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Today’s Shuffler: Hanalei Ramos

Hanalei Ramos is a writer, performer, and community organizer from Jersey City, NJ. She is an Aquarius who is extremely fond of steeping tea, reading Zadie Smith, and meeting strangers in well lit places. Visit www.hanaleihanalei.com for more info.

Shuffle on, Shuffler…

Thanks, BPR! This was a lot of fun to do!

PROCESS: When you have guests visit your place, it’s easy to immediately say things like “Make yourself at home,” etc. without giving it a second thought. Then you walk away — maybe to play the role of a good host/ess — to get refreshments ready in the kitchen. You come back with a nice tray of Sarsi and Nagaraya Garlic Flavored Cracker Nuts, and you notice your guests roaming around, all intrigued by how you live. They’re reading the spines of books, and some have heads tilted glossing over album titles at the CD rack. When this happens in my home, I get insecure as all hell, because it’s one of those “sizing-ups” that shouldn’t be a big deal, but is. So, with that made public, I am trying to shake off that wack insecurity o’ mine. I’ll be a purist in the method, so I really hope nothing embarrassing comes up. Some Christmas songs might still be in there, since I haven’t re-synched my gadget just yet. But maybe next week. I might have some time then. I’m not really sure yet. I’ll let you know, though.

Pata Pata
Miriam Makeba
This is the perfect song to wake up to! I’m glad there’s a video up on youtube, so y’all can learn the dance. The only downside: this video doesn’t have the BEST part of the song (well, at least on the mp3 version I have) where she transitions between the last two verses with this fun hybrid YOOOOW-squeal!

Vitamin S
Baby Cham
While I know this might qualify more as soca, I still hear it worked into the regular 25 minute dancehall set at DA CLUB. So, I will tell you a story about dancehall reggae. Ahem, go! Dancehall reggae reminds me high school. Cotillions and Sweet 16s served as the social breeding ground for Filipino youth in the tri-state area. A typical month anytime between one’s sophomore and senior year consisted of weekends dedicated to cotillions/sweet 16s you were in, or were invited to. This is how you met the rest of the Filipinos in your state, and those living in neighboring ones. The amplified sex drive of the average 16 year old, multiplied by the number of persons necessary to fill any given hotel banquet hall on a weekend, exponentially increased by the amount of drama bred in the “OoOjErSeYfLiPsOoO” AOL chat room, well, resulted in a whole lot of high school grinding on the dance floor leaving on-looking titas and titos aghast. What better music to do this to, but to dancehall? For many, this was the summer soundtrack to multiple episodes of misguided puppy love. This is why I imagine New Jersey Filipino folks are all about it, and may not really know how to dance to anything else. Forgive us, Baby Cham is just trying to help us out.

Song Cry
Jay-Z with Jaguar Wright and the Roots
I don’t know much about music, but I know what I like. I will tell you that I’m always up to listen to this album, no matter what. AND THEN! When he says,”I got lost there for a second, I ain’t gonna lie. I was in my own thoughts, forreal.” Ughhhnnnn! That’s like…fourth to “T.R.O.Y.,” and two other songs I don’t know about in my list of “THE MOST TENDER MOMENTS IN HIP HOP” hosted by Christopher Walken as “The Continental.” Yeah, I haven’t really thought it through. My bad.

Brandy Alexander
Feist
Yeah, okay, so, I know the woman is all over the place in the form of catchy jingles, but with her smoky voice…”Brandy Alexander” is the TEH ONE on this album! I made two Brandy Alexanders once in my life, and I would highly recommend it to those who really like creamy/chocolate alcoholic drinks. Back to the song: I’m sold, even without the video, but those creepy pagliacci ballerinas are a nice touch; a hearty halfcongrats for trying to pass off the crazy in an artsy way. Good choice.

The Best I Can (Rough Mix)
John Flor Sisante
Oh good! I was beginning to think that I wouldn’t hit on a single Asian American artist during this exercise. Thanks for saving the day, John Flor! When I first came across John’s myspace, he had this amazing song up…something about fingerprints. I don’t remember that much about the song itself, other that it was pretty and had a lot of reverb going on. Despite knowing he plays pretty frequently in the NYC area, I haven’t had the chance to check him out lately. However, lucky me was recently prompted to revisit his page, and I was happily surprised by the new direction his production and songwriting has taken! This song is a gem, chock full of some rich and gorgeous layering! It makes me sad, which is okay, because I am down with my emo side lots. It actually sounds like the kind of track used in a film when the protagonist makes a decision during a montage…and I think you can hear the actual decision being made around 3:11 of the song. There’s also something about “The Best I Can” that reminds me of the Imogen Heap song played during that OC death scene that was parodied urrrrrrwhere on the youtubez. (Do you know what I’m talking about?)

The Sun
Ghostface …and everyone else in the history of ever
the sky’s blue because
the sun hit the water like PLING!
or is it “BING!”
(?) I can’t tell. Tell me. Let me just google it.
Oh, ok, it’s “BING!”

Hopelessly Devoted To You
Olivia Newton John
If you’re a good person, you will not shame me: I LOVE MUSICALS. Call me a self-hating-colonized-white-worshipping-fake-feminist, but I damn well love (yes, present tense) Grease. No, scratch that.

I kinda straight up love ONJ. My dad got me the tapes back in ‘86, and I sweated it so much that when I returned from the Philippines to complete first grade in New Jersey, I just didn’t understand why my classmates were all about singing “Lost in Your Eyes.” I mean, was this not the United States, land of Grease Lightning hotrods and Pink Lady satin jackets? Why was nobody talking about summering in Australia? It was confusing, and it took me a while to transition out of those expectations. However, in my adult life, to honor this love of the Grease OST, I have permanently added this song to my karaoke repertoire; I don’t play, y’all.

Last 5 posts by shuffled

• Shuffled! Theresa Vu of Magnetic North - July 17th, 2008
• Shuffled! Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha - July 10th, 2008
• Shuffled! Adriel Luis - July 3rd, 2008
• Shuffled! Leonard Shek - June 26th, 2008
• Shuffled! Patrick Rosal - June 19th, 2008

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