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- » Name: Amanda Bassa
- » Location: VA
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- » Intermission...
- » Dead Prez at Rock the Bells
- » Just Plain Nasty
- » Stop Lying to Yourselves
- » Supernatural at Rock the Bells
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The Undisputed Truth
Intermission...
I never thought I'd write a blog for DX while overlooking a lake in Northern California at night with the stars overhead and the sound of ducks swimming around filling my ears.
Straight up, I'm one lucky girl sometimes.
So anyway, while I'm out enjoying my day today, I get a text message (actually about four of them, that said the exact same thing, go figure) from my boy Modi, and it went a little something like this: "damn slim, ever since you've become a working woman, the blog has been more sporadic than a possibly pregnant woman's period". Yikes!
Seems as if in the blur that has been the past couple weeks of my life, I've had to neglect this little spot of the internet. Shame on me. But in the meantime, while I've been gone, I've had a lot of time to contemplate shit. I've gotten to do and see things in the past few days that I never envisioned myself doing or seeing. I've been blown away by the spelendor of the most simplistic things in the world. I've kicked back and watched the world of hip hop move thousands of people and bring us all together, simply based upon the love of music (and I get to do it again in less than a week).
I also have seen mad people passing out and acting a damn fool, but let's not think about that right now. Consider this a heads up that I may not blog as frequently due to the circumstances of life, but I'm never sleepin. Literally and figuratively (I think I slept two hours in about four days...and paid for it later by getting sick).
On top of all of this, I got to meet my West Coast blogging brothers Meka Soul, Brillyance, and Andres, as well as a huge amount of random ass people. If hip hop can bring us all together though, what's stopping us from coming together in other contexts to help eachother reach our own personal goals? If there's one thing I've learned from this blogging shit since I've started, it's that even the most random person may be able to help you in the most significant way - word to the Guerilla Union homegirl who offered to drive me around the parking lots at the San Bernardino show in a golf cart to find my car after I forgot where I parked.
I'm being insanely introspective right now, probably because I'm medicated and still on East Coast time, plus this lake is a dope meditation spot. I think the only reason I'm writing this is so Modi can shut up about my non-blogging. When I return to VA I'll have more Rock the Bells commentary, but until then I ask you to think seriously about this: what are you doing to further your own life? Are you using the resources that you have at their full potential? What can you do to make someone else's life a little better?
And if you think I'm crazy right about now, how about you try sitting in silence next to a lake under the stars and not contemplating life for even a a few seconds?
Peace to all the great people I've crossed paths with in the last few days. Bay Area heads - don't forget to hit up that DX booth at Rock the Bells this Saturday. You know you can't say no to free shit.
Oh, and peace to Bernie Mac and Isaac Hayes. Kinda weird that they had just been working together on a film...but such is life. See you in a week or so, DX!
Dead Prez at Rock the Bells
I thought I was going to be done with the brief recaps of the Maryland Rock the Bells stop, but why not continue, right? I mean shit, I need to start getting myself hyped up and feeling ready to brave at least twelve hours straight in the desert after spending at least half that time cramped up in a plane and lugging bags around an airport.
Actually, I don’t think there really is a good way to prep for that. Working out and pre-emptive hydrating, perhaps, but just my luck – the gym I go to is closed this week for construction or something.
So I suppose I may at least be able to build a little excitement back up by revisiting what I considered one of the highlights of my last trip to one of the tour’s stops: Dead Prez’s performance. I’m not sure if I ever said it on here, but I’m a huge Dead Prez fan. That probably won’t come as a surprise to many of you, considering I stay on that political ranting tip rather frequently around here and all. Dead Prez has consistently come through with that intelligent, intuitive, thought-provoking music that I happen to thrive off of. And even better than the fact that they talk about some shit worth talking about? They actually have pretty decent lyrical skills. Plus they don’t mess with those jubilant-sounding beats that just ooze sunshine, smiles, and booty shaking - I really do enjoy my music raw, rugged, and ruthless.
Anyway, I knew that the Sunday of the Maryland show was going to be a great day when the first recognizable faces I saw in the whole venue (before anybody from DX or anybody from school, even) were those of stic.man and M-1. It was a sign from above! Even better? This was my first time seeing them live. And I must say, I wasn’t disappointed. By them, at least. They had a consistent energy going on stage, they came through with a female DJ (props to the women holding it down on the turntables!), and they played some of my favorite tracks. Unfortunately it felt like the rest of the DMV may not have felt the same way I did about the Dead Prez set, and it seemed like Dead Prez sensed it. Especially when they started playing one of their songs (I think it was “Walk Like a Warrior”) and straight stopped in the middle complaining about how the crowd must not know it and wasn’t feeling it enough and just jumped right in to a different track. Granted, they went on fairly early in the day, but damn. Either way, they got right back into it and that minor bump in the road soon became insignificant.
Maybe Cali will show Dead Prez a little more love and I’ll be able to see an even better performance from them. Only time will tell.
Just Plain Nasty
Maybe it’s just America’s general self-centeredness when it comes to news coverage, but I can’t remember hearing many news stories pertaining to Canada that really stuck with me. But I think I finally found one that will! Chances are that you heard about the beheading of a passenger on a Canadian Greyhound bus by now. As if it wasn’t bad enough that someone got their dome sliced off (that’s some sick shit, and if you don’t believe me, go watch one over in Saudi Arabia), now it seems as if the suspect actually sat and ate the victim’s flesh as he carved away at the body.
http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/08/02/canada.bus.stabbing.ap/index.html
That’s some insanity right there, son!
And the craziest part about it is that once the suspect was identified, his former employer came out and started talking about how he was this “model employee” and never would have expected something like this from him.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/08/02/world/main4316778.shtml
Sidenote: Does anybody else find it interesting that they were watching “The Legend of Zorro” on the bus while this went down?
But seriously, this is unsettling for quite a few reasons. First of all, this was just plain disturbing, and I can’t even imagine what it would have been like to have caught a glimpse of the scene firsthand. Secondly, what would drive a person to randomly slice someone (assuming it was indeed a random act)? And in relation to that, what in the world would drive your mind to have the desire to eat a human being? I get that carnivores eat animals, and humans are carnivores (well, omnivores), and we are also animals (mammals, to be exact) but my human instinct has never told me to go chow down on some human flesh just because I was hungry or something. Even in school when I’d forget to bring something to eat in the morning and I was getting denied hall passes to raid a vending machine, I never ever ever ever thought about slashing the kid in the desk next to me to pieces and having myself some Homo sapiens sapiens sashimi. What in a person’s life could happen to them that would make them go that crazy?
Ugh.
But even more disturbing than all of that is that nobody saw something like this coming from that guy. Or at least they haven’t come forward and publicly said so at this point. It makes you wonder about the people you put yourself around on a daily basis. The person you share an office with, your next door neighbors, the person you sat next to on the Metro this morning on your way to Chinatown, your plumber, your dentist, your friends…there’s no way to really know what’s going on in anybody’s head at any given point in time.
[looks around suspiciously…]
Yeah, I don’t mind one bit that I’m going to stay home for the duration of the evening.
Stop Lying to Yourselves
This is a break from my Rock the Bells commentary. I may even step off of it completely until I return from California. Oh, you ain’t know? West coast, your girl is comin’ back! And yes, that means two more Rock the Bells stops are in my future. So you know I’ll have something to say about it again. And if any of you are familiar with the coastal areas of Cali (at least the parts between LA and the Bay), let me know where I should make sure I get to. I’m trying to see some sights during this trip! Anyway, down to business…
A while ago I mentioned that I’m a former cheerleader. I never thought that I’d be able to draw a parallel between that and hip hop, but I guess I was wrong.
I was at the gym yesterday, which is something I do very rarely lately (I’m in sickeningly bad shape), and I decide to do a flashback workout and bust out some of the drills I used to have to do for cheer conditioning sessions or at gymnastics practice. So I’m standing in front of a mirror and I decide to try one of the moves that I was best at back in the day. I’m counting down in my head, feeling just like I used to feel when I was actually good at this stuff, and thinking I can still hit the move just like I used to.
…Needless to say, after watching myself attempt said move in the mirror, all I could do was stand there for a minute or so while thinking to myself, “Damn, I suck”, and “I hope nobody saw that”.
Too bad somebody did. A few people, actually. But anyway, enter the random hip hop thought of the day.
It feels like everybody wants to be a rapper these days. Perhaps I just feel that way because I have an inbox full of e-mails from people who are waiting to be that next big thing in hip hop, but I really do feel this way. And this poses a problem. Just like cheerleading tryouts back in the day, the more people that show up? The longer it takes to figure out who is worthy of a spot on the squad and who isn’t. There are some people out there right now that really deserve a shot at musical fame. They’re talented, passionate about what they do, determined, and have their heads straight. Then there are those who are bullshitting some tracks, nonchalantly throwing them together, asking their friends for feedback who are either too biased or too wimpy to give them some real constructive criticism. Friends of aspiring rappers, take note: stop telling these people they’re good just because they’re your friends. You’re not doing them any favors by blowing up their egos. It is infinitely harder to find that true talent when you have to sift through hundreds upon thousands of people who are damn near embarrassing themselves when they grab a mic.
Don’t get me wrong – I’m determined enough to keep looking for talent out there. And when I hear about good music, I give it a good listen. And I’m willing to dig to find it. But, damn.
What I’m saying is that if I can admit that I now suck at something and assure myself that I will never again attempt that stunt in public until I got it on point again, even if purely for the sake of dodging embarrassment, how hard is it for somebody to admit that they simply do not have the skills necessary to be competitive in this genre? But I guess with everybody and their mom trying to get in the game these days, that’s just too much to ask. I’m not trying to be mean, I’m just telling you guys this for your own good. Just like I’m telling myself I should stay away from cheer floors for a good amount of time. But that doesn’t mean I’ll stop working towards getting back to what I used to be. And that’s the biggest point – don’t stop trying, but don’t waste people’s time, either. Or make a fool out of yourself in the middle of a crowded gym.
And since I feel myself starting to ramble, let’s just end this here. Insomniac tendencies are a bitch. Too bad for you guys, this blog sometimes ends up as my own personal therapy ranting space. Don’t worry, more Rock the Bells commentary to come.
Supernatural at Rock the Bells
Who needs headliners when you have a guy that’s killing it with the freestyles between sets?
I already spoke a bit on the amazingness that was Nas’ performance at the Maryland Rock the Bells, but now let’s focus on another part of the day: Supernatural.
See, the word “freestyle” is a funny word these days. It is supposed to be to rap what “improv” is to comedy. Some wild, off the top of the brain type shit. But it’s not really a secret that most “freestyles” are written in advance and in actuality are nothing more than a simple acapella. I’ve watched so many “freestyles” on YouTube that are nothing more than verses off a song from an album that someone just spit live without the beat. Talk about false advertising! But it happens so often and is such a given these days, that I almost have come to accept it.
As of Sunday, fuck accepting that “written freestyle” oxymoron type shit. Sorry. Not when I’ve seen a guy like Supernatural do his thing firsthand. At one point he instructed the crowd down in the pit to hand random objects to him on stage. He ended up spitting rhymes off the top about every single object he was handed – from a whistle to a “vote Obama” pin. Not only is this great for crowd involvement, which thus increases the energy and gets a good ambience going for the next artist to perform, but it’s damn impressive. I know I couldn’t do that!
And lucky for me (and you), someone got it on video and upped part of it onto YouTube.
At another point, he started calling out random people in the crowd – the most notable of which was a girl who was standing to the side and was hooking the audience up with the sign language version of everything being said onstage. The irony in this, of course, being that she had to bust out the sign language about herself as he was blowing up her spot in front of the whole venue. I wish I could have seen her face, but I was standing off to the side and a wall was in my way. Damn! Unfortunately I can’t find a video of that (probably could but I don’t have the time to dig for it), but it was one of the only moments that had me laughing out loud as far as performances were concerned.
All comedy aside though, the true beauty in this was that it was impossible for him to have written this shit beforehand. This was true freestyling at its finest, and it refreshed my memory as to just how amazing this hip hop shit can be. And isn’t that the true essence of Rock the Bells anyway? At the end of the day, it’s very likely that you’ll go home remembering exactly why you fell in love with it in the first place. And it’s that reasoning that will make me remember Supernatural as another main highlight of the Maryland stop of the 2008 Rock the Bells.
Nas at Rock the Bells
Words just can’t express the joy I felt while watching Nas perform at the Maryland (promoted as DC) Rock the Bells this past weekend. Seriously. The last time I saw him live was shortly after Stillmatic was released, and needless to say that was a nice amount of years ago now. I don’t remember being absolutely amazed with anything from that set. Honestly, the only thing I remember from that show is his performance of “One Mic”. His emotion behind that really came through and stuck with me through the years.
But since none of the rest really stuck with me (and I was 100% sober at that show, too, so you can’t blame it on booze-related blackouts or anything), I’ve had low expectations for Nas performances ever since.
Not anymore!
I was actually going to skip watching Nas’ set at Rock the Bells. Sounds nutty, but I was more focused on seeing artists that I had never seen live before and doing some valuable networking and just chopping it up with random people I encountered. Thank goodness somebody knocked some sense into me and dragged me back into the crowd to see it. I felt like every new song that would come on had me going “oh shit! He’s taking it back something serious! Oh shit!”. He killed it with the Illmatic material and even threw in a nice amount from one of my favorite Nas albums, I Am. The energy that spread through the crowd was enough to make me completely forget the fact that I hadn’t eaten anything yet all day, my feet were beginning to betray me, and that somehow I had to deal with sitting through work just mere hours after this was all said and done.
And speaking of the crowd…it was insane. I really wasn’t sure how the turnout for the DC stop of the tour would end up, since it seemed like everybody I asked either had prior arrangements, didn’t have the loot to drop on the tickets, or straight up had no idea what I was talking about. But this crowd was live. And that Nas set had everybody going crazy.
Mind you, there were also people behind me – I was standing in one of the middle sections when I took this.
Amazing turnout. And what you also can’t see, thanks to the roof and of course the dark of the night (that was surprisingly friendly as far as summertime weather in the DC area is concerned) was the crowd on the lawn. I tried walking through them earlier in the day…all it really got me was a close call with stepping in someone’s puke, but nonetheless it was pretty packed up there, and the crowd only grew as the day went by. The DC area was showing love to Rock the Bells, and it was so nice to see. Moral of the story? If you’re going to one of the future Rock the Bells dates, don’t fucking miss Nas’ set! I'd hit you with more pics, but I was too enthralled with everything to mess with my camera settings so that I could get a decent shot while he was performing.
I’m sure there will be more to come from me as far as Rock the Bells is concerned. So much to say, so little time.
And also peace to those who took time to find me and say what up, how much they hated whatever particular blog/article of mine, or just chat about random shit. Especially Mark, the N.O.M.A.D.S., random people who recognized me from other venues somehow, and everybody who showed the DX booth some love. Where else you can find a t-shirt for five bucks and free Rock the Bells themed mixtapes? Can’t beat that.
For Only 25 Cents...
So aside from the usual politics, I’ve been fascinated with the happenings in the world of graffiti lately. While perusing the internet and reading about bodies that washed up in the Hudson, rappers performing at the Strathmore, and the oddly “mysterious” death of Baltimore’s K-Swift, I found an interesting little blurb about something graffiti related.
Remember those little vending machine things in the grocery stores and random places where you put in a quarter (back in the day I swear it was less money), turn some metal knob, and a little knick-knack in a plastic container would come out of this little slot towards the bottom? You never really knew what you were going to get and you’d waste all sorts of change getting that one piece of candy that you wanted. Or whatever it was that it was dispensing. Are these things still in stores? I don’t see them much anymore.
Anyway, some creative minds took it upon themselves to start spreading some of those machines again. The catch? The machines are dispensing caps. At the moment, only NY and Rusto fats, but hey. One step at a time. Peep the picture that I’m jacking from animalnewyork.com, where I also learned of this utterly fascinating business plan:
Need a new cap for your can? Well, looks like some clever New Yorkers are trying to make your life a little easier. Now, of course there’s the whole “this is encouraging quality of life crimes!” argument, and I’m sure that Ed Koch is on the verge of a heart attack because of it, but I personally find this kind of humorous. The icing on the cake is that each cap you buy comes with a fortune. Hell, I can barely draw a respectable looking stick figure, let alone have the nerve to start tagging some walls, but I might drop 25 cents on one of those joints just to see what the fortunes say. Standard fortune cookie fare? Graffiti-related predictions of your future?
“Good luck awaits you on 182nd street.”
“Avoid brick. Wooden fences are where it’s at for you!”
Somebody put one of these in the DC area, stat! I absolutely must know what’s inside!
Props to the Smart Crew for keeping me intrigued for the day. Want one of these at your NYC area business? Hit them up and let them know. And, uh...tag legally, kids. If that's even really possible.
Weekend P.S.A.
In case you haven’t heard, I don’t have much of a life lately. I wake up, go to work, do some work, pretend to do some work while getting up to date on what’s going on in the world, go home, attempt to write, get tired, then go to sleep. It’s absolutely thrilling. Seriously, it is. Not only am I boosting my work experience credentials, but I’m getting some money in my pockets again. Too bad it’ll be dwindling by the end of next month, and too bad it’s sitting in a bank so I can’t actually feel the satisfaction of having a fat wallet, but it feels good to know that I can at least afford a plane ticket for a vacation. Don’t get me wrong, I’m still pretty broke and trying to finish up college, but I’m feeling satisfied that I can buy myself a legitimate, healthy lunch every now and then and not have to pinch pennies for the rest of the week.
…At least for now. I’m sure it’ll change soon enough. Gotta love an economy that’s not in good shape.
Anyway, since I take my money very seriously and try not to spend frivolously because I’m not a CEO of some company and don’t have much disposable income, I tend to be rather cautious about purchases and where my money ends up. This may be part of the reason that I don’t buy very many albums – if I pay ten bucks for some music that I could have used to buy myself a grilled chicken salad or something physically beneficial to me, end up eating like shit for the rest of the week because I feel guilty that I spent ten bucks on something I could have downloaded for free and therefore should compensate for my ten dollar loss by not spending much on food, and then see the artist on TV a week later rolling around in a Lamborghini Diablo after getting bailed out for a DUI charge? I’m not going to be very satisfied with my purchase and where my money went. Not to mention what kind of record label execs end up with most of the profits. But that’s another story for another day.
My point isn’t actually about illegal downloading or supporting artists or anything like that this time around. I spend a lot of time on computers these days, and to keep myself sane I’ll look at something not too serious every now and then. A lot of this involves online shopping sites, small-scale local news publications, and mainstream news publications. It also leaves me a lot of time to research anything that comes to my mind. Lately I’ve been in a political kind of mood, and I’ve been paying attention to a lot of the world’s various injustices and thinking of ways to stop them, as well as prevent future occurrences.
Just so you know, that’s a pretty surefire way to give yourself a headache. The world is a rather fucked up place these days, and when you think about it too long, it really makes your head hurt.
Anyway, I’ve realized that a lot of people think a good solution to the world’s ills is to just donate to charity or dedicate their lives to some non-profit organization that they discovered. I’ve also realized that a lot of these places aren’t exactly what they seem. How do you know where your money is going? If you’re working for them, do you know the person who is in charge of the organization personally? Do you know what they truly stand for? In most cases, you can do some pretty simple research and unearth any dark secrets about these organizations (or corporations, figureheads, etc.). But in some cases, you may simply never know what these people did with your money. And when you think about it, that's pretty scary.
I was reminded of this when I read this news story from CNN about how a fake website/organization was created to fool FARC into releasing some hostages: http://cnnwire.blogs.cnn.com/2008/07/18/fake-aid-group-web-site-helped-dupe-colombian-rebels/
And this was the Colombian military that was making this shit up. Not that this is anything new, but it’s a good reminder to be careful about things that seem to have good intentions. I’d love to believe that I didn’t really need to tell anybody this because we’re all sensible enough to keep our eyes open, but I’ve seen far too many people fall for all types of scams. That’s why these things continue – if they didn’t work and nobody fell for them, they’d probably stop wasting their time trying to get people to buy it.
So, let this be the lesson/reminder for the weekend – don’t end up like the FARC and let somebody play you to their advantage, and don’t take things (especially things that deal with your money) at face value. Anyone can make a website and get it to look convincing. The internet’s a crazy place, and it doesn’t seem to be settling down anytime too soon.
Have a safe weekend DX…here’s to hoping that those gas prices drop sooner rather than later!
Move, Bitch!
There are a lot of things about driving that I love. There are a lot of things about driving that I hate. The love outweighs the hate, but the hatred runs deep.
Sidenote: the next person I hear saying “hi, haters!” may catch the backhand.
Anyway, lately I’ve been doing a fair amount of driving, and that won’t change anytime too soon. And now that the weather is nicer, more people are taking to the streets in vehicles that only have two wheels. Now, don’t get me wrong, there’s a large part of me that wants to pull a Trinity stunt and re-enact that Ducati scene from whatever Matrix movie it was. That looks undeniably exhilarating. And you see, bikes like that can actually go the speed limit. That’s key here.
If there was one rule of the road that I never have been able to understand, it was the fact that bicycle riders (those without motors attached to their two-wheeled apparatuses) are inclined to ride in the road rather than on the sidewalk. I could understand in Europe, maybe, where the cars are the size of bumper cars and are therefore not very intimidating. But in America? Let’s think about who would win in each scenario...
Gas guzzling Hummer H2 vs. bicyclist?
18-wheeler vs. bicyclist?
Bicyclist vs. pedestrian?
The bicyclist vs. the pedestrian is pretty much the only semi-fair match up. I can’t stress how absolutely irritating it is when you’re driving in a 40mph zone and traffic slows down to 20mph or so because there is some 50-year-old on a bike, decked out in highlighter-yellow gear in broad daylight as if we couldn’t see them already, riding down the right lane when there’s a sidewalk with nobody walking on it right next to them.
"Tree hugging ass bitch please!" Get in a motor vehicle, let out some emissions, stop interrupting the flow of traffic, and get out the way!
Why in the world would you not get on the sidewalk? I just don’t get it. Unless someone is seriously DUI, you won’t turn into road kill. If you hit a pedestrian with your bike, they’ll probably just get a few scrapes and bruises. Not to mention, they can simply just step out of your way. Most sidewalks end with a ramp nowadays, not a curb, so you won’t even have a very bumpy ride. Those sidewalks are like roads paved with gold for a bicyclist, yet some of these belligerent bastards still insist on getting up in the roadways where they can’t even get close to keeping up with the flow of traffic.
What possibly bugs me the most is that, and this is strictly my opinion here, these bike riders come off conceited as hell. The other day I saw a fairly old woman holding up traffic in a downtown area on a bike, even though she was right next to a sidewalk, wearing one of those highlighter-colored vests that had a “SHARE THE ROAD” sign taped to the back of it. That shit makes me want to just give them a friendly tap with my bumper sometimes. Share the road? You pretentious pain in my ass! Try sharing the sidewalk!
Yes, I realize how hypocritical I sound right now. Hush.
But for real, these people are so cocky. Never mind the fact that I see them blatantly ignoring traffic laws (stop signs, red lights, etc.) just because they’re not in a car but think they can use the same roads as a car does, but they shoot you bad looks when you come up behind them too fast or get a little close to them. Son. The lane is only so big. You got a couple feet of wide open space if you just get on the other side of the curb that you’re practically clinging to for dear life as fed-up drivers zoom past you so that they can get to work. So what the hell are y’all glaring at me for?
Maybe I just have a severe case of road rage (just ask the various people who have given me the finger or gotten into swearing-matches with me on the roads), but this is just one of the most ridiculous things I’ve ever heard of. If you can’t go the speed limit, stay off the roads. Even though I can’t stand y’all, I’m saying this for your own good. And my own sanity. That is all.
Oh, and one last little sidenote…a few months ago I used to see this guy in one of those electric wheelchairs out on the road. I only ever saw him in this one right turn lane around the way. But I can’t even hate on him…that shit was hardbody. Even if it only went 10mph.
Art Against Gentrification
There’s two things in life that I can undoubtedly appreciate: a good cause, and some decent graffiti upon the brick walls of a building. Yeah, it’s illegal, but some graffiti is absolutely amazing and dammit, it should be seen and appreciated. So when I stumbled upon this article a few days ago, my interest was immediately piqued:
http://torontoist.com/2008/07/fauxreels_regent_park_portraits.php
Even if you don’t read the article, peep out the pictures. In short, what was going on was that the neighborhood in question was part of a “revitalization” project…meaning that its residents would get kicked the fuck out when their buildings were torn down to build new, fancier housing that would attract a new crowd of people.
You know, the typical story of gentrification that is affecting a hood near you.
So anyway, this guy named Dan Bergeron had the idea to get pictures of some of the residents who were going to be displaced, and then create painted murals depicting the people on the walls of the buildings that are to be torn down. Sure, this won’t stop the buildings from being ripped down, but it is at least causing people to think about what’s going on in a different view.
As the article states…
“Bergeron's project is all about displacement, the people who live in Regent Park being upended while their community is changed without them. With the portraits, Bergeron says, "the community has a face," and he means it literally—they make it so that "people become part of the physical building" even as the buildings, bordered by Gerrard East, Dundas East, Sumach, and Sackville Streets, are steadily cleared of people.”
To put faces to the residents that will be forced out of the neighborhood via art is an interesting approach to the situation. It instantly made me think of graffiti and what that could do as far as positivity is concerned (as well as that guy going around spray painting “vote” pieces around cities for the upcoming election). Then, I came across this piece, which deals with graffiti here in the DC metro area:
http://dcist.com/2008/07/11/murals_dc_celebrates_community_empo.php
The Midnight Forum, a DC non-profit which is “empowering youth through hip hop” has partnered with Jim Graham, the Columbia Heights/Shaw Family Support Collaborative, and Bell Multicultural HS to begin a legal graffiti initiative in the district that would be aimed at the youth. Things like this make me smile.
The program, Murals DC, is essentially covering illegal tags by allowing the kids to create murals of what are considered more appealing things (like the Cluck U chicken?!) over the normally less appealing tags. Now sure, if I was getting my tags painted over I may be a little disappointed, but in this case I gotta give it up for the kids. Encouraging art skills in the youth within a controlled environment, giving them something positive to do on their spare time, making the city they live in look a little more appealing to the eye, and getting the city council to support something like this? That’s a pretty good look right there.
It’s nice to see that the often ignored, most criminal, and sometimes denied element of hip hop is doing some good for our children. And to think, people were saying hip hop was dead! And since all of this put me in a sharing mood, here’s a mixtape from Southeast Slim, whose area of DC is dealing with some gentrification issues of its own. The tape is called “That Dope” and features an appearance a name that most of you are probably familiar with by now – Wale.
http://www.sendspace.com/file/qhbxve
Props to Southeast Slim for repping his city hard, peace to DC and the surrounding areas, and props to everybody that's out getting involved in their communities, voicing their concerns and opinions, and making sure that people are listening.
Freedom Ain't Free
Tonight I probably won’t be doing what most of you will. There will be no alcohol involved in my evening. No sparklers, firecrackers, bottle rockets or roman candles. No lying on a blanket under the night sky seeing the fireworks’ reflection in the eyes of someone close to me. No cookouts. It’s just another Friday night for me. Aside from the fact that it’s a huge hassle to make it into DC on the 4th, I just can’t imagine being able to be all festive and happy when I have to make my way through security checkpoints and hear the helicopters flying over my head with a sickeningly frequent consistency. Especially after I read things like this news story from MSNBC entitled “FBI might use profiling in terror investigations”:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25501088/
Shouts to Dallas Penn for bringing that one to my attention.
I really hope everybody reading this takes the time to check out that article. What’s sad is that this is probably nothing new to any of us.
“The Justice Department is considering letting the FBI investigate Americans without any evidence of wrongdoing, relying instead on a terrorist profile that could single out Muslims, Arabs or other racial and ethnic groups.”
Does this really need to be stated? They’re considering it? Does the Justice Department not realize that the FBI has been doing this for some time now? Have we forgotten about the Patriot Act?
A few years ago, on this day, I took myself and a few family members from out of town into the district so that they could see the DC fireworks. It is something worth seeing at least once, I must say. I hadn’t been to see them since 9/11, but I knew there would be some security I wasn’t used to. So, I’m walking down a street with my fam and we see a checkpoint. No big deal – we’re not doing anything wrong, right? Most of us get through with no problem. However it took one of us in particular an excessively long time to get through the line. She was wearing a hijab, had an accent, and obviously wasn’t just an “American”. In actuality she wasn’t an American at all, she was visiting from out of the country, but the guards at the checkpoint really wouldn’t have had a way of knowing that unless she told them or showed ID, so that’s pretty much irrelevant in this setting. They searched her bag inside and out, while I watched other people with bags just as big (if not bigger) walk right through while somebody merely peeked into their stuff. Needless to say, it was rather embarrassing. Mostly because we were trying so hard to show my family members a good time while they were in DC. One of them flew across an ocean to get here, only to be singled out and treated differently (not in a positive way) than everybody else. So much for Southern hospitality. And I’m sure I don’t even have to say what the basis of their reasoning was for giving her so much more hassle than anyone else around.
They didn’t find anything and eventually let her pass through the checkpoint. And I haven’t been to any of DC’s 4th of July celebrations since. I’m over it.
“Immediately after 9/11, hundreds of Muslims and Arabs were detained, deported and monitored as the government urgently sought information that could prevent another attack. Despite efforts to repair and nurture relationships with those groups, Muslim- and Arab-Americans still complain of being singled out by federal security practices.”
Yeah, that’s a quote from the same article that I linked at the beginning of the post. They pretty much admit that unjust profiling was going down before. And yet, they still feel the need to announce their plans to do so now. The difference being that some people in our justice system believe that simply profiling people based on their race, religion, beliefs, etc. is the right thing to do now. As if our country wasn’t filled with enough prejudice and racism already.
If you ask me, this is all motivated by fear. And every time the leaders of our government take one more step towards infringing upon another one of our dwindling civil liberties, the terrorists win. According to dictionary.com, the second definition of “terrorism” is “the state of fear and submission produced by terrorism or terrorization”. A terrorist, according to WordNet, is “a radical who employs terror as a political weapon”. Since 9/11, America has redefined “privacy”, blatantly profiled its own citizens, ruthlessly attacked nations for reasons that, at this point, seem rather fuzzy, and has employed color codes to make its citizens feel safer. Why? All to defend itself against terrorism. All to lessen the fear of being attacked by the terrorists. Who, for the record, are probably in their caves, smoking a hookah, laughing hysterically at the antics our country has exhibited since “terrorism” became the new sensitive word in Washington.
Fear.
A fear, originally of violence, that has distorted itself into a fear of peoples and cultures whose beliefs don’t align with our own. A fear that was instilled onto the American public, by various forces such as the media, in order to manipulate us into agreeing with the injustices performed against us by the government after 9/11. We were frightened to the point that many of us didn’t mind the fact that somebody may be listening in on our phone calls for no good reason at all. That every book you check out of the library could be tracked. All because somehow this would stop the scary terrorists from getting to us.
Well, Bin Laden is still out there, the world isn’t too happy with us, we’ve lost far too many soldiers in a war that was flawed from the start, and in many ways, we’re far worse off than when we started.
I, for one, am sick of this. I am not, have not been, and will not be ashamed of my roots for the sake of not getting fucked with by law enforcement and federal agents. I love this land, it’s an amazing place, but the people running it have formed a cloud that is creating a constant shadow over the beauty of this land. And not much, if any, good has come from it. Our leaders seem so concerned with simply maintaining the power and control that boosted our national ego as we basked in “superpower” status, that their greed and superiority complexes have thoroughly skewed their perceptions of reality and what is truly good for the citizens they rule over. I’m disgusted that the deaths of so many people on 9/11 formed the basis of the excuse to invade our privacy and assume our guilt before assuming our innocence. Today is supposed to be a celebration of independence, but I can’t help but feel slightly trapped. Feeling that simply who I am is enough to incriminate myself in the eyes of others.
I hope the Justice Department is listening. I hope someone in that group of people knows that we won’t just sit back and let them treat us like dirt and assume our guilt based upon superficial factors or where we choose to go on vacation*. They say they won’t read personal e-mails or tap into phone calls based solely on our backgrounds, but at this point why should we believe them? We know they have the technology to do so quite easily, so who is to say that they aren’t? Once they know they want to take you down, chances are they can find something to take you down for. That’s why we have laws about things like the fact that you can’t have anything hanging from your rearview mirror, right? So they can pick and choose who gets pulled over? I mean, really.
Aside from merely speaking your mind and getting people to listen though, remember that a large, and easier said than done, step in maintaining your personal freedom is to live a righteous life. No, I’m not trying to preach, I’m just using logic. This isn’t foolproof, but if you do not commit crimes or give people an easy reason to take you down, then they pretty much can’t. Fuck the police, we have to watch our own backs these days. And the best way to do this is to just stay out of trouble. Be safe. Be aware of what information about you is kept on record. Be aware of your surroundings. Know the laws that are in effect in your area. Read. Read a lot. Read about anything and everything, and then use that knowledge as your most powerful weapon. But whatever you do, don’t give anyone easy and thoughtless reasons to take you down easily. You never know when someone has their eye on you and you could be next.
I love this country, and I love the ideals that we are supposed to stand for. Which is exactly why some of the things I’ve seen happen in the name of “patriotism” make my blood boil. So I will celebrate our independence today, even if my celebration takes the form of demanding back the liberties I feel I have lost in the last six years. Because that is patriotism. Standing up for our rights in a democratic society that should be giving us the full freedom to do so without fear of being singled out due to twisted fears and the prejudices that come along with them. I wish you all a safe 4th of July and hope that you can take the day off that most of you have and spend it with your loved ones, while having an excellent time on a gorgeous summer day.
*"Among the factors that could make someone subject of an investigation is travel to regions of the world known for terrorist activity, access to weapons or military training, along with the person's race or ethnicity." I couldn't make this stuff up if I tried.