7 whole days

"Michelle is a tremendously strong person, and has a very strong sense of herself and who she is and where she comes from. But I also think in her eyes you can see a trace of vulnerability that most people don’t know, because when she’s walking through the world she is this tall, beautiful, confident woman. There is a part of her that is vulnerable and young and sometimes frightened, and I think seeing both of those things is what attracted me to her. And then what sustains our relationship is I’m extremely happy with her, and part of it has to do with the fact that she is at once completely familiar to me, so that I can be myself and she knows me very well and I trust her completely, but at the same time she is also a complete mystery to me in some ways. And there are times when we are lying in bed and I look over and sort of have a start. Because I realize here is this other person who is separate and different and has different memories and backgrounds and thoughts and feelings."

Read the entire piece and view more pics here.

Anti-Utopian.

I have been a reader of the Village Voice since college. It awakened the primal scream I'd been craving in my rural upbringing amongst the cows and corn. Ah juxtaposition! I don't remember my first Voice or how or where I discovered the paper. It is a part of my NYC experience, along with coffee addiction, Mamoun's falafels (my version of the Gray's Papaya recession special, and secret bathrooms on clumsy afternoons.

When a Wednesday would appear and I would escape between classes to 72nd and 2nd Avenue to the lone red paper kiosk in the hood (on the beloved Upper East Side) for my copy. I loved the bootleg reporting and as a fledgling I would take its headline as pertinent news for the week. Many concerts and exhibits were seen based on the Voice Choices section.

Louis Menand's piece for the New Yorker can be read, here. Registration may be required to read the full article.

The Village Voice emerged as a provocative and aggressive response to the post war "mentality" and downtown routine of 1950's New York. Norman Mailer was a writer and semi-founder, contributing to its raucous and fringes based opinion. It was a structured beat thang, giving cause to the "howl"ing inhabitants, who expounded on politics, art, and daily activities.

"Journalism is a profession entirely by self-description. You do not need a degree, license, or credential of any kind to be a journalist."

Gotcha.

Beat critics will argue that the discombulated text of Kerouac and his delightful friends is annoying and overrated. I am connected simply based on the push to turn myself inside out and make noise. I love Kerouac's glum lumberjack list-making self and appreciate the Voice's projected interpretation. I think that my connection is based on the escape.

I have noticed the change in the aggression and omniscient presence that I loved in the Voice. Perhaps, the four or five people that have experienced the revolving editor door at the Voice HQ off Lafayette have something to do with it. Nonetheless, I still run to the newsstand on Wednesdays. Even if it is for Rob Breszny's, Free Will Astrology.

"You're going to turn me animal." - Lover's Day, TV ON THE RADIO

Lefty

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1pyPY8w1TI

I wanna be....

Eartha Kitt passed the day after Christmas, 2008.

Only in America

Don't loan your socks. You may end up in 23 hour solitary confinement.

Sayed Fahad Hashmi is being imprisoned and awaiting a 2009 trial under presumptions that he's a "terrorist" for loaning socks to his London house guest, Junaid Babar. Allegedy, Babar, then passed on the socks to members of Al Qaeda.

Read Part 2, here.

Please pass on any opinions, updates, and info.

Obama is Nazi

I saw that sentence etched onto the R train as I traveled hungover to work Friday morning.

A fave writer of mine, Mr. James Hannaham, wrote "Our Biracial President" the day after the election and I'd saved it until this morning to read. I was truly basking in the glow of victory--still am--that I was determined to not have it ruined. His words have ruined nothing, just clicked "refresh" on reality.

Highlights:

"Perhaps if Obama were as inept as the man whose broken pretzels and hanging chads he will need to sweep up from the Oval Office carpet, yet still a contender for commander in chief, we could finally lay racial prejudice into its chilly crypt and be done with it. Because among other things, white supremacy has meant that unqualified but well-connected and rich white people's dreams have fallen into their laps, while overqualified people of color have striven their whole lives to get nowhere. Obama has cleared a path for fairness."

Insert Affirmative Action convo.

"But both radical leftists and radical right-wingers need to understand the same thing: Obama is not Malcolm X. He's not even Kanye West. His motorcade will not consist of souped-up cars with wheels that spin and bump up and down outside the White House; he will not sport a diamond grill that reads "PREZ." He's a moderate. The right has changed the definition of the liberalism over the last 40 years by hectoring Democratic candidates, saying that they will over-tax and -spend, even as the current administration chucks billions of dollars into the furnaces of Iraq and Afghanistan. It's hard to now imagine a president getting elected without claiming to be a fiscal conservative, certainly not as we climb out of the current financial disaster. As someone elected largely because of our failing economy, Obama will have to toe the line of fiscal policy pretty carefully and make a lot of practical and shrewd decisions fast."

"...one of Obama's great strengths can also melt into his most frustrating quality -- he tries to hear all voices without prejudice....There is a point at which a leader should be able to make a judgment about whether he's listening to a real viewpoint or just plain crazy-talk..."


An aspect that I can relate to and am working on creatively/professionally. I have vested interest in the truth that everyone's contribution is valid. However, tact, necessity, and urgency certainly need to be considered.

"By voting for him, whites have shown their acceptance on a major level, but if everyone continues to interpret his presidency primarily in terms of race, we're simply perpetuating the same old values."

I have a secret belief that this issue will take a backseat once the ball gets rolling in January. Specifically depending on his dude Plouffe's involvement in the presidency.

"The Obama presidency gives us the opportunity to see more clearly into a future when the pain and injustice of the past, though it will not be forgotten, can be transformed into a shared purpose, and we can help the grand family squabble of American race relations to settle down. Like most American families, we'll have our differences, but we will be able to sit down at the same table and show each other some respect."

"Let's pretend my hand is the moon. It goes like this." - Carlo Alban from Sonnets

I would love to be a minimalist. I'm not. My room is essentially an overflowing bookshelf, baskets of scarfs, collaged walls, photos and CD cases stacked on a secretary desk. I blame it on my six year lifespan in the same apartment (after many spring cleanings) and really growing into my space as if it were an appendage. However, I can stare into the abyss and find sense and clarity. To most, it can be a bit overwhelming to behold. History usually is. There are aspects of my life that are simple amidst my seven half-read books stacked next to my bed. My goals are pretty specific and succinct. And my shoe collection has scaled down quite a bit recently. Ha!

My living space necessitates separation--an office and adjacent sleeping quarters. Right now, I have the file cabinet, but now I just need a place to put it.

Photos from the two week run of Sonnets at the Bank Street Theater, are courtesy of Rich Pfeil.

RELYT

The Humourist House



www.myspace.com/tylerelytyler

goofy hairstyles

I was prepared to write a pretty scathing response to Thomas Golianopolous' write up on Ludacris' latest, Theater of the Mind, in the Voice. It would have said something to the effect of "farcical tones and downright condescension ain't nothing new to your average music critic's approach to hip hop". All true, but then I listened to the album.

I have been a Ludacris fan since his beginning and have proudly defended his "ho"-laden lyrics. For me, his music was never about being anti-woman or anti-anything for that matter--just blind aggression and raucous behavior. I enjoy offense and that coupled with his demeanor and voice, made his music all the more fun. His acting turn (Crash, Hustle and Flow, and Max Payne) seemed natural and it's a pleasure to watch him. In my experience, when a hip hop artist plays an "out of character" role, they usually rock that shit and leave an imprint on the film.

Holla Gridlock'd!

Therefore, why so insecure, my brother? We know you're talented. Remember this?



It appears that the man has experienced himself rise to a new level of talent that he didn't know he was capable of and somehow, by writing over 10 songs about "how great he is", will prevent that feeling from going away.
Wrong.
Just keep believing, my dude, just keep believing.
And, also, please get back in the studio while you're at it and make something crazy like I'm used to.

baby mangoes

My Ludite quality of the last three months has caused me to only recently discover that M.I.A. is pregnant. Congrats fair maiden.