New Haven, CT

Burnt my tongue on some hot chocolate yesterday morning.  Not a good way to

start a Monday.



I spent the weekend being wined and dined by a lighting company.  At the

last minute the two guys in our office couldn't go, so me and this other guy

went in their place.



A lighting company, Elliptipar (I figure I owe them a little plug), flew us

out to New Haven, CT, fed us filet mignon so soft you could cut it with a

butter knife, then let us drink all we wanted before retiring to get up at

7am.  It is really interesting because when you are at their factory, you

can't go anywhere.  So you're stuck listening to all these men in bad suits

try to brainwash you into feeling that their products are the best.  Of

course they do it all in the name of 'lighting education', but by giving

people hats to wear, pens and business card holders with the company's name

on it, the attempt is to subliminally scar your brain with this company's

name.



The funniest part is to watch how at the beginning they asked everyone to

say the company slogan together, "There is no equal".  After a less than

stellar response from the audience, they made us say it again, and again. 

By the end of the day, MF's were shouting that shit, "THERE IS NO EQUAL!" 

.... hilarious shit.



New Haven is where Yale is located and so when they took us to eat we went

to all of these Ivy Leage private club type places to eat.  Almost all of

the waitstaff was black or mexican, there were all these paintings of old

white guys on the walls, and rooms where men were gathered drinking scotch. 

Walking around the campus, it really FELT like it was an Ivy league school. 

Everything just wreaked of old money.  It was like, noone here needed

financial aid.  I'm sure that's not the case, but that's what it felt like.



Anyway, so there were these images of people I had never heard of these guys

painted adorning all of the walls in this club.  I wonder at what point in

life do you deem it appropriate to sit for hours on end to have your own

image painted.  Is this something that others decide and pay to have done

for you?  Or do you reach a point where you say to yourself, "I should have

my portrait done"  I realize it speaks to some old English tradition, but it

was weird to be in a place where people still do that sort of thing.



Now that I think of it, I have had my portrait done.  My grandfather had all

of his grandchildren drawn by a street artist in New Orleans.... but I don't

think that really counts.  Everytime I go down to my grandparents I see this

image of myself at the age of 12 with a part cut into my head.  I think

that's how my grandfather still sees me sometimes.



After all the lighting brainwashing, I shot down to New York for a day to

catch up with some people, some new architecture, and we basically walked

Manhattan in a day.  More on New York later.



-c



CD of the moment: Red Hot & Riot

election day wrap-up

Shit!  The Democrats done fucked up now.



With the Republicans controlling the White House, The House, and the Senate,

you KNOW we’re going to war now, a COUPLE of times….



Shit is about to be all jacked up now.  Bush’s judicial appointments will

surely be approved, thus greatly shifting the Supreme Court to be

conservative which means, abortion will eventually be highly restricted,

social security will be privatized, drug dealers will eventually be charged

as terrorists, and a whole host of shit that will be swiftly thrown through

the Congress in the next two years.



I think the Democratic Party really fucked up by compromising on Bush’s war

bill.  By falling in line with the spineless Tom Daschle, the democratic

party crumbled.  They showed the inability to stand united against Bush

right before the elections and were made to be seen as weak w/ very little

coalition.  As a group they have no direction, no one knows where they stand

on anything, they didn’t offer any type of platform except for ‘Don’t vote

Republican.’  What kind of platform is that??



Blacks sure as hell aren’t organized, neither Republicans OR Democrats even

bothered courting us!  The Democrats (at least in Chicago) all focused on

the Latino community throughout their campaign.  Well there was the one TV

moment that all candidates have, standing uncomfortably on stage at some

podunk black church, terribly underdressed (cuz you know black folks where

their good shit to church), clapping off beat as a 800 lb black woman

bellows how good God is.



The state of Illinois voted an all democratic ticket, from Senators to

Attorney Generals and Governors, but other then the Senator, the rest of

them are all idiots, and pawns of the Chicago political machine.  Pretty

faces that can speak pretty well, but with no handle on issues at all, so

their campaigns become personal attacks.  They’re unable to talk about what

they’re going to do, because they don’t know, not even when they’re asked

directly.



But if you look at the large picture, the Democrats did a whole slew of shit

that has just come back to bite them in their ass.  First, the rumors that

Wellstone in MN was killed by the Republican New World Order because he was

very outspoken, then the dead man ply to used sympathy for this guy to get

votes for Mondale.  Then you have all of the personal character attacks on

Bush.  We all know he’s an idiot, you don’t have to SAY it!!  So then

blaming him for 9/11 and saying that he knew all about it and used it for

political gain, as well as placing the Enron collapse on his shoulders, and

lastly, by exposing to the whole world that this ‘war on terror’ is really

all about oil and getting all of the Bush family friends and Republican

Party contributors much more wealthy.  All it did was rally the whole

Republican base, piss them off and make them more determined to get rid of

the Republicans.



The Democrats fucked up, and I gotta give it to him, I don’t know how he did

it, but Bush has some people around him who are some brilliant mother

fuckers.  Because now Bush is king of the world and no one can do anything

about it.



-c



CD of the moment: Curtis Mayfield - "Curtis Live!"

mumblings 11.4.2

Well, the weekend was rather uneventful.  I decided to self-inflict

craziness into my life, so I went to the mall, Ikea and Target on a Sunday. 

These are the worst days to do this kind of shit, but there was great people

watching involved.



I bought a real tight suit from Kenneth Cole on sale over the summer, but

there are absolutely no ties that match this MF.  I am so pitiful, that I

carried this suit around having MF's try to match up ties with it, and when

they failed miserably, I would leave and tell them I was going to 'keep

looking'.  I somehow thought it might be a good way to meet some women, but

it's all men w/ bad cologne or middle aged grey haired women working in the

mens department.  So that plan didn't work out to well.



Ikea is fun because it's really a whole bunch of shit you don't need, but if

you had would make life around you easier and bit more fun.  I escaped by

only spending $20 on some cardboard magazine organizers in all these funky

colors and some candles.



I'm going to New Haven, CT at the last minute this weekend for a lighting

conference.  So if anyone knows something that's going on in and around Yale

let me know.  I'm thinking it might be worth staying an extra day and

heading into NYC for the day to see that new museum by Williams & Tsien or

simply spend the day meandering through the East Village, but it might be

too cold for that shit.  The new MOCA in Queens could be a stop.  I've never

been to Queens before, but I think there is probably a reason for that.



At work, we've been told by our client to take 8 million dollars out of the

building we've designed.  I don't know if he expects us to pull it out of

our ass or what, but that is the task at hand.  I think my manager got a

little upset at me.  When she suggested that we use Stucco instead of Brick

masonry on the building, I couldn't hide my disgust and my whole face

scrunched up like I had smelled the ODB'S breath or something.  Oh well.



-c



CD of the moment: Morcheeba - "Charango"

This sniper business

I wonder if white people gave a sigh of relief like when black people do

when we find out the person who did some repugnant shit is white? I know

when I found out it was a black guy I was like “Fuuuuuuuuuuck!”.  I totally

get this from my mother.  Whenever we would watch the news and some crazy

shit was happening, she would always rumble under her breath, “I hope it’s

white folks doing that crazy shit.”  I know that’s why I’m thinking about

this in this way and in a sick and twisted way, I’m kinda disappointed that

he was caught so easily if it is him. All that work, to get caught sleeping

at a rest stop??



I'm saying, the cops didn't accuse him or charge him, didn't even name him,

yet Mr. Muhammad and a minor's name is all over the news. Ok, so it

"leaked".  But this whole thing begs the question, do I honestly care more

that they are black than that the people doing this are caught?  Or, would

it be better to be under the belief that the ‘white sniper’ is still out

there.  I’m glad if this crazy is off of the streets, but on some sort of

larger scale, I wonder if I would rather have the latter.



The reason I say this is that already, people are saying and only seeing it

like this: Black + Muslim = Farrakhan = add the Nation of Islam and American

blacks to the axis of evil.  It might be a stretch, but is it?  What’s

next?? Bean pie crumbs in the backseat of the car??!!  But actually, all of

the ‘I am God’ talk fits right in with the theories and philosophies of the

5%ers.  So there you have your link to the NOI…..



First it’s Jesse Jackson and his love affairs, next it’s Al Sharpton and the

crack he bought in his pimp days on video... although it's 15 years late. 

Now you have the government with their eyes on the NOI and the Five

Percenters??  There aren’t too many black groups or leaders to go after are

there??



And I wonder if the 2 people arrested were white, with the same

circumstances, military background etc… then would it be another case of ‘he

had mental problems and lets blame it on his childhood.’



There is an interesting editorial on MSNBC’s website about how Bush didn’t

get involved because the NRA helps so many Republicans get elected, that he

couldn’t risk having their money and support pulled.  …. Very interesting.



Now, why have a good number of the big domestic attacks are committed by

ex-military Persian-gulf vets? (Tim McVey et al)  Everyone I know from the

military has some issues.  Maybe this whole post-war counseling thing should

be taken more serious.  Maybe it’s the whole preparing people to integrate

themselves back into society after they’ve been in the military for a while.

…..



…….now look at ME!!!, I’m finding myself already convicting these men and

they haven’t even been in custody for 24 hours….



all the while, the US prepares to quietly take a war resolution to the UN

for a private vote while we're all wrapped up in this sniper business....



Damn shame…………………..



-c



CD of the moment: Ron Trent - "Musical Reflections - Electro-funk-jazz:

past, present, future"

black people love us

"Sally's always saying: "You go girl!" while "raising the roof" to

mainstream hip-hop tracks at cheesy bars. That's fun! I relate to that."





http://www.blackpeopleloveus.com/index.html

future chronicle ideas..

Some random topics I want to cover in future chronicle writings..... feel

free to comment.  I might listen to you..... or I might not, depending on my

mood and what it is you have to say. :)



- Black role models on a national level.  Where are they?  Who do we have?

Al Sharpton? Jesse? Farrakahn?



- Kids don't know shite.  So why do we act like they do?



- The new Beck album.  This cat is on some different shit.



- The state of black music today (or lack thereof)



- 'Racism' in the workplace and why no one else sees it except black folks.



- Being broke.  The last 3 books I've read have been about becoming rich. 

Now I have to figure out how to take the steps to get there.



- "Good" vs "Interesting"



- The sniper is a New Urbanist.  They are making the statement that the

suburbs are no safer than the inner cities.



- Voter turnout, democracy, & protest.  Does it matter? Then why does it

seem like Congress does whatever the fuck they want?



- Internet pop-up ads and why I hate them.



- Would having an MBA from Harvard really make a difference?



........ just a few of the things I've been thinking of writing about...



-c



CD of the moment: "Red, Hot & Riot"

the man's foot on my neck

I was all set to write up a big thing about how black people are too damn

mad.  I was walking down the street and all the black folks I saw were just

looking ANGRY.  Mad at the world, chips on their shoulders, looking all

oppressed and shit.  But then I start thinking, are black people really too

mad?  Or are white people just too damn chipper?



I can't make up my mind.



I've been having these weird dreams about getting robbed.  I hope it's not

some type of deja vu or some shit.  I never have these thoughts when I'm

walking home cutting through alleys after dark on my way home from work,

just when I'm in the safe confines of my own home.  Is it a reflection of

some sort of fear?? Fear of losing what I have (which isn't much.), fear of

some sort of physical abuse being afflicted upon me, fear of having to

cancel all my accounts, credit cards, etc... I'm not quite sure.  I never

usually remember my dreams, so that makes this extra specially weird.



No one get shot by the sniper today, so that is a good thing.  Maybe he/she

will just stop at 10 and call it a day.  (and yes, I believe it might be a

woman!)



This work shit has got to stop...... I need a plan that will allow me to

stop working in about 10 years.  If anyone has any great ideas, let me know.

 I'm thinking there has to be some sort of great mathmetician that has

figured out some sort of probability statistics for the lottery.  If you

know of such a man, give me his number.



The CD I've been waiting for all year is coming out tomorrow, Red Hot &

Riot.  It is a tribute to Fela Kuti by all SORTS of folks.  If I ever highly

recommend a CD, this would be it.



These MF's around here want to pass a brotha up for the important tasks and

try to stick me with the stairs and shit, I'm about to make some waves

around here, because this shit can't become a habit.  The boss is in

tomorrow, so he'll have to be the one to receive my wrath.  I don't want to

make too much noise because bonus/raise time is right around the corner, but

these folks have got to KNOW!!! I am more than a stair and elevator guy, I

deserve better and won't accept anything less.



Sometimes I think they just do that shit without thinking... 'Hey let's give

the boring, production task to Curtis because he'll get it done fast and all

the design thinking tasks to these guys who are younger than him and have

less experience than him, yeah that makes sense.' .... my ass.



-c