February 12, 2005

Hi, busy as usual, but it’s cool. Cool as in cold. Writing to you from a slightly chilly Miami. It’s in the mid 60’s. I’m enjoying the cooler weather, though, as I’m not used to it here. When I was a kid, we’d have cold weather here occasionally during the winter. One year it dropped to 36 degrees. Hey, that’s like 20 below to a Floridian. 

Even though it’s just in the mid 60’s, it does take some adjusting to. I've been sleeping in sweatsuits and socks. Not used to that. Try that on a regular hot Florida day and it would = a heat stroke. You know what’s funny. We have a brick fireplace. In normal South Florida weather, not a good idea. Talk about redundant. 90 degrees and that’s before you turn on the fireplace. As a matter of fact, I’ve never used it (strictly decorative).  

I spoke to my little sister recently and she couldn’t wait to tell me that Manchester United beat my favorite Premier League team, Arsenal. She was just waiting to tell me and she had this vindictive little laugh when she did. I’m gonna get you for this, Trudi. I don’t know where she gets this vindictiveness from (get the joke?).  

My godbrother made me laugh the other day. He stayed with us for a bit over the holidays. He has a dog named Runnings (after the movie Cool Runnings). He joked that she’s a great dog, but if a stranger comes into the house, she hides under the table, but when people she knows comes over to the house, she starts barking at them. He said if a burglar broke in (God forbid) they’d get everything cause the dog would hide under the table.

His dog has so got it backwards LOL! Dyslexia for dogs?

My dad’s doing well. We were talking about the school he is chairman of. He’s done a lot of good work there. He got people/companies to donate stuff to the students. He grew up in a rough area and when he made it, he never forgot that, so that’s been one of his ways of giving back to the community for many years now. I remember when I was a kid, he signed over 500 diplomas in one afternoon for the upcoming graduation ceremony.

He helped put together a program for a school band with donated instruments to give the kids something to do after school. They’re a full band with a horn section and musical director. I heard them play and they were quite good. They’ve got different things like that they're trying to help the kids with. I think kids need people to show them that they care about them. Helps keep them out of trouble when they know people are rooting for them to do well.      

My promo CDs got back late from the factory (but they're nice people, though) so they were just sent to certain radio stations yesterday (only to stations that don’t take payola). Therefore, give it a month from now and we'll see how it does. I will write a follow up of the results on the site. As I wrote before, I’m not participating in payola. Over a year ago I read on a web site that it takes 1 million dollars in payola to djs across the country to get certain songs in high rotation on all the major stations (you know, the songs that get played every five minutes LOL). That’s ridiculous…and illegal. No wonder radio is so stale.  

I just finished a promo commercial for the album and site. I sent it off to be transferred to beta sp. Once I get it back, it will be sent out stations. Therefore it should start airing in certain markets shortly.

Thanks to the people who have written supportive messages regarding the Madonna plagiarism situation (if you haven’t read about it, please click here). I appreciate your kind words. Some of you haven even been helping me by sending information on cases and incidences you know about that I wasn't unaware of. Thanks again. It will help with the lawsuit, which will be filed shortly. I will post a copy of the lawsuit on the web site when it is filed. They've acted in such bad faith with the constant stealing and other behind the scenes stuff I haven't discussed yet, but will, that I don't expect an amicable, well, proper resolution without a lawsuit. That camp is not known for being forthright, rational or decent according to articles and lawsuits against them.  

Oddly, the last two times I updated the Madonna plagiarism article, someone tried to shut the site down. The site records reflect this information. It can’t be a coincidence, as it happened within two hours of me updating that article the two times I updated it, a week apart and posted a link to the update on the front page on both days. Some people can say anything they want about anyone, but when someone else writes about a real grievance due to someone’s unethical conduct, some people can’t take it.

Check back Monday for a new Sound Off article.

NOTE: The site records reflect that many of you are entering the site on a regular basis from the url: www.aishamusic.com/index_2.htm and not from the site's front page www.aishamusic.com which means a lot of you have bookmarked the page. Trying to skip my flash film, are you -raspberry- just kidding. It took me an hour to make that flash film, the least you could do is be tormented by it each time you visit the web site. Kidding again. I do the same with a lot of sites I bookmark as well LOL. I don't care how much I like your site, I don't want to watch the flash film every time I visit it. However, I've had to change the main page with the navigation to www.aishamusic.com/main.htm for technical reasons. Please update your bookmarks and sorry for the inconvenience.

Artist Of The Week

The artist of the week is Newsong. The track is called “When God Made You,” featuring Natalie Grant. It is a wonderful song I've been hearing recently on WMCU Spirit FM radio (click here for their web site). I also like their track "You Are Mine." Their album is called "More Life." To visit their web site please click here. To visit Natalie Grant's site please click here.

I saw Juanita Bynum and friends on TBN recently and they spoke of a tour they are doing called the "Sisters In The Spirit" tour. It features Juanita, Yolanda Adams, Martha Munizzi, Kelly Price, RiZen and Shelia E. They're scheduled to visit many cities. For more information go to www.juanitabynum.com or www.alwe.com