Letters From Zion

In an effort to maintain self-censorship, I'm not going to bitch about my entire weekend. When too many adults are together in confined settings, certain tribal and territorial instincts kick in. That's a diplomatic way of saying some people get along in a very heated way, which actually isn't "getting along" to an uninitated observer. Families fight. As do packs, prides, pods, mobs, and murders. I do love that. Anybody else know that a group of crows is called a "murder"? My friend dream hampton called herself a "word nerd". If there is such a thing, I am one. (I should tell the story of the Locked Bathroom Door and the Green Apple Splatters, but it lacks a comedic finish and mostly is a story of frustration.) I briefly touched on my outrage at Twitter's outage , I'm sure we all were caught by surprise with it. It has shown me that while some are jaded with it, I love it even more. It is truly a weapon/tool. There is much talk about t...

Wow. The World without Twitter. I only wish I was blissfully ignorant as those that don't use it. I miss the HELL out of it. But it's let me know that no matter what happens with MySpace, I'll NEVER go full-fledged to FaceBook. Why? Well, the generosity I feel and the connections I make on Twitter are far more useful and fulfilling. Twitter "feels" real. Yeah, Mark Zuckerberg, your nifty little site has made it as a flavor of the month, but you've made one fatal error: You assume that we actually LIKE our family members and people from high school... what if we don't? The irony of this post is that it will feed directly to Facebook, where it will sit unread. If I post it to MySpace, I would have 20 comments on it in no time. The people you're related to tend to know the least about you... when people get killed, they don't ask family members who was in their life: they ask FRIENDS. But then me and mine do put the "fun" in "dysfuncti...

(Pictured: "Show Me", the Orange Bomber eliminated from RCOL2) My bad, my bad, my bad. I must confess something, True Believers. Before I wash myself of sin, let me tell you that I am attempting to refine my oft-randomness. I have created another blog, I am calling it Reality Bytes . While not everyone enjoys my musings and rants at VH1 (the channel that airs most of my favorites reality shows), there is a group that does. So I'm going to siphon off all my Reality TV related bloggings there, and keep this one more about my musical and personal journeys. This advice comes from @ problogger on Twitter. If you're on Twitter and a blogger, this guy is an excellent resource. I'm going to see if I like running multiple blogs on specific subjects instead of one blog on every subject. So this blog is my last reality-tv-related blog here. The other day on UStream I got a chance to ask @riskybizness23 if she thought I should watch the new "Real Chance Of Love 2: Back...

I'm sure some of you might be taking issue with my title, but I'm sorry, I gotta keep it 100. I'm sorely disappointed in our President for backing off the Cambridge Police Dept. and letting them sorry redneck crackers get any breathing room, because as soon as he did, you see how they act. What am I talking about? Well, I'm not going to go into the Dr. Gates vs Sgt. Crowley section, because Obama let 'em ride. He gave them a pass when it was OBVIOUS what the hell was going on. Come on, man. The cop didn't like the Prof. telling him what was obviously true: He didn't like a Black man standing up to him. I've seen cops do this shit a thousand times for anything. It's a weak excuse, and they use it whenever it suits them. When the President took the stand, he let up off the racists and they got emboldened. How do I know? Well, check out the story of the email by Justin Barrett . I'll give you the quickie highlights. Just like Sgt. Crowley, Officer B...

What's up, True Believers? Yeah, I'm speaking only to the True-Believers. The fake can't feel this. Turn back now, nothing here for you to see. I did a blog just recently about "Real Chance Of Love 2", and not watching out of respect for my girl Risky. Wait, let me hit the rewind for a second... I got a few things to get off my chest. First, we've discussed me and reality shows. I dig 'em. Tonight, I saw and heard something that AGAIN raised my faith in reality tv. This season of "Charm School 3" with Ricki Lake, Stryker (from LoveLine), and Mrs. Carmelo Anthony, better known as LaLa Vazquez has been a step above. The second-to-last challenge involved the girls going to New Orleans and doing volunteer work, turning the focus back to the fact that N.O. is still reeling from Katrina. Props for that alone. But the individuals who went into the process with a totally open mind came out better people. My opinion of Bay Bay Bay completely changed whe...

Looks like I'm gonna haveta' bang out another one today. Those that know me ( @theonlyEL being one!) know that I have a guilty pleasure of Reality Television. I'm a guru. I started with "The Real World" and have become a connoisseur of sorts. "The Amazing Race", "Survivor", "America's Next Top Model", just to name a few. Hit me on Twitter, I'll give you my full resume. I admit, I watch this garbage. It is the Cult Of Personality grinding out douchebaggery in epic portions. I love it. So back in the day, I got wind of "Flavor of Love" after Flavor Flav's stint on "Surreal Life" and that other bizzaro-show with Sly Stallone's ex, I didn't follow New York (the runner-up from FoL) to "I Love New York" (cuz I detest her), but kept up on the highlights through "Talk Soup". From ILNY, there were a few standouts, for different reasons. The two douchebags pictured above (Chance on th...

Ugh, feels good to stretch beyond the contraints of 140 characters and blow off a little steam. I'm typing and I'm not worried about my character count. I'm not complaining, mind you. I have come to appreciate Twitter very much. Twitter is like conversational haiku to me. But I'm sure it would become annoying if someone were to speak to you only in 5-7-5 syllable paragraphs after awhile. You read what I write. I write whatever I please. I hope you enjoy. See? Another sentence like that, and I think my skin might crawl. No, I do enjoy my Twitter. I love even more that my better half is there also, although she doesn't have my zest or zeal for it. I do secretly wish she'd tweet more. Or, not so secretly. I'm writing now because someone paid me a high compliment. Rob Dougan , a really nice guy and a musician who contributed to "The Matrix" and "Matrix Reloaded" soundtracks actually took the time to read through my posts and said "that g...

One of my fellow artists in Duval, the young Urban Champ says in the nicest way that I tend to be "opinionated". I take it as a compliment. I've been pretty consistent on the Duval Scene (and I use the term 'scene' loosely) in my music, personality, and writings. If you know me, you know me through my writings as well as my music, or maybe even a face-to-face conversation. I've worked with many on the scene, and some I consider family even when my behavior hasn't been the best. Bluntly put, I have been an asshole at times, no other way to put it. But I'd like to think that I'm consistent and honest. I mean, there's a lot of different ways to be a jerk, but being blunt and saying too much is preferable to someone who says one thing and does another. I abhor hypocrisy. But something I have said in my blogs before: I would rather be hated for what I truly am than be loved for something I'm not. Relationships change over years. Duval is not th...

Michael Joseph Jackson August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009 There will be literally millions of blogs about Michael Jackson written in the coming days. There are probably thousands already going up. Some people will probably get tired of hearing his name. Well, guess what? Too fucking bad. Go dig a hole and climb in it, because the Greatest Performer In Existence just passed away. My mind is in a million different directions right now. I guess right now many from my generation are reeling, trying to understand that Michael is gone. Now, there are a lot of people right now who can't help themselves, they are compelled to point out the controversy in MJ's life. We all know the story. The truth is, he was acquitted. Beyond that, we don't know what the real story was. No, I am not excusing it. What I am saying is that now, it doesn't matter. Because no matter what actually happened, that will not change the things that came before. As I said, I'm a little angry right now. I ...

Okay, this is going to be a decidedly HipHop blog, so if this isn't your thing, you might want to stop now. But good music is good music, and sometimes a song is more than just a song. That's what this culture is all about... Me and my lil' bro were talking Hiphop. He's been raised on it, and has a pretty good ear for the culture. We started to discuss Jay-Z impact on the game. While Hov is the poster boy for Hate, the man has distinguished himself as one of the All-Time-Greats. Some have their criticisms, I don't even consider myself a rabid Jay-Z fan, but I know a great record when I hear one... This record just ended the careers of a million wanna-be-rap-fakers, and I ain't even mad at that. This record is a cautionary tale for those who are using technology to compensate for a total disregard of craftsmanship, and sometimes talent. See, those like me who have been raised on Soul Food like Rakim, KRS-One, Wu-Tang, Notorious, Pac, Big Pun, J-Dilla, Digital Und...

There was a nice blog that I was trying to write, but I've labored over it for three days because I felt like I wasn't saying what I really needed to say. Sometimes things just get stuck in my damn head like a mental logjam, and until I let go of the first thing, nothing else of any real use is going to get through... so I'm just gonna go freestyle on this shit and try not to hurt too many feelings on the way to what I gotta say. But dammit, sometimes the Truth Just Stings Like A Bitch. Let me tell a quick story about how I ended up in New York... I was in the county lock-up, and I met a dude from Bradenton. White guy, but was obviously a Hood cat. Not the kind that's trying too hard, the ones that have grown up in a predominately Black neighborhood. He was keeping to himself (what you do when you're from out-of-town and you end up in jail), so I asked him if he needed a book, or if he wanted to bust some spades, whatever. Anyway, we started talking music, I found o...

Okay, apparently I'm jumping into the recent controversy with My Favorite Yukon Hillbilly, Sarah Palin. I make it a point to follow people that I wouldn't agree with all the time in an effort to see the other side of things on some issues, but there are just some issues that I don't know that seeing the other side of is even possible... @DarkKnight3565 accused me of being a Palin-Basher, just going after her and insulting her because it's easy. Okay, he might be right... a little. But I'm at a loss to understand what it is that people can look at in her and say "Yeah, that's something I can agree with." I'm going to go at my single-biggest Palin-Point, the thing that really makes my blood pressure go up about her, and I dare anyone to come up with a reasonable explanation for this that doesn't involve pointing out similar behavior by a liberal. This is all on Madam BeautyBunny Of the Vapid Holy Yukon. You are an ardent Pro-Life supporter, you ...

In a Good way... This is Big Grizzly, The Artist Formerly Known As Blakhart. This is one of my closest homiez, just retarded on the mic. Thanks to Chad Hendricks for laying the vocal over one of his performances of the track. PLEASE just listen to this and be honest.... My Dude is Nice. Find more videos like this on FromDuval.com

So back in the day my Man Keith Murray caught a case for some dumb shit that went down in tha' club. For those of you that know me, Def Squad was and remains as one of my major influences. I was a huge EPMD, Das EFX, Redman, K-Solo fan, and when Mr. Murray came down, I just knew that there would never be another crew harder than them and I wanted to be down. It hurt me when Keith caught that case, real talk.... so I had never written a fan letter a day in my life (who believes the actual people intended to read them ever sees them?) but I figured that my man being on lock was a guarantee that he would read it. I don't recall what I said exactly, I basically told him I was a fan, I enjoyed his work, and to take the time inside to work on his craft, he could only get better by doing that. I kept it 100, I ain't a groupie, I'm a fan. I guess he appreciated what I had to say, because he wrote me back. I kept this letter in my backpack as an inspiration to remind me that thi...

Now, I don't really think I'm really going to be "random", per se. I have a friend of mine on Twitter, her name is @Dioracat , she's a pretty nifty blogger ( did I just say 'nifty'? OMG, no more "Happy Days" on Nick @ Nite! ) and I've enjoyed reading through her blogs and how she embraces her geekness. Geek is actually been very kewl for a long time, the rest of the world just wasn't in on it. Who brought you all the things we do here? Posting online, leaving comments, etc? This came from Bulletin Boards. Most of you out there haven't the foggiest notion of what I'm talking about. Anyway, she can be quite random when she writes, but very stylistic in her randomness.  I'm all about the structured blog, so to speak, but sometimes it's ok to just let it flow naturally. It's a different rhythm. It's like... jazz for blogging. Yeah. I like that. Anyway, she's kinda the inspiration. I've got several things on my ...

Today is the birthday of El Hajj Malik El Shabazz, Detriot Red, Malcom Little... or a name you might know from the Spike Lee Movie or the Autobiography, Malcom X. This man was a very unique, intelligent, powerful, inspirational individual, and everyone should be familiar with who he was for a number of reasons. He shaped race relations in this country for a very long time.  I can't hope to tell the entire story of his life, but he had his story told first in a book, "The Autobiography of Malcom X", then later in film, "X", directed by Spike Lee. The book should be required reading in all schools for young men around the age of 10. I needed this book earlier in my life and I might not have made some choices I later came to regret. I was at the opening night, November 18th, 1992, and I was nervous. I so wanted this movie to not be bad. I thought that there was no way they could go wrong with Denzel... and I was right. I sat and watched the story completely riveted...

D.S.W.G. [Dark Skinned White Girls] - Murs (Yeah, I've used this song before on my MySpace blog, but this will be cross-posted on Blogger.com, it's one of my favorites, and it fits the theme again) Vanilla ice cream is not my favorite. I'll eat it, but it's just not. Chocolate is pretty good, but it can be too much. My favorite flavor has always been Fudge Ripple as a child and as an adult. Something about the stripes side-by-side and the flavors together just worked for me. Me and a good friend were hanging out last week and came across a book title that instantly intrigued us both, " Why Black Men Love White Women " by Rajen Persaud. It piqued our interests so much so that she balked at the $25.oo hardcover price and bought it (I would have read the whole book in the store, but I read 500wpm and can get away with that). We then swung through Starbucks, grabbed a caramel frap & I read two chapters out loud. As I stated, I've only read two chapters of ...