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June 16, 2010

Permanent Residence

N Misunderstood Land

inquiring minds also want to know about 2blackGuys..

     perhaps the reality is that i don't fully understand myself; 55 years in the running and of life,  i still don't have a clue about meaning, intent,(of which i would like to romantically mean "the state of a person's mind that directs his or her actions toward a specific object" but I actually mean simply 'God's design') legacy ( of which I don't mean like a library or other such object, but speak more of the personal, e.g., living up to my own 'sense' of self worth and/or integrity) or real truth.  Truth seems ethereal, a highly refined in'sub·stan'ti·al'i·ty; intangible quick to dissolve and 're constitute' itself a machine gun in the hands of a 13 years of age African child of Somalia.  Working a job for the last several years that essentially deprives me of any real life activity short of commuting, some eating, and some sleeping, none the less I am surprised that my personal is defined by weed, motion pictures and varying sound environs ranging from noise to sublime (thinking of Shigeru Umebayashi: "Yumeji's Theme" (originally from the soundtrack of Seijun Suzuki's Yumeji)  Nothing is as it may appear, integrity can shift with the demands of hunger and criminal is only in the eye of the beholder; Anxiousness is a commonality shared by the very young and the very aged, esp, those living a half a century or more;  Seems i am always taking chances if only to survive, not for living but to simply exist; A continued imbalanced coexistence with utilities and lords or deed holder's demands__hinged primarily on currency but supported by ancient prejudices, fables, superstitions and myths.  How else can a group of men come to dictate the value and use of the earths minerals. 

      So 'almost?' desperate, to be in love with some man; yet,  fiercely independent in my day 2 day behaviors and navigation through the social world of men, esp., my social world, which in it self encompasses an institution (with all the architectural overbearing/indifference signifying),  public transit systems both and/or all of which are terribly impersonal and cold, otherwise I'm on a bicycle  and some general eateries (most of which almost never varies, i.e., [a set of 3 different]  food courts, McDonald, and on occasion Special T's.) These are not really flirty fun places to 'perhaps' meet a man.  I have to be realistic with myself; I am not denying the value of 'some' institutions in particular schools of medicine, nor do i disqualify mass transit--they are both necessities of population growth; But I can also see how the demands of these given advances in society have also alienated and socially isolated me;  The institution of which i am currently a member once excluded persons of my color as recent as 40 years ago; some believe the institution is still unfair in it's relation with most persons of color.   Oh, the possibility of meeting is still present but given the general fare of these places, rare (only cause I'm hesitant to say 'never') are the instances of real emotional connection.  Such humanities of real sexual desire or spiritual divining or stimulating psychological synapses simply do not and can not happen in these brief encounters. By fiercely independent, I mean I am not the type of man whom will respond to a man in any kind of cliche or token manner; I am not a man of pretense and/or superficial relating__i say what i mean and mean what i say; I do not adhere to trends__meaning I don't let area dictate my behavior.

     At night, I go home; most of the time I am not holding nor have access to any superfluous monies of which I can afford to spend on superfluous entertainment, i.e. bars, cafes, casual events, and/or other such entertainment. I often don't have enough monies to have eaten properly through the course of the day, and may barely have the cost of my commute if not for the night than for the following nights. When I have money,  I am guilty of following my first passions, i.e., art and weed first in my use of superfluous funds.  Yet, speaking of crime, as i write these things, i am considering going to see Detroit Legendscraig CARL CRAIG and Amp Fiddler perform together for the first time ever in SF.  Dancefloor experimentalist and top Detroit techno producer Carl Craig
has few equals in terms of the artistry, influence, and diversity of his
recordings. Few others have recorded so much quality music in such a
variety of styles than Craig, who jammed distorted beat-box samples into
lo-fi electro riggings, crafted epic house tracks like his remix of Tori
Amos' "God," and recorded the most sublime Detroit techno since
godfathers Juan Atkins and Derrick May were at their peak. After an
apprenticeship during the late '80s with Derrick May, Craig began
releasing his own recordings in 1989, first on May's Transmat imprint
and later on his own label, Planet E Communications.

Part of what makes Craig's style so unique and separates him from much
of the normal "Detroit Techno" sound, including current works, are his
remixes of world beat and jazz songs. This has helped spark a new
movement of electronic music.

Regarding the many positions he has held in the music industry (artist,
producer, DJ, label boss, and more), Craig has said: "I have a bad habit
of getting my hands dirty in every little thing, and I really do enjoy it.

Joseph "Amp" Fiddler is an American keyboardist, singer, songwriter and
record producer from Detroit, Michigan, U.S.. His musical styles include
funk, soul, dance and electronica music. He is probably best known for
his contributions to the band Enchantment, and as part of George
Clinton’s Parliament and Funkadelic groups from 1985 until 1996. His
first solo album Waltz of a Ghetto Fly was released in March 2004. His
most recent album, Afro Strut, was released in 2006.

Throughout an illustrious career, Fiddler has worked with George
Clinton, Moodymann, Stephanie McKay, Jamiroquai, Prince, Was (Not Was),
the Brand New Heavies, Fishbone, Corinne Bailey Rae and nu soul artist
Maxwell. Working with his brother, Bubz (bass guitarist, producer and
songwriter), he released the album Mr Fiddler in 1990 on Elektra. Amp
Fiddler is credited with introducing hip-hop producer J Dilla to the
Akai MPC sampling drum machine and also to A Tribe Called Quest member
Q-Tip.

DJ Cecil is best known as one of the founders of the LEGENDARY thePeople
Party, The Relevant Sound Project and resident DJ of BEMBE celebrations.


  The crime is about where the funds would have to come from in order for me to attend this 'historical' musical event; Its this friday (06.18.10); it would run me an easy cool $40.00 to hang out; and right now i have weed so i could be hell'a high; and the reason i have weed is because i already committed a crime to raise the money to buy the weed;  in my mind i would like to justify my criminal behavior by the fact of my birthday so near; like the world owes me a good time; in the end, i would be there more for the musical artist present than man hunting; I think in my lifetime to have the 'opportunity' to see such giants in the music industry is rare and I should jump at the chance if I even remotely have it--i.e., by criminal means?  So, I guess I am saying, I don't put 'man hunting' on the top of the list; If I have extra monies after most bills, my impulse is to first acquire weed, then art supplies, then music then food then more weed then my monies would drift towards things, like electronics, or clothes/shoes only only after generally exhausting these priorities would I if I still has superfluous cash then look at random social places and/or events.  I would rather sit with a man over an easel then a bar stool; I would rather 'break bread' outside say in the park with a man than hang out at some impersonal social event or place.  I would rather work out (of which is never exclusively hinged on a gym membership) and/or cook a meal with a man than spend hell'a bank in some hyped restaurant/bar.  A side bar is that the fact of the matter is that SF social environs are costly affairs and not for the under paid.  I have found that queer environs are some of the most expensive in the city__as costly as most of the upper echelon affairs.

    Maybe I'm being a bit bitter, I can hardly tell, as I am really only telling the fact of the matters; I am looking for a strategy, someway to defeat these 'set' conditions and prevail in a rather triumphant manner; I started this course, say since my employment with UCSF which would be the last 6 years, with some modest success, e.g., I was going to the gym at least 3 times a week with most of that time in the early hours of the morning; since i worked in the same building as my gym, I generally timed my workouts to an 3 hours before my work shift, i.e., 2 to work out 1 to chill;  I seemed to be managing a fairly useful diet, and seemed to keep a bit of 'monies' for additional food needs; I bicycled most places short of across the bay, i.e., I only used public transit to get across the bay once on either side I immediately utilized my bicycle; I had some sort of working model for sleep, though I don't think I was getting 8 hours a night by any means;

     Then i burned out; I simply could not sustain such 13 to 15 hour days and 'afford' the necessary diet to at least have the energy let alone strength to just keep going; in fact, i was defeating the work out and bike riding, and exhausting myself;  I tried to scale back, by changing up the gym hours but this proved to be such a conflict and in the end I still fell short on the diet end of things; The bike riding went basically the same way, from a daily ride of roughly 8 miles, split by 4 miles each way; I now really just use the bike to go to and fro the BART station most days (except on Wednesday, when i usually ride the length to the MB campus from BART as well.)  The main problem being diet; I simply am not eating enough food to put my body through such endurance races; trust me, I loved, absolutely loved the personal freedom the ride gave/gives me esp., with regards to going to work but somehow the price for that freedom is rather taxing.  Besides the food problem, another issue for the bike riding was clothing; since I was commuting from two very different climate zones, I often had either on or with me several sets of clothing;  I was often so over heated in the clothing i did wear and ended up getting several forms of jock itch in very uncomfortable places (besides smelling all sweaty all day long, and/or living in moist or wet underclothing all day.

July 6th, 2010;

     Been a few weeks since i first started this rather lengthy entry; now the inspiration for the above has somewhat diminished; my new concerns; though, still about and around money for the most part, have changed;  my biggest thing is my new post within the library family; I now sit at a different desk, in a different department, with different supervisor and coworkers; the first major change is that all of my coworkers presently are women and I am the only man.  she says she wants to make me her right hand person, but i realize she really means her personal assistant (i.e., flunky) since it has become glaringly clear to me that I am the clean up man.  Another thing that is going on is that I can wear my headphones since i no longer have to answer the phone or be aware of the front desk (which is not even near my new office); she said she tried to get me full time, but the powers that be did not want to let that happen; hmmmmmmmmm. 

i know it's been a minute

 

going out to dinner tonight, Oh, it's sept. 3, i think; taking my brother randy to 2223 market street restaurant bar; least i can do since he always taking me out and helping me out and shit; so right now, i'm watching La Mission; an you know i'm at work; but ain't a thing going on; bout' to go to lunch, try something light so i am hungry later on.

waiting on some music and books to show up at this library, thinking maybe today, but really not till probably next tuesday or some shit..

now the movie makes me uncomfortable;

esp., since there is fighting between father and son;

i may have to put it on hold to see whit this later; so far though it definitely has my attention; watch with my lunch.. 

 Music, music music

gosh so much music i want and try to own; i've picked up the following from Underground Hip Hop .com

'Muzikillmind (IMPORT)'   and  'Terradactyl (LIMITED EDITION -...'

both of which i would be hard pressed to critique esp., if you are not familiar with the players, soffice to say that Declaime is one of my heroes, and quite the contemporary poet of our time; i think he should publish a bookof poetry, abet his fans probably wouldn't want to read a book (i would, just like I read Chuck D from Wu Tang Clan;

i'm looking at BLEEP; and Carlos Nino caught my attention;  recently picked up "Build an Ark" and

Suite For Ma Dukes 

and i've had for a while, which now is out of print.l. Ra Ra/ Blue Sky, Purple Clouds And Thunder/ For Super Sound/ Brothers From Another/ Fatu Batu'

 

Carlos Nino is man who floats in important circles, strongly connected with LA beats and bass he has carefull crafted a series of masterful plates over recent years working alongside Dimlite, Flying Lotus and more recently  Gaby Hernandez on this All City ten inch. Spaceways Radio Collage is a psyched up mix of everything beautiful to have passed through the waves of his radio show for KPFK FM in Los Angeles. Sun Ra, Don Cherry, Alice Coltrane, The Beatles, Broadcast and so much more in 70+ minutes.

review: The title of Thelonious Monk's "Ugly Beauty" provides the best means of describing Dudley Perkins's artistry: Navigating between a shrill falsetto and a croaking tenor, Perkins often lands on notes that more surefooted crooners avoid. His sense of melody seems hazy at best, and his rhythmic gait can get shaky.

Nevertheless, Perkins possesses one of the most emotionally potent voices in R&B. When he unravels a narrative about spiritual wars or urban blight, his voice can be frighteningly bewitching. Case in point: "Dear God," from Expressions (2012 A.U.), on which he says a prayer to get through his darkest days. Seemingly clinging to his last thread of hope, Perkins prays for his family, then confesses to God about his addiction to marijuana.

Madlib"s hallucinogenic soundscapes convey Perkins' cannabis-induced enlightenment nicely, particularly when he sings, "I want to get high / So when the rain comes down I won"t feel a thing / Tell me how to get by, because I try and try to get things right." At that moment, "Dear God" ranks alongside Marvin Gaye and Sly Stone's sweet exorcisms, on which they tussled with their own demons, in the process separating the beauty from the bile.

June 11, 2010

Hello, My Name is iDLg

Hat & Gloves

     Yes, I leave the house every day with my hat and gloves; i realized how 'old school' that sounded esp., thinking of women from back in the day with regards to proper street attire.  These days, i'm talking about my ball cap and bike gloves;   Of course i've been buying a lot of my hats off of Ughh.com, which has some nice selections, if not enough sizes. today it is a brown hat,

HATCH Anti-design  Nice ani't it.  I like it but my sticker is more in the center of the bill instead of off to the side, which i should copy or remove;

it is friday and i'm not feeling up to my basic duties today; hopefully my rent check will clear and the most i need to worry about is eating for the rest of the month; that reminds me i should do a couple of things..

yeah, i'm tripping on money, and how much i would like to have extra; so i was looking at my funds trying to figure out where i could shave a little off; barely got the rent in bank so i would do well to add a few coins to that accounting; which means, borrowing from peter to cover paul.

 

 the max of course is $255.00 bucks, which will just about cover a bit of verizon and pg&e and maybe leave me some change..like at the most 50 bucks if that; whatever;

I am holding out doing it cause i wanted to be free and clear this kind of debt; but here i am again considering the options

.

     so, 

on the art front, I've been doing a bit of drawing; 

 like the small sketch of Curt J.  whom can be found on flickr.com, as one of

Here in Van Nuys'

models, Andy takes such great picture and his pictures of Curt are outstanding.

i've been a bit caught up with drawing some boys i found on amazona.com,

which is an adult site; but the photography can be tasteful and often rather well done, almost arty.  Come to think of it I haven't heard from my 

penpal in quite a while;  I hope he has not gotten himself into another jam; I was kinda stern with him about asking me for money; which i don't like to send; but i did for him just this once; now he's absent, hmmmmmmmmmmmmm..  I'm really rather hungry right now and wished i'd fried that chicken this morning..cause i would have had some lunch today; oh, well, gonna be a hard nite and long ride home tonight.

 I owe my mother a return call:

yeah, she did  call me a few days back and i've been meaning to get back in touch; she sounded happy, or at least well rested; i hope all is well on the home front; 

 O.K., now i'm revisiting the problem, since the bid for ace payday advance just failed through cause now the rules have changed and my old addressed check will not work, according to the clerk i ran into this morning; i just checked my bank account and though i don't see the rent check as having come through, i'm short a bit of money for it to clear at least 40 to 50 bones; of course i'm still short the verizon and pg&e as well, so my shit is up the creek right now..and me i'm frozen in limbo don't know what to deal with .. afraid to spend a dime in any direction now that netflix and already come through;

so, i sent in a reimbursement request for $55.00 bones, which should off set my account enough to cover the check assuming they don't try to cash it between now and say thursday which will take my transit tax shelter account that long to process and deposit the said monies; this would leave me about 4.00 bones after all is settled and still the verizon and pg&e are outstanding..what's a boi to do; 

my porn whould be in my mail box when i get home tonight, depending on how it was packaged, 

tracking had this to say:

Bullet Delivered, June 14, 2010, 2:36 pm, EMERYVILLE, CA 94608
Bullet Out for Delivery or Available at PO Box, June 14, 2010, 9:22 am, EMERYVILLE, CA 94608
Bullet Sorting Complete, June 14, 2010, 8:52 am, EMERYVILLE, CA 94608
Bullet Arrival at Post Office, June 14, 2010, 5:05 am, EMERYVILLE, CA 94608
Bullet Processed through Sort Facility, June 13, 2010, 12:24 am, OAKLAND, CA 94615
Bullet Processed through Sort Facility, June 11, 2010, 8:31 pm, OPA LOCKA, FL 33054
Bullet Electronic Shipping Info Received, June 11, 2010

so i can only assume; maybe my neighbor took the package and placed it on my door, cann't say until i get home..   A LITTLE CLOSE UP of a rather old painting; just love the expression so much..though the work is rather crude and colored rather dirty or muddy in affect..i still enjoy this work, but probably for different reasons than at first.

 Treading Water; drowning in mediocrity and uselessness;

  well,  I managed to receive my videos, i managed to file for the small claim on my pretax account; i haven't looked at my bank account to see what has gone down there__essentially i am holding my breath; I've come to realize, slowly, I'm running out of or out of certain items that i deem essential to my well being; like, soap, coffee, fruits&vegetables,  cigarettes, weed, lotion,

    in spite of it all my mind has been going the way of men in the summer heat; so far the heat is none too high, but the men seem to be everywhere; and a lot of it seems aimless, appearance for the sake of seeming constructive yet you can tell they are up to nothing..too much free time.

 

 but i am watching them none the less,

 i suspect i do have a type; though i am subject to notice 'non typical' as well; what is my type?

  •   black or a shade of brown tinged with yellow
  •    the hair black, straight or woolly soft, thick &  curled
  •   forehead projecting and or convex & arched; nose thick, wide & mouth large
  •   cheek bones projecting
  •   well endowed but not like a horse
  • youthful but not restricted to age
  • skinny but body definition
  • fragile but not weak
  • sensitive but not a cry baby
  • intelligent but not arrogant
  • polite manner with a keen sense of fairness
  • creative

     Perhaps this list is too much; i hadn't really thought about whether or not i could actually find all these qualities in one person (man).  Hell I'm not sure i embody all of these qualities;
Skytop II by Supra     Yeah, these bad boys are my new sneakers, one thing i did right for my brithday; got them on sale in fact; the material is said to be water proof so i spend a little time cleaning them up and/or keeping them clean; nothing like white sneakers..

  Yeah, i'm wondering what's up wit my pen pa Ryan M. seems he's busy, and hasn't had the time to send me a few words;

i hope he is o.k., being in prison