"Adele, a discussion about good, authentic music"

Well, Adele's new album "21" came out on the 22nd and I copped it at 12:01AM that same day. My desperate act of getting the album as fast as possible was due to listening to her first album about 2 weeks before. I was completely amazed by her ability to carry a tune and distort it in her own unique way, giving her her own sound comparable to very few singers. It all started with listening to her "Live in Soho" album (highly recommended, seriously guys) which consist of Hometown Glory and Melt My Heart to Stone. Both great songs that capture all the emotions behind the words and music. In her new album, Rolling in the Deep, Lovesong, and Set Fire to the Rain stand out, but 99.9% of her songs are great. I'm not a music producer, but you don't have to be Babyface to know that Adele can sing and that she is a fresh breath of Soul and R&B. Her authenticity starts with her voice and how she is able to carry a note from the ground to the sky and back down. The production is off the hook (no pun intended) and she'll be around for a while. Stand to the side Ms. Amy Winehouse, you had your chance and you blew it (PUN intended). Everyone, take notes because if there is any slack in music it has been the R&B genre. R. Kelly finally dropped a good album, but no where near to past work. And every other artist only makes a handful of radio music and are happy with being top album in iTunes due to their 3 radio hits; a club song, a slow one and a second fast song. Artists like Adele, seem to follow some of the same rules due the industry, but focuses more on the quality and how she can inter-wine her one-of-a-kind style into that formula. Keep it up, homie.
FYI: Adele will be in Boston in May at the House of Blues.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

The Sagacious & Zany Thoughts of Mr. Abreu, "The Art of Doing Nothing"

Well, it's been almost a week since surgery and I'm pretty much have done nothing other than find comfortable positioning on the couch (harder than you might think) and gently swing my arm back and forth in what we rehab patients call "progress." Man, doing nothing is hard. I still have 4-5 weeks left in a sling and months of "progress" to make. I am doing better, especially after getting rid of the Percs. F*ck those pills. I'm all set with the constant nausea and constipation. Pop some CVS-brand Ibuprofen, a bottle a water, some grapes and I'm good. However, I'm doing something that I rarely do and that's taking my time, which takes practice. It's funny how people phrase it, "Take it easy, take your time" in this passive tone not realizing the exact essence of "taking your time" makes me cringe in desperation. But, like Dexter Morgan said,

"Blood. Sometimes it sets my teeth on edge, other times it help me control the chaos." In my case, time, not blood, is the noun.

My only job right now is damage control of my shoulder and the fact that that's my only job kind of sucks. I know that there are people working at this time wishing to be home or doing something else, and I am, by no mean, wishing to be working, but the highlight of my day was watering dying tulips and placing them by the window. I haven's watered a plant since the 1st grade, when we planted those beans in dixie cups. I'm certain that my uncertainties of time reaches many people and it somewhat represents our American culture. We want things fast, or at least at a specific pace. I hate waiting too long for food. I hate fast haircuts because I think they didn't put enough time into it. And I have a love/hate relationship with flights being on time, mainly because I expect them to be delayed and when they are not, I actually have to go through checking, security, food, magazines in a timely fashion. Haha. I sound so cynical, but I'm not, just a bit critical I guess. Back to my point about the American culture: In our culture, we raise go-getters. Individuals are taught that sky's the limit, and with a limitless attitude, we are always going to be thinking about the next project. I woke up from one of my 13 cat naps to the whispering, creeping voice of Mr. Charlie Sheen in a interview with Dan Patrick talking about how "crack is okay in social situations and if the person is able to manage it." Wow. This guy has lost it, but his case illustrates an important point, doing nothing is really a feeling and that feeling can manifest into something greater, good or bad. In Wise Charlie's case, very bad. It seems people like him have the money to surround himself with whatever world he wants, and when he feels like he is doing nothing and bored then he makes magic. POOF! a hooker and some coke. Sheen and myself do not live parallel lives, so no need to worry about falling into his traps.

On a serious note, we have to take each second as stress-free as possible because life will give us our natural dose of unfortunate events. In order to fully understand those events and react efficiently, stress, tension and anxiety need to be checked at the door. Feeling productive is my "hooker and coke" and now that I'm physically limited I have to find productivity within my means, but I have to be careful. While listening to Wale's mixtape, ironically named, A Mixtape About Nothing, I picked up on clips he uses from the show Seinfeld. He closes the mixtape with:

"The question is this, what have I been doing? Nothing. I know what you're thinking, that sounds pretty good. I'll like to do nothing myself. Well, let me tell you, doing nothing is not as easy as it looks. You have to be careful because the idea of doing anything can easily lead to doing something that will cut into your nothing and that will force me to drop everything."

- Jerry Seinfeld

So I continue to explore this Era of Nothingness in hopes to find new "somethings." Well, I'm off on an adventure...

The Sagacious & Zany Thoughts of Mr. Abreu "My Mojo is so Dope. An Ode to Kid Cudi"

Since Kanye dropped his first album, I haven't heard any musician with such a unique combination of flow, lyrics melodies and beats. But then I discovered Kid Cudi over a year after his rookie album was released. I heard samples of his songs on iTunes, but the music just didn't catch my attention other than "Day N Nite." One day I put his name into Pandora and it literally changed me overnight. I heard something I never heard before, and it reminded me of the last track on Kanye's College Dropout album, when he is recalling his attempts to get signed and one of the executives, i think Dame Dash goes, "Man, that's not even rap." It's no coincidence that Kanye and Cudi teamed up and are creating masterful music. In two different Complex magazine interviews, both artists state that Cudi wrote a handful of songs on 808s and Heartbreak and declined to disclose the amount of songs he helped write on Kanye's My Beautiful, Dark Twisted Fantasy, which is by far the most innovative collection of songs in hip-hop and easily in the music world.

Both of Cudi's solo albums are full of real emotions from a man no different from any of us. In the song "Man on the Moon," he writes,

They can't comprehend
Or even come close to understanding him
I guess if I was borin they would love me more
Guess if I was simple in the mind
Everything would be fine
Maybe if I was jerk to girls
Instead of being nice and speakin kind words
Then maybe it would be ok to say then
I wasn't a good guy to begin with

HOOK
But my mind is all crazy, crazy, crazy, crazy...
They got me thinkin I aint human,
Like I came in from above, above, above, above...
Feelin like a airplane in the sky
But then they say I'm crazy, crazy, crazy, crazy...
They got me thinkin I aint human,
Like I came in from above, above, above, above...
Feelin like a bird sittin high high

The song is about the inner struggle we all have of distinguishing between how we think we come across to others, and how we assume we're so different that we can't relate. It's ironic how we generally think the same thing about ourselves, but feel like we can't relate. These are the thought-provoking verses that Cudi produces in almost every song and mirrors some songs on Kanye's new album, leaving little to the imagination of what songs he wrote. Just look at Gorgeous, Blame Game, Dark Fantasy.

Along with some dark songs, Cudi makes some real good inspirational songs like REVOFEV from his second album where he sings,

"What will I say to the kids?/ Wake up - things might get rough/No need to stress; keeps you down too much/Wake up, I heard they found a solution/But where will you be, for the revolution?"

While I'm in the comfort and safety of my own home, I think about all the Egyptians fighting for their freedom and how this revolution might change the Islamic world; therefore, the entire world. These are the type of ideas that penetrate my mind constantly when I listen to Kid Cudi, and I could go on and on. From societal issues to real deep personal ones, and for me, that's what music is about.

"Life is like that
Beat me up and I’ll fight right back
Poof poof - be gone 
I see the devil linger on
Yeah,  stuck in my hell 
Writing my mom and I ain’t doing so well
Lord let me in
I feel like he’s my only friend"

Cudi f/ Mary J. "These Worries"

The Sagacious Thoughts of Mr. Abreu "In the beginning....it hurts"

No ladies and gents, my first post is not about losing one's virginity, but it's open for discussion if you wish. This is the inauguration of my blogging career and how it was initiated by my recent 2nd shoulder surgery and that's what hurts at this very moment. The first one was in 2007 which got me off the mean streets of Danville and prevented me from catching bad guys. After two additional dislocations post-surgery, I checked myself into the operating room to repair my tendons, labrum, hammer in some anchors and hopefully deter my arm from popping out as I continue to attempt to play the infield holes better and more efficient than Derek Jeter. (he's losing his range so I got a chance). To get to that point, I have to start by getting more sleep than Mr. Charlie Sheen does on his pornstar benders. I slept a whopping 3 hours last night as the numbing substances in my shoulder wore off in the middle of the night and I was awoken by the "pain gods" practicing their recovery-period rituals. Thanks guys.

So as I look ahead at this painful recovery, I decided that I have to spend my time wisely and 13 hours of NBA 2k11 doesn't cut it. So I will be posting and sharing my thoughts on music, movies, society, politics and anything else that pops in my head. I'm not expecting for people to give a shit, but who else am I going to talk to? My dog as she licks herself while I talk to her about the global and political ramifications of Egypt's revolution?