choices

i went to the library yesterday and was completely exhilarated by my proximity to all this literature which is so limited and so far away from me in saigon. particularly, the poetry -- shelves and shelves of poems and poets huddling closely to one another. i reverted back to some old favorites (sonia sanchez, nikki g) and some new ones (derek walcott). here, a poem from nikki, who means so much to me.

Choices

by Nikki Giovanni

if i can't do
what i want to do
then my job is to not
do what i don't want
to do

it's not the same thing
but it's the best i can
do

if i can't have
what i want then
my job is to want
what i've got
and be satisfied
that at least there
is something more
to want

since i can't go
where i need
to go then i
must go
where the signs point
though always understanding
parallel movement
isn't lateral

when i can't express
what i really feel
i practice feeling
what i can express
and none of it is equal
i know
but that's why mankind
alone among the mammals
learns to cry

homeward bound

even though this poem clearly shouts out Harlem, it reminds me of DC just the same...

Jukebox Love Song
Langston Hughes

I could take the Harlem night
and wrap it around you,
Take the neon lights and make a crown,
Take the Lenox Avenue busses,
Taxis, subways,
And for your love song tone their rumble down.
Take Harlem's heartbeat,
Make a drumbeat,
Put it on a record, let it whirl,
And while we listen to it play,
Dance with you till day--
Dance with you, my sweet brown Harlem girl.

snap for the kid

it was yoga kevin's and jennie's going away parties last night (along with sally & laura, but luckily they'll be around a little while longer) at O'Briens. We laughed, we played, we texted, we dranked, we ated, we dranked some more.


and we're going to miss 'em like a mother.





full set available here.

muxtape thursdays V.04: Beachy Keen

the summer 08 beachy keen mix


[1] Jorge Benjor | Mas Que Nada
[2] Hi Tek feat. Common | The Sun God
[3] Bebel Gilberto feat. Chico Buarque | A Mais Bonita
[4] Aaliyah | It's Whatever
[5] The Beatles | Something In The Way She Moves
[6] Bob Marley | Stir It Up
[7] Beenie Man feat. Mya | Girls Dem Sugar
[8] Seu Jorge | Chega No Suingue
[9] Jamiroquai | Seven Days In Sunny June
[10] Devendra Barnhart | At The Hop
[11] Jay Z feat. Chris Martin | Beach Chair
[12] Israel Kamakawiwo'ole | Somewhere Over the Rainbow/What A Wondeful World

viva la mustachio

gaetano: baker, andrew, and i are having a mustache contest

me: ew

me: ew ew ew ew ew

gaetano: we're going to look like sex offenders

me: you're going to look like sex offender rejects

gaetano: :{

big up

an image, courtesy of flygirls, from the book "Big Up," which features the (delicious!) photography of Ben Watts. word.

my plans to start packing have thus far been delayed due to wine, pizza, the internet and my favorite Muhammad Ali documentary. wooooops.

the carnival wind

"Old habits never die. And when you've once been in the business of granting wishes the impulse never quite leaves you. And besides, the wind, the carnival wind was still blowing, bringing with it the dim scent of grease and candyfloss and gunpowder, the hot sharp scents of the changing seasons, making the palms itch and the heart beat faster. For a time, then, we stay. For a time. Till the wind changes."

from "Chocolat"
Joanne Harris

gone beachin'

muxtape is still trippin' so the "beachy keen" mux will have to wait till Sunday or thereabouts. until then, i'll be on a much needed jaunt to mui ne. be well :)

when obama wins...

muxtape is being ignorant right now, so to brighten up the path to Friday, I give you --

"When Obama wins, fortune cookies will really end with 'in bed.'"

my point exactly

*incidentally, this also perfectly exemplifies why i love tom toles....

snapfish

i'll be hitting this site up when i hit the States, being i've got a million & a half photos i'd like to make a bit more tangible :) [special thanks to Cha for tuning me into this].

snapfish: prints for 9 cents, son!

Marquez

this quote reminds me a lot of the song "Thieves Inna Night" by Black Star, which itself is based off of a Toni Morrison passage. Hrmmm....

"I discovered that I am not disciplined out of virtue but as a reaction to my negligence, that I appear generous in order to conceal my meanness, that I pass myself off as prudent because I am evil-minded, that I am conciliatory in order not to succumb to my repressed rage, that I am punctual only to hide how little I are about other people's time. I learned, in short, that love is not a condition of the spirit but a sign of the zodiac."

Gabriel Garcia Marquez
from "Memories of My Melancholy Whores"

new sheets haikus

i love my new sheets
they make it so very hard
for me to get up

i love my new sheets
they make my songs sound better,
even hold the sun

i love my new sheets
they make me want to become
a better person

i love my new sheets
i'm not exaggerating
they're fking awesome.

and the anticipation builds....

"When The Dark Knight finally opens at 12:01 a.m. Friday, it stands an excellent chance of dethroning Spider-Man as the highest-grossing comic-book movie of all time. But even if it comes up short, the movie will have accomplished something else: marking a definitive turning point in the rapidly growing genre of comic-book superhero movies..."

full article available here

where the hell is matt?

when you only have 4 minutes to save the world....

i'm late, but i come bearing gifts.

first, some belated muxtape love. this week's theme: good morning! (july edition). if i need to call in a favor and get a good thing going, these are the songs i play. not fool-proof of course, but damn near close.

ps. this, more than any other mux, needs a second edit. i'm beyond frustrated that i wasn't able to include black star's "brown skin lady," hi tek's "sun god," kanye's "good life" and the proclaimer's "500 miles." those songs ARE a good summer morning so, once i remedy their m4a status, they're bumping some of the current selections off

secondly, two new tumbls. the first -- laundrylists -- is my on-going (and of-neglected) list project, the second -- don't hit delete -- is a brand new & spankin' dope collab with G.

Enjoy ya'self!

limelight: LGN

I absolutely adore my friends. I know that statement comes off as a bit pretentious -- afterall, who doesn't adore their friends? -- but I am seriously in awe at the amount of talent, round-the-way magic and general dopeness of the people that surround me.

So, why not shine the light on some of my nearest & dearest?

Le Guy Noir is G's clothing line, G being my half-breed soultwin and nerdboy/artist extraordinaire. Come ogle the way his designs set off his high cheekbones and 5 o clock shadow, and buy his shite so you can look half as fkin cool.

like yellow curtains against concrete

this photo soothes me, for some reason i've yet to put a word to

dark august

still on a poem kick....

Dark August

So much rain, so much life like the swollen sky
of this black August. My sister, the sun,
broods in her yellow room and won't come out.

Everything goes to hell; the mountains fume
like a kettle, rivers overrun; still,
she will not rise and turn off the rain.

She is in her room, fondling old things,
my poems, turning her album. Even if thunder falls
like a crash of plates from the sky,

she does not come out.
Don't you know I love you but am hopeless
at fixing the rain ? But I am learning slowly

to love the dark days, the steaming hills,
the air with gossiping mosquitoes,
and to sip the medicine of bitterness,

so that when you emerge, my sister,
parting the beads of the rain,
with your forehead of flowers and eyes of forgiveness,

all will not be as it was, but it will be true
(you see they will not let me love
as I want), because, my sister, then

I would have learnt to love black days like bright ones,
The black rain, the white hills, when once
I loved only my happiness and you.

Derek Walcott

so very little

ive been searching for a good couple hours
for a good poem to post on here
good as in one that matches
what i feel
laying here and listening to the stirring of life
outside
& thinking of all the undone things stretched in front of me
that need to be sorted, accounted for, ironed out, and
reckoned with.

and while i still haven't found that poem
this one by bukowski, i think
comes closest....

As The Poems Go

as the poems go into the thousands you
realize that you've created very
little.

Charles Bukowski

muxtape thursdays V.03

I was real tempted to make an obnoxious patriotic 4th of July mix, but was far too lazy to compile & then download said list.

So instead, this week's mux theme is "Dusk in Saigon" -- songs I like to listen to as the sun is setting and the streets start pumping electric light.

Happy listening :)

Obama & Islam

"His campaign, more than most, is an implicit promise to never put that which is politic above that which is right.

This standoffishness toward American Muslims is a denial of all those things."

This column by Leonard Pitts gets some vigorous head-nodding from my direction. Che-che-check it out