Stupid Human Trick

Stupid Human Trick
New trick learned: How to tie a scarf. Yes, yes, I know, you all mastered this is the 3rd grade. Well, thank you very much, so did I, but then I had to keep relearning it every year, some things just don't stick for me. Sure, I can recall the lyrics to songs my mom listened to while I was gestating, but tying a scarf consistently evades mastery. shit happens, we all have flaws.

However, I have said numerous times and I will reassert my opinion - there is nothing wrong with you that technology can't fix. For really. So I googled "tying a scarf" and there were simple 3-step instructions with a delightful picture! I am not the only humanoid with this particular challenge. I am not alone in the world.

And i'm getting less alone by the millisecond. I'm up to my eyebrows in aspiring writers at Gotham Writer's Workshop, this week I submit my writing sample to the class. So of course I started working on it last night. Nothing like an impending deadline to motivate. I do agree with the sage Douglas Adams: I like deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by. brillz.

I joined Last.fm today. Social Radio, they call it. Right now I'm listening to my favorite Rolling Stones jam, "Sympathy for the Devil." Just the best song ever. It's on my Santana radio station. I have been listening to Pandora, which is okay, but leaves a lot to be desired, such as the use of british english (an advantage Last.fm exploits to the fullest and I enjoy seeing as I have to remember which country I'm in before I go spelling colour/color favour/favor grey/gray etc.).

Today i was thinking I need to get back into practicing my spoken language. English is easy enough, it's all the other words I know that I've developed some degree in fluency that screw the pooch for me. It takes some effort to weed out the other words and stick to the right one in English. I always think of a recent visit to a friend in Cairo, where she was immersing herself in Arabic and sexist society, and hearing her use what can best be described as FRACTURED English. I laughed so hard because the phrase and intonation she used was a mirror of what runs through my head. I laughed myself sick, yes i did. She knew I wasn't laughing at her so much as I was laughing at the situation and how easily you can lose your native tongue under the right circumstances. i.e. total immersion.

Well, bar-b-que ribs to you all. Have a good night.

P.S. I think i'm going to get a record player and "borrow" all of my parent's albums including the Exodus album and Lady Sings the Blues soundtrack. Wish me luck!

Who Died and Made Tavis King?

Who Died and Made Tavis King?
By Melissa Harris-Lacewell | TheRoot.com


Does Tavis realize that Obama is trying to win an election?

Views
Who put Tavis Smiley in charge?

Over the past two months African Americans have emerged as equal partners in a multi-racial, intergenerational, bipartisan, national coalition led by the most exciting political candidate of the past four decades, who also happens to be the first viable African-American presidential possibility in our history. So why is Tavis Smiley throwing a temper tantrum?

He is mad because Obama has not promised to attend Smiley's "State of the Black Union" next week in New Orleans. At last year's SOTBU Al Sharpton, Cornel West and others joined Tavis is roundly criticizing Obama for not attending. Where was Barack that weekend? Oh yeah, he was announcing his bid for the U.S. presidency. This year, Obama is busy trying to win Texas, which has emerged as the firewall state for the Hillary Clinton campaign. Obama wins Texas; Hillary goes home. But Tavis & Co. think Obama should spend precious hours chatting with them about their agenda?

(Jimi Izrael wondered the same thing about him and the other Popes of Blackness.) Let me be clear: I respect the importance of the SOTBU. Tavis performs an essential public service by creating and reproducing a critical black counter-public through this event. The event is decidedly democratic because it is open to a true variety of black voices. Every year it showcases black intellect, commitment and ideological diversity. All this is great, but it doesn't make Tavis the gatekeeper. It certainly doesn't give him the right to act as King-Maker, or in this case Queen-Maker.

Tavis and his guests have every right to criticize Obama if they have substantive disagreements with his policy, his approach to politics or his viability as a general election candidate. They do not have a right to create a false, racial litmus test. All these black leaders who spent the year telling us that Obama is not old enough, not black enough and not angry enough to earn African American votes must have noticed that Obama can deliver the black vote to himself, by himself, with little help from these self-proclaimed racial power brokers.

I can't quite figure out what motivates Tavis. At least I understand the old guard Civil Rights leaders. They are genuinely unwilling to cede power, believing that they have an authenticity claim based on their proximity to Martin Luther King, Jr. I also understand the frightened Democratic insiders who rely on the remnants of the Clinton machine for their bread and butter. But Tavis is not in either category. He is a part of a new generation of journalists who have carved out their own constituency. I am actually surprised to see Smiley join a pile-on led by his former boss Bob Johnson, who tried to silence him with such an ungracious termination a decade ago.

Maybe Tavis legitimately worries that the policy issues of black America will be lost in the excitement of the multiracial coalition. That is fair. But I wonder why Tavis does not trust us to vote in our own interests. Obama won the votes of the people of Louisiana last week. He stood at Katrina's ground-zero while Hillary blew off the state, assuming she couldn't win it. Now Tavis wants to act as a racial super-delegate by claiming he knows what the people need better than the voters.

Maybe Tavis is just jealous. Maybe it isn't deep at all, just a replay of the old adage about crabs in a barrel.

I do think that an Obama should attend the State of the Black Union. I agree with CNN's Roland Martin (which is rare) that Michelle should go. She should listen to concerns, answer questions from the audience and take seriously the substantive concerns raised there. Barack should be in Texas. I don't think anybody in the room will claim that Michelle is not a good enough surrogate for Barack. If Hillary can claim Bill's presidency as her experience, I am pretty sure Michelle can talk to Tavis on the campaign's behalf.

I usually watch this event every year. It is fun, enlightening and inspiring. This year I will have to TiVo it. Why? Because I will be phoning Texas voters to remind them to head out to the polls on March 4.
Melissa Harris-Lacewell is is associate professor of politics and African American studies at Princeton University.


http://essence.typepad.com/news/2008/02/copy-of-sen-bar.html
Copy of Sen. Barack Obama letter to Tavis Smiley

February 13, 2008

Mr. Tavis Smiley
President and CEO
The Smiley Group
3870 Crenshaw Boulevard
Suite 391
Los Angeles, CA 90008

Dear Tavis,

Thank you for the invitation to participate in the 2008 State of the Black Union forum in New Orleans, Louisiana February 21-23. The exchange of ideas raised at this annual symposium are invaluable as our nation strives to address the critical issues facing not just African Americans, but Americans of every race, background and political party.

I especially commend you for hosting this dialogue in New Orleans. On the eve of the Louisiana primary, I visited this great city for the fifth time since declaring my candidacy to share policy proposals for rebuilding the Gulf Coast so that we never experience another Hurricane Katrina. On February 9, I was deeply humbled to win the Louisiana primary with 86 percent of the African American vote and a 14 point lead among all voters who said they were adversely affected by Hurricane Katrina.

Uniting our country and creating a national constituency for fundamental change is why I am running for President of the United States. We have come a long way in this race, but we still have a long road ahead. In the final stretch, I will be on the campaign trail everyday in states like Ohio, Texas and Wisconsin talking directly with voters about the causes that are at the heart of my campaign and the State of the Black Union forum such as affordable healthcare, housing, economic opportunity, civil rights and foreign policy. I am committed to touching every voter, and working to earn their vote.
That is why with regret, I am not able to attend the forum. I understand that you have declined the campaign's request to have Michelle Obama speak on my behalf. I ask that you reconsider. Michelle is a powerful voice for the type of real change America is hungry for. No one knows my record or my passion for leading America in a new direction more than Michelle Obama.
Tavis, this is our movement and our time. I look forward to working closely with you throughout this election. Thank you for your continued support.

Sincerely,
Barack Obama

The closest a girl can get...

to having a penis. No, really. I think I've achieved it...i was looking at how I refer to my leetle friend the ostomy and it's as though it's a part of me, yet separate from me. We eat together, we live together, yet technically it's a part of my body, just not a part I actually would see on a normal-non-life-threatening basis.

And so, I think it's like a penis! Yeah, guys talk about their penises in third person, they refer to doing things with it, etc. etc. Same language and I imagine same experience. Very cool.

Life is bumping along. I went into the office this morning, nothing too interesting there. Still reading Good to Great in fits and starts. Classes are ramping up, I'm definately getting my money's worth out of both. I feel incredibly boring right now. Perhaps I could make good use of a nap...