And In This Corner....

This morning they announced yet another hate crime against a gay man in NY. He was beaten up pretty bad coming out of a McDonald's in the West Village. My question is, if you can't be gay in the West Village where can you be safely be gay at 4am?
NYC is a very diverse city but the neighborhoods are not really diverse at all. Everyone has their corners and we might mix and mingle during the day for work or entertainment or eating but for the most part everyone returns to their corners. And we all know which parts of which borough are whose "corner". We know where there are a lot of Blacks, West Indian Blacks, Hispanics, Jews, Asians and Indians. We even know where there are middle class families versus rich ones verses poor ones. We know where there are Greek neighborhoods and Russian ones. We know where people that aren't from NY like to live and where tourists frequent... And we all know that the West Village is gay. It's not like no one else goes there but you know what it is and why should anyone really care? This is New York City? If you don't like gays or people of different races or cultures or value systems or religions or people who smell weird or eat on the train or piss in the subway or preach about Jesus from the sidewalk, or people who jay walk or ignore "DON'T WALK" signs, or if you don't like paying a different price for a Snapple depending on what neighborhood you are in then you gotta move to Wisconsin. And I'm not saying we all love each other here. But we sure as hell tolerate each other and we damn sure can't be beating people up and murdering people because they are gay (especially in the West Village) or because they charge 50 cents extra for a Snapple in wealthy or touristy areas.

Dear Spring

Open toe shoes, flats with no socks,

Cropped leather jackets,

Flirty skirts and short sleeves

they all miss you

Eating outside, slow strolls and ice cream cones

they miss you

I mean real ice cream cones

not Red Mango or Pink Berry…

but just to be fair, they miss you too

Spoke to the city parks and all the squares

(Union, Washington, Times, Herald, Tompkins, Cooper)

They miss you too

I’m asking for them, not for me

Will you return?

Should we wait?

Should we continue to write?

More importantly, do you miss us back? I mean them 

Do you miss them back?

Even surrounded by millions of people

It gets cold. But we get by.

We get by because we believe

Otherwise most of us... I mean them.

Most of them wouldn’t hang the way they do.

I mean I’ll be fine. It’s not about me…really!

But I don’t like when those other states talk shi* about us.

Saying how their Spring is better than ours and

how they are glad they moved away

So technically I’m doing this to protect you

So dear Spring... It’s been too long.

Is Incorrect Grammar Ruining Good R&B?

It all started for me with Trey Songz. I really really liked "Yo Side of the Bed" when I saw him perform it on some award show months ago. I thought that perhaps I had underestimated this youngster that folks were calling the new R. Kelly. (He is in fact the new R. Kelly. And the current R. Kelly is the old R. Kelly which I think is better.. if that makes sense) So I immediately downloaded it onto my ipod so I could love it all the time. But the first time I played it for myself, giddy with the excitement only new music can bring... I was disappointed. I was distracted to the point of annoyed by the refrain "Yo side Yo side Yo side of the beeeed".. I found myself wishing that some adult would just remake the song with proper grammar so I could finally enjoy it. But I let it go because who am I to say it's wrong? It's Trey Songz. I knew what I was getting into.
But today, I was watching TV while "working" from home and I saw Jennifer Hudson perform her new single..... "Where you AT" and the song was nice (written by the current R. Kelly) and she sings beautifully. I really really wanted to like it and I found myself wishing she would have said "Where were you" or "Where are you" or something. I mean I hated "Where you AT" when it was the tag line for the T mobile commercial and now its back. So is bad grammar ruining good R&B? It doesn't seem to make sense. It didn't bother me when Faith Evans said "Ain't nobody who can love me like you do" or when D'Angelo sang "One Mo Gin'". I mean heck M.J. sang "You Wanna be Startin' Somethin" and it was great. The examples of incorrect grammar in R&B are endless. So why does this bother me now? Is incorrect grammar always necessarily bad grammar?  Is it the R&B that's changing or is it me?

Is Reading Fundamental?

Is reading fundamental or does it depend on what you read? Some read for pure entertainment and others read to learn something or feel something that they didn’t feel before picking up the book. Some people need to walk away from a book enriched in some way and some just need to walk away.

I was a Junior in college when I read Sister Souljah’s “The Coldest Winter Ever” and it was awesome. I couldn’t put it down. It was so well written (from what I remember) that I was literally having dreams about the characters when I went to sleep at night. (Same thing happened when I read the autobiography of Malcolm X the same summer.. it could have been the Malaria prevention meds causing all the vivid dreams while I was in Thailand) But little did I know things would quickly get out of hand. Once people realized one could write about the hood and make money off of it, it took away the idea that writing required actual skill, knowledge, insight or education. It can’t be avoided I guess. Isn’t making money with little effort or skill the American Dream? Without anyone’s permission (certainly not mine) street lit was born. No spell check required. I am not mad at Sister Souljah. How was she to know? The same thing happened with rap music. How was Run DMC and Slick Rick supposed to know that they would play a part in influencing the likes of Soldier Boy and a million others with or without record deals today that speak really really loud but don’t say much of anything. The result? More people trying to use growing up in the hood as their degree or their skill to make money off of. And how long before they realize it isn’t enough?

And if you don’t want to write about the hood per se you can write about hood mentality. The over sexed black pimps and players and the gold-digging, just happy to have a man females that bump and grind each other into coonstown… Where they should die.. but they don’t.. they live for the sequel. But it’s only entertainment… Right? Would we be angry if a white person was writing street lit? (they probably already do. I mean they give us BET).

Just in case I was wrong about this I read a Zane “erotica noir” (ain’t that some bullsh*t) book a few months ago. I won’t get into the details of the book. I will just say I wasn’t wrong. But people love it. So I guess I can’t say it’s all bad. Entertainment is good. But it’s for those who know that is exactly what it is. It is not good for those who think they should model themselves after ignorant behavior and even more damaging for those who begin to think you should be able to succeed without really trying and there is a lot of that going around.