I love this

Pair pretty people with multi-ethnicity and I am DONE. and look how happy they are!!

Because I'm obvi procrastinating at the moment

This is a really cool/creative piece of work. The artists created an animated short on walls around Buenos Aires. Check it out!


MUTO a wall-painted animation by BLU from blu on Vimeo.

Chatters

rarely fail to charm me. When I was younger I would get completely freaked out by older folks who would engage me on the weather, school, their adult (and therefore thoroughly incomprehensible) lives. Why were they talking to me? What did they want from me? What did they want me to say??? Ever the obliging conversationalist, I would listen and try hard to figure out interesting replies and meaningful grunts to show my interest in them but it would always be a struggle. I would feel like there was some secret adult code language that I hadn't learned yet that, when mastered, would allow me to hold forth on any topic with anybody at any level of depth. Someday, I was sure, I would always know the right thing to say.

Turns out that day never came. Moreover, turns out there is no right or wrong way to talk to people. There's this guy in Utah that I have been communicating with for my job and after 2 telephone conversations, I can tell you stories from his childhood, the subject of his favorite documentary and how his son's baseball pitch is improving. He is a chatter. Granted, while speaking with him, I am sometimes seized by the old panic of what-do-I-say-when-you-tell-me-an-anecdote-about-how-you-almost-died-from-heat-stroke-when-you-were-12-years-old, but mostly I just sit back and allow myself to enjoy the random bits of life that some people can't help but share with you. This guy, like most chatters, is really just a friendly soul eager to connect with others. I may not share his same openness and I may not always know what to say but enjoying the odd awkward moment when navigating personalities different from my own is one of the awesome things about being an adult.

I never thought I'd fall for you...when I fell in love

are the lyrics to my new favorite song. This song has maybe 5 chords total and just two lines repeated over and over to a 90s club beat but every time I hear it something in my body warms to the temperature of a cup of coffee enjoyed during that moment when daylight meets twilight and the air is filled with hope, magic and the unknown.

I've heard "When I fell N Love" constantly for the past two weeks because it is the final track in a play that I am in. This song has been the crescendo of 6 hour rehearsals, it has played over drama people drama, growling stomachs, expletives uttered in place of forgotten lines and any number of tense moments between people whose lives have too quickly fallen into one. It has been the soundtrack of my growing affection for fellow cast members whose creative energy has awakened the artist inside who had been dormant for far too long. So, here's to you Sweetest Hangover crew: I never thought I'd fall for you.

(Ignore the screaming orgasm at the beginning lol)

Granola

It's where I strongly fear I'm heading. Usually I'm just a step away from granola, birkenstock, partial hippy territory but a few days ago I decided to dive right in. I'd been reading about/ hearing about the dangers of aluminum based anti-perspirants (apparently they cause Alzheimer's and breast cancer)and decided that it was high time I made the transition to all natural deodorant. I settled on a bottle of lavender scented Tom's at the local Long's Drugs then merrily made my way home and to an Alzheimer's free future.

I tried it for the first time last night. I was headed to da club to get my dance on. Soon I spotted a guy who was damn fine with impeccable stlye to boot. We made eyes, we danced, he bought me a drink, we flirted, he touched my lower back, numbers were exchanged and I went home happily anticipating his call. Overall, a good night.

But yall, I was FUNKY. That Tom's didn't do a damn thing and as soon as the "I'm the hottest thing in here" club-induced haze wore off, I started smelling myself. And then... the female doubting kicked in a la "OMG did he SMELL me?" The thought stayed with me until I got home and was still in the back of my mind today as I went about my business without having a missed call or text from ole boy.

Long after I decided to chuck the Tom's in favor of good old Secret strength, I finally got a call that assuaged my doubts. But this little episode proved to me that the hippy in me will always bow to the Atl girl whose mama told her that funk is never ok.

elephant paints self-potrait

Who knows what went into teaching this elephant to do this but it's pretty neat nonetheless

The saddest thing I've seen in awhile...

...is the "inspirational note" on the inside of an individual Dove chocolate that I just ate.

"Chocolate Always Loves You Back"

Two Things

1) Six Feet Under is soooo good. So good that 5 friends and I (3 of whom had already seen the show before) sat in the Hammerskjold lounge for 7 hours watching the first half of season one. I then proceeded to go home, sit on my bed with a box of crackers and hummus, and watch the next 7 episodes. I can't wait to get back to watch season 2

2) I want to get some body art done a la a foot tattoo or a nose piercing.

Womanhood

Yesterday, I officially became a woman.

It happened in Target, in the check-out aisle, as a grandmotherly cashier looked on.

Was I to choose the milk chocolate or the dark chocolate for my post-finals treat?

I dillyed, I dallyed but in the end, for the first time in my life, I chose the dark and with it, proof that my taste buds have left childhood behind.

The loss was bittersweet but damn if womanhood isn't delicious!

7 (Not So) Little Words

All day long I've been feeling an anticipatory glow as I wait for an email whose overly formal subject cannot even begin to dampen the joy its contents never fail to elicit.

"Online Pay Statement is Available to View"

seriously?

There should be sparkles! Confetti! Tons of those sideways 'V's and '3's that are supposed to be hearts! There should sound clips of horns and children's laughter and everything bright and fuzzy that can be communicated in an email because that subject means one very very happy thing:

IT'S PAY DAY!!!!!!

But, unfortunately, that email has not come and I am forced to sit and wait and refresh gmail every few minutes because, even though I know it does it automatically, I can't trust the Google gods when so much is at stake. Pay day is no joking matter especially this one because my wallet never got over Paris and working 4 hours a week for the past quarter and a half was not doing much to help matters. Today was supposed to be the day when a nice, weighty paycheck would be coming in the (e-) mail because 3 weeks ago I started working here and they pay like I'm a grad student and boy o boy do I need it so I can buy a digital camera and gas and lodging in Mexico (and maybe a cute bathing suit before I leave).

*refreshes email for the 5th time since beginning this post*

Damnit! It's still not there!

UPDATE: turns out pay day is Sunday... and I wasted valuable study time today obsessively checking my online checking account/ Gmail. Why you gotta be so complicated, Stanford?

Controversy

Alright, yall. Let's be real for a moment here.

I just read the stuff Jeremiah Wright said that the media has deemed so "controversial" and I must say, I agreed with most of it. The language might have been unnecessarily inflammatory (although really, is there any other way to be in a black church? Side note: I think a big reason why so many people think his remarks are so radical is because they have no experience with the hyperbolic passionate tone in which most black preachers tend to speak. Black preacher speech is meant to excite-- it comes from the same place hip-hop swag does. Black people are loud, we talk big and sometimes we like to shout. That's just how it is-- it doesn't make us terrorists!)but underneath his comments were some elements of truth that cannot be denied.

First major controversial statement:
"The government gives [black Americans] the drugs, builds bigger prisons, passes a three-strike law and then wants us to sing 'God Bless America.' No, no, no, God damn America, that's in the Bible for killing innocent people," he said in a 2003 sermon. "God damn America for treating our citizens as less than human. God damn America for as long as she acts like she is God and she is supreme."


Second major controversial statement (From the abcnews.com coverage):

"In addition to damning America, he told his congregation on the Sunday after Sept. 11, 2001 that the United States had brought on al Qaeda's attacks because of its own terrorism.

'We bombed Hiroshima, we bombed Nagasaki, and we nuked far more than the thousands in New York and the Pentagon, and we never batted an eye,' Rev. Wright said in a sermon on Sept. 16, 2001.

'We have supported state terrorism against the Palestinians and black South Africans, and now we are indignant because the stuff we have done overseas is now brought right back to our own front yards. America's chickens are coming home to roost,' he told his congregation."

If there is a counterargument to the claim that America did some really effed up stuff in the 20th Century (and beyond) I would love to hear it.
So the man probably shouldn't have brought that up right after September 11 but really, are Hiroshima and Nagasaki even in the same league as 9/11? And he didn't even mention continued US involvement in Latin America or any of the crazy ish we did to "maintain the balance of power" during the Cold War.

Of course, there is never an excuse for violence against innocents but the truth is, the US government has killed many more innoncents in the wake of 9/11 than the lives taken on that fateful day (estimates of Iraqis dead range from 100,000 to 1.2 million)

Maybe I'm extra sympathetic because I grew up in black churches listening to preachers like Wright voice the concerns generations of black Americans have not been able to voice in public. Maybe I'm sympathetic because I've heard countless stories from parents and grandparents who fought harder than I even know how to against social structures to become the people they are today.

What people don't understand is that black Americans are used to living under terrorism for the greater part of our history (and in certain neighborhoods, continue to). Black people can't help but be ever critical of a state that has, more often than not, failed to be anything more than cruel and unusual. So yea, patriotism does not hit us the same way and when people say "God Bless America", it's harder for us to immediately agree.

Mostly though, I think this whole thing is really just a question of style and context. You won't find one black preacher in America who hasn't said things like this and, as Barack said in his speech, they may not be right but they reflect honest facts about race relations in America today. Black people are bitter. Hell, even I'm bitter from time to time and I've led a pretty cushy, non-controversial life in this wide white world. The fact of the matter is, black existence comes with a certain weight that white people have never had to carry. Sometimes that weight is so heavy we can't help but let it out. Loudly. In church. Because frankly, that's just how we black folks do.

A Love Story

In some ways, I am solidly of my demographic. I am black, I am a woman, I lean towards what some might call yuppiefied over-intellectualism and yes, I am absolutely, head-over-heels in love with one Senator Barack Obama.

I first noticed him in 2004 at the Democratic National Congress, my cynicism no match for his anti-war position and the graceful purple glow emanating from his hopeful message. "There's something about that skinny somebody with big ears and a funny name," I said to myself, "I'll have to keep my eye on him." And so I did. Over the next few years I stole glances in his direction, demurely checking him out but not getting too excited lest he prove, as had so many others before him, to be less than the man I thought him to be.

And so I flirted, I batted my eyes looking for something worth committing to, hoped that that bright spark of potential from 2004 would become a full-fledged beacon on the senate floor. I waited, I watched from across the room but I couldn't find anything strong enough to hold on to. He still basked attractively in a purple-tinged glow but he was shrouded in Washington's shadows, a junior senator's hope no match for the political spiderwebs woven all throughout the American congress. It wasn't long before I remembered my distaste for Washington and, I'm sad to say, forgot about him.

Then, in late 2006, the whispers started.

"Obama for president," they began tentatively.

"Too young," was the quick reply.

"Kennedy!" offered some.

"Lincoln!" said others.

And then, "Hussein???"

Doubt.

"Is America ready?" we worried.

"Perfect for his time" came the reply

And then, most loudly,

"What about the Clintons?'

I must admit, I wondered too. I liked Bill and Hilary. In fact, before Barack entered the race I was ready to throw my support behind Hilary and looked forward to seeing a force of intelligence replace the sticky mess left behind from the last four years.

But then came the speeches. and the tears. and the emotion I had never felt for America and for what a politician could mean for this country. Soon I knew, without a shadow of a doubt, that Barack Obama was the man for me. The flirting was over-- this was the real deal. Admittedly, all this came during the time when I was living in China and feeling real, dehumanizing racism for the first time in my life so the overly-emotional response and belief in an individual's ability to bring about real human change was probably exceptional. But, believe it I did; I found myself fantasizing about the impact Barack's brown face in the White House would have on brown children's aspirations, on people around the world's faith in America. I longed for the blow against stereotypes the world over that his presidency would level.

As the election wore on, some of my optimism diminished, and while I never stopped believing he is the best man for the job, I was forced at some points to remove my rose-colored glasses and realize the man is human and sometimes plays the political game more deftly than I would like.

Then there was yesterday's speech and my love for Obama was rekindled to become something better and brighter than it had been before. For the first time in my life I felt myself listening to a politician for insight into this country's heart. I heard a politician speak with integrity, humility, and deep deep pathos about a wound that, for the past 30 years has been covered in band-aids. Obama offered the first steps to a real cure: dialogue. When I found out he wrote the speech himself, I felt my stomach lurch in a way that could only mean one thing: Barack Obama is The One.

READ THE SPEECH. or watch it. Everyone should-- it's about time we talk in a public way about the persistent divisions between races. and be sure to look out for his description of the black church-- it's perfect.

Just keep your hands off my man ;)

Vatican Adds New Sins

First thought when I saw this: Can they do that? Second thought: this feels... wrong.

Vatican lists "new sins," including pollution