rootwork the rootsblog: a cyberhoodoo webspace

rolling the dice in the middleeast and the graduation of jessie mae hemphil: de she wolf she howl

WEDNESDAY

yesterday was a 10 page day, guess i got a 2nd wind
as did the israelis after their fake cease fire

another bush admin pr extravaganza designed to give them
more time to do their thing

the israeli attack on qana is apparently not the aberration
its claimed to be, and is part of israeli intent to depopulate
the south of lebanon, to ethnically cleanse it and establish
a free fire zone

they have been destroying its infrastructure in this pursuit and had bombed
qana 80 times in an attempt to destroy every building in it
(and other southern villages) so as to render it/them uninhabitable

they have told the civilians to flee but then they have strafed and bombed
them on the road when they do - so many are trapped and the israelis know it
- this is a warcrime strategy

as is likely whats happening in forgotten gaza these days

you struggle to be sophisticated in your strategic analysis
so you know whats really going on instead of what folk telling you

then something comes along that smacks the human condition
in its face again

and you wonder how could i have been so naive
as to give any political actor w/real power benefit of the doubt

best to be safe and accept the worst case scenario as the likely one
in geopolitical analys as in life - reach for the best case, prepare for the worst

now israel has abandoned ineffective airwar strategy for ground incursion
last time they occupied lebanon they breed a hezbollah where before
there was none

what manner dragons teeth will they breed this time

im outta here, no more mr nice writer
10 or bust, do or die

rdoc
hanging tough

TUESDAY

hello world

kinda dragging i guess
novel dragging, been slacking this week

i think i have yet to recover from realization
that i still dont have a viable draft

and then its been my birthday week and
apparently ive taken it off

4 oclock in the morning, got my taj mahal compilation on
and im assessing the summer woodshed, got a lot of work done

but did i do enuf for a man as desperate as i am
and damn if it aint aug 1st already

took care of one of my summer honeydos
reseeded the yard - one more to do, no - two

also need to go to the delta

usually family crises wait for me to come home to go nuclear - this summer they been calling collect

and school starts soon, i guess i got at most 3 weeks
of woodshed left and this draft about half done

next two weeks gon be crunch city
ive done it before but im kinda discouraged i believe

will this thing never be done, when do the weary get to rest

i speculate whatever is on the other side it is not rest
i speculate being dead as challenging as being alive

i bet we dont never get to rest, just struggle struggle and more struggle
okay, couple of quickies and its back to the slavemines

gov of mass used tar baby in some relatively benign context
unless dude got a history of sly remarks, its a pass for me

its a big so what

need to be careful what we declare off limits
otherwise we sap our energies defending the field

might be folk know something about dude i dont know
i see he a republican, thats not a good sign

republicans still 'reaching out' to black voters
still trying to use wedges and faith based funds to
generate black conservatives

one commentator said there are conservative blacks
but no black conservatives

i was glad to hear that
i been concerned

reassures me that folk like condi and clarence
are aberrations

meanwhile israel blackmails the world

we gon keep killing folk until yall give us
what we want

proxy shock troops to fight hezbollah for us
till then we gon kill about 40 hostages a day, more if we must

meanwhile congressional leadership blackmails poor folk

no wage increases and we gon count your tips too
unless you give wealthy heirs what they want - more money

and of course weve given ourselves 8 cost of living pay raises
since the last time we gave you anything

they like a really bad joke thats gon on long enuf,
time to go, nov 2006 or bust or what

o the world been full of madness
i just aint had time to chronicle it

and i dont know whats going to happen when schoolhouse start
gon be difficult to come off fullcourt novel mode till draft is done

which mean that first couple of weeks ima
have to double crunch it - help me lord

maybe i can get one of those opportunity scholarships
is what the bush admin calling school vouchers these days

in their ongoing effort to defund public education (what kinda
logical perversion has lead them to declare war on public education)

kinda like intelligent design, they always thinking a new name will sugarcoat
otherwise unacceptable policies, trickeration is their default mode of governing

well tricking the trickster is not allowed
you can keep your little opportunity scholarships

and your ownership society too - gon show you what i think
about you - nov 06 or bust or what

un human rights committee criticizes katrina recovery efforts
local activists pleased with international recognition

lets see, anything else, no, thats it for the moment

ive done enuf to maintain my chops and keep my loyal
readership fed - thats you loyal readership, thank god for you

im outta here

rdoc
hanging tough

SATURDAY

somalia: living with it

count somalia as another bush foreign policy disaster
i would say that its an african american foreign policy disaster

but claiming that african americans have a foreign policy capacity

is more than even a reality defying dreamer like me is capable of
conjuring with a straight face

later

rdoc

FRIDAY

president bush signs voting rights w/caveat

president bush today signed the voting rights bill
as he did so he appended one of his infamous signing statements
that he appended to the torture bill

that means he does not believe he as president has
to follow this bill, bush has appended signing statements
ignoring 800 provisions in congressional bills that he says he doesnt have to follow
more than all previous presidents combined

the american bar association has argued that this is
aspect of the imperial presidency is unconstitutional

the president is not allowed to chose which laws he will enforce
and which he will ignore

i was shocked to hear that previous presidents have done so
but as always bush has pushed it to unheard of lengths

actually he didnt put one of those signing statements on the voting rights bill

why should he, his administration has been ignoring voting rights transgressions
and  hiring neocon cronies and rightwing ideologues to dismantle the commission
from inside, a favorite bush admin tactic to nullify departments he does not believe in

better a voting rights bill than no voting rights bill
but dont expect me to sing we shall overcome

which by the way is a much better negro national anthem

than the other one which is so unintuitive i can never
remember the words and have to fake it like i do in church

stand there and lip sync it, just mouth the words
just like bush

later
rdoc

WEDNESDAY
working hard, moving slow - ticktock ticktock

rolling the dice in the middle east

i have resolved to stay out of the middle east, whats the point
the hounds of war are baying and all regular folk can do is duck

let me see if i can restrain my tendency to moralize
and just try to lay out the strategics for you, who going for what

israels current objective is to push hezbollah back from the border
and bring in an international buffer force, israel will occupy south lebanon until thats done

international force might as well paint targets on their backs
like the 4 un peacekeepers israel just killed - if hezbollah dont get them
israel will

arab countries caught up in sunni shiite tensions, hezbollah as shite org has made
unprecedented overtures to shiite/sunni solidarity - sunni arab leaders concerned with iranian influence

us/israel concern is that shiites and sunnis in iraq will be inspired by this to patch up their issues
to turn on perceived real enemy - the us/israel

iran has benefited from us actions in iraq to become stronger regional player
syria and iran acting in solidarity w/palestinians and bidding to be regional powers

iran wants to take pressure off its nuclear ambitions, syria wants global acceptance
west and moderate arabs want to split sunni syria from iran, said strategy hampered by
bush admins refusal to dialogue with syria

jihadi pot boiling, if it south lebanon does become an israeli occupation zone
it will likely become the next magnet country for the jihadist movement

hezbollahs goal is simply to survive and not get pushed back - that will be
declared a victory and enhance its rep as the only arab entity capable
of taking on israel and further embarrass sunni arab leaders working w/us

hezbollah putting up stronger fight than israel expected whereas
palestinians in gaza been an israeli turkey shoot

3 points for a full grown man
2 points for a woman any age
1 point for children under 12

minus 1 point for infants under 3  (unsporting, cant even finger a trigger yet)
1 bonus point for a whole family unit

the gaza scoring system will probably not play well in baghdad
or anywhere else in those parts (except maybe gaza where cornered
palestinians bid for parity) nor will

bush and condis crocodile tears for lebanons dead
while rushing more bombs to israel in this dirty little war of proxies

which could so easily bloom into an armageddon of sorts
the rapture so eagerly anticipated by so many in power today

lebanese prime minister asked that the killing be stopped
are we children of a lessor god he asked - apparently they are

bush and israel show appalling willingness to gamble with the
lives of arab civilians, torture them, kill them and mistreat them
is it any wonder the west is losing this war

apparently bush admin has not yet learned lessons of any sort
holding meetings to which the primary players are not invited

and leaving only the military option - more bombs, more death, more killing
gambling the lives of our children on little more than personal whim

still determined to roll preemptive dice in the middle east
w/discretionary wars of conquest disguised as legitimate actions

they have already bet their iraqi shorts on this neocon adverturism
you think they woulda learned something about how empire is really done

thats why the emperor prancing around today
him and his girl condi, naked as jaybirds

so, how did i do,

tried not to thunder from the mountaintop
couldnt resist the point system bit though, it was just too juicy

im outta here, this depresses me
as much as forgotten darfur

its like the world cant handle
more than one crises at a time

rdoc

TUESDAY
de she wolf, she move on

jessie mae hemphil

olcschool delta blues singer known
downhome as de she wolf

has moved on

why she carrying that pistol in
this picture i do not know

if you ever heard her sing
you know she dont need no pistol

she guitar lethal

long live de she wolf
long may she howl

rdoc

rickydoc got the blues, the conjureman blues: aint no rest for the weary lord, no rest for the weary

SUNDAY

me and babageorge

been doing my homeboy george hunts work this week
me and george suppose to be working on a project together

his work my words, but george is my elder down in memphis
and more diffident even than i am, i have to defer to him you know

and he aint been doing his part getting the pieces together
and nothing i can do about that, i been the one pushing the project

we was spose to do cleveland lees bealestreet band together but troll press didnt think georges style fit their idea of what kid work entail so they replaced him - fools - they coulda had something legendary

replacement asked me to send her postcards of beale street
so it wasnt the true memphis project it was slated to be

i keep trying to tell george, you already got the paintings, its going to take me years to do the stories, you got to get the list to me, let me get busy - but anybody know george know he on his own time and space

so what ima do is ive gon online and found about 20
of georges images, im start a new rootsblog category (got to think of a worthy name for the project)  and start working on those stories per piece in my sparetime (joke)

but you know ive always assumed my next book
would be a book of shorts i call the hoodoo tales

ima do just enuf to program the project
cause right now im busy too

and on that note best i get back to work
writing out the problem conquered the demon

once you understand the trick
it dont work on you no more

been working all day
all i got to do is 5 pages

anything more than that is gravy

in struggle
rdoc

the phantom strikes again

i havent done a lick of work in 4 or 5 days now
i believe im suffering a crises of faith

i believe im facing the fact that this novel
is still not ready for primetime

working hard and losing pages as i cut the trash

ive lost about 70 pages of what was a 380 page novel and
whats left is far too lean, far too much telling instead of showing

my unortho style is a telling style and i know
what i have to do to compensate for that weakness

step deeper into the moment and not explain them
generate far more texture and narrative richness

knew all along it would require two drafts, which
is why i tried to clock 15 a day and finish one draft
by end of july, and a polish draft before school started

its clear now that i can only clock about 5 a day
and will only finish the coring draft and lucky to finish that

problem is that if i have to do another draft after school starts, it will turn into a real draft rather than the polish draft i had hoped to be doing

but the work is so lean that it needs a real draft

which means i got to stonewall everybody for another 6 months to a year  - and i just dont know if i can do it

i am so tired of that is he serious or is he just bullshitting me/himself look

and when i got back to schoolhouse everybody will be asking me
how is that novel coming, did you finish it this time - and i will have to stonewall them again - nope, not yet

and have to explain over and over why this draft is not THE draftt
and put up with another year of folk writing me off in the literary world

flowers aint serious, he talk a good novel but he must not have another one in him
been 10 years now, best to write him off and be done w/it

god i just dont think i can take it lord, help me out here

but no sense in fooling myself, i dont think this will be the draft
its been a good draft but is it THE draft

so last night i finally got started again, after 4/5 days off
which is a disaster during summer woodshed

and im struggling thru and thinking this aint it and made the
mistake of looking thru the novel and noting all the work i still had
to do to make this novel the masterpiece it and i aspire to

and i just got so discouraged i put it down and went to bed

and i tell my students all the time, look, dont do that
dont look at all you got to do to make that novel work

just deal with what you got to do today

i think maybe thats whats given me the blues this week
having to accept this might not be moneydraft after all

and wont have time to do a polish draft
before schoolhouse chained me down

and you have no idea of how much lifestuff i have let fall apart
while concentrating on this novel - i have paid some mighty dues this summer
for what now seems like very little pay off

and whats happening in the middle east, that depresses me and makes me conscious of all the other intractable conflicts in the world and just how little influence mr man of power has on them

so anyway with the novel im gon accept this 5 pages a day pace
im gon accept that im probably going to have to hit it one more time
(i still hope not, i still hope that somehow when im thru it reads wonderfully)

i will have to appreciate all the hardwork i did do this summer, all the progress i made - it went from incoherent manuscript to coherent one and thats good

and i will have to steel myself to stonewall friends, colleagues, students and the literary world one more time - when i was a cub back in newyork folk used to call my 1st novel the phantom, because it took 13 years to write it

they used to love to come up to me and say, how is the phantom novel doing

1st 7 was training and living the literary cub life - 2nd 7 was when i realized that if i ever really wanted to be a writer i was going to have to buckle down to some serious literary discipline

crunching every day no matter what - so many of my literary buddies never reached that point of daily production - had the talent but never made the cut because they just didnt master that discipline thing

and patience, want to be a writer got to learn patience

and you learn to ignore both the moments of elation and despair
and just keep on writing no matter how you feel

as much as i hate to put another semester/year into this novel

i have come too far with it and invested too much (some 20 years now)
to accept anything less than what i know it can be

ima do this

i remember babajohn killens used to tell us
future generations will only have your novel

they will not be interested in the pressures on you, that you had to pay your bills, get tenure, etc etc, all they want from you is good work - give your novel whatever it needs and defy any external pressures that drive you to premature closure - defy them

amazing to me how much baba john killens still teaches and guides me as a writer

i have incorporated his literary principles to the point where i hear his voice
and often speak with it in literary situations both old and new

in struggle and hanging tough
rickydoc flowers

FRIDAY

hello world, i dont have much to say today

feeling like ive said quite enuf lately
feeling the need to chill

been featuring my homeboy george hunts
work, this one called memphis conjureman

its the cover of mojo rising
the one below is called standing at the crossroads

depicting what legend say is the robert johnson crossroads where 61 cross 49 down in mississippi

then some folk say the crossroads where the southern cross the dog

i say its the point of significance

the painting below that is from the memphis garbageworkers strike, the one brought king to memphis in 68

i am a man was their sign and chant, this one
says a lot to folk from memphis

photographer baba earnest whithers has a wellknown
photo of strikers across a street

thats it, ima chill my jets, i been huffing and puffing lately
and id rather not, not my idea of grace

i get to wailing and its hard to stop me
couple of commentaries and im outta here

bush at the naacp convention
so what

haiti: is yvonne neptune still in jail
i havent been keeping up w/haiti

i remember awhile back noting the new government been
accepted back into caricom, thats cool

surely neptune has been released

if not i need to make some comment designed
to somehow liberate him - it never ends

so much i need to keep up with
need to get more systematic about it

maybe note 10 crises points of blackworld

put finger on pulse, note players
monitor dynamics, look for handles

work it and
update as necessary

everything has handles
anything can be worked

in struggle
rdoc

THURSDAY

the power of the word
ive devoted my life to it

this israel/lebanon thing makes me
realize just how weak they can sometimes be

if you dont have real power to back them up
im trying to use them, my words, to effect change in the world

to gain power in the world - they are all that i have - but words
are such nebulous and double edged instruments of power

and im looking at israel, palestine, lebanon and iraq, if bush admin
foreign policy wasnt such a disaster we wouldnt be here

and im looking at the bush admins systematic abuse of american ideals
and the power of a rightwing fundamentalism that borders on fascism

and im looking at the sudan and the congo and im looking at somalia

some reports say ethiops have crossed the border, some say islamists
using rumors of ethiops to fire up population for attack on baidoa

now what -  more death doom and destruction thats what
more fundamentalism in africa, thats what - and all i can do is talk about it

young, engaged writers are susceptible to activists putting guilt trips on them

and i tell them that means you dont understand the role you play, dont understand
how the word works as power, how literature works as power

im a lifelong activist and organizer but its my words that will cause true change

the other i do cause you gotta do something but thats like spitting in the ocean
may help one or two people/communities but it dont change the human condition

its is only thru my words that i have the slightest hope of effecting fundamental change
and young writers have to understand where their priorities are

getting your work done is the most important thing you can do w/your life
w/your days, w/your hours
but as often the case, your greatest strength is your greatest weakness

a couple of times lately ive mentioned that
im tired of it all being in my head

talking about this aspiration of mine to be
a historical force, a destinyplayer

and the sad reality of meagre readership, out of print books and
neglible presence in the world - i dont get no respect

my work serves too many masters

this post about conjuring for instance is probably too far off the rez
for most folk to relate to - what the hell is he talking about - does
he really believe all that

im conjuring you see
and ive decided with this blog to go deep

whether you can deal w/it or not, whether i got
readership/respect or not - otherwise it aint worth
the time i put into it - time i could be working on books

this my understanding of conjure
this what being a conjureman mean to me:

forcing reality to respond to my will

so ive conjured up magical imagery of hoodoo as a powerful tradition
with true power in the world - destiny workers all

dont care that the reality is hoodoo is a middling
little folkloric tradition that even other atrs dis - it wont be after me

strategically planting rhetorical/mythological seeds designed to make the reality i see the future reality - working at the crossroads

and ive conjured up the magical imagery, the vision, of blackfolk as a star faring people, an illuminated people leading humanity to its ever greater self

dont care that in reality blackfolk weakest folk on planet, that wherever you got blackfolk they at the bottom of their respective society

not in the reality i see, the reality im conjuring

thats why ima keep on saying reparations is fools game, in spite of blackfolk buking me for it - that aint power, thats begging - and i see blackfolk as a people of power

i will not have blackfolk being a race of beggars forever

now what i have to do is magically hold on to those visions
in the face of realitys denial of them

and take ideological/mythological/magical/prophetic steps to manifest them
dont care how weak those steps are, or rather how weak they look to you

as ishmael once wrote in the poem dragons blood - just cause you cant see the stones
dont mean i aint building - you aint no mason, what do you know

this the destiny game and i am a master player
on the hoodoo board of destiny - i know what im doing

the longer i hold them, the longer i conjure them
the longer i work this spell, the more they become true reality

through my words on this blog
through my words in my novels

step by step and inch by inch
word by word - slowly we turn

by mythworking my own life
the mythworkers greatest myth (ask zora)

i hope to forge the myth of my vision and program it into
the tribal soul(culture) and the destinic dynamics of the 21st century

and beyond

im basically doing to life the same thing
i do with my novels, you create the vision

you invest years and years of magical attention
until it no longer exists just in your head

it exists in the real world - a great and mighty spell
in the novels case, as a book that folk respond to

what was once just in your head is now a
physical entity capable of influencing civilizations

an entity capable of changing the lives
of anybody it touches

in the realworld, that manifestation is mythwork

you building contemporary myths for future generations
to live by and aspire to

and you dont know if they will take or not
the likelihood is that they wont but you will never know

because they programmed to take long
after you dead - mythwork is strictly longgame

you working in generations, centuries and eons
that what gives it its power - and its weaknesses in your own time

and allows you to soldier on even when it looks bad and hopeless
you didnt expect to win in your lifetime anyway

so you just may be delusional after all
or you may be a visionary - who knows

who cares

all you can do is play the game out best you can
and hope history/destiny is good to you

fi its not, hey, you gave it your best shot

by definition you out of step with reality
but whereas most folk adjust themselves to reality

as a hoodoo sorceror i demand reality adjust itself to me

and sometimes, quite often in fact, it does - enuf that i expect
to win this game - absolutely no doubt in my mind - ima do this

when i decided i wanted to be a novelist in life i was conjuring
when i decided i would in truth be a hoodoo sorceror i was conjuring

in both cases i manifested those improbable realities into the world
now, for the last chapter in the book of my life, i aspire to prophecy

and i fully realize that a lot of my positions are not reality based
they are mythologically based - and there is a power in that greater than you will ever know

by definition i have to hold steady and believe in myself and my visions absolutely - no matter what the world say, no matter what the world do

as you can imagine i feel right silly sometime when i claim
to be a hoodoo prophet

thats why im always appending the words aspiring
or wouldbe - to kinda temper that claim - but thats for you not me

humility is a magical/spiritual power so i keep a low profile and dont huff and puff no more than i absolutely have to to get the job done

but inside not only do i believe, i know
absolute belief is as critical to prophecy as it is to magic

or fiction

in rest for the weary and in real life
manipulating reality is what i do

defying reality is what i do

i am a conjureman
wielding words and visions as instruments of power

in realife i may be a marginal scribe in the house of life
but in my head i am a man of power and a destinyplayer

a 21st century hoodooman
and i will shape my generations in that image

i will give them a vision greater than their adversity
or my name aint rickydoc

i do whine sometime (sorry ec) when im feeling tired and
unappreciated, when im weary unto my soul

when im tired of keeping all the balls in
the air all the time

but that dont mean nothing
aint nothning stopping this show

buke me, scorn me, even worse, ignore me
but the generations will know me for who i am

i am rickydoc

and i will with my life define just what it is
a hoodoo prophet do

and on that note, best i get back to work, 5 pages a day
will manifest my vision

had to give up on 10, went from 15 to 10 to 5
what a revolting development this is

5 a day mean im still gon be working this draft when school start
thats gon be a problem, semester gon start half focused w/weeks
of catchup - so what else is new

man, this post started off as a couple of sentences and
went on and on and on on and on - all in search of clarity

kinda like this novel

in struggle
rickydoc trickmaster

wouldbe prophet of
the hoodoo way

WEDNESDAY

i do not approve

not that it means anything

but i do not approve of allowing
israel to bomb lebanon w/o restraint

or gaza for that matter
in its ruthless strategy of inflicting pain

on the civilian populatiion and destroying
state infrastructure

this breaking of bones
in baldfaced attempt at regional domination

clearly israel has decided to push the border back
then invite the international community to garrison it

that aint no answer, hizbollah aint gon take that, no more
than they did the last time, that just bring the mess into our house

how long we gon play wag the dog here

i am not impressed with all the
op ed columns lauding israels aggression

i am not impressed with political
whores trolling for votes

and though i assume it wont be appreciated

my objection comes as much from affection for
the jews as it does my concern for the palestinians

god i hate to see the jews going down this path
not only is it degrading it is counterproductive

i understand the strategic and emotional imperatives at play
and hard to judge folk fighting against terrorist threat

but they are the result of a headset that has gotten israel
to point of living on the constant edge of disaster

doing things that bring the point
of its survival into question

if the goal of israel is security for the jews that is
not what you got

you cant imagine you will dodge this bullet forever - everytime you
hammer the palestinians you just breed  more dragons teeth

throughout the entire arab and islamic world
and endanger your mythic credibility w/the rest of us

instead of working out something truly equitable
you demanding an absolutist win, you want it all - 
risking tragedy of biblical proportion

if pushed into the sea
taking a lot of folk w/you will not
assuage your generations

you gotta change your ways o israel

since your own prophets wont tell you
rickydoc will

TUESDAY
averaging about 5 pages a day, not 10
might as well accept it - see where that puts me

hello world, rickydoc has got the blues
that newschool rootman blues

ima ask my homeboy george hunt to help
me sing them this weak - the wore out blues

everywhere i look folk depending on me
to take care of business

appreciated or not dont matter

cant get my work done for
responsibilities and obligations
choking off my air

no work mean no respect in the world

everyday a list of things i have to do TODAY
or edifices commence to crumbling

when i stumble
infrastructures fall apart

tired of being defined by my inadequacies
tired of coming up short

tired of carrying this load
tired of working so hard
and moving so slow

tired of no respect for
what i do and

tired of keeping all the balls in
the air all the time and

tired of this novel kicking my ass
to the tick tock of that clock tick tock

tired of all the suffering and the killing
and the inhumanity no matter what i do

tired of not being the force
in the world i need to be

tired of it all being in my head, tired of the
destiny game, maintaining the spell
in the face of realitys scorn

tired of being out on a limb
got the conjureman blues

dont mean nothing cause
ima keep stepping

i was born to rumble
wouldnt have it no other way

aint no rest for the weary
rickydoc gon maintain

israel, hezbollah & mutually assured destruction: wrestling with pigs: jeff goldstein and deb frisch

MONDAY

working hard, moving slow, 5 weeks of
woodshed left, tick tock tick tock

a blessing on both their houses - part II

i keep revising that piece i did a couple of days ago
on the recent conflict in the middleeast

i keep trying to capture the nuances and dont
quite have it yet - so many players, so many agendas

and feel like i was kinda flippant about the war
but the longer it goes on the less flippant i feel

i would just like the killing
stopped please - i call on those who can

no fancy words, no narratives riffs

just people dying again and
i feel like whatever i say is just words

god that i in truth had the power
god in truth that i were a magician of legend

i would stop the killing
and the suffering too

its all in my head now

but my generations will know this power
or my name aint rickydoc

in struggle
rickydoc flowers

FRIDAY

didnt do a lick of work yesterday, touchup but no real work,
guess that 30 page day burnt me out, a luta continua

whitehouse director of lessons learned: overpaid and underplayed:

recent list of whitehouse employees and their payscales
had the following folk - this is not irony, this is not satire
this is not a joke - this straight up commentary

the whitehouse actually has a director of lessons learned
im in a state of acute amazement here

deborah nimala misir    ethics advisor      #114,688
erica m.bornburg      ethics advisor      $100,547
stuart baker     director for lessons learned  $106,641
melissa m. carson   director for fact checking      $46,500

i cant begin to imagine what his job description says

only in the surreal bush admin would the director for lessons learned
get a 100 thou a year, not to mention the ethics advisors (2 of them)

what do they do - they must sit at they desk playing computer games all day
if it is a joke i guess the joke is on us:

may not be a joke but
it sure is funny

in struggle
rdoc

THURSDAY

im about 40 pages behind schedule, but everything is relative, yesterday
i was 60, but i finally hit a relatively clean patch and did some catch up


a blessing on both their houses: part i

dont know what to say about the situation in the middle east
i dont see how either one of them can easily back down

historically its taken the usa to stop israel but the bush
admin has taken a handsoff position so its good to go

have to wait until they wear each other out - prove they can
take the pain - cut the swap and bury the dead

this is so unfortunate

both sides have a case and there are no easy answers here
i guess like the rest of the world i will just cross my fingers

and hope

gotta respect hezbollahs taking pressure off palestinians by
bringing it on themselves - but so many agendas at play

this was not a good move, no winners here
iniitial abductions apparently designed to pressure both israel and moderates
banking on israels either not reacting or overreacting

israel decides to inflict pain by killing civilians and infrastructure

as do pitiful rockets, sad little lethal proclamations of resistance
both sides making points not progress

now i generally stay away from comments on the israel/palestine thing

this one of those cant win conflicts- say anything real about israel
and you liable to get jacked

by jews, palestinians and/or blackfolk
(only palestinian i know is suheir and id hate to get jacked by suheir)

but now that ive stepped into this particular minefield i might
as well say some things that will make any jackings worthwhile

one i think israel is wrong the way it treats the palestinians

morally you owe them more than that, you took their land
and you not even trying to compensate for that initial wrong

instead you jackbooting them into submission and thats just wrong

now that said i object strenuously to the terrorism and the killing and i
understand israels concern for its survival

as i understand the palestinian need to do something, anything
and not just take the way israel treats them w/o registering their protest
in a manner that makes israel listen

i just hate the palestinians forced into that particular evolutionary track
and i think its dangerous to the world to let that fester

also i believe that israels vision of their future, this eternal domination,
this eternal suppression, is not viable - this does not constitute longterm survival

youve gotten a little too attached to wielding absolute power
and your little window dressing dont fool nobody

israel pulls back from gaza and leaves basically an open air prison
and expects the palestinians to be grateful - that aint gon work either

but i find targeting of civilians on either side totally unacceptable
both of you locked into this eye for an eye thing, this mutually assured destruction

i think israel, you would be appalled if you realized just how fascist
your behavior appears when it comes to the palestinians

where did you learn these moves

but i also think the palestinians would get more traction
if you were to do a martin luther king civil rights movement on
the israelis

okay okay, im glad i amused everybody

but if the palestinians were to confront israel with mass marches a la king
with a mass movement designed to achieve enfranchisement, civilrights and agency

agency is the word i used
took me some pondering before i settled on it

it would change the destinic equation,

and along with that i would abandon the 2 state
solution, that dont scare israel

one state, one people
use your demographic power to get whats coming to you

like the hispanics doing here, take your time, invest a
couple of generations

now having said that i dont see how that would work either
because both sides have just gone batshit fanatical about it

two people who cant live together
and simply must

the move is on israel, the power
agreed that the culture of violence complicates the matter

but right now its the only option that moves things
everything else just domination games on israels part

the drawback from gaza, the wall, the palestinian authority, everything
blatantly designed to suppress the palestinians forever

got to open up some legitimate options
gotta get real, gotta take some chances

the palestinians are not going to disappear
and eventually yall gon have to really deal with it
instead of staying stuck in that old mythos

its a survival thing i know
so i know the moves got to be cautious

but true moves they must be
your generations depend on it

word by
rickydoc conqueroo

wouldbe prophet of the
hoodoo way

watch yourself, everybody else will

this blogging situation with jeff goldstein on the right
and deb frisch on the left is a sad cautionary tale

apparently they got into a flame war and she started
talking about brutalizing his kid and the rightwing blogspace
crucified her

apparently her m-o was to go on rightwing blogs and stir it up with them
in this case she lost her sense of proportion and started talking crazytalk

but the problem with crazytalk in the blogspace is that its on the record

let me tell you i know, ive said things on this blog that made me wonder
who was that - fortunately im not into fighting w/other bloggers, aint my thing

and when i find myself inadvertently caught up in a flamewar i back out right away
my daddy always said never wrestle with pigs, you just get dirty and the pig enjoys it

this is a cautionary tale on many levels
now she is famous for sleezy activity and the rightwing is gleefully eating her lunch

using it to attack progressive bloggers and academics and making
a pretty good case for a personality disorder on her part

all us bloggers would like to claim our 15 mintues of fame but im
pretty sure this is not what she had in mind

she ended up resigning her adjunct position at the univ of colorado
and her efforts to get out from under the trap have been clumsy

i feel sorry for her, she shot herself in rthe foot and will need
grace under pressure she will need to flip this script

she trying but so far her clumsy efforts just dig her deeper in the hole
i hope she will learn something from this and perhaps the rest of us too

a rightwing voice could turn this kind of thing into a fox news career
but hopefully progressive voices are held to a higher standard of honor

this is also a cautionary tale for progressive efforts to match the tenor
of talkradio and fox news - do we really want to go there

both participants come off looking like wingbats, or moonbats as the case may be
but she left herself open for a rightwing assault and now shes going down

something about this blogging/internet thing that
encourages you to let it all hang out

its like you having a conversation with yourself and its not really public
but it is, ruthlessly so - best you keep that in mind at all times

as for the schoolhouse, i kinda assume folk on the job reading my blog sometime and i
dont say things i think will violate the norms of my world and cause me to lose respect

if anything i would like to impress them

i figure i get some leeway for being a serious artist, which is what they want me to be, thats what they pay me to be - but my belief in the rhetorical responsibilities an artist/intellectual aspiring to historical stature are probably higher than theirs - or anybody elses for that matter

just the other day i said some intemperate things about a colleague at the job
and left enuf clues for anybody who wanted to figure out who i was talking about

i had to really consider that one, decided i wanted to say those things not only to you
but to him - the hoodoo in me trying to save him anyway and unlock his true potential

so i figure if i catch flak for it i can handle it

as a young hoodoo i used to go around saving people all the time, whether they wanted
to be saved or not, in my hoodoo maturity i only help those who ask for it

by saying what i wanted to say on my blog it was like i was leaving it to the gods - i said it
but i didnt really say it - it was on my marginal blog that nobody reads anyway

the ease of pushing that send button mean sometime
things go out and as soon as they gone you wish you had
thought about that one a little more 

now its out there in the eternal cybersphere
and nothing you can do but brace yourself

just the other day i received an intemperate email from somebody i care for
and irritated i sent one right back and we both ended up having to apologize and
ask that the jury disregard that last one . . .

moral of the story: when you letting your inner blogger hangout
be careful of what you say, it feels private but its very much public

very much on the record

and the strategic incivility that goes for political dialogue these days
is nothing but a trap for the unwary - live by the word, die by the word

specially for progressive academics, the forces of the right
always ready to use you as a posterchild for everything thats
wrong in rightwing america

strident fanatics like churchill and frisch are easy kills
not so rickydoc - i do not sit with my back to the door

by publicly claiming to be a hoodooman, and being an academic in todays climate
i figure ive left myself open to rightwing attacks if they so choose

and im very conscious of  conducting myself in a manner
that brings honor to the profession - all of them

moral of the story: watch your back
ima watch mine

rdoc

TUESDAY
i dont even know how many pages im behind now, let me see what
i get today, then i might have enuf nerve to make the count

what goes around comes around

jihad video says there is connection between that rape and
the subsequent beheading of troops from that same unit

who knows, both side liars and the truth aint in them

but reciprocity in war is front and center
in another little pertinent drama

apparently top military lawyers have long complained about
the bush administrations way of war and will get a chance
to comment at upcoming hearings

primary concern is that it puts their own captive troops in jeopardy
of being treated in a like manner

“this was the concern all along of the jags,” says admiral guter, retired navy jag. "“it’s a matter of defending what we always thought was the rule of law and proper behavior for civilized nations.”

admiral hutson, another retired navy jag, advises against congressional intent to finesse recent supreme court decision with legislation designed to get around article 3 ofthe geneva convention, says its 

“unbecoming for america to have people say, ‘we’re going to try to work our way around this because we find it to be inconvenient. If you don’t apply it when it’s inconvenient, it’s not a rule of law.”

current jags scheduled to testify in front of congress
what on earth will they say

if they have any military honor whatsoever, they gon
say the emperor naked as a jaybird

rdoc

the black struggle as americas conscience and consciousness: the geas of rickydoc

MONDAY

hello world,
hanging on by the hair of my chinny chin chin

okay ima swear off the extensive daily pagecount stuff
i think you got the idea

other than a running count (18 pgs behind) ima let that be
as you see i can get very obsessive about my daily page count

for those following the manual
the daily page count only works on mature manuscript

for early stages i count hours because you put in more hours than you get pages
cause its more thinking, pondering and contemplating

i think this week ima follow through on a comment i made in last weeks post

you know i am always trying to understand this weblog thing and
how the internet affects me as a 21st  century artist and intellectual

trying to stay ahead of the changes and on the cutting edge
its got to be more than navel gazing, ima professional

and im always trying to understand how to be use it as an
intellectual aspiring to historical stature and potential significance
instead of a clueless civilian

how to make of it an instrument

one function is working out concepts
of my evolving cosmology,  i say something unexpected that i find provocative and
worry at it until it take me to another step and i just keep on stepping

i be macking, i sit down and i commence to macking, i mack an issue and go
wherever it take me, looking for significance and following threads w/potential to go deep

looking for the crossroads

occasionally i end up places that scare me, and i have
to ask am i willing to say that - pretty much always answer yes

i like to think i have the courage of my mack

the comment im thinking might have potential was:
part of my multicultural strategy is to make the black struggle
americas conscience and consciousness, its moral center

that statement i found provocative
this is obviously something i been leading to for awhile

i push the same issues all the time but i say it different ways and in different forums
i believe this particular rhetorical structure will allow more folk to understand my vision

i think ima do an extended peice working this one out
maybe do a full weeks post to get me going on that
and ima work this thread more deeply into rest for the weary

this comes from me trying to find a niche for black folk in the multicultural future

neither integration nor segregation are working projects for longterm viability
both lead to dead ends

integration eventually means blending black folk out of existence
segregation means isolating ourselves from everybody else and declining as a people

my goal is to maintain blackness as a distinct culture and to empower that culture
so that it becomes one of the definitive cultures of the future

by defining black struggle as americas moral center
it would force the struggle to evolve, and make allies of all progressive folk

this is also in keeping with the one drop strategy
to maintain the american practice of counting anybody with one drop of blackblood as black

this is advisable in the 21st century strategic posture because it increases
our numbers and manifests race as a social construct - malleable

we want everybody in america to want to be black

want to give the young hiphop wannabes an adult blackness to aspire to
we want to play off the american fascination with soul

also the historical role since the emancipation struggle
blackfolks have one of the most consistently progressive forces in america

we have to continue demanding of america its very best

this approach comes from blacks neglible demographic numbers
black leaders have always had to search for allies to get anything done
black  leaders learned agendas designed just to appeal to blackfolk are nonfunctional
their rhetorical strategy has been that raising everybody raises blackfolk

pushing civic agendas like defending public education in spite of
rightwings attempts to buy us off with voucher programs

also we playing off the magical negro role so favored in hollywood
where the magical negro helps the hapless whiteperson get soul

this is a role embedded in the american cultural imagination
where blackfolk are either magical soulsavers or dysfunctional criminals

this agenda is designed to levarage these social dynamics into a destinic dynamic
designed to ensure the survival and prosperity of the black generations
and all humanity - to lead you must serve

of course the big negative here is so much of afroam culture is dysfunctional

in order for people all over the world to admire and aspire to blackness
we have to build a culture so powerful and so beautiful that folk want to be black

this also is a dynamic already in play, witness the hip hop nation

on one hand afroam culture has been the model for libaration struggles all over the world
on the other hand afroam culture is so dysfunctional you wonder if we will survive as a people

and sometimes if we should

i got to accentuate the positive, eliminate the negative and hang on to the in between
this is the role i play as a cultural orchestrator and hoodoo defender of the faith

i see the blackrace as an illuminated people, it is many generations long
i call this effort to call blackfolk to their highest

the geas of rickydoc - i hope to lay this geas of transcendence on future generations
reach for higher ground or else

so then the question becomes how to program it ever deeper into the
social consciousness

i consider my works the seeds of future realities
and my orchestrations preparation of the ground

two constituencies here

one, got to convince blackfolk its a good strategy
got to get blackfolk to consistently operate on higher ground

i ask only that you be the great and glorious people you were meant to be
the illuminated children of the sun

destinyworkers all

got to convince whitefolk and other ethnics that blackfolk
are a model of human illumination and the path of human destiny

that blackfolk are a transcendent people always evolving
and leading humanity to its ever greater self

reprising a role that our destinic mentors the jews
before they stumbled over the palestinians and succumbed

to the call of the wild

basically we want to play the chosen people role
without the chosen people syndrome

those of you familiar with my work will recognize the parameters of this play
im just gon say it differently and in a manner i think will be effective

if i can convincingly layout this blackstruggle as americas moral center bit
and make it stick with some influentials, it will move my agenda forward

and hopefully it will raise the rhetoric/goals  of the blackstruggle
beyond its current fascination with insular foolsgame like reparations

my apologies for working this out in public and inflicting on you the sweat
you are not supposed to see

im just kinda laying out initial thoughts on the concept
will work it over the week and make it happen

(note: i always say that, then current events drive me right along
got to get rootwork.com up to speed so i can have a space to work out more
in-depth works than blog format will allow)

right now, im outta here
id say im about 18 pages behind how

im looking for more gears now
ima desperate man

10 pages a day is obviously an unreasonable goal
but you know 'reasonable' dont get no novel wrote

never did, never will

later . . .
rdoc

 

o ye generations: the many faces of rickydoc: poet, player, prophet and hordesman

SUNDAY

armchair revolutionaries and the imperial presidency: naked as a jaybird

another 12/15 hour day and came up short again
man im tired

i get the 10 pages redpen done, but then i have to input it
damn near a days work in itself, thats what keep coming up short

then i try to read over what ive done and its not reading smooth yet

which means i have to redpen it again, which means i dont move forward
working in miles and moving in inches, no wonder people give up

but i knew this was the crunch redpen and this about what i expected
a daily struggle to catchup, a desperation driven process

so im about 14 pages behind schedule now
so that makes today a catchup day instead of a rest day - thats a bummer

gon make time for some commentary today though on an issue i consider
a more fundamental threat to the american dream than terrorism

the imperial presidency

saw where a repub ally of the whitehouse, rep hoekstra
head of the house intelligence committee, wrote a private letter
to the bush administration complaining that his committee

was not being briefed on still more intelligence programs
beyond the ones we have already heard about

I have learned of some alleged intelligence community activities about which our committee has not been briefed.  If these allegations are true, they may represent a breach of responsibility by the administration, a violation of the law, and, just as importantly, a direct affront to me and the members of this committee who have so ardently supported efforts to collect information on our enemies."

they do this when they want to be on record as having protested policies
they are not allowed to speak on but fear might one day be found illegal or unconstitutional

i been expecting for some time now

that there are further programs we still know nothing of
and can only imagine what manner transgression they must be

there is very little that i would put beyond this administration
they are already deep into the it cant happen in america zone

i figure thats why they jumped the times so hard recently
behind the financial thing - so as to intimidate the press from
disclosing any more programs - or even digging into them

look, you want to intimidate the press you need to move
to iran or zimbabwe somewhere where they play that

i am very conscious of the fact that my outrage once again exposes
me as an irredemptive dreamer and to the ridicule of my political friends

but i still believe in what america could be

i assure you i understand that its true history is one of rapacious real politic
but it has also been an ideal and a potential that i for one believe in

i will always ask of the american people their very best

and it is part of my multicultural strategy that the black struggle
be americas conscience and consciousness, its moral center

there will be a day that folk will trust the word of rickydoc
and i tell anybody who will listen, dude naked as a jaybird

last time i looked we were still electing a president, not a king
stil some question about whether we legitimately elected this one

manipulation of elections appears to be an integral part of their not in america agenda

they are almost fascist in their contempt for american democracy

and the american people

i fear this party isnt over just yet
another administration ally on the committee, heather wilson of new mexico, said:

"I think the executive branch has been insufficiently forthcoming on a number of important programs, there's a presumption that if they don't tell anybody, a problem may get better or it will solve itself."

no shit sherlock

more like they assume folk will just forget about it and
move on to the next crises

leaving fanatics in charge of the field

hold on yall, keep the faith and fight them at every turn
what they want we cannot allow

we are in a struggle for americas soul

well
look like i should have used o ye generations on this one

im outta here,

got to input about 5 pages worth of yesterdays manuscript, then do todays 10
but since i didnt have 10 scheduled for today, hopefully i will catch up w/myself

(or at least cut the backlog down to a less discouraging 4 or 5)

also 15 hour days mean i aint been online and falling behind w/my organizing activities,
thats a bummer that will require its own catchup - emails, posts, calls, infrastructure design,

player maintenance issues

amazing how much of my work as an organizer as moved
on line these days, armchair revolutionary indeed

its a much wider field of play, but that just mean
you got that many more obligations and responsibilities

cant put that off much longer, things fall apart
ima get on that sometime today, have to . . .

soon as i get my daily 10 . . .
soon as i get my daily 10 . . .

god help me, i just want my 10

in struggle
rdoc

SATURDAY

hello world, i cannot stay
deep in the zone trying to keep up my schedule

worked all day yesterday inputting previous days work
(inputting redpen longhand onto computer manuscript is in itself a draft)

so i worked like a dog 10 hours or so and didnt move a page forward
not one page

so now im 10 pages behind schedule again
im spose to be on page 50 today and im just on 40,

being behind 10 pages is doable, i can always catch up 10, 20 is not
20 i cannot allow

but im dragging today, means burn out coming, all i want to do is lay there
read scifi

got up this morinng and sat at the sacred desk and 30 minutes later
i realize im just sitting there - tired as i can be - today gon be rough

tomorrow is sunday, my scheduled day off, so i got to crunch
through today in spite of being bone tired - cause aint no rest

for the weary chile - i cannot allow myself to fall behind 20 pages

so forgive me yall but rickydoc can not stay ,. . .
some quickies and im gone

saw where a judge has ruled georgias voters id law unconstitutional
a luta continua

saw where political warfare left 16 dead in haiti slum - apparently recently
deposed interim government created slumgangs to fight aristedes gangs, the
government is gone but the gangs remain

saw status quo in darfur - the rebels have lost credibility lately,
dont you just hate it when it turns out you were a naive dreamer again

a patsy for a samo samo routine,
ohwell, doesnt change facts on the ground, folk dying hard there

interesting what makes one crises the crises while similiar situations fester

and the worlds humanitarian energy gets channelled primarily into that one
until it has been 'resolved' to point of refocusing on the next most pressing outrage

something here i will have to work at when i get the time

okay, thats it, im outta here

probably think of some more quickies through the day
and eventually find links for them, but for the moment im gone . . .

also owe folk email returns, listserve posts, callbacks, etc etc etc
ima get to all that sometime today too, soon as i clock my daily 10

tried to yesterday but i didnt get my 10, i dont get my 10 dont nothing
else get done cause ima work the 10 till i drop in my tracks - bes like that sometime

woodshed summer its do or die
you dizzy tired but you trying to finish the phase, right

you be sitting there, right, and you think you working and actually you sleeping
and you just dreaming that you working

and its like okay - naptime
be right back

now thats what im talking about, thats the zone
and i love it, thats when Work get done, thats what i live for

im outtta here . . .
rdoc

(note: wanted to use my new salutation - o ye generations
but it didnt feel right, felt pretentious - i will know when its right, so will you)

(note 2: i know im boring many of you with this daily account of my
struggle to produce but for me my Work is always in part addressed to young writers and designed to help them be - thats babajohns voice in me

i love making books, and i love helping other folk make books
its part of my definition of myself as true writer and literary hoodooman

i encourage most everybody i touch to write, and if they do write to get their work done

thats what i do, spread the power - from this process i draw a great deal of my own power
(what tickle me about mfa programs is the schoolhouse pay me to do what i could not live w/o)

basically what im doing here is saying this is how i crunch it
this how i get my work done, other writers do it differently

but if you want to write and my stylee speak to you, rickydoc gon give
you a manual - follow my lead

in struggle
rdoc

FRIDAY

reconstruction blues

reading this interview with eric foner, author
of forever free: emancipation and reconstruction

a book about the myths of reconstruction

myth: that reconstruction was vindictive to south
reality: only if south is just white south, and only because it tried to franchise blacks

myth: that blacks were children lead by carbetbaggers et al
reality: black struggles to establish themselves as citizens after slavery was unrelenting

myth: that kkk was relatively benign org mostly scaring offblack voters w/ghost sheets
reality: a bunch of nightriding yahoos and murderous homegrown terrorists of the first order

myth: current efforts to weaken black democatic support by claiming to be the party of lincoln
reality: the party of lincoln lost potential black support w/nixons racist "southern strategy" and bushs katrina response

and other such anti mythology, he talks about how these myths are still  effecting influence on american society, how for instance social security was designed to exclude blacks

one myth the interview doesnt cover is that of nathan bedford forrest, slavetrading founder of the kkk, unreconstructed icon of memphis/the south and beneficiary of southern apologists w/all sorts of shaky theories to account for his massacre of black soldiers at fort pillow

reality: im bringing that sucker down in rest for the weary, ima shredding his mythwork lie by lie

in struggle
rdoc

speaking of struggle

you probably wont be able to get to this article
wash post like you to be a subscriber

so ima tell you the gist of it or you
check out this alternative account

apparently jay z is mad at cristal because when asked
about the rappers glorifying cristal champaigne, the
director was less than enthusaistic:

"that's a good question, but what can we do?
we can't forbid people from buying it. I'm sure dom perignon
or krug would be delighted to have their business."

this was relatively benign and perhaps understandable
after all they are in the image business you know

but jay z, expecting a little more kowtowing maybe, yelled racism
and is now calling for a boycot of the $400 dollar bubbly

the post author was amused at the call to boycot cristal and
basically swore never to buy another bottle again

she also asked that we save the racism charge
for real battles - use when it counts

otherwise it loses its power

how about we all toast to the power
with some good delicious spring water

in struggle
rdoc

showtime

15 a day is killing me, everyday im falling further behind
now im so far behind its discouraging me

gon have to cut back to 10 a day and restart the clock
give myself a fighting chance

may not be able to do 10, been averaging 5 but ima try 10 cause 5 wont get it, if i have to do 5 thats the whole summer for one draft and that just barely

so 10 a day, 1 day a week off and i will have 350
pages by about august 10th or so,

that gives me about two weeks cleanup draft before school starts

thats cutting it mighty damn thin but a production schedule have to be doable or it doesnt serve its purpose

ima little down at the moment

struggling to get production up to speed and not
altogether pleased with the richness of my text

still feels a little thin to me

ohwell, doesnt matter how i feel does it
best for me not to judge quality at this point

aint got time to be caught up in no angst

its showtime

rdoc

THURSDAY

getting a groove on

ive fallen woefully behind on my page count
spose to be on page 75 by today, im on page 30

averaging daily 5 instead 15, may have to cut back daily production goals
hopefully 1st full zoneweek will bring better daily pagecount, we shall see

saw where they denied bail to the 7 idiots in miami

their only danger was to themselves - the government informant
walked them thru just enuf paces to build a bullshit case

and justify thebush administrations repressive policies
look yall, we stopped another attack, dont rein us in now

when i was a young turk the big thing was black nationalism
black power and all - challenging the system

i was one of the angry young men, folk called me bullet
because i wore this 50 caliber machine gun shell necklace

but the government and cointellpro taught our young asses what was
and was not allowed as political activity

armed revolution is not only likely to get you hammered

it is just not a viable option in the hightech society of 21st century america -
its a kiddie joke, more youthful revolutionary romanticism than anything else

and in this case possibly a silly scam by the idiot in chief
(both of them)

the rightwings info-based resurgence is a more viable model of 21st century revolution
and we havent even mastered that model much less come up with something new

got this young black professor on my job who stuck in the 60s and think all that
60s rhetoric is still revolutionary, young fellow w/very kiddie ways, missed the party and
has no idea of 21st century stylee - swear he a revolutionary and so clueless its sad

instead of being on the cutting edge, he is about 50 years out of date

i hope the young turks of this generation, specially all the islamic blackfolk
got more sense than to be drawn to some youthfully romantic notions of jihad

not only is it just youthful stupidity in todays climate
it dont make no sense - its not even our war

in struggle
rdoc

WEDNESDAY
day 5 and still 2 days behind
maintaining daily 15 and whittling down backup

im just glad he wasnt black

that was my response to hearing about
the rape murder by an american soldier

please lord dont let him be black

right or wrong every black person
representing and when black folk do evil

we all take it very personal

my question is what did that boy do to get
thrown out of a warzone in the firstplace

apparently this is same unit that had
two soldiers kidnapped and beheaded
and army looking into theory it might
have been tit for tat

this is not a clean war
it is not a just war and it
is dirtier than most

the bush administration thought they
could get away with fighting dirty

but dirt just leads to more dirt

folk say we cant leave
i say we cant stay

in struggle
rdoc

TUESDAY THE 4TH

hello world: good lord willing

been out of pocket
got caught in the flood

whenever i hit the road its always good lord willing
and the crick dont rise

me and my little volvo tank
got beat up some

had to hang out in the city
for awhile

my place in the city is up in washington heights
and i enjoyed the week i spent there

wash heights is a dominican neighborhood and i feel right
at home there, but it made me conscious that i been coming
from the wrong mode on immigration issue

when i was a hoodoo cub i split my personality
into three parts, actually more but the others have
withered over the years

what has remained are the poet, the player and the hordesman
three different mes for different occasions and personality requirements

the poet was for love and writing, the player for the game
the hordesman for the horde

the hordesman i believe has pretty much retired
havent had much use for it lately

but when i was a young cub my ideological goal was to forge
the black race into a conquering horde and fling them into battle

this effort was inconclusive but it was the ruthless hordesman
that took care of that - the player was equally strategic but not ruthlessly so

im my hoodoo maturity i am still about power but my understanding
of power is more spiritual now

it is the poet, a quite sensitive fellow and hopeless dreamer
who is in charge of spiritual matters, also in charge of
love and relationships

the key was making sure you evoked the right mask to
take care of the right business,

for instance didnt want the player handling love
or the poet handling politics

so anyway i been dealing with immigration thru the player
and the player was pleased that the immigration bill fell thru

one it interferes with repub plans to garner longterm hispanic support

and two it means they need us, if it was an easy deal they wouldnt need us
as allies and we need them to need us - gives us the almighty and sacred leverage

but whilst i was hanging out up in washington heights i realized that
i should be dealing with this as damn near a family matter

so im taking it from the player and giving it to the poet
put a little more love in the calculations

another matter i thought about while i was on the road trying to
get thru or around that flood was my hello world salutation

those of you been with me awhile know thats my favorite salutation
i use it when im feeling pretty good and strong

i like saying "hello world" because this blog, meagre readership though it be
makes me feel like im speaking to the entire world and i like that and i

like to encourage that headset in me

but i was thinking about a line i wrote in an earlier post
like high magicians throughout history i basically want to rule the world

i said it kinda tongue in cheek but not only would i actually like to rule the world i
want to shape the future too - ruling the world is not enuf

i need a salutation capture that cosmic scope im looking for

friend of mine once accused me of having delusions of grandeur, i told her i
dont have delusions of grandeur, i have a god complex

as an aspirant prophet i want to speak to generations upon generations of humanity
wouldnt it be cool if i could occasionally sprout true prophecy on this blog

i decided some time ago since i was putting in all the creative energy im investing
in this 'daily' blog for such small readership i might as well do what i whatever i please with it

aint like i got no constituency to worry about
except you loyal surfer, some of the sharpest folk in the world
you see what im saying

my readership dont need no pablum, they take they broccoli straight
you can keep that brown rice, just bring me some broccoli please, i like it rare

so ima speak my truths and trust my literary instinct
you notice how intimate the tone has got lately

i been telling you things i dont tell myself

god wouldnt it be nice if i could manifest my prophetic thing
in some cool and transcendent manner

talking about not being quite sure how it works
this prophet thing im figuring it out as i go along, im walking blind

but i do believe i got the calling

folk think prophecy about foretelling the future but au contrary it is about hooking up current social  behavior to destinical consequences and providing direction based on divine sanction - god told me to

or else

so im thinking how hello world puts me in a certain headset when i write
and im thinking what salutation would put me in that prophetic state of mind i aspire to

that cosmic state of mind

a salutation that would generate posts shaped by that sensibility
and directed to all the generations unto eternity

after much consideration i decided on
o ye generations . . .

i offer preemptive apologies

its going to sound kinda pretentious i know
and it will be awkward and forced for me at first
but it will put me in that prophetic headset

address my dialogues to the generations to come
and eventually conjure its own reality

publicly acknowledging my prophetic aspirations like that
frightens me on a lot of levels, no telling where this path lead

but whatever it go im gon walk it

o ye generations
it is i, rickydoc rootdoctor

answering the call

be well
rickydoc conqueroo

note: same same i evolved those three faces as a young hooodoo
i seem to be using variants of rickydoc in my maturity

so far ive come up with

rickydoc flowers  - who is little more than myself, basically my public magical name
manifesting my social identity as a hoodooman and claiming to be magical

then theres rickydoc trickmaster - which i tend to use when im claiming magical authority,
asking to be trusted as a font of strategic and spiritual knowledge

and most recently rickydoc conqueroo -

not quite sure what role that magical mask plays, it only showed up about a month or so ago  and i tend to use it rarely and only when my power has come down on me and im swimming in more magic thjan i can comfortably handle  -

i know it has something to do with being the mount of the conqueror but im not quite sure how thats working - im kinda assuming its the prophetic voice manifesting -  we shall see

back to the saltmines

redpen 1: 15 pages a day will get me to the promiseland
(end of draft) by end of the month, time enuf for redpen 2

damn flood threw me off my game
the 4th already and im 2 days behind schedule

damned if the creek didnt rise

later . . .