Friends, it has been a LOOOOOOOOOOOONG time coming, but I will be seeing the Childish Gambino himself (a.k.a. Donald Glover) tomorrow, Tuesday, July 31st, at Echo Beach. While my campaign to meet him flopped, I did have a great back and forth with Donald’s rep. Unfortunately, I will not meet him tomorrow but the fact I was able to get through to anyone in his “camp” is a great achievement in my Single Blink books.
Ludwig Göransson and Donald Glover (Childish Gambino)
I’ve been going easy on the posts the last few weeks but get ready for me to setback to the goods this week: SEX! BOYS! BAMPSIES! BOYS! FAILURES! DATES! BOYS! *single blink*
You may not know that I’m not complaining about my single life and blinking my way through it 24/7. No, no. I’m also a stylist (Bettykiss Style Inc. – BE WARNED: music will begin as soon as you check out my site so volume should be turned down) and I’ve been working on a collection for the last little while. ALL of that hard work has paid off like you would NOT believe and the show is tonight.
It’s called VESSEL and it’s an homage to the human heart. The creative masterminds behind this are Breeyn McCarney (designer, genius, maker of great punch) & Irena Komadinic (artist, painter, entirely too humble). They have put together a collection that will simultaneously stop, then revive you so you don’t miss another second.
Liiiiiiiiiiiiiiiike, look at this photo below – YOU CANNOT MISS TUNING INTO THIS SHOW!
Model, Nicole Creed (Sutherland), in a piece from the VESSEL Collection by Breeyn McCarney & Irena Komadinic. Photo: Sylvia Pereira
This opportunity has been the biggest of my life and I’m SO proud I was asked to join this team. If you do tune in, you can join the conversation via Twitter by hashtagging #vessel12 in every tweet.
WHAT: VESSEL: A collection by Breeyn McCarney & Irena Komdinic
WHEN: TODAY (Tuesday, May 29, 2012)
TIME: 8PM EST
LIVE FEED:
http://breeyn.com/vessel/live/
I’d like thank ALL of the volunteers and sponsors with a special shoutout to: Shavonne, Jono, Marcus, Sylvia, Carrie, Kristian, Pamela, Katie Marie, Brittany, Natalie #1, Natalie #2, Steve, Chanel, Iftin, Dawn & Bryanna.
No single blinks today, y’all…my eyes are wide open and fully focused.
As we all know because it was in ARIANNE’S HEADLINE NEWS, the Childish Gambino show on March 24th has been postponed until July 31st! CG fractured his foot last weekend and doctor’s orders are that he stays off it to avoid any surgery. I was heartbroken but then discovered the silver lining – I HAVE MORE TIME! This will be the end of the Childish Gambino-centric posts but rest assured he will pop up in posts throughout m’bloggin’ life. Thank you for helping me out and I’ll continue my quest on my own time and if something comes from it – you’ll be the first to know.
Now, I’ve been chirping A LOT about why this dude’s music resonates with me: the trials, tribulations and everything in-between are parallels to my own experiences. BUT you know me, sometimes it comes down to the songs that make my body pump. No hidden meanings or high moral code. He has some raw and rowdy tracks that make the butt you didn’t know you had bounce up and down. One of these tracks is “You See Me,” it’s riddled with quotables that I use on the daily and some of it just make me laugh. He’s still consistent with his jabs to haters but they are so clever and witty and in sync with the vibe of this song you don’t even realize it.
One of my favourite lines:
“She got an ugly friend, Roll solo. Can I stay at your place? No hobo. Not my fault, man, these ladies love me, She’s an overachiever ’cause all she do is succeed.“
*single blink* If I need to explain the weight and hilarity of that fourth line – you and I cannot remain friends (just kidding, but you’re on the chopping block. DM me for explanation of the line if you’re really stuck).
My life is one big batch of reference and I don’t know if I have one original thought in my head because everything I do/say comes from something I’ve seen/heard. AND CHILDISH DOES THIS IN SPADES. Calling out mega-babes Olivia Munn and Rosie Jones, shining a light on “Tron,” Tumblr mentions and just laying out racial stereotypes LIKE WHOA (this song revolves around his attraction to smart Asian ladies). His rap style in this and other tracks will receive obvious comparisons to Lil Wayne but I can’t penalize him for it. The flow is sick, the song is hard and the beat is dirty.
*GIRL CRUSH ALERT* Olivia Munn is super funny, super sexy and the type of girl I want to be BFFs with. NERDS UNITE!
Enjoy it! Turn the bass up and face your mirrors rear first to watch what happens. Yeah, I know you didn’t know you could drop it like it was actually hot – it’s amazing. Have a great weekend!
Below is the blurriest photo imaginable. But there is no denying that Childish Gambino has been around someone from my family, THEREFORE he has almost met me. Also, please pay the specialest (new word I’m testing out) attention to the shadowy indentation in his chest… *single blink* The Young family genetics have swirled around his world, so guys come on, he and I are basically best friends. It’s time to put us both out of our miseries and just get us to meet on SATURDAY, MARCH 24th.
I’ve been emailing CG’s press agent, the lovely Daniel Weiner (dweiner@bwr-la.com) with my posts. Still no bites but I shall continue on this quest. The organizations I’ve researched have told me that Childish Gambino does not have any official affiliation with them. Now I’m asking his “people” for the opportunity to do either or both of these things:
1) Ask Mr. Glover three questions that I can post. I think this would be a great conclusion to this entire campaign.
2) Ask him to sign 3 of his albums (which I already have) to auction from my blog with 100% of the proceeds going to a Toronto organization that helps kids pursue their love of the arts.
Whether I’m able to get my three albums signed at the show or if they can provide them to me – at this point, either would be great but that’s the plan. So, if you wanna help a girl out (I’m begging you!!!) – please email Daniel Weiner at dweiner@bwr-la.com and let him know that this Toronto thang needs to happen.
I have not listened to the radio in almost a decade until a month ago. I finally drank the G98.7 kool-aid and it was delicious. Mmmm-MMMM! HOWEVER, I’ve noticed I have not heard Childish Gambino’s latest single “Heartbeat” in rotation and it hurts my still-beating heart. CG is performing March 24th in Toronto and you best believe I have tickets. But until then, can you make this grown-ass woman’s little girl’s dream come true and play this song for me, Mr. DJ? I’m not one to be dramatic *single blink* but it’s my only Christmahanukwanzaa wish to get this song on your station. (Yes, that is a cartoon image of myself and Childish Gambino in my blog’s banner – this is not a game. This is real life!)
"My heart going boom, boom, boom"
Blinking toward hope tomorrow,
Arianne
MY FRIENDS - please tweet @G987FMand request “Heartbeat!!!” Do they even take requests? I don’t know what the rules are so I’m gonna make up my own. This would just put it over the motha-effin’ top if Childish Gambino was playing on l’airwaves of my favourite station. Also, listen to this station REGARDLESS because you’ll be jamming morning, noon and night.
Thanks for all your help with my posts, everyone. This has been so much fun and your messages to me have made me laugh like you would not believe. Please like my NEW Single Blink Facebook Page here!
The campaign continues… Will I meet him? Has anyone contacted me regarding my interests? FIND OUT NEXT WEEK!
WHAT THE BUMBACLOT IS HAPPENING IN THIS VIDEO?! EVERYTHING IS WHAT! It begins with Adele “Hometown Glory” Realness, then he drops a beat, we have a “Drive” vibe throughout. Snacks! Makeouts! The chick is BODACIOUS, the car is rad and I believe I’ve narrowed down the meaning of this video.
Here’s my take on the hotness:
Basically the car represents their relationship, as the driver he thinks he’s in control. He’s going to pick her up (she’s probs using him for the ride). They share some good times (snacks) and eventually decide to bridge the gap between whatever “it” is. The backseat represents insecurity – they turn to each other because of it. BLOGGERS NOTE:Why the hell she stopped making out with Donald Glover is beyond me, but b!tch be crazy (I know it’s scripted…leave me be)!!! *single blink*
In Napoleon Dynamite's voice, all I can say is "Lucky..."
She exits the backseat after getting what she came for, leaving him in the land of insecurity. Now she’s in the driver’s seat, literally and figuratively. He’s left to deal with his own thoughts, the knowledge that she won’t ever really be with him. Point is, it’s a game we all play taking/relinquishing control of certain situations with certain people to match our needs and desires of the moment. I’ve done it. He’s definitely, DEFINITELY done it. Hot damn, I’m about to watch him do it again… And when all is said and done, we’ll most likely repeat the same gloriously, fulfilling sexual encounter mistake over and over again. I have no idea if any of this is true or not but I’d like to believe Childish would leave this one open for interpretation.
WITHOUT GOOGLING, let me know what you get from the video.
This. *single blink* On repeat. *single blink* Always.
Please press play:
This is on a bus back from camp. I’m thirteen and so are you. Before I left for camp I imagined it would be me and three or four other dudes I hadn’t met yet, running around all summer, getting into trouble. It turned out it would be me and just one girl. That’s you. And we’re still at camp as long as we’re on the bus and not at the pickup point where our parents would be waiting for us. We’re still wearing our orange camp t-shirts. We still smell like pine needles. I like you and you like me and I more-than-like you, but I don’t know if you do or don’t more-than-like me. You’ve never said, so I haven’t been saying anything all summer, content to enjoy the small miracle of a girl choosing to talk to me and choosing to do so again the next day and so on. A girl who’s smart and funny and who, if I say something dumb for a laugh, is willing to say something two or three times as dumb to make me laugh, but who also gets weird and wise sometimes in a way I could never be. A girl who reads books that no one’s assigned to her, whose curly brown hair has a line running through it from where she put a tie to hold it up while it was still wet.
Back in the real world we don’t go to the same school, and unless one of our families moves to a dramatically different neighborhood, we won’t go to the same high school. So, this is kind of it for us. Unless I say something. And it might especially be it for us if I actually do say something. The sun’s gone down and the bus is quiet. A lot of kids are asleep. We’re talking in whispers about a tree we saw at a rest stop that looks like a kid we know. And then I’m like, “Can I tell you something?” And all of a sudden I’m telling you. And I keep telling you and it all comes out of me and it keeps coming and your face is there and gone and there and gone as we pass underneath the orange lamps that line the sides of the highway. And there’s no expression on it. And I think just after a point I’m just talking to lengthen the time where we live in a world where you haven’t said “yes” or “no” yet. And regrettably I end up using the word “destiny.” I don’t remember in what context. Doesn’t matter. Before long I’m out of stuff to say and you smile and say, “okay.” I don’t know exactly what you mean by it, but it seems vaguely positive and I would leave in order not to spoil the moment, but there’s nowhere to go because we’re are on a bus. So I pretend like I’m asleep and before long, I really am.
I wake up, the bus isn’t moving anymore. The domed lights that line the center aisle are all on. I turn and you’re not there. Then again a lot of kids aren’t in their seats anymore. We’re parked at the pick-up point, which is in the parking lot of a Methodist church. The bus is half empty. You might be in your dad’s car by now, your bags and things piled high in the trunk. The girls in the back of the bus are shrieking and laughing and taking their sweet time disembarking as I swing my legs out into the aisle to get up off the bus, just as one of them reaches my row. It used to be our row, on our way off. It’s Michelle, a girl who got suspended from third grade for a week after throwing rocks at my head. Adolescence is doing her a ton of favors body-wise. She stops and looks down at me. And her head is blasted from behind by the dome light, so I can’t really see her face, but I can see her smile. And she says one word: “destiny.” Then her and the girls clogging the aisles behind her all laugh and then she turns and leads them off the bus. I didn’t know you were friends with them.
I find my dad in the parking lot. He drives me back to our house and camp is over. So is summer, even though there’s two weeks until school starts. This isn’t a story about how girls are evil or how love is bad, this is a story about how I learned something and I’m not saying this thing is true or not, I’m just saying it’s what I learned. I told you something. It was just for you and you told everybody. So I learned cut out the middle man, make it all for everybody, always. Everybody can’t turn around and tell everybody, everybody already knows, I told them. But this means there isn’t a place in my life for you or someone like you. Is it sad? Sure. But it’s a sadness I chose. I wish I could say this was a story about how I got on the bus a boy and got off a man more cynical, hardened, and mature and shit. But that’s not true. The truth is I got on the bus a boy. And I never got off the bus. I still haven’t.
For the full song “That Power,” please click here.
My want to meet Childish Gambino (a.k.a. Donald Glover) is a little too self-serving. I had a conversation this weekend about this entire campaign and I’m going about it in the wrong way. (Thanks Wondertwin) The reason why I want to meet him is not only because I love his music, his sense humour, his American Apparel hoodies. He represents the one voice I wish I heard growing up. The voice letting me know there was absolutely nothing wrong with me, that I’d be okay. If this was something I felt and still feel all the time, there’s bound to be others in the same boat. I hope these posts inspire you to check him out – honestly and truly.
I grew up middle-upper class, living in a predominantly white neighbourhood in a large house and went to a Christian private school for seven years. I wasn’t raised “hood.” I was never going to be “street.” In private school, I had the same friends in every class, every year. My family fell on hard times, my parents separated and my brother and I remained with my father who raised us. However I did get a severe reality check; the security of my classmates was taken from me and I was heading to a public school.
All of a sudden, I’m the new kid being judged on my clothing since uniforms were not enforced. This was a Brave New World and I wasn’t ready for it. I didn’t speak like the other black girls, I didn’t dress like them and I didn’t have a chip on my shoulder BECAUSE I WAS 10 YEARS OLD! Year after year, I was fascinated by cliques, a word I never heard until I entered public school. I didn’t have a place because everywhere was my place. I knew all the words of every Bob Marley and Boyz II Men song but I also knew every lyric Bruce Springsteen ever sang. I obviously watched “Martin” but I also had a long-time crush on Ed Begley, Jr. circa his “St. Elsewhere” days. “ED BEGLEY WHO???” the girls would cackle and point because they didn’t get it.”It” being “me.” Growing up as a black person, being told I wasn’t black enough by my own black classmates should’ve derailed my steady course toward self-discovery. Apparently, I was an oreo, a coconut *single blink* You know, black/brown on the outside and white on the inside. I’m not saying I was a saint but I rarely got in trouble and yet people wanted to start trouble with me because they didn’t understand me.
Why did I talk to everyone?
Why didn’t I swear?
Why did I dress the way I did?
Why did I speak the way I did?
“Why” is the only question they never bothered to ask me. I always thought they should have. Would it have mattered? I don’t think they cared for an answer, they just wanted to let me know I was different and that wasn’t okay. Looking back, I can understand there was some jealousy in the mix. I looked like them but I wasn’t like them and this caused some tension. Pile that on to the usual coming of age stuff and we’ve reached a whole new level of WTF.
I’ll always speak my mind and tell it like it is, I think that’s a part of my charm. Some don’t like it and think by pointing out my faults (as they see them) makes them the bigger person. A friend (whose initials happen to be S.B.) told me recently I was in a zone lately; he referred to it as “Vintage Ari.” I asked him if that was a good thing or a bad thing. He said, “Very good. I read in awe and jealousy of the realness.” This made my heart grow three sizes.
So many of Childish Gambino’s songs speak to the little girl I was and the woman I grew to be. There were several paths I could’ve taken in my formative years, but the demons that attracted my peers left me to my own devices. Instead, I found and still find solace in the small things like music from Anita Baker to Weezer. I don’t hold any grudges to anyone in my past, it definitely made me a stronger person. I still have MANY insecurities to overcome but I try not to let them hold me down and you shouldn’t either. This post has a lot to do with race but you can apply this to any struggles you had or are having in life. Everyone has a story and it’s the classics that are told over and over again. So CG, I may not have lived the same life as you, but I relate to so many of the things you lived through. You’re proof that if I keep doing what I’m doing, I’ll eventually get to where I’m going.
One of my favourite lines from “Hold You Down:”
This one kid said somethin’ that was really bad
He said I wasn’t really black because I had a dad
I think that’s kinda sad
Mostly ‘cuz a lot of black kids think they should agree with that
If you’re a father, you should stick around if you could
‘Cuz even if you’re bad at it, you get Tiger Woods
or MJ
We warriors, we all need Senseis.
For all the lyrics to “Hold You Down,” please clickhere.
Day 1 of this campaign was out of all control! I received so many well-wishes from strangers it was almost overwhelming. A SPECIAL shoutout to G98.7FM who retweeted my post as soon as I sent them a request. I felt the Toronto love all day long and whatever happens, friends, this will be worth the fun!
Please press play:
I’ve decided to take a leap of faith and entrust myself to the infamous Wu-Tang Clan Name Generator so I, too, can be just like Donald Glover. You may or may not know his name “Childish Gambino” came from a Wu-Tang Name Generator. In his words, “My favorite thing is people are always like, ‘You’re the same person?’ There’s no difference between Donald Glover and Childish Gambino – they’re the same. I just want people to come at my music differently, because if CAMP was a Donald Glover album they’d be like, ‘Okay, this is a joke record.’ But I don’t look at writing comedy as any different from writing raps.” You can read the entire write-up here.
Yesterday I found a couple sites (who knew this was ACTUALLY a thing?) that would give me what I needed. For example, if I wanted to generate a Wu-Tang name for “Single Blink,” the blog’s new name would be “Radiophonic Oddity” or “Gentlemen Pupil“ depending on which site you use. Wow, Radiophonic Oddity sounds kinda hot, doesn’t it? Hmmmm…..And so, I’m asking all of you to choose your favourite Wu-Tang name generated (just for me) based on my real name:
Sarkastik Watcher
Phantom Specialist
Embryonic Crusadah
I have my favourite but I won’t try to sway your decision. One can only believe this will make meeting me more appealing. That one is me and me alone. Look at the intense effort I’ve put into this campaign, guys! I SEARCHED for name generators on my computer, I FOUND some I thought would work, I TYPED in my name AND PRESSED enter and now I’m asking you to CHOOSE the name. *single blink* Phew! Well, I’m spent. Please leave your vote for name #1, name #2 or name #3 in my comments so we know the result is on the up-and-up…and <insert Wu-Tang Name Generated moniker here>, I’m out.
If you’re interested in finding out Wu you are – try this or this and let me know what your name is!
