sfs: two for lauren

Lauren makes me do work, man.

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i'm a guest artist

Over at TFIA, the phone-snaps-galleries blog started by my good friend Rob. Y'all need to follow that. His introduction of me is flattering. Here's one that didn't make it, because I didn't feel that it really featured the bridge. Neglect-made lake in a vacant lot.

Neglect.

something for a dead friend

When you know suicide, when it's familiar, and you hear that a friend passed that way, the deep sick feeling somehow approaches comforting. I don't want to be numb. I'd rather feel.

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here's some really discouraging math about sexual assault in the military

My coworkers, the esteemed 'msnbc.com staff and news services', published this article:

Panetta: Could be 19,000 military sex assaults each year

Bad news, obviously, and I was curious to see how this compares to America's ratio for sexual assault, so here's some math.

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sample discovery porn: Crime Mob traces 'Circles' from The Friends of Distinction

New series. Might fill up quick.

I'm a sudden stan of The Friends of Distinction, which were a 5th-Dimension-blueprinted quartet, which featured Harry Elston and Floyd Butler out of Ray Charles' band The Hi-Fi's split up. They added Barbara Jean Love and Jessica Cleaves, a later sometime Earth, Wind and Fire collaborator who I began crushing on in this performance on Soul! [Check that archive, it's awesome.]

Their debut, Grazin', is a free love heat rock with Dimensionesque tempo changes and a ton of soprano and falsetto. Highly recommended.

They released another quality album, Highly Distinct, that didn't yield the same success as Grazin',  faded, and split.

Crime Mob are most known for a self-titled debut album during the brief reign of crunk that featured the raucous 'Knuck If You Buck' [I assumed they were on TVT with Lil Jon before I looked] and for being a mixed-gender group where the ladies - Princess and Diamond, teens at the time of the debut - spit way better than the guys. Their second album had a pretty ill marching-band first single in 'Rock Yo Hips' that did well, and then 'Circles' didn't chart.

Which is some bullshit. One of my favorite songs of the past decade.

Crime Mob - Circles

Friends Of Distinction - Goin' In Circles

Friends of Distinction @ AllMusic