RIP Dekker

Desmond Dekker, the Jamaican singer whose 1969 hit, "The Israelites," opened up a worldwide audience for reggae, died on Wednesday. He was 64.

He died after collapsing from a heart attack at his home in Surrey, England, his manager, Delroy Williams, told Reuters.

"The Israelites" was the peak of Mr. Dekker's extensive career, selling more than a million copies worldwide. He was already a major star in Jamaica and well known in Britain. The song was his only United States hit, but it was a turning point for Jamaican music among international listeners.

The Jamaican rhythm of ska had already generated hits in the United States, notably Millie Small's 1964 hit, "My Boy Lollipop." But that song was treated as a novelty. "The Israelites," with its biblical imagery of suffering and redemption, showed the world reggae's combination of danceable rhythm and serious, sometimes spiritual intentions.

Mr. Dekker was named Desmond Adolphus Dacres when he was born in Kingston, Jamaica, in 1941. As a teenager he worked in a welding shop alongside Bob Marley and auditioned unsuccessfully for various producers until Mr. Marley encouraged him to try out for his own first producer, Leslie Kong.

Mr. Kong produced Mr. Dekker's first single, "Honour Thy Father and Mother," in 1963, and it reached No. 1 in Jamaica. Like many of Mr. Dekker's songs, it carried a message. A string of Jamaican hits followed, including "It Pays," "Sinners Come Home" and "Labour for Learning." Mr. Dekker had a total of 20 No. 1 hits in Jamaica.

A series of songs including "Rude Boy Train" and "Rudie Got Soul" made Mr. Dekker a hero of Jamaica's rough urban "rude boy" culture.

His 1960's songs used the upbeat ska rhythm, a precursor to reggae also known as bluebeat. By the end of the decade, Mr. Dekker had won the Golden Trophy award, presented annually to Jamaica's top singer, five times and was known as the King of Bluebeat. He won the Jamaican Song Festival in 1968 with "Intensified."

"Honour Thy Father and Mother" was released in Britain in 1964 on Chris Blackwell's Island label, which would later release Bob Marley's albums. Three years later, Mr. Dekker had his first British Top 20 hit with "007 (Shanty Town)," a tale of rude-boy ghetto violence — "Dem a loot, dem a shoot, dem a wail" — sung in a thick patois, which Americans would hear later as part of the soundtrack to the film "The Harder They Come" in 1972. Paul McCartney slipped Mr. Dekker's first name into the lyrics to the Beatles' ska song, "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da," on "The Beatles" (also known as the White Album) in 1968, the year Mr. Dekker moved to England.

With "The Israelites," released in Jamaica in December 1968, Mr. Dekker had an international impact. "I was telling people not to give up as things will get better," he said in a interview last year for the Set the Tone 67 Web site.

"The Israelites" reached No. 1 in Britain and No. 9 in the United States in 1969. The song would return to the British charts in 1975 and was reissued as a single after being used in a commercial for Maxell recording tape in 1990.

Although Mr. Dekker had no further hits in the United States, he continued to have hits in England with "It Mek" in 1969 and the first recording of Jimmy Cliff's "You Can Get It if You Really Want" in 1970. But while Mr. Dekker kept up a busy performing career, the death of Mr. Kong in 1971 ended his streak of hits. He returned to the British charts with "Sing a Little Song" in 1975.

The punk era of the late 1970's brought with it an English revival of ska by groups like Madness and the Specials. Mr. Dekker's songs were rediscovered, and he was signed by Madness's label, Stiff Records. His 1980 album, "Black and Dekker," featured members of a venerable Jamaican band, the Pioneers, and Graham Parker's band, the Rumour. The British hitmaker Robert Palmer produced Mr. Dekker's next album, "Compass Point," in 1981. But in 1984 Mr. Dekker declared bankruptcy, blaming his former manager.

In 1993, the Specials reunited and backed up Mr. Dekker on the album "King of Kings," with remakes of ska hits. In 2000 he released the album "Halfway to Paradise." He continued to tour regularly; his final concert was on May 11 at Leeds University.

Mr. Dekker was divorced and is survived by a son and daughter.

A return to plays

So after a break I have returned to writing plays. The new set is going to be called Breakdown and Oso. The first part was called Heartattack and Antonio. Heartattack will be up soon in a finalized version. The stories are once again true enough and this time I hope that I really hurt because I am not pulling punches. I am tired of the hypocrisy in everyday life. And honestly I really hope that it makes the people I am writhing about take a good luck in the mirror. And hopefully when they are looking int he mirror they are not just chopping another line. Since I am here I will give some details about the plays:

1. Everyone in the play is someone in real life
2. Hearttack is all real stories and occasionally actual conversations
3. Breakdown is what imagine will happen with the characters, since it will be finished before I go to college I have no way of knowing what exactly happens
   
4. Heatattack was meant to be funny
5. Breakdown is meant to give you a look into the way I see life
6. Breakdown occurs during early summer, basically now
7. Hearttack occurred about spring break time
8. I am Mike, but you have changed

top 5
sonic youth - teenage riot
the clash - kola kola
Hank Williams - six more miles
Bruce springsteen - pay me my down
Supremes - Baby Love

Is a dream a lie if it dont come true?

top 5 songs about work and lost dreams

bruce sprinsteen - The River
Whickeytown - too drunk to dream
Billy Bragg - Levis Stubbs tears
Fred Eaglesmith - Just dreamin'
Desparecidos - Greater Omaha

Songs about growing up and losing all the dreams that you once had.

tom waits - cold cold ground
Leonard cohen - famour blue raincoat

felt like those two should just be throwin in there

Waiting for Rocko: Mixtapes and work

So I am at work and I am waiting for Rocky to arrive so I can show him that I am in fact at working and even sorta working. I wouldn't call what I am exactly doing working since I am sitting here writing in my blog but I am pretty sure I am doing more than a lot of students. The sad state of affairs at SMES. In a way I wish I was still at school simply because it was fun to just hang out and do nothing in most of my classes. If I could have gotten out of Spanish, I would have had the perfect schedule.

At work I do relatively minor things because I am untrained and uneducated labor. Thus I am filing, data entry, and doing inventory most of the day. Except for the part that I am eating lunch, taking a break, or working on my blog. So a great way to use my time. But I do enjoy working. My coworkers are smart and relatively funny. Also they seem to like me which is a plus because I am sure that some people in the school did not like me.

As I was sitting here I read a comment Dallas left me on my blog, which was my grade for a paper which I turned in as a blog. This was a post modern assignment and I went the post modern route and posted it. The reason I find it postmodern is that why do I think anyone cares about my thoughts on society and capitalism. Thus I am adding to the needless noise that our world is being filled with. And yet I continue to blog.

The second thing I saw was his great piece about the mixtape. An occupation that has taken up too much time in my life. As just about anyone at SMES can tell you I listen to my ipod a lot. And in Ms. finchers opinion too much. As she said it is disrespectful to listen to your headphones while talking to Mr. Boyle. While I listen to my ipod, about 75% of the time I am making an on-the-go mix of songs that I like and want in a convinent playlist. frequently the are poorly though out and badly time but they sometimes morph into a better playlist. Occasionally they even make it to cd form,and when that happens it means one of two things: one that the cd is properly mixed and I will not be embarrassed to play it for someone riding in my car or two that I wanted rap songs and I am too embarrassed to have power 106 on my stereo.

He also stated what every geeky guy believes which is that we are king of the mix tape. There can not be a million kings to a kingdom that tedious. Now I do not believe that I am at all the king. In fact I probably would be a middle manager level if it all came down to it, but I know that. Many many boys do not realize that there mixs just plain suck. Eventually they figure it out and let the pros take over for the party, but they originally make the rest of us suffer through bad songs from 50 cent and other assorted pop stars. But with any luck by the end of the night a different dj has taken the ipod and revived the party.

top 5
Catherine wheel - black metallic
Happy Mondays - 24 hour party people
David Bowie - here's/helden
Lcd Soundsystem - Yeah(crass version)
Kasbian - Club Foot

Times are a changin

New Name...Same old bad attitude

sorta

so I am back yall...from interning and proming
both have been fun, prom more than interns

hope yall have been having a good time the past couple days
for the name change it was time to move on and find a new theme song for the blog and I flet I need to keep it indie

if anyone has seen the street scene this year yall know its gonna be nuts
Kanye, Bad religion, Snoop, Social D, modest mouse, bloc party, and WU TANG CLAN

tops
cascada - everytime we touch
common - on my way home
kanye west - addiction
catherine wheel - black metallic
sonic youth - teenage riot

Lost in the Supermarket: A discourse on Post-modern life through the grocery store with an appearance by Jesus

Im all lost in the supermarket
I can no longer shop happily
I came in here for that special offer
A guaranteed personality

I know cliche to start a paper out with song lyrics but this is the last one I have to write for a while. American life has become all signals with nothing to signify and no one to receive the message. While there are a plethora of examples to use on the ideas of post-modern life, I chose the good old supermarket. A place that everyone goes to and for the most part likes. In many ways the supermarket determines how a person likes the area he or she is living in. If the supermarket is nice then it seems like they have a better feeling about the entire area. Since most working people spend most of there days in the office, where they live really plays very little role in life. A suburban office park in Kentucky will look very similar to a suburban office park in California. But the grocery store is where the difference is made.

I remember that I hated many aspects of Florida. It was hot, ugly, bad food, and poorly designed. All of these things are true but I realized that what I was remembering was my neighborhood Albertsons. When I visited my old home town and saw just how lousy the store was I figured out why I hated the place so much. But enough rambling on this subject time to begin my real idea.

That is what you walk in to and out of: a candy stand. Big bright colors of nothingness. The candy will not provide and sort of nutrition and the packaging disguises the small amount of candy that you will actually get, but it sells and people buy it. If you look more closely at the packaging you will notice something that is very disturbing to me the trends when it comes to packaging. A flavor will be assigned a color and it will be the same style, color, and flavor no matter which company it is.




This further proves my idea. That is a picture of three different brands version of chicken flavored cat food. This pictures says two things to me about postmodern life: First that we have gone in sane with choices. If our cats require three versions of the same flavor food, then we have in fact lost it. They are cats, they are pets, they do not need options they need food. Second it shows that if you want a go no where job where you do not have to be original: go into label design. Look at those cans they look the same, this can not be by accident. Either A) the designers are copying off each other or B) they are hoping you grab the wrong can and give your 89 cents to friskies instead of nine lives.

Here is the same idea only with apricot jam and chili





Another serious problem society has is options. Never before has there been this many options. Can someone please tell me why society needs 10 different kinds of milk and who is buying all these different brands anyway? How is the store brand 2% milk any different from the private company's 2% milk? Both come from cows and both are white. Seems like it should be almost the exact same.



Even worse are naked juices. They are worse because the juice is great but why does society need all these different options. Twenty years ago there was four types of juice: Apple juice, Grape Juice, Orange juice, and Cranberry juice. The last two probably were not in most states but since I am writhing this in California I am certain they had all four. But now I have mango and pear and kiwi and wheat grass. When did wheat grass become a juice, I want to know. All of these choices and signals for one very basic intended message: DRINK ME YOU ARE THIRSTY



The last point is why do company's make the same cereal twice? Clearly the same company manufactures these cereals. And why do we as a society feel the urge to pay more for the name brand when the same company make the store brand as well?






As you may have noticed all of these cereals are named the same thing. And they all have the same colors and have the same logos. IT baffles the mind why people pay more for brand name items. But I do it just as anyone else.



This picture seems to conflict the very message that religion represents. This is a candle of Jesus. And he is watching society shop for brand name products which in many ways have become modern idols. And inevitably right across the aisle from that candle was a picture of Mickey mouse the ultimate false idol. Yes these are the contradictions that are postmodern life. Hope you all had the same fun I did.

Television

Television

TV as we know it is changing dramatically next year. That 70's show, Malcolm in the Middle, West Wing, and Will and Grace are all finished. I stopped watching West Wing a number of years ago and never watched Will and Grace but still those are big shows that are done. And with Malcolm in the middle over it seems kind of bizarre. When the show started Malcolm was in 6th grade and I was in 6th grade; he had just been put into advance courses and I had just been put into advance courses. There were many parallels which made it a show that I enjoyed. Now he was able to go to Harvard and I am going to Miami but still close enough.

Top 5
1 Bright Eyes - Make War
2 Ryan Adams - Beautiful Sorta
3 Drive-by Truckers - Gravitys Gone
4 Brand New - Jude Law and a Semester Abroad
5 Rancid - Ruby Soho

Random List

I have rediscovered my love for country and soul music. It is really amazing to imagine alot of the songs I am listening to lately were recorded several decades ago. There was some point I was trying to make originally but I have forgotten it.

A selected List:

Angel from montgomery - Bonnie Rait
Love and Hapiness - Al Green
Sweet Home Chicago - Keb Mo
Too Drunk to Dream - Whiskeytown
Beautiful Sorta - Ryan Adams
Statesbrough Blues - The Allman Brothers
I will be there when you die - my morning jacket
5 years - david bowie
Rebel Rebel - david bowie
Young Americans- david Bowie
Dance to the music - Sly and the family stone
Set you free - The balck keys
Gravitys gone - drive-by truckers
Mannish Boy - muddy Waters
Son of a preacher man - Dusty Springfield
High fashion Queen - The Flying Burrito Brothers
4th of july - X
Shades of Grey - Robert Earl Keen
I gotta woman - Ray Charles
It takes alot to laugh; it takes a train to cry - Bob Dylan
Baby love - the sumpremes
Living for the city - Stevie Wonder
6 more miles - Hank Williams
Why don't we get drunk and screw - Hank williams III
I walk the Line - Johnny Cash
New Amsterdam - Elvis Costello
Led Zeppelin - Houses of the Holy
Virgina Plain - Roxy Music
I am Waiting for the Man - Velvet Underground
I Wanna be your dog - Iggy pop
Inner city blues - Marvin Gaye
Dead Flowers - Rollign Stones
A New England - Billy Bragg
Live in a Hiding Place - Idlewild
Smalltown boy - bronski beat
Can't hardly wait(Tim Demos) - The Replacements
Primevil Love - Sand Rubies
Walk on the Wild Side - Lou Reed

Daft Punk is playing at my tent: Madonna ruined Coachella

So as most of you know I went to coachella over the past weekend. It was great experience, mind you there were some problems but over all it was great. My only real complaints were one it was hot, not that anyone can change that;and it was expensive, I was expecting it so not that bad.

But otherwise it was amazing. The lineup was great, I could only find one year that I wanted to go to more and that was 2002. The sound was incredible, with the exception of Madonna. The artists could all perform, even if I didn't like them ie. Yeah Yeah Yeah's. At night the grounds were well light and the sculptures came alive. I highly recommend that everyone go see it some time in your life. Also I recommend going with your buddy's and seeing the entire day. I unfortunately did not get to the park when it opens, missed: Wolfmother, Ladytron, Common, Murs, Giant Drag, and Clap your hands and Say Yeah; and stay till closing, missed: Daft Punk and She Wants Revenge.

For reference I saw:
Kanye West
Damian Marley
Depeche Mode
Atmosphere
Sigur Ros
Franz Ferdinand
Massive Attack
Coheed and Cambria
Madonna
Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Matisyahu
Bloc Party
Ted Leo
Seu Jorge
Gnarls Barkley
Paul Oakenfold
Digable Planets
Eagles of Death Metal