Margaret Fabrizio is working on a quilt project. She is an artist, a vlogger and a bit older than I am. If you are watching this on a day after October 31st then you might be confused. It is the questions. Always the dang questions that leads us to enlightenment. But not before you get kicked in the tush with lesso...
Sunday, October 31, 2010
On November 1, 2010 those that are in need of honoring the muse are gonna give it go for National Novel Writing Month. Those caffeinated jar heads are gunning for 50,000 words of literary adequacy.It doesn't have to be a great novel. Just a novel. So you can say with pride and conviction, "Yes, I have written a novel."For web video folks we pay tribute to the spirit of the challenge and go them one better by trying to produce 30 days of video. National...
Friday, October 29, 2010
The intersections between Black folks and White folks is a precarious one. There are those that proclaim "I don't see color, I see people." That is acceptable until the person with the color on the skin speaks up.Then folks get agitated.Why can't you be like me? Why must you be different? Why must you speak different and what is up with the hair thing? My faith is all you need to know; anything else is blasphemy. There is only one true American and it ain't you because you don't look like me. At the time this clip was created the only visibility...
Saturday, October 23, 2010
So the dude from Countrywide is gonna beat the rap. Not even go to trial?Not even gonna pay the fine because Bank of America will pay the bulk of the fine for him per a prior agreement?Tell me again how crime doesn't pay? Unless you have an excessively white collar you seem to do just fine and dandy.This is a video that I found on BNet a year or so ago. I meant to post it but it seems like this is a good time to remind folks why we are in the mess that we are in.One reason is that is a serious separation between legitimate earnings and greasing...
Friday, October 22, 2010
My head hurts. It has been a week of media personalities, companies and politicians acting badly. What is the difference between this week and any other?There are some potentially unintended repercussions. At this point, it almost does not matter. I think I have an ache in my heart too. When I was thinking out the video of the week it didn't take long for me to remember this stunner from 1984. The band is Frankie Goes to Hollywood and this is Two Tribes.I am a passionate believer of freedom of speech. I have found myself supporting really noxious...
If you have never been to The Huntington Library this is your chance to make it up to yourself. It is physically beautiful place and crammed to the rafters with books, art and a plant or two.If you can, stroll in on a sunny weekday so that you can take your time getting lost in the stacks or in the botanical gardens.Here is another good reason to head over to The Huntington. From now until February 14, 2011 there is an exhibit of his life and work....
Sunday, October 17, 2010
I purchased Nancy's poetry book called The Vast Unknowing. It is a journey into Jewish identity, living in Los Angeles and the fears that bind all of us if we are honest.This is a poem with multiple levels of depth. The intersections of youth and culture mixed in with straddling living in America when you were born elsewhere. How do you fit in? How do you understand freedom?For me it is loving the poetry of Rumi and finding out "Wait, there are others poets I should know about?" Of course there are other Persian poets and people I should know...
A poet is rarely just a poet. I don't want to affirm the poverty mentality of fiscally challenged poets but it is a tough slog trying to get non-poets to pay attention or come to a poetry reading. When you do take a chance to attend a reading or performance good things can happen. Rick Smith is a poet, musician and a bunch of other stuff. In this video Rick tells a tale about how fame can smack up an ego upside the head and reads one of his poems about blues harmonica players. His new book is Hard Landing. There is an separate audio CD that has...
It is raining. This means I'm going to be very productive today as I can't go any where. Sorry for the delay of posting poetry videos. I had a wicked cold/flu thing that made anything more than basic functioning impossible.Ok, on with the goods. This is Karineh Mahdessian reading her poem, Manic Monday. Karineh's poem appears in the San Gabriel Valley Poetry Quarterly, Summer 20...
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
I get the Black Women's Network brochure every year. I usually can't go because it is on a weekday. This year it is on a Saturday. They almost had me until they said the LAX area. Los Angeles airport to the out of towners. Just can't do and make other commitments that day.This is a bit of the history of the network from the web site:Black Women's Network (BWN) was formed in March 1979 as the result of the energy of the Black women who attended a regional career conference in Los Angeles, California. Many of these women in attendance realized the...
Monday, October 11, 2010
I have a subscription to the Periodic Tables videos from the University of Nottingham, UK. Professor Martyn Poliakoff, his team and videographer Brady Haran have created 118 videos about each element in the periodic table. The videos are usually fun, informative or explosive. And I do dig the professor's hair. They are moving on to minerals. However in this video Professor Poliakoff wanted to explain about how the situation in Hungary got started and where the trouble is going to end up, possible in the Danube.Many of the broadcast news channels...
Friday, October 8, 2010
I bought the cassette of the first album of the Sounds of Blackness. Side one was so good it took me two years to remember to flip to side two. I took inspiration anyway I could get it.I watched Joseph Campbell on TV, even the re-runs of the program with Bill Moyers. The story about the man, the kid and the glass of milk still rattles me. Les Brown was coming up at that time. Flipped through Science of Mind magazine to check out that action. Taking Yoga classes when I could afford them. Reading new age and thought type magazines. This is a representational...
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
A room full of chocolate and a few dames. We're talking the good stuff. Cacao powered chocolate. Chocolate with spices, vodka or a fruit or two. This is a advertisement for the event. It is time once again for the L.A. Chocolate Salon.I went to the event a few years back. I had never been surrounded by chocoholics before. It was amazing; women were calling their friends giving reports on various confections they just tasked. I was planning on going but something came up and I yield the floor to a chocophile that can take up the sla...
Sunday, October 3, 2010
A person, place or thing can inspire a poem. I have memories of chomping down on Ticonderoga #3. For those of us that have a different take on getting the lead out this poem is for you.This is Charles Harmon reading his poem, A Day in the Life of A Pencil.Don Kingfisher Campbell is the publisher of the San Gabriel Valley Poetry Quarterly. If you want more of Southern California poetry or would like to purchase a chapbook then scoot over to the blog.Coming up on October 9, 2010 is another poetry reading by some of the areas known poets as well as...
Friday, October 1, 2010
We will survive if we can endure. I wish I could have told that those young souls who ended their lives because of bullies. Suicide is not a good option. It is final but the pain that is left behind for others to carry is too much.There are people that want to do better but first, a musical interlude to mellow us out after a tragic week that will pass into time but not without a handkerchief of tears.This is Chantay Savage with her rendition of I Will Survive (Doing it My Way)If you never experienced being bullied as a child or a teen you really...
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