With John Forté being an influence in my life in the 90’s through his work with the Fugees, coming from humble beginnings, and going through a life-altering event that took him on a 7 year life-detour I find a lot of parallels to my own life in his and it was such a privilege to hear him speak at a recent Creative Mornings NYC session.

Above the grit and noise of the street, downtown Los Angeles quietly provides some of the most amazing visual detail in its buildings and public art works. This is a selection of those buildings and public arts filmed across some 50 different locations in the immediate downtown area and the arts district. There are many many more locations that are not included and are equally if not more impressive.

Some of the buildings are in disrepair, some have been restored to their full glory while others have been transformed into artworks. In all of them, there is character, color and detail that makes the area a never-ending source of intrigue.

Dubbed as “the world’s first 24 hour music video” LA has never looked so beautiful in Pharrell’s latest video for his single “Happy”. With the simple concept of 4min uninterrupted segments you watch Angelinos dance throughout LA at literally all hours of the day. With minimal set boundaries you get to see locals drive/walk through the background that really brings the concept together because you get the full LA flavor without even having to try. Genius!

On a trip to Pasadena last weekend I took the Metro through Union Station and I couldn’t help but smile as I walked through the main transit hall thinking of this video. Best believe that you will find me all over LA recreating some of these scenes.

Checkout 24hoursofhappy.com for the full experience.

Thank you Pharrell and We Are From LA for making LA look so beautiful and giving us an LA version of “Dance Walking”

Here are all 24 hours, which I must admit that I have watched at least 12 of so far…

The Northern Soul movement emerged in Northern England in the mid-1960’s during the peak of the Motown soul era. It tapered off in the 1980’s but made a resurgence in 2010 and its been great to watch it filter into mainstream culture a bit. I like to think that if I was a local that this would be my scene: 1) you listen to soul records all the time, 2) they play a lot of obscure releases that I have never heard of, 3) and there’s a chill social dance scene – yup, count me in.

Here is a taste for a typical all-night lock-in.

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I have been listening to Propaganda since 2003 when he was collaborating with The Tunnel Rats crew and later came out with his solo album “Out of Knowhere”. It has been great to see him back on the scene lately under the Humble Beast label.

The story that he shares with I Am Second is compelling to me because he speaks about Jesus Christ giving him personhood outside of his background, circumstances, or surroundings. Despite feeling like “a fish out of water” and being “the only” everywhere he went God showed him how it was all orchestrated for God’s glory and that he truly was “fearfully and wonderfully made”.

Propaganda came back on my radar when he came out with the G.O.S.P.E.L. spoken word piece back in 2011.

I got a chance to watch him live at Rhetoric 2012.

You can listen to his latest album “Excellent” on Spotify. Download “Excellent” for free via Humble Beast.