players, victims and going for the gold: playing to win

WEDNESDAY

 hello world, weak workday yesterday: bummer

while searching for my quickie links i went by chickenbones and black agenda report
old comrades who have basically excommunicated me for not following the party line

that kinda hurt but i was glad to see they still kicking it - chickenbones an unprecedented repository  (it was rudy of chickenbones once told me i should include images with online work)

and glen ford over at black agenda report be dropping serious knowledge - unfortunately glen dont much respect what i do  - both of them kinda rigid

i still think we got to move past the old verities of struggle in the 21st century
and i think transafricas global positioning is reflective of that

it do distress me im so often out of step with old comrades in struggle
but ima artist, spose to be a pathmaker, forge new ways of seeing

and willing to take punches for what i consider the truth of it all, for
consideration of strategic nuance over radical rote -

as a hoodoo and would be tribal shaman, i got 3 warrior clans i have to monitor and guide
got my community activists, my bougie activists, my radical activists

cant afford to dis or dismiss either one of them
all three of them have roles to play and its my job to understand

those roles and coordinate them, harmonize them, and im actually pretty
good at what i do, dont nobody do it like the hoodooman do

but i got to finish my novel, do my holybook, so the generations
understand the destinic nuance of what im trying to say/do

got to make my contribution
build facilitating institutions

otherwise both politics and the literary
i been buked and scorned for naught

in struggle
rickydoc trickmaster

wouldbe prophet of
the hoodoo way

TUESDAY

hello world, working hard, which means rootsblog get time for some quickies

holyground: wooded area back of my sisters house, somebody cut a tree and left a shrine for me
when im home in the delta, i go out there and raise the sun up every morning:

darfur: status quo: not good: tensions between southern sudan and north growing: also not good

somalia: humanitarian crises in wake of fighting between transitional gov/ethiops and islamists/assorted opportunists breeding internal refugees fleeing mogadishu

transitional government must reach out to disaffected if it is to survive: prospects weak

south africa: tension between mbeki and zuma threatening to split anc: neither option appealing, both of them have baggage

the us election: obama pulling even with hillary in iowa:
im ambivalent about possibility of black president

i suppose its a good thing, but its such a morally ambiguous job i just dont know
just to be competitive obama gon have to get down and dirty: jury still out on this one

katrina/neworleans: for the first time in generations, neworleans recently elected white majority city
council, probably majority republican too to go along w/new republican governor, hard to believe bush/fema

policies werent designed first to abandon blackfolk to storm, then disperse them (and democrats) since
thats whats happened, but i wont go there, dont want to be called a conspiracy theorist: bummer

could have used a black president then i guess, but i cant help but think a black president would
be as useful as the black general being used to front africom:

adjuncts: was reading where some universities are up to 70% adjunct, as an ex adjunct
at medger evers (a position me and elizabeth nunez boldly dubbed the killens chair)

i can testify that adjunct labor is slave labor, thats a rough way to make a living, and hard
on students - when you getting paid by classroom hour you just cant justify too much facetime

with students, got to trek to your other institutions, class prep time suffers too, according to
this report so does graduation rates - adjuncts organizing into unions, schools being pressured to

add more tenure tracks - free the adjunct 1000s

us middle east conference joke and a farce, more anti iran conference than pro palestinian: israel
insincere, bush/rice insincere, abbas desperate to even consider it and the saudis et al reluctant

to play the fool even to check iran/hamas/hezbollah 'shiite' axis: this is a joke: a farce

haiti: progress under preval: but we still got so very far to go: crossing our fingers
(btw: kudos to wyclef jean while im at it: boy been doing what he can: warriorkind)

the struggle: while searching for cosby  links, found lot of dialogue on self determination/responsibility for
our own empowerment - glen ford on bar makes some points on not being sidegamed, not a problem when
you working w/both hands -

at least reparations seem to be off the table - thats a blessing
its the great gitting up morning and its: looking good

and on that note, back to work

rest for the weary: been working my futurescenario scene for about a month now
takes place on a university planet far into the future: university de sankore of palmares

finish it today, i can get started on the redpen tomorrow: 1st redpen always the roughest
because so many sections have to be extensively rewritten, subsequent redpens are

easier because all you doing then is cleaning up the text and putting the poetry on it
thats when it becomes fun, when one word/one phrase can add layers of meaning to the text,

that i can do during the spring semester, then a whole summer of polish/refinement and
i will have a moneydraft for sure: im so excited: its all on this 2 month redpen

new plan gives me a new 2 months end of year woodshed instead of customary 1
an indication of just how desperate i am, squeezing noveltime howsomever i can

best i get busy: my love to you all
rickydoc flowers: in it to win it

MONDAY EVENING

hello world, i have recovered from that little manic bout of confidence
still going to go for the draft but no longer consider it a given

spent whole day struggling with the same page, this gon be rough
but i have never missed a deadline, except one time an act of god

and that dont count

and even if i, heaven forbid,  miss it, i will get some serious
production just from the effort - this a win win

pray for me
rdoc

MONDAY AFTERNOON

hello world, threw the shells today, my little homemade
divination chain, the mojo told me go for it

thanksgiving break and i been clocking pages
got another 7 days and im feeling strong

you know what ive decide, im going for the draft
got a week here, then 2 more school weeks, lets say i

get ruthless about those two weeks, which mean
schoolhouse get backburnered, thats gon cost me

but then i hit the ground running 2nd week in december

2 more weeks before i head for the delta, talking crunch city,
im talking zone - im talking 9 & 12 hour days - talking about separating the writers from the dilettantes

then a week or so in the delta and im generally disciplined in the delta
i generally get my work done in the delta, im strong in the delta

another two weeks in january before i simply have to focus on schoolhouse
thats like almost two months of woodshed, on a redpen, with a little

superhuman effort i can do a full redpen in 2 months by god, even a hardcore
redpen, im going for the gold yall, gon do me a end of the year draft

touch it up over the spring semester, full woodshed summer and im good to go
rickydoc on a sungun, 360% - in the line of o killens

rickydoc flowers
babagriot of the hoodoo way

                                          

MONDAY

hello world, i like to think of myself as a fearless artist, when i find myself asking
am i afraid to say that, i say it if for no other reason than i dont play that

and im always whining about no respect and no readership
but thats all the penalty you pay here in the united states,

you dont get no play and have to scuffle some
then i read about really fearless artists,

when the penalty for offense is jail, matters of life and death -
like these two zimbabwean theater brothers

anthony tongani and silvanos mudzvova,
arrested after their mugabe satire, the final push,

ran in zimbabwe - first night takedown, didnt stop no show though, soon as they were released
they back on stage -brother mudzvova say since media been silenced its all on the artists now:

"Artists, like everybody else, fear for their lives". say Mudzvova,  "But the moment you have that fear, you won't
get anywhere. People are saying, 'If you guys have that fear, where are we going to get the correct information?'

i tell my fledglings all the time

want to be a true artist, got to be fearless, willing to speak truth to power
truth to the people, even when they dont want to hear it, truth to yourself

like the lyrics from the artists prayer -  this profession aint no hiding place -
artists like this do me proud, reinforce my own courage, my own determination

to be true voice

a luta continua
rdoc

SATURDAY

going to continue working on last post: or maybe not

maybe start working on the second movement: each movement has to
be broken down into 9 internal movements

but wanted to address comment by bill cosby addressing black educators in nashville

"You're so quiet," he said to them at one point. "I bet I could get all
of you to stand up and clench your fist if I blamed the white man."

i got issues with some of what bill be putting down
but at the same time i got respect for what he trying to do

and that he willing to get out there and take his licks
for his position, he could have just chilled with the dollars like

most of those celebrities doing, but he in the arena, thats all i ask
him and danny glover two sides of the same coin

cause you got to work w/both hands and
there is more than enuf struggle to go around

glovers brand of activism gon speak to some folk, cos to others, only way we gon be a whole race of
activists is w/respect for folks whose programs might be different but still viable

caue we got to be on it, all of us, all classes, on every level of the game, and
everybody aint gon struggle the same -

cos aint figured out yet that the black middleclass been just as complicit as
the black poor, and the black elite aint even in the game

but he dead on about wasting our time crying about how bad folk treat us

that march folk had this weekend at the justice department, walking
around it biblic 7 times, thats so oldschool, thats so tired

trying to get the justice department to prosecute hate crimes

well thats a good cause and all but its pretty much a waste of time and energy w/this
admnistration, we got to get more strategic about our game in the 21st century

marches and protests and all that, those are loser strategies, folk who aint
got no strategic options, all they can do is whine and beg, that aint longgame,

newsflash: the powers that be figured out how to counter/neutralize that move 30 years ago
that tactic aint hardly a nuisance to power, and the justice department is in much worse shape

than that limited agenda address, and also coming at it that way make it
just a black issue, we have to bring more pressure down on folk by broadening

our agenda so that we gain allies in pressure and bring pressure where it will
make a real difference, the politicization of the justice dept would have been

a better agenda, one they more vulnerable to at this strategic/tactical point and time
got to step up our game

got to be serious about getting our work done, about our organizing
about taking care of business, the only way our condition will change

is when we, by our behavior and actions, make the reality of
black inferiority a false one

and i aint talking about no individualism, im saying struggle is both individual
and collective, im saying we got to work with both hands

in the words of this brothers article on it all:   "Never has it been clearer - despite the legitimate social
justice claims blacks continue to have - that black progress going forward will have to be made almost
exclusively through the efforts of black Americans alone."

i say this so much better in rest for the weary
so much got to be said, so much work to be done

the hoodooman do not accept the continuation of this condition
i will train my people to the game if its the last thing i do

swear fore god and on the sweat and blood of our ancestors
by all their hopes and dreams that live on in me i will

on that note let me work on the 2nd movement
i need 9 internal movements for the longgame

the longgame

game and the longgame  (on the nature of game and longgame as destinywork: shaping generations)
game and countergame  (countering game being run on you)
game and sidegame (avoiding being distracted by sidegame and diversionary game)
the hoodoo board of destiny  (on the nature of the hoodoo board of destiny)
mounting the board  (how to become a true player)
playing the board  (strategies and tactics: how to play the board)

okay these categories not working, and im feeling
pressure to get todays novelwork done

you know what im thinking is that i cant spend time on this limited project
i need to give that time to the hoodoo book of flowers, aka the great

black book of generations - need to give whatever discretionary time i can beg borrow or find
to my holybook, maybe make instructions to the cadre one of the movements in it

im outta here

my love to you all
whatever i got i will give to you

my positions aint always correct, or viable, i know that
but ima keep swinging, win or lose, right or wrong ima try

to do my part
god, i love you so

rdoc

Comments

[nanakwame]

my brother i hope your holidays are well. you have been an inspiration for me.

i talked to sister hazzard a month ago and told her how you spoke well about her. she laughed.

your point is well taken, we have to change our language, and outlook to move into the future, especially seen what the our sages envision - hybrid for one is almost here. we can not afford now to get stuck in this black and white dualism, anymore. That is what they want TPTB