Suey!!!

Beverly "Bevlove" Johnson made a point on twitter last night. A point about clearing up the confusion of her name, the spelling of it, etc. And... It pulled me into an element of... branding, if u will???? She brought upon a positive and accepted destraction. What she expressed opened up my mind a little bit and made me want to bring more attention and clarity as to what MY stage name actually means.

Before I get into my stage name and what it means, please allow me to give a very small bit about who I am as a performer!

Peace and blessings to growth! 💪💙

I have been gigging and grooving around Detroit in anticipation for the year 2016! I am very excited! As you all may or may not know, I am an educated and gigging, female drummer in the city of Detroit, MI. Inspired and Influenced by several art mediums and music genres. I started playing drums in August of 2003. It wasn't until I my twenties that I have made a mark as a performer in the Detroit music scene. I have travelled with and play(ed) with some highly acclaimed underground Detroit artists and instrumentalist, such as Bevlove, Mic Write, Sheefy McFly, Cyepie, Tamera Jewel, Ingenious band, The Gabriel Brass band, Willa Rae, just to name some... I am also recognized for being seen jamming as a featured musician for a few national and mainstream artists and musicians, such as the Godfather of funk, George Clinton, bass player and music director, Kern Brantley, Singer-songwriter and instrumentalist, Amp Fiddler, and Contemporary Christian artist, Shana Wilson, to name a few. My most current thing is putting bands together for solo artist in the local music scene. I have become a founder and co-founder of several local bands. Some of which are currently, working and some of which have fallen apart! I am also a drummer/percussionist in bands that I am not a founder of but am a proud member of. I am a bandmate (in most band cases, a person who is investing ongoing time and creativity in the songwriters music, making their own parts and/or helping to shape songs, a person who puts in cash towards fees and rent, a person who helps promote shows, and gets equal pay.)  and a hired gun (a person hired to either make a part or learn a recording, who shows up on time to rehearsals and shows and leaves with cash in their pockets. No strings or responsibilities attached!) and have become a local recording artist and session player in which u can hear my latest session recordings on the "DIME Sessions Vol. 1" album, which was released this year under  1265 Original record label and is now available on iTunes.

Now that u know just a little bit about me, allow me to explain Chop Suey! 😆

From what ive learned from folks in being questioned abt my name, the meaning/where i got it, is bit unprecedented. #Chop #Suey

Both names and the way i use them are slang and both have their own separate meanings.

A lot of ppl think that chop suey came from me loving Chinese and Japanese cuisine. That's probably a good guess! I love sushi, too. Never eat them without using chopsticks!

But that ain't where my name comes from. Lol

Another thing I here is, "Chop Suey, like from A System of A Down, Chop Suey???" 

NOPE!!!! Not that either! Lol

Here... Allow me to break down the name used for my musical stage presence! 

Chops is a word that is used heavily amongst musicians. I first heard theat word in my early playing, when I really started sounding pretty articulate on the drum set. One would say, "Dang ur foot is fast! U got chops!" Or, "I though u were a dude before I saw u, u play with power. Nice chops." Another was, "u got mad chops. I hear u constantly using rudiments throughout your playing." And so forth....

Sooooo....

My definition for Chops is a word that musicians use as a reference to say that a person shows a high level of proficiency on their instrument.

So there is that for Chop! 💄👑

Suey.... Well suey is a cool word, with different meanings and in my name it means ALL of them. Lol literally.

Suey can mean u suck really bad. Suey can b an adjective used to describe a good feeling or a high. Suey can mean ur lame. Suey can mean anything from something being extremely dope, to something that makes no sense at all. In order to understand how sue is being used, u gotta know the vibe of what's being said or done. You've gotta Use basic context to figure it out.

Ah.... There it is. That's pretty much the discography of my name, published by me. 

That's Suey. :)

Discovery Den: THE BIG 'TO DO'

Discovery Den: THE BIG 'TO DO': "To be what we are, and to become what we are capable of becoming, is the only end of life." - Baruch Spinoza Hey guys! Here...

THE BIG 'TO DO'

"To be what we are, and to become what we are capable of becoming, is the only end of life." - Baruch Spinoza

Hey guys! Here are some REALLY good links on having better time management skills! Best wishes in your future success! ;)

https://www.psychologytoday.com/basics/time-management

http://www.studygs.net/timman.htm

http://www.entrepreneur.com/topic/time-management

http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/219553

http://www.time-management-guide.com

So this year I was rudely and repeatedly slapped in the face by father time. I found myself making lots of last minute to-do's, conflicting with my everyday bouts of productivity. The feelings of having so much to do in a matter of 24 hours and not getting enough done became overwhelming. I recently started thinking, "Somethings have got to change! I need a systematic approach to managing my time!"

What I've realized about myself, is that I can be a little unorganized in planning my day. My daily planning personality fits into the category of, "produce more/produce better, just KEEP WORKING" How many of you guys are with me on this? I mean, its so bad sometimes! I found myself not making routine plans for some of the very important and necessary things in life, such as making family visits, cleaning and reorganizing my home and work space, cooking, walking the dog, reading, etc., etc. Along with being successful, maintaining a healthy and happy home should be a priority and should fit into everyday plans.

Making a list usually makes me feel stressed out! I've read in a Forbes article, that instead of feeling stressed out by a list of priority, you should try to feel empowered. I thought to myself, "Energy!" Thats what we need to be managing even more than our time! Most of us put in more hours at work, 12-15 hours a day and that takes a tole on us mentally, physically, and emotionally. All that leads to is an increase in distractions, and will make you want to be less engaging with people. Energy is an infinite source, time is not. Systematically, energy can be renewed and expanded regularly through practice behavior. Time cannot. You will get more out of yourself if you put more into yourself and the results of fueling yourself with great energy, is that you will be more motivated and able to work hard and long when necessary. We have energy depleting people around us and we've accepted energy depleting obligations, without recognizing the cost of such things. Its important that we take responsibility in changing them, regardless of the circumstances you may face with these energy sucking people and obligations.

Part of prioritizing and planning has a lot to do with attitude. You gotta be ruthless! People want your time, energy, need your services, and sometimes its just hard to say, "NO!" Especially when there isn't anything that you really don't want to do. This is my problem, especially because I LOVE my work. Realistically speaking, you can only do a limited amount of things well. A mentor of mine, Elise McCoy told me something on the lines of, Whats important isn't always urgent and whats urgent, may not be important, but they all need to be organized plans. I let that sink in. 

Being ruthless is important because it makes you more careful about the things you take on! Once you get your list together, then thats when you prioritize your list. Whatever the most important thing is that you have to do, I would suggest that be done first. Things are just less stressful that way. You get that out the way, everything else is just a breeze. Also, just making a list isn't enough! you must have a schedule! Use a calendar on your smart device, etc. Technology we use makes this very easy for us, so take advantage! Leadership coach Peter Bregman says, "If you want to get something done, decide when and where you're going to do it. Otherwise, take it off your list.

Everything you do should all go onto one calendar. From small priority to large priority. Exercising for 45 minutes, to attending an awards ceremony. Whatever it may be, get in the habit to scheduling it in. Also, physically separate yourself from distractions. Especially if your work requires you to concentrate. I can't do all of my work in the same place because I can be distracted easily. Its easy to get veered off of the path of productivity with social media, emails, phone calls, text messages. You've gotta find a good spot for you to get things done. Away from the office helps. If you do all your work at your same workspace all the time, you're risking the chance of working less efficiently. You may notice yourself having a lot of add on "to-do's". Going into a different room, going outdoors, to the library or coffee shop usually helps me.

I've gotta touch back on energy management. TAKE SMALL BREAKS! Work hard, but take a break, refuel yourself, surf the internet, stretch, for no more than ten minutes at a time.

I usually don't like having much waiting time but I've been told to embrace it as it can be my best help. For instance, if you're visiting a busy restaurant, use that as a thoughtful time to work on things! The change of scenery can spark some creativity, so keep a lil work bag with you! Small downtime is a great thing. Take advantage.

Prince: Art Official Age & Plectrum Elecrum

Oh.... My.... God...

Ok...

Alright...

Hol' up....

  PRINCE HAS TWO NEW RECORDS!!!! YES, that is TWO whole albums, one released date. Art Official Age and Plectrum Electrum were both released early yesterday and I am DYING to hear both records from start to end. I purposely haven't read one single review about the two albums (which i am hoping are going to give me life and have me play several of the songs for years and years, just like his 1984 album, Purple Rain for so many of us and our loved ones.) I have decided to avoid website reviews until  I have officially purchase, and listen to the entire albums, decide how I feel about them, and then read some official and dependable reviews about the record.
  I would strongly encourage all music/Prince lovers to give it a lil taste to your ears and see what it sounds like to you. According to Prince's past success, I am expecting ALOT of tastiness from this album.

  So, If you're a Prince fan and you are just as eager to download his latest and greatest EVERYTHING, I strongly suggest that you do download his music legally. Prince has a no tolerance about abusing the music and work that his name is branded to! This is what I found while doing research, check it out. 

Copyright issues

On September 14, 2007, Prince announced that he was going to sue YouTube and eBay because they "are clearly able [to] filter porn and pedophile material but appear to choose not to filter out the unauthorized music and film content which is core to their business success." Web Sheriff, the international Internet policing company he hired, told Reuters: "The problem is that one can reduce it to zero and then the next day there will be 100 or 500 or whatever. This carries on ad nauseam at Prince's expense."^[151][152]

In October 2007, Stephanie Lenz filed a lawsuit against Universal Music Publishing Group, claiming they were abusing copyright law, after the music publisher had YouTube take down Lenz's home movie in which the Prince song "Let's Go Crazy" played faintly in the background.^[153]

On November 5, 2007, several fan sites of Prince formed "Prince Fans United" to fight back against legal requests they claim Prince made to cease and desist all use of photographs, images, lyrics, album covers and anything linked to Prince's likeness.^[154] While Prince's lawyers claimed that the use of such representations constituted copyright infringement, the Prince Fans United claimed that the legal actions were "attempts to stifle all critical commentary about Prince." A few days later, Prince released a statement denying the fansites' claims, stating "The action taken earlier this week was not to shut down fansites, or control comment in any way. The issue was simply to do with in regards to copyright and trademark of images and only images, and no lawsuits have been filed." The statement from AEG, Prince's promoter, asserted that the only "offending items" on the three fansites were live shots from Prince's 21 nights in London at the O2 Arena earlier in the year.^[155]

On November 8, 2007, Prince Fans United received a song named "PFUnk", providing a kind of "unofficial answer" to their movement. The song, originally debuted on the PFU main site,^[156] was retitled "F.U.N.K." and is available on iTunes.

On November 14, 2007, it was reported that the satirical website b3ta.com had pulled their "image challenge of the week" devoted to Prince after legal threats from the star under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. B3ta co-founder Rob Manuelwrote on the site: "Under threat of legal action from Prince's legal team of 'potential closure of your web site' – We have removed the Prince image challenge and B3ta apologizes unreservedly to AEG / NPG and Prince for any offence caused. We also ask our members to avoid photoshopping Prince and posting them on our boards."^[157]

At the 2008 Coachella Music Festival, Prince performed a cover of Radiohead's "Creep", but immediately after he forced YouTube and other sites to remove footage that fans had taken of the performance, despite Radiohead's demand for it to remain on the website.^[158] Days later, YouTube reinstated the videos, while Radiohead claimed "it's our song, let people hear it." In 2009, Prince put the video of that Coachella performance on his then-official website LotusFlow3r.com.

In 2013, the Electronic Frontier Foundation granted to Prince the inaugural "Raspberry Beret Lifetime Aggrievement Award",^[159] a reference to resentment of parties who allege unfair treatment and misuse of copyright claims by the artist and his lawyers.^[160]

In January 2014, Prince filed a lawsuit titled Prince v. Chodera against 22 online users for direct copyright infringement, unauthorized fixation, and contributory copyright infringement and bootlegging.^[161] Several of the users were fans who had shared links to bootlegged versions of several Prince concerts through social media websites like Facebook.^[162][163]

I Pulled this from Wikipedia.

Discovery Den: Awaiting visitation.

Discovery Den: Awaiting visitation.: Artist. Visionary. The called ones.... Sometimes we doubt that we are chosen to be called upon, even as we answer. But we answer. "I...

Awaiting visitation.

Artist. Visionary. The called ones.... Sometimes we doubt that we are chosen to be called upon, even as we answer. But we answer.


"I am here because art brought me here."


In my couple of years worth of a journey through the artists atmosphere, I have wandered carefully and wondered a lot. I received inspiration through love and I allowed love to change me, open me up and rearrange me. The parts of me that doubted that I could be so open to love so easily. So abruptly. Without fear, even if that love wouldn't or couldn't be there forever. I learned how to love and be loved in a different way.


"The passion of an artists who is in love with their art is a rarity."


Artist are sensitive creatures with a special ability to love several things to a great magnitude and to be able to reach out and reach inside of the soul. But without creativity, the creator is blocked. Injured. Uneasy. Not very gentle and can think of wanting nothing more than to, "get back on their feet".


*A relationship can go completely wrong without understanding this side of the creator. The side of insecurities, self doubt, a sense of powerlessness, a lack of fantasy and a sense of ability to be all desirable... Sounds complicated, right??? Which is why most true artists dedicate themselves to their work over one person. Usually the happy artist becomes involved with someone who shows that they understand the nature and respect the process of love in the artist. The lover of the creator must first understand the "Artists Way" and be unselfish in the process. also nurturing and attentive. It is needed and quite simple to the mass of artists, but quite selfish and inattentive at times to others. The artist themselves would like to assure you that it will all be quite worth it after a while. :) As long as you remember that there is a creative energy that wants to express itself through the artist. It could want to be expressive in everyway depending how sensitive the artists spirit is. Intimacy, love and passion are not excluded! Don't be judgmental of the forms of expression or lack thereof, be attentive, communicate, and you both can sort it out later.




Okay, okay, so now lets switch gears a little bit. Shall we?




So I hear several artists talk about how they don't need anyone. Just them and their art. They say they work best without any influence and being COMPLETELY ALONE. Can you believe that? That a person is so into themselves that anything that they get from anyone else doesn't share a mutual feeling, isn't considered of any true value and is basically just being used for satisfying a specific purpose, that to them deserves no gratification. Hmm. Not cool. I was concerned when I heard these things. The irony of that is, the celebration of an artist, creator or writer's life, is that our natural inclination to sit alone or behind a desk becomes more difficult to pursue!




* "I was told both to seek solitude AND to reach for the companionship of other artists who believed, as I did, that we were led both by the Great Creator and by those who have gone before us, treading their Artist's Way and loving the same art forms we do." - Julia Cameron


God, higher powers, goddess, universe, mind, source, whatever you call it isn't important in the context of art. The point is not that you name it. The point is that you try using it. You don't have to understand electricity to use it do you? That "good orderly direction or flow", stands ready to help us if we ask. We must be ready to ask, open-minded enough to be led, and willing to believe despite our bouts of disbelief.




One thing I would like to shed light on is this: "No matter what your age or your life path, whether making art is your career or your hobby or your dream, it is not to late or too egotistical or too selfish or too silly to work on your creativity."






Creativity is our true nature. Honor will visit all who work. Remain faithful and open-minded
listen for that small voice with marching orders. That is the higher power visiting you with a message.






"I myself do nothing. The holy spirit accomplishes all through me." - William Blake




Peace&Love, Queens&Kings

African-American Culture #Hair

Hey guys, I feel like it's been a couple weeks since I last blogged and I must say, IT FEELS GOOD TO BE BACK! :) Did I miss anything? Was I missed at all? Cool... ;)

Soooo, Many of my friends know that I have been natural for a few years now. I shaved my hair off about 9-10 months ago to give my natural hair a fresh new start... Going natural was THE BEST decision I've ever made for my hair. I LOVE it and I've never embraced the culture of being natural more.

I would looooove to do all the talking like a know it all, but honestly I do just as much research about history, art and culture as the next blogger! Check out what I found Using the Wikipedia "The Free Encyclopedia"!

You Natural hair guys, gals and guru's are gonna love this bit. Enjoy. :)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African-American_culture#Hair