How do you kill trees and nobody know you did it?

This is a picture that I took today that shows a similiar view that I would have if my neighbors trees were not blocking it!!!

Does anybody know how I can make those trees crumble to the ground without damaging anything around them? (evil laugh)

While taking the picture above from the sidewalk I was standing in front of a small palm tree. Thought it was intersting. I wonder if this is where the first designer got the idea to put pleats in clothing.

Connections

I have been watching the news about the Virginia Tech incident. They are interviewing Koreans here in Los Angeles asking them how they feel. Most all of the Koreans interviewed say that they feel ashamed because the murderer is Korean.

Hal Fishman the anchorman on the CW said that one can not condemn a whole culture for something that one has done.

Hal is white and is unable to see that when one from any cultural group except whites, that commit a henious crime, how that effects the rest of the culture. A good example of that was the reaction of black folks when O.J. Simpson was acquited. Even if we believed that O.J. did it or not. We felt some sort of sick relief. Relief maybe because we thought that people would now not think that we were all murderers. We learned that the relief was very short lived.

The American culture has spoiled our communities into thinking that we are all alike and don't need each other. This is why I believe that our brothers and sisters who are lost, confused and possessing blemished souls are lashing out in inhumane forms. We don't take the time to listen to them to guide them through to a path of mental wellness. We dismiss them viciously and effortlessly.

My heart and prayers go out to the families and friends of those killed at Virginia Tech.

Our Images are beautiful and strong

It's interesting how important images are to people. I understand it I guess. However, I don't always agree for reasons which I"ll explain and show you with the images I've selected. Society has an innate need to categorize black people. Actually society has an innate need to categorize all people. However, black people seem to be the group that it tends to put into one or two categories. Usually negative categories.

I on the other hand believe that all black people are beautiful in our own way. Because most of us do not have the ability to go unnoticed due to the pigment of our skin, we are easily identifiable. Hence easily categorized. With that, this is what makes us strong. Strong because we have no choice but to accept who we are whether we want to or not. We learn at an early age to be strong because society immediately looks at us with the eyes that place us in one or two categories. When I see us I see the beauty and strength below.

Stuck in the Office on Friday

These are the worst types of days to be stuck in the office. When the weather is beautiful and the sun is shinining brightly. Looking down at the courtyard of my office building wanting to be somewhere in the distance that the window from my office displays.

Courtyard













View in the distance

Unity

I've been thinking about unity in the black gay community a lot lately. I wish that we were more unified. I wish that we gave each other a chance.

If we had unity in this community how powerful would we be?

I think it is downright frightening how scary we would be to mainstream America. And how exhilarating it would be to me.

We would be the kings and queens that we always say we are.


There would be a meaning again when we say. I'm Black and I'm proud.

I choose not to be viewed less than what I am because of what white America may think about me.

LA's Best

Just a view of LA. Fill your car up with high ass gas, get the car washed and go to dinner at KFC. Cuz that's all you'll be able to afford after paying for the gas.

HAPPY EASTER!

A Funk

Don't have much to say these days. Sort of in a funk. I have been procrastinating about everything. I'll be out of this soon.

Photo Blog

A woman that I work with is doing something that I though twas pretty cool. Every day she takes a picture of something and puts it on her blog. I thought I would do the same. I'm not going to think hard about it but just take a picture of something. It may not be everyday...but for some reason I just think it's a cool idea. Here's my 1st pic.

Sometimes I Can't Stop Cryin

I have known a lot of people who have passed away due to AIDS complications. That's what it's called when the virus has successfully been able to hinder a necessary function of your body.

Sometimes I feel lonely, because so many of my good friends are gone and I cry.
Sometimes I wonder why AIDS didn't get me and I cry.
Sometimes I think about all the pills that are necessary for someone with AIDS to take and how at times the pills make them sick or don't work at all, and I cry.
Sometimes I run across a picture of one of my friends smiling as they posed for the camera and I cry.
Sometimes, I can't recall all the names of everyone that I've known to pass away from AIDS when you watch one of those shows about AIDS and at the end they do something to pay tribute to those that have gone, and I cry.
Sometimes I think about my friends who passed before the drugs that came around to make them look like they are healthy, and I cry.
Sometimes I think about the new people in my life that over the years I have learned to love to fill the empty spaces of my other friends and I cry.
Sometimes when I see one of my departed friends relatives and they hug me real tight, I cry.
I miss my friends and I cry.

Sometimes I can't stop crying. When will I be able to stop crying?












Photo by Greg McNeal

Emile Griffith

This is Emile Griffith, from the Virgin Islands. He was a boxer in the late 50s and early 60s. There were a lot of rumors about whether he was gay or not. Evidently Emile has never given an answer that has quite satisfied anyone. So much so that it seems he has been deemed to even have a medical condition that causes him to be confused about whether he is gay or straight.

Now I don't know anyone that has ever had this condition before and I'm not saying that he doesn't have it by any means. However, he supposedly developed this disease after being mugged and beaten badly. An article about Emile on Wikipedia states...

In 1992, Griffith was viciously beaten and almost killed on a New York City street, allegedly after leaving a gay bar. Today, Griffith requires fulltime care and suffers from pugilistic dementia. According to Sports Illustrated, the Alzheimer's-like condition makes him confused about his sexuality, and he sometimes declares himself to be heterosexual, other times he identifies as gay and other times, as bisexual, but one that prefers women.






There were rumors about Emile long before 1992 one boxer (Benny "the Kid" Paret) that he fought who unfortunately died due to there fight on March 24, 1962, called him a maricon (spanish for fagfot).

The death of Paret caused much controvery in the boxing world. Boxing was not televised until the 1970s after Paret's death.

I write all this to say the following:

• He was born on an extremely homophobic island, why wouldn't he deny his homosexuality?



• He was a boxer. In the sports industry even today we know how difficult it is for someone to admit that they are gay.



• I'll never understand why it is so important for people to be able to categorize and undermine those that they deam less worthy of respect than themselves.



• Lastly, homophobia is the fear of becoming a homosexual. Why are so many people afraid of becoming what they supposedly don't think that they are. If one knows they are straight are they afriad that they'll fall on some dic azz first or into some azz?
  

If you get the opportunity rent the DVD Ring of Fire that documents this time in Emile Griffith's life and his present life. It's a sad story that doesn't talk a whole lot about his homosexuality but one commentator in the documentary makes no hesitation in stating the Emile is Gay. It's a tragic story that I'm sure would effect the lives of anyone that would have to go through what he did. Watch the deleted scenes too. Those are even more interesting.

In the words of Rodney King, "Can't we just all get along?"