Just a song i like

Lyrics to a song that I like. Just a little insight into me, and how varied my tastes are. I guess as an amateur poet, I like the song because although the writing at first glance appears simplistic, it really is an exceptionally well written song. If you don't know the song, listen to it sometime. See if you like it.

SNOW PATROL LYRICS

"Chasing Cars"

We'll do it all
Everything
On our own

We don't need
Anything
Or anyone

If I lay here
If I just lay here
Would you lie with me and just forget the world?

I don't quite know
How to say
How I feel

Those three words
Are said too much
They're not enough

If I lay here
If I just lay here
Would you lie with me and just forget the world?

Forget what we're told
Before we get too old
Show me a garden that's bursting into life

Let's waste time
Chasing cars
Around our heads

I need your grace
To remind me
To find my own

If I lay here
If I just lay here
Would you lie with me and just forget the world?

Forget what we're told
Before we get too old
Show me a garden that's bursting into life

All that I am
All that I ever was
Is here in your perfect eyes, they're all I can see

I don't know where
Confused about how as well
Just know that these things will never change for us at all

If I lay here
If I just lay here
Would you lie with me and just forget the world?

B.E.T. cartoon

Okay, so my boy DaVinci Parks posts this bulletin on Myspace yesterday about this BET cartoon. I'm curious of the "Please Watch and Discuss" title, and proceed to check out the bulletin, which was actually a two part CNN video clip reporting on a 'satirical hip-hop parody' cartoon that has aired on BET. The clip included interviews with the creators of the cartoon, and interviews and responses from critics firing back at the airing of this cartoon on BET. If you haven't heard about this cartoon by now, you can divine that it is causing a lot of controversy, hence the aforementioned critics. I am one of them. If you've seen the 'video cartoon', you know how bad the execution is. But for those who have not seen yet, the video seems to want to push literacy(among other messages such as buy land/real estate, drink water, brush your teeth, and use deodarant) a la the read-a-book campaigns. You know those read-a-book campaigns? They're usually national campaigns, where they get celebrities like Shaquille O' Neal to help endorse. And generally, you can find posters from these various campaigns hanging in the average library of many grade schools. Here's my problem with the so called hip-hop cartoon satire. Though "...sends a message" (as stated by the director of the video) is the intention, it does nothing much to increase a positive black image. In fact, it may have worsened it. One strong visual image in the video, among others, is one of a black woman bent over moving her junk up and down as if it was on hydraulics. Across her God given gift, the word 'Juicy' has been replaced by 'book.' In another image, we see a gangster, thug, or whatever you want to call him, load up a semi-automatic with a book as the clip, and 'fire' knowledge at his intended target. These were a couple of the striking visual images, but there are more. I've even seen what I assume to be an unedited version of the cartoon, which has explicit lyrics (cussing) on it. There are so many ways to discuss what is wrong with this 'cartoon', which if I decided to write about, would take up an entire editorial section of a major newspaper. I'll just talk about what seems to matter most in my opinion. First, BET's(owned by Viacom) stance and official statement on this whole thing, was that their intended demographic for this cartoon was 18-34, and the video "...was NOT part of any literacy campaign..." Problem 1 - from what I understand, this cartoon played during BET's most popular, bread and butter shows like Rap City, and 106th an Park. If anyone has seen 106th and Park, you know that this is a teen demographic. I as an adult, could probably count on one hand how many times I've watched just an excerpt of the show. And even though Rap City may be watched by people in the 'intended demographic' stated by BET, you know that there are many school-aged children that know the various rappers, and their lyrics better than the people of the intended age group. This means that they too, are watching the videos and picking up the lyrics(as well as the images). It's scary that many of these children know these rap lyrics backwards and forwards, but are not reading on their own grade level. So to play the cartoon video for the intended demographic during a time when the intended demographic probably isn't the group primarily watching (the intended demographic is prime time or later), either means that someone in charge at BET/Viacom's cartoon division is a complete idiot, and understood nothing in marketing 101, or their official statement is a bunch of crap. I'm going to go with the latter. Obviously, the airing of the video while the wrong demographic was watching, was intentional. For what purpose/reason, I'm not sure, and don't really care. Though for the creator of the cartoon and the director, who are both black, their probable and primary motive in this whole thing, albeit selfish as it would be, is that they are plucked from obscurity, and get tremendous media attention from the controversy. The creator and director say that it was not their intention. What bothers me so much is that the video, which "sends a message" and is not being presented as a literacy campaign, bares itself as nothing more than that "reflection of hip hop culture today", as stated by the director. The problem - our kids see enough wrong images. They don't need to see a cartoon parody of those same wrong images. I, as an adult over 25 (and whose brain has reached that physiological/chemical maturity because of that age), can look at this video and see it for what it is worth. A cartoon parody that WANTS to provoke thought. I see it, I get some entertainment value out of it, but then...nothing. I move on. It's something requiring no more thought, contemplation or time. After all, anybody and anybody whose 25 or older, or knows anything about hip-hop, knows that most of what is considered 'hip-hop' today, is not true 'hip-hop.' Call it rap if you want, but don't call it hip-hop. As a matter of fact, much of what is called hip-hop is garbage, and has no contributory value to society. Part of what makes hip-hop, hip-hop, is that it is sublime. There are those artists out there that are positive hip-hop artists, and I give them their props, but I digress. Kids (and a lot of young adults) on the other hand, see these images, and accept these images as a representation of the way life is, or the way it has to be. They listen to rap lyrics, and treat them as scripture almost. In our community, especially for our kids, we do not need to see a garbage parody of garbage. At the same time, we must take some responsibility on ourselves, and decide to take a stand on what is acceptable for our children to see. If our children at two years of age, can recite the lyrics they see in videos by 50 cent or Ludacris, yet they can't recite the first line of their ABC's, or even put their shoes on the right foot, it's time to turn the TV off! OFF! (Hint hint to the parents). Problem 2 - and this is directed more at the creator and filmmaker (and those that will follow in that general career path of entertainment) of the video. There's got to be better social responsibility. If you're in the position to present images or words to the world, you're in a very powerful position. No one of color who has this position is exempt, and even I, as someone who is choosing this path, must exercise this responsibility. Unfortunately, the image of our color, the image of the black man, the black woman, and the state of our community, is obviously not seen in a favorable light. That is an understatement. And I'm not just talking about the United States, I'm talking the ENTIRE WORLD! I have yet to travel abroad, but from what I understand of blacks who have, our image is horrible. We can't demand respect from others when we don't give it to ourselves. And there are those ignorant black people that will say, "who cares about what other people think of us?!" My answer to that is, "you SHOULD care." Understand that these images of us are what cause people to be afraid when a black man is 'following' them down a street at night, because we are all thug rapper wannabe's looking to earn street credit. Understand that these images make it easy for people like Don Imus to even think he can refer to a female college basketball team as 'nappy headed hoes', because too many of us are accepting of hearing or saying the word 'hoe.' These are the images that help to propagate negative stereotypes of blacks roles in film and television (Can anyone say, "only black character with speaking role in Little Miss Sunshine?") We can't expect more from anybody, than what we are willing to give ourselves. For the filmmakers of the cartoon video, if you wanted to send a message, which I assume was to be thought provoking, fine. Do it! But not like this. Execution is important, and as any woman will attest, presentation is everything. And this was just packaged and presented wrong. I mean, I know Viacom wrote the check, but how you going to let them punk you like Ashton Kutcher? There is one statement by the cartoon's director that I will agree with though, remarking "...the problem is bigger than just the cartoon. Fix the problem." That's very good advice and a very good point. Now here's my question. There's a song off this little 1987 album that suggests how to address fixing problems. The song is Michael Jackson's "Man In The Mirror." Have you listened to it lately?

Labor Day

8:08 a.m., California time. Today is Labor Day, and I am determined to use this day in part to do some creative writing, and other things that I'm not usually able to do, like read. "But it's Labor Day!" you're saying. "And it's Labor Day in California! Shouldn't you be getting out, going to a barbecue or something?" To answer that, I'll say first, I'm not worried to much about the getting out for the sake of it. Right now in Southern Califorina, we are experiencing a ludacrith (yeah, i went there) heat wave. And I live in a particulary hotter area of Los Angeles called 'the valley' and it's hotter than the devils apartment on the top floor of a 40's apartment building with no a/c, and the structure on fire like The Towering Inferno. If I were to go to a cookout, I'm not sure which would be the BBQ, the food or the people. I'm content with staying inside under a/c, and trying to be as productive from there as possible (actually, I am suppose to be going out today to meet up with a friend I haven't seen in a while, and to do some homework for my business). Besides, I'm not big on the socialization with the locals. I really miss kicking it with real people from back home. I miss the fact that people say 'hi' or 'hello' just for the hell of saying it, and when you say 'hi' or 'hello', people don't look at you like you're crazy. I miss the fact that when people talk to you or show any kind of generosity, it is from the heart, and not because it will serve their own agenda. Fortunately, and unfortunately, a piece of me has had to die here, in order for me to have survived this place of madness for seven years....I started this book entitled, "Angry White Pyjamas" yesterday. It's about Aikido. Boring stuff to people who are not really into martial arts, but I of course study Aikido, so I would like to try to finish this particular book. It's hard to read anything more than internet news feeds, in these busy days and times. I honestly wish I had the opportunity to read more, but if there's a choice between reading and sleeping, it's smarter for me to choose rest...I know that I have not written in my blog since April, and thanks to my best friend who noticed, I am moved to update what is going on in my life which is everything, and nothing at all. There may be only two people in the world that can understand that expression. My best friend being one of them, and probably her mother. What it simply means, is that if this were True Hollywood Story, this would be the boring part of my life that not many would care to know about, until after I became who God has intended me to be. My biggest dreams are to become all I can become in life, but more specifically to become an entertainment mogul. From that, I hope to make as much positive change in the world that I can. For me, there's a methodical plan to achieving that. Generally, I don't say much about how things are going professionally to people, beyond "I'm still doing my thing." I tend to be that way, because I don't trust many to understand how much time, dedication, and patience goes into the particular field of work that I have chosen for myself. Most of my summer has been spent doing a lot of research for my business that I hope to start by May/June 2008. This business is in line with entertainment, which is all I'll say about that right now. I am still doing my comedy. Again, this will take time. But I have realized that in order to be able to pursue comedy and other goals of mine aggressively, I must not be rich, but I have to have financial independence to leave the 'bee worker job.' For the time being, getting this business up and going takes slight precedence over getting out to perform as much as possible. Two student loans with graduated re-payment plans, dictate that I must become proactive in my own financial independence now. Once I am sitting from a position where I do not need to work a 'regular' job, I hope to be able to go on the road (colleges, comedy clubs, and probably more often, shitholes) and do comedy. That is the real training ground, and this is where you really learn to hone your voice. Right now, I'm at that stage of comedy where you know how to write a joke, and you've made people laugh before, but now you don't know where you're going, who you are, or what you're doing. You're trying to inject who you are into your comedy, but you don't know what that is yet. Your comedy is soul-less still. Some days in comedy are good. Some are bad. I'm not looking to be the funniest in the comedy world. Just to be a really good comic that's different from everyone. From there, sky's the limit... until then, this summer for me, will be remembered for what is was. A summer (and winter), where because of hard work, I can add 'entrepreneur' to my resume next summer. A summer that will be remembered for the world losing all too soon, good peeps back home. And a summer where, thanks to spending time at a party in Vegas with my best friend, I learned that I need to learn to how to dance hip hop and ballroom - because apparently a guy with moves on the dance floor is a turn on and a really big deal with women. A bigger deal than most men probably consider... Dancing? Really? Hmnh! And all along I thought all I needed to attract women was the Axe effect...Bow Chicka Bow Wow!!!!!!!!!!