Vocal Rest

First of all, I hope you all like the picture that's with the title of the blog.  I kind of do.

But anyway, I'm currently in Carpinteria, CA. The sun is fun (haha, that's a rhyme).  I love it when the sun hits me in the face, and it really hits you in the face (in the most beautiful way) in California, especially when you are in walking distance of the Pacific Ocean.

Fresh out of Vegas, we had a 9 show week. We haven't even had a 9 show week since April I think. With that said, my body is not tired, but my voice is.  It's so tired that I had to put myself on vocal rest.  For those of you who don't know...use the clue (rest).  It literally hurts when I speak right now and I sound more like a frog at this moment.

Being on vocal rest sucks! There are many reasons why.  In my case, I'm working with two other people...and I have to communicate with them somehow.  Miming just doesn't cut it, and sending text messages to someone less than four feet from you is stupid.  Another reason (the biggest reason) is that you hear so much stupid stuff come from people mouths, and I personally wish I could correct them.  When I say stupid stuff, I don't merely mean someone saying that the "sky is red".  People can be really ignorant at times (mainly when making generalizations...well lookie there, that was a generalization in itself) and the one time that I want to help them, I can't.

I do think that a lot of us are on some type of "vocal rest" when it comes to not correcting someone's ignorance or stupidity.  We all here someone say something that we may consider stupid, ignorant, or downright dumb and many times we'll just let them be stupid.  Some of us (a select few of us) have no patience for stupid and confront what we heard...which can sometimes result to conflict.  But conflict is something that we need to embrace at times...especially when enlightening someone.  When it's all said and done, we've done a part in helping the human race.

I'm not going to go down the mushy path of helping the human race, be nice, and blah, blah, blah...I'm just merely saying why do we have to be silent in times that silence may be the worst thing possible.  When something stupid/ignorant is said it sits in a barrel and begins to churn until you have a belief that is clearly wrong.  Before you know it, we've waited just too damn (there's no other way to put it) long and now we have to pull out all the stops and call the fire department for what was just a small flame from a match.

I hope that makes sense.

But anyway, I was inspired the other day courtesy of a wonderful writer that I follow on twitter.  She quoted Malcolm X and I will do the same.

“Usually when people are sad, they don't do anything. They just cry over their condition. But when they get angry, they bring about a change.” --Malcolm X

When we hear something stupid/ignorant/downright dumb, perhaps we all should be quick to correct, but not in a condescending way.  Stupidity and ignorance is something that should make all of us angry, but not in a violent way, but simply in a way that we can talk to our misguided brother or sister and bring about that change that everybody talks about.  Even if there is no true correction, we have an open line of communication, which is something that we often miss out on anyway.

 

Personally, ignorance is something that makes me angry.  And the thing is, I deal with it almost every day and I haven't done anything about it.  Why on Earth did it take the day in which I can't talk for me to want to say something? 

 

Why do I feel like I'm preaching? Weird, I know.  But that's all for today's sermon, I suppose.

Stop the Bull----!!!!!!!!

This is an official stop the bull**** message.

It's been a while, but there's a lot of b.s. going on. So much that I had to use capital letters and (hopefully) proper grammar (we'll see on that one).

It's December 2009 and some things are happening as they should. People are getting set for Christmas, buying things again. The economy seems to be slowly turning for the good. But there are some things that make me want to scream "stop the bull****!!!!"

R. Kelly released a new album on the first of the month. I previewed the album. This old man is yodeling. Yodeling, son!!!!!!! Why Kells? Some things that the Pied Piper does never really surprise me. He sings about sex so much, that I've been desensitized by most of what he says. We've seen and heard so much crazy come from him (the Trapped in the Closet series for example) and Robert Sylvester Kelly doesn't believe in hinting. The Teflon Don, as I would like to call him, has a blunt method that surprising has worked for 10 albums...very few R&B artists in this day have (maybe 3). But Kells, c'mon son! You're singing about banging the headboard and really that makes me think more of your scandals. Apparently you are done with I Believe I Can Fly type songs. The first line to a song called Text Me is "Text me back something freaky. Let me know just how you want to do me." Is that how Tiger got caught? Anyway, this dude is over 40 writing the same type of material he wrote almost 20 years ago.

I now wish to address tattoos. I've often fantasized about getting a tattoo or two, but due to professional reasons, money and overall courage I haven't. There are some people who don't have this problem. Instead their problem is the opposite. They have too much money, courage, and tattoos happen to help their profession and/or credibility. Take Lil Wayne for example...he has another face tattoo...don't believe me, check it out.


That's a series of stars on the side of his face. This kind of doesn't surprise me more than the glasses he's wearing. It's just not a hot look. By the way, his umpteenth baby mama gave birth to his umpteenth baby (for those keeping score, that 2 in less than 6 months...I think 4 that we know of. He took that Every Girl song literally) But anyway, back to tattoos. Example number 2, the one that Wayne be stuntin' like, Baby (aka Birdman)


Um...a star on the stop of your head? For real, son? I guess he wants to be spotted from a birds eye view.

Anyway, I was going to write a blog about Hip Hop and gay. I still may do it. It will focus on Hip Hop's problem with the gay culture...sayings like "no homo" and others have gone a little far, and the lyrics don't make things better. On top of that, rappers try to depict themselves as "hard", but sometimes their lyrics and album covers don't help that image. And then some tend to do stupid things like this on stage.


Um...why are two dudes on the stage in their drawers? No comment.

Last but not least: Tiger Woods. I think he leads a sad life. He's intense. Tiger is an elite athlete that focuses so much on winning major championships. He doesn't think much about the other tournaments and probably not much of anything else for that matter. According to his latest statement, he uses words like "sins" and "transgressions". For a pro athlete, these words are serious...perhaps too intense. I think that he will stress himself out more than the media and other critics. He's a private person that takes things way too serious. I am not giving him a pass, by any means, but intense people like Tiger tend to ruin their own lives before other people get the chance. I wouldn't be surprised if he spent more time on the golf course trying to win majors. He may take a page from Kobe Bryant's book. Kobe made sure that his game didn't fall off, he became even more dominant. Tiger may try to do that, but with that the microscope will be on him even more for the next year or two...or until something really great or terrible happens. Regarding the accident, he must have been distraught to get into an accident coming out of the driveway.

Anyway...R. Kelly, Baby, Wayne, and yes even you Tiger: stop the bull****!

um...for shizzle?

short entry for today...headed to a dinner party later today.

you know what i can't stand

"what is that?"

when you talk to an older person...that happens to be of a different background, race, etc. and the thing is, you won't use slang or any other colloquialism because you're talking to an older person (show respect blah, blah, blah), plus you're educated and you know better. but the older person will use the slang/jargon the he/she may expect you to use...and not even well. and he/she will even insert an awkward pause (and it's in the form of a question) right before the terms, which says "i don't use this term ever, so it may come out weird" it's their way of bracing for impact.

if you have to do that in order to talk to a younger person...then well, you should never speak to a young person.

this really happened to me. why do people do this?

end of story

we gotta do better

okay, so i was totally going to talk about something else today; something with meaning, something with heart. then i saw some total b.s. and that pretty much messed up my mood, so i'm going to talk about that.

before i begin, i just want to say that this should be apart of a series of blogs simply called "black folk...we gotta do better". i know that i've brought some things to light about doing better, but it seems that not a one person really takes that to heart. i don't normally call out names but in this case, i got names and pictures.

but first...the beef (insert suspenseful music right here)

i remember back in the day, my mother would go to the beauty salon on a saturday to get her hair (say hair like nelly would) "did". she would come back hours later with her hair simply flawless and yet classy in my eyes. getting the hair done on the saturday before church is a time honored ritual in the black community, because we would always go out and praise the lord looking our absolute best...you know, look like you got money even when you ain't got it.

now i realize that some women went a little and even waaaay overboard, but it was something that they were very proud of and if there's one thing they didn't do, it was do anything that was going to mess up that hair do. no swimming, no sweating (through whatever means), sleep upright, etc.

all of a sudden in the 90s, toni braxton came out with that short do, and it looked good. if you ever listened to another sad love song, then you know what i'm talking about...she was definitely cute back then



after that look, there was no other that could duplicate it. the few r&b "divas (i used that term loosely)" that tried couldn't really pull the super short look off except probably monica.

a lot of years went by and we saw a lot of things, a lot of hairstyles that you can obviously see in (insert title of a black hair magazine), but the general hair silhouette was growing. the hair itself was as well, but we saw what we thought was the end of short hair once braids hit mainstream...i mean dudes (allen iverson, randy moss, certain members of wu-tang clan) were getting braids (i'll never forget r. kelly's ad lib at the end of i wish "come on and braid my hair") which eventually grew to dredlocks.

perhaps i'm generalizing, but anytime somebody (female in particular) shaved their head, it was either for a movie role (demi moore in g.i. jane) or they just went crazy (britney spears).

well people, crazy is a trend and it tends to grow slowly nabbing victims one head at a time...



cassie...victim one. in an attempt to garner attention which will lead to more record sales (the sales will not happen more than likely)



rihanna...victim 2. after going through what she went through, she would have gotten a pass if she shaved it all off, but in this case...she got nann pass from me.



solange...victim 3. she looks like somebody's uncle in this pic



keyshia coles...victim 4. can you tell me what this (is) or is supposed to be?

now, don't get me wrong. it's your head, do whatever you want. use caution. just like we don't like seeing women with birdcages and christmas trees in their hair, we don't need to see you look like you don't know what hairstyle you're working with. just think about this logically, if you shave one side of your head, you either have to maintain that look, or shave the other side and start over.

as far as hair goes...black folk, we gotta do better.

blow [dollars]

"everyones, everyones! "

it's been a while...a long while it seems. i was out on vacation (sort of) in alabama.

but now my peoples, i'm back! back in new york, back on my grind, my hustle, and most importantly; back on these here internet streets (skreets pending on how ghetto you are).

i'm going to simply come all the way real on this one, so if my grammar stinks (stank to some), forgive me because i don't do this for a grade, ya dig?

the last time i was on this thing, i believe i was talking about michael jackson. now i tried to ignore everything while on the ol' vacay, but people just kept talking about him and the things/speculations around him. i've heard of the secret love child, the 5.5 million dollars he stashed, joe jackson and his crazy @$$, the drugs, the pepsi commercial from 1984...frankly too much to even go in detail. all that i truly want to say about all of this is...stop.

just stop, that's all. stop before the thriller video becomes a reality. mike's going to come out of his grave and grab his 1982 nose and who knows what will happen.

but there's a lot to mention, a lot to talk about, and i'm going to just deliver from the top of the dome. the journalists were freed from north korea today. my man, slick willy aka former president clinton got them out after spending less than 24 hours in korea. the man works quick. i don't know what he said, or what he may have offered, but he got the job done and for that, bill is officially a gangsta. he was just a pimp, but now he's a pimpin' gangsta. seriously, i'm glad that laura ling and euna lee were released. it reminds me of jesse jackson going to kosovo to retrieve hostages. he didn't have anything to offer, but he got the job done. jesse may have confused people with his rhyme scheme. but anyway, i think clinton made a deal with kim jong il.

think about it..."if you want hillary to back off you for a bit, give me laura ling and euna lee."

while in alabama...the last day, hours before my flight; i sold my car. i'm a little sad because that was like my constant for 8 years, there's a lot of memories made in that car; roadtrips, drive thrus, and etc. but she's now with a family that needs her more than i do. the weirdest thing about it, is that i sold it for X amount of dollars (i'm not really going to tell you how much) paid in cash. right after the deal was made i went to the back with a big, fat wad of cash...nervous. cash money makes me nervous, because a)i've never had any real money and b)i hate that look people in the back give you when you hand them a few stacks (stack meaning thousand, 3 stacks equals 3000); they look at me as if i were doing something considered illegal...at least i got that look.

but i got to be real. money makes you do stupid crazy things, right t-pain?


i'll take that as a yes.

how about the family that lives in this louis vuitton house?



i bet they steal cable.
we're in a recession. i just don't want to be one of those people. i also don't want to be this guy circa 1996



$30 million gone.

but anyway, i just don't like money that much. the problem is that we need money, we have bills to pay. groceries to buy, ends to meet.

money is a drug and if you catch me strung out on it, trying to buy stuff that you can't even afford...put me in rehab.

peace