Hello, kiddies.

This is the last stand… a swan song if you will, for I’ve packed my bags once and for all. After careful consideration of all the options, I made the decision to uproot and move to a new patch of cyber real estate. I’ve finally streamlined the process for a more user friendly experience and a much more attractive feel. There’s still lots of unpacking and such to accomplish, but I hope to do the ribbon cutting in a few weeks. Everything must be perfect. I can’t wait til it’s finished.

But for now, the show must go on… and it would still behoove you to keep watching this space.

This past Sunday proved to be the most fruitful surprise I could ever hope for. I was able to connect some very important dots that will possibly result in my one and only dream coming true once and for all.

The first thing to do is once and for all make my “presence” known on social media. That will happen with lots and lots of prerequisites. Then comes the painstaking task of once and for all restructuring my vinyl and virtual crates because the kit has to grow. I discovered that it’s not so necessary to sweat over being a purist at this point because the primary objective is to fill floors and rebuild my name in sticks.

With that said, indulge me in giving some shoutouts: first and foremost to the crew at The Gathering whose venture could prove to have lasting effects on the culture of my fair city. If you are anywhere in the Baltimore area this weekend, please pay a visit to the world famous M&T Bank Stadium and check out the taste of three cities culinary battle, simply put, a battle of the food trucks. 50 participants from Baltimore, Philadelphia and Washington D.C. vying for the title. Let’s not forget the music lineup, headlined by the Easy Star All Stars! A splendid family friendly time is guaranteed to be had by all. For info, visit thegatheringbaltimore.com Tickets for the affair can be purchased here…

Next, one for my esteemed mixcloud colleague Tarik Thornton, and because he knows Joe Kopasek, HUGE shoutouts to him as well… and a extra loud shoutout to Cornflake Hill for letting me take the stand for an hour to share this mixtape with all of the folks who gathered at my best friend’s crib on that wonderful Sunday night. In my eyes, it was a magical evening.

Along with all these new changes come greater responsibility. From now on, mixes will be made available exclusively using the Mixcloud platform. This will forever eliminate the need to fear hearing from the health department, and hopefully give a little something back to those who were kind enough to make the music that I have shared over the years…

This is the start of something big. For all intents and purposes, I am a perfectionist. I have to be that way now. This opportunity will not slip through my fingers like sand without a fight. I’ve worked too hard…

And now for the big finish, because the possibilities are endless at this point. I’m also looking to put my toe in the pool of podcasting. potentially taking the fufu stew brand to new heights. I will reach out to all of my old friends in the hope that they may want to participate. I’ll give out more info on that endeavour real soon but for now I must move on to the next phase. With that said, thanks one and all for making the last seven years a real learning experience. I will see you all on the other side of the job but until then as always, have fun(k), and please be safe.

Peace and blessings.

“Like the phoenix coming back from the ashes, I know what’s good and I know what trash is…” -Martin Fry, et al

Hello, kiddies.

Yes, yes, I know… in the fight between real life and updating this space, real life has taken a commanding lead, so much so that I didn’t even notice it. In response to the comment left by santos curser, let’s begin with the most important piece of news: Another host server has gone the way of the dinosaur, thanks to the health department swooping in and shutting it down without warning. That truly sucks for me because I lost some prime shit that I’ll never recover, namely all the mixes I did dating back back to late 2010! Additionally, if you recall from last year’s opening post where I mentioned the damage I suffered when I lost an entire hard drive full of 45 rips to a bad click of the mouse, then you see the dilemma I face now. I want so bad to start from scratch, so that is the way I will start Twentyodd Fourteen. Happy anniversary to me, I suppose.

I am building a new site slowly but surely, but I haven’t decided how to go about restoring the hours and hours of mixes that made this blog so much fun for all of you to visit. The first order of business is to find a new server. I don’t see too many safe options on the horizon at this point because I refuse to play the cat and mouse game with the health department, but I do want to continue to share the fruits of my passion for mixtape creation with all of you. As it stands now, mixcloud will have to do unless something better comes along, or if I run across a windfall of cash. I will remain true to my word and never ask for or accept monetary donations, so at best, it will take some time.

The second order of business is to go about making new rips of the vinyl that I lost. Thankfully I still have the records, and even more so, I was blessed with two new sound cards that have more or less replaced my old method of ripping to a component CD writer. I was resisting the change because I found sound cards to lack a certain quality that only a component CD writer could obtain, but since both of my 10-year-old-plus writers took the inevitable shit at the same time, I was forced to accept the change after wearing out my legs from kicking and my lungs from screaming. I did some test runs with a few LPs that sound pretty good, especially after I applied higher bit and sample rates to them, so I feel comfortable with doing the same to my precious 45s. Again, it’s gonna take some time which is still at an all time low, but I will remain as vigilant as I can. As far as the old mixes go, some of them still exist on another drive so they may resurface at some point, but for now I have to hit the ground running and start anew.

In closing, I want to thank each and every one of you once again for all of your continued patience and patronage. I do plan to keep the fufu train rolling as long as I possibly can in one form or another so watch this space, or more important, follow me on mixclouduntil I can get my shit together. If you really want a mix re-upped, leave a comment and we’ll sort something out. Best wishes to all of you for 2014, have fun(k), and as always, please be safe.

Peace and blessings.