#joseph ray

[nether-animal]

[gigidagia]

Joseph Ray - Blue Nights (2023)

[paulshishkoffjr]

Live-Blogging Shish on Bare Knuckle Boxing-BKFC Prospect Manassas

Paul Shishkoff, Junior will live blog Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship's Prospect Series in Manassas, VA.

Joseph Ray defeated Paul Shough by KO, 1:50 into Round 2.

[deadassdiaspore]

[halfmoon-rabbit]

[groovesnjams]

GROOVES n jamsS.O.T.Y. 2021 |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| 1 ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

“Ogou (Pran Ka Mwen)” by Lakou Mizik & Joseph Ray

DV:

This is all we can hope for, right? As we come closer to the third year of a global pandemic and realize there’s no end in sight. Ogou is the Iwa of War, and “Pran ka mwen” is asking: “Watch over me.” We could all do with some protection right now, and so “Ogou (Pran Ka Mwen)” is the most meaningful when the chorus joins the lead vocalist in his plea. Life can feel like a battlefield even in normal times (whatever those might seem to be) but in 2021 it’s felt as if so many of us are fighting on multiple fronts, struggling to stay or become or maintain our selves. Where and when we’ve succeeded, it’s felt like a victory for everyone. This is why “Ogou (Pran Ka Mwen)” means so much: because that chorus embodies the concept that even if we can do this alone, we can do it so much better collectively, whether that means with the help of a spirit or of a community or of both. When we ask “watch over me”, we ask it together, and in turn we have to watch together. Our individual lives, our separate actions, are so tiny and meaningless that it can feel futile. But by the time this posts the new Matrix movie will have been released, and when I hear “Ogou” I’m reminded of the corniest quote from the climax of one of the Wachowskis’ other passion projects with David Mitchell: “What is an ocean but a multitude of drops?” Whatever we achieve, we do it collectively, in such small ways that they only gain meaning when combined with the other small actions surrounding us. Because the oceans and the spirits and the world itself will outlive us all; what more can we accomplish than to make the battle easier for those around us - and for those who will be here after we’re gone? “Ogou (Pran Ka Mwen)” is a prayer for the times we live in, and that would be enough. But it’s also a dream for the future we won’t see, for all the struggles to come. May we all be watched over, may we all be protected.

MG:

Maybe every generation confronts this — the limits of spirituality as they push against the limits of denying spirituality, an unending struggle of what to believe and how best to honor those beliefs — or maybe it’s less a symptom of the constant struggle of humanity to exist without supplanting every single other existence and more indicative of the cycle of life, of turning a corner away from immediacy and toward endurance. But back when we did our first SOTY, we were keenly interested in signifiers of best that lined up with having a good time. A best song would be energetic, sexy, youthful, and catchy. These are still great qualities! Is it this year or is it us?

I think I first heard “Ogou (Pran Ka Mwen)” in my car and it’s not a song suited for the ambiance of a high strung, slightly too tall person screaming “get fucked!” at the void. Eventually, I heard this song in the context of its album, Leave the Bones played by DV. DV’s house is very warm and there’s no harsh lighting. This was sometime after the time change, I think, because it was also dark outside. The setting, the mood, the company, these things matter. They are my drops, the fragments that form a vast and steady life. DV was holding a baby and the album sleeve and, I don’t know, this image will probably live with me forever now, as much a part of “Ogou (Pran Ka Mwen)” as the production details or the music video, aspects Lakou Mizik and Joseph Ray can control.

A moment like that, small and golden, shared between two friends is a protection from war. The existence of this song is salve, one that heals the wound of division. I know this song won’t end wars, won’t end a global pandemic, won’t save anyone from anything. But it does credit Lakou Mizik, the Haitian collective behind the song’s meaning, before Joseph Ray, the producer who added the song’s dawn-at-the-rave details and is almost certainly also the ferryman between Lakou Mizik and the collective us. While that’s far from an end point and while it feels like we will rise again tomorrow, angry about something else, we’ve wrenched one nice thing back from the maw of time.

[gigidagia]

Joseph Ray - Room 1.5 (2019)

[lightadarttomendyourheart]

Fucking. GENIUS. I AM HOME.