rootwork the rootsblog: a cyberhoodoo webspace

singing my song, fakeout phrasing and obama for president: fired up, ready to go

SUNDAY

hello world, while hunting zuma links i found that one below, a southafrican news site where
south african reporters consulted sangomas for divinations about how the election would turn out

obviously didnt have a lot of respect for the diviners
while i was there i read all these sensationalist articles about muti killings

where south african magicians kill children for bodyparts, they call them muti killings
they are prosecuted under whats called the human tissue acts - (rough when you got to have a law for this)

now, these articles kinda sensationalist and you never know the real deal in a case
like this where you are out of culture and afrospiritual practice everywhere is often denigrated

but im thinking this is actually an issue in some traditional spaces and its one i rail against when it shows
up (diluted) here in the americas, recently some of mambo racines folk were arrested trying to bring a freshly dug

skull through haitian customs and there are many practitioners here who dont object to the skull bit at all
atr deal in blood and bones w/the regularity but i find it appalling and aint gon restrain myself from saying it no more

i am not susceptible at all to the tradition rationales i hear from the atr practitioners, its fucking barbaric, and when allowed it opens the door for all kinds of atrocities like the ones accounted in these muti killing articles

that shit got to go, rickydoc say so
gon lay de geas on the hoodoo line

folk be telling me how various gods/spirits insist on it and thats just bullshit
this just primeval human thinking and most cultures have left it behind, have evolved

all cultures have that constant tension between tradition and evolution
cultures, traditions, religions evolve all the time and leave antiquated practice behind

even if they just go virtual, like the catholics do, drinking the blood and eating
the flesh of christ is not that appealing to me either, virtual or not

thank god we aint talking muti killings here, im talking bout that whole headset, all that killing
and all, all those sacrifices and belief in the power of blood and body parts, we wallowing in blood

i got to get rid of that whole headset
all that blood and guts state of mind

animal sacrifice, so forth & etc
that shit got to go

oh i can hear them now, oh you just parroting the west
you do not understand these things - fuck that

that shit got to go

in the name of the conqueror
that shit got to go

folk think prophecy about telling the future or something
but prophecy is about regenerating tired cultural practice

determining what is viable, and what should be left behind
hooking up cultural practice with destinic consequence

and de ol hoodoo prophet gon tell you straight up, that shit got to go
with all my power im gon extract that shit

mark my word

rickydoc trickmaster
wouldbe prophet of the hoodoo way

SATURDAY

hello world, trying to convince myself to do an end of the year report
laying out the most significant issues of the year and speculations

on developments in 2008 but im having trouble convincing myself its worth it all
guess it depends on how much novelwork i get done over next couple of days

some real quick quickies
obama cutting into clintons lead in black vote

un african caucus backed arab/islamic caucus effort to disband un human rights panel on sudan as part of arab/islamic caucus campaign to alleviate pressure on the sudan

justice and admin tell congress/courts any investigation of the destruction of cia tapes will impede their own investigations - but whats being investigated is justice/cia/admin obstruction of justice - thats bold, thats so bold, it never cease to amaze me how bold they are

my toss say look like 100% zulu boy zuma will be the next president of the anc/southafrica -

course any diviner can have an off day,  like south african historian leonard thompson, who wrote in 2001, "the new president [thabo mbeki] appointed as deputy president jacob zuma, a loyal anc member who had no formal education and posed no challenge to mbeki's leadership"  - see what im saying

what else, nothing, im not feeling this
maybe later, im tired, im down, im done

i got the blues

sometime the punches be coming at you so hard you cant get your feet under you -
it be like BAM . .  okay shake it off rick, shak . . BAM  . . sh . .  shak . . BAM

and it be like damn, i need some slack, lord
just let me get my breath, lord

mercy. lord
then again, there is that great blues line:

anything you werent born with
you can learn to live without
                               ike turner r.i.p.

                                    

THURSDAY

hello world, following a link to rootsblog i came across a nytimes
listing of the best novels of last 25 years, apparently they asked some

100s of literary folk what novel they would choose and then put their
reasoning/essays about which novel they chose, it was fascinating reading

some of them protested being asked to choose 1 novel but they participated
everybody got a favorite novel, one that moved them, or they think moved society

or the literary world, this was done in 2006 sometime, wonder if the list would be now

beloved by toni morrison was the winner

runnerups

underworld by delillo
blood meridian by mccarthy
rabbit angstrom (4) by john updike
american pastoral by phillip roth

counting the honorable mentions the gender breakdown was 2 women
20 men, and the list was classically canonized, wasnt for toni at the top

it would have looked kinda generic, the usual suspects, still, some very
interesting discussions on what makes a novel important, for instance

jane smileys essay, talked about how toni built dramatic suspense into beloved

i might have to dig back into this article when i got some discretionary time, get some
pointers - what was kinda humbling was how many of them i havent gotten around to reading yet

also kinda humbling, i been hoping this novel would be my masterpiece but its so strange
i cant really judge whether its actually works or not, much less is a true masterpiece

at 57 i have to consider that i might not have a masterpiece in me, ohwell, too late in the
game to do anything but plug away at it and accept whatever i get, reminds me of something

buddy of mine, playwright aishah rahman once said, i once told her i wanted to be the greatest novelist
ever lived and she said no art, thats not what you want, what you want is to sing your song

best you can sing it, that way you can appreciate other folk singing theirs - one of the best pieces
of advice ive ever gotten as a young writer, its kept me from being jealous of my buddies work/acclaim

and trying to write like other folk, best i keep it in mind

read a very evocative black agenda report article by khail muhammad
that puts bill cosbys uplift agenda in context of a longline of uplift agendas

from booker t on and does a good job of skewering them but also sets up some false
dichotomies using this poll sometime ago that asked if middleclass blacks

were aspiring to 'white values', thats not really the issue - i for one am not
trying to getting to get black folk to 'be white' and just because

particular whitefolk try to skew the question and rationalize racism et all as
black pathology kinda aint got nothing to do with what we got to do to flip this

script, and we cant let them define the dynamic, which is what this article does, the
question is not black vs white values, thats a fakeout question easily knocked down

let me define what black values are, or ought to be
and struggle aint no either or, its working with both hands

on many levels its a fakeout article but it was a very evocative, with a lot of points to chew on
i aint got time to breakdown all the nuance on that perennial question right now

maybe tomorrow

im always gon try to speak truth to the people
even when they dont want to hear it

but im kinda tired of always being the contrarian, of being out on a limb and feeling
misunderstood, feel like i should just keep my mouth shut sometime

books out of print, 100 hits a day w/rootsblog
sometime i feel like im just wailing in the wilderness

youd think i had enuf sense to give up by now
but i dont think i can

once again, just do what you do rick
just do what you do, hang in there

all my love
rdoc

WEDNESDAY

hello world, i wanted to leave my rest for the weary post up for awhile
but i got to be moving on, readership been weak lately, who cares

rest for the weary coming right along, if anything im in the zone
i notice this article about obamas unofficial campaign slogan

fired up, ready to go

apparently he was in some little town in south carolina when local activist, edith childs, woke up the crowd with fired up, ready to go chant

obama say he was kinda tired when he got there, say he was whipped
but "after a minute or two, Im feeling kind of fired up." he say, "im feeling like im ready to go."

he been using it ever since
i also notice hillarys campaign playing dirty tricks on obama lately, or rather oppositional work
tried to stick him with a charge of illegal campaign contributions thru his PAC

(one of which being a campaign contribution to hillarys senate campaign, go figure)
when he accused her of dirty tricks, the clinton campaign claim it was republicans that did it,

but journalists say it was the hillary folk planting those stories, just yesterday i read one of
hillary folk saying obama drug use as young man was going to make him unelectable,

a little while back they tried to use a kindergarten essay say he wanted to be president
one day against him - hillary hillary

obviously their oppositional research is in full swing now that obama seem to be getting some traction
i been basically sitting this one out cause i got respect for hillary and im conflicted about

whether i think president of the united states is all that great a job for obama anyway
i want him to keep being a community activist i guess - seem like a higher calling

kinda like folk who think im a sellout cause im a 'professional' writer now
instead of the community poet i started out as

all us writers 'in the tradition' started out as community poets but you cant stay there
and its become a pejorative term for unsophisticated work among us

and you proud of your community poet roots and your community poet skilz
(i can still move the people) but when you grow beyond that your influence is magnified

you still warriorkind but you more sophisticated in your game
and your work - if anything you striving to be an international force

destinic in your scope

im still conflicted about obama running for president
but im starting to hear the warhorn lately

fired up.  ready to go

if its good enuf for oprah
its good enuf for me

rdoc

The Conductor: on the nature of struggle and rest for the weary

TUESDAY

hello world,

whats with innis of core and the bond folk, rightwing black organizations that never do
anything for the race, now coming to the defense of dog the bounty hunter, who was recently

taped in a nigger rant by his son

telling his son he cant work for dog if he dont break up with nigger girlfriend cause we say nigger a lot around here and he doesnt want a take a chance on "some fucking nigger hearing us say the word nigger" and losing my show - (whew it was some seirous niggering up in there)

dog say "if we use the word nigger, we dont mean you fucking scum nigger without a soul"
but thats what the world might think and his show would be in danger - (whew it was rough)

but lo and behold his son taped it and sold it to the national enquirer and now his show,
as he figured it would, has been suspended - a&e just suspended it trying to let it all blow over

for their biggest moneymaker but advertisers jumping ship on them, not only just this show but all a&e
shows and now dog is making his obligatory tearful apologies and claiming he didnt mean nothing by it

these two rightwing black organizations, innis of core and some outfit called bond, that dont
do nothing for blackfolk have suited up for dog, doing book signings and running interference

for him as he tries to get his show back, innis swear dog been misunderstood and he is
actually trying to bring the races together ????

listen to the tape yourself and decide if you think his apology is sincere, then you tell me
what you think about his colored support, aint never done nothing to help blackfolk but

gon cry tears over dog, one wonders what kind of paycheck that entail, i feel you dog
on your own son turning you in, dont know who you can trust these days do you

on a more pleasant note, bonnie gave me permission to give some props to my favorite actress,
gabrielle union, she got a new christmas movie coming out, i just wanted to use this promotional photo

yall support her new movie now, industry want to ghettoize her into urban movie roles
i want the industry to give her something challenging, let her show us what she can do

you flow girl
rdoc

MONDAY

hello world, had the strangest dream last night
i was the conqueror and i was evading legba

so i was flying, right (flying dreams are my favorite) and i believe i was leaving a newyork street fair trying to get back to my hotel/apartment?

for some reason legba attacked me, trying to knock me out of the sky
and so im evading legba, who moves in great leaps and was angry with me

for some reason trying to bring me down and cause me grief and mishap,
but the power of the conquer root kept foiling him

legba kept throwing items representing various mishaps my way and i was using the power of the highjohn root to deflect them

and i was perplexed as to why legba was after me but not panicky about it

and i kept getting aided by civilians who were somehow part of my
support network, including one time i was resting in an apartment

when my scouts/pickets informed me legba had come and when he knocked/entered
the front door i went out the window - then as i was traveling (lets say over harlem)

i note a couple, a man and a woman, diviners telling fortunes as street vendors
i see legba down the block but i take the time to land and ask them to tell me what is to be

while im there and keeping a wary eye on the approaching legba, ogun shows up
and i greet him joyously, old friend, and thats when i realize that war is upon us

when legba arrives i tell him i aint got time for his foolishness, war is upon us
and then we somehow merge. me/the conqueror, legba and ogun, and basically i wake up at that point

im not really a dream rememberer but this dream is still vivid in my head
poet colleague of mine, bj ashanti, used to write poems based on his dreams, ive always

thought that was cool tech, when my dreams have story quality ima write them down
even when i dont quite know what the point is

finished a phase of rest for the weary yesterday, is that pertinent, still dont have
that page turning quality yet but what i got will have to do, today i start my redpen

pray for me
rdoc

SUNDAY

hello world, been clocking pages, well at least clocking hours
been trying to figure out how to get a page turning quality in the text it dont have just yet

have to confess i went to see the golden compass yesterday, bonnie remembered it
from childhood and i "let her drag" me to it, but i confess i enjoyed it, what can i say

so anyway im sitting there and im actually taking notes about having highjohn attempting
to be the high hoodoo and have the kind of spiritual authority that suggest cultural changes

and folk really listen, like AIDS, when it became clear that AIDS had a particular affinity for
blackfolk it would have been nice to say: okay everybody, no drugs and needles, and monogamy for

the next 3 generations and have the culture actually do it because i said do it and they trust me
to give cultural guidance, thats what i been working at all these years and it aint been working

nobody listen, im just wailing in the wilderness and hoping if i establish the historical role that the hoodoos of the future will

have that kind of cultural authority, where folk trust them to have the vision and the concern
and the love of the people and give them the prophetic authority, im not really expressing this well

hopefully i do a better job in rest for the weary, and what i have happen is that this effort to be
a big boss man conflicts with his personal ethics and hostility against soul stealing

which i saw as the message of the golden compass, anti authoritarian, which is my message
while at the same time im trying to set myself up as some sort of tribal shaman that folk give

a certain authority to because they believe in my prophetic ethics, im not explaining this well
maybe because im so confused myself, and a certain part of me prefers to fail in this effort

basically im looking for a fatwa type ability but when you see how that power is abused
in islam it make you wonder, spiritual power is such a two edged instrument, which is why

spiritual and leadership ethics of all sorts is probably my most pressing concern

and a certain part feels that i have to try for this, have to try to gain the prophetic dispensation that
will give me a certain authority of cultural vision or something, while another part of me is conflicted

about spiritual power, a power ive always had, but the ethics of charismatic power is what make
me come up with all these injunctions against soul stealing, and thats going to play a major part

in rest for the weary, whereas this attempt to express it here i floundering and ima let it go

sometime i feel like harriet tubman: "If I could have convinced more slaves
that they were slaves, I could have freed thousands more."

but then harriet got her work done didnt she, didnt waste no time crying about how hard it was

back to work flowers, i have just got to get this novel done, dont think about nothing
but todays pages rick, dont think about all you got to do, just get

todays work done, let tomorrow fend for itself

let me give you a couple more harriet quotes while im at it harriet
definitely one of my 101 talismans, ima call her The Conductor 

first she reason it thru:

"i had reasoned this out in my mind, there was one of two things i had a right to, liberty or death; if i could not have one, i would have the other."

then she cut it down to the essence:

"be free or die"

upon successful escape, she take stock:

"i looked at my hands to see if i was the same person. there was such a glory over everything. the sun came up like gold through the trees, and i felt like i was in heaven."

her service during the war: guided a union raid on the combahee river: 700 slaves freed
babajohn killens use this quote to title his big novel: and then we heard the thunder:

"we saw the lightning and that was the guns and then we heard the thunder and that was the big guns; and then we heard the rain falling and that was the blood falling; and when we came to get in the crops, it was dead men that we reaped."

not satisfied with saving herself, she come back for the rest of us:

"i was the conductor of the underground railroad for eight years, and i can say what most
conductors can't say; i never ran my train off the track and i never lost a passenger."

strategics by the conductor: when you work it, work the root:

"never wound a snake, kill it"

the one that move my soul, i could have freed thousands more:

"if i could have convinced more slaves that they were slaves, i could have freed thousands more"

she claim a thousand, a thousand it is:

"i freed a thousand slaves i could have freed a thousand more if only they knew they were slaves"

and i would you be a race of dreamers:

every great dream begins with a dreamer. always remember, you have within you the
strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world.

im outta here
my love to you all

rickydoc trickmaster, wouldbe
prophet of the hoodoo way

SATURDAY

hello world, not feeling rootsblog today, so many life problems im overwhelmed and dead in the water
cat died, car died, computer died, some new health issues look like ima have to carry, family issues in the delta & everything cost money i just dont have

school out finally but i got so many obligations i cant  woodshed - newren, palf, the hand, blurbs, recs, manuscripts i owe critiques on, house maintenance, etc

sometime you got so many issues going critical you get overwhelmed and all you do is sit there moaning the blues,

then i look at my work, how slow it go and how hard i work at it for so little readership/respect and im just

tired - im weary, im weary in my soul im weary - wondering when do i get to rest  -  i suspect even death aint no resting place, i suspect its a struggle too

ohwell, buckle up rick, singing the blues is one thing, whining is entirely another
problems overwhelming you, line them up and knock them off - 1  2  3  -  deal w/it

occasionally i go on i tunes and put in some favorite word and see what songs come up on it
did prophecy a little while back and a bunch of reggae songs came up, prophecy is a big

thing in reggae culture, im envious of that - other day i did struggle and a whole bunch of african american
songs came up, blues, r&b, hiphop, one southern rap group talking about living in the south say -

we know struggle - i felt that

blackfolk and struggle, if there is a word intimately identified with black culture its struggle
i recall once fellow traveler keith gilyard said to me  'the primary trope of african american lit is struggle'

guess i will see if i can more consciously work a struggle trope into rest for the weary
and on that note, best i myself get back to work, clocking pages best cure for the blues i know

in struggle
rdoc

mugabe, malawi, mutharika and post colonial nuance: waterboarding and lynchings: american as apple pie

THURSDAY

hello world, been trying to find the text of this open letter signed by
16 prominent african and europeon writers inclu soyinka, okri and chimanda

accusing eu conference on africa of cowardice for not including darfur
and zimbabwe at the top of the agenda

i want to see what it actually says before commenting on it, this tight little
article on it by ugandan writer brings up a host of provocative issues

dealing with the post colonial relationship of europe and africa and
its a tricky little minefield as evidenced in conflict over mugabe

and gordons refusal to attend if mugabe does and the defense of mugabe
by many dedicated africanists who feel that he is being trashed by vengeful

ex colonials - reason i want to see exactly what the text say is because i do trust
soyinka and chimananda (okri not so much) and i personally think mugabe has

become an africanist liability and i know sincere fellow travelers who dont agree - but bad
leadership is a particular beef of mine when it comes to the destiny of the african world

and mugabes classic obsession w/power has become problematic and bad leaders
always claim racism and/or colonialism made me do it and try to rally the troops but

im not buying it - i remember when zimbabwe won their colonial struggle and standing in front
of the state office building in harlem w/a multitude of happy blackfolk cheering mugabe

and chanting MU GA BE   MU GA BE - i have since felt betrayed by classic oligarchic african
strongman behavior of the sort that has so often crippled african post colonial development

but i dont much trust the wests agenda either so im walking very carefully on this one
inclined to follow the lead of folk on the ground so to speak and would be interested

in seeing what the text of that letter says, tried to google news it and didnt find it
but i suspect it will be up in the next couple of days, i will let you know

cause as you know dear regulators, i want rootsblog to be the place where
you can come for the real deal, specially when its full of nuance

nuance is my bread and butter, thats what i like to grapple with
cause the really important questions are nuanced by definition

when it come to geopolitic aint no easy answers
and its always deeper than you think

but darfur now, darfur is a no brainer, how can they not inclu darfur, whats up w/that
i havent been paying attention to this eu/africa conference but literary folk i respect

have, best i put my finger on that pulse, see whats what
da hoodooman do not like to not know whats going on

in struggle
rdoc

ps: clocking pages: its all good

TUESDAY

hello world, some quickies:

always trying to make rootsblog posts more relevant, think i will start including overt
commentary on my favorite subject: strategy: game, sidegame and countergame

sidegame in palestine: in competition, power like to divert folk into sidegame that dont
actually change the equation and just make your challenger a more complacent/invested part

of your system, your world, as is this program to quote unquote
provide economicopportunities for palestinians - you got that right

worldbank in malawi: most interesting article about malawi in the times other day, talk about how the worldbank was insisting malawi cut subsidies for fertilizer for farmers and have them grow

cash crops for export which meant buying/begging food from the west, article say malawians starving until bingu wa mutharika, new president of malawi say he tired of begging for food and defied worldbank

by subsidizing fertilizer (like the west does for its own farmers) and now malawi is a breadbasket
exporting food to other african countries, i must say this development tickle me on many levels

jena 6: deal mean the jena 6 guy got to stay in prison until june - thats not much of a deal
but who am i to say, aint me in jail, good luck to him, hope he use the attention to Work his life

speaking of criminalization: new report on disparities in drug enforcement say black and whitefolk
use drugs about same percentage, but enforcement mostly fall on blackfolk and the poor

report give a variety of reasons, openair markets instead of behind closed doors, etc etc, but
mostly a tendency to focus enforcement efforts on poor and minority communities, and a

judicial system harder on the disenfranchised every step of the way - so what else is new
everything fall harder on poor folk, thats not likely to change, not ever, you do what you can

but inequity pretty much a irreducible component of the human condition, file this
report away with the others - maintain focus on making the weakest of us

strong

bush and iran: time mag article say nie wouldnt have given new report on iran
without it being greenlit by the president, says the admin has decided iran is a

bridge too far and it was time to rachet down the rhetoric and chill out the neocon hawks

course this might be wishful thinking, hoping you know who chill out w/that WWIII rhetoric,
if anybody gon jumpstart WWIII its more likely bush et neocon all - bomb bomb bomb bomb iran

in the anti reality based community, iraq aint enuf

personals:  dug in on rest for the weary, got some ideas ima try to run

all my love
rdoc

SATURDAY

okay world, i got to move on, that last post has gotten too long
picked up this commentary about waterboarding on andrew sullivans blog

apparently waterboarding been in use in america for sometime, in the olddays they call it the 'water cure" - just one component of lynchings that were public torture sessions

the water cure was most often used against blackfolk to extract false confessions so ruthlessly the mississippi supreme court voided a 1926 murder conviction because the water cure was too "barbarous"

and "a specie of torture well known to the bench and bar of the country,"

new attorney general say he aint been briefed, he cant say for sure if waterboarding is torture - this been interesting, what bush et al done to america

and they say it couldnt happen here - america got a good side, america got a
bad side, and you dont get to be topdog without a little blood on your fangs

bush/cheney/rice been fanning the worst america got to offer

so whats the next phase gon be, more of the same, or are we
gon try to live up to the myth of what america could be

bush has forced us all to look into the mirror
dont blame me if you dont like what you see

rickydoc flowers
crying out in the wilderness

on the hoodoo book of flowers and the passing of lady comes calling

FRIDAY

hello world, got a taste of the blues today, cat died, car died, family issues in the delta and almost
lost my most treasured protege, sometime it dont pay to get out of bed

so anyway this morning followed a rootsblog link to some brother call
himself rawdag, fellow writer w/rootsblog in his links, will give him a link

from his site, i followed link to site called the black accountability network, which
say its working to hold black leadership, opinion makers, public officials and institutions accountable - 

im down with that

wandering thru these folks links i realize its a whole lot of black blogs, in
particular of the younger generation, i aint been keeping up with,

if i get me a little work done this weekend, ima try to upgrade my links, in
the meantime i love this logo of the black accountability folk, they call it
the watchdog - now thats what im talking about

a real thanksgiving prayer: black commentator article on thanksgiving say the land of the free
was founded on genocide and slavery, and includes a thanksgiving prayer

given by william bradford, former governor of plymouth, who chronicled the 1621 feast that became
thanksgiving, after 1637 attack designed to finish off the pequots (foxwood casino) once and for all:

"Those that escaped the fire were slain with the sword; some hewed to pieces, others run through with their rapiers, so that they were quickly dispatched and very few escaped. It was conceived they thus destroyed about 400 at this time. It was a fearful sight to see them thus frying in the fire...horrible was the stink and scent thereof, but the victory seemed a sweet sacrifice, and they gave the prayers thereof to God, who had wrought so wonderfully for them, thus to enclose their enemies in their hands, and give them so speedy a victory over so proud and insulting an enemy."

a luta continua
rdoc

THURSDAY

hesitant to leave this weeks post until i work on that holybook segment - but like that
shark in the water i got to move on - do what i can this weekend and move on

my literary companion, the indomitable calico, lady comes calling, died yesterday
been w/me a quarter of my life, used to just sit on the desk while i wrote - ima miss her so much

conflict down in memphis over civil rights museum - old lorraine hotel where king was shot -
memphis holyground - local activists want to wrest control from corporate board

and change the focus to an activist operation over exclusively museum - i can relate, its
kinda musty as it is now, and deke pope, one of the activists,  is an old comrade in struggle,

and i been pleased to see martin luther king III
trying to live up to his daddys name recently

problem is that black members of that board, folk like maxine smith and ben hooks, are the old lions of the struggle in memphis and family friends, damn near surrogate parents and my earliest mentors in struggle - its hard for me to take sides against them, and as a  memphis bougie insider i know that there are some personal issues with instigator d army bailey on this one

also though it is not the institution i woud like it to be, it is an institution when so many
of this sort die out, im hesitant to fix what aint broke

bottomline: i too would like the influence of the chairman of the board
conservative memphis business tycoon pitt hyde, reduced

institutions like the civil rights museum have to have corporate support
but not necessarily corporate control

and i too would like it to be somehow a more
activist organization, 21st century stylee - bottomline

bonnie took that lady in the window picture, bonnie and lady were really close,
bonnie took better care of her than i did, she pampered that kitty something awful

and lady returned the love, allowed bonnie liberties she never allowed me
they were good for each other, they were good to each other

we decided to have her cremated, scatter her ashes out back,
maybe take some to the delta, drop them in the mississippi

my little familiar is gone - all my love lady
we had a good run

rdoc

TUESDAY

hello world, rest beating me all about the head and shoulders, let me give you some quickies
lets background this one 2nd lining w/the wild magnolias

aids on the congressional plantation: dc got highest aids rate in nation, blacks 87% of aids cases - and the beat goes on

prognosis: all kinds of ameliorative policy/organizing issues got to be addressed , such as dc being only us city w/federally mandated ban against needle distribution

but the only one that will truly flip this trick will be behavioral changes on our part: guess im blaming the victim right

sudan; newly arrived teacher at british private school in khartoum allows class 0f 7 year olds to name teddybear muhammad w/predictable results, arrested and threatened with x many lashes: didnt she get the memo - what planet she been on

dick cheney hospitalized with an irregular heartbeat: that dick cheneys heartbeat is irregular aint news, whats news is that he got a heart: i thought he was some kind of vampire clone or something

annapolis: bush et al say they will start real negotiations on dec 12th, with intent of cutting a deal by the end of next year (ie end of bush presidency): the real deal: getting the arabs to play along on iran and iraq for the rest of bushs term: watch and see  - as the palestinians get strung along; again; bottomline: bush dont care bout no palestinians

sean taylor brought a machete to a gunfight, thats when you need a pistol, when somebody breaking into your home, i agree w/gil scot heron on this one: when other folk give up theirs i will give up mine



MONDAY

hello world, the arabs are in at annapolis, guess they figure got to be in it to win it
invoking the spirit poster from chester higgins exhibit at schomberg

recently read article by ofari hutchinson on black - hispanic
tensions cause me to think on it, he laid out the problem

but didnt make any suggestions about addressing it - apparently he just
put a book out on issue, i assume the book more pro active

give those of us who still believe in that oldschool alliance something to work with
another one i read couple of days ago but couldnt find again made comment that

its a class issue, that as folk from either race move from the scrabbling
for survival they tend to be more tolerant of each other

also said that hispanic hostility more from 2nd generation than immigrant generation
which you would think worked against class thesis but dude was convincing

im feeling a little humble about my hoodoo thing today

went monitoring hoodoo sites the other day and it was all folkmagic
and as you know dear regulators i am so uninterested in folk magic

i am really out of step with my hoodoo colleagues on this one
traditionally hoodoo is pretty much defined by folk magic

then i went by this site where this well known hoodoo is selling a radiotronic machines or
something like this and i wont call names and that aint really what its called i dont think

which is cool because i dont want to get engaged in no war w/a sorceror of his stature

but it look like a farce to me, a cigar box with glittery stuff on it that he claim
you use to 'dial' up spirits and i wonder if he really believe this or do he know its a beat

he too knowledgeable not to be aware this a classic spiritual hustle

and because he is so knowledgeable and im so out of step with hoodoo today
i feel like im the one need to step back and forgo this commentary

but at the same time feel like i got to speak truth to the people and give true commentary
on hoodoo today - got to establish myself as the spot where folk know they can come hear

the hoodoo truth of things - the hard truths make other folk tremble - this the holyground
thats what make me historical - thats my power

my geas is that i speak truth as i see it
and this is a geas i cannot break

then i was thinking, take a cigarbox, put some spiritual stuff on it and sell it for $150
that aint much different than what i would do as an artist, we call them spirit boxes too

and i would sell it for much more than $150 by calling it art and my position, much like his,
would be if you dont want it, if you dont believe in its efficacy, dont buy it - no problem

o what a twisted web we weave
i need to get some work done

my love to you all

rdoc

SUNDAY

hello world, weak week workwise, a lot of downtime,
thats not good, restful but not good

and im not really feeling the hoodoo book of flowers
just not the time for it yet i guess, but i will wait

until the 2 weeks are out before i judge it, problem now
is if im not getting novelwork done, aint nothing else getting done

and i understand the process, trying to take the endgame to
higherground mean stuff bubbling in the internal computer and

just not ready to manifest yet, i need to chill and concentrate
on taking care of various critical life issues but at the same time

you have to remain focused and frustrated if you want to break thru
to higher creative ground, no focus no grace

what i got to do is fix my prophetic sequence, the primary sequence
of the text, how do i have him manifest the prophetic

what i have to do is note how im attempting to manifest the contemporary prophetic
in the realworld and translate that to my fictional storyteller character

so primarily im doing it in my Work (my novels/my nonfiction) working out the cosmology
attempting to manifest a contemporary prophetic mode by:

trying to develop an afrospiritual cosmology
trying to build facilitating institutions
trying to influence afrospiritual practitioners
trying to develop a new school of hoodoo
trying to develop a custodial school of afroam literature
trying to develop an illuminative way
trying to transform the tribal soul and destiny
trying to build a myth of myself as a hoodoo prophet
trying to change the global perception/position of blackfolk
trying to make a contribution to the destiny and welfare of all humanity
trying to be a powerful artist and craftsman, write good novels and historically significant works
trying to be a powerful magician, metaphysican and ideological orchestrator
trying to understand and maximize the web as ideological instrument

(i got so many initiatives in play that it dont bother me when one or two collapse, as they often do - aint
like i aint got plenty else to do, i just pick up the pieces, put them back in play and keep on pushing)

okay, those are the general trends, how precisely do they manifest day to day
and how to translate that into a fictionally viable sequence for a storyteller (instead of writer)

also my realworld magic is very prosaic, in fiction i get to play with that and make it
dramatic and magical - got to remember that as i work out this prophetic sequence

1st thing to do probably is to go into it, extract the prophetic sequences and see what i got already
i got passages that allude to all these but they arent coherent, they kinda whatever i threw in at that

moment, i got to systematically break that down and make it viable, lets give it a week rick
see how it flows, more like a week and a weekend, cause i got to go back to schoolhouse tomorrow

more or less,

end of year woodshed is on rick, everything else got to be
ruthlessly backburnered, nobody said it was gon be easy

in the name of the conqueror
rdoc

SATURDAY

hello nanakwame (love that name) thanks for the love
always good to get some love, feel like folk care

you must be talking about katrina omogun
thats my girl

okay world, im on it, dug in with rest for the weary- finished futurescenario, decided need to
pre-redpen last 3rd of novel, its weak, needs work, cant have a weak endgame, endgame

is my specialty

(and that of the conqueror -  yesterday i restrung the beadbandolier i wear under my clothes during performance, originaly a yoruba belt it kept breaking during performance so lastnight i restrung it on nylongwire thread, decided to afroamericanize it, so i added a redblackgreen&gold 9 bead sequence, put some highjohn on it and added a malachite and brass sequence im going to give to the conqueror as attribute)

as you see i got a little discretionary time
when im working good is when i got discretionary time

i always give a little to rootsblog cause this my little public dialogue
and i try to keep it fed, a post every couple of days is obligatory

writers that aspire to greatness its important to generate words
for historys sake, who knows what will take

so im thinking the best use of discretionary time is holybook, problem w/doing holybook
online is that putting raw holybook up is really embarrassing

really really embarrassing, here you are suppose to be showing wisdom and its weak
craft, its weak conceptually, spiritually, politically, knowledgeably, everything

but i know that if i leave it up a couple of weeks, letting embarrassment drive me to
work on it every couple of days, i will eventually have a pretty nice little product

so with that little literary caveat let me pick up the legba toss:  0:0
im not going to worry about setting up background, go to the hoodoo book of flowers

category if you want background, (you know what i should do is go into that category
myself and revise that sequence of repetitive posts into a coherent presentation

i should do that with all the important ones, part of what i like about network (blogwork) is that
you can revise initial posts to reflect developments, not only does it clean up text, it gives

it a prophetic modality

forgive this phase dear regulators, 1st will pull up last hbof post, then go into offline notes and just dump everything that might be in the legba 0:0 toss and start cleaning it up, will give myself 2 weeks

before i judge the quality of it (premature judgment would leave to abandonment pf project)

just gon pull it in right now, work on it later
right now got novelwork to do

(consider doing legba and the conqueror at the sametime:)

0:0: legba toss: all bets off
9:9: the conqueror: conquers all obstacles: grace

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0:0:  legba gift
in the name of the trickster

crossroads: where every move changes things
when destiny lies in the choice of the moment

1) progression: it is in the beginning that the paths are laid

beginnings are always hard, preparation a must
the moment is auspicious, seize the day

2) storyline:

bluesman at the crossroads, got a deal to strike, my soul for the craft
want to play this guitar like nobody else ever played

told he could come to the crossroads at midnight, strike a deal w/the devil
dont know what to expect, dont know what the devil look like, just know he

in the market for soul, know he got to keep his wits about him cause he in
the realm of the trickster

late night at the crossroads, cars drive slowly by, curious looks
that note the guitar strung across his back and cross themselves

then he show, a bent over two head man, you the devil ask the bluesman
and legba laugh, thats what the christians say, are you a christian, if not call

me legba, god of the crossroads, i am in th market for souls
can you make me a bluesman, and legba smile again, i can give you talent

but aint nobody make a bluesman but a bluesmans heart
(okay im running out of steam on this one, finish it later)

3)  lifework:

initiation: awareness, understanding life as illumination, the 1st step of a lifelong journey
family:  two families, family you come from, the one you begin, better integration is the call
health:  health is an all abiding concern, renewed attention to the ital lifestyle is this toss
love:
community:  when 9 of my folk gather a community has been established, or needs to be

4)  the tradition

the divine in its many names and permutations, illumination of the african way of god -
the call of the divine is in this throw

5)  magic

making real into the world that which was not, the 1st step of magical is magical imagery, that which is to be manifested must first be conceived - the power of the magician, the power of the artist, the power of ideas

magical meditation is the power to build images in the mind and feed them power until they are real in the world - feats of magic: making real that which was not require thorough preparation and sanctification

preparation is called for here, sanctify yourself

6   illumination

life as a constant quest for illumination
the first step of illumination is to see, to open your eyes

7)  prophecy

to step on the prophetic path, the anointment
you have been chosen

8)  destinywork and the longgame

the roots of the african way of god in the americas were laid when , african captives were dispersed and not allowed to practice their religions - where allowed african religions were fused with catholicism because it had room for the african gods in the catholic saints

in the united states, where african culture/religion was more severly repressed, african religion lost its divine nature and became magical - hoodoo

the african american slave community under mortal siege denied its priests, turned to its sorcerors - most every major slave rebellion included african holymen jamaica's macandal, brazil's ganga zumba, hait's boukman, gullah jacks and nat turners, inspiring the slaves to battle by claiming to protect from bullets and harm, by claiming those who died in the cause would be instantly transported back to guinee

since this afrospiritual practitioners have taken care of the tribal soul and destiny

responsibility is the call here and destiny lies in the moment -
this is not about you, the generations are calling you

9)  the geas of rickydoc

listen firstborn to the geas of rickydoc
and i will give you a mission greater than your adversity

i will give you responsibility for humanitys destiny
you have been chosen

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9:9: THE CONQUEROR
in the name of the conqueror

endgame: strong endgames should be opened ended
preparation for the next phase, manifstations of grace

1) progression: grace

2) storyline:

The Legend of Highjohn the Conqueror
(The Way Zora Neale Tell It.  Jackie Torrance on the riff)

For a longtime Highjohn de Conqueror was just the name of a plant that grew wild in the marshland.  It was dug and dried and carried in the hand or worn about the neck to ward off haints, disease and nightmares.  The power root.  Break any obstacle.  Cause any problem to fall.  After awhile that plant became so powerful it began to walk like a natural man.

Now Highjohn the human kept out of the sight of folk.  Live Legba child in the swamp somewhere.  But whenever you in trouble you whisper his name and you can feel the Conqueror as he pass you in the breeze, listen good you hear him whisper in the trees. 

Zora claim the Conqueror must walk on the wind, cause he move so fast.  Say maybe he in Mississippi when the lash fall on a slave in the Sudan, but before the blood dry on the back the Conqueror is there.  Beating the unbeatable and superior to the whole mess a sorrow.  Claim this our day.  Claim to know the way.

Zora say its the Conquerors voice come through clearest on Sunday morning.  Say its the Conqueror whose worksong sustain you in the field.  Say wherever the work the hardest the Conqueror is there.  Lifting the hoe higher than anybody else and still have time to wipe the sweat from your brow.  To give you a cool drink of water. 

Zora say he apple pie sweet and  breh rabbit quick.  The cool breeze on a hot summer night and the wetness of a sweet summer rain.  He the hopebringer.  The burden bearer.  The battlefighter.  The jackpot winner.  He a mighty power.  An ultimate force.   When you whisper my name that bee dont sting.  That sqeeter dont bite.  That snake dont strike. 

Zora claim the conqueror help the slaves get free by tricking old massa.  Say after the slaves was free, the soul of the conqueror went into the Highjohn de Conquer root.  Waiting to return whenever there a need.  Say you call him and he be there before you finish saying his name.  Highjohn de Conqueror. The Mighty Conqueroo.

Thats what Zora Neale say.  Ask her yourself if you dont believe me.

3)  lifework:
    initiation:
    family: 
    health: 
    love:
    community:

4)  the tradition

5)  magic

6   illumination

7)  prophecy

8)  destinywork and the longgame

9)  the geas of rickydoc

--------------------------
_______________

okay, i can see already this aint gon work
just dont have the time it need put into it

every hour i put into this thats a hour that come out of rest for the weary
thats a no can do - i just got to be patient rick, holybook soon come, soon com

got to trust god gon give me the time
i need to make that happen too

my love to you all
rickydoc flowers

doing what i can