UPDATE

Hello lovely souls reading this post, 

Due to a rediculous camp schedule this week, I won’t be able to fully post until maybe Friday. 

Just wanted to keep you in the loop. 

But…

When I get back, there are some topics that I’d like to ask you about yourselves… like…

                         Being an independent musician and believing that means you have to be a dick to other independents

                        The state of music education, especially in higher education, and how we are wiping away our culture with our own                               hands

                        Age, beauty, intellect and the connections between the three 

So, I hope you’ll engage with us a bit this week… I’ve got some pretty awesome followers thus far! 

Good Night 

JB 

 

Music is a universal language, and love is the key….

This week, I had to write a critical thinking paper on a psychological creativity theory that we’d been studying in my Creativity and it’s Development course. I chose to write about Humanistic Theory, and examined the solo works of Pharoahe Monch. One of my favorite emcee’s, his newest work, PTSD is something quite ridiculous. I didn’t listen to his first album when it came out, but knew all the singles (Simon Says especially). But ‘Desire’ was one of my favorites that prompted me to see him live at LPR (My friend from my first grad school happened to be opening for him) and I was just blown away by his performance, his flow, his lyricism, everything was so impressive to me (he’s also not hard on the eyes). In any case, this paper examined his growth as an artist, and how that growth as an artist helped him grow as a human being. Now, it’s soo assumptive of me to think that I can see that, but it comes across in the music’s content choices. Listening to all these songs, and really working through this theory made me realize how important hip hop is to our culture. It made me realize how important music is to our society and how the powers that be are trying so hard to push music away. They are pushing music away so that we listen and become brainwashed. In being able to write that paper, I found such a higher level of respect for Hip Hop. Next is the concentrated transcription of his rhymes. All of these things are important. Like a Max Roach drum solo transcribed, Emcee’s flows are next. And guess what? When you do that, you begin to realize how many don’t stack up and begin to to quantitative research on who actually are the best, and prove it. Fascinating stuff. Also really positive stuff for the minority community that started Hip Hop. 

Music is of fundamental importance to the human spirit, and the longer we suppress that fact, the further away from a civilized society we get. 

-JB-

WCW or the place I go on the web when I’m frustrated

Garance Dore. She, her blog, this little world that she has created on the internet is my safe place on the internet. Today has been a frustrating day for me. When I need a break, a place to remember how magical NYC could be or how there is so much beauty in the world, and how sometimes, it’s okay to talk about face wash and your favorite lipstick instead of psychoanalytic theory!

Trying to be Superwoman is exhausting. I’ve been told this plenty. Today, it hit me. I’m not one to like help, I like people to teach me how to do something, so I can do it myself, not feel like they are doing it for me. I also like it when people offer to help. But sometimes, you can’t get help. Sometimes no one else is physically there to help you, so you do it yourself. Well, today, at 7:54, I’m exhausted, with so much more work to do. So what do I do… 

type http://www.garancedore.fr/en into my google search… 

and…

breathe… ::ahh:: 

She has a voice, a clear voice, an aesthetic, talent, personality and a sense of humor. Thank you, Garance, for being an inspiration in a cold cold internet world. 

-Jeanette-

Beautiful Monday

The work continues on the album, booking shows, creating spaces for us to express our art and so on and so forth. This week, I’ll be reaching out to people and trying to get some shows together. We are having another Soul Nerds group chat (since I’m in Ohio still). If you’d like to keep posted outside of the blog, please go check out our social media links and music. 

I’m taking a class over the summer entitled, Creativity and it’s Development. We’ve been looking at different types of creative energy and how creativity fosters itself in different people and different forms. We have a critical thinking paper due in 4 weeks, and I want to get started on the work I’ll be choosing. Right now, it’s between My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy (Kanye West) or Absolutely Free (Frank Zappa). Those will be my soundtracks for the week! 

Have you listened to either? You can listen to both on Rdio. 

Let your monday be filled with delight, hard work and laughter! 

Jeanette

 

What we’re made of

Jeanette Berry and the Soul Nerds as a collective, as an idea was formed out of love. It was formed from a place of passion.

Don’t let the bad in life get you down. No one’s life is a walk in the park. Some days are bad, but it’s never too much to ask from whatever spiritual being you speak with, to ask for better. Ask to be a better person, to be wiser tomorrow, to be more careful with your words and actions. Learn who you are, and try to embrace even the things you do not like about yourself everyday. Try to find the beauty in the most painful situations.

I’m going to start doing something, any time I feel a complaint coming on, I’m going to say something I’m grateful for and then see if the complaint actually needs to be verbalized. Our words have so much power, take care, use them wisely.

Be brave and bold in your living loved ones!

JB