live at the bbq...

seems like a whole little wave of nostalgia for toronto's hip-hop history has been building up over the last couple of years, what with year two of manifesto just taking place in the last week, the live at the bbq parties bringing back the - i hate to say old school - veteran toronto emcees and deejays, and a number of blogs popping up with old radio shows, concert flyers, twelve inches, and whatnot. i'm not going to pretend i was there back in the ron nelson/concert hall/jonbronski days - i moved to toronto in september of '96 - but i am feeling a bit nostalgic as well, even though it was a bit of a different era when i got there. coming from london, ontario, hitting planet mars on a regular basis, i had never seen anything quite like it. crazy energy. there is a ton of stuff popping up from back in the days, i guess "digging" now means googling things or following links from one blog to the next, not getting your fingers dirty like it used to, but it's still all good. there's a ton of good stuff to check out. i'm moving back to the t-deezy pretty soon, and i feel good about it. i'm proud of the people i know there who have been holding it down for the longest. i'll see y'all soon...

love, war, and the ghost of whitey ford...

everlast's new album, love, war, and the ghost of whitey ford, is out today. i just snagged a download from here, but i'll be buying it as soon as i find myself back in a city with an actual record store. a couple of links for you... everlast's myspace, interview, website.

black cab sessions...

my buddy jamie just sent me this link to check out: black cab sessions. pretty cool.

here's a sample...

skate...

check out a couple of my homeboys from london on the skate tip...

the last day of summer...

the fifth day of september. the summer is over. waking up on the tuesday after labour day, you could feel it. tangibly. the air was different. brought to mind a line from george jung (the guy who the movie blow was about), something to the effect of "it's the last day of summer, and i'm alone in the cold." something like that. a mild melancholy. a little bit of depression sinks in. is it really over? yup. amazing how you can go from summer to fall in an instant. in one sleep. i rode my bike around all day, searching for little bits of summer that might remain. the air. the water. people. me. all different. is it like this every year? it is, i'm told. my first (and only?) summer living here. small town. lake village. different life. it goes so fast. work. work. work. work. sleep. sleep. sleep. sleep. make more excuses and then go back to work. even the temperature changes in a day. amazing. maybe it knows. maybe they all do. an experience it's been. would i do it again? not sure. maybe. ask me again in eight months. am i glad i did it once? definitely. now i know. toronto. back there soon. a few weeks. it'll be different. the same. it's been a few years. four. five. not sure. montreal. london. and here. wow. time flies. i'll see you soon...

halifax...

here's a little video of these two cats getting into it during a little rap battle situation...

bird...

a few nights ago i woke up the loud singing of a black bird on my windowsill. this is the first time this has happened. the sleep i was in, was, so deep, so dark, so consuming, i'm not sure if i would have woken up at all if it wasn't for that bird. i think it saved my life. maybe it was sent. maybe it picked up on something that was happening and came to bring me back. i don't know. all i do know is that i felt like i was being brought back from the dead. in a very real way. wow. thank you bird. thank you so much...

new stuff from buck 65...

"Hey Man,

I made a shitty record just to please myself. It sounds like shit and is virtually un-sell-able. If you want to hear it, it's here:

http://www.zshare.net/audio/17691744a94f4663/

Hope things are good.

Rich"