Playlist
03 Jun DJ Inky’s Virtual Travelogue Playlist
Gentle Reader(s), I greet you once again from Lockdown atop Chango Hill in La Ciudad Real de la Santa Fe de San Francisco de Asis. Greetings & peace. It's a bit hard to comprehend the degree to which an already fraught and anxious situation has become exponentially more so over the course of just one week. The murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis has once again pushed the inequities and violence of America against people of color to the forefront of the national conversation (if there actually is anything resembling a 'national conversation' these days) and protestors have once again taken to the streets to exercise their civic right—their civic duty—to stand up and speak out. In the unprecedented context of a global pandemic, months of quarantine, a starkly divided country, and an election year the murder of yet another unarmed black man in plain view of the world might just prove to be the straw that broke the proverbial camel's back. The murder of George Floyd comes hard on the heels of the revelations regarding the vigilante murder of Ahmaud Arbrey in Brunswick, Georgia, back in February and it seems that across the country, and across the world, people in ever greater numbers are turning out to make it clear that enough is enough is enough. Again.
08 May DJ Inky’s Disinfectant Dance Party
Welcome back, Gentle Reader(s), to my ongoing offerings of plague-themed playlists, scientifically attuned to the anxious tenor of the times (and if you've ever spent time with any anxious tenors, you know what I mean). As of this writing we ('we' being those of us lucky enough to be quarantined in the Land of Entrapment) have been in Lockdown since approximately mid-March—over a month and a half of social distancing, carry-out dining and grocery store corona-dancing and dodging. Out on the byways of the City Indifferent most folks are being pretty assiduous regarding distancing, although encounters on the narrow sidewalks of the east side typically require one party (most often Your Humble Narrator) to step out into the not-so-tender mercies of the carriageway to allow for the prescribed six-foot exclusion zone. Face masks are not presently required for outdoor activities but I'd estimate that at least 50% of those on the streets are employing them. In the stores it's more like 75% or 80%. When heading out for my daily constitutional I typically carry a mask (just in case) as well as a precious small bottle of hand sanitizer should it happen that I come into manual contact with anything other than my own personage and possessions. Otherwise, spring is springing in all of its characteristic blustery glory and the diminished vehicular traffic seems to have rendered the typically untainted Santa Fe air even more pristine.
20 Apr DJ Inky’s Survival Playlist
Welcome back, Gentle Reader(s), to yet another offering of tuneful temperings calculated to swing a bit of distractive sanity your way in these trying times. Over a month into the New Normal and things are getting a bit weird Out There, and In Here as well. There's no end of fine lines to be walked between getting out and staying in, keeping informed and getting overwhelmed, staying chill and devolving into a blob, remaining productive and becoming obsessive, safety and paranoia, etc etc. Is there any end in sight? Hard to tell. Depends on who you decide to believe. And it truly is a decision. Anyone who tells you they're absolutely right is almost certainly absolutely wrong. As far as what the future holds, nobody knows anything to a certainty—of that you can be sure.
07 Apr DJ Inky’s Social Distance Dance Party, Pt. II
Welcome back, Gentle Reader(s), to your fave rave online resource for... for whatever it is we offer to you here. Like arty stuff and such like. But let's forget about the arty farty stuff for a moment and get down to brass tacks: We remain in the throes of Lockdown and enforced solitude is quite likely beginning to weigh a bit heavily upon many of us. While I don't have any ready solutions to offer for our current state of Heavy Manners I can extend to you DJ Inky's Social Distance Dance Party, Part the Deux—tried and trusted toons from the expansive dancefloor of Ye Olde Matador Bar & Lounge. With any luck it might provide a bit of welcome distraction from the myriad woes and worries of the day. I find getting up and moving about to be an essential tonic—it can do nothing but good for you & yours as well, just don't trip over the pets or the furniture or your fellow inmates.
30 Mar DJ Inky’s Social Distance Dance Party, Pt. I
Welcome back, Gentle Reader(s). I trust that you are all keeping the protocols and keeping the faith. My 'Shelter In Place' playlist has elicited a positive response from across the intrawebs—thank you one and all for the positive feedback—so I've decided to dip into the DJ Inky archive and put together some toons gauged to get you up and out of that chair, on your feet, and onto the floor. It could be the living room floor, the kitchen floor, the bedroom floor or whatever—just get UP, get on the Good Foot, and move around!
26 Mar Shelter In Place Playlist 3/25/10
Welcome, Gentle Reader(s), to DJ Inky's exclusive Shelter In Place playlist. Your Humble Narrator has been ruminating over this selection for several days now, adding and subtracting, refining the vibe as it were, for optimal effect. And what effect might that be, you might ask. Well you might. The effect that I'm aiming for is somewhat multifaceted, encompassing acknowledgement of the unprecedented parameters of the current situation, the sober realities of isolation, expressions of the desire for human connection, and hope for the future.
20 Mar Matador Playlist 3/5/20
This is it, Gentle Reader(s)—the last full DJ Inky set list to see the light of day (figuratively speaking) before the Lockdown took effect. There was an abbreviated set on the evening of March 12, but with scant attendance and concerns of pandemonia hovering ominously about the town, Your Humble Narrator decided to let discretion be the better part of valor and repair back home to the Inky Aerie shortly after the stroke of midnight. Amongst the sparse attendees on 3/12 were three short, boisterous women, one of whom was insistent in loudly proclaiming to all and sundry ‘We’re from Texas! We’re from TEXAS!!!’ My response was, ‘Do I come to you with my problems?’
11 Mar … As if ALL THIS wasn’t Enough!!! + Matador Playlists
You'd think it would be, wouldn't you? Enough, that is? Well, hardly. Banish the thought. I owe you PLAYLISTS, Gentle Reader(s)! I know you've been thirsting for them, dreaming of them, lusting after them! Well, so have I. I made my triumphant (if scarcely noted) return to the Ye Olde Matador Bar & Lounge just shy of a year ago, unsure of whether or not I still had the stuffe required to reclaim and retain my prior position of glory in the deluxe DJ booth. Well, I did, or so it seems. No one has complained, or perhaps they just haven't gotten around to it yet. After 12 years of service I still love Ye Olde Matador and I love bringing a bit of musical enjoyment into the lives of our esteemed clientele. It's been good to be back and, with a bit of luck, I'll stick around for a while longer. So there!
08 Aug Rock & Roll on Film, Part the Second + Matador Playlist 7/5/18
In late 1969 the Rolling Stones were touring the United States for the first time in three years, having suffered through a variety of legal hassles and harassment at home and the departure and subsequent death of the group’s onetime leader and guitarist, Brian Jones (replaced by the young virtuoso Mick Taylor). A lot had changed a lot since 1964 and the T.A.M.I. Show and Mick’s lack of formal neckwear didn’t seem quite as scandalous. The band had decided it was time to bust a cinematic move and they hired the Maysles Brothers—Albert and David—and Charlotte Zwerin, to film and direct a document of the tour in which the Stones presented their bonafides as ‘the Greatest Rock n’ Roll Band in the World.’
By the time ‘Gimme Shelter’ was released in December, 1970, everybody knew perfectly well what had transpired at the tour-ending free concert in Altamont, California. The film starts setting up the horror from the very beginning with scenes of Jagger and Charlie Watts in an editing suite looking at film clips and listening to recordings of radio broadcasts from just after the concert. Sonny Barger of the San Francisco Hell’s Angels, calling into a radio show, deflects all the blame for the Altamont disaster onto drugged up hippies and the Stones. Mick looks perplexed, Charlie mutters ‘What a shame.’ A shame it was indeed and ‘Gimme Shelter’ looks it directly in the face, recording everything with a disconcertingly unflinching eye. The movie ricochets from one locale to another, jumping to Mick and Charlie back in England on a photo shoot for the cover of ‘Get Your YaYa’s Out.’ Next, the Stones are bopping around in an Alabama motel room (with journalist Stanley Booth), hanging out backstage at Madison Square Garden, crammed into a small control room at Muscle Shoals Sound listening to mixes for ‘Sticky Fingers.’ Everyone looks zoned out. Charlie gets into a staring contest with the camera. The scene bounces from riveting stage footage at Madison Square Garden to lawyer Melvin Belli’s office in San Francisco as he negotiates to find a last-second venue for the free concert. The energy and momentum build and for a few moments the mood seems somewhat upbeat.