"put my fist up black power....!"
man, just when you thought it was safe...
FUNNY OR FOUL.. you be the judge...
Graphic by Gilberto Rosado
by LaEditora
If you haven`t seen the cover of this month`s Vanity Fair magazine (Feb. 2003), you`ll be pleasantly surprised to see Salma Hayek on the cover, but that`s where the niceties end. In an advice column entitled "Ask Dame Edna", the author/comedian, Ms. Dame his/herself, replies to a letter with some of the most shameful racist remarks. The Dame`s insulting advice was enough to motivate writer Gilberto Rosado to start an email campaign to expose the magazine`s offensive column. We thought you might be interested in reading what the Dame thinks of Latinos and what the editors and Vanity Fair allowed to be published, so here you go:
"Dear Dame Edna,
I would very much like to learn a foreign language, preferably French or Italian, but every time I mention this, people tell me to learn Spanish instead. They say, "Everyone is going to be speaking Spanish in 10 years. George W. Bush speaks Spanish." Could this be true? Are we all going to have to speak Spanish?"
-Torn Romantic, Palm Beach
"Dear Torn,
Forget Spanish. There`s nothing in that language worth reading except Don Quixote, and a quick listen to the CD of Man of La Mancha will take care of that. There was a poet named Garcia Lorca, but I`d leave him on the intellectual back burner if I were you. As for everyone`s speaking it, what twaddle! Who speaks it that you are really desperate to talk to? The help? Your leaf blower? Study French or German, where there are at least a few books worth reading, or, if you`re American, try English."
MiGente, we want you to use your power in numbers to tell Vanity Fair what you think of this columnist and her/his words. Send your letters to the editors at: vfmail@vf.com
crazy huh?
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oh yeah.. info
SCIFI.COM 1/29/2003 9:00 p.m. ET, 6:00 p.m. PT
Join Nebula Award-winner Octavia Butler for a discussion about her most recent novelette, "Amnesty."
Octavia Butler has had 11 novels published so far: Patternmaster, Mind of My Mind, Survivor, Kindred, Wild Seed, Clay's Ark, Dawn, Adulthood Rites, Imago, Parable of the Sower, and Parable of the Talents, as well as a collection of her shorter work, entitled Bloodchild. Her short story "Speech Sounds" won a Hugo Award in 1984, and "Bloodchild" won both the 1985 Hugo and the 1984 Nebula awards as best novelette. Parable of the Talents won the 1999 Nebula for best novel.
Connect your IRC software client to events.scifi.com and join channel #auditorium to participate. Chatters with a Java-capable browser may use our Java chat client.
URL: www.scifi.com/chat
-----------------------------
speaking of Scifi
Osiris Takes Flight
The upcoming Matrix-themed animated short film
The Final Flight of the Osiris will accompany the release of the upcoming Stephen King SF movie Dreamcatcher on March 21, Warner Brothers and Village Roadshow Pictures announced. Osiris is a nine-minute computer-generated short that serves as a prelude to the upcoming sequel film The Matrix Reloaded, which opens May 15.
Osiris is one of nine short films that make up The Animatrix, which delve further into the universe of The Matrix movies. The short-film series was conceived by Larry and Andy Wachowski, the brothers who created, wrote and directed the Matrix trilogy of films. The Wachowskis also wrote four of the nine Animatrix episodes, including Osiris, the studios announced.
Warner Home Video and Village Roadshow Pictures will release The Animatrix on DVD and VHS on June 3. The third Matrix movie,
The Matrix Revolutions, opens in November. Four of the Animatrix shorts will be posted online at the official Web site, beginning Feb. 4.
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i got this from capoeira.com . so for thoseof you who are curious....
http://ejmas.com/jcs/jcsart_thompson_1001.htm (Professor Robert Farris Thompson, of Yale University)
Here is a Mestre No interview:
http://raptor.slc.edu/~abraxas/MestreNo.html
http://www.blackbeltmag.com/archives/blackbelt/1964/mar64/capoeirabrazilian s/capoeirabrazilians.html - This is an article written for Black Belt magazine in 1964 by Mestre Pastinha himself.
http://ejmas.com/jcs/jcsart_rodrigues_0800.htm - This is another article from the Journal of Combative Sport which describes the various stories of capoeira`s origins and its historical development.
http://www.ironminds.com/ironminds/issues/010329/living2.shtml
"made you look..."
paths open up as i awaken my consciousness...
wake up the dead with the simple phrasing of terms ...
or the passing of my hands through the air...
i shoot slugs of life for my people...
heads are ready to die, but not yet ready to live so it's self destruction...
raise warriors since my mother taught me how...
now i wonder when i can raise healers...
a true daughter of Yemonja is my offspring
why do i call out?
our people are dying...
--dan tres OMi (that's me)
----------
those reviews, reviews, reviews...
on the DL, while you were gone i picked up Nas' "Gods Son" and Dead prez "Turn off the radio"
let's start with the purchases a week before...
TWO AND A HALF MICS out of 5...
well, it was dissappointing. it really was. alot of it is due to the production. I noticed that Kweli was really reaching for hot beats. i grew tired of the samples of old soul artists singing on EVERY TRACK it seemed like. Of course the Bilal tracks were WACK ("waiting for the DJ" and "Talk To you"). i don't know what Kweli was thinking about when he did "talk to you." that was just a waste of space. in "Rush" he tried to put some guitars on it, but the energy was not there. that track seemed forced. Gun Music was senseless. the hook is horrible and the chatting by Junior Cat was another waste (he went to Kingston to get him to do that, he could have gave ME THE LOOT TO ROCK IT BETTER!!!)..
I thought "Guerilla Monsoon Rap" w/Black Thought and Pharoah MOnche would be hot. WRONG.. the hook was horrendous. Pharaoh monche flowed WAY below his ability. it sounded as if he was like "let me just do this for talib so he can leave me alone..." Even Talib's rhymes were lackluster.
the highlights? "GEt By" is one where Talib dropped mad jewels. Joy with Mos was hot too. reminded me of my situation. all fathers can relate to this one...
but other than that , it was a waste of loot...
HOT HOT HOT HOT HOT!!!
5 OUT OF 5
(remember this is a tribute to Fela Kuti, the father of AFrobeat PLUS a benefit for AIDS. this alone should be enough to buy it)
sonically, its on some next level ish. heads such as Yerba Buena, Antibalas, and Positive Force play background sometimes. even Tony Allen lends a hand. so just the instrumentation is dope alone. but they have so many classic team ups. yes, it's all remakes but there is a hip-hop feel to it. on "SHuffering and Schmilling" Dead Prez and Talib Kweli team up to create another banger with Positive Force (man these cats should do an album, check "Sharpshooters" on the Soundbombing III album)
then there is a remake of my favorite Fela track "Water get no Enemy".. first they hit you with an instrumental then they bring the vocal version with Femi Kuti, D'angelo, and Macy Gray.. Macy Gray (who i don't like) rips it in Yoruba... Roy Hargrove plays the horn on this too. so it is hot...! Manu Dibango teams up with Les NUbiennes to redo Shakara/Lady.. that is hot too. Kelis (she is so hot) rocks "So Be It" this is the track everyone sleeps on but it will creep on you... there is even a remix of Sade's "By Your Side" i played it at this teen slam i dj'ed and i got MAD inquiries on it.
overall it is dope and well put together...a phenomenal album that will stay in my rotation for a long time. they have my favorite artists covering a favorite artists songs. can't go wrong...
FOUR OUT OF FIVE....
turn off the radio is another sleeper... i guess Dead Prez wanted to keep their fans satiated by putting out a mixtape. basically, they just redo classic hip hop tracks with a political slant to it. take for example, "we need a revolution"... basically, they take Aliyah's "we need a resolution" and flip it. it comes off hot. and catchy.
they take "Juicy" by Bigge and flip that too
(you know very well/who we are/we are africans/that's goddamn right/you see they are few/while we are many/so let's get free/so we can have plenty...)
the only set back is that most tracks are not even 2 minutes long. but the highlights are the aformentioned "we need a revolution" "B.I.G. REspect" "Know your enemy (straight dis to the bush administration, CIA, and FBI)... "selling dope" where a drug dealer realizes the error of his ways.
so support the real heads who ain't punk out after 9-11...
TWO AND A HALF OUT OF FIVE
what do i have to say about NAS' "God's son?"
yeah yeah, heads will hate on me. but this album SOLIDIFIES the theory that Nas is a confused cat. in one sentence he bigs up JESUS CHRIST, then god body lessons and then sipping moet and wearing versace in the same verse. i am like WTF. but he makes MAD references to Jesus. son fell off. i mean every man is entitled to his belief, but you can't come off gangsta and Xian like that. then again, i take that back, look at the Crusades and Xian subjugation of the indigenous people in this country and AFricans. my bus Nas, you are carrying on a legacy of genocide and religious hypocrisy. good looking out.
there are some jewels though such as "I can" "Dance" and "Heaven".. i do like "get down" cause of th James Brown samples. plus he does return to his dope story telling self. but is the album worth it. NAH... pass it on unless you saved and want to convert the savages down the street.
"basically, what they do is soft porn..."
first up, before we go any further, i gotta talk about this...
Friday, Jan 24, 2003, 11:05 am EST
`Gimme a Break!` star Nell Carter dies
Associated Press
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. -
Nell Carter, who played the stout, sassy housekeeper on the 1980s sitcom "Gimme a Break!" and won a Tony Award in 1978 for her sultry turn in the Broadway musical "Ain`t Misbehavin`," died Thursday at 54.
The singer-actress collapsed in her Beverly Hills home and was found by her 13-year-old son Joshua, spokesman Roger Lane said. The cause of death was not immediately known.Carter had suffered from diabetes for years, Lane said, and she underwent two brain operations in 1992 to fix aneurysms. She recovered and continued to perform, mostly on stage.
At the time of her death, Carter was in rehearsals at a Long Beach theater for "Raisin," a musical version of "A Raisin in the Sun." That show was set to run from Feb. 7 to March 9, and is expected to continue with a replacement.
-----------------------------
to be honest, we really have to get to the heart of the matter. she was just not healthy and did not take care of herself. that is something we all need to do. she was 54 and dying from stuff you don't get until you are like 80. that is what we have to peep. and i run into more and more people who are around my age (i will be 30 in March) who have ailments that are attributed to their lifestyle. i know cats get mad when i talk about eating healthy and excercising, people trip "not that again" but it's serious business. we all have control of our destinies. yet we would rather place our lives in someone else's hands. we do this everyday. EFF that! let's hold it down.. let's stop being victims and suckas... we must remember that our bodies are at constant war with the nasty crap that is out there. let's win it...
Man, what a weekend…
Again I have to ask, where should we start?
EL Jueves (Thursday)
Cabacador, Sininho, and I headed to the James Madison Hotel for the Word up Slam! We met Pele there. It was hot. The poets were bringing it. It was like 31 poets. Only 16 would advance. 11 of them got perfect 30’s! so it was hot.
We bugged out mostly, heckling the hosts (Godchild and Queen Amina) we even yelled for all the poets. We had the opportunity to size up the place since we were performing the next day. We decided to perform on the area where the vending took place. There were not that many chairs and there not to many posts to block us. The stage area had too many things that blocked the crowds view.
The poets who advanced:
1.
Sekou the Misfit – this cat was killing it. He was on Def Poetry Jam. Son is mad funny. He really held everyone’s attention
2. CeCe Moore – this west Indian sister. She does those sex poems. Man she brought it.
Pure eye candy. One of those sisters your momma told you to stay away from .
(sorry no image available)
3.
Patrick – POEMCEES!! What what.
Son is just like mad educated but such a hip-hop head. I know I am being stereotypical. He a fun loving cat, so we relate. He is my a-alike sort of in that respect.
4. Trish – she is mad cool. She look like she can kick your ass. She is so sassy! But she did those sex poems too. We need them joints kid. Ha ha ha. Like soft porn for you mind.
(sorry no image available)
5. 13—you know the god.
In a way I was disappointed. Cause he did some real old joints. But I guess they are sure shots…so he rocked it. I guess it’s like watching one of your favorite artists and you yell out the songs you want them to rock. He sort of read my mind.
6. Muhibb – this cat from Milwaulkee was straight unadulterated emotion. Man, he was making cats cry. He was bringing it. Too bad he did not have a CD. But he did have a calendar to support this organization he works with back home. It was hot. He was the sureshot winner
(sorry no image available)
7. Lamar Hill – a veteran.
Clearly a banger. Had everyone scared in their seats. He did the classic “I GOT ISSUES” man that is so powerful… full 30 points.
8. Mr. Cabel – (I forgot but he did advance)… he did the “EFF the judges” piece. Man he is constant elevation. An older cat too. I call him the good doctor.
(sorry no image available)
9.
Samantha --- I really love this sister.
She is very carefree yet organized. A good mixture of water and oil. Reminds me of my sister… she is so cool. She has a little girls voice too. When you see her you could never tell she was a poetess.
10. JP – this white cat did a joint call “big D**ks” man it was funny. Full 30 points.
(sorry no image available)
11. this cat who did a prayer. He basically got on his knees and prayed. I seen him somewhere before like hanging out. Never knew he wrote. He was okay. I still wondered how he made it pass to the 2nd round.
(sorry no image available)
12. Dasan Anhu – my man from NOW CEE. Always and forever holding it down. Mad creative cat. Seen him hit so many topics, it’s ill. Definitely a future poet to watch out for.
(working on a pic...sorry )
13. Rahsul – cat came all the way from Germany. He killed it. He was straight emotion. He was really bringing it. Military cat too.
(man I am really trying to remember the other 3!! Please bear with me, i know i should have wrote it down... )
oh i have not forgotten those reviews. i got you..
"the stuff i was supposed to put on but didn't"
Sunday was really great. We had rehearsal for Capoeira. Basically, we got together to sing some songs. It was bugged. I cannot sing and play the berimbau while we are playing regional. I don’t know why. In Angola, I can rock it like Stevie man. It was Muiginho, Valentino, Pele, and myself. So we worked on singing regional songs. Man, we sounded terrible. But we will work on it. I sounded so much worse.
I came home to eat with the fam. Oh, I forgot , I am not supposed to talk about my family. My fault.
I headed out to Divine Techtonics. I had to pick up Suebeephly and Hamza the 7th Sun. I learned that I have friends with such colorful names. I wonder if we will call each other that when we are in our 60’s? Of course, Suebeephly did not know how to actually get to Hamza’s house even though she claims it’s “around the corner.” I had to remind her that in Virginia NOTHING is around the corner. Being from NYC, she should know this. But we found him, thanks to cell phones (I hate those things). Would we still have found him? Of course, cause I would have made Sue go back home to get the directions.
Then we talked about THE SPOOK WHO SAT BY THE DOOR. He did not know there was a movie about it. I told them I had it but the person who I let borrow it has not returned it. But I told them I will get it and will let him see it.
The movie is actually VERY GOOD. It stars Lawrence Cook. I don’t remember who directed it. But it is about 90% almost like the book. That is rare amongst movies. I think Lord of the Rings is about 95%. But it is difficult to do that. The book for THE SPOOK is very short, so I guess it can be done.
I told him that skit on DEAD PREZ where the cat goes “I was born black, I am black, and I will probably be killed by a cracker because I am black…” was in the movie. He was like “WORD!” I said yeah.
We got to NSU early and found Queen Sheba there. She was hanging by herself. Then L-evation came all dressed out a usual. The crowd was small as I predicted. In Virginia, people hibernate during the cold. And it was brick for these parts. Hamza and I had a big discussion about school vouchers.
L-evation did freak it though. We got everyone to sit in a circle. It was dope. People really got a chance to do a piece, then have it critiqued by everyone else. It turned into a lively discussion. Here is the line up:
1.L-evation opened up with a piece. He really has elevated. Before I was not really digging his pieces. But he is coming up. His piece focused on the upcoming war with Iraq and how it is all a big farce.
2.this other cat came up.. he did a piece on love. It was very mature. I dug it. Everyone was feeling it. But he made a reference to Adam and Eve that I did not agree. I find that part in the Bible to be very sexist. It also demonstrates that the Creator is not that smart. He made female and male animals of other species, but when he made man, he somehow did not make a woman. L-evation explained that it really is one’s interpretation of the scripture. THEN I broke down where did the term “WOMAN” come from. We all agreed that it comes from “WOMB” and that according to the Bible, God created woman from a man’s rib. BUT I pointed out that a man DOES NOT HAVE A WOMB. That ended the debate right there.
3.Christopher Christ – he ripped it. Son got skills. He did a piece on politics. It was dope. the funny thing was that be brought his man with him. he played like the Flavor flav to his rhyme. everytime Christ would say something, he would repeat it with this funny nasal voice he had.
4.
Tears came back - i have not seen this brother in ages. he did a nice political piece. he said
"we can die anytime, anyplace, anyway..."
. like Guru said, it's mostly the voice. his voice is killer man, it puts the fear of god in you.
5. L-evation did a breathing exercise ... then he discussed Wu-shu and tai chi. i broked down how as babies we breathed correctly but somehow conditioned ourselves to do it incorrectly. Mr. Cabel discussed how he exercises before he sleeps and how it allows him to relax.
6.
Yay (that's his name) .. did an acapella rhyme called "RED, WHITE and BLUE". son said
"our behavior got our ancestors rolling in their graves"
it was a dope rhyme. well put together. he did not even slur his words. but he flipped it man
7. Suebeephly did a piece that focused on the war with self. Mr. Cabel built on that. i pointed out how we are at war with almost everything since we are under a totalitarian state, just that we don't know it. some cat made an 8 mile reference and Sheba talked about how she admired Madonna (go figure...the pimpstress of black culture) because she puts everything out there so that no one can attack her.
that was when Tears posed a question about young people. he asked how we were supposed to steer our children in the right direction. many people gave their opinions. but we agreed that we should not shelter any of them from what's going on. Queen Sheba did a piece on that later on.
8. 13 -- he came back. i have not seen him in months. he is doing his thing. he did a nice piece about his mother and grandmother. i like his metaphors. then someone pointed out that nowadays we got babies raising babies. L-evation's uncle came through and advised us to focus on solutions.
9. we stuck to the issue of parenthood when Mr. Cabel did a piece onhis dad. it was dope but a real twister.
then we started talking about our relationships with our dads. that is a tough subject for me. we also stayed on it a for awhile. it was real dope. i enjoyed. i got to air out a few things.
10. Queen Sheba did a piece about her mom but sounded like it was her dad. she is real bitter to mom dukes. i talked about my mom for aminute. man she is classic. i love her so much.
we stayed on the issue of parenting again.
11. Hamza the 7th sun killed it.
what was funny was this one cat who did a poem in the beginning said "Wisdom is better than knowledge.." and went on to like dis knowledge. so we had to break him down. hamza jumped on him. he was like "you can't have one without the other. " which is so true.
Divine techtonics open mic was HOT... i wish you were all there.
man, got a busy weekend coming up. i will try not to do that again. you know talk about last weekend at the end of the following week. that is so ghetto...
----------------------
been a busy week so far. with school. all this reading. I LOVE IT. staying busy. word up. got so much going on. oh yea, i forgot. big up to P-matik for letting me borrow the EGO TRIP BOOK OF RACISM. HOT TO DEATH. get your copy. cause someone is going to shut these cats down for real. but it's funny..
speaking of funny. did anyone watch the Dave Chappelle show on Comedy CentraL? i dubbed it ha ha haha.
he did this skit where he played a blind brother who did not know he was black. come to find out he wrote like 6 books calling black folks the "n" word and showing how they were inferior and promoting white power. his books sold over 600,000 copies combined. so this news reported went looking for him and learned he was black. but did not say anything. so when the reporter did some research, he learned that he lived in this school for blind people for 19 years and the directors did not tell him he was black. they also told everyone else not to say nothing. so he grew up thinking he was white and was brought up around racist white cats. it was bugged.
to me the illest scene is when he is being driven around town and he hears someone playing hip-hop music. it was three white cats in a convertible. but he did not know. so he proceeded to call them ninjas (the N word) and yell white power. when he drives off, the white cats in the car say "did you hear what he called us?" and one of them said "yeah, he called us niggers!" then they all responded with "yes! cool!" and gave each other dap. it was bugged.
man i was crying. i have to watch it again...
-----------------------
can someone translate this for me.. i need some help. i think they are telling me that i have to cancel my order...
Oi Raquel, boa a venda né?
Seguinte, você viu o email do cara? Fiquei meio cabreiro.
Por favor, ligue para o cliente, agradeça a compra e diga que não temos o atabaque em estoque e que teremos que enviar-lo do Brasil. Peça para ele aguardar que enviaremos uma nova cotação de frete na Segunda Feira.
Um grande abraço
Marcelo
lost in VA...
-------------
man even hackers are calling themselves thugs...look at this:
--------------
the man, right heah!
yeah, yeah, i am falling off...
i am coming back though..
but some jewels for now..
like this:
thanks to meca, i have been reminded of
the freshest kids...
i also was intro'ed to capoeiragem.com
AQUI
it has an inteview with Mestre Suassana. dope..
"please don't take us seriously,
we only bugging...."
big up to P-matik.. on this one word..
you can find
it here .. AQUI
Off with the pixies
January 21 2003
Overseas tourists are trying to book trips to Middle Earth without realising the destination is fictional, a holiday website has found.
Places featured in the Lord of the Rings book trilogy and two films directed by New Zealand's Peter Jackson, such as Mordor and Rivendell, have become popular holiday search terms on internet search site Yahoo Travel, staff at the site say.
Mordor is the stronghold of the forces of darkness and Rivendell is the elves' picturesque refuge in a deep valley near the Misty Mountains.
Yahoo.co.uk travel producer Morgan Williams said it was interesting to see the effect certain films could have on people's imagination.
"Personally I'd never want to go to Mordor. The film's real location, New Zealand, on the other hand, is a truly magical place," Williams said.
The latest Rings film, The Two Towers, has also sparked considerable interest in visiting real places in New Zealand.
Lonely Planet - the world's biggest publisher of independent travel guides - recently named New Zealand the hottest destination of 2003.
The publisher's travel editor Don George said the main reason was New Zealand's "breathtaking cinematic appearance" in the Lord of the Rings films.
On the North Island, the Mordor scenes were filmed in Tongariro National Park and Rivendell was set in Kaitoke Regional Park near Upper Hutt.
The Southern Alps on the South Island doubled for the Misty Mountains, according to The Lord of the Rings Location Guidebook.
NZPA
-----------------
i will be posting a WHOLE bunch of stuff. serious stuff too. so stand by...
"A Time to break the silence..."
many of us take this day to reflect on the man the REv Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. but what irks me is that we only discuss that ONE speech he said at the march on washington. to be honest, it is just a speech of dreams. it was beautiful, but that is all it was .... it makes the dick hard and heart flutter, but that's it. to me, Dr. King wrote other speeches that are more significant and revelant. here is one that is very revelant to this time....pass it on..
Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence
By Rev. Martin Luther King
4 April 1967
Speech delivered by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., on April 4, 1967, at a meeting of Clergy and Laity Concerned at Riverside Church in New York City
[Please put links to this speech on your respective web sites and if possible, place the text itself there. This is the least well known of Dr. King's speeches among the masses, and it needs to be read by all]
http://www.ssc.msu.edu/~sw/mlk/brkslnc.htm
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I come to this magnificent house of worship tonight because my conscience leaves me no other choice. I join with you in this meeting because I am in deepest agreement with the aims and work of the organization which has brought us together: Clergy and Laymen Concerned about Vietnam. The recent statement of your executive committee are the sentiments of my own heart and I found myself in full accord when I read its opening lines: "A time comes when silence is betrayal." That time has come for us in relation to Vietnam.
The truth of these words is beyond doubt but the mission to which they call us is a most difficult one. Even when pressed by the demands of inner truth, men do not easily assume the task of opposing their government's policy, especially in time of war. Nor does the human spirit move without great difficulty against all the apathy of conformist thought within one's own bosom and in the surrounding world. Moreover when the issues at hand seem as perplexed as they often do in the case of this dreadful conflict we are always on the verge of being mesmerized by uncertainty; but we must move on.
Some of us who have already begun to break the silence of the night have found that the calling to speak is often a vocation of agony, but we must speak. We must speak with all the humility that is appropriate to our limited vision, but we must speak. And we must rejoice as well, for surely this is the first time in our nation's history that a significant number of its religious leaders have chosen to move beyond the prophesying of smooth patriotism to the high grounds of a firm dissent based upon the mandates of conscience and the reading of history. Perhaps a new spirit is rising among us. If it is, let us trace its movement well and pray that our own inner being may be sensitive to its guidance, for we are deeply in need of a new way beyond the darkness that seems so close around us.
Over the past two years, as I have moved to break the betrayal of my own silences and to speak from the burnings of my own heart, as I have called for radical departures from the destruction of Vietnam, many persons have questioned me about the wisdom of my path. At the heart of their concerns this query has often loomed large and loud: Why are you speaking about war, Dr. King? Why are you joining the voices of dissent? Peace and civil rights don't mix, they say. Aren't you hurting the cause of your people, they ask? And when I hear them, though I often understand the source of their concern, I am nevertheless greatly saddened, for such questions mean that the inquirers have not really known me, my commitment or my calling. Indeed, their questions suggest that they do not know the world in which they live.
In the light of such tragic misunderstandings, I deem it of signal importance to try to state clearly, and I trust concisely, why I believe that the path from Dexter Avenue Baptist Church -- the church in Montgomery, Alabama, where I began my pastorate -- leads clearly to this sanctuary tonight.
I come to this platform tonight to make a passionate plea to my beloved nation. This speech is not addressed to Hanoi or to the National Liberation Front. It is not addressed to China or to Russia.
Nor is it an attempt to overlook the ambiguity of the total situation and the need for a collective solution to the tragedy of Vietnam. Neither is it an attempt to make North Vietnam or the National Liberation Front paragons of virtue, nor to overlook the role they can play in a successful resolution of the problem. While they both may have justifiable reason to be suspicious of the good faith of the United States, life and history give eloquent testimony to the fact that conflicts are never resolved without trustful give and take on both sides.
Tonight, however, I wish not to speak with Hanoi and the NLF, but rather to my fellow Americans, who, with me, bear the greatest responsibility in ending a conflict that has exacted a heavy price on both continents.
The Importance of Vietnam
Since I am a preacher by trade, I suppose it is not surprising that I have seven major reasons for bringing Vietnam into the field of my moral vision. There is at the outset a very obvious and almost facile connection between the war in Vietnam and the struggle I, and others, have been waging in America. A few years ago there was a shining moment in that struggle. It seemed as if there was a real promise of hope for the poor -- both black and white -- through the poverty program. There were experiments, hopes, new beginnings. Then came the buildup in Vietnam and I watched the program broken and eviscerated as if it were some idle political plaything of a society gone mad on war, and I knew that America would never invest the necessary funds or energies in rehabilitation of its poor so long as adventures like Vietnam continued to draw men and skills and money like some demonic destructive suction tube. So I was increasingly compelled to see the war as an enemy of the poor and to attack it as such.
Perhaps the more tragic recognition of reality took place when it became clear to me that the war was doing far more than devastating the hopes of the poor at home. It was sending their sons and their brothers and their husbands to fight and to die in extraordinarily high proportions relative to the rest of the population. We were taking the black young men who had been crippled by our society and sending them eight thousand miles away to guarantee liberties in Southeast Asia which they had not found in southwest Georgia and East Harlem. So we have been repeatedly faced with the cruel irony of watching Negro and white boys on TV screens as they kill and die together for a nation that has been unable to seat them together in the same schools. So we watch them in brutal solidarity burning the huts of a poor village, but we realize that they would never live on the same block in Detroit. I could not be silent in the face of such cruel manipulation of the poor.
My third reason moves to an even deeper level of awareness, for it grows out of my experience in the ghettoes of the North over the last three years -- especially the last three summers. As I have walked among the desperate, rejected and angry young men I have told them that Molotov cocktails and rifles would not solve their problems. I have tried to offer them my deepest compassion while maintaining my conviction that social change comes most meaningfully through nonviolent action. But they asked -- and rightly so -- what about Vietnam? They asked if our own nation wasn't using massive doses of violence to solve its problems, to bring about the changes it wanted. Their questions hit home, and I knew that I could never again raise my voice against the violence of the oppressed in the ghettos without having first spoken clearly to the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today -- my own government. For the sake of those boys, for the sake of this government, for the sake of hundreds of thousands trembling under our violence, I cannot be silent.
For those who ask the question, "Aren't you a civil rights leader?" and thereby mean to exclude me from the movement for peace, I have this further answer. In 1957 when a group of us formed the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, we chose as our motto: "To save the soul of America." We were convinced that we could not limit our vision to certain rights for black people, but instead affirmed the conviction that America would never be free or saved from itself unless the descendants of its slaves were loosed completely from the shackles they still wear. In a way we were agreeing with Langston Hughes, that black bard of Harlem, who had written earlier:
O, yes,
I say it plain,
America never was America to me,
And yet I swear this oath--
America will be!
Now, it should be incandescently clear that no one who has any concern for the integrity and life of America today can ignore the present war. If America's soul becomes totally poisoned, part of the autopsy must read Vietnam. It can never be saved so long as it destroys the deepest hopes of men the world over. So it is that those of us who are yet determined that America will be are led down the path of protest and dissent, working for the health of our land.
As if the weight of such a commitment to the life and health of America were not enough, another burden of responsibility was placed upon me in 1964; and I cannot forget that the Nobel Prize for Peace was also a commission -- a commission to work harder than I had ever worked before for "the brotherhood of man." This is a calling that takes me beyond national allegiances, but even if it were not present I would yet have to live with the meaning of my commitment to the ministry of Jesus Christ. To me the relationship of this ministry to the making of peace is so obvious that I sometimes marvel at those who ask me why I am speaking against the war. Could it be that they do not know that the good news was meant for all men -- for Communist and capitalist, for their children and ours, for black and for white, for revolutionary and conservative? Have they forgotten that my ministry is in obedience to the one who loved his enemies so fully that he died for them? What then can I say to the "Vietcong" or to Castro or to Mao as a faithful minister of this one? Can I threaten them with death or must I not share with them my life?
Finally, as I try to delineate for you and for myself the road that leads from Montgomery to this place I would have offered all that was most valid if I simply said that I must be true to my conviction that I share with all men the calling to be a son of the living God. Beyond the calling of race or nation or creed is this vocation of sonship and brotherhood, and because I believe that the Father is deeply concerned especially for his suffering and helpless and outcast children, I come tonight to speak for them.
This I believe to be the privilege and the burden of all of us who deem ourselves bound by allegiances and loyalties which are broader and deeper than nationalism and which go beyond our nation's self-defined goals and positions. We are called to speak for the weak, for the voiceless, for victims of our nation and for those it calls enemy, for no document from human hands can make these humans any less our brothers.
Strange Liberators
And as I ponder the madness of Vietnam and search within myself for ways to understand and respond to compassion my mind goes constantly to the people of that peninsula. I speak now not of the soldiers of each side, not of the junta in Saigon, but simply of the people who have been living under the curse of war for almost three continuous decades now. I think of them too because it is clear to me that there will be no meaningful solution there until some attempt is made to know them and hear their broken cries.
They must see Americans as strange liberators. The Vietnamese people proclaimed their own independence in 1945 after a combined French and Japanese occupation, and before the Communist revolution in China. They were led by Ho Chi Minh. Even though they quoted the American Declaration of Independence in their own document of freedom, we refused to recognize them. Instead, we decided to support France in its reconquest of her former colony.
Our government felt then that the Vietnamese people were not "ready" for independence, and we again fell victim to the deadly Western arrogance that has poisoned the international atmosphere for so long. With that tragic decision we rejected a revolutionary government seeking self-determination, and a government that had been established not by China (for whom the Vietnamese have no great love) but by clearly indigenous forces that included some Communists. For the peasants this new government meant real land reform, one of the most important needs in their lives.
For nine years following 1945 we denied the people of Vietnam the right of independence. For nine years we vigorously supported the French in their abortive effort to recolonize Vietnam.
Before the end of the war we were meeting eighty percent of the French war costs. Even before the French were defeated at Dien Bien Phu, they began to despair of the reckless action, but we did not. We encouraged them with our huge financial and military supplies to continue the war even after they had lost the will. Soon we would be paying almost the full costs of this tragic attempt at recolonization.
After the French were defeated it looked as if independence and land reform would come again through the Geneva agreements. But instead there came the United States, determined that Ho should not unify the temporarily divided nation, and the peasants watched again as we supported one of the most vicious modern dictators -- our chosen man, Premier Diem. The peasants watched and cringed as Diem ruthlessly routed out all opposition, supported their extortionist landlords and refused even to discuss reunification with the north. The peasants watched as all this was presided over by U.S. influence and then by increasing numbers of U.S. troops who came to help quell the insurgency that Diem's methods had aroused. When Diem was overthrown they may have been happy, but the long line of military dictatorships seemed to offer no real change -- especially in terms of their need for land and peace.
The only change came from America as we increased our troop commitments in support of governments which were singularly corrupt, inept and without popular support. All the while the people read our leaflets and received regular promises of peace and democracy -- and land reform. Now they languish under our bombs and consider us -- not their fellow Vietnamese --the real enemy. They move sadly and apathetically as we herd them off the land of their fathers into concentration camps where minimal social needs are rarely met. They know they must move or be destroyed by our bombs. So they go -- primarily women and children and the aged.
They watch as we poison their water, as we kill a million acres of their crops. They must weep as the bulldozers roar through their areas preparing to destroy the precious trees. They wander into the hospitals, with at least twenty casualties from American firepower for one "Vietcong"-inflicted injury. So far we may have killed a million of them -- mostly children. They wander into the towns and see thousands of the children, homeless, without clothes, running in packs on the streets like animals. They see the children, degraded by our soldiers as they beg for food. They see the children selling their sisters to our soldiers, soliciting for their mothers.
What do the peasants think as we ally ourselves with the landlords and as we refuse to put any action into our many words concerning land reform? What do they think as we test our latest weapons on them, just as the Germans tested out new medicine and new tortures in the concentration camps of Europe? Where are the roots of the independent Vietnam we claim to be building? Is it among these voiceless ones?
We have destroyed their two most cherished institutions: the family and the village. We have destroyed their land and their crops. We have cooperated in the crushing of the nation's only non-Communist revolutionary political force -- the unified Buddhist church. We have supported the enemies of the peasants of Saigon. We have corrupted their women and children and killed their men. What liberators?
Now there is little left to build on -- save bitterness. Soon the only solid physical foundations remaining will be found at our military bases and in the concrete of the concentration camps we call fortified hamlets. The peasants may well wonder if we plan to build our new Vietnam on such grounds as these? Could we blame them for such thoughts? We must speak for them and raise the questions they cannot raise. These too are our brothers.
Perhaps the more difficult but no less necessary task is to speak for those who have been designated as our enemies. What of the National Liberation Front -- that strangely anonymous group we call VC or Communists? What must they think of us in America when they realize that we permitted the repression and cruelty of Diem which helped to bring them into being as a resistance group in the south? What do they think of our condoning the violence which led to their own taking up of arms? How can they believe in our integrity when now we speak of "aggression from the north" as if there were nothing more essential to the war? How can they trust us when now we charge them with violence after the murderous reign of Diem and charge them with violence while we pour every new weapon of death into their land? Surely we must understand their feelings even if we do not condone their actions. Surely we must see that the men we supported pressed them to their violence. Surely we must see that our own computerized plans of destruction simply dwarf their greatest acts.
How do they judge us when our officials know that their membership is less than twenty-five percent Communist and yet insist on giving them the blanket name? What must they be thinking when they know that we are aware of their control of major sections of Vietnam and yet we appear ready to allow national elections in which this highly organized political parallel government will have no part? They ask how we can speak of free elections when the Saigon press is censored and controlled by the military junta. And they are surely right to wonder what kind of new government we plan to help form without them -- the only party in real touch with the peasants. They question our political goals and they deny the reality of a peace settlement from which they will be excluded. Their questions are frighteningly relevant. Is our nation planning to build on political myth again and then shore it up with the power of new violence?
Here is the true meaning and value of compassion and nonviolence when it helps us to see the enemy's point of view, to hear his questions, to know his assessment of ourselves. For from his view we may indeed see the basic weaknesses of our own condition, and if we are mature, we may learn and grow and profit from the wisdom of the brothers who are called the opposition.
So, too, with Hanoi. In the north, where our bombs now pummel the land, and our mines endanger the waterways, we are met by a deep but understandable mistrust. To speak for them is to explain this lack of confidence in Western words, and especially their distrust of American intentions now. In Hanoi are the men who led the nation to independence against the Japanese and the French, the men who sought membership in the French commonwealth and were betrayed by the weakness of Paris and the willfulness of the colonial armies. It was they who led a second struggle against French domination at tremendous costs, and then were persuaded to give up the land they controlled between the thirteenth and seventeenth parallel as a temporary measure at Geneva. After 1954 they watched us conspire with Diem to prevent elections which would have surely brought Ho Chi Minh to power over a united Vietnam, and they realized they had been betrayed again.
When we ask why they do not leap to negotiate, these things must be remembered. Also it must be clear that the leaders of Hanoi considered the presence of American troops in support of the Diem regime to have been the initial military breach of the Geneva agreements concerning foreign troops, and they remind us that they did not begin to send in any large number of supplies or men until American forces had moved into the tens of thousands.
Hanoi remembers how our leaders refused to tell us the truth about the earlier North Vietnamese overtures for peace, how the president claimed that none existed when they had clearly been made. Ho Chi Minh has watched as America has spoken of peace and built up its forces, and now he has surely heard of the increasing international rumors of American plans for an invasion of the north. He knows the bombing and shelling and mining we are doing are part of traditional pre-invasion strategy. Perhaps only his sense of humor and of irony can save him when he hears the most powerful nation of the world speaking of aggression as it drops thousands of bombs on a poor weak nation more than eight thousand miles away from its shores.
At this point I should make it clear that while I have tried in these last few minutes to give a voice to the voiceless on Vietnam and to understand the arguments of those who are called enemy, I am as deeply concerned about our troops there as anything else. For it occurs to me that what we are submitting them to in Vietnam is not simply the brutalizing process that goes on in any war where armies face each other and seek to destroy. We are adding cynicism to the process of death, for they must know after a short period there that none of the things we claim to be fighting for are really involved. Before long they must know that their government has sent them into a struggle among Vietnamese, and the more sophisticated surely realize that we are on the side of the wealthy and the secure while we create hell for the poor.
This Madness Must Cease
Somehow this madness must cease. We must stop now. I speak as a child of God and brother to the suffering poor of Vietnam. I speak for those whose land is being laid waste, whose homes are being destroyed, whose culture is being subverted. I speak for the poor of America who are paying the double price of smashed hopes at home and death and corruption in Vietnam. I speak as a citizen of the world, for the world as it stands aghast at the path we have taken. I speak as an American to the leaders of my own nation. The great initiative in this war is ours. The initiative to stop it must be ours.
This is the message of the great Buddhist leaders of Vietnam. Recently one of them wrote these words:
"Each day the war goes on the hatred increases in the heart of the Vietnamese and in the hearts of those of humanitarian instinct. The Americans are forcing even their friends into becoming their enemies. It is curious that the Americans, who calculate so carefully on the possibilities of military victory, do not realize that in the process they are incurring deep psychological and political defeat. The image of America will never again be the image of revolution, freedom and democracy, but the image of violence and militarism."
If we continue, there will be no doubt in my mind and in the mind of the world that we have no honorable intentions in Vietnam. It will become clear that our minimal expectation is to occupy it as an American colony and men will not refrain from thinking that our maximum hope is to goad China into a war so that we may bomb her nuclear installations. If we do not stop our war against the people of Vietnam immediately the world will be left with no other alternative than to see this as some horribly clumsy and deadly game we have decided to play.
The world now demands a maturity of America that we may not be able to achieve. It demands that we admit that we have been wrong from the beginning of our adventure in Vietnam, that we have been detrimental to the life of the Vietnamese people. The situation is one in which we must be ready to turn sharply from our present ways.
In order to atone for our sins and errors in Vietnam, we should take the initiative in bringing a halt to this tragic war. I would like to suggest five concrete things that our government should do immediately to begin the long and difficult process of extricating ourselves from this nightmarish conflict:
End all bombing in North and South Vietnam.
Declare a unilateral cease-fire in the hope that such action will create the atmosphere for negotiation.
Take immediate steps to prevent other battlegrounds in Southeast Asia by curtailing our military buildup in Thailand and our interference in Laos.
Realistically accept the fact that the National Liberation Front has substantial support in South Vietnam and must thereby play a role in any meaningful negotiations and in any future Vietnam government.
Set a date that we will remove all foreign troops from Vietnam in accordance with the 1954 Geneva agreement.
Part of our ongoing commitment might well express itself in an offer to grant asylum to any Vietnamese who fears for his life under a new regime which included the Liberation Front. Then we must make what reparations we can for the damage we have done. We most provide the medical aid that is badly needed, making it available in this country if necessary.
Protesting The War
Meanwhile we in the churches and synagogues have a continuing task while we urge our government to disengage itself from a disgraceful commitment. We must continue to raise our voices if our nation persists in its perverse ways in Vietnam. We must be prepared to match actions with words by seeking out every creative means of protest possible.
As we counsel young men concerning military service we must clarify for them our nation's role in Vietnam and challenge them with the alternative of conscientious objection. I am pleased to say that this is the path now being chosen by more than seventy students at my own alma mater, Morehouse College, and I recommend it to all who find the American course in Vietnam a dishonorable and unjust one. Moreover I would encourage all ministers of draft age to give up their ministerial exemptions and seek status as conscientious objectors. These are the times for real choices and not false ones. We are at the moment when our lives must be placed on the line if our nation is to survive its own folly. Every man of humane convictions must decide on the protest that best suits his convictions, but we must all protest.
There is something seductively tempting about stopping there and sending us all off on what in some circles has become a popular crusade against the war in Vietnam. I say we must enter the struggle, but I wish to go on now to say something even more disturbing. The war in Vietnam is but a symptom of a far deeper malady within the American spirit, and if we ignore this sobering reality we will find ourselves organizing clergy- and laymen-concerned committees for the next generation. They will be concerned about Guatemala and Peru. They will be concerned about Thailand and Cambodia. They will be concerned about Mozambique and South Africa. We will be marching for these and a dozen other names and attending rallies without end unless there is a significant and profound change in American life and policy. Such thoughts take us beyond Vietnam, but not beyond our calling as sons of the living God.
In 1957 a sensitive American official overseas said that it seemed to him that our nation was on the wrong side of a world revolution. During the past ten years we have seen emerge a pattern of suppression which now has justified the presence of U.S. military "advisors" in Venezuela. This need to maintain social stability for our investments accounts for the counter-revolutionary action of American forces in Guatemala. It tells why American helicopters are being used against guerrillas in Colombia and why American napalm and green beret forces have already been active against rebels in Peru. It is with such activity in mind that the words of the late John F. Kennedy come back to haunt us. Five years ago he said, "Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable."
Increasingly, by choice or by accident, this is the role our nation has taken -- the role of those who make peaceful revolution impossible by refusing to give up the privileges and the pleasures that come from the immense profits of overseas investment.
I am convinced that if we are to get on the right side of the world revolution, we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values. We must rapidly begin the shift from a "thing-oriented" society to a "person-oriented" society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered.
A true revolution of values will soon cause us to question the fairness and justice of many of our past and present policies. n the one hand we are called to play the good Samaritan on life's roadside; but that will be only an initial act. One day we must come to see that the whole Jericho road must be transformed so that men and women will not be constantly beaten and robbed as they make their journey on life's highway. True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar; it is not haphazard and superficial. It comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring. A true revolution of values will soon look uneasily on the glaring contrast of poverty and wealth. With righteous indignation, it will look across the seas and see individual capitalists of the West investing huge sums of money in Asia, Africa and South America, only to take the profits out with no concern for the social betterment of the countries, and say: "This is not just." It will look at our alliance with the landed gentry of Latin America and say: "This is not just." The Western arrogance of feeling that it has everything to teach others and nothing to learn from them is not just. A true revolution of values will lay hands on the world order and say of war: "This way of settling differences is not just." This business of burning human beings with napalm, of filling our nation's homes with orphans and widows, of injecting poisonous drugs of hate into veins of people normally humane, of sending men home from dark and bloody battlefields physically handicapped and psychologically deranged, cannot be reconciled with wisdom, justice and love. A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.
America, the richest and most powerful nation in the world, can well lead the way in this revolution of values. There is nothing, except a tragic death wish, to prevent us from reordering our priorities, so that the pursuit of peace will take precedence over the pursuit of war. There is nothing to keep us from molding a recalcitrant status quo with bruised hands until we have fashioned it into a brotherhood.
This kind of positive revolution of values is our best defense against communism. War is not the answer. Communism will never be defeated by the use of atomic bombs or nuclear weapons. Let us not join those who shout war and through their misguided passions urge the United States to relinquish its participation in the United Nations. These are days which demand wise restraint and calm reasonableness. We must not call everyone a Communist or an appeaser who advocates the seating of Red China in the United Nations and who recognizes that hate and hysteria are not the final answers to the problem of these turbulent days. We must not engage in a negative anti-communism, but rather in a positive thrust for democracy, realizing that our greatest defense against communism is to take offensive action in behalf of justice. We must with positive action seek to remove thosse conditions of poverty, insecurity and injustice which are the fertile soil in which the seed of communism grows and develops.
The People Are Important
These are revolutionary times. All over the globe men are revolting against old systems of exploitation and oppression and out of the wombs of a frail world new systems of justice and equality are being born. The shirtless and barefoot people of the land are rising up as never before. "The people who sat in darkness have seen a great light." We in the West must support these revolutions. It is a sad fact that, because of comfort, complacency, a morbid fear of communism, and our proneness to adjust to injustice, the Western nations that initiated so much of the revolutionary spirit of the modern world have now become the arch anti-revolutionaries. This has driven many to feel that only Marxism has the revolutionary spirit. Therefore, communism is a judgement against our failure to make democracy real and follow through on the revolutions we initiated. Our only hope today lies in our ability to recapture the revolutionary spirit and go out into a sometimes hostile world declaring eternal hostility to poverty, racism, and militarism. With this powerful commitment we shall boldly challenge the status quo and unjust mores and thereby speed the day when "every valley shall be exalted, and every moutain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall be made straight and the rough places plain."
A genuine revolution of values means in the final analysis that our loyalties must become ecumenical rather than sectional. Every nation must now develop an overriding loyalty to mankind as a whole in order to preserve the best in their individual societies.
This call for a world-wide fellowship that lifts neighborly concern beyond one's tribe, race, class and nation is in reality a call for an all-embracing and unconditional love for all men. This oft misunderstood and misinterpreted concept -- so readily dismissed by the Nietzsches of the world as a weak and cowardly force -- has now become an absolute necessity for the survival of man. When I speak of love I am not speaking of some sentimental and weak response. I am speaking of that force which all of the great religions have seen as the supreme unifying principle of life. Love is somehow the key that unlocks the door which leads to ultimate reality. This Hindu-Moslem-Christian-Jewish-Buddhist belief about ultimate reality is beautifully summed up in the first epistle of Saint John:
Let us love one another; for love is God and everyone that loveth is born of God and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love. If we love one another God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us.
Let us hope that this spirit will become the order of the day. We can no longer afford to worship the god of hate or bow before the altar of retaliation. The oceans of history are made turbulent by the ever-rising tides of hate. History is cluttered with the wreckage of nations and individuals that pursued this self-defeating path of hate. As Arnold Toynbee says : "Love is the ultimate force that makes for the saving choice of life and good against the damning choice of death and evil. Therefore the first hope in our inventory must be the hope that love is going to have the last word."
We are now faced with the fact that tomorrow is today. We are confronted with the fierce urgency of now. In this unfolding conundrum of life and history there is such a thing as being too late. Procrastination is still the thief of time. Life often leaves us standing bare, naked and dejected with a lost opportunity. The "tide in the affairs of men" does not remain at the flood; it ebbs. We may cry out deperately for time to pause in her passage, but time is deaf to every plea and rushes on. Over the bleached bones and jumbled residue of numerous civilizations are written the pathetic words: "Too late." There is an invisible book of life that faithfully records our vigilance or our neglect. "The moving finger writes, and having writ moves on..." We still have a choice today; nonviolent coexistence or violent co-annihilation.
We must move past indecision to action. We must find new ways to speak for peace in Vietnam and justice throughout the developing world -- a world that borders on our doors. If we do not act we shall surely be dragged down the long dark and shameful corridors of time reserved for those who possess power without compassion, might without morality, and strength without sight.
Now let us begin. Now let us rededicate ourselves to the long and bitter -- but beautiful -- struggle for a new world. This is the callling of the sons of God, and our brothers wait eagerly for our response. Shall we say the odds are too great? Shall we tell them the struggle is too hard? Will our message be that the forces of American life militate against their arrival as full men, and we send our deepest regrets? Or will there be another message, of longing, of hope, of solidarity with their yearnings, of commitment to their cause, whatever the cost? The choice is ours, and though we might prefer it otherwise we must choose in this crucial moment of human history.
As that noble bard of yesterday, James Russell Lowell, eloquently stated:
Once to every man and nation
Comes the moment to decide,
In the strife of truth and falsehood,
For the good or evil side;
Some great cause, God's new Messiah,
Off'ring each the bloom or blight,
And the choice goes by forever
Twixt that darkness and that light.
Though the cause of evil prosper,
Yet 'tis truth alone is strong;
Though her portion be the scaffold,
And upon the throne be wrong:
Yet that scaffold sways the future,
And behind the dim unknown,
Standeth God within the shadow
Keeping watch above his own.
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liven things up... here are some pics for ya'll to check out. nothing personal. you know the new rules..
please
check out this site ...black owned and all that ish. i got chocolate thunder issues #0 and #1. hotness. a conscious hero? come on ya'll, Marvel comics ain't got nothing on this...
the pics are hot too, look at this...
so support ... like i said, i am a customer and i am very satisfied. heck i bought TWO issues of chocolate thunder #1.
some ill ish
these cats here... are dope...
these ingenious cats take ads and flip it on some activist ish. their articles are dope too.
they have a treacherous article on
It used to be a joke, and not really a subtle one: America™, the world's "greatest democracy" reduced to a sales meme of the same order as Burger King or Ben & Jerry's. But times have changed - no? - and the term Brand America is now used without embarrassment or even irony. Branding is the new national megaproject, as serious as the guns-and-ammo war on terror or the quest to inflate a new bull market.
The challenge, as grand old adman Allen Rosenshine has put it, is that millions of non-Americans are "still in the process of being taught to hate us." Which suggests that somewhere out there, someone's doing the teaching. Professor bin Laden, no doubt, but who else? French farmers? Canadian bureaucrats?
This is the starting point of the Brand America project: that there is nothing wrong with the actual product. It's an image thing. It's a brand position thing - "probably the most complex positioning problem of all time," according to marketing bluechippers Steve Silver and Sam Hill, writing in the Journal of Business Strategy. The two men have had a first crack at the American "brand portfolio molecule," which shows America as a meta-brand composed of mega-brands, like a galaxy of galaxies. The chart is an ingenious confluence of layers. The larger the word (from tiny Amnesty International to gargantuan Rambo), the greater its importance to the "purchase decision." Negative associations appear here in red, neutral in pale blue, positive in dark blue. Sub-brands also relate to one another (Levi's close to Marlboro, the dollar close to the flag) and are linked to Brand America by thick or thin lines, representing strong (Israel) or weak (UN) bonds.
read more here...
see i told you...
----
JEWELS:
look what i found!
http://cnnlies.blogspot.com/
-----------
keep it movin'
look at this!
from this site here.
they got ish like this,
and here we have some mug shots,
R&B singer Michael Archer (aka D'Angelo) was arrested in November 2002 by Virginia cops and charged with assault, disorderly conduct, and other misdemeanors. The charges stemmed from an incident which began when the Grammy winner allegedly cut off a female motorist. According to cops, D'Angelo cursed out and spit on the woman. When police arrived at the 28-year-old crooner's suburban Richmond to serve an arrest warrant, they had to subdue the agitated performer with a blast of pepper spray.
yeah D'angelo is my man. son is nice on the boards. but it's ill to watch the mug shots.
check it out here. big up to p-matik for this one.he passed this one to me a long time ago..
NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!
Paul Reubens (aka Pee-wee Herman) turned himself in to Los Angeles police in November 2002 after being charged with misdemeanor possession of kiddie porn. It was not the first run-in with the law for the 50-year-old actor, who was arrested by Florida cops in July 1991 and charged with indecent exposure. Pee-wee, who was nabbed at an adult movie house, later pleaded no contest to the charge. He was fined, had to pay court costs, and ordered to produce an anti-drug public service announcement.
( i probably would have laughed the whole way in the cop car if i was the arresting officer....)
but check out their site, they have a joint where they list the crazy requests from different artists backstages. ish is phenomenal. take for example, Prince. here is just ONE page..
and that's all folks.. read and enjoy
just to get by, just to get by, just to get by, just to get by....
man if i go to another meeting, i will fall out. i had two today. the first one was for ER. it was dope. we covered so much ground. i was loving it. we stamped out alot of things we needed to do. the next one was for the
WOrd Up spoken word slam.. .. it's gonna be hot buddy. oh yeah..
we will be playing capoeira. can't wait. we will rock it god. you watch...
speaking of capoeira, i was on my
favorite site and i found this thread... (remember i am travado here... )
Capoeira General Discussion > Navalha de Pé(Blade of Foot)
esmurfe
Posted: Jan 13, 02:07 Quote | Reply
Anyelse(Teimosia) know about navalha de pé (sharp between fingers). An dangerous technique almost forgotten that was very used in the past. Because my Mestre told me but not teaches. Anybody have pictures, diagrams of moves, types of sharp or anything to share with us?
teimosia
Posted: Jan 13, 05:05 Quote | Reply
ORIGINAL MESSAGE POSTED BY "esmurfe":
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Anyelse(Teimosia) know about navalha de pé (sharp between fingers). An dangerous technique almost forgotten that was very used in the past. Because my Mestre told me but not teaches. Anybody have pictures, diagrams of moves, types of sharp or anything to share with us?
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I have heard about it many times, but never saw it practiced. Some people even say the "razor in the foot" is just a symbolic name, and the "razor" was the nails of the toes, which were big and sharpen. Other "lost" techniques are the "navalha voadora" (flying razor, which was tied to a cordon and thrown aimed to the enemy's throat) and the "navalha cuspida" (I have seen this one: the guy holds a gillette blade in his mouth, and spits it at the enemy's face).
There's an old mestre in my city (Mestre Noventa) which is told to know the "flying razor" technique, but I never had the chance to ask him...
Axé
Teimosia
capoeiragoodboy (this guy is funny)
Posted: Jan 13, 08:47 Quote | Reply
REPLY TO ORIGINAL MESSAGE POSTED BY "teimosia":
Spitting razors is an art practiced in th Bronx and Brooklyn
travado
(that's me)
Posted: Jan 15, 12:26 Quote | Reply
as a youngblood, i was taught, or i actually learned how to hide a razor between my teeth and gums. that is why now CO's make you open your mouth when they move prisoners.
but i have SEEN people spit them out (not at people) in situations that called for immediate response. i know some cats who even bent razors in their mouth with thier tongues. i dated many females who chewed gum while holding a razor in their mouth. once again it was for survival.
i heard that some capoeiristas would tape razors on their feet. i am sure this took much practice since it called for playing on certain parts of your feet. BUT i will say this, we have to remember that the capoeira we play today is not the one played back in the outlaw days of rio de janeiro...
then i said this..
Posted: Jan 15, 18:18 Quote | Reply
about the foot. i could not tell you. i was just theorizing that it is possible.
but with the razor, you place in your mouth with the blade facing down.. between your mouth and gums.. when you need it, you inflate your cheeks .. allow it to fall on your tongue.. stick your tongue out and snatch it.
now spitting it out, i could not do ... but i have seen people do it. it's a trick you learn in jail. i was not in there long enough to learn
capoeiragoodboy (it gets good from here)
Posted: Jan 15, 21:55 Quote | Reply
The razors that are held in the mouth are not straight razors. They are disposable razors. My favorite is the gem star. You spit it out into your hand, where you hold it between your middle and index finger. You then "slap" your victim in the face using the feeling of dragging your hand through mud. This style of armed combat coincides with the ghetto art of slap boxing which similar to capoeira seems like a game.
atrapallado
(of course some fool tried this ish...)
Posted: Jan 15, 21:59 Quote | Reply
I tried the technique Travado described, to practice, just in case. Seriously! I put the razor between my gum and my mouth with the blade facing down and my tongue. I tried to sing an idalina and my tongue is now forked like a lizard. It is really messy!
I think I put the razor in the wrong part of the mouth. Does anybody else know how to hide a razor in their mouth? What part of the mouth was Travado referring to?
Also, is it better to sew one's tongue together with cotton thread or fishing line?
that was a good example of reading something on the net and trying it at home with no one to actually show you. kids don't try this at home.. suckas..
you heard the man..
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“all they really doing is soft porn…” my man Mac said to me yesterday…
Now I remember everything. I need to go ahead and record the conversation as we speak.
Anywhoos, me and my man Ordinary Joe were building on the phone Tuesday night (I know that was a long time ago).
He made a statement. It went like this:
“artists should not be responsible for what they say. They are not role models.”
I disagreed of course. I gave him this analogy. I told him that if it was for Public Enemy, I never would have learned who Joanne Chesimard was (Assata Shakur). I said if that maybe I would have learned about her later on in life but at the age of 13? So PE, actually Chuck, is responsible for that. I explained that there were teachers and elders in my community who helped guide me on the right path. I also pointed out how my mother did the same and that if it was not for her, I probably would not be speaking to him on the phone. I explained that these people are responsible for instilling positive values in me. SO I asked, how come we can say if it was not for this person or that person, we would not have turned out good. They are directly/indirectly responsible for keeping us on the straight and narrow. HOW come we can’t say that about the other side of the spectrum? If someone says something negative, THEY ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR THAT.
He started to see the light at that point. I said that even Xians believe that the word is very powerful. I discussed the use of the word “ase” and how people use it at the end of their sentences. It literally means “as it is to be.” In other words, you are making manifest what you want to say. That is why it is important not to call certain things out to the universe such as “I wish he/she could die,” “or I am going to fail” because they will happen. Then I went on to discuss the concept of reciprocity. He was open then. I told him that if you call negative things out into the universe, they will return in a negative manner. He saw it then.
So yes, you are responsible for what you say. So be careful…
Then yesterday (Friday), my man Mac and I discussed the Neptunes. We both enjoyed their music but felt that to be honest, it is not elevating the culture at all since they only promote negative artists (with the exception of Common and Kelis when she ain’t on no carpet licking jive). But Mac said that a lot of artists only want to do soft porn. I laughed but it was so true.
I picked up the latest issue of ONEWORLD. The one where everyone was tripping on Lil’ Kim wearing the burqa in a shredded bikini outfit. I can’t front, she looks hot. I wish she took that blonde ish and contacts off of her self. Cause the sister is beautiful. But she said some ignoramus stuff. I mean she said some things that are like “did she say that?”
But I can’t front ONEWORLD is hot. Once again Russell Simmons sets some trends. A lot of cats hate him but I can’t front, Russell always sets it up. I mean look at Def Comedy Jam. He set the trend. Look at PHAT FARM! How many clothing lines started around the same time are still around? Not many. Look at Def Poetry Jam. He is bringing it. You got to give him props. Of course like most heads, he does do some bad career moves, but he knows how to bounce back.
Anyway back to the article. Here are some highlights:
When you were growing up, were there things you felt that you could not have or do because of your race or color?
No, because my god-mommy was a registered nurse and she had furs and a fabulous condo, and she was glamorous. I always looked up to her. She was darker than me.
My comments (okay.. so why you kick gangsta rhymes .. and named the new album la Bella Mafia? Why does it matter if she was darker than you? )
My editor when she assigned this piece to me, talked about how you and Michael Jackson having similarities in terms of all the changes he’s made to his appearance in order to look more white. Do you feel like there’s any truth to that?
The only truth is that we both know what it takes to be star—an entertainer. And you know, I think his drive has a lot to do with it. Maybe we have the same look in our eyes. Look, I didn’t bleach my skin, I got bigger boobs. It just helped make me feel more comfortable when I’m on screen. But hey, I’m just going to piss these boobs out by the time I’m 50 anyway.
‘nuff said.
Don’t you feel badly about wearing something in a shoot, like diamonds and gold? DO you ever think about how they come from mines in Africa where people are horribly exploited?
You know what? I’ve never really thought about that, but I can only say that that’s their way of life. Until we do something about it. I mean, what can we do? That’s how those people over there make their money and this is how we make our money. It’s like people making furs. What are we supposed to do? The animal I’m sure is already dead before it gets to us and this is a part of my image and unfortunately this is just how it is. But it’s a bad thin; I really don’t condone it. If they were to stop it, I wouldn’t miss it.
Okay.. she is really on some new ish.. that’s it…
on a lighter note: the J5
Jurassic 5: The Interview Prep
01.15.03 - by: Wasim Muklashy
Something just wasn't right. Things seemed a bit odd. Nothing is more surreal than standing dumbfounded in front of 6 of your alltime favorite artists and realizing that they're waiting for YOU to talk. I found myself behind closed doors in a room that couldn't be bigger than your average kitchen, facing Zaakir (Soup), Akil, Chali 2na, Marc7, Cut Chemist, and DJ Nu-Mark…otherwise internationally well-known as Jurassic 5. No one has made more of an imprint on the underground hip-hop scene than these guys. They are often credited for making hip-hop interesting again. And there's good reason for it. They have a knack for knowing what the crowd wants to hear, what they want to see, how they want to hear it, and how they want to experience it. They know just what to say and when to say it, just what to do, and when to do it, just what cut to drop, and when to drop it.
Anyway, letz go back to beginning. How did all this start? An ex-coworker was filling tour manager duties for Mixmaster Mike on the Guns N'Roses tour. I was slated to do a small segment with Mixmaster Mike, but thanx to Axl…once again…the tour got cancelled. No surprise. But my coworker had hooked me up with the Mixmaster's publicist for ironing out certain details, and she just happened to be handling Jurassic 5 as well. She asked if I knew who they were and if I was interested in doing something with them. DO I KNOW WHO THEY ARE????? ARE YOU KIDDING ME? YES I'LL DO IT! WHERE DO I SIGN?!!!
Then the holidays came around, and no one was in any position or mood to do any work, so, to my dismay, I thought it would die off and fall through and I'd never hear of it again. Boy was I wrong. The day I got back to work, I saw that J5 was playing the WIltern a week later. Called up the publicist…averaged about 3 hours sleep thru the week as I struggled through a crash-course pre-production to get something together…and got the go-ahead from both J5 and Hip Hop Nation (the television show that I'm doing these things for). It was on!
So…Saturday comes. I grabbed two of my roommates and best friend, called them my 'crew', tested out the cameras, the sound, the hastily compiled checklist, and out the door we went. So now we're in the car, shaking in our shoes. Time to go over the plan. We have 30 minutes with them in their dressing room for the interview, and video rights for the first 60 seconds of the first 2 songs. Let's do this!!
We showed up to the Wiltern at 4:45, just in time to catch the end of J5's soundcheck. Chali 2na's all-too-familiar trademark baritone voice welcomed us down the empty theatre aisle. As we were standing there in awe, wondering what we were doing there, the publicist showed up and walked us down to the dressing room where we were to set up for the interview. So there we were. 'We have no business being here' we all thought to our giggly selves…but it no longer mattered. We were here and we're gonna take it. So that brings us back to the dressing room. We're all set up, cameras are rolling, sound checked, lights set…its time!
As I fumbled through the first question, the boys from J5 sat patiently before their true nature finally shined through. They started fuckin' around with us like we've known them forever. Jokin', laughing, teasing…WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON???? I've got to hand it to them, they made it very comfortable for us as we all loosened up a bit at the sheer absurdity of the situation. So we made it through the 30 minute interview. Got a couple pictures and some shout outs from the legendary crew, and they were off to get ready for the show. We walked back out the corridor leading to the lobby and waiting around, giggling like little school girls, for our photo passes to show up.
A little before 9pm, the publicist showed up again. She had us wait in the lobby for about 15 minutes or so, disappeared, and then reappeared 10 minutes later with 3 yellow stickers marked PhotoPass. I don't think it wuz much of a secret that we weren't veterans at this type of accommodation. We didn't have to put up any type of fight at all. It was basically all handed to us with smiles. Wut is going on???? I don't have time to think about that right now. She's grabbed hold of our arms and served as our escort up to the front of the venue, threw us in the middle of a roped off area, and we were let loose to do our thing.
We figured how could the night go any better? When you see your favorite artists up on stage and hear them announce to the crowd that they felt like taking a little trip back to the old skool open mic-sessions at the Good Life Café in South Central Los Angeles with a track that was conceived there and eventually gave birth to Jurassic 5 from the union of two separate hiphop crews, and knowing that they had no intention of mentioning that before you had asked them about it in an interview prior to the show, that's how you find out how the night actually can go better. We directly influenced the hometown performance of our favorite artists. I'm still waiting to wake up. It's Sunday, I don't have to work…leave me sleep…let me dream. Wait…there's PICTURES? This all really DID happen????
Unfortunately, we were only allowed the first minute of the first two songs, so just as easily as were forced into the photo pit, we were forced out. On our walk out, our escort turned to us and said…'We could check your cameras and equipment in, and if you want, you can go back in for the rest of the show'. We looked at each other and thought…'you have GOT to be kidding me'. I grabbed my #427 equipment claim stub, and ran back down the aisle back to the front to catch DJ Nu-Mark 'literally' taking it back to the old skool by bangin' a beat on the wooden face of an 7th grade school desk. What?? As if that wuzn't enough, it was the part of the show where the DJ's were allowed to shine, and we found ourselves staring in wonderment at Nu-Mark's concoction of a 2 channel Vestax turntable mixer attached to two Fisher Price Tap a Tune toys, and began filling the theater with a horn-induced beat emanating from inner depths of the plastic toys and penetrating a part of our childhood. Next thing you know, he's got a Roland drum machine hanging around his neck, begins hitting the kickdrums, and filling them in with a few snares. Some crazy warped electronic scratching sound starting seeping in, but it wasn't coming from Nu-Mark. Now, Cut Chemist has joined in the insanity with a portable turntable hanging vertically around his neck and a mixer at his side. You never think about what a record sound like playing sideways when it speeds up on its way down from every revolution, slows down dramatically on its way back up, and some what-seems-like-lunatic-but-is-really-genius is cutting it all up on a scratch mixer.
After a good hour and a half of Jurassic 5 blowing up the Wiltern, they gave a bow and walked off. The 'encore' chants began even before they were completely off the stage. And what is Jurassic 5 if they can't follow a legendary performance with an equally legendary encore. They took back the stage, and this time brought with them Fat Lip of the Pharcyde (another group that grew out of the Good Life Café), the Dilated Peoples, Talib Kweli, DJ Melo-D of the world famous Beat Junkies, and a few other cats that were in the house to show their respect as fans for the Jurassic 5. They formed a circle, Cut Chemist and Nu-Mark took back to the decks, brought out a breakdancer, and spent the next 15 minutes taking turns freestyling over whatever Cut and Nu-Mark were feeling at the moment…and from the looks and sounds of it…they were feeling pretty fuckin' good. So were we.
Stay tuned…I'll let you all know when the segment airs!
“you a poet,” as the young lady in my Education class.
“sometimes,” I answered.
“oh,” she responded.
“I got you, huh?” I shot back. “see? Don’t date a poet, we don’t know what we are talking about half the time…”
someone did ask me that after class. They saw me scribbling in a book real fast like.
Once again my ECI class was dope. Dr. Allen is on point. He thinks along the same lines as I do.
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wednesday night, we had a big meeting for ER. we had to lay some structure down. it went smooth. it was me, Elevation, and Akowoye. man i got so many meetings. but we had a chance to shoot the breeze a little. we talked about no game having cats, what is game, who got game, who don't got game, how you bag a shortie and other male shovenistic tidbits. but it's ill cause nowadays cats really don't konw how to rock a conversation. i peep many dudes and they are so wack. more on this later.
I got a chance to go to Mr. George’s Store after class. Had to get some incense. We some incense burning fools in this casa. I also got some incense holders. We only got one. And it’s ghetto to burn incense on your windowsill. Plus hazardous. I picked up the latest copy of FRONTLINE. Man, ya’ll cats got to read it.
This issue they discuss homosexuality in prisons. Real ill. But I agree with what the brother Bomani had to say (he is the author of numerous essays on sexual deviancy, interracial relationships and the like). I know that prisons allow homosexual relationships to occur in their own subtle way. But rapes are very frequent in the prisons, it’s just that men are too afraid to tell. Plus in jail the age old commandment, “snitches get stitches” lives on. And many cats live by that code in and out of prison.
While in Mr. George’s store though, I ran across this brother. He was an older cat. He was funny. He was missing teeth on the top right side of his face and the bottom left side of his mouth. It was bugged. He could barely hold a convo. But he smiled the whole time.
he went on about how he was in the NOI and did not believe in mystery god or a spook. He was cool. I dug him. I know when I told my wife and them, they laughed. But you never know who got knowledge of self. Mr. George is such a staple in our community. We get a chance to build with all kinds of people in his store. Sometimes the debates get heated and Mr. George got to shut us down. Love that brother.
Did I mention that the FRONTLINE mag came with a CD. It had some live audio of Talib Kweli, and Dead Prez, and Common and Flo Brown. Hot. They had some clips of Khalid Muhammed and Mumia Abu Jamal. It is hot. The whole thing was worth $7.
I finally got a chance to go to my political science class. Of course, I was dropping jewels. But my professor Dr. Behr is a dweeb. But you know what, he can teach it. You run into many professors who know their stuff, but can’t teach a child how to tie a shoelace. This cat can do it. He was cool though. I recognized this one sister in my class. She is real cool. She is a member of the Black Student Alliance. She and I were building during break. We were late since we say my man Darn Rock in the hallway.
Class went smooth. I got a chance to tell the class about Tom Tommorrow’s comic about Dubya (George W. Bush) going back in time and meeting the writers of the constitution. Every one was laughing. We got into a healthy debate. Next thing you know it was snowing.
It was pretty. I like snow. Cause it’s never really cold in these parts when it snows. But the snow came down nice. I wish I had a sled and some buddies who like the snow.
I got home and found Lah and Akowoye in the spot. I love those guys
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The next day I had to go to school to get some books and articles. I also had to drop off my info for the observation in Norfolk public schools. I did a lot of running around.
I ran into my girl Michy and Nate boogie. It was good to see them in the day time and NOT at a function. I got a chance to talk to Dr. Allen too. Cool cat.
Someone asked me to write them a poet. This sister on BP. So I sent her one. I did not save it so I have to wait until she replies for me to put it up here.
I also went to Djs to buy some stuff. I got the Talib Kweli album. It looks hot, haven’t heard it yet. You will get my review soon. Heh heh
FINALLY , I got the RED HOT + RiOT CD.. it is a tribute to FEla.. I am listening to the remake of WATER GET NO ENEMY remake. It had Femi Kuti, D’Angelo, Macy Gray, Roy Hargroves, and Questlove of the Roots. Dead Prez is also on the album. You will also get my review. Suckas
i listened to the remake like 6 times now.
man i wish i could talk about my wife and my daughter.. oh i just did!
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announcement.. check this out... i got this from my man Sanu:
MARVEL COMICS had introduced a surprising prequel plot twist in the old-school story line of the patriotic comic hero Captain America in a six-part series of Marvel's THE TRUTH overprint this fall.For those not familiar with the popular comic hero's origin, Steve Rogers, an American GI during World War II, is given a "Super Soldier Serum" by the feds and becomes the popular muscle-bound crime fighter and American defender Captain America. He battled many Nazi and Hitler-like enemies like his most popular nemesis the Red Skull. Captain America still remains today one of the most popular early Marvel Comics characters.
But who was the guinea pig/s of this radically new—yet untested—Super Soldier Serum, pre-Captain America's patriotic appeal? You know, it had to be a "brotha"…
Apparently, according to the new twist, on the eve of World War II, the feds had given the Super Soldier Serum to a small band of African-American GIs, one of which eventually emerges as the real—or first—Captain America dubbed Black Cap. In other words, after they got the formula right through experimentation on brothas, Steve
Rogers, a Caucasian-American GI, was given the radically new serum for its intended purpose…to create a super soldier…duh. This has been one of the most controversial of Marvel's catalogue to date because it augments the history of Steve Rogers with the implication that he was not the first to receive the Super Soldier Serum that
turned him into Captain America, a twist that many traditional comic readers are not willing to grasp—in all its political correctness or historical accuracy.
Marvel CEO Bill Jemas gets the credit for the formation of this twist who just thought it was an interesting idea because so much of America's military is African-American and it would only make sense that an African-American male would most likely be the first Captain America judging the time period. According to the SOURCE Magazine,
though the initial idea for the series originated from fan gossip, some Capt. America devotees have reportedly called the series an affirmative-action marketing device. That may or may not be the case, but that doesn't bother the series writer Robert Morales, who says, "THE TRUTH is an acknowledgement that there is a huge, very
loyal minority audience that reads comic books and that certainly crosses over with Hip-Hop culture."
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personally it's a marketing ploy. get some controversy , an old hero gets a makeover , get black folk riled up and voila! make some $$$$. i konw how they do. Marvel has not had a decent black character since, since since.... oh hell.
read this:
January 15, 2003
President of Zimbabwe Insists That He Won't Step Down
Early
By RACHEL L. SWARNS
JOHANNESBURG, Jan. 14 — President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe denied today that he had agreed to retire as part of a power-sharing deal with the leading
opposition party. "I am not retiring," Mr. Mugabe told reporters during a trip to Zambia. "I will never, never go into exile. I fought for Zimbabwe and when I
die I will be buried in Zimbabwe, nowhere else." He was responding to a report first published in The Sunday Mirror of Zimbabwe, which said officials had
agreed to create an interim government that would include the leader of the opposition. The newspaper reported that Mr. Mugabe would step down from power in
2005, a year early, as part of a deal intended to ease the country's political and economic crises. Officials in government and in the opposition said on Monday
that no formal agreement had been made.
Mugabe is gangsta... original huh ?
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i forgot to tell you, i called my man Style Allah the other day. that dude is funny. here is what he said :
"Yo, you saw the TWO TOWERS? man, that is mad racist kid. bus it: they got all these white dudes fighting these black cats with locks. you see it man. then bus this: who leads the black cats? a white dude with a long beard! see son, i told you. then check this out: they all got the WHITE HAND on their bodies or helmets or whatever. See , i told you . that is like a reference to.. guess who? BIG PUN! so they throw in the latinos in there, too. see? those heads are mad racist. i am telling you kid."
man, some cats just go too far.
watch your back:
"R.A.: hey, where you been at space ghost?
Valentino: man, i been busy working...
R.A.: who's car is that...?
Valentino: my lady's car...
R.A.: Whoa! space ghost has been busy on Ghost planet with Brack and Jan... !"
i know it sounds crazy. it is. it's one of those private jokes. speaking of privacy, my lovely and dear wife wants me to quit discussing her and our wonderful daughter in this blog. we kind of got into it and i CAN'T get into it on this blog. but i will CEASE speaking of my wonderful family. So if you expect to hear great news about our family, don't expect any. she also wants me to keep all info on our friends as private as possible. as if i was airing out everyone's laundry. oh well. so my blog will be as boring as everyone else's. but i promise you i will NOT let this happen. (meaning i won't let it get boring where i just place a small entry in it... ) sorry ya'll. BUT if you want to protest, feel free at privacyinvasion@msn.com .. also check
out her site aqui hehehe
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second day of school :
it was pretty fresh.. it was... don't laugh. but it was. my first class was with this cat named Dr. allen. he wrote this book with Bill Cosby. he is a world renowned educator, LITERALLY. half of his teacher's aides are from foreign countries. he is the inventor of micro teaching. well it's not new but it was done 40 years ago. it's a method to help teach people how to become effective teachers. or learning how to teach someone something in a minimum amount of time.
but Dr. Allen was real cool. his quizzing method is revolutionary. i can't wait to take it. i know you are like "this guy is a dweeb.." maybe i am, but i am smart one that can kick your ass. But of course i made the class laugh with my wit. then i had to rep with my intelligence. but man, 250 students! ..whew.. i will shine..
my next class was Geography 100 in the same room.
it was Dr. Drake who taught it. she graduated from Oxford. never thought i would meet a woman from Oxford. but she had this heavy british accent. she was mad cool. i met this young lady named Kay who is in THREE of my classes. figure the odds of that.
there was a puerto rican lady in my geography class. i tried to catch up to her but she broke out. i will catch her next time.
man, i am so cool.. heheh heheh (that one goes to problematik)
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i found some info on madame Sata.. one of the illest capoeira players of all time.. ! word google images is the bomb..
there is a full fledge movie on him and all that. i got another pic of him. the real ONE. man he was not the handsomest dude..
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check this out.. uhoh
Tuesday, Jan 14, 2003, 2:10 pm EST
Giuliani gives Mexico City pointers for battling crime
Agence France-Presse
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MEXICO CITY, Jan 14 (AFP) -
Former New York City mayor Rudolph Giuliani kicked off a visit to Mexico City Tuesday to advise officials on combatting crime, local television reported.
Giuliani immediately began a tour of the city`s most dangerous areas after his arrival early Tuesday, the Televisa network reported. Credited with slashing New York City`s crime rate by 57 percent, Giuliani was hired as a consultant by the Mexico City government to help tackle crime in the sprawling capital.
Mexico City, with some 22 million inhabitants, has the second-highest crime rate in Latin America, after Bogota, averaging 2.05 murders and 496 other crimes a day.
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the other day at hist class we learned about the original name for mexico city. i can't even pronounce it. it was about 200,000 people there during the time of Cortes' invasion. crazy huh? some ill karma going on, i see.
this will be me one day:
oh yeah speaking of capoeira.. I GOT MY CAXIXI today!! IT'S ON ... i will rock with my berimbau now.. i also got my long sleeve t-shirt. man brazilians use some wack cloth. i feel like i can just snap it with my fingers. but it's hot though. i will rock it tommorrow. so i can look cool. heheh (big up p-matik..)
i was listening to Dead Prez in this song they got called F*** DA Police... they say
"to all my no meat eating, vegetarian, revolutionaries... "
i was like HEY THAT's ME... !
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tonight i am going to watch this comedy show on HIstory channel called "why we can't kill Saddam.." i gotta see this propaganda.
why would i f*** around and a jake my chrome? so true... big up dead prez...
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if my wife is reading...
Pa' Lante
Ay, ay...
No lloren mas,
No dejen que les envuelva la oscuridad,
Ay, ay...
Con compasion,
Oigan que yo busco
La amistad,
No dejen que les envuelva, envuelva la oscuridad.
Ay, ay...
La luz esta,
Adentro de la gente,
Con la unidad,
Ay, ay...
No buscen mas
Adentro de ti mismo,
No hay ilusion,
No dejen que les envuelva
La oscuridad
Sigule que sigule que siguele te llama,
Siguele que siguele
Palante palante...
Sigule que sigule que siguele te llama,
Siguele que siguele
Palante palante...
Sigule que sigule que siguele te llama,
Siguele que siguele
Palante palante...
Sigule que sigule que siguele te llama,
Siguele que siguele
Ay, ay...
Que siguen palante,
No dejen que los pare,
En este instante,
Ay, ay...
La luz esta
adentro de ti mismo
Con la unidad
No dejen que les envuelva
La oscuridad...
Sigule que sigule que siguele te llama,
Siguele que siguele
Palante palante...
Sigule que sigule que siguele te llama,
Siguele que siguele
Palante palante...
Sigule que sigule que siguele te llama,
Siguele que siguele
Palante palante...
Sigule que sigule que siguele te llama,
Siguele que siguele
Palante palante...
Palante palante...
Palante palante...
Palante palante...
Palante palante...
Sigule que sigule que siguele te llama,
Siguele que siguele
Palante palante...
Sigule que sigule que siguele te llama,
Siguele que siguele
Palante palante...
Palante palante...
Sigule que sigule que siguele te llama,
Siguele que siguele
Palante palante...
-------
big up to my man Ra Asa aka Billie wheels
for this site.
check out this interview with J live
These are the transcripts of an interview with J-Live. The interview was conducted by Hugo on December 6th, 2001. J-Live is well known as a talented emcee from the NY indepedent scene. His heavily bootlegged album 'The Best Part' was never properly released, but still is praised heavily and has aided create J-Live a very nice reputation.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
How did you begin?
Um...I was born in 1976. Haha.
That's a pretty good start actually.
Mama said I cried a lot, Doctor smacked me. Haha. I guess I started out around about the age of 12 in Junior high school, I started rhyming. Started spinning - got a little Gemini starter kit...Screwing up, spinning along, liking Hip Hop.
How did you grow up? I mean was your home situation a poor one? A wealthy one? What was the situation you grew up within?
Just me and my moms, she did a great job. I mean we wasn't poor but we sure weren't rich either.
How did you manage to get your material "out there"?
In '95 I had an internship with Rawshack. They put out 'Braggin' Writes' and 'Can I Get It' a year after that.
How well was that received?
Well, 'Braggin' Writes' got me into The Source's "Unsigned Hype," a lot of underground radio play. And 'Can I Get It' kind of doubled that, so then I got signed to London in '97.
Did you have any jobs prior to doing what you've been doing?
When I first put a record out, I was a sophmore in college. When I graduated I was teaching in Brownsville; 7th grade English. And then I went over to Bushwick and taught 8th grade English.
Do you still teach?
Nah, I'm taking this year off because I'm trying to do music full time right now. It's like a lot of touring and stuff, so...
So, what happened with regards to your album being released? I mean I remember hearing about and seeing it heavily bootlegged both on and offline.
Well, I mean there was a lot of bootlegging because the record was released to the press in '99. Right before London and Universal parted ways. So, the record was shelved. I was on Universal while London was on Warner Brothers.
Because I just remember hearing and seeing about bootlegs and things of that nature and everyone actually complimenting it. But, nobody was able to get a legitimate copy
Right.
Didn't they release some sort of semi-official release with half the tracks a few months ago?
No, that was also a bootleg.
Are there any plans to release it properly or are you just working on releasing new material?
Well, I am working on new material. I've got an album that's called 'All Of The Above' that's coming out in March. It's possible that there will be a legitimate release of 'The Best Part' in January. But we don't know that for sure, we're not really able to speak on that.
So now I'm trying to get deeper into your character to find out what sort of a person "J-Live" actually is. So, would you say "the glass" is half full or half empty?
What do you mean? Which glass?
I mean in a metaphorical sense, how do you see things, positively or negatively?
I'd like to think that the glass is 60% full. It's cool around half, I try to be accurate.
Are there any incidents of note that you could say have helped shape your character?
Well, my culture is 5%. My mother raised me well. I enjoyed my college experience very much. I've enjoyed travelling the world as a result of Hip Hop. So I guess you could say those four things shapped the man who you see.
Where do you find you're best received around the world
See, that's a tough one. I mean the last few tours I've done. Well, tours used to be show dates. Where I would go out, have a weekend here, a weekend there. I would say have a week out in Europe, then a two week tour in Europe, then a three week tour in Europe. I'm actually getting ready to go out there for a month. I've got a lot of fans out in Cali. A lot of fans here (NY). Overseas, I suppose England and Germany know me the best.
That's not a bad following. I mean, I'm from the UK so I know how the scene is in London.
But, I mean, even outside of London. I mean I'll go to Ipswitch or Leeds or something and there'll be 20 year old girls knowing all the words to my songs. So, it's kind of cool.
How do you feel about the changing face of Hip Hop? I mean economically it's much bigger than it used to be...do you feel there's room for everyone? Or is it that just the few will become prosperous and others will keep trying?
I think it's just a microcosm for life. Because you have a situation where the lack of contrast leads to where people don't get every colour of the spectrum in the mainstream. That's why they call it "underground," because you have to dig it up. So, with that being said you have the situation where the average person has "X" amount of music shoved in his face and "X" amount of music that he doesn't ever get to hear. So, I mean that's the face of Hip Hop right now. Within the "mainstream" or within the "underground." I mean if you look passed those pigeon holes, you have good music and bad music. You have people pushing the envelope and doing things that are generally innovative and creative. And you have people who are just on an assembly line trying to sell records instead of trying to make music. And, that's true in the mainstream as well as the underground. The underground has its assembly line too. I think a lot of people don't realize that when they tell you; "Oh this is pop!" or "This is grimey!" or "This is avant-guard!" They don't necessarily realize that it's a lot more to do with the budget of the label and the interests of an artist.
Do you strive to make a record which in your eyes is worthy? Or are you trying to also please people?
I do what comes naturally to me as a writer. Whether I choose a character to describe or to be autobiographical or to just try to be riding with a concept or... Well, from there, the beat. It's just basically what I like. I'm not going to rhyme to what I dislike. I like a lot of different types of beats. They vary from I guess where they're from. Be it Bossonova, or Jazz, Funk, Reggae, what have you. That reflects me. A lot of people describe the first album as being eclectic - that's just because of the type of music I listen to. After you finish with rhymes and beats, delivery kind of comes from how you get comfortable developing your style. Like, I'm starting to write songs which are geared on trying to move a crowd. So when you combine all those things together - I feel like I have a niche, where I have a strong fanbase of people who are looking for what I do. So, I'm not really concerned with people who are not interested. I mean as that fanbase grows outside of time, so be it. But I'm not going to go outisde of myself to develop it.
How do you come up with your content?
Different things that I feel are important to talk about. Different things which I feel have never been done. Those are the two main routes I go by, I mean "Them That's Not." That song has never been done in that way, yet that's something that I feel was very important to talk about. You know, songs like 'Don't Play,' I don't think people will ever realize how much...I mean there's certain things about my lyrics which unless I sit there and explain them to you. You won't really appreciate. And when I'd explain it to you, you'd be like "What the hell is he doing?" The third verse of 'Don't Play' - the words that are rhyming...are a reversed order of the words that are rhyming in the first verse. Nobody really picked that up unless they were really deep into the lyrics. But those that are reading this article now can go back and listen to the song like "What the hell?"
'Wax Paper,' that's a song which on the surface is a song about two assassins where one of them is just out for the money, and, the other one is in love with the art that he's doing. Then on the other hand, some people will notice that the first sixteen or twenty bars are filled with terminology relating directly to the Technics 1200. It's just one big metaphor about how being a DJ I used to be able to rhyme to being an MC who happens to DJ.
Do you have any favourite words?
Nah, they're like my children. I can't really choose one of them. Haha.
How has September 11th effected you?
Its effected me a great deal. I mean just the day to day lifestyle in New York has changed dramatically. I have friends who have lost friends. Thankfully nobody that close to me has suffered. However, my brother and my manager's wife were working on Wall Street at the time, so...The label that I'm on right now is located right across the street from the World Trade Center. And in all, it's just fucked up generally. On one hand its brought a lot of people together, on another hand its woken a lot of people up to issues. But, I'd say it has effected me a great deal.
What do you feel about what's being done in trying to "resolve" the issue?
I think that what's important...for the people that have directly been effected in my world. Is that they don't take things on the same value. I have a song called 'Satisfied' that touches on certain issues like how a lot of police officers died that day, and that's tragic. And how a lot of firefighters died that day. And that's tragic. But that doesn't necessarily mean that the issues that black people have with the police department just suddenly disappear. It doesn't mean that because Guiliani had such poise at the time, that all of the gripes about him are going to disappear. Whatever you want to say about Bush - a lot of people who are Bush advocates right now, right before it happened were still griping about how he got elected and his agenda. I just think that you have to recognize tragedy for what it is. But you can't let it blind you as to things that happened before the incident. It doesn't make the people who are working against that, "all good" all of a sudden. They're not all good.
On another note, let's say a...happier note. Is a freestyle, a freestyle if it's written?
Hahahaha. Me and my girl debate about that. Not necessarily debate, but it's a constant topic. I'll put it to you like this...When I grew up, people were writing rhymes about how dope they were. That was pretty much 60% of Rakim's subject matter. 65% of KRS', 70% of Kane's subject matter, 80% of EPMD's and 100% of Special Ed's. Right? So you've got all of these rhymes about how dope you are...when are you supposed to kick them? I think "freestyling" is freestyling. If you're freestyling, you're rhyming off the head. You're coming up with something that you have not written and in the heat of a battle you need that so that you can diss the shit out of your opponent. But I think there's something to be said for all of these rhymes that people are writing for battling if they're not going to use them then you're missing out. I think people's writtens should get a lot more merrit than they do in the heat of a battle. It's kind of like doing your homework. You can come and present infront of a class without any preparation and you'll still get an "A." But that doesn't mean that the kid that did his homework should get shitted on. I think freestyling in itself is very important, but there's something to be said for a person who takes the time out to write down how dope he is. No matter who he's going up against because you don't know who you're talking to when you write these rhymes. It's an ill topic. Personally, I think there's a lot of real dope freestyle-emcees that can't write verses. And a lot of dope freestyle-emcees that can write verses but can't write songs. And a lot of dope emcees that write verses but can't freestyle for shit. It's just a matter of which ceremony are you mastering at the time. If you're going to be an emcee there's many different ceremonies you have to master. Some have mastered the ceremony of getting radio play. Some have mastered the ceremony of being a battle emcee off the head, some have mastered writing songs - I'd say that's more of my specialty right now. As a songwriter I'm looking outside of Hip Hop for my influences right now. Whereas before, I would say I want to be a songwriter like KRS or Rakim or Chuck D. Now I'm saying I want to be a songwriter like Marvin Gaye or Sade or Stevie Wonder.
When your material is reviewed by a critic and the critic isn't feeling it. How do you react to that?
I haven't seen much of that. Haha. I know that there are certain songs within my circle (my manager, my label, my friends) that I get proper criticism from. That are songs which I find out are either gonna be alright or...do you really need somebody to love or hate them? You just take it in stride. People aren't going to love everything you do. That's just the bottom line.
What are you currently working on?
The new album. It's coming out in March, called 'All Of The Above.' On production it's me, Spinna and Yusef Dinero. I'm trying to keep a short list of producers so that the record will have a certain vibe to it. But it's still pretty eclectic like the last one.
Are you going to be doing any more work with Pete Rock and Primo?
Perhaps someday, but not on this particular project.
What are you most/least proud of creating?
Most proud of - I'd say 'The Best Part.' Least proud of, maybe 'Can I Get It.' 'Cause I feel like that song, had I had it to do over again I would have had a beat that more fit the song so that you can appreciate the story. I like that song, but it's the song I go to the least out of all of them.
That kind of cancels out my following question, because I was going to ask you if that's going to resurface again.
'Can I Get It'? You never know. I mean someday, if my career takes it to that level than I may do some kind of best of or revisit a bunch of songs. That's a song I'd love to revisit. If I had another chance to flip it in a different way. So you never know. I'm more concerned with making sure people are familiar with my newer material.
Do you have any plans to change yourself in 2002 - like a New Years Resolution?
Nah, I figure if you feel the need to change something in October, you change it in October. Haha.
Other than the album being released. What is going to be going on with you in the next year?
I'm hopefully going to be more involved in the "Do Things For The Kids" foundation, 7Heads. Get a couple of after-school programs going at the school I used to teach at. Just make myself more available to the kids out here in this neighbourhood. Get to a lot more "Open Mics," so I can see what everybody's doing. I plan on touring as much as I can - but it's a pretty simple life for me right now.
Do you have any non-musical aspirations? I mean, I'm wondering whether you would choose to write books, or scripts or something of that nature?
I'd like to develop a ciriculum actually that can kind of get kids going with using Hip Hop as a tool for literature. So studying Hip Hop as a form - lyric by lyric - it's kind of a spoken art. Taking lyrics on paper for close reading the way that people do. In terms of books - I dabbled in writing articles with a website a while ago, and that was fun. So, if I had the time I'd probably get back into that. Try and be a true Hip Hop journalist instead of just a fan of the magazines. Those things are probably in my distant future.
Are there any last words you'd like to put to your fans and/or potential fans?
Just to those that have 'The Best Part' no matter how they got it. Thank you, I hope you liked it. And if it comes out, feel free to go get it again because I'm sure there'll be a couple of things different on it. Enjoy what's coming up next because I think we'll be pushing the envelope a little bit more. I don't know if it's better per se but it's definitely different and a continuation of what's going on from '99 until now.
"
Don't be silent when you have something to say, lie only when necessary, invest in flowers, and teach my grandchildren to respect their ancestors" said the dying man to his good natured son... (in a story by Francisco hinojosa)
"stay away from cell phones" said I SELF RA (that's me) to his good natured sister.
what a day.. i stayed home and went to class but put in mad work.
i sang songs with yejide most of the day. mostly Ozomatli and orishas... yejide catches on quick. Yetunde was out all day and she had a class. Yejide is so wonderful. she makes these funny giggles. she is so amazing. just think, she plays capoeira.
Akowoye and Lah came by. they wanted to dub the play on video. we used two VCRS. i got a chance to watch the play in it's entirety. man it was so dope. the symbolism and the conflicts were great. in one scene all the villians and heroes were ready to face off . it was dope. sort of like the Superfriends and they had that episode when they fought everyone in the Council of Doom.
-----------------
today i just finished reading Deepak Chopra's "The SEven Spiritual Laws of Success" . great book.
i realized that i just applied the LAW OF DETACHMENT....
in the book on page 85 he says:
"People are constantly seeking security, and you will find that seeking security is actually a very ephemeral thing. Even attachment to money is a sign of insecurity. You might say, 'when i have X million dollars, then I'll be secure. Then I'll be financially independent and retire. Then i will do all the things I really want to do.' But it never happens -- Never happens. Those who seek security chase it for a lifetime without ever finding it. It remains elusive and ephemeral, beacuse security can never come from money alone. Attachment to money will always create insecurity no matter how much money you have in the bank...The search for insecurity is an illusion. In ancient wisdom traditions, the solution to this whole dilemma lies in the wisdom of insecurity, or the wisdom of uncertainty.
i did that. i quit my "secure" 9 to 5 with the benefits and 401K to be a full time student/artist/family man. i decided to place faith in uncertainty.. i understand the law of karma (which is in the book) and i do well and give of myself as much as i can, it can work. so i am following the wisdom of insecurity.
Oriki Ori - Praising the Inner Spirit
Bi o ba maa lowo,
If you want to have money,
Beere lowo orii re,
Inquire of your head,
Bi o ba maa sowo,
If you want to start trading,
Beere Lowo ori re wo,
Inquire of your head,
Bi o ba maa kole o,
If you want to build a house,
Beere lowo orii re,
Inquire of your head,
Bi o ba maa laya o,
If you want a relationship,
Beere lowo orii re wo,
Inquire of your head first,
Ori mase pekun de,
Inner spirit please do not shut the gate,
Lodo re ni mi mbo,
It is you that I am coming to,
Wa sayee fun awon omo mi di rere,
Come and make my life prosperous,
Ase.
So be it.
quote from
Ozomatli's website...
"The DNC really impacted us," says tenor sax player Ulises Bella. "When we were there, we were given a lot of energy from the people who were there to protest, how they felt about our involvement in the protests. It was really inspiring. The negative part of it was how this group of people was just shut down. There was just a hand around a throat saying "you can't say this anymore." It was right at the moment when Clinton was giving his speech about how great America was. The irony of it, the cynicism of it, all of it influenced us. That's why we called the album Embrace the Chaos, accepting the fucked up things of the world but wanting to change them."
like this and uh:
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i went to class today. I loved it. i realized that i (along with my other fellow students) purchased teh wrong books. at first i thought it was me. i was so embarrassed. then i saw other people with the book. but the professor cleared it all up. anyway, the class is an easy A. it's ill .. cause i read parts of the AMBIGUOUS IROQUIOS EMPIRE and i am currently reading THE TAINOS by Irving Rouse and it was like an intro. most of the stuff i already know. so it will be a piece of cake.
here is how it looks the first five weeks...
WEEK I INTRODUCTION; EUROPEAN SETTLEMENT OF NORTH AMERICA 13 Jan no assignment
WEEK II MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR. DAY--NO CLASS
WEEK III COLONIAL CONFLICTS AND REVOLUTION 27 Jan Gary B. Nash, et al., The American People (hereafter listed as textbook), Chapters 1 through 6; Elliott J. Gorn, et al., Constructing the American Past (hereafter listed as sourcebook), [vol.] I:Introduction and Chapter :4
WEEK IV THE EARLY REPUBLIC 3 Feb textbook, Chapters 7-10; sourcebook, I:[chapter] 5
WEEK V SLAVERY 10 Feb First Exam; textbook, Chapter 11; sourcebook, I:8
i know you are like.. "this guy Dan tres Omi or whatever.. is a dork..."
but you laugh at my jokes... heh heh
i got home with yejide being all happy.. my man Ordinary Joe called me. we chopped it up for a minute while yejide screamed in my ear. we discussed everything from KRS ONe to the big tymers to balance and dieting. or good and bad diets. it was a very productive 30 minutes. we debated. it was a healthy debate too.
i could tell he was trying to convince me to slam for word up.. ain't work though
heads think they slick...
------------
man i ordered some stuff from Barnes and Nobles. three items. the Fela tribute, a capoeira cd, and a capoiera book. I ASKED them cats to send it together. why did they just ship the fela tribute already by itself.. ? i guess, i got what i pay for... free shipping...!!!
--------------
dig this:
"Represanto... Santo Domingo es mi cuerpo"
Yesterday I was away from home all day it seems like. I stayed at home with Yejide until about 1pm. She napped mostly. Let me rephrase that. She laid her head on my shoulder the entire time, but napped for about an hour and 15 minutes.
Then I zoomed out to Hampton to see
Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. I went with P-matik. If I hate anything, it’s arriving to the theatre too late. I mean we got there during the previews and it was my fault, but I just don’t like it.
The movie was great. Well worth seeing. It did not feel like it was 3 hours long. The scenery and landscape was beautiful. Even the snow covered mountains looked pretty. It was filmed in New Zealand. I was really open by it. There were some great horse riding scenes in the province of Rohan. Rohan is a place in middle Earth where the men were known for their mastery of horses.
In the beginning, things looked grim for Frodo and Samwise. Also for the rest of the fellowship
(Aragon, Gimli, and Legolas). The king of Rohan, Theoden, was possessed by
Sauraman, a minion of
Sauron. Theoden allowed orcs to ravage the country side. Theoden also exiled his nephew and his 2,000 cavalry after the death of his heir. The remnants of the fellowship headed to Rohan with
Gandalf, whom everyone thought perished in the Fellowship of the Ring episode. Gandalf was able to release Theoden from Sauraman’s grasp. But it was too late, the orcs were amassing a grand army to slaughter the human race.
From that point on, it’s all kick ass. But what I really dug about the movie is
Frodo and his spiritual battle with the ring. If it were not for
Samwise, he would have been seduced by evil. They run into
Smeagol the Gollum, whom we come to know as Gollum. He was once the owner of the ring before Bilbo, Frodo’s uncle, came upon it. He was completely ravaged and emaciated because of his addiction to the ring. He was left mentally incapacitated by it as well. In the movie, we see his multiple personalities come out. I must admit, for a digitally enhanced being he was acting his butt off.
All in all, it was a very triumphant movie. You could help but give up in despair during the battle of Helm’s Deep, when the men of Rohan, along with a contingent of elves, and the remnants of the fellowship of the ring fought against 10,000 bloodthirsty orcs.
They even had to get children to fight. Yet they prevailed against overwhelming odds.
After the movie, P-matik and I headed to a meeting at HOOTERs (of all places). It was jam packed in there. I forgot the game was on. So we decided to head to Applebees (I hate that place). We met with elevation, Akowoye, Rob, Rico , and this cat who looks like Suge Knight. We had fun and discussed the ER weekend. We covered much ground. Man, it was so fun. But expensive and the food SUCKS.
Then I headed home to find Brother Jay, his wife, and lil’ Abdul in the house. It was good to see them. Man, I miss them. We always mention that. He enjoys working as a school teacher but he discussed his dissatisfaction with the SOLs. He finds the curriculum inadequate. But he loves the children. They brighten up his day.
Muiginho came through. So did Elevation and Akowoye. It was fun. We joked on everyone just like when Brother Jay was here. Muiginho brought this movie from Brazil called “Quilombo.” I thoroughly enjoyed it. It was historically accurate. I enjoyed every second of it. It dealt with the
Quilombo de Palmares. It discussed the passing down of the kingship from
Ganga Zumba to
Zumbi. It was so dope. It showed how they survived against the Portuguese onslaught for centuries. They showed cats playing Capoeira. What I enjoyed is how they demonstrated that the power lied within the priestesses. No one ever discusses that. They also showed how each king, knew when his reign was up and allowed the next man to take over (something I wish people would do nowadays) . one can learn alot about themselves in this movie
i admire the fact that the priestesses would always tell the king that the Palmares will always live on. i know recently the 500 anniversary of Zumbi was celebrated in brazil. a complete freedom fighter, meaning someone who understood that total freedom meant economical, physical, spiritual, and politcal freedom, ZUmbi strictly was not having it. I definitely got to get this one in the collection. once again, this one is subtitled. i know plenty of people have beef, but there is plenty of action and music in it. the soundtrack was done by the famous Gilberto Gil ( i want that soundtrack, tried to download but to no avail. dumb americans who don't know what they are missing...)
i also recognized the woman who played the last priestess was the mom in
Orfeu.. (man i got skills... )
----------------
Big up to Christie Z Pabon of Tools of War. She really has been hooking us up. Here is something she emailed ….
"Foucault's Turntable: Hip-Hop Scholars Bumrush the Academy" by Hua Hsu
Check out the latest Village Voice: Jan. 8-14, 2003. The Cover reads "Civil
Rights are Dead. Long Live Hip-Hop"
http://villagevoice.com/issues/0302/hsu.php
I liked Hsu's very informative piece and it led me to wonder:
1. Should most Hip Hop scholars be called "Hip Hop scholars" or are many
actually "Rap" scholars, specializing mainly in one element? Despite the
fact that many use the words "rap" and "Hip Hop" interchangeably, are we all in
agreement Hip Hop is the culture and Rap is just one of the many elements?
How much do Hip Hop scholars have to know about the foundational dance
forms associated with Hip Hop culture, aerosol art, or DJ elements? Are there
requirements for being a Hip Hop scholar and who determines them? We
personally meet very few scholars outside of conferences and panels. I
maintain that the Zulu Nation Anniversaries and Rock Steady Crew Reunions,
right here in NYC, are the best places for ethnomusicological research in
true Hip Hop culture out there.
2. Can and will the Hip Hop scholars consider using their privileged
positions to help the 3 DJ pioneers, the founding fathers of Hip Hop
culture: Kool Herc, Afrika Bambaataa, and Grandmaster Flash, to receive
honorary Ph.Ds for setting the culture off? After this, will they work on
the legendary artists, from ALL the elements, from the first decade of Hip Hop,
to receive honorary Ph.Ds. (and NOT just the rap artists who provide good
press). One would think that over 30 years of life experience and history
making (and gathering) in Hip Hop would warrant them something!
3. With the exception of a chosen few, why are the legendary artists of Hip
Hop culture (from the 70's - early 80's) not asked to speak on panels or at
so called Hip Hop conferences and summits? I have heard many of them speak
and can honestly say that they can hold their own. Do organizers feel that
the journalists and academics are more qualified than the legends to
discuss the history that they made? Why can't the spectators hear first hand
accounts from the legends? MOST of the Hip Hop legends & pioneers are under 50 years
old. Are people going to wait another 30 or 40 years before they begin to
formally recognize these artists for their contributions? Are they going to
wait until after they inevitably pass away to bestow awards upon them? This
culture and it's participants are relatively young and MOST OF THEM ARE
ALIVE!
LET'S CELEBRATE THIS AND INCLUDE THEM IN SUMMITS, CONFERENCES, ETC.
you can reach her at toolsofwar@aol.com
Someone gave me the book “The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success” by Deepak Chopra (who everyone knows is the man)
He drops some heavy jewels. The book is only 99 pages but heavy in content.
Topics:
1. The Law of Pure Potentiality
2. The Law of Giving
3. The Law of Karma or Cause and Effect
4. The Law of Least Effort
5. The Law of Intention and Desire
6. The Law of Detachment
7. The Law of Dharma or Purpose in Life
It’s 15 ones, but it is worth it. Thanks Vetta.
----------------------------
this is no lie...
i got this from
Tom Tommorrow's website.. he is the man. his comic is off the rocker..
i like this cat cause he says things like this...
and you know i can't stands pat robertson..
--------------
speaking of ads..
i love me some
adbusters too.
me likes, too.
----
now why the hell would i buy capoeira skivvies?
man , capitalism ain't no joke
"man, you don't know about
Kill at Will or
Death Certificate? ..that was Ice Cube in his prime..." now he do this
we be clubbin' crap and videos with bentleys and iced down medallions...WTF...
today we discussed the demise of Ice Cube. he don't even smirk anymore. what happened to the scowl?
we discussed how he cut his curl back in the day. we talked about AMERIKA's MOST WANTED and KILL AT WILL. then Death CERTIFICATE. P-matik pointed out they were classic albums that had a direct impact on hip hop culture. they did. we were like WHAT HAPPENED SON? cats got paid and forgot about the struggle. "i ain't starving no more so eff ya'll... fo' sho..."
do we have to water down our message to be successful? or are we too conditioned to buy the realness? hmm..
-------------------------
today.. i spent TOO MUCH $$$. had to buy school books. man those cats are sharks. word up. i will reserve a few cans of whup ass for these text book publishers. watch your back, chumps.
i got some critique on my page. Azi jumped on me about the feminist post the other day. BUT once again she played herself.
HERE's HOW...
AZI: I Self, i have a question about the play...
SELF: what's up?
AZI: well, how come BLACK WOMAN (I SELF's NOTE-- Black woman played a very ignorant character in the play who later becomes conscious... she was one of the main charactes), who was the only woman in the play, so ignorant? how come she had to be ignorant?
SELF: uh, well the VOICE OF BLACK LOGIC AND REASONING was a woman. the narrator was a woman. the intro soliliquy was a woman.. you had the slave woman who held it down.
AZI: uh, i missed the beginning.
SELF: there you go.. so my entry with you in it was necessary..
silence...
of course i exagerated this. BUT SUHEIR HAMMAD WAS MY IDEA. get it right (one of those private jokes) . but Azi went buckwild with her paranoid feminist tirades.
yeah i said it! (of course i am saying this so she can get mad at me...)
heheh
-----------------
this is so dope...
these cats are setting off the maculele with fire!
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as my girl BUTTERSOUL says "my time is worth more than your $$$" (word up!)
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i forgot to add this...
Monday, Jan 6, 2003, 12:13 pm EST
Sharpton pitches presidential candidacy
Boston Herald
Amid joyous singing and thunderous applause, the fiery Rev. Al Sharpton yesterday visited a Dorchester church, where a hopeful congregation embraced his plan to run for president. The 48-year-old civil rights leader preached, sang and spoke briefly about his possible White House bid before more than 500 churchgoers at Greater Love Tabernacle on Nightingale Street.
i want to puke...
times like this i wish i believed in HAY SOOS...
"yo, it's the Ptolemies, kid, it ain't no big deal...it's the Ptolemies.. don't get caught up..."
what a day.. ya'll.
somehow, i was misinformed that school started today. yeah, the catalog READ jan 9th. so i got up bright and early. i had to buy some notebooks, pens, and folders. so i head out to Walmart. Man there are still people in there. i ran into my man Sanu's mom. she looks younger every time i see her. that is what healthy and positive living does for you people.
I SELF RA PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT...
I am 29 years old. i will be 30 in march. i look good, star. why? i take care of myself. GET OFF THAT PORK AND CIGARETTE DIET.. STOP DRINKING SODAS in the morning. that ish will kill you. it makes you look like someone's drunk uncle.. word.
another PSA from the universal zulu nation...
Solar Flare chapter 30 of Hampton roads VA...
After that i start looking for a photo album. i don't know what possessed me to do that. let me tell you, since i been married, i hardly go shopping. Yetunde handles that. but today i did my thing. anyway i got lost and ended up in the Lingerie section in Walmart. of all effin' places. imagine the lingerie section in walmart kid. in the morning, i am not usually awake. i mean i get up mega early and eat and shower and all that. but i am on robot mode. my mind is asleep. so here i am trying to find a photo album for something i couldn't recall at the time. i did not want to ask anyone cause i already asked this old cat like a million questions. i did not want to bother him anymore. everytime i asked him a question he would tell me a story. it was too early and i did not have time to talk.
SELF: hey, where is the price checker? cause some of these items are missing price tags...
OLD DUDE WHO WORKS AT WALMART: oh, they missing price tags are they?
SELF: yeah
OLD DUDE WHO WORKS AT WALMART: you sure?
SELF: yeah
OLD DUDE WHO WORKS AT WALMART: hmmm.. don't you hate that? its like these idiots don't know what they are doing?
SELF: uh, yeah
OLD DUDE WHO WORKS AT WALMART: lemme tell ya.. if these pukes worked for me, they all be hog tied. these maggots don't know the meaning of work. can't even put a measly sticker on something.
SELF: uh, yeah, right. where did you say the price checker was?
see what i mean? so i was wandering and i saw this short sister salivating over this tacky piece of lingerie (from wal mart now). i was like oh WTF! ... then she spotted me. she was mad embarrased.
SELF: ain't it a little too early for that?
THE STARVING WALMART LINGERIE BOOSTER: no, never too late for that.
SELF: get your head out the gutter kid, i did not mean that sexually.
THE STARVING WALMART LINGERIE BOOSTER: huh?
SELF: boosting. it's too early to be boosting.
THE STARVING WALMART LINGERIE BOOSTER: what the hell is boosting?
SELF: forget about it.
so i finally get out of walmart and head to school. i park like two big ass blocks down. i was thinking "they is probably no room anyway and i don't have a parking pass. so i will walk." it was a nice day anyway. the parking lot was deserted. i was like WTF.
maybe i am in the wrong building... ? i checked my schedule which i had stapled to my trusty student planner. i was at the right place. i go into the building and EVERY JANITOR is mopping up everywhere. i was like WHOA (yeah i said it) . me being conditioned by the US NAVY to NEVER walk on a wet floor, i froze.
SELF: excuse me, good morning.
FEMALE JANITOR: good mornin'.
SELF: uh, does school start today?
FEMALE JANITOR: boy! you see anybody in here for school!
i quickly made my exit.
i decided to head to the WEBB CENTER to go to the bookstore. i get there and a sign reads "WE ARE NOT OPENING UNTIL 8:10am" which to me was peculiar. so here i was sitting on a table reading a book and sipping on some apple juice. this white cat with three girls rolls up. two of them stand near me .. the white cat and the other girl move away... i continue reading. the other two girls are giggling amongst themselves. then this sister walks up and places her soda at the table. i look up and see this real thick sister. i was like whoa. but i go back to my book ( i am reading THE BROKE DIARIES.. i really was not feeling the book and fighting to feel it)
T FROM PITTSBURGH: hey, you know what time this store opens...?
SELF: the sign said 8:10 but it's like 8:30...
T FROM PITTSBURGH: that's crazy.
SELF: I know...
T FROM PITTSBURGH: oh well, i can wait.
SELF: word.
T FROM PITTSBURGH: damn, i hope they hurry up and open.
SELF: it's bugged.
T FROM PITTSBURGH: why you say that?
SELF: cause you just said 'i can wait' and then turned around and said that you hope they hurry up.
T FROM PITTSBURGH: i did say that huh?
SELF: yep.
T FROM PITTSBURGH: my fault.
SELF: its okay. but it's crazy cause the sign says 8:10am.. just say 'we gonna be late.' and then you have to wonder why they said 8:10am in the first place.
T FROM PITTSBURGH: you right
SELF: what's your major? (what every self respecting college student asks any other college student)
T FROM PITTSBURGH: Computer science
SELF: oh, word.
T FROM PITTSBURGH: and you?
SELF: History
(her face contorts)
WTF....
we finally get in there. but T FROM PITTSBURGH leaves before it opens. i go in and start looking around. i am trying to be slick. i get the names of all the books so that i can go on barnes and nobles online and cop them for 40% off with FREE shipping and handling. yeah there's a catch. i do cop two books that were mad cheap. so i figured i would get them just in case.
then i head to the ID office. there was a girl in there by herself and man was she shook. everytime i reached in my bag for a book ( i carry my own , kid) she jumped. but after much waiting and hear frantic typing, we learn that the system is down.
i head home and Yetunde heads out to register for another class. i try to buy the books on line TO NO AVAIL. now i got to go back to school tommorrow.
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Yejide and i pretty much hung out the whole day. she is so funny . we played INFECTIOUS ORgANISMS.. she loves their second CD. when i play Medelin Cartel she gets real buck wild. she is funny. she imitates my move. we watched Blues Clues. man, she is like X man. she loves them.
we sang to Infectious, Femi Kuti, some capoeira (mestre bimba and mestre camisa), and Musiq ... then she took a nap while i mad negotiations over the phone.
then we headed to Akowoye's and Lah's house. from there we went to the mall. she screamed at all the clerks who i handed my stuff too. it was funny. i brought her these slamming kicks (she picked them out). i wanted to get her these Joe Boxer bowling shoes but they did not have her size. its bugged cause yejide made faces at the other children who were stuck on their carts. i chased yejide around the store speaking to her in spanish. she took stuff and moved it to other racks. i laughed the whole time. FREE my child, RUN FREE. we will not restrain you. she does not even own a crib.
so we headed home.
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THESE ARE THEM!! i found them!! i forgot what they are called.. i got them.. ah ha hah a
big up to meca isa.. wheewwww!!!
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FUCK INFECTIOUS broke up...
oh HAY SOOS
"and i'm handing out beatdowns (BEATDOWNS)"
2003 will definitely be the year for beatdowns. mark my words. cats will be catching bodies like it's going out of style. Bumpy Knuckles where you at? it's on...
here is one good reason...
Final Nominations List (I took out some artists if not most…)
45th Annual GRAMMY® Awards
Category 1 - Record Of The Year
• Don't Know Why
Norah Jones
• Dilemma
Nelly Featuring Kelly Rowland
MY BEEF: WTF? How did nelly get in this one…. ? come on man. Them cats at the grammy’s are on crack
Category 2 - Album Of The Year
• Come Away With Me
Norah Jones
• Nellyville
Nelly
MY BEEF: once again a big WTF! How can you compare, Nelly and Norah Jones (who is keeping the blues genre alive and kicking…)
Category 4 - Best New Artist
• Ashanti
• Michelle Branch
• Norah Jones
• Avril Lavigne
• John Mayer
MY BEEF: holy WTF? How did Ashanti get in this? Okay she is a new artist, but BEST? Come on now.
Category 23 - Best Female R&B Vocal Performance
(For a solo vocal performance. Singles or Tracks only.)
• Foolish
Ashanti
• He Loves Me (Lyzel in E Flat) (Movements I, II, III)
Jill Scott
MY BEEF: once again.. a mega WTF? Yo, Jill better win this year…
Category 30 - Best Contemporary R&B Album
(For albums containing 51% or more playing time of VOCAL tracks.)
• Ashanti
Ashanti
• Full Moon
Brandy
• Faithfully
Faith Evans
• Floetic
Floetry
• Cookie: The Anthropological Mixtape
Meshell Ndegeocello
MY BEEF: as you can tell, a bunch of no talent having pukes along side our generation’s brightest (Meshel and Floetic?) .. we need to protest the wackness…
Category 31 - Best Female Rap Solo Performance
(For a solo Rap performance. Singles or Tracks only.)
• Diary...
Charli Baltimore
• Scream a.k.a Itchin'
Missy Elliott
• Satisfaction
Eve
Track from: Eve-Olution
• Na Na Be Like
Foxy Brown
• Mystery Of Iniquity
Lauryn Hill
MY BEEF: first up, Lauryn Hill ain’t rhymin.’ She should be in the alternative section. See what happens when you let OTHER people categorize your ish? Second, Foxy fell off a loooong time ago. Eve is a sureshot.
Category 32 - Best Male Rap Solo Performance
(For a solo Rap performance. Singles or Tracks only.)
• Without Me
Eminem
• Song Cry
Jay-Z
• Rollout (My Business)
Ludacris
• Bouncin' Back (Bumpin' Me Against The Wall)
Mystikal
• Hot In Herre
Nelly
MY BEEF: hmph.. this nelly cat.. he ain’t learn from KRS ONE? Yo, Jay Z better take this one home to Marcy.
Category 33 - Best Rap Performance By A Duo Or Group
(For duo, group or collaborative performances of Rap only. Singles or Tracks only.)
• The Essence
AZ Featuring Nas
• Still Fly
Big Tymers
• Pass The Courvoisier Part II
Busta Rhymes Featuring P. Diddy & Pharrell
• Oh Boy
Cam'Ron Featuring Juelz Santana
• The Whole World
OutKast Featuring Killer Mike
MY BEEF: sad, so sad. Big Tymers? Come on you can’t be serious. They stole the joint from Gilligans island and made it wacker. It’s wack. Come on now. That song is embarrassing to black folks. Cam’Ron? Oh god. How come the good ones have to die?
I see Busta taking this.
Category 34 - Best Rap/Sung Collaboration
(For a Rap/Sung collaborative performance by artists who do not normally perform together. Singles or Tracks only.)
MY BEEF: I was too ashamed to post it on there. Word up. I am sorry. Oh god. Man, where is my gat?
Category 35 - Best Rap Album
(For albums containing 51% or more playing time of VOCAL tracks.)
MY BEEF: same here. I could not put up this sorry line up. I am definitely not watching the grammy’s this year. SOUNDBOY there’s no need to worry. As long as I got my nine…
I don’t know why I hold my breath anymore… grammy’s are wack. They are set up for those who sell units not the real artists… next year, i am bringing my old school crew up there and we are just going to hand out beatdowns. word.
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TODAY WAS MY LAST DAY AT WORK..
man, i never thought i would see the day.. people were crying and handing out numbers and emails. it was bugged. i sent out my goodbye email. more heads were crying. i got great presents. man, i just spent $50 in Barnes and Nobles gift certificated.
I WILL MISS PEOPLE THERE. there are some good wholesome people at my job. Sure i was the antagonist in every debate and discussion, but i guess i am needed.
let me run down my list:
Lil Bit : man she is sure funny. i believe she is a dude who came back as a woman. she sure macks like a dude. she runs game like a dude. sometimes i have to sit back and look at her to make sure she a woman. oh , she a woman alright. we got into some heated debates. but later on she would get my side.
Harry Potter: (can't tell you her real name, but she sure is a woman...!) she sits next to Lil Bit. she is one of those fine sisters who at first you can't tell that their fine, then you begin to notice her one day. she is from northern Virginia and does not know much. at first, she got on my last nerve asking all kinds of questions, but she grew on me. she is real sweet.
Cam: a tall sister who is real nice. she is from Philly. she and i get into real deep conversations. she normally agreed with me.
Kimi: a sister from the BK who actually hung out with an ex-girlfriend of mine back in NYC. small world huh? they went to the same high school together. she and i had some great times. she is good peoples. i will keep in touch. she ALWAYS had my back no matter what. i will miss her.. she
Wonda: a very unpredictable sis. one day she is your buddy and the next day she is ragging on you. she is a very attractive sister and i can tell she is used to getting her way. but she always had my back in her own secret way. she is funny too. a straight party animal. what's bugged is that she comes off like a brooklynite. she can go off and act real wild like she is about to punch someone in the mouth (like those brooklynites love to do...) i dig her though. but i would NEVER date her in a million years. she probably fights with her man every other night. but she is great to have at a party
Brandy: since i worked there she has ALWAYS called me Julio. she is MAD funny. we joke all the time. she is a bag a laughs . man, i never seen her down.
i will really miss her.
Ms. Brickhouse: this is the tallest sister i ever knew. and she was never, ever afraid to open up a can of whup ass on ANYONE. i mean that. even a group of dudes ... she was always down to thump. but she is mad funny too. i will miss her alot. i will miss her telling people off. she is the type of person you want on your team even if everyone else hates her. but you konw what? everyone loved her... i mean loves her. she is funny. she always got these dope sayings
Vetta: she and i go back. i will miss her. a beautiful sister who has a good head on her shoulders. i was trying to get one of my no game having friends date her but they ain't got no game. those punks. she and i debated all the time. she got me this great book by Deepak Chopra. word. i will miss her too.
did i miss anyone?
hmm
but keep it moving everyone...
MANANA i start escuela!!!!
yee HA!!!
what what
"I can't believe she is wearing high heels and a velour outfit"
said the one girl to the other girl about the girl in the velour outfit rocking the high heels...NO LIE. this is what goes down at my job. the ill thing is that they were whispering and did not want to tell me. Bugged, huh?
SELF: so you mean to tell me that there is a velour suit etiquette?
ONE OF THEM: no, Danny there isn’t. but still…
SELF: I don’t get it …
THE OTHER ONE OF THEM: come on, danny. You know these girls…
SELF: Like you don’t wear stuff that is questionable? Like going out like a redneck rockin’ 6 inch heels and Sergio valente’s. come on kid. Then you would rock a red leather top with that? That is something out of a John Cougar Mellencamp video.
ONE OF THEM: I ain’t never wear anything like that.
SELF: oh yeah, cause she (pointing to THE OTHER ONE OF THEM) told me you did.
This piece (peace…) comes from my girl KS (Kemetic Science) out of Houston, Texas. BIG UP!!! Watch out for her book kicco.. word. It’s murder! (ha ha ha ha, had to say it!)
the ubiquitous mist of futurology insinuates itself into meditations on nanotechnology
the frozen paradise of reminiscing melted myriad epochs ago,
before cryonics froze it again....
surveillance of subterranean types on the rise kept rising to the top
gave it all they had gave it all they had...
PARTICLES OF LIGHT COULD BE PHOTONS OR THE SPARKLE IN A DELUDED MAN'S
EYE
EVERYTHING IS ASYMMETRICAL
SOMEONE JUST DECIDED TO JUXTAPOSE, MEASURE, CALCULATE
while others converse on matters like plastic beauty, transhumanism, virtual reality, nootropics,
biotechnology and the paradox of artificial nature
we wax futurist-scientific on the DICHROISM OF A PRISMATIC, SURREPTITIOUSLY FORMED HOLOGRAM
and how someone is watching someone who watches US.......................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
Was it justanotherday when they shot JAMMASTERJAY
i was still on the clock when the news broke
and my system is still paralyzed in shock because his demise reminded me of SCOTTLAROCK
no, it's not the age of aquarius
no more blue light in the basement
no more rooftop jams
just money-laundering scams,
threat of unnecessary war
justanotherday in the ghetto
NO IT'S NOT THE COLD CRUSH OR the funky four plus
One just dying under the black gold of the Ssssuuuunnnnn.......................................................................................................................................................................
I walked down GREAT BOND Street like Basquiat late one summer night.
even saw the requisite graffiti tags ubiquitous on red brick walls
so in the absence of studio 54 and max's kansas city and the limelight
me and some subway denizens had an argument party wildin out until 5 a.m.
sleepin b-boyin lookin crazy scaring the uncomfortable sohappybestrollingaimlesslythroughcentralparksohappytokillablack(wo)maninthename of a dollar whitefolk
here is an excerpt on this article I wrote: (for all you copy cats, you don’t get all the flavor…)
“On Afrocentric Utopias”
Dan Tres Omi
I listen to many lecturers using the term “afrocentrism” loosely. It seems as if afrocentrism is anything opposite of “eurocentrism.” Many of us missed what Molefi Asante said in his controversial book, “Afrocentricity.” I can’t help but to envision an Africa, or as some write “Afrika,” that once was united. An Afrocentric utopia where one never gets sick and people had all the advances of technology at their disposal. It was a society so in sync with the Creator that our evolution was limitless. Our African ancestors were near perfect and could do no wrong. Then all of a sudden, it was all over. The Arab and European hordes overwhelmed us like orcs in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Now here we are, displaced Africans in a strange land trying to piece it all together.
We find one portion of the black community who embraces Islam. Some claim it is the only religion for the black race as if it is religion we ultimately need. They take on arab names while not being conscious of the fact that Arabs were the first foreigners to enter the continent of Africa with the mission to enslave others in the name of Allah. Another portion of the black population take the Afrocentric route, shunning everything “Eurocentric” and putting blackface on anything that comes their way. I was and still am a part of the latter group. Now before we go any further, we have to get a clear definition of what Afrocentrism is. L. Keita, in a review of Wilson Jeremiah Moses’ “Afrotopia: The Roots of African American Popular History” in the Western Journal of Black Studies, wrote
the most apt definition of Afrocentricity, it seems to me, is that which views this theory as the recognition of the human agency of African peoples in world history and contemporary affairs. It is in the context of Eurocentrism that Afrocentrism developed. Eurocentrism was constructed as an ideology that justified the hegemonic control that West European nations exercised over the lives of persons of African descent and others ever since the most recent period of African-European contact, that is, the fifteenth century. Molefi Asante points out that Afrocentrism "is not, nor can it be based on biological determinism. And he says that the "…question is not whether or not Cleopatra was black“ but about "a proper recognition of African civilization.”
I recall reading the translations of many ancient texts and I found that no one shouted “I am an African, all tremble before me!” It was Wole Soyinka who said something to the effect that displaying “negritude,” as many continent born Africans call things such as Afrocentrism, is like a tiger showing his stripes. In doing this, we miss out on what our ancestors have laid down for us. A good example can be found in religion. I will admit, that western culture does label and place things in their separate little categories like lab samples. Many of us, not just the white man, enjoy doing this. If we can’t figure it out or place something on it, we quickly do away with it. Take the Yoruba for example. In their vocabulary or ours for that matter, there is no word used to name their “religion.” Some would call it the Yoruba faith or religion, but that is just used because there is nothing in the Yoruba language for it. When the Yoruba came into contact with Europeans and Arabs during colonial times, the Yoruba religious belief system allowed them to live harmoniously with them. Of course, today that is not the case. Yet you will find muslims as well as Christians who visit a Babalawo (someone intiated in the Ifa oracle). One will also find practitioners of the Yoruba faith in a church of mosque.
I know, I know, it sounds like jiberrish but I took out mad paragraphs. It will be on the net soon. Relax money.
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scenario (true story)
i was in the kitchen playing with Yejide. i start singing the hook to the Roots "break you off" feat. Musiq... next thing i know, i hear a little voice singing in tune with me. NOTE TO SELF: do not sing lyrics such as "COMING TO BREAK YOU OFF" around a 21 month old. NOT GOOD
oh yeah when you get the chance check
hip hop sites best and worst of 2002. always a classic. check out the beef's section and FALLIN' DOWN..
BILLIE WHEELS: yo, man i was so bored, i had to buy the latest issue of the Source magazine...!"
SELF: What happened son?
BILLIE WHEELS: Man, i should've taken greyhound.
SELF: WOrd?
BILLIE WHEELS: yeah, i left detroit at 7am and did not get into Norfolk until 9pm!
SELF: holy ish!
BILLIE WHEELS: yeah man it gets real lonely in an airport. check this out, i buy the source with Baby on the cover. this cat out of nowhere starts talking to me. i was like aww man. i thought he was a roadie for them or something the way he was talking.
SELF: ha haha hahha
it felt good talking to Will aka Billie wheels. that cat is funny. i miss being roomie's with him. we used to stay up late cracking jokes..
we rarely talk now and he lives only ten minutes away. i guess that is part of growing up and raising a family. BUT WE AIN't LETTING IT HAPPEN LIKE THAT.
------------------
Yetunde went out again. Yejide and i stayed home .. we went to bed early. it gets harder and harder to put her to bed. but she is so funny. it took her like 30 minutes to get comfortable. then she wants to sing. she has a nice list of songs so every night it's something new. she is something else.
just think, in two days i will be jobless. but for a cat with no job i sure am busy. i already have an article to submit and one job offering for a part time position (it's who you know god). but now i got time kid. word. heads ain't ready..to be honest, i only have one bill to worry about . well i have mad bills, but this one is dangerous: my child support payment. i have to send the $$$ to Richmond FIRST .. then they have to filter through all the other junk, so i will be behind because of distance and time. sucks don't it. well the system ain't supposed to work for the good guys (i initiated the child support payments, not her.. ) but i should be good. but you know, i heard of iller stories so i should not complain. things are looking up.
i still gotta send this one piece to Essence. just have to get a pic of me. of all the pics i take i rarely have any of me. it used to be the opposite back in the day. i had mad pics of my self. yetunde suggested i send an old pic with a hat on. why am i trippin'? well i cut off my hair. i got a classic ceasar, god. word. i know i wrote about it before.
(i know i posted the article MONTHS ago.. oh well better late than never.. then again i am submitting something, i had no deadline).
man, i had to cancel ANOTHER meeting last night. i was mad. i should have been up on my P's and Q's. i should have INQUIRED. oh well, i did contact everyone before they headed out there. so no loss. but i got to be one up next time. LIVE AND LEARN..
---------------
playing phone tag with prof. griff. ain't life grand.. ? otra vez.
--------------
TALES OF A BOOK FIEND (now i am really acting like a crack head...)
i started reading TOO MANY BOOKS at one time. i got TAINOS in the mail. starting reading that. picked up the copy of the BROKE DIARIES that i purchased for my wife. and i am STILL READING the Martial artist way by Sifu Glen Doyle. i am bugged huh?
then i started reading this book on a puerto rican poet to yejide. she likes the way i pronounce the names.
matter of fact, when i am done here, i will keep reading..
man i am strung out.
----------------
feel like saying something dope like FREE THE LAND...
which poem should i work on...? hmm. check out the arsenal... not you..
but anyway. someone asked me who this individual was.. so i wanted to shed some light..
On May 2 1973, Black Panther activist
Assata Shakur, the former JoAnne Chesimard, was pulled over by the New Jersey Highway Patrol, shot twice and then charged with murder of a police officer. Assata spent six and a half years in prison under brutal circumstances before escaping out of the maximum security wing of the Clinton Correctional Facility for Women in New Jersey in 1979 and moving to Cuba. -Jacuma
Introduction
My name is Assata ("she who struggles") Shakur ("the thankful one"), and I am a 20th century escaped slave. Because of government persecution, I was left with no other choice than to flee from the political repression, racism and violence that dominate the US government's policy towards people of color. I am an ex political prisoner, and I have been living in exile in Cuba since 1984. I have been a political activist most of my life, and although the U.S. government has done everything in its power to criminalize me, I am not a criminal, nor have I ever been one. In the 1960s, I participated in various struggles: the black liberation movement, the student rights movement, and the movement to end the war in Vietnam. I joined the Black Panther Party. By 1969 the Black Panther Party had become the number one organization targeted by the FBI's COINTELPRO program. because the Black Panther Party demanded the total liberation of black people, J. Edgar Hoover called it "greatest threat to the internal security of the country" and vowed to destroy it and its leaders and activists.
In 1978, my case was one of many cases bought before the United Nations Organization in a petition filed by the National Conference of Black Lawyers, the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, and the United Church of Christ Commission for Racial Justice, exposing the existence of political prisoners in the United States, their political persecution, and the cruel and inhuman treatment they receive in US prisons. I was falsely accused in six different "criminal cases" and in all six of these cases I was eventually acquitted or the charges were dismissed. The fact that I was acquitted or that the charges were dismissed, did not mean that I received justice in the courts, that was certainly not the case. It only meant that the "evidence" presented against me was so flimsy and false that my innocence became evident. This political persecution was part and parcel of the government's policy of eliminating political opponents by charging them with crimes and arresting them with no regard to the factual basis of such charges.
On May 2, 1973 I, along with Zayd Malik Shakur and Sundiata Acoli were stopped on the New Jersey Turnpike, supposedly for a "faulty tail light." Sundiata Acoli got out of the car to determine why we were stopped. Zayd and I remained in the car. State trooper Harper then came to the car, opened the door and began to question us. Because we were black, and riding in a car with Vermont license plates, he claimed he became "suspicious." He then drew his gun, pointed it at us, and told us to put our hands up in the air, in front of us, where he could see them. I complied and in a split second, there was a sound that came from outside the car, there was a sudden movement, and I was shot once with my arms held up in the air, and then once again from the back. Zayd Malik Shakur was later killed, trooper Werner Forester was killed, and even though trooper Harper admitted that he shot and killed Zayd Malik Shakur, under the New Jersey felony murder law, I was charged with killing both Zayd Malik Shakur, who was my closest friend and comrade, and charged in the death of trooper Forester. Never in my life have I felt such grief. Zayd had vowed to protect me, and to help me to get to a safe place, and it was clear that he had lost his life, trying to protect both me and Sundiata. Although he was also unarmed, and the gun that killed trooper Forester was found under Zayd’s leg, Sundiata Acoli, who was captured later, was also charged with both deaths. Neither Sundiata Acoli nor I ever received a fair trial. We were both convicted in the news media way before our trials. No news media was ever permitted to interview us, although the New Jersey police and the FBI fed stories to the press on a daily basis. In 1977, I was convicted by an all- white jury and sentenced to life plus 33 years in prison. In 1979, fearing that I would be murdered in prison, and knowing that I would never receive any justice, I was liberated from prison, aided by committed comrades who understood the depths of the injustices in my case, and who were also extremely fearful for my life.
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confession. i used to write sundiata.. now i stopped. but i will again. here is his info
There is something about Sundiata that exudes calm. From every part of his being you can sense the presence of revolutionary spirit and fervor. And his love for Black people is so intense that you can almost touch it and hold it in your hand."
--Assata Shakur
YOU MAY have heard about Sundiata Acoli, and may have questions about who he is and why he is jail. This site presents articles by and about Sundiata Acoli, so that you can find out for yourself why this caged Panther MUST BE FREE!
Sundiata is a Political Prisoner, a brilliant mathematician, artist and committed freedom fighter for the New Afrikan Nation. Ambushed on the New Jersey Turnpike with Assata Shakur and Zayd Malik Shakur, Sundiata has been unjustly incarcerated for 26 years. Assata remains exiled in Cuba.
(give up those cigarettes god!)
remember Leaders of the New school?
shame ain't it?
oh well, TOO MUCH ON MY MIND...
playing phone tag with professor Griff (no lie man, no lie)
sunday was pretty lax. i had a wedding show to do with seko. it was fun. Cabacador was there. so we hung out after Seko left. alot of people getting married.
then i went home and hung out with the fam. our landlady came by with a movie. LAGAAN. an Indian joint. VERY GOOD . very suspenseful. i just have to get used to them breaking into a music video every 5 minutes. but some of the songs are triumphant. but the movie was so damn suspenseful.
they really break down the caste system and religious seperation in the country. it takes place during colonial times. the british heavily taxed a province that was very poor. this year the British decided to double tax the people. when the word came down to this particular village, the people were in an uproar. one young man named Bhuvan decided to take matters into his own hands. he headed up to the British Cantonment (like a fort) and demanded that they do not tax them. the head of the Cantonment (who was a racist snod) challenged his village to a game of Cricket. yeah cricket. the rest you have to watch. it's ill.
i loved it.
this is going to be a long one...
This morning I got up and turned on the TV. (yeah I did it) I wanted to catch some of the church/gospel programs that come on. At times I can’t front, I watch Fred Price. This time, he had someone else on there. This cat kept saying “when they (meaning the media) talk about my dad being a cultist…” so I assumed that he is Fred Price’s son. I could see the resemblance. Upon first glance, I thought it was Creflo Dollar because of the suit. My man was iced down, too. His watch and rings were shining. He discussed how certain people point them out to be cultists. Well, if one were to read the definition of the word ‘cult,’ anyone can actually fall under that. According to Webster’s a cult is a “system of belief and worship; a subject of devoted study…” Hmmm..
Anywhoos, my man went on to talk about how insurance companies say that certain things are “Acts of God.” Insurance companies say things such as earthquakes, hurricanes, and lightning strikes are acts of God. He said that people act like the devil doesn’t exist. He said some things that were disturbing. He said (and this is not verbatim) that God does not do these things and that people don’t understand the power of the devil (which he used interchangeably with Satan). He used earthquakes in San Francisco, hurricanes in Florida, and a car accident as examples. He pointed out how God does not do these things.
It’s funny because people just don’t understand cause and effect. They just don’t. People do not realize that earthquakes and hurricanes are a natural PROGRESSION to something else. The earth is still developing and evolving. A good example of this would be how at one time, certain parts of Africa were fertile grass lands. Now much if it is desert. Or how there are some places that were originally under water and are now above water. The crazy thing is that much of California sits on the San Andreas fault. And people continue to move out there and live! Some will say “oh I Self , your problem is that you try to explain everything.” But I am not. I see God has a hand in all this. If we are guaranteed anything in life, it is change.
Another problem we have is that we try to separate God from everything. I see him/her as an entity that is a part of the earth and the universe. Everything is connected in that sense. And of course evolution is involved. With the turning of the earth’s axis to face another constellation, change in tempature, etc. These are natural progressions. We act as if we own everything and everything acts in our favor. THERE ARE OTHER LIVING THINGS on this planet. We some funny cats to think that we run everything.
Well enough of my ranting….
This weekend was pretty dope.
I have to say this, on my impending resignation many people at my job are shocked. Some find themselves helpless since I really helped so many people while there. It’s bugged. As usual management is not budging. Oh well, heffers.
Thursday night, we had the Dinner party for the play. It was fun. I spun (if you can call it that). We had a great time. Our Capoeira troupe showed up. Well not all of them.
Akowoye, Elevation, and I discussed February. Yeah, we got big plans.
Friday night, we had a big zulu meeting. I don’t know if I wrote about it, but I am resigning my position as chapter leader. We had some nominees picked out. It was by default actually but we do have some more nominees.
Azi of course with her feminist self was like “why ain’t there no head malika.” I had to point out that we only have two female members. But P-matik said that the position is interchangeable. I have to laugh at Azi cause she always looks at things from that perspective. She never asks about “numbers” or looks deeper into the matter. Like one time, she asked how come we don’t have any female presenters in our ER program. I said, we asked and asked and no one wants to do it. We even asked people who were NOT qualified and they said no. of course Azi does not know all this because she was not around when this happens. After each program we try to solicit help from people, but no one volunteers. We do openly recruit, but once again MOST people are up to standing in front of other people to teach the history of anything.
There I go ranting again..
Saturday morning, I had to get up like at 4:30am to take LPN 4 eva (my sister) to the airport (curse Dj dolo since he set it all up.) on the way back I was supposed to pay rent. I was hoping that there was a drop box. No such luck. I was falling asleep at the wheel , so I took a nap in a parking lot for an hour, went back to the office and it was still not open.
So I headed home and went to sleep.
Saturday, I just stayed home and played with Yejide. Yetunde went out with her girlfriends. Yeye and I watched cartoons. Man we had fun. I even went to bed early.
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this is actually a real post...
Big up to my man, CGB.. holding it down.. ha ha
capoeiragoodboy
Posted: Jan 03, 21:08 Quote | Reply
Many people have sent me private messages, asking me about capoeira. Some have asked me for my opinions, others have asked me about how to improve their game. I've relized not every one wants the intelligent, thoughtful answers of Tesimosa. Or the intellectual acrobatic verbosity of my personal hero Benegula. Some people want advice or opinions from a damn fool. Well, as many of you know I be that. So, if you want the knowledge of capoeira that is as different and liberating from the beaten path of the capoeira mainstream as a sufi is from an Islamic lawmaker, ask your question.
Akula
Posted: Jan 03, 21:53 Quote | Reply
REPLY TO ORIGINAL MESSAGE POSTED BY "capoeiragoodboy": How was being dropped on your head as a baby affected your life?. Your 'story' is an inspiration to all, man...*Bursts into tears* I mean, for real, honestly, sincerely...*Sob*,,,,you're living, breathing and enjoying being a jackass(which seems to be your sole reason for living). You should be on Oprah, man...The two of you, dishing advice on issues you're not really qualified to speak on..You: Good Behavior, Harmony amongst God's Children and Oprah on raising kids, marriage etc....I'd watch that...Hey!!!. I'm off track, where were we?. *Fumbling for notes*
capoeiristamage
Posted: Jan 03, 23:13 Quote | Reply
I believe that your sarcastic and arrogant personality leads people to believe that since you seem to be able to and most certainly do talk on a subject that you are some sort of authority. And it has me wondering the same thing... just how much do you know.and if you don't know much, please enlighten us to the art of bullshitting cause i feel like a course is just what could help my capoeira game
Manganga
Posted: Jan 04, 02:37 Quote | Reply
REPLY TO ORIGINAL MESSAGE POSTED BY "capoeiristamage":
If CGB really knew anything about Capoeira, he wouldn't hide behind a fake profile for the past year. Now he claims to be a part of my group, he only wishes. CGB, let me ask you a question? Who really is your Mestre and Group? Dont be ashamed of them! claim them!
~Manganga
True Palmares Representative
capoeiragoodboy
Posted: Jan 04, 04:44 Quote | Reply
REPLY TO ORIGINAL MESSAGE POSTED BY "capoeiristamage":
Wow. What a great question young Mage. The ART of BS is indeed a deep and often overlooked matter. The basis of it is making your enemies over estimate your weaknesses, and your friends underestimate your streghnths. Ponder this well.
Posted: Jan 04, 04:52 Quote | Reply
REPLY TO ORIGINAL MESSAGE POSTED BY "Akula":
Dear Akula,
You see to the very essence of what I've had to go through. It peirces my heart.
When I was born I did indeed slip from mothers arms and bump my head. Since she was only 14, I suspect that her butter fingers were due to her young age. This early trauma kept from talking until I was eight, and I wet the bed until eleven. During this time I developed acute powers of observation, and an almost superhuman patience. So being these are the two traits that have made me the Capoeirista I am I have to once again thank my mom for her youthful clumsieness.
Posted: Jan 04, 04:56 Quote | Reply
REPLY TO ORIGINAL MESSAGE POSTED BY "Manganga":
Manganga,
Why do you hate me so? Once again I proudly assert my membership in Capoeira Angola Palmares, and my dedication to the priciples taught there. They are very much in line with the Way of the American Ninja.
However, if by some chance I am lying, does that make me MORE of a capoeirsta or LESS of one? Cheers
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cats on capoeira.com are funny. it's ill cause to be honest, in the streets, half of these cats would not say these things to each other. but they do talk junk. i mean this is a martial art. someone would get their butts kicked. i know this happens alot.. my man calls it IM gangsta when cats talk mad junk on the net. i guess for many, the internet is a place to run your mouth. oh well...
speaking of capoeira..
someone hooked us up with some dope links. figured i post them here.
http://ejmas.com/jcs/jcsart_thompson_1001.htm
(this one is from Robert Farris Thompson is Master of Timothy Dwight College at Yale University. His books include Face of the Gods: Art and Altars of Africa and the African Americans (New York: Museum for African Art, 1993).
he also wrote this other book i read, man i forgot the name...(oh yeah this link works)
here is one written WAY BACK IN THE DAY with Mestre Pastinha..
http://www.blackbeltmag.com/archives/blackbelt/1964/mar64/capoeirabrazilians/
they got some pics too. i got his on hard copy as well..
and another banger
http://ejmas.com/jcs/jcsart_rodrigues_0800.htm
here is a link to this cat who has alot of articles..
http://shadowcat170.tripod.com/capoeira/id26.html
ENJOY
"knock knock knock
come on in!
this is my house
reigning again...."
man, i got off of work late last night. got to Seko's house to pick up my mixer late, got home late, got to the party late.
HOW CAN THE DJ BE LATE ? you ask. well, i never claimed to be perfect.
COOKIE WARS...
there has been a truce! i could not believe. Lil Bit purchased some cookies from us. when i brought them in, she offered her arch nemesis one. she threw me off guard. i was like WORD. but when she asked the other girl, the other girl was like "no, i am okay. " and Lil Bit was like "fine then ! " .. it was bugged. but the cookie wars are over.
sorry for not having fleshy details.
the party for the play was okay. Lah did the catering . everyone showed up except the cat who played King Kan Kan Mansa Musa. it was really dope. i enjoyed every minute of it. i love playing records and cats be like "WTF! who dat! what album!" .. i rocked it without playing any jiggy moronic stuff. word up.
i finally talked to my man spydacapoeira on line last night. i did not even know who this cat was for a minute. then i was like HEY... it's funny cause i speak slang on the IM sometimes. so alot of things i said went over his head. it's an ill communication.
i had a dream that whipped Bishop Don Juan's ass. i don't know what that was about. oh well.
man this weather has been extremely nice. i wonder if we got a killer cold front coming? we shall see.
i know i am rambling
DEAD SEA SCROLLS DECEPTION
i finished reading it yesterday. highly recommended. Michael Baigent and his colleage get into the conspiracy behind the Church's relunctance to release the Dead Sea Scrolls to the public. the author describes how they were found and acquired. then they get into the biblical ramifications of the Dead Sea Scrolls. they show how James the upright or Righteous played a vital role in the early church and how Paul was actually a usurper and agent for Rome. pretty heavy stuff. they use biblical texts, evidence from Josephus, Tacitus, and other early 1st to 3rd century historians. well worth it's weight in gold. as usual, like in HOLY BLOOD HOLY GRAIL, they start off real slow, but then it picks up.
"QUE BOLA!!!"
Happy New Year!!!
FEliz Ano Nuevo!!
Bon Anni!!!
and all that good stuff.
man 2002 was an ill year. this year will be iller. more time on my hands equals more creativity. I hope everyone made it back from their partying okay. word up.
what did we do?
well my family stayed home. i had a gig. but we did have a meeting on New Year's Eve (no rest for the wary). we laid down mad plans for 2003. heads ain't ready. too bad, i cannot disclose the plans that WE have.
but i had to play the last THREE hours of a wedding which became a New Year's Eve party. it was a family that hailed from Chi Town. they got busy. i had fun. the people were beautiful. from the mamas to the daughters, from the papas to the sons. they were all full of life. once again, everyone waited until all the church people left. it's funny, how they watched from the tables with contempt. i will admit the songs i played were moronic and really dumb, but no need to send animosity through your eyes.
my sisters boyfriend Gaylord Fokker leaves today. we never really got a chance to build. well only once. but i did most of the talking, that is not really building. it's ill cause i don't think he pursued trying to do that with me anyway. or maybe i did not give him the opportunity. i did run around alot. but i took him to a few places he wanted to go to. I HEARD he did not like the way me and my friends joked Christianity. oh well, he will be okay. around us you HAVE to get used to it. he is a nice guy, but i can see them breaking up. call me a naysayer, but my sister is a mover. she can't be half stepping. he does not even get along with any of her friends. for we Rodriguezes that's important. we are heavily family oriented, having friends is a big deal for us. (man i totally do do'ed these past couple of sentences...)
ABOUT THE PLAY:
it turned out better than we expected. i mean we did not expect it to flop. but man, it blew our minds. we got a standing ovation both nights. it felt good getting that much applause for a group effort. I know AKowoye was proud . we are proud of him.
our troupe did pretty good despite the fact that we were missing ONE player. it was hot though. i ws told that under the lights we looked awesome. our saturday performance was okay. but sunday we came out there flying through the air. man, we were killing it. even Sininho was killing it. i think she outshined all of us.
we need to get more members. we will work on that.
we got this new cat named kwame.. real cool. he is a life saver. he does his thing. we glad he is on board with us.
my resolutions:
1. get a manuscript done
2. focus more on my writing
3. WORK OUT more.. more trips to the YMCA. PLAY MORE CAPOEIRA... get with some mestres
4. get a new hobby.. i am thinking of beer making.
5. Spend more time with X-man
i know they are vague but i want to do so much more...
word.
