Category: Entertainment

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The Healing Powers of House Music

House music has been around since the 1980s and is still growing stronger today. It has spread its wings around the world from its humble beginnings in New York, Chicago, Detroit, and New Jersey. It is now a force to be reckoned with hailing from London, Berlin, Johannesburg, Central African Republic, Iran, and many other places in addition to its origins in the USA.

This form of music has the ability to uplift your spirits regardless of the mood you are in. I find this to be a very therapeutic genre of music. It has spawn dozens and dozens of sub-genres, my favourites being Garage, Soulful, Tech, Afro, Deep, and Ancestral Soul.

This evening, as I sat by my large living room window writing and viewing the city skyline, a song called Transitions featuting Ade Alafia (AfroKillerz Remix) by Boddhi Satva began to play as the last track on a 90-minute mix-set created by me a week ago Friday.

Despite the pain I have been experiencing all day, something made me jump out of my seat and start dancing around my living room. I found myself dancing in a traditional Yoruba style and simply enjoying this wonderful song. The pains which had been nagging me all day were completely gone as I danced to my heart’s content. I whipped up a good cardio pump in the process.

How many times have you found yourself feeling down and then found happiness when a certain song begins to play? Music can be uplifting. Music can help us relive good memories. Music can be comforting.

Around 2016, I decided to stop listening to negative music. I listen to uplifting music every day and it has done wonders for my psyche. I have now also discovered that music may actually heal us from our pains, both mentally and physically.

I am now listening to a song called In & Out of My Life by the legendary House diva, Adeva. This song contains strong, beautiful vocals along with an infectious piano riff. I absolutely love the piano. I enjoy listening to the piano in house, Korean ballads, and classical music.

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Itaewon Class

Saturday night in Itaewon
© 2018 Charles Dunlevy

Those who know me well know that I love Korean dramas. These television series are just incredible. Korean dramas tend to employ some fantastic writing. It is the only genre of television which takes me through a wide variety of emotions.

I am not sure what it is but Korean dramas and movies that draws me in emotionally. I find myself relating to some of the characters and genuinely caring about them despite the fact that the stories are completely fictional.

The stories involve several plot twists and turns and you just never know what to expect next. In some cases, you might hate a character in the beginning, but by the end you admire them. The same goes in the reverse… a character you like in the beginning you might find yourself hating by the end.

Right when you think the story is about to end, another twist is thrown in and it continues. I would say these are the best-written television shows in the entire business.

Itawon Class is a drama released on Netflix in 2020 about a young man who gets into business to avenge the death of his father. I guess that is the simplest way that I can explain the plot. I really do not wish to give away the story, so I will not divulge anymore details.

This story takes on a lot of serious topics. It deals with class, love, racism, business, friendship, bullying, sibling rivalry, and hate.

One of the main characters was bullied by his half-brother. He was not really loved as he was considered the “bastard” of the family having been born out of wedlock.

Another character had to deal with hatred for being transgendered. The things this character goes through can bring tears to your eyes and make you realize how cruel people can be.

I have been watching Korean dramas since 2012. All these years I have not seen them deal with subjects such as transgender and racial bigotry. There is a Black character in this series who has to deal with being treated as an outsider despite his back story which I will not spoil.

Love is a central theme in Korean dramas and the lead character is caught between two women who love him dearly. As I watch, I try to get into his shoes and think about how I would approach the situation. Oh the drama!

The cast of characters each have their own backstory and dilemma and it is interesting to learn about each as the series progresses.

I find that I can relate to some of what I saw in this show. For instance, the death of a parent resonates deep with me. There are scenes which brought me to tears thinking about my dear mother who has passed on. The issues with the transgender character resonates with me because I went to school with a girl who was transgender and I saw what she went through. I recently saw a transgender at a local bar who was treated poorly by random people. Racism is something I have dealt with my entire life. I am fortunate to have never experienced racism while I was in Korea, but I am well informed of its existence.

This is a wonderful drama that I highly recommend. The soundtrack is also fantastic to listen to. I really love the music that goes along with Korean dramas. They employ wonderful vocals with piano and classical instruments. It is a far better genre of music than K-pop which to me is manufactured industry junk. Korean ballads are far better than K-pop.

By the way, Itaewon is a district in Seoul known to have a lot of foreigners. I do not spend too much time there when I am in Korea because it reminds me a lot of Toronto. It makes no sense for me to fly 11,000 kilometres from home to be in a similar environment. That being said, I think Itaewon has a much better nightlife than Toronto. It is a great place to go when feeling homesick while in Korea. People work very hard in Korea and really know how to unwind after a long day’s work. That is a topic for another day.

Go ahead and watch Itaewon Class on Netflix today! This show is fantastic. It will bring tears to your eyes… both sorrow and joy. It will inspire you with your own life. It will make you feel anger, sadness, worry, and joy. You get the full round of emotions while watching this wonderful series.

I will leave you with a beautiful song from the series:

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Virtual Escape

Throughout the global pandemic, technology has proven to be vital in several ways. It has allowed many companies to continue working as they were while onsite. It has allowed retailers to continue selling goods. It has assisted in the delivery of restaurant food (although the service fees charged to these restaurants is another story). Technology during the pandemic has allowed people to keep their sanity by engaging in a virtual wold.

The live music and nightclub industry has been devastated by the pandemic. Bands, DJs, and singers no longer have venues to perform the arts they love dearly. Technology has enabled them to keep in touch with their fans.

I have heard about online events where different bands play live from their own residences as part of a virtual concert. Thanks to technology, music is still being recorded and released for sale as the various artists, DJs, and producers are able to do their own recording from several sites and have it mixed together at the end.

Defected Records has been hosting live, virtual music festivals every Friday. These festivals feature different DJs each week spinning both classics and the latest in house, techno, garage, disco, tech house, etc. Some of my favourite DJs appearing on Defected Records live streams are Carl Cox, Monki, Gorgon City, Sam Devine, Simon Dunmore, and Themba. In case you did not know, they are all house music DJs.

Speaking of house music, Pan Pot has been doing live shows from Berlin, Germany. One such show was performed while they operated a boat giving us a tour of the city via one of the rivers snaking through the city. Their specialty is tech house and they spin the latest and greatest songs of the genre.

Bodhi Satva is another favourite of mine. He hails from Central African Republic and is also a producer. He produces house music, but is known for a special sub-genre of house coined Ancestral Soul. He is the Godfather of Ancestral Soul which blends house music with traditional African instruments and vocals. He hosts a live show every Friday where he spins a nice mix of Ancestral Soul, soulful house, and classic house. This past Friday he also spun a new roots reggae track.

DJ Jazzy Jeff from Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince has been spinning live online throughout the pandemic. As I type this article, he is hosting a virtual Halloween show. He has guest video windows for fans to stream from their homes. The party is a mix of the good Hip Hop (1980s through 1990s), R&B, and dance music. Canada’s DJ Scratch Bastid just started spinning as I type. This is just awesome!

I had to take a break from writing this article because the music spun by Jazzy and Scratch was so good that I had to get up and dance! I got a pretty good workout from dancing and even doing some strength exercise while enjoying the show.

Since travel is severely restricted, I found another way to pass the time during the upcoming dark months of winter… virtual travel! I am both a rail fan and av geek. I play X-Plane 11 and Infinite Flight for aviation, and Train Sim World and Train Simulator 2021 for rail.

I found some enthusiasts on Twitch who live stream their flights or rail journeys. There are quite a few real-world pilots streaming X-Plane 11 on Twitch. These streams are interactive and viewers may ask questions during the show. The pilots are really cool and helpful towards those of us who are still learning to fly or are simply interested in aviation.

There is yet one more method for virtual travel… watching videos on YouTube. There are a lot of videos taken by people either walking or driving around cities and countryside in various lands. I watched an interesting walk through Moscow filmed in 4K. I also watched another filmed in London. I found a YouTuber who films drives around Abuja, Nigeria and its surrounding countryside. It is the next-best thing to being there. I will surely visit these cities after the pandemic.

I discovered that some of these events can be a cure for loneliness. I was feeling pretty down about the current semi-lockdown and its effect on Halloween. I decided to start writing this post because I realized I had not written to this site in nearly two weeks. While I was writing, I remembered that Jazzy Jeff was hosting a virtual Halloween party. I tuned in and resumed writing until the music made me take a break and dance. The party made me feel happy and forget about the situation that we are all in this year.

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