Boy band redux

Band break ups are as common as Hollywood divorces, but unlike Britney Spears, some careers might have a chance to rebound. History tells us that disparate frontmen go on to other musical acts and become hugely successful-- like New Order or Audioslave.

But, I'm thinking this will not be the case for Sureshot, a boy... er.. man-group, I should say, composed of former pop stars of 90s boy bands: Color Me Badd, 98 Degrees, N'SYNC, and LFO. Yes, even a Lyte Funkie One, famous for badmouthing Chinese food and popularizing Abercrombie & Fitch, is not immune to the surreal world of celebreality.

I hate to say it, but I was intrigued. I watched the first episode and man, the only thing I took away from it is that life's a bitch. Rich Cronin (LFO) was diagnosed with Leukemia a few years ago and he's trying to get back in the game. Bryan Abrams has the saddest story of all. More than 10 years after Color Me Badd hit it big, he's now working in an auto shop, rolling tires, not really sexing anyone up. This is the sad reality of fame, but I honestly don't think a "Making The Band" type of show on VH1 would further a person's career for more than 15 minutes. I suppose, if you put four former stars together, you'd get an hour tops, but really, come on...

Mission: Man Band airs Mondays on VH1.

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Brooklyn, NY

The right question

On Saturday I went to Zune- Live at the BBQ which had some fresh hip hop acts. I won't pretend to know very much about rap and hip hop, but I love seeing concert goers get really into the music, reciting the words, eyes closed and feeling the beats.

Jadakiss and his crew, The Lox, opened my ears to the song "Why" which asks some pretty shrewd questions. Then I found this remixed version with Common, Nas, Styles P and Anthony Hamilton, which builds on the fundamentals of the song. In your every day living, and your every day thinking, never stop asking yourself, "Why?" Why does the world work this way? Why can't we change things? Why is it so hard to move people to action?

It's useful to ask this question in your personal life. Like me for example, why do I continue at a dead end job? Why am I afraid to be truly independent? Why can't I do 30 crunches without collapsing in exhaustion? Why is it so hard to move ME into action?

A little taste of the question at hand...

Jadakiss- Why (remix) (expired)

But it's a struggle

I make tea. When the water is very hot, I drop in a tea bag, and I put my ear close to the cup to listen to it effervesce. It speaks to me the way rice krispies talk to little children. My face gets warm. "What are you saying?"

This life is a struggle.

Ringside- Struggle (expired)
(Buy the album: Ringside)

Balthazar Getty (the actor) is the beat master of this collaboration with singer/guitarist Scott Thomas. The music sounds like wounded confidence. How very L.A. Sigh... how very me right now.

The music video:

Diamonds are forever

A friend invited me to a screening yesterday for Raquel Cepeda's documentary Bling: A Planet Rock (see the trailer here). The film examines commercial hip hop's proliferation of the materialistic culture of bling, and how this affects people an ocean away-- namely in Sierra Leone. Rappers pose with their jewels, and flash their grills, but the money used to buy these gems trickles into a war-torn society, supporting a civil war where children kill children, women are raped, rebels severing body parts to strike fear into the people. These are the blood diamonds of Africa. Now that peace has been declared in the country, Cepeda enlists rappers Raekwon of Wu-Tang Clan, Paul Wall and Tego Calderon to travel to Sierra Leone to see the diamond mines, visit the people, and see how massively hip hop music can affect a nation, culturally and politically. I thought the film was enlightening.

There was a Q&A session with the director after the screening and she mentioned how she purposely picked certain artists for this project. Sending rappers like Mos Def or Kanye West to Sierra Leone doesn't shift any views, but what about someone like Paul Wall? He certainly surprised me. So did Tego:

"I didn't go to school, but I went to Africa."