Interviews, Karaoke, and Movies: The Weekend Wrap-Up

Friday:

I got off work, ran some errands, went to see Knocked Up, which I loved. Everbody keeps asking me "Is it silly?" "Is it stupid"? Hello? It's a comedy!!! I liked it. After that, I went to see some wrestling at the Capleville Gym. It was cool. Shout out to Jason Turgeon and the rest of the ESPN-AM 730 Wrestling show staff that was there. Some of the wrestlers started giving them grief because they wouldn't interview them. Shout out to Clint Boyland, his brothers, his wife, and their little girl. The wrestling got a little too crazy. People were really bleeding, and dripping blood everywhere. Also, several fights spilled over into the crowd. At one point, they ran into the bleachers where I was sitting. They were fighting outside near people's cars, and it was a little too dangerous. At some points, we formed crowds around some of the out-of-ring combatants and started yelling, "Whoop that trick!!!" It was fun, but they need to contain it a little bit.

Saturday:

I got off work and I was interviewed for a show called Detours. It was organized by a guy named Nick Davis. Shout out to Timm Scalita (Last Call Lovin, Touching You) who was working the camera, and Bryan Newcomb who was working the other camera. Shout out to filmmaker Arnold Edwards (Curbside Confessions) and his girlfriend Dayna Hinkle. Arnold and Dayna were also interviewed, as was up-and-coming producer Jonathan Butler, actress Monica Summerfield (Eat), and Don Myers (Eat, Rommel's Crossroad). Shout out to Kim Skipper (Imagine, What Goes Around), a good friend of mine who was interviewing us. I really enjoyed that. It will be on WPTY in October. Shout out to Chris Byerly (Intense Black Men, Last Call Lovin), who is editing the program. After that, I ran some errands, and I saw the movie Severance. This is a British horror film that has some humorous moments, like Shaun of the Dead. Basically, people from a company go to a cabin in the woods for a team-building exercise, but they accidentally go to a cabin where psychotic killers were hiding out, and chaos ensues. I plan to buy this movie when it is on DVD.

After that, I went to my girl Tamara Wick's birthday party. Shout out to Clint and his wife once again, Rudechild, his fiancee, Yolandalyn, and everybody else. I bought Tamara the debut CD by a group called Foreign Exchange entiteled Connected. Foreign Exchange is a collaboration between Phonte, an MC from North Carolina that is in a group called Little Brother, and Nicolay, a Dutch producer. They would send tracks back and forth over the internet. They didn't meet until they started promoting the album. I've been trying to expose Tanya to some real hip-hop.
I was exposed to R. Kelly's new album, Double Up. It was catchy, but it seemed kinda bufoonish. R. Kelly appeals to the lowest common denominator and succeeds. Good for him, I guess. I bought the new Carl Thomas CD this week. That's mature R&B.

I left from there and went to Jordan's Karaoke Bar. I joined David H. on Gym Class Heroes' "Cupid's Chokehold". He rapped, I sang the hook and did the ad-libs. My boys Joe Smith (Elvis, Delusions) and Ritchie "Mayor of Frayser" Pierce (www.mayoroffrayser.com) performed "Nuttin' But a G Thang". Normally, I would perform with one of them. It felt a little funny watching them do it, but they rocked it. I also performed Tom Petty and the Heartbreaker's "Free Falling".

Sunday:

I went to to the Brooks Museum and watched this film called "Killer of Sheep". It was directed by Charles Burnett for his Master's Thesis in Filmmaking. It was completed in 1973 and released in 1977. It had recently been restored and they are touring the country with it. The imagery was interesting, particularly the killing of sheep: The main character worked in a slaughterhouse killing sheep. Nothing significant really happened, though. I kept waiting for the plot twist or major confict. It was just a slice of life film, I guess. I will still get it on DVD. Shout out to Jeff Pope (Eat, Black Snake Moan) ,who came out to see the film as well. After that, I ran into my boy Scott Lynn (www.myspace.com/brosundzguudx). He was in town visiting family and selling mixtapes. I bought his new mixtape. We were at the home of Kevin Youngblood, also known as Ptah Maximus (www.myspace.com.ptahmaximus) and he was making hip-hop beats with another local MC/producer, Empee (www.myspace.com/empee808). They have an collaboration album coming out soon.

After that, I made it back to Jordan's. I sang New Kids On the Block's "Please Don't Go, Girl", Patti Labelle's "If Only You Knew", and I dueted with David H. on Jay Z and Linkin Park's "Numb Encore". I did Jay-Z's part, he did Linkin Park's part. That was cool.

Monday:

El Hakim the poet (www.elhakimthepoet.com) was at my day job today. He was talking to two of my coworkers who were helping him promote himself. He also sold me his new spoken word CD, El Hakim "The Poet" Presents The Charlie Marlow Commentary. I will definitely check that out. Shout out to "Angry" Nick Jones for stopping by the job and giving me a late birthday gift, yet another CD. He bought me a CD by the Hieroglyphics entiteld "Full Cirle". They are an independent hip-hop group based in the San Francisco Bay area. They have their own label and studio and book their own tours and sell their merchandise. The only thing they don't do is distribution to store around the country. He had been trying to get me into it for a while.

I am looking forward to this Saturday's Lil' Film Fest. The topic is "Say What? Freedom of Speech". I have speaking parts in two shorts, "Shades of Grey" and "Moon Landing". I am also an extra in Melissa Remsen's short. Hopefully, "King Indie" will win another one and get one more film in this year's Indie Memphis Film Festival. Take that, Brett Magdovitz!! Be easy, readers.