16
January
2006
|
19:55 PM
America/Los_Angeles

A Martin Luther King day weekend: The connection between Rap music culture and blogging.

By Tom Foremski for SiliconValleyWatcher


I didn't do much work this Martin Luther King three-day weekend. My 18-year old son Matthew was staying with me for a few days so it was good just to hang out together while being able to do things seperately too.


Hang out is one of the great American cultural gifts to the world, especially for someone who grew up in London. It means being there and not being there, it means being in the vicinity of another person; a comfortable space (except, of course sometimes when it's not :-).


Matt and I did a few things together. We went to see King Kong (v.good), and visited our favorite Punjabi restaurant twice [and loaded up on to-gos.] I'd tell you where the restaurant is located but I'd rather not--I'd hate to have to line up for a table because it got crowded...


Therese Poletti from the SJ Merc plus Paul Hrisko, and Tom Abate from the SF Chron joined us one of the evenings at the Punjab restaurant--but we had to confuse them along the way, with many false turns and double-backs, so please don't pester them about the location of the restaurant :-)


Matt and I also managed to find room for some culture. We caught an astonishing performance by local SF pianist Allison Lovejoy in Pacifica.

The classical part of her performance was marvelous, but it was her Debussy, the last piece of her classical set that continues to stay with me.


After an intermission we were treated to Ms Lovejoy's cabaret persona--aptly demonstrating her witty lyrics and her witty use of the ivory keys. The way she played and toyed with with signature lyrical phrases of our musical cultural icons was fun and extremely skilful. It's what we geeks might call a mashup--in this case, a combination of art forms rendered musically and vocally in an original form by a life-time master practitioner.


. . .


Sunday I took a long walk through Golden Gate Park, Matt dropped me off at the Ocean Beach end, and I walked home. It was a wonderful, sunny day and my pace was languid and unhurried and I enjoyed it all tremendously.


. . .


Monday morning Matt and I had breakfast at our favorite breakfast place, yet another secret location :-) Wide booths, diner style, a place to stretch out with your newspaper, (and yes, my son is barely 18 and he reads the newspaper.)


Matt left for home (Russian River) about midday and I went home and spent the day doing chores, laundry, bills, and avoiding my landlord, bank manager, and email.


Then, later in the evening I realized that this was the perfect time to write a piece I had wanted to write for a long time, about blogging and African-American culture. And about the recognition that the blogging movement owes to the African-American culture.


[Continues on ZDNet: A Martin Luther King Day essay--blogging needs to pay its dues to the African-American culture.