Shame On You

To all of the black folks in California that voted for Proposition 8, which banned gay marriage, SHAME ON YOU!!!!! (70% of blacks in California voted to ban gay marriage)

How dare you oppress another minority group after the struggles that your ancestors went through for decades and decades. Minorities need to stick together, regardless of what puts you in the category of minority, be it race or sexual orientation. It is funny that as excited as everyone is that we finally have a black president, the folks in California took several steps backwards, as far as the progression towards freedom in this country. The people in California have basically gone against the mantra of this country, Land of the Free! I don’t remember their being an astric in the song, which when you look to the bottom revealed that if you are homosexual, this line does not apply to you.

I am heterosexual and black and I cannot wrap my mind around this ignorance. So if you are someone who opposes gay marriage, please fill in as to your reasons why. Thanks in advance.

Get it together people!!!!

Define Great Art

A couple of weeks ago a friend and I got into a late night discussion on art. We discussed how good art is determined and who determines it, if it is even possible. Let’s just say this conversation, after midnight, with a few glasses of wine and white Russians in us, turned out to be an incredible clash of ideas, from two people who agreed to disagree.

From my perspective, as an artist and lover of art, no one can define what great art is because art is at times abstract and often times does not lead to a general concensus of whether it is great or not. Art is generally created based on deep emotional drivers. Poets, painters, photographers, etc create their crafts by channeling their emotions into tangible manifestations of expression. So who is the curator at MoMa to determine whether or not someone’s depression driven painting looks like a piece of shit.

Both my friend and I brought up examples to prove our points. My example was the artwork of Jean Michel Basquiat. Basquiat is a Brooklyn-born, Haitian American painter who most prominent works were created in the 1980s. Many people may look at his work and think a child created it or think that it is not pleasing to look at. I would respectfully disagree as he is my favorite artist for more reasons than one. My point is that Andy Warhol, who was already famous, took Basquiat under his wing, in a sense, and helped to propel him onto the mainstream art scene. So I wonder had Basquiat not been in the right place at the right time to meet Andy Warhol, would his art still be considered great now or would he just have continued on as a graffitti artist on the streets of NYC? Who knows.

The fact of the matter is that there are tons of artists whose crafts are always looked over, not because their work is not great but because they have yet to be in the right place at the right time and meet a curator that will propel them into the international art scene.

I believe that artists are born and their craft may be tweeked by some technical training but they were born with a gift, a gift that no fancy education can match.

Artist Spotlight: T.I.

I’m not even going to pretend to know much at all about T.I. or his music. I know that people have been loving him for quite a few years now but I never really jumped on the bandwagon. Sadly, I couldn’t even name a T.I. song until about a month ago. Shame on me, maybe.

Anywho, I am so in love with a couple of tracks on the new album which is entitled Paper Trail. My favorite is “Live Your Life” which features Rihanna. I’ve added it to my iWAKE playlist to help get my day started. In fact, I’m bobbing my head to it as I write this post. Another song which I really like and which actually caught me by surprise is, “Slide Show”. The lyrics provide a bit of motivation in the first verse. (Don’t forget that impossible is nothin’ your environment is irrelevant/Just don’t let your emotions over power your intelligence/Refuse to give up, your mistakes don’t define you/they don’t dictate where you headin’) He really has been on a mission to turn people away from crime, and while I’m sure it is motivated by his upcoming sentence, I still give him props.”Swagga Like Us” is a song that I’m sure is being played out in the states and even though I love the MIA song, “Paper Planes” which it was sampled from, it definitely did not make my top five favorite songs from the album.

The album overall is easy to listen to and definitely something to bump on the way to the club, then request it from the DJ once you get in the club. Thanks to the international appeal of rap music, I listen to the album on my iPod, on the train, then request some songs when I get in the club and all the Japanese clubgoers, move to the beat and my waist is instantly moved by the basslines.

Below is a video that I came across. It is an appearance that T.I. made on the Jimmy Kimmel show. He has loads of personality. Who knew? Surely not me.

Remember when…

-everyone wore colored Guess jeans with the matching jacket.

-facebook and myspace didn’t exist.

-people used payphones and pagers/beepers.

-you called people instead of texting.

-you lived in the same city as all of your friends.

-we were in high school.

-gas was in the $1.29 range.

-the black out of 2003.

-you didn’t need a passport to travel to Canada, the Carribean, and Mexico.

-you went to Canada to celebrate your 19th birthday.

-we weren’t inundated with election coverage.

-Bush stole the election.

-we were actually proud of Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, being one of the youngest mayors of a big city.

-life was carefree.

-candy was a penny.

-homecoming, high school homecoming that is.

-blackplanet was THE social network to be a part of.

-the residential village of SJU didn’t have a basketball court.

-we used to go to belle isle on the weekend.

Remember this song?

Thoughts on Obama…

Anyone that knows me, knows that I am not the bandwagon type. So early on when everyone was excited about Obama, I didn’t really think twice about it. I actually did not believe he would make it to the point that he is at now. I wanted to make sure that he actually had experience and substance. I refused to vote for him, just because he is black, no matter how historical his quest.

I just finished watching the 30 minute spot that aired on major American stations this week, and after all of the speeches and debates that I watched, it was this message that solidified my belief that he would make an excellent president. While I don’t think that he will be able to bring about all of the change that he has in mind, I do see, through his passion, that he will do everything in his power to make good on his promises.

What sets Obama apart from most presidents, besides his African heritage,  is that he didn’t come from money. He didn’t come from this long line of wealth that has roots in slavery. He worked as a community organizer, meaning that he has worked for the people. He knows what it means to make promises to the community and deliver. I have never heard a presidential candidate speak so passionately. (I may have to dig up some old JFK speeches, I hear he was the man, lol) The fact that he hasn’t been groomed for this since high school makes him even more credible. He took what Ghandi said and is delivering, “Be the change that you want to see in the world.”