, Germany, Switzerland and a couple other countries. The itinerary is organized(ha!) pretty tightly but as always open enough to experience the cool little combustibles that life throws at us. I'll have a chance to meet a lot of you cats in those global spots in person if fortune smiles on me. It's exciting to anticipate how the music/visual arts will be received outside of the US. Throughout the process I've had to revisit old documents and order copies of new ones. One of the strangest revelations has been looking at my birth certificate and noticing that I am listed racially as "Colored." My how things change in a couple decades of political and social maturity. LOL Seeing this on my birth certificate got my mind to racing on what's next in line as far as classifications go? We've been dash-Americans for about 20 years now...Italian-American, African-American, Chinese-American, Jewish-Amerian, etc....the whole nine yards. I know that when Americans travel abroad that we lose the hyphen and become the sum total of the expectations that "foreigners" have of what Americans are like. Then depending on the country (and time of day) the question of the gradations of one's Americanhood come into play...race, region, which generation, command of other languages, liberal, conservative, etc.. So my query now in this post 9-11 post Obama election period is what and who am I representing when I step off that plane/boat? I really can't say that I know but find myself enjoying the ambiguousness of the moment.

With that thought at the fore, summer on full blast, air on my dome and perfume lilting off of foreheads

Colors are becoming more vibrant for me again somehow. Sounds are causing a more sensual reaction on my eardrums. Curves are telling more resonant stories about paths that have been walked. Words are more layered in their meaning. And yet through all of this I am finding it difficult to get out of bed this morning. LOL Maybe it's because I'm sleepy from continually going back into mixing the last two songs on this MuthaWit album 'cause they just don't feel RIGHT. I wish I could bring all of y'all over to have a listening party so you could say "STOP, BOSTON." Not that I would actually stop but sometimes it helps to have those other voices in your head when you're working. This process can be kind of isolating and there's always the possibility that the work doesn't communicate pass the studio. Anyways, I have to have the final master done for this monster before I leave the states so I have no choice but to let baby be born in a couple weeks. Will it be understood? Will mughs get it? Will it make friends? Will it be a baby that only a Mutha can love? LOL

What else is happening? If you cats are near Atlanta I'm on an "Indie Arts" panel during the National Black Arts Festival Saturday night(August 1). The discussion is going to be moderated by Rob Fields of the Boldaslove.us blog (and an active member of the URB ALT community).

The Indie Arts panel and Q&A will follow a screening of director Barry Jenkins' film "Medicine for Melancholy." I've yet to see the flick so I am really excited to screen it and then immediately be on a panel with Barry, author/activist/tv host/honorary MuthaWit Orchestra member :-) Farai Chideya and Rob. We're going to be focusing primarily on what it means to be independent in this time when money is short and original ideas seem to be even shorter. I dunno maybe that's not what everyone plans to talk about but that is where my head is. I need to see the arts as a challenging/revolutionary/fluctuating experience or it would feel like being an auto-mechanic to me. Nothing wrong with being an auto-mechanic but once you know an engine you know an engine. The beauty of the arts...even commercial arts...is that there is no standard of doing things. It's always like the wild wild West. As a consequence there is absolutely no reason that you should hear or see any of my work and confuse it with that of another artist. Our inherent voices should be too dissimilar for that to happen. The night at Woodruff Arts Center will feature the movie at 6pm and the discussion immediately afterwards at 8pm. It should be pretty cool.

Are you cats listening the music on the homepage player? The large majority of it was created by members of our online community OR folks who have played at URB ALT events. I daresay if you haven't started or ended your day with all of the cool artists there you are missing out on one of the grooviest parts of being here. There is music by

Icy Demons in there. Really interesting stuff.

Kaki King? No doubt.

Of course, one of my favorites, Divisible, is always represented featuring cognitive nueroscientist Shola and Albert the beatmeister.

Jaimz Deen? Jesse Strange? Whatever the hell his name is has cool music on there for you to check out. LOL

TV on the Radio? Yup(Kyp Malone is about to release his solo album, y'all).

My girl Debra Desalvo and Devi are pretty much always there. Especially songs like "When It Comes Down." If you're interested in having your record featured as album of the week shoot me mp3s at [e-mail]. It doesn't cost you anything and it's a great way to let people explore what you're doing. You might even sell some more music in the process. RAWK!

Oh, also if you are in any of the countries I mentioned above and know of some hip performance opportunities out there please shout me out. We're looking to take the MuthaWit and URB ALT brands as deep into your neck of the woods as possible. If you are a musician or visual artist that would like to roll with us, holla. It's time

and time is moving on. Don't you love that? Are you moving along with it?

Have a good weekend, y'all. Talk soon!

Love,

Boston

[MuthaWit]

Thanks for the comments folks! Wow, Moon there was an article about Jaimz Deen that had y'alls photo on it then. I was looking at the image trying to figure out if it was really Jaimz. It looks like that diagonal haircut dude wears a bit but I wasn't sure. Thanks for clarifying. LOL I'll find an image that is more easily identifiable. Y'all look like y'all are RAWKING out in the shot! :-)

[Mama Moon]

Yeah dude u must have been sleeply cause that's Uninterrupted underneath the james Dean tag ! LOL wow dude

[Cameron Orr]

i'm sure your baby will make friends - whether it's hundreds of good friendships or just a few deeply meaningful ones. hehe.

[Jon Vee]

One of the hardest working men I know. You brain never sleeps.

[Kambui]

Love the music on the player. Keep it coming. My humble vote...

Have some delicious adventures overseas...

song currently stuck in my head: "searching for mr. right" - young marble giants