said I had a close one yesterday
jah put an angel over me, be strong
hold a firm meditation
one day things must get better
don't you go down
keep your head above the water
say, one day things must get better, be strong
Close one yesterday - Buju Banton
We bonded.
Not friends not even really acquaintances but yet we bonded due to our similarly sad and tragic situation and the waiting.
Yes the waiting, the ever present waiting. Some of us had been here 1/2 hr, some more and still waiting with no explanation. A5, B3, C9 it didn't matter the same scenario played itself out
in the corridor in front of every ward in the Q.E.H almost every lunchtime and early evening but especially at lunchtime.
The official visiting hours were 12 - 1 but we knew we were lucky if we got in before 10 after most days. Quarter after was more likely and most time the delays were enacted with nary a sorry or beg ya pardon by the staff. Its just the way of things.
"I blame all of you. Its your fault!" said one Bajan Yankee man outside with the growing crowd waiting at the ward I was going to. "If you guys don't speak up this will always happen and they will continue to treat us like this." He said in an American accent before flipping into bajan
"Man, I juss cum to drop off someting and I gotta be back in St John by 12:30." Chupse! He fiddled with his watch which by now said 12:15. "You need to complain to the people in charge."
Some murmured in approval, others chupsed not at him but at the situation we were in. Others like me just continued to look at the worn tiles with random thoughts running through their heads.
Who me? Complain officially? Chupse! That gine do something doah ? Wha all that gine do is get my family victimize.
You do know victimization is a bajan tradition right? We aint invent it but we sure as hell perfect it boy. Doan let dem fool ya dat cricket is we national sport ya. Is victimization dat replace cricket long long time.
Wha I got sick family in hayso an de hoggish nurses doan treat dem suh well as is already, ya want dem ta kill my relatives now. Not me an de complaining bosie not me.
I just stood there deep in thought as the mumbles grew louder.
"Looka dat ward down deyso let in 10 minutes ago. Wha wrong wid dese wuns in hayso? Dem like dem playing de tail!" Another lady said as we sweat it out in the hospital corridor, tired from standing cause the bench in front of the ward door only sat 4 maximum and there were about 12 of us waiting.
"dey just cann do things to time and come 1 o' clock dey gine still play they wanta ring de bell too ya know."
That was true sometimes. Sometimes they made up the time lost others well it was mugs game guessing what would happen on which day.
And so we waited.
Two minutes later the door finally opened. A neatly attired nurse walked out, said good afternoon and then closed the door again.
"wait wha happenin in deyso?"
"when dis gine open?"
"I don't know I doan work in dat ward" she said and sauntered away down the corridor, nuff chupses giving her a royal send off.
One minute later the door still closed and thoughts of rebellion creeping into our minds well my mind anyway. Thoughts of knocking down the door with my motley crew of relatives and friends, overpowering the nurses , dropping some hot liks in dey tail and taking over the ward. This is fa all wunna brutes that duz act so unmannerly to de patients! Tek dat wunah wretches! Whapax! Maybe the act of sedition would spread like wildfire from ward to ward until the floor maybe the whole hospital was over run by the fed up family members and finally liberated and secured.
Then what? ummmm. Got to think this through before I make a move.
My thoughts were interrupted as one of the nurses pushed the door slightly ajar.
"Sorry for the delay today, medical emergency." Door closed again.
Well at least for once they gave us an explanation although it wasn't much of one. But then again I've come to expect this from my dealings with the hospital over the past two weeks. Doctors seem purposely vague. When asked for a diagnosis they name body parts.
"Well is the kidney" or "looks like its her heart" or "its his foot".
Yea well ok. But what exactly about the foot is it? Sorry but that's not a diagnosis in my opinion.
What about the foot wrong? Is a toenail want cutting? De foot swell, the arch collapse, ya got to cut off the foot? cause ya know if its one thing they like doing down deyso at the QEH is cutting off people foot quick quick.
Nail juk pun ya toe, foot cut off!
Foot swell up. foot cut off
toe nail want cleaning whoops foot chop off!
Suh much one foot people and no leg people bout the place it look like some sort a bajan civil war brek out like how in Africa ya see all them refugees missing body parts. But it aint no civil war is just Doctor Cutty and Nurse Choppy butchering de people appendages.
Anyway the announcement of a medical emergency send all we waiters into a deep funk. Who family was critical now? Cuhdear! I hope is not mine. Lemma say a prayer quick boy.
Door open again. "Is there family here for Victor Small?"An older lady in a nice cotton dress and a younger voluptuous woman in one of those push up bra too small, cleavage revealing tops that seem to be the in thing in Barbados who I had just been admiring looking nice in her black pants stepped forward.
"Wunnah here for Small? the nurse asked.
"Yes I am his wife and this is he graddaughta." said the older lady.
They were ushered quickly into the room.
I'd be lying if I said I didn't breathe a sigh of relief that it wasn't me that they had called in. I feel for their plight but I also feel for me too.
Time slowly clicked by and three minutes later they came back out looking even more morose than they went in. The older lady was trying to contain her emotions but the younger one couldn't stop crying.
"He gone?" Somebody asked?
No but he like he almost gone the older lady replied while the younger woman rested against a wall as her whole body heaved while she sobbed inconsolably.
Someone in the hallway said "Sit down nuh girl."
"Look gi she a scotch. let she sit down"
Another old lady moved from the bench but the girl stood attached to the wall with a handkerchief to her face, eyes red and cheeks puffy as the tears streamed.
"Sit down nuh"
'Try a sit down before ya fall down"
Some one went over and touched her arm and said something in her ear in an attempt to console her. She cried even more but still refused to sit down. The raw emotion on display had left us silent.
Two minutes later the door reopened. Both sides this time as an orderly pushed Mr Small out on a stretcher. They were taking him to ICU and so the grieving family followed while we all looked on silent, frozen where we were, emotion itching in our throats struggling to be let free.
They took him down the hall to the elevator I presume. And then they finally let us in to the ward. No other comment about the delay.
said I had close one yesterday
jah put an angel over me, be strong
hold a firm meditation
one day things must get better
don't you go down
keep your head above the water
say, one day things must get better, be strong
This one dedicated to pops who died today. I'll be gone for a bit. Rest in Peace. One!
Sunday, June 15, 2008
Friday, May 30, 2008
I'll be back
but for now juss seccllllleee!
Be back in two or three weeks. Hold down the blogverse for me til then.
One
Jdid
Be back in two or three weeks. Hold down the blogverse for me til then.
One
Jdid
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Pretty ugly
Got permission for this one cause certain people will email me and say I unfairing my wife too much on this blog, especially after I posted this one last year. I'm still am absolutely certain she is trying to bump me off though but that is another story.
Anyway was watching the NBA playoffs the other night and the wife joined me for a few minutes. Conversation swayed towards the NBA and the relative beauty or lack of, of most of its stars.
So I asked my wife her thoughts on one particular player who will remain nameless for now and her response was
"Naa he too pretty. I dont like pretty men like he."
So now I'm sitting there laughing my head off cause I'm thinking well either one of two things. If I good looking then the wife dont like me and if she like me then I musse real ugly.
Its a no win situation. :-)
Anyway was watching the NBA playoffs the other night and the wife joined me for a few minutes. Conversation swayed towards the NBA and the relative beauty or lack of, of most of its stars.
So I asked my wife her thoughts on one particular player who will remain nameless for now and her response was
"Naa he too pretty. I dont like pretty men like he."
So now I'm sitting there laughing my head off cause I'm thinking well either one of two things. If I good looking then the wife dont like me and if she like me then I musse real ugly.
Its a no win situation. :-)
Sunday, May 25, 2008
Foul ....and one
You've got to check out Brother Buck's cartoon.
For a person who claims she has so much more experience and is so much more ready to lead than her primary opponent, Hilary Clinton sure does put her foot in her mouth a lot.
“You know my husband did not wrap up the nomination in 1992 until he won the California primary somewhere in the middle of June, right?” she said. “We all remember Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in June in California.”
I don't know. I mean I sort of understand her point as Wyclef would say Anything can Happen right? Still to bring up the specter of assassination in a race against an opponent who was given secret service protection the earliest any candidate has ever been in the history of US elections has got to be one of the dumbest things you could possibly do.
It shows how desperate and frazzled Hillary really is in my opinion. The race for her is over, she's just shell shocked and refusing to let go of a claim she thought was her birthright.
I know earlier in the campaign I read that certain older black folks were afraid to vote for Obama cause they were afraid that they were putting him in harms way. I don't really subscribe to that logic but every time I see him giving one of those speeches I emotionally brace myself for the possibility that shots could ring out. I hope and pray they don't but as ya never know right. Got lots of folk out there who are not pleased that a black man is this close to the democratic nomination. Its just the reality.
Still you don't want to hear your opponent bringing up that possibility cause it almost seems like they are hoping that that is what happens. Actually its just a poor comment regardless of its intention. A silly silly comment.
Hillary we're tired of your excuses for staying in the race so long. You're just playing the spoiler now. It almost looks like you are trying to muddy the waters for your fellow democrat. But do what you feel to do. All I can say is both you and Bill showed a wicked and dirty side this election so we're taking back our first black president moniker.
For a person who claims she has so much more experience and is so much more ready to lead than her primary opponent, Hilary Clinton sure does put her foot in her mouth a lot.
“You know my husband did not wrap up the nomination in 1992 until he won the California primary somewhere in the middle of June, right?” she said. “We all remember Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in June in California.”
I don't know. I mean I sort of understand her point as Wyclef would say Anything can Happen right? Still to bring up the specter of assassination in a race against an opponent who was given secret service protection the earliest any candidate has ever been in the history of US elections has got to be one of the dumbest things you could possibly do.
It shows how desperate and frazzled Hillary really is in my opinion. The race for her is over, she's just shell shocked and refusing to let go of a claim she thought was her birthright.
I know earlier in the campaign I read that certain older black folks were afraid to vote for Obama cause they were afraid that they were putting him in harms way. I don't really subscribe to that logic but every time I see him giving one of those speeches I emotionally brace myself for the possibility that shots could ring out. I hope and pray they don't but as ya never know right. Got lots of folk out there who are not pleased that a black man is this close to the democratic nomination. Its just the reality.
Still you don't want to hear your opponent bringing up that possibility cause it almost seems like they are hoping that that is what happens. Actually its just a poor comment regardless of its intention. A silly silly comment.
Hillary we're tired of your excuses for staying in the race so long. You're just playing the spoiler now. It almost looks like you are trying to muddy the waters for your fellow democrat. But do what you feel to do. All I can say is both you and Bill showed a wicked and dirty side this election so we're taking back our first black president moniker.
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
Pink Caddy
She was driving a big mout car. Car mout suh big that is bout three minutes between when you first see the headlights and when you see the driver. A big, big, long pink cadillac!
I wonder how that car mout get suh big though? Must be like when as a chile and ya mudda tell ya doan push up ya mout or it will stan push up for good. Well this car musse push up it mout as a chile car and it just stick so cause the car mout long, long, long like an alligator wun.
Must be one of the first times I ever see one of them on the road too. I thought dem Cadillacs so was Hollywood cars? I didn't know people drove dem in real life. Color remind me of the suit Nas was wearing in the video for Street Dreams. Bright bright so!
So see she turning the corner as I walked through Kensington Market heading back to Spadina.
She? Well she was some hippy looking, notty dread locks want washing, white girl in a tank top dat could barely see over the dashboard properly. So see she turn the corner and driving down the road slow, slow, slow cause I guess if ya driving a pink cadillac its written in within the warranty and license that ya can only go suh fast or ya not doing justice to the vehicle.
As if driving something suh big and suh pink aint gettin' ya enough attention.
Anyways she moseying down the road, peep over the dashboard and notice that a few pigeons was in the road ahead of she. Bout five of them just deyso peck peck pecking away
Ya know what the foolish girl start doing? She start honking she horn. Pramp , Pramp, Pramp, Pramp, Pramp!
At first I thought there was traffic ahead a she dat I din see and she trying to honk at dem but no she honking at birds. chupse!
And she slow down to less than a crawl now and peeping over the dashboard past the car long mout trying to peep at the pigeons. But the pigeons ain't paying no real attention to the Pramp Pramp and she just disturbing the peace cause they still in the road picking at whatever invisible dust it is on the road that duz fascinate pigeons so and dem only backing off slightly when the big wheels of the long mout car get too close.
She couldn't be pramp pramping at me, the pigeons musse was thinking to themselves. She gotta recognize that we dont answer to nuh pramp, pramp, pramp. Maybe she cud get way wid talking to blackbirds or sparrows or wood doves like dat but ya gots to come correct when ya addressing we ...........
So all she doing is peeping and Pramp Pramping, adding to the usual noise pollution of the market instead a driving through the foolish pigeons.
I get a good view a she as I get closer cause she was only bothering my head wid de long lotta loud noise. pramp pramp pramp on the horn like the horn gine outta style. She getting on like she forget that dem is birds and they can fly away if and when they really they want.
She look like one a dem sorta hippy, duz smoke nuff weed, I love the earth and the animals are my brothers and sisters and I wouldn't so much as eat a chicken leg cause it would pain me to think that the one time I eat pieca de colonel's secret recipe I deprive a one legged chicken somewhere in need of a leg transplant of its one chance at lasting happiness types.
You ever meet dem yet? De wuns dat duz dread dem hair cause they feel that locks make them closer to mother earth somehow. Either that or they frighten fa a comb! All dum duz usually end up wid some big, ugly, hardback rasta man dat no decent respectable woman white , black, brown or green wud give the time of day to. Some musty want bathing fella wid a name like I-vexwidsociety or I-cantevenspellmynameproperly or I this that an de third. And next ting ya see two a dum walking de streets wid three or four hard headed pickneys running bout the place............
But anyways she deyso gine on bout the place wid de pramp pramp thing getting people tired enough a de long mout pink car and the pigeons barely egging she on backing back slow slow giving she their best we will move when we good and ready to move intimidatory looks and laughing at she cause they realize how they making she look like a real jackass.
Eventually someone shouted out "Just drive, they will move when they want to." That like that wake she out of she trance cause she look over at the sidewalk to see who had spoken. Was a fella from one a de stores moving some piece of furniture or shelf on the sidewalk. "Don't worry about them, Dem could fly ya kno!"
And it finally clicked with her so she moved on picking up pace again back to her slow I want you to look at me in this pink caddy pace.
As for the pigeons, to be honest to me dem aint worth wha paddy shot at. I think they survive but I couldn't be bothered to look back and see fa true.
I wonder how that car mout get suh big though? Must be like when as a chile and ya mudda tell ya doan push up ya mout or it will stan push up for good. Well this car musse push up it mout as a chile car and it just stick so cause the car mout long, long, long like an alligator wun.
Must be one of the first times I ever see one of them on the road too. I thought dem Cadillacs so was Hollywood cars? I didn't know people drove dem in real life. Color remind me of the suit Nas was wearing in the video for Street Dreams. Bright bright so!
So see she turning the corner as I walked through Kensington Market heading back to Spadina.
She? Well she was some hippy looking, notty dread locks want washing, white girl in a tank top dat could barely see over the dashboard properly. So see she turn the corner and driving down the road slow, slow, slow cause I guess if ya driving a pink cadillac its written in within the warranty and license that ya can only go suh fast or ya not doing justice to the vehicle.
As if driving something suh big and suh pink aint gettin' ya enough attention.
Anyways she moseying down the road, peep over the dashboard and notice that a few pigeons was in the road ahead of she. Bout five of them just deyso peck peck pecking awayYa know what the foolish girl start doing? She start honking she horn. Pramp , Pramp, Pramp, Pramp, Pramp!
At first I thought there was traffic ahead a she dat I din see and she trying to honk at dem but no she honking at birds. chupse!
And she slow down to less than a crawl now and peeping over the dashboard past the car long mout trying to peep at the pigeons. But the pigeons ain't paying no real attention to the Pramp Pramp and she just disturbing the peace cause they still in the road picking at whatever invisible dust it is on the road that duz fascinate pigeons so and dem only backing off slightly when the big wheels of the long mout car get too close.
She couldn't be pramp pramping at me, the pigeons musse was thinking to themselves. She gotta recognize that we dont answer to nuh pramp, pramp, pramp. Maybe she cud get way wid talking to blackbirds or sparrows or wood doves like dat but ya gots to come correct when ya addressing we ...........
So all she doing is peeping and Pramp Pramping, adding to the usual noise pollution of the market instead a driving through the foolish pigeons.
I get a good view a she as I get closer cause she was only bothering my head wid de long lotta loud noise. pramp pramp pramp on the horn like the horn gine outta style. She getting on like she forget that dem is birds and they can fly away if and when they really they want.
She look like one a dem sorta hippy, duz smoke nuff weed, I love the earth and the animals are my brothers and sisters and I wouldn't so much as eat a chicken leg cause it would pain me to think that the one time I eat pieca de colonel's secret recipe I deprive a one legged chicken somewhere in need of a leg transplant of its one chance at lasting happiness types.
You ever meet dem yet? De wuns dat duz dread dem hair cause they feel that locks make them closer to mother earth somehow. Either that or they frighten fa a comb! All dum duz usually end up wid some big, ugly, hardback rasta man dat no decent respectable woman white , black, brown or green wud give the time of day to. Some musty want bathing fella wid a name like I-vexwidsociety or I-cantevenspellmynameproperly or I this that an de third. And next ting ya see two a dum walking de streets wid three or four hard headed pickneys running bout the place............
But anyways she deyso gine on bout the place wid de pramp pramp thing getting people tired enough a de long mout pink car and the pigeons barely egging she on backing back slow slow giving she their best we will move when we good and ready to move intimidatory looks and laughing at she cause they realize how they making she look like a real jackass.
Eventually someone shouted out "Just drive, they will move when they want to." That like that wake she out of she trance cause she look over at the sidewalk to see who had spoken. Was a fella from one a de stores moving some piece of furniture or shelf on the sidewalk. "Don't worry about them, Dem could fly ya kno!"
And it finally clicked with her so she moved on picking up pace again back to her slow I want you to look at me in this pink caddy pace.
As for the pigeons, to be honest to me dem aint worth wha paddy shot at. I think they survive but I couldn't be bothered to look back and see fa true.
Things I learned
last week.
One - I really don't feel like blogging these days.
Two - Burma ie Myanmar has a population of 47 million. I always thought it was pretty small place to be honest. I mean I don't think I've ever met a Burmese yet and this is Toronto where you meet everyone.
Three - There is a thin line between love and hate. Case in point, jilted girlfriend and family hires assassins to knock off ex boyfriend who was going to get married in India.
Four - Marlon Samuels is an idiot.
Five - I'm still hoping for a Spurs vs Pistons finals to drive David Stern to the madhouse.
One - I really don't feel like blogging these days.
Two - Burma ie Myanmar has a population of 47 million. I always thought it was pretty small place to be honest. I mean I don't think I've ever met a Burmese yet and this is Toronto where you meet everyone.
Three - There is a thin line between love and hate. Case in point, jilted girlfriend and family hires assassins to knock off ex boyfriend who was going to get married in India.
Four - Marlon Samuels is an idiot.
Five - I'm still hoping for a Spurs vs Pistons finals to drive David Stern to the madhouse.
Sunday, May 11, 2008
New Flow
Recently I've seen a few articles (including this one) complaining about the change in programming on Flow 93.5 FM here in Toronto. From primarily an Urban station format, Flow has apparently morphed into a top 40 station and some folk here are up in arms.
I really don't see why all of the hoopla over Flow. I mean in my opinion we were all hoodwinked on this station from the inception anyways.
Back in the day, read 10 years ago, Toronto, gasp, didn't have its own homegrown urban station. Say it wasn't so? No it was so! We had WBLK straight out of Buffalo instead and the reception for that station was spotty at best. You could pick it up in Scarborough not so well downtown etc etc. Mind you BLK as it was known loved Toronto, after all they were getting paid off Toronto focused advertising, something like 60% of total revenue at the time I had heard. We in Toronto did have though and continue to have some excellent urban and black oriented programming on local college radio; CKLN, CIUT, CHRY.
Anyway at that point in came Mr Denham Jolly of Milestone Radio with his proposal to the CRTC for an urban, at that time read black, station and his complaints that the CRTC had kept turning him down (3 times actually) and how it was a shame that a major city like Toronto didn't have an urban station. Which it was by the way!
The urban, read black, public bought his argument and threw their support behind his cause and in 2000 Toronto and Mr Jolly finally got the CRTC to see the light and sometime early in 2001 Toronto had its own urban station. Flow 93.5 FM.
They started well. Grabbed up a bunch of local community radio personalities (Somebody send out an S.O.S for my man DJ X) to fill some slots and we the public thought it was on and popping. Finally!
Except that what should have been cause for real celebration wasn't really in my opinion. See the black community had thrown its support behind Mr Denham because most of us naively thought we would be getting the equivalent of the community radio shows on this new urban station but more of it. All day long, we had envisioned as opposed to those late night time slots that we had on the community radio. We were picturing 24-7 hip hop, rnb , calypso, reggae, jazz and programming speaking to the needs and desires of the urban read black populace.
Yea sure in the back of our minds we knew that BLK an urban station as well didn't do that but BLK wasn't that bad and we thought Flow being all based in Toronto would cater more to the needs of the unique mix that is Toronto's urban population.
What we got instead wasn't even sorry was nowhere near as good as BLK and is what I refer to as BET radio. The same 10 or 20 tunes played ad nauseam in slightly different sequences for the whole day. I personally still remember hearing John Legend's Used to love U about 5 times in a 40 min trip from downtown to Scarborough a few years back.
Oh don't get me wrong though we did get a few bones thrown our way to appease us. Our little calypso show on Sunday evenings and the occasional reggae (read nuff nuff nuff Sean Paul) and the late, late night real underground hip hop but prime time and the rest of the day for the most part was just like watching 106 & Park with a few exceptions, big up Starting From Scratch.
In my opinion the station never lived up to our expectations or desires. Of course maybe we were a bit too idealistic. Its cool to have that urban station but the majority of us who supported the application back in the day I'm pretty sure if you ask us 7 years later this is not what we expected or in some cases were led to believe the station would be like.
A so it go sometimes, the argument being that the format we envisioned wouldn't make the money required to run a successful business. Got to market the station and get a broader base and I guess playing the same 10 rnb and hip hop songs does that. Its all about that C.R.E.A.M still ain't it?
So no I don't see what folks are getting all upset about. It doesn't really matter if Flow starts playing Madonna and Britney now cause they let us down from the inception. This is not what we had in mind when late in the last millennium we talked excitedly about having an urban station or signed petitions to enhance Mr Jolly's claims. Flow used us and sold us out but we were naive and idealistic so its not totally their fault. After all what did we know about urban stations, it was all new ground for us. How were we to know that Urban radio meant the same playlist over and over until we actually think we like the tunes being played.
Still like I Said Top 40 or BET radio makes no damn difference to me. I don't listen anymore. Give me the community shows. Big up Worldwide, big up Masterplan, big up Mixtape Massacre, big up Morning Ride. Flow, new Flow who cares.
I really don't see why all of the hoopla over Flow. I mean in my opinion we were all hoodwinked on this station from the inception anyways.
Back in the day, read 10 years ago, Toronto, gasp, didn't have its own homegrown urban station. Say it wasn't so? No it was so! We had WBLK straight out of Buffalo instead and the reception for that station was spotty at best. You could pick it up in Scarborough not so well downtown etc etc. Mind you BLK as it was known loved Toronto, after all they were getting paid off Toronto focused advertising, something like 60% of total revenue at the time I had heard. We in Toronto did have though and continue to have some excellent urban and black oriented programming on local college radio; CKLN, CIUT, CHRY.
Anyway at that point in came Mr Denham Jolly of Milestone Radio with his proposal to the CRTC for an urban, at that time read black, station and his complaints that the CRTC had kept turning him down (3 times actually) and how it was a shame that a major city like Toronto didn't have an urban station. Which it was by the way!
The urban, read black, public bought his argument and threw their support behind his cause and in 2000 Toronto and Mr Jolly finally got the CRTC to see the light and sometime early in 2001 Toronto had its own urban station. Flow 93.5 FM.
They started well. Grabbed up a bunch of local community radio personalities (Somebody send out an S.O.S for my man DJ X) to fill some slots and we the public thought it was on and popping. Finally!
Except that what should have been cause for real celebration wasn't really in my opinion. See the black community had thrown its support behind Mr Denham because most of us naively thought we would be getting the equivalent of the community radio shows on this new urban station but more of it. All day long, we had envisioned as opposed to those late night time slots that we had on the community radio. We were picturing 24-7 hip hop, rnb , calypso, reggae, jazz and programming speaking to the needs and desires of the urban read black populace.
Yea sure in the back of our minds we knew that BLK an urban station as well didn't do that but BLK wasn't that bad and we thought Flow being all based in Toronto would cater more to the needs of the unique mix that is Toronto's urban population.
What we got instead wasn't even sorry was nowhere near as good as BLK and is what I refer to as BET radio. The same 10 or 20 tunes played ad nauseam in slightly different sequences for the whole day. I personally still remember hearing John Legend's Used to love U about 5 times in a 40 min trip from downtown to Scarborough a few years back.
Oh don't get me wrong though we did get a few bones thrown our way to appease us. Our little calypso show on Sunday evenings and the occasional reggae (read nuff nuff nuff Sean Paul) and the late, late night real underground hip hop but prime time and the rest of the day for the most part was just like watching 106 & Park with a few exceptions, big up Starting From Scratch.
In my opinion the station never lived up to our expectations or desires. Of course maybe we were a bit too idealistic. Its cool to have that urban station but the majority of us who supported the application back in the day I'm pretty sure if you ask us 7 years later this is not what we expected or in some cases were led to believe the station would be like.
A so it go sometimes, the argument being that the format we envisioned wouldn't make the money required to run a successful business. Got to market the station and get a broader base and I guess playing the same 10 rnb and hip hop songs does that. Its all about that C.R.E.A.M still ain't it?
So no I don't see what folks are getting all upset about. It doesn't really matter if Flow starts playing Madonna and Britney now cause they let us down from the inception. This is not what we had in mind when late in the last millennium we talked excitedly about having an urban station or signed petitions to enhance Mr Jolly's claims. Flow used us and sold us out but we were naive and idealistic so its not totally their fault. After all what did we know about urban stations, it was all new ground for us. How were we to know that Urban radio meant the same playlist over and over until we actually think we like the tunes being played.
Still like I Said Top 40 or BET radio makes no damn difference to me. I don't listen anymore. Give me the community shows. Big up Worldwide, big up Masterplan, big up Mixtape Massacre, big up Morning Ride. Flow, new Flow who cares.
Sunday, May 04, 2008
Heroes
(wrote most of this last year when Castro stepped down as leader of Cuba never posted it)
Elvis was a hero to most but he never meant
Fight the Power - Chuck D
Been thinking some random type thoughts lately. Was just on the bus last week or was it lounging around the house when something occurred to me. Actually I think I was thinking about music and my favorite mcs and how some people have elevated some of these guys to hero and icon status. Of course that got me thinking about Kris and this foolish Celebrity fat thing and I came to a conclusion.
You can only live on as a hero and icon in the hearts of the public if you die young. Well not only but it increases your chances by quite a bit. Think about it; Che Guevara, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, even Tupac , Biggie, Bob Marley. Why all those fellows have icon status? Yes they were great men to some extent but it also has a lot to do with them being cut down in their prime.
I not feeling to really go into a lot of detail hopefully but the point is its easier to lionize these
young dudes. These only the good die young, cut down in their prime , showing so much promise, with possibly great futures ahead of them types.
Why? 'Cause of the unfulfilled promise mostly. We think wow they achieved so much in so short a span what would they have achieved if they had lived longer? We imagine all sorts of lofty achievements all sorts of greatness ensuing from these cats and it is possible they would have become greater but I beg to differ.
I really think that its also possible that some of these fellows would have crashed and burned, fallen the bleep off. Would have become footnotes rather than the icons they are presently. Is possible n'est pas?
Think about it. If Martin Luther King had lived on, was alive today he would probably be as irrelevant as Jesse Jackson is. Actually Prof Dyson made a very good point at his speech two weeks ago when he said that King had become disliked before his death mainly because of his stance on Vietnam in 68. Its only that the media has crafted his image to reflect his 1963 I have a dream speech and thats the lasting image we have of the man today.
Bob Marley would have probably made some horrible album that everyone hated or tried to fuse reggae and grunge or something and we would be cussing him as a sellout or we might have just said boy your time has past and moved on to more relevant artists.
Same with Malcolm. To be honest I love Malcolm but at the end I see a man with very little in the way of a coherent ideology. In a sense death saved his legacy.
I know people not going to agree with me but thats just the way I see things. Che would have become fat and old like Castro and we might be thinking of him today as some throwback to the old ways not a revolutionary icon. Biggie could have been eclipsed by Jay Z, Pac might have ended up in jail again and could have become a crazy Mike Tyson like figure who didnt know to quit when he was ahead.
The point is dying early without fulfilling their dreams and goals really to me saved some of these guys. Not that they wouldn't have made further useful contributions just that at the end of the day odds are they might not have been placed on the pedestals we keep them on. Not that one can second guess history in a What-if manner but just consider the one's who lived
and how they turned out.
Plus who does the lionizing, the canonizing with these public icons? Is usually the young and the young usually idolize those like them or just older. Ok so Nelson Mandela is a bit of an anomaly in my argument but he spent a few decades in jail. Would he be as big if he had not been incarcerated through those years or would he have petered off into irrelevancy in our thoughts?
Elvis was a hero to most but he never meant
Fight the Power - Chuck D
Been thinking some random type thoughts lately. Was just on the bus last week or was it lounging around the house when something occurred to me. Actually I think I was thinking about music and my favorite mcs and how some people have elevated some of these guys to hero and icon status. Of course that got me thinking about Kris and this foolish Celebrity fat thing and I came to a conclusion.
You can only live on as a hero and icon in the hearts of the public if you die young. Well not only but it increases your chances by quite a bit. Think about it; Che Guevara, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, even Tupac , Biggie, Bob Marley. Why all those fellows have icon status? Yes they were great men to some extent but it also has a lot to do with them being cut down in their prime.
I not feeling to really go into a lot of detail hopefully but the point is its easier to lionize these
young dudes. These only the good die young, cut down in their prime , showing so much promise, with possibly great futures ahead of them types.
Why? 'Cause of the unfulfilled promise mostly. We think wow they achieved so much in so short a span what would they have achieved if they had lived longer? We imagine all sorts of lofty achievements all sorts of greatness ensuing from these cats and it is possible they would have become greater but I beg to differ.
I really think that its also possible that some of these fellows would have crashed and burned, fallen the bleep off. Would have become footnotes rather than the icons they are presently. Is possible n'est pas?
Think about it. If Martin Luther King had lived on, was alive today he would probably be as irrelevant as Jesse Jackson is. Actually Prof Dyson made a very good point at his speech two weeks ago when he said that King had become disliked before his death mainly because of his stance on Vietnam in 68. Its only that the media has crafted his image to reflect his 1963 I have a dream speech and thats the lasting image we have of the man today.
Bob Marley would have probably made some horrible album that everyone hated or tried to fuse reggae and grunge or something and we would be cussing him as a sellout or we might have just said boy your time has past and moved on to more relevant artists.
Same with Malcolm. To be honest I love Malcolm but at the end I see a man with very little in the way of a coherent ideology. In a sense death saved his legacy.
I know people not going to agree with me but thats just the way I see things. Che would have become fat and old like Castro and we might be thinking of him today as some throwback to the old ways not a revolutionary icon. Biggie could have been eclipsed by Jay Z, Pac might have ended up in jail again and could have become a crazy Mike Tyson like figure who didnt know to quit when he was ahead.
The point is dying early without fulfilling their dreams and goals really to me saved some of these guys. Not that they wouldn't have made further useful contributions just that at the end of the day odds are they might not have been placed on the pedestals we keep them on. Not that one can second guess history in a What-if manner but just consider the one's who lived
and how they turned out.
Plus who does the lionizing, the canonizing with these public icons? Is usually the young and the young usually idolize those like them or just older. Ok so Nelson Mandela is a bit of an anomaly in my argument but he spent a few decades in jail. Would he be as big if he had not been incarcerated through those years or would he have petered off into irrelevancy in our thoughts?
Monday, April 28, 2008
Transit Strike - the day after
I needed to talk about the transit strike some more.
On the subway this morning there was a pre-recorded message from the TTC thanking customers for their patience during the strike this past weekend. Found it a little annoying actually but I think they were afraid the public might resort to violence or something.
Actually you could tell that the bus drivers and subway guys seemed a bit sheepish today after the strike. Also a little fearful. There were all sorts of statements issued about not assaulting or abusing TTC staff and from a certain perspective it was kind of funny to see these mighty transit men who had just held the City at ransom quake in their boots as if Torontonians were going to dig out the torches and the pitchforks and drag a few of them from behind the wheels of their iron machines and give them a lynching. As if! (wait am I allowed to use that word lynching or will I get into trouble?)
It was also sort of like watching a kid that knows he has done wrong slink away in shame and wait on a punishment that he hopes isn't coming but can't really be upset if it does come cause he feels he might deserves it or in some way provoked it.
That's the way it seemed to me anyway. Don't worry though aside from the odd oddball I'm sure most folks will be as indifferent to their bus drivers as most Torontonians usually are.
The other thing I thought about was just how unfair a transit strike on the weekend is. Transit strikes in general target those that cant do better but its not that simple in a big city like Toronto. A lot if not most of the Torontonians who use transit have access to their own cars. It just happens to be more convenient to escape the gridlock and the $20 a day parking downtown or more environmentally friendly to take the bus or subway to work or school.
but then when you strike on a weekend .....
Well then you are basically just targeting the captive riders cause anyone who can do better doesn't use the service on the weekend with its lackadaisical schedule. You only use transit on the weekend if you really cant do any better otherwise you drive where you're going.
So by having a strike on the weekend the TTC really targeted, shift workers, the working and non-working poor, the disabled, those that couldn't do any better like those that make $10 dollars an hour and have no wheels and for who a taxi drive to work would be prohibitively expensive. These vulnerable folk are the types who suffered the most from the strike. The middle class, the rich well they probably didn't even notice its effect beside worrying as to whether it would be back to normal in time for Morning rush hour.
So this strike to me we just have a union just picking on the really vulnerable. That sucks.
Oh well just wanted to get that off my chest.
ps: as an aside blogger spell check keeps asking me if I want to change Torontonians to Trinidadians. Imagine that eh he!
On the subway this morning there was a pre-recorded message from the TTC thanking customers for their patience during the strike this past weekend. Found it a little annoying actually but I think they were afraid the public might resort to violence or something.
Actually you could tell that the bus drivers and subway guys seemed a bit sheepish today after the strike. Also a little fearful. There were all sorts of statements issued about not assaulting or abusing TTC staff and from a certain perspective it was kind of funny to see these mighty transit men who had just held the City at ransom quake in their boots as if Torontonians were going to dig out the torches and the pitchforks and drag a few of them from behind the wheels of their iron machines and give them a lynching. As if! (wait am I allowed to use that word lynching or will I get into trouble?)
It was also sort of like watching a kid that knows he has done wrong slink away in shame and wait on a punishment that he hopes isn't coming but can't really be upset if it does come cause he feels he might deserves it or in some way provoked it.
That's the way it seemed to me anyway. Don't worry though aside from the odd oddball I'm sure most folks will be as indifferent to their bus drivers as most Torontonians usually are.
The other thing I thought about was just how unfair a transit strike on the weekend is. Transit strikes in general target those that cant do better but its not that simple in a big city like Toronto. A lot if not most of the Torontonians who use transit have access to their own cars. It just happens to be more convenient to escape the gridlock and the $20 a day parking downtown or more environmentally friendly to take the bus or subway to work or school.
but then when you strike on a weekend .....
Well then you are basically just targeting the captive riders cause anyone who can do better doesn't use the service on the weekend with its lackadaisical schedule. You only use transit on the weekend if you really cant do any better otherwise you drive where you're going.
So by having a strike on the weekend the TTC really targeted, shift workers, the working and non-working poor, the disabled, those that couldn't do any better like those that make $10 dollars an hour and have no wheels and for who a taxi drive to work would be prohibitively expensive. These vulnerable folk are the types who suffered the most from the strike. The middle class, the rich well they probably didn't even notice its effect beside worrying as to whether it would be back to normal in time for Morning rush hour.
So this strike to me we just have a union just picking on the really vulnerable. That sucks.
Oh well just wanted to get that off my chest.
ps: as an aside blogger spell check keeps asking me if I want to change Torontonians to Trinidadians. Imagine that eh he!
Sunday, April 27, 2008
Dear Mr Transit man
You is really a dirty, stinking so n so! you kno dat?
Now don't take that too personally but really you can't blame Torontonians if that is how we feel right now that you went on strike this weekend.
The thing is I aint really mad at you for striking that much. If you felt you couldn't accept the contract then by all means strike its your right. Its just that last week you promised that you would give us 48 hrs notice of a strike and then out of the blue we wake up Saturday morning and hear you was on strike from last night. No 48 hr notice, not even as much as two hours notice just sudden so out of the blue .... bram! bus and subway stop running. People left in the middle a de street like idiots looking for the next bus that ain't coming. Got them digging in their pocket for two coppers to mek taxi fare. Ya mean you couldn't even wait till after payday come to strike? What a ting!
It was also vexing because you weren't supposed to go on strike now. A settlement had been tentatively reached after a strike threat for last Monday. And even though some of the improvements and clauses on the settlement looked to the average man like you and the Transit Union had gotten away with murder and had most definitely gotten the best of the negotiations with the City and the TTC management we had breathed a collective sigh of relief that no strike would occur and all was well again cause yea gas prices shooting through the stratosphere at the moment and this is a City where about 20-25% of people rely on transit to get to work in the morning. So no bus, no train means more drama. Nuff people scrambling to get to work and the city looking confuse like misery move up.
So there we were thinking that all was fine and dandy. You had clauses that if any other transit workers in the whole province got more money than you then the City would renegotiate to keep you the highest paid in the area. That just goes to show how special and important we feel you is that you get that clause in there.
Ya get ya 100% sick leave pay and we was happy for ya. Man nobody din even cuss ya for all them drivers that working overtime and end up mekkin over $100,000 last year. Imagine that $100,000 from driving a bus? I gine let my mudda know that she mek me waste my blasted time wid all this stupid university schooling nonsense when I could have been learning to drive bus and make some real money. Chupse!
And you know what? You had sympathy too cause people was saying cuhdear is a stressful job and we respect that and if a bus driver get assault or hurt on the job why should he only get 80% of his pay while on sick leave? We empathized with your demand for the 100% which you got in the end. It only seemed fair to us.
And we were giving you props for saying you'd give us 48 hrs notice so we could make alternative plans be it slapping tar, bike, electric bike, Go-Train, taxi, car or stand home. We knew a strike would produce bachannal on the streets and we weren't looking forward to one but at least that was right decent of you to be giving us proper notice.
And now this!
Mr Transit man let me tell you now all good will towards you done. D.U.N done!
You had people out Friday night, Saturday morning trying to get home from a late shift or from a fete downtown stuck on the streets, waiting at bus stops far from home, and not a single train, bus or streetcar ain't run after midnight. Not me mind you! Wunnah ain't ketch me! I old, I duz be in my bed at 830 so I wasn't out on the road like some poor fellas waiting on the last bus to take them back to North York or Scarborough or Etobicoke. No sir not me!
But is the principal of the thing man. Cause first off we didn't know that you were even contemplating strike. Like I said tentative deal was reached last weekend and needed to be ratified and everyone breathed sigh of relief. Strike averted, people happy and looking at the makeup of the tentative deal we thought you were happy.
You met Friday and didn't ratify it. Cuhdear now what wrong with the deal? Ya trying to get blood out of a stone now. The City broke, the transit people never had no money in the first place, them raise bus fares umpteen times already in the last two years. What more ya want now? Look this is think line ya walking cause if you ask for too much it could backfire on everybody and I don't know what other driving jobs you going find out there where you going t make as much money as you currently making.
To me the move if the deal didn't get ratified by your members would have been to say we don't like that offer can we go back to the bargaining table or to at least give the people a day or two of warning that you will be going on strike. That would have been the decent thing to do. We might still have cussed you as ungrateful, greedy curs but still you shouldn't just stop the buses at midnight with no warning and leave people stranded so. That is a nasty move man. That show me you ain't got no broughupsy, know no common courtesy, no feeling for ya fellow man, nuh compassion, nuttin so.
I going to pray for all ya at church today though! Ask the Lord for now to hold off on the smiting wid de Thunder and Lightning that some a we feel ya rightly deserve!
Then you say you ain't give us the 48 hrs notice cause last weekend people cuss you when ya do that. Well boy if ya think people cuss ya when there was only a strike threat and you didn't actually go on strike imagine how much cussing you going to get when you are forced back to work Monday.
Did I also mention that ya decide to strike in the middle of the highest gas prices here ever. $1.21 a litre and rising! Chupse! Got me looking to get a used tricycle cheap and done wid car, bus, train and everything one time!
Anyway they going to legislate you back to work on Monday so I will see you then. Ya don't have to be frighten when ya see me Monday morning though. I ain't one of them fellas that going abuse you and cuss you for this debacle. I might even offer you a good morning (yes even though I don't speak on the train I will say morning to the bus driver) if my mind bid muh to but just remember that somewhere deep in my head even if I smiling I still thinking that all ya is dirty stinking so n sos to leff the people stranded so with no warning.
Ya use up all the good will we de people had for ya!
Lemma guhlong to church before ya mek me sin my soul more. I still going pray for you though.
Your Truly
Jdid
ps: just because I cuss ya here don't play ya driving past me tomorrow morning and don't pick me up ya kno!
Now don't take that too personally but really you can't blame Torontonians if that is how we feel right now that you went on strike this weekend.
The thing is I aint really mad at you for striking that much. If you felt you couldn't accept the contract then by all means strike its your right. Its just that last week you promised that you would give us 48 hrs notice of a strike and then out of the blue we wake up Saturday morning and hear you was on strike from last night. No 48 hr notice, not even as much as two hours notice just sudden so out of the blue .... bram! bus and subway stop running. People left in the middle a de street like idiots looking for the next bus that ain't coming. Got them digging in their pocket for two coppers to mek taxi fare. Ya mean you couldn't even wait till after payday come to strike? What a ting!
It was also vexing because you weren't supposed to go on strike now. A settlement had been tentatively reached after a strike threat for last Monday. And even though some of the improvements and clauses on the settlement looked to the average man like you and the Transit Union had gotten away with murder and had most definitely gotten the best of the negotiations with the City and the TTC management we had breathed a collective sigh of relief that no strike would occur and all was well again cause yea gas prices shooting through the stratosphere at the moment and this is a City where about 20-25% of people rely on transit to get to work in the morning. So no bus, no train means more drama. Nuff people scrambling to get to work and the city looking confuse like misery move up.
So there we were thinking that all was fine and dandy. You had clauses that if any other transit workers in the whole province got more money than you then the City would renegotiate to keep you the highest paid in the area. That just goes to show how special and important we feel you is that you get that clause in there.
Ya get ya 100% sick leave pay and we was happy for ya. Man nobody din even cuss ya for all them drivers that working overtime and end up mekkin over $100,000 last year. Imagine that $100,000 from driving a bus? I gine let my mudda know that she mek me waste my blasted time wid all this stupid university schooling nonsense when I could have been learning to drive bus and make some real money. Chupse!
And you know what? You had sympathy too cause people was saying cuhdear is a stressful job and we respect that and if a bus driver get assault or hurt on the job why should he only get 80% of his pay while on sick leave? We empathized with your demand for the 100% which you got in the end. It only seemed fair to us.
And we were giving you props for saying you'd give us 48 hrs notice so we could make alternative plans be it slapping tar, bike, electric bike, Go-Train, taxi, car or stand home. We knew a strike would produce bachannal on the streets and we weren't looking forward to one but at least that was right decent of you to be giving us proper notice.
And now this!
Mr Transit man let me tell you now all good will towards you done. D.U.N done!
You had people out Friday night, Saturday morning trying to get home from a late shift or from a fete downtown stuck on the streets, waiting at bus stops far from home, and not a single train, bus or streetcar ain't run after midnight. Not me mind you! Wunnah ain't ketch me! I old, I duz be in my bed at 830 so I wasn't out on the road like some poor fellas waiting on the last bus to take them back to North York or Scarborough or Etobicoke. No sir not me!
But is the principal of the thing man. Cause first off we didn't know that you were even contemplating strike. Like I said tentative deal was reached last weekend and needed to be ratified and everyone breathed sigh of relief. Strike averted, people happy and looking at the makeup of the tentative deal we thought you were happy.
You met Friday and didn't ratify it. Cuhdear now what wrong with the deal? Ya trying to get blood out of a stone now. The City broke, the transit people never had no money in the first place, them raise bus fares umpteen times already in the last two years. What more ya want now? Look this is think line ya walking cause if you ask for too much it could backfire on everybody and I don't know what other driving jobs you going find out there where you going t make as much money as you currently making.
To me the move if the deal didn't get ratified by your members would have been to say we don't like that offer can we go back to the bargaining table or to at least give the people a day or two of warning that you will be going on strike. That would have been the decent thing to do. We might still have cussed you as ungrateful, greedy curs but still you shouldn't just stop the buses at midnight with no warning and leave people stranded so. That is a nasty move man. That show me you ain't got no broughupsy, know no common courtesy, no feeling for ya fellow man, nuh compassion, nuttin so.
I going to pray for all ya at church today though! Ask the Lord for now to hold off on the smiting wid de Thunder and Lightning that some a we feel ya rightly deserve!
Then you say you ain't give us the 48 hrs notice cause last weekend people cuss you when ya do that. Well boy if ya think people cuss ya when there was only a strike threat and you didn't actually go on strike imagine how much cussing you going to get when you are forced back to work Monday.
Did I also mention that ya decide to strike in the middle of the highest gas prices here ever. $1.21 a litre and rising! Chupse! Got me looking to get a used tricycle cheap and done wid car, bus, train and everything one time!
Anyway they going to legislate you back to work on Monday so I will see you then. Ya don't have to be frighten when ya see me Monday morning though. I ain't one of them fellas that going abuse you and cuss you for this debacle. I might even offer you a good morning (yes even though I don't speak on the train I will say morning to the bus driver) if my mind bid muh to but just remember that somewhere deep in my head even if I smiling I still thinking that all ya is dirty stinking so n sos to leff the people stranded so with no warning.
Ya use up all the good will we de people had for ya!
Lemma guhlong to church before ya mek me sin my soul more. I still going pray for you though.
Your Truly
Jdid
ps: just because I cuss ya here don't play ya driving past me tomorrow morning and don't pick me up ya kno!
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
You talking to me?
"Good Morning!"
Those two innocuous words threw me for a loop this morning. They came from a man sitting adjacent to me on the subway as I rode in on my way to work.
In the three seconds it took for my bajan manners to kick in and respond likewise about 20 thoughts ran through my head.
Wait I kno he?
He cud be talking to me?
Wha um is he want now? I aint got nuh money ta give a fella! I aint care wha kinda sob story he got fa me.
Wait he is ona dem cult fellas dat gine try to start confusing me bout visiting he church? Cause fa right now I aint looking to follow nuh cults. Next ting I know dem tekkin all my salary an de Pastor tief off my wife to be he concubine an leff me by my one self. Actually wait that cud be a good ting, lemma hear wha he got to say an if de pastor lookin fa concubines.
He head bad? he aint look like he escape from Queen Street but still ya can neva tell dese days, he head cud be bad.
Wait was I was talkin to myself agin and he thought I was talking to he? I gotta stop talking and singing ta myself cause dis ting like it duz only attract mad people ya!
Chupse what um is bout me dat mek it look like I interested in conversation dis blessed morning. He cann see I got a newpaper an headphones on specifically cause I aint looking to listen or talk or hear from nuhbody this marning. chupse!
Wha I been in this country umpteen years and nuhbody neva say good morning ta me pun the train. He cann be Canadian!
Naa he want money I kno he want money, cud only be cause that is the only time a complete stranger will say morning to ya on the Train. yea dat is it.
And on and on it went in my head even after I had responded to his greeting and sat down and started reading the newspaper. I was wary. You would have thought the man had threatened me with a knife or something instead of offering me words of greeting.
As the trip started I kept glancing up, surreptitiously trying to take the measure of the man. He still looked sane, was dressed ok; plaid shirt, jeans, sneakers looked like a computer dude so maybe he didnt want my money and no he didnt try to say anything else to me for the duration of the trip so that ruled out the whole cult thing.
Strange indeed. He said Good morning to a stranger. My mind trys to wrap itself around that unfathomable concept. He didnt stare, he didnt push, he didnt plop himself down next to me almost crushing my leg, he didnt give me a wha you looking at mind ya business look, he didnt give me the unless thats the only seat left in this whole train I aint sitting next to you look. Instead he said good morning.
Whoa! Head rush!
Whats that all about? Doesn't he know that in the subway we try to interact as little as possible with our fellow man? Its bad enough we're stuck on this damn infernal, prone to random break downs, vehicle some for 1/2 hr or more or that we might inadvertently have our space violated, get crushed or accidentally brush against another person we didnt want to touch. Like the white woman who kicked me last week and gave me what I can only interpret as a 'dont touch me you dirty n****' look when my foot accidentally touched hers as I moved to let someone pass. And yes I had said sorry. Dry up ol hag! Ya feel I wanta play footsies wid de likes a you. Chupse!
Willingly inviting contact with a stranger? On the subway? You mad or drunk boy? No sar. What gives?
I mean as an aside funny thing about it is that we attempt to be islands in this sea of people. Independent, not interacting, ignoring, pretending to sleep, pretending to read, staring into space, trying not to let our eyes linger too long on one spot or person, listening to our music to drown out the others but yet a lot of these folk acting as islands will pull out that cell phone and have a totally and might I say loud as what not, what should be private conversation in the midst of a complete bunch of strangers. I still haven't figured that one out yet though. Trying to be innocuous, blend in, not gain attention, no touch anyone yet have the most personal of conversations in a crowded train? Hmmm. Must be a they are strangers so who cares if they hear what I'm saying they don't know me thing. Guess that can work in a big city but I may never really figure that one out.
Anyway I kept my eye on dude until he got off at Woodbine. In the end I just figured although he showed no other outwards signs of being a stranger to the city he definitely wasn't from around these parts. yep thats it, he's definitely a newbie. He couldn't be Torontonian.
Unless he mad.
Damn I still wish he was from the cult and had come to take my wife off as a concubine. Way to get a brothers hopes up. Chupse!
Those two innocuous words threw me for a loop this morning. They came from a man sitting adjacent to me on the subway as I rode in on my way to work.
In the three seconds it took for my bajan manners to kick in and respond likewise about 20 thoughts ran through my head.
Wait I kno he?
He cud be talking to me?
Wha um is he want now? I aint got nuh money ta give a fella! I aint care wha kinda sob story he got fa me.
Wait he is ona dem cult fellas dat gine try to start confusing me bout visiting he church? Cause fa right now I aint looking to follow nuh cults. Next ting I know dem tekkin all my salary an de Pastor tief off my wife to be he concubine an leff me by my one self. Actually wait that cud be a good ting, lemma hear wha he got to say an if de pastor lookin fa concubines.
He head bad? he aint look like he escape from Queen Street but still ya can neva tell dese days, he head cud be bad.
Wait was I was talkin to myself agin and he thought I was talking to he? I gotta stop talking and singing ta myself cause dis ting like it duz only attract mad people ya!
Chupse what um is bout me dat mek it look like I interested in conversation dis blessed morning. He cann see I got a newpaper an headphones on specifically cause I aint looking to listen or talk or hear from nuhbody this marning. chupse!
Wha I been in this country umpteen years and nuhbody neva say good morning ta me pun the train. He cann be Canadian!
Naa he want money I kno he want money, cud only be cause that is the only time a complete stranger will say morning to ya on the Train. yea dat is it.
And on and on it went in my head even after I had responded to his greeting and sat down and started reading the newspaper. I was wary. You would have thought the man had threatened me with a knife or something instead of offering me words of greeting.
As the trip started I kept glancing up, surreptitiously trying to take the measure of the man. He still looked sane, was dressed ok; plaid shirt, jeans, sneakers looked like a computer dude so maybe he didnt want my money and no he didnt try to say anything else to me for the duration of the trip so that ruled out the whole cult thing.
Strange indeed. He said Good morning to a stranger. My mind trys to wrap itself around that unfathomable concept. He didnt stare, he didnt push, he didnt plop himself down next to me almost crushing my leg, he didnt give me a wha you looking at mind ya business look, he didnt give me the unless thats the only seat left in this whole train I aint sitting next to you look. Instead he said good morning.
Whoa! Head rush!
Whats that all about? Doesn't he know that in the subway we try to interact as little as possible with our fellow man? Its bad enough we're stuck on this damn infernal, prone to random break downs, vehicle some for 1/2 hr or more or that we might inadvertently have our space violated, get crushed or accidentally brush against another person we didnt want to touch. Like the white woman who kicked me last week and gave me what I can only interpret as a 'dont touch me you dirty n****' look when my foot accidentally touched hers as I moved to let someone pass. And yes I had said sorry. Dry up ol hag! Ya feel I wanta play footsies wid de likes a you. Chupse!
Willingly inviting contact with a stranger? On the subway? You mad or drunk boy? No sar. What gives?
I mean as an aside funny thing about it is that we attempt to be islands in this sea of people. Independent, not interacting, ignoring, pretending to sleep, pretending to read, staring into space, trying not to let our eyes linger too long on one spot or person, listening to our music to drown out the others but yet a lot of these folk acting as islands will pull out that cell phone and have a totally and might I say loud as what not, what should be private conversation in the midst of a complete bunch of strangers. I still haven't figured that one out yet though. Trying to be innocuous, blend in, not gain attention, no touch anyone yet have the most personal of conversations in a crowded train? Hmmm. Must be a they are strangers so who cares if they hear what I'm saying they don't know me thing. Guess that can work in a big city but I may never really figure that one out.
Anyway I kept my eye on dude until he got off at Woodbine. In the end I just figured although he showed no other outwards signs of being a stranger to the city he definitely wasn't from around these parts. yep thats it, he's definitely a newbie. He couldn't be Torontonian.
Unless he mad.
Damn I still wish he was from the cult and had come to take my wife off as a concubine. Way to get a brothers hopes up. Chupse!
Friday, April 18, 2008
Duhh
(sorry havent felt much like posting recently. its all kind of blah)
Now while I dont think Americans have a bigger proportion of stupid people than the worldwide average maybe it is because we duz get blitzed by so much US news that sometimes I duz have to really question that notion.
They crucify my yout Obama for his relationship to Pastor Wright. Say his pastor is racist and un-patriotic and is a devil incarnate for saying the things he say from the people pulpit blasting the Nation. So then they say well if the pastor of the Church that Obama goes to, been going to for donkey years, is so then Barack definetly got to be the same so they try and try and try to paint Barack with that said same brush.
It was all over the news fa weeks. Ya couldnt miss it man, youtube, myspace, she-blog, he-newspaper, them-tv every single place ya look dey had Barack under heavy manners on the back front defending himself against these allegations about his pastor and church.
True?
So how it is now that they just do a big poll the odda day of these same American people in the same U S of A where everybody was claiming that Obama's pastor is a racist and unpatriotic and yet the poll results can claim that 15% of American people still think Obama is a muslim.
How de man cud have a unpatriotic pastor at his church and be a muslim same time? The man bi-racial not bi-religional!
Good gosh! stupid stupid stupid people!
Now while I dont think Americans have a bigger proportion of stupid people than the worldwide average maybe it is because we duz get blitzed by so much US news that sometimes I duz have to really question that notion.
They crucify my yout Obama for his relationship to Pastor Wright. Say his pastor is racist and un-patriotic and is a devil incarnate for saying the things he say from the people pulpit blasting the Nation. So then they say well if the pastor of the Church that Obama goes to, been going to for donkey years, is so then Barack definetly got to be the same so they try and try and try to paint Barack with that said same brush.
It was all over the news fa weeks. Ya couldnt miss it man, youtube, myspace, she-blog, he-newspaper, them-tv every single place ya look dey had Barack under heavy manners on the back front defending himself against these allegations about his pastor and church.
True?
So how it is now that they just do a big poll the odda day of these same American people in the same U S of A where everybody was claiming that Obama's pastor is a racist and unpatriotic and yet the poll results can claim that 15% of American people still think Obama is a muslim.
How de man cud have a unpatriotic pastor at his church and be a muslim same time? The man bi-racial not bi-religional!
Good gosh! stupid stupid stupid people!
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
Update: Toronto folks
This supersedes the last date and venue. Hope to see some of you Toronto folk there.
One of the top 100 most influential black Americans (Ebony magazine) Michael Eric Dyson, is coming to Toronto to launch his latest book:
APRIL 4, 1968: Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Death and How it Changed America
The author of 16 books, including Debating Race, Holler if You Hear Me: Searching for Tupac Shakur and Why I Love Black Women, Michael Eric Dyson is making a rare Toronto appearance to talk about the “Promised Land” MLK spoke of in his final speech. Dyson has made recent appearances on Larry King Live to discuss “from King to Obama” – as the U.S. heads toward its first African American presidential nominee, the question of King’s legacy is as relevant as it’s ever been.
New Date & Venue
A Different Booklist
&
The Centre for Urban Schooling
(University of Toronto)
are proud to host an evening with
Michael Eric Dyson
Tuesday, April 22nd, 2008 – 6.30 pm
The Earth Sciences Centre Auditorium
University of Toronto
# 5 Bancroft Ave.
(Willcocks & Bancroft - across from Bancroft Hall)
&
The Centre for Urban Schooling
(University of Toronto)
are proud to host an evening with
Michael Eric Dyson
Tuesday, April 22nd, 2008 – 6.30 pm
The Earth Sciences Centre Auditorium
University of Toronto
# 5 Bancroft Ave.
(Willcocks & Bancroft - across from Bancroft Hall)
One of the top 100 most influential black Americans (Ebony magazine) Michael Eric Dyson, is coming to Toronto to launch his latest book:
APRIL 4, 1968: Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Death and How it Changed America
The author of 16 books, including Debating Race, Holler if You Hear Me: Searching for Tupac Shakur and Why I Love Black Women, Michael Eric Dyson is making a rare Toronto appearance to talk about the “Promised Land” MLK spoke of in his final speech. Dyson has made recent appearances on Larry King Live to discuss “from King to Obama” – as the U.S. heads toward its first African American presidential nominee, the question of King’s legacy is as relevant as it’s ever been.
Tuesday, April 08, 2008
Generation Lost
Ever so often lately I'm forced to put on what appears to be my old fogie hat and grumble about the young people of this generation all the while shaking my fist and walking cane at those gosh darned whippersnappers and repeating the mantra things weren't like that in my day.
Today is again one such day.
The thing is, its not like I don't expect today's youth to be different from the ones of my age. And its not that I think the ones of my age were without fault, saints if you wish, or weren't given to a certain degree of lawlessness and causing general mayhem. Its just that some of the things today's youth engage in, well just leave me rather speechless.
Yes I know we usually only get the bad news and society's changed and kids are growing up faster these days and all that but still doesn't it seem like some and I hesitate to generalize here, doesn't it seem like some of today's kids are out of control in a way that we could have never imagined while growing up?
For example just this February in Toronto a 16 year old was arrested for attempting to rob a bank. Ok so when you're 16 I know you can get into a lot of mischief but robbing a bank at that age? Damn. At 16, I would never have even considered taking people's money at a bank. I was probably afraid to even go into a bank and legitimately fill out a withdrawal slip and take out my own money for fear that my parents would beat the hell out of me for withdrawing and wasting my own savings.
Whoa!
Then last week in Georgia there was the case of the group of 8-10 year olds who plotted to attack their teacher because the teacher had scolded them in class. They brought to school a knife, duct tape, a paper weight, to knock the teacher unconscious of course, and handcuffs. 8 year olds. 8 year olds are you kidding me? And although the so-called experts are now trying to play this off like even though these kids had the equipment they wouldn't have done anything if I'm that teacher I'm on my guard and I'm oh just a bit afraid of these kids right now.
Of course I'm thinking to myself at 8 to 10 I couldn't have dreamt of plotting against my teacher no matter how much I felt that my teacher was unfairing me. My teacher was this rather large lady with arms the size of picnic hams who had no fear of using and lots of practice at wielding the strap or a bamboo on our behind for the slightest infraction. Plot against my teacher? Nope. I might get vex and secretly rant about how unfair live was when big people was unfairing you but plot umm nope. Wouldn't think of it. Man if I even dreamt about plotting against my teacher I would have apologized just in case she was a mind reader and decided to be proactive in sharing out liks.
I try not to blame the media, and video games and music and movies and the whole ilk but its hard to not get caught up in that whole blaming game and I do sense that although they may not be the root cause they should share some of the blame too.
My man says its the parenting. The parents of our generation are slack. Kids have a bigger sense of entitlement. Parents don't want to or don't know how to say no to children or not give them every latest gadget, toy or clothing accessory for fear that they will be left behind in our consumer mad society.
The h'experts say dont discipline the children dem, it will stunt their creativity and their growth. Be all friend friend wid dem and laugh when they get out of hand or say things to older people that clearly out of order. Relax nuh man is just children being children. Nuh bother ya head wid de lil children chat and behavior they will still turn out right. Discipline is over-rated anyways. In fact if ya ease off dem they might be the next Einstein or Michaelangelo or one of those super creative uber-geniuses.
Well alrighty then. If the h'experts say so a so a it go.
But then I see another story like this one today. Bunch of teenage girls beat the living daylights out of another teenage girl just because they wanted to make a video to put on myspace and youtube? Lawd come fa ya world!
I mean fights amongst teenagers are nothing new. I mean as far back as you can think there have been fights amongst teenagers some which made sense a lot which really didn't in the grand scheme of things. I mean Cain was probably body slamming Abel back in the day and I can see Esau picking on Jacob as a yout and giving him two slap cross him head for being pops favorite.
As for my generation we fought over girls, guys, property, ignorant stuff, out of pride, respect, and sometimes just to gain a rep but fighting just to make a video for the Internet? I'm sorry but to me that takes things to a new low.
The 16 year old girl who was beaten suffered a concussion and eye injuries amongst other things. All in all though looking at the video I've seen more brutal beatings and I've seen fights of passion, some caused by lost anger and fights for just plain ol silly things (which sort of made sense to those involved at the time) but still something about planning to beat someone just to have an Internet video seems a bit disturbing and callous.
Plus its girls who for the most part are involved (two guys played lookout apparently) and maybe its naive and partially chauvinistic of me although I do know that teenage girls can be pretty cruel, but I really didn't think girls would do something as pointless as this.
All I can say and I probably echo many of former generations is man I just don't get today's younger generation.
I'm feeling old.
Today is again one such day.
The thing is, its not like I don't expect today's youth to be different from the ones of my age. And its not that I think the ones of my age were without fault, saints if you wish, or weren't given to a certain degree of lawlessness and causing general mayhem. Its just that some of the things today's youth engage in, well just leave me rather speechless.
Yes I know we usually only get the bad news and society's changed and kids are growing up faster these days and all that but still doesn't it seem like some and I hesitate to generalize here, doesn't it seem like some of today's kids are out of control in a way that we could have never imagined while growing up?
For example just this February in Toronto a 16 year old was arrested for attempting to rob a bank. Ok so when you're 16 I know you can get into a lot of mischief but robbing a bank at that age? Damn. At 16, I would never have even considered taking people's money at a bank. I was probably afraid to even go into a bank and legitimately fill out a withdrawal slip and take out my own money for fear that my parents would beat the hell out of me for withdrawing and wasting my own savings.
Whoa!
Then last week in Georgia there was the case of the group of 8-10 year olds who plotted to attack their teacher because the teacher had scolded them in class. They brought to school a knife, duct tape, a paper weight, to knock the teacher unconscious of course, and handcuffs. 8 year olds. 8 year olds are you kidding me? And although the so-called experts are now trying to play this off like even though these kids had the equipment they wouldn't have done anything if I'm that teacher I'm on my guard and I'm oh just a bit afraid of these kids right now.
Of course I'm thinking to myself at 8 to 10 I couldn't have dreamt of plotting against my teacher no matter how much I felt that my teacher was unfairing me. My teacher was this rather large lady with arms the size of picnic hams who had no fear of using and lots of practice at wielding the strap or a bamboo on our behind for the slightest infraction. Plot against my teacher? Nope. I might get vex and secretly rant about how unfair live was when big people was unfairing you but plot umm nope. Wouldn't think of it. Man if I even dreamt about plotting against my teacher I would have apologized just in case she was a mind reader and decided to be proactive in sharing out liks.
I try not to blame the media, and video games and music and movies and the whole ilk but its hard to not get caught up in that whole blaming game and I do sense that although they may not be the root cause they should share some of the blame too.
My man says its the parenting. The parents of our generation are slack. Kids have a bigger sense of entitlement. Parents don't want to or don't know how to say no to children or not give them every latest gadget, toy or clothing accessory for fear that they will be left behind in our consumer mad society.
The h'experts say dont discipline the children dem, it will stunt their creativity and their growth. Be all friend friend wid dem and laugh when they get out of hand or say things to older people that clearly out of order. Relax nuh man is just children being children. Nuh bother ya head wid de lil children chat and behavior they will still turn out right. Discipline is over-rated anyways. In fact if ya ease off dem they might be the next Einstein or Michaelangelo or one of those super creative uber-geniuses.
Well alrighty then. If the h'experts say so a so a it go.
But then I see another story like this one today. Bunch of teenage girls beat the living daylights out of another teenage girl just because they wanted to make a video to put on myspace and youtube? Lawd come fa ya world!
I mean fights amongst teenagers are nothing new. I mean as far back as you can think there have been fights amongst teenagers some which made sense a lot which really didn't in the grand scheme of things. I mean Cain was probably body slamming Abel back in the day and I can see Esau picking on Jacob as a yout and giving him two slap cross him head for being pops favorite.
As for my generation we fought over girls, guys, property, ignorant stuff, out of pride, respect, and sometimes just to gain a rep but fighting just to make a video for the Internet? I'm sorry but to me that takes things to a new low.
The 16 year old girl who was beaten suffered a concussion and eye injuries amongst other things. All in all though looking at the video I've seen more brutal beatings and I've seen fights of passion, some caused by lost anger and fights for just plain ol silly things (which sort of made sense to those involved at the time) but still something about planning to beat someone just to have an Internet video seems a bit disturbing and callous.
Plus its girls who for the most part are involved (two guys played lookout apparently) and maybe its naive and partially chauvinistic of me although I do know that teenage girls can be pretty cruel, but I really didn't think girls would do something as pointless as this.
All I can say and I probably echo many of former generations is man I just don't get today's younger generation.
I'm feeling old.
Friday, April 04, 2008
Toronto Folk
(PLEASE NOTE time and date here is superseded by this one)
Dont have contact info for all y'all so here goes
At (OISE )University of Toronto at Earth Sciences At Earth Science Auditorium U of T
One of the top 100 most influential black Americans (Ebony magazine) Michael Eric Dyson, is coming to Toronto to launch his latest book:
APRIL 4, 1968: Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Death and How it Changed America
Please note DATE: Monday, April 21, 2008
LOCATION: OISE Auditorium, 255 Bloor St. W
The author of 16 books, including Debating Race, Holler if You Hear Me: Searching for Tupac Shakur and Why I Love Black Women, Michael Eric Dyson is making a rare Toronto appearance to talk about the “Promised Land” MLK spoke of in his final speech. Dyson has made recent appearances on Larry King Live to discuss “from King to Obama” – as the U.S. heads toward its first African American presidential nominee, the question of King’s legacy is as relevant as it’s ever been.
Dont have contact info for all y'all so here goes
April 21st 6.30 PM (moved to 22nd)
Michael Eric Dyson
Michael Eric Dyson
One of the top 100 most influential black Americans (Ebony magazine) Michael Eric Dyson, is coming to Toronto to launch his latest book:
APRIL 4, 1968: Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Death and How it Changed America
LOCATION: OISE Auditorium, 255 Bloor St. W
The author of 16 books, including Debating Race, Holler if You Hear Me: Searching for Tupac Shakur and Why I Love Black Women, Michael Eric Dyson is making a rare Toronto appearance to talk about the “Promised Land” MLK spoke of in his final speech. Dyson has made recent appearances on Larry King Live to discuss “from King to Obama” – as the U.S. heads toward its first African American presidential nominee, the question of King’s legacy is as relevant as it’s ever been.
Wednesday, April 02, 2008
Perspectives
A few years back an acquaintance of mine said something, the concept of which has stuck with me. I cant remember the words exactly but he said something to the effect that you have to be careful what you do cause a reputation is a hell of a thing to rebuild and it only takes one screw up to ruin it perhaps permanently.
Was thinking about that and also thinking about how folk perceive us this morning. May be a duality thing like Amadeo was talking about today but we all have sides that some see and others don't.
Its all about perception, viewpoints and personalities I guess. For the most part the human beast sees his fellow human from a certain vantage point and gathers his perception of that person from this perspective. So just as how a building's facade can be glass on one side and straight solid panels from another perspective so we see only what the vantage point we are at allows us to see of a certain person. Hence your coworkers may see you as a hard worker or alternatively a lazy ass but your church congregation may know you as sweet gentle Bob the Organist. Its all in the vantage point.
The other factor is personality. Without even considering multiple personalities we all behave differently in different settings. You may be the life of the party outside work with a gregarious personality but you may be locked in a mind-numming job or dislike your co-workers and not interact with them during the day giving them the impression that you are a withdrawn reserved person.
It is what it is.
How many times have you had those out of the office gatherings after which a coworker says wow I didn't know that John was so cool, or I didnt know that Margaret was into Extreme Underground Fighting or something similar. Its possibly both because of the vantage point between office and recreation or a possible personality shift between office John and out of office John.
Anyway I could go on but there was no point to this blog. Its just something that came up because I had a conversation in which the name of a mutual acquaintance came up and remembered another persons comment that he was such a nice guy and a sweetheart which he could well be but from my perspective I just think the cat is shady and try to distance myself from him as much as possibly. Thats where it goes back to that whole Rep thing I mentioned in the first paragraph.
Perspectives right.
and why do I think I wrote this blog before but better?
Was thinking about that and also thinking about how folk perceive us this morning. May be a duality thing like Amadeo was talking about today but we all have sides that some see and others don't.
Its all about perception, viewpoints and personalities I guess. For the most part the human beast sees his fellow human from a certain vantage point and gathers his perception of that person from this perspective. So just as how a building's facade can be glass on one side and straight solid panels from another perspective so we see only what the vantage point we are at allows us to see of a certain person. Hence your coworkers may see you as a hard worker or alternatively a lazy ass but your church congregation may know you as sweet gentle Bob the Organist. Its all in the vantage point.
The other factor is personality. Without even considering multiple personalities we all behave differently in different settings. You may be the life of the party outside work with a gregarious personality but you may be locked in a mind-numming job or dislike your co-workers and not interact with them during the day giving them the impression that you are a withdrawn reserved person.
It is what it is.
How many times have you had those out of the office gatherings after which a coworker says wow I didn't know that John was so cool, or I didnt know that Margaret was into Extreme Underground Fighting or something similar. Its possibly both because of the vantage point between office and recreation or a possible personality shift between office John and out of office John.
Anyway I could go on but there was no point to this blog. Its just something that came up because I had a conversation in which the name of a mutual acquaintance came up and remembered another persons comment that he was such a nice guy and a sweetheart which he could well be but from my perspective I just think the cat is shady and try to distance myself from him as much as possibly. Thats where it goes back to that whole Rep thing I mentioned in the first paragraph.
Perspectives right.
and why do I think I wrote this blog before but better?
Sunday, March 30, 2008
Bits n Pieces
Haven't actually felt like writing lately so here's some filler to hold you for a bit
(1) The Toronto Sun's been running this series on Sunday about Jane n Finch. Not a big fan of the Sun but the series has been decent so far.
(2) I didn't really get the point of Earth Hour to be honest. And what I didn't get even more was Toronto holding a concert downtown during Earth Hour. Ok so maybe they can operate all the equipment on portable generators but what was the point of the television stations carrying the concert live. Oh we're carrying this concert for you to watch on TV even though you're supposed to turn off all your lights and just read books by candlelight or go on moonlight walks. Duhh!
(3) Speaking of books David Chariandy's Soucouyant is an excellent read. Many books fizzle near the end as the writers seem to struggle to figure out how to end properly, sort of like a Saturday night live skit, but Chariandy does a good job of keeping the interest right until the end. To be honest I thought he had fallen into that pitfall somewhere around page 140 of the 200 page novel when something major happened but he really kept the story lively and didn't just drag the book out like some writers do.
(4) Since I mentioned Saturday Night Live, Mad TV had a really funny skit about a woman who stands by her cheating politician husband a la Spitzer's wife. It was hilarious. Hopefully someone will post it on Youtube soon.
(5) On that topic of Spitzer whats with this new dude Patterson who replaced him? For a legally blind dude he sure has a lot of skeletons in the closet. First he admitted to having an affair awhile back when his marriage was on the rocks now he's admitted to doing marijuana and coke back in the day. I've heard of being honest but damn son leave something for the press to find out nuh man. Whats he going to admit to next? Does he know who killed Kennedy? Is he down with Bin Laden? Boy try and keep ya mout shut and stop telling people all ya personal business so. All I know is the man is shutting down potential scandals by revealing all from the get go.
(6) And speaking of scandals, man was this month the month for political scandal and trouble. My man Obama went from smooth sailing to battling to let people know that he wasn't some sort of black extremist due to this whole thing with his pastor's preaching. I'll be honest I didn't really think what was said in the sermons was that bad. Dude said what a lot of black folks think and its not like he said these things out of context as the sound bites would have you believe. Check more of his sermons where the more controversial comments came from and see how they fell within the boundaries of his speech. Its not Rev. Wright just out of the blue started to glower and cuss and damn the U.S without reason. Dude was making valid scripture points. Anyway I found this article here which speaks about the double standard applied to Wright, a black preacher, compared to some of the white preachers out there. Its been silly how some of the commentators have behaved about this thing.
(7) And finally this has got to be one of the dumbest things I've ever heard of. Dude in Missouri is installing his satellite tv, needs to make a hole in the side of the house for some sort of connection, tries and tries but cant get the hole made so what does he do. No he doesn't go to his neighbour and ask to borrow a drill. Nope dude takes out his .22 and tries to shoot a hole in the wall. Real smart right? But wait it gets worse. He doesn't realize that his wife who was helping him with the installation has gone back inside the house and the bullet accidentally strikes and kills her.
From my perspective he's either the dumbest man who ever lived or the smartest cause if he had planned on knocking off his wife no one is going to believe this is anything but an accident. As it stands though I think the man was just an eediat. If he doesn't get a Darwin Award this year I don't know who gets one.
(1) The Toronto Sun's been running this series on Sunday about Jane n Finch. Not a big fan of the Sun but the series has been decent so far.
(2) I didn't really get the point of Earth Hour to be honest. And what I didn't get even more was Toronto holding a concert downtown during Earth Hour. Ok so maybe they can operate all the equipment on portable generators but what was the point of the television stations carrying the concert live. Oh we're carrying this concert for you to watch on TV even though you're supposed to turn off all your lights and just read books by candlelight or go on moonlight walks. Duhh!
(3) Speaking of books David Chariandy's Soucouyant is an excellent read. Many books fizzle near the end as the writers seem to struggle to figure out how to end properly, sort of like a Saturday night live skit, but Chariandy does a good job of keeping the interest right until the end. To be honest I thought he had fallen into that pitfall somewhere around page 140 of the 200 page novel when something major happened but he really kept the story lively and didn't just drag the book out like some writers do.
(4) Since I mentioned Saturday Night Live, Mad TV had a really funny skit about a woman who stands by her cheating politician husband a la Spitzer's wife. It was hilarious. Hopefully someone will post it on Youtube soon.
(5) On that topic of Spitzer whats with this new dude Patterson who replaced him? For a legally blind dude he sure has a lot of skeletons in the closet. First he admitted to having an affair awhile back when his marriage was on the rocks now he's admitted to doing marijuana and coke back in the day. I've heard of being honest but damn son leave something for the press to find out nuh man. Whats he going to admit to next? Does he know who killed Kennedy? Is he down with Bin Laden? Boy try and keep ya mout shut and stop telling people all ya personal business so. All I know is the man is shutting down potential scandals by revealing all from the get go.
(6) And speaking of scandals, man was this month the month for political scandal and trouble. My man Obama went from smooth sailing to battling to let people know that he wasn't some sort of black extremist due to this whole thing with his pastor's preaching. I'll be honest I didn't really think what was said in the sermons was that bad. Dude said what a lot of black folks think and its not like he said these things out of context as the sound bites would have you believe. Check more of his sermons where the more controversial comments came from and see how they fell within the boundaries of his speech. Its not Rev. Wright just out of the blue started to glower and cuss and damn the U.S without reason. Dude was making valid scripture points. Anyway I found this article here which speaks about the double standard applied to Wright, a black preacher, compared to some of the white preachers out there. Its been silly how some of the commentators have behaved about this thing.
(7) And finally this has got to be one of the dumbest things I've ever heard of. Dude in Missouri is installing his satellite tv, needs to make a hole in the side of the house for some sort of connection, tries and tries but cant get the hole made so what does he do. No he doesn't go to his neighbour and ask to borrow a drill. Nope dude takes out his .22 and tries to shoot a hole in the wall. Real smart right? But wait it gets worse. He doesn't realize that his wife who was helping him with the installation has gone back inside the house and the bullet accidentally strikes and kills her.
From my perspective he's either the dumbest man who ever lived or the smartest cause if he had planned on knocking off his wife no one is going to believe this is anything but an accident. As it stands though I think the man was just an eediat. If he doesn't get a Darwin Award this year I don't know who gets one.
Thursday, March 27, 2008
Cease n Settle
I havent finished this but its quite interesting in my opinion. I can see pros and cons but still it is well, not rather unique but more a viewpoint that goes against that which most women espouse, at least in public. Click the text for the full article.
When we’re holding out for deep romantic love, we have the fantasy that this level of passionate intensity will make us happier. But marrying Mr. Good Enough might be an equally viable option, especially if you’re looking for a stable, reliable life companion. Madame Bovary might not see it that way, but if she’d remained single, I’ll bet she would have been even more depressed than she was while living with her tedious but caring husband.
What I didn’t realize when I decided, in my 30s, to break up with boyfriends I might otherwise have ended up marrying, is that while settling seems like an enormous act of resignation when you’re looking at it from the vantage point of a single person, once you take the plunge and do it, you’ll probably be relatively content. It sounds obvious now, but I didn’t fully appreciate back then that what makes for a good marriage isn’t necessarily what makes for a good romantic relationship. Once you’re married, it’s not about whom you want to go on vacation with; it’s about whom you want to run a household with. Marriage isn’t a passion-fest; it’s more like a partnership formed to run a very small, mundane, and often boring nonprofit business. And I mean this in a good way.
When we’re holding out for deep romantic love, we have the fantasy that this level of passionate intensity will make us happier. But marrying Mr. Good Enough might be an equally viable option, especially if you’re looking for a stable, reliable life companion. Madame Bovary might not see it that way, but if she’d remained single, I’ll bet she would have been even more depressed than she was while living with her tedious but caring husband.
What I didn’t realize when I decided, in my 30s, to break up with boyfriends I might otherwise have ended up marrying, is that while settling seems like an enormous act of resignation when you’re looking at it from the vantage point of a single person, once you take the plunge and do it, you’ll probably be relatively content. It sounds obvious now, but I didn’t fully appreciate back then that what makes for a good marriage isn’t necessarily what makes for a good romantic relationship. Once you’re married, it’s not about whom you want to go on vacation with; it’s about whom you want to run a household with. Marriage isn’t a passion-fest; it’s more like a partnership formed to run a very small, mundane, and often boring nonprofit business. And I mean this in a good way.
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Update
In case you were wondering the Ryerson student who faced expulsion over running the Facebook study group (I wrote about it here) wasn't expelled.
The disciplinary panel who ruled on his case said they had no proof that his facebook study group was used for cheating. His original mark in the course was reinstated although he is to get zero on the particular assignment associated with the study group, he has to attend a workshop on academic integrity and he is getting a disciplinary notation on his record which he can appeal. You can read the full article here.
My thoughts are the University isn't man enough to say we were being asses about this but they cant full well expel him so they are trying to save face by adding the disciplinary notation and giving him zero on the assignment. He'll take it and rightly so cause he doesn't want to be expelled but the University is still in the wrong here. Big bullies!
All in all just bad press for Ryerson in an age where the grab for students by Universities is an all out war. They ended up with egg on their face, in my opinion looking silly to potential students and parents of potential students (who sometimes have a say in where their kids go. Don't believe the hype Obay is real son!)
The disciplinary panel who ruled on his case said they had no proof that his facebook study group was used for cheating. His original mark in the course was reinstated although he is to get zero on the particular assignment associated with the study group, he has to attend a workshop on academic integrity and he is getting a disciplinary notation on his record which he can appeal. You can read the full article here.
My thoughts are the University isn't man enough to say we were being asses about this but they cant full well expel him so they are trying to save face by adding the disciplinary notation and giving him zero on the assignment. He'll take it and rightly so cause he doesn't want to be expelled but the University is still in the wrong here. Big bullies!
All in all just bad press for Ryerson in an age where the grab for students by Universities is an all out war. They ended up with egg on their face, in my opinion looking silly to potential students and parents of potential students (who sometimes have a say in where their kids go. Don't believe the hype Obay is real son!)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)