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Month: June 2012

ATL Greenhouse brings house music to Piedmont Park on Saturday

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ATL Greenhouse celebrates its fourth year at Piedmont Park on Saturday, and yes, both the weather and the DJs will be hot.

DJ Yusef, Cullen Cole, DJ Theo, and Stan Zeff and DJ BE of Tambor will be playing house music under the pavilion for a mixed crowd of house heads, families enjoying the park and curious onlookers.

While those five DJs round out the organizing crew, special guests DJ Tabone of WRFG-FM’s “The Soul Chamber” and vocalist Sheila Ford add more heat to the bill. Ford will perform around 6 p.m.

“Right now, we are the only ones doing anything at Piedmont as far as soulful house. We wanted to be able to bring different nationalities together to be able to freely express themselves through music and dance at an outdoor event,” DJ Yusef says.

Yusef says the process for obtaining his permit for an event at Piedmont Park was fairly easy, especially once the city and the Conservancy understood the event’s mission. “They were open once we expressed what we were doing and that it was an event that was for all families and children, and the type of music that we’re playing because it doesn’t consist of hip-hop, which is a different cultural thing,” he says. “We play music that people can respond to, relate to, dance to. A lot of the music that we play are spiritual songs, African, things like that. It’s just a matter of convincing them that you’re bringing an event that is family-oriented that’s just a lot of different.”

The event is free and is from noon to 9 p.m.

MC battle pits men vs. women Saturday at Apache Cafe

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There’s an MC battle of the sexes going down at Apache Cafe on Saturday, and considering that I’ve heard the fierceness of Cyrano Sinatra in a post-A3C impromptu performance — and with  S. Gold, Joe Stu and Sir Taj filling out the roster — my bet is with the fellas.

But with female MCs Adrift Da Belle, the Born Genius, Kizzy Krew and Suni MF Solomon on hand — particularly Adrift’s strong Atlanta following and Kizzy’s future of rap sound —  the competition will be tough.

It’s also a friendly match-up between Atlanta and the Raleigh-Durham area of North Carolina, with S. Gold, Kizzy and Sinatra repping N.C., and Adrift, Born Genius, Suni MF Solomon, Joe Stu and Sir Taj hailing from the ATL.

“Eargasm Entertainment and No Leaks Entertainment have teamed up to bring ATL underground hip-hop and N.C. hip-hop together for one night only,” says Eargasm talent and PR manager Portia Daniels-Murphy. “We had to go through some struggles behind the scenes to make this happen, but it’s going to be an incredible event.

“We decided that we wanted to expand our brand outside of N.C. and the ATL has such a large pool of independent artists that get support. After attending A3C last year, it was a no-brainer. We knew we had to do a show in Atlanta,” Daniels-Murphy says.

DJ Ill Will is on the decks and the always hype Fort Knox is hosting alongside Blackberri.

$10-$15. Show starts at 10 p.m., courtesy of Eargasm Entertainment — whose Sucker Free Sundays helped Shakedown Street get voted Best Hip-Hop Venue in the Triangle by the Independent Weekly — and Atlanta crew No Leaks Entertainment.

ChanteSez … There’s nothing like coming to an agreement

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Building on the ChanteSez from last week, here’s a reminder: Nouns and pronouns in a sentence (and in subsequent references) need to agree.

Here are a few examples:

  • The performers did a great job; I was thrilled for them.
  • The records skip when you play them and their covers are torn.
  • The club’s décor is sexy and its waitstaff is hot.
  • The deep cut required stitches and it had to be cleaned daily.

Lack of quality women? Yes, says I Need a Wife book

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There are men who want to say “I do,” but a lack of quality women often makes them say “I won’t,” according to a new book by psychotherapist and author Jack A. Daniels.

Daniels will share some of the insights he learned while researching and writing I Need a Wife: Where Are the Real Women? on Saturday, 7-9 p.m., at the Green Room Actor’s Lounge.

After sold-out events in Macon and Knoxville, I’m sure Daniels is hoping for a strong turnout in the ATL. With dating and relationships being an ever-popular topic, from films — I met Daniels at the Atlanta premier of marriages-can-make-it docutainment movie Still Standing — to magazines, it’s a reasonable expectation.

It helps that I Need a Wife flips the script, with men expressing sentiments often shared by women. Daniels interviewed 1,000 men, and they tell “why they’re still single and the major role women play in this dilemma,” according to press materials.

Are the book and its related events self-serving? Daniels says he’s “sincere” in his promo video, and it’s possible that this started as a personal quest to find a quality woman to settle down with.

But there’s a part of me that feels suckered — like, of course any woman with hopes of getting married wants to hear that there are plenty of men ready to tie the knot. It’s a ready-made, Steve Harvey-proven market.

Check things out for yourself on Saturday. The event is free.

ChanteSez … Check your pronouns

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Pronouns are used to substitute the noun in a sentence, often indicating the “who” or “what” in it. Here’s a rundown of a few pronouns and how they’re used.
  • Anyone/anybody (one word) = Indefinite reference. As in, “Anyone can do that.”
  • Any one (two words) = Singling out one in a group. Example: “Any one of them has the right to speak.”
  • Everyone (one word) = All people. As in, “Everyone has a chance at happiness.” (Notice that even though “all” indicates multiple people, the verb is singular.)
  • Every one (two words) = Each individual or item. Example: “Every one of the words was meaningful.” (Again, note the singular verb.)

Get tatted up for a good cause: Stars for a Cure at West End Tattoo

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West End Tattoo owner Tyrone “Red” Cooley is passionate about tattooing. And after seeing his mom suffer from lupus, he’s been just as serious about finding a cure for the auto-immune disease.

Cooley will be tattooing for 24-hours straight for the third annual Stars for a Cure fundraiser Saturday-Sunday, June 9-10, starting at 1 p.m.

For each star tattoo — pick whatever color you like, but the theme is red in honor of his mom’s favorite hue — Cooley is asking a $40 donation. All proceeds will be given to the Lupus Foundation of America-Georgia Chapter.

His goal is to raise at least $4,000. Contributions of all amounts are welcome, even if you decide a tattoo isn’t for you.

If you want to get tatted up for a cause, though, pre-register as soon as you can. The time slots are limited, so the earlier you register, the more likely you are to get your preferred time slot. I recommend the 9 p.m.-midnight slot, which will include Cooley’s birthday celebration.

But then again, Cooley is raffling off a $200 gift certificate to West End Tattoo for anyone who registers for slots between 2-9 a.m.

Sponsors P’Cheen and One Flew South will be providing complimentary food and beverages at the height of the event.

For more information on the event and West End Tattoo, check out the respective Facebook pages.

Postscript: Cooley’s mom lost her battle with lupus late last year. Make it a priority to come support him.

ChanteSez … Connect well with yourself

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Hyphens are the connectors of punctuation. They join words, they link modifiers, and generally make ideas easier to understand.

Use a hyphen with modifiers (i.e., descriptions) that include the words “self” and “well.”

Some examples:

  • Self-conscious
  • Self-centered
  • Self-assured
  • Well-rounded
  • Well-adjusted
  • Well-dressed

A few other “self” and “well” words that aren’t modifiers, but still take a hyphen:

  • Self-esteem
  • Self-defense
  • Well-being
  • Well-wishers