the teacher becomes the student

A couple of nights ago I went to a concert I had been anticipating for the past month or so. KRS-One was rolling through our little midwest city to remind some and teach others what a skilled hip hop MC sounds like. And the tickets were so cheap! One of the few advantages of being outside of a major city.

But as far as having to wait hours for the feature artist to appear, this city is like all the rest. I feel like every streetcorner MC in town took to the stage before we finally were able to see the person we'd come for and we arrived late. But when I heard KRS-One's voice on the mic, I felt like I saw a moving montage of the past twenty years of my life. He asked the audience "Who was bumping Criminal Minded in 1986?" I think only 10 of us could honestly say we were. Most of the kids pumping their fists in the air or break dancing at the foot of the stage were barely even thought of in 1986. Still, its sorta cool to witness the intergenerational and interracial followings that hip hop has made possible. Especially when kids who call themselves "heads" appreciate pioneers like KRS, Cool Herc, Big Daddy Kane, and others.

nightlife in midwest city

I haven't written much about the social scene in midwest city, mainly because I've been crazy busy meeting the demands of a jf (junior faculty). Like most cities centered around big universities, a great deal of the social scene is catered to college students. We (meaning grown ass adults) typically stay as far away from the college drag in the evening as possible and venture to the other side of town where most of the locals live and hang out. Last night my coworkers/friends and I went to a weird ole lounge. And I do mean lounge. Post-wedding party goers were there. Long haired hippy dads took to the dance floor with their kids. This town is such a throwback from the seventies that I'm ready to break out my afro wig and bellbottoms and just surrender to the time lag.

But anyway, this lounge used to be a bowling alley and so it still sports a big pin on top of the building. It actually wouldn't have been so bad except for the band. A skinny blond with a terrible voice sang pop songs all night ... loudly! We couldn't eat and pay fast enough to get out of this place. Had there been no music or better music .. or more appropriately a drag show, we might have enjoyed the queerness of the place.

The real social enjoyment here comes with being with my new colleagues and friends. I count myself extremely lucky to have entered this new job with a crop of jf who are all around my age, all sort of doe eyed and overwhelmed just like me and who are hip enough to scout out restaurants that don't serve hummus with biryani and places to shop that aren't in a strip mall. Last night, after our lounge expedition, we went to a listening party held by a friend who has started his own band. The band set up shop in my friend's living room and we encircled them in different parts of his lovely home--along the staircase, in the dining room, in the hallway. It was really nothing like I'd ever experienced before. The people who have recently entered my life really make this scary transformation bearable. I'm looking forward to seeing what this new phase in my career and in my life will bring as I settle in to a place that leaves much to be desired but with the kind of people who are exactly what I need at this time. Hm.

sometimes the stars don't lie

Sagittarius

Daily extended (by Astrology.com)
No one can provide you with a sense of confidence in yourself -- you have to feel it. So today, don't wait for applause or accolades. Other people are not as focused on you as you think they're right now, and you don't need their approval anyway. Move forward with false confidence if you must -- but just go forward. It's the focused action you take that will truly impress other people and get you noticed. Plus, it's this type of behavior that will build the real confidence you seek.

confessions of a corny anthem

Do you ever find yourself moved by one of those corny anthem songs like Destiny's Child's "I'm a Survivor" of Gloria Gaynor's "I Will Survive" or even Kelis's "I Hate You So Much Right Now"? Well, my corny anthem song this past few months has been Christina Milian's "Say I."

Now granted, I'm not a Christina Milian fan and I really can't even tell you what else she sings. I just used to hear this record while listening to my favorite gossip Wendy Williams and I would get immediately pumped up:

ima make it happen
ima make a way
if you got something to prove
and you feel the same way
say I-I-I-I-I-I, I-I-I-I-I-I-I

ima keep it gansta
ima make it hot
if you feelin like i do
then people throw ya hands up
say I-I-I-I-I-I, I-I-I-I-I-I-I

It's just one of those songs you find yourself yelling at the top of your lungs in the car or that gets you pumped up on the crosstrainer. Or maybe that's just me. Anyway, try not to judge me too harshly for it.

what you know about dat?

I don't typically watch award shows. They're too long and the stretches of time between the highlights of the show are a bore. MTV's VMAs are no exception. So while I can't bear to sit through an entire show, I do flip to MTV during one of the many reruns of the show and catch spippets of acceptance speeches and over the top acts. While flipping to the '06 award rebroadcast, I learned a few things I didn't know:

I didn't know Chamillionaire's "Ridin" had something to do with racial profiling. And I certainly didn't know his scheduled appearance to talk about racial profiling on 20/20 has been cancelled. What a shame.

And, I had no idea that Beyonce also watches Janet Jackson videos and practices her dance steps. I used to do that when I was younger too, B. Good job making it your own though.


Another unknown and quite useless piece of info I learned watching the VMAs is that TI is the "King of the South." And I still don't know why? Why are folks making such a big effen deal over TI? He's kinda cute and all but what is he rapping about?! Granted, outside of Outkast and Goodie Mob, I find most hip hop below the Mason Dixon grating and unlistenable. But really TI, the king?

levees and injustice

Last night, I watched all four hours of Spike Lee's HBO documentary When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts and while I followed and wrote about the government's reprehensible response to Hurricane Katrina last year, watching a detailed play by play of it all over again made me even angrier, even sadder and more ashamed of the US government than I've felt in a long time. Especially because a year after the devastation in Louisiana and Mississippi, people are still displaced, still mourning their lost loved ones, out of jobs, waiting in vain for help from FEMA, and I could go on and on and on.

One friend who watched along with me felt Lee's images of floating and rotting corpses might have been a bit of overkill. (I too have often found myself yelling at the screen of a Spike Lee joint "We get it Spike, okay. We get it!"). But in the case of Levees and the arguable spectacularity of the dead, clearly we don't get it! As another friend intoned while watching the film, no culture--industrialized or Third World--desecrates the dead in the way that national and local officials did in Louisiana. My breathing stopped when a son returned to New Orleans to not only find his home had been destroyed but also that his mother's corpse was still in the house that had been mistakenly marked absent of dead bodies. So clearly we don't get it!

Hopefully Levees will refocus our attention on the people of Mississippi and Louisiana and encourage us to act by writing letters, sending money, or doing whatever our hearts move us to do, and especially holding our government accountable for its complete disavowal of human life. I think the film is extremely important and anyone who can access it should see it. If we find Levees difficult to watch, think about how devastating it must have been to live through.

getting to know edward p. jones

All Aunt Hagar's Children, a new short story collection by Edward P. Jones was released yesterday and I haven't been so excited about a writer in a very long time. Few writers move me in the way that Morrison and Baldwin do, but Jones has a certain something that I'm eager to keep uncovering. Check out this piece on him in The Times.