the grammy's

the day was lovely. really it was.... until my cell phone and japanese touch screen sony camera were stolen out of the quick change room....then of course Jimmy Jam announced the winner of the best r&b female category... it honestly went by so fast I didn't even have time to feel like i lost. he was on to the next thing within about 14 seconds. the performance was tempered by the fact that I wanted to kick someone in the shins for taking my stuff... but all and all- I enjoyed the day. In my opinion the r&b alternative category was the best one- and I was rooting for Erro or Foreign Exchange...but it is all ultimately kind of a popularity contest. If you are eligible to become a member of NARAS I urge you to do so, and VOTE. I also thought it was strange how NONE of the black categories were televised- at all...I guess the best solo on a jazz record (won by terence blanchard) would tell me to shut up and quit cryin'.. Some categories never ever get shown. there are a lot of thankless places to be in this industry. Of course once I realized I wouldn't be able to pinkroom, chat, text, twitter, facebook, myspace....then I got mad. you know how I love to deliver the play by play....but I am already looking forward to next year!!!!!!
I know you guys were all pulling for me, and it's sucks when we lose....bad. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
one of my Goddaughters asked me if Beyonce' had stolen my iphone...hilarious.
I loved both of my dresses, and I was so happy to see Arnold on the red carpet. He's one of the most prominent photographers- always everywhere, and he's photographed everyone....he did my very first photo shoot when I was 18 years old.
I am always covered. By the universe, by God, by Angels, by all of you.
thank you again....

Happy Birthday!

this was an awesome year....

and it is already getting better.

come see us!

right now

right now there is only this feeling.

this warm rush of goodie and yay.

this nervous butterfly flitting around in my belly

right now my belly is perfect.

I cannot stop smiling.

this is a perfect moment, 

a gift from god and the universe. 

everything is absolutely sublime, right now.

before the worry and the 'real' set in,

before the what if and why not set in...

right now.

I wanna live in this moment, right here,

right now.

I am going to buy a house on Right Now Street.

The Process of Love

The Process of Love Love is a funny thing you know. I don't know about you,  but I am a hopeless romantic and I truly believe that Love is the most powerful energy in this Uni-verse.  But Love, being a mystical energy,  is a playful friend and a diligent teacher.  Contrary to what our Egos think,  Love has it's own agenda.  What is Love's motive you ask?  To me, Love is the energy  that guides us to our happiness,  our co-manager of this existence we call Life.  And sometimes, the greatest act of Love comes from  not getting what you THINK you want.  And sometimes it means learning how to let go.  And sometimes, it means winning  and obtaining your Heart's desire. But I think, where we humans get caught up,  is that (speaking for myself), we are not always tapped  into a Universal timetable.  We are primarily a culture of instant gratification.  I am convinced I have been put on this Earth  to learn Patience this Lifetime. And what I'm learning is that everything we do  is a creative process.  Our work, our play, our relationships, our Loving,  our learning, our doing and being  are all each a creative process.  And just like any creative process,  each process has it's own agenda  and lessons built into it to teach us. Using nature as a prime example of this insight,  consider any seed.  When a seed is planted in proper soil,  with proper nutrients and conditions, the seed grows.  And none of us would be so silly to plant a seed,  and then an hour or day later dig up the seed  and wonder why it hasn't ripened and born it fruit. If we can learn to see our lives as a creative process of unfoldment,  I think we could better understand our lives. The best relationships, business and works of art  have required time to incubate.  Finding an epic lover means you are signing up  for a deep process of getting to know the other person,  that kind of thing doesn't happen over night.  Building a massively successful business,  creating a masterpiece of art,  all of this takes time and patience. I know there is a great lover, an amazing artist,  a beautiful body and an ambitious entrepreneur  inside of you dying to be born. Have your goals,  keep them in mind and stay in inspiring situations  to give you the energy you need to keep moving, but,  if you can truly befriend the process of creation  and get comfortable with taking little steps  that add up to truly long distances,  you are surely walking the path of mastery. The seed of Love is planted in everything that you do,  enjoy the process, let miracles happen  and trust that your visions are real.  And know that with every dream come the required lessons  to become a master and pull them down.  It's a blessing, this process, love it! All my love, Mastin (follow the daily love @ twitter.com/thedailylove or- thedailylove.com)

this christmas

"This Christmas" - added on November 27, 2001

THE HARDLINE -- Steven Ivory
This Christmas
It is late November--which means folks are generally in a more compassionate mood than just a couple of months before. It also means the temperature in usually warm Southern California will probably dip low enough that I will don a turtleneck or two.
But mostly, late November means that now until Christmas day, 
I can relish Donny Hathaway's "This Christmas" openly, with abandon and without apology. 
It means that if the postman hears strains of the song seeping through my door, he won't think I'm confused--as he probably would in March. It means I won't have to turn the music down when I'm on a stoplight, as I have done in the dead of July.
Hang all the lights and wreaths you want. For me, it really doesn't feel like the holidays until I've heard Nat "King" Cole's version of "The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting On An Open Fire), Yuletide relics "Jingle Bell Rock," "Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree," Elvis's "Blue Christmas," the Carpenters' sappy "Merry Christmas Darling," a bluesy "Merry Christmas Baby"
 -- and "This Christmas."
I didn't choose these songs; they chose me. Most of them are ancient and, like the smell of fresh pine, the sight of fruitcakes and TV's "A Charlie Brown Christmas," make up the fabric of the season, forever embedded in our cerebral. But Hathaway's "This Christmas" somehow transcends the holiday. With a dynamic exuberance reminiscent of a soulful Aaron Copland, it is as big and exciting and relevant in June as it is in December. The heart-warming lyric about a cosmopolitan celebration of fireplaces, caroling and romance would seem to strike up a commitment: THIS Christmas is gonna be better than whatever went on last year.
The sheer brevity of Hathaway's career kept huge audiences from seeing him onstage, and even fewer witnessed him perform "This Christmas." But, as fate would have it, I did, and I have Charlotte Lewis to thank. The shy and lovable Charlotte, or "Puddin," as we called her, was like a slightly older sister or, as our families declared, a cousin. In 1972, when she came by with an extra ticket to Hathaway's concert at Oklahoma City's Civic Center Music Center, I didn't know much more about him than his hit, "The Ghetto." But it was December, everyone was digging his new jam, "This Christmas" and at age 16, I reveled simply in the opportunity to hear live music. I was astounded that Hathaway sang so passionately and forcefully while accompanying himself exquisitely on his Wurlitzer electric piano, whose warm sound had already become his trademark. The cozy house of 3,000 who braved snow was so overwhelmingly enamored with "This Christmas" -- and Hathaway so visibly tickled by its reception--that he and his band played it again at the end of his show. Puddin' and me laughed and talked about people and executed the Soul Clap on cue; she showed me a simple and wonderful time.
Years later, living in Los Angeles, at a cocktail party I told a diminutive woman with a glowing personality that she reminded me of a relative who once took me to see a Donny Hathaway concert. She just smiled when I suggested that I was probably one of the only people in the room at that very moment--quite possibly, on the whole block--to have heard Donny Hathaway sing "This Christmas" live. "Not quite," she said. "You saw him, too?" I asked. "Well, you could say that," she chuckled. "I was in the studio in Chicago when he recorded it." My eyes widened as she extended her hand and introduced herself--of all people in the room, in the whole universe--as Nadine McKinnor. Since that fateful meeting, I have written about "This Christmas" somewhere just about every year, and McKinnor and I usually get in touch. Merry Christmas, Nadine.
But listening to "This Christmas" also brings back fond memories of Puddin.' Who knew that 23 years later, in 1995, just blocks from where she treated me to Hathaway's amazing show, Puddin' would meet fate at her desk in the Murrah Federal Building the morning Timothy McVeigh decided to blow it up.
Finally, I think of the troubled Hathaway himself, hoping that when he jumped from the 15th floor of Manhattan's Essex House hotel in January of 1979 at age 33, he was still able to know his work touched people. Despite his brilliance, Hathaway never became the star he wanted to be. Nevertheless, listen to "This Christmas," observe the wondrous amalgamation of music and a man's soaring spirit and ambition and know that, on THAT day, Hathaway knew he'd recorded something truly special. You can hear it in his voice. Donny's most enduring contribution on his own is a song about joy, on a day devoted to joy. Makes sense to me.


Steven Ivory is a Los Angeles-based journalist.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

thank you for music and ma and daddy, calvin, boston and bootsy.

thank you for the pink room, and all the other folks who even give a hoot at all. 

thank you for my records, as they have served as my children. my legacy. 

thank you for all my friends and family. they are also my legacy. 

thank you for my godchildren, and all my teachers.

thank you for school and books, computers and cameras, 

my home and my health, my lips and my eyes. 

thank you for every single note i have ever heard, 

on every single record. thank you for all of the musicians that have supported me

through the years, and everyone who listened.

thank you for gifting me with the sound that i make. 

thank you for all the records that shaped my life and made me the musician that i am today. thank you for my wii, playstations, and xbox. thank you for best buy and brookstones and the apple store. thank you for HBO, Soul Sessions, and Biggest Loser. 

Thank you for ma's butter fish, hot tamales, and the jazz ramen bar.

Thank you for Tokyo, Virginia Beach, Atlanta, and Chicago. 

Thank you for Lake Shore Drive, and Mass Ave. 

Thank you Master for my soul.

more stuff.

It is 1 month exactly until my birthday, and my friend asked me what i wanted and I could not think of anything.

this sent me into a small panic attack.

is there nothing I want? where are my toys-r-us flyers? Sharper Image  went bankrupt?

I'd love to move to Manhattan Beach into a 3 story house with an elevator, but that's on my 'God list'.

I have more than enough stuff. I have rooms with closets full of stuff.

I have cups from TJ's- the Berklee cafeteria. 

I don't need anymore stuff...

I'm cool on 'stuff'.

Thank you Lord.

RIP Calvin

Calvin finally made it home.

Almost 17 years of smiles and laugher,

joy and pain,

 many lost socks,

and plush toys gone by..

reduced to a small decorative box.

So surreal to have his scent in the house again..

I am glad.