Guy stuff.

Box of Dozens

One of the more interesting memes I've come across, swiped from theklute's LiveJournal: So, say you were meeting a new person - blind date, new friend, who knows. And you wanted them to have some idea of what kind of person you are, and who you are. But you can't actually tell them in so many words. Instead, you have to give them a box, with a dozen things in it for them to ponder over. What would you put in the box? No cheating - you're not allowed to include things such as links to your livejournal. WHAT I'D…

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Pumpkin Seeds: 3/1/2004

1. If I had gone for the Lord of the Rings sweep (that I'd hoped for but didn't expect) and not taken a gamble on a couple of other longshot upsets, I'd have done better than 67% with my picks last night. Considering I hadn't seen the vast majority of the nominees, though, it wasn't too bad. 2. After last night, shouldn't Peter Jackson re-consider his planned remake of King Kong? I know I'd be thinking retirement if I were him. Or at least doing only small-budget films for awhile. As the great philospher Kenny Rogers says, "You gotta know…

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Pumpkin Seeds: 2/26/2004

1. Can The Passion of Christ be nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay next year? Or Best Foreign-Language Film? As I see it, that's the only legitimate controversy surrounding Mel Gibson's movie. I repeat: IT'S A MOVIE! 2. Lena Horne forces Janet Jackson to drop out of her bio-pic. Justin Timberlake is forced to step down from co-hosting a Motown tribute. J.C. Chasez, guilty by association, was booted from a Pro Bowl appearance. ER, completely unconnected, is forced to blur a peripheral shot of a dead woman's breasts. 20 more US soliders have been killed in Iraq since the Super Bowl,…

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On Supporting Edwards

If you've read this journal at any point during the past eight months or so, you know I love debating politics. If you know me personally, you also know I despise blind, unquestioning devotion to anyone or anything. This weekend, I responded to a mass email from a Kucinich supporter offering their take on Johns Kerry & Edwards and cc'd DK's local Meetup group for the hell of it. It was a repost of my February 17th entry announcing/explaining my switch of support from Kucinich to Edwards, with a short preface for context. Not surprisingly, I received a reply questioning…

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Welcome to the party, Ralph

It's official. Ralph Nader's running for President. Again. While my initial reaction was predictably negative, after I put my personal dislike of the guy aside and took a look at where he was coming from this time around, I came to the surprising conclusion that I agreed with his decision! I believe the fact that John Kerry is the current Democratic "front-runner" and scarily close to wrapping up the nomination this early in the process is one of the main reasons he's decided to junp back in the race. A lot of the "I like Kucinich but Dean can win"…

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Return to the Nuyorican Poets Café

Hello Guy,

Here is your Free Daily Horoscope Service for today, Feb 17.

You might need to connect with Mother Earth, Guy. Lately, you’ve been feeling less than grounded. You might have the sensation that your mind is drifting somewhere above your body. If your work is mostly of the mental variety, and if you spend a lot of time on your computer, you might experience some feelings of disconnection from your body. Correct this by going for a long walk in a park, or sit by the ocean or other body of water.

Amen to that as I’ve been feeling totally disconnected for the past few days. Between the impending one-year anniversary on the job I no longer love but don’t quite hate, the weird night hosting at the Nuyorican, and the future homesteading question – I’m in a mild state of confusion.

Last week’s return to the Nuyorican Poets Café was significant, for me, for several reasons, not the least of which was that it was my first time on that stage since that fateful night in December 1998 that led to an ugly 1999 and me being banned for a couple of years beyond that. While I did read at Felice Belle’s farewell at the end of 2002, that felt very different as it was one quick poem and I’d been completely off the scene for a year at that point. Hosting Encomium was a much bigger deal – even bigger than I initially realized as my presence apparently had to be cleared through Carmen Pietri-Diaz, the Café’s Executive Director. If true, and I have no reason to believe it isn’t, I imagine it came about solely as a result of my co-hosting the Rev. Pedro Pietri benefit at the Bowery last month. It does present an interesting question, though: with Keith Roach long gone from the Café, and he and I having pretty much buried the hatchet, who’s still holding a grudge?

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Barbershop 2: Reconciling desire & familiarity, ideals & expectations

There's only been a handful of "black" movies that have struck me as having that certain something at their core that expressed a sincere love for the people it presented, warts and all, and this is one of them. The first Barbershop, Waiting to Exhale, Boyz N the Hood and Rosewood are some of the others that come to mind. There's an emotional honesty to each of them that transcends the archetypes they employ to tell their stories. Of course, that's all debatable but, in this instance, it's not the point.

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