Katerina Graham is seriously gorgeous.

Street styles USA

Something like an Old Soul

I think I'm an Old Soul. Is it weird that one of my favorite things is to listen to jazz, sip tea and have a good conversation with friends about their lives, hopes and aspirations. I'm saying that like it happens often (pffffttt!!!... yeah.smh. naawww lol).. but I know that the jazz and tea part happens sometimes, ...oftentimes alone in my room lol.
The conversations happen in part and they're often shorter, less frequent, and w/ fewer faces than I would like. But they happen... sometimes. (so I'm glad). I feel like my soul was born in the early 80s ... because most of the time I find myself relating to people older than me, when it comes to life perspectives.I wonder if life would be easier? would it be better? Would I be happier? Would I be a better person?

Sometimes I wish it were different... But A lot of the times I'm glad that it's not.

This weekend I learned the importance of challenging myself. I may feel old at times, but I'm an amateur in life/relationships/other struggles. I've come to find peace in having faith that life is moving at the pace they are for a Good reason.
...
lol.
you know, they never lied when they say Patience is a virtue. [truly sorry for the cliché]...
I was listening to Shad's TSOL the other day and ran into the line:

"A sage once said that Silence is the sound of Patience. Listen"

So I'm learning to enjoy the silence.
... to be In - Joy with this silence.
The silence that I often find so... STILL... that it's Deafening...
And somehow despite it being mute, it speaks volumes.
Speaks volumes because it somehow finds a way to perforate my state of being(my mind, my thoughts, my actions)
Allows me to question myself... allows me to answer... me.

...

I spent Friday night alone (like most nights). I didn't feel lonely.
But I used the silence or lack of company to answer what I question about myself.
and I learned that in simple terms:

I'm just a work in progress... lol.

Kanye's Back.

Just ran across Kanye's new single. It's featuring the one and only Dwele!!
I like it. LISTEN

--- I think that College Dropout was his best album and 808s & heartbreaks his worst --- doesn't mean I didn't have any of his tracks on my ipod on repeat. I mean it's kanye .lol.
... awaiting the album

Janelle Monáe

Stellar Performance from Janelle Monae - Tightrope. ... She is Beyond her years. In her I see a fusion of everything the old and the new twisted in a way that is simply Janelle Monae. The first time I heard Janelle Monae was when she was featured on the Outkast Idlewild soundtrack. I dug deeper and followed her through her EP: Metropolis, and fell in love with her different sound, while picking up the old familiar influences in her style. Among many tracks I fell in love with - Call the Law, Letting Go, Peachtree Blues.
I've been on her ever since :)
Checking HMV repeatedly until her album reaches Canada.

These eyes.. never saw you leaving this heart

Beautiful Madness of a sunny hot day

Fall in Love -> Estelle feat. Nas
when I first saw the link for this, I thought it was a beautiful, and out-of-the-blue collaboration. ... I listened to it. and I was right :)



...
oh random... yesterday, I was walking the streets of Toronto, for the purposes of buying more summer clothes (i.e. shorts!! tank tops!! dresses!! :) ...I digress) and for some reason, not sure if it's because of the way I've been feeling like I carry myself with the whole transitioning hairstyles I've been doing. I've been noticing more stares. In one instance there was a man who stopped me. And I thought naively that it was for directions or a question or something, but he looked at me and said: "keep up the good the work... you're very beautiful". I never know how to handle compliments. So I smiled sincerely and said: "thank you very much!" and as I was walking away, I sort of felt uncomfortable, because I didn't make me. Why should I take the credit. I did not choose my race, skin color, hair texture, height, hell... I don't know why I like the clothes I choose to clothe my body lol. I wanted to tell him to thank God for that... but it would've probably come out of my mouth awkwardly like it always does lol.
... and there was another man/magician that was performing some magic tricks by Dundas square for an audience. and I as I was walking towards him, and stopped. he paused his act for a few seconds when he saw me, and said "wow, really loving your hair". ......... so I just smiled... and tried to avoid eye contact lol.
....

Another reason why I went downtown to get Shad's TSOL ... B.O.B.'s new one... Jose James and Jef Nerve's album... and I was really hoping to get Janelle Monae's but its not out in Canada yet.[I'll give my review for all of them sometime this week, but it's not the purposes of this post lol] When I was at HMV, I saw this guy, who was occupying the booth where you get to listen to albums and decide whether or not you want to buy the albums or not... he was eying me for a while... and by a while I mean I felt like I was being watched ... but strangely, not sure if its because I was in a good mood or not, but I didn't get the usual annoyed and uncomfortable feel I usually get when I feel like I'm being watched. I actually had the urge to come up to him and ask him what he was listening to and from there have a random conversation about hiphop (after all, the cd options that was on the booth was Shad's TSOL, Reflection Eternal's RPM) ... but I didn't. I should've. Instead we exchanged glances and smiled at each other. (sidebar >>> this happened 1st with this black guy, then after I went upstairs to get my jazz album, it kinda happened again with this white guy).
... strange day.

oooh.. I just found a gem from Slakah the Beatchild feat. Tingsek & Ebrahim. It's called the War Within >>> click here to download it. They are performing in Toronto this friday... I'm going to try to check it out... will somehow hopefully find someone to come with me, cuz there's also a young dubpoet thing going on that my friend invited me to. If I could manage to go to both that would be awesome :)

Random freestyle I found, I think the black guy is someone famous... and I think he's canadian... I'm not sure... and I think it's set in Haiti... but found it interesting and random enough to want to post it.



ooh... another random Mos Def Freestyle


...
enough randomness for one post lol... found this quote and thought this is the lesson learned from all yesterday's beautiful madness:

Dear God...

I'm trying hard to reach you. Dear God, I see your face in all I do. sometimes its so hard to believe it. But God, I know you have your reasons.

Hello World,
I've had a crazy long weekend. Running around. A constant reminder of struggles. A constant reminder of the beauty that lies within them. The ugly that lies in life. I also thought about relationships. And my amateur status in them. I often question whether or not I can talk to people properly. I mean I'm not sure if I have selective hearing or something, but I often end up lost in translation. And I mean that in more ways than one. It can be language barriers, it can sometimes be the static on my iphone when I'm having conversations with people.
maybe I'm just not speaking the same language as them, (not literally)...

ran into this single. "Dear God 2.0" - by The Roots feat. Monster Folk's hook in their original track "Dear God". If anyone is a fan of The Roots, then you know it's kind of a reminder of "The Seed 2.0"... (well, ish). lol. I love The Roots.
anyway, I'm in love with the track. I just downloaded it. I'm trying to figure out a way to post links to download it, but give it a couple of days and you will probably find it on youtube and everywhere. Or better yet, google it!








OOH and in regards to the quote...
In EVERY THING I do, whether it be a conversation with a friend or stranger, In what I write, in what I say, in What I do. In the people I meet. In the people I observe. In what they say, in what they do. I see God. But With everything I see, and hear, and experience, I sometimes have alot of doubts.
But I know God Has its reasons for things being the way they are. Maybe I'm naive. Maybe I'm wrong. This world, my world, or at least the world I see through my lens really is a STRANGE FRUIT.

(click here to download: "Dear God 2.0" http://potholesinmyblog.com/the-roots-dear-god-2-0/ )

hmmm hmmm good.

The Birth of a hand

Summer Summer Summer-time

Hip-Hop is one of my favourite things

Slakah The BeatChild... aka one half of Art of Fresh (a hiphop canadian duo). CRAZY producer. excited for his upcoming project called the slakadeliqs (google it, get familiar). Let's just say it's going to be a band that's going to bring back the classic-ness of motown classics back in full throttle mixed with a modern flair. Yes I know it sounds like a big bowl of awesomeness! :D



....
on another note... Janelle Monae's album dropped today!!! :D



Got a review from one my trustiest music blog websites... and they've given it a 4.0/5.0 ... so it should be AWESOME... and as soon as I get paid, I will run to HMV and get myself my copy :)



and her single tightrope has an awesome video!! ... I love her hair, and I love her shoes and earings, and did I mention she's awesome!!



...
OH on a Canadian HipHop tip... Shad's album TSOL is coming out soon. (*clap*) :D



And I guess as an anticipation to its release, his single: "Yaa I get it" is single of the week on itunes. So cheers to free tracks! and get on it, if you haven't already done so.

Brands

Interesting video.

Logorama from Marc Altshuler - Human Music on Vimeo.

Trouble Sleeping

As the title of this post suggests, I'm having trouble sleeping. I have alot of things on my brain, I'm actually pretty tired. mentally and physically... I have work early in the morning. (sigh) ...
I've been thinking... and I really want to travel and see places, not the cliché touristy places in countries that are foreign to me, but the people places.In other words the places like neighbourhouds, places that are intimately calm and paisible (not sure how to say that in english). Places where the people, the regular, just as broke as me hang out. Places that birth inspiration. I want to talk and have conversations with people from different countries about life, their lives, maybe their children's lives and what makes them happy and what makes them sad. I want to hear their accent, I want to have trouble understanding what they say because their accent is so strong lol. I want to be there and listen to them, and I want to learn from them.