Monday, December 26, 2005

One Quick Note

You may have noticed that my Fuse-In performance was removed from the site.  No worries.  There were no problems.  I simply wanted to convert the video to a format that was easier for the visitors to view.  The performance will be re-posted within the next few days, plus I'll even give you the option to download it.  

Thanks for the patience.  
Love
AC

PS:  Uncloseted will be re-pressed soon, for those who are looking for it.  ( Special thanks and MUCH LOVE to my friends and fans in Japan…  Peace!

Saturday, December 24, 2005

Merry Christmas

To my lovely fans and friends:

Click HERE for a special Holiday Message
Merry Christmas!!!  I look forward to sharing 2006 with you…

Love, AC

Thursday, December 08, 2005

Thoughts...

Right now, I have an urge to meet Wendy and Lisa.  Back in the day, I was totally obsessed with Prince.  Those melodies, those grooves…  Today, I’ve discovered that while Prince is STILL the man, Wendy and Lisa are on another level altogether.  Those two beautiful women deserve so much respect.  The unsung heroines…  The REAL driving force behind the Revolution… If I had the chance to work with Wendy and Lisa – in any capacity – it would be a total dream come true.  

Life at home has been pretty strange… I’ve been observing the behavior of my so-called “friends,” and I’ve discovered some pretty disturbing things.  You see, when you’re flying high, it seems like the whole world wants to fly with you.  But when you’re low, everyone seems to disappear.  Should I let that depress me?  Nah…  I’m better than that.  But it still hurts sometimes…  

Lord, it’s time to make some more money!  I don’t have any gigs planned for the rest of this year, so I’m relying solely on the strength of my record sales right now.  A while ago, I sold completely out of the Detrevolution album, which is WONDERFUL…  Now it’s time to re-press more.  Now I am waiting for the distributors to pay me, so I can cycle that money back into pressing more records – oh, what a crazy circle…  But this is the business – and while I’ve always dreamed of being successful in this business, I sometimes scream at the amount of hard work involved.  

But I shall not complain…  Life is short.  Life is fragile, and can end unexpectedly at any moment.  I’ve been thinking about moving to Europe.  Or at least someplace warm… Why the hell not?  There’s really nothing keeping me in Detroit anymore.  My mother’s gone.  My father’s gone.  While my family is still here, I just don’t see why I NEED to stay here anymore…  In other words, nothing’s really holding me back.  Mind you, I just bought my house this year.  I LOVE my house…  But I’ll sell this bitch in a heartbeat, if it means I can go somewhere else and be happy.  But that’s the killer question right there…  Where would I be happy?  How would European life be better for me?  Besides the fact that most of my fan base is in Europe – I could move there, like Madonna, and become a super-celebrity…  What am I afraid of?  I’ll ALWAYS be from DETROIT…  No matter where I live…  I will still be born and raised in Detroit.  

That’s it for now…  I seriously need to prepare for something big…  Something better…  We’ll see what happens…

AC

PS:  That new Madonna album is cute…  I expected a little bit more, but it’s cute…

Monday, December 05, 2005

Ghetto Sunday

Last night was truly ghetto fabulous!  Trench and I planned a nice little “ghetto” dinner party at my house, to celebrate where we came from – and to remind us about where we’re NOT…  Let me tell you what was on the menu…  

Our FIRST meal – at 2pm, was “CoCo Wheats.”  Come on, y’all…  You remember CoCo Wheats – not Malt-O-Meal, not Grits, not even Cream of Wheat.  It has to be COCO Wheats!  Oh man, it was good…  We forgot to buy real sugar, so we had to use confectioner’s sugar – truly ghetto in itself.  But mmmm…  Add some butter, and those Coco Wheats were the BOMB!  

We also had Kool-Aid.  I haven’t had Kool-Aid in AGES…  I think we used 3 packages, plus the confectioner’s sugar – yes, we put confectioner’s sugar in our Kool-Aid.  While it wasn’t bad, you had to be careful to leave a little left in the glass, because towards the bottom, you could taste the corn starch in the sugar.  GHETTOOOOOOO!!!!!!

Next, I tried making what USED to be our all-time favorite sandwich from back on Tuxedo (Livernois and Elmhurst, y’all!)…  Potted Meat sandwiches.  Now before you ask me what the hell is Potted Meat…  It comes in a little can, almost like the SPAM or Vienna Sausages.  It’s made by Armour, so if you are in the grocery store, look for it.  I’m surprised they still sold it.  Anyway, here’s how you work the Potted Meat.  You take the Potted Meat, put it into a bowl…  Mix it with some Miracle Whip, and spread it on bread.  Voila.  Ghetto Heaven…  Well…  Back THEN, it was.  I swear I haven’t eaten Potted Meat since 1978.  Stephen (Trench) took one bite and nearly died…  Stefan (my oldest) had tears in his eyes; he just couldn’t eat it.  Even I couldn’t make it through an entire sandwich, so I wound up giving the entire batch of Potted Meat to my dog, Reno.  She ate it happily.  

A few hours later (those Coco Wheats filled us up!), we were ready for our main courses…  First on the menu, Beany Weenie.  Mind you, back in the day, I used to call it “Hot Dogs and Pork & Beans…”  That’s all it was!  But I noticed that now they’re selling it in the stores, and they’re calling it BEANY WEENIE!  Trench said that’s what they called it back in HIS hood too…  What a name…  But DAMN, was it good!  We cut up the hotdogs ourselves – used 2 whole packs!  Trench couldn’t skimp on the beans, so we bought the Bush’s baked beans – although if you wanted to be truly ghetto, you’d buy the big-ass can of NO NAME Pork and Beans, like WE did.  Or maybe it was VanDeCamps – either way, it was the cheap label…  But I compromised – after all, I was making my “Ghetto Mac!”  

Oh, y’all didn’t eat Ghetto Mac?!  It’s the no-name BOXED Macaroni and Cheese, with the powdered Cheese…  We never used any milk.  But here’s how I always used to make it, from my days in Pine Ridge…  While you’re boiling the noodles, you mix the powdered Cheese in a bowl with some butter (or margarine).  Stir it together…  YES, it’s hard at first, but as the butter softens, it mixes with the cheese powder to make a delicious orange “cheese” paste…  LOL.  Add some pepper, wait for the noodles to finish cooking, pour the noodles in the bowl with the paste, and MMM MMM MMMMMM!!!  Trench couldn’t get enough of my Ghetto Mac.  
And last, but not least, was Trench’s infamous Spinach squares – which was simply a baked ensemble of frozen spinach and 3 packages of shredded cheese…  I think he mixed some eggs and milk with it, baked it for about 40 minutes, and served…  It’s one of those dishes best served “the next day” – so we let him take it home…  LOL…  

Talk about GOOD…  Last night was wonderful.  It was so nice to go back into the “good ol’ days.”  We’ll have to do that again sometime – the next time I’ll make my mother’s infamous “Pat’s Special” or the all-too familiar “Beans and Neckbones!”

Much love, y’all…
Aaron-Carl