Boy big people duz unfair little children. I remember as a child being always told things like "why you in such a rush to grow up for?" and "school days is the sweetest days ya know" or "the youth is wasted on the youth". Rubbish all rubbish, well maybe not that last one. It was all a concerted effort to brainwash you as a child into thinking it could get no better.
All rubbish!
Y a know why it is rubbish? Is rubbish cause when you are a child ya duz get unfair, taken advantage of. That thought came into my head today when the misses drape the chile in a bright orange pumpkin outfit to go off to daycare. Cuhdear! Poor chile ain't had no say in it cause he mudda think he look cute.
And then it all came flooding back to me. The hundreds of times that my parents unfaired me as a chile making me wear all sorts of so-called cute outfits which had me infinitely embarrassed and probably added to all the issues that I now have as an adult.
Two particular items of clothing stand out in my memory. The first is a pair of shoes. My brother over in the states sent me these shoes; brown suede with these translucent, almost see-through, honey brown plastic soles look like somebody stick a piece of amber onto the bottom of the shoe. What can I say it was the late 70s and maybe these things were in style somewhere or maybe he got them from 'pimps r us' or something but I really really disliked these shoes. My mom on the other hand thought they were just 'darling' and wanted me to wear them at every turn.
Now back then you know as a growing child ya didn't have no big set a shoes so for school I had a main set of typical black leather shoes that I would wear to the bone until it was time to get a new pair. If something happened to those shoes they would get sent to the shoemaker who would hammer a few nails in the heel or repair the sole. If you couldn't get the shoes fixed then the back up shoes were the same brown suede pair I mention originally cause school in Barbados was like a posh club up here in Toronto; no runners. Dare you wear that pair of Chucks or Kangaroos (raise your hand if you old enough to remember Kangaroos) to school. They would send you back home.
So sadly when my black leather shoes were in need of repair or replacement I would be forced to wear these pimp of the year shoes to school. Now to be honest looking back the shoes weren't that bad. In fact now I'm pretty sure they weren't that noticeable but back then when I was forced to wear them it felt as if someone was pointing a spotlight at my feet and everyone was looking and secretly snickering behind my back. These shoes had me so self conscious. Days when I wore them were the slowest days to ever pass by, it was as if time was on lunch break holding a two hour lime in front a Cave Shepperd and just wasn't feeling to work those days.
It would even affect my actions. I would go out of my way to try and disappear on those days. It was one of those get me out of here, Scottie one to beam up type day. I hated these shoes.
Man, the day that those things no longer fit my feet was one of the happiest days of my life.
Anyway I wont even mention the other piece of clothing that I hated. All I will say is this whole childhood is the best time of life thing should come with some fine-print about how parents duz tek advantage of ya and ya duz be living under a tyrannical regime.
Still what can ya do? I am a parent now so I guess I might as well get mine back and get in on the unfairing my children part. Hmmm I wonder where I can find a pair of pimp of the year shoes for this yout.
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Friday, October 26, 2007
NBA preview
Yes its back, finally! The NBA regular season starts on Tuesday night. Its been a long time well at least in my opinion
Ok as I usually do every year I'll make some not so great predictions based on my feel for the game at the moment. They all make sense to me at this point in time but usually 4 months down the line in hindsight a few are slighty questionable ie dead wrong! But me neva claim fi name Miss Cleo or fi ave crystal ball so without further ado here are my predictions:
- The East will be a better league than the West in this coming season. Yes the elite teams in the West; Dallas, San Antonio, Phoenix are miles ahead of the Eastern teams but after this summer's comings and goings the West now has more scrub teams than the East. Shall I name the West's scrub teams? LA Clippers (Without Brand they are weak), Minnesota, Seattle, Portland, Sacramento, and if Kobe gets traded add the Lakers to that list.
- Don't count out New Jersey as Sports Illustrated seemingly has by predicting they wont even make the playoffs. Ridiculous. New Jersey is Boston without Garnett but with better supporting players and a team that has experience in playing together.
-Houston's biggest opponent is themselves. If Mcgrady and Yao remain injury free this team joins the West Elite. Houston is a force this year. Actually addendum to this I can see Dallas dropping out of the West Elite.
-GAP (Garnett, Allen, Pierce) is overrated and expensive. Hmmm sort of like the other Gap, who knew.
-Isiah doesn't last the season as coach cause again his team has too many players who need the ball to be effective. A glut of star players or used to be star players does not a champion make. Go ask the 2000 Trailblazers.
-The Raptors will make playoffs but wont win their division. Well actually I hope they do but gut feeling says they wont win the division. The Raptors win or lose on the strength of their point guard play this season.
-Chris Bosh will be spending at least two weeks on the injury list. Garbajosa's leg doesnt hold up to December.
-Miami will not make the playoffs. Shaq is no longer Diesel more like Diesel fumes and the supporting cast is terrible. Without an effective Shaq, Wade just becomes a poor man's Kobe.
- Atlanta will still suck! Memo to GM: Trade some of the young talent for a few veterans.
-Charlotte will still suck just less than they did last year.
- Dont expect consistency from rookie Kevin Durant.
- Jermaine O'Neal is the big trade in February.
-Kobe will not last the season in LA. Actually Kobe might not even begin the season in LA. Phil just dissed him. He's alienated his teammates more than usual with his off-season mouthings. I think he's gone. Possible destination Chi-Town but only if they can get away without giving away Deng for him. I'd pitch a Gordon, Thomas, other scrubs deal if I was the Chicago GM.
-Orlando and Milwaukee are the dark horses in the East. Watch them carefully.
- Cleveland struggles this year. They might not even make the playoffs if they cant re-sign the flopper and that other guy. Last playoff spot in the East comes down to Washington and Cleveland if my above mentioned dark horses get going.
-San Antonio are odds on favorites to repeat but they seem to have a tendency to let down the year after a championship. As much as I would like to see them repeat I don't see it happening. I'm predicting a Chicago vs Phoenix finals with Phoenix winning it all so that they can finally disband the damn Suns squad.
All predictions can be upset by injury to critical players but thats my story and I'm sticking to it.
The trash heap has spoken Nyeah!
Ok as I usually do every year I'll make some not so great predictions based on my feel for the game at the moment. They all make sense to me at this point in time but usually 4 months down the line in hindsight a few are slighty questionable ie dead wrong! But me neva claim fi name Miss Cleo or fi ave crystal ball so without further ado here are my predictions:
- The East will be a better league than the West in this coming season. Yes the elite teams in the West; Dallas, San Antonio, Phoenix are miles ahead of the Eastern teams but after this summer's comings and goings the West now has more scrub teams than the East. Shall I name the West's scrub teams? LA Clippers (Without Brand they are weak), Minnesota, Seattle, Portland, Sacramento, and if Kobe gets traded add the Lakers to that list.
- Don't count out New Jersey as Sports Illustrated seemingly has by predicting they wont even make the playoffs. Ridiculous. New Jersey is Boston without Garnett but with better supporting players and a team that has experience in playing together.
-Houston's biggest opponent is themselves. If Mcgrady and Yao remain injury free this team joins the West Elite. Houston is a force this year. Actually addendum to this I can see Dallas dropping out of the West Elite.
-GAP (Garnett, Allen, Pierce) is overrated and expensive. Hmmm sort of like the other Gap, who knew.
-Isiah doesn't last the season as coach cause again his team has too many players who need the ball to be effective. A glut of star players or used to be star players does not a champion make. Go ask the 2000 Trailblazers.
-The Raptors will make playoffs but wont win their division. Well actually I hope they do but gut feeling says they wont win the division. The Raptors win or lose on the strength of their point guard play this season.
-Chris Bosh will be spending at least two weeks on the injury list. Garbajosa's leg doesnt hold up to December.-Miami will not make the playoffs. Shaq is no longer Diesel more like Diesel fumes and the supporting cast is terrible. Without an effective Shaq, Wade just becomes a poor man's Kobe.
- Atlanta will still suck! Memo to GM: Trade some of the young talent for a few veterans.
-Charlotte will still suck just less than they did last year.
- Dont expect consistency from rookie Kevin Durant.
- Jermaine O'Neal is the big trade in February.
-Kobe will not last the season in LA. Actually Kobe might not even begin the season in LA. Phil just dissed him. He's alienated his teammates more than usual with his off-season mouthings. I think he's gone. Possible destination Chi-Town but only if they can get away without giving away Deng for him. I'd pitch a Gordon, Thomas, other scrubs deal if I was the Chicago GM.
-Orlando and Milwaukee are the dark horses in the East. Watch them carefully.
- Cleveland struggles this year. They might not even make the playoffs if they cant re-sign the flopper and that other guy. Last playoff spot in the East comes down to Washington and Cleveland if my above mentioned dark horses get going.
-San Antonio are odds on favorites to repeat but they seem to have a tendency to let down the year after a championship. As much as I would like to see them repeat I don't see it happening. I'm predicting a Chicago vs Phoenix finals with Phoenix winning it all so that they can finally disband the damn Suns squad.
All predictions can be upset by injury to critical players but thats my story and I'm sticking to it.
The trash heap has spoken Nyeah!
I cram to understand
The weather made a sudden change this past Tuesday. It wasn't unexpected though cause we've been fortunate to have had summer like temperatures all the way down to mid-October. Global Warming I guess. Thanksgiving Day (three Monday's ago) it was actually above 30 degrees Celcius, one of the warmest if not the warmest temperatures ever associated with that time of year.
So we been basking in sunshine and nice weather until last Tuesday when all a sudden the rain start pouring and the temperature drop by a good 15-20 degrees.
I always say this place don't have no proper temperature transition at all. One day ya in a t-shirt the next day you in a sweater and long johns bundle up shivering. That is why people duz get sick and by people I including myself as I hayso struggling with a cold again. Cuhdear!
Anyway one of the things that duz intrigue me about this time of year is how people dress. It cold but not yet winter and sometimes there is a tendency for it to be windy. Some people though seem not to want to give up on summer so even though it raining they walking around in their open toe shoes or short skirts. I cant understand that at all. And even worse is when you see someone in a short skirt or short pants and then they got on a thick thick jacket and sweater. So what they trying to tell we is their legs dont get cold or what? I cant understand that one.
Yesterday I see a fella dressed appropriately; long pants, shirt, leather jacket. Only thing was my man although wearing the jacket had the shirt unbutton down to his navel (like some of them old fellas back home in the Caribbean) showing off his hard bony chest. And when I say hard and bony I mean de man chest did look juss like a jucking board den. And it was cold and windy where I saw him too. Just cant understand the logic.
Maybe he was trying to impress somebody.
So we been basking in sunshine and nice weather until last Tuesday when all a sudden the rain start pouring and the temperature drop by a good 15-20 degrees.
I always say this place don't have no proper temperature transition at all. One day ya in a t-shirt the next day you in a sweater and long johns bundle up shivering. That is why people duz get sick and by people I including myself as I hayso struggling with a cold again. Cuhdear!
Anyway one of the things that duz intrigue me about this time of year is how people dress. It cold but not yet winter and sometimes there is a tendency for it to be windy. Some people though seem not to want to give up on summer so even though it raining they walking around in their open toe shoes or short skirts. I cant understand that at all. And even worse is when you see someone in a short skirt or short pants and then they got on a thick thick jacket and sweater. So what they trying to tell we is their legs dont get cold or what? I cant understand that one.
Yesterday I see a fella dressed appropriately; long pants, shirt, leather jacket. Only thing was my man although wearing the jacket had the shirt unbutton down to his navel (like some of them old fellas back home in the Caribbean) showing off his hard bony chest. And when I say hard and bony I mean de man chest did look juss like a jucking board den. And it was cold and windy where I saw him too. Just cant understand the logic.
Maybe he was trying to impress somebody.
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
Cholesterol Minded?
(sorry stole that title from some cat on okayplayer)
What I want you to do is count to ten.
Nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two
On one, you will be asleep - one
I cant wake up -KRS-One
I really hope I'm dreaming.
Hear that sound? Its the sound of hip hop's death knell. Hip Hop is indeed dead!
When I checked my email this morning and saw that KRS-one was going to be on Celebrity Fit Club I was a bit taken aback. So much so that I started to write a rather dismissive missive (yes that rhymes) called 'Fat's gonna getcha' in response to the news but then I stopped. Actually you can do some really cool parody stuff in this regards with some of his song titles; Cholesterol Minded, Fat's gonna getcha, You must Burn (those calories), the Fridge is over.
But I digress.
Krs-one, the Teacha, the Blastmaster (and for any of you aspiring Krs-one dissers remember blastmaster does sort of rhyme with fat bastard just in case you ever need a cheap shot in a freestyle battle) a hip hop icon is going on celebrity fight club? Author, Guest lecturer at Universities around the world, Founder of H.E.A.L and the Stop the Violence Movement, the Temple of hip hop organization. The cat has done it all.
You must learn, My philosophy, Boom Bap, Hip Hop vs Rap, Outta Here, Criminal Minded, Stop the Violence, Self Destruction, the Emcee, Love's gonna getcha, Jack of Spades, Still #1, South Bronx, The bridge is over? One of the greatest freestylers ever, a legend in concert! And as an aside let me say that one of the coolest movie scenes I've ever seen is that one in Clockers when the lil kid with the gat in the paper bag is rolling up on his bicycle while Outta here is blasting in the background. Wicked!
Ok I'm resisting the urge here to just blast the Blastmaster about this whole celebrity fitness thing and its mainly cause I used to really respect this guy. It wasn't just the music, it was the image. Krs has always been unorthodox, he walks to his own beat, he can be dismissive, he can be arrogant, he can make lofty claims and contradict himself, but aside from his music, he seemed to be a man of principal. I respect that cause in today's society its hard to find people who have principal!
Wont say I've always agreed with everything he's ever said. Actually he lost me way back in the days with the black drug dealer song (wow was that like 93 or something) and since then I've always questioned much of what he says but still I had respect for the cat.
He also lost me with some of his recent comments regarding 50's new album being better than Kanye's, his adding Lil Wayne and Chingy to his Stop the Violence Movement and his bigging up some of these new cats who are clearly crap but like I was arguing with my boy yesterday maybe there is method to his madness.
Now I'm clearly a jdid old school loving hip hop fan. I honestly aint feeling 99% of what these cats claim is hip hop these days. I can't seriously listen to the ay bay bays and superman's and that other stuff without nostalgia for the old days and fear that the future and indeed the present are both dimmer than a 20 watt light bulb.
However that's me I'm set in my ways, that's how it is. However my argument over Kris' recent actions was that maybe just maybe he realizes that each new generation puts a different spin on its music and that maybe the way to impart knowledge to these young cats is to reach out to them instead of always criticizing. Maybe that was his plan. Not sure its going to work with these knuckleheads but I was trying to not be harsh on my man and probably being somewhat of a Krs apologist especially since I now realize he's doing tracks with G-Unit. Maybe that explains the 50 Cent comments (what are the odds that Krs joins G-Unit?)
Anyway I also realized my issue is not that Krs is overweight although for a man who claims to be a vegan and once rapped strongly against meat (The cow doesn't grow fast enough for man, So through his greed he makes a faster plan, He has drugs to make the cow grow quicker, Through the stress the cow gets sicker, Twenty-one different drugs are pumped,Into the cow in one big lump, So just before it dies, it cries, In the slaughterhouse full of germs and flies) way way before it was cool to be vegetarian you would have thought that he would have taken better care of himself. Naa cant diss the bredren cause he packed on the pounds. Happens to the best of us. He's overweight, he recognises he has a problem he's dealing with it. Kris has had a hard year too and maybe Marley's heart attack was a wake up call so props for trying to do something about the fitness.
So no that aint my issue. Plus to be honest I really don't think he's that big. Bigger than before but still. Naa my issue is not that he's tackling his problem its how he's tackling it; on a reality show joint on Celebrity Fit Club.
Way I see it if you've got a problem handle you business but yo you're telling me that you cant hire a personal trainer or dietitian and do this on the low? There are tonnes of ways to tackle this problem and it doesn't have to be public. And if you wanted it to be public and make a statement maybe about blacks and obesity still no reason to go on a reality show with b and c listers. Helll this show is just two steps away from Flavor of Love man.
The only reason to do this in a reality show format is cheap tawdry publicity and that Kris is definitely not a good on you. So shame on you sir. Bad bad move.
Oh well maybe this is strange twisted payback for throwing Prince Bee off the stage back in the day.
Of course we gotta pay rent, so money connects, but uhh
I'd rather be broke and have a whole lot of respect
It's the principal of it,......
For those who pose lyrical but really ain't true I feel
"Their time's limited, hard rocks too"
Time's Up - O.C
What I want you to do is count to ten.
Nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two
On one, you will be asleep - one
I cant wake up -KRS-One
I really hope I'm dreaming.
Hear that sound? Its the sound of hip hop's death knell. Hip Hop is indeed dead!
When I checked my email this morning and saw that KRS-one was going to be on Celebrity Fit Club I was a bit taken aback. So much so that I started to write a rather dismissive missive (yes that rhymes) called 'Fat's gonna getcha' in response to the news but then I stopped. Actually you can do some really cool parody stuff in this regards with some of his song titles; Cholesterol Minded, Fat's gonna getcha, You must Burn (those calories), the Fridge is over.
But I digress.
Krs-one, the Teacha, the Blastmaster (and for any of you aspiring Krs-one dissers remember blastmaster does sort of rhyme with fat bastard just in case you ever need a cheap shot in a freestyle battle) a hip hop icon is going on celebrity fight club? Author, Guest lecturer at Universities around the world, Founder of H.E.A.L and the Stop the Violence Movement, the Temple of hip hop organization. The cat has done it all.
You must learn, My philosophy, Boom Bap, Hip Hop vs Rap, Outta Here, Criminal Minded, Stop the Violence, Self Destruction, the Emcee, Love's gonna getcha, Jack of Spades, Still #1, South Bronx, The bridge is over? One of the greatest freestylers ever, a legend in concert! And as an aside let me say that one of the coolest movie scenes I've ever seen is that one in Clockers when the lil kid with the gat in the paper bag is rolling up on his bicycle while Outta here is blasting in the background. Wicked!
Ok I'm resisting the urge here to just blast the Blastmaster about this whole celebrity fitness thing and its mainly cause I used to really respect this guy. It wasn't just the music, it was the image. Krs has always been unorthodox, he walks to his own beat, he can be dismissive, he can be arrogant, he can make lofty claims and contradict himself, but aside from his music, he seemed to be a man of principal. I respect that cause in today's society its hard to find people who have principal!
Wont say I've always agreed with everything he's ever said. Actually he lost me way back in the days with the black drug dealer song (wow was that like 93 or something) and since then I've always questioned much of what he says but still I had respect for the cat.
He also lost me with some of his recent comments regarding 50's new album being better than Kanye's, his adding Lil Wayne and Chingy to his Stop the Violence Movement and his bigging up some of these new cats who are clearly crap but like I was arguing with my boy yesterday maybe there is method to his madness.Now I'm clearly a jdid old school loving hip hop fan. I honestly aint feeling 99% of what these cats claim is hip hop these days. I can't seriously listen to the ay bay bays and superman's and that other stuff without nostalgia for the old days and fear that the future and indeed the present are both dimmer than a 20 watt light bulb.
However that's me I'm set in my ways, that's how it is. However my argument over Kris' recent actions was that maybe just maybe he realizes that each new generation puts a different spin on its music and that maybe the way to impart knowledge to these young cats is to reach out to them instead of always criticizing. Maybe that was his plan. Not sure its going to work with these knuckleheads but I was trying to not be harsh on my man and probably being somewhat of a Krs apologist especially since I now realize he's doing tracks with G-Unit. Maybe that explains the 50 Cent comments (what are the odds that Krs joins G-Unit?)
Anyway I also realized my issue is not that Krs is overweight although for a man who claims to be a vegan and once rapped strongly against meat (The cow doesn't grow fast enough for man, So through his greed he makes a faster plan, He has drugs to make the cow grow quicker, Through the stress the cow gets sicker, Twenty-one different drugs are pumped,Into the cow in one big lump, So just before it dies, it cries, In the slaughterhouse full of germs and flies) way way before it was cool to be vegetarian you would have thought that he would have taken better care of himself. Naa cant diss the bredren cause he packed on the pounds. Happens to the best of us. He's overweight, he recognises he has a problem he's dealing with it. Kris has had a hard year too and maybe Marley's heart attack was a wake up call so props for trying to do something about the fitness.
So no that aint my issue. Plus to be honest I really don't think he's that big. Bigger than before but still. Naa my issue is not that he's tackling his problem its how he's tackling it; on a reality show joint on Celebrity Fit Club.
Way I see it if you've got a problem handle you business but yo you're telling me that you cant hire a personal trainer or dietitian and do this on the low? There are tonnes of ways to tackle this problem and it doesn't have to be public. And if you wanted it to be public and make a statement maybe about blacks and obesity still no reason to go on a reality show with b and c listers. Helll this show is just two steps away from Flavor of Love man.
The only reason to do this in a reality show format is cheap tawdry publicity and that Kris is definitely not a good on you. So shame on you sir. Bad bad move.
Oh well maybe this is strange twisted payback for throwing Prince Bee off the stage back in the day.
Of course we gotta pay rent, so money connects, but uhh
I'd rather be broke and have a whole lot of respect
It's the principal of it,......
For those who pose lyrical but really ain't true I feel
"Their time's limited, hard rocks too"
Time's Up - O.C
Monday, October 22, 2007
rules
Ever notice how obeying rules isn't an issue to some folk until they are on the receiving end?
For example Saturday morning I'm a pedestrian at an intersection with a bunch of other pedestrians. Advance green goes and the left turners go. The walk signal says Don't Walk but yet these two lady pedestrians are trying to rush across the street trying to slip between breaks in traffic causing what I think of as a nuisance to drivers. Fine.
They need to cross the other way as well. Turning traffic goes first then signal says walk. They step out, one last car trying to beat the signal but failing miserably almost hits one of the ladies. She start cuss and gesture about how the man not following traffic laws and I just find this hilarious cause just two minutes before it was her darting into traffic who was probably causing drivers to cuss. But it a juss go to show that people don't think bout nuttin but themselves.
For example Saturday morning I'm a pedestrian at an intersection with a bunch of other pedestrians. Advance green goes and the left turners go. The walk signal says Don't Walk but yet these two lady pedestrians are trying to rush across the street trying to slip between breaks in traffic causing what I think of as a nuisance to drivers. Fine.
They need to cross the other way as well. Turning traffic goes first then signal says walk. They step out, one last car trying to beat the signal but failing miserably almost hits one of the ladies. She start cuss and gesture about how the man not following traffic laws and I just find this hilarious cause just two minutes before it was her darting into traffic who was probably causing drivers to cuss. But it a juss go to show that people don't think bout nuttin but themselves.
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
less intelligent
I was all set to post about this whole Glamour magazine issue with the assistant editor (now former) who dissed Afros and dreadlocks. In short though nothing here is surprising. Folks always have issues with black hair. Accept it. I do wonder how they were able to hide this from the Glamour editor for two months though? They are doing their best P.R now to distance themselves from the rogue editor who made the comments as well they should but damage has been done.
That said I thought that this article was a better use of my blogging time. Check it here.
One of the world's most eminent scientists was embroiled in an extraordinary row last night after he claimed that black people were less intelligent than white people and the idea that "equal powers of reason" were shared across racial groups was a delusion.
Sigh! Is it just me or has this year seemed like the year that racial tension and racism have jumped back into the spotlight? Hanging nooses, torture, Jena, lots of questionable comments. Not that things were great but I guess it just seems like blacks have been attacked left right and centre of late. The 60's must be wearing off.
I seriously think that the civil rights movements gains are being eroded and alot of it is because black folk have gotten too complacent and lackadaisical. We've always had to work harder to prove ourselves don't forget that. Now the closet racists are jumping out the woodwork because we're getting sloppy and we haven't built on what we gained. We take alot of stuff for granted. Go talk to your parents or grandparents if you don't believe me. Ask them about some of the shit they dealt with back in the days.
Actually maybe you wont have to ask cause the way things are going we'll be experiencing that stuff again sooner than we think.
That said I thought that this article was a better use of my blogging time. Check it here.
One of the world's most eminent scientists was embroiled in an extraordinary row last night after he claimed that black people were less intelligent than white people and the idea that "equal powers of reason" were shared across racial groups was a delusion.
Sigh! Is it just me or has this year seemed like the year that racial tension and racism have jumped back into the spotlight? Hanging nooses, torture, Jena, lots of questionable comments. Not that things were great but I guess it just seems like blacks have been attacked left right and centre of late. The 60's must be wearing off.
I seriously think that the civil rights movements gains are being eroded and alot of it is because black folk have gotten too complacent and lackadaisical. We've always had to work harder to prove ourselves don't forget that. Now the closet racists are jumping out the woodwork because we're getting sloppy and we haven't built on what we gained. We take alot of stuff for granted. Go talk to your parents or grandparents if you don't believe me. Ask them about some of the shit they dealt with back in the days.
Actually maybe you wont have to ask cause the way things are going we'll be experiencing that stuff again sooner than we think.
Sunday, October 14, 2007
Fiascogate
I got now I don't care who got next
I've have the double whammy of not having enough time to write and also having a bit of writing block. Just having one of those 'is this blog worthy' type of episodes where I second guess everything that pops into my head. But I figure the only way to blog is to jump back on the horse and try to find something to talk about.
I considered speaking on Fiascogate but I only found out about that yesterday. I do have strong opinions on Fiascogate though so maybe I'll type a few sentences on it. Without going into the whole story (if you really are interested check the link) I believe that Lupe Fiasco (hence Fiascogate) is wrong here. Yea I may be one of those elitist hip hop fans who will look down on him cause he doesn't know TCQ's Midnight Mauraders but at the same time I sort of understand how a kid his age shouldn't be expected to recite that ode word for word. The issue to me though is his response. He almost sounds like he thinks its cool not to know Midnight Mauraders. Its never cool to not know one's history at the very least he should know that material in the context of what he does and what that album meant back in the day.
Even if he didn't though all he had to do was plead ignorance and sound contrite and we might have let him slide assuming he promised to study up for next time. Instead dude is taking the offensive arrogant position. Not cool. He cant be given a free pass cause as someone said if it was a solja boy or webbie or young joc who said what he said we would all be condemning them as stupid and mindless and giving this as an example of why hip hop is where it is right now.
That said I still loved Food & Liquor and look forward to The Cool.
Anyway hopefully tomorrow I'll have something worth reading to write about.
I've have the double whammy of not having enough time to write and also having a bit of writing block. Just having one of those 'is this blog worthy' type of episodes where I second guess everything that pops into my head. But I figure the only way to blog is to jump back on the horse and try to find something to talk about.
I considered speaking on Fiascogate but I only found out about that yesterday. I do have strong opinions on Fiascogate though so maybe I'll type a few sentences on it. Without going into the whole story (if you really are interested check the link) I believe that Lupe Fiasco (hence Fiascogate) is wrong here. Yea I may be one of those elitist hip hop fans who will look down on him cause he doesn't know TCQ's Midnight Mauraders but at the same time I sort of understand how a kid his age shouldn't be expected to recite that ode word for word. The issue to me though is his response. He almost sounds like he thinks its cool not to know Midnight Mauraders. Its never cool to not know one's history at the very least he should know that material in the context of what he does and what that album meant back in the day.
Even if he didn't though all he had to do was plead ignorance and sound contrite and we might have let him slide assuming he promised to study up for next time. Instead dude is taking the offensive arrogant position. Not cool. He cant be given a free pass cause as someone said if it was a solja boy or webbie or young joc who said what he said we would all be condemning them as stupid and mindless and giving this as an example of why hip hop is where it is right now.
That said I still loved Food & Liquor and look forward to The Cool.
Anyway hopefully tomorrow I'll have something worth reading to write about.
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
Shady Business
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels and I ain't talking about Jeru.
So today is provincial election day. As I'm leaving home this morning I discover two of a certain political candidates' signs on my front lawn. OK it was the Conservatives. What the hell? They weren't there last night and I certainly didn't give them permission to put them there. Isn't their some law against that crap?
I mean at least the Liberals had the decency to call me up a week ago and ask for permission to put up signs on my lawn. I politely declined their requests but these other dudes how dare they! Which of you jackasses thought why don't we just randomly put our signs on someone's lawn without asking for their permission? They did it all up and down my street too. Unsolicited signs? Really. Did they think that would influence the owners of these properties to vote for them? If anything this probably pissed off everyone in the neighborhood and lost some potential votes cause the party's not even in power yet and already they're ignoring the wishes of the common man and trampling on his rights.
Ah he's just a common citizen, joe public, lets just put signs all over his lawn without his permission, why should we care what he thinks. Yea that bodes well for my voting you into power! Aren't you the same dudes who are always pushing your tough on crime stance with the public? Yet here you are committing a crime by putting these signs on my property without my permission.
Like I said in the previous election post, y'all need new strategists. No wonder you lost the election.
So today is provincial election day. As I'm leaving home this morning I discover two of a certain political candidates' signs on my front lawn. OK it was the Conservatives. What the hell? They weren't there last night and I certainly didn't give them permission to put them there. Isn't their some law against that crap?
I mean at least the Liberals had the decency to call me up a week ago and ask for permission to put up signs on my lawn. I politely declined their requests but these other dudes how dare they! Which of you jackasses thought why don't we just randomly put our signs on someone's lawn without asking for their permission? They did it all up and down my street too. Unsolicited signs? Really. Did they think that would influence the owners of these properties to vote for them? If anything this probably pissed off everyone in the neighborhood and lost some potential votes cause the party's not even in power yet and already they're ignoring the wishes of the common man and trampling on his rights.
Ah he's just a common citizen, joe public, lets just put signs all over his lawn without his permission, why should we care what he thinks. Yea that bodes well for my voting you into power! Aren't you the same dudes who are always pushing your tough on crime stance with the public? Yet here you are committing a crime by putting these signs on my property without my permission.
Like I said in the previous election post, y'all need new strategists. No wonder you lost the election.
Thursday, October 04, 2007
News Brief
- Well well well Marion Jones admit that she took steroids. Oh me oh my! Poor Oba. So will the US treat Marion like Canada dealt with Ben Johnson. Will her Beliezian heritage suddenly take stage front and center?
- Anyone watching any of the new tv series this season? I've surprisingly found myself watching a tonne of them; K-Ville, Life, Journeyman, Bionic Woman, Back to You, Chuck. What can I say? I don't think K-Ville and Journeyman will last. Life is my favorite but I think that wont last either. Bionic Woman has potential plus its good to see that Isiah Washington was able to get a job after the whole Grey's Anatomy fiasco and Chuck is kind of funny even if the premise is ridiculous. All in all I don't see a runaway hit like a Prison Break, Lost, 24 or Heroes amongst this bunch but they all have potential. Oh and its good to have a sitcom like Back at You to watch again. One can only watch so much 1 hr dramas in my opinion.
-I discovered the Secret Blog of Patrick Manning the other day and its hilarious. Somebody need to do one for Owen. It wont be me though. For all my non-Caribbean friends Patrick Manning is the current Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago and if that name Trinidad doesnt ring a bell that would be the place Jay-Z filmed his Big Pimping video.
-I'm also occasionally writing over here, just for fun and because.
-What can I say Facebook has grown on me. To be honest the whole linking to 3 billion 'friends ' doesn't really move me and I could care less who my 'friends' are 'friends' with but it does have some stuff I can work with. I kind of like the groups aspect of the whole operation and the discussion boards. I can see some potential in that. Been checking out some posts on my high schools alumni group and bringing back some old hilarious memories that I had completely forgotten. I still feel one should be real careful with ones personal stuff on that site though and I still wonder is how come every other girl on there have up some sexy photo as their picture.
- Yes the Isiah story shouldn't really be news and yes he lost but tell me am I the only one here who sees parallels with the Clarance Thomas case back in the 90s and not just that their last names are both Thomas.
-Every felt like your thoughts were bugged? I came up with some great reasons why MMP (mixed member proportional) representation which will be a referendum item on next week's election ballot was a bad idea. Wouldn't you know it last Sunday at Word on the Street someone gives me a flier opposing MMP and my exact ideas are all on there. Sons of ! I think the dentist put some sort of bug in my head or something.
- Anyone watching any of the new tv series this season? I've surprisingly found myself watching a tonne of them; K-Ville, Life, Journeyman, Bionic Woman, Back to You, Chuck. What can I say? I don't think K-Ville and Journeyman will last. Life is my favorite but I think that wont last either. Bionic Woman has potential plus its good to see that Isiah Washington was able to get a job after the whole Grey's Anatomy fiasco and Chuck is kind of funny even if the premise is ridiculous. All in all I don't see a runaway hit like a Prison Break, Lost, 24 or Heroes amongst this bunch but they all have potential. Oh and its good to have a sitcom like Back at You to watch again. One can only watch so much 1 hr dramas in my opinion.
-I discovered the Secret Blog of Patrick Manning the other day and its hilarious. Somebody need to do one for Owen. It wont be me though. For all my non-Caribbean friends Patrick Manning is the current Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago and if that name Trinidad doesnt ring a bell that would be the place Jay-Z filmed his Big Pimping video.
-I'm also occasionally writing over here, just for fun and because.
-What can I say Facebook has grown on me. To be honest the whole linking to 3 billion 'friends ' doesn't really move me and I could care less who my 'friends' are 'friends' with but it does have some stuff I can work with. I kind of like the groups aspect of the whole operation and the discussion boards. I can see some potential in that. Been checking out some posts on my high schools alumni group and bringing back some old hilarious memories that I had completely forgotten. I still feel one should be real careful with ones personal stuff on that site though and I still wonder is how come every other girl on there have up some sexy photo as their picture.
- Yes the Isiah story shouldn't really be news and yes he lost but tell me am I the only one here who sees parallels with the Clarance Thomas case back in the 90s and not just that their last names are both Thomas.
-Every felt like your thoughts were bugged? I came up with some great reasons why MMP (mixed member proportional) representation which will be a referendum item on next week's election ballot was a bad idea. Wouldn't you know it last Sunday at Word on the Street someone gives me a flier opposing MMP and my exact ideas are all on there. Sons of ! I think the dentist put some sort of bug in my head or something.
Tuesday, October 02, 2007
Silly Season
Two party, but ah de same sad song dem a play
Poor people money lean back and rockaway
Dem raise everyting from oil to Craven A
So how dem no raise up everybody pay
Emergency - Vybz Kartel
Yes silly season is amongst us here in Toronto with next Wednesday, October 10th, being provincial elections. As with the silly season everywhere , the atmosphere is alive with the sounds of soon to be forgotten promises being thrown left, right and center. (Still sadly elections in Canada are so much more boring that elections in the Caribbean. We know all a dem a lie we can at least get some jokes out of it.)
What can I say that I haven't said before? For years now Government has been failing the people of Toronto and the GTA, an area which without stretching the truth I'll readily call the economic engine of Canada. Will a new provincial government change things? Not bloody likely!
Still I wanted to say a bit on this election actually more so a bit on the Conservative party of Ontario's efforts to get elected.
Now it would be way too easy for me to blame the Conservatives for all that ails Toronto. After all amalgamation and the downloading of social services to the cities were their babies and years later the city is still shell shocked by that double whammy. Former Premier Mike Harris was not idly called 'the Knife' after all, in fact he might have been better off co-opting Kordell Stewart's 'Slash' nickname when one really looks at his impact on the GTA and the many social and educational programs which were eliminated or pared down to within an inch of their life during his regime. Want to know why transit fares are going up almost every year you could probably put the blame on his downloading transit funding to the cities too.
But to their credit, the Conservatives have tried and in some sense succeeded in distancing themselves from the Mike 'the Knife' days, ably assisted by the short term memory of the masses and the unkept promises and inept management of current Liberal Premier Dalton McGuinty. A new, kinder, gentler more inclusive Conservative party seems to be the angle that they are pushing for this election. And a big part of their resurgence has been new Conservative leader John Tory. (Guess he was born to be conservative with a name like Tory.)
Now I'll admit I'm not really a big fan of the Conservatives but John Tory gets props for at least attempting to make them more palatable to the denizens of the urban areas. Not sure if I blogged about it (but I thought about doing so anyway) but Tory is the only provincial leader I've seen around the city, formal functions aside, since the last elections and not only that but the places I saw him it was like he was actually reaching out to caucuses like visible minorities who are generally ignored and neglected by the Tories. Must have something to do with his Toronto background. He did after all run for Toronto Mayor back in 2003. (In hindsight, if only we had known that Miller wasn't strong enough to successfully lead this city.)
The thing is there is a fine line one must walk in politics. History has shown that. Appeal to the wider masses to get those swing votes yet maintain the loyalty of your core constituents. Alas in this present campaign Tory has failed to do that.
If he had only just kept a solid platform, done the usual we'll cut taxes, we're more trustworthy , we wont (openly) tief ya money like the Liberals, Conservative party thing, then given the performance of the incumbent Liberals he stood a chance of wresting away the reigns of power. Instead in what has got to be a monumental error on the scale of Bill Buckner,World series Game 6, 1986 Tory has in essence thrown it all away, gambling on what wasn't even an issue before the campaign started. (Not that throwing it away is necessarily a bad thing seeing as some folks like me still remember the Mike the Knife days and ain't about to let the Conservatives wipe that from our memory anytime soon.)
Still Tory has given us a classic display here of what not to do when you are running a campaign. So many issues to deal with; power, health care, hospitals, education, money for cities, transit, employment even the tried and true conservative bedrock of being tough on crime. Does he choose one of those as his focus? Nooo! What was the big issue my man decided to tackle; government funding for private religious schools.
Cheese on bread den! Look whoever are his advisers they just need to be fired right away.
Ok so maybe that wasn't supposed to be his big issue, maybe the media blew it out of proportion but just mentioning that opened a can of worms from which Tory has been unable to untangle himself. That issue is effectively sinking his ship.
Look, first off its an issue where he was clearly pandering and bad pandering at that. The Conservatives were trying to make inroads into mainly the Jewish (I'm allowed to use that word without claims of anti-semitism right) vote and the recent immigrant Muslim vote. Fine I admit trying to make inroads in those caucuses isn't a bad idea. Only thing is private Religious schools? Really? Come on now! Everyone else is going to get upset about this issue. Everyone!
Proposing this was just a bad idea from the start. OK so maybe it started some questions as to why we have a Separate Catholic school board here which receives public funding (long story legacy thing, involved Quebec at one point blah blah blah) but aside from opening that discourse just a bad bad idea.
For one, the existing public schools are seriously underfunded. Is why you think all them lil pickney a try sell chocolate raisins and almonds at Yonge n Bloor on evenings to raise funds for school project? Schools aint have no money! Programs been cut, some public schools struggling to maintain the basics. Now you're saying I want to take the existing financial pie which is less than sufficient for the already funded schools and cut into it even further to give money to private religious schools? Umm no, you're potentially going to lose votes from every parent who sends their kid to public school. Think about it man, think about it!
Also take into consideration that a large part of your core caucus as Conservatives has always been the rural mainly Christian conservatives (as opposed to those hippie downtown liberals) who more than likely send their kids to a public school in Kenora or St Thomas or Manitoulin Island or some other small town in Ontario. These folks will not be happy, and rightly so, losing funding so you can cater to a few special interest groups with your private religious schools idea. OK, so they may have a few Christian schools that may benefit but for the main part their number is probably insignificant in the grand scheme of things. Outcome loss of votes.
Then, in this day and age, one of the first things most folk think when they hear privately funded religious schools are Islamic Madrasahs, or more distorted schools teaching jihad and preparing the next generation of terrorists. Hey, they are just Islamic schools but blame the media for all the negative press on Madrasahs.
Now think about it. I mean its bad enough someone or the other in the U.S is always going on about Canada being a haven for terrorists but now you want to give them more fuel for the fire so that they can distort the facts some more and claim that Canada is the devil next door full of Al Quida in waiting ready to run across the Rainbow bridge and pass the supposedly lax border security and do crazy damage in the US. Plus its not only Americans who think that way. Alot of folk up here will believe that we are funding schools that teach jihad. Plus many folk will have issue with those schools cause they separate genders in the classrooms as well. All sort of problems with that line of thinking but that is what you'll have if you go through with this.
Not a good idea John, not a good idea.
And to top it all off, is not like you even check whether some of the people who you thought these religious schools would be benefiting like the idea. In fact in a Toronto Star recent article many folks of certain religions were saying that basically they prefer public school cause all the cultures and religions can mix. Most votes loss there John.
Even some of your candidates been backing away from you on this issue. Their constituents have spoken and said we just don't like this idea. John you going to end up like Robinson Cruseo on an island without even a Man Friday.
So how do I say this politely? John you messed up ...... bad, real bad.
And now a week before the elections you're back peddling to say now that you wouldn't force the public to fund private religious schools if elected but you would have a referendum on the funding instead to see what people want. Sorry guy flag on that play. Loss of yardage repeat down (Had to get in a football reference since he was the CFL president back in the day). YA digging a bigger hole for yourself! Dude this thing might not just lose you the elections, it might even lose you party leadership.
I don't really know what to say to you. All I can think of is pray, boy pray. Pray long and hard and ya might throw in some fasting in there too cause fa right now as the ol people used to say it look like you goose cook.
Poor people money lean back and rockaway
Dem raise everyting from oil to Craven A
So how dem no raise up everybody pay
Emergency - Vybz Kartel
Yes silly season is amongst us here in Toronto with next Wednesday, October 10th, being provincial elections. As with the silly season everywhere , the atmosphere is alive with the sounds of soon to be forgotten promises being thrown left, right and center. (Still sadly elections in Canada are so much more boring that elections in the Caribbean. We know all a dem a lie we can at least get some jokes out of it.)
What can I say that I haven't said before? For years now Government has been failing the people of Toronto and the GTA, an area which without stretching the truth I'll readily call the economic engine of Canada. Will a new provincial government change things? Not bloody likely!
Still I wanted to say a bit on this election actually more so a bit on the Conservative party of Ontario's efforts to get elected.
Now it would be way too easy for me to blame the Conservatives for all that ails Toronto. After all amalgamation and the downloading of social services to the cities were their babies and years later the city is still shell shocked by that double whammy. Former Premier Mike Harris was not idly called 'the Knife' after all, in fact he might have been better off co-opting Kordell Stewart's 'Slash' nickname when one really looks at his impact on the GTA and the many social and educational programs which were eliminated or pared down to within an inch of their life during his regime. Want to know why transit fares are going up almost every year you could probably put the blame on his downloading transit funding to the cities too.
But to their credit, the Conservatives have tried and in some sense succeeded in distancing themselves from the Mike 'the Knife' days, ably assisted by the short term memory of the masses and the unkept promises and inept management of current Liberal Premier Dalton McGuinty. A new, kinder, gentler more inclusive Conservative party seems to be the angle that they are pushing for this election. And a big part of their resurgence has been new Conservative leader John Tory. (Guess he was born to be conservative with a name like Tory.)
Now I'll admit I'm not really a big fan of the Conservatives but John Tory gets props for at least attempting to make them more palatable to the denizens of the urban areas. Not sure if I blogged about it (but I thought about doing so anyway) but Tory is the only provincial leader I've seen around the city, formal functions aside, since the last elections and not only that but the places I saw him it was like he was actually reaching out to caucuses like visible minorities who are generally ignored and neglected by the Tories. Must have something to do with his Toronto background. He did after all run for Toronto Mayor back in 2003. (In hindsight, if only we had known that Miller wasn't strong enough to successfully lead this city.)
The thing is there is a fine line one must walk in politics. History has shown that. Appeal to the wider masses to get those swing votes yet maintain the loyalty of your core constituents. Alas in this present campaign Tory has failed to do that.
If he had only just kept a solid platform, done the usual we'll cut taxes, we're more trustworthy , we wont (openly) tief ya money like the Liberals, Conservative party thing, then given the performance of the incumbent Liberals he stood a chance of wresting away the reigns of power. Instead in what has got to be a monumental error on the scale of Bill Buckner,World series Game 6, 1986 Tory has in essence thrown it all away, gambling on what wasn't even an issue before the campaign started. (Not that throwing it away is necessarily a bad thing seeing as some folks like me still remember the Mike the Knife days and ain't about to let the Conservatives wipe that from our memory anytime soon.)
Still Tory has given us a classic display here of what not to do when you are running a campaign. So many issues to deal with; power, health care, hospitals, education, money for cities, transit, employment even the tried and true conservative bedrock of being tough on crime. Does he choose one of those as his focus? Nooo! What was the big issue my man decided to tackle; government funding for private religious schools.
Cheese on bread den! Look whoever are his advisers they just need to be fired right away.
Ok so maybe that wasn't supposed to be his big issue, maybe the media blew it out of proportion but just mentioning that opened a can of worms from which Tory has been unable to untangle himself. That issue is effectively sinking his ship.
Look, first off its an issue where he was clearly pandering and bad pandering at that. The Conservatives were trying to make inroads into mainly the Jewish (I'm allowed to use that word without claims of anti-semitism right) vote and the recent immigrant Muslim vote. Fine I admit trying to make inroads in those caucuses isn't a bad idea. Only thing is private Religious schools? Really? Come on now! Everyone else is going to get upset about this issue. Everyone!
Proposing this was just a bad idea from the start. OK so maybe it started some questions as to why we have a Separate Catholic school board here which receives public funding (long story legacy thing, involved Quebec at one point blah blah blah) but aside from opening that discourse just a bad bad idea.
For one, the existing public schools are seriously underfunded. Is why you think all them lil pickney a try sell chocolate raisins and almonds at Yonge n Bloor on evenings to raise funds for school project? Schools aint have no money! Programs been cut, some public schools struggling to maintain the basics. Now you're saying I want to take the existing financial pie which is less than sufficient for the already funded schools and cut into it even further to give money to private religious schools? Umm no, you're potentially going to lose votes from every parent who sends their kid to public school. Think about it man, think about it!
Also take into consideration that a large part of your core caucus as Conservatives has always been the rural mainly Christian conservatives (as opposed to those hippie downtown liberals) who more than likely send their kids to a public school in Kenora or St Thomas or Manitoulin Island or some other small town in Ontario. These folks will not be happy, and rightly so, losing funding so you can cater to a few special interest groups with your private religious schools idea. OK, so they may have a few Christian schools that may benefit but for the main part their number is probably insignificant in the grand scheme of things. Outcome loss of votes.
Then, in this day and age, one of the first things most folk think when they hear privately funded religious schools are Islamic Madrasahs, or more distorted schools teaching jihad and preparing the next generation of terrorists. Hey, they are just Islamic schools but blame the media for all the negative press on Madrasahs.
Now think about it. I mean its bad enough someone or the other in the U.S is always going on about Canada being a haven for terrorists but now you want to give them more fuel for the fire so that they can distort the facts some more and claim that Canada is the devil next door full of Al Quida in waiting ready to run across the Rainbow bridge and pass the supposedly lax border security and do crazy damage in the US. Plus its not only Americans who think that way. Alot of folk up here will believe that we are funding schools that teach jihad. Plus many folk will have issue with those schools cause they separate genders in the classrooms as well. All sort of problems with that line of thinking but that is what you'll have if you go through with this.
Not a good idea John, not a good idea.
And to top it all off, is not like you even check whether some of the people who you thought these religious schools would be benefiting like the idea. In fact in a Toronto Star recent article many folks of certain religions were saying that basically they prefer public school cause all the cultures and religions can mix. Most votes loss there John.
Even some of your candidates been backing away from you on this issue. Their constituents have spoken and said we just don't like this idea. John you going to end up like Robinson Cruseo on an island without even a Man Friday.
So how do I say this politely? John you messed up ...... bad, real bad.
And now a week before the elections you're back peddling to say now that you wouldn't force the public to fund private religious schools if elected but you would have a referendum on the funding instead to see what people want. Sorry guy flag on that play. Loss of yardage repeat down (Had to get in a football reference since he was the CFL president back in the day). YA digging a bigger hole for yourself! Dude this thing might not just lose you the elections, it might even lose you party leadership.
I don't really know what to say to you. All I can think of is pray, boy pray. Pray long and hard and ya might throw in some fasting in there too cause fa right now as the ol people used to say it look like you goose cook.
Monday, October 01, 2007
I didnt mean to
I really wanted to give him something. No honestly I did!
He came up to me as I crossed the intersection, said he just got released, had just done a 18 month bid and needed Go-train money. 'I just got out the Don bro and now I gotta be on this corner begging for change.' he said with a tone that left unsaid a certain feeling of damn I cant believe this ish is happening to me.
Now I ain't going to pretend like I can sense b.s better than the next man but somehow this young man's claim rung true with me. It might not have been but he didn't look like a hustla, something about the eyes.
And really yea I wanted to give him something but the only problem was I had absolutely no change on me. It was Monday, I brought lunch, and as far as I remembered all my change was on the dresser at home and all I had was one twenty in the wallet which has to last me for a while.
Wasn't going to dig into the wallet in case there was some loose change caught in there either though. I got one rule when dealing with panhandlers; the wallet must not leave the pocket. I might give you anything that's loose in my pocket but no way am I taking out that wallet. I ain't saying this guy would steal it from me but that's the rule, I ain't taking no chances. Next thing I know you're not satisfied with my loose change or you spot a 5 or something and be asking me for more than I can afford to give. That nuh mek it.
I told him the truth; I would give him if I had but unfortunately I had nothing in terms of change.
He turned, disappointed and I moved on.
He stuck on my mind for the next few minutes though. Damn why of all the days would this guy ask me for change when I had nothing going on in my pocket. As Kurtis Blow would say these are the breaks. I actually considered changing my path back to work to avoid a second meeting with him. I was all set to go down a side street when something said naa man you cant do that. He's a brother and how can you not take care of a brother. If you another black man doesn't even want to give him change, why should you expect the next man to. Plus I thought to myself you know giving different circumstances what that could be me there begging for the change.
So I stopped in a convenience store on the way back, bought something small, broke my bill and headed back to work hoping I'd run into ol boy again. This time I had change, this time I'd do what felt right to me.
Got back to the intersection, stopped, scanned all four corners but no sign of him. Must have moved on. Damn!
He came up to me as I crossed the intersection, said he just got released, had just done a 18 month bid and needed Go-train money. 'I just got out the Don bro and now I gotta be on this corner begging for change.' he said with a tone that left unsaid a certain feeling of damn I cant believe this ish is happening to me.
Now I ain't going to pretend like I can sense b.s better than the next man but somehow this young man's claim rung true with me. It might not have been but he didn't look like a hustla, something about the eyes.
And really yea I wanted to give him something but the only problem was I had absolutely no change on me. It was Monday, I brought lunch, and as far as I remembered all my change was on the dresser at home and all I had was one twenty in the wallet which has to last me for a while.
Wasn't going to dig into the wallet in case there was some loose change caught in there either though. I got one rule when dealing with panhandlers; the wallet must not leave the pocket. I might give you anything that's loose in my pocket but no way am I taking out that wallet. I ain't saying this guy would steal it from me but that's the rule, I ain't taking no chances. Next thing I know you're not satisfied with my loose change or you spot a 5 or something and be asking me for more than I can afford to give. That nuh mek it.
I told him the truth; I would give him if I had but unfortunately I had nothing in terms of change.
He turned, disappointed and I moved on.
He stuck on my mind for the next few minutes though. Damn why of all the days would this guy ask me for change when I had nothing going on in my pocket. As Kurtis Blow would say these are the breaks. I actually considered changing my path back to work to avoid a second meeting with him. I was all set to go down a side street when something said naa man you cant do that. He's a brother and how can you not take care of a brother. If you another black man doesn't even want to give him change, why should you expect the next man to. Plus I thought to myself you know giving different circumstances what that could be me there begging for the change.
So I stopped in a convenience store on the way back, bought something small, broke my bill and headed back to work hoping I'd run into ol boy again. This time I had change, this time I'd do what felt right to me.
Got back to the intersection, stopped, scanned all four corners but no sign of him. Must have moved on. Damn!
Thursday, September 27, 2007
Tipping?
I've changed my mind. I actually think that Mrs Browne-Sanders is going to lose her case against Isiah and the Knicks. Earlier I thought she had a slam dunk case that was going to really tear apart the Knicks and bring down Isiah but now......
Well that ain't to say her story isn't the truth. I wont get into a judgment call cause it seems like its a classic case of he say she say (I heard it through the gravevine, no static got an automatic , too much of anything can make you an addict). However the Knicks have really closed ranks and paraded a slew of staff who have done a number on Browne-Sander's credibility, professionalism and abilities. Mind you most harassment cases go this way but lets just say I think any jury would probably have a bit of doubt now regarding her claims. Also didn't help that this one former intern that Browne Sanders claims slept with Knicks player Stephon Marbury against her wishes came out and said the sex was consensual. Could be a case of big business just buying off or scaring folk into testifying for them or could not be. That said I think she loses the case and Isiah continues grinning.
Yesterday's Toronto Star had an article about Asian-Canadian fishermen who have been recently assaulted up near Sutton (about an hour north of T-dot).
"Typically, young adults drive around in the middle of the night seeking out Asian fisherman standing near piers and bridges. Then they'll push them into the water and sometimes steal or damage their fishing gear."
OK I get it, country folks ain't got nothing better to do right? Ever heard of cable?
Look no matter how they talk about this, its racist plain and simple. Then the police are apparently taking this lightly. That just plays really badly in terms of the image of that community. Plus, they actually have a name for it up there....nippertipping. What the hell? You think folks are animals that you can just randomly walk up to them and throw them in the lake. You think they find this funny? You think randomly assaulting someone in general is funny?
One guy is in hospital because of an incident related to this but they're trying to play it down as oh just a random assault. Come on admit it was racial motivated and deal with this.
And in other actually rather ironic news since I just decried racism against Asian-Candians (and I stand by that stance), China is a racist state ain't it? Makes one wonder why so many Caribbean nations are in bed with these guys. Feel sorry for this yout though.
"The detainees included 22-year-old Joslyn Whiteman, son of Grenada's ambassador. One witness said he saw police grab Mr Whiteman and beat him repeatedly, despite onlookers crying out, "Stop! He's a diplomat!" According to the South China Morning Post, Mr Whiteman spent the night in a hospital with concussion."
It sure is going to be interesting to see how next years Olympics plays out. Maybe we need a new Jesse Owens.
Oh and before I go, I knew there was a reason for this blog. Anyone catch Bill O'Reilly's comments about his visit to a black restaurant in Harlem? Apparently he couldn't get over the fact that there was no difference between this black run restaurant and others in the city. Dude commented "There wasn't one person in Sylvia's who was screaming, '[Expletive], I want more iced tea!' . . . There wasn't any kind of craziness at all."
You know I knew O'Reilly was an idiot but I just think this comment is interesting cause you know he's not the only person who thinks that the only way black folks can communicate is through swearing. Mind you it doesn't help when David Banner goes before congress and swears in his testimony (of course I don't see the point to hearings on rap, I never heard any hearings into violence in Hollywood movies and they make lots more money). Blame the media, blame rappers, blame BET, blame whoever but there are a lot of misguided beliefs about black folk in this society. And its sad. No wonder nooses are back in fashion down south and Chinese are kicking our asses. How long till Cross burning catches on again?
Well that ain't to say her story isn't the truth. I wont get into a judgment call cause it seems like its a classic case of he say she say (I heard it through the gravevine, no static got an automatic , too much of anything can make you an addict). However the Knicks have really closed ranks and paraded a slew of staff who have done a number on Browne-Sander's credibility, professionalism and abilities. Mind you most harassment cases go this way but lets just say I think any jury would probably have a bit of doubt now regarding her claims. Also didn't help that this one former intern that Browne Sanders claims slept with Knicks player Stephon Marbury against her wishes came out and said the sex was consensual. Could be a case of big business just buying off or scaring folk into testifying for them or could not be. That said I think she loses the case and Isiah continues grinning.Yesterday's Toronto Star had an article about Asian-Canadian fishermen who have been recently assaulted up near Sutton (about an hour north of T-dot).
"Typically, young adults drive around in the middle of the night seeking out Asian fisherman standing near piers and bridges. Then they'll push them into the water and sometimes steal or damage their fishing gear."
OK I get it, country folks ain't got nothing better to do right? Ever heard of cable?
Look no matter how they talk about this, its racist plain and simple. Then the police are apparently taking this lightly. That just plays really badly in terms of the image of that community. Plus, they actually have a name for it up there....nippertipping. What the hell? You think folks are animals that you can just randomly walk up to them and throw them in the lake. You think they find this funny? You think randomly assaulting someone in general is funny?
One guy is in hospital because of an incident related to this but they're trying to play it down as oh just a random assault. Come on admit it was racial motivated and deal with this.
And in other actually rather ironic news since I just decried racism against Asian-Candians (and I stand by that stance), China is a racist state ain't it? Makes one wonder why so many Caribbean nations are in bed with these guys. Feel sorry for this yout though.
"The detainees included 22-year-old Joslyn Whiteman, son of Grenada's ambassador. One witness said he saw police grab Mr Whiteman and beat him repeatedly, despite onlookers crying out, "Stop! He's a diplomat!" According to the South China Morning Post, Mr Whiteman spent the night in a hospital with concussion."
It sure is going to be interesting to see how next years Olympics plays out. Maybe we need a new Jesse Owens.
Oh and before I go, I knew there was a reason for this blog. Anyone catch Bill O'Reilly's comments about his visit to a black restaurant in Harlem? Apparently he couldn't get over the fact that there was no difference between this black run restaurant and others in the city. Dude commented "There wasn't one person in Sylvia's who was screaming, '[Expletive], I want more iced tea!' . . . There wasn't any kind of craziness at all."
You know I knew O'Reilly was an idiot but I just think this comment is interesting cause you know he's not the only person who thinks that the only way black folks can communicate is through swearing. Mind you it doesn't help when David Banner goes before congress and swears in his testimony (of course I don't see the point to hearings on rap, I never heard any hearings into violence in Hollywood movies and they make lots more money). Blame the media, blame rappers, blame BET, blame whoever but there are a lot of misguided beliefs about black folk in this society. And its sad. No wonder nooses are back in fashion down south and Chinese are kicking our asses. How long till Cross burning catches on again?
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Public Service Announcement
gal in a de punny printer! by far!
punny printer - panhead
Memo to all women:
There is an upper size limit to those of you that can successfully wear pum pum shorts and look good. Its just a fact accept it!
Like the white lady Friday, who weighing in at oh lets say somewhere from 195 to 220 on a 5 foot 5 frame got on my bus that morning. She din no young yam either so she should have known better than to be wearing those short, short white tight pum pum shorts and the green even tighter shirt that was barely covering her rather circular, protruding stomach.
Now don't get me wrong I not dissing the lady cause she was big. No not at all. Au contraire, in the right clothing she could have looked decent maybe even quite fetching actually cause she wasn't an ugly woman and there was something rather mesmerizing about watching her run ,with a swiftness belying her girth, across the road with parts jiggling in slow motion trying to hail down the bus driver. Or maybe mesmerizing is the wrong word to use there but I couldn't take my eyes off her cause I was really frighten that something was going to jiggle loose or dem tight pants were going to split as she sprinted and she would have embarrassed herself when the whole outfit buss off by the bus door and expose all her particulars.
And then ya know what? After she had successfully gotten onto the bus without mishap, now moving even closer to my line of sight so I could really see just how ridiculously tight the pants were, in fiddling in her bag for her bus tokens she dropped said tokens and something else from her bag.
Well to paraphrase Paul Keens, who tell she to do that? Next thing I know the woman bending over facing me. And I, the one day I didn't sit near the back of the bus cause I say I had too many bags and getting out before the station and didn't feel like lugging things all the way back there, silently screaming as I seeing what I aint suppose to see cause I don't know her like that, close close up to my face like I have high def, IMAX three-d, objects in the mirror are closer than they appear vision. Lawd ave mercy!
So now she bend over and her bottom staring at we and we can see things print out and colors of things underneath and what not and I there wondering to myself is what kinda space age, super tensile strength material dem shorts mek out of that stopping all dat from popping loose at de seams?
I don't know boy but I hear some loud snickers from the back where sitting were three lil force ripe young gals about 14 or 15 in too much makeup, including one who was juss juss talking two minutes before about how "her ex boy friend really knew how to work it". Lawd ave his mercy talk about jaw drop. cuhdear
But see what I mean? When you wear them sort of things like pum pum shorts as a big woman and I mean that in terms of both size and age and ya don't look decent or at least good , ya duz get laff at by even little pickney.
So as a public service announcement to that lady and others like her please, please, oh please use some discretion in dressing. Everything don't look good on everybody.
Now if you'll pardon me I'm still screaming silently inside wondering if jucking out muh eyeballs wud help, so I going to my therapy session. Oh the horror, the horror!
punny printer - panhead
Memo to all women:
There is an upper size limit to those of you that can successfully wear pum pum shorts and look good. Its just a fact accept it!
Like the white lady Friday, who weighing in at oh lets say somewhere from 195 to 220 on a 5 foot 5 frame got on my bus that morning. She din no young yam either so she should have known better than to be wearing those short, short white tight pum pum shorts and the green even tighter shirt that was barely covering her rather circular, protruding stomach.
Now don't get me wrong I not dissing the lady cause she was big. No not at all. Au contraire, in the right clothing she could have looked decent maybe even quite fetching actually cause she wasn't an ugly woman and there was something rather mesmerizing about watching her run ,with a swiftness belying her girth, across the road with parts jiggling in slow motion trying to hail down the bus driver. Or maybe mesmerizing is the wrong word to use there but I couldn't take my eyes off her cause I was really frighten that something was going to jiggle loose or dem tight pants were going to split as she sprinted and she would have embarrassed herself when the whole outfit buss off by the bus door and expose all her particulars.
And then ya know what? After she had successfully gotten onto the bus without mishap, now moving even closer to my line of sight so I could really see just how ridiculously tight the pants were, in fiddling in her bag for her bus tokens she dropped said tokens and something else from her bag.
Well to paraphrase Paul Keens, who tell she to do that? Next thing I know the woman bending over facing me. And I, the one day I didn't sit near the back of the bus cause I say I had too many bags and getting out before the station and didn't feel like lugging things all the way back there, silently screaming as I seeing what I aint suppose to see cause I don't know her like that, close close up to my face like I have high def, IMAX three-d, objects in the mirror are closer than they appear vision. Lawd ave mercy!
So now she bend over and her bottom staring at we and we can see things print out and colors of things underneath and what not and I there wondering to myself is what kinda space age, super tensile strength material dem shorts mek out of that stopping all dat from popping loose at de seams?
I don't know boy but I hear some loud snickers from the back where sitting were three lil force ripe young gals about 14 or 15 in too much makeup, including one who was juss juss talking two minutes before about how "her ex boy friend really knew how to work it". Lawd ave his mercy talk about jaw drop. cuhdear
But see what I mean? When you wear them sort of things like pum pum shorts as a big woman and I mean that in terms of both size and age and ya don't look decent or at least good , ya duz get laff at by even little pickney.
So as a public service announcement to that lady and others like her please, please, oh please use some discretion in dressing. Everything don't look good on everybody.
Now if you'll pardon me I'm still screaming silently inside wondering if jucking out muh eyeballs wud help, so I going to my therapy session. Oh the horror, the horror!
Saturday, September 22, 2007
Coming of Age
Need to get this written.
First off let me say that I've always believed that there are some things that you just have to experience to understand. For women, natural childbirth comes to mind as one of those things, for men getting hit in the groin another. I've always also thought, well always being relative to my having experienced/currently experiencing them, that marriage and parenting are two of those things that you have to experience in order to really understand. Well maybe not understand but lets just say until you've experienced these things for yourself no matter how much you think you know you probably really don't know.
And don't get me wrong, I'm not relating marriage and parenting to the pain of a kick in the groin although sometimes well .......... and I'm also not saying that you cant relate or you shouldn't have your opinions on both issues if you haven't personally experienced them yet. No God forbid! Not me I wouldn't say that. I'm just saying there are certain experiences that undergoing them just gives you insights that you wouldn't normally have without the actual experience.
Oh and don't read this as some attempt to get y'all married or to tell wunnah to go out and get pickney. I've never been an advocate and I mean that not that I don't enjoy them both (some of the time at least0 but I'll be damned if I'm the brother to be extolling the virtues of these things and then have somebody stupid go and get a child they cant afford to raise or go and get married cause I say so and it end up in a divorce. No star, you got to know for yourself what you getting into. Looking at what other people have don't mean you going to get the same. Follow pattern Kill Cadogan (old bajan saying). Remember that.
Anyway, I remember as a child hearing some people saying stuff like 'this chile gine gimme enemies'. At that time I never really understood what that meant and maybe in truth I'm still misinterpreting that statement but after the crap me and my wife have been through in the past two weeks with regards to our son I think I have my own perspective on that phrase.
I always found it weird that my parents remember details of things related to my childhood from way back involving negative situations where they think I was being singled out, mistreated or 'unfaired' as we would say in Barbados, or where they basically thought things shouldn't have gone as they should. And years later they still take those incidents so personally too. Strange I thought, y'all needs to chill.
Meanwhile as far as I was concerned some of the incidents I barely remember actually happening or my recollections are basically culled from the stories being told but the stories could as well be episodes of my favourite TV series cause to me I'm just seeing everything from the third person.
Some of the incidents I view as rather trivial now because I think I turned out OK (my opinion certainly not others) despite them happening but my parents still manage to get mad heated anytime they come up in conversation. I never could understand that ..... until now.
Now I understand why parents take their kids ish so personal. Now I understand why parents if they don't remain calm can go off on soccer refs or teachers or well just go off in situations.
I can handle my own personal beef. Experience just teaches you how to handle stuff. Hell I usually just laugh off most of the crap I go through cause I know I can handle it. But when it comes down to my child.......
Yea ummm I think I gine have some issues.
I don't think I've ever had a more miserable two weeks and been as utterly pissed off as I've been lately with the drama I had to deal with. I've basically been trying to be outwardly unemotional about it cause well I'm usually an unemotional dude and I'm also the person who has to be the logical unemotional one and steady the ship. Its my role I accept it, it is what it is. But still there were some points where hmmm well boy lets just say if I had two big rocks certain folk would have gotten their head buss open! Trust me!
Naa that aint my way still but lets just say its difficult to be cool in certain situations. Look, I basically withdrew from society (and yes that included email and msn) for the last two weeks cause I know I wasn't good company and something I might have taken in jest a few days before was fittin' to set a brother on some World War Hulk ish. (Actually if I communicated with you this week beyond hi you must consider yourself a true friend and one of the inner circle.)
But anyways lets just say I understand my parents a lot better now and its because of this experience. Without it I might be able to sort of grasp the concept but its so much more real after experience. I understand a lot better that whole protective instinct and that whole ready to mess someone up because of my child thing. The whole drawing a line in the sand, the whole circling the wagons, the whole gladiator stance with regards to your progeny.
As it is I think its going to be one of those situations that my kid when he's at an older age is going to be like so this is a big deal how exactly but for me....... Yea lets just say that this chile gine gimme enemies fa real. And he could be a teenager, an adult, maybe even 50 years old and as long as I'm living and I'm not senile I aint going to forget this shit either and I'm still going to take it personal and I'm still going to have that urge to throw two big rocks at certain people. Word!
PS: don't ask for more info, its the Internet and I said what I had to say. Leff it there.
First off let me say that I've always believed that there are some things that you just have to experience to understand. For women, natural childbirth comes to mind as one of those things, for men getting hit in the groin another. I've always also thought, well always being relative to my having experienced/currently experiencing them, that marriage and parenting are two of those things that you have to experience in order to really understand. Well maybe not understand but lets just say until you've experienced these things for yourself no matter how much you think you know you probably really don't know.
And don't get me wrong, I'm not relating marriage and parenting to the pain of a kick in the groin although sometimes well .......... and I'm also not saying that you cant relate or you shouldn't have your opinions on both issues if you haven't personally experienced them yet. No God forbid! Not me I wouldn't say that. I'm just saying there are certain experiences that undergoing them just gives you insights that you wouldn't normally have without the actual experience.
Oh and don't read this as some attempt to get y'all married or to tell wunnah to go out and get pickney. I've never been an advocate and I mean that not that I don't enjoy them both (some of the time at least0 but I'll be damned if I'm the brother to be extolling the virtues of these things and then have somebody stupid go and get a child they cant afford to raise or go and get married cause I say so and it end up in a divorce. No star, you got to know for yourself what you getting into. Looking at what other people have don't mean you going to get the same. Follow pattern Kill Cadogan (old bajan saying). Remember that.
Anyway, I remember as a child hearing some people saying stuff like 'this chile gine gimme enemies'. At that time I never really understood what that meant and maybe in truth I'm still misinterpreting that statement but after the crap me and my wife have been through in the past two weeks with regards to our son I think I have my own perspective on that phrase.
I always found it weird that my parents remember details of things related to my childhood from way back involving negative situations where they think I was being singled out, mistreated or 'unfaired' as we would say in Barbados, or where they basically thought things shouldn't have gone as they should. And years later they still take those incidents so personally too. Strange I thought, y'all needs to chill.
Meanwhile as far as I was concerned some of the incidents I barely remember actually happening or my recollections are basically culled from the stories being told but the stories could as well be episodes of my favourite TV series cause to me I'm just seeing everything from the third person.
Some of the incidents I view as rather trivial now because I think I turned out OK (my opinion certainly not others) despite them happening but my parents still manage to get mad heated anytime they come up in conversation. I never could understand that ..... until now.
Now I understand why parents take their kids ish so personal. Now I understand why parents if they don't remain calm can go off on soccer refs or teachers or well just go off in situations.
I can handle my own personal beef. Experience just teaches you how to handle stuff. Hell I usually just laugh off most of the crap I go through cause I know I can handle it. But when it comes down to my child.......
Yea ummm I think I gine have some issues.
I don't think I've ever had a more miserable two weeks and been as utterly pissed off as I've been lately with the drama I had to deal with. I've basically been trying to be outwardly unemotional about it cause well I'm usually an unemotional dude and I'm also the person who has to be the logical unemotional one and steady the ship. Its my role I accept it, it is what it is. But still there were some points where hmmm well boy lets just say if I had two big rocks certain folk would have gotten their head buss open! Trust me!
Naa that aint my way still but lets just say its difficult to be cool in certain situations. Look, I basically withdrew from society (and yes that included email and msn) for the last two weeks cause I know I wasn't good company and something I might have taken in jest a few days before was fittin' to set a brother on some World War Hulk ish. (Actually if I communicated with you this week beyond hi you must consider yourself a true friend and one of the inner circle.)
But anyways lets just say I understand my parents a lot better now and its because of this experience. Without it I might be able to sort of grasp the concept but its so much more real after experience. I understand a lot better that whole protective instinct and that whole ready to mess someone up because of my child thing. The whole drawing a line in the sand, the whole circling the wagons, the whole gladiator stance with regards to your progeny.
As it is I think its going to be one of those situations that my kid when he's at an older age is going to be like so this is a big deal how exactly but for me....... Yea lets just say that this chile gine gimme enemies fa real. And he could be a teenager, an adult, maybe even 50 years old and as long as I'm living and I'm not senile I aint going to forget this shit either and I'm still going to take it personal and I'm still going to have that urge to throw two big rocks at certain people. Word!
PS: don't ask for more info, its the Internet and I said what I had to say. Leff it there.
Thursday, September 20, 2007
Barber
Ok I'm not one for posting videos in this blog but I just felt like sharing this one with you guys since I know the author (is author the correct word to use for a video presentation?) and I just think its worth watching.
Big up afropan!
Big up afropan!
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
Dumb and Dumber
1) OJ! sigh! What can I say? Were you worried you were fading from the spotlight? Dude last time you got away with murder, maybe literally. You're also quite possibly the most hated black man in the US. Why would you push your luck? Were you upset that Mike Vick and Pacman Jones were getting all the current evil NFLer press? Is that it?
2) Isiah Thomas. Oh yea buddy way to explain your use of the B word. eediat!
3) Jose Garbajosa. Yea I said it, Jose Garbajosa. As a Raptors fan this guy has pissed me off this summer. He broke his leg, he rehabbed, Raptors doctors wouldn't give him clearance to play in the European Championship so he gets his own insurance, gets clearance from Spain's doctors and plays anyways. Ok so granted I understand the whole nationalistic stance and wanting to play for your country but at the same time Spain had already qualified for the Olympics prior to the tournament and your leg isn't 100%. Plus odds are in order to get to 100% you'll need more surgery. So you decided to play for Spain this summer when you could have had the surgery that your needed instead. Now you'll probably get to Raptors training camp and fall apart within a month of the season then have surgery and miss the entire season. All the while being paid by the Raptors. That's to me is like you have just dealt a b* slap to the entire Toronto fandom collective with your actions. Boy and they complain that home grown NBA players are childish haughty and own way! I do hope you stay semi-healthy so we can trade you but alas I know that wont happen. Enjoy the season on the sidelines.
2) Isiah Thomas. Oh yea buddy way to explain your use of the B word. eediat!
3) Jose Garbajosa. Yea I said it, Jose Garbajosa. As a Raptors fan this guy has pissed me off this summer. He broke his leg, he rehabbed, Raptors doctors wouldn't give him clearance to play in the European Championship so he gets his own insurance, gets clearance from Spain's doctors and plays anyways. Ok so granted I understand the whole nationalistic stance and wanting to play for your country but at the same time Spain had already qualified for the Olympics prior to the tournament and your leg isn't 100%. Plus odds are in order to get to 100% you'll need more surgery. So you decided to play for Spain this summer when you could have had the surgery that your needed instead. Now you'll probably get to Raptors training camp and fall apart within a month of the season then have surgery and miss the entire season. All the while being paid by the Raptors. That's to me is like you have just dealt a b* slap to the entire Toronto fandom collective with your actions. Boy and they complain that home grown NBA players are childish haughty and own way! I do hope you stay semi-healthy so we can trade you but alas I know that wont happen. Enjoy the season on the sidelines.
Thursday, September 13, 2007
The Better Way
Well just as expected the almost bi-annual dance the TTC does with public transit users in Toronto has ended in a fare increase. This one quite substantial. What dance you ask? You know the one. The one where they complain that they have no money because the City and the Province refuse to help or threatened to cut back funds and they are left with no choice but to place the costs of a declining transit system on our shoulders.
Well what can ya do?
I suppose one can resort to driving but those who live here know that the roads are already crowded almost to capacity and that navigating downtown Toronto can be a slow moving nightmare even if you can get past the fact that paying anything less than $10 a day in parking is seen as a pretty nice deal here.
Or I guess we could all start looking for jobs or schools in the 905 area at least there you probably wouldn't have the high parking costs associated with downtown Toronto.
This whole fare increase thing is ironic on so many levels. First the TTC does a survey where basically your only options are decrease service or increase fares. Well duhh what do you think most people who are dependent on the service are going to say? Its like sitting between the proverbial rock and the hard place or sitting at a domino table where your only choice is which one of your opponents wins. If you pass the guy playing out of your hand his partner wins and if you don't pass him he wins. Trust me been there many a time. You are squeezed!
Then you have a City in Toronto and a province in Ontario that have been pushing public transit like crazy because well Toronto in terms of getting to and from downtown just wasn't built for swift travel by cars. Unlike most major metropolises the builders of this city rightly or perhaps not choose to put an emphasis on people and livability over car and goods movement. It all sounds so noble until you're stuck in rush hour on the DVP or Gardiner cussing those damn incompetent planners.
You also have that environmental factor. We are forever bombarded by signs pushing us to take the TTC, limit the number of smog days, increase air quality be kind to your environment etc etc. Leave the car at home take the TTC, its THE BETTER WAY they say. Gee well those messages run sort of contradictory to fare increases don't they?
Then you have this whole issue with expansion. How is it that politicians can find money or at least talk of money for subway expansion when they wont even give the TTC money for the existing system to run properly? Oh I guess expansion gets more press and more votes. My bad I would think you'd try to consolidate, fix and attempt to operate what you already have existing first but that probably makes too much sense.
Of course the bottom line, the real problem, the root of the need for these repeated fare increases probably isn't what most people think it is. Its not that TTC is wasting money or overpaying its staff or the like although one does sometimes question how they negotiate with their unions. Its the fact that despite all the emphasis or maybe its just lip service paid to public transit here in Toronto that the TTC is the only transit agency in North America that pays like 70-80% of its operating costs directly out of its fare receipts. In other cities its somewhere along 40%. That's why a monthly pass in Montreal is about 1/2 the cost of one here.
How'd we get so special? Come on now buses and subways and streetcars are a public service aren't they? They are for the benefit of the public. We pay our taxes its supposed to go into health care and garbage collection and snow removal and stuff like public transit. The government needs to put some of the tax money back into running public transit instead of always squeezing the public via new taxes or fare increases. Used to be that the TTC was thought of as one of the best public transit services in North America. Now ummm not so much.
Oh well I'm sure in two years time we'll see the same dance repeated with the same outcome.
Well what can ya do?
I suppose one can resort to driving but those who live here know that the roads are already crowded almost to capacity and that navigating downtown Toronto can be a slow moving nightmare even if you can get past the fact that paying anything less than $10 a day in parking is seen as a pretty nice deal here.
Or I guess we could all start looking for jobs or schools in the 905 area at least there you probably wouldn't have the high parking costs associated with downtown Toronto.
This whole fare increase thing is ironic on so many levels. First the TTC does a survey where basically your only options are decrease service or increase fares. Well duhh what do you think most people who are dependent on the service are going to say? Its like sitting between the proverbial rock and the hard place or sitting at a domino table where your only choice is which one of your opponents wins. If you pass the guy playing out of your hand his partner wins and if you don't pass him he wins. Trust me been there many a time. You are squeezed!
Then you have a City in Toronto and a province in Ontario that have been pushing public transit like crazy because well Toronto in terms of getting to and from downtown just wasn't built for swift travel by cars. Unlike most major metropolises the builders of this city rightly or perhaps not choose to put an emphasis on people and livability over car and goods movement. It all sounds so noble until you're stuck in rush hour on the DVP or Gardiner cussing those damn incompetent planners.
You also have that environmental factor. We are forever bombarded by signs pushing us to take the TTC, limit the number of smog days, increase air quality be kind to your environment etc etc. Leave the car at home take the TTC, its THE BETTER WAY they say. Gee well those messages run sort of contradictory to fare increases don't they?
Then you have this whole issue with expansion. How is it that politicians can find money or at least talk of money for subway expansion when they wont even give the TTC money for the existing system to run properly? Oh I guess expansion gets more press and more votes. My bad I would think you'd try to consolidate, fix and attempt to operate what you already have existing first but that probably makes too much sense.
Of course the bottom line, the real problem, the root of the need for these repeated fare increases probably isn't what most people think it is. Its not that TTC is wasting money or overpaying its staff or the like although one does sometimes question how they negotiate with their unions. Its the fact that despite all the emphasis or maybe its just lip service paid to public transit here in Toronto that the TTC is the only transit agency in North America that pays like 70-80% of its operating costs directly out of its fare receipts. In other cities its somewhere along 40%. That's why a monthly pass in Montreal is about 1/2 the cost of one here.
How'd we get so special? Come on now buses and subways and streetcars are a public service aren't they? They are for the benefit of the public. We pay our taxes its supposed to go into health care and garbage collection and snow removal and stuff like public transit. The government needs to put some of the tax money back into running public transit instead of always squeezing the public via new taxes or fare increases. Used to be that the TTC was thought of as one of the best public transit services in North America. Now ummm not so much.
Oh well I'm sure in two years time we'll see the same dance repeated with the same outcome.
Monday, September 10, 2007
VMA
I don't really watch award shows. Usually don't remember they are on and I'm not really that interested anyways. Can't stand 95% of today's popular music and as much as I try to keep abreast of what's supposedly 'hot' somewhat out of a morbid sense of curiosity and to be able to chronicle the demise of our society I'm just not that interested in who's wearing what from whom and what trite comments they have to say at the event.
Only thing less interesting may be listening to Kanye and 50 'debate' whose album will be the worse tomorrow. "The only way they win is if we battle to see who is the wackest".
Still I did peruse some articles on the VMAs since it seemed like every news site had some story on Britney and her terrible performance. But I just found it interesting how much news print was devoted to how out of shape Britney looks. I mean I saw the pictures, Here's one:
Seriously whats wrong with her here? ok so she's bigger than she was before but its not like she's bordering on a Rosanne Barr size or anything. She just had two kids and she's still packing some baby fat. And it aint even that much, she just looks like she's eating now instead of skipping meals. Look media people absence of 6-pack does not equal paunch ok. And everyone cant be Paris Hilton bony. Come on now.
If you tell me Britney's performance was terrible, she looked tired or she was way out of sync, cool I'll take your word for it but going on and on about her weight seems a bit out there.
Clearly though this is a North American showbiz thing cause no Caribbean people wasn't going say so. Ya ever see some of the women dat duz pour themselves into tiny tiny tiny costumes for Caribana, Carnival and Crop Over? Alright then, that is all I'm saying.
Then there was this total fiasco and it wasn't Lupe.
I only have two questions. What da?? and why Chile why?
Ok so the girl in the photo is called Lil Mama and apparently she's some sort of rapper with clearly mental issues.
I mean cheese on bread, is Halloween come early or what? Who leaves home looking like this? And by leaving home I mean even stepping out to the curb to pick up the newspaper or put out the garbage. Who would leave home and go to a big award show with adults and be dressed like this with a soother in their mouth? I can just imagine the red carpet commentary.
Interviewer: Ummm ammm And that's quite an interesting dress Lil Mama.
Lil Mama: Yea yeah, ummm it was designed by my homie Lil Miss Muffet. Yo on the real she be mad creative when she chilling down at the Tuffet getting mad lifted off that Curds and Whey yaknowhatimean! Big up Miss Muffet you representing girl!
Interviewer: And those lovely accessories, the baby soother?
Lil Mama: Yea yeah that was my own creation, my own addition cause I know how to accessorize cause I'm fly like that. knowhwatisaying? Look for Lil Mama's line of baby soothers coming to a store near you soon cause see I gots to diversify my portfolio. Knowhatimean? Yo yo peep this! What had happened was that Miss Muffet originally wanted me to rock the shepherd's crook and two matching black belly sheep but I wasn't having that plus what I had said was "Miss Muffet is you crazy? where the hell I'm going to find me some black belly sheep from around the hood huh?" She know full well aint no sheep where we from? I mean I coulda borrowed me a couple a pit bulls from Mike Vick around the way but sheep? They be scarcer than banks in the hood! ha ha I'm juss playing about the pitbulls man.
Sigh! I could go on with the ridicule but I'm too busy shaking my head in disgust and waiting for Lil Mama to change her name to Lil Bo Peep.
Only thing less interesting may be listening to Kanye and 50 'debate' whose album will be the worse tomorrow. "The only way they win is if we battle to see who is the wackest".
Still I did peruse some articles on the VMAs since it seemed like every news site had some story on Britney and her terrible performance. But I just found it interesting how much news print was devoted to how out of shape Britney looks. I mean I saw the pictures, Here's one:
Seriously whats wrong with her here? ok so she's bigger than she was before but its not like she's bordering on a Rosanne Barr size or anything. She just had two kids and she's still packing some baby fat. And it aint even that much, she just looks like she's eating now instead of skipping meals. Look media people absence of 6-pack does not equal paunch ok. And everyone cant be Paris Hilton bony. Come on now.If you tell me Britney's performance was terrible, she looked tired or she was way out of sync, cool I'll take your word for it but going on and on about her weight seems a bit out there.
Clearly though this is a North American showbiz thing cause no Caribbean people wasn't going say so. Ya ever see some of the women dat duz pour themselves into tiny tiny tiny costumes for Caribana, Carnival and Crop Over? Alright then, that is all I'm saying.
Then there was this total fiasco and it wasn't Lupe.
I only have two questions. What da?? and why Chile why?Ok so the girl in the photo is called Lil Mama and apparently she's some sort of rapper with clearly mental issues.
I mean cheese on bread, is Halloween come early or what? Who leaves home looking like this? And by leaving home I mean even stepping out to the curb to pick up the newspaper or put out the garbage. Who would leave home and go to a big award show with adults and be dressed like this with a soother in their mouth? I can just imagine the red carpet commentary.
Interviewer: Ummm ammm And that's quite an interesting dress Lil Mama.
Lil Mama: Yea yeah, ummm it was designed by my homie Lil Miss Muffet. Yo on the real she be mad creative when she chilling down at the Tuffet getting mad lifted off that Curds and Whey yaknowhatimean! Big up Miss Muffet you representing girl!
Interviewer: And those lovely accessories, the baby soother?
Lil Mama: Yea yeah that was my own creation, my own addition cause I know how to accessorize cause I'm fly like that. knowhwatisaying? Look for Lil Mama's line of baby soothers coming to a store near you soon cause see I gots to diversify my portfolio. Knowhatimean? Yo yo peep this! What had happened was that Miss Muffet originally wanted me to rock the shepherd's crook and two matching black belly sheep but I wasn't having that plus what I had said was "Miss Muffet is you crazy? where the hell I'm going to find me some black belly sheep from around the hood huh?" She know full well aint no sheep where we from? I mean I coulda borrowed me a couple a pit bulls from Mike Vick around the way but sheep? They be scarcer than banks in the hood! ha ha I'm juss playing about the pitbulls man.
Sigh! I could go on with the ridicule but I'm too busy shaking my head in disgust and waiting for Lil Mama to change her name to Lil Bo Peep.
Friday, September 07, 2007
Affordable?
(Pardon me I've forgotten how to blog)
I see this show on tv yesterday as I was flipping de channels. De woman on de show was some sort of styler or stylist or something so and she was showing the people back-to-school fashions. Dem did look ranging from so so to alright in my opinion except there was this one model wearing a skirt that look like a purple garbage bag but otherwise I cant complain too much. the clothes din look too bad-deish. I wasn't going to be running out to buy nuttin them but they wasn't too bad still.
Sort of chic though if that is the word that I should be using, yes sort of chic. Fellas wearing slacks and nice sweaters and ting so. All in all a little above the usual gangsta gear I duz see alot a dese school men and women walking bout Scarborough wearing. Cause I think all dese youngstas bout hayso duz feel dem is badjohns but then again I feel that is a common Scarborough motif. I neva meet so many people pretending to be hard in me life till I life up this side.
Anyways as I was saying I watch this show. And the part that get me is that the woman de styler, stylist keep telling the host a de show about how affordable the clothes is. Then she buss out wid yes "that whole outfit can be put together for less that 500 dollars" . Well one was less that 300 the other less than 500 but she still use the word affordable for both.
Now I don't know bout how wunna stay financially but I know dat when I was a student that word student was a alias for, pockets on E, broke as hell. I wasn't wearing no 300 dollar outfits. In fact if I had 300 dollars and was actually willing to spend it all on clothing which I probably wouldn't it would have had to buy me about a week or two weeks worth a clothing not juss one outfit. And I know I couldn't have been the only one cause I know how students stay in general. Is like what bajansistren ask me when I tell she bout the show; "300 who? Wait we buying outfits for the whole class right?"
But back to this styler, stylist woman. She like she don't remember she student days at all. I don't know who she marketing 300 dollar outfits to as affordable. Or maybe I just missing the point cause I guess all these brand name things duz sell and as far as I can tell from the price tags dem doan be the most affordable even to a fella like me that holing down a steady job. Still I feel is back to school fashion not back to Wall street fashion. 300 dollars for one outfit look far from affordable to me.
That is why I like school uniform boy. Slap dem in some khaki pants and a shirt and forget all this brand name 300 dollar outfits.
I see this show on tv yesterday as I was flipping de channels. De woman on de show was some sort of styler or stylist or something so and she was showing the people back-to-school fashions. Dem did look ranging from so so to alright in my opinion except there was this one model wearing a skirt that look like a purple garbage bag but otherwise I cant complain too much. the clothes din look too bad-deish. I wasn't going to be running out to buy nuttin them but they wasn't too bad still.
Sort of chic though if that is the word that I should be using, yes sort of chic. Fellas wearing slacks and nice sweaters and ting so. All in all a little above the usual gangsta gear I duz see alot a dese school men and women walking bout Scarborough wearing. Cause I think all dese youngstas bout hayso duz feel dem is badjohns but then again I feel that is a common Scarborough motif. I neva meet so many people pretending to be hard in me life till I life up this side.
Anyways as I was saying I watch this show. And the part that get me is that the woman de styler, stylist keep telling the host a de show about how affordable the clothes is. Then she buss out wid yes "that whole outfit can be put together for less that 500 dollars" . Well one was less that 300 the other less than 500 but she still use the word affordable for both.
Now I don't know bout how wunna stay financially but I know dat when I was a student that word student was a alias for, pockets on E, broke as hell. I wasn't wearing no 300 dollar outfits. In fact if I had 300 dollars and was actually willing to spend it all on clothing which I probably wouldn't it would have had to buy me about a week or two weeks worth a clothing not juss one outfit. And I know I couldn't have been the only one cause I know how students stay in general. Is like what bajansistren ask me when I tell she bout the show; "300 who? Wait we buying outfits for the whole class right?"
But back to this styler, stylist woman. She like she don't remember she student days at all. I don't know who she marketing 300 dollar outfits to as affordable. Or maybe I just missing the point cause I guess all these brand name things duz sell and as far as I can tell from the price tags dem doan be the most affordable even to a fella like me that holing down a steady job. Still I feel is back to school fashion not back to Wall street fashion. 300 dollars for one outfit look far from affordable to me.
That is why I like school uniform boy. Slap dem in some khaki pants and a shirt and forget all this brand name 300 dollar outfits.
Thursday, August 30, 2007
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
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
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