Blackfolks

Barack and Dule, two great tastes that taste great together

2008-05-17T02:38:29Z

I'm sort of going through Psych withdrawals, so imagine my glee when I saw Dule Hill stumping for Barack in Oregon.

I'm going on the lam...

2008-05-17T02:28:23Z

I have some vay-kay time built up at the job that I haven't used. I also have some cash saved up, and I am in dire need of escape from work and this increasingly annoying town for at least a little while... The Times makes this place seem FAR better than it really is. No need to plan a trip, if you don't live or go to school here. Just go to Dallas, and save a 45 minute drive.

I want to just take a trip by myself, for a few days, but I can't decide where. For some reason, I want to go by train, but planes are ok too (and about the same price). My question to you is, where would be a great (and "relatively inexpensive") place for someone to go to solo?

I'm really just looking for some place where I can grab a decent hotel room to lay my head at night, and during the day walk/mass transit around the city and take in the sights (museums, parks, neat-o indie shops, or maybe a show). I really want to go to Chicago, but that can be sort of pricey... and I have family there (grandparents, and some lame uncles). That would normally be the ideal situation, with free room and food, but I really just want to take a trip where I am totally alone (free from influence of people I know), and I would greatly offend them if they found out I was in the same city and didn't give them at least a phone call.

So yeah. You can tell by my rambling (and needless use of parenthesis) how important and necessary this trip is right now...
Have any suggestions, or care to share any experiences of trips you went on by yourself?

I'll leave you with an old school joint to start your weekend off right (Awww Yeaaah)...

A question...

2008-05-16T21:58:21Z

I am a Philadelphia-area artist applying for an arts and social change grant and have an idea for a potential project, but I was wondering...

View Poll: Telling their own stories...

The project I had in mind would combine photography, collage, journaling, painting and printmaking to make artist's books, works of art in book form, to possibly be displayed in a local art gallery. I thought it was a project worth of consideration because art is usually seen as something inaccessible, and most representations of black teens are negative stereotypes perpetuated by the media. What are your thoughts on this? Do you believe it is a viable project, of interest to both the youth and those awarding the grant?

radical pedagogy

2008-05-16T19:26:56Z

Okay! So I'm making a blog focusing on radical pedagogy to act as a resource to teachers who are committed to bringing social justice into the classroom. HOWEVER, I don't know a lot of online resources dealing with that... suggestions?

http://exploringradicalpedagogy.blogspot.com/ is the blog I mean, in case anyone cares. :)

xposted like whoa

Da Hell Does "Ich Me Sun Chi" Mean Anyway?

2008-05-16T16:45:01Z

Yesterday I downloaded the "The Tommy Boy Story" from iTunes.

The first track that played was "Planet Rock" by Afrika Bambaataa & The Soul Sonic Force and immediately I had to fight back the urge to head over to the nearest roller rink to relive my childhood.

So this got me to thinking about all those summer anthems through the years. You know, the ones that basically shut the radio down for the entire summer and remained on a "4 times an hour" rotation for months? Back in the days when the only form of portable music existed in the form of boom boxes or those gi-normous Sony Walkmans with the only choice of content being the local radio station or cassette tapes.

Some other memorable ones for me are:

The Message - Grand Master Flash & The Furious Five (1983?)
Raisin' Hell - Run -DMC (1986) - The entire album
Make It Last Forever - Keith Sweat (1987) - The entire album
Keep on Movin' - Soul II Soul (1989) - They played the hell outta this record when it came out!
Please Hammer, Don't Hurt 'Em - MC Hammer (1990) - Y'all know y'all rocked this album!!
Born to Sing - En Vogue (1990) - I swear that "Hold On" video was on every time I turned the TV on that summer.

What are some of your memorable summer anthems?  What's on the soundtrack of your teenage years?

Foolish Friday: VH1 Love edition

2008-05-16T15:21:06Z

View Poll: "of Love"

ETA: I meant to call the R. Kelly one "A Teenage Love", but got sidetracked. :) Of course, I will have Slick Rick in my head all day now.

My Columbus Blackfolk!!!!!

2008-05-16T15:17:53Z

I'm coming down to kick it in your town this weekend I'll be there for the Rustbelt Poetry Slam. Where teams form the Midwest come and spit some hot fire like Dylan Dylan Dylan Dylan and Dylan.

Come Check it out, gonna be alot of fun!

Obama Article sent to me today

2008-05-16T13:49:40Z

Old Friends Recall Obama's years in NY and LA.

blackfolk @ 2008-05-15T18:28:00

2008-05-16T01:32:26Z

do you know about loving day? It's coming up June 12th and isn't nearly as smaltzy as it sounds. As a black man married to a black woman it's not personal for me in that way but as the product of a interracial marriage it's very personal in another.

I hope this hasn't been posted before (Eli Porter)

2008-05-16T00:30:11Z

If this has been posted, throw your shoes at me & Free Post the hell out of it. But this was sent to me earlier. This is a rap battle featuring Envy and an obviously mentally challenged Eli Porter. I have read a lot of commentary about this video and as one person stated: "It's almost like a Dave Chappelle skit" and another said "Everybody in the video appears to be mentally challenged to some extent." I have no words!!!! *SHAME*

Is THIS why Obama lost in West Virginia?

2008-05-15T22:41:54Z

All I can do is shake my head at these a**holes. It was expected, but it still makes me so mad...

I'm heading to the state convention

2008-05-15T21:33:54Z

Keep me in your thoughts, I'm running to be a National Delegate for Obama!

Here are some pics to tide you over while I'm gone

The baby is trying to steal his soul!

Is it say what you want day?

2008-05-15T21:21:37Z

Conyers On Rove: "Someone's Got To Kick His A**"

Politico | Ryan Grim | May 15, 2008 05:03 PM

Just off the House floor today, the Crypt overheard House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers tell two other people: "We're closing in on Rove. Someone's got to kick his ass."

Asked a few minutes later for a more official explanation, Conyers told us that Rove has a week to appear before his committee. If he doesn't, said Conyers, "We'll do what any self-respecting committee would do. We'd hold him in contempt. Either that or go and have him arrested."

blackfolk @ 2008-05-15T15:34:00

2008-05-15T20:35:36Z

Lori Drew has been indicted by a federal grand jury for her role in the MySpace suicide case. She's facing a maximum of 20 years in jail. I'm so glad they're going to actually try to lock this trifling specimen up.

McCain believes Iraq war can be won by 2013

2008-05-15T20:27:51Z

McCain believes Iraq war can be won by 2013
By GLEN JOHNSON, Associated Press Writer

Republican John McCain declared for the first time Thursday he believes the Iraq war can be won by 2013, although he rejected suggestions that his talk of a timetable put him on the same side as Democrats clamoring for full-scale troop withdrawals.

The Republican presidential contender, in a mystical speech that also envisioned Osama bin Laden dead or captured, and Americans with the choice of paying a simple flat tax or following their standard 1040 form, said only a small number of troops would remain in Iraq by the end of a prospective first term because al-Qaida will have been defeated and Iraq's government will be functioning on its own.

"By January 2013, America has welcomed home most of the servicemen and women who have sacrificed terribly so that America might be secure in her freedom. The Iraq War has been won," McCain told an audience of several hundred here in the capital city of a general election battleground state.

Later, as the Arizona senator drove to the airport on his "Straight Talk Express" campaign bus, McCain was peppered by reporters with questions about the timetable. He and his aides insisted there was a difference between ending the war and bringing troops home and, as they criticize the Democrats, announcing a withdrawal upfront without regard for the military endgame.

"It's not a timetable; it's victory. It's victory, which I have always predicted. I didn't know when we were going to win World War II; I just knew we were going to win," McCain said.

The Vietnam veteran added: "I know from experience, you set a day for surrender — which is basically what you do when you say you are withdrawing — and you will pay a much a heavier price later on."

In the primary campaign, McCain had criticized former Republican rival Mitt Romney for hinting at a timetable.

Democrats challenged McCain's comments, led by presidential contender Hillary Rodham Clinton.

In a statement, the New York senator dismissed McCain and said he "promises more of the same Bush policies that have weakened our military, our national security and our standing in the world." The Barack Obama campaign said that while the candidate agrees with some of McCain's sentiments, "you cannot embrace the destructive policies and divisive political tactics of George Bush and still offer yourself as a candidate of healing and change."

Other Democrats equated McCain's comment with President Bush's May 1, 2003, speech on the deck of an aircraft carrier displaying a "Mission Accomplished" banner.

In his remarks, McCain peered through a crystal ball to 2013 and envisioned an era of bipartisanship driven by weekly news conferences and British-style question periods with joint meetings of Congress.

The senator conceded he cannot make the changes alone, but said he wanted to outline a specific governing style to show the accomplishments it can achieve. He backed up his remarks with a Web ad featuring similar content.

"I'm not interested in partisanship that serves no other purpose than to gain a temporary advantage over our opponents. This mindless, paralyzing rancor must come to an end. We belong to different parties, not different countries," McCain said. "There is a time to campaign, and a time to govern. If I'm elected president, the era of the permanent campaign will end; the era of problem-solving will begin."

To the disdain of some fellow Republicans, the likely GOP nominee has worked with Democrats on legislation aimed at overhauling campaign finance regulations, redrafting immigration rules and regulations and implementing government spending controls.

While that has cultivated a maverick image for McCain, the Arizona senator has also been accused of exhibiting a nasty temper — swearing even at fellow lawmakers from his own party — and unabashed partisanship.

In particular, McCain has clashed with the leading Democratic presidential contender, Barack Obama. After tangling with the Illinois senator on lobbying reforms, McCain questioned Obama's integrity in a publicly released 2006 letter.

McCain wrote he had thought Obama's interest in ethics legislation "was genuine and admirable," before adding: "Thank you for disabusing me of such notions." He accused Obama of "partisan posturing."

In outlining other potential achievements of a first term in his speech, the 71-year-old McCain implicitly was suggesting he would seek a second term, an attempt to mute suggestions he would serve only four years after being the oldest president elected.

In particular, he sees a world in which the Taliban threat in Afghanistan has been greatly reduced.

He added: "The increase in actionable intelligence that the counterinsurgency produced led to the capture or death of Osama bin Laden, and his chief lieutenants. ... There still has not been a major terrorist attack in the United States since Sept. 11, 2001."

McCain also pledged to halt a Bush administration practice of enacting laws with accompanying signing statements that exempt the president from having to enforce parts he finds objectionable.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080515/ap_on_el_pr/mccain_governing_style

This might make you laugh yourself to death

2008-05-15T19:59:58Z

For once an email forward that was worth opening. 13ascension sent this one to me and I had to share.

Woman accused of faking cancer to avoid work

2008-05-15T19:47:31Z

ARLINGTON, Wash.—A former Washington state social worker has been accused of faking brain cancer to avoid work. Theft charges were filed Tuesday against Sandra Dee Martinez, 40, formerly of Mountlake Terrace, who was employed by the Department of Social and Health Services in Arlington.
more stories like this

According to investigators, Martinez presented fake letters that appeared to be from doctors saying she had malignant brain tumors. Prosecutors wrote that she received $21,000 worth of paid leave and took advantage of sick days donated by co-workers last year.

Prosecutors wrote that Martinez came under scrutiny after using a neighbor's computer and leaving one of the letters on the printer.

Arlington Police Chief John Gray says Martinez has moved to another state and won't speak with investigators.

Source

blackfolk @ 2008-05-15T13:22:00

2008-05-15T18:22:45Z

Has anyone else ordered Oyin recently? I just realized my order still shows up as being processed and I placed it 3 weeks ago. Plus the website hasn't been updated this month. Anyone heard anything?

I fucks with Joe Biden

2008-05-15T17:48:15Z

May 15, 2008
Categories: Campaigns
Biden: Bush's comments were 'bullshit'

Sen. Joe Biden, piling on to Democratic complaints about President Bush’s speech in Israel today:
“This is bullshit, this is malarkey. This is outrageous, for the president of the United States to go to a foreign country, to sit in the Knesset ... and make this kind of ridiculous statement.”
Speaking before the Knesset, Bush said that “some people” believe the United States “should negotiate with terrorists and radicals, as if some ingenious argument will persuade them they have been wrong all along."
"We have heard this foolish delusion before," Bush said. "As Nazi tanks crossed into Poland in 1939, an American senator declared: 'Lord, if I could only have talked to Hitler, all this might have been avoided.' We have an obligation to call this what it is — the false comfort of appeasement, which has been repeatedly discredited by history."
Democrats have interpreted the comments as an attack on Sen. Barack Obama, and Biden, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said that the president was out of line.
“He is the guy who has weakened us,” he said. “He has increased the number of terrorists in the world. It is his policies that have produced this vulnerability that the U.S. has. It’s his [own] intelligence community [that] has pointed this out, not me.”
Biden noted that Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice have both suggested that the United States ought to find a way to talk more with its enemies.
"If he thinks this is appeasement, is he going to come back and fire his own cabinet?” Biden asked. “Is he going to fire Condi Rice?”

In a separate statement, Sen. John F. Kerry said that Bush "is still playing the disgusting and dangerous political game Karl Rove perfected, which is insulting to every American and disrespectful to our ally Israel. George Bush should be making Israel secure, not slandering Barack Obama from the Knesset."

The White House insists that Bush wasn’t referring specifically to Obama, an argument that Senate Majority Whip Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.) called "baloney."
"There is no escaping what the president is doing," said Durbin, who supports Obama. "It is an attack on Sen. Obama’s position that we should not be avoiding even those we disagree with when it comes to negotiations and diplomacy."
Durbin called Bush's remarks "unfair and really unfortunate."

unforgivable blackness

2008-05-15T15:56:24Z

i recently watched unforgivable blackness: the rise and fall of jack johnson. i'm not a big sports fan, but i'm a big fan of our history and the actual contributions and advancements we've made in this country in all aspects of life. i, like most people have heard of jack johnson but in an abstract kind of way. i wasn't really sure what i was going to get out of this, or what i was going to feel about this biopic. well i learned and came away with a lot more than i could imagine. this man was his own man. this man didn't listen to anyone really. and to be so bold to do the things he did (travel around with white women being the "worst"), in that era and knowing what they would do to him. i, of course, didn't like the misogynistic side of him. the brutality he thrust on his women. there being no excuse for what he did, he was in a very bad place in life and in sport. whenever i think about how hard we as a people still have it in these days, to earn more respect than we're getting, i will forever think about the shit this man went through and put himself through.
growing up in mostly non african american neighborhoods (from 4th grade on), i was forced really to assimilate myself into the school/neighborhood/society. at the same time, my home life and my family made me NEVER forget that i was/am/will always be a black boy. i guess my mind, it always was a free mind. always did what i thought was right for me, consequences be damned really. by force of nature and the beauty of the women of african desecent, i was drawn to the few non white girls we had in school. but i guess because of my quietness or me being "high yella", there was no mutal attraction there (see, we light skinned brothas will never be in style haha)... the need for some sort of affection, companionship i "went to the lightside"...once i got into college, i decided to try again, since my unsurmountable attraction to women of my own race was still there and now there were more than 6 of them (hey we didn't have the internet back then people), my luck got a little better there, but again, too few women and too many black men, so you either had to be quick, slick, or left.

anyway, i don't know how i got into all that...but yea, this unforgivable blackness was a great film that we all should watch

Ethical Dilemma

2008-05-15T15:25:27Z

I have an ethical dilemma and I need as much advice as I can get. The low-down(pun not intended):

I'm friends with an HIV-positive bi-sexual (but far leaning toward gay) man who is completely out.

Lately I have been very conflicted about the fact that he sleeps with men who (1) are not out (2) to their partners (3) and maybe themselves. I don't have a problem that he sleeps with men who are in the closet, but that he knowingly sleeps with men who are supposed to be in monogamous relationships (whether male or female). I've expressed my feelings about this with him, but he gets very defensive and makes it seem as if I don't understand his lifestyle because of my straightness (which may be true).

So my ethical dilemma is this: He told me he is sleeping or has slept with the neighbor. The neighbor lives with his wife and two kids. She's a nice woman, she's a black woman, and I feel, even though I have loyalty to my friend, I have some loyalty to her as well. I know nothing about her relationship, so she could be well aware of what is going on. But it's unlikely. I don't really know this woman besides hello and goodbye, so even if I were to tell her I'd have no idea how.

I've tried confronting my friend, but he's made a point of keeping his sexual exploits with "down-low" (I hate that term but what else am I to use?) men off limits to me since I told him how upset it made me. I'm at a point where I don't know if I can even continue a friendship with him because I'm so opposed to what he is doing, but at the same time I do feel that I shouldn't judge him or his lifestyle for some reason.

What should I do blackfolks?

ETA: I've decided to keep my damn mouth shut. Honestly, this is none of my business. As someone below said, if the neighbor is lying to his baby momma, it will come out some day. Things don't stay down low forever. And I like to avoid drama as much as possible, so I'm not going to put myself in the middle.

Blackfolks, you sure know how to put things into perspective.

blackfolk @ 2008-05-15T09:44:00

2008-05-15T14:44:36Z

"My Super Sweet 16 Presents: Exiled"
Ok, so who else is a reality tv junkie like myself, and watched MTVs popular series, "My Super Sweet 16"? Well there's a spinoff of sorts. They've taken 8 of the girls and their parents are giving them a "reality check" of sorts by dumping them in the laps of families of foreign countries.

I don't know the contestants by name, but Cee-Lo's daughter is on there, the Indian girl with divorced parents who's mom cut off her credit card mid-shopping spree, the girl with dark curly hair whose dad owned a dance club with neon palm trees lol, and 2 others whose stories I didn't remember.

A juicy clip/preview can be seen here. The families give it to them straight.

http://jezebel.com/390424/mtv-deports-sweet-16-brats-for-new-show-exiled

"I thought Peru was an island"? Bitch really??

SPOILERS

2008-05-15T14:06:26Z

ok now i'm all PISSY and have to rant about it so that I can move on with my feeble life.

Who else hates it when someone spoils the endings?!

I dunno, i just enjoy the element of surprise. When a director has taken an hour and a half to build up to this one moment, why would I want you to blow it for me in 2 seconds? Like people who pass you on the street and say "man isn't it crazy that dumbledore comes back to life in the new movie that isn't out yet?!?!" like.. wtf?!? why would you do that? What do you get out of ruining it for other people? I mean there are people who do stuff like this on purpose. Watching movies with this one SO, he would get so excited about a scene coming up in a movie that he would tell me about it before it happened, he really had a hard time holding it in.

ok. i guess i got it all out. I just have a wasted hour of DVR to watch. whatev. *pouts*

blackfolk @ 2008-05-15T08:40:00

2008-05-15T12:52:09Z

If anyone is in the Cleveland, OH area, or will be next fall, there's some cool stuff coming to Oberlin College (about 30-40 mins outside the city) for their convocation speaker series. They'll be open to the public on a limited basis, and just wanted to put them out there given that they're pretty geek-out worthy.

The staged reading on March 13 of Arthur Miller's play, Death of a Salesman, which featured renowned actor Avery Brooks, ‘70, hon. ‘95, and was directed by Justin Emeka '94, visiting professor of African American studies and theater and dance, was an electrifying theatrical experience.

I am thrilled to report that Mr. Brooks will be returning to campus for a fully staged production of Miller's masterpiece, directed by Mr. Emeka, that will be presented September 18 through 21. Many thanks to both of them and to everyone who helped make this happen.

Music and theater will be prime topics on September 8, when the Convocation series kicks off with Stephen Sondheim, the legendary composer, lyricist, and playwright, being interviewed by Frank Rich, author, as well as op-ed columnist and cultural critic for the New York Times.

Our second Convocation speaker of the semester, Newt Gingrich, the former speaker of the United States House of Representatives, has been at the center of some of the most intense political dramas of our time. Mr. Gingrich was the architect of the Contract with America, which helped the Republican Party in 1994 to win a majority in the U.S. House for the first time in 40 years. His visit is being cosponsored by the Oberlin College Republicans.

The production of Death of a Salesman is what I would really recommend (though Sondheim is probably going to be great). I saw the unrehearsed read through that went up about a month ago and it was one of the best productions I've seen at the school. It's an all Black production with a mix of student and professional actors (mostly from NYC) who are friends of the director. It also stars Avery Brooks, which... if you ever have the chance to see him preform, you must. He's a trained Shakespearean actor-- and was also Captain Sisko on Star Trek: DS9. He's wonderful.

Anyway, if anyone's interested I can provide more details once it gets closer.

Songs that make a statement..

2008-05-15T12:33:38Z

Hello all! I have a quick question and hopefully some of you guys will be able to help out. I am in a performance group of sorts and every month we put on a show (similar to a drag show, but I myself don't dress in drag, but I do lip sync... make sense?) with a certain theme. The theme for June is "Freedom" or really any song that makes a statement. My first song is going to be dealing with domestic abuse and it'll be to Janet Jackson's "What About". I am looking to do a second song, but am having a hard time coming up with something. Can any of you guys suggest songs that make a statement that is performed by a female artist. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks!