Be easy

Saturday afternoon and I'm chilling when I should be doing, um, at least 101 other things. I wanna hear Saigon and Tru-Life's "Yep, Yep" right now but I don't have the Drama mixtape and Hip-Hop Game took down the damn audio. (Boooo.) So I'ma settle for some Ghostface.

I'm pretty much on top of the world this weekend (and in general right now). Having lots of fun these days. Writing loads. Listening to music. Getting out my cute spring clothes. Thinking about what color I want to paint my toes. (It finally stopped raining. Was at the coffee shop the other day and the staff had colored a little sign for the tip jar. It was a girl in gum boots and a bikini and the banner read "Ready for flip-flops." Cosign. Something so sexy about the spring. Everyone loosens up and looks all fly and walks around with an easy smile.)

Been kicking it a lot with my girlfriends. My girl Ayesha made me amazing Thai food one last time before she heads back to Pakistan for a month. My girl Chrissie is in town right now. She lives in China, doing interior design for a big multinational, but she's back for a week. I made dinner last night and we talked up a storm. I told her all the stories. You know how it goes. Today we went with the rest of our girls for dim sum. Jac is back from London, which makes me very happy. My friend J is preggers. I'm gonna be an auntie!

There's been a lot of stuff going on in my life lately, which I won't get into here. Good and bad. But, anyway, suffice to say it's time for a big change--which is scary and thrilling and then scary again. Best Friend and I had a big talk this week and as usual she said just what I needed to hear. BF knows me so well. We are years deep.

Going out to a little Ne-Yo.

New XXL Column

Women don't like music nerds.

More on hipsters

Here's my XXL post on hipsters and the disappearing generation gap.

Press Clips

It is so damn beautiful in Van City right now. As in flip-flops and baby tees.

A couple things to report. Some new XXL columns:

The Queen of Joburg

Be Healthy

Trinity International Hip-Hop Fest

It's Beef Week over at DOSE. Check this quote from Xzibit on beef:

"I'm a father, a grown-ass man. If I have a problem with someone, I'm going to go up and talk to him. The best way to handle it is individually. Don't belittle the consumer. They don't want to have their time wasted by my personal vendettas."

Laina Dawes on gun violence.

Glum girl

Not to be Ms. Poopypants or anything (an irate letter-writer called me that once and I've always thought the name was hilarious), but I am having an awful week. First, I got a bad cold. Then I broke a tooth (I don't have time to tell you how). And then my computer crashed. If you have emailed me or messaged me and I haven't gotten back to you, sorry. I will eventually. My tooth is fixed now and my computer was supposed to be, but now the stupid thing is acting up again.

But enough of my kvetching, some people are dealing with real problems. Rest in peace Proof. My condolences to his fam and friends, Em and D12.

Monday

I'm back, baby. Went on a writing retreat last week to beautiful Bowen Island. Three whole days away from cell phone and email and internet and MySpace (which I have quickly become addicted to). I went for long walks in the woods, ate lovely food, and worked for hours on my global hip-hop book. I'm happy with how it's coming.

I've gone through so many formats now. First it was going to be straight journalism, but the writing turned out a little dry and plus, there's something arrogant about hitting a city for a few weeks and acting like you know something about their scene. At best, you can really only get impressions. You can't hope to know the scene inside out.

So then I was going to do the book as an edited compilation of hip-hop writers around the world writing about their own scenes. I still may do this in the future, but not as my debut book.

Now I am basically writing a memoir of my travels, which feels right. All the words are tumbling out of me. Finally.

A couple of new XXL columns to check out:

K'naan wins a Juno

Male groupies: the real reason rappers need security

MySpace

I just joined MySpace after a good six months of being harassed by everyone I know. Anyway, I'm already a little addicted to it. Do drop by and say hello. I only have 7 friends right now.