rootwork the rootsblog: a cyberhoodoo webspace

bushleague totalitarianism, google and big brother: sudan and the african union

TUESDAY

wow, almost a week since ive posted
spent the weekend buried in rest for the weary

got my structurals done for this draft, now im redpenning
clocked some pages (25) but everything else suffering

bes that way sometime, ima desperate man and
im taking no prisoners

supposed to be critiqued at my brooklyn workshop sunday
so im using that impetus to clock pages - then going to
ursinus college for a black history month reading -

so ima be doing my roadwarrior thing next week

(its fashionable these days for postblack blackfolk to
dis black history month - aping white racists
and crouching their determination to be postblack
in  crocodile concerns about cramping black history into one month

but as a 2nd string black artist ima tell you if it wasnt for black history month
we wouldnt get NO play - long live black history month)

now i got to do schoolhouse catchup but im still
squeezing pages

so ima do some quickies and im going back to work
will link and refine later:

oil companies announcing record profits
exxon i think has 40% over what they had last year

so remind me again why the republican congress
felt the need to give them some 40 billion in tax cuts this year

these last few years have been a civics lesson in
one party rule, specially when its a party as ruthless as the gop

bush incompetency continues to grow apace
with his totalitarian instincts
and ruthless incompetency is the worst of all worlds

we got the still growing fiasco in iraq
we got the still growing fiasco in the delta
we got the still growing fiasco of the budget

we got the still growing scandal of torture
as american policy and folk trying to impose
their fundamentalism on the rest of us

got the nerve to be complaining about fundamentalists
taking over in iran, iraq and palestine when they just
as bad themselves - has the whole world gone fundamentalist
on me

and we got the simplistic attempt to export democracy
in the middle east which never was a real strategy

it was like the musical chairs justification for invading iraq
remember, they just kept trying reasons until one worked
more or less

is this somebody we can trust w/health care
not based on the medicare drug bill we cant

no way im watching the state of the union
just dont think i can take it, buncha smirking lies
and okeydokes, im tired

and my heart is not really in this post
im going back to work, see if i can clock
a couple mo pages

maybe later
rdoc

THURSDAY

latest mark foire cartoon:
greater georlandia and the holy roaming emperor

WEDNESDAY

2 am and the schoolhouse got me humping
a couple of quickies and im going back to bed

apparently bush administration had fair warning
of the katrina catastrophe in a report by homeland
security issued as the hurricane bore down on new orleans

a report that predicted all that came to past

in spite of mr bushs chronically misleading lies on abc sept 1st:
'I don't think anyone anticipated the breach of the levees"

no, what actually happened is that he just didnt care
a reprise of the osama bin laden warnings, remember him
wanted dead or alive?

apparently the bush administration thinks they can fool america again
with the rovian campaign to justify the 'terrorist surveillance program"

terrorist surveillance program? - they think a little verbal paint can fix anything
you know what amazes me about this is

that he can be so intent on 'spreading democracy' in the middleeast
while showing no appreciation for democracy here in america

those of us who do care have to maintain the counterargument
that this was wrong, cause he trying to run the okeydoke again
and once again hide totalitarian misconduct behind the fig leaf of terrorism

hopefully the american people are tired of it

and notice how the officer convicted of murdering the iraqi general
got his wrist slapped while the enlisted men/women of abughraib
got 10 years hard labor for following what we know to be orders
from on high

they sometimes seem to hate regular folk

the very ones most susceptible to the bush administration okeydoke
the very same ones they think will fall for the 'terrorist surveillance' okeydoke

folk been conducting polls about whether the spying if okay and getting a 50/50 split
when what they should be asking is if  its okay for the president to willfully break the laws
of the united states whenever he feels like it

history is going to be amazed at what we let the bush administration and
their pet congress get away with

what else

apparently the gop leadership of the house and senate in a closed
conference from which both democrats and the public were excluded changed
some energy bill in favor of a 22 billion giveaway to the energy companies and
me and bonnie got the highest utilities bill weve ever seen this month

whats wrong w/this picture

oh i guess its obvious im going to try to play w/color
tried it once before and abandoned it cause im concerned about my gravitas

but im also an artist and i want to play

as for now im going back to bed, call myself gon get
up and do my daily 3, but im just as tired as i can be

rdoc

MONDAY
good novelwork this weekend, finish bouke and
christophers manuscripts before schoolhouse consumes me

the board of destiny

this the way i see the world, its like this cosmic gameboard, i call it
the board of destiny and all the players are on it, playing  and being played
and the longest most comprehensive game wins
encompassing human destiny and subsuming all others in the sheer
comprehension of its vision and its moves,  so their games just feed yours
and you are the center of the universe, its fulcrum of reality
the conjuror

if you play the game well, everybody on the planet
works for you

mustang sally

i can see it now
the wicked mr picket
him and mustang sally
riding that classic pony to glory

interesting phase of life when the legends of your youth
start checking out - the oscar browns, the lou rawls and
wilson pickets - gon be my generation pretty soon

best i get my work done

the return of the ownership society, strike 2

oh goodie

bush is about to try to do to healthcare what he tried to do to social security

privatized health care accounts
designed to shift healthcare from jobbased share-the-risk formats
to individual pays all health costs out of pocket for a tax break of some sort

overtly designed to eventually replace health insurance, medicare and medicaid
w/privatized health care accounts

another ownership society proposal

theyve killed off pensions, tried to kill social security and now they want to
kill off health insurance - hopefully they are once again out of step

"the average american isnt interested in bearing having more of his or her skin in the game" says robert resschauer of the urban institute, "they already think they are paying plenty for healthcare and bearing enough of the risk as it is"

also im pleased that he is trying this now

the american people are so ADD that i was concerned that by the time
the elections roll around they will have forgotten issues w/the giveaway drugbill
w/social security and katrina and probably be dulled to the daily drumbeat of
the dead in iraq

hopefully this classic bushmove will fan the flames
i wish it was a little closer to november but you cant have everything

in struggle
rdoc

SUNDAY

let me see if i can capsulate this for you

black ops in haiti designed to prevent election
of rene preval in upcoming haitian elections
and intercept haitians fleeing at sea

and no telling what manner other skullduggery

some questionable operation called CAG
consultants advisory group
and another called top cat marine security
which does the intercepts (and been accused of
being careless w/lives of said refugees)

cag seems to have top level us security clearances and so forth
and pulling down big bucks in haiti doing strange & questionable things

this blogger looked up their whosis (whatever that is) and not only
are they sharing a url with a known phising site
but they apparently were formed a week before blogger
looked into it (apparently when some covert operation doing
same thing got busted and disbanded)

they been monitoring rene prevals functions
masquerading as journalists and top cat apparently
has a contract for intercepting haitians fleeing at sea

the american backed government is afraid of rene preval
as aristides chosen successor and moving heaven and
earth to keep him from wininng the upcoming election

now i generally am not down for conspiracy theories/reports
cause bad conspiracy theories can lead you into the wilderness

but this one is tantalizing and i would like to know how
to do this whois search cause i like to think i know everybodys
secrets - the bush admin aint the onliest ones like to
keep they finger on the pulse

but security seems to be this bloggers turf

my concern of course is that the admin is not really interested
in porn - but that recent moves to monitor web are just part of their
totalitarian instincts to big brother americans into a proto-policestate

they may be sincere about thinking its a security measure
but they arent above using it as political cover like they did gay marriage in 2004 elections

and arent above using the information to bring totalitarian heat on anybody who
effectively questions their policies like they did the cia wife

and i fear that any effort on my part to find bush administration secrets
will result on my google searches being targeted
(well at least microsoft, aol and yahoo searches - hangtough google)

but ima look thru this persons backposts and see how she
gets her hot little hands on inside information

the fact that the header of her blog advertises 3 scifi books
is not encouraging but i will see what skilz i can pick up

been thinking as i discuss w/ colleagues the concept of
hoodoo secret societies how to deal in information

some time ago when i was a literary cub back in the city
i used to have an investigative op ed column in new yorks
black american newspaper called crosspoint

had to let it go though cause it was a full time job for very
little pay, but in my little heart of hearts im an oldschool muckraker

dealing in secrets
and trying to shake it up

(if you got any secrets please pass them on to me
i would love to put them in play for you)

SATURDAY
gon take all day today as noveltime
what the hell

dont be evil

you would think theyd chill
already underfire for illegally spying on americans
and claiming the president is above the laws

but apparently the bush admin asked internet providers
to provide all their addresses (the providers bargained them down to a mil)
and all their searches for 2 months (bargained down to a week)

the score
:
yahoo folded
microsoft folded
aol folded

google stood pat

"googles acceding to the request would suggest that it is willing to reveal inforrmation about those who use its services.  this is not a perception google can accept."

the bush admins explanation for why they need it is shaky
and we know we cant trust big brother w/all that info

hard to believe in ethical corporate personas
but with the kind of power in the hands of internet providers
im so desperate to hear that a provider stood up to big brother
that im gon take it at face value

go google

aint nobody in here but us chickens

apparently the sudan is the host for the african union meeting this year
by tradition the host country becomes the leader of the au for a year

as you can imagine there is some controversy over giving this post to the sudan

apparently the sudan has gotten the backing of east african countries
and probably that of the north, but the south and the west are balking

it would be a travesty of incredible proportion to put the fox
in control of the henhouse

a country that conducts genocidal wars on its black african population 
precisely because they are black africans cannot be the head of the african union

in its inception there was debate over whether the au would be a strong central governing body
or a weak regional association - buncha weak states jealous of their postcolonial autonomy
chose weakness

the au is not taken seriously, only recently has it bid to be
a serious institution

if it allows the sudan to take control
i will dismiss it altogether

and look for another savior

hollywood and magical negroes. reverend nagin and the black belt south, medicare scams and two headed men

FRIDAY
yesterday i just took 3 hours noveltime, couldnt afford it, just took it
everyday that i see a 3 hour block laying around ima take it

that means everyday something got to suffer
but i will pay that freight

bush privatization scheme #1

to understand the snafus roiling the medicare drug rollout
you got to remember that it was designed to be a scam
like privatizing social security

it was not designed to help seniors
it was designed to let pharma/insurance companies raid, rob and plunder
the government and old folk too

instead of a clean & simple federal program
it was designed to make the fat cats richer
and actually make it harder on seniors to get drug coverage

w/doughnuts holes and other unnecessary functions
designed to look like coverage w/o actually being coverage

the tipoff is that the government is not allowed to
bargain for lower prices from big pharma

the tipoff is that the main author of the program
billy tanzin of louisiana, quit as soon as it was enacted
to become the president of big pharmas lobbying arm

the tipoff is that they misled the american people
no, forget that weak euphemism, they strategically and blatantly lied to us
tricked and bamboozled us like they did with iraq
and tried to do w/social security

remember how they told congress/the people it would only cost 400 billion
a month after it was enacted they corrected themselves, oops looks like 535 billion
turns out medicare actuarial guy knew it all along and was told he would be fired
if he told congress the real cost and now the estimated cost is a 700 billion giveaway
to the rich and powerful on the backs of the old and the sick

how can they sleep at night

and now the chickens are coming home to roost (those that can still flutter)
in the most vulnerable population we have - the old, the sick and the poor

(anyday now most of us will be clocking at least 2 out of 3, this affects us all
- and our parents too)

and now old folk sick and dying because of the bush administrations
unbelievably callous attitude toward people- use them anyway they can -
use them up

an administration that would have been happier only if the old folk
had been drugless, pensionless and social securityless too

the bush administration and its crooked congressional allies
are an abomination and ive lost my little ironic distance on this one

folk keep saying katrina been americas worst disaster to date
but far as rickydoc is concerned its been george w. bush

and his cronies in crime

what do you think

rdoc

THURSDAY
a two headed man

my boy melvin gibbs got more faces than the legal law allow

nwego's child: rootwork, the ancestral mindmeld
hoodoo-philsopher
sonic hoodoo

fractal solomon & snake 2g

excerpt from sonic hoodoo

When the universe began it began as a vibration, a throb,
"a kind of movement" Tantric philosophy says.
The technical term for this vibration is Spanda.
This throb, this "kind of movement" propagates through the universe.
It could be said that this vibration, this wave exists in different forms at
different levels of existence.
But the more correct way of viewing, Spanda, the vibratory wave is that this
wave exists as the different levels of existence.

this from hoodoo philsopher                    

rootwork today: hoodoo at the crossroads

This thing that people call hoodoo has a certain energy that powers it that has to be respected for it to work. If you try to turn it into something that it isn’t it just wont work right if it works at all.

Even if you wanted to consider rootwork folk magic (which I don’t) you’d have to admit folk magic implies a connection to a larger “folk” culture of which it’s part of and which defines it and its’ parameters. Otherwise we’d just be talking about one worldwide folk culture. The fact that rootwork/ hoodoo exists and has a definition is proof enough of what I’m talkin ‘bout. Defining African-American practices in terms of European culture and cultural values is the EXACT OPPOSITE of what the Old Skool rootworkers/hoodooists did. What they did was this: Develop and define a culture in terms of the values and technologies they and their parents carried inside of them when they got here in concert and in combination with others who shared their same cultural condition.

Whatever ingredients they used and developed were defined and incorporated for use in terms of their own culture and technology.

When they used Native American or European cultural practices they incorporated them in terms of and using African cultural practices and technology. This process of incorporating European and Native American practices and harmonizing them in terms of and to African practices is what created African-American culture.

Let me put it this way. When you hear classical music sampled on lets say, a Dr. Dre track is he using it in terms of European cultural values or the rules laid down by European musical theorists? No, he’s jackin’. He’s using it in terms of his own musical culture, the hip-hop culture and its’ own musical rules. If you took all the ingredients Dre uses to make a track and gave them to a classical composer and told to make a composition using only those ingredients you wouldn’t get a hip-hop track back. You’d get some classical music, made with classical musical rules and techniques. And conversely if took a classical orchestra to a Dr. Dre session and told Dre to make a track using only them he’d comeback with a hip-hop track and probably a hot one.

Anyone using 1920’s African-American energy manipulation techniques outside of their cultural and philosophical paradigm is spell jackin’. Placing those practices inside an alien paradigm causes the power they had to be emptied an replaced by the power of the new paradigm. They lose the power they had and become a subset of other, seemingly weaker practices. As a concrete example, I’ve seen online where people say that hoodoo is an ephemeral practice where the spells die quickly and have to be done again and again. I can guarantee you that “real” rootworkers alive today would disagree with that assessment and even a careful reading of Hyatt’s informers would contradict it as well.

Conversely spell jackin’ into the African based A-A cultural and philosophical paradigms the Essence of what rootwork/hoodoo is. This is due to the same process of reculturalization ( I think I just made a preacher word). Whatever it was becomes emptied and replaced through African- based energy manipulation techniques passed down to us today, in the same way Dr. Dre or Kanye West empty and replace musical “spells” to make their music.

                      Same crossroad, different destination.

                      Uhh, I feel another preacher word uh-huh  Comin’ on - uhh

                     Destin-A-tion! - uh - huh
                     the Power! - uhh
                     of finding your way - huh
                      yaa-suh (congregation interjects)
                     Which way will you Go !? - huh
                     When you get - uh-huh
                     To the Crossroads? - uh

----------------------------------

melvins daytime gig is playing guitar
his nighttime gig im not sure, cause he a 2 headed man

spell jacking

this what he told me when i asked why 3 blogs
i have enuf trouble handling 1

"Ngewo's Chlid is an alternate energy to snake2G
snake2G is kinda confrontational
Ngewo's Child is much more sagacious and calm and has nothing to prove
Sonic Hoodoo is me talkin about what I know well "

interesting
really got to get my links updated

i like that concept - spelljacking
you gon hear more of that

in struggle

rdoc

WEDNESDAY
preach brother

my first reaction was kneejerk
nagin said what?

but once i heard the soundbites on gods positions:

"surely he doesn't approve of us being in Iraq under false pretences. but surely he is upset at black america also"

i couldnt argue with that
then him and god start indicting black men:

"we are not taking care of ourselves. we are not taking care of our women, and we are not taking care of our children when you have a community where 70% of its children are being born to one parent."

well im thinking, this is rather juicy, then come the real wingdinger:

"I don't care what people are saying uptown or wherever they are. this city will be chocolate at the end of the day. this city will be a majority african-american city. its the way god wants it to be."

o he gon take some incoming for that
and i know, like whitefolk who get caught speaking in code
he gon commence to backing up and clarifying

nonono, i didnt say what you thought you heard
chocolate he saying now is "a combination of dark chocolate and white milk"

thats kind of weak brother, you gon have to dance better than that
elections in a couple of months and folk scattered to the 4 corners
in the past hes depended on white support so he dancing on shaky ground

in spite of my own prophetic aspirations i generally dismiss folk
who got that direct connection to god

but in this case i might let it slide

cause i feel you brother nagin, i feel the frustration
and im glad to get a glimpse of where your heart is in this matter
i was concerned that you was doing the bidding of basinstreet fatcats in this matter
still am but im resting a little easier knowing you got that direct line to god

and forget that chocolate city rhetoric, much too timid,
doesnt have the solidity of "the black belt "

every other major city in the black belt south is majority black
a sisterhood of which new orleans is the mardi gra queen
im assuming new orleans gon be less black but not not black
(like some folk want, nagin aint the onliest one been talking in code)

just as im assuming we gon make a way
out of no way - like god trained us to

in struggle
rdoc

TUESDAY
the days of wine and roses are gone

well, the 1st day of school and me without a syllabus
for my tuesday class, fortunately its a class ive done often
and should have an old syllabus updated by 3

god i loved being a free man
but if you must work for a living, then teaching it is

my approaching to teaching is somewhat mystical
teaching young writers is what i do, getting paid for it is gravy

gon update rootsblogs links this week
and put two columns on rootsblog, one on each side, been wanting to do that
for awhile now, looks more professional to me, but its going to mess up
my formatting and i fear i will have to reformat 2 years worth of posts
thats not gon happen notime soon

okay a couple of quick comments and im off to the plantation
just kind of set them up, issues i want to comment on, flesh them out later

im really pulling for the iron lady of liberia, do your thing girl

has nagin lost his mind, says god is mad at neworleans, whats up with that

haitian elections coming up, born and bred in the usa, no win possible

explosion of the black blogosphere, got to update my links

okay, im feeling a little pressured here, i got to go
im schoolhouse bound

later

rdoc

MONDAY, MARTIN LUTHER KINGS BIRTHDAY
hollywood and the magical negro

hello world, i been working like a fiend
last two days of woodshed and taking no prisoners

was thinking just now about hollywood and the magical negro
some of my hoodoo colleagues are offended by hollywoods
treatment of the magical negro

all the movies where the negro with magical powers
helps some whiteperson become whole

the green mile, baggervance, ghost, the one where morgan freeman plays god, etc etc
i havent seen these pictures cause you know i just dont have the time
for hollywood interps of magical negroes - they probably offend me too

i read one review of bagger vance that said here was a magical negro in the
apartheid south and all he can find to do with his powers is
help some whiteboy with his golf game

but the trope of the magical negro im a big fan of
cause im trying to position hoodoo as the spiritual adviser of america
as the spiritual adviser of the world

reason this is potentially possible is because we are perceived as
one of the worlds magical peoples

like the jews, the nativeamericans, hindu and asians, etc
at our best african americans are perceived in the popular culture as spiritual and magical

this often leads to questionable and sensationalist interps by hollywood
and always in context of whitefolks - but what else do we expect from hollywood
the salient factor is that popular culture considers us a magical people

as do we, at our best

i want to position hoodoo as one of the worlds great spiritual/magical traditions
the worlds acknowledged spiritual advisers, reprising a role the jews have historically played
and manifested through unique mythwork and ideological achievement

to do this my primary goal is rebuilding and empowering africanamerican culture
emphasing its illumination over is equally powerful dysfunction

and a major aspect of that is shaping the worlds perception of it, accentuating the positive
eliminating the negative and hanging on to the in between

so this impression of us as a magical people is right down my alley
ima leverage that into true power

hollywoods interp is part of a cultural perception that will manifest
itself in ways both crude and profound - we just got to accentuate the positive
and leverage everything in the world as a matter of cultural empowerment

my hoodoo mantra is
awaken the sleeper protect the weak guide the strong

that role is possible precisely because the world thinks we are a magical people
and at our best, we are

rickydoc trickmaster
wouldbe prophet of the hoodoo way

tavis smiley, a call for vision and the covenant with black america:i will not be left out of this conversation

WEDNESDAY

the covenant with black america

tavis smiley and third world press
putting out a book scheduled february 22nd
the covenant with black america

this book will address 10 most pressing issues facing black america  (sound familiar?): comes from smileys annual state of the black union symposium

smiley say "this book is in a sense a love letter from black america to black america to educate ourselves on the issues we all know exist in our communities and then to challenge and hold each other accountable to fix them. moreover, the covenant is our document of accountability for the entire body politic post-hurricane katrina and in advance of the 2006 and 2008 national elections."

apparently after cspan showing of 2005 symposiusm folk were asked to send suggestions for black agenda, a committee sorted through suggestions and developed covenant

the book is scheduled for publication february 22nd  on february 25th there will be a mass reading and discussion in conjunction w/smileys 7th annual state of the black union to be held in houston, after which there will be a 7 city tour, (including memphis on march 7th, maybe i can make that)

"each chapter outlines key issues, provides resources and action plans for what individuals, public policymakers and corporate citizens can do to move the african american community forward socially, politically and economically"

also includes "information on how individuals and households can make changes that will immediately improve their circumstances in specific areas, such as health, education, crime reduction, financial well being and personal security."

well now im very impressed with this effort. sound like folk trying to come up with that agenda for the 21st century that we all know to be necessary

only problem with it of course is that they didnt invite me
or my opinions

so i will have to riff off what theyve done
to address the strategic issue im most concerned with
and that of course would be vision

cant talk agenda without talking vision
am i the only one who understands this

we have no vision of who we are and where we going
what kind of people do we want our generations to be
and i believe that without vision the people will perish
(is that my line or have i seen that somewhere before)

their 10 issues are as follows

- education
- criminal justice system
- police accountability
- healthcare and well being
- economic development and employment
- housing and community development
- participation in the democratic process
- information technology
- rural communities
- environmental justice

oikay what im sure theyre doing is not so much giving final answers
as opening dialogues on answers

so im going to participate to the full extent of rootsblogs ability to
squeeze into this dialogue cause this seem to be the most sophisticated
effort to date to set up a black agenda
and rickydoc flowers is not going to be left out of this conversation

first off we could have put justice system and cops together, thats one issue
and we could have had something in there to deal w/culture

self definition, who we are, what is our role in the evolving multicultural reality
the struggle to define ourselves and maintain that self definition in the face of ongoing hostility

could have been something in there about the struggle itself, the movement
the struggle for empowerment in the 21st century - how does it strand, whats our
strategic posture

this is not the first time that black influentials have come together and set agendas
there were equally hopeful convention movements in the 1870s, 1930s and the gary convention of 1971
weve done this before and they have all come to naught in terms of lasting and significant change
we gon see if rickydoc can make a difference this time

listen o ye firstborn to the geas of rickydoc and i will give you a mission  greater than your adversity - i will give you the stars   (sorry, i take that back, yall aint ready for all that just yet, need better preparation of the ground before i plant that seed)

the metaquestion is what is our vision of who we are and where we are going
and how do we promote that vision so that a substantial percentage of black folk
sign on to it - a vision great enough to encompass all our strategies and divisions

until we have it its just tactical chaos
and much to easy to play us against the other

since they didnt deal with it i will
and try to use the energy generated by their efforts to promote my 21st century strategies of empowerment - have my little say so

i will appoint myself, the resident expert on vision
soon as i get a copy and see the format and what their little babysteps entail
i will write the 11th chapter - vision

who are we, what future do we see

a vision of who we are
and a strategy of shaping our generations accordingly
thats what i do, nobody does it better

one of the main problems with developing a strategy for black america
is getting the word out and getting a substantial percentage ofthe
black population to sign up on it

whiich is what impresses with about this black covenant effort
this is an ideologically sophisticated rollout, big guns, nice website, etc etc
this just might make a difference, dreamer that i am i hope so

my estimation of tavis smiley has gone up a substantial notch
got a little player in him

ima reach out
but i aint gon be no supplicant, you know i dont play that
i got to make them come to me

see if i can get my hands on an early copy so i can hit the ground running
timing is everything when you working the roots & setting up the board of destiny

they slacking on the longgame, slacking on the destinywork
ima fix that - ima do the 11th chapter of this text - vision

and ima do it so strong that they cant ignore it
ima do it so good that i become part of the moment

i am not going to be left out of this conversation

i whine so much about not getting no respect that
sometime folk think im having a pity party but such is not the case

i aspire to the prophetic and i expect that to be a hardrow to hoe
to be dismissed and disregarded comes with that territory
but that dont stop me from running my game, if anything it feeds me

ill show you too

in pointing out disrespect i hope to rectify it
while getting my strategic vision into the dialogue whenever and however i can

i want this covenant effort to be successful
and whether they know it or not, im the best destinyplayer we got
i will not be left out of this conversation

i am rickydoc trickmaster
wouldbe prophet of the hoodoo way

and i know a crossroads when i see one

as you know my hoodoo mantra is:
awaken the sleeper  protect the weak guide the strong

rickydoc bout to do some guiding up in here

speaking truth to the people and bringing down the magic: hoodoo dialogues and rituals of respect

THURSDAY
a million little lies, oprahs on my list too

i been waiting for her to choose another good loving blues

instead she choosing folk like this guy james frey
making him a millionaire instead of more deserving folk like me

turns out that his book is full of lies
that originally it was sold as fiction but nan talese over at doubleday fiddled w/it some
and marketed it as nonfiction  - then oprah fell for the con and did her thing

its now a major best seller
but smoking gun found out most of the juicy parts are still fiction
and bad overwrought fiction at that

i coulda done that if thats what she want
im willing to sell out but nobodys made me an offer

i been ignoring alito

mostly cause i think its a done deal

ever since bork, nominees have known the routine
tell the senators what they want to hear

lazarus in the la times lays out the antibork strategy

"•  Ameliorate past criticisms of popular liberal precedents, especially Roe vs. Wade, by emphasizing respect for precedent;
•  neutralize previous expressions of personal opinion on controversial issues by drawing a bright line between personal beliefs and judicial philosophy;
•  avoid an ideological battle by declining to answer problematic questions on grounds that the issues raised might be the subject of future cases;
•  and mount a public-relations campaign of your own."

the only thing that might cause some bumps in this road
are recent concerns about the presidents claims to be above the law
and alitos history of supporting government authority over everybody

but i dont think thats going to be enuf
i think its a donedeal, but we shall see
folk are really unhappy that weve apparently annointed a king
instead of electing a president

from questionable banana republic elections in florida and ohio
to his belief that he is not subject to americas laws
hes treated americans shabbily, like he some totalitarian wannabe
folk still in a state of denial when it comes to the
imperial presidency of george w. bush

hes arbitrarily stripped them of their rights whenever he could and i still dont
understand what he got against social security in an era when
companies are abandoning pensions plans at will

americans have let this fool get away with murder too many times
now he thinks hes entitled

rdoc

WEDNESDAY

the courage of my convictions &
speaking truth to the people

just when i was thinking about drafting a january rootsletter
and how to position rootsblog for influence on 2006 election

i ran across this article by joe gandleman
on why blogs werent effective in the 2004 election
summary point as follows:

"#1: Blogs in 2004 preached to the choir.
#2 Blogs are polarized.
#3: Blogs are often so partisan that unless you totally agree with them or don’t mind big doses of partisan analysis and demonization (which I actually enjoy reading) it would be hard to get a thoughtful argument that could persuade you and change your mind.

BUT: blogs do help partisans with their world view, organization, campaign information and morale
.
--Blogs are a NEW form of journalism rapidly gaining some respectability — but unless they begin to pay more attention to maintaining their CREDIBILITY by admitting mistakes and searching for even-handed TRUTH versus strictly partisan advantage they will remain marginalized…an exciting, exotic form of citizen journalism with RESTRICTED impact."

the most salient critique of his presentation (i could have done without the caps)
was that bloggers arent necessarily journalists, they are as often advocates

i guess ima advocate
im not interested in a balanced presentation so much

what i like about blogging is that i dont have to pander to nobody
i say what i want to say and how i want to say it - i love that

you have no idea how empowering i find that as a writer
i believe my words are valuable, but the industry/establishment/public
does not seem to value what i have to say - i had no forum

but on my blog i say what i please and i will let fate
and history decide if my words have value

my struggle is having the courage of my convictions
to speak what i really believe to be the truth
instead of what i think folk can handle

guess it all depends on your primary audience
are you preaching to the choir or are you preaching to the world
guess im preaching to the choir

giving my fellow travelers spiritual and strategic advice
is what i call myself doing

but i also want to appeal to sophisticated readers who enjoy the nuances of life
its complexities and its ironies - i want to generate new thought and dialogue and

new paradigms of struggle

dancing on a dime. whose got the time
the eternal search for more gears

received suheirs book, zaatar diva today, schedule it
received doreens book tropical fish today, schedule it

library books:
rethinking the world: great power strategies & international order: schedule it
the slaves rebellion: fiction, history, orature: schedule it
black chicagos first century: finish and return

rest for the weary research:
to awaken my afflicted brethren: david walker and slave resistence: schedule it
the memphis diary of ida be wells: schedule it
nat turner before the bar of judgement schedule it
keep your head to the sky: interpreting african american homeground:  schedule it
wishbone: reference and interpretation in black folk narrative: schedule it
a documentary history of gullah jack pritchard and the denmark vesey slave insurrection: schedule it
working cures: healing health and power on southern slave plantations: schedule it
a treasury of mississippi river folklore: schedule it
granny midwives and black women writers: schedule it
the trouble they seen: the story of reconstruction in the words of african americans: schedule it
the cambridge dictionary of space technology: schedule it
memphis newspapers during civilwar: (many days of microfiche, put it off)

craft:
theory of the novel: new essays: schedule it
analyzing the shortstory: schedule it, may use in class reader?)
why the novel matters: schedule it

discretionary reading:
discretionary reading for the fun of it, who got time for that
actually suheir and doreen come under reading for pleasure of it, at least skim them

manuscripts:
polite emails from bouke and christopher, have i read their manuscripts? schedule it
arrange meetings w/clarence, laura and ling about their thesis manuscripts
newren manuscripts: penda, judy, stacey, rod, sherland, chelsea, felix, mirlande, adanze

projectwork:
january rootsletter: schedule it
move the hoodoo way: schedule it
rootwork.com upgrade: schedule it

got my 1st wave of recs out yesterday, should do schoolhouse paperwork
but im feeling fey today and that energy will flourish or go bad

ima work on rest for the weary today
ima work on the hoodoo book of flowers

may start a draft of january rootsletter, been feeling that lately
gon get to the gym - that will make me feel good

god i hear that clock ticking, semester starts next week, gon be a toughrow to hoe
how can i make it work, put a tentative schedule on it:

mon  schoolhouse
tue    schoolhouse day, sculpture evening
wed   schoolhouse
thur   schoolhouse day,  mediawork evening
fri      rest for the weary
sat    rest for the weary   
sun   alternating projectwork/days off

thats really not enuf schoolhouse time, not nearly enuf class prep time
tues & thurs i teach, i got a day of prep scheduled but one day dont get it
those schoolhouse daze gon be crunch daze - gon have to be a teaching machine
on those daze

cause i got to schedule mytime
i need 2 days for rest for the weary, takes 1 day just to focus

and got to do projectwork cause well i just got to: 
thehoodoobookofflowers, the hoodoo way, rootwork.com, the hoodoo hands, newren workshop, rootsletter, strategic articles, etc etc - my ideological orchestrations are nonnegotiable - i live for the game

and thesis, i forgot about thesis, i got three, thesis work got to take prominence on project daze and everything is subject to disruption during application month  (approx 500 stories to read and assess)

ima try to schedule an hour each morning for webwandering/rootsblog (40) and home exercise (20)
ima try to schedule an hour each morning for novelwork (just enuf to keep the wheels greased)
ima try to schedule a daily hour for gymwork on 5 days im not actually teaching

3 hours a day gone already

be lucky to make this stick on schoolhouse daze, ima be crunching i know
but i tend to spend a couple of  hours webwandering every day anyway,
ima try to be more disciplined with my webwandering and split that time into useable slots

and days off have to be scheduled
otherwise i will take them anyway and feel undisciplined

this schedule doesnt give any of my obligations enuf
but until further notice i can live with it

and as you can see aint no time for socializing
all the little schoolhouse activities can do without flowers

one of the benefits of tenure is not having to shuck and jive
the student reading series is the only one ima make time for
and cursed obligatory committee work

so i will implement this schedule as of tuesday
temptation everyday will be to go off schedule but if i keep to this schedule
i can maintain my responsibilities - just barely but sometime thats the way it is

sometime all you can do is hang on by the skin of your chinny chin chin

as for today and the rest of the week up to mlks birthday - im stonewalling
strictly rest for the weary,  maybe a little hoodoo book of flowers
maybe a little project work (draft jan rootsletter?)

strickly mywork
ignoring the sratching of wolves at the door

today im hanging tough

TUESDAY

cultural dysfunction and ghetto lit

nick chiles seems to have hit a nerve with
this recent nytimes op ed on ghetto lit

ive seen passionate responses by nbwc's brenda greene
from jill nelson and patrick bass of essence and others
all decrying the commercial rise of ghetto lit

interesting

the preponderance of ghetto lit
make folk feel like we losing the cultural wars
the perennial struggle between african american illumination
and dysfunction

the commercialization of afroam literature is problematic
but not a problem

used to be afroam lit had to be serious to exist
now it will support any manner of genres, thats probably progress
a maturation of the genre - and the culture

but for those of us who live and die literature
for those of us who understand the power of culture
to shape our destiny

it hurts

mostly because it so baldly depicts an african american cultural
dysfunction that we are all fighting against

but we cant be sitting around crying about it
time marches on, and what we dont like we got to finesse

as for ghetto lit, as long as a significant part of our culture resides there
its gon be reflected in the mediaverse, literature, film, etc, im not gon let it bother me

doesnt change anything, we still got to transform the culture, empower it
symptoms of dysfunction are just an unfortunate sidegame

and as for the squeeze it puts on literary works
literature has always had to make a way

just the nature of the obstacles that change

in struggle
rdoc

big dreams and magic

i was thinking about magic
how me and sentalein brought the magic down in nairobi

and was thinking about one of my characters, angel
how she gets excited about this holyground mystery because it brings magic
into what she been perceiving as a humdrum life
samesame her attraction to the conjureman and his to her

and i have that being an issue with her, this hunger for magic in her life
and i was thinking this morning im going to play that a little harder
got to complexitize it, try to go deep in terms of character and theme
make it a problem instead of an answer

but it is precisely because its a question without an answer
that gives me room to play

help make this novel speak to everybody in the world
(esp african americans) who want a little magic in their lives

whatever that is

what angel brings into highjohns life and he in hers
how getting involved in this historical/destinical mystery transforms
her into a reality greater than her own & informs her destiny, her fa

or something like thatt

i dont even know what questions to ask at this point
not til i start playing with it

but i do know its something we all hunger for on some level
a little magic in our lives

im gon enjoy playing with this
and in doing so maybe bring a little magic
into my readers lives

cause i want this book to be a mighty spell
that annoints everybody it touches
i want this book to be rest for the weary

MONDAY
a sack full of goodies

found this most interesting site
by following incoming links
africaspeaks.com
it is just full of goodies

a group of commentators, west indian apparently
most of their commentary is west indies and south america
when i get a moment ima dig in, looks like a good meal

will put it on my links when i get that moment
got to update my links, part of 2006 spring cleaning

right now buried in recommendations
my students broke thru the wall

their deadlines coming up next week
and i been putting them off since last year
their emails starting to get a little panicky

im very fond of them, so i try to give good recs
take a couple of days, get that off my plate
havent done some paperwork i owe the dept either

stonewall is crumbling, but its fixable
still good for a the rest of the week, mlks birthday
is generally a good workday

some quickies, flesh them out later

the mighty kong
i assume thats a riff on congo

guess you know about wal mart, i was going to let it slide
cause it was just a computer glitch but still its tantalizing isnt it

apparently when customers bought the flim planet of the apes, wal marts website
asked them if they were interested in other african american themes

big stink as you can well imagine and they took it down

with wal marts rep as the 600 lb gorilla in the room 
they should have linked planet of the apes to their own homepage

would have been even cuter if they had linked afroam w/king kong
white racism dont get no more primal than king kong

the world turns

whoever would have thought we would be regret ariel sharon
leaving the israel/palestine stage

fate can be so perverse

thinking of fate

i think i will focus on fate and fa this year
little while back rudy put that on my mind cause he
had just read the african by courlander and was suddenly deep into Fa

and i remembered that had been my response to reading that book too
all of a sudden my Fa was important to me and i remember thinking
that for a book to be able to do that was deep

i have since questioned ifa folk about it, read about it, tried to live it
but you never feel like you have encompassed such a fundamentally cultural concept
and the ifa folk real twisty about giving up true fa knowledge

but ima develop me an african american interpretation of Fa

as some of you know - i been working on this divination system
and im structuring the hoodoo book of flowers as a companion text

something along the lines of the ifa corpus, the iching - my primary models for this Work
also the craft of power by rgh sui and the sacred tarot by the brotherhood of light

trying to write a hoodoo sacred text, a hoodoo holybook based on a sacred history of the blackworld

i consider this a lifework, just keep working on it until the day i die
over a 20 year period ive tried a biblic format, tried a koranic format, tried an iching format
none of them worked but less approached the luminescent

decided there are no useable models for holybooks, each one is intimately tied to its culture
an african american dvination structure influenced by sui is what im working on now

while i was in lamu i changed the 7 point structure (7 x 7) to a 9 point structure (9 x 9)
one because it gave me more movements to play with (49 vs 81) and i
had found the 7 point structure to be too restrictive 

and also because of something i read on cat yronwoods luckymojo site
she said that hoodoos were fond of the number 9 and i thought
back on my oraltrad knowledge and my hyatt reading and that resonated with me, 9 it was

shes got a lot of good material on that site
i have her book, hardback, and ive found it useful

shes one of the foremost hoodoo historians on the board
and is probably the acknowledged authority in hoodoo today

i got to move her aside

i reached out to her a couple of times, (her and rose bird)
as i identify contemporary hoodoo authorities i reach out to them

i figure the hoodoos w/21st century game should be dialoguing
or at least know each other - perhaps even become friends and colleagues

she dismissed me
treated me like a supplicant

well, thats okay, no problem
im the hoodoo future

but the problem comes if yronwood is considered the reigning authority
and she dont acknowledge me - well then she cant be the authority can she

that seem selfevident
(thats the way i feel about literary and political authorities too)

been a trend in afrospiritual traditions in the west of whitefolk, both sincere and not
coming into our traditions and because of superior organizing skills and/or resources
becoming the acknowledged authorities

then they come up with this stripped down version of the tradition that no longer
serves a cultural purpose, strictly witchery

archival hoodoo

but they become such powers folk scared to speak truth
now i acknowledge cat to be one of the sincere ones
so she can be 'an' authority, but not 'the' authority

if she the authority and she dont acknowledge me
then shes standing in my way
and if you standing in my way, you got to go
or at least move over

any hoodoo authority that dont acknowledge me got to de legitimized
thats how the game work - i will decide which seeds to nourish and which to deny

but you know on the real side if i want to engage folk in dialogue
i dont need to be making no enemies of them

i take back everything i just said
sometimes you just have to restrain
that left hand

rdoc

carrying the load

check out prometheus 6 when you get a chance
i like the quality of that brothers mackeroni

one of the things i like about him is that he
is hard to pin down politically, i admire that
when its done well

one thing we true believers have to do is not
be afraid to go against the grain

this is the 21st century and the old verities
just wont get it no more
we got to come up with brand new game

when you in contention with a stronger force
you got to outtrick em

which means you got to try brand new strategies instead
of  going along with the old strategies
and the folk with vested interest in maintaining them

i havent seen the new strategies of the 21st century yet
million folk marches, black capitalism, political power,
a lot of blackfolk whining to each other about how bad it is
and that all time loser, reparations

theyve all been tried (reparations - think affirmative action, welfare, etc)
they okay and necessary but by themselves they wont get us to the promised land

but the black neocons, some of whose ideas are valid
are clearly just political whores with questionable intent
selling themselves cheap

this brother trying to struggle thru to observations
that factor in evolving conditions of the 21st century

i dont always agree with him but he got integrity
thats all i ask

i feel the same way about debra dickerson too
i know folk gon jump on me for it but i agree with a lot of what she says

i like the issues she raises, her concern with the ethics of struggle
and blackness -she like myself is a destiny player

i dont agree with all her conclusions and some of them
i disagree with emphatically but thats the nature of the game

when you willing to step on new ground sometimes you gon stumble
but she dealing w/issues we got to deal with as we prepare for the 21st century

that said i havent read her book (just went on amazon and ordered it)
im going based on what ive read about it
and some dialogue we had, i reached out to her too
samesame prometheus

i want to dialogue with the true destiny players of my times

specially those who understand that its a new day
with new instruments of empowerment to be figured out

i want to know whats going on
im gon keep my finger on the pulse

i will reach out to anybodyi think can school me - with all due humility
some folk engage, some folk dismiss me

their loss

im outta here
i got to do these recs
got to get them off my plate

later

rdoc

i am flowers of the delta clan flowers and the line of o killens: i am a conjureman and this is the year 2006

SATURDAY
i dont get no respect

ive put some thought lately into why i dont get no respect
at least not like i want it

when i speak of defying literary and political establishments
im speaking of black literary and political establishments -
which treat me sometimes as if i dont exist

and i think im so sharp on the money in my observations
and the quality of my mack, that it perplexes me sometime that i dont get no play

i do carry some baggage
not satisfied with being a regular anything

dont want to just be a writer, i want to be a great writer
dont want to just be spiritual, i want to be a great hoodooman
a prophet of the hoodoo way

and i dont follow the party lines, for instance i think reparations is fools game
and aint gon let nobody bogart me into saying otherwise (people try to all the time)

as a conjureman i been trained to force reality to adjust to me
instead of me adjusting to reality - so im often out of step w/everybody else

and when people ignore my little strategic advice i have to accept that
im so far out ahead of the pack that being disregarded comes w/the prophetic territory
buked, scorned or ignored, i got to be willing to stand my ground

thats the way i conjure

so i accept that, future generations are my primary audience
but it would be nice to get some play in my lifetime
be nice to get paid - just enuf to not always be on the edge

but its the game that drives me
and it aint in me to pander
to nobody

so my work be carrying a lot of baggage
and i got to assume that the craft just aint been strong enuf
to carry all that baggage

well im constantly trying to grow as a literary craftsman
i believe i got the hang of it with this one but we shall see . . .

hopefully im a late bloomer

and it dont help that im so godawful slow, too many years between works
what can i do - i got to do 20 rewrites before a passage sing like i need it to sing

seems under pressure ive fallen back on old habits
working strictly on the computer now, gon back to old routine of longhanding
only when its a special passage requiring special richness
cause right now im driving for a draft and im taking no prisoners

im tired of no respect, got to get this novel done
im working hard now and it feels good but i can hear the clock ticking
i got about 8 days before i simply have to come back to earth

ima desperate man

FRIDAY
graduation 01/05/06: lou rawls
a smooth and silky bluesman

ima die trying

hoodoo colleague of mine, j sean callaghan
sent me cee los latest album the soul machine
ima fan of cee lo, found an album of his at the library
love superchicken - so i was pleased to see it

listening to piece on it called - die trying

and it really speaks to some issues i been struggling with
wondering if my black nationalist worldview is outdated

and if thats the reason i get no play in the world, that im out of step
with the multicultural times

and i try to be progressively black nationalist but my black nationalism
is nonnegotiable - im a child of the 60s and i just dont know no other way to be, ima race man - i got a people to save

been intending to read and comment on appiahs recent piece in the newyorktimes magazine - the case for contamination - which obviously raises some of these issues

one of the primary tensions confronting us as we adjust to the 21st century

woodshedding today so wont be able to do that until later this evening - assuming i have a good work day

but listening to cee los die trying put it on my mind
thats the way i feel - ima die trying

got this one refrain where he say:

so sincere my eyes begin   to swell up and tear
and its clear my music    may not do that well up in here

o my god
being a nigger must be    a good paying job
with all the fringe benefits    ignorance is bliss

there is a time and a place    for everybodys taste
but i know too much   and i owe too much

theres no way, theres no how   that i could stop now
ima die trying

THIURSDAY
in the zone and clocking pages

now thats what im talking about

and you know i cant really begrudge the medgar evers folk they little invitation
7 straight invites over a 20 year period is a pretty good run

but reasonable responses to perceived slights dont get no novel wrote
i'll show you works every time

later

WEDNESDAY
stonewalling literary disrespect

last couple of days i been taking care of business
dusted off the old palmpilot and start listing 2 be dones
been doing ideological maintenance work, been preparing for schoolhouse duty
been getting back into the world

went into the office to check my mail
and had a flyer for the 2006 national black writers conference at medgar evers

they didnt invite me, this is the first time since john o killens founded them
in 1984 i believe (7 conferences) that i havent been invited - ohwell, i knew it was coming

last couple of times ive had to 'remind' them to include me - shame them into it
probably could call them now and shame them into it but im tired of that
im tired of begging

last time they invited me to do the invocation - but we cant pay you arthur
because we are only paying panelists

i was pleased at the recognition of my hoodoo moves but put out that i wasnt
put on a panel - i got theory, i got mack - and a history there, john o taught there, so did i
adjunct to be sure but me and nunez boldly called it the john o killens chair

this reminds me of john os downhill slide in his later years
part of my mission is to keep johns rep alive, to represent . . . .,
but my rep declining just as precipitously as johns did if not worse
its like i missed the brass ring and am no longer considered a contender

for 13 years i followed john o killens from school to school as his literary rep declined,
from columbia to howard to bronx community to medgar evers - his final resting place

prestiqewise medgar evers was a big drop from columbia
but john o flourished there, not only was it his own brooklyn neighborhood
it was a crossroads of the blackworld and all these diasporic dynamics played out there

i called it the gathering place  - and baba john was its master griot -
me and medgar evers go way back

cant blame the world for disrespecting me, they dont know me, they dont know how
hard i work, how serious i am about what i do - the medgar evers crowd does

disrespect in the world i expect - disrespect in my line
that gets me every time - you try to roll with the punches but sometimes it hurts

so much for the mec connection, got to put them on the i'll show you list
the very long i'll show you list, damn near everybody in the literary world
on that list these days

but my response to literary disrespect is pretty consistent, i work harder
good news or bad, the response is the same - work harder

and on that note im going back into the woodshed, ima stonewall this
last week or so before classes start and full court press rest for the weary

who knows how much traction i will get out of that
i got the fire in me and im looking for the zone

means when classes start ima be stone scrambling
but hey - an extra week of woodshed - for that i will pay any price

my apologies to folk who been expecting me to get back in the saddle
and fuck you to the folk who dont

rickydoc aint done

i am a conjureman
i defy the literary establishment, the political establishment, everybody, i defy reality
im gon continue to conduct myself as if i am in truth
what i aspire to be

a prophet of the hoodoo way
one of the worlds great writers and thinkers
a spiritual founder

i expect reality to yield to my will
i am a conjureman

TUESDAY
turn the light on

lobbyist jack abramoff pleads guilty
this gon be good - this gon be sweet

crooked congressmen gon be scurrying like
roaches when the light comes on

and most of them repub leadership
between abramoff and delays plays
the scent of k street scandal done got funky

democ talking points:
- pay-to-play
- a culture of corruption

this gon be real good

rdoc

beale street below

beale street has died 2 or 3 times
the redlight beale of the early 1900s was killed off by boss crump

and the colored beale street of my segregated childhood died
of integration and urban renewal - lined w/bars, jooks, eateries,
pawnshops and professional offices, old beale street was one of the
playgrounds of my youth

this article tells of anthropologists doing the historical preservation thing
finding bordello artifacts from early 1900s beale

but what interest me is they found brick sidewalks buried
6 feet under ground,

its like the old beale street is still there under that
disneyland bealestreet they got now

thats an image i might be able to use in
rest for the weary

update on the sudan

darfur crises continues to fester
civilian deaths in nov twice that of deaths in oct

tensions between chad and the sudan continue to grow over
accusations of supporting each others rebels

rebel groups in the sudan continue to fight
amongst themselves, hindering their cause

this has been the historical weakness of black resistance
to arabic hegemony in the sudan

the perennial question of solidarity

we got to flip that script
see if we can find some fissures to exploit
amongst our enemies

turabi and bashir will do for a start

MONDAY
gearing up for 2006

back from the continent
havent checked my emails yet
im taking a couple of days off before
digging in for 2006

2006 gon be rough on the old rootdoctor

i am not willing to cut back on novelwork
so ima have to find me some more gears
to address all my responsibilities this year

- got to finish newdraft of rest for the weary
if anything im more desperate now than i was before
im so close i can smell it

- got to draft divination structure for the hoodoo book of flowers
worked on it some in lamu and it was sobering
to see how much of old draft did not stand the test of time

- schoolhouse gon be rough this semester
two workshops, application process, 3 thesis and innumerable recommendations

- taking two labor intensive classes this semester
a sculpture class - i like working w/my hands (been working on a legba figure for a year now - a houseguard - been thinking about doing a baobob bottletree - takes me forever cause bronzework is very labor intensive and i got to use most of my discretionary time on novel)

- and a computer graphics class - got to get my webpage skilz professionalized
got to rebuild rootwork.com and bring it up to speed

- got to take the hoodoo way to higher ground
i have not been giving THW its necessaary attention while in the woodshed
all of my ideological projects have suffered, i got a lot of catching up to do

- got to followthru on hoodoo secret societies initiative
probably my most challenging task of the moment
trying to shapeshift a spiritual tradition is real Work

- gon be more aggressive about getting my empowerment strategies
into the african american dialogue this year - talk about real Work
shapeshifting a people is even more challenging

- got to maintain newren workshop
institutionalize it and forge the next generation

- got to followthru on my commitments
to the page folk and my kwani family

- got to really get busy w/the gymwork
and addressing health maintenance concerns

- got to be more diligent with my
family communications (and ms turbee)

- be nice to clean up my finances this year
but i dont see that happening until i get
paid for rest

- got to regularize rootsletter
and whittle down ponderous mailing list of some 4000 folk
a 1000 of which probably consider me something akin to spam

got to get rid of everybody who is not EAGER to hear what i have to say
right now everytime i make a controversial statement (what other kind are there)
i get a slew of please removes - im tired of that

- and got to get back in the rootsblog groove

havent been keeping up like i like cause i been deep in
the woodshed and its all been about rest for the weary
but im concerned that my posts have become too self
referential lately

at the sametime its the personal nature of my voice/weblog
that provides my online niche - i got to be real and true to me

i cant compete w/news organizations and fulltime sites
like black commentator or chickenbones (fundraising links - ujaama)
its my literary voice and my hoodoo worldview that im selling
in the online marketplace of ideas

i got to strike that balance again
start monitoring news sources, weblogs, websites & mailling lists again

at the same time ive been putting more time into rootsblog than
will be available once i go back to work
ima have to be real disciplined this next semester

cause when i get to the summer woodshed
i want to have done another draft of rest for the weary
so summer woodshed will be strictly polish, strictly moneydraft

putting the poetry on it
also i want to keep growing as a teacher of creative writing

which means in addition to giving studentworks adequate and even
exemplary attention, i got to gear up my reading of shorts and novels
and craft and theory - fulltime job on its on - as is novelwork, webwork
and all my other projects -its like i got 4 or 5 full time jobs and the
schoolhouse is the only one that pays hardcash (bless you syracuse university)

and i got to give bonnie her due
thats another full time job
domestic tranquility is a wonderful thing
long as bonnie happy im happy

otherwise spring 2006 gon be a hardgrind
just thinking about it makes me tired
im weary in my bones tired

heard this great blues last time i went home for christmas
singer say she saw santa hitchhiking christmas eve
he shivering and crying, she gave him a lift

santa say his sleigh blew out, rudolphs nose went out and
the rest of the reindeer went back to the north pole cause they claim
they wasnt making enuf money to be out here running around in this cold

santa ask if he can get a ride, my feet hurt he say
i been walking all night, cause old santas got to make it
the whole world is depending on me

i feel you
makes me reconsider rest for the wearys original title
no rest for the weary

but one does try to stay positive doesnt one
rest for the weary it is - thats what i want it to be

okay rick, you need to focus, let me see now
whats of interest to me at the moment

civil liberties and executive war powers

what about bushs claim to be able to circumvent any law
because of executive war powers

expanded war powers are often assumed by presidents and civil liberties
abrogated in times of war - said war powers to be relinquished when war is over

but this 'war on terror' will be going on for decades if not generations
executive war powers are for hot wars, not cold ones

to accept bushs claims to be above the law means he is the law
some emperor or dictator who can do as he pleases

i dont think so

bush has obviously decided to stonewall questions raised
by his domestic spying

good - that will keep it on the front burner for awhile

what else
another quickie or two and im out of here

assumptions in new orleans

cant testify to this but it
seems that the deaths in new orleans were not as racially determined as we thought
seems black/white death percentages pretty much reflected population
seems the more common demoninator was age

this is an opportunity to strengthen progressive alliances
before it was just blackfolk howling about blackfolk suffering

always good to broaden your coalitions
make common cause, make it a human rights issue
instead of a racial one

okay what else
i guess thats it for the moment

impatient to get some project work done today
clock a minimal 3 on rest

w/the kind of load im going to be carrying this semester
these posts are going to have to be ever more disciplined

be well yall
good luck in the coming year

rdoc

awaken the sleeper
protect the weak
guide the strong

(note: i may do a post on where im coming from w/that little mantra of mine -
obviously ive decided to use it repeatedly until its a recognizeable
part of my vision - its meaning is pretty self evident but theres an interesting story
behind what im trying to do w/it - mostly about me trying to train/shape
the hoodoos of the future and establish hoodoo as a predominant force in the world)

later