Project Runway

Congratulations to Uli as well as to Michael and to Laura!!! I am glad they won! As for Michael's dress...it did look a little ghetto fabulous. Jeffrey's shit was just shit. Nothing more.

The First Definitive Steps Towards Facism

These are some of the provisions of the Senate Detainee bill just passed.

Update: Okay, I've got this from the NYT.
The measure would broaden the definition of enemy combatants beyond the traditional definition used in wartime, to include noncitizens living legally in the United States as well as those in foreign countries and anyone determined to be an enemy combatant under criteria defined by the president or secretary of defense.

It would strip at Guantánamo detainees of the habeas right to challenge their detention in court, relying instead on procedures known as combatant status review trials. Those trials have looser rules of evidence than the courts.

It would allow of evidence seized in this country or abroad without a search warrant to be admitted in trials.

I have never seen a more blatantly unconstitutional, violation of human rights passed for legitimate legislation. I hope the ACLU and others are geared to fight.

Senate Detainee Bill

There are 100 people, mostly white,mostly male, all sons of a bitches, that are going to hell...and this country is going with them. There is nothing left to say. I can't say anything really, so I will point everyone in the direction of what BitchPhd has to say(all can rest assured that these are not her children).

There is definitely a rivalry between Jill Scott and Erykah Badu.I think I fall more on Erykah's side. I do, however, love Jill.

All we can ever do is try and be progressive.

To Zion

Lauryn Hill

One day you'll understand... Zion
Unsure of what the balance held
I touched my belly overwhelmed
by what I had been chosen to perform
But then an angel came one day
Told me to kneel down and pray
for unto me a man child would be born
Woe this crazy circumstance
I knew his life deserved a chance
but everybody told me to be smart
"Look at your career " they said,
"Lauryn baby use your head."
But instead I chose to use my heart
Now the joy... of my world...
is in Zion! (Zion, Zion!)
Now the joy... of my world...
is in Zion! (Zion, uhh, Zion!)
How beautiful if nothing more
than to wait at Zion's door
I've never been in love like this before
Now let me pray to keep you from
the perils that will surely come
See life for you my Prince has just begun
And I thank you for choosing me
to come through unto life to be
A beautiful reflection of His grace
See I know that a gift so great
is only one God could create
And I'm reminded every time I see your face
that the joy... (JOY) of my world... (WORLD)
is in Zion! (IS IN ZION) I said Zion! (IS IN ZION)
Now the joy... (JOY) of my world... (WORLD)
is in Zion! (IS IN ZION, IS IN ZION)
Now the joy... Zion! (JOY) of my world... (WORLD)
is in Zion! (IS IN ZION, IS IN ZION)
Now the joy... Zion! (JOY) of my world... (WORLD)
is in Zion! (IS IN ZION, IS IN ZION)
Marching (marching) marching (marching)
to Zion (marching) marching (marching) -- we gon' march
Marching (marching) marching (marching)
to Zion (marching), beautiful beautiful Zion!
Marching (marching) marching (marching)
to Zion (marching) marching (marching)
Marching (marching) marching (marching)
to Zion (marching), beautiful beautiful Zion!
Marching (marching) marching (marching) -- MY JOY, MY JOY
to Zion (marching) marching (marching) -- MY JOY, MY JOY
Marching (marching) marching (marching) -- MY JOY, MY JOY
to Zion (marching), beautiful beautiful Zion! -- MY JOY, MY JOY
Marching (marching) marching (marching) -- MY JOY, MY JOY
to Zion (marching) marching (marching) -- MY JOY, MY JOY
Marching (marching) marching (marching) -- NOW THE JOY
to Zion (marching), beautiful beautiful Zion! -- OF MY LIFE
Marching (marching) marching (marching) -- IS ZION
to Zion (marching) marching (marching)
Marching (marching) marching (marching) -- NOW THE JOY
to Zion (marching), beautiful beautiful Zion! -- OF MY LIFE
Beautiful beautiful Zion! -- IS ZION
Beautiful beautiful Zion! -- IS ZION
Beautiful beautiful Zion!
Beautiful beautiful Zion!
Beautiful beautiful Zion!
Beautiful beautiful Zion!

Superstar

Lauryn Hill

Come on baby, light my fire
Everything you drop is so tired
Music is supposed to inspire
How come we ain't getting no higher?
Now tell me your philosophy
On exactly what an artist should be
Should they be someone with prosperity
And no concept of reality?
Now, who you know without any flaws
That lives above the spiritual laws
And does anything they feel just because
There's always someone there who'll applaud

Come on baby, light my fire
Everything you drop is so tired
Music is supposed to inspire
How come we ain't getting no higher?
I know you think that you've got it all
And by making other people feel small
Makes you think you're unable to fall
And when you do, who you gonna call?
See, what you give is just what you get
I know it hasn't hit you yet
Now I don't mean to get you upset
But every cause has an effect

Come on baby, light my fire
Everything you drop is so tired
Music is supposed to inspire
So, how come we're not getting no higher?
I cross sands in distant lands, made plans with the sheiks
Why you beef with freaks as my album sales peak?
All I wanted was to sell like 500
And be a ghetto superstar since my first album, Blunted
I used to work at Foot Locker, they fired me and fronted
Or I quitted, now I spit it - however do you want it?
Now you get it!
Writing rhymes my range with the frames slightly tinted
Then send it to your block and have my full name cemented
And if your rhymes sound like mine, I'm taking a percentage
Unprecedented and still respected when it vintage
I'm serious, I'm taking over areas in Aquarius
Running red lights with my 10,000 chariots
Just as Christ was a superstar, you stupid star
They'll hail you then they'll nail you, no matter who you
are
They'll make you now then take you down
And make you face it, if you slit the bag open
and put your pinky in it, then taste it

Come on baby, light my fire
Everything you drop is so tired
Music is supposed to inspire
So, how come we ain't getting no higher

Revelations

At 25, I am finally realizing my own power and my own agency.

Morgan Goodson and John Archie deramus

In my previous post I did not refer to Morgan Goodson as Mr. Morgan Goodson. This is because I don't think of him as such and I dont think he would have been addressed as such. He was simply, Morgan Goodson. A name that inspired reverence.Whereas Morgan Goodson was a fiery,stubborn, argumentative man who could raise hell till the sun came up and went down the next day, John Archie Deramus was a very soft-spoken man, renowned for being good and next to god, compassionate, and with a deep rooted integrity and sense of right. Morgan also had a sense of right, and in his way was next to god(they say he told wthe exact hour when he was going to die and that he could predict the future). Both were stern and set upon keeping to the path of righteousness. They differed, however, in temperament. Both were beautiful men. Sadie Mae Goodson Deramus, Morgan's daughter, however, inherited her fathers traits(as did most of the goodsons to my knowledge). I was told that sometimes she would just start to fuss and argue and would carry on for a very long time until John Archie, who was usually sitting by her or something to that effect, would say in his soft, guttural voice" alright Sadie, thats enough." She would then quiet down. John Archie himself had to be honed in however. They say when he first married my great grandmother, that he had some very backwards and faulty ideas that he had to be corrected of. He was somewhat superstitious for one, which my great grandmother corrrected him from(she reportedly said that they might have thought her father was a soothsayer, but she knew he was nothing but a man). he also apparently thoguht she should do what he told her to. On one occassion, when they had first married, he told he r to do something and she didnt get up and do it right when he asked her to. After a while, he came by and saw that she hadn't done it, so he hit her. They say my great grandmother picked up astick the size of a log and laid him out cold. She got so scared she ran down the road to call for his sister. His sister , Mattie(who was also married to a John) said to her, "Sadie, you hit your John?! I'd never hit my John." My great grandmother reportedly replied, " I will not only hit my John, I will kill my john." That was the end of that.

Thoughts from Last Night

I learn so much from being among progressive people. Also, the view fro H and D's front room reminds me a lot of Aunt Earnestine's house.

I also am not a Mr. S.J. McDavid....or a Mr. Macaulay Ware Goodson.

I find it interesting that I am 25 and have already become "Mr. Wallace." It is sort of odd...and I don't rightly accept it. I certainly am not a Mr. J.A.B. DeRamus....I dont think I am any of it in any sense.

Alice Walker Stands with Fidel and the People of Cuba

God Bless Alice....she is the personification of integrity and beauty.

Last night I saw this magnificent film by John Malkovich starring Javier Bardem. It was quite intriguing and I was even more overjoyed that they played a song of Nina Simone's as the main part of the soundtrack! I also caught part of Woody Allen's Sweet and Lowdown. I saw that film when it first came out in the theatres. I must say that it is an excellent jazz film.