Sucker L. C.'s (Motown Remix)

The Abusing of the Hood

EDGE OF SEVENTEEN (NOLA BOUNCE REMIX)

Free DOWNLOAD!!!

NYC to SF (My Redbull Music Academy Experience: PART 1)

MY NAME IS MR. X NOLA...

I am here to invite you to experience what I've experienced... No one from New Orleans has ever been selected to the Redbull Music Academy. It is my job to try and change that.

Getting to San Francisco a day early and just beeboping through the city. I hollered at Erin & Justin. We parlayed. We talked about dogs. We had Thai. Gooood tiiimmees.

The first night was AMAZING!!! GARY BARTZ & Aloe Blacc & Bilil... You know how I love that smooth music. It was super tight. Also super cool because of my collabo with EMYND & LYRIKILL was a remix of "I need a dollar" which was performed quite splendidly.

FREE DOWNLOAD ^^^^

Thursday was Stretch & Bobbito

Live at Mighty SF, San Francisco

http://redbullmusicacademyradio.com/shows/4963/

Part 1

http://redbullmusicacademyradio.com/shows/4964/

PART 2

http://redbullmusicacademyradio.com/shows/4965/

PART 3

http://redbullmusicacademyradio.com/shows/4966/

PART 4

APPLY TODAY UNTIL APRIL 2ND, 2012!!! GET YOUR APPLICATIONS TO ME ASAP, LADIES & GENTLEMEN!!!!!

DOWNLOAD APPLICATION AND APPLY TODAY

DOWNLOAD THE APPLICATION AND HIT ME UP WITH ANY QUESTIONS...

ALSO FOLLOW:

@RBMA

AND

@REDBULL504

@REDBULLATX

AND

@MannyDojo

SXSW is coming up so I know y'all want the good RSVP info on the parties

THANKS!!!!

Giving thanks for my life, love and everything...

Well folks, I have just recently weathered a three week whirlwind that made some minor changes in my current course. October was particularly busy for me, which spilled over into the beginning of November. Now I feel like I'm down to Earth, and I'm left rearranging the pieces of my life that are out of order.

2011 is nearing completion, and it's been an amazing year. This, quite possibly, has been the most important year of my life. Today I stand at the threshold of having everything I've ever dreamed of. When I started skratching in my bedroom those 15 years ago, I would never in my wildest dreams have thought I would end up here in New Orleans. I most certainly could not have imagined that I would own my own business, or I would have an article in Offbeat Magazine. Not too bad for a college dropout from New Iberia, if I do say so myself. It seems as if these last two months have lasted two years. This is especially relevant because the last FIVE years seem to have passed in the blink of an eye. Its almost as if in an instant... SHAZAM... I went from a waiter and a hobby deejay, eeking out a meager existence in Lafayette to where I humbly sit before you right now typing this diatribe. As time is our most valuable commodity, the fact that it seems to be passing so slowly might just be the greatest gift of all.

With Thanksgiving on the horizon, for the first time I'm seriously reflecting upon my life and where its headed. I truly am blessed to be living my life on my own terms. Whatever luck, combined with perseverance and wise choices, has put me in the best position to propel my life to heights previously unthinkable. Being securely in the driver's seat of your own life is an amazing position to be in. I am thankful for that. I am thankful for my mom. For the last 15 years of my life, our relationship has become something that I hold very close to my heart. As much as she would like to think she is different than her mother, she is very much the same in so many ways. She now occupies the space left by my grandmother's untimely death from brain cancer Thanksgiving Day 1993. That Thanksgiving was the last time I took time out to re-examine my life. At the tender age of 18 whilst in my first semester of college, I tried to find answers to some really hard questions about life, love, and everything. I decidedly came up with the answer 42.

Fast forward to today... I have so many things for which to be thankful. I am thankful for my continued good health. Without my health, I would have no life or not much of a quality of life. I am thankful for my friends. I don't have many good friends, but the ones that I hold close to my heart I sincerely cherish. I am thankful for all the gifts I have given by my creator, namely my creativity and good sense. I am thankful for my deejay career which was given an amazing boost by Yachtbounce, a genre I imagined with the help of some friends on Thanksgiving 2010. I am thankful for my business, Doggy Dog World, which after four + years is still here providing a much needed service to Midcity. I am thankful for my animals Taki, Joey and Doug. Their health and happiness brings me much joy, and I am blessed to have them in my life. I am thankful for being a homeowner. Although its not finished yet and I'm going through it with the contractors, it is a blessing. Lastly, I am thankful for a new, amazing presence in my life. I could have never predicted the turn of events that placed this person with me, and she has forever changed the way I look at myself, my life, and the world around me. I am forever grateful for her, and I am grateful to the forces that put us together.

All of this has me looking toward the future, my immediate future and my not so distant future.

Concerning my deejay career: I have not yet begun to really promote and market myself. I have always been of the opinion that I've got to be at a certain skill level to be worthy of promoting myself, and after 15 years and 10 years of battling the time has come. Its time for me to capitalize on my new-found "fame", and push my career to the next level. I will accomplish this by using all of the artistic talent at my disposal to become a tour de force in the US and the international stage. Using brand marketing techniques, I will expound on the reputation and quality of the Tony Skratchere brand, and maybe throw a few surprises in along the way. I am resolved to produce more music. I am resolved to better my deejaying in every way so to only cement the quality of my brand and further assure that I can continue to demand a professional wage from doing something that brings me so much enjoyment.

Concerning my business: Throughout the course of this four years, I kept my business afloat with little or no advertising or marketing besides word of mouth and sporadic fliers. I will soon be able to expand my services, and through some small improvements I will be able to change the dynamic of Doggy Dog World and enter into a new realm of business prosperity. Using many of the same techniques I will use to expand my deejay career, I will push my business to the next level and provide myself a better quality of life.

Concerning my personal life: I will eventually move into my new house leaving my deejay studio in the space that my bedroom now occupies. My home will be my home, and my business will be my business. I will finally, after all these years, have dedicated spaces for all of my creative outlets. My living situation will finally be able to be compartmentalized and my workflow streamlined and redefined. No longer will everything be mashed together into one chaotic mess. I will finally have the space for my life to breathe and breed. This new house marks the beginning of a new life for me. Now my dreams of having the life I always wanted finally seem within reach. In this new chapter of my life I hope to soon start a family and find new joys in raising children with someone I love. Now is the time to become the person that I was born to be. All of the pieces are in place. I am in the driver's seat, and its all up to me assemble the pieces into the big picture that is my future.

On the eve of Thanksgiving 2011 leading into the holiday season I can see the sun rising on the horizon of my life. I have always been a late bloomer, so things are working out just as I have envisioned them. I have made it thus far to a place where I answer to no one but myself. As this year comes to a close, I can only look back and take in all of the amazing things that I have witnessed. This has been a year of maturity, change, and most of all providence. I have seen myself go through real changes this year, and I feel as if this metamorphosis is only beginning. I welcome the changes to come, and I look forward to finally meeting this person that I am certain to become.

Love and blessings to all,

The Skratchman

The Tao of the Macaroni & Cheese Puzzle

I received a 108 piece double-sided macaroni puzzle for my birthday this year. It was a great gift because I hadn't done a puzzle in a number of years. This particular puzzle, despite its size and low number of pieces, was extremely difficult. As I emptied the box, spilled the contents on to my artboard, and began to flip and separate the pieces, I began to contemplate life and love through the eyes of a puzzle piece.

In essence life is like a puzzle. It begins in chaos. We are conceived and spend nine months in the puzzle box womb of our mothers. As we are born the contents of the box are unleashed and we spill onto the drawing table of the world. As we grow and learn, the border pieces of our lives begin to take shape. Sometime during adolescence, the border is completed and the framework of what our life is to become begins to take shape. What we are left with is the lifelong, arduous task of arranging the remaining pieces into something beautiful, picturesque or logical. Each day of our lives we are in some way completing this puzzle. Forever trying to find the right piece to fill the parts of our lives that are incomplete. If we are diligent and patient, the puzzle begins make sense. Once it begins to make sense, the process of completion becomes a simple organizational task.

This brings me to love. We as individuals are a lot like puzzle pieces. We all are looking for how we fit into the bigger picture. We are all like a puzzle pieces because while we all have similarities, no two puzzle pieces are exactly the same. Some of us are part of 5000 piece expert puzzles, some are part of a far smaller, easier to complete puzzle.

There are three types of puzzle pieces: corners, edges, and interior pieces. The corner pieces are the rarest of the pieces, these are the visionaries in our society. Next are the edges, they form the frame in which the rest of the pieces will eventually fall. These are the professionals, the artists, the scientists, the architects, the doctors, the teachers, the engineers, the athletes, the musicians, the actors, the entertainers. Lastly are the interior pieces, the most common of the three. These are the workers. Without these pieces there would be no picture. All of these pieces must all work together to complete the grand picture of life.

When looking for love, this is especially relevant. The interior pieces have it the easiest. There are four pieces that one can be perfectly connected... four great loves. The edge pieces have but three great loves, and the corner pieces only two great loves. We stumble throughout our lives trying to find these perfect matches. In the process we try lots of wrong pieces, trying to make this connection. Sometimes, pieces look as if they ALMOST fit. The piece is the same size, color, and shape, but it's just not the right piece. That piece belongs somewhere else in the puzzle. It's another's perfect match and no matter how much we try to force it, the puzzle cannot be completed with those two pieces connected in an imperfect way. We are all looking for our perfect match. If we quit in the middle of the search for the missing piece, we can never hope to see the full picture of life.

So to all of you who read this, go out today and buy a puzzle. Open the box, spill the contents onto your kitchen table, flip then separate the pieces, and go to work on completing the puzzle. While you do so, remember these words. Remember your great loves. Remember when you were a child and didn't have anything to figure out. Remember when you figured out who you were as a person. Remember when you put your own life on its current path.

I see my own life in this process. Over and over again I keep placing piece after piece onto the puzzle and the more I concentrate on slowly putting things together, the more the picture begins to take shape. Hell... if I ever feel like I've got it all figured out or if I get to the point of completion, I'll just break it up into its original form and do it all over again. To me life is about the journey not the destination.

The Skratchman

Birthday Weekend 2011 Wrap-Up...

As I opened my blog, I realized that it has been almost two months since my last post... WHEW! Unacceptable... So much has happened since August 30th. Each year around this time I make birthday "resolutions" not unlike New Years Resolutions except I tend to take these a little more seriously. Its all a product of my daily quest to be better than the day before.

I don't regret not posting for a while... I live my life very publicly on the intrawebz, and often times I have to live an entirely private life. These memories I have made in these two months are mine. You guys didn't get to share them with me. If you are friends with me on Facebook and/or follow me on twitter, you know I've been doing well. That's all you need to know. I have, in fact, been doing well... fantastic even...

There's no time like the present. AmIRite??? Well, this brings me to October 21st, 2011. My birthday fell on a Friday this year, which means next year my birthday will fall on a Sunday since next year is a Leap year... Am I angry that 2012 has gipped me out of a Saturday birthday next year?? What a silly question! I could never be angry at 2012. We don't even know each other.

This year I turned 28... again. Friday was my actual birthday, and I spent it exactly how I wanted to spend it. I spent the day anxiously awaiting updates from Stephannie on her drive in from Austin. I had just finished reading "Jitterbug Perfume" the day before after taking an increbibly long time getting started by reading about 20 pages per sitting for the last month or so, I blazed through the final 100 pages on the morning Thursday October, 20th. The final chapter was still emanating in my psyche, as I continued to contemplate the actual significance of the novel in my life right now. "Am I Alobar, and she Kudra?" What a beautiful question!

At six o'clock, I begin my drive to Lafayette down I-10. I took my time and arrived in Lafayette around 8:20. I took the University exit and proceeded to the Racetrack to begin my wait. I realized something upon my exit to Lafayette. Lafayette has it bad from a public perception standpoint as evidenced by the exits off of I-10. You have the General Mouton exit which is probably the least sketchy of the four. But the other three, Johnson St, Evangeline Thruway, and University all cross through the poorest parts of the city. If you're an outsider coming in, you would NEVER think that River Ranch and Broadmoor even existed. I hope the plans for the I-49 extension go directly on top of the Thruway. This would allow the city to add a few more desirable exits into the city (Willow, Congress, Johnson St. Pinhook, etc...) This is what I thought of whilst I was waiting for Steph to arrive. It was ultimately briefly summarized in my Facebook status of the evening: "Waiting for my lady at Racetrack on N. University... Dude, Lafayette is so f*cking sketchy." Sketchy indeed, sir. Sketchy indeed.

On Saturday, I did Herb Import's Roktober fest... ALWAYS SUPER FUN, and I got my Professor Farnsworth action figure. So I was cool.

The details of the weekend will remain private. All I will say is that it was one of the greatest birthday weekends of my life.

As I drove home on Sunday, I had a lot of time to reflect on my weekend, previous year, my plans for the next year, my immediate future, and my 5-year-plan. I came up with a nice list of realistic goals for myself:

1. Be a better deejay

2. Draw more

3. Grow the business

4. Buy more plants

5. Explore new recipes

6. Continue to exercise daily

7. Write more

These are all realistic, and only further expound on things I'm already doing and would like to do more of. This is the first year a very long time that I feel a very real sense of liberation. For the last few years I had been a rut... plain and simple. I lost my way. Now that I'm on this new path, each step that I take along this path feels like a first step. 2011 has been a great year so far. I can only see great things happening for 2012.

Sincerely,

The Skratchman