Waiting for Harlan at the Barbershop

It has been a few weeks since this happened. Maybe I have a better perspective from a distance. I don’t know. To recap, I had an opportunity to see Harlan Ellison in Los Angeles and I took it. This involved trains, Hollywood Boulevard and buses. And my ability to get lost when I think a place is other than where I think it should be.

After the tour barker incident and waiting 20+ minutes for the right bus I arrived at the 4300 block of Hollywood Boulevard. To say that this block has memories for me is an understatement. The last time I was in this area was the afternoon of the Rodney King verdict. There was a bookstore that I checked out from time to time. It is gone now.

So is the Circuit City and other businesses. There weren’t that many of them. It was the kind of street you walked fast to get to your bus connections.  It was a miracle that I made it home that night.

Now there are upscale boutiques. hipster hamburger joints and spray art on the sidewalk. I don’t see any winos or junkies. I don’t smell anything but air.

It is discombobulating. Not bad, but I occupy two different places at the same time.

This is not how it use to be.  I am adjusting.

There are a few fans lined up between the Sweeny Todd Barber Shop and the Luz de Jesus Gallery. We are older. Hair is grey in patches. Everybody has their phone ready to take a photo. Denim, spandex and tattoos are plentiful.

This is the cover of his new book of long out of print lad stories. Seeing as how I bough his  books at a stripped book store in the past (I had no way of knowing it was un-ethical at the time) this is my way of making amends. Should you be so inclined to read his early gang and men magazine stories of the 1950s and 60s you could visit Kick Books to find out how to obtain a copy.

(In the interest of honesty, I didn't care for the JD line of books so I can't speak to the quality of them. I was not in the demographic at the time of publication and nothing has changed since then.)

The game plan was that Ellison was supposed to get a haircut and then walk over to the gallery. I would have liked to gone into the gallery but it was a small place with too many people inside. There was plenty of action on the sidewalk.

The barber and Harlan come out of the barber shop. Harlan told the crowd don’t stand in the sun too long. Had on a nice lavender shirt, by the way. He looked good.

The barber was a right nice looking beefy guy with a traditional barber jacket that showed his tats very nicely. Poor fellow made a mistake; he asked Harlan how he was doing.

“I’m 79 years old. I feel lousy.” It is a known fact that Mr. Ellison can be terse. Caustic. They turned the corner and no one seemed to notice.

I’m still looking around clicking atmospherically evidence that as we go to hell in a hand basket a good time will be had if you know where to go.

Time marches on and I’m thinking it is mighty hot outside. Still, nothing can induce me to go inside the gallery and I sure wasn’t going into a $10 to $20 hamburger joint. I’m loyal but passing out on the boulevard is not a test I’m willing to take.

I snap up other items of interest and slowly move my body away from the festivities. Then I hear a horn, A old school horn and peep into the car. There he was in the back seat. I had this quizzical look on my face. I looked at him. He looked at me, shrugged his shoulders and I nodded back.

I understood. I think.

Harlan got out of the car. Two motorcycle people in black leather braced him as folks took photos. Then he entered the barbershop. And people proceeded to take photos of him getting a hair cut.

I’m looking at them. At the Lone Ranger billboard. At the neighborhood that sprung up from the old.

The colors of the buildings and the sky.

I couldn’t ask for anything more. Or so I thought. The driver of the car got out. He was a little tense. His only words were a frantic “I gonna have my beer.”

Back on Hollywood Boulevard proper, I came across another person who was throwing up because he was drinking fortified malt liquor in the 3 p.m. sun and that wasn’t a smart thing to do.

My center had been restored.

I went home.

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Not Very Good At Letting Go of CDs

I've got software. Maybe too much. I'm looking for the burning software that I know I have so that I can burn an .iso file. I need to burn the .iso file to make a bootable CD to get into my prior computer because I have forgotten the password.

I need to get into that box to get the registration number for the prior version of the burning software so that I don't have to pay full price for the new version if I can't find the prior version software.

Which may or may not work on a 64-bit system.

www.aldaily.com

I just found a CD with bookmarks from 2002 with hundreds of links to long gone websites. Or sites that I should visit more often but I forgot that they existed like Arts & Letters Daily.

This is why people need an RSS Reader. So that people like me can have breadcrumbs back to the sites that mattered.

In 2002 everybody was still rattled by the economy. I seems to have spent a lot of time on job sites and Craigslist. It was also the start of the freelancer sites where you could compete for a job through a web interface. That changed when people from other countries came in and under-bid the Americans off the site.

That hurt.

I was hanging out at survival and self-sufficiently links. Not what you think, these folks provided information on how to stretch a dollar or urban food gathering aka supermarket dumpster diving. No weapons were involved.

There were links to a long gone free magazine called ComputerUser. A lot of links to digital photo sites from GeoCities; heck a lot of GeoCities links period. It was the place to go for fan pages and info on obscure topics.

A lot of the early digital video sites that I visited but couldn't do anything with because the technology wasn't consumer friendly. But I kept an eye on it just the same. I was into radio drama from the looks of it; still am only now I go to drama podcasts sites.

So much has changed.

But not my need to quit procrastinating on household chores and finding that software.

And yet, I wonder if I can find that link to the site that had people being intimate with the trees for charity? Yes, that one is exactly what you think it is but I seem to remember the lush greenery more than anything else.

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Eastwood and Invoking the Isms

I was that kid in the front row chomping down on popcorn during the Good, the Bad and the Ugly. There he was, Clint Eastwood,  10 feet tall blasting the hell out of somebody so some poor folks could stop cowering in fear about the weekly desperado coming to loot up the joint.

My desperados were closer to home. It helped to know some body was doing something about it even if it was in Italy.

Clint Eastwood has made really great movies. It is not like I did not know he was a conservative. But it seemed like this was a guy you could disagree with and walk away with an honest discussion for a memory.

I don't know what to think now. When I see the photo of Clint Eastwood talking down to a chair there is  a twinge in my heart. I know what the chair represents. If you ever sat in a similar chair as a kid, you know that feeling.

Who Did He Think He Was Talking To?

My adult pain is tied up in a political campaign that has sought to alienate a good portion of those of us that are not male, European American or wealthy. We have been told we really don't know or have been correctly educated to understand what this country stands for; and only those that have the privileged of a monetary perspective can truly understand how America should be run.

The current campaign has told me as much through media and coded speeches to the fearful and the opportunistic.

I can get angry because it is the usual suspects. I can ignore them because I want to focus on positive action. I even cut back on blogging my agitation on BlogHer and other places because I don’t want to stir up a heated useless fuss.

I want to share paths to solutions. I can’t do that when I am so very angry. I’ve slipped up a few time but I don’t want to add to the noise. I really don’t.

There is a part of me that flashes back to that kid in the front row chomping down on popcorn during the Good, the Bad and the Ugly. That guy was invoked at the convention. Somebody else showed up.





























I am not stupid. I expect political hyperbole in an election year. I expect that racism will be used as a method to get out the vote. And yes, facts will be an impediment to an successful campaign so ditch them.

I just didn’t expect this mess to come out of this man’s mouth.

It is not the first time somebody has used the invisible chair routine. The Smithsonian blog has a good write up about how the political chair has been used over the years.

The Grid Doesn’t Lie 

You have this film icon of imaginary gunfights and wars talking down to a chair. In that small chair is supposed to be the President of the United States of America. Reducing the image down to its core element you see:

Who is in power and who is the supplicant? Because when an 82 year old white man who has made his living off creating illusions of being the man that rights wrongs tries to chastise and speak for a sitting African American president using what he thinks is the vernacular:

EXCUSE -- WHAT DO YOU MEAN YO, SHUT UP?

I have to tell you it stinks. It is a familiar stench. I never thought that I’d see Clint do the “Old Massa” role.

The Rights of Free Speech

Yes, each citizen has the right to criticize and hold Obama accountable for what was promised and what was delivered. We don’t even have to be nice about it.

And dang skippy if some of y’all have been especially vocal in you disapproval.

There is just one fact that cannot be ignored. Obama is the President of the United States. Not your house boy.

And the icon used in that “performance” perhaps unintentionally, is a reminder of who intends to be in charge and how the old order will be restored.

A small message to those who fund and support the re-establishment of the old world order.

This is our place. Our country as well as yours. It is an inconvenient truth. For those of us that are not white, Christian or abstinent, we’d thought you had understood we live here too.

You might chose to be color blind or diversity hostile but this is where we shall continue to live, grow and prosper. Deal with it.

Mr. Eastwood, maybe you just got carried away in the moment. Maybe you truly feels the country should be rolled back to 1961. I don't know.

We Won’t Go Back.

There is this ember in me that wants to assert it is possible to find solutions that include grass roots networking and corporate relationships. It is possible to generate meaningful employment without giving multi-billionaires and corporations tax breaks or forcing people to work for impoverish wages.

I'm putting that ember in a safe place. America is not ready. Not today.

I’ll be better in a few days because good people will remind me that none of the work of a democracy is easy. This is a long distance run.

I just think we should not wait for something severe to happen that force people out of selfish, myopic visions.

Sadly, I know my history.

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When Worlds Intersect Is that A Good Thing?

I am a long time traditional comic book reader. Old school when ten cents got me the latest issue of Batman. I love libraries. Movies. Animation. Sex. Literacy. Reading, Creativity. And usually they are compartmentalize and each is in their own silo.

Sometimes there is an overlap. One or two intersections is okay but this...this is popping brain cells. Once upon a time eh, 1999,  there was a comic book called Birds of Prey. Later, there was a television show by that name. It didn't last long but I watched it.

No complaints. It had Shemar Moore.Why be greedy?

Soooo, I'm checking my Tweet stream and somehow wind up at Bleeding Cool where I see Birds of Prey XXX. A Parody.  This trailer is safe for work. Only words are exchanged and only one of them is heated. Can't trust that Huntress for nothing. She does drop a F-Bomb.



How? Why? Nooo!? Well, maybe. It is like the Star Trek Enterprise XXX parody. On the one hand is nothing sacred? On the other hand I have always had half a lobe to do Picard.

Which is wrong, wrong.

For the record, I have only seen the Star Trek Enterprise XXX trailer. It seems like they tried to be respectful. I have never seen any of the XXX parodies and don't think I am going to be able to for quite some time. Not high on the bucket list.

Back to the Birds of Prey. So they have Oracle in the wheelchair. Oracle is gonna get busy later and not just floating through Ethernet cables either. She is neither PC or Mac, Oracle's rig is custom built.

(Okay, quick recap on the back story: In an alternate dimension, Oracle is a later day Barbara Gordon who got the hell and the use of her legs beat out of her by The Joker. He might have done other things but that depends on the interpretation by the specific artist who wrote the book at the time.

I hate that guy. Straight up hate The Joker. Nothing funny about that damn clown.

Barbara, who was a librarian reclaim her mantle as crime fighting Information Mistress of the Digits. Then the other Birds of Prey, The Huntress and Black Canary, get to chase and capture villains and make Gotham or New Gotham a grand place to live. )

Hence, my dilemma. Oracle still a librarian fighting crime from a wheelchair (this is important for story continuity. Later on DC had Barbara walking again to resume being Batgirl. The Wheeled Sisters did not take kindly to the change).

Oracle is getting some non-combat action and it ain't with Richard Grayson. Double score. Except that she is bonking a detective in a nookie film. Let us not forget that her pop is Commissioner Gordon.

Why must I be tormented so?  I love Batman, I do. Iconic character.  But dig it, there are the comic books, the 1960s series, movies starting from the 1940s on up. Major props to the animated series. That isn't a typo. You have Batman, the Animated Series, The Brave and The Bold, The Batman, Batman Beyond not to mention all the action he's got in Justice League.

Batgirl has is third season appearances in the early 1960 Batman shows, the cancelled series and guest star shots as an adult in some of the animated series.

DC come on! This is the only full length live action movie with a super heroine. It is a movie that most people can only watch when the lights are low and the Two Buck Chuck is chilled.

So I have been told.

There should be a Black Canary animated movie. You can have Ollie (Green Arrow) in it but let the girl clear her pipes. I know you made a Wonder Woman animated movie that didn't make bizillons of dollars but I don't think you advertized the movie that well. I would have bought it if I could have found it at Target. Water over the bridge.

Dang it, forget that there are 14 to 18 year old boys for a moment. Girl people like action movies too. I am not against the action in the parody but you know what I am saying?.

What am I saying? I lost track.

I'll watch the trailer one more time just to cement that I saw it. It might be important one day. You never know. This isn't wrong. But it is just not right.

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Programming School Dropout and Redemption

I've been avoiding telling folks this but it is time to come clean and start again. I am the beauty school dropout in Grease.



I hate quitting anything. Really, I can be guilty of hanging on for dear life until I get it done. Well, life snuck up on me and went booger-booger.

Strike 1. I was doing okay. I wrote my first program and thought my homework was done. What I failed to realize was there were a whole bunch of lessons underneath the first one. I catch that mistake two days before the first quiz and try to cram it down.

You can't do that with an intro Python programing class. I tried but it was painful.

Strike 2. My day job at the Salt Mine got crazy. I can't go into details but let me just say the widgets were asking questions of the whatsits and the whatsits were waiting on the doohickies and in the meantime salt is flowing all over the conveyer belt.

It was lunar baby, stuff was flying everywhere and all I had was a spoon.

Strike 3. I came home and tried again. I'm in Lesson two. I'm still learning vocabulary and programing at the same time. The dude shifted from vocabulary to concept and then from concept to implementation.

I was still on understanding the concepts when bango zoom he was talking about the rafinstinbonk.

It was over. I cured up in my bed, I knew I didn't have a flipping chance.

A Possibility for Redemption

A new session of the class is starting up on April 16th. I'm stubborn. I do not like not learning what I set out to learn. You don't get to be this old without picking up some life skills.

Boomer power baby!

I am gathering supportive tutorial materials:

Videos

Khan Academy has some programming videos:



I can watch or listen to these on my phone via YouTube.

Tutorials

One size does not fit all and I'm looking for re-enforcements.

• At Python.org there is a Beginner's Guide page for non-programmers to access tutorials and resources.
• There is another interactive tutorial at Learn Python.org.
• Python Turtle is for kids and those willing to think like one. There is no shame in my game. You download the software and the follow the instructions to learn concepts in order to move the turtle.
• Yes, there is a podcast for just about everything, this one is for young programmers so if I add the numbers my age I could be youngish.

What About Life?

I know. I could be setting myself up for a fall again. Salt is still shooting across the room but the flow is now in check for the time being. If I can get a better bead on the topic before the new session starts I'll sign up again.

If not, slow and steady will have to be my workflow. Monty would have wanted it that way.

(The programming language was named after Monty Python, which is nice to know but I still feel like a git.)

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Testimony - It Gets Better Video from SFGMC

Not sure I should be writing about this video. I'm not gay. I am not a male. Don't even live in San Francisco. But when did that stop anybody from putting their two cents in matters that peripherally concern them.

I do know other human beings attempt to hurt another because they are different. Too small. Too large Talk funny.

I know the power of words that can hurt, of punching used as a right of passage and the emotional pain that can be soul crushing. Ask anyone that had been bullied as a child. It does not take much to bring up the memories.They know what I am talking about.

So I am very interested in the It Gets Better video series. If it stops one teen or pre-teen from doing themselves in it works for me.



This is a video by the San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus called Testimony.

It is only recently that I have slowly started talking about being bullied as a child.

It was bad.

Wait, there is no good form of being bullied.

I have since learned that other people had matches thrown on their hair or coats. Humiliated beyond measure with all kinds of stuff thrown on their bodes. And last, but not least, sanctioned shame.
Because if you tell some adults that you are indeed being victimized by a group of people most will tell you to "suck it up and get over it".

While you are standing in the middle of hell. You ask someone to help you and they are telling you to stand and continue to get burned. They say it is kid stuff. I am hear to tell you that kids can be vicious.

For me, I literally had to go ape shit crazy and beat someone up to get most of them off my back. It was a temporary solution. It wasn't in my nature but you hurt a person enough and one way or another they will find a solution.

Usually, a bad one. Suicide is a very bad solution. It doesn't matter who you are, it truly hurts those that are left behind.

I was a gentle person who learned to be defensive and non-trusting. "Suck it up" they say. The reality is that you never, ever get totally over it.

So, as a straight woman, as a person with a history that includes being bullied and as a fellow traveler on this road of life check I want to pass this video along to friends and acquaintances.

If you like the song and would like to own a legal copy then you can go to the Bandcamp page and download it. It would help the SFGMC chorus earn a little cash in the stash.

Some days are rough. Still, it gets better.

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Re-invention and Change - The White Hut

I needed down time. I have gotten up at 4 a.m. to write or cobble together items of interest for my blogs and others. I want to create and do things but I was force to realize that I need x amount of sleep and nutrition.

When one or both get out of balance I am not a happy camper.There is other stuff happening that I can't discuss but that life balance thing is kicking me into submission.  I got to find writing time that does not involve the pre-dawn hours.

This is a project I've been wanting to finish for chunk of time. I want to mix essays with video. This will not look that different from my other work but my goal today was to post a video.

The Whit Hut was a mom and pop restaurant in the Pasadena area. It closed in September 2011 and word has it that a new organic coffee house will be built. I'm sure that the new joint will not be serving up fat laced Pastrami on Rye. 


Part Two

I have to step back and think about what do I want to do. I want to re-claim a bit of my creative writing. I want to really get better working with video. I need a new career but I think what I want to do hasn't been invented yet so I have to pave my own path.

Not a bad idea but it can make a person nervous. Can you re-invent yourself again and again and again?

Yes. You can. It is not easy but I'd rather give it a go than to be among the walking dead.

That is not a zombie reference.

There are people that do the same thing day in and day out because it is safe. No deviation. No curiosity about what went before or what is to come. No hobbies. No vices.  No challenges. No goals.

Nothing. They live. The eat. They work. They sleep. It is enough for them.

Now if you are in any form of recovery and you aspire to this type of life go for it. I'm not talking about you. You have already lived a bit and you need routine and stability. Carry on and work your program.

For me, I want more. I want to access the untapped parts of my potential. I can't mess around, I'm coming up on another birthday in a few months and I want something to show for it.

I thought that 2011 was going to be a quiet year and that sucker did everything in its power to prove me wrong.  I might need a combat helmet for 2012.

Right now, it is a beautiful day and I have time for a nap, if I want one.

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There Is Still Much to Say

There was a time when 999 was the highest amount of posts you could upload on Blogger. I wasn't too worried about it because I didn't think I'd reach 999 posts. I don't think about things like that because they intimidate me.

Here I am. Number 1,000 according to my post log. Dang! I feel good about it.

I wrote long before there was blogging. Use to do an e-mail news letter. Had a old school user page that required HTML. I never warmed up to Dreamweaver but I gave it a go because I had much to say and thought my voice was as valid as some of the others on the World Wide Web.

In 2004 I came to Blogger.


In one of my early post I shared the lyrics to Sky Pilot. There was no way to easily embed video. There was no YouTube and I would not have known about this video from the CBC in Vancouver.  This is a video montage created by the CBC performed by Eric Burdon and The Animals:



I have an attacment to this song because I would hear it on the radio. I might have been between 9 and 11 years of age. I don't remember. But I didn't connected the song with the Vietnam war.

I thought of Snoopy and the Red Baron. I was a kid.  I related to the world that I knew.

This is such a different place. I now understand about the price of war on human bodies and minds. I understand that there have been other wars and some folks are now shopping for a new one to keep the military industrial corporation going.

"You'll never, never, never, reach the sky."

There was a time when I did not have my face on the blog. In 1999 had read a book about being on the Internet that talked about this guy who was making serious cash money doing web work but it got out that he was a black man.

His work dried up. At that time there were people that would attack you for being "the other."

Not much has changed. There are increasing attacks on women and feminist bloggers.

I have learned that you can't hide who you are. There are people that need to see that an African American woman has a blog. That I write about a variety of issues and concerns.

There is no point in trying to pin me down to a specific topic, not in this blog. One day it is politics, the next is noticing that Brookstone in the mall has a bunch of vibrators on sale for the holidays.

Seriously, not the cheap stuff. We are talking the upper level stroke, stroke, stroke until le petit mort kind of gear.

I get distracted. Too much is going on these days.

I bought a fountain pen. I'm going back to writing on paper first and then uploading. Has more to do with eye and hand preservation. It also has to do with allowing the words to come at a contemplative speed. I want time to think, not just react.

I don't like Facebook but I check in on friends. I like Google+ better but I don't have the time to do more than and comment on friends and followers post. There is some new widget that allows me to copy my post here to my G+ page. I might do that. Not sure.

Twitter, which I didn't initially care for, has been my day to day catch up with folks.

My blog - this is my home ground. My stoop. I know it. I'm okay here. I haven't been posting much because I got stuff going on. I have to make decisions about my life in 2012. What do I want to do? What do I need to do?

No matter what those choices are I still intend to blog. And write. Maybe a video now and then.

This blog is what made the connections with other people possible.

There are days when I get fed up with the stupidity of human beings. The American branch has plum lost their minds. Not sure they are going to get it together, it will take something awful to re-connect with each other.

It doesn't have to be that way but not sure if we can come together. Too many forces profit from keeping us apart.

So I still blog. One post at a time. I hope I remain unpredictable but who knows what changes can happen. Be open to the possible has served me well. I commit to that and the future.

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When We Gather In Our Names

It is a moment and then it is gone. That is why we take photos when we get the chance. Trying to keep up with that road runner known as the Queen of Spain can be a full time job.

Taking the kids to school. Getting herself to treatments. Speaking at conventions about cyberbullying and Lupus. I can just about keep up with her on Twitter. She's got multiple streams going on Facebook.

At BlogWorld Los Angeles 2011 I caught up with Cecily Kellog, Anissa Mayhew and Erin Kotecki Vest. They were finishing their panel and had just got kicked out of the room. Believe me when I say the room wrangler had to work hard to get those dames to stop talking.


Photos and phone slinging commenced. A couple of other folks drift in and out.  I want to know how she knows the dude in the kilt?

That guy way everywhere. So this video is for them. And for me.

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Two Thoughts and Then I'm Outside for the Day

Got an e-mail from Barnes and Noble about buying Borders customer data. Thing is, I opted out of Borders e-mail long before the bankruptcy. What I forgot was that I was a Border's member. It appears I can have a limited free membership into the BN premium club until I would have to pay in 2012.

I don't want to pay BN an advance on the books I may or many not purchase. I didn't want to do that before the Nook and I don't want to do it now.

I have another e-mail from Writer's Digest talking about them helping me to bulk up for NaNoWriMo, if only I would spend $125 or so in purchasing articles and books on how to write a novel in 30 days.

I took a class years ago on how to write a book in 6 weeks. The dude talked so fast my ears burned.

Literally, he was going like a house on fire. He was informative but by hour 2 my head was thumping. I bought his guide to how to do it for $40 and stumbled home with a migraine.

Anyway, NaNoWriMo is an endurance event, not a shopping opportunity. Ok, you can buy paper and ink.

So I gotta say I'm feeling pressured to buy even though my rational mind does not want to buy these items.

I'm heading out for what the day will bring. Wish me luck.

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The Edge of Night and Memories

Before blogging there were web sites and e-newsletters. I started an e-newsletter to keep my computer students and my friends up to date about software programs and the Internet. My friends at the time didn't understand what the Internet was or why I was so jazzed about it. They thought it was something like CB Radio.

I made so many mistakes back then. Spelling, typing, factual; you name it I did it. I kept plugging away at it and I got better. I learned from other people. I learned I didn't have to write a book each time I hit the keyboard.

I didn't want to make money, I just wanted to let people know what was going on and how things were changing. It was a form of self expression. There is nothing wrong with that; despite what other will say about journal writing and blogging.

I was exploring, learning, laughing and connecting with other people who had interests other than what was on the soap operas. Not that there is anything wrong with soap operas or the people that love them. No disrespect intended.

Much love to The Edge of Night



A day in September 2001 changed that. I didn't know if there would be a tomorrow. I didn't trust the Bush administration. I didn't know if the war hawks would bomb first and figure out later.

I knew that I wanted to be of service and help. So I wrote about elephants in the room, emergency preparedness and looking out for each other.

The truth of the matter was that I was alone. I could call people and e-mail folks but for many hours I was by  myself.

It was my edge of night in that I could be scared but if I was going out I wanted to do something positive. So, that is what I do.

There have been earthquakes, floods, fires and riots. There have been dark nights of the soul.

Lots of them.

So my memories and lessons about that time carry forward. Be of service. Keep learning. Make more contacts and friends. Limit the negative voices. Live in the day.

I still make mistakes.

It is all right.

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Poetry In Plain Sight - Eli Goitein

It has been a while since I've posted poetry. My computer and I are trying to hold on until I get a new souped up power gizmo i5 or i7 level computer. Editing on a Dual Core CPU is no longer a joy when you are editing high definition video.

All of the new software is geared toward Windows 7 and, well, production has slowed down when it hasn't flat out choked. My CPU meter is living in the red zone.

It is a knock down drag out fight but we are now in an understanding phase. I understand that I can only have one software program open at a time and it understands that all I want is one short video to edit.



This is the first video under the current truce agreement. Eli Goitein seems to be a man that does many things. One of those things is poetry. The reading took place at the San Gabriel Valley Poetry Reading at the Santa Clarita branch of the Pasadena, CA Library.

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Be My Valentine on the Finally Friday Freakout

Normally I would hesitate to have any reference of that long delinquent love archer on the blog but I am making an exception. First the introductions; the musician is Johnny Blu who is a man with a very pleasing voice.



So why the video? Well, because I like the video and it was shot on a iPhone4. It also has a filter on the video by the 8MM Vintage Camera app (application to the old schoolers).

Can a woman be seduced by technology? This one can. Johnny is right nice looking, don't get me wrong, but I was really was looking at how the app performed. Then I started listening to his voice and it was a win-win kind of thing.

You never know where your passions are going to lead you.

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The AFRO American PSA Experiment

Over at my other blog I was yakking about creating a public service announcement for the AFRO American archive. I wanted to show that you don't need a big time advertising agency to make a promotional video about something that you think other folks should know about.

You might need more talent and design skills than I possess. Actually, you don't. We need to stop talking about doing stuff and just up and do it to the best of our abilities.

This is where I am this day.



I really want to let other people like librarians, genealogists, researchers, historians and those of us with an interest in history to know about this resource.
It doesn't happen much anymore but I had students asking for information for more information Sarah Goode like clock work during Black History Month.

Each one of us is a connection to another person's history and by extension to the national history. That history does not end with the election of a president.

I'm going to keep trying to get it right. Because I will not allow a bunch of low hanging fruit inside and outside of Congress to determine who I am and where I came from. I know parts of my history and I'm working on the rest of it.

It will not be erased without a fight.

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Hey Roger - If I Viewed TV I'd Watch

I don't care what the name of the show was I watched. Sneak Peak, At the Movies, Siskel and Ebert, Ebert and Roper and all the ones I forgot.

Agree, disagree or whatever this was how folks started talking about movies in the public arena. If you wanted depth you read Film Critic magazine; if you wanted to not finance a turkey of a flick you flipped on the show.

Not that I would have paid cash money for Carnosaur.

Roger Ebert has been through a time and a half of experiences. To say that he is fighting cancer is an understatement. Dude has been honest, transparent and helped more people than he will ever know in his dealings with the death stalker.


So when I saw in my e-mail stream something about Facebook blocking his most recent post about getting a facial prosthetic for his new show I was confused. I go to his Chicago Sun-Times page and first thought that he was rocking a sexy new beard.

I like beards.

But you have to read the complete story. I like the story even better.

A few months ago Roger spoke about his decision not to undergo reconstructive surgery. It was a powerful piece basically saying "I'm not gonna do it, I had enough."

I know what he is talking about. I don't like hospitals. I don't like how powerless they make you feel. When you gotta do it that is one thing. It is your life or your pride. There are limits and each person has to define his or her own as to how much you can take.

There is a new show he is producing with his wife called Eberts Presents At the Movies. My understanding is that he has chosen for his segment of the show to use a new chin prosthetic.

Ok by me either way but not with Facebook. His post was flagged as abusive content.

I suspect this is a techno-glitch or something like that. Because I can't figure out what human would read the post and come up with anything that was offensive about it. There isn't, not one dang thing.

Y'all can romp around Facebook if you want to. I'll visit your pages if they are open to the public. I can not, shall not and for the foreseeable future will not have a Facebook page. If they can't deal with Roger's face then they don't need any part of mine.

Just to be clear, I do not like Facebook's constant disrespect of privacy. I don't like that it will release information at the drop of a programing glitch and then you have to respond quick, fast and in a hurry to keep marketers from harvesting e-mail, phone and other private information.

I choose my friends and who I want contact with; I don't need 70,000 friends. God bless you if you really have that many people in your life.

I don't. I'm okay with that.

The ones I do have know where they can find me.

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Lady Teena Marie Has Made Her Transition

I don't want to believe it. I just don't. But CNN, People and other media sources are saying that Teena Marie passed in her sleep.

This is Teena in a classic music video, Lovergirl.



Mercy. I'm not happy but if her spirit is at peace and pain free then so be it. This is Teena performing a rendition of His Eyes Is On the Sparrow.



Not ready to let my musical icons go but it seems I have no choice. Much peace and respect to her family and her extended musical family of fans who are hurting something awful tonight.

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Winter Solstice Lunar Eclipse 2010 by Kareem Brown

Once of the reasons I'm crabbing about the rain is that there was no way to record the lunar eclipse that happened on December 21, 2010. Fortunately other folks with cameras and camcorders did not let that stop them.



Kareem Brown shot this time lapsed video of the event. The actual eclipse was four and a half hours, this will take about 1:30 to watch.

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For Aaron's Birthday - The Full Dose of the Funky Chicken

There are times when you are funky and there are times when you need the power of The Funk to lift you to a higher space.

I don't know Aaron Vest because his wife twitters 72.8 times more than he does. I have met him once or twice but not a day goes by without Mrs. Vest throwing a tweet or two in his direction.



This is for his birthday and since I don't know what to get a man who has everything, even in the mist of a hell, high water and is that a tsunami about to break? kind of year.

This is the full get up off that thing version of Mr. Rufus Thomas and the Funky Chicken. Grab a thigh bone and do what you can. Those with wing trouble can sway and cluck, same thing but don't over do it.

Pace yourself. These are professional dancing cluckers.

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Poetry In Plain Sight - Jon Epstein

There are days you have to look at your own personal trash to know how far you have walked from it. A poem is a safe place to revisit personal hell and tribulations. This is Jon Epstein reading his poem, Eight Milligrams.



Today is the first day of National Videoblogging Posting Month. One of the reasons I started videoblogging was that I wanted to record people and places that were not being seen. It was the environments that I found myself in just being a regular person.

I'm not a high tech cadet. I buy what I the equipment that I can afford and make it work. Recording in existing light is challenging but this was what the camera saw on this day.

Un-adorned and no special effects.

As other media snort at user generated content they forget one small thing. They ignored whole segments of the population. They created a world in their own image.

That world never included me and my kind of people. It is a washed out pastel of the vibrancy in the real world.

My kind of people are the ones that are not celebrities or are objects of ridicule for profit.

We work or not.
We love or not but that love isn't contingent on body shape and size.
We exist outside of talking points and non-conference swag bags.
We, despite the demands of our daily lives, create.

Videoblogging is a reclamation of individuals being present and showing where they are at a given place in time.

Web video can be in support of poets and thinkers that do not need to yell to make their points. On the day of this recording, I heard Jon.

This is my Day 1 post for Vlomo10.

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The Sounds of Blackness on the Finally Friday Freakout

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 video of side one of that album. Special bonus that Roger Troutman of Zapp in spoofing in some of the video. Sadly, I don't think groups like the Sounds of Blackness could get radio time today.

Really, we do need more fun, danceable and singable tunes. I wouldn't mind a song or two that aimed a little higher than crotch level.

I don't know about you songs like "I got mine and I'll kill you for yours" does not help me move through my day.

Never did.

So a mini love letter to those musicians that want to play a different song. Go for it. We are waiting for you.

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