Look at us
The forgotten
The hungry
Apathetic, jaded and cynical
Our faith tested
More then we can bear
Dreams delayed and retracted
Crushed under failing justice
police batons, Rockefeller Laws and profiling
we watched a city drown and a country turned to dust
before we heard a voice scream ENOUGH!!
That’s when you appeared to us
Like the answer to a broken slave’s prayers
You appeared to us
Like an African sunrise after eight years of darkness
OBAMA
Echoing through Wisconsin, new Hampshire, and Iowa
OBAMA
Carried 0n a surreal wind
A melodious cacophony
Of hope an inspiration
Offspring to a dream
Held by a King
A dream
once deferred
now breathing
like a Technicolor dream coat
look at us now
Hopeful and patriotic
Active and unapologetic
More American
Then we new we can be
A delicious diversity
Who knew you would be the first to be
Born under a star
That would give you the presidency
And heavy is the crown
That is worn by the king
But you make us all sing
Hope is only one part of
What you bring
From the legacy of Malcolm x
Shaka zulu and Martin luther King
From Abraham Lincoln, James Baldwin
Harriet Tubman and Assata
From JFK, Ida B. wells and Shirley Chisolm
FDR and Heuy Newton
This is a new revolution
A redefinition of terms
So our children can learn
And then fly like eagles
And think themselves around the universe
Lifting the curse
Uplifting the verse of our lifetime
This is time
This is time
THIS IS OUR TIME!
B to the A to the R to the A to the C to the K to the O to the B to the A to the M to the A
Say Obama!!
Say Obama!!
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Sunday, January 4, 2009
The mighty mighty Roots Crew 2009!!
2009 blew into my world like a tsunami off the coast of Sri Lanka. Picture this one, your in Miami, its 82 degrees during the day, 70 something at night. It's new year's eve, December 31st, 2008, around 6pm. Celebrations are being planned across the city, but you don't know what to do. Cheap and fun is your mantra, but that's next to impossible in Miami. Suddenly, your cousin Tiffany, the reason you're in Miami in the first place, remembers that the Roots are playing that night at the world famous Delano hotel. A brief search of the internet proves this theory to be a fact.
THE ROOTS, tonight, NEW YEARS EVE at the Delano, $350 a ticket, show starts @ 11:30pm. Okay, the stage is set, that's the ONLIEST ticket for the night, but I wouldn't pay that much to see Jesus moonwalk across the Atlantic, but the mission must go on.
7:30pm, left a message for Captain Kirk Douglas, guitarist for the band and great friend for over 10 years. No answer, all good. Time to bum rush sound check. Damn... just missed them. Alright, plan B, thought it was to much to ask for anyway. Alternate plan, friends house, champagne, hors d'ouvres and good music. So, we leave sound check and hang on Collins avenue for a bit, people watchin', pizza eatin', mojito drinkin.
The Phone rings. It's the Captain, he sounds excited.
"Of course you're in bruh!!, how many you got?
"Just the two of us, me and my cuz"
"All Good, see you there!
Fast forward to side door, Hotel Delano, entrance to venue. The power of serendipity is amazing, well that and straight up knowing people. Now, the staff at the hotel remember me from sound check and assume I'm with the band. Multiple calls are made to verify the hook up. The velvet rope is pushed back and we are escorted in.
"Mr. Simmons, thank you so much for your patience, please, let me escort you to your table. Here are the wristbands for you and your guest. You are sitting in the band's VIP section. Your table comes with all night ENDLESS BOTTLE SERVICE. Please let us know if you need anything else. Enjoy and Happy New Year!"
Now, for those of you who now me, you are well aware of the danger of putting the words "endless" and "bottle" in the same sentence when I'm around. Now there we were. Having gone from nothing to do, to VIP at the Delano, waiting to see The Roots. Multiple bottles are presented out the gate. Patron, Grey Goose, Disiano Amareto and Veuve Cliquot Champagne.
11:30pm. The Roots have taken the stage. They start out with their classic headbanger "Proceed". Then they slip into a hardrock medley ranging from Iron Butterfly and Led Zeppelin covers. Black Thought is an incredible emcee, flowing like a Lamborghini on the Autobahn, fast and effortless.
The countdown..10...9...8..7..6..5..4...3..2..1 HAPPY NEW YEAR!!
2009 is here and things are getting blurry....fast. I've been playing bartender in a "one for you, two for me type situation". Things got out of control real quick and real funky. There was dancing, smoking, groping, drinking, rhyming, and generous kisses from foreign Goddesses. The second set was a volcanic eruption. Kirk Douglas has truly evolved the roots sound, allowing Quest Love to cross boundaries he could only dream of before.
The final tally: 6 bottles of Patron, 4 bottles of Grey Goose, 8 bottles of Cliqueout and a New Years Eve I will not soon forget! The mighty mighty Roots crew!
THE ROOTS, tonight, NEW YEARS EVE at the Delano, $350 a ticket, show starts @ 11:30pm. Okay, the stage is set, that's the ONLIEST ticket for the night, but I wouldn't pay that much to see Jesus moonwalk across the Atlantic, but the mission must go on.
7:30pm, left a message for Captain Kirk Douglas, guitarist for the band and great friend for over 10 years. No answer, all good. Time to bum rush sound check. Damn... just missed them. Alright, plan B, thought it was to much to ask for anyway. Alternate plan, friends house, champagne, hors d'ouvres and good music. So, we leave sound check and hang on Collins avenue for a bit, people watchin', pizza eatin', mojito drinkin.
The Phone rings. It's the Captain, he sounds excited.
"Of course you're in bruh!!, how many you got?
"Just the two of us, me and my cuz"
"All Good, see you there!
Fast forward to side door, Hotel Delano, entrance to venue. The power of serendipity is amazing, well that and straight up knowing people. Now, the staff at the hotel remember me from sound check and assume I'm with the band. Multiple calls are made to verify the hook up. The velvet rope is pushed back and we are escorted in.
"Mr. Simmons, thank you so much for your patience, please, let me escort you to your table. Here are the wristbands for you and your guest. You are sitting in the band's VIP section. Your table comes with all night ENDLESS BOTTLE SERVICE. Please let us know if you need anything else. Enjoy and Happy New Year!"
Now, for those of you who now me, you are well aware of the danger of putting the words "endless" and "bottle" in the same sentence when I'm around. Now there we were. Having gone from nothing to do, to VIP at the Delano, waiting to see The Roots. Multiple bottles are presented out the gate. Patron, Grey Goose, Disiano Amareto and Veuve Cliquot Champagne.
11:30pm. The Roots have taken the stage. They start out with their classic headbanger "Proceed". Then they slip into a hardrock medley ranging from Iron Butterfly and Led Zeppelin covers. Black Thought is an incredible emcee, flowing like a Lamborghini on the Autobahn, fast and effortless.
The countdown..10...9...8..7..6..5..4...3..2..1 HAPPY NEW YEAR!!
2009 is here and things are getting blurry....fast. I've been playing bartender in a "one for you, two for me type situation". Things got out of control real quick and real funky. There was dancing, smoking, groping, drinking, rhyming, and generous kisses from foreign Goddesses. The second set was a volcanic eruption. Kirk Douglas has truly evolved the roots sound, allowing Quest Love to cross boundaries he could only dream of before.
The final tally: 6 bottles of Patron, 4 bottles of Grey Goose, 8 bottles of Cliqueout and a New Years Eve I will not soon forget! The mighty mighty Roots crew!
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
Duck Duck Bush!
It seems a dramatically fitting end to a classic tragedy, the presidency of one George Walker Bush. Ignoring his historic disapproval ratings, his general misuse of the English language, and his overall indifference to human life, one can gain incredible insight into the mind of America's 43rd presidency through a brief analysis of the now infamous shoe attack.
Don't get it twisted, Bush is a master of evasion. Where, at once, I thought it was a matter of verbal acrobatics, social privilege and cowardice, it is apparently rooted in a deep physical ability as well. If you're like me, you have watched the size ten attack anywhere between 50 to 75 times (if not, then you need to catch up!). I've concluded that only a jack rabbit ass, draft dodging, WMD loosen, recovering alcoholic could manage to evade the cow hide projectile, thrown with incredible velocity and accuracy, with such in-human like speed and efficiency. Even more interesting than that, was the engaged, almost amused look he was sporting after resurfacing from the first projectile, a narcissistic arrogance, one of those, "oh you thought I was sleeping" kind of looks, and then, bang, the next one came just as quick. The whole attack lasted a mere two and a half seconds. Within that brief moment however, we were treated to an array of mental states, from surprise to shock, from humor to incredulity, and ultimately, an ecstatic elation.
To witness the vulnerability of the head of the so called "free world" must have hit an incredible chord with all of the children, mothers, sisters, uncles and cousins, all of whom have suffered, innocently, at the hands of a dehumanizing foreign policy. A policy that has lost the ability to differentiate friend from foe, truth from fiction, or salvation from sin. To have that one moment, where the fear of their world is shared, and felt, by one of its chief architects, must have been an accomplishment with incredible repercussion. A sense that we are are living in the times when the last shall be first and the first shall be last. Incredible! Or as the French say, "Encroyable!"
Don't get it twisted, Bush is a master of evasion. Where, at once, I thought it was a matter of verbal acrobatics, social privilege and cowardice, it is apparently rooted in a deep physical ability as well. If you're like me, you have watched the size ten attack anywhere between 50 to 75 times (if not, then you need to catch up!). I've concluded that only a jack rabbit ass, draft dodging, WMD loosen, recovering alcoholic could manage to evade the cow hide projectile, thrown with incredible velocity and accuracy, with such in-human like speed and efficiency. Even more interesting than that, was the engaged, almost amused look he was sporting after resurfacing from the first projectile, a narcissistic arrogance, one of those, "oh you thought I was sleeping" kind of looks, and then, bang, the next one came just as quick. The whole attack lasted a mere two and a half seconds. Within that brief moment however, we were treated to an array of mental states, from surprise to shock, from humor to incredulity, and ultimately, an ecstatic elation.
To witness the vulnerability of the head of the so called "free world" must have hit an incredible chord with all of the children, mothers, sisters, uncles and cousins, all of whom have suffered, innocently, at the hands of a dehumanizing foreign policy. A policy that has lost the ability to differentiate friend from foe, truth from fiction, or salvation from sin. To have that one moment, where the fear of their world is shared, and felt, by one of its chief architects, must have been an accomplishment with incredible repercussion. A sense that we are are living in the times when the last shall be first and the first shall be last. Incredible! Or as the French say, "Encroyable!"
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
.jpg)