--Chuchu

Aganju

Aganju is the Yoruba orisha associated with volcanoes.

"He is most highly regarded by Lukumi practitioners for his role in assisting humans in overcoming great physical as well as psychological barriers. Like the volcano, Aganjú is noted for his legendary strength and his ability to bring about drastic change.

Aganju has been associated with Oshun, with whom he had a relationship. He is associated with the shoulder and has a strong, powerful, and determined character." - Wikipedia



Here, Bebel Gilberto pays beautiful homage to Aganju. Sit back and breathe it in...

--Oshun

Oshun or Oxum

A homage to the Yoruba goddess, Oshun. Oshun (Oxum) is one of the main orishas in the pantheon of deities within the Santeria (or Lucumi) and Candomble religions in Cuba, Brazil (where Candomble is mainly practiced) and other Latin American countries. Santeria is a mix of Catholicism with African religious beliefs. The slaves continued to worship their deities in private, disguising them as Catholic saints during colonial days. Eventually, the blending of both religions ensued.

Oshun is commonly known as the goddess of sensuality and love, like an Aphrodite. "She radiates beauty and teaches us how to love and please our bodies. Everything beautiful belongs to her: jewels, amber, cowrie shells, brass, gold, river rocks, perfume, mirrors, shades of yellow, copper arm bands, copper bracelet’s, peacock feathers, dancing and honey. Oshun belonged to no man and believed all was fair in games of love." - according to one website.

Dive into Oshun ... you will no doubt fall in love.

Enter in de dance, plug it in and we begin...

--Marilyn Minter

Let this vibrate inside your mind

In the middle of the night
we fight like Barbarians in sight
of the former might
You might think that it's a waste
of our time
And I think you would be right
till he drop that rhyme...

I want to hear your voice...

And I won't say that it's bad when you're far/
I want to hear your voice and I won't say /
that I cry when you're gone /
I wonder why you are so cold /
why you are so cold / when I know you're on fire /
I want to hear your voice and I won't say /
that maybe we'll never end up.

Journey to the Land of Promise

Hands down. Damian Marley is just plain amazing. And this song brings me back to that old conscious reggae tip from the 90s. Easy. Swaying. Music.

I Find Peace in Weekend Wars

As I try to remain diverse in the music I post here, I don't want to repeat artists too soon but I just can't help it. MGMT's Oracular Spectacular is under my skin and "Weekend wars" is magnificent. I don't know what the hell it means and I would like it to stay that way ... I just want to keep zoning out and closing my eyes to this song. MGMT is the pop Pink Floyd. To me, at least.

Wake up to this

And you will surely be put in a happy mood :)

Mid-Eastern Maghalena

OH MIA, you've done it again. With your Afro-Magdalhena-Middle Easternesque sounds. Love it!

Shock me like an Electric Eel

Well, this one, you'll hear on Pandora radio. But, hey, you'll never hear it on your favorite Fm station. I can bet you. Such a dreamy video. But I'm going to be honest, I wish that they had sprinkled some people of color in it. I mean, it's only fair since they're talking about the Amazon and all.

Blue never felt so good

Every once in a while, I come across a song that completely transforms my state of mind and state of being in one single, elegant strand of a moment. This song is one of them.

A cybergirl with a face, a heart and one imaginative mind

Janelle Monae. If you don't know now you know. With songs like this, it's a damn shame that this talented and creative futuristic, cyborg R&B queen is not played on the radio more often. She reminds me of someone straight out of Marge Piercy's Woman on the Edge of Time. She is creativity personified.

Her beautiful "Cold War" video caught me by complete surprise. It's very rare that you see an artist's true emotion unveiled like that and it's something that resonates with many people.



On Twitter, Monae interacts with her fans and expresses how touching it is that her slight breakdown caused so many people to really feel her and to feel like she was speaking to them directly. When she posted her reactions via Twitter, of course, the critics were waiting. Critics such as Larry Ryan of The Independent who writes that Monae has "fallen off her tightrope" by tweeting to her fans an essentially "hideously lame display of bogus pyschobabble."

I'm sorry but when does a true musician reaching out to her fanbase and expressing how she feels by the reactions psychobabble? If you ask me, not that you did, so at this point I'm gladly taking the liberty to tell you: Janelle Monae is one of the realest artists out there right now, don't mess it up. Get off of your cynical high horse. Your blurb on how silly Monae's reaction on Twitter was is truly a hideously lame display of psychobabble. Monae is still on that tightrope and she never fell off.