Entries Tagged as 'kanye west'

Randomness

April 30th, 2008 · No Comments

Yesterday, through a series of blog links, I discovered Estelle, a British hip-hop artist, singer and producer. I listened to a lot of her music on Hype Machine. This song she did with Kanye West called American Boys (video above) was a big hit in the UK.

While I’m not laying in bed with a 102 degree fever like I was the week before last, my cold is still lingering around. I wish it would just go away already.

I had dinner with Cinnamon and Erin last night, which was a great, relaxing time. I’ve known Erin for years, but we don’t get together enough. I’ve known of Cinnamon for years and have had quite a few online interactions with her, but this was one of the first times we hung out. I think there will be more times. We had tasty Thai food and lots and lots of girly talk that spanned from technology to careers to boys. All the good stuff.

And speaking of boys, mine is finally coming home tonight after being in Vancouver, Seattle and Calgary since a week before last Monday. Home for one night then he’s off to Puerto Rico til May 5. World traveler, he is. I miss him!

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John Legend & Corinne Bailey Rae

February 27th, 2007 · 7 Comments

2007_02_corinnebaileyrae.jpgBefore her 2007 Grammy performance with John Legend and John Mayer, I’d heard of Corinne Bailey Rae and heard just little bits of her music, but I didn’t really pay attention. After that performance (watch it here), I got her album and have been listening to it a ton. I love it. Just try to tell me that this is not a catchy-ass song.

Rewind a couple years. I was sitting in my home office when I lived in East Ukrainian Village and I had the TV on the VH1 Countdown for some background noise. A song came on and it immediately caught my attention. The lyrics and melody and style were so simple and honest and maybe it just struck me at that point I was at in my life at the time, but I really was fighting tears right there. The artist was John Legend. The song? Ordinary People (watch John Legend’s 2006 Grammy performance of Ordinary People here). I remember I bought the song on the iTunes music store right away and then I had Dallas get me the album. It took a while, but we both started listening to it and loving it. John Legend quickly became a 2007_02_johnlegend.jpgfavorite of ours. We sing his songs around the house, to each other, under our breath when we’re not paying attention, on the train on our iPods. When his second album came out we got it right away. We’ve also seen his live performance at Royal Albert Hall in London at least twice on TV (you can view clips of it here).

Fast forward back to present day. Last week I got a Jam Productions email that John Legend and Corinne Bailey Rae were going to be performing together at the Chicago Theater on April 13. !!! Last week Saturday Dallas and I were sort of hungover but not so much so that I couldn’t get up, get my laptop and my credit card and get back in bed to order tickets when they went on sale. So excited! And, I was wondering if, since John Legend and Kanye West are buddies and have worked together a lot and because Kanye sings on John Legend’s song Number One …. we were wondering if, since Kanye is from Chicago… maybe he’d make an appearance? That would be awesome. He showed up for that show in London (see it here) and the crowd went crazy. That would be the icing on the already sweet sweet cake.

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That’s HOT

March 18th, 2006 · No Comments

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Heaven on Seven, River North, Chicago

Last night we saw the movie Dave Chappelle’s Block Party* and afterwards ate at Heaven on Seven since it is in the same building as the theater. This is a photo of all of the hot sauces that were on out table to choose from. I think Dallas went with plain old Tabasco, though, and I didn’t try any of them. I’d never been to Heaven on Seven, I haven’t even had cajun food since I moved to Chicago. I was afraid the line was going to be crazy because it looked nuts when I saw it featured on Check Please, but there wasn’t any wait at all. When I lived in San Diego there was a cajun restaurant nearby (Chateau Orleans) and when I lived in New York one of my apartments was a block from Delta Grill so I’d go there. But in Chicago, not so much. Yummy. I had the Etouffee of the Day, which had crawfish, shrimp, andouille and who knows what other mystery meats in it.

*DCBP was great. I had a fun time watching it. Roger Ebert says “I’ve seen better comedy films and better concert films” and he’s right, but the combination is good. And Dave Chappelle comes off as like a “regular” dude who really cares about people. Plus he’s like to the point where he could walk up to the mic and say “toaster” or any random thing and everyone would laugh their ass off because IT’S DAVE CHAPPELLE! It didn’t hurt that Kanye West, Mos Def, Erykah Badu, Lauryn Hill, Talib Kweli, Dead Prez, Jill Scoot, the Fugees (Wyclef!), and the Roots were all in the movie. I saw the Roots live once out in a California desert with Outkast, Moby, New Order and tons of other acts.. Paul Oakenfold.. but that’s another story.

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Dude, My Next Gig’s at Potbelly

December 31st, 2005 · 8 Comments

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Potbelly Sandwich Works, Wicker Park, Chicago

I’ve been to the Potbelly on Michigan Ave. and on State St. about 1,000 times each, but I’d never been to the one in my neighborhood that opened on Damen Ave. Why would I ever want to go there, since there are so many other sandwich shops to choose from and I always went to the Potbelly downtown on my lunch break? But now, since I’ve been spending so much time at home, I decided to check out the store on Damen for a cheap lunch.

The interior is pretty much the same kind of feel as the one on State. The one on Michigan is in the Nordstrom mall’s food court so they can’t really control the feel as much. The biggest difference with the store on Damen is that they had a guy sitting up in a little balcony playing music live. He was pretty good, it could have been worse. I kept thinking he should play some Jack Johnson, that he’d be good at it, but he didn’t. I thought it was kind of odd that he didn’t have a sign or anything saying his name, and since he was 8 feet up in the air there was no way for you to tip him or talk to him. I wondered if this individual restaurant made a deal with the him or if Potbelly, as a franchise, supports local musicians this way.

On a side note, this is how you know you’re spending too much time at home: Oprah becomes a part of your daily routine. And not only that, but when Kanye West, whose latest album you love, is on the show and sings “Hey Mama,” a song that you were obsessed with and played 1,000 times in a row on repeat, to his mother.. right to her face.. and makes her dance with him. .. it makes you cry! Step away from the Oprah, Rachelle.

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