In Year of the Dragon

In the year of the Dragon lots of men disappear
Quiet as it's kept they won't be around next year
Year of the Dragon - Wycleff Jean/Lauryn Hill

So Pras came out and said that Lauryn Hill is mentally ill. Read here. That's not too hard to believe is it? At least not considering some of her behavior post-Fugees anyways.

Way back when I started this blog I said I didn't want to see the Fugees do a reunion for legacy reasons but still this is pretty sad. I hope she gets some help. The Dutch Pots posted a paragraph about how terrible her concert was in Amsterdam a few weeks back and it got me thinking about the whole Lauryn thing.

I mean I used to be the biggest Lauryn Hill fan and this was even before the Score dropped and Killing me Softly became a worldwide hit. I used to be like did you see that girl in Sister Act 2 sing? Yo she's got potential, she'll go far. And yea I was disappointed with the Fugees first album, although a couple of the remixes that came out later were stellar, but still I held on to hope. That girl has potential just you wait and see she's going to break out big! Then Killing me softly dropped, one time, one time and it was over! It was nice to see that potential fulfilled with the Fugees. Then she did the solo thing and it was hitting. But somewhere along the line after her solo album dropped she wore thin on me. I just noticed some serious attitude like "I'm the greatest thing since sliced bread creeping in" and it turned me off. The album was great though and she deserved those Grammys but I sort of thought the fame was going to her head.

Then like Chinua Achebe Things fell apart. Damn. Y'all know the rest.

Anyway I was listening to this Lauryn verse on Wycleff Jean's The Carnival this morning and couldn't help but think that her words were self prophetic.

Clef it kind of remind me of this chick I once knew
Use to be a dime, now she's strung out in Bellevue
See the serpent played tricks run game like the Knicks
Build you up just to lose the championship.
I seen her reminiscing over Wu-Tang could It Be that Simple
She lost her Prince cause there were Thieves In the Temple
Tragic depression made her lose all her teeth
Lost and turned out gave her body to the streets
Sweet Mary don't you weep
Still water runs deep
So be careful of the company you keep.
In the year of the Dragon lots of men disappear
Quiet as it's kept they won't be around next year

damn!

Tragedy!

Early Sunday morning, two complete apartments collapsed in Barbados, falling forty to fifty feet into a cave. A family of five was still not located up to Monday morning.

Never realized there were caves under that area to that extent. Wow!

Latest news report is that its no longer a rescue effort but one of recovery. Pretty sad way to lose one's life.

You might win some

But you just lost one

"you washed up like Arsenio Hall you not tough
.....
take ya loss like a man admit it ya got crushed
but since you keep running ya lips would not hush
......
ended up like Mike Vick in the pocket you got rushed
and we went right quick at ya pockets ya got stuck"

Low Budget Allstars - Marco Polo et al

In the face of the blitz, Mike Vick scrambled but his offensive line folded and he ended up being sacked for a loss of yardage.

Ok pathetic football reference out of the way lets talk about Mike Vick.

First off let me give the disclaimer that I'm not trying to defend Michael Vick's alleged actions here. In the face of overwhelming evidence he has chosen to plead guilty and hope for a reduced sentence on his dog fighting charges. It seems like ol boy was kind of squeezed though as all of his co-defendants copped pleas and were going to testify against him. Damn so much for your boys having your back, the Feds had this case on lock.

But hey if you do the crime you do the time right? And Vick should have known better and not just cause he is a celebrity and one of the best known faces in the NFL. He just should have known better as a human being.

Still when you're a celebrity its even worse. You just cant get away with doing questionable stuff like this dog fighting thing if you're that well known. Now if you were a fourth string defensive back on a crappy team like the Vikings or something well maybe you could get away with it but a marquee Quarterback forever on Sportcentre? Naa forget that. Vick played himself thats the long and short of it.

Still I got to say that the coverage of this Mike Vick episode makes me want to go into a rant similar to the infamous Allan Iverson diatribe about practice; "Its dog fighting son, we're talking about dog fighting. What we talking about? Dog fighting? Dog fighting, not murder or rape or violent assault or shooting or stabbing a person but dog fighting. Man we talking about Dog fighting. What we talking about, dog fighting. Dog fighting man, we up in here talking about dog fighting right. I mean dog fighting" ......Something like that.

I mean Vick committed a serious crime, it against the law to dog fight, but the way Vick is being portrayed in the media its like he was Josef Mengele or Hitler or Pol Pot or Stalin or Saddam or something. I dont want to trivialize his crime but lets put it into perspective people. He didnt kill any humans, he didnt maim any humans, he didnt abuse any kids, he didnt do any experimental torture type ish on anyone, no one got shot cause he was playing the ass like in the case of Pac Man Jones, he hasnt committed genocide, he's not a terrorist.

I'm just saying this so y'all can put his crimes into perspective.

Yes he's going to plead guilty but even before this happened and he was simply the accused folk were acting like Mike Vick was the devil. Damn I mean I find the outrage here was so much more than the outrage when Kobe was accused of assaulting an actual human being. Kobe was found innocent by the way but that's not the point.

The point is all in the perspective. For me I say crimes against humans outweigh crimes against animals.

Vick'll get the book thrown at him for his crime but the man is not on the same level as the Anti-Christ as folks are trying to paint him.

He'll probably be banned for life from the NFL. Is that fair? Yes it probably is but I hope that some of these other guys who are getting into altercations where actual human beings are getting hurt will get banned too cause to be honest its looking to me like we're putting the value of a dog's life over that of a human being right now the way we are treating Vick. We're acting like Vick is a mass murderer, a Ted Bundy or Charles Manson type.

Ok so this is the biggest fall from grace for a sportsman since OJ was accused. Why couldn't Vick simply have stuck to the usual high stakes poker games, wilding out at the strip club or maybe chose a gentler sport like horse racing instead of messing with dogs. No one would have given a damn then.

Damn you Mike Vick and your amazingly strong arm and adept scrambling and rushing skills. Unfortunately none of that stuff can help you out of this mess you created for yourself. You've got no one else to blame. Shame on you!

p.s: I'm probably going to get beat up for this post by some kid soliticing on the behalf of PETA, Greenpeace or the Humane society on the streets of downtown Toronto but I'm only human so the outrage will be minimum.

Dean

Spare a thought and a prayer for those in the path of Hurricane Dean this weekend. Although Barbados was spared looks like it already did much damage to St Lucia and Dominica, looks to hit the Dominican Republic and Haiti Saturday and is headed directly towards Jamaica on Sunday. It could also hit the Caymans this weekend. Its a category 4 Hurricane now. Kind of reminiscent of Ivan a few years back and we remember how much damage he left in his wake.

All you bloggers in those areas stay safe.

The world gone mad

What kind of world are we living in?

Story 1 - Guard uses taser on father holding newborn baby. And the guard was an off-duty cop! I mean come on now who seriously tasers a guy holding a baby. You can see the video here . What the hell! How irresponsible, how downright asinine is that?

So a taser packs enough voltage to knock the crap out of a regular sized guy. What the hell do you think that same voltage will do to a baby? Seriously this is the type of thing where one would not be surprised if mobs of angry citizens grabbed a hold of the guard and beat the living crap out of him. You tasered someone holding a newborn baby? Come on man there had to be some other tension relieving tactics that you could have used. Was that level of violence necessary?

It doesn't matter that you were aiming at the dad and that the dad may have been acting abusive or whatever. The dad was holding the baby and by tasering the father you also tasered an innocent child who now shock of shocks (no pun intended) is acting up cause the dad dropped her when he was tasered and she has head trauma. Essentially you probably just left that child with serious health and maybe even mental problems because the dad was trying to leave the hospital with her against wishes. Couldn't you have called for backup or something? Tried to reason with him until reinforcements arrived? Shot him in the foot or something even but taser him and the child. Damn!

I'm guessing you're a ends justifies the means type of person right? Way to go rent-a-cop! Moron!

Story 2 - Woman crawls around Toronto in her wedding dress for 8 hours to celebrate divorce ending 8 year marriage.

All I can say is she head got to be bad! What is it Elephant Man says "Mad sick, head nuh good? Well that's got to her he's describing. Got to be, no two ways about it. Who crawls around the streets and for 8 hrs and in a wedding dress? What kind of madness is that.

Ok so I've never been divorced but I heard that on divorce people can do some mighty crazy stuff; get blind drunk to celebrate, get tattoos, dye their hair, cut off their hair a la Britney, sleep with random folk just because. etc etc. But crawling around in their wedding dress on all fours? I think not!

I mean I see the woman on tv with knee pads on, someone behind her holding her train and someone walking ahead of her with a broom sweeping the sidewalk like is curling them playing or something so.

Well ok maybe I viewing this thing wrong. Maybe it was a cry for help or maybe the spectacle was meant to make me develop some feelings of pity. Know what? It succeeded.

I feel pity but is not fa she! I really feel the pain of the ex-husband, that poor man who had to put up with her for 8 years cause clearly she has some mental issues cause who in their right mind wakes up and says to celebrate my divorce I'm going to crawl around on all fours in my wedding dress huh? Seriously I mean who does that? So to the ex husband just let me say bredren that woman head bad, if this is the sort of thing you had to put up with for 8 years you are definitely a better man than me so props to you. Now be happy you got out alive, go church, thank the maker and put something in the collection plate. I don't know how ya survive but praise God she gone!

Blogging is dead

Cartoon from Userfriedly.org.

So today is my third blog-versary. No need to toot any horns just props to my readers and my fellow bloggers. Without you I most likely wouldn't have done this for so long.

So whats with the title? Well I was kind of paying homage to Nas' Hip Hop is Dead but its also rather the way I've been feeling about the blogging world lately. And yea maybe it is me, been feeling more jdid than usual of late but I also realized, after finding a blog from last year, that I've probably been having issues with the blog world for a while. Might be the price of longevity.

Seems to me though that in general its like the energy has dissipated and the uniqueness of the blogging concept has worn off somewhat. When I got into the game it seemed like blogging was a cool concept and the 'hip' thing to do, there was a newness, a freshness, an eye-opening motif. Can we really say the same anymore or has blogging been replaced by Myspace and Facebook as the attention getters?

Cause lets face it, the average blogger is in this for some attention or to chronicle his life. Ok that's not entirely true. The average blogger can also be in it cause he/she has or thinks he/she has something to say. Why blog if no-one reads? See me, check what I have to say, what I'm saying is important, my life, my thoughts, my experiences are important and worth sharing. Isn't that one of the main point of blogging? Well maybe we don't think in such fundamental terms when we say I'm going to start a blog but think about it.

Ok, so when I say that the average blogger is seeking attention it sounds kind of like some shameless publicity seeking and that might be part of blogging or a major reason some folks blog but its not the end all or be all of blogging.

Oh and I do know that the world would disagree with me on blogging being dead since it seems like blogging is more on the rise lately what with all these influential, scene stealing, news breaking, insider political blogs around and even talk of bloggers forming their own union. Blogging has progressed, become more professional, blogging has evolved. Hell maybe those cats do need their own union.

But I'm dealing with the average everyday blogger, the guy that doesn't have what I term a niche blog. He's got some opinions, but they're not really organized, they are not all directed at one issue, they are all over the spectrum and his political thoughts may not neatly fit into the general stances of the major parties. He represent the everyman, the hoi pollio, the masses. He maybe gets like 3 regular comments and 10 readers but he still comes through on the regular. He's a B-lister, a C-lister, a D-lister even, that's the guy I'm talking with. The guy whose blog may evolve to become an A-lister, to be one of the big boys or it might not. And I think that somewhere along the line something's being lost in some of these guys' blogs. The thrill is gone.

Don't get me wrong this isn't me signing off, although I've been considering it, this is just well some thoughts on blogging.

Anyways back to the point. The successful blogs now are more niche oriented in my opinion. Seems to be the general way to go to survive. The random post business, the my life is interesting, this is what happened yesterday business naa mek it. Well it does in some cases but a lot of cats have fallen to the wayside. Good naa make that great people and writers too.

Also many of the good cats aren't posting as regular. Maybe they have come to the realization that quality outweighs quantity in this business. Yea you want to strike that balance cause if you're too sporadic the readership will dip but at the same time you don't want to be wack. Or maybe the hustle on posts fell off when you realized that you were pushing out product faster than the readership could consume it. Maybe that's it.

But back in the day the readership couldn't get new stuff fast enough right? So maybe we have become stale or maybe the shine's off the new ball. After a while folks just realized that our lives or opinions, our thoughts weren't as interesting as they initially thought they were or maybe we became too predictable, became one trick ponies.

Don't get me wrong though I still love blogs especially when I can go to a site and see some obscure yet interesting incident that I didn't know had happened or some really unique perspective on some issue, or get some insight into someone's life or someone breaks down some fundamental tenet of life like a Amadeo or a Luke Cage does. Stuff that I'm not going to see in the mainstream media. Stuff that makes a good read and makes one think, or laugh or be curious or even be outraged cause no-one else deemed it worth a damn to mention. I mean to me that's the essence of blogging; unique ideas, unique lives (and every life is unique), unique perspectives.

So yea I'm a bit worried cause I see the mundane creeping up into this blogging thing with the quickness. Maybe its always been there though, maybe I'm just not noticing it more.

Alot of the old cats leave, and 'even though we know somehow we all gotta go' I'm personally missing cats like Dr D and Obi, and they haven't really articulated why they left not that there was an obligation to. Sometimes its time commitments, sometimes they lose the ever ongoing struggle that I'm so aware of of "whats the damn point to this blogging ish anyway?' and sometimes its something that they just cant put their finger on, some spidey sense tingling that says like Buju or Biggie 'Things change'.

But that's the cycle of life right? Seasons change mad things stay the same and alternatively mad things take on a different form.

There is more to say, stuff about conforming, stuff about not pandering to the readers etc but I'll leave it there while these thoughts swirl in my mind.

And if there was a point to this post it would probably be yea I know this blogging thing is informal and no one's expecting Pulitzer prize winning joints but at the same time be aware of the mundane. Lets try and keep this stuff fresh. I ain't saying you got to have outer space action adventures cause a lot of blogging deals with everyday actions. I'm just saying make it interesting, give us a reason to read, to smile, to be outraged, to be informed.

Oh and hopefully no one takes this as me saying that your life's chronicle is boring but hopefully maybe I made someone stop and think. now just take this post and run with it.

And like I said at the start big up to all my fellow current bloggers and much love to the fallen soldiers. I hope y'all come back, I miss y'all. Y'all is fam!

One!

8 random

The homie Inciquay (get well soon) tagged me and although I'm not the biggest fan of the meme here goes. Besides no one said I couldn't make them all little stories while revealing as little personal info as possible.

(1) Last week one of those street marketing kids looked at me as I walked by and asked 'Hey whats your favorite Miles Davis album?' (Its Sketches of Spain by the way.) I guess that was his way of enticing me to stop and sign up to whatever charity he was peddling but it didn't work. Now while I'd like to think I look like a sophisticated Miles listening bee-booper I think the only reason he used Miles was the gray in my hair. What you don't think I look young enough to listen to Hip-Hop? Mind you I would probably have been more insulted if he had asked whats your favorite Young Jeezy album.

(2) Today in Kensington Market I saw a young lady leading a group of young ladies on a tour and giving them tips on what to look for when buying vegetables ie in terms of textures and touch, smell etc. Not sure who or where they were from or if that was all to the tour but I thought it was a pretty novel idea. More folks need to learn how to shop and cook


(3) I planted this thing. The seeds said sunflower but as you can clearly see that aint no sunflower. Its nice enough mind you and it grew like a trooper given our lack of rain but I'd like to know exactly what it is.

(4) I think I'm officially retiring from playing pan. I enjoy it but its time to move on. Ya know Paul Keens says some people born to play mas and some born to watch people play mas well substitute pan for mas in that statement and you have me. Actually that's not true I fall somewhere in between but it seems like a good phrase to explain the retirement. Actually check with me in three months I may do a Jay-Z. Oh yea like that turned out for the best.

(5) I see a fella with a t-shirt that said 'Knocked-Up'. Old cat, 60 something at least. Made me laugh though cause I was thinking but look at him showing off that he knock up somebody. But she know that he walking around proclaiming big and bold that he knock she up? Well well well. Some people have audacity nuh! Knocked up indeed! Well not really but that little joke floated around in my head for a bit and the shirt did bring a smile to my face.

(6) Shots!! through the offside for 4 (or so it seems). That fella looking like a test cricketer. NOT!

(7) Surprise of surprises I actually like quite a few hip hop albums that have been released this year. I absolutely love the Marco Polo joint. The KRS/Marley Marl stuff is tight and the Pharoah Monch, Common and Talib Kweli (if its anything like the leaked stuff) and all worthy of a listen or two or three or four. Oh and the Lil' Brother Mixtape "And Justus for all" is better than a tonne of albums out there (and I'm not just saying that cause my man Skillz is on there). Its been a long time since I can say I've really really liked more than three hip hop albums in one year. Maybe Hip hop isn't dead after all.

(8) When pointing me out to people the wife used to refer to me as 'the slim fella' or 'the skinny fella'. Hear she now recently describing me to someone who asked her who her husband was. 'Oh he is the fella cross deyso dat used to be slim.' I still trying to figure out what she really trying to say bout me.

I guess I need to tag someone. Never really big on the whole tagging business but lets tag the blogversary girl Kami.

A guide to Caribana tourists

OK as I was walking around downtown on Friday evening I realized that at Caribana time you can definitely tell the tourists from the locals. There's just something about all those Caribana visitors that make them stand out. So here's a how to guide on Caribana tourists. Some of the points overlap but you'll get the idea. Oh and sometimes locals do try to emulate the styles to varying effects. Any of you Torontonians who wish to add to the list please feel free.

(1) If you're a lady and you are immaculately matched ie: outfit matches shoes, matches bag matches both nail and hair color (especially hair color) then chances are you are not from Toronto.

(2) if you're wearing a tight white muscle shirt (wife beater) and walking around thinking that you look all cock-diesel an ish then chances are you are not from Toronto.

(3) if you have a t-shirt or white towel wrapped around your head while wearing said muscle shirt then chances are you are not from Toronto.

(4) if you try to grab the hand of every girl who passes by with whom you wish to speak then chances are you are not from Toronto. Toronto dudes know that ish will get you clocked quick up in here but non-Toronto dudes can get away with it once they have the right accent if you know what I'm saying.

(5) If you're overweight and the 6 or 7 other persons in your crew are also equally overweight then chances are you are not from Toronto.

(6) If your camcorder is on 24-7 taping everyone walking the street like you've never seen other black people before then chances are you are not from Toronto.

(7) If you and your entire crew are all wearing clothing that is more scandalous than the dental floss outfits that the Caribana masquerade band members are wearing then chances are you are not from Toronto (although truth be told you actually could be).

(8) If you're bigger than Big Pun and Biggie combined yet you are still rocking the muscle shirt alluded to in #2 then chances are you are not from Toronto.

(9) Guys if you are decked out in all white from head to toe (with or without the wifebeater) then chances are you not from Toronto.

(10) If you're in a group of three and someone in your group has purple hair then chances are you are not from Toronto.

(9) If you overdo the nationalistic clothing for example your Caribbean island flag is pretty standard but then if you also have the wrist band, the medallion, the hat, the t-shirt, the pants and the rag and you're walking around looking like Captain St Lucia or Captain Barbados then chances are you are not from Toronto.

(10) If the detail in your man's braids get more attention than your weave, chances are you are not from Toronto.

(11) If there are 5 or more guys jumping around like they are in a mosh pit even when the music isn't playing or bands aren't passing chances are those dudes are not from Toronto.

(12) If you are dressed in the skimpiest of clothing that would look nice on a petite to normal sized figure but you know you only shop at the plus sized stores then chances are you are not from Toronto.

(13) If you must keep stopping random people to ask them where the party's at chances are you are not from Toronto.

(14) If you keep asking random people to point you to Yonge street chances are you are not from Toronto.

(15) If you are a Bajan and you're at the Caribana parade chances are you are not from Toronto. (Sorry most T-dot bajans go home to Bim for Crop Over or complain about not being able to go home for Crop Over and how crappy Caribana is). I lie?

and fresh for the 07

(16) If you are a guy wearing green contacts chances are you are not from the T-dot.

Like I said its not an all encompassing list and there are exceptions to the rules. Still feel free to add your own observations.

Run

Run!) Scared to death, runnin' like I got bears on me
(Run!) My Timb's start feelin' like they Nike Air's on me
(Run!) It's hard for me to slow down, it's like I'm on the Throughway
My belt's in the crib on the floor by my two-way

Jadakiss' verse from Ghostface Killa's Run

Happy Emancipation Day to my Bajan readers.

Well its Caribana week. You know you're getting old when you're not planning on doing anything for Caribana. No plan to hit fetes, boat cruises, Yonge Street Friday night, Pan Alive or even the parades. My only plans are non-Caribana related; Ribfest baby yeahhh!

Still Caribana week brings back some memories. Like the year I fete from the Wednesday before Caribana all the way through to the Caribana Monday. I mean I hit up a fete every night and still only spent like 60 dollars total (would have been almost half that but I spent $25 the Sunday night to see Machel). Yea if you want to see Caribana on the cheap check the I.

But in thinking back on Caribanas past (and I cant be certain if I've already shared these memories with you already or not) one constant seems to permeate almost all of my experiences, the exception being the couple of years I hung around Afro. That constant seems to be running. And by running I don't mean running as in I'm late or I'm missing something or trying to see something I mean running as in your life could end at any moment, get the bleep outta dodge, fear induced, death is nipping at your heels running.

Yep from lineups for fetes, to Yonge street on Friday night to the Lakeshore on Caribana Saturday I've done a hell of a lot of running on this weekend and the funny thing is for the most part I never have a clue what I was running for or from. Call it mob mentality or whatever you wish but when one man starts running in a crowd everyone else starts running and I've seen too many Hollywood movies to be the one guy playing it cool who isn't running who ends up eaten by the monsters or blasted by the aliens. Nuh uh not de I! I running, no scratch that I'm outrunning the crowd. Anytime I see a wall of people running around or towards me I taking off like Ben Johnson Doctor just juk me wid a steroid needle. Dem ain't catching me at all at all.

My mentality is if whatever happening happening it got to happen to a lot of other people before it happen to me so I looking to outrun even the wind if possible.

One time I was with the wife and we both start to run but I outrun she and everybody else. So when the commotion die down she looking at me asking me why I ain't wait fa she? Wait fa who? Chupse she mekkin sport! She must be want me to do like Omar Epps in Higher Learning when he was running in slow motion holding Tyra hand all the while a sniper letting of shots at them. And we know how that story ends right? So sorry but I ain't waiting for you if running involved. Like I said my mentality is if whatever happening happening it got to happen to a lot of other people before it happen to me so if you happen to be one of the ones sacrificed well tough luck for you but I ain't slowing down for a fella is up to you to keep up.

But seriously in a lot of my Caribana experiences although people are there to have fun and lose themselves in the celebration there is always this slight atmosphere of, well I wouldn't go as far as saying fear, but some slight worry or anxiety that something is going to jump off or some idiot is going to do something to injure someone so anytime anybody starts running whole masses of humanity duz start running along with them without bothering to even look to see why the person running in first place cause for all we know could just be that the fella that's running eat a bad pieca roti and he trying to reach a port-a-potty. I lie?

By the way disclaimer time. I ain't trying to run no-one away from Caribana. Its fun, its vibrant, its exciting. I just giving you a unique perspective of some of my experiences but all in all I have loads of fun when I go to the events. Alright then!

Anyway back to running. Now I could tell you all about running up and down Lakeshore on Caribana Saturday during the parade or running just because someone in the crowd dropped a bottle on Yonge street on the Friday night and people mistook it for shots fired but my favorite running story is this one.

It was probably close to 10 years ago. I went to the parade, tried to link up with my friends but this was back in the old time days B.C, before cell. We made plans before we left home but people got delayed by whatever and we never had no cell phone to call and change times or meeting locations so somehow or another we didn't connect. So I end up moving solo.

I had planned on hitting a fete over by the old Armory on Queen St. I think it was Sound Quest or Starting From Scratch (back before he turn big radio celeb and was juss a tall bony fella dat used to spin tune) or somebody so playing. It was a good dj whoever it was so I wanted to get in that fete. And yes I chose parties by DJs still do actually.

I left the parade route around 8ish and decide I just going to take a slow walk over to the Armory. Is a fair clip but I had a couple hours to kill and I might stop in at Harborfront and see an act of two.

So reach the Armory around 930 -10ish. Sun still ain't gone down entirely, the temperature hot and nuff nuff people already line up to get in the fete even though the DJs aint reach back there yet cause they was on a truck on the road at the parade and they still feting.

Even though it was early and doors ain't open yet I still probably like number 70 in line and by the time another 1/2 hr had gone by was like another 200 people in back of me and the line snaking its way past the retaining wall down Queen Street all past Sherbourne. Anyway I relaxing just settling in waiting for the DJs to show up and the door to open and I imagining how many big tunes these fellas going play and checking all the girls in the line.

All of a sudden I hear somebody way ahead of me in line shout out "Oh my God" and another person "I ain't getting shot!". Next thing I know wall of humanity start screaming and people tek off like a starters pistol let off at the Olympics. Well you can imagine what I do? As I said before if whatever happening happening it got to happen to a lot of other people before it happen to me so see me now jump down/over the retaining wall and invoke the spirit of Ben, Carl, Jesse, Linford, Donavon, Mike Johnson, Oba and any other great sprinter you could think of and fly past nuff people, high leg lift, proper sprint technique, speeding down Queen street. I think I even fly past a couple a street cars and by the time I realize it I was all the way over by Parliament St.

That was when me and a few others realize everybody else had stopped running. If I hadn't stopped then odds were good that I might have ended up back in Scarborough at the rate I was going. So now we walk back to the lineup cause it appears nothing had really happen. Turns out was just that some girl in the lineup some ways ahead of me had thrown up and someone had said Oh my God which led to someone else making the silly gun comments which led to the mass exodus from the lineup.

What a waste! And to make things worse I lost my spot in line and was now like 342nd in line which means I wasn't getting in the fete till about 1 or 2 o'clock if I lucky at the earliest. Chupse!