1.22.2009 – The Freemix

So, I’m late in posting the list, but here’s what I played on the freestyle episode. This was a show with no theme, driven by you, the listener, and the whims of my mood.

So here it goes:

The World Should Revolve Around Me — Little Jackie

American Constitution — Cyro Baptista

Wadidyusay — Zap Mama

One World — TobyMac

I Ain’t Askin — Feenom Circle

Can I Kick It — A Tribe Called Quest

Let Me — Jill Scott ft. Sergio Mendez

The Revolution of St. Vincent — The Little

One of these Days — Ozomalti & Santana

*Someday Sarah — David Barnes

Desperatar — Aisha Duo

Midnight Word: I To Sing America by Langston Hugues

It’s a New Day–  Will I Am

Don’t Forget to Breathe — Bittersweet

Witchcraft — Ella Fitzgerald

*Save Me — Jen

Sunset Road — Bela Fleck & the Flecktones

Playground — Russell Malone

You Should Know Better — Rusell Malone

*Liked You Better Before — Little Jackie

Days Go By — Feenom Circle

*Flight Bird American North — Iron & Wine

Easy Going Evening — Stevie Wonder

(*’ed songs are requests)

1.15.2009 – New Year, New President

Here’s what you heard:

Oh My God Ft. Lily Allen – Mark Ronson

Newness – Musiq Soulchild

New South Africa – Bela Fleck and the Flecktones

I Gotcha – Lupe Fiasco

Soundgazing – Jermiside & Brickbeats

Zebra – The John Butler Trio

The Life – Mystic

The Food – Common ft. Kanye West

God bless the Child – Jill Scott ft. Al Jarreau & George Benson)

Change is Gonna Come- Gavin Degraw

Midnight Word: Inauguration Ball 2009 by Richard Kenyada

Yes We Can – Jarell Perry

Selah – Lauryn Hill

Afro Blue – Rene Marie

Seasons Change – Corinne Bailey Rae

White Rabbit – George Benson

Closer to my Dreams – Goapele’

So What – Miles Davis

Infinite Possibilities – Amel Larrieux

My favorites tonight were The Food, and Goapele’s Closer to My Dreams. Mark Ronson and Lily Allen started us off with Oh My God — for those a little reluctant about starting the semester again, it’s something for us to relate to but to get hype to anyway. Newness & New South Africa had “new” in the title, ha… I Gotcha and Beautiful Day were both new music discoveries for me over break, The Food talks about, well, one way to approach our current economic system, heh, and the rest of the songs in the first hour talk about newness and opportunity in their own way…

Tonight’s theme was “New Year, New President,” with a special focus on the upcoming inauguration and on Martin Luther King’s Birthday. While the holiday, is next week, his birthday was the same day as the show, and we acknowledged it by playing a clip from his final public speech. For the Midnight Word section, you heard the piece, Inauguration Ball 2009 by Richard Kenyada. This piece had been making the rounds on the internet when I found it (actually on a guest DJs facebook page) and thought it would be perfect for this week’s show. Please know that if you see it elsewhere, or get it in your email box, Richard Kenyada is the real author, and don’t forward it with the wrong person (or no one) cited as the author.

As many of you know, Inauguration Day is next week and many people are planning to travel to Washington D.C. for this historic occasion. Mr. Kenyada wrote this piece inspired by a dream he had about Malcolm X and Martin Luther King meeting up about a week before the 2008 elections. This dream soon became this essay, which imagines a number of figures from African American history in D.C. on Inauguration Day. The recording you heard was an edited version for radio, but the full version mentions many more important figures, including Hosea Williams, Jackie Robinson, the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, Burt Lancaster, Nina Simone, John and Bobby Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, Oscar Peterson, and many others. The essay is found in Kenyada’s book, “Reflections in the Dark Room: The Black Essays,” and you can get it on Amazon.com or from Barnes & Noble starting in February.

The second half of the show is more for MLK’s birthday, the new presidency, and continuing the shout-out to Black history that Mr. Kenyada introduced in his essay. George Benson, Miles Davis, Lauryn Hill, and others showed up in the mix, and we ended with a message of hope for the new year: Infinite Possiblites by Amel Larrieux.

Don’t forget to learn more about Dave!

Hope you enjoyed tonight’s mix of music and history as much as I enjoyed putting it together. It’s great to be back!

Next week: songs of intrigue, mystery, and betrayal…

Resolutions for a New Year of Mixtaping

So it’s been pretty quiet here at the Midnight Mixtape blog… I’ve been at home, relaxing, sleeping, getting new mixes ready for the beautiful people out there. I always want to improve and make sure that you, the listeners, are having as much fun as I do when I’m doing a show. So, here are my resolutions for the 15 or so shows I have left to do this year!

1. Get the playlist online the next day.
Right now I just talk about my favorite tracks on the blog, but there is no reason you all shouldn’t be able see the full list! It has to be after the show because I don’t always know exactly what I’ll end up playing each night.

2. Creative themes each week
“Mafia Night”, “The A Capella Show”, “Dedication to the Hopeless Romantic” and “With a Little Help from My Friends”, are just a few of the themes I’ve got in the works, so keep listening and be sure to send me some of your ideas.

3. Midnight Word. EVERY NIGHT!

Midnight Word is the part of the show where a poem, short story, spoken word piece or other creative work is shared on the air. I really like this part of the show but it’s also the hardest to come up with. Give me your lyrics, your captive words longing to be free and you can read them on the show. Also I’ll stop being lazy and research good pieces ahead of time, and maybe even perform my own stuff.

I can’t do my two resolutions alone:

4. More Audience Participation!

Yes, I would love to hear more of your voices on the show! Call in, give me an event to promote, send me a poem to read, email me about guest DJing or coming to the studio, get your band/a capella group/free styling baby cousin to perform, whatever! if you have an idea (and it doesn’t suck) we can see about making it happen.

5. More Listeners!

Tell your friends, listen online, program WDCE 90.1 on your car radio, and spread the word about Maxine’s Midnight Mixtape!

Outside the Studio: A Gift that’s Less than Seven Pounds

So I just saw Will Smith’s latest. Last year around this time I was watching “I am Legend”, this year, it’s “Seven Pounds”. The previews and whatnot keep things mysterious, so I’m not going to ruin that mystery for you. Just know it was one of the most powerful films I’ve seen in a while.

The film centers on a man who is trying to bestow gifts on the people around him. While this is not a Christmas film in the slightest, I can’t help but be reminded of this season and of why people give gifts at Christmas, to reflect the gift of Jesus, given to the world by God. I think it’s funny that in some reviews of this film the call the main character “messianic” as an insult.

Is sacrificial gift giving an insult now?

Well, this season we all have the opportunity to give gifts to those around us. In addition to just “stuff” we can give a live-giving conversation—talking about what truly matters in life. This film will spark many such questions I’m sure.

There are many ways to “give life” and one way is by helping provide a transplant to another person. There are a couple ways to do this – from donating blood, bone marrow or a kidney all the way to being an organ donor. Those are heavy sacrifices, but what if you could help someone in another way?

David Turner is a young guy who needs a life-giving gift. He has Stage 4 Lymphoma and is up for a bone marrow transplant to save his life. While he has a donor, the procedure will cost $500,000 – more than what his insurance will pay. Through the power of Facebook and Fundraising he has already raised more than $5,000 in a short amount of time. Now, I know you don’t know Dave, heck, I don’t know Dave, but a friend asked for help, so I’m helping the best way I know how, with my words.

If you can, throw some money his way for the transplant, and in any case, be praying for his strength and his recovery. The gift you give might save a life.
For more information:

Dave’s Donor Site
The Facebook Group

12.11.2008 – Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas

Hey beautiful people,

The last show of the year featured a mix of classic and slightly random Christmas & Wintertime songs. One artist that I was excited to share was Trevor Davis, who sounds like slick and sexy mix of Gavin Degraw and Maroon 5’s Adam Levine. He’s got a well furnished MySpace page, where you can check out his version of “You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch”. On the show I played his version of “It Came Upon a Midnight Clear” to open up the show.

His non-Christmas stuff is good too.

Other artist that I particularly enjoyed tonight was Skafish (the jazz group not the punk group), which is a three man jazz band with renditions of Christmas classics that will actually make you a little sad to have to put the CD away at new years. Check out their version of O Come o Come Emmanuel and God Rest Ye Merry Gents.

Also, Sufjan Stevens has a Holiday album? O yes, he does… you heard “Jupiter Winter” from the album “Songs for Christmas”.

Most of the other stuff was pretty classic, there were was a request for “Last Christmas” by Cascada and “Christmasttime is Here” from the Charlie Brown Christmas soundtrack, which I was happy to oblige.

No poem this week — I had exams, didn’t get a chance to prepare a piece. Don’t fret though, the piece for the next show is already picked out.

Next Week’s Show: No show until January 15th, where we pick up again with the theme “Newness”. New president, new year, new semester — it’s gonna be a good one. Enjoy the winter break and be safe.

Christmas Carols and Holiday Songs

What are your favorite songs to hear during the Holiday Season? Add a comment with your favorite carols and songs and some of them may end up on next weeks show!

My favorites:

O Little Town of Bethlehem

Baby it’s Cold Outside (Oh the weather outside is frightful…)

I have more, but I want to hear from you….

12.4.2008 — To the Test

Last night was a pretty amazing episode of Maxine’s Midnight Mixtape. Fellow Class of 2009 UofR student Warin was the special guest, and he played some smooth jazz selections to help soothe your soul before exam week. My favorite was a smooth jazz version of the song “Lovely Day”.

In honor of World AIDS Day earlier this week, Warin shared an original poem that explored the thoughts of a man being tested for HIV. While it wasn’t his story, it’s still something that we need to think about… if you’re not tested, you don’t know your status, and HIV/AIDS is an issue that is relevant to everyone.

We got several requests, including a couple from two lovely ladies on campus, thanks for showing the show some love! For them, we played Mos Def’s “The Panties” off The New Danger album, and Ayo’s “Down on My Knees”. We got another request from my friend Corey back in Maryland, “Take off the Blues” by the Foreign Exchange.  You also heard “Breathe Slow” by Mars Ill, Go Baby by Lupe Fiasco, Million Pieces by Newsboys and Save Me by Jem.

We ended the show off with a old school Jam that hopefully left you uplifted: “Keep Your Head to the Sky” by Earth, Wind and Fire.

Next Week: Last show of the year, “I’ll be Home for Christmas” should be a good one… check it out, whether you are on or off campus!

To The Test and another Special Guest

Be sure to listen tonight for yet another special guest in the studio… Just know that he’s a UofR student and his presence on the radio shouldn’t be a surprise to most people who know him :)

This week, the theme is “To the Test” Hopefully it gets you ready for the last day of classes and upcoming exam week… enjoy!

11.20.2008 – Bossa Nova Urban Classical

So, the idea for this week was to feature music emulating the style of Sergio Mendes on the album Timeless — Bossa Nova, Samba, and Salsa mixed with musical infuences from other cultures and genres. I also had on the show my friend and fellow Keller resident Valentina as a guest DJ, sharing music from her collection.

I have my Bossa Nova professor, Kevin, to thank for the inspiration for this week’s show and for pointing me toward an amazing album: What’s Happening in Pernambuco – New Sounds of the Brazilian Northeast. A couple songs from the show were from this album, and the song we ended the show with and that’s currently stuck in my head – Amigos Bons – was from this album as well.

A snippet of the lyrics:

Yesterday I awoke with a start

from the hungry roar of my belly

Just when I was dreaming

that I was dining

with some good friends…

This really doesn’t do the song justice, you should buy it from iTunes or Amazon, it’s that good.

Valentina played a good variety of tracks, including one by Celia Cruz that I was really excited about. Also heard was Vikingman by Rodrigo Y Gabriela, Primavera by Santana, and a version of De Conversa by Richmond-based Bossa Nova group Quatro Na Bossa.

The evening’s poem, read in Spanish by Valentina and in English by me, was Poem Twenty of Twenty Poems of Love by Pablo Neruda, Chilean poet and winner of the Nobel Prize.

Thanks to everyone who listened in! Feel free to call in to make a request or just say hi!

Next Week: No show, because it’s Thanksgiving. Watch the blog to find out more information about the December 4th Show!

And as always, if you want to recommend songs, themes, leave a comment, etc. just do so on the blog! For more info click here!

Special Guest!!

I’m excited to have Valentina in the studio with me tonight as my special guest! She is from Chile and is studying abroad in Richmond this semester. It’ll be great to have her share some music & poetry on the show tonight.

So far, I have music/artists from:

Brasil

México

Cuba

and hopefully,

Argentina

Chile

Be sure to check out this weeks episode! If you want to request a song or leave comments, you can do so here or while we are on the air by IMing WDCE Request or calling the studio at 804-289-UR90.