A little of this..A little of that....

Good Afternoon Blog Family.

What a beautiful day it is.

POST BREAK UP MAINTAINING

Big Up to my famy Tony Botas for holding me down last night.
I woke up with THE BLUES yesterday and needed some cheering up.

I finally dawned on me by leaving my ex, not only was I leaving the *hit I do
not like about him, but I also lost my best friend.

The good news is that I cooked this weekend. For the first time in almost 2 months. Roasted Organic chicken and baked ziti.
I cooked too much. Gotta learn how to scale, down, lean back and cook for one.

WHITE YALE MOMMAS

• The Times article about (White) women at Ivy League schools who want to be momma's has me *ucked up.

• The gist of the article is that the women at Yale are hyper educated, but are going to leave there professional careers to be mommas.

• First of all, childcare is an issue for everyone, from the poor to the affluent.

• Secondly, systematic problems deserve systematic solutions. I got that from Martha Burks book, Cult of Power.
  

• Why didn't the article talk about Europe and how they handle childcare?

• Why wasn't the article more imaginative about what kind of future this country would have if there was institutional child care for everyone!
• For that matter, it could have discussed the PRIVALGE of being able to graduate from YALE and be a full time momma. Cuz guess what, your baby daddy is workin 120 hrs/week to hold down the fam.
  

Terry McMillan on her Ex

Essence: Why did you fall in love with Jonathan? Terry: For the same reason that most people fall in love. He made me melt. [HOLLA].

New Books

• The Commitment by Dan Savage. Dan does the savage love column in the voice. It looks pretty interesting. I like when men write about their family. That is how R.M. Harris useta be, then he started writing 125th books, which is cool, but it is not real to me.John Edgar Wideman writes amazingly, honestly and vulnerably about his family.
• Tananrive Due has a new one out called Joplins Ghost. Can't wait to read it. She is simply someone who will keep me up all nite reading her book, and then it will follow me into my dream. With the way my schedule is now, I may have to get up early this weekend, go to B & N and handle it in one sitting.
• Gordon Parks has a new biography out titeld Voices in the Mirror. Seeing his book made me think that I should make a list of black folks who I would like to see a biography from.
  

My Single B-Day

Can you believe that I am about to have my first single B-Day in half a decade on Tuesday? It falls on the Jewish high holiday so...I can get me kick it on Monday night and go to brunch in the morning...heeeey.

Leave comments. Please. I like 'em blog family.

Anger and Fear

Number of days I have avoided listening to Donnie Hathaway: 7

Number of times Black Label has jumped off: 4

Number of times that I realized that listening to Nas is my Blues: 4

Number of hours I needed to read this weekend: 15

Number of hours I DID read: 6

Happy or Scared?

This gives photo gives a whole new meaning to "Rolling Sideways".
Peep the wheels. I don't know whether to be scared 'cuz, I ride J Blue to Cali 2-3 times a year, or to be happy 'cuz they have pilots who got handles like they been in a few East Oakland side shows.

If SHE don't have to go to L-SCHOOL to be an attorney, why I am wasting my time and money??? Hunh? What?

Looks like Suggie Suge paper got froze the uckf out by the courts.

So..I din't die afterall

Sooo. Could this weather be more amazing?
It really feels like the town out in BK 2night.

The good news is that my pod only needed a new charge cord.
So now, Fiona, Al, Redman and Prince are all one big happy family again.
I was so happy when the dude @ the genius bar walked back up to me and said there was something wrong w/ the cord. I could have gave him a wet juicy one RHAT THURE!

Yall know Dwele got a new joint coming out.
I saw it in Sister 2 Sister. Now before you start clowning the fact that I read S2S, understand that EVERYONE needs a magazine. Even if the articles do read like a conversation I had w/ one of my brother's girlfriends when I was 12:(

I saw an interesting discussion over at Crunktastical. They were hollerin' about them Stop Snitching and the We Got That Snow t-Shirts. Its HILARIUM. Please peep it.

Which reminds me of a moment I had in Harlem the other day.
So I am up there.
Went specifically to the Uptown veggie bar.
They have that warm back room eating area where it feels like you are eating your meal in a human hot house. Equisite.
After there, I went to Starbucks on 25th to get some studying juice and on the way out I heard this dude telling the ladies, who were no more than 25 and discussing buying a house/apartment,

"See if ya'll wanna buy a house, you need to let a hussla flip that money for you.
Watchu mean selling drugs.
Naww. It don't gotta be selling dope, It could be any kinda hussle.
I walk outside. And there are 4 middle age men, yellin/ New Ports
New Ports.
I chalked it up to another day uptown."

The first thing I am going to do as a Senator is introduce the :

2012 Negro Accountability Act.
Because "doin' what chu gotta do to survive is no longer an excuse".

Eff- Day by Day...Its Moment by Moment

I know that they were staging it in Atlanta, but I didn't realize that they were bringing it to the city. The tickets look reasonable starting at $26-100. I knew that they were doing the Color Purple. I wonder how much influence Alice had on the production? I wonder if it is intense and will make the audience cry.

Caution Slippery Road Ahead

Awwww....the fun of being newly single.....
The cool part-
1. Being able to come and go as I please.
2. Flirting w/o an fear of remorse.
3. Not having to think of a wedding day that gets closer with each night I rest and wake up.
4. Eating what I want, when I want and not having to coordinate the food jump off's.


The not so cool part-
1. The absolute silence of living dolo.
2. My old apartment was mad loud. I could hear ambulances, the police, kids, mommas. Everything. And then last night, all of a sudden, I could hear a pin drop.
3. There was also the easiness of familiar conversation where someone knows all the characters and nuances in your day to day life.

Luckily for me, I opened up the window in the bedroom and I have some city background noise.

Now that I have some pictures up and Black Moon playing in the background, it is starting to feel more like my space.


Why did I talk to my college ex and his girl moved out yesterday too.

That demonstrates that life truly does go on, because when we broke up
I could not stand his ssa. Now we are commiserating about our pain and how
we thought we were going to marry our s.o's.


New plates, new begining. I bought some new plates at Target yesterday. Don't wanna be eatin' on plates that remind me of times where I experimented cooking Thai food, Teryaki salmon or veggie lasagne for us.

Unintended Consequences

Whenever I go back home to Cali I come back o NY tfeeling strong.

When I was out there a month ago, unbeknownst to me, the seed was being planted for me to bounce.

You see, I ran into an old friend (as in my high sweet hearts best friend), who is also a libra and as usual with us, he was having some relationship fonk.

Philly was complaining about his lady friend and how she would only kick with with him on Friday's. So you know me, I would immediatly figure that she was married and/or shacking up, but just keeping it on the low. He went on to explain that she was unavailable and terse, sometimes also.

So I asked, dude, if she is like that, why bother?
He looked at me, intently and said,

She looks at me.
She smells good
&
she says my name.

I told him that would be a dope hook for a song. And as innocent as it was for him to say that to me, it resonated. He captured something in those three sentences that I knew that I needed. A few yesterday's ago.

Be Careful What You Ask For...

5 Ways of Getting Over a Break Up.

1. Black Label on the rocks.
2. The self help section at Barnes and Nobles at Union Square.
3. NOT playing Donnie Hathaway.
4. NOT thinking about how severe this winter will be.
5. Listening to Tiombe sing "At the end of the daaaay, I have nooooo fear, cuz, I got chuuuuu."

She did what?????

Just for a change of pace...I am going to go a little more personal in the post. I got inspired by Humanity Critic's blog.

I gave him back the ring yall' and I am moving out.

I had to do it. And you know why. It was the classic, Passion v. Stability argument.
And it really is not good for either of us to STAY TOGETHER just because it is comfortable.

I have 40 hours of reading A WEEK. And I already have a new man. His name is TORTS/CON LAW/ CRIM LAW/ CIVIL PROCEDURE. L-School is so real.

So, all 8 of my blog readers....understand that I am growing new gray hairs from going through this, my dad lovingly calls it "getting wisdom". To a certain extent it is true.

I am sad, relieved and scared. Honestly too, looking at the devastation in New Orleans, and having grown up and witnessed earthquakes AND drive by's. I KNOW Life is precious, and you never GET ANY MINUTE BACK.

As for someone who has NOT been on the scene in a minute....I DID not get the memo that MOSTLY ALL (and I mean the vast majority) of these dudes wanna do is get in your lower bottoms. I mean, I be listening to Big Pooh talk about lets just be friends....but daaaaaaamn. They are really 'bout it like that.

Anybody got that new DOOM MOUSE?
I got the Sean P. It is cool. His verse on Chemistry is hot.
I have been meaning to tell yall that I figured out how to hook my POD up to the radio.
All you have to to is get jack from Radio Shack. It cost $30. Now I can listen to my Fiona/ Prince/Michael mixxx at home. Yippie.

What is that new Roots song I keep hearing all over the city.
You heard that Jay-Z 'bout to put the Roots on. First Kanye, now this.
What if Jay gave Doom, De La a deal. That would be bananas!

Bling it Back

Walt Handelsman Cartoon/Newsday/Tribune Media Service 8/31/05

A poem for New Orleans

Drooping Willows
Sexy moss leaves

White one story bungalows,
Clap board windows
The location of my future nuptials

I pronounce it New- or-Leans
Jus’ like my momma

You are not suffering alone
We are watching, planning,
Evaluating and assisting

My heart

Ventricles,

arties and all

Goes out

To you and yours.

We Fugees now hunh?

Big up to my girl T who brought to my attention the MAJOR problem with calling displaced New Orleaneans REFUGEES.

New Orleanians are NOT refugees. For all intents and purposes refugees tend to be discarded by this country. Wait, maybe I need to rethink this argument. These are tax paying citizens of the United States. "Refugees", are left to perish at the hands of the “corrupt” Haitian, Sudanese or government.

The folks in New Orleans are people. They have, mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, grand mommas, godmommas etc. Calling them refugees undermines both the suffering they have experienced and their rights to post disaster FEDERAL assistance.

Ann Rice recognized the folks down there for what they are when she stated that,

Thousands didn’t leave New Orleans because they couldn’t leave…..and they did what they felt they could do­--- they huddled together in the strongest houses they could find. ….What’s more is that thousands more that could have left stayed behind to help others.

Bling it Back

On a more personal note I am keeping a close watch on EXACTLY what Universal records does for New Orleans. Home to the Cash Money Millionaire's, a very profitable group for Universal. Universal has made A LOT of money off rap music from New Orleans, (and we won’t even get into Jazz). The dudes at Cash Money invented the term Bling. Lets see if Universal, not withstanding the fact that they ARE a corporation that is ultmatley responsible to their share holders, will help the folk down in N.O.

The folks in N.O. supported these artists when they were hustling their music locally. This success ultimately provided proof to Universal that Weezie, Juvie and Baby had a sound that was bound to go national, it was just a matter of when.

Black folks are notriously forgiving, think R. Kelley, Kobe. Lets see if we forgive Universal if they fail to assist the town that has produced music that has made millions of dollars for them.

August Wilson, the playwright is dying. He was diagnosed with inoperable liver cancer in June. I still remember reading the “Piano Lesson” and high school and thinking to myself “Wow, this man has an amazing sense of the context of Black folks lives within the U.S., and REFUSES to portray us as violent, greedy, animals.” He is currently working on a play titled “Radio Golf” which will be on view at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles. My thoughts and prayers go out to him and his family.

Movie News

Puff’s version of Carlito’s Way is coming out soon. I think we have Mario Van Peebles to thank for thatJ

Bullets in the Hood, a film about gun violence in Bed-Stuy. The two filmmakers, Terrence Fisher and Daniel Howard were friends of Timithy Stansbury, the young man who was killed by an NYPD officer on the roof of the Louis Armstrong projects. Timithy was on the way to a party with a friend.

There will be a FREE screening on Tuesday the 6^th at BAM as well as a reception.

New Book

When Affrimative Action was White by Ira Katznelson

Talk about provocative. In Nick Kotz’s New York Times review of the book he states that there were two major ways issues that undermined with Black wealth development and transfer that, there White counterparts, were able to receive.

The book mainly focuses on the FDR’s new deal, and how it affected Black and White veterans differently.

“The G.I. Bill in the south was designed to accomadate Jim crow…Southern Congressional leaders made certain that the programs were directed not by Washington but by local officials, businessmen, bankers, and college administrators who would HONOR past practices.”

“By October 1946, 6500 former soldiers had been placed in non farm jobs by the employment service in Mississippi. 86% of the skilled and semi skilled jobs were filled by white….92% of the skilled by blacks. "

[Home ownership and college attendance are the two main perquisites for wealth bulding and transferance. You gotta GET the house and then you gotta pass it on to some after you die. By attending college, offers greater insurance that you will be employed and able to pay the taxes so you can pass it on to your children.]

Diversity for Dummies

Jonathan Kozol calls it like he sees it.

That fool said diversity is a synonym for segregation meanin ½ black students, ½ latino students, and three white kids.

A lot of the problems that we enounter with public education have to do with the lack of financial transparency. How can we advocate more money for the shcools when we do not know, in plain speak how the money is being spent.

Perhaps a federal bill requiring all school budgets to be published annually could empower more parents and students. Instead of No Child Left Behind, we could call it the School Budget Sunshine Act. or the School Cash Transparency Act. I know, my idealism is showing. But hey, I can dream:)

Bobby and Rich

There is nothing like Labor Day weekend, in the spot, singing-a-long with my folks to DWYCK, Passing Me By and other 89-94 treats. Table 50 was live then a mug last night. I forgot how much fun that party could be. The wack part was when some one set off the fire alarm. Other than that, I couldn’t think of a better way to chill on a breezy summer evening.