ONE MORE TIME!

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As much as I hate to do this two nights in a row, this is proving to have been one of the busiest weeks of the year, and it’s following immediately on the heels of a four-day trip.  I got home at 5:15 tonight, an hour or so later than usual, and I could have gone to bed on the spot.  It took five or six tries to spell “immediately” right just now, and on the last try I couldn’t figure out what was wrong.

There will be no 8 am post tomorrow.  In fact, it wouldn’t startle me if tomorrow was the first day of the year I’ve missed.  I need some damn sleep.  🙂

#ATOZCHALLENGE, Day 26: Z-Trip

Luther M. Siler

ZArtist: Z-Trip
Best Album: Shifting Gears (I guess)
Best Song: Breakfast Club
This Letter Could Have Been About: Uhhh… Arrested Development did a really good album called Zingalamaduni, but I think that’s probably cheating.

Why I’m Writing About This Artist: For the last, a first: Every individual person mentioned during this project has been an MC, not a DJ.  Z-Trip is the sole exception.  He’s a DJ, and he’s worked with everybody.  He’s also done a few solo albums, and by “solo albums” I mean he’s done Slash-style compilation albums where he produces beats for a bunch of other musicians who rap for him.  I don’t think he’s ever recorded a verse of his own, and if I’m being honest the only reason Shifting Gears is listed up there as his best album is that it’s the one that I own. I’ll stand by Breakfast Club, though, a collaboration with Murs and Supernatural about getting up early in the morning on Saturday and watching cartoons while eating cereal.  It’s fun, and as Murs says early in the song, if you can’t relate to this song, you’re taking shit too serious.

(This was fun.  I look forward to doing it again next year.)

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Announcement!

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I am too crabby to blog tonight.

The end.

#ATOZCHALLENGE, Day 25: Yo-Yo

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YArtist: Yo-Yo
Best Album: Make Way for the Motherlode
Best Song: You Can’t Play With my Yo-Yo
This Letter Could Have Been About: Uhhh… YG, maybe?  Young MC?  One of the lesser Youngs?  Nah.

Why I’m Writing About This Artist: Uhh… this one’s kinda weak.  I’ll admit it.  I thought of Yo-Yo immediately for this letter, realizing after a couple of minutes that I really couldn’t come up with any other alternatives.  Everybody else on this list was someone I had music from on my computer already, and for most of them I still own the CDs I bought back when they were new.   I had to redownload Make Way for the Motherlode to make sure it held up, otherwise I was gonna be writing about Bust a Move, which I didn’t really want to do.

Here’s the good news:  Motherlode actually holds up pretty well.  Ice Cube discovered Yo-Yo, and has a prominent guest role on her most well-known song and a couple other spots on her debut album.  She’s talented, if perhaps not on his level.  This song at least is a classic, although she’s kind of a one-hit wonder.  It’s still worth a listen.

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A note to my real-world friends regarding my books

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I have a thing about advice columns.  You may know this about me.  They’re like crack.  I can’t avoid them.  And Dear Prudie dropped this on me today:

Q. I Don’t Like My Friend’s Book: My friend recently self-published his first novel. I bought a copy to support him. I really, really hate to admit it but I didn’t care for it. In fact, I didn’t even finish. I got through half of it before I gave up, read the last couple of pages, and put it down. He needs an editor badly and overall, it just wasn’t well-researched or plotted. In fact, he self-designed the cover in Photoshop. He wants to know if I liked the book, and honestly, I don’t know what to say. On one hand, I don’t want to tear him down because I know how proud he was of writing the book. On the other hand, I feel like he needs to know that he needs to improve on a few things. Is there a way to broach the subject without hurting feelings? Or do I just drop the issue and lie to him?

First things first, actually: don’t buy my book to support me.  Buy my book because you think you might enjoy it.

That said: If you have bought my book to support me, and if upon attempting to read my book you discover you don’t like it, and if I enquire as to your opinion of said book at some point subsequent to your reading it, tell me the truth.  I write science fiction and fantasy.  I am fully aware that my writing is not the preferred genre of any number of my friends even before we get to issues of the quality of my prose.  I need y’all to understand that I live in fear of being an impostor, a fear most writers share.  I would absolutely one hundred percent prefer to know that you didn’t like my writing than to have smoke blown up my butt, and I am more than smart enough to figure it out if you’re trying to be sneaky with your word choices with me.

It will be fine.  I will be fine.  You will be fine.  The phrase you want is “I couldn’t get through it,” or “I couldn’t finish it.”  Say it fast, if you need to; rip the damn Band-Aid off.  I might ask you why, but I probably won’t.  If I do, tell me.  It will be okay.  I have yet to drop a friend because of their opinions on my writing.  It won’t happen with this book, either.

The end.

(And go buy my stupid little book because you will like it, dammit.)