When it all...all falls down...

I pay approximately 120% more per month in rent than I did pre-katrina. You can imagine the dismay that enrages me anytime I hear the comment "You playing the Katrina card?"

Really...card...oh sorta like that Race/Gender card huh?

I guess it stings a little more from people that look just like you asking you "why haven't ya'll done anything yet?" "What's taking so long?" "Why can't ya'll just move on"

I tell you, I've never been one to remember anything but August 28-29, 2005 are two days in which I can recall every second of the day. And now there are only two ways to define time...before Katrina and after. It doesn't matter if your house withstood the wind/water damage of Katrina...nothing in your life is the same. I guess that's why I'm so unaffected by everything else...which can be a bad and good thing...but real shit. I approach most things like "This isn't the worst thing that has ever happened to me...so eff it"

Katrina Card 145666 As of this school semester there are only 2 schools in New Orleans that offer MSW programs and 1 that offers MA Sociology program

Upon completing my first semester in my MA Sociology program I began working with residents of Greater New Orleans housing projects contesting their right to return home. A class action lawsuit had already been filed against HUD and HANO. and I could see every aspect of my trainings of intersectionality of oppressions come full circle. Then I started reminsing about the Hope VI victory of the St. Thomas projects. Ahhh affordable mixed income housing...lol.

Last week I had to make a couple of runs to City Hall last week. And I saw this on City Hall's front lawn




Shiiittt then I started to reminise about the images I saw the days after Katrina.

So we have hundreds of homeless people literally sleeping on the mayor's front lawn.


Rent is still sky high

and in other news...HUD/HANO have decided to forgo the aformentioned pending lawsuit and throw some Demolition D's on the Pjs.

My Grammy Predictions...only for catagories I care about

Album Of The Year:
Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace (Foo Fighters)
These Days (Vince Gill)
River: The Joni Letters (Herbie Hancock)
Graduation (Kanye West)
Back To Black (Amy Winehouse)

Record Of The Year:
"Irreplaceable" (Beyoncé)
"The Pretender" (Foo Fighters)
"Umbrella" (Rihanna Featuring Jay-Z)
"What Goes Around…Comes Around" (Justin Timberlake)
"Rehab" (Amy Winehouse)

Song Of The Year:
"Before He Cheats," John Kear & Chris Tompkins, songwriters (Carrie Underwood, artist)
"Hey There Delilah," Tom Higgenson, songwriter (Plain White T's, artist)
"Like A Star," Corinne Bailey Rae, songwriter (Corinne Bailey Rae, artist)
"Rehab," Amy Winehouse, songwriter (Amy Winehouse, artist)
"Umbrella," Shawn Carter, Kuk Harrell, Terius "Dream" Nash & Christopher Stewart, songwriters (Rihanna Featuring Jay-Z, artist)

Best New Artist:
Feist
Ledisi
Paramore
Taylor Swift
Amy Winehouse



Best Female Pop Vocal Performance
* Candyman
Christina Aguilera

* 1234
Feist
Track from: The Reminder

* Big Girls Don't Cry
Fergie
Track from: The Dutchess

* Say It Right
Nelly Furtado
Track from: Loose

* Rehab
Amy Winehouse
Track from: Back To Black




Field 6 - R&B
Category 23 - Best Female R&B Vocal Performance
(For a solo vocal performance. Singles or Tracks only.)

• Just Fine
Mary J. Blige

• When I See You
Fantasia
Track from: Fantasia

• No One
Alicia Keys

• If I Have My Way
Chrisette Michele
Track from: I Am

• Hate On Me
Jill Scott
Track from: The Real Thing

Field 6 - R&B
Category 24 - Best Male R&B Vocal Performance
(For a solo vocal performance. Singles or Tracks only.)

• Woman
Raheem DeVaughn

• B.U.D.D.Y.
Musiq Soulchild
Track from: Luvanmusiq

• Because Of You
Ne-Yo

• Future Baby Mama
Prince
Track from: Planet Earth

• Please Don't Go
Tank
Track from: Sex, Love & Pain

Field 6 - R&B
Category 27 - Best Urban/Alternative Performance
(For solo, duo, group or collaborative performances, with vocals. Singles or Tracks only.)

• Make A Baby
Vikter Duplaix
Track from: Bold And Beautiful

• That’s The Way Of The World
Dwele
Track from: Interpretations: Celebrating The Music Of Earth, Wind & Fire

• Daydreamin'
Lupe Fiasco Featuring Jill Scott
Track from: Lupe Fiasco's Food & Liquor

• Fantasy
Meshell Ndegeocello
Track from: Interpretations: Celebrating The Music Of Earth, Wind & Fire

• Dream
Alice Smith
Track from: For Lovers, Dreamers & Me

Field 7 - Rap
Category 31 - Best Rap Solo Performance
(For a solo Rap performance. Singles or Tracks only.)

• The People
Common
Track from: Finding Forever

• I Get Money
50 Cent
Track from: Curtis

• Show Me What You Got
Jay-Z
Track from: Kingdom Come

• Big Things Poppin' (Do It)
T.I.

• Stronger
Kanye West
Track from: Graduation


Field 7 - Rap
Category 32 - Best Rap Performance By A Duo Or Group
(For duo, group or collaborative performances of Rap only. Singles or Tracks only.)

• Southside
Common Featuring Kanye West
Track from: Finding Forever


• Make It Rain
Fat Joe Featuring Lil Wayne
Track from: Me, Myself & I

• Party Like A Rockstar
Shop Boyz
Track from: Rockstar Mentality

• Int'l Players Anthem (I Choose You)
UGK Featuring OutKast

• Better Than I've Ever Been
Kanye West, Nas & KRS-One

Field 7 - Rap
Category 35 - Best Rap Album
(For albums containing 51% or more playing time of VOCAL tracks.)

• Finding Forever
Common

• Kingdom Come
Jay-Z

• Hip Hop Is Dead
Nas

• T.I. vs T.I.P.
T.I.

• Graduation
Kanye West

Humble as a mumble in the jungle of shouts and screams,

That's the way the cracker crumbles so I guess I've gotta re-route my dreams....

You ever had to trust someone without a doubt? Someone that you vaguely knew and simultaneously knew all about this person? Knowing you might not feel comfortable going through but comforted with the fact of knowing they have your best intentions in their intent?

..."And that's life and that's life"

shit is crazy huh?

I guess that's what the streets want huh? lol




I'm wild just like a rock, a stone, a tree
And I'm free, just like the wind the breeze that blows
And I flow, just like a brook, a stream, the rain
And I fly, just like a bird up in the sky
And I'll surely die, just like a flower plucked
And dragged away and thrown away
And then 1 day it turns to clay
It blows away, it finds a ray, it finds its way
And there it lays until the rain and sun
Then I breathe, just like the wind the breeze that blows
And I grow, just like a baby breastfeeding
And it's beautiful, that's life and that's life
And that's life and that's life

Somehow this song kept me going today

I'm So Hood!

"I wear my pants below my waist
And I never dance when I'm in this place
Cause you and yo' man is plannin to hate
I'm so HOOD! And I got these golds up in my mouth
If you get closer to my house
Then you'll know what I'm talkin 'bout
I'm out the HOOD! And if you feel me put your hands up
HOO-OOD! My hood niggaz can you stand up
I'm so HOOD! If you not from here you can walk it out
And you not hood if you don't know what I'm talkin 'bout"

This song gets me going at 6am...sorry to my neighbors...lol

The day after Katrina...two years later

I'm torn between being Antwone Fisher "It don't matter what you tried to do, you couldn't destroy me! I'm still standing! I'm still strong! And I always will be"

and

Veteran activist Anne Moody in her autobiography expressed this new sense of cynicism best. "We shall overcome… I WONDER. I really WONDER."

and that's all i have to say about that

Have you seen Superbad yet? It's hilarious and I almost think it's funnier than Knocked Up...yes...it's possible.

Ahhh...the 3 day weekend is almost here!!! GO Labor Day!!!!!! I feel like No One is bbqing which is RiDiculous...Ya'll should be ashamed of yourselves :::Wink:::
It's the second week of school and I am damn near exausted...even though I don't work directly with the children :::scratches head:::

Here are some pics from summer camp...in which i didn't work directly with the kids...yet I'm on a field trip with them :::does the scratching of the head exercise again::




As I am looking through this photo album I am coming across my Summer of 2007 "Party and Bullish" memories...here are a couple I'd like to share with my b.f. (This stands for BLog Family...SOl...LMAO)

Party and Bullish begins...this is what we started off with and everyone brought a bottle of a lil sumthing with them



All Ima say is...I stay on the second floor...people were out taking a smoke a talking, a couple of people leaned on the rail...and...there it went...Ground Zero



Essence is Back in da N.O!!!
We love da kids


and Common


and da food


and da P.I.M.P.s


and da outfits


and busstopping to Maze all over the Superdome "You make me Happy!"


Ahhh...one of those nights


and then...


Get IT!!


One mo fa da road


Game Night!!!


Speed!!

my attempt to blog

What up fam?!??!??!?

I know...long time no hear right? Well, my summer was absolutely awesome! I didn't do anything I planned at the beginning of the year but for once since Katrina, I feel I had time to...Breathe. It felt good. I continued to work at the school, participated in a lil summer camp with the kids but mostly...Chilled...enjoyed my Summer...So now the "Summer of George...my bad...Party 'n Bullish" is officially OVER ;(

Ahhh, it was good while it lasted.

So...here's my update.

I've decided to take a semester off from my Master's program. I think I've made a wise decision and if I haven't....time will tell. IDK but somedays I don't want to even have conversation about the following subjects: race, class, gender, inequality, social injustice, sociology...u get the point. I don't know if living in New Orleans is helping or hurting my psychological situation...but I have a few months to decide.

Gosh...I've soo been trying to blog since I got to work and now it is 3:34...26 minutes til school is out!!!

3:40 pm

I give up

I'm so anxious

I need a new laptop...did I tell you mines is shot...dead...bodied...gone ;(

and it's been only a little over a year

it's almost worse than digital cameras...3 in a year and a half ;(

and once again its on!

Here it is, a cool, slightly transformed...just a bit of break from the norm...

It has truly been the "Summer of M.R." and it feels great!!!!

Last night one of my girls had a party but I wasn't really feeling the atmosphere...plus my favorite club was a few feet away so I slid on down to puff on a lil hookah and drank a lil Gangsta's Paradise....funny how i still don't know what's in it lol

anyways its been a hell of a summer already...bankground story is I had a house party a couple of weeks ago...I ditched my own party to ride around the city and ended up running into my ex...He and his cuzin came back to my house to chill at the party that had already been going on...Long story short...I'm chillin this summer. I don't want a boyfriend/realtionship/commitment right now...some guys find that hard to believe but...It's true. I'm not gonna lie, we sorta kicked it but I was starting to feel that he wanted priority in my life and I'm just not there right now...and he's not where he needs to be

Soooo...last night my phone was on blast before going out and my Ignore button got more play than usual. When we got to the club the dj told me I looked like "monday morning" cause my hair was straightened out lol...everytime i go out it's like who's who from M.R.'s past. I was going to the bathroom to reapply my Macs and I hear someone call my name...I turn only to hear "Man I told you that was M.R!!" Oh ish!!!! me and these dudes go WAAYYYYY back...from Summerbridge and elementary school!!!!! I didn't know that we went from just hugging people to hugging people and a friendly kiss on the cheek...I swear every dude from that clique hugged & kissed me...eh, I guess that's how we roll after katrina lol

anyways...so my ex was in da club and my cuz kept telling me that that dude had put a tracking device on my bluetooth...i believe her...lol. well he made his way over and we spoke (minus the hug and cheek kissing) he told me that I could've answered the phone and as he walked away he said something that I couldn't understand...no litterally...i couldn't hear the nicka...So the entire night my cuz and I were saying "You could've answered the phone...Bieeetch!!!" LMAO!!

So the dj is going off and i bump into my friend's husband. We offically met at my house party and dude seems like a decent guy...plus he's police...and you can't go wrong if you have one on ur team lol...anyways we start talkin and he overhears "you could've answered the phone...Bieeetch!!!" and asks what that was all about. after explaining it to him he told me that dude didn't curse me out cause if he did it would've been "Bitch.!. You could've answered the phone!" LMAO...thanks for clairifing that dude LMAO

Long story short again...club rocked the rest for the night...Nickas are happy when girls know the words to "Ain't no Fun" (that's a whole nother blog in itself)

Espys are on

Holla

This blog's for you Sol!!!

LMAO

M.Deezy will get me to blog...By any means necessary lol

The Rules
1. We have to post these rules before we give you the facts.

2. Players start with eight random facts/habits about themselves.

3. People who are tagged need to write their own blog
about their eight things and post these rules.

4. At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight
people to get tagged and list their names.

5. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them
they’re tagged, and to read your blog.

************************************************************************************
1. I spent the first 23 years of my life loving Everyone with conditions…including myself.

2. Last Saturday I bought a Heineken and a Hennessey and coke all for a stick of Orbitz gum

3. I want children, yet I feel like I will never have the time to have any.

4. I am taking a semester off from school even though I have only completed one semester in my program. I don’t know if this is the best decision, but I have already taken the road called “Plan B”

5. I am content with my moms and I relationship. We have been through some REAL shit, but I finally understand that some people can’t give you what they don’t have…but be grateful for what they are willing to try to give…This relates ONLY to me and my moms relationship

6. I love Dr. Cornel West in a manner that might be inappropriate to some. Lol

7. I absolutely hate/despise forwards…beit in a txt msg, email, etc…I loathe them!!!!!!

8. Last August when in NYC I bumped into Mike Myers and when he asked where I was from I said “New Orleans, where George Bush doesn’t like Black people” lol

9. I have had some of the LONGEST & in depth conversations with strangers over the past couple of months…I even cried during one

10. Every weekday morning for the past 2 months I have listened to Kweli’s “Get By” Pac’s “Hold ya Head” and Amy Winehouse’s “Tears Dry on their Own”


Ummm so I don't know enough bloggers to have 8...but here are the people i read:

1.
Janine's Time For Living
2. Pops'Thoughts
3. Ha ha Truly Ghetto Library Tales
4. The Prisoner's Wife

Just keeping everybody in the loop :::wink wink:::

Concerts in New Orleans are BACK...all at the HOB!!!

7/24-25 Musiq SOulchild and Chrisette Michele
8/5 Floetry
8/6 Talib Kweli
8/29 Keyshia Cole
9/20 VH-1 Hip Hop Honors Tour featuring the Roots

Who's down?!?!?!

Oh what tangled webs we weave, when first we practice to deceive

Is the D.C. Madam getting the same ish some people gave Superhead and Nas' baby mama (the latter i still have otha issues with)

Whatup B.F!!!!! I know it's been a while but
1. my computer is damn near dead...I'm hoping I can pull a Lazarus on it
2. it's summatime Baby!!! i'm getting my Vaca on!!!!

Well Essence just rapped up down here and I can tell you that I'm sooo happy for them to be back Home. I know everybody claims their hometown to be the best but the cultural core of New Orleans is truly unfucwitable. period.

I've been reading Jeanie's Time for Living and been catching the hints of racism Obama is trowing into the Katrina mix...see when you have a class titled "Race & Katrina" that ish could get u real pissed when you see how people are loosely connecting the two...when they are exclusively related to one another. I skipped out on the Hilary and Obama sessions...had it not been an election year I would've stayed but...it's the same ole message of campaigning going around.

I actually had a mini conversation with Common about rebuilding in the N.O. We went to a little meet and greet and they were trynna to get me to purchase another BE cd...naw I'll pass....I lost the first during Katrina and had to buy another. So I was telling him all this then he asked how I had been since the storm "Sheeed I'm alright...I got everything I need...but there are lots of others who don't even have the RIGHT to return HOME! Everybody wants to help New Orleans or try to help but no one is diagnosing the correct treatment because we don't want to acknowledge our own accountabilities in the realms of personal and social responsibility" His publist was trying to get us to hurry the hell up and take the picture to keep the line moving...BUT...eff it...I was talking to Common...and dude seemed interested ;) I went to his concert in the superlounge that night and was in the front row...had i not had the mini-convo with him earlier i wouldn't have thought he was talking to me when he looked at me from the stage and said "Be strong Sis...I got ur back...." he said some other stuff but I was trippin cause If u know Me...u know I'm saving an egg for this dude lol M.Dot...LMAO

here's a small pic of me and my egg donor lol LMAO

OMG sooo i'm on the phone with my cuz so...Bye bye Blog

Okay so I had to remember how Classic Aquemini is!

Twice upon a time there was a boy who died twice
And lived happily ever after but that's another chapter
Live from home of the brave with dirty dollars
& beauty parlors & baby bottles & bowling ball impalas
& street scholars that's majoring in culinary arts
You know how to work bread cheese & dough
From scratch but see the catch is you can get caught
Know what ya sellin' what ya bought so cut that big talk
Let's walk to the bridge now meet me halfway
Now you may see some children dead off in the pathway
It's them poor babies walkin' slowly to the candy lady
It's lookin' bad need some hope
Like the words maybe, if, or probably more than a hobby
When my turntables get wobbly they don't fall
I'm sorry y'all I often drift I'm talkin' gift
So when it comes you never look the horse inside it's grill
Of course you know I feel like the bearer of bad news
Don't want to be it but it's needed so what have you
Now question is every nigga with dreads for the cause?
Is every nigga with golds for the fall? naw
So don't get caught in appearance
It's outkast aquemini another black experience okay

na lemma go watch this here debate

I see the I in We my nigga, yours is my drama...Sometimes we find peace in beats and breaks

It's almost here...and i aint even gonna flirt with the thought of downloading it

WTF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

"Made in America"

WTFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

David Chase!!!!!

What would you do if I sang out tune? Would you stand up and walk out on me?

She does not know
Her beauty,
She thinks her brown body
Has no glory.
If she could dance
Naked,
Under palm trees
And see her image in the river
She would know.
But there are no palm trees
On the street,
And dishwater gives back no images.

-Nina Simone

For some reason I had been having that song stuck in my head all day

So just call me John Legend cause Once Again school is in session. I went to class tonight and its five of us...all married...all with children...all either at 40 or knocking on its door...all but me.

My computer is actin all crazy giving me a rainbow brite screen every so often...I Cannot afford another computer til fall...sheed I don't even know if this one has made a year yet. GOsh

I didn't know Nina Simone's daughter was an actress...dope

Why is it so freakin hard to find the spoiler to the series finale of Da Sopranos...damn Hache-Be-Oh (that's espanol) got this ish on lock

Some of my random thoughts on June 7, 2007:


“The master's tools will never dismantle the master's house” Audre Lorde

I often sing very loud in the club
1. because others can't hear me
2. cause I like to
3. beyonce songs are the best...in the club or at work LMAO! Check on It Sol!

It took me 3 years to get on Worldwide Underground...where u at E. Badu?

"Beneath the face of anyone you ever loved for true-anyone you love, you will always love, love is not at the mercy of time and it does not recognize death, they are strangers to each other" James Baldwin

I can't wait to Find Forever

Okay...ima stop rambling, my arse is tired

throw up da dueces

If you haven't been watching The Sopranos ***Do Not Read This Blog!!!***

See I ain't evenmuch gonna lie...I've been trying to peep the spoilers for the finale. I think I'm thinking bout this ish too much cause I was dreaming Phil wacked Tony last night. Oh hell naw. Ya know it's the suspense that's killing me. HBO wanna tease a nicka with a preview without any dialog...that's cool...i gots ur number

So I watched Sunday's episode again today and here's where I am...
I'm suspicious about Silvio.
1. dude wacked somebody at the beginning without getting consent from Tony
2. when Paulie was calling him to tell him the fake Phil got wacked...he was giving some excuse on how he turned off his phone...DUde u knew the families was at war...how u gonna turn off ur phone at a time like this
3. The doctor's wouldn't give any information to Paulie or Tony about Silvio's condition in the hospital...suspect
4. Hey, maybe this is going for a long one and all but all I'm thinking about is how Sammy Da Bull...Gotti's #2 man flipped on him...Okay so all this suspect about Silvio has got me wondering...Oh and I've been thinking bout the whole Adriana aspect and how Sil wacked her...maybe she really wasn't wacked...has been in witness protection since and Sil has been ratting all along.....I'm just saying, ish was real shady last week

Now on to Tony...shiiiiittttt (saying like they do on The Wire)lol. Idunno. We've all grown to love this oversized mafia character because we've gotten a chance to see the human aspect of his life...But dude is a murderer...check what he did to Christopher...anyways I would choose Tony to prevail over Phil...cause in the words of M. Deezy...Phil is one greasy fella. Dude basically starts a war over emotion
"Males shouldn't be jealous that's a female trait
Whatchu mad cause you push dimes and he sell weight?"

Ain't no love...in the heart of the city


anyways...I think it was rather unprofessional the way Melfi handled Soprano. I don't think Paulie should be the last capt. standing, I felt sorry for Bobby, I think Meadow is gonna die, Janice's tattoo bothers me as well as the NY guy with the cross eyes.

Eh...watcha'll think

I've been on this song so hard for the past two months...Finally!!!!

"Exactly...NFL stands for Not For Long!"

This was Marquise's response as to why you have to stack money as fast as possible if you make it in the pros.

I was shocked to hear the news. It's still is so surreal. Marquise is gone. Damn.
Even though I hadn't spoken to him in at least 4 years I often talk about this dude as if it had been more recently.

I promise this dude was one of the funniest people on this planet. Dude was so hoodrich way before he signed that deal with the Patriots.

I remember going to visit this negro in the tiny ass apartments at LSU. The rooms were basically 4 seperate dorm rooms, each equipped with a desk, xxl twin bed, a closet, bookshelf and chair...This negro here had done took the doors outta his closet to stuff all the furniture in so that he could fit his big ass 70something inch tv in the room. I swear even when we sat on the bed which was on the opposite wall, there was only like 5 ft of space between you and the tv...and this was before flat screens LMAO

Oh, and to watch Cheaters with this dude!!!!! Hilarious.

And I can't forget about the cd cleaner that was suppose to eliminate scratches...WITH WATER...YEAH RIGHT DUDE...I still don't believe you

Dang, Marquise...this shit is soooo freaking surreal. You was like that dude I always wanted to be around. And ya girl knew we wasn't trying to get at each other so she was cool we me...I thank her for that cause you were in my life at the time where I needed you the most. I swear, I don't think I ever heard you complain about a thing. Your sincerity inspires me. Your joy for life encourages me to be able to get through this.

I'm grateful that God allowed us to cross each others path.

Your are loved and will be deeply missed.

Marquise Hill
1982-2007

This nicka always keeps the good beats for himself

Ladies and gentlemen...I gots me some frienemies

someone who is both friend and enemy, a relationship that is both mutually beneficial or dependent while being competitive, fraught with risk and mistrust


I guess it's all in a days work

i'm so not laughing

the game continues