Month: April 2015

In which I like it here

On By Luther M. SilerIn Work4 Comments

Brief post, because longdaytired, but two things happened today that you should know about.  The main feature of today’s convention was visiting local magnet schools.  This is what happened when we got there:

IMG_2542That’s every kid in the building at this international magnet school, lined up along the stairs on the way into the building, waving flags to welcome us to visit their school.  A few minutes after I took this, they filed out about 20 of them to sing a song at us in five or six languages, and then their Special Olympics team came out to run the steps and head out to the Special Olympics.  Which were today.

The schools I visited today were so wonderful that it actually ended up kinda depressing.  Luckily this happened:

IMG_2543

You don’t want to know how much I spent on dinner.  But OMG.  Worth every dime, especially since I’m being reimbursed for all the dimes.

There was also seared ahi tuna.

In general, I’m finding I really like Raleigh, in a very distinct Man, I could see myself living here sort of way.  It strikes me as the type of city that Bloomington (as in Indiana, where I went to college) would be if Bloomington had two million people living in it.  It’s beautiful, for starters; wooded everywhere– I’ve never lived anywhere with this many trees– and the downtown area is clean and neat and fun.  I deliberately walked back from the convention center to see more of downtown, cutting through Fayetteville street and checking out the courthouse.  It’s just a really neat town, and the bits of it I’ve seen outside the downtown area (granted, through the windows of either a bus or a taxi) have been really cool too.  I’m sure part of it somewhere sucks but I haven’t seen it yet.

Tomorrow will either be tapas or oysters, and I’m gonna have barbecue for lunch.  I’m excited.  Oh, and the conference might be cool too.  I hope.

#ATOZCHALLENGE, Day 20: Tupac Shakur

On By Luther M. SilerIn Music1 Comment

TArtist: Tupac Amaru Shakur
Best Album: Me Against the World
Best Song: Thugz Mansion
This Letter Could Have Been About: A Tribe Called Quest, Talib Kweli

Why I’m Writing About This Artist: Goddamn, where do I even start?

I mean that literally.  It usually takes me no more than 10 minutes to write one of these.  I’ve been staring at a blank screen for at least that long.

Let’s just do this:

Dear Mama, don’t cry, your baby boy’s doin good
Tell the homies I’m in heaven and they ain’t got hoods
Seen a show with Marvin Gaye last night, it had me shook
Drinkin peppermint schnapps with Jackie Wilson and Sam Cooke
Then some lady named Billie Holliday sang
Sittin and kickin it with Malcolm till the day came
Little LaTasha sho’ grown
Tell the lady in the liquor store she’s forgiven, so come home
Maybe in time you’ll understand only God can save us
When Miles Davis cutting loose with the band
Just picture all the people that you knew in the past
That passed on, they in heaven, found peace at last
Picture a place that they exist
Together
There has to be a place better than this in heaven
So right before I sleep, dear God, what I’m askin
Remember this face
Save me a place
In Thugz Mansion

The first time I heard this song, it brought me to tears, and I still have to struggle every time I listen to it.  Some context may be necessary: Thugz Mansion was on the album Better Dayz, released in 2002.  Tupac was assassinated in 1996.  In other words, he’d already been gone for six years when this song came out.

It was as if he was talking to us from the afterlife, telling us everything was going to be okay.

I am not a religious man, to put it lightly.  But this song– a description of Heaven literally from the mouth of a dead man– touches me in a way few songs ever have.  Pac could have been a one-hit wonder and this song alone would justify his immortality as an artist.  Instead, he was so prolific that the idea of choosing a “best song” becomes completely ludicrous and he has had more albums released since he died than he did when he was alive.  Almost all modern hiphop owes him a debt.  He is the greatest rapper who ever lived, one of the greatest musicians who ever lived, up there with Marley and Hendrix and Joplin and Cobain and who knows how many others lost far too early.  And even if you don’t count yourself a fan of rap music, you should know his work.

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Hey, look what exists!

On By Luther M. SilerIn Writing2 Comments

Those are my wife’s hands.  And camera.  I haven’t actually seen it yet.

  
   

Well that’s no fun

On By Luther M. SilerIn PhotographyLeave a comment

The view from my hotel room:   

  …but wait!  If I turn to the left, I get this! 

Wait. Shit. That’s not better. 

#ATOZCHALLENGE, Day 19: Salt-N-Pepa

On By Luther M. SilerIn Music4 Comments

SArtist: Salt-N-Pepa
Best Album: Hot, Cool & Vicious
Best Song: Push It
This Letter Could Have Been About: Shock-G, Snoop Dogg, Speech, Sugarhill Gang

Why I’m Writing About This Artist: Because I once performed the male part of Shoop live at a karaoke bar, altering the line “I’m 6’2″/ Wanna hit you” to “I’m 5’10″/ Wanna be my friend?” on the fly and actually getting a roar from the crowd out of it.  My favorite thing about Salt-N-Pepa is the raw sexuality; as much as I love Nicki Minaj she couldn’t exist if they hadn’t been there first.  Of note: they manage to make songs that are almost entirely about sex while still being, technically, clean.  Go ahead, listen to Push It and see if you can find something that a radio station can censor.  There’s nothing there.  There’s a line or two in Shoop that’s questionable but the worst thing about the song is actually the use of the word “retard,” which is the 1993 coming out.

Nowadays, Salt (I think) doesn’t want to rap anymore because she’s found Jesus, which hasn’t stopped Salt-N-Pepa from turning Push It into an ad for cars or insurance or some horrible bullshit like that, which makes me want to cry every time I see it.  But they were magnificent back in the day.

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Seven days!

On By Luther M. SilerIn WritingLeave a comment

Today was exhausting, as foretold by prophecy.

The Sanctum of the Sphere is out in seven days.  Go add it on Goodreads and then pre-order it.  If you haven’t read Benevolence Archives, Vol. 1, it’s free, go get that too.

A smarter writer would have set up a week of entertaining and interesting promo running up to the book release, and would have done it several weeks ago.  I, on the other hand, am flying to another state tomorrow, and am tired, and haven’t packed, so … yeah, click on those links.

#ATOZCHALLENGE, Day 18: Run-DMC

On By Luther M. SilerIn Music3 Comments

RArtist: Run-DMC
Best Album: Tougher than Leather
Best Song: Run’s House
This Letter Could Have Been About: Rakim, The Roots, Rob Base & DJ E-Z Rock, The RZA

Why I’m Writing About This Artist: Because Run-DMC was not only responsible for hiphop’s first real crossover hit in their Walk This Way collaboration with Aerosmith, they also produced the greatest Christmas song of all time in Christmas in Hollis.  Shut up, I’m right. Because they somehow made wearing Adidas shoes cool.

Fun fact: the second best Christmas song of all time is Eazy-E’s Merry Muthafuckin Christmas.

If you’re looking at mainstream success– in other words, success as defined by white audiences, basically– Run-DMC was the first and foremost.  They had rap’s first gold, platinum and multiplatinum album, rap’s first Grammy nomination, and were the first rap group to appear on the cover of Rolling Stone.  They were also the second rap group to be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, behind Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five.

Admit it: you already know at least one Run-DMC song.  I know you do.

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On the rest of this week

On By Luther M. SilerIn Work12 Comments

Downtown_RaleighTuesday– tomorrow, in other words– is going to be insanely, criminally busy.  On Wednesday I’m getting on a plane (horrors!) and flying to Raleigh, NC via Atlanta so that I can be at a conference for the following three days.  I’ll be back late Saturday night.

Anyone with suggestions about what to do in Raleigh?  The last time I took one of these trips I was going to Nashville, so finding places to eat was easy.  I know less about Raleigh and, well, no offense to Raleigh types, I hope, but Raleigh ain’t Nashville.  I figure there’s gotta be someplace tasty downtown, though.

Luckily, all this is happening in April, so the A to Z posts will be continuing in the morning, but if I get rather quiet in the evenings it’s because I’m busy.  Then again, The Sanctum of the Sphere comes out a week from tomorrow, so I’ll probably find the time to mention that once or twice.

(Quickly: The price point for the print edition is finalized: it’s going to be $14.95, on account of it’s four hundred pages long and at a reasonably large paperback size.  It is an omnibus edition, containing The Benevolence Archives, Vol. 1 and Sanctum itself, along with a short excerpt of Skylights in the back.  Worlds exist where you may be able to order the book in print before the 28th.  But I’ll keep you posted.)

On planes, quickly: I hate to fly.  This is not because of fear– I have no fear of flying, crashing, landing, whatever– but I am a fat man with a well-defined sense of personal space and a general inability to put up with bullshit and bureaucracy and both of those things make planes toxic environments for me.  I will always choose driving over flying if it’s an option.  However, Raleigh is a twelve hour drive and I have to be back at work on Monday, so I feel like it’s right at the outside of what I’m willing to do.  So long as no TSA shitbird tries to stick their thumb in my asshole we ought to be okay.  If one does, you will surely hear the entertaining story once I get out of jail.