me(me) think good

obvious nod to The Roots' Phrenology

I've never participated in a meme, but this one was hard to resist. You see, I was honored and humbled when noted Ghanaian writer and performance poet Nii Ayikwei Parkes, who has a podcast and blogs at the thought movement, tagged me (whoda thunk it?) as a "Thinking Blogger Award" winner.

a WTF winner? Well, the "Thinking Blogger Award" was created and propagated as a meme.

Here's how it works (the meme "award" rules):

1. If, and only if, you get tagged, write a post with links to 5 blogs that make you think,
2. Link to this post so that people can easily find the exact origin of the meme,
3. Optional: Proudly display the congratulations! you've won a "Thinking Blogger Award" badge.

Like I said, I normally wouldn't participate in a meme, but the tag by Nii Parkes gave me pause. A bit more on Parkes: he's released two spoken word poetry CDs, Incredible Blues and Nocturne of Phrase, has published four collections of poetry, several short stories, and a novel, "The Cost of Red Eyes." Among many other honors and prestigious awards, he's recently been a writer-in-residence at London's Poetry Cafe and at BBC Radio 3. Check Parkes' work and projects, bio, and, of course, wikipedia entry and myspace music page.

So anyway, WTF, I thought, why not share a bit of link love with some of my favorite, thought provoking, "must read" music blogs. NOTE: I've excluded a few obvious los amigos top choices: Jeff Chang, O-dub's Soul Sides, Kevin's So Much Silence, and Simon Reynolds' Blissblog just because Jeff, Oliver, Kevin, and Simon get plenty of link love. Plus it was hard enough to pick just five "thinking person's music blogs" without somehow narrowing the field.

In any event, in no particular order, here are my "Thinking Blogger Award" winner tags:

1. Scholar's Souled On (music, art, politics)
2. Darcy James Argue's Secret Society
3. Destination: Out
4. etnobofin
5. (tie): two relatively new blogs: doctashock & the gang's The Alternakids and Adam & friends' hahamusic

I realize posting a "tie" is prob cheating, but I don't think anyone's gonna take away my "award."

Speaking of thinking, I thought some musical accompaniment might take some of the shameless self promotion edge off this post. So I made a smart playlist using "think," which yielded, inter alia, things like Madlib's "Thinking of You," Medeski Martin & Wood's "Think," Chick Coera's "Think of One," X's "I Must Not Think Bad Thoughts," The Ramones "Everytime I Eat Vegetables It makes Me Think of You," The Street's "What is He Thinking," St. Germain's "What You Think About. . . " and these goodies:

I've Been Thinking -- Handsome Boy Modeling School feat. Cat Power: White People (2004)

What Would the Community Think? -- Cat Power: WWTCT (1996)

We Think After -- DJ Z-Trip & DJ P: Uneasy Listening (2001)

Although White People was not as impressive, overall, as HBMS's So . . . How's Your Girl?, it's hard to go wrong with Automator and Prince Paul. And Chan Marshall (Cat Power) is always almost always compelling. Z-Trip's and P's Uneasy Listening is a DJ mixtape/mash-up masterpiece (thanks to the above mentioned Kevin for turning me on to Uneasy Listening nearly two years ago). Enjoy. And keep on thinking.

peace (and many thanks Nii!)

p.s. I'll be back tomorrow and/or Thurs with a 2 part series on new, experimental/underground Berlin electronica (Monotekktoni) and jazz and funked-up hip hop (Lychee Lassi) (which I was gonna start tonight until the above sidetrack). see you then.

UPDATE: I want to share how this meme created a "small world" moment. One of Nii's other tagged "thinking blogger award" winners is Koranteng's Toli -- a fascinating blog (check it out!) by a software engineer who works a stones throw across the river from me in Cambridge: Koranteng Ofosu-Amaah "from Ghana by way of France and England." He just happens to have great taste in music. Koranteng's Toli is not a music blog, but music references and accompanying "soundtracks" pervade the writing. The two most recent posts are accompanied by, among others, Pharcyde, De La Soul, Herbie Hancock, Freestyle Fellowship, Digable Planets, and Erykah Badu. ANYWAY, turns out we were both at ropeadope's "What is Jazz" festival at Berklee last year and Koranteng del.ico.us bookmarked and linked on his site my Bostonist review of that gig. And it appears we were both at other Boston shows, like the diagable planets reunion. All this revealed by a London blogger currently in residence/teaching in LA. cool. The big wide world be small indeed.
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