I'm alright

Fractured artwork at the Cloisters

Another maelstrom Monday. Actually, it's a pretty uneventful day (the few minutes into it that it took me to write this). Yes, my month is up! Finally. I endured idiot move after idiot move, and the whole flu thing, during a very tumultuous 30. I invite May into my life with open arms.

By the way, I think I got canned at work too!

Still, I've met gobs of folks. Folks who all look at life a little different from one another and a lot different from me. I've grown to know others more, and understand them too. If I'd have to salvage anything from the month of April, it's the couple bonds I've strengthened with those who offered me salves and ointments in the form of their ears and shoulders.

"And when you're holding me, we're like a pair of parentheses."
The Blow on Parentheses

Sorry, can't get that song out my gray matter.

April still sucked lizard scrotum!

Today I'm feeling:

anxious for May flowers and shit

Talk to me, y'alls. (By the way, the title is a pun)

Love, peace and nappiness

Cornrowed African art at the Met

Now that the whole Imus thing has completely blown over, let's quietly discuss it! Actually, it wasn't my intent to wait it out first, but I had that ferocious influenza thing taking my body by storm. But seriously, was it just me, or should the only group of people with the nerve enough to take any offense out of what the man might have said the Scarlet Knights of Rutgers women's basketball team? If I do recollect, he said they were unattractive. That has little to do with them being Black, women, or Al Sharpton. And furthermore, in this country we used to have the protections of free speech. I'm just saying. Imus, though not my favorite radio personality, should still have a job. I call people who may or may not be very intelligent, well rounded folks nappy headed hoes all the time. Imus clearly wasn't bashing women, as he had the wherewith all to call the Tennessee Lady Volunteers attractive! And that team has Black players on it too! And the Rutgers team has White women players. So it couldn't ever be a racially charged statement either. It was just sincerely an opinion as to the perception, by Don Imus, of beauty possessed by the members of two championship basketball teams.

Today I'm feeling:

nappy headed

You?

Hump Day hell!

Mao at the Met

That's my boy Mao. Man of the people. The working man's man. The proletariat's pro. I dug deep and summoned my inner communist today and went to work, though I was cooking on the inside. Managed to fulfill most of my duties at the place of employment too. But still, I'm sicker than a pedophile at a Chuckie Cheese birthday party.

Today I'm feeling:

a dose of death

Ouch!

Mega idiots or millions?

The dear Mahatma at Union Square, NYC

And the idiot parade continues. Yesterday morning, at a little past 3 in the am, my brother decides to cook some beef. The dumb fuck falls asleep and nearly burns the place down. By the time I wake up, the whole place is filled with smoke and is stinky and disgusting. All day this wretched smell has haunted me. At work they must've thought I was at a smoky lounge before I showed up in the morning. The whole day the smell followed me. It made the eyes of those around me burn. I come home from work and the smell is just as putrid as ever. I hit Walmart and had to spend $13 on shit to freshen up the place. My dear, poor cats continue to endure this nastiness to a much higher degree as they stay closer to the epicenter and have a much keener olfactory than I. Fucking idiots!

So, I have to hold back and maybe harken to Ghandi for some inner peace and reassurance that come this month's conclusion I might find an idiot abatement.

Maybe today I do the Met!

Today I'm feeling:

Stressed

This is a horrible month. Horrible, horrible month. So bad, I bought a lotto ticket. Something has to shake, right?

Manhattan to Manhattan

Post office mail box on 6th Avenue

Continuing my tour of New York City, yesterday I hit the Guggenheim. Unfortunately, they don't allow photographs. It would have been nice to take a few snapshots. That Salvador Dali is an absolute beast!!!

But more artful than the paintings (the Guggenheim is virtually all paintings) were the smiles! 3 smiles in particular have been burned into my memory. Two of which I ended up sharing the evening with! One of these smilers helped me realize how much of an artist I am. Seriously though, she's a real artist. Like, real, real artistic. She's got talent.

I learned that I'm no fan of Pablo. Maybe Pablo Neruda and his rhetoric/semantics. Not Picasso though. I much more fancied Vuillard and Diego Velazquez. But the true genius is Dali! Next stop on my tour is the Met.

The city at night, accompanied by the nicest smile in Kansas, is one of life's sweetest pleasures.

Today I'm feeling:

thoughtful/at thought

I met someone who is so much of what I want to be. Free, happy, without too much direction, and probably not stuck on having a lot of dollars. She was also super talented, trusting (in the not stuck up/pretentious kind of way), uber friendly and good hearted! Thanks, Natalie, for showing me something so exciting. You da ma'am!

There's no justice, just us.

An OJ Simpson trial exhibit at the MoMA.

Check out O.J. and friends!! It's hard to imagine that two of them are "home."

"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. during the civil rights movement

"I remember being the invisible nincompoop/
whom no one listened to, so pitiful, miserable, feeling blue for ridicule/
'cause kids with two parents with loot, little G's spiffin' new fishin' shoes stick to crews/
would get in groups and pick in school with shit to do but pick at who? me/
him the stupid, skinny, dark skin niggle with the missin' tooth who wouldn't do shit to you/
'he just sit into the back of the class, write raps in his pad/
his pencil to his tablet listening to little music, instrumental tracks' as they laughed/
wished he'd lose, he practiced and practiced with no clue it would happen this fast/
paid his presence, he quickly grew/
rapidly fast, sold packs for the cash, hoes passing they ass/
like they didn't see me, now I'm rich they do/
went from moving more 50's than Shady and Dre/
to coming up like masturbating on planes/
gotta' save for the rain/
but taking Shawn first to a Jill Scott concert/
so he could hear the fat lady sing!"

Chevy P from the Field Mob on It's Over

I don't know what's with the civil rights theme today... maybe it's because it's Black History Month?

Today I'm feeling:

Infirm

Still, I'd like to hear what YOU have to say... feel free to comment.