miami love seat

my brother recently took this photo of me
at my parents' miami pad. i love this chair!

it's my natal birthday. i love being a new year's eve baby!
i'm celebrating exactly where & how i'm suppose to.
as usual, i got an early start at midnight on the dot,
with close friends at this spot in the design district.
they just dropped me off around 3am because i wanted to
hit the pillow early enough to be fresh in the morning.

i get to spend today with the lady who brought
me to this world & did a fantastic job at providing for
me any way she could & for showing me unconditional
love at its very best. my birthday is her special day!
Ode To Joy - track #33 in here - is for Magda:



and now lets talk about more music. here are 3 of my
favourite tracks i heard earlier tonight. the first one
played right after 12:00am of this warm & breezy
31st of december, as i blew the candle
on my chocolate cake:

DON ARMANDO - DEPUTY OF LOVE (MP3)



this one is a nod to my higher power,
which includes all of you. here, there & everywhere:

EARTH, WIND & FIRE - POWER (MP3)



this 3rd one is for giving me the night,
and for continuing to bring it. cheers to many more:

GEORGE BENSON - GIVE ME THE NIGHT (MP3)

HAPPY NEW YEAR'S EVE!!!
LET IT WHIP ALL THRU THE NEXT DECADE!

i see a blue moon rising
into a new dawn & turning into gold again:

ELVIS - WHEN MY BLUE MOON TURNS TO GOLD AGAIN (MP3)

rhapsody of the year

THE MUPPETS - BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY (MP3)
this is my kinda cover to close a decade & open the next one!


The Muppets rule! so here's more from several nights ago (with The Roots):

click here for another clip with The Muppets

and now onto a different kind of animal... 40 years ago, a pair of Australian men bought a lion cub from a London department store, raised him & released him into the African wild. a year later, they returned into the wild in search of their feline friend Christian. what unfolded next could have been the mauling of a lifetime. instead, it became the most memorable reunion in man/wild carnivorous beast in history. when the footage resurfaced on youtube decades later, it became my favourite viral film of the decade! sure sure, the Whitney Houston song is a bit overkill in the beginning, but it fits perfectly... the world might be radically different than that distant day in Kenya, but friendship goes on & on!

XMAS TREAT

i love this new song by indie pop octet
Tahiti Boy & The Palmtree Family featuring fellow
musicians, artists & friends (i first posted about them
here). this is going to be a classic from here on out.
It's xmas and it won't be the last. life goes on.
a new decade is upon us. bring it on!
cheers to many more christmases to come,
and to forging ahead with courage,
integrity & a touch of class!
I ♥ U... here's the MP3:

TAHITI BOY - IT'S CHRISTMAS (AND IT WON'T BE THE LAST)
(blast it through the speakers or in your earphones for full effect)
•••
this is how we do it here in mee-aah-me:

funny thing is we have no tree inside, and my mother pointed out a small pot with twigs & a bouquet of dried wheat she got back in our motherland of belgium as a small taste of the belgian winter. such a subtle interior xmas touch strikes me as very cute and frankly so much more charming than the usual pine tree... the only other & more "traditional" xmas touch inside is the toilet paper rolls that are white & say "ho ho ho" in large red & green print... how so very thoughtful!
tranquil 80°F (27°C) poolside xmas day for me:

MIAMI GRACE

my flight left LAX on time & just landed at MIA early.
i watched The September Issue on the plane; my favourite part is when Grace Coddington who is walking around ancient palatial grounds in awe, says as a romantic she feels like she's been left behind & recognizes she must keep charging ahead.
THE FUTURE IS NOW!
now i'm enjoying the airport's free wi-fi while waiting for my brother Eric Alexandre to land in 5 minutes... my brother Jonathan Nikolai is on his way to pick us up & take us to Gunter & Magda's pad on Brickell... i don't have any Miami numbers in my new phone.
CALL ME - 310.735.5808

LETS DANCE: MIAMI - Database ft. Bonde do Rolê

je$u$ jui¢e (playlist)

i wish you all
a sumptuous holiday season
& a joyous, reflective & prosperous new year!!!
bonne année!!! prospero año nuevo!!! gelukkig nuwe jaar!!!
cheers to a new year & a new decade where artists
may continue to shine, engage & foster
positive change



Je$u$ Jui¢e - All 101 free MP3Z

to first get a feel for it before downloading
zip files, here's a sweet sixteen sampler:
Je$u$ Jui¢e - 16 free MP3Z

this playlist starts off mellow & the party really kicks off around track #12 with a Boney M classic all the way through to track 101...
because it's the season, there are a few xmas tunes by Tchaikovsky, the Vince Guaraldi Trio, Doris Day, Moneypenny, the Japanese Popstars, as well as a few slower beats by the likes of Alton Ellis, Brigitte Bardot, Lykke Li, Sam Cooke, The xx,... & a few rare gems like the 10 minute funky outtake of Prince's Purple Rain, or Ghanaian highlife anthem Daa Nyinaa by Ata Tak:



here are more retro videos of tracks in the mix:





this one's all about shaking it on the dancefloor, with more obscure yet epic house tracks (from disco to tech-house) to cool remixes and/or covers of Sade, Little Boots, Lykke Li, Daft Punk, Daedelus, Friendly Fires, Feist, Fear Of Tigers, Phoenix, Fever Ray, Riva Starr, Sia, Treasure Fingers, Acid Washed, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Bag Raiders, MillionYoung, Michael Jackson, Myd, Malente, Miike Snow, Diplo, Vitalic...
back to Escort whose video from a few years back still entertains me:

watch John Denver's Christmas Together with The Muppets.
as for Riva Starr's I Was Drunk (#52), i posted here the video.

since Je$u$ & i celebrate our natal birthdays soon, here's #8:


i've also included a remix of Ducksauce's "Anyway"
which already has 2 different videos posted
here & here

as usual i have a bunch of
recent super low-fi mobile pics:

this was We Are The World ("Claystones" is #37 in this playlist)
further up are pics at a show choreographed by Ryan
Heffington for the Sweaty Sundays benefit, which
included dancers from the incredibly creative
& invigorating Hysterica Dance Company:


click here for much better Sweaty Sundays pics... this clip
might not do justice to the live performance but check it out:

Radiohead's sublime Weird Fishes was just posted (track #16).

this might have been the first time i saw them dancing.
my first dance class crash course was at their fingered parties.
around LA over the past year, Ryan & his posse staged a few
surprise dance attacks; here's one of them outside the
Los Feliz 3 Theatre on Vermont Avenue.

and now more mobile shots from the weekend,
from Echo Park with Chicho to Mt Washington
with Liza, Phillip & their beautiful son Henry:




















i'm off to miami.
i'll be back in a couple of weeks.
i posted a few more christmas tunes here too.

for a quick look back to the decade we're leaving behind,
check out this great list compiled by my friends at ghostly.
and i highly recommend rudy's mix for a different kinda mix.

i'll let you go with this blue xmas video and
another Boney M holiday cla$$i¢ for the full story: