Phunky Phriggin' Phriday:

So, it's been a hellish (devilish??) day, not to mention a hellish week. But nevertheless, it's Friday, and I have a couple of thoughts:

As has been my little tradition, I turn to the Funky Friday playlist in my iTunes and give it a whirl in randomize mode. This brought up something interesting to me, given the day.

Because, in addition to being Friday, it's also the 40th (if I'm not mistaken??) anniversary of MLK Jr.'s shooting death.

A lot of the music we call "funky" comes from the late 60's and early-to-middle 70's. It's purveyors were mostly African-American. This music grew from the seeds of Jazz and blues - unique American art form, springing mostly from the South.

Obviously, there was a lot of racial unrest then, and the entertainment industry was not immune to this fact either. There was an entire genre of film called "blaxploitation" (of which SuperFly is perhaps the most synonymous). Think of images like the character Huggy Bear, from Starsky & Hutch Music was the same way, with groups like Sly and the Family Stone, Gap Band, and later groups like Earth, Wind and Fire. This is in no way meant to be an exhaustive list by any stretch of the imagination. That's a whole other BOOK.

Anyway, on my playlist, I saw this:















You might have to click it to big it, and see what I'm talking about.

Anyway, you can see by the title, that we have come a long way. And you will also note that THERE IS SO MUCH MORE WORK TO BE DONE.

There are some random items rolling around in my head, but if I don't just go ahead and post this, it just won't get done today, so there you go.

But here's one for the road: We were watching the new CSI episode last night, and they showed Grisom's house/apartment/whatever. I noticed he had an Eames Lounge Chair. Wouldn't have cast him as a design-conscious character, but whatever. Reminded me of something - and it's this: I like that chair as much as the next design geek, but I doubt I would have it tattooed onto my arm:

Just sayin'....