Rapper Remy Ma wants to be out of jail by Christmas. So after exhausting all appeals while serving her 8-year prison sentence, she’s now accusing the judge who presided over her trial of making mistakes.

Remy, real name Reminisce Smith, 26, was sentenced in May on charges of assault with a deadly weapon, weapon possession and attempted coercion for shooting Makeda Barnes Joseph in the abdomen in July after accusing her of stealing money out of her purse.

Now, in new documents filed on behalf of the star, her lawyers claim the trial was riddled with mistakes by the judge. They pinpoint four key indications of the judge’s alleged faults, including the claim Smith was “unfairly prejudiced” by the inclusion of details relating to an August 2007 attack on a male alleged to be Barnes Joseph’s boyfriend, which Smith is said to have instigated.

Her attorneys have also accused the judge of “wrongly instructing the jury” over Barnes Joseph’s testimony, after the jurors were told that if they believed it to be “truthful and accurate”, it would satisfy the proof “beyond a reasonable doubt”.
Smith’s legal team want the sentence overturned and the star released before the seasonal holidays.

Smith is currently serving time at Bedford Hills Correctional Facility for Women in New York as she awaits the appeal. Source

The Kirkus Review described the book thusly: 

"Can the 60's cure the 90's? That's what Texas stereo repairman Ray Shackleford struggles to prove in this strenuous fantasy of rock- and-roll hits that never were. Shortly after his unloving father drowns in Cozumel, Ray starts to imagine he's hearing impossible songtracks that he's able to record directly from his head. He takes his tape of the Beatles' never- recorded hit ``The Long and Winding Road'' to L.A. producer Graham Hudson, who's already remastered three volumes of Glimpses from rock's legendary past, and Graham persuades him to go after bigger game. So Ray travels back in time, changing history enough so that Jim Morrison can record Celebration of the Lizard and Brian Wilson can persist in his breakthrough album Smile. There's money to be made here, of course, but what Ray and Graham really want is to save the world by recalling the aging rock audience to its ardent roots. (Maybe a little too ardent, as when Ray wonders, ``Was it that way for everybody, music and sex and politics and love all inextricably part of each other, or is it just me?'') Trying to come to terms with his hated father's death, Ray takes time out to retrace his steps in Cozumel, attempting to re-create his own experience of the 60's more directly in 1989, but his romance with a diving instructor seems to open wide the rift in his ten-year marriage without giving him a satisfactory alternative, and he ends up repeating his father's experience instead of accepting it. So it's back to the past for one last try--with a Jimi Hendrix album that Ray hopes can keep the 60's from ending. As you'd expect from versatile fantasist Shiner (Slam, 1990, etc.), Ray's attempts to keep the faith by resurrecting Jimi and laying his own father to rest are powerfully affecting. Much more than yuppie reunions like The Big Chill, this captures a generation's sweet, desperate yearning for the 60's--though it ends up as authentically woolly as the period." 

When I first read this book 5 years ago (& I've read it again several times since then), I was impressed by Shiner's ability to capture a certain sensibility that existed in the pre-corporate rock & roll era.  Heh, heh... back then it seemed like it was all about the music & nothing but the music.  Yeah, I know rock (or pop) music was big business back then but it was also a simpler time.  (note that I did not say "a more innocent time", eh?)  As they used to say in the (old) Marvel comics... 'nuff said.

Follow The Words...

Lewis Shiner

Glimpses

Find The Words:

Glimpses

These Smashing Pumpkins shows aren't going so well. In part for their crowd-confounding setlists, but more so for their consistent devolution into excruciatingly awkward Corgan therapy sessions. The latest dispatch from the fault lines comes from the Pumpkins' hometown shows at the Chicago Theatre. This time, for the now infamous, sarcastic and ranting "Everything Is Beautiful" encore portion of the show, Billy again turned the mic over to a ticketholder to hear the crowd's perspective on the ongoing saga of his inexplicable meltdown. However this time his randomly selected crowd ambassador was more of a sycophant than a heckler. ("You're the man, we trust you! You guys rule! Don't ever stop playing. We love you. You gotta believe in yourself!")

Oddly, you don't get the impression that's what Billy wanted to hear. If this is some Tony Clifton crowd-antagonizing performance art BS, consider that moment a backfire. And when Corgan takes back the mic, he continues on with the acerbic, vindictive, self-doubting, totally unhinged tone of his previous spiel which included masturbatory fantasies of bending Sarah Palin over his amp (and thinking of the audience to help get him off), comparing his fans to his ex-girlfriends (who take all his money and never love him), and generally wondering why the world is out to get him. Just watch the video:

- Oh. My. God. If you haven't seen Broken Social Scene yet this year, do it. ASAP. Seriously. It's well worth the ticket price/gas money/plane ride. In fact, it pays dividends.

- Land of Talk opened. Elizabeth Powell is great, especially on the guitar. That girl can shred like the best of them! If you like the female-fronted-Canadian-indie-rock sound, you have to check them out. I'd suggest listening to "Speak to Me Bones" and "Summer Special" from their delightfully sludgy EP, Applause Cheer Boo Hiss, and "Some Are Lakes" from their latest CD.

- Kudos to my friends Sarah, Krystin, and Gantt for picking the best spot in the house (as in right in front of Whiteman, Canning, and Drew!)

- I don't think I could have asked for a more perfect set list. They kicked things off with "Shampoo Suicide," then played everything from "KC Accidental" to "7/4 (Shoreline)" to "Fire Eye'd Boy" to "Looks Just Like the Sun" to "Churches Under The Stairs" to "Hit the Wall." And that was just the "first half" of the show.

- Next came "Cause=Time," "Love Is New," "Stars and Sons," " Anthems For A Seventeen-Year-Old Girl," "Frightening Lives," "Lover's Spit," "Superconnected," "Major Label Debut," "Been At It So Long," "It's All Gonna Break" And it doesn't end there...

- Most jaw-dropping part of the night: Andrew Whiteman (the Apostle of Hustle himself) playing "National Anthem of Nowhere." Daydreamed about this happening for weeks now...and it actually materialized. And I just told someone today that I would give my right leg to see Apostle of Hustle.

- Another thing that materialized: my weird dreams where Brendan Canning pops up as another face in the crowd. Ran into him on my way to the bathroom. He was standing there, with his cute little winter hat with the earflaps, just like my dream. Anna, I think your whole sleep-stalking theory was right.

- That "set list" up there is incomplete. If you can believe it. Found the complete-ish set list:

1. Late Nineties Bedroom Rock for the Missionaries
2. Shampoo Suicide
3. KC Accidental
4. 7/4 (Shoreline)
5. Fire Eye'd Boy
6. Churches Under the Stairs
7. Hit the Wall
8. Farewell to the Pressure Kids
9. Three Thousand Miles (Hawaii cover)
10. Looks Just Like the Sun
11. The Science Experiment / Mrs. Morris
12. Cause=Time
13. Superconnected
14. (I think this was Been At It so Long. Unless we all dreamed it.)
15. Anthems for a Seventeen Year Old Girl
16. Love is New
17. Frightening Lives
18. National Anthem of Nowhere (Apostle of Hustle cover)
19. Stars and Sons
20. It's All Gonna Break
    

Encore:

1. Lover's Spit
2. instrumental jam
3. Major Label Debut (Fast)

- Okay fine. I really wanted to see "Almost Crimes." But that would have been really indulgent/selfish of me to ask for after tonight..

- I love how Broken Social Scene sounds ridiculously tight and like they're about to fall apart all at the same time.

- Liz Powell filled in for all the female vocals on the BSS tracks. She has me sold in terms of being a full-on BSS female vocalist. "Anthems" was beyond words.

- The Do Make Say Think experiement with the sax was pretty cool. It's far too complicated to explain, so if you're curious, go youtube it.

- Drew's jacket during the Hawaii cover...

- If BSS really needs a personal trainer, my friend Will is willing and able to work for "Ibi Dreams of Pavement (A Better Day)" once a week.

- Drew has an "F" tattooed on his wrist. Ironic that we noticed that when he was playing "Lover's Spit" and asked the crowd to shout out names of exs...

- Canning has the most formidable beard I've ever seen in my life.

- He also has cool shoes. See?

- Got countless music recommendations. I met a guy named Josh from Chattanooga while waiting for the show to start. He says I need to listen to M83 (who I have heard of but never really checked out). Another girl (whose name I didn't catch) suggested I see the Avett Brothers live. And at the end of the night, after a massive group hug, Kevin Drew told the crowd chilling in the parking lot to keep on checking out new music. Not wanting to miss an opportunity, I asked him what he's been listening to. He mentioned The National, Chad VanGaalen, and a little band called The Field that I've never heard of but must check out!

- Ran into a very drunk Whiteman after talking to Drew. Asked him if I could get a picture, he said he would love to, put his arm around me and mumbled something about making eyes at me. I turned to see what he was talking about and his face was about half an inch from mine. He was closing in on me too, so I looked at my friend with the camera and this happened:

Probably one of the greatest/most awkward/hilarious moments of my life. Made even more awkward by the fact that he tried it on two of my other friends. Which leads me to pose the question: If the man that just made you all melty inside by playing several of your favorite songs ten minutes before drunkenly mumbles about making eyes at you and leans in, what the heck are you supposed to do?

Some may think this is an easy answer, but when you're in the situation, it's a tough call.

The title of the mix is an ode to Richie Hawtin’s “Decks, EFX & 909.” A lot of today’s mixtapes are flawlessly sequenced together using computer software. Setting out to make a DJ Mix in the spirit of the old days, Joee recorded his mix in one take, using the same equipment that would be used in one of his energetic live sets: Turntables, Serato, and a MacBook Pro: “Decks, Box & MBP.”

Joee Irwin was raised in St. Louis, Missouri, where in his teens he was brought into the underbelly of the city’s punk rock culture. Friends exposed him to the 90’s rave scene at a time when Italo Disco was all the DJs were playing, and Joee fell full tilt into the world of electronic music. The soundtracks of those early underground parties have stuck with him. He’s zig-zaged the United States and always found himself at the forefront of any music scene he’s come across. An accomplished DJ who has shared the stage with rosters of top tier acts, and a music blogger who writes for the widely-read Palms Out Sounds, Joee recently transplanted from Portland, Oregon to Brooklyn, New York. This mix is as much a celebration of his move as it is his interpretation of the journey that brought him to New York.

Joee Irwin - Decks, Box & MBP
Recorded: 18 Oct 2008
Catalog: IRw02

Technical List:

Rane TTM 56 Mixer
Intel MacBook Pro 2.2 GHz
Serato Scratch LIVE SL 1 v1.8.1
Technics SL-1200 Turntables
Stanton 890 FS Cartridges

Tracklisting:

1. Gurtz - “Spok”
2. Claude VonStroke - “Scarlet Macaw Unstrung”
3. Marco Carola - “Get Set”
4. Daniel Dreier - “Ice Bear”
5. Marc Houle - “Sands”
6. Todd Bodine - “Closer”
7. Joseph Capriati - “Oasi”
8. Preocoop - “Ohrwerk” (Ritch & Collins Remix)
9. Philipp Wolgast - “Rudimental” [Alpaca]
10. Boris Brejcha - “Push To Play”
11. Funkagenda and Paul Thomas - “Thrapp”
12. D-Unity - “Shake It” (D-Unity’s Shaker Mix)
13. Colin Hobbs - “Coming Up” (Christian Hoff Remix)
14. Beckster - “Hallo”
15. Zoo Brazil - “Technik”
16. TC - “Where’s My Money” (Caspa Remix)
17. Dial M - “Remedy”
18. Ramadanman - “Offal”
19. Loefah - “Disko Rekah”
20. Roommate - “Natty Music” (Noah D Remix)
21. Graphic ft Beans - “I Am Metal” (Starkey Remix)
22. BAR 9 - “Pussyhole”

Download (right click, save as) (80MB, 192kBit/s)

mp3

‘pure minimal pleasure!,,’ [dg]

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