Imageyenation's main man El Keter is currently out sick (get better El K!), which is one of the main reasons posting has been so light. We should hopefully be back up to speed sometime next week.

Until then, stay tuned for some more great posts from the rest of the Imageyenation Crew.

No, you haven't been smokin' too many rocks. And no, this isn't a hallucination. It's a stone fact. After a far too lengthy hiatus the Imageyenation collective is officially back!

I'm sure most of you are wondering where the fuck we've been all these months. And some of you are probably wondering why the site has, upon it's return, been hurled into the past, with an entire month of quality content just gone.

Well, I'm gonna attempt to answer both those questions.

First, we actually haven't been anywhere. We've been right where we always are. The truth of the matter is that our former webhost, who many of you are aware was giving us a bunch of problems, finally stepped over the ultimate line and just straight up deleted our account. They did this without warning. They didn't offer us a chance to back our site data up. They didn't offer us any other options. They just deleted us. And the worst part is that they didn't even tell us after they did it. I had to hassle them for damn near month before they admitted what they did! The moral of that story is, don't use Surf Speedy for web hosting under any circumstances.

Second, a bunch of our posts ( all the posts between July 14th and August 21st, the date Surf Speedy shut us off ) have been obliterated thanks to Surf Speedy's sudden and unexplained deletion of our account and our site data. The last backup I had made of the site before the deletion was on July 14th, so lucky enough we have all our data up until then. But everything else, save a few reviews I could salvage thanks to web cacheing and a few bits and pieces our crewmembers might have saved on their hard-drives before posting, is lost forever. The moral of that story is back up your site data ( especially your database ) as frequently as possible, no matter who you use for web hosting.

On top of all that, I've been living the last few months without a roof. As many of you may remember, the month of August started off especially rough for me due to the fact that a freak storm ( which may have been a tornado, or a weather anomoly known as a downburst ) ripped the roof off the apartment building which houses Imageyenation HQ ( as well as my bed ) while I happened to be sitting in it. Immediately following this traumatic near-tragedy I was temporarily nomadic and was saved from having to hit the streets ( not like it would have been the first time, but it still would have sucked ) thanks to the generosity of crewmember Emeyesi. For a while it looked as though the HQ building was going to be permanently condemned, but thankfully it wasn't, and after some quick temporary fix work I ( and the other displaced tenants ) were allowed to move back in. That was great. But what wasn't great was that it took three full months to get a permanent roof on the building. So, while I was haggling with Surf Speedy, and scrambling to find a new host for the site, I was worrying that every rainstorm would result in flooding, water damage, more wind damage and possible destruction of my home, my property or myself. If you live in the Northeast you know we were hit with a number of strong storms with heavy rains and in some cases violent winds during that time, so you can imagine it wasn't fun. But to put it simple, my personal misfortune definitely compounded the issues I was having with the site, and made it more difficult to get shit together and back online.

But in the end, I and the rest of the Imageyenation posse have prevailed. We have a new host and a fresh new site design, not to mention a brand new roof, and all just in time to celebrate this site's official five year anniversary!

So, we hope you'll welcome us back with open arms despite our absence. You can expect the same fresh content you've grown accustomed to, and hopefully a lot more. Thanks for sticking with us.

We should be around for at least another five years if I have anything to say about it.

It pains us to have to make an announcement like this, but Imageyenation is in danger... Danger of being kocked out of commission temporarily... And maybe even in danger of being shut down completely!

This is due entirely to bitchassery on the part of our longtime webhost SurfSpeedy who, after months of shitty service, picked today to inform us that we have 30 days left before they arbitrarily jack our hosting fees up into the stratosphere.

As you may have noticed, we've had countless server outtages here at Imageyenation over the last 6 months. And the last 3 months have been particularly bad, with outtages aplenty, and an outright shutdown last month over bandwidth issues. Issues which could have been avoided completely had SurfSpeedy just sent us a message to let us know we were in danger of exceeding our bandwidth ahead of time rather than just just shutting us off.

Now they've apparently moved our site to a different server without our consent, and despite having made us jump through hoops last month setting up a new hosting plan ( with robust new space and bandwidth features ) just to get us turned back on, have informed us that they're tripling our monthly hosting costs... just because... well, they can. Apparently they sold us a plan last month with features which they had no intent of ever actually providing us with, and are basically saying that they're technologically incapable of meeting the obligations of such a plan without gouging us for a shitload of money.

In other words, they're fucking us!

We're not exactly sure what this means for Imageyenation in the long run right now. This is all a shock and we're still weighing our options ( if you have a good tip on robust, inexpensive, hosting solutions please hit us up ) as to what our next step should be. But in the short run we're pretty sure it's gonna mean limited posting, possible interruption of site access, and maybe even prolonged ( or permanent, God forbid ) interruption of the site's existence at some point in the near future. It all depends on how things play out over the next couple of weeks. But basically, don't be surprised if there's suddenly no new podcasts, and no new, or very few, new posts for a while.

Trust me, it hurts us to have to warn you, our readers about this, especially when it's apparently the fact that so many of you are reading the site and downloading from us which is causing our host to lose their minds and stab us in the back after years of being their faithful customer. We know you're out there, we don't want to leave you, we don't want to lose you, and we're gonna try to make sure we don't.

If you've any advice, or words of support and encouragement we'd sure like to hear it.

This is Lady Glock and I'm here to say
I'm comin' back at ya in a major way

And thus ends my rapping career. I'm gonna stick to the blogging from here on.

You already know I'm in the process of moving the blog archives over from Blogger's servers to a new data-base driven system right here on our own server. That's been a big job in and of itself.

Unfortunately I've also been saddled with some health problems on top of that though.

For the last week I've been flat on my back, almost totally immobalized, after a back injury sustained in a car accident back in the '90s flared up. So it's been a lot of rest and over-the-counter pain medication interspersed with whinning and cane aided hobbling to the bathroom for me since last Sunday.

I'm still not back to 100%, but I'm mobile again at least, so I thought I'd give yall a quick update as to what's going on around here.

Keep watching for occasional posts untill the new system goes live shortly.

No, it's not because I'm a lazy bastard.

It's actually all got to do with the fact that for the last two weeks I've been wrestling with implimenting a new Content Management System here at Imageyenation. I've installed, monkeyed with and then uninstalled Mambo, Nucleus, Wordpress, Wordpress again and then -- after arguing with some assholes on the Wordpress support forums -- settled back on Nucleus. The last few days have seen me customizing Nucleus, reformatting this site's design to be compatible with the Nucleus template and skin system, installing some upgrades and getting ready to import all the old Blogger posts into the new system.

That's when I found out that the Blogger import feature was no longer being offered by Nucleus.

That was also this morning.

So now I'm trying to work around this little snafu and see if I can get this thing running, but unfortunately the situation looks pretty grim right now.

Oh, and I almost forgot to mention... in the middle of the whole operation discussed above my computer here at HQ had a total meltdown. So I had to spend way too much valuable time and money trying to save all my data, buying new data storage, re-uploading all my important shit, installing software, finding replacements for missing programs and all sorts of other fun stuff.

These are the things my nightmares are made of.

But not all has been terrible here in Bangfield Smashachusetts.

Our man Cereffusion came down from New Hampshire to rock the spot on our very own Urban Alternative Show a couple weeks back. As anyone who reads this space should be well aware, he had been talking a lot of big talk about how dope the show was going to be and I'm pleased to say he lived up to that talk. He is a man indeed... a very big man.

As an aside, it was actually upon returning from broadcasting that show that I found my computer in a state of total destruction. So you see, even with great joy there can be great sorrow... and vice-versa.

But before I go getting all philisophical I have to put one other piece of good news out there, and that is that both of our contests have run their course and the winners have been chosen and notified. The response to both of the give-a-ways was impressive, especially when one considers the minimal ammount of promotion I put into them. I want to thank everyone for entering and offer my congratulations to our winners... hope you enjoy your prizes when you get 'em.

So umm, yeah... that's about it for right now... you're free to go.

At least one person found our site thanks to the Google search engine and the mis-appropriation of the phrase "wake up with the king" by myself and Cereffusion.

It pleases me, in an almost sexual way, to announce that the homie Mike "DJ M.I.C." Hanscom a.k.a. Emeyesi has finally joined the blog!

It's unclear where or when he's actually gonna decide to post. But what is clear is that he no longer has an excuse for sending me items with a note saying "blog this" anymore since he should be able to blog it his damn self!

Anyway, I've wanted to grow the blog and open it up to some other folks for a while now but people rarely show that they actually have the time or stick-to-it-tive-ness to stay with it. But regardless, if you're interested in joining the blog feel free to hit me up some time to let me know what the deal is.

Guess what I'm doing?

Yes, I am talking on AIM with Cereffusion.

Umm, and yeah, I am listening to Masta Ace's 'Slaughtahouse.'

Are you guessing or peeping in my window?

Anyway, despite your scary levels of accuracy you neglected to mention the fact that I'm currently redesigning the Urban Alternatives website.

It's coming along real nice. I'm not sure if I'm gonna be able to get it finished tonight, but a man can hope, can't he?

In honor of M.I.C.'s unholy love for all things 'Aqua Teen Hunger Force' related I've posted a poll in the forums designed to determine which member of "tha force" is in fact "numba one in tha hood, G!"

So go vote!

Hooray right?

Well, not quite.

See, a lot of stuff still isn't live or updated to the new template yet, there's some links to nowhere and a bunch of other content related material has been left off untill a later date.

But something's better than nothing right?

Right.

So look for more changes over the next few weeks as I work out the kinks of the new design and get more of the content up.

...The Guru M.A. Williams has been sampled!

I haven't listened to the song yet, it's downloading now, so I can't vouch for it's quality, but godammit it's about time somebody recognized the power of The Guru!

It's official, the homie Cereffusion's weblog, which was designed and is hosted by yours truly, is up and running. He's the first crewmember to really take up the subdomain mantle and run with it and I'm happy to see the plans we've discussed for a while finally come to fruition.

In case you didn't know, Cereffusion is a cool kid from New Hampshire who happens to be a longtime listener of our radio shows. He's become a real world friend over the last few months and we've even hung out a couple times when he's swung through the area.

He's also the person I'm most likely to be chatting with at 4:30 a.m. on any given morning. We're actually de-bugging his site over AIM as I type this.

Anyway, the man has good taste in music and flicks and is even funny once in a while. He's also embarking on a broadcasting journey of his own and should soon be hosting a radio program who's dopeness will rival that of my own. So keep your eye on his site. While it still has a couple kinks that need working out the guy has big plans for it and a good head on his shoulders, so it's sure to blow the fuck up.

Okay, so the comments system should be working again.

...but stuff has actually been going on. So here's a general update for you, my loyal readers.

First off, big gigantic up's go out to Probe of DMS Country Recordings and the Cvees crew. Not only did his group put out one of the best hip-hop singles of the season in "The Jump Off" b/w "For You" but he's such a cool cat that he's actually hit me off a couple times with exclusive new Cvees tracks. I just got one today in fact. Called "Ride" it's a smooth Rhodes chord fueled, bouncy summer jam type of affair equating sex and cars. I don't know if this is gonna be featured on their upcoming album, as a single, or what, but I do know the shit is fresh and is gonna get crazy burn. Holla at ya boy via the DMS Country website. And no, he doesn't make country music.

Next up, we have news relating to the homefront. We've officially added a new member to the Imageyenation family. Who could it be? None other than longtime homie Cereffusion! Who the fuck is he? Well. Cereffusion is one of the Urban Alternative Show's most loyal listeners and one of our most beloved AIM buddies. He's a cool cat with good taste in music, lots of crazy political ideas and a fresh sense of humor as well. So, he's been given charge of a subdomain of this very site to be all his own. What will he do with it? Who the fuck knows. But he better get working on it fast. :-|

What's that you say? You want to be part of the Imageyenation Underground Culture Network too? All you have to do is ask. Well, and be a cool person too of course. We have spots open for Imageyenation affiliate sites but subdomain space is limited. If you're interested just let a brotha know.

And speaking of site developement, the redesign is going real well. The reconstruction of the main page is almost complete and it's looking real fresh. After that it's just a matter of incorporating all of the old content into the new design ( which is a lot easier said than done ) and "bam" it's an all new Imageyenation! I'm not sure if I should keep shooting for a launch around the new year or if I should keep hammering away and get it done around the time of the anniversary of the site's founding in the fall. Any suggestions? Send 'em my way.

In more personal news I finally updated my cel phone. Yes, that's right, I have a new service provider, a new phone and a brand spanking new number. I had been a longtime Verizon costumer ( dating back to when they were still Bell Atlantic ) and was absolutely in love with my Qualcomm phone, which I had since 1999. But alas, I had tired of Verizon's overcharges, fees & shitty customer service long ago, and despite it's dopeness, my phone was starting to feel a little big, clunky and heavy to be carrying around. So, I now have Cingular service and a text message sending, e-mail forwarding, digital picture taking, web enabled Sony Ericson T306 phone. So far the service has been a-ok and the phone itself is the shit, but I've only had the phone for a week or so I will keep you abreast of any problems that may arise as time goes by. If you're a personal friend who had my old number or someone who might otherwise believe that they have a reason to call me in the future hit me up for my new contact info.

Oh, and before I forget, I guess the comments server for the blog is acting up. The service is supposed to return soon though.

Dead Disco | The Strange Fruit Project "All The Way" | RSL "Wesley Music" | Common "Come Close ( Blackbeard Vocal )" | Ms. Dynamite "Dy-Na-Mi-Tee ( Yoruba Soul Mix )" | Floetry "Say Yes ( Darryl James 12'' Mix )" | Nick Nack "Mustard Seed" | Outkast "Hey Ya" | Louie Vega feat. Raul Midon "Cerca De Mi ( Nico's Mix )" | Markus Enochson feat. Jocelyn Matheieu "Feelin' Fine ( Main Mix )" | Seiji "Feels Like ( Osunlade's Tribal Mix )" | Swingsett & J. Warrin with Lisa Shaw "Doesn't Make It Right" | Roy Davis Jr. feat. Peven Everett "Gabrielle ( Live Garage Mix )" | The Latin Project "Lei Lo Lai ( Original Maw Mix )" | Clyde feat. Capitol A "Serve It Up ( Original Mix )" | Lyrics Born "Callin' Out" | Moodyman "I'm Doin' Fine" | Andres "Salvador De Bahia"