subjectiveexperience

dakah hip-hop orchestra does "come in out of the rain"
by parliament Posted by jeffery on 7/6/2003, 10:25 am 

www.dakah.com did it and it may have been the highlight of the evening-
(im talkin for others, for me it definitely was)
as it seemed to have gotten the biggest ovation...

leaving i check my voice mail and its my sister
who is back home in ohio visiting "live band jeffery, 
you missin it" they was doing "make my funk the p-funk"

for the 4th i did "taste of america" at the rose bowl
and when i gets there i run into the jazzone.net 
who was a side band on the concourse playin a
long jazzy, but subtley funky version of flashlight.

when i get out of the rose bowl on my voice mail
is the studio version of dr funkenstein and then later
mothership connection "boy i told you, you missin it"
from my buddy who was at an all day 4th of july block party in compton.

these is just the p-funk over lights of this holiday.
i wore my P-FUNK1 jersey this whole weekend cause
"sometimes i feel like turning it out." 
and sometimes i do exactly that.

i am so in love with my existence that life 
may be the only girlfreind i could ever have...


the dakah event
Posted by jeffery on 7/6/2003, 12:30 pm, in reply to "dakah hip-hop orchestra does " 

the dakah event happened 7-5-03,
downtown los angeles. california plaza.
it was put on by www.grandperformances.org.
california plaza is beautiful and new. lighted dancing water foutain
behind orchestra. lighting, sound, seating, all top notch. they had 
a company that recorded it and you could buy a copy after the show
that would be mailed to you in a week. 

this was a "white folx" event, but it was very diverse.
some sitstillers, but not the high % usual in something 
this relaxedly upscale. summer casual formally, put on by 
almost conservative artsy types. but the crowd was diverse 
and middle class urban. i think they were raising $ for the 
walt disney concert hall. dakah is spose to play this 
new concert hall worth hundreds of million dollars...

dakah is like a 60 piece orchestra, violins, horns,
2 djs on turntables, persussion, etc. not sure if there
were guitars or a bass.

upfront was lonnie, gabby, girl from 419, audra, fanny,
dj haul, mason, double g was maestro, mark, davey,
it was like a weapon of choice optic nerve templebar 
side project reunion. i didnt know they was in dakah.
lonnie and gabby rapped only. and gabby was good (yes, 
a bit of surprise at how good). actually lonnie too rappin 
now that i think about it, wasnt use to seeing them 
not playing just rappin...

i mean i gets there and i know a bunch of 'em!!! there is
an excitement from running into people you know and get a good
vibe from. i done did it many times with these folx so they 
know me and how i do it. and i made sure they seen me as i 
walked bouncin and groovin and sendin energy dead on beat. 
this was early in the show when it was still light out. 
there was this walkpath in front of the sound booth that 
kinda jetted out a bit. that point is a dead on clear view 
for the whole band and a good prtion of the crowd of maybe 2000??.
i walked that pathway while the band was in groove snapping my 
fingers doing my thang lettin my light show and hopefully 
showing them how much i love this and them and everything.

and since i been feeling like turning it out im 
PFUNK1 jersey down. so imagine when double g announced 
the next song was special and he hope he dont get all 
choked up. imagine when he said it was by parliament-funkadelic. 
(and he said it with that "right" snap. "parliament-funkadelic).

also by this time i was in almost full groove. i know from
experience that a good portion of the crowd had felt my
energy already and seen that p-funk on my back. so when he
said those words and that moment...

fanny sang "come in out of the rain." and yeah oh shit-
lily hayden soloed during this song. audra (i love her),
mark and the other booty cute sista that sings with audra
did backing vocals among others. i video'ed it and am
listening to it and watching now (also just got thru re-visiting rhenium) 

oh yeah, come in out of the rain turned it out.
   

so im gettin into the music and again notice my man was almost hittin the beat consistently. his lean forward move wasn't ending on the typical hard head beat. he was like off the main beat in such a consistent way it created a new groove that naturally had to be in time with the music. same rhythm, different beat. anyways i feel him so i step my groove up and give him some. i dont care if he handicapped or not. no mercy when it comes to the groove. the groove is so universal there is no excuse for anyone not to find a groove. in fact, it may be impossible not to have a groove. so i give him some and then i hear someone call to and then guided him back. im seeing him out of the corner of my eye purposely. i dont want to make eye contact. i want him in my peripheral vision. i did not want to be focused on him. i may have discovered this just then. im feeling him and im smiling and i know some of the standstillers were observing our interaction. as im thinking i do not remember paying any attention to his guardians or the people i thought were them. i sent energy only to him. 

anyhows now i have the idea and confidence to just groove with him like this. i was clearly looking at the ground but it was obvious he was in my peripheral. though he didnt hit his beat harder or faster. i could feel that he felt me and stepped up his groove. or made his groove more solid more confident. and he was on beat. or on a rhythm that was definitely on groove with the music. this made me feel so good i smiled with a joy that everybody had to see. i could have had tears of joy very easily. it felt soooooo gooooood. cause i knew people around us saw this big black at least kinda cool male in a solid deep groove with what vappeared to be a slightly disabled late 20 sumn white male. i was wearing my kordell jersy. 

standing next to me on the other side was a mixed group of 4-5 young fast teenage girls. the black one was cute, but her vibe made her not. i think they was clowning rhythmic disabled guy in a way that kids do. still wrong, but so "childish" that it could easily be ignored. anyhows i check the black girl and she ofcourse is the major one clownin and she dancin but she off beat. i imagined myself saying to her "at least he is on beat, you aint." she appeared to be off-beat due to nervousness. or the excitement of being in public energy. i thought maybe cause she doing something she know is wrong she couldnt hit the beat. cause one time i caught her doing a move that was off beat, but she did it for real the way only a black female can. a strengthy neck snake move with arms reaching out. it was very good and even tingled me.  

so now i got this idea to angle myself and vibe rhythm in my peripheral. like im looking across the person, not at them. thinking about it now i did this at dakah. and ive had instances where ive done it before many times, but this time i was doing it purposely with intention and i knew it. i was actively doing it and actively positioning myself so that his rhythm was somewhere within my sight range. 

so i move around a bit and notice this black guy bouncin on it behind me. and he's hittin the beat dead on too. bouncin on it so fast in double triple or whatever time that it looked as if he was shaking. but he was on it tight. so i just vibed him whole and gave him all kinds of rhythms back. aggressive off rhythms, broken, missing, stopping- but all dead on the rhythm. changing my groove while staying on the beat. he was feeling it and we clowned. again i avoided eye contact, but did run from it. me and him did it for maybe 30 minutes and then the crowd adjusted and he was off the way

so i end up behind this white lady with one of them nice thin but fat in places white lady bodies. she had on stretch pants and her butt was alright. i noticed her stretching and doing meditation yoga type moves that were no where near the beat on purpose. the arms raised flowing in the wind type thing. she was dressed nice and she looked like the mother off bold and the beautiful. anyhows i starts to vibe her but she is directly in front of me. i not sure she can see me, but i do it anyways. it seemed she was feeling it, i think i could feel her energy go up with mine and maybe mine with hers. the disabled (for lack of a better word, i dont like using disabled but will until i think of a better) dude i think was 15 feet behind me. out of my view. but me and cute white lady in stretch pants get it going when these two middle eastern northern africa type girls are next to me and behind her. they started singing or chanting something kinda low but i could hear it under the music and it was pleasant. i grooved to it for a bit. before i noticed them standing behind me and they somehow moved up to be next to me. then stretch pants white lady turns and puts them in fornt of her and steps behind them, i think the chanting she didnt like. so she's standing by me and we groove.

i got deep into it feeling it all this time and the people. afro celts are now playing after an intermission and im groovin. during all this groovin i noticed a medium heavy set white guy doing the white boy goofy dance. but i notice he is on beat. and i mean he is waving and flailing all over the place, but he is solidly on the beat and i could feel it deep. i turn to have him in my view and vibe him a bit. 

i notice im actively, blatantly and constantly scanning the crowd for people on beat. i notice what i vibed as a gay guy in shorts doing disco moves on beat. on a solid beat he was 1970's down but he couldn't been more than 30ish. i get him in my outer view and vibe him a bit.  

i position myself at a point and stand so that in my peripheral is stretch pants white lady, the black guy who by then came over by us, awful goofy guy and disco danny. and all of them on beat with different dancing patterns. god did this feel good. we was gettin it. i deliberately avoided eye contact. i didnt want to meet them that way. i wanted to engage their physical rhythm energy. not them they way we understand "personally." 

i looked for rhythmic disabled guy and he was gone. i may never forget him. it seems at times he was looking back at me. making eye contact. when he did i avoided it. it tickled me kinda so turned with a smile. if he was making eye contact with me he would have notice me deliberately turning from him, but because of happiness and joy. i was smiling hard. i have a lot of happy inside me and it was active. 

when the black guy left he told me to "take it easy" in a relaxed confident voice chillin voice. he looked as if he was homeless. or from another country and very sloppily dressed. not sure, but one time me and him was in a groove and he had a smile so big it almostg brought a tear to my eyes. it was full a full mouth deep smile that used all the muscles in his face. it was a smile that came from deep inside him. i can smile like that and i did when i saw his. it was the widest biggest smile ive ever seen a human being have. it was undeniably genuine. 

were we all on the same beat? different grooves definitely. did we have different rhythms? 

one time me, disco danny and the black guy started doing a riverdance. afro celts were very very good also, will definitely go see both afro celts and electric skychurch again. 

been going to this place for a few years now but never ventured beyond the main hall. this night i not only went thru the door i never go thru but i got to hang out upstairs with lonnie and the crew. it was good and so was the show. 

there was some good lookin college girls out this day too. the cute plain (not all cosmetic looking) and just a little heavy in the right places kind. anywayz i like dakah. i really like them and not cause its like a templebar reunion when i see them or cause double g gives major props to p-funk by playing parliaments come in out of the rain or cause my fave dj's haul and mason are in the band or cause audra (i love her) or fanny or mark (was keaton there?).  i think its cause of the groove. the rhythm. i like the tempo, motion and style of the music. maybe its the full sound of an orchestra in a groove.

i was also moved by a girl playin violin in the string section who was vibin and bobbin her head to the beat. she was gettin it and i felt her and it moved me. she had on a black cap and from what  i saw was nicely thick in the right places but thats not the point. it was feeling her groove and the music and my groove. she was on it. mark (weapon of choice) also got down in a non rap vocal that was very very refreshing. it wasnt r&b or rap but like a nice funky hook. it had good groove and bounce and movement and it was nice cause it wasnt rap or r&b sounding.

drove up with LLL caught the show and drove back. LLL drove back i slept woke up in burbank. went home slept a couple more hours then went to work. i left work about noon we hit the freeway about 1:30ish hit oakland nice and early. the venue was an old rich theater with heavy bolted seats and a balcony. my seat was in the balcony.  we ran into a buddy we see at many shows who lives walking distance from the venue and he pointed us at fast food. burger king.  this place is downtown oakland and there were a lot of black people. 

we had church. it went next level. during never gonna tell it bernie got into the mix on keyboards and it took the energy way way up. the house lights went dark with a strobe light only and this added to the energy. i felt like i hit a higher groove once again. 

i stood almost under bernie's keyboards. george was 10 feet from me and 4 feet above me the good part of the night. stood right there when mike hampton and lily hayden did maggot brain. couldnt have been more than 15 feet away. right by the speaker good sound. the song lily hayden does with george has a catchy kinda complicated groove. its a love song with a nice flow.

aqua boogie was good. i tried to get the we want the funk chant going during it. looked up and lige didnt have a bass on and realized bernie was playin the bass line. then i started to feel it. bernie was into the show. he went to the mic with gary to get the crowd going.

left work at 4 and drove down. traffic wasnt bad. go there at about 6ish i think. on the ocean. had lots of time as i desired so i just chilled. saw gary and bernie hanging out by the buses which were parked out front. i parked and logged on to the internet and then ran into cloned maggot and his buddy and we got hot wings and fries which were damn good. talley and his cousin showed up. mc funk was in the house hollered at them.

show was good. the energy i think is the most important and not necessarily what or how what is played. they achieve that "high" almost every show with some highs being higher than others. never gonna tell it was this nights high and the strobe light effect was euphoric. 

it also seems george clinton and the p-funk allstars are not playing p-funk so to speak. the play a funky energy music and it may be a new p-funk but it aint the traditional p-funk music. in fact, a good chunk of the show aint even parliament or funkadelic music. and sometimes even when thats played its a higher bouncier groovier movement. maybe george is tryin to get a new style out and using the lure of p-funk to get an audience for his new kinda groove. i like the new kinda groove cause a big part of it is rhythm guitar. 

drove back after the show. nice 2 hour ride on the huge almost empty 5 freeway north. got home about 4amish i think and had luckjed out a once a year schedule change at work to handle the swing shift during the once a year year end closing. went in at 5 and a friend of mine had made me a plate and she did a good job and everybody left so it was nice and quiet. i had to cover the contracting dept which is my fave dept and not cause its like 95% female ok maybe it is.  work went well got out of there around 12:30 and thought about the trulio disgracias show at the good hurt  i missed cause i had to work this night.  

there was a black dude singing backup with a tall thick funky sista and just about everything that he initiated was p-funk. every chorus or chant he started wasa p-funk lyric and when he played bass he dropped atomic dog. i was diggin it. norwood say he gonna put this trulio disgracias thing together for real and will even schedule dates 4 weeks out! its a gray overcast southern california sunday morning and im spose to call him but im still in the bed so we'll see how that goes. 

meshell came out mellow and jazzy sophisticated. a smooth hard funky kinda jazzy. she didnt play hardly any of her hard hittin hits. she was into a deeper jazz funkier feel. one song said "everybody's got  a little light under the sun"

very diverse crowd, probably cause there were a number of cute black females there and/or black lesbians mixed in with the soulive jamband crowd. so you had cool black people and jambanders side by side. 

im feeling the music and after a few im relaxed being the only adult in groove. jeffery gets there and i hear "P FUNK 1" over the mic. then jeffery busts a freestyle rap (he was the only person to rap all night) as i get my groove on. kimberly was gettin it to on the dancefloor and it was good cause she was on beat, and stayed on beat. even when that little teenage boy was ridin her ass during a booty song. it didnt bother me seeing my daughter booty dance with somebody as long as she was on beat when she was doing it. i had a good time, i bought  a mvr t-shirt. 

got in the place a dj was doing his thing in a more hardcore ghetto style than im use to in mi fave place. also the younger djs switch songs too much. way way too much. i realized how good haul and mason are too last night listening to this guy. he wasnt bad at all, just not as good in execution or in his personal selection of the music. anyhow i looked around at how many niggas was in the place and smiled and laughed everytime the non-black dj played a record with the word nigga in it for this mostly non-black mostly white sparse crowd. they love our music and our style. anyways there was this tall, brown long legged long french braided sista in the place with a brotha dancin. she was thick and just plain enjoyable to look at and tall and brown. in the zone i was in whether it be real or imagined i felt i could have or figure out how to get anything i wanted her included and even after she was kissin homey right there on the dance floor. 

anywayz i seen how he moved and as an animal he had nothing for me. i knew i could step it up to a physical dance that would  clearly show i was the dominant male, but not in a threatening aggressive violence threatening way. it was cool cause even right after i saw her slobbin him down i smiled still thinking that and the real tingle came when it truly didnt matter that she was kissin him. maybe to them and the rest of the world them kissing on the dancefloor means something  but where i was it was insignificant. and if anything it added to it. anyhows i aint disrespect or even show direct attention but i did send vibe they way. i danced and moved to let her know i was a strong male animal. i watched as it seemed their activity ebbed and flowed with mine. or maybe ours together with the music.

i sat on a swiveling barstool and positioned it so i could let myself spin slowly all the way around while being in groove. using the motion of spinning and body movement to create more beats and rhythms against each other while visually taking in the rhythm, energy and movements of the people around me and the sound system's speaker which i sat very close to.

white girls gettin it and i was diggin it as i looked across them to have her in my peripheral vision so i could see and feel her rhythm and movement without the direct eye to eye contact. i let her feel my energy and vibe and without direct acknowledgement though i vibed her directly.

also i was so on the groove that the dj drop a break in the music and i was dead on it. its to the point i can anticipate breaks or i can recognize them and react so fast that it seems im anticipating them but i was deep in it and i paused dead on his break and i had time to think and go "woooooo" and still experience what seemed like a "long time" till the next beat. i was not only conscious of the time between beats but was able to observe and participate in it.

i thought this could be how rhythm could create time by heightening a persons experience of time. 

like a 300MHZ computer which clocks at 300 million beats a second vs a 6000MHZ computer which clocks at 6000 million beats a second.  in the same amount of time (a second of "time space") one computer can do 20x the work and have 20x the events. 

each beat of the clock could represent an aspect of space time or our experience of space time. what would it be if you could increase your awareness of space time by 20 times?  

if you could increase the number of conscious instances of space time you are aware of. increase your experience of space time in the same timespace, then you have in a sense created space time by dividing it into smaller instances. and by creating more instances of experience. 

so if i can rise up to experiencing maybe 30 to 60 beats a second (or whatever) i have increased my sense of experience and in a sense made my experience of time "longer." like i can differentiate between points in time to the point where i can experience and execute within smaller and smaller time spaces. 

so say maybe another person has x experiences a second, when im in groove or vibrating at that higher rate i have 5x or whatever experiences in that same time space. 

a person who could have 100 conscious instances of experience  a second would out perform a person who has only 5  instances in the same timespace. (webserached timespace and found http://www.geocities.com/r_ayana/index.html. 

and sometimes when im in groove and maintaining a beat, it becomes "routine" as ive been in a groove for minutes and i can create beats within those beats thereby creating another instance of experience or action or result or something in that space of time or time space. i am conscious of the 4 or 5 beats ive been maintaining and when it becomes routine and maybe using an unconscious rhythm i can insert another beat (at least mentally) and be conscious of another instance of space time and instance of conscious experience.

through movement and gestures physically on the beat i can make myself conscious of another event in the time space. another instance of space time within the same time space.

while my body is keeping time in a groove i can think about other things and participate in other events. like driving. especially driving. driving may be the best other event. the added forward motion, the energy of that forward motion (in a groove at 70-90+ mph dancin and takin pictures)

the band build an ark was also good. they had a latinish, carribean, kinda bouncy groove. they did play a few tunes on the one with funk attitude and when they did it was good. they had 3 girl backup singers and they were good also. got into a really good vocal groove singing a nice tight 

parking seemed bad at first cause we drove around and was trippin and playin but we eventuall found a parking lot that was relatively close for only $10 and that i felt was dirt dirt cheap. 

the place was just gorgeous though. very very well lit and our seats were down low so we had a good view of the field and stadium. it was visually stimulating and i was able to take it all in at once. 

should pittsburgh had won the game i prolly would have turned the stadium out. i was ready and able though not properly motivated. i felt good, my vibe was on but not up. nothing happened to really motivated me sans the cheerleaders.  

earlier in the weekend me and rick went to a resturant he was taunting about quantity and quality of food that he couldnt believe i could finish and i did and wasnt even sleepy. after that we went and chilled out at eric's with marvin and eric watchin the fast and the furious on stolen satelitte when rick got sick from the food he ate and was throwing up. we also made some music this weekend and he gave me a quick course on how to create music with the computer and midi and that sort of software. 

fishbone was cool. as ive said before, i dont like fishbone music but i digs everyone in fishbone even with the new line up with tori ruffin, rocky george more horns and a keyboard player. spacy t and dirty walt are not with them anymore. they came out with that fishbone music that i dont really care for but during the set there were moments more grooveful. i like it when its more grooveful and i instantly respond to the music when it is. 

said whattup to norwood after the show and touched base with him regarding the trulio thing and that also makes me feel very very cooooooool.

friendly sexy whitegirl waitresses. big fat black bouncers, no place to sit sans a little lounge downstairs which played crazy metal rock whiteboy music and not the bands performance. there were enough girls there to keep me interested and that was cool. not too many and not the overly pretty kind, good cute fun girls. in fact hey had like a pillow fight thing where people got into a blow up boxing ring and pillowed fought. one of the first two girls to get in the ring was one i noticed cause of her cuteness and nice not small size. her and her friend pillowed fought and it was corny and goofy then when they were done they open mouthed kissed slobbering tongue. i thought that cute. norwood and sarah and another girl got in the ring next and they clowned. then maria who im use to seeing with her side kick lauren and who was looking very cute physically and spiritually got into the ring with another girl who was prolly a viper room regular cause the announcer kept hinting for her to show some tit.

and oh yeah we was ridin and i was sayin that ohio is funky and naming all the funk groups from ohio and then later in the conversation we talking and i say dirty walt's shit is funky as hell and lonnie i think said "and the columbus sanitation..." and it hit me he from ohio too!!

and oh yeah flea was there on tumpet into it and doing this hard vibrated bounce as he walked on stage and around a bit. like a jack hammer it was a hard up and down. oh yeah i digged it.

oh yeah how the hell i forget?!!! marc cross was was on keyboards and this may have been a major key to the success of the evening musically. a few times norwood told everybody to stop and follow marc and the drums. he said without the guitars there was a lot of space and i digged this musical theory. 

gp funk squad was brothers on drums, bass and guitar. they played some zaapa (i am the slime) along with mostly their original funk type music. i could have sworn once the bass played flashlight and ofcourse i went off. they 

the first band funkin pie had a lead singer with good energy and a very very good voice. an almost glen goins type voice but the groove jus didnt work for me. i thought i was getting sick cause i wasnt energized by the music. then norwood made a professional music comment to me that put it all in perspective.

+ featured events  12.02.2003 tuesday : norwood fisher present:            NORWOOD FISHER of the nationally famous “FISHBONE” brings out an all star line up of industry porfessionals in a jam-night format. The host bands are “TRULIO DISGRACIAS”, “SHOPPY”, and the “GP FUNK SQAUD”. The flyer is a must see, packed with talent that has played in the some of the worlds best bands - Doors @ 8pm